Chapter 5: Companions

Yi Chen slowly opened his eyes. Above him stretched a dim, clouded sky; he could not tell what time it was.

Was this the kind of nightmare one wakes from?

A rush of fragmented images flashed through his mind—painful truths he could not escape.

“I’m still alive,” he rasped, his throat dry and voice hoarse.

He was alive!

Yi Chen rolled over and sat up, discovering he was lying amid the remains and scattered limbs of zombies. Their corpses were grotesque: not only were their heads smashed, but their bodies had been ripped apart. Judging by the jagged edges of their decaying flesh, it was not the work of blades or sharp weapons—it looked as though they had been torn asunder by bare hands.

Yi Chen struggled to recall what had happened. Suddenly, nausea overtook him and he doubled over to retch, but he had nothing in his stomach; all that came up was sour bile.

He gasped for breath, bracing himself. He had done this! He had not only torn the zombies apart, but had also bitten into them!

“Horrible… What am I?” Fear gripped his heart, but no answer came.

After he’d been scratched and infected, Yi Chen and Officer Bai had made their way to the northern city high school. Officer Bai, using his car, lured most of the zombies away from the school’s main gate and sacrificed himself. Yi Chen had then followed the plan, using a loudspeaker to draw the remaining zombies here.

He remembered being seized by a strange force, his mind overwhelmed by a murderous impulse. Though he hadn’t completely lost consciousness, he’d been utterly out of control.

Piecing the events together, Yi Chen broke out in a cold sweat. Now, the discomfort in his body was gone. He checked his hands and feet; nothing seemed amiss. Even the wound on his back had completely healed, leaving no trace.

His gaze fell on the broken loudspeaker and walkie-talkie not far away. He reached into his pocket and pulled out Officer Bai’s wallet and identification.

“Bai Yong, male, forty-three, third-level police inspector…”

After a long silence, Yi Chen put the items away. He had promised Officer Bai that he would keep living, no matter what happened.

Perhaps things were not yet at their worst. At least, he had not turned into one of the walking dead.

He was on a small commercial street lined with stationery and clothing shops. A few zombies wandered nearby, their movements sluggish, aimless. Some even brushed past Yi Chen without noticing him at all.

It seemed there were some advantages now—at least the zombies took him for one of their own and would not attack. Yi Chen mused.

He found a sturdy steel pipe in a hardware store and easily cleared out the nearby zombies.

He kept reminding himself: even if he had the strength to kill zombies bare-handed, he was still human—he must never fight like a zombie, giving in to primal instinct.

Yi Chen entered a foreign goods clothing store with its doors shattered. He needed to change out of his filthy school uniform.

“What the…?” He caught sight of himself in the broken dressing mirror.

His once neat black hair had turned an ambiguous length of white, neither long nor short.

And for some reason, his left eye was now a vivid red!

This was far from normal.

He had thought himself no different from anyone else, but this appearance was far too conspicuous—impossible to conceal from ordinary people.

After a few stunned seconds, he resigned himself to reality and began searching the shelves for something to wear.

This shop was hardly reputable, selling knockoff sportswear, bags, and shoes.

But now was no time to be picky—anything was better than nothing.

Yi Chen changed into a fake sports outfit, found a black baseball cap, and used a matching bandana to cover his red eye. He carefully tucked all his hair under the cap.

He chose the largest hiking backpack and stuffed a spare set of clothes inside before leaving the store.

This street was deserted; not a living soul remained. From what he could sense, the nearest human heat and scent came from a neighboring street, where some people seemed to be trapped by zombies.

Outside a convenience store, five or six zombies clustered around. The glass door meant little to the undead, but someone had used shelves, carts, and anything available to build makeshift barricades, making entry difficult even for zombies.

Zombies lacked both the senses and coordination of the living. They only charged frantically when they detected food. If humans stayed calm, escape wasn’t impossible.

Yi Chen quickly dispatched the zombies and called through the door, “Are you all right?”

Those inside, clearly not expecting rescue, stared in shock before someone stammered, “Is it safe out there?”

“Safe for now. No zombies nearby,” he replied.

After the grating sound of obstacles being dragged aside, a path was cleared. Three people had been trapped inside: an overweight man of over two hundred pounds, a sturdy man in his thirties, and a male student in the uniform of the northern city high school.

Seeing that their rescuer was just one person, all three were dumbfounded.

“Yi… Yi Chen?” The student recognized him, astonished. He was a classmate.

“Monkey?” Yi Chen blinked. “What are you doing here?”

“Don’t call me that in front of strangers!” Hou Yingjie’s face flushed red.

“Ah, sorry, I just heard everyone call you that… What’s the situation at school?” Yi Chen asked.

He and Hou Yingjie weren’t particularly close; he only knew the guy was late every day, always with some excuse for the teachers. But since his grades were good, the homeroom teacher never gave him much trouble.

Everything at school revolved around academic performance.

As for why he was nicknamed “Monkey,” perhaps it was his surname, perhaps his sly personality—Yi Chen didn’t know.

“All the students and teachers evacuated three days ago,” Hou Yingjie said.

Yi Chen was stunned. The dark rain from the sky had been three days ago? He’d lain among zombies for three days!

“By the way, was it you shouting at the school gate that day?” Hou Yingjie asked.

“Uh, yes.” Yi Chen snapped back to the present.

“You’re incredible!” Hou Yingjie exaggeratedly gave a thumbs-up. “Weren’t you scared? How did you feel facing them? We bookworms can’t even run from monsters, let alone fight…”

Yi Chen smiled awkwardly—he hadn’t expected Monkey to be such a chatterbox.

“Hey, what’s going on with you and Mu Qing?” Hou Yingjie’s interest shifted to the class beauty, recalling how she’d cried and begged the officers to look for Yi Chen that day.

“What’s going on with us?” Yi Chen was taken aback.

Seeing that he was genuinely confused, Hou Yingjie shrugged. “Nothing, nothing! She just recognized your voice before anyone else that day. Do you two sit in front and back and chat in class?”

“No, sometimes I copy her homework.”

“Haha, figures. She’s pretty, gentle, well-off, and top of the class…”

“Why didn’t you evacuate with everyone else?” Yi Chen interrupted.

“Oh, well…” Hou Yingjie scratched his head in embarrassment. “Our class was the last group to leave, but I couldn’t hold it and went to the bathroom. Missed the bus—came back and everyone was gone. What a disaster!”

“Wow, that’s impressive!” This time it was Yi Chen’s turn to give a thumbs-up. To embody the art of tardiness to this degree was a feat in itself.

“Looks like rescue won’t come,” sighed the sturdy man, who’d so far listened in silence. He got up, tore some large plastic bags from the counter, and began packing supplies from the shelves.

“Uncle Liu, what are you…?” Hou Yingjie asked, having grown familiar with the man during their days trapped together.

“Getting supplies for the road.”

“Where to?” Hou Yingjie asked.

“To neighboring Nanchuan. Didn’t you see the news before the power went out? Survivors from nearby towns are being relocated there—the army’s concentrating its defenses,” Uncle Liu replied.

Yi Chen’s heart stirred. His father had gone to Nanchuan on business last week, and his mother had said on the phone that it was safe there, telling him not to worry. If survivors were being transferred there, they might be reunited.

But Nanchuan was over three hundred kilometers away. Even a seasoned driver would need three hours on clear roads, let alone with the current chaos—travel might take a day or two.

“How are we getting there?” Monkey, for once, didn’t seem so clever.

“We’ll get a car from the roadside. I’ve stolen a few in my time—before I worked as a stock clerk,” Uncle Liu admitted. In the apocalypse, not robbing or killing was already a virtue; no one cared about past misdeeds.

“Uncle Liu, we’ll help you carry things!” Monkey immediately agreed, nudging Yi Chen and giving him a look.

Kids like them, with little life experience and no practical skills, were better off attaching themselves to someone capable.

“What’s up with your eye?” Uncle Liu noticed Yi Chen’s left eye was covered.

“Oh… I got cut by glass. Nothing serious,” Yi Chen replied.

“Are you sure it’s not from a zombie scratch?”

“No, no,” Yi Chen hastily waved his hand.

He understood the man’s suspicion. If an infected person hid among the group, it was terrifying.

Uncle Liu glanced at the fat man in the corner, who kept shoving food into his mouth, said nothing, and went out to look for a car.

Whether from fear or hunger, the fat man had eaten nonstop.

Monkey struggled to lift a case of bottled water and whispered to Yi Chen, “Forget him, come help. He eats so much and is so clumsy—he’ll only slow us down. Won’t last long.”

“More hands mean more help. Hey, fatty, get to work!” Yi Chen pretended not to hear and kicked the fat man.

The man yelped, looked up with beady eyes, then suddenly shouted, “Leave me alone! There’s food and water here—I’m not leaving!”

Monkey snorted, gave Yi Chen a look that said “see?”, and carried the water outside, disgruntled.

Yi Chen crouched down and spoke coldly, “Even a bug fights to live. Now there’s a chance—you want to die? Do you know how many sacrificed themselves to save you? Are you worthy of their efforts?”

“I… I’m useless, can’t run, might as well get it over with—let a zombie bite me!” The fat man was breathless, tears streaming down his face. He didn’t want to die; who does?

The sound of an engine came from outside. With his heightened hearing, Yi Chen caught Uncle Liu and Monkey’s conversation.

“What? Don’t take my classmate?” Monkey was stunned, then protested, “Why not? He’s strong! He took down a bunch of zombies by himself!”

“He’s not right. I can’t risk it. How could anyone be so calm facing zombies? What kind of person can kill so many at once? The incubation period for infection is unknown—it varies by person…” Uncle Liu, recalling Yi Chen’s covered eye, felt a chill and urged Monkey to get in.

With food and water packed, Monkey only hesitated a moment before getting in the front seat.

The small car sped away, leaving a trail of dust. Yi Chen let out a self-mocking laugh—Uncle Liu was perceptive. If Monkey stuck with him, maybe there’d be less danger.

“They… they left?!” The fat man finally realized what had happened and rushed out. Though he’d been prepared to stay, being truly abandoned still stung.

It was like rejecting a girl and then feeling the sting when she rejected you.

Cursing, the fat man returned and saw Yi Chen had removed his hat and bandana. The sight of white hair and crimson eye made him tremble all over.

“I’m hungry. If you’d rather sit here and wait to be zombie food, I don’t mind eating you first,” Yi Chen said coldly.

The fat man’s eyes rolled back. He dropped to his knees and kowtowed, stammering, “Boss, I… I’m not tasty! Keep me around—I’m useful! I can drive!”