Chapter 3

"It's not..."

Zheng Xinyu grabbed Zhang Su's arm, her eyes filled with tears as she shook her head: "Brother Su, this isn't a dream, really, this is real!"

*Gulp. *

Zhang Su swallowed a mouthful of saliva. Feeling Zheng Xinyu's cold, trembling hand, he knew he was already awake.

*Bang. *

Just as Zhang Su and Zheng Xinyu were still in shock, a noise came from the corridor outside, as if someone had closed the safety door of the emergency exit. Before the two could react, the front door was pounded heavily.

*Bang! Bang! Bang-bang! *

The heavy and chaotic sounds reached Zhang Su and Zheng Xinyu's ears, and their scalps couldn't help but tighten simultaneously.

"Brother Su, what do we do..."

Zheng Xinyu was already fair-skinned, but now even the color of blood had drained from her face, her eyes filled with terror. She was afraid that it was the kind of monster from downstairs pounding on the door.

"Shh!"

Zhang Su steadied his mind, patted Zheng Xinyu's hand that was tightly gripping him, signaling her not to make a sound, and then tiptoed toward the front door.

Zheng Xinyu very obediently kept quiet, her hands clenched into fists, guarding her chest, staring tightly at Zhang Su's back.

Amidst a series of door-pounding sounds, Zhang Su suppressed the unease in his heart and slowly pressed against the front door.

Bravery is not being fearless, but being afraid and still being able to move forward.

*Bang, bang, bang! * The pounding didn't stop.

Zhang Su gently placed his palm on the door. He could clearly feel the force transmitted by the pounding; it hadn't reached the point of breaking in, but it already made the door frame vibrate slightly.

The peephole—a standard feature of an apartment door.

Zhang Su leaned over and pressed his eye to the peephole to peek outside. Actually, he really didn't want to do this, because he had no idea what he would be facing, but for the sake of reason and logic, he had to do it.

First, he was the owner of this apartment, the perverted landlord who Zheng Xinyu claimed installed wiretaps...

Then, as a man, he couldn't let a girl step forward at a time like this.

"I want to see what kind of ghost you are!"

Zhang Su steeled his heart, adjusted his eye's focus, and instantly saw the situation outside the door.

A man stood outside the door, or perhaps it could only be said that it used to be a man...

The skin was a cyan-gray, the face was covered in blood, and one side of the mouth was torn, making the whole mouth terrifyingly large, just like the Joker in the movies, but the Joker didn't have bits of flesh in his mouth, nor would he drip fresh blood.

The beige T-shirt was stained dark red by blood. The right hand was clutching a severed arm, and the left hand moved stiffly and mechanically, pounding on the door, one time, then another; the slow movements were heavy and powerful.

*Awoo, awoo... *

The low, unconscious roar passed through the door, extremely penetrating, striking directly at Zhang Su's soul! "Zombie..."

Combining it with the scene he had just seen in the garden downstairs, Zhang Su quickly reached a conclusion.

Zombie-themed movies, TV shows, and games were one of the types Zhang Su liked. Theoretically, he wasn't unfamiliar with this kind of creature; eight or nine hours ago, he had still been killing quite a few in a game.

It was probably because the zombification hadn't happened long ago that the zombie outside wasn't skin-ripped and gut-spilled like in the movies. But encountering this kind of monster in the real world still caused Zhang Su's prefrontal cortex and hypothalamus to shrink instantly; he couldn't recover for a long time, and even forgot to feel nauseous.

Fear isn't exclusive to women. When encountering things that exceed cognition, especially when facing unknown dangers, people will be afraid, and Zhang Su was no exception; his muscular arms trembled slightly from fear. Just as Zhang Su was staring blankly through the peephole, he felt someone gently pat his back, which brought him back to his senses. At the same time, the man outside the door stopped pounding, and the world became instantly quiet!

Through the peephole, Zhang Su saw the zombie man looking around aimlessly. After not finding a target, it began to pace at the doorway, dragging bloodstains on the ground—truly gruesome. Even the well-sealed front door couldn't block the thick, bloody odor.

Zhang Su turned his head and gestured for Zheng Xinyu to leave. The two quietly left the front door and returned to the bay window.

"Ugh..."

Only at this moment did Zhang Su finally feel the churning in his stomach; the previous night's meal began to act up. He hurriedly sat on the ground, feeling his mouth salivate, swallowing continuously, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead, the bloody smell lingering in his nose for a long time—though he didn't particularly hate that smell.

"Brother Su, what... what is outside the door?"

Zheng Xinyu knelt beside him and asked softly, hesitantly reaching out to stroke Zhang Su's forehead, her fingers passing through his short hair. She didn't know what Zhang Su had seen, and she was very curious, but she didn't have the courage to look.

Zhang Su felt Zheng Xinyu's comfort, let out a long breath, and also said in a low voice: "It's Brother Li from the Urban Construction Bureau on the ninth floor. Xinyu, you know about zombies, right? Brother Li has turned into a zombie..."

At the end, he turned his head to look at Zheng Xinyu, his expression incomparably grave.

"Zombie? I understand..."

Zheng Xinyu pulled back her hand and clasped it together. She wasn't as surprised as Zhang Su had expected; this answer had already appeared in her mind, she just hadn't dared to confirm that such a magical thing could happen in reality.

It was like suddenly seeing all the cars on the street turn into Transformers—equally unbelievable! Zhang Su recalled the scene of Zheng Xinyu frantically pounding on his bedroom door earlier and felt that her ability to accept things was actually quite good. A quarter of an hour had passed, and she was no longer panicking. Could it be that this seemingly delicate girl didn't just know how to act cute and coquettish in front of the camera?

"Is... is it because my voice was too loud earlier that I attracted Li, um... the zombie?"

Zheng Xinyu asked in a low voice, a look of self-reproach on her face, recalling how she had called Zhang Su to wake up earlier; the commotion was indeed not small.

"Probably."

Zhang Su nodded slowly, not blaming Zheng Xinyu, and gently patted her shoulder: "It's not too late to know now, just be careful in the future!"

"Wh-what do we do now?"

Zheng Xinyu was indeed not as panicked as she had been at first, but she still had no idea what to do. With severed limbs strewn downstairs and a zombie blocking the door, it was as terrifying as the sky falling.

"*Whoosh*... Judging from the current situation, it should be a zombie disease. Um... let's call it the zombie virus. The zombie virus has broken out. Right, hurry and see if there's any relevant news on the internet!"

After the initial shock, Zhang Su gradually calmed down. The hair standing up on his arms slowly laid back down, the fear in his heart weakened, squeezed into a corner by reason.

"Right, right! I'll go get my phone!"

Zheng Xinyu nodded heavily, grateful that someone was directing her at a time like this. If she were left alone, she really wouldn't know what to do.

Thinking of the zombie's sound-following trait, she tiptoed and walked very lightly.

Taking advantage of the time Zheng Xinyu went to get her phone, Zhang Su leaned out to look at the complex again. Careful observation revealed more conditions.

To the front-left, the easternmost side of Building 8 was engulfed in flames, extending upward from the seventh or eighth floor. Under the influence of the wind, the flames curled into various shapes; their clawing, dancing appearance was even more terrifying than the zombies.

The place where the tragedy occurred wasn't just the garden between Building 3 and Building 4; there were also large amounts of blood and severed limbs on the adjacent road. Trash cans had been overturned, all kinds of garbage scattered on the ground, and landscape shrubs were crushed in patches—the signs of fighting were very obvious.

Counting carefully, there were at least twenty zombies wandering around. The most outrageous one was a zombie that had lost its legs but was still slowly crawling on the ground, dragging a long trail of blood—its tenacity was truly moving.

It was hard to imagine what kind of brutal massacre had occurred before. If it weren't for the complex's design of separating people and vehicles, the number of corpses lying on the ground would probably be several times higher! As his gaze moved, Zhang Su saw that a section of the complex's street-facing wall had been smashed, and several cars were wedged diagonally on the pile of rubble, their front ends severely deformed. There were also quite a few accident vehicles on the street—not enough to block traffic, but at this moment, no vehicles were passing by; there were only zombies wandering everywhere! Starting today, two updates every day~~~ La-la-la, dear readers, come quickly!

(End of chapter)