Chapter 9 – Rainy Night in Hua City (1)

◎Who in their right mind would challenge zombies?◎

Hua City (D99 District) was located in the southeastern part of the New Asia Alliance. The district had convenient land and water transportation, abundant natural resources, and was a rare livable city in class D. When it came to the most famous aspect of Hua City, it was undoubtedly the extremely complex radial road network in the central city area. With its ingenious layout resembling the pattern of a “Bagua” formation, Hua City had won the gold prize in the first Alliance City Planning Competition.

Song Ke was not unfamiliar with Hua City. She had studied here, walked through its streets and alleys, and experienced the summer rains and winter snow of Hua City. If it weren’t for what happened later… she might have been even more familiar with this city.

However, the Hua City of the present could no longer see the lively scenes of the past. Song Ke traveled from outside the Fifth Ring Road and as she moved inward, the density of zombie groups along the way grew thicker. The once bustling central commercial area was devoid of people.

Along the streets, shops were either looted or closed with thick iron chains hanging on the doors, preventing a clear view of the interiors.

As if overnight, the city that had once been filled with crowds and noise had turned into a desolate wasteland.

Zombies often roamed the main roads, and Song Ke didn’t want any sudden “intimate” encounters with them. She had to find alternative routes.

She jumped up and down between the rooftops of the residential area, quickly moving through. Unexpectedly, there was a young boy on the opposite high-rise. He looked at her through a security window, and their eyes met. The boy’s pupils trembled, startled. He was about to scream when an adult behind him quickly covered his mouth and led him away from the window. They hurriedly closed the curtains. For them, any creature wandering outside was as threatening as a zombie.

Song Ke paid no attention to this, as she had spotted an unmanned supermarket. Jumping down from the third floor, she quickly approached her target. The glass door sensed the infrared signal and slid open slowly on both sides. The interior light suddenly dimmed, and Song Ke keenly sensed that there were people inside!

Three or four men had their backs to her, rummaging through the shelves. Judging from their attire, they seemed to be local residents. Upon hearing the sound of the door opening, they became tense and turned around as if facing a formidable enemy. They frantically raised weapons like kitchen knives and rolling pins at Song Ke.

Song Ke quickly scanned the area and realized that the supermarket had been mostly stripped of its contents.

She didn’t want to start a conflict recklessly, so she raised her hands immediately, indicating that she meant no harm. She kept her gaze on them and slowly backed out.

While other supplies were manageable, after a day and night of traveling, the drinking water was running dangerously low.

After exiting the supermarket, she observed the surrounding environment. She suddenly remembered that there should be a delivery station for an online shopping platform nearby. When the platform was first launched, there were a few s about it, including the location of the delivery station. It was supposed to be hidden, maybe at the end of a certain alley.

Following her rough memory of the direction, she circled around a few times and indeed found the delivery station, surprisingly still undiscovered by anyone.

Song Ke picked the lock and entered. The weather was hot, and the station was filled with the sour smell of rotting fruits and vegetables. She replenished her drinking water, then selected some cakes, dried fruits, sausages, and biscuits with longer shelf lives, stuffing them into her bag with effort. While reorganizing her backpack space, a sudden sound from outside caught her attention. Song Ke zipped up her bag and silently moved to the window, pushing aside the blinds to look outside.

At the corner of the alley, several meters away, a burly bald man was dragging a woman, attempting to snatch the bag from her hand.

“Let go!” The bald man’s menacing expression was evident as he threw punches at the woman.

The woman had disheveled hair and hunched back, appearing extremely weak, yet she clung tightly to her bag. “Give it back to me. I’ve worked so hard to find it… please, give it back to me!” After the bag’s mouth was pulled open, several cans of loose milk powder spilled out, followed by baby items like bottles and diapers, and finally, two or three bags of instant noodles.

The bald man, having a clear view of the items on the ground, kicked the woman’s face angrily, causing blood to flow instantly. Seeing that he had grabbed the bag and was about to run away, the woman disregarded everything and clung to his trousers, shouting hoarsely, “You beast! You’ll have a miserable death! Ahhhh!”

The fight outside happened too quickly for Song Ke to intervene. The woman’s scream had already pierced the night sky. She inwardly exclaimed, “Not good!”

True to her fears, within a few seconds, over a dozen zombies came rushing from the main road, swarming into the alley and attacking the two individuals with wild bites. The bloody scene and the piercing screams were too distressing to watch.

Both individuals fell to the undead onslaught, but the zombies didn’t disperse. Attracted by the strong scent of blood, they gathered, more and more of them converging. Soon, the alley became so packed that there was hardly any room to move. The nearest zombie had wandered to the doorstep of the delivery station, passing right by Song Ke on the other side of the window.

No, there were getting more and more. Waiting any longer would make it impossible to escape. Song Ke secured her bag’s strap, made sure its contents wouldn’t spill, and pushed open the delivery station’s door. The slight “creak” of the door caught the attention of the zombie horde. Dozens of pale faces turned in her direction simultaneously.

Facing the approaching zombies, Song Ke didn’t back down but advanced. Swish-swish, several swallowtail darts were thrown accurately, stabbing into the eye sockets and necks of the roaring zombies in front. Their movements were visibly delayed. She picked up a kettle from the station and in an instant, it transformed into a nearly three-foot-long staff, which she swung down fiercely.

The foremost tall zombie’s brain matter splattered, its head completely detached. Song Ke slung its head into the horde and, while rapidly advancing, skillfully swung her staff, knocking away the zombies converging from all sides. When she reached the entrance of the alley, she held the staff’s end with both hands, sweeping it 180 degrees in front of her. The remaining zombies that hadn’t squeezed in all fell down.

In less than five minutes, she had cleared an escape path, climbed over the rooftops ahead, and swiftly disappeared.

…

That night, Song Ke slept on top of an abandoned water tower in the industrial district. It was far from the city center, sparsely populated, and the zombies couldn’t climb up.

Lying on the concrete ground, she looked up at the chaotic night sky, feeling utterly lost.

Since the day she learned of the impending apocalypse, Song Ke had been lost. Her grandfather had told her to “live well,” but she had only slept for three days. When she woke up, everything had gone awry. She hadn’t understood anything yet, and she was already being chased by zombies, abandoned by the Cheng family, followed by her master’s death, the martial arts school’s destruction, and being forced to leave District 177, exiled to Hua City. Then what? What should she do to survive in this kind of apocalypse?

After nearly two days and nights without sleep, Song Ke was reaching her limit. As drowsiness gradually overtook her, she turned over, silently repeating in her mind: Regardless of everything, just stay here for a couple of days, hold on until the rescue team arrives. At least, she was familiar with Hua City; enduring for a while shouldn’t be a problem. Moreover, she had to figure out how her special abilities came to be…

The next day, Song Ke continued her exploration westward. As the first light of dawn broke, she arrived at School Street in Hua City.

This street used to have many shops, but unexpectedly, there wasn’t much left in terms of supplies. It seemed they had already been scavenged once. Passing a corner, faint rustling noises came from up ahead. Song Ke’s right hand gently brushed her pocket, where several swallowtail darts remained.

She turned the corner, and there on the ground, a huddled figure was present. Upon hearing footsteps, the figure froze instantly. After a strange silence, the figure slowly raised its head and turned it around, revealing grayish-white eyeballs, a mutilated face covered in flesh and blood, and jagged teeth smeared with who-knows-what kind of minced meat. Spotting live prey, its pupils dilated, and its mouth slowly opened, ready to roar at Song Ke.

Just as Song Ke was about to make a move, a succession of shouts erupted from behind, “Here! There’s a zombie here!” Suddenly, a few teenagers in Hua City First Middle School uniforms, each holding a baseball bat, appeared.

Two agile boys rushed past Song Ke and charged ahead, yelling in terror. In a chaotic flurry, they dispatched the zombie. Afterwards, they turned their attention cautiously to Song Ke, while the remaining individuals slowly spread out, encircling her.

“Who is she? No, is she human or a zombie?”

“Probably, probably human…”

“But she was just standing with the zombies! Who in their right mind would challenge a zombie face-to-face like that!”

“Which one of you wants to go ask her? I surely don’t dare…”

“No, why are you all looking at me? I said I don’t dare!”

Finally, the chubby guy who repeated “I don’t dare” several times was pushed forward. Gathering his courage, he nervously asked, “Um, miss, a-a-are you a human?”

Song Ke moved her hand away from her pocket and was about to answer, but the chubby guy started panicking on his own, “Oh no! She’s not speaking! She’s so fierce! I said I don’t dare, wuwuwu!”

“?” Song Ke took a deep breath and explained, one word at a time, “I… am… human.”

Tears welled up in the chubby guy’s eyes, “T-t-t-then, h-h-h-how did you come out alone?”

“What are you all doing, standing here?” At this moment, seven or eight more people arrived at the intersection, joining the group of students. Among them, a gentle-looking girl inadvertently caught sight of Song Ke and exclaimed, “You’re… Song Ke?”

Song Ke slowly raised her gaze upon hearing that voice.

“Yiyi, do you know her?” a round-faced girl asked with confusion.

After finishing her awkward shout, Cao Yiyi unexpectedly encountered Song Ke’s ice-cold dark pupils. She quickly averted her gaze, as if pricked by a needle, and stumbled to explain, “Ah? Oh, she… she was my former classmate.” She glanced furtively at the figure of a certain guy ahead, her explanation distracted and hasty. The guy had his back turned to her, facing in Song Ke’s direction, his posture appearing quite tense.

Cao Yiyi bit her lip, fingers nervously clutching her clothes’ corner. Suddenly, she took the initiative to approach, grabbed Song Ke’s hand, and put on an intentionally enthusiastic smile, “Song Ke, you disappeared from school without a word. We were all surprised. Later, we heard you went back to your hometown to work. How did you end up here now?”

Expressionless, Song Ke stared at their intertwining hands until Cao Yiyi awkwardly let go. Then, she turned to the chubby guy and continued to answer in a measured tone, “I got, got separated from the retreat, retreat group accidentally, so I, I’m alone.”

“Oh, I see.” The chubby guy didn’t expect Song Ke to still answer him, and he responded foolishly.

“Pfft~” Someone was successfully amused, and the way they looked at Song Ke suddenly changed, “What’s this? A stutterer?”

“I heard survivors from other districts have come over these two days. Seems like they want to manage us collectively.”

“Weren’t they supposed to be centralized? Then why is she wandering outside alone?”

“Who knows, but she seems pretty bold. The girls in our class would scream at the sight of zombies…”

Amid their laughter and banter, Song Ke stood unmoved, her expression unchanged.

“Brother Jiang, what do you think?”

A young man, whose hair looked like it had been curled with aluminum foil, appeared more mature than the others. He asked softly, looking at the tall and silent guy who had been standing at the forefront.

Jiang Rui’s gaze was complex. He stared at Song Ke in silence, the old scar on his brow especially prominent in the sunlight.

He clenched his hand tightly and then released it unexpectedly. He invited, “Song Ke, our school has a safe zone with around a hundred people. Do you want to come with us?” He added, “We have people with special abilities.”

“Jiang Rui! Why are you telling her all this? She’s not from our school!” Another guy complained unhappily.

Jiang Rui touched the ring on his hand. His icy gaze swept over the person, and they immediately shut up in fear.

Encountering Jiang Rui and Cao Yiyi unexpectedly made Song Ke’s mood plummet. She felt irritated, truly annoyed, and wanted to avoid any interactions with them. She had already taken steps forward when she heard the last sentence, causing her to hesitate.

Special abilities? They have people with special abilities. Maybe they know something.

Song Ke nodded, “Sure.”