Chapter 7: The Female Zombie (1)

From time to time, people picked up their phones and tried to reach out to their family and friends. Wang Shujuan was also trying to contact her relatives and Li Fengyi’s older siblings. So far, she had only managed to get through to Li Fengyi’s third brother; the rest remained unresponsive. Li Fengyi’s third brother had been at work when the incident occurred—he drove a Steyr mining truck and was working in the freight yard. There, too, some suspicious figures were wandering about, and he had lost contact with the others. He urged his fifth brother and sister-in-law to take care of their elderly mother and the children. No one else could be reached.

A grave and dejected look weighed on every face.

Suddenly, a blaring loudspeaker voice echoed from the street: “Comrades, do not panic. We are the People’s Liberation Army, Beijing Garrison. We will bring the situation under control—please wait patiently for rescue.”

Following the announcement came the sound of intense gunfire, accompanied by the unmistakable noise of tank treads crushing cars. The apartment, numbered 607, faced north to south; from the east windows, one could only see the park at the center of the street, while the west windows overlooked the army’s retirement complex behind Mary Hospital. Nothing of the outside chaos could be seen, heightening everyone’s anxiety.

Gunshots rang out endlessly throughout the city.

Everyone’s phones buzzed with incoming messages—it was a cascade of alert tones. Each message was identical, sent by the authorities: they encouraged all to stay sheltered and await rescue, stated that during this critical period everyone had the right to possess any weapon, defined the mutated as zombies, and declared that anyone had both the right and duty to kill them without consequence. All citizens were urged to seek weapons and food to protect themselves, but were sternly warned not to infringe on the rights of the uninfected.

Li Fengyi found the last line especially significant. If it turned out later there was a cure, the people who took action might find themselves in serious trouble—according to the courts, it would at least be considered excessive self-defense.

Dusk slowly descended, and the streetlights, controlled by automatic sensors, flickered to life, illuminating every street and alley—and also revealing the zombies wandering aimlessly along the roads.

In this era where nearly everyone owned a mobile phone, it was clear to see: the zombies fumbled with their clothes and belongings, tearing off their phones. Those that didn’t break simply fell to the ground, and the zombies bent low, groping for them. Most phones these days could withstand a fall, which resulted in a strange sight—almost all the zombies were stooped, groping for their phones, only straightening up to roam once the devices ran out of power and stopped making noise.

Text messages kept pouring in. Everyone needed to contact their loved ones. Li Fengyi turned off two of his family’s three phones to save power, charging them while using just one to receive information and maintain contact with relatives in Shandong.

The latest messages detailed how to kill zombies. Online, the government had already taken over the front pages of many websites, issuing all sorts of information. For example: it was believed the zombies were infected by a virus from the meteorite fog; the early infection rate among children under a certain age was almost zero. However, since the outbreak happened during school pick-up time, most of those children had already been devoured by their turned parents and teachers. Nearly everyone over sixty had become a zombie as well. On reading this, everyone instinctively looked at their elderly mother.

Li Fengyi snapped, “What are you all looking at? Our mother’s got the health of a forty-year-old, isn’t that good enough?” He had knocked ten years off her age—at her last checkup, the doctor had said she was as healthy as a fifty-year-old, thanks to good care.

“Of course, of course,” everyone quickly nodded in agreement.

The authorities reported that the army had been deployed to rescue residents and asked everyone to wait patiently. They also announced several gathering points nearby for those outside or in the vicinity, with ample food and water supplies. Everyone looked at Li Fengyi with admiration—after all, with generations’ worth of flour and rice in storage, they felt reassured.

The new epidemic guidelines explained that zombies now had heightened senses of smell and hearing. In open areas without obstacles or wind, they could detect humans within a forty-meter radius. Their hearing was just as sharp. The only way to kill them was to destroy the brain; only bites could transmit the virus, while scratches and broken skin from their fingernails would not cause infection.

Zombies moved about as fast as humans, perhaps a bit faster than a normal walking pace, which was a relief. If they had mutated further, survival would be impossible—especially in China, where ordinary people did not have access to firearms, only makeshift cold weapons, and even knives were strictly regulated. It seemed the legs of tables and chairs would be the most common weapons; those with only flat-pack furniture would be out of luck.

Those who had survived the first wave of airborne infection would not mutate again from the air, which was a huge relief. Everyone began tossing aside the cloth strips and masks they’d worn all afternoon, littering the room and earning a scolding from Wang Shujuan.

The subsequent text messages and website updates offered nothing new, just repetitions of earlier information.

Li Fengyi called everyone together to discuss their next steps.

Their elderly mother squeezed into the west room with all seven children, while the seven able-bodied adults gathered in the east room for the meeting.

Suddenly, the gunfire intensified, followed by a series of deafening explosions. None of them had any military experience—just a few days of marching drills in school, and only one or two had ever fired a gun. They couldn’t tell whether it was artillery or grenades, but the look on their faces changed; the situation was clearly dire.

After nearly two hours, the gunfire and explosions in the city gradually ceased. The group exchanged anxious glances, unsure of what to do next.

Li Fengyi turned to look at the park in the middle of the street. Because of the constant explosions, the zombies were moving in circles, not knowing which way to go. Their numbers hadn’t diminished at all—a bad sign.

He looked again at the high-rises east of the city rail line. Only a few rooms were lit in each building. Counting carefully, there were nearly a thousand apartments, yet only a few dozen had lights on. At first, he thought perhaps many were unoccupied, as not every apartment was lit even in normal times, but usually at least half would be. Now, counting carefully, only twenty-six were illuminated. Adding in all four sides of the buildings, that meant barely a hundred or so households still had their lights on—a troubling sign indeed.

Perhaps because the explosions had stopped, the sounds from the neighboring apartment suddenly became much louder. Several of the younger children had started crying in fear.

Li Fengyi gritted his teeth. One way or another, something had to be done. Damn it all—time to put an end to this! Life would be unlivable otherwise.

He said to Wang Shujuan, “You and Xiao Chu find something for the children to eat, calm them down, and try to stop their crying.”

Then the group turned to the first order of business: how to deal with the girl next door.

“She’s a zombie,” Li Fengyi emphasized, trying to persuade everyone and ease their psychological burden. Otherwise, they would hesitate and put themselves in danger.

Thinking of the girl next door, his heart grew heavy. She had been such a sweet child—always calling him Brother Li so affectionately. He’d even had a few good dreams about her.

But they had no proper weapons. In this situation, it was impossible to say who would end up dead. How could they prepare some weapons?