Chapter 9: The First Meeting

After dinner, the elderly mother coaxed the children to sleep first. Seven children filled two rooms. Once the supplies were tallied, the seven able-bodied adults gathered in the east bedroom to hold a meeting, discussing what to do next.

Li Fengyi first asked Sun Xiaoshan to share the latest information from the internet with everyone.

“We might lose power soon,” Sun Xiaoshan began. “From what I know, Beijing relies mainly on thermal power, with limited hydroelectric generation. I expect the national grid has emergency backup measures and will prioritize certain regions. Hydroelectric and nuclear power might be supplied first. Some regional websites haven't been updated, and some have shut down entirely, which likely means they've already lost power. Once the electricity is gone, the tap water and gas will probably be out as well. I can’t estimate exactly when the power, gas, and water will be cut off.”

“If we could contact anyone, we’ve already done so,” Li Fengyi said, implying that those unreachable were beyond hope. Everyone bowed their heads in silence.

“Turn off your phones now. From this moment, switch them on in turns to check for government notices,” Li Fengyi instructed. “I’ll turn mine on first. There’s a universal charger here—everyone, charge your phones one by one.”

“There might be problems with the authorities,” Sun Xiaoshan continued as everyone powered down and charged their devices. “At first, the notice said zombies could smell humans from fifty meters, then forty meters, then it said they couldn’t be certain. I don’t think they really know what’s going on... They told us to hold fast and await rescue, then after an hour and thirty-seven minutes told us to stock up on food and water, another hour and forty minutes later advised us to head for designated shelters before supplies ran out, then another hour and fifteen minutes after that, the shelter locations changed several times.”

Sun Xiaoshan was visibly uneasy as he spoke. He shifted in his seat. “I counted—nationwide, there are seventy-eight fewer shelters than initially announced. Fifteen fewer in the Beijing area.”

A wave of discussion erupted among the group; the situation seemed worse than anyone had imagined.

Sun Xiaoshan glanced at the computer, where a map of the country was displayed, covered in blinking red dots. “In the time it took to talk, thirteen more shelters disappeared nationwide, five fewer in Beijing.”

He clicked to display a world map, also covered in blinking red dots, with lines of text scrolling across the screen. “It’s the same everywhere in the world.”

Everyone grew even more anxious.

“How many shelters are there nationwide, and how many in Beijing? Which one is closest to us?” Li Fengyi forced himself to remain calm and pressed on.

“I estimate there are over two thousand counties across the country, plus more than three hundred medium and large cities, so there should be over three thousand shelters altogether. Each county might have five or six, larger cities might have twenty to thirty,” Sun Xiaoshan replied.

“However, from the start, fewer than eight hundred counties had shelters listed, about a hundred medium and large cities, with the most in any one county being three, and the most in a city being ten. Initially, there were about six thousand shelters shown. Now there are just over five thousand left, and some are still being assessed for capacity. The closest one to us now is Liuyin Park Shelter.”

Li Fengyi said, “From Jiawu Courtyard, it’s just three streets west to Liuyin Park.”

The group’s expressions relaxed slightly.

Sun Xiaoshan clicked the screen again. “Not anymore. Liuyin Park Shelter just vanished...”

One bad news after another plunged the room into silence and despair.

“The virus is aggressive, erupting simultaneously worldwide. Official estimates put the surviving population at fewer than one hundred million nationwide, about four hundred million worldwide, and dropping. By tomorrow, I expect it’ll be around eighty million in China, three hundred million globally,” Sun Xiaoming announced relentlessly. “It may fall even faster.”

Ever precise, he added a caveat.

“What!?” The number was unimaginable. Even the two world wars never reached such mortality rates, especially in a peaceful China.

Dazed for a moment, Tian Ming vented, “I knew the strict controls on guns and knives would cause trouble. I bet more people survive in Western countries.”

“No. Survival rates aren’t higher in the West,” Sun Xiaoshan shook his head. “This is a virus attack. Unless they live their whole lives in gas masks? I never heard of a virus this deadly, erupting globally all at once. How was it released? Was it really a meteor?... Most people didn’t carry guns while working, and it wouldn’t help anyway. Once chaos broke out, too many armed robberies and killings. Maybe survival rates will improve later, since guns are everywhere.”

Imagine a metropolis of twenty million people, now with only a handful left alive. Not to mention the whole building filled with corpses... zombies...

Late at night, a few survivors sat atop the building, discussing...

Weird, terrifying, silent...

Once more, silence enveloped them.

“All right, all right. Where’s the closest shelter now?” Li Fengyi cut off their wandering thoughts; there was no point in drifting.

“The nearest now is the Xiangshan Shelter.”

A buzz of discussion resumed.

In the past, Xiangshan was easy to reach—subway or bus took barely two hours. Now, in these conditions, who could say? Jiawu Courtyard was in the northeast second ring, Xiangshan beyond the northwest fifth ring. Leaving the city was itself a problem, with roads jammed and public transportation gone. It was just as they’d feared.

Sun Xiaoming looked at Li Fengyi, and Li Fengyi gritted his teeth. It had come to this—how much worse could it get? “Go on.”

“The military in every city nationwide failed to retake control. So did armies around the world.”

For a moment, everyone was too stunned to speak. If armies with cannons and rifles failed, what could ordinary unarmed people do?

“I suspect it’s the zombies’ lethality,” Sun Xiaoming said, biting his lip. “Only smashing the brain can kill them; injuries elsewhere don’t matter. All weapon designs are for killing people, not zombies. Not every soldier is a sharpshooter. There must have been zombies in barracks, and at the start, everyone panicked. City streets are clogged, the terrain complex, and urban combat is a weakness for all armies.”

Even the military couldn’t cope?

Late at night, the survivors sat in silence, facing a world turned upside down.