Days of hiding from the zombie horde

People say that mothers love their daughters deeply and plan far ahead for them, but my mother's love for me has clearly reached beyond outer space. At this critical moment of life and death, she wasn't thinking about how to save her own life, but rather about finding a companion for her daughter as quickly as possible, so that her daughter wouldn't die alone.

Seeing Mr. Huang's face contorted with the expression of someone about to die a heroic death, I swung the zombie's intestines around and chased him away. I said to my mom, "We don't even know if we'll survive this month. If the zombies break in, we'll all die. What are you thinking?"

“Xiao Huang is such a good catch! He’s good-looking, and I’ve never seen him flirt with any girls. I finally found him for you, and you have to upset me! Die, die, die! It’s not that easy to die!” My mother was very dissatisfied and didn’t care about life and death at all: “When you were little, I paid someone to have your fortune told. The master said you have a tough fate and are destined to kill two relatives, but you will live to be ninety-nine. You won’t die, and you’ll have a long life ahead of you!”

I couldn't believe my ears: "Who did I bring death to? You actually believe the words of a charlatan?"

“Your grandpa and grandma.” My mom glanced outside, then pulled me aside and whispered, “When I first heard the master’s words, I knew I couldn’t tell your dad about this, lest he dislike you. Sure enough, your grandma died when you were eighteen, and your grandpa died when you were twenty. It was just as the divination had predicted.”

Me: ??? Weren't they 74-year-olds with emphysema and 79-year-olds with rectal cancer? What does that have to do with me? Besides, Binbin wasn't young when they died, and my third uncle's daughter, Tiantian, was already in elementary school. How is it that I'm the one who brought them bad luck?

I don't understand my mom's logic, and I don't want to argue with her. I said impatiently, "If you say I'm cursed, then I am. But don't do these things again. I don't have time to think about this now. Let's talk about it after the zombie horde is over."

My mom grabbed me and said, "You're willing to go on blind dates after the zombie horde is over? You can't fool me."

"Okay, okay, I'm willing." I just wanted to get back and dismember her as soon as possible, so I gave her a perfunctory reply and ran away.

The entire veterans worked tirelessly through the night; everyone except Han Bo and Yu Yu was busy. The field team was still fighting on the front lines of killing the corpses; truckloads of steel plates were being transported back, and Yuan Xikun worked continuously for ten hours in front of the cutting machine while wearing a mask; in the canteen, my mother led the cooks to make pancakes, which were then dried thoroughly and sealed in vacuum bags, supposedly lasting for six months without spoiling; the walls of the entire veterans' compound were raised by one meter thanks to the labor of the prisoners at the auto repair shop; Well No. 1 successfully struck groundwater, and Grandpa Tian worked tirelessly, leading people to fill the reservoir and all other water-holding equipment.

Everyone else was dismembering the bodies and decorating the hospital with zombie entrails as I requested. Everyone was extremely filthy and reeked of a foul odor, but after news spread that hordes of zombies had been discovered in the east, south, and north of the city, no one mentioned taking a bath anymore. We worked and lived in the stench, getting used to each other's wretched appearance.

I smeared the black blood of zombies on my bare skin, took a knife and walked out. I found a lone zombie standing ten meters behind it and whispered "Hey!" It immediately turned around and noticed my presence.

After killing it, I found another one and quietly approached it from behind. When I got about ten steps away, it was still walking forward without realizing it. But when I took another step closer, it suddenly turned around and pounced on me.

The zombies' sensory systems have indeed mutated to be extremely sensitive; they can hear the slightest movements and detect even the faintest breathing. Even if smeared with zombie blood, as long as they are still breathing, they can easily be detected.

I'm not too worried about the safety of the veterans. When the zombies swarm in, they can hide inside the building, close the doors and windows, and shut out the air. However, they still need food and water, need to observe the outside world, and need to move around. Some of the mentally ill are hard to control, and unforeseen circumstances may arise. I can't guarantee they'll escape the zombies' hearing. Once they discover the presence of living people, the zombie horde might not be able to retreat.

I didn't want to take any chances; I wanted to be absolutely certain. So, after returning, I assigned Yuan Xikun a new task: to make a few more golden helmets, just in case.

The night Yu Yu, who had been in a coma for many days, awoke, the first wave of zombies surged from Jiangshan Avenue eastward into Huaicheng. Gao Chen, Zhou Yi, Xiao Hei, and I stood on the roof of the inpatient building, using night-vision binoculars to scout out the enemy.

We currently have two types of night vision binoculars: one for thermal imaging and one for low-light conditions. Thermal imaging is useless for observing zombies; they are dead, their flesh cold and lifeless, emitting no light or heat. Looking through the binoculars, you only see a blurry black expanse. Low-light binoculars can see scenes two to three hundred meters away, but "low-light" means there is only a faint light source. On nights without stars or moon, they are very difficult to use in the dead silence of a city.

We spent over an hour observing from all directions, changing positions as we went. I gave up: "We can't see anything. By the time we can see them, they'll probably be downstairs."

Zhou Yi and Xiao Hei also gave up, leaving only Gao Chen professionally holding the binoculars.

A moment later he said, "Horses of zombies are entering the city from three directions, with the largest number coming from the west. The number of zombies on the streets around Rongjun has increased significantly. Once the main force moves, the scattered zombies will also join in, like a magnetic field effect, eventually causing them to move in one direction. It is estimated that the number of zombies in Huaicheng will increase to tens of thousands by tomorrow morning, and there will probably be another peak in another one to two weeks. As long as Rongjun is not discovered, the number should decline after the peak."

I hurriedly said to Zhou Yi and Xiao Hei, "Go down and tell everyone to stay in their rooms and not move around or talk. Whether we can live peacefully depends on whether we can get through this peak."

The veterans' home was now like a zombie graveyard, littered with corpses and hanging with bloody sausages. Everyone was concentrated in the inpatient building, with both the front and back doors sealed off with steel plates, leaving only a narrow security door on the side for entry and exit.

After Zhou Yi and Xiao Hei left, Gao Chen said to me, "I estimate that this zombie horde will last for three to four weeks. This is an optimistic estimate assuming they don't find any living people in Huai City. If they have prey, they might stay even longer. Are you scared?"

He was also smeared with zombie blood, his face completely black except for his eyes. The light was so dim that I couldn't see the outline of his eyes, or whether his expression was serious or smiling. I only felt that his pupils were bright and sparkling, like stars in the dark night.

"I'm not afraid. If it doesn't work, we'll just do it. The worst that can happen is death," I said.

The stars twinkled, as if he were blinking: "You're truly the boldest girl I've ever met."

A thought struck me: "You talk as if you've seen a lot of girls."

"Yes, there are more than sixty veterans."

I wanted to cover my mouth and give a shy smile, but then I remembered that my hands were covered in zombie scum, so I held back and just grinned: "You didn't count my mom as a girl, did you?"

I wanted to chat with Gao Chen a little longer about zombies and girls on the rooftop, but Zhang Yanhuang suddenly climbed up: "Sister Qi, you should go down and take a look. Captain Yu's men are reporting that he's awake and keeps shouting."

"What's your name?"

"It has no specific target; it's just making noise."

Howling? The zombie horde is almost here, and he still dares to howl at me! Why doesn't that annoying Yu Yu stay unconscious for a few more days? He needs more electricity!

Whenever Gao Chen and I were alone, something annoying would always interrupt us, making me very unhappy. I would then go down to Yu Yu's ward on the seventh floor, seething with anger.

"Ah! Ah! Ah!" The continuous shouts came from inside the room. The two guards looked anxious and kept looking into the small window. One of them even wanted to cover his ears.

There were no lights in the room, so they couldn't see anything. I pushed them aside, took the key from my waist, opened the door, and shone a powerful flashlight directly at the person on the bed.

He was bound and unable to move, his eyes were open and staring at the ceiling. Even after being exposed to light, he did not react and continued to make meaningless shouts with his mouth open.

I said to the anxious guard, "Don't be nervous. Severely mentally ill patients often shout and yell like this. They are struggling with their confused thoughts. Go down and get me some duct tape to seal his mouth."

The guard left, and I went into the ward. I switched the flashlight to medium beam mode, held it to my chin, and shone it on my blood-covered face. I stuck out my tongue, rolled my eyes, and looked down at Yu Yu's face from above: "Meow, I'm the ghost that's here to take your life."

Zhang Yanhuang stood at the door and said helplessly, "Sister Qi..."

I made a face and turned around, and he quickly looked away, saying, "Don't do that, it's a bit scary."

Yu Yu was still shouting, but my anger gradually subsided. Strictly speaking, he wasn't actually awake yet. Not only was he not awake, but his alternate personalities weren't awake either. This unconscious shouting behavior was actually a side effect of electroconvulsive therapy. His brain nerves were being intensely stimulated, and his consciousness was in a state of extreme confusion. Or, to put it another way, all his personalities were communicating with each other, possibly fighting fiercely, and whoever won would gain the upper hand.

This is an effective treatment for multiple personality disorder, removing the barriers between personalities to allow them to recognize and communicate with each other in order to achieve integration. Vice President Lu treated Yu Yu in this way. When he discovered that the secondary personalities were highly resistant and the integration was ineffective, he tried to use elimination therapy to maintain the dominant personality's long-term initiative and suppress the frequency of the secondary personalities' appearances. Yu Baobao was successfully eliminated, but Yu Yu was unwilling to give up Yu Xiaochun and Yu Dandan. He seemed to think this feeling of three souls in one was particularly powerful, and every now and then he would deliberately release them to cause trouble for Vice President Lu.

Yu Zhongjian was the only exception; at least during my time working at the veterans' hospital, I never saw Yu Yu release him. I was skeptical of what he once told me; I didn't believe he was the primary personality, but rather that he had self-destructive tendencies. But what's hard to explain is why he wanted to die but couldn't. Judging from Yu Yu's behavior, she didn't seem to particularly like this alternate personality, so why didn't she just let him disappear?

He's a truly enigmatic man.

I brought up some duct tape, tore off three strips, and sealed Yu Yu's mouth tightly, so he could only make "mmm" sounds from his nose. With the doors and windows closed, the sound wouldn't reach the downstairs area.

As he whimpered, I whispered in his ear, "Go Yu Zhongjian! Go Yu Zhongjian! You can do it, Yu Zhongjian! Take them all down, come back soon! Charge! Go for it! Go for it!"

After cheering him on for a while, I felt it was too gentle, so I went around to his other ear and shouted, "Yu Zhongjian, be a man! Say what you have to say to his face. Information from eavesdropping is one-sided and incomplete! Don't overthink it and give up on yourself. Ask him face to face, and you will get the most sincere answer. Don't let your short life be filled with regrets! Come back, Yu Zhongjian, you are a real man, don't be a coward. Han Bo is waiting for your apology, and I, Qi Aifeng, am waiting for your confession!"

A gasp came from the doorway. I looked up and saw Zhang Yanhuang and two men staring at me in disbelief, their faces etched with confusion.

Realizing Yu Yu's brainstorming wouldn't end anytime soon, I pressed firmly on the duct tape sealing his mouth, carefully checked the restraints, and then calmly walked out of the room and locked the door. Yu Yu's voice was trapped inside. I stood at the door for a while, making sure it couldn't get out, before taking Zhang Yanhuang downstairs.

"What's so surprising? This is a treatment method, don't you understand? Captain Yu wouldn't have come back if we didn't do it this way."

Zhang Yanhuang asked cautiously, "So, Captain Yu really...?"

"Yes, it seems like he likes me," I admitted casually.

Zhang Yanhuang was, after all, a young man just beginning to experience love, and upon hearing this, he showed a hint of longing: "I heard from Company Commander Gao that Captain Yu has multiple personality disorder. He said that he had a breakdown because he was afraid of being rejected by you. Now you've worked so hard to save him and want to hear him confess his feelings to you in person. If he knew that, he would be very happy and moved."

"I don't think he will necessarily be very happy or touched."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to save him so that I could reject him face to face."

Leaving a bewildered Zhang Yanhuang behind, I began patrolling the entire building. I checked every door and window, went through each ward to see who hadn't smeared themselves with zombie blood, and patiently explained the building's management regulations during the zombie horde to everyone.

Minimize movement and talking; stay in your room as much as possible and avoid visiting others. Do not peer out of windows to watch others. Meals and water will be provided by designated personnel. Do not light candles; all activities must be completed during the day, and no noise should be made at night. In case of emergency, report to the floor supervisor; do not attempt to resolve the situation privately.

Most importantly, don't complain. If you find it hard, tiring, or boring, you'd better leave now. For the safety of more people, anyone who causes trouble during the zombie horde will be dealt with by scalpel. The twenty prisoners under our control are especially targeted for re-education. We showed them our handcuffs, ropes, and gags, and told them that if they didn't cooperate, we'd tie them up again. As a result, they all swore to the heavens and the earth that they would never cause trouble again.

Unless someone is mentally ill, they won't make a mistake at such a critical time. Life safety is above all other interests, and any difficulty can be overcome. This includes minors; they are more sensible than adults. As soon as I finished speaking, Xiao Meng put away all the torn-up snack bags, covered her mouth, and didn't make a sound.

I was worried that Zhao Zhuobao and Li Tonggu would relapse if they were locked up for too long, so I assigned them the task of delivering food and water. Being able to come out and move around every day helps to distract them and prevents their minds from getting confused.

By sunrise on August 19th, the area in front of the Veterans Hospital had become a sea of ​​zombies. I hid behind the curtains of a tenth-floor ward and peered through binoculars at the scene outside. The binoculars revealed a dense mass of undead, crowding the streets and causing endless screams to echo over Huaicheng. The procession moved extremely slowly eastward.

How slow was it? I watched as a zombie, wearing a high-necked, frayed sweater, with only one eyeball remaining and a few tufts of red hair floating on its head, with a very distinctive appearance, moved from the right side to the left side of the Rongjun electronic steel plate door. It took about ten minutes, at a snail's pace.

At this rate of movement, let alone three weeks, the zombie horde might not even be able to retreat from Huai City in thirty weeks, okay? I glanced at Gao Chen, who was peeking from behind another curtain, and nudged his arm. He put his index finger to his lips and winked at the window.

I raised my binoculars and observed for another ten minutes before finally noticing something unusual.

A few zombies, eager to rush forward, arched their bodies, sometimes accidentally knocking over the zombies in front of them, sometimes losing their balance and falling down. A dent would suddenly appear in the horde, quickly filled by zombies from behind, creating a small wave that pushed the horde forward a few steps. And these zombies were not few in number; they seemed impatient with the crowded situation. Whenever they sensed a small opening, they tried to run and jump, but the conditions didn't allow it, so they could only fall down one after another, trampling each other.

What kind of strange behavior is this? Is the mutated zombie trying to rush to the front of the group and become the leader? Let them do whatever they want; as long as they're moving, that's a good thing.

The invisibility effect seems to be working quite well so far. In front of the Veterans' Gate, which is covered in black blood and has walls full of liver and intestines, the zombies did not stop, nor did they even turn their heads to the south. They staggered forward.

The streets to the west were also strewn with corpses, and who knew how many more lay ahead. The days of hiding from the zombie horde had begun.

For the first week, we moved stealthily, communicating mainly through eye contact and gestures. We ate cold, hard rations, drank very little water, and frequently smeared ourselves with the remaining zombie blood. Except for the patrol personnel, everyone slept at least twelve to fourteen hours a day, and a snoring person had to be kept awake next to them to muffle their snoring. We never used any lighting equipment, and even when using the toilet, we had to put down a piece of toilet paper to avoid making noise.

In the second week, my mother relaxed a little and took out the yarn and crochet hooks she had prepared earlier, and began to make all kinds of woolen products; Old Tian and my father made an appointment to play chess on a chessboard drawn on paper every day, and when they got impatient, they would verbally insult each other; Grandpa Tang was walking around in the house, squatting in a horse stance, and practicing Tai Chi; Although Han Bo's stitches had been removed, his head was still bandaged, and he sat on the ground playing silent poker with Xiao Hei, Zhou Yi and a few others, with paper strips stuck all over his face.

The third week continued with the quiet life in the building. Gao Chen and I twice went out into the courtyard wearing golden armor and helmets to fetch water from the reservoir and move supplies. Because we were some distance from the wall and extremely cautious, we did not attract the attention of the zombies.

Actually, there are enough pancakes, but people would go crazy if they ate pancakes all the time. Besides, the rabbits' hay is running low, and if they are not fed soon, they will not grow up.

On the first day of the fourth week, I took a box of eight-treasure porridge to the seventh floor, greeted the guard with a glance as usual, and opened the door to enter the ward.

Yu Yu ultimately didn't cause me any major trouble. He fell into a coma again before the zombie horde arrived, and remained unconscious for more than half a month. During this time, I took care of all his feeding and hygiene. I didn't trust anyone else with my help, fearing that he might wake up and use his brainwaves to subdue others, or go insane and attract zombies.

The room was dimly lit with the curtains drawn. I walked to the bedside, where the person on the bed still had their mouth taped shut, but was staring at me with calm eyes.

I was slightly taken aback, then quickly leaned close to his ear and said in a low voice, "Stop pretending, don't think I don't know it's you, Yu Yu!"

Is it Yu Yu? I don't actually think so.

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Thank you to everyone who collects, comments, and reads the story every day. Even though it's frustrating, it still gives me motivation, and I'll continue to be a heartless update machine.