Chapter 6 The Mighty Monster
Bai Chenzhu narrowly made the turn, and the strange flower's disc crashed into the cement wall. Without even checking how badly the flower was hurt, Bai Chenzhu turned around and ran upstairs.
He had already realized that the vine was not fast enough to prevent its escape, and that the plant had very limited intelligence, acting entirely on its survival instincts without any thought.
Bai Chenzhu ran all the way to the sixth-floor balcony. He leaned against the balcony door, his vision blurred, his legs were weak, and his breath smelled of rust.
He took a few deep breaths, trying to find a way to escape through the pixelated images.
The vine grows downwards, meaning it can easily cover areas up to the fourth floor. However, climbing upwards takes a little longer.
That brief moment was his only hope of escape!
The layout of this old residential area is a bit cramped; the buildings are either connected or only a meter or so apart. Bai Chenzhu groped his way over and quickly climbed onto the balcony of the adjacent building.
He ran over and tried to pry open the balcony door of the building, enter the house from the balcony, go downstairs, and escape.
As it turned out, the door opened from the inside out, and he couldn't open it from the outside.
"Is anyone there? Help! Open the door! Please open the door!" Bai Chenzhu pounded on the balcony door, pleading for help, hoping someone would open it. He kept glancing back at his building.
Two minutes later, he gritted his teeth, turned around, and climbed up the wall.
The third building is more than a meter away from the one I'm in, and below it is an alley that is nearly 20 meters deep.
He would die if he fell. Bai Chenzhu could only hypnotize himself by staring at the opposite wall instead of looking down. Because of his fear, he hesitated to move.
He heard a rustling sound behind him, and Bai Chenzhu felt a chill run down his spine. He knew that the vines had followed him up to the balcony.
The voice was like a haunting whisper, sending chills down one's spine.
"It's okay, I can do it, I can do it!" Bai Chenzhu took a deep breath, his face as white as paper. He kicked off his cumbersome slippers, and with his heart pounding in his throat, he leaped forward, bounding across the alley and landing shakily on the wall.
Bai Chenzhu didn't even have a moment to relax. When he looked back, he found that the flower vines were still trying to swim towards him.
The next few buildings were all connected, making them much less dangerous. Bai Chenzhu didn't dare stop and climbed over several buildings until she left the flowering vines behind and couldn't see them anymore, before finally slumping down on the balcony.
He half-covered his face and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"Teacher?" someone called softly, afraid of disturbing something.
Bai Chenzhu turned around and met a pair of bright eyes. This person had a buzz cut and was wearing a hoodie; who else could it be but Tang Zhao, whom she had seen at the hospital before?
Bai Chenzhu hadn't forgotten how this guy had proudly boasted about being bitten three times. So she remained silent, scrutinizing him with her cold eyes.
Tang Zhao was also looking him over. "Teacher, the authorities have said we shouldn't stay home, and work and school have been suspended. Why are you out here?"
The two looked at each other for a while, feeling quite frightened, fearing that the other had already turned into a zombie.
But turning into a zombie would cause one to lose their mind. Tang Zhao hesitated for a moment, then waved to him: "Come in first."
Bai Chenzhu patted the dust off his pants and followed him into the house.
The balconies in this building are quite unique; one half is a flat area for drying clothes, and the other half consists of smaller apartments. Behind the balcony door is the stairwell, and to the right is an iron door for rental units.
The room was small, with a large bed in the middle, a small sofa and a small table in the remaining space. The rest of the room was piled with personal belongings, and the bathroom was only big enough for one person to stand in.
After locking the door, Tang Zhao turned around and greeted, "Teacher, please sit wherever you like."
Bai Chenzhu looked around, then stood in front of the sofa without moving. He was covered in blood, and if he sat down, the blood would get onto the sofa.
"It's okay," Tang Zhao said casually, not caring at all. "The sofa cover can be changed."
Bai Chenzhu didn't stand on ceremony with him and slumped back onto the sofa, panting heavily.
As soon as he woke up, he was chased by the flower vines and fell twice on the blood-stained stairs. His already weak body could not withstand the strain, and when he fell down, his whole body ached and he could not open his eyes.
"How did the teacher jump over from the balcony?" Tang Zhao carefully checked that the door was locked before sitting down. As he asked, he looked at Bai Chenzhu's blood-stained pajamas and dusty bare feet with some puzzlement.
"Stop talking, I was chased by monsters." Bai Chenzhu wiped his face, pressed his tailbone, and tried to sit up straight. "Is this your home?"
"Huh? This is a rented room. My home is in another city. Didn't my teacher come here to tutor me before?" Tang Zhao was stunned for a moment, then nodded.
Bai Chenzhu froze, and he mumbled, "I forgot."
Fortunately, Tang Zhao didn't care about the details. He complained with a bitter face, "The outside world has become so scary these past two weeks. I don't dare to go out. Forget about superpowers, I really, really, really miss the old days. Help! Is God punishing me? I was just joking!"
"Staying home isn't an option either." Bai Chenzhu rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I was originally staying home, but the rose bush that the people upstairs are growing has mutated."
Seeing Tang Zhao's puzzled look, he explained, "It's a climbing vine that will climb all over the house, kill people, tie them up and take them back to its nest to be used as fertilizer."
"How could such a thing exist!" Tang Zhao was so frightened that he couldn't sit still, his whole body itching, and he nervously grabbed his arm. "What...what...what do we do?"
"Don't be afraid. The building I live in is a bit far from here. I ran all the way here, as you can see. It hasn't grown long enough to reach here yet, but who knows what will happen in a few days."
Bai Chenzhu pried his claws open, rubbing the red marks on her own hands. "Is your building safe for now?"
"I don't know," Tang Zhao said anxiously, biting his thumb with fear in his eyes. "I haven't left the house for two days. There's a security guard downstairs, so it shouldn't be a big problem. But sometimes I hear strange banging sounds downstairs, like someone's forehead is hitting an iron gate."
"So you're alright for now." Bai Chenzhu looked down at his dirty self and asked, "Can I borrow your place to take a shower?"
Humans always like to stick together, especially when they encounter danger.
Tang Zhao now felt a sense of familiarity when he saw Bai Chenzhu, who was older than him, especially with the teacher's filter still on him. He nodded like a chicken pecking at rice and thoughtfully handed him a set of clothes.
Tang Zhao clearly had a stereotype about Bai Chenzhu, as the clothes he picked out were the kind of clothes Bai Chenzhu usually wore, only the styles were obviously for Tang Zhao's age.
After taking a shower, Bai Chenzhu looked in the mirror and felt that he had instantly become several years younger. The person in the mirror was wearing a casual white shirt and denim shorts, with a thin figure and damp, shoulder-length black hair falling to his neck, making his face look even whiter.
Bai Chenzhu was almost 30 when he passed away. The body in which he was living was that of a college student, but he was wearing the clothes of a male high school student. He had a strange and indescribable feeling about it.
It was as if he had suddenly transformed from a hard-won mature man back into a young boy.
"It's so good to be young." Bai Chenzhu looked at himself a few more times and couldn't help but sigh.
"Teacher, what do you think of this?" Tang Zhao ran over excitedly and handed over a hair tie with a crystal rabbit on it.
Bai Chenzhu glanced suspiciously at the pink rabbit, then looked at Tang Zhao's buzz cut.
Tang Zhao, trying to cover his tracks, explained, "This belongs to my friend!"
His hair wasn't long enough to need a hair tie. Bai Chenzhu politely declined the pink bunny hair tie, saying seriously, "Early romance is bad; you should focus on your studies."
Tang Zhao was extremely puzzled, "How can we study in an apocalypse?"
Bai Chenzhu chuckled softly and glanced at him sideways.
Tang Zhao belatedly realized that he had just implicitly acknowledged the fact that they were dating, and his face immediately turned red. He stammered, not knowing what to say, and stuffed the hot rabbit hair tie back into the closet.
Tang Zhao's place wasn't safe. Bai Chenzhu could clearly see the entire balcony from the window with the wire mesh welded on. Similarly, anything left on the balcony could be seen through the window to indicate that someone was inside.
He quickly walked over in his slippers, sealed the window with tape, and then drew the curtains to completely block out the light.
"Teacher?" Tang Zhao looked at him in a panic, asking silently.
It was probably because Bai Chenzhu had been calmer than him from the moment he appeared, so calm that it seemed he could handle everything. As a result, Tang Zhao unconsciously began to regard him as his pillar of support.
Bai Chenzhu responded, "Let's go to sleep first tonight, and we can talk about it tomorrow."
His words had a magical power, easing the tense atmosphere.
There's only one bed in the room, but two people can squeeze in and sleep comfortably.
Tang Zhao tossed and turned, feeling extremely uneasy whenever he thought of the flower vine, and the inexplicable banging sounds downstairs made him so suspicious that he dared not close his eyes.
I'm afraid that this confinement will last a lifetime.
He tossed and turned, unable to sleep, and like every ordinary night before, he turned on his phone to check for the latest news from the rescue team.
A large red exclamation mark appeared at the top of the phone; no matter what Tang Zhao did, it displayed a network failure message. When he tried to make a call, a mechanical voice told him, "You are no longer in service..."
How could this be? Tang Zhao felt an indescribable panic.
"Teacher, are you asleep?" he whispered to the person next to him.
There was no response; Bai Chenzhu was fast asleep.
Tang Zhao bit his thumb anxiously, his mind filled with horrified imagination that Bai Chenzhu might have turned into a zombie or been eaten, which was why he was silent.
His thoughts drifted aimlessly, becoming more and more real with each passing thought. He frantically groped for the bedside lamp and glanced at the person next door in the corner of his eye.
A refined and handsome face comes into view. When his eyes are closed, he is less cold and aggressive than during the day, and more gentle. A hollowed-out ginkgo leaf on his left ear falls on his black hair, quietly shimmering under the light, like the finishing touch on a painting.
The person lying on their side was fast asleep, their chest rising and falling slightly with each breath, a testament to their vibrant life.
If you didn't know the teacher was a student from a prestigious university, you'd really think he was a celebrity. Tang Zhao's earlier nervousness vanished, leaving only a nonsensical thought in his mind.
He shook his head, then exclaimed inwardly: Such composure, no wonder he is a teacher!
He turned off the light and lay down quietly. Perhaps it was because he saw that the person next to him could sleep so soundly, as if there was no danger at all.
So he lay there for a short while and then fell asleep peacefully.
But Bai Chenzhu didn't sleep; he fainted from exhaustion. His body simply couldn't withstand the high-intensity exercise, so much so that as soon as he relaxed and his head hit the pillow, he passed out.
The two stayed in the small room on the balcony for three days. Tang Zhao had stocked up on a lot of instant noodles, and Bai Chenzhu ate instant noodles with him for three days. Now, she wrinkles her face whenever she sees instant noodles.
On the fourth day, the power went out in the house.
Tang Zhao was pacing anxiously, "I paid the electricity bill this month!"
He instinctively reached for his phone to ask the landlord, but the phone rang for a long time without being answered. Only then did Tang Zhao remember the communication failure, but he hadn't gotten used to it yet.
"Is the main power switch downstairs?" Bai Chenzhu asked, recalling that Tang Zhao had mentioned hearing a crashing sound downstairs.
Tang Zhao nodded. "On the first floor."
"It might have been damaged," Bai Chenzhu speculated.
He opened the balcony door, walked to the edge of the balcony and looked down. The sun was high in the sky, and he could see that the narrow street was sparsely populated. Occasionally, a few people were walking slowly. Looking closely at the bloodstains and grime on their bodies and their numb faces, he knew that they were no longer normal humans.
Tang Zhao followed, but after just one glance, he was so shocked that he withdrew his head. "How could this happen! Weren't we told to wait for notification at home? Why hasn't anyone come to take them to the hospital!"
"Ah, the hospital?" Bai Chenzhu twitched his lips. "It's probably already overcrowded."
Neither Bai Chenzhu nor Tang Zhao had ever faced a zombie up close; they had only ever tried to escape. But even just imagining them from movies and TV shows, they knew how deadly they were.
A sparrow flew by and let out a sharp cry. Tang Zhao reflexively turned around and glanced back; that one glance felt like being struck by lightning.
He tugged at Bai Chenzhu's sleeve, pointed in the direction Bai Chenzhu had come from, and said in a trembling voice, "Flowers! Flowers! Flowers!"
The rose bush had climbed to a spot a building away from where they were, standing menacingly on the wall. The enormous rose silently 'watched' them, its dense stamens still stained with dark blood, crunching and chewing on sparrows.
It must have hunted quite a few live animals these past few days.
"We can't stay here any longer." Bai Chenzhu forcefully dragged Tang Zhao back into the house and locked the balcony door.
Tang Zhao was frantic, pacing back and forth. "But where can we go? My phone won't charge if we leave the house."
Bai Chenzhu paused in packing, looking at him incredulously, "Is this all you care about? As long as the chaos continues, the signal will be difficult to restore. You're just carrying around electronic waste."
Modern people have become accustomed to obtaining information from the internet, but unfortunately, the internet is now practically useless, as if all living people have disappeared overnight.
Tang Zhao choked up. He wanted to say that his phone could also be used as an alarm clock, for offline navigation using previously downloaded resources, and so on... He thought of many reasons, but in the end, he had to admit that he was still stuck in the internet age.
“There aren’t many mutated things yet, so there’s always a way to survive if we leave here.” Bai Chenzhu thought for a moment. “I plan to go back to Fuyun City. If we’re going the same way, we can travel together for a while.”
"Fuyun City?" Tang Zhao scratched his head, trying hard to remember. "Ah, it's the poorest city in the whole province!"
"Yes. It's my hometown." Bai Chenzhu made up a lie on the spot.
He remembered that the first base would be built there.
Unlike large cities, Floating Cloud City has a smaller population, which means there will be far fewer zombies. Although it is surrounded by mountains, there may be more mutated plants and animals.
However, it is also a city that relies on a tourism industry that is not yet fully developed. Therefore, the city center still has the necessary infrastructure, and because there are few people, the buildings are spaced far apart, making it relatively safe.
Due to various advantages and disadvantages, in the book, Fuyun City is the first human base to be established.
After the initial chaos subsided, human bases sprang up everywhere, and hope began to emerge.
Before that, their primary goal was to survive the chaos.
After thinking for a long time, Tang Zhao made up his mind and said, "Brother, I'm not going to Fuyun City. It's too far. I want to go back to Jiangzhou City to see my family. It's on your way back, so we can travel together for a while."
The two quickly agreed on a route and packed their things.
The vines next door were throbbing, and the thumping noises downstairs were also a danger. Without electricity, being sandwiched between two people in the dark little room would only be more dangerous; it would be better to stay in an open area downstairs.
The sun was high in the sky, but the two people inside were drenched in a cold sweat. They were like mice surrounded by a pack of cats, cautiously dodging and weaving, just trying to survive.
Bai Chenzhu walked ahead with a shoulder bag on his back, while Tang Zhao followed closely behind with a bulging schoolbag on his back.
The balcony was on the sixth floor. They carefully walked across the silent fifth floor and stopped on the staircase between the fourth and fifth floors. The sound of the impact was very close, so close that it felt like it was right under their feet, and the tremor went straight to their feet.
Bai Chenzhu even softened his breathing. He turned half his face to the side and cautiously observed the area below from the stairwell.
The residents on the fourth floor have openwork iron doors with a thick wooden door installed inside.
The wooden door is now broken into pieces. A child with braided pigtails, covered in blood, is banging his body against the rickety iron door, making eerie noises from his throat from time to time.
It sounded like both crying and laughing, sharp and piercing.
Just then, the child sensed someone nearby, looked around, and raised his head. His dull, dark eyes stared at the two people on the stairs, then suddenly flashed with a light like he had spotted food, and he grinned, revealing a strange smile.
Tang Zhao peeked out from behind him and was terrified by the chilling smile. His mind was filled with profanities, but his body remained frozen in place in silence.
"Go!" Bai Chenzhu jumped down in a few steps, his long legs carrying the wind. He turned the corner, passed the iron gate, and ran down. Tang Zhao hurriedly followed.
Tang Zhao comforted himself: It's okay, it's okay. This guy has been banging against the iron gate for so long, he would have come out long ago if he wanted to.
The impact behind us grew louder and louder.
At one point, just as if deliberately going against Tang Zhao, the iron gate crashed down, and a cheerful laugh echoed through the corridor. The little zombie had come out after them!
As the two turned the corner on the third floor, an iron gate descended from the sky with a strong gust of wind.
"Brother!" Tang Zhao yanked Bai Chenzhu hard, pulling him back. The iron gate narrowly missed Bai Chenzhu and shattered into pieces.
One step away, one step away from being smashed to death. The two men stared at the twisted iron gate, a chill running down their spines amidst the children's laughter.
The zombie child laughed and chased after them, throwing things at them from above in an attempt to stop them. It was hard to imagine that a child could have such strength, able to casually throw down heavy objects like iron gates and wooden shoe cabinets.
The two rushed downstairs in fear. At the entrance, a middle-aged man in a security guard uniform was sitting with his back to them in a mess. Bloodstained security equipment was scattered around him, and a broken power switch was next to him.
Clearly, the security guard deserves some credit for the main switch breaking down.
He heard the noise, slowly raised his head, and when he saw them, his face showed the same greedy look as the child's, as if he were starving and had finally seen food.
A zombie security guard was blocking the door, with a smaller zombie chasing after him. Bai Chenzhu picked up a pitchfork from the ground.
He gripped the steel fork tightly, his eyes sharp, and lunged forward, thrusting it towards the zombie security guard's neck, attempting to use brute force to knock the zombie down.
Amid Tang Zhao's exclamation, the steel fork not only failed to defeat the security guard zombie, but Tang Zhao also grabbed its two semi-circular iron rings and pried them outwards. With a crack, the steel fork fell to the ground.
Bai Chenzhu's gaze sharpened, and he raised the remaining iron rod in his hand and pulled it horizontally. Unexpectedly, the iron rod bent into the shape of a neck.
The zombie security guard scratched his neck as if it were an itch, staring blankly at them with his vacant eyes.
Bai Chenzhu's right hand trembled slightly from numbness, and he decisively retreated when the zombie security guard raised his hand to grab him. Tang Zhao quickly picked up his shield to block the zombie security guard's claws.
The little zombie caught up, wearing a filthy floral dress that was unrecognizable, and ran towards them with a giggle.
"What kind of monsters are these!" Tang Zhao looked around, gripped his backpack straps tightly, and was utterly distraught.
Completely different from the slow-moving, easily defeated walking corpses we were promised; he's an invincible, super-strong monster!
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