Chapter 4
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Si Nan did not sleep at all.
He tried to make his mind empty like the deep ocean, let himself slowly sink into meditation. From there bits and pieces of fragmented memories spun like cotton.
“…The weak must be protected…”
“Run! Quickly run!”
“Today’s wrongs must be repaid double!”
“Call your senior officer here,” said a cold voice as wind blew through the tall metal gate and around them. “I’ve something to discuss with him.”
The next moment a man with an unclear face ran forward only to be punched in the face. Blood gushed from his nose as he fell backwards.
The sound of running, the sound of yelling voices. Countless soldiers held him back but to no avail. The images changed. A weak light fell through the small window of the isolation room casting the place in a dim gloom. He sat hunched on the bed, a jacket draped over his shoulders, palms together as the tips of his fingers pressed into the middle of his forehead. Suddenly there was the sound of running feet and the sharp clatter of a key in the lock.
He stood. The door opened.
“Headquarters… Headquarters has fallen. The laboratory couldn’t contain it, nothing can. A car’s waiting outside. Quickly, come with me…”
He received the metal briefcase, a cold storage unit, and walked out of the isolation room, down the hallway. At the mouth of it was a vaguely glimmering night sky. He began his long trek.
Never look back…
Si Nan jolted awake as he snapped forward in his seat. The armoured car braked suddenly and stopped.
For a moment, he came face to face with the zombies pressed against the window. “We’ve reached our destination! Quickly! Make a clearing! Everyone inside prepare for combat!” yelled the driver.
The machine gun on the roof of the armoured car sprang to life. He’d taken off his jacket to reveal a black tank top underneath. He could feel the heat of the belting gun through his thermal gloves as he mowed down the zombies.
But there were just too many. After each sweep of the gun, even more zombies would appear to take their place. More squad members clambered up onto the roof to give supporting fire against the sea of rotting flesh, yet they were only able to clear just a few metres around the car.
The situation was more precarious than walking at the edge of a cliff. A few times the car nearly toppled over as the zombies lunged and tried to pull the soldiers down.
“Yingjie, get up here and fire! I’ll drive!” Zhou Rong yelled into his earpiece.
The driver responded in the affirmative, opened the window on the roof of the car and climbed up. At the same time, Zhou Rong slipped down into the driver’s seat and stomped on the accelerator!
The armoured car roared forward a few metres, rolling over a dozen or so zombies as it did. Suddenly, there was the sound of shattering glass. The window on the driver’s side had been broken!
“Ahhh…” Dozens of dead, dried arms reached in unison through the window grabbing at Zhou Rong.
Zhou Rong slid down to avoid them as Si Nan beat them back with a gun: “Where’s the shelter?”
“Underground!”
“Underground where?!”
Zhou Rong didn’t gesture with a hand but instead used his chin to indicate in front of them.
A few hundred metres away at the end of the street stood a shopping mall, the words ‘grand opening bargain sale’ emblazoned on a banner.
Si Nan dodged then shot a zombie. Its grey black brain juice sloshed over Zhou Rong when Si Nan heard him curse. “Fuck!”
Si Nan: “Fuck who?”
To Zhou Rong’s left countless zombies were eagarly trying to get through the window at him. To his right sat the heavily armoured Si Nan. Zhou Rong weighed his options. “… That shopping mall over there’s got such a deep discount. No wonder there were so many people here! Fuck whoever decided to do the sale!”
Above their heads, the wireless radio crackled to life and a woman’s voice came over it: “Captain, this is 0011! Captain, this is 0011! Are you in need of assistance? Repeat, are you in need of assistance?!”
“Need, need, need!” Zhou Rong shouted. He yanked Si Nan down, hit the breaks and grabbed the walkie-talkie. “Everyone get down and inside! Seal the roof immediately!”
A bright light suddenly flashed from atop a distance building.
Next, a white line shot up from that spot into the air before arcing and raining down around the car.
Like a kite whose string had just been snapped, the armoured car leapt forward. The windows shattered and everyone screamed as the car rolled.
After what felt like an eternity, Si Nan recovered consciousness and struggled up. Something didn’t seem quite right.
In front of him, inches away from the tip of his nose was camouflage fabric… the camouflage fabric of Zhou Rong’s crotch.
Zhou Rong put a hand to his temple and his mouth quivered.
“If you’ve broken anything there, don’t even think about running…” he said in a pained voice.
One by one the squad members moaned and rose and looked out the broken windows. Outside not a single zombie remained. The rocket artillery had cleaned them out. All around were the twisted remains of a once flourishing shopping arcade.
Crackle… The woman’s voice came across the radio again. “Hey everyone! You all alive? Repeat, you all alive?”
“Chun Cao,” said Zhou Rong. “Next time, say something before you fire, okay? You know you almost cost your Rong-ge all his future descendents?”
Chun Cao replied: “You’re no use anyway. Better earlier than later.”
Si Nan looked at Zhou Rong with an astonished expression.
“What?” Zhou Rong said defensively.
“…Nothing.”
Si Nan was amazed. He never would have guessed that it was the pretty boy Yan Hao that was the top.
After the welcome of the artillery rocket, the pockmarked armoured car finally bumped its way to its final destination, the shelter.
The shelter was originally an air raid shelter from the last century and was now located underneath the shopping area and so made the perfect place to dig in at the outset of the outbreak.
There were currently about a thousand people in the shelter. Many had been shopping or working in the area. There were men and women, young and old. All around echoed the sound of stifled crying.
Finally able to meet up with the rest of his squad, Zhou Rong was brimming with excitement. “Cao’r!”
Chun Cao: “Captain!”
Chun Cao breezed passed Si Nan and leapt into the arms of Zhou Rong who spun them around twice. Were this a manga, this would absolutely be a two page spread with tears flying in all directions.
“There’s no more ammo!” Chun Cao said with tearful but hopeful, even lustful, eyes. “Last night Da-Ting and Xiang-zi and them went out to clean the corridors. All the ammo is used up. Just now, that rocket artillery was our last one. We’ve already barricaded all the doors and windows. It’s just, if the zombies break in, we’re only left with hand-to-hand combat…”
Zhou Rong patted her on the head, and said affectionately, “Call me Father.”
Chun Cao immediately replied: “Father.”
Zhou Rong pulled two bullets out from his gun and put them into the open hands of his ‘daughter’, then thought about taking one back.
“Our entire squad’s last two bullets.” Zhou Rong smiled. “I leave them to you.”
Chun Cao immediately disowned her ‘father’ and stormed off with a cold expression.
At the beginning of the initial outbreak, there had been around two or three thousand survivors in the shelter. Unfortunately, some infected people had been mixed in with the bunch which led to most of the survivors to turning.
Luckily, Zhou Rong’s squad had been able to link up with the local government and had helped escort the needed medical supplies here. After a few more outbreaks in the shelter, there just remained about a thousand survivors, all of whom had been thoroughly verified to not be infected.
Chun Cao and her few squad mates had then led the infected zombies out to be executed, then had performed a number of ‘cleanings’ of the surrounding areas. But now that their supplies had dwindled to this extent, all they could do was wait to be rescued by Zhou Rong and them.
Zhou Rong cleared his throat and jumped up onto a milk crate. He ducked and just managed to miss hitting a hanging lightbulb with his head.
The ashened face people around him stared up at him blankly. Every now and then, a child sobbed but was quickly quietened down again.
“Are you here to save us?” bravely asked someone.
“I’m the leader of the sixth squadron of the 118th unit under Military Region B.” Zhou Rong took out his somewhat crumpled official document and gave everyone a look. Even under the dim lights of the shelter, the official red seal still shone brightly.
The people came closer, that red seemingly giving them some kind of hope.
“Our mission here is to reinforce the position here, confirm the safety of the people and ensure orderliness. At the same time, we’ve signalled for immediate rescue from the government.
“For now, I ask you all to remain calm. Don’t panic. Don’t spread rumours. Just focus on staying safe and warm…”
“What’s happening outside? Are those monsters zombies?” a man in the front shouted shrilly.
“It’s a kind of mutated rabies. Please don’t spread baseless rumours, next?” replied Zhou Rong.
“What…what…” whimpered a crying woman, “What about our families?”
“Yeah, my child’s still at school…”
“My wife, she…”
“My mother’s already eighty…!”
The dim light caught the edge of Zhou Rong’s jaw as he clenched it, and seemingly became more stern.
But after a moment, he smiled. It was a slight one but it was one that filled the people with confidence. With a steady voice he said, “The military won’t abandon any citizen. You don’t have to worry.”
The kernels of fear faded somewhat and with nothing else to believe, the people chose to believe in him. “When will we be saved? When’s help coming?”
“Where will we be sent to?”
“When all this is over, will the government send us back home?”
…
From near a shelf of goods, Si Nan watched as Zhou Rong patiently answered each question, a slight furrow between his brows.
Behind him some distance away, Chun Cao swung an arm over Yan Hao’s shoulders making him slant to the side. “Who you looking at?” she asked in a quiet voice. “That filthy guy up there, or the Beta here?”
“Neither.”
“Ohhh… You so are.”
Yan Hao smiled and said, “The helicopters are coming tomorrow, we should also…”
Before he could finish, Si Nan got up and walked past them toward the door of the warehouse.
“Si Nan!” Yan Hao took after him. “Outside’s not safe. Where are you going?”
“To shower,” Si Nan politely replied.
In the rest area of the warehouse, in a crude bathroom, hot water bubbled and hissed as steam fogged up the filthy windows.
Si Nan closed his eyes as he stood under the showerhead. He could feel it as the dust and grime and blood on his body was washed away. His skin gradually returned to its natural complexion as the water rolled down his naked body, down to his heels and finally into the drain.
He had no idea how long it had been since the last time he’d bathed. His muscles and bones relaxed then started to ache. His skin, if it could talk, would probably be singing in gratitude.
After a while, he shut off the water, got out then roughly dried himself off. Now that he was finally clean, he finally wiped the fog away from the mirror and take a look.
Like in many cases of mixed-race children, Si Nan’s features were predominantly Asian in appearance. Although, after closer inspection, it was possible to see from the shape of his brow, to the corners of his eyes, to the line of his cheeks that he had also inherited his mother’s beauty.
But where that beauty had contained a kind of delicateness, in him there was instead a firm hardiness. A hardiness seemingly borne of years of harsh training.
Si Nan pulled on his trousers, picked up his shirt and was about to put it on when he noticed something else in the mirror, something that made him freeze.
”…”
Slowly he turned to the side, eyes still fixed to the mirror. He suddenly realised why he’d been so tired earlier.
On his now clean shoulder, near his scapula was a dark, ugly gash in the shape of teeth.
It was the bite of a zombie.
“Rong-ge just set off the positioning signal. Tomorrow afternoon the airship will come and take the survivors to Military Region B…” Chun Cao said, arm still slung over Yan Hao’s shoulder as they stood in the hallway, but her voice suddenly faded away as she caught sight of something behind them.
“What is it?” asked Yan Hao. He turned and stared.
Behind them, from out of the bathroom, came a young man with wet, jet black hair. The steam from the room wafted out with him making his white skin look even more stark.
He turned and saw Yan Hao looking at him. He stopped and said nothing, his eyes looking like they hid precious amber. After a while he smiled briefly then took the rifle from his shoulder and tossed it to Yan Hao.
As Yan Hao caught it, he heard Si Nan say, “I’m returning it.”
“Si Nan…” Yan Hao reached out to him, but Si Nan was already walk away down the hallway.
His figure was perfectly proportioned and with his shirt tucked into his beltline his vitality and agility was even more evident. Chun Cao poked Yan Hao’s arm, then said in a half whisper: “… When you’re out saving people, you’re still looking at pretty faces huh?”
Zhou Rong had finally escaped the crowd and had just finished shaking the hand of a tearful shop manager when he saw Si Nan standing behind him in the shadows. He stood with one hand in his pocket. He didn’t make a sound.
Zhou Rong looked him up and down a moment then stroked his chin cheekily. “What? Looking for a date?”
”…”
“I don’t date when I’m working. When we’re back to the base I’ll consider… What are you doing?”
Si Nan had just unbuttoned the first few buttons of his shirt and was now pulling at his collar. He turned and showed Zhou Rong his back.
“…I think I’ve been infected,” he said in a hoarse voice.
Zhou Rong stood rooted to the spot, his face ashen.