028 A Swarm of Corpses Invades the Residential Complex

"Unless the authorities establish a shelter, I believe walking out there just means dying faster. But, brother, if you are determined to leave, I will go with you."

Duan Sihai spoke weakly, his eyes devoid of any glimmer of hope.

Duan Wuhu, seeing his younger brother finally agree to his proposal, felt a slight sense of relief. He patted his brother's thin shoulder and said, "Sihai, the two of us, united as brothers, can overcome any obstacle. We will certainly find a safe place to live!"

"We’ll head to Qing County. It’s sparsely populated, so even if there are zombies, there won't be many. The terrain is complex; we can find an abandoned farmhouse, grow crops, raise livestock, use well water, and burn firewood. We’ll surely survive!"

Perhaps infected by the beautiful picture his older brother painted, Duan Sihai's eyes gradually brightened, but then dimmed again: "Brother, you make it sound easy. Tell me, just the zombies in our apartment building are enough to finish us off, let alone getting out of the residential complex..."

"Do you have a plan? How do we escape the building, which way do we go, what route? If we don't plan it out, rushing out blindly is just suicide, brother!"

Duan Wuhu nodded, feeling somewhat gratified: "Sihai, it’s very good that you can think of these things. I already have a preliminary plan. Come, let’s analyze it together, and if you see any flaws, give me your input!"

Hearing that his brother had a draft ready, Duan Sihai immediately became interested. If there was truly a glimmer of hope for survival, who would want to be trapped in a corner waiting for death?

The brothers huddled around the dining table, paper and pen at the ready, discussing the matters of life and death with utmost seriousness.

Upstairs, Zhang Su had returned home with an induction cooker and a soup pot taken from 902. The trip was uneventful, and he was completely unaware that during his brief absence, the two women at home had held a short conversation.

"Are you okay?"

Seeing the sticky liquid dripping from the axe in Zhang Su's hand, Zheng Xinyu knew he must have dealt with a zombie and asked with concern.

Zhang Su handed the items to Zhong Xiaoshan, who had a somewhat strange expression on her face, and shook his head: "I ambushed it; there was no trouble!"

Was there no "martial virtue" in an ambush? That simply didn't exist...

While taking off his gear, Zhang Su said with a hint of excitement: "There’s quite a lot of stuff in Brother Li’s fridge. When we have time, we should move it all back!"

"But where would we put it? The black-hearted landlord didn't provide us with a fridge..." Zheng Xinyu said, glancing sideways at Zhang Su.

Zhang Su rubbed his forehead. Had he known such a day would come, he would have bought a large freezer for the house, but it was too late to talk about that now.

"Then let's just leave it there for now. Brother Li and his family... sigh, living isn't necessarily a blessing; death might be a relief. In any case, there’s no one left in their home now..."

Touching the keys in his pocket, Zhang Su sighed.

Zhong Xiaoshan, who was busy in the kitchen, paused. Thinking of her parents in the countryside, she felt a wave of despondency. But as the saying went, it was hard enough to take care of oneself now; worrying about things too far away only added to the burden.

***

A quarter of an hour later, the dough-drop soup was on the table.

Since the dumplings had become too clumped to separate, they had to be mashed up, turning the dumplings into a thick dough-drop soup.

Barely a day had passed, but from the initial loss of internet to the cutoff of water, and now even the gas was gone—the situation was deteriorating rapidly. Having a bowl of hot dough-drop soup was a rare luxury.

None of the three had any complaints; smelling the aroma, they swallowed their saliva, already craving a taste.

"Let’s eat, let’s eat! Don’t just stare at it!"

Zhang Su served himself a bowl first. The soup made from mutton dumplings tasted quite good, and he added a spoonful of chili he had found at Brother Li’s place, which made it incredibly satisfying.

Zhong Xiaoshan was very sensible and stopped after just one bowl, which made Zheng Xinyu, who wanted a second, feel a bit embarrassed.

Zhang Su looked at the two of them and pointed to the remaining half-pot of soup: "Both of you, eat some more. We have training later; if you don't eat, the training won't be effective!"

"Training?" Zhong Xiaoshan looked at Zhang Su with curiosity.

Zheng Xinyu answered for him: "Brother Su made a training plan. It’s quite intense. After yesterday’s session, my arms and thighs are still sore."

Since Zhang Su had spoken, Zheng Xinyu didn't stand on ceremony and ladled out half a bowl more, feeling a warm glow spread through her body.

"Brother Su, may I ask what you two did before? To face such a massive disaster with such composure is truly rare." Zhong Xiaoshan asked curiously while ladling more soup.

Zhang Su ate as he spoke, his words slightly muffled: "I was just a landlord, and she’s a celebrity—an internet streamer!"

His ability to face this calmly stemmed from his life experiences over the last decade, things not meant to be shared with outsiders.

"Just a few tens of thousands of followers, and some of them are bots. Celebrity, my foot..." Zheng Xinyu defended herself, feeling a bit shy. At her peak, she had only had about three hundred viewers, and sometimes only a few dozen.

"The two of you are truly amazing. Honestly, at first, I thought Brother Su was a retired special forces soldier." Zhong Xiaoshan gave Zhang Su a flirtatious look, eating her soup delicately.

"That’s an exaggeration. I just work out, that’s all. Compared to special forces, I’m probably far behind. You two aren't eating anymore, right? Then I’m finishing it!"

***

Seeing both women wave their hands, Zhang Su picked up the pot and started finishing it off.

His training intensity was three times that of Zheng Xinyu’s, and he needed sufficient food to sustain it. If food became scarce, he would lower the intensity to ensure he could handle daily contingencies.

It was past one o'clock in the afternoon when they finished eating. The three rested briefly, and just as Zhang Su was about to call them to start exercising, Zheng Xinyu, who had lifted the curtain to look outside, suddenly said: "Oh no, Zhang Su, come look, there's trouble!"

"What is it?"

Zhang Su’s heart tightened as he walked quickly to the window.

"Quick, look over there. My god, there are so many zombies!"

Zheng Xinyu couldn't help but cover her mouth, her eyes filled with terror, her body trembling uncontrollably.

"What the..."

Zhang Su looked in the direction Zheng Xinyu was pointing, his eyes widening as he cursed.

On the street where the SWAT team had engaged the horde of zombies last night, a massive sea of zombies was pouring into the Shengqin Garden through a broken section of the perimeter wall. Looking closely, he realized they were chasing a drone!

A peculiar-looking drone was hovering in the air, with a loudspeaker hanging beneath it!

"Damn it, someone is luring zombies into our complex!"

Zhang Su understood the situation immediately. Although the distance wasn't short, he could vaguely hear the speaker blaring something, and it was this sound that was attracting the zombies' attention.

"My god, are... are these the same zombies from last night?"

Zhong Xiaoshan also leaned forward to look into the distance, the sight of the horde climbing over the wall making her shiver.

Because of the darkness the night before, the three hadn't truly felt the oppressive weight of the zombie horde; now, they had a visceral, direct experience of it.

The zombies running toward them were not slow at all; their frenzied appearance was more ferocious than a tiger on the hunt, chasing the drone wave after wave, completely fearless of death.

It was easy to imagine that if a living person were to appear before them, the outcome would be miserable; they would likely be torn apart and devoured in less than a minute.