Chapter 22: Hunger (March 28, 29)
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Meanwhile, in downtown Jiangning, inside a large supermarket—
Whether caused by the earthquake that struck at the beginning of the apocalypse or by the shockwaves released when the Nine-Headed Serpent emerged, the supermarket entrance had been buried beneath rubble.
Only today had a few survivors discovered the other entrances.
“What are you doing? All the food has gone moldy and can’t be eaten! You’ll die if you keep eating it!”
A woman in a nurse’s uniform scolded him sharply. Before her stood a small boy with a sallow face, stuffing bread covered in spreading patches of mold into his mouth as though his life depended on it.
The nurse’s figure was strikingly alluring beneath her uniform.
“You’re crazy! Spit it out! You’ll lose your life if you eat that much!”
When words failed to move him, the woman went straight over and tried to snatch the large bag of bread from his hands.
The boy showed no mercy when she reached for his food. He sank his teeth straight into her hand.
“Hiss!”
Only when blood began to seep from her arm did the boy come to his senses.
He released her hand in a daze, but still clutched the bread tightly. Tears instantly streamed from his clear eyes.
“I’m sorry... I didn’t mean to. I was just so hungry... I was really, really hungry. Sister, please don’t take it from me. Let me eat, all right?”
By the time he finished speaking, the little boy’s face was drenched in tears, yet he continued stuffing the bread into his mouth.
The woman covered the wound on her arm. A faint green glow enveloped it as she spoke gently:
“It’s all gone moldy. You can’t eat it anymore. Let Sister take you to find something safe to eat, all right?”
The boy retreated several steps. Behind him lay nothing but profound darkness.
“It isn’t moldy. It’s delicious. It even tastes sweet.”
He must have been starving. He continued devouring the bread in great mouthfuls, heedless of everything else.
The boy was in a corner of the supermarket, with an open restroom directly behind him.
The red mist kept even the morning sunlight from reaching this place.
A faint rustling came from the darkness inside the restroom, instantly putting the woman on guard.
Was someone there?
Clear splashing sounds rang out. Then a pool of water flowed from the darkness, spreading toward the boy’s feet.
A bone-chilling sense of danger seized the nurse’s heart, and she cried out instinctively:
“Danger!”
A thick, black, viscous tentacle shot from the darkness toward the boy. He continued eating, his face filled with bliss.
With a wet crack, the tentacle pierced through the boy’s chest.
The nurse’s legs went weak at the merciless sight. She tried to turn and flee, but her long legs seemed to have lost all their bones, and she collapsed onto the floor.
The boy finally released the bread in his hands. The light in his eyes gradually faded, and his eyelids closed forever.
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At the tip of the tentacle, another ring of neatly arranged canine teeth unfurled. They sliced through the boy’s dangling corpse with astonishing agility.
Nor was that all. More tentacles emerged from the darkness of the restroom, an overwhelming mass of them gathering together. They squeezed and scraped against one another, producing a tremendous hissing sound.
Everything in their path was devoured. Even the shelves were knocked over and consumed.
There were still quite a few survivors who had made their way into the supermarket. Upon hearing the inexplicably eerie noises, they immediately ran for the exit.
“My legs are useless! Move!”
Tang Xiaoxiao lay on the ground, tears glimmering at the corners of her eyes.
As though remembering something, she pressed her palm against her thigh. The emerald-green glow appeared once more.
Just as the tentacles were about to devour her, she finally sprang to her feet at the critical moment and ran toward the entrance with all her strength.
Its prey, nearly within reach, had escaped. The mutant seemed furious. One thick tentacle hung suspended in midair, just as it had before when it attacked the boy.
After pausing for a moment, it shot toward Tang Xiaoxiao like an arrow loosed from a bow.
Feeling the chill rapidly closing in behind her, Tang Xiaoxiao’s hair stood on end. Weeping, she threw herself forward with all her strength.
She slid along the floor for two seconds and narrowly evaded the disgusting tentacle.
The countless tiny stones scattered across the ground left her delicate limbs covered in bloody scratches. Tang Xiaoxiao began sobbing even louder, but despite her tears, she quickly glanced back over her shoulder.
Once she confirmed that the monster was no longer pursuing her, she hurried through the small entrance someone had dug out and emerged into the light.
But the moment she crawled out, the relief in her heart vanished.
She was not the only one. Everyone who had emerged through that exit had been surrounded.
It was a horde of zombies!
Only a few days ago, those zombies had been sluggish and foolish. How had they become so terrifying after just one more day?
Tang Xiaoxiao pursed her lips in grievance as despair enveloped her heart.
“We’re finished...”
“How did these zombies suddenly become so nimble? Just a few days ago, I could leave them in the dust.”
“To be honest, when the red mist first appeared, I even knocked down several zombies.”
“Then go do it now.”
“It’s completely different, all right?! Look at the force with which these monsters kick off the ground. How can they be compared to those feeble things from the first few days? If you want to throw your life away, go ahead.”
The burly man retorted, but in the end, he still shrank back into the crowd.
The zombies’ encirclement grew smaller and smaller, compressing the survivors’ space step by step.
Then, from one side of the circle, a sudden explosion rang out.
Bang!
The surrounded crowd froze.
Firecrackers?
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A rapid succession of shots erupted from the flank. As they watched zombie after zombie collapse, someone finally realized what they were hearing.
Gunfire!
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Perhaps the bullets flying so close to their eyes were too fierce for them to comprehend. It was not until the smell of gunpowder drifted into their nostrils that they finally understood what it meant.
On the fifth day of the apocalypse, the human military had finally begun to exert its strength.
“Are we... saved?”
A man in a heavy coat emerged from the red mist, idly twirling an assault rifle in his hand.
“Is that him?”
Tang Xiaoxiao’s beautiful eyes flashed, and she opened her mouth in astonishment.
“No, that can’t be right. Isn’t everyone’s field of vision limited to just five meters? How did he manage to shoot from so far away and still hit his targets so accurately?”
“He really is an empowered person. If his field of vision can reach that far, he must be far stronger than I am.”
Seeing that there was only one man, the survivors instinctively shifted their gazes behind him.
Thankfully, they were not disappointed. Six soldiers in military uniforms soon appeared in their field of vision.
When he reached one of the fallen zombies, Li Ye tore open the flesh and skin covering its spine with his bare hands under the eyes of the assembled survivors.
The savage sight made many of them close their eyes instinctively.
Li Ye rummaged around for a while. Perhaps finding it inconvenient to use one hand, he shoved both hands into the back of the zombie’s skull.
Before long, he pulled out a blood-red crystalline object.
“It looks like this. You should all be carrying knives. Remember to remove this after killing a zombie.”
“Of course, not every zombie has one. Use your judgment.”
Li Ye held the crystal up before the soldiers.
Once they had committed its appearance to memory, Li Ye ordered them to continue sweeping forward.
“What about us, officer? Don’t leave us behind!”
Urgent pleas rose from the crowd.
A soldier at the rear of the squad turned around and addressed them:
“You can choose to go to the city center and wait for us to return, or make your own way to the military district in the southeastern suburbs. One additional warning: we will provide no guarantees for your survival.”
After leaving them with those rather cold words, the soldier turned back and hurried to catch up with the combat unit, which had already gone some distance ahead.
The burly man hiding in the crowd immediately ran toward the city center.
By an unfortunate coincidence, his path took him past the small opening leading into the supermarket.
The bizarre tentacle that had pursued Tang Xiaoxiao instantly shot out of the entrance at a speed beyond ordinary comprehension.
This time, before it even reached him, the end of the tentacle split open, revealing a disorderly arrangement of canine teeth that made the entire body grow cold.
Sunlight fell upon it, and wisps of blue smoke rose from its surface.
“Ahhh!”
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