‘Was it three days ago, or perhaps four?’
In the Apocalypse, time had lost its purpose.
All that remained was an endless flight and a slowly fading sense of terror.
The initial chaos had been like a high fever—violent and utterly nonsensical.
First, there were the vague emergency announcements on the news.
Then, the sudden increase of “rabid patients” acting bizarrely on the streets.
This was followed by the severance of communication lines and the flickering of the power grid.
Finally, every corner was filled with screams, collisions, and the gnashing teeth of Zombies.
Old Zhao and Xiao Li had been in South City handling a theft case when the police channel suddenly exploded with incoherent cries for help and guttural roars, making them realize something was terribly wrong.
By the time they tried to drive back to the precinct, the main roads had become paralyzed parking lots.
Burning vehicles spewed black smoke, and panicked crowds scrambled like headless flies.
Further in the distance, the things swaying and biting at the living were growing in number.
They abandoned their car.
Relying on their instincts as officers and the limited equipment they had on hand, they headed north.
They were trying to reach the North City Stadium, where a temporary shelter was rumored to have been established.
Along the way, they met a middle-aged man named Old Zhou.
He was wielding a tire iron he had scavenged from some car, guarding his frail wife and 10-year-old son at the entrance of a convenience store.
The wife had a horrific bite mark on the side of her neck that had already turned black and ulcerated.
Her eyes were cloudy, and a rattling sound emerged from her throat.
The child also looked unwell.
Old Zhou’s eyes were bloodshot.
He held his struggling wife—who possessed an unnaturally powerful strength—in a death grip while pleading with the passing Old Zhao and the others for help.
Old Zhao took one look and knew there was no hope.
He shook his head in silence and pulled away Xiao Li, who couldn’t bear to watch.
Before they had gone far, a desperate roar from Old Zhou echoed behind them, followed by the dull thud of a tire iron smashing something.
After that, there was only silence.
They didn’t dare look back.
Soon, Old Zhou caught up and followed them.
As they neared the North City Overpass, they ran into two young men who looked like university students.
They were carrying stuffed mountaineering bags, their faces masks of shock.
They had escaped from the nearby University City, claiming their dormitory had “fallen” overnight.
They had jumped from a second-floor window to make their narrow escape.
One of them had a lens of his glasses shattered, held together haphazardly with tape.
The overpass was choked with abandoned vehicles, making it a natural hunting ground for Zombies.
They were eventually cornered against the guardrail by a small pack of Zombies, with nowhere left to run.
It was Lin Sui who saved them—or rather, Lin Sui driving a rusty but roar-heavy small pickup truck.
She had slammed into the vehicles blocking the way to open a gap for them.
Lin Sui had looked even more disheveled than they did back then.
Her hair was a mess, her face was bruised, and the white lab coat she wore was so covered in mud and suspicious dark stains that its original color was unrecognizable.
In the passenger seat sat her Specimen Box, which she treated like her own life.
In the back of the truck, tools, several wilted potted plants, and half a barrel of pungent-smelling liquid were piled messily.
“Get in! Fast!” was all she shouted.
The group squeezed into the cramped cabin.
The pickup roared as it dove down the emergency ramp of the overpass, crushing several pouncing Zombies.
The sound of snapping bones was drowned out by the engine and the snarling of the undead.
A woman and a child were also inside the vehicle.
“Where are we going?” Old Zhao asked in a heavy voice, gripping the handle above the passenger door.
“There is no safe place.” Lin Sui stared at the chaotic street ahead, her knuckles white from gripping the steering wheel.
“There’s a chemical leak in the west, gas is spreading. The south is a heavy disaster zone.”
“Then where do we go?!” Xiao Li couldn’t help but ask from the back.
Lin Sui remained silent for a few seconds.
Her gaze swept over a Large Home Furnishing Mall with shattered windows that had already been looted.
“We need supplies. We need a place to hide. We need to avoid crowds and main roads,” she said, biting her lower lip.
“Zombies are sensitive to sound and the scent of the living, but certain smells might interfere with them. Besides, large buildings have complex structures; we might find a temporarily safe space.”
“Like that mall?” Old Zhao asked, looking at the dark building.
“Like that mall.” Lin Sui turned the wheel, and the pickup veered sharply into a relatively secluded side road next to the mall, rolling over scattered shopping bags and trash.
“It likely has a basement with its own generator and plenty of supplies. And…” She glanced at the terrified group in the rearview mirror.
“We don’t have a choice. We’re almost out of gas.”
They sneaked in through the back door of a loading dock at dusk.
Old Zhao picked the lock with his tools, and they were greeted by heavy darkness and stagnant air thick with the smell of various goods.
The power was out.
Only the distant green glow of emergency exit signs provided any light.
The initial search went well enough.
They found the supermarket area and gathered bottled water, canned goods, and high-calorie food.
The two university students found an Outdoor Goods Store and grabbed several high-quality entrenching shovels and thick clothing.
Old Zhou found a Fire Axe in a corner.
He gripped it tightly and never let go.
Lin Sui, meanwhile, wandered through the decorative planters and indoor gardens throughout the mall.
She carefully plucked leaves and stems or took entire pots of seemingly ordinary ornamental plants, placing them in her Specimen Box or the back of the pickup.
But the silence soon turned eerie.
It was too quiet.
Aside from their own intentional footsteps and breathing, and the faint, never-ending low growls of Zombies coming from outside, it felt as if all life had been drained from the interior of this massive building.
A faint, indistinct fishy smell began to waft through the air.
It was a bit like rust, yet also like honey that had been left out too long.
It stuck to the inside of their noses, creating a nagging sense of unease.
They found the first web at the corner of an escalator leading to the second floor.
It wasn’t a normal spiderweb.
The silver-white silk was as thick as a fishing line, crisscrossing with immense stickiness.
Even a small touch made it difficult to tear away, and it carried a sour odor.
Several shriveled rat carcasses were stuck to the web, along with a mutated, unnaturally large cockroach, all wrapped up like mummies.
Then came the second web, then the third…
The deeper they went into the mall where the light was dimmest, the denser the webs became.
Some even sealed off entire corridors.
“Something’s wrong,” Old Zhao said, stopping in his tracks.
His flashlight beam swept across a clothing store entrance covered in thick webbing.
The silk reflected an eerie glimmer under the light.
“There’s something in this place.”
Before he could finish his sentence, an extremely faint rustling sound came from the ventilation ducts overhead.
They immediately grew alert, forming a small circle back-to-back.
Their flashlights darted around, trying to catch the source of the sound.
Then, they saw the first “resident.”
It dropped from the ceiling.
It wasn’t exaggeratedly huge, but it was the size of a washbasin.
It had a dark blue-black carapace, and its dull red compound eyes reflected a cold light under the flashlights.
It didn’t seem in a hurry to attack.
It simply hung there, slowly turning its head as if evaluating the group of intruders.
They had found a young mother and her daughter near the Supermarket Warehouse.
Her husband had been dragged away by something leaping out of the shadows while trying to grab infant formula.
There had only been a short scream, leaving her nearly paralyzed with fear.
Old Zhao made an immediate decision, “Retreat! To the Supermarket Warehouse! The doors there are sturdy and easy to defend!”
At their fastest speed, dragging and pulling one another, they rushed into the nearest Supermarket Warehouse.
They locked the door and braced it with heavy shelves.
Almost the moment the door shut, the sound of bone-chilling scratching and thudding came from the other side.
The warehouse had basic water and some food, giving them a brief moment to breathe.
However, silver-bright spider silk soon began to seep through the gap under the door, and strange noises echoed from the vents.
They knew it was only a matter of time before they were found.
Until just now, when a Giant Spider the size of a millstone used its chelicerae to pry open the door, making their nightmare a physical reality.
“Someone will save us,” Lin Sui kept repeating.