Chapter 19: The Apocalypse Arrives
The appearance of the blood moon seemed to herald the beginning of a storm of blood and carnage. Across the entire world, everyone who was suffering from heatstroke and running a fever died at the exact same moment. Cries of grief rang out everywhere.
Hospitals descended into chaos. With so many patients suddenly dying all at once, medical staff were thrown into disarray. The patients’ families had no idea what had happened—only that their loved ones were dead. They turned all their anger on the hospitals, and conflict was on the verge of erupting.
There were also people driving sick relatives or friends to the hospital who suddenly discovered that the person beside them had lost all signs of life. At a loss, they broke down in wailing sobs.
In many households, there were those who had fevers but stubbornly refused to go to the hospital, thinking it was just heatstroke—take some medicine, drink some water, get a good night’s sleep, and they’d be fine. No one expected them to suddenly stop breathing. Their families stood there helpless and stunned.
On the streets, quite a few people collapsed while walking and never moved again—they must have had fevers too. Seeing this, passersby hurried over to help…
No one realized that this large-scale, sudden death was not the end of everything, but rather… the beginning of the end.
On television, news reporters were interviewing hospital staff about the sudden deaths. The camera was focused on a man lying on a hospital bed, his face ashen and gray, his skin shriveled in a grotesque, unnatural way.
“For reasons unknown, these patients all died from dehydration. It’s as if all the water in their bodies evaporated. The specific cause still requires further investigation…” a doctor in a white coat explained from a medical perspective. But the very next moment, the patient who had already been confirmed dead suddenly opened his eyes. They were bloodshot, an eerie crimson, as though every blood vessel in his eyeballs had burst at once—bloodied and terrifying.
Seeing her husband awaken, the woman beside the bed ignored how horribly wrong he looked and threw herself into his arms, crying. She had just opened her mouth when her husband suddenly grabbed her by the throat, lowered his head, and viciously bit into her neck.
The woman let out a heart-rending scream, but the man bit down with such force that he tore a large chunk of flesh from her throat and swallowed it whole. Blood sprayed everywhere. The man, exhilarated, pressed his mouth to the wound, gulping down her blood…
Everyone around them was stunned. Before anyone could react, screams began to rise one after another. Those who had died earlier had all come back to life—and immediately attacked the nearest living people, lunging at anyone they could catch and biting down without hesitation.
In the blink of an eye, the hospital turned into a living hell—blood everywhere, flesh-eating monsters roaming freely. People screamed and fled in blind panic.
All of this was captured live by the reporter’s camera and broadcast directly on television.
In front of the TV, Zhan Yun and Song Chengshu stared at each other, their faces ghastly pale. Though they had prepared themselves mentally, witnessing it all unfold before their eyes was still hard to accept.
Su Ruizhe, however, was the calmest of the three. He walked into the kitchen and picked up a large kitchen knife.
“Let’s go,” he said.
Su Ruizhe had already made plans. Once zombies appeared, the entire world would descend into chaos—laws and order would collapse, and looting would soon follow. While everyone else was still reeling, he needed to make a trip to the nearby gas station and a large supermarket.
Zhan Yun quickly understood Su Ruizhe’s intention. After a brief hesitation, he also went into the kitchen, grabbed a cleaver, and tucked a gun into the back of his waistband.
Still in shock, Song Chengshu was dragged out by Zhan Yun and made to drive them to the nearest gas station.
Song Chengshu numbly drove the car there. Seeing the blood all over the ground at the gas station, his hands and feet turned icy cold.
“I’ll take a look,” Su Ruizhe said, tossing out the words before getting out of the car and heading straight into the station.
“Be careful. Lock the doors and windows,” Zhan Yun reminded Song Chengshu, then immediately got out and followed close behind Su Ruizhe.
After only a few steps, a dark figure lunged toward Su Ruizhe. He didn’t panic. Raising his hand, he brought the knife down in a single decisive motion, cleaving straight into the zombie’s head and smashing it to pulp.
The zombie collapsed silently to the ground. It was still wearing a gas station employee’s uniform—likely someone who had come to work while sick and then turned.
Su Ruizhe didn’t waste time lingering over the corpse. New zombies could appear at any moment—they had to move fast.
He sprinted toward the gas station’s storage room. The moment he opened the door, he saw a mangled corpse lying on the floor. Fighting back his nausea, he hacked viciously at its head twice with the knife, reducing it to a mess of brain matter before stepping inside.
Zhan Yun followed right behind him and couldn’t help sucking in a sharp breath. He understood that Su Ruizhe was doing this to prevent the corpse from mutating into another zombie. He understood it logically—but emotionally, he still hadn’t adjusted.
By then, Su Ruizhe was already inside the storage room, transferring all the prepackaged fuel barrels into his space. Zhan Yun went to the cashier’s counter, found several magnetic cards, and pumped two large barrels of gasoline from the fuel pumps. He didn’t take the rest, leaving some behind for others.
Zhan Yun called Su Ruizhe over to collect the fuel barrels, then went around to check the back of the station. To his surprise, he found a fuel tanker truck—it looked like it had just arrived to resupply the station. He checked the gauge on top of the tank; the dipstick showed it was nearly full.
Talk about luck.
However, there was someone inside the truck’s cab, alive or dead unknown. Either way, they couldn’t put the truck into the space with a person still inside. Zhan Yun had no choice but to open the cab door, planning to drag the person out first.
The car doors were locked from the inside. With no other choice, Zhan Yun smashed the window with his knife. Just as he was about to reach in and unlock the door, the person inside suddenly sprang up, mouth gaping, and lunged straight for Zhan Yun’s arm.
Fortunately, Zhan Yun reacted quickly and pulled his hand back in time. But in doing so, he lost his balance and fell hard to the ground. The sudden movement tugged at the wound in his abdomen, and the pain made him bare his teeth in agony.
The zombie squeezed half its body out through the shattered window, clawing wildly at Zhan Yun, its eyes a solid, blood-red glare—terrifying to behold.
Zhan Yun grabbed the knife that had fallen to the ground and slashed viciously at the zombie’s head. But because the zombie’s upper body was sticking out of the cab and thrashing about, his blow landed on its neck instead, cleanly hacking the head off in a single strike.
The zombie’s head rolled across the ground with a dull thud, while the rest of its body remained dangling inside the cab. The scene was so gruesome that even someone with Zhan Yun’s police academy training found it hard to stomach.
“Brother Zhan, are you okay?” Su Ruizhe ran over from the front. Seeing the mess, he immediately grabbed Zhan Yun, asking anxiously.
Zhan Yun shook his head, hiding his slightly trembling right hand behind his back, and said as calmly as he could, “I found a fuel tanker. Once we get the zombie’s body out, you can put the whole thing into your space.”
“Okay.” Su Ruizhe grabbed the zombie by its clothes, dragged the remaining half of the corpse out, and tossed it onto the ground. Then he stored the entire fuel tanker in his space. With this tanker, they wouldn’t have to worry about gasoline anymore.
Su Ruizhe didn’t waste anything from the gas station’s convenience store either. He put all the unopened boxes into his space, but left the items on the shelves untouched—wanting to leave a sliver of hope for anyone who came after them.
At this point, even Zhan Yun couldn’t help but marvel at just how incredibly convenient Su Ruizhe’s space was.
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