Chapter 23
“Brother, look! Do we want these?”
Guanguan came running over with his arms full of things. He was wearing a child’s face covering in full “little robber” style, with only a pair of lively dark eyes showing.
As the temperature rose in the afternoon, the rotting stench on the highway became even more pungent. Guanguan thought the helmet was too stuffy, so Wei Cheng quickly bought him a breathable sun-protection face covering.
Taking the plastic bag from the child’s hands, he sorted out the instant noodles and bread that were not bloated or damaged. “We’ll keep the good ones. Throw away anything torn or spoiled.”
Guanguan was full of energy. “Roger that!”
At his feet, the little black dog barked too.
After rummaging around for half the day, the two brothers found a total of four cases of mineral water, twenty packs of Master Kong instant noodles, more than a dozen packs of pickled mustard greens, and one box of canned fish.
In another luxury car, they also found several women’s handbags that looked expensive and more than ten cartons of famous-brand cigarettes. Hidden at the bottom of the trunk was a locked briefcase.
That case probably could only be opened with the owner’s fingerprint.
A little curious, Guanguan stood on tiptoe and peered inside. “Brother, does this little box have lots of treasures?”
Wei Cheng said, “Maybe. But in the apocalypse, no matter how much cash or gold you have, it’s still not as useful as a single piece of bread.”
Guanguan suddenly understood, and looked a little happy too. “Good thing Guanguan and Brother have lots of bread!”
They stored all the food and mineral water they had scavenged in the basement.
The two brothers got up early and worked till late for a full five days, spending four nights out in the wild. At last, they managed to bag up and take away all the black coal from the highway.
As night fell, after dinner, they chose to travel home under cover of darkness.
Seeing Guanguan hug the little black dog and head for the front passenger seat, Wei Cheng hurriedly said, “Guanguan, why don’t you and the puppy sit in the back? There’s more space there, and you two can play properly.”
Guanguan set the little black dog down in the back seat, then quickly climbed into the passenger seat himself. “Guanguan wants to keep Brother company!”
Wei Cheng felt warmth in his heart. He leaned over and fastened the seat belt for him. “All right, then let’s set off.”
He turned on the navigation and entered the address, only to discover that Sun Village’s danger level had changed from the original “Low” to “None.”
Sure enough, choosing to come back to Sun Village had been the right decision.
Reassured, he pressed the black button in the center of the steering wheel.
The dark, low-slung little car left behind only an afterimage across the barren fields.
An hour and a half was no short journey.
Wei Cheng focused on the road ahead, while Guanguan unzipped his little yellow duck backpack and took out half a bag of shrimp chips and a big box of fruit-flavored cheese. Hearing the rustle of the snack bag, the little black dog started drooling with greed, and Guanguan casually tossed it a chew stick.
Then Guanguan stretched his chubby little hand over. “Brother.”
Wei Cheng opened his mouth and was fed a cube of rich, milky cheese with a strawberry fragrance. Smiling, he said, “Thank you, little Guanguan.”
“You’re welcome, little Brother.”
Guanguan grabbed a handful of crisp shrimp chips with his little hand and wiped them all out in one bite.
The car moved quickly and steadily through the night. The two brothers ate and drank along the way, completely at ease.
Yet just as the navigation showed they were still fifty kilometers from their destination, the car suddenly slammed to a halt as if it had malfunctioned.
A line of huge red text appeared on the navigation screen:
[Alert! Alert! A large-scale zombie presence detected three meters away. Little House Owner, please manage your time carefully and activate the invisibility function in time!]
“Brother? Why did the Twisty Car stop?”
“The navigation is warning us that there’s a large group of zombies three meters away.”
Wei Cheng’s face stayed calm. In an orderly way, he pulled out the compound crossbow from the safehouse and braced it against the steering wheel. Then he took out a night vision device he had found in the outdoor survival section. In total darkness with no light at all, this device could see people and objects as far as three hundred meters away.
He lowered the brightness inside the car to its minimum, while his other hand hovered over the “Invisibility” button.
Guanguan clenched the bag of shrimp chips tightly in his little hand and held his breath. “Brother…”
“Guanguan, send Little Apricot into the safehouse.”
Sensing danger, the little black dog’s fur had already stood on end. Guanguan quickly sent it into the safehouse.
Wei Cheng said softly, “Close your eyes. We’ll be fine.”
Guanguan’s little face had gone pale with fright. He squeezed his eyes shut and clung tightly to his brother’s arm.
Through the night vision device, Wei Cheng finally saw clearly what the magnified scene a few meters away looked like.
A dense mass of zombies had appeared on the deserted village road, moving in their direction.
Like a hundred ghosts walking the night.
He guessed these zombies had probably come down from that stretch of highway marked with the danger level “Extremely High.”
But zombies only gathered together so tightly when they smelled an especially strong scent of human flesh or fresh blood.
What was behind them?
So much time had passed that he had to struggle to remember which buildings around his hometown area had once been densely populated. Then he froze.
A school.
It was a combined middle and high school in another nearby town.
At that moment, the zombies in the night vision lens became clearer and clearer, which also meant they were getting closer and closer!
The invisibility function only lasted ten minutes. They had to activate it carefully.
In his mind, Wei Cheng silently calculated the zombies’ walking speed and the remaining distance before they reached them. The instant he could clearly see the dangling eyeball of the first zombie, he decisively pressed the Invisibility function.
The ground trembled faintly, and the two children could clearly hear the zombies’ roaring.
Closer and closer…
Guanguan had his eyes shut, but Wei Cheng could not.
He watched with his own eyes as the zombie horde brushed past the sides of the car. They seemed to sense this obstruction too, but the hunger and the lure of blood left those mindless monsters with no time to care.
Suddenly, a mangled ghostly face pressed right up against them.
Wei Cheng’s pupils contracted slightly. Gritting his teeth, he tightened his grip on the long crossbow braced against the steering wheel.
He could see it twitching its nostrils, its bluish-black rotting face, crawling with live maggots, tilting and sniffing around everywhere. A few nearby zombies were drawn over by it too.
They opened their savage, bloody mouths and sniffed wildly in all directions, their newly-grown fangs still hanging with decayed bits of human flesh.
In his heart, Wei Cheng silently counted down the time on the invisibility function.
Three minutes left.
Yet the remaining dozen or so zombies lingered in place, unwilling to leave.
Only two minutes left!
50 seconds…
Just then, a faint rumbling suddenly came from behind them, and the pitch-black night sky seemed to flare briefly with light.
The wandering corpses that had still been swaying slowly a moment ago suddenly began roaring and screeching in excitement. Like flies that had caught the scent of meat, they all bolted madly toward the site of the explosion.
[Ten-minute invisibility function expired. Can be used again after 24 hours!]
[Twisty Car has resumed normal driving.]
Wei Cheng let out a breath of relief.
Looking at the little Guanguan beside him, still obediently covering his eyes yet trembling all over, an enormous sadness suddenly welled up inside him.
His little brother was so young, yet he already had to endure such a cruel and bloody apocalypse.
Now that large-scale zombies had appeared in the nearby town, would Sun Village really remain safe forever?
“Guanguan?”
He gently patted Guanguan’s head. “You can open your eyes now. The monsters are gone.”
Guanguan’s eyes were rimmed with tears, and he was so frightened that he could barely speak clearly. “Brother, so many monsters… they ran away… are they going to eat other children? Guanguan is scared.”
Wei Cheng suddenly felt an impulse. “From now on, we’ll just stay home obediently and not go anywhere.”
Guanguan wiped his tears with his little hand. “We can’t. We have to do missions, we have to make money, then we can live in the little house forever.”
How could Wei Cheng not know that? He sighed. “All right.”
How he wished that one day they could find a true paradise, forever untouched by zombies and evil bases.
The reason Sun Village had gone so many days without outside zombies was thanks to its remote terrain. It was like a small basin in the hills, surrounded on all sides by mountains, unconnected to densely populated towns and villages.
Before the apocalypse, when Wei Cheng and Grandma returned to the village from the city center, they had to switch transportation several times. Even with car navigation, it still took effort to find this little village.
For the remaining dozens of kilometers, they encountered no more sudden incidents, and Sun Village—rated as “None” for danger—had not changed at all.
Last month, Wei Cheng and Guanguan had not only raised the walls around the house, they had also embedded a dense layer of broken glass bottles and sharp daggers on top. Using mud, sand, and red bricks taken from villagers’ homes, they had built two extra inner gate walls and installed two iron gates on them.
Compared with zombies, he was even more afraid of grown adults fleeing to Sun Village.
They were too weak to afford being saints.
—
Guanguan smelled a sweet buttery fragrance.
He rubbed his eyes and sat up, only to suddenly hear the familiar theme song of a cartoon.
“It’s Ultraman!”
Little Guanguan was instantly wide awake. Huffing and puffing, he pulled on the little flower-bud socks by the bed and ran downstairs in his one-piece pajamas.
“Brother bought a TV!”
Downstairs had been completely transformed. A television even bigger than the one at the orphanage was mounted on the wall, playing a scene of baby Ultraman fighting a baby little monster.
Not far away was a long cloud-shaped sofa, and beside it stood a mustard-yellow little wooden table.
The cabinets on the wall were filled with all kinds of daily necessities.
Wei Cheng came out carrying breakfast and smiled. “Go brush your teeth and wash your face. Once we finish eating, we can watch Ultraman.”
Guanguan cheered and hugged the little black dog at his feet. “Yay! Little Apricot and Guanguan are going to watch Ultraman together!”
The little black dog barked twice, as if answering its little master’s joy.
Watching Guanguan dash off to the bathroom in a flurry to wash up, Wei Cheng quietly let out a breath of relief.
He had thought the scene from yesterday would leave the child wilted with fear.
He had not expected Guanguan to accept things so well.
Very soon, Guanguan came hurrying back downstairs.
Biting into a fragrant cream bun, he asked, “Brother, can I eat while watching Ultraman?”
Before his brother could answer, Guanguan shook his head himself. “No, no, I can’t. The little buns are yummy, and Ultraman is fun to watch, so Guanguan has to take it slowly!”
“So obedient.”
Smiling, Wei Cheng handed him a bowl of mushroom chicken porridge that had already been blown cool. “Finish your little buns first, then drink some porridge.”
Guanguan never refused good food. “Okay, okay!”
Wei Cheng ate quickly. Once he was done, he simply sat there watching Guanguan eat.
Maybe because he had been eating well and eating a lot lately, Guanguan was plumper than he had been back at the orphanage.
But this height…
What a headache.
Guanguan’s little hand, pudgy enough to dimple, scratched his cheek. “Brother, what’s wrong with Guanguan’s face?”
Wei Cheng could not help rubbing that soft, chubby little face. “Your face is getting more and more like a little bun.”
Guanguan was quite pleased to hear that. Baring his little white teeth, he took a huge bite out of the cream bun in his hand. “Really? Then when Guanguan grows up, he’ll become Bread Superman! Fight monsters! Awoo!”
