Night fell quickly.
Dad washed the rice and cooked dinner as usual, only this time he used bottled water. He used it sparingly, but thankfully, the rice nowadays is quite clean and only needs a simple rinse.
The electricity, water, and gas were still on. Had the zombies failed to overrun the country's key infrastructure? Impressive!
But neither soldiers nor police had made an appearance.
This was somewhat expected by me and Canaan. Usually, military bases are densely populated places. Once a virus breaks out, the chance of a complete wipeout is the highest. Even if they're armed, panicked shooting would only cause more casualties. To be honest, Canaan and I never held out much hope for rescue from the start. We were prepared for the worst - to rely on ourselves!
Lights gradually turned on in the building across from us. Since the buildings all have large balconies with floor-to-ceiling windows, we could see clearly into the living rooms of the apartments opposite. There were many survivors!
I could even make out their terrified, desperate faces. Each family huddled together, standing by their windows, silently watching their neighbors in the opposite building. But no one dared to open their windows and call out.
Everyone was afraid of attracting those things... the terrifying monsters!
There were so many survivors, but not a single family had bravely chosen to go to the supermarket immediately to prepare, like my husband and I did.
So, while my husband and I were desperately pushing our cart and running home, they must have all been silently watching. No one joined us, and no one tried to stop us.
What did they think of us? Did we pay? Of course not, not a single cent.
My husband and I had already learned how to survive in this kind of environment: seize the initiative, act as soon as you think of something.
Hesitation is a death sentence.
I wondered if they had enough food and water prepared at home? After they finished their supplies, would they, like us, have to scavenge the remaining food from the supermarket downstairs?
Of course, even if this supermarket is picked clean, there's a larger one - a Carrefour - just outside the main gate of our residential compound.
My husband and I suddenly realized that perhaps we should plan further ahead. Before zombies are everywhere, we should make a trip to Carrefour.
Even though the world was in chaos, our not-quite-one-year-old son, Shuaishuai, still got his bath promptly at 7 PM, drank his milk at 8, and then fell fast asleep.
Looking at his adorable, chubby little face, my heart ached terribly. Little one, you haven't even learned how to live properly yet, and has the world already ended?
Can Mom and Dad protect you until the day you grow up?
Will this world give us a chance to survive?
My husband patted me, signaling me to go out with him.
We went to the living room. Mom and Dad sat on the sofa, holding the TV remote, facing the television which was still broadcasting bad news and warnings.
I could tell they were terrified.
Canaan and I also sat on the sofa, watching silently. The official had been replaced by a news anchor. With a serious expression, she reported the latest situation: experts had concluded the virus was brought by the sudden smog the previous night. So far, those who hadn't turned were naturally immune. There were currently no treatments or vaccines for those who were infected. She urged everyone to continue waiting patiently, stay home, and do not go outside! The state would definitely send the military, but currently available troops were limited and couldn't cover all areas. She advised surviving residents to hoard food, shelter at home, and rely on themselves until the city was saved.
Two hours later, the TV signal suddenly cut out. The screen turned to static snow. And then... nothing.
My husband turned off the TV. He looked at me, then at our parents, and simply said, "From now on, we rely on ourselves."
My strong personality is largely inherited from my mom. She's a manly, calm, and tough woman, even though she's old now.
But she, like Dad, accepted the reality.
Although she had a lot of questions, she kept asking this and that to understand the creatures she had never known before.
It was like when she first learned to use QQ; she kept asking me how to type. I was almost driven crazy then but didn't dare lose my temper because her desire to learn was so rare! So not only did she successfully learn to chat, she also learned to play those farming games, tending her digital farm quite well. Rumor has it she's already over level 80 now...
When she finally understood what kind of world we were facing, and what kind of enemies we were up against, she became increasingly rational.
She even supported our risky plan to go to Carrefour, both to gather more essentials and to scout the outside world.
I forgot to mention: after the TV signal died, our landline had no dial tone, and our phones had no signal. Damn it! Did those bloody zombies chew up the signal towers?
The night was deep. Mom and Dad went back to their room to sleep. At their age, they need plenty of rest! Their nerves had been stretched taut all day, and they were exhausted long ago.
But my husband and I found it hard to sleep.
Looking at the big moon outside the window, it was as if nothing had happened. As if tomorrow, when we woke up, the neighbors downstairs would go about their lives as usual, some heading to work, others going grocery shopping.
And I still had so many online orders I hadn't received yet!
"Honey, I bought a lot of useless things on Taobao again, but I guess it doesn't matter now," I confessed, feeling a pang of guilt.
"Yeah, I know. You always max out my credit card, wife. I'm sorry I couldn't earn enough money to let you live carefree..." My husband's tone suddenly became heavy.
My husband and I are just ordinary, common folk in this world. We don't earn much; a few thousand a month is only enough to get by, with little savings. Before this, we were always worried about money. Thinking about how we still hadn't bought a car, and that Shuaishuai would need a lot of money for a good school in the future, added to our stress. But now...
One kind of pressure had arrived, but another kind had suddenly vanished.
In a world like this, money seems like the most useless thing.
But right now, I felt庆幸 (thankful) that I had married this man - a man who could be the pillar of the family in times of danger!
A strong man who could protect me, protect our son, and protect our parents.
God is truly fair. He won't give you every ability, but He will surely grant you some special capability.
Unexpectedly, really unexpectedly, I actually slept soundly!
I guess my heart is big enough! Probably because I slept so late last night and was so tense all day. So I really slept quite well.
Today was overcast, and it started to snow. Ah, Harbin's first heavy snow had arrived!
Winter had finally truly begun!
I like snow, but I hate winter because I have to bundle up thickly like a bear in winter. And wearing thick clothes means hindered movement.
Hindered movement makes it hard for people to walk, difficult to squeeze onto buses, and you'll be late for work!
And now, hindered movement was even more troublesome because it meant being more likely to be caught and eaten.
Because of the snow, my husband and I decided to postpone the trip to Carrefour. After all, it's easy to slip and fall running in the snow.
So we spent ten utterly boring days stuck at home!
During these ten days, the electricity, water, and gas stubbornly remained on. So we kept eating hot meals. But the vegetables and fruit in the fridge were now gone.
Bored out of our minds! I suggested we check each floor and visit the surviving neighbors in our building unit.
It's shameful to say, but although we've lived here for years, our relationship with the neighbors was basically one of "I'll be content if we leave each other alone until we die."
Modern relationships seem to be like that. Our family originally liked socializing. When I lived in a bungalow as a child, all the neighbors along the row got along well. My favorite thing after school was visiting each house.
But after moving to an apartment building, we found others were very wary of outsiders, so we stopped wanting to press our warm faces against their cold backsides.
Relations in these high-rises are even worse. Even if you occasionally meet in the elevator, everyone pretends to be busy, no one greets each other.
At a time like this, human relations should be different, right?
The first stop, of course, was the apartment of the old lady who had turned on the second floor. Because my husband and I planned to check her place for anything useful.
Of course, if any of her relatives were still inside, we could talk to them and conceal the fact that we killed the old lady. No one would happily accept the story of you chopping off their relative's head, even if that relative would have made a meal of them.
The elevator was still operating, which cheered us up! The property management in our compound is pretty good! At least the power was still on!
The old lady's body was still lying in the same spot, stinking terribly. Thankfully, we wore thick masks - to prevent airborne infection from that damn virus, whatever it's called. "Prevention is better than cure" is our motto.
My husband tried using the keys to open the door. It went very smoothly; the door opened!
We slowly opened the security door, gripping our kitchen knives, standing at the entrance. We didn't rush in recklessly - what if there was a turned zombie inside?
But we also weren't stupid enough to stand there and call out, "Hey, anyone home?" or "Any zombies here?"
From our angle at the doorway, we could see no one, and not a sound.
I looked more carefully at the entrance. There was only one pair of slippers, women's style. The old lady lived alone!
We carefully closed the door behind us and slowly infiltrated the apartment. The master bedroom, guest bedroom... no one. The two bathrooms were empty. The open-plan kitchen, needless to say, was clear.
Confirming the apartment was safe, we started searching the old lady's things.
First, of course, the fridge. Ha! What luck! The old lady seemed to like eating meat; there were plenty of pork ribs and beef in the freezer! Frozen solid! And she had many brand-new shopping bags. Even more luckily, her fridge had some eggplants and onions - rare treasures nowadays!
Her home was very clean, everything tidy and orderly. Looking at this lonely home, I thought that perhaps not surviving was a good thing for her. Otherwise, alone, facing this situation, could she have held on?
I felt a pang of sorrow, but now itwas no longer her. I didn't have more time or energy to grieve.
"Wife! Look!" My husband suddenly called to me, sounding surprised and excited. Following his finger, I saw a beautiful katana hanging on the living room wall. The Japanese style. Long. Slender.
"So cool!" I was ecstatic. Michonne from The Walking Dead was my absolute favorite character! She cuts through zombie heads like watermelons, all because she has a good sword!
My husband helped me take the sword down. He drew the blade to examine it.
"This is crazy. Why would an old lady have a sharpened steel sword hanging in her house?" My husband said happily, swinging it a few times with practiced flair.
"I don't think so. This sword probably belonged to her old man. He's just not around anymore." I wasn't guessing randomly; I had seen a photo on a nearby cabinet, a picture of the old couple.