Fu Erdie was hunched over a drawing board, lost in her art. When she finally finished working on the final details, she realized that a whole day had passed.
Her white T-shirt was soaked with sweat, sticking to her back. Fu Erdie realized she needed to take a shower and hurried to the bathroom.
It was only June, and it shouldn’t have been this hot. It was comfortable to work with a fan blowing.
But after spending the afternoon drawing, she suddenly felt an excessive amount of heat as she snapped out of her artistic trance. Glancing at the temperature display on the air purifier, she was shocked to see it was already 30 degrees Celsius, five degrees higher than noon.
Fu Erdie didn’t think much of it, washed up, cooked and ate dinner, prepared the leftover chicken breast for her dog that it didn’t finish yesterday, and took her dog out for a stroll.
C City was a second-tier city with a moderate pace.
With the support of her parents and grandmother, Fu Erdie owned a small two-bedroom apartment. Although it was a one- to two-hour bus ride from the city centre, a half-hour taxi ride could get her there. It wasn’t considered remote, and it was usually lively when she went out to walk her dog.
But today, due to the hot weather, there weren’t many people out after dinner.
Fu Erdie leisurely walked her dog, and after less than ten minutes, she began to feel uncomfortable from the heat.
She checked the weather information and saw that the outdoor temperature was 32 degrees. What’s more, it unexpectedly started drizzling, even with the hot weather.
Once her dog finished its business, Fu Erdie headed back home, where she turned on the air conditioning to feel a little relief.
A message notification popped up in her group chat, and the topic was the temperature.
Zhao Xiaolu: “I wore long sleeves in the morning, and I almost passed out from the heat on my way home!”
Cen Xiyang: “[Smile] I haven’t finished work yet. By the time I finish, it should be dark, and the temperature will have dropped.”
Zhao Xiaolu: Hahaha.jpg
Cen Xiyang: [Smile][Smile][Smile]
Seeing their conversation, Fu Erdie couldn’t help but laugh along.
The three of them had been best friends since childhood.
Cen Xiyang was her classmate in elementary and middle school.
Zhao Xiaolu was her middle school classmate.
In the blink of an eye, more than ten years had passed, and the three of them had become lifelong best friends.
Fu Erdie mixed the cooked chicken breast with rice for her dog to eat. Then, she took another shower.
She liked to listen to music while showering, so she connected the bathroom speakers, turned up the volume, and hummed along with the music.
Vaguely, she heard her dog growling softly outside, as if issuing a low threat. Fu Erdie didn’t pay much attention to it and continued singing with the speakers.
However, suddenly, she heard a commotion coming from the road outside. It sounded like screeching tires and friction, making an ear-piercing noise.
Fu Erdie’s song faltered for a moment, but she continued lathering her hair.
Bang!
The shampoo bottle slipped from her hand, and the 1000ml bottle made a loud noise as it hit the ground. Her dog went crazy, barking wildly.
Fu Erdie wiped the water and bubbles from her eyes, picked up the bottle, and tried to calm her dog. “It’s okay, it’s okay, something fell. Don’t bark, ah.”
Though it wasn’t a big deal, Fu Erdie felt a sense of unease and quickly rinsed off the bubbles, put on her nightgown, wrapped a towel around her hair, and stepped out of the bathroom.
Her dog stopped barking.
But it continued to growl anxiously, pacing around the house, as if threatening something invisible.
Fu Erdie reached out and patted the dog’s head. “What’s wrong?”
The dog stopped growling and rubbed against Fu Erdie’s hand with a hint of grievance, then let out low howls into the air.
“It’s okay, it’s okay, good boy.”
Although she said that, Fu Erdie couldn’t help but feel strange.
She had found this dog two years ago, just after graduating from college. It was an ordinary stray dog abandoned on the roadside, completely black and emaciated.
The nearby shop owner said the little stray dog had been left there for several days.
Its previous owner deceived it, telling it to wait there while they went to the supermarket to buy things. But instead of going to the supermarket, they turned a corner and ran away where the dog couldn’t see.
“The dog probably noticed,” the shop owner sighed, “It stood up and took a few steps in the direction of its previous owner. But when it saw them running away, it didn’t chase after them. I don’t know if it was waiting for its owner to come back or if it realized it had been abandoned, but it just watched its owner leave from a distance.”
Fu Erdie sighed, “Poor thing, it didn’t go anywhere these past few days, just waited here and occasionally scavenged for food.”
Unable to bear it, Fu Erdie immediately brought the dog back home.
It had been two years since then.
During these two years, Fu Erdie had been working from home as a full-time illustrator, and the dog had been her constant companion.
It was well-behaved, only barking when strangers approached the door. Barking at the air like it was doing now was a first.
Thinking about it, Fu Erdie began walking around the house, inspecting every corner.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, and there were no rats or cockroaches.
“Maybe it was just startled by the shampoo bottle?” Fu Erdie pondered uncertainly.
Suddenly, her phone rang. It was a call from Zhao Xiaolu.
“Hello?” Fu Erdie hadn’t even had a chance to speak when she heard a chaotic commotion on the other end, along with Zhao Xiaolu’s heavy and panicked voice.
“Zombies! There are zombies outside!!!”
Fu Erdie subconsciously tried to calm herself down but instinctively rushed towards the balcony to look outside.
Fu Erdie lived on the 16th floor, and her balcony faced the road directly below. This road was just a side road, not a main road, so there weren’t many vehicles passing by. However, at the moment, for some unknown reason, many cars were heading towards the uphill direction of the side road, and they were speeding exceptionally fast, as if escaping from something.
Fu Erdie leaned out, looking in the direction of the traffic.
And with that glance, she saw a car that had been involved in an accident, emitting smoke by the side of the road.
Her heart skipped a beat as Fu Erdie suddenly realized that the sound of the shampoo bottle falling earlier couldn’t have been that loud.
It was the sound of a car accident outside!
Fu Erdie’s apartment had good soundproofing, and because she had closed the doors and windows while the air conditioning was on, opening the window now allowed in a surge of screams, cries, honking… a cacophony of noises that made her head buzz.
One car accident couldn’t possibly be this noisy.
So, could it be zombies?
“Zhao Xiaolu, where are you right now?”
Hearing the urgent and fleeing sounds on the other end, Fu Erdie knew that Zhao Xiaolu didn’t have time to explain the situation in detail. She hastily made the call, and it was undoubtedly a call for help.
Thinking about where Zhao Xiaolu worked, which was an industrial park three stops away from where Fu Erdie was, she was probably in the middle of her journey and now heading to Fu Erdie’s place.
Zhao Xiaolu: “I’m… *panting*… half an hour away from your place. I’ll try to run as fast as I can!”
Fu Erdie immediately said, “I’ll come to pick you up!”
“You pick me up? You coward! Don’t you dare pick me up, you piece of garbage! When I arrive at your place, I’ll call your name, and you drive. Don’t open the door for anyone knocking, got it?”
After finishing her words, Zhao Xiaolu hung up the phone.
Listening to the busy tone, Fu Erdie felt increasingly panicked.
The residential area she lived in was densely populated. Many people were still on their way home from work, so there weren’t as many people out during the evening. However, there were many elderly people in the community. Even if fewer people were out for an evening walk, it didn’t mean there would be fewer people coming out to assess the situation after an incident.
Especially since older people tended to worry and might have come out to see what happened upon hearing the car accident. There were probably more people outside now than before!
Unable to make contact with her grandmother in the city centre, Fu Erdie hurriedly tried calling again.
Busy tone.
Couldn’t get through.
She sent text messages and WeChat messages to her grandmother.
The grey rotating circle spun and spun, eventually turning into an exclamation mark indicating the messages couldn’t be sent.
She could only continue calling, calling persistently.
Living on the 16th floor, Fu Erdie didn’t dare take the elevator, fearing that something might go wrong. Instead, she took the stairs.
But just after descending two floors, she came face to face with a pale old man.
His pupils were cloudy, and the boundaries of his eyes were unclear. His walking posture was very strange, as if his joints were dislocated and he walked in a jerky manner. But as soon as he saw her, the old man quickly lunged towards her with this awkward posture, moving at the speed of a middle-aged person!
Fu Erdie turned on the spot and ran towards the upstairs.
The building had two staircases, and realizing that she couldn’t match the old man’s speed, Fu Erdie made several turns, going up this staircase, then turning when the old man came rushing in, and heading towards the other staircase to continue going up. By relying on her agility, she barely created some distance, eventually reaching her apartment, 16-1.
She took out her keys, but in her haste, she couldn’t insert them no matter how she tried.
After finally managing to insert the key, the slightly rusty lock core chose this moment to act up, refusing to turn!
The zombie-like old man reached the 16th floor, and the sound of his running echoed through the corridor, each step like a signal urging Fu Erdie’s life.
Fu Erdie twisted the key with all her might, her wrist veins bulging, and the key made a jingling sound upon collision.
The zombie-like old man turned the corner and finally found Fu Erdie, instantly lunging towards her.
Click.
The door lock opened.
Fu Erdie pulled forcefully, and the large, heavy security door stood between herself and the old man, emitting a muffled bang after the collision.
Fu Erdie took cover behind the door, with a fire hydrant behind her. Her waist forcefully hit the lower edge of the fire hydrant, almost dislocating it.
Fu Erdie didn’t scream, but she tightly gripped the door handle. Taking advantage of the moment when the old man was pushed back, she gathered her strength and rammed the zombie-like old man into the door frame, pressing him hard.
She didn’t know if it was lucky or unlucky, but the door frame happened to press against the old man’s head. The skull emitted a teeth-clenching cracking sound, and blood and brain matter flowed onto the floor.
Fu Erdie felt a mixture of fear and nausea and wanted to let go.
But she was also afraid that if she let go, the old man zombie might not be dead yet and would pounce on her again.
Yet, she was even more afraid that this wasn’t a zombie, that the situation wasn’t as bad as she had thought, and she had accidentally killed a person.
Her hand holding the phone trembled slightly, and finally, with determination, Fu Erdie kicked the old zombie away, quickly stepped to the side, and closed and locked the door, using the security chain.
She opened her computer and accessed the surveillance camera facing the corridor outside her door.
Because the angle was set just right, it clearly captured the terrifying image of the old man zombie lunging at her.
Watching the entire less than half-minute process of the life-or-death struggle in the third-person perspective, Fu Erdie’s hand trembled incessantly.
Had she killed someone?
Could it be considered self-defence?
She saved the video to a USB drive for her computer and phone, and she wanted to save it in the cloud as well, but the network was too slow to upload.
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