15

On the 200th day of the apocalypse.

Snow began to fall, blanketing the world in a pristine white.

There were far fewer zombies around the school; it was unclear where they had gone.

I looked down the corridor, and the zombies were gone, leaving only Lily’s phone behind.

The last conversation between her and her mother still echoed in my ears, and I missed my own parents.

Two red-crowned cranes danced elegantly in the snow, a sight we had never seen before, as we were not accustomed to seeing national treasures.

We all crowded by the window to watch.

Seven or eight zombies approached them, and we held our breath in anxiety.

The red-crowned cranes sensed the danger and took flight, leaving us still trapped in place, unsure when we would regain our freedom.

Suddenly, a steel bar flew through the air, piercing the skull of one of the zombies.

The zombie fell with a thud, its dark blood staining the white snow.

The four boys appeared again.

They approached with knives in hand, chopping off a zombie’s head and tossing it aside before smearing the blood on themselves.

The surrounding zombies, sensing the presence of the living, all crowded around.

The boys brutally hacked off the zombies’ heads, then dragged the corpses towards our dormitory building.

“They seem to be coming to our dormitory building,” Mia said nervously.

Soon, we heard the sound of the main door below being shut, followed by the ransacking of drawers and cabinets.

No one had been in our building before, so there should still be some supplies left; they would likely stay for a while.

“What should we do? They’re definitely coming up, and they’re so strong. In front of them, we’re just little chicks,” someone said.

I had a clear look at the four of them earlier; they were almost 1.9 meters tall, able to chop off a zombie’s head with a single strike.

We were no match for them in a direct confrontation.

I took stock of our supplies. Since we usually shared with Ruby and the others, we had seventeen buckets of water left, and our food could only last for three to four months.

“Let’s hide in the activity room first. If they find us, we’ll share our food with them. But if they mean to harm us, we won’t back down,” I said.

Mia, Jenny, and Hannah all agreed; these were our only two options.

16

The four boys didn’t come up immediately. They continued to search downstairs, even burning books to keep warm. We could hear their complaints and curses.

They searched floor by floor, and on the third day, they reached our fourth floor. We hid in the activity room, covering the hole in the wall with a large poster.

With a bang, our dormitory door was kicked hard, but it didn’t open.

“This door is pretty sturdy. Damn, I can’t kick it open,” one of them said.

“I think you haven’t eaten. Move aside, let me try,” another said with a sneer, then kicked the door hard.

With a crack, the door panel broke, but because we had nailed a wooden support slanting inside, the door, though broken, remained closed.

They exclaimed in surprise, then fell silent.

We didn’t know what they were doing, so we could only grip our weapons tightly.

About three minutes later, they suddenly appeared on our balcony, having climbed down from the fifth floor.

“There are so many boards sealed here; there must be people living here,” their voices came from outside.”

But where are they?” someone asked, sitting at the spot where there was a hole in the wall, making our hearts leap to our throats.

“Maybe they went out to look for food and were bitten by zombies,” one of them speculated.

Someone knocked on the wooden boards. “Which department’s girls’ dorm is this? They can do carpentry work. They’re pretty tough, aren’t they?”

“It’s probably Civil Engineering or Architecture.”

“Girls’ dorms really smell nice. Everywhere else stinks, but their bedding still smells good.”

They started going through our things.

“I’m twenty and I’ve never even been with a woman. I can’t die a virgin, can I? My looks and physique are going to waste,” one of them lamented.

“Can’t you say something more auspicious during the New Year?” the voice with a hint of mischief said.

“I wish I could be auspicious. I really want a girlfriend, Ross. Have you ever been in love?”

“Of course I…” The mischievous voice suddenly stopped.

Just as we were wondering what was happening, the poster was suddenly torn open, and a young man wielding a knife crawled through the hole.

We had been discovered. Without a word, he swung his knife at us.

I grabbed his arm.

My father had taught me that there was a pressure point on a person’s arm that could temporarily paralyze it if struck hard enough.

In my previous life, I had injured someone and escaped by hitting this spot, and I struck the pressure point on his arm again this time.

I succeeded. The boy’s knife fell to the ground, but my body was suddenly lifted into the air and then slammed to the ground.

He had thrown me with his other hand.

At that moment, I realized that in the face of absolute strength, technique was insignificant.

The disparity in strength between us was too great.

A loud ringing filled my head, and in my dizziness, I saw Mia and Jenny rushing to save me without hesitation, while Ruby and Sarah also waved sticks.

The other three boys also crawled through, and we all got into a tangle. I didn’t know how many punches I took, but I didn’t let the other side off easily either. I bit into his hand fiercely, sinking into his flesh and blood.

“No!” Hannah screamed. She knelt in front of the boy, spreading her arms to protect me, tears in her eyes. “You can have everything, just don’t kill her.”

It was then that I saw the boy with the knife about to cut my throat.

The boy and his three companions stopped, looking at us in surprise.

“You’re… humans?” the boy asked.

“We are, of course, humans.” I released my bite, the strong taste of blood in my mouth. I had bitten him hard.

The boy put his knife away. “If you’re human, why didn’t you speak up? Why did you bite like a zombie?”

We now understood that they had mistaken us for zombies, which was why they had attacked us with their knives.

We, on the other hand, had assumed they were there to rob and kill us, hence our counterattack. Everyone’s nerves were on edge, ready to snap at the slightest provocation.

17

Our two groups sat far apart from each other. They huddled together, chatting amongst themselves.

From their conversation, I learned that the cocky guy I had bitten was named Ross, the one who feared dying a virgin was named Charles, and the other two who kept glancing at us were Colin and David.

Ross was their squad leader, and the other three followed his lead obediently.

He tended to his wounds while eyeing our supplies, his gaze eventually landing on Hannah’s belly. “There’s actually a pregnant woman here,” he remarked.

Hannah, now eight months pregnant, looked pale after the ordeal she had just endured.

“We can share our supplies with you, but don’t try any tricks,” I told them, enunciating each word clearly.

Ross looked at us with disdain. “What if we do try something? What can you do about it?”

“True, we can’t do much against you, but they can,” I said, gesturing towards the zombies outside.

“If we choose to go down fighting and slit our wrists, do you think the zombies out there will go mad at the sight of our blood? Will you be able to escape unscathed?”

Ross’s expression turned serious; he could tell we weren’t bluffing.

We helped Hannah over to lie down, covering her with several blankets, but her hands remained icy cold.

I gathered books to burn for warmth, no longer needing to hide our actions since we had already been discovered.

Charles and the other two kept peeking over, while Ross played with the knife in his hand.

That night, neither side got much sleep.

The next day, we settled for eating some dry instant noodles.

Ross and his group, however, decided to cook.

They tore pages from books and broke up tables for firewood, mixing several packets of vacuum-packed food with rice to cook.

The aroma filled the air.

They devoured their meal ravenously, almost licking the pot clean by the end.

They then brought up two buckets of snow to melt and wash themselves.

The water in the basin soon turned dark red, stained with the zombie blood they had smeared on their bodies.

“Don’t you fear the virus entering your wounds?” I asked, recalling that I had bitten him the day before, and his hand was still injured.

Ross wore an indifferent expression. “I has a tough constitution.”

In the face of the virus, all living beings were equal.

I believed the reason he wasn’t afraid of infection was that the virus in the blood of dead zombies also perished.

He likely knew this from previous experience, which is why he wasn’t worried.

Every person still alive here has survived through hardships that were far from simple.

After cleaning up, they didn’t seem as terrifying, with youthful faces still retaining a hint of boyish charm.

When they sat quietly, it gave the illusion that they were well-behaved.

18

Ross and the others settled into the dorm room next to ours. Apart from going to the activity room for meals, we mostly kept to ourselves.

Every day, they would patrol the area, efficiently dealing with any zombies that came close.

I didn’t understand why they didn’t leave with the supplies, or why they chose to stay with us instead of residing on another floor. It reminded us of Charles’s previous comment about wanting a girlfriend. Could it be…

But at the moment, we had no time to ponder this, as after the incident, Hannah was increasingly frightened.

Her spirit was weakening, and she couldn’t eat.

We were worried but felt powerless, so we could only take good care of her while preparing for childbirth, just in case of premature labor.

Charles would occasionally wander over, looking as if he wanted to say something but couldn’t quite bring himself to do so.

“Just say what you have to say,” I didn’t enjoy playing guessing games.

Charles leaned halfway through the wall hole, “Although I’m not a doctor, I think she needs one.”

“You’re stating the obvious,” we desperately needed a doctor, but where could we find one now?

Ross pulled Charles away, “Don’t cause trouble.”

Our fuel had run out, leaving us to burn chairs and tables.

When Hannah woke up, we immediately tried to feed her. After drinking two sips of porridge, she shook her head, “I want an icy cola, I want Pepsi.”

She wasn’t being unreasonable; saying such things at this time indicated that she was disoriented.

We were terrified, fearing something terrible had happened to her.

Fortunately, she regained consciousness after a while, looking at us in confusion, “Why are you crying?”

Mia and the others turned away, and I replied, “It’s too cold, we’re frozen.”

She gently pushed us, “Then you should go to bed and warm up under the covers. I’m fine, don’t worry.”

I nodded, “Okay, we’ll go to bed in a bit.”

Hannah soon fell asleep again. We didn’t dare leave her side, checking her breathing from time to time, afraid she might slip away from us. She was so fragile now.

Mia and Jenny searched the dormitory building but found nothing.

After a while, Ross handed me a cup filled with water.

“What’s this?” I smelled it; it had a sweet scent.

Ross explained, “Sugar water. She might be anemic or suffering from low blood sugar.”

“How do you know that?”

“Pepsi has a high sugar content. Her desire to drink it indicates her body is signaling a need for sugar. We encountered similar situations during our training in the past. However, this is just my speculation. Give it a try.” I woke Hannah up and fed her the sugary water.

After drinking a few sips, she seemed to have improved somewhat, even managing to eat a little before going to sleep.

“Thank you,” I said to him.

He pursed his lips, “We should be the ones apologizing. If we hadn’t acted so impulsively and attacked you back then, maybe she wouldn’t be like this.” Ross apologized.

I had always been wary and somewhat displeased with them, but upon hearing these words, I couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.

It was hard to say who was right or wrong in this matter; we were all just trying to survive.

19

On the two hundred and tenth day of the apocalypse, the clouds pressed down heavily again, and snow began to fall from the sky.

While cooking, Ruby suddenly said to us from the sixth-floor balcony, “Listen quickly, can you hear the sound of a car?”

We strained our ears and indeed heard faint sounds, as if they were coming from the neighboring agricultural university.

Ross and the others climbed to the rooftop to look around.

After a while, they returned and said that there were indeed people over there, and it seemed to be a rescue team.

We were overjoyed and immediately gathered books and wood to make smoke in an attempt to catch their attention.

However, the smoke didn’t rise as much as we hoped, and our loud shouts went unheard.

Ross and the others ran out to set fire to a dormitory building, hoping that this would attract attention, but the fire was extinguished by the heavy snow, and it even attracted zombies.

We had to call it off for the time being. “Charles, early tomorrow morning, we’ll go and check it out.

Colin and David, you two stay here to help,” Ross began to make arrangements, believing that they should take the initiative.

“Okay,” Charles agreed without hesitation.

Since they were willing to brave the danger to find a way out, we naturally didn’t hold back.

We gave them the motorcycle helmets and gloves we had bought before, hoping they would provide some protection.

However, just at midnight, an unexpected event occurred. Hannah experienced abdominal pain and spotting, indicating she was going into premature labor.

Jenny went to boil water, while Ruby and Sarah sealed the doors and windows tightly with tape.

Ross, Charles, and the others sprayed air fresheners and disinfectants everywhere.

We were in charge of the delivery. We had never done anything like this before; we were still children ourselves.

But we could only grit our teeth and proceed.

Hannah was in so much pain that her face turned pale, but she bit down hard on a towel without making a sound, fearing that her cries would attract zombies.

I followed the instructions in the video, whispering the rhythm.

Blood flowed onto the sheets, more than we had anticipated.

Worried that nearby zombies might approach, Ross and the others took their knives and went downstairs to guard.

I originally thought they would flee, after all, if Hannah were to hemorrhage later, this place would certainly be surrounded by zombies.

At dawn, the baby was finally born, a wrinkled little girl. Due to her mother’s malnutrition, the baby was very light, and I felt she weighed only about three to four kilograms in my arms.

The little girl was indeed sensible; she started crying as soon as she was born, saving us the trouble of having to make her cry.

But after crying twice, she fell silent. It might have been too cold, so I quickly took the baby to the activity room to wash her with warm water. I originally thought I would be in a fluster, but unexpectedly, I was very agile. Perhaps this was the potential of human beings.

After dressing the little girl and wrapping her in a quilt, Ross and the others gathered around to look.

“How is she so ugly, like an old lady?” David asked in confusion, immediately drawing a warning look from us.

David immediately corrected himself: “No… not ugly, quite… quite cute.”

The baby moved a couple of times and then stopped moving, although she still had a heartbeat, she was after all, born prematurely.

At this moment, Jenny ran over in a panic: “Hannah won’t wake up no matter how I call her.”

I immediately went over, and indeed, Hannah was unconscious.

I thought it was due to excessive bleeding during childbirth, but after lifting the quilt and taking a look, although there was bleeding, it wasn’t a hemorrhage.

There was another reason for her coma.

I made a decision: “We must go to the Agricultural University right now.”

If Ross and the others were to go for help, we didn’t know if Hannah and the baby could hold on until they returned.

Moreover, for some unknown reason, zombies were continuously gathering here.

Clearly, this amount of bleeding should not have attracted zombies from such a distance under the cover of the scent of mosquito repellent and disinfectant.

If they hadn’t returned and this place was surrounded by zombies, we wouldn’t be able to hold out.

It was better to take advantage of the situation while the zombies hadn’t completely gathered and rush over.

“But how can Hannah go out in this state?” Jenny worried.

“I’ll carry Hannah on my back, and David, you carry the baby.

Charles and Colin, you two lead the way.” Ross said, taking off his down jacket and using a sheet to carry Hannah diagonally on his back.

This would minimize the pain for Hannah, who had just given birth.

“Mia and Jenny, we’ll hang the bloodstained sheets out the window to lure the zombies away.

Hurry, Ruby and Sarah, you two also come to help.” I tore the bloodstained sheets into several pieces and distributed them to them, tying weights to them before hanging them out.

The tactic proved effective; the zombies were lured to the other side of the dormitory.

“Apply this,” Ross handed us several bottles filled with zombie blood.

We hastily smeared it on ourselves and left the dormitory, sprinting with all our might towards the agricultural university through the vast snowstorm.

The icy wind cut into our skin like knives, and because of the intense running, our lungs felt as if they were about to explode, with a metallic taste of blood in our throats.

But hope was ahead, and we had to run, run, run…