Chương 4: Beginning of the outbreak

When Xiaoyun knocked on the door of Leyan's house, Nami answered it.

"Brother, you are finally back." Nami rushed to hug Xiaoyun.

Xiaoyun patted Nami's head as he dragged the suitcase inside the house.

"Excuse me, Miss Leyan, I don't have a place to live right now... All the hotels and dorms are closed.

Can I stay here for a few days? I'll pay the rent." Xiaoyun asked as he saw Leyan and Yueyue both sitting on the sofa.

"You can live in the office room any time you want, and you don't have to pay the rent."

Leyan's face blushed as she realized she had just told a man she met for less than a day to live in their house.

But for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to refuse Xiaoyun's wish to stay.

"Nami, when did you know Xiaoyun so well? You even call him brother."

Leyan noticed how close the two were to the doorway as Xiaoyun went upstairs with his suitcase to the office room.

"He's older than me, so I should call him brother, right?" Nami looked at Leyan with an innocent face.

"Hmm... sure." Leyan felt Nami was hiding something but couldn't put her finger on it.

"Ah!" Yueyue suddenly screamed out as she dropped her phone onto the sofa.

"Yueyue, why are you screaming?" Nami asked out of curiosity as she walked over to the sofa.

After looking at Yueyue's phone, Nami also abruptly screamed and dropped the phone onto the floor.

"What the hell is going on?" Leyan finally got sick of their scream and decided to walk over to the two.

As Leyan picked up the phone from the floor, it showed a video of several people dismembered by hundreds of 'people.'

Leyan immediately closed the video and turned off Yueyue's phone.

"Don't look at these things. You will only scare yourself."

Leyan handed the phone back to Yueyue as she sat down on the sofa.

"It's like the zombie in those movies," Nami whispered.

"Yeah, are they even people? Their bodies look so rotten, and their eyes are all bloody red. " Yueyue replied in a low voice.

"What are you talking about?" Xiaoyun asked as he heard the two talking while walking downstairs to the sofa.

"Mom, you show it to him," Yueyue said, handing the phone over to Leyan.

Leyan hesitated for a second but turned the phone back on and opened the video.

After watching the whole video, Xiaoyun wasn't really too shocked as he had already seen a video from his roommate earlier.

"From the background, is that Hong Kong?" Xiaoyun asked as he noticed the signature building in the distance.

As soon as Xiaoyun mentioned it, everyone in the living room immediately got terrified.

"It might just be a building in America or something. There are so many skyscrapers out there." Leyan tried to calm the two down, but it barely did anything.

"Where's Yuqi?" Xiaoyun asked as he noticed she was missing.

"Yuqi? She went to work and usually comes back home by now... Oh shit! I'll call her now."

Leyan immediately pulled out her phone and called Yuqi.

"Hey Yuqi, are you off work?"

"Yeah, I'm off work. I'm on the road now... There's a mile-long traffic jam and a car accident ahead, though.

It looks like several police officers are standing there investigating. Wow, what the hell? Someone in the car just jumped the police!

That can't be right... What the hell is happening?"

Yuqi's voice sounded extremely confused at the situation unfolding in front of her eyes.

"Get out of the car! Don't wait inside the car! That person must be a zombie." Leyan yelled.

"Zombie? What are you talking about?" Yuqi asked calmly, not realizing Leyan's urgent tone.

"Just get out of the car now! Run to a nearby place to hide!" Nami yelled out this time.

"Okay, okay, I'm running now." Yuqi finally realized something was going wrong horribly.

Suddenly, a gunshot sound came out from the phone.

"The police fired! Holy shit! Why are there so many people on the street? They are all rushing towards the police."

"Ignore them. Just keep running," Yueyue yelled out this time.

"Okay, I am running as fast as——"

The call ended abruptly as Yuqi hung up the call from her side.

"Yuqi is in trouble... What can I do...."

Leyan rubbed her temple from stress as she looked a little lost on what to do.

"Why don't I go outside and look for her?" Xiaoyun suggested.

"No, we don't even know where Yuqi is. How can you find her in such a big city?" Nami immediately argued.

"How about we drive around to find her?" Yueyue suggested.

"It's a traffic jam out there, and a car is way too loud." Leyan rejected the proposal.

"We can only wait until then..." Yueyue sat back down on the sofa, and everyone looked just as lost as Leyan.

A few minutes later, Leyan's phone rang suddenly.

"Hey Yuqi, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I'm at the clothing store in Ping'an Mall... I'm hiding in the changing room right now.

There seem to be a few security guards with red eyes outside. Mom, what should I do?"

The three could hear the fear in Yuqi's voice as a quiet growling sound came out of the phone.

"Just wait there, okay Qiqi? Mom is going to save you." Leyan replied without a second thought to calm Yuqi down.

"Okay... I'm safe here, for now. Oh, something is walking past."

The phone call once again ended abruptly as Yuqi hung up.

"Miss Leyan, give me Yuqi's phone number. I will go to the mall and save her," Xiaoyun asked in a determined tone.

Leyan hesitated for a second, but she had no other way to save her daughter, so she gave Xiaoyun Yuqi's phone number.

"I am going with you." Yueyue chimed in.

"No, you should stay with Mo——Miss Leyan. They need your protection." Xiaoyun refused her suggestion.

"He is right. He should go alone. We two can't do anything if a single zombie came here." Nami added.

Yueyue looked a little disappointed but accepted the decision in the end.

---

When Xiaoyun was just about to leave, Leyan suddenly pulled Xiaoyun into the garage.

Inside the garage, there are a lot of household tools and an SUV inside it.

"Take this baseball bat. My husband left it behind when he played baseball one time."

Xiaoyun accepted the baseball bat, and to his surprise, it had a perfect grip on his hand.

"I will get going now, thanks Mo——Miss Leyan."

As Xiaoyun turned around and got ready to leave, Leyan suddenly pulled his sleeve.

"Wait, can you help me find some... morning-after pills? Yueyue has been following me all morning..."

Leyan's face turned blushing red as she made her request.

"Um, I will get it." Xiaoyun lowered his head out of shame as he still couldn't process Leyan as his mother.

After a short, awkward silence, Leyan decided to change the mood.

"Okay, let me open the door for you."

Leyan moved in front of Xiaoyun to open the garage's side door.

As Xiaoyun walked past Leyan, she suddenly lightly kissed Xiaoyun on the lips.

"I don't know how our family can repay you... If you want, you can use my body as much as you want."

Leyan's face was blushed red as she looked down in embarrassment at what she had just said out loud.

"Miss Leyan, you don't need to do that... I'm saving Miss Yuqi because she's my sis——she doesn't deserve to die at such a young age."

Seeing Leyan's admiring face toward him, Xiaoyun quickly walks out of the door and realizes he might have made the misunderstanding even worse.

"Be careful!" Leyan waved as Xiaoyun disappeared into the horizon.

"Why is my heart beating faster and faster? Am I in love with him... I'm sorry, honey, but my body is the only payment I have for him."

Leyan muttered to herself as she closed the door back up.

---

There were no zombies on the road as Xiaoyun walked toward the city center.

Instead, the zombies were locked inside their car and couldn't escape. But hearing zombies banging on car doors made Xiaoyun a little nervous.

As Xiaoyun walked closer and closer to the city center, he could see a road accident in the distance that blocked the whole street.

Hundreds of zombies were standing at the center of the car accident. So Xiaoyun immediately turned the other way.

After walking for a bit, he came across several corpses whose heads had been shot.

"Their head is their weakness... Why is it always head?" Xiaoyun thought to himself as he continued walking.

In the distance, he could see the shopping mall. But before that, Xiaoyun came across the dead body of a policeman whose head was shot.

But this one had a bullet wound from the chin rather than a bullet wound at the forehead.

"Thank you for your service... Sorry about this."

Xiaoyun searched the body of the policeman and found a gun with one bullet left.

Just as Xiaoyun approaches the mall entrance, he sees a zombie standing right in the middle, with no way around it.

"These are not people, but zombies. You killed them to help them escape from their nightmare."

Xiaoyun began to justify his actions in his head and slowly approached the zombie from behind.

As Xiaoyun raised his baseball bat and swung it down with all his strength, a small crushing sound could be heard.

The zombie's head was completely crushed, with blood flying everywhere.

"That was way too much force." Xiaoyun reflected as he looked down at his clothes, which were tainted with blood.

After walking further into the mall, Xiaoyun sees two zombies eating something on the floor.

Upon closer inspection, it was two zombies eating a disfigured body.

A sudden gag forced Xiaoyun to turn around and walk back to the front door.

After the feeling of vomiting disappeared, Xiaoyun walked back to his spot earlier.

"They are beasts, not humans. Nobody is sick enough to eat their kind. They are not Human." Xiaoyun mumbled to himself as he prepared himself to kill the zombies.

Slowly approaching the zombie, Xiaoyun raised his baseball bat and hit the first one on the head.

With a bang, the first one was crushed, but the other zombies turned around and looked toward Xiaoyun.

The zombie immediately lunged at Xiaoyun; with no time to react, Xiaoyun shoved the zombie with his bat.

The shove made the zombie back a few steps, but the zombie lunged towards him again.

This time, it was so close that Xiaoyun couldn't even shove.

Without thinking, Xiaoyun instinctively rolled to the side, barely avoiding the zombie's pounce.

The zombies rushed forward yet again, but this time, the zombies were much further away, giving Xiaoyun precious time to aim his baseball bat.

With a crack sound, the zombie's brain was crushed into pieces as Xiaoyun hit it perfectly on the head.

As Xiaoyun finally could calm back down, he began to start hyperventilating as he held his breath the whole time.

After taking a deep breath and calming down, he took out his cell phone and called.

"Hello? This Yuqi?" Xiaoyun asked.

"Who are you?" Yuqi said in a low voice.

"I'm Xiaoyun, the person you met in the morning. I'm on the first floor of Ping'an shopping mall right now. Where are you at right now?"

A short silence appeared, but Yuqi's response quickly ended it.

"I'm in the clothing store on the second floor. I was too busy running to read the name... I only know that the clothes inside are for mountaineering and camping."

"Okay, I will be there soon."

After hanging up the phone, Xiaoyun got up from the floor and started walking toward the stairs.

After walking for a few minutes, Xiaoyun finally found the stairs. But there were a few lone zombies spread out near the stairs.

With careful movement, Xiaoyun lured them out with small noises and dealt with them one by one.

"My skills are getting better and better." Xiaoyun thought to himself.

After killing them, Xiaoyun walked up the stairs to the second floor.

This time, groups of zombies were standing together on the second floor, all of them wearing security uniforms.

"Oh boy, this is going to be troublesome..." Xiaoyun murmured as he realized his old plan wouldn't work on them.

Suddenly, he thought of an idea.

"Hey, you! Come over if you want a piece of this!" Xiaoyun yells just enough for the zombie to hear it.

As the zombies began rushing towards him, he rushed down to the bottom of the stairs.

As soon as the zombies reached the stairs, they fell like dominoes to the bottom, with their heads completely exposed.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Xiaoyun swung the bat as fast as he could before the zombies could get back up.

"Man, how the hell can zombies be this stupid? they can't even walk up the stairs." Xiaoyun murmured and continued his search.

Xiaoyun finally reached the clothes section, but all the ones he walked past did not have an outdoor section for clothes.

So Xiaoyun went back to the stairs and started searching the other side.

Within a few steps, he found a store selling outdoor equipment.

"Of course, it's on the other side. What was I thinking? She has to be close to the stairs."

After walking in, Xiaoyun cleared all the corners and couldn't find anyone. So Xiaoyun began to search the changing rooms one by one.

As Xiaoyun got to the last changing room door, it suddenly opened on its own.

"Finally, I found you." Xiaoyun sighed as he saw a frightened Yuqi in front of him.

"You y-y-you are human? Who are you? Whose blood is that?"

Yuqi could barely make a cohesive sentence as the blood on Xiaoyun's clothes made her too scared to talk normally.

"Yeah? Me? Of course, I am human. Do you think zombies can talk?"

Xiaoyun got a little confused for a second until he looked down and noticed all the blood on his clothes and face.

"This blood is all from zombies killed. Don't worry… Oh, right, I probably should introduce myself again. I'm Xiaoyun, the one you saw this morning."

Yuqi finally realized Xiaoyun from the morning as Xiaoyun wiped his face with his shirt inside his jacket.

"I am so sorry." Yuqi bowed down in apology as she realized she had been extremely rude, questioning someone who was saving her.

"It's fine. Um, let's go home before it gets dark."

Xiaoyun started humming and looked the other way as he could see the cleavage Yuqi showed when she bowed down.

As Xiaoyun looked the other way, he noticed the items in the outdoor specialty store.

He decided to take the hiking bag and began to pack as many things as possible.

"Well, this windbreaker jacket is practical, and these pants, man, these clothes are so stylish."

Yuqi watched Xiaoyun walk over to the counter after packing his things.

"Well, I'm going to pay now... Wait, why am I paying? Oh my god, I'm so stupid!"

Xiaoyun facepalmed himself and walked back over to the store door.

As he turned around, Yuqi was covering her mouth with her hand, almost as if she was trying to hold in her laugh.

"Hey, let's go. Don't just stand there. We have to get back before it's dark."

Xiaoyun repeated the same line as he turned around to avoid the embarrassment.

---

As the two got to the stairs, Yuqi couldn't help but vomit to the floor instantly as she saw a pile of corpses at the end of the stairs.

After waiting a few minutes, Yuqi stopped vomiting and recovered a little.

"Are you okay?" Xiaoyun asked as he patted Yuqi on the back.

"I'm fine. I'm just not getting used to it." Yuqi replied as she stood back up.

After getting all the way to the entrance of the mall, Xiaoyun peeks out the door.

The zombies inside the cars had finally broken out, with dozens of them standing still on the road.

More importantly, the sun was about to set as sunlight began to dim.

"Okay, let's go. Just copy what I do, okay?"

Xiaoyun bent over and strolled on the road, hiding behind the bushes.

After walking a few steps, Xiaoyun looked back to check.

To his surprise, Yuqi managed to endure the tiring crawling below the bush and was right behind him.

After walking like this for almost twenty minutes at a snail's pace, Xiaoyun and Yuqi finally were able to stand up as the zombies were nowhere to be seen.

"Thank god it's only the first day. Anyway, there is still a forty-minute walk from here," Xiaoyun said in a low voice.

After Yuqi let out a sigh and caught her breath, they continued walking back home.

After walking for five minutes, a car sound suddenly appeared from the road behind them.

It was a giant Hummer H2, shoving all the cars on the road to the side as it drove past them, followed by a massive horde of zombies chasing after them.

"What the fuck! We need to get the hell out of here."

Xiaoyun grabbed Yuqi's hand and immediately rushed to a nearby small hotel that still had its door open.

After getting inside the building, Xiaoyun turned the doorknobs one by one, but all the rooms on the first floor were locked.

So the two rushed upstairs to the second floor and saw a suite with the door still open.

Xiaoyun pushed Yuqi inside, then closed the door and pulled the lock all within seconds.

"I think we are safe..." Xiaoyun commented as they both fell to the floor from exhaustion.

After catching their breath for a minute, the two stood back up.

"Let's check out the window first." Yuqi nodded in agreement to Xiaoyun's suggestion.

The two unconsciously held hands as they walked to the window.

Outside the window, the whole street was full of zombies walking on the road.

"We can only wait for tomorrow. Maybe the zombies will be gone." XIaoyun murmured as they sat down on the sofa.

Yuqi suddenly turned red as she got back up from the sofa, which confused Xiaoyun until she spoke up.

"Uh, I need to go to the restroom... Can you let go for a second?"

Xiaoyun immediately let go of Yuqi's hand, apologizing as he had forgotten about holding onto Yuqi's hand the whole time.

"Sorry about that. I didn't mean to——"

"It's fine... It was an emergency."

As Yuqi got up from the sofa and walked toward the restroom, she stood still at the restroom door.

"This door is broken?" Yuqi murmured as she tried to turn the doorknob, only for it to be jammed.

Suddenly, the restroom door was slammed from the inside as if the noise from the doorknob had triggered something.

"Wait, it might be the original owner that mutated into a zombie. I'll take care of it."

Xiaoyun picked up the bat and walked over to the bathroom, where Yuqi hid behind the sofa.

"It's definitely a zombie."

Xiaoyun immediately recognized the growling sound from the inside as he tried to turn the jammed doorknob.

With the loud noise coming from the restroom, Xiaoyun decided to kick the door open to end the growling.

To Xiaoyun's surprise, the kick went right through the door and popped right in, with his leg getting stuck inside as he tried to pull it back.

"Fuck, this door is so rubbish! Shit!"

Xiaoyun was finally able to pull his leg back, but it was already bleeding from a bite mark.

"Fuck! You fucking zombie!" Xiaoyun yelled in anger as he realized he had been bitten.

Out of pure rage, Xiaoyun slammed his entire body onto the door.

The door hinges instantly popped, forcing the door to collapse on top of the zombie.

With a hard stomp on the door, the zombie's head was squeezed into mush.

"Shit... what a fucking garbage door," Xiaoyun muttered as he stepped back outside the hallway.

As his leg became harder and harder to stand still, Xiaoyun laid down on the floor and rolled up his pants.

The bite mark was deep into his flesh, with blood rapidly flowing out of the wound.

Seeing Xiaoyun was sitting on the floor, Yuqi rushed over to Xiaoyun.

"I'll find something to bandage you."

Yuqi went to search for clothes to be ripped into bandages. But she came back empty-handed.

With no other options, Yuqi had to make a decision.

"Don't look okay?" Yuqi nervously asked as she began taking off her slim suit.

Xiaoyun was stunned by Yuqi's beauty as she took off her shirt next, revealing her voluptuous chest, which was held together by her black bra.

"I'll bandage it... If I remember correctly, Mom said to bandage someone, you should wrap twice around the injury to hold the end in place.

Then work from the inside to the outside of the limb, winding the bandage in spiraling turns."

As Yuqi began bandaging the wound, Xiaoyun couldn't help but stare at the cleavage that Yuqi showed every time her arm moved to wrap the bandage.

"What the hell am I doing looking at my sister like this... but I am fucking dead anyway. Why do I care?"

It didn't take much convincing for Xiaoyun to keep staring at Yuqi's cleavage.

After finishing bandaging Xiaoyun, Yuqi finally got back up with her slim suit in hand.

"It's white..." Xiaoyun accidentally spoke his mind out loud as he looked under Yuqi's hip skirt.

Yuqi's face was blushing red as she noticed Xiaoyun was staring at her panties, but she stood still and didn't stop him.

But Xiaoyun finally snapped back to reality and looked the other way.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to look——"

"It's okay, I don't mind it... You can turn around now."

As Xiaoyun turned back around, Yuqi was now wearing her slim black coat without a shirt inside, with her black bra being fully visible.

"Let me help you to the sofa..." Yuqi said softly as she bent down and supported Xiaoyun back up.

---

The two sat on the sofa silently as neither of them had anything to say. But Xiaoyun decided to end the awkward silence as he could feel his time was limited.

"Yuqi, I need to tell you something."

"What is it?" Yuqi nervously asked.

"Here's the gun I found. I need you to use it on me."

Xiaoyun pulled the safety off and handed the gun over to Yuqi earlier.

"What? I-I can't do this. I don't know how to use a gun."

Yuqi tried to return the gun, but Xiaoyun insisted that she hold onto it.

"I need you, okay? Please," Xiaoyun pleaded as his voice became increasingly weaker.

"Please stay with me! It's all my fault! I should have been the one that deserved to die..." Yuqi began to break down as tears began falling down her face.

"All this would have never happened if I hadn't gone to the restroom. I'm so sorry."

Xiaoyun held Yuqi in his arms, not knowing what to do to comfort her, but time was beginning to run out.

"Please don't cry... Listen to me. If I *cough* turn into a zombie, I need you to shoot me."

Yuqi started crying even harder as soon as Xiaoyun mentioned it again.

"Okay, okay, you don't need to shoot me. Just tie me to a chair, at the very least. I don't want to hurt you, okay?"

Yuqi nodded in agreement this time.

"Come on, sis, you are older than me. Why are you crying like a baby? Remember your stone-cold face?"

Yuqi's sobbing stopped a little as Xiaoyun commented on her face.

"It's not your fault, please don't blame yourself. *cough* I was careless and don't regret coming here, okay?

There are zombies outside *cough* I need you to stop crying."

As he gently patted Yuqi's head, her sobbing finally stopped. But Xiaoyun didn't look at her as he was too focused on reflecting on his life.

"You know, I'm still kind of sad that I didn't even have a girlfriend before I died. It is a pity, isn't it? And If it weren't for my mom, I wouldn't even have my first *Cough Cough*."

Xiaoyun's cough became increasingly severe, to the point that he couldn't even finish speaking.

"No, No, No, don't leave me! Y-You are my boyfriend now!" Yuqi yelled out loud.

Seeing his face beginning to turn pale, Yuqi made up her mind and suddenly kissed him on the lips.

After a few minutes, Yuqi finally let go.

"Thank you, *Cough* sis. Before I *Cough* go, can you call me brother?" Xiaoyun's asked softly as his breathing became increasingly difficult.

"Brother?" Yuqi said out loud as she looked confused at Xiaoyun's request.

But before she could ask why, Xiaoyun finally lost consciousness as his eyes slowly closed on itself.

"No! No, I don't want to be alone again! Please come back!"

Yuqi collapsed into Xiaoyun's arms and started crying again. After crying for a bit, she finally stopped as she thought back to what Xiaoyun had told her earlier.

After wiping her tears off and dragging Xiaoyun's body to a chair, she found some zip ties inside the kitchen cabinet.

Yuqi first tied his hand, then his arm, then his legs and neck. She then went to the window and ripped the curtain to secure the tie further.

With everything done, Yuqi's phone suddenly rang before she could sit back down.

"Hey Yuqi, did Xiaoyun find you? His phone isn't picking up." Leyan's worried voice came out of Yuqi's phone.

"Yeah, we are both currently in a hotel for the night. Xiaoyun was a little tired, so he fell asleep." Yuqi calmly replied as she tried her best to hold in the sobbing sound.

"Okay then... Well, good night, Qiqi."

"Goodnight, Mom——" Unable to bear it, Yuqi immediately hung up and started crying again.

"Why am I crying so hard for a stranger? I met him today and even gave him my first kiss. Why does my heart hurt so much?"

Yuqi couldn't understand the emotion inside her heart as she looked towards the Xiaoyun covered in a curtain.

"Is it because he saved me?" Yuqi thought more and more but couldn't come up with a conclusion by the time she fell asleep on the sofa.