"This… this is a Brain Bead."
Yang Zhang observed the bean-sized red nucleus in his hand. This was initially a human brain, but after someone got infected by the Z-20 Virus, their brain would shrink to this size and become a Brain Bead.
If you thought about it, it was creepy, but Yang Zhang wasn't that disturbed. In this post-apocalypse zombie world, something like this wasn't that gross… at least when compared to that catfish with legs or the tree with a face.
"Squeak!" Chestnut sat on Yang Zhang's shoulder and nuzzled its cheek against Yang Zhang's.
"Hehe, thank you, little guy," Yang Zhang patted Chestnut's head. He could still sense the jolting sensation, but at least it wasn't as bad as before.
"Alright, let's just rest inside that wooden hut first, then we can think about what we should do next," Yang Zhang said, including the squirrel in his conversation.
He pocketed the Brain Bead and walked inside the wooden hut. He looked around cautiously. He didn't want to get jumped by another zombie. He looked around, and when he sensed there were no more suspicious movements inside the hut, he sighed in relief.
The sun had set, and it was soon dark. Everything was scarier at night because the zombies were stronger and faster. Yang Zhang still remembered the first time he saw the zombie outbreak plunge his town into chaos.
He saw so many humans immune to the virus get gnawed on and had their bones picked clean by the zombies. And those who had awakened their ability ran away because none of them were able to stand up to the zombies at night.
It was even worse when those who still had feelings for their loved ones gave up their lives to be eaten by the zombified version of their family member or lover.
"Good thing I'm fatherless," Yang Zhang mumbled.
Checking around the corner, he looked to see if there was any source of light he could use.
He managed to find a wax candle on the table, but there were no matches to light it with.
"Ah, why do I need a match when I have Chestnut, hehe~."
"Squeak?"
Yang Zhang went outside and took a wooden stick. He handed the end of the stick to Chestnut and said, "Little guy, zap this one, please."
"Squeak!"
Bzzzt!
"Aiya, that burns!" Yang Zhang winced in pain as his hand got burnt by Chestnut's electrical discharge, and he accidentally dropped the stick that had turned to charcoal.
Yang Zhang had intended to burn the stick, so it would be red hot charcoal that he could use to light the candle but he hadn't realized he would burn himself.
He took off his shirt and wrapped his hand with it to grab the scorching hot charcoal.
Touching the candle's wick with the red part of the charcoal lit the candle successfully.
"Yes! Yes! I'm a genius!"
"Squeak!" Chestnut also looked happy when it saw how Yang Zhang looked overjoyed at such minuscule achievement.
Yang Zhang held the candle and explored the hut. He had closed all the doors so no zombie or wild animal would think there was life inside the building.
The wooden hut wasn't that big, but it was well-kept, only dusted because nobody had cleaned it for at least a year.
"I suppose that zombie just now was the owner of this hut," Yang Zhang concluded. He entered the only bedroom in the house, but the sight inside the room stunned him.
Yang Zhang saw a baby in his wooden crib. It seemed that he had died a long time ago, and his body was severely decomposed. However, when Yang Zhang checked on him, the baby had no sign of zombification or any zombie bites on him. It was a natural death.
"So this baby died from hunger…." Yang Zhang assumed.
He felt pity for this baby and that zombie Chestnut killed before. It seemed the ones living in this hut were a mother and her baby son. The mother had turned into a zombie, while the son had become a human with immunity, just like Yang Zhang.
But without anyone feeding him, the baby died of starvation…
Yang Zhang sighed. Full of pity, he took a blanket from the bed and covered the baby with it, "I will bury you tomorrow. Rest well."
Yang Zhang shifted his attention to the wardrobe and found piles of clothes for women and babies. None of them were a fit for Yang Zheng, unfortunately.
There was another blanket among the stacks of clothes, so he took it and went out of the bedroom.
Sitting on the chair in the living room, Yang Zhang covered himself with the blanket. Chestnut also curled up with him to get some warmth.
He fished the Brain Bead out of the pocket in his jeans and observed it carefully near the candle.
Most people would crush this Brain Bead without a second thought. They said the Brain Bead was the source of the zombies' strength. As long as the Brain Bead remained, that zombie would never die.
But that had to be false because Chestnut had brought the Brain Bead to him after exploding the zombie's head, and although he hadn't crushed it, the zombie didn't get up anymore.
So Yang Zhang assumed that as long as the zombie was separated from their head, it wouldn't regenerate or move anymore. He could keep the Brain Bead for himself as long as it wasn't destroyed when killing the zombie.
"Now, what can I do with this?" Yang Zhang pondered.
He saw how the tree mutated and became territorial and developed consciousness by absorbing the Brain Bead embedded in its trunk.
"If I bury this in the same soil as a plant, will that plant also mutate?"
There was only one way to find out. Yang Zhang got up from the chair and quietly opened the door. He remembered that he had seen a potted plant outside earlier.
"Ah, there you go, a potted rose," Yang Zhang looked at his left and right cautiously before taking the pot and carrying it inside.
"Squeak?" Chestnut looked at Yang Zhang curiously.
"Ah, this is for our small experiment, little guy. Let's see if my hypothesis is correct!"
Yang Zhang took out the Brain Bead and then planted it inside the soil of the potted rose.
1 second… 2 seconds… 3 seconds… and nothing happened.
Yang Zhang was disappointed. He had expected a magical mutation to happen. He really thought he could start his own army of mutated plants.
"Oh well, I guess you're my only friend, Chestnut."
"Squeak!" Chestnut, the electric squirrel, nuzzled against Yang Zhang's cheek, and they finally slept on the chair, tucked inside the blanket, unaware that there actually had been a mutation inside the potted rose…