"This... this... this!!"
In the moment when the woman turned to leave, Mark caught a glimpse of her profile. Her skin seemed to be peeling, hanging loosely over the red flesh beneath, and her eyes were even more terrifying. The eyeball of her left eye dangled and swayed as if it was about to fall out, with a constant oozing of yellow liquid from the eye socket. It looked disgustingly gruesome!
Mark wasn't sure what that liquid was, but the pungent smell in the air became even more pronounced, like the stench of blood.
Quickly and quietly, he slid the door cover back into place, and he pressed his back against the door.
"Knock! Knock! Knock!"
This time, the sound didn't come from the door; Mark could clearly hear the sound of a heartbeat. The image of the woman's face kept floating in his mind, and he was thoroughly frightened.
"What on earth happened to that woman?" Mark couldn't believe what he had just seen. It was as if the woman didn't feel any pain, moving instinctively like a walking corpse. Especially the red marks around her mouth.
Mark was certain. It was blood!
Unconsciously, Mark had been leaning against the door for ten minutes.
Perhaps as his initial shock began to subside or maybe because he sensed something was wrong, he thought, "It's too quiet."
Indeed, Mark suddenly realized. Since he woke up, apart from the knocking, there had been no other sounds from outside. It was eerily silent.
"It's too quiet."
"There's no noise from downstairs."
"Even the sounds of cars on the nearby road, which are usually so audible, are absent."
With these thoughts, Mark regained his composure and quickly stepped into the room to check the time on his phone.
"Something's wrong." This was Mark's immediate reaction because he knew that this time of day was usually the busiest for everyone. It was 8 AM, the rush hour for commuters taking the subway or driving to work. Even if Mark's residential area was usually quiet, there should still be some noise.
Although his feverish mind was somewhat confused these past few days, it hadn't dulled his thinking to this extent.
Without rushing out to investigate, Mark quickly went to the living room and pulled back the curtains.
Downstairs, exactly as he had suspected, there were no bustling people hurrying to and fro. Instead, there were scattered pedestrians walking aimlessly with their heads down.
"These people are not normal!" Mark's vision was sharp, and he could clearly see that these people downstairs walked with the same gait as the woman earlier. Their faces, especially the peeling skin, were unmistakable. What was most disturbing was that their eyes no longer had black pupils; instead, there were murky yellow dots.
"Zombies!" The word instantly popped into Mark's mind. He had seen this type of scenario in movies, and the appearance of these people matched it perfectly.
As Mark was lost in his thoughts, he noticed a man rushing out from the opposite building. The man looked somewhat anxious, carefully surveying his surroundings.
"That's a normal person," Mark discerned.
When the man felt it was safe, he hurriedly ran out, and his target was a luxury car fifty meters away.
Mark observed attentively.
Quickly, the man did not catch the attention of the distant zombies. At 40 meters, 30 meters, 20 meters, 10 meters... Mark watched as the man was about to reach the car, completely unaware that there was a person lying seemingly lifeless at the front of the car.
Mark could see it, but for the man below, it was a blind spot.
At that moment, the sound of the man's footsteps attracted the attention of the "dead" person on the ground.
Mark watched as the "dead" person slowly got up when he realized the running man was approaching.