Leaning against the doorway, Hua Zhen obscured the view into the pharmacy.
"Enough, madam, I do have medicine, but it's not on me. You can come with me to get it shortly."
"I don't believe you. What's in your bag?"
The lady's gaze was piercing as she grasped the strap of the backpack.
Reluctantly, Hua Zhen handed it over to her.
Upon opening it, she found no medicines, just some food Hua Zhen had prepared for the road: a few pieces of chocolate, a couple of bottles of mineral water, and some biscuits.
Her eyes lit up, reaching into the backpack.
"Just perfect, my child loves these. I'll take a few."
"That doesn't seem quite right, what about me? Didn't I say I would give you medicine?"
Her eyes widened with indignation, "I haven't received anything yet! Besides, do you know what it means to respect the elderly and care for the young? Huh? Didn't your parents teach you that?"
Hua Zhen let the lady rummage through his backpack.
He couldn't help but be reminded of monkeys he had encountered while hiking, their manner of rifling through tourists' backpacks strikingly similar to this woman's.
"Respect for the elderly and care for the young… Fine, take whatever you want. But may I ask, do you know what's happening outside, what has become of the people in the city?"
"How should I know, are you blind? The streets are full of rabid creatures, biting anyone they see. Those with money and cars have fled the city!"
"So… is your child still at home? Shall I deliver the medicine to your neighborhood?"
The lady shook her head vehemently.
"The building's probably been hit too. I've been hiding in a large shopping mall two streets away for the past half month. I even saw old man Li from next door and his family overturns their car on the highway from the sixth floor!"
Hua Zhen was taken aback.
He knew that with this woman's wits, she couldn't have brought her middle school-aged, internet-addicted son so far from home when the outbreak occurred. She must have been nearby, possibly with other survivors.
But what he didn't expect was for her to so blatantly reveal her hiding place.
Impressive, indeed.
"Wait, you said you were in the mall, there's no shortage of food there, right? Didn't you think to bring some when you left?"
"You make it sound so easy! By the time I got there, a lot had already been looted. There's still some food upstairs, but it's all been collected."
"By whom?"
"A security guard in the building. He says we need to conserve the remaining food."
"So… he gives you very little?"
"Yes!" she complained. "That damn plague, he's inhumane. He only gives my son and me six packs of self-heating hotpot, five bottles of water, and a few bags of chips a day. Does he not realize my child is still growing? If my son doesn't grow tall, it's on him!"
Hua Zhen raised an eyebrow.
He remembered this woman's son, a chubby middle schooler whose height matched his weight. Aside from gaming, he enjoyed playing various anime girl games, constantly caressing his phone screen, calling the virtual characters his wives, and often bringing internet slang into real life, acting superior when his classmates didn't understand…
Genetically speaking, it was unlikely the boy would grow much taller, but given this woman's feeding habits, growing wider was certainly not out of the question.
"The authorities have announced that the next batch of aid will arrive in three days. I don't know what that idiot is guarding, acting like a miser. No wonder he's destined to be a security guard for life!"
The lady continued her tirade, her nagging voice grating on the ears.
"He even wants us to take turns guarding the door every day. The door is locked, as if we're watching over his buried mother. It's gotten to the point where my son doesn't have time for his online classes. If he can't get into a good high school, what then? And now, my son is sick, and that guard won't even let me go out for medicine. He's truly harmful!"
"Is your son's illness serious?"
"My son caught a cold this morning after going to the bathroom. When I left, I quietly left a crack in the rolling door so that idiot guard won't know when I return."
The lady boasted, a smug expression on her face.
Hua Zhen took a deep breath to calm his rising blood pressure.
She deserves the Darwin Award, for such a distinction could belong to no one else but her.
The lady glanced at the two female pharmacists' corpses nearby, her face still tinged with fear.
"I quietly opened the door and came in, only for those two madwomen to charge at me. I've been hiding here all day without food!"
After speaking, the lady tore open a chocolate bar and began to chew with relish.
Hua Zhen did not stop her.
Before setting out, one must have a full meal, an ancient custom passed down through the ages.
Yet, a single chocolate bar would hardly suffice to fill her belly.
"Do you think the situation outside is caused by rabies?" Hua Zhen inquired.
"People biting people, what else could it be but rabies? But I don't understand. Anyway, rescue is coming in three days, then we'll go somewhere safe!"
The lady appeared somewhat impatient.
She also felt uncertain; such a large-scale anomaly shouldn't be rabies. She was petrified when she first saw people eating each other.
But she lacked knowledge and had never seen any zombie movies, so she didn't know how to articulate it.
She hadn't wanted to come out, but her son had a severe cold, so she had to sneak out quietly.
Hua Zhen sighed deeply in his heart.
That such a person could survive the first wave of infection was beyond belief.
The landlord who often donated money, clothes, and books to the welfare home…
Good people don't live long, alas.
So, perhaps it's better not to be good.
"Alright, then I'm leaving. Are you coming for the medicine?"
"Of course, you must give me the medicine!"
Hua Zhen zipped up his backpack and, after organizing it, turned towards the main entrance.
The lady followed behind him, but after a few steps, she was stunned.
Outside the pharmacy, unbeknownst to them, seven or eight zombies had gathered. Upon seeing the lady, they immediately switched from idle to berserk mode, charging at her like mad dogs.
The lady's mouth quivered in fear, and then she turned fierce, pushing Hua Zhen in front of her toward the zombie horde while she ran back inside.
However, her bulky frame was not agile enough for such a maneuver; she tripped over her own feet and fell.
The lady had thought that with Hua Zhen as a buffer, she could run back to the room behind the pharmacy. But the zombies bypassed Hua Zhen and charged straight at her, shattering the glass showcases, and scattering shards everywhere.
"Ah, help me!!!"
As the zombies pounced and bit her, the lady let out a piercing scream.
"Young man, save me!"
She curled up, fiercely protecting her neck, her ample layer of fat preventing her from dying immediately.
Hua Zhen simply adjusted his backpack.
Perhaps because the zipper wasn't fully secured, a blood-stained cleaver fell to the ground.
"You're letting me die, you're harming me! You'll be cursed!"
"Strange, how have I harmed you? I did nothing, and I even gave you chocolate."
Hua Zhen turned around, and shrugged his shoulders, "It was your loud voice that attracted the zombies. If I hadn't blocked the door, they would have seen you first, and you would have died sooner. Now you're blaming me for your folly?"
"If I turn into a monster, the first one I'll bite is you, you bastard!"
The lady's voice was laced with sobs, the fear and pain of being eaten alive consuming her.
Hua Zhen simply removed his sunglasses and mask, revealing the face of a zombie, and chuckled.
"No trouble at all, but there's no need for that."