The security guard harbored no suspicions towards Hua Zhen.
The fire escape on the south side of the mall stretched to the rooftop, and from his observations on the sixth floor over these days, it was evident that the number of zombies on the streets had significantly dwindled, with the majority having entered nearby buildings.
It seems that those who first fled the city were indeed fortunate.
Those still in the residential buildings are nothing but self-service canned food for the zombies.
Ready to eat if opened.
If not, they would shrink back into their homes and starve to death.
Hua Zhen also learned about the initial outbreak of the infection.
The security guard before him, named Li Shurui, had been working as a guard in this building since graduating from college.
One afternoon, half a month ago, news of people biting each other began to spread. At first, people paid little mind until a video of zombies eating people was posted online. Its high clarity and realism caused a minor panic on the internet.
Some people realized something was amiss at that time and started hoarding supplies from nearby convenience stores, but most thought it was some new AI prank video and mocked those stockpiling food, comparing them to those who hoarded salt in the past.
Another two and a half hours passed, around seven in the evening, as dusk fell, Li Shurui saw numerous police cars rushing to the suburban food processing plant, just as he was about to finish his shift.
As Li Shurui was preparing to change clothes and leave, he suddenly saw an official notification stating that a new infectious disease was spreading in the city. The public was urged not to panic, to return home quickly, and to reduce outings.
With the release of this notification, anyone with a sound mind knew trouble was brewing.
Consequently, supermarkets and convenience stores throughout the city experienced panic buying. Some who had stayed home also went out, hoping to stockpile enough supplies.
Li Shurui wanted to bring some rice and flour home to prepare for the situation, so he didn't leave immediately.
The flow of people in the city at that time was unprecedentedly large, with many driving to shop, causing traffic congestion. The police force mobilized in such a short time and struggled to maintain order.
The outbreak occurred when the streets were most crowded.
Li Shurui remembers that around nine o'clock in the evening, riots began to erupt on the streets.
One incident he witnessed on the fourth floor of the mall involved a conflict over hoarding supplies that turned violent. One person, after being punched several times, convulsed for unknown reasons and then suddenly bit another person's neck, his eyes blood-red and crazed.
The blood from the biting splattered onto those nearby. Witnessing cannibalism for the first time, the crowd dispersed in panic, no one daring to approach a madman, all eager to leave. But in less than a few minutes, the same chaos erupted downstairs.
Li Shurui, familiar with the surroundings from working here, made a split-second decision. He took food and used the safety passage to reach the fire escape, heading straight to the cinema. At that time, the cinema was nearly empty, and he narrowly escaped disaster.
In just one night, the city of Mino fell.
Not only Mino, but outbreaks occurred nationwide.
At the same time, other countries around the world also experienced outbreaks, with cities falling rapidly, turning bustling metropolises into ghost towns overnight.
In the hours after Li Shurui hid in the cinema, a few more people arrived, likely having escaped from the fifth floor to the upper levels. Li Shurui, seeing they were unbitten, let them in.
But then the infected crowd broke into the sixth floor, and he never opened the door again, only occasionally observing the outside through the holes in the rolling shutter door.
"But today is different; that woman sneaked out. It's one thing to leave but to not lock the door behind her, it's as if she wants us dead," Li Shurui thought, recalling the moment Hua Zhen lifted the rolling door, his heart trembling with fear.
He had thought the zombies had pried open the lock!
"Don't worry, people like her will surely face retribution; perhaps she's already been eaten by the zombies," Hua Zhen said.
"That woman's child is still here, keep your voice down, don't let him hear you. But I agree with you," Li Shurui sized up Hua Zhen, "By the way, why are you covered in so much blood?"
"It's zombie blood, my own doing," Hua Zhen explained, "I thought that smearing their blood on me might reduce the chances of them detecting me, or they might mistake me for one of their own."
"Does it work?" Li Shurui asked skeptically.
Hua Zhen shrugged, "I don't know. I was very careful on my way here, didn't encounter many zombies, and they didn't see me."
"Alright… come here, I'll get you something to eat."
With that, Li Shurui led Hua Zhen to the area near the big screen where the survivors gathered, the lowest point in the cinema, a large auditorium that could seat around three hundred people.
Not far from where the survivors huddled in a corner, there was a substantial stockpile of supplies, including oil, rice, and flour. However, there were no cooking facilities, so they ate ready-made food like instant noodles and self-heating hot pots, of which there was still a considerable amount.
Hua Zhen understood why the old lady he met in the pharmacy had nothing to eat.
Because the supplies were in plain sight, she couldn't steal them.
Li Shurui handed Hua Zhen a self-heating hot pot and a bottle of grape-flavored soda.
"Here, eat this. There's a water dispenser in the staff lounge outside the projection room if you need to drink. The water for the self-heating hot pot can be taken from the bathroom, but I must warn you, it's best not to go through the staff corridor."
"Why, are there zombies there?"
"Not for now, but there's a fire exit across from the bathroom. Not far out, there's a corner connected to the staff corridor at a crossroads. Directly opposite is the staircase going down, and to the right is the exit of the staff corridor. We moved the servers from the projection room over there to block the stairway entrance. I just don't know if it will hold against the zombies…"
"Why not block the fire exit directly?" Hua Zhen asked curiously.
"Because we're waiting for rescue."
Li Shurui sighed, "The next rescue is in three days, actually less than three days now. When the time comes, we have to go to the rooftop to wait for the helicopter. We'll have to go through the staff corridor, pass the corner by the ticket checkpoint, and then we can get to the fire escape. So we can't block the fire exit."
"Alright, I understand."
Hua Zhen now had a grasp of the situation from half a month ago.
It indeed sounded dire.