Finding a car key isn't too difficult; breaking into a house, for example, is an option. However, the easiest and most effortless method right now is...
Raymond set his sights on a nearby intersection. He remembered that turning right there, then going through a few more intersections, and biking for about ten minutes would bring him to a bar called "San Yu." It had a peculiar name and had opened just two months before the apocalypse. He recalled receiving a flyer when he passed by.
He had visited the bar once. He couldn't judge the quality of the drinks but found them palatable, and the food was excellent. Raymond thought it was a restaurant disguised as a bar.
San Yu Bar's business hours were from 3 PM to 5 AM. In other words, when the apocalypse struck, it was open. The owner, employees, and patrons were likely inside, and cars were probably parked outside, with keys still on their owners.
Raymond pedaled towards San Yu Bar. About ten minutes later, he arrived. Just as he was about to enter, he noticed a Porsche parked by the roadside with its door ajar and someone inside. He chuckled—this car owner had died at a convenient time. Clearly, they had been about to leave the bar, but the door wasn't even closed, and the car hadn't been started when they died.
This made things easier for him. The car key was inside.
Raymond approached the car to find a man and a woman inside. The corpses were decayed and foul-smelling, crawling with countless white maggots wriggling through the rotten flesh.
Emmm...
Well, he realized that a car with someone dead inside was far from convenient; it was unusable—too disgusting. He suddenly admired the characters in American TV shows like "The Walking Dead," who could drive cars that had once held zombies and rotten flesh without flinching.
Moreover, the car owner looked familiar. Despite the corpse's face being severely decayed, Raymond felt the man in the driver's seat looked familiar. Driven by curiosity, he carefully avoided the corpses and maggots, rummaging through the car until he found a driver's license and a registration card. Upon seeing the name and matching it to the photo, he finally remembered, feeling a bit nostalgic. "A football star..."
He couldn't help but take a few more glances. Although it was winter now, the day the apocalypse began had been summer. The woman wore revealing clothes, and the man wore a white T-shirt. Due to the decay, the man's originally white T-shirt had become dirty and yellowish. Despite the rotten flesh and maggots underneath, his abdominal muscles were still discernible.
Ugh, it was too gross and eye-burning.
Raymond casually tossed the driver's license and registration card back into the car and said to Ben Mao, "This guy was a respectable person in life. Let's spit on him before we leave!" Of course, it was a joke. He had no interest in actually spitting on a corpse.
He turned and entered the bar, found several car keys, and then went out to match them to the cars. He finally chose a modified Land Rover Range Rover—it was large, with a big trunk. However, when he tried to start it, he found it wouldn't turn over.
"Uh... the battery's dead?" Raymond felt helpless.
Although he had a car, it had been rear-ended a few days before the apocalypse and sent to the 4S shop for repairs. After the apocalypse, he hadn't had the heart to go get it. Besides, it was probably still being repaired, with many parts removed, making it undrivable—in effect, it was scrapped.
Since he had never left a car parked unused for a long time, Raymond didn't know how long it would take for the battery to die. Watching American TV shows like "The Walking Dead," where characters often picked up and drove cars from the roadside, he thought car batteries would last a long time, but now he realized that wasn't the case.
He tried several other cars, but none started. He had no choice but to return to the Land Rover and open the glove compartment, hoping to find a vehicle manual (since that's where he kept his). Instead, he found a white device resembling a power bank and two clips, one black and one red. There was also a small manual labeled "Emergency Car Starter."
"What the heck, there's such a thing?!" Raymond marveled. This device could also be used as a power bank. He followed the manual's instructions and, after some effort, finally got the car started.
He drove to two shopping malls but found nothing. Finally, he found a telescope in a digital products store. However, when he tested it on the apartment rooftop that night, he discovered it was suitable for viewing the moon but not for anything else, let alone stars outside the solar system.
"Telescopes priced around a thousand yuan are unreliable," Raymond sighed. You get what you pay for.
However, telescopes are niche products and rarely sold in stores. Finding this one had already taken considerable effort, and he had no idea where to find a high-end model.
Raymond removed his eye from the eyepiece. "I guess I'll have to go to the observatory and get one," he mused. He knew where the observatory was.
As he straightened up, intending to stretch, a meteor suddenly streaked across the night sky. "Oh! A meteor! No, a meteor shower!" Raymond exclaimed, eyebrows raised in surprise.
In the dark night sky, countless meteors blazed briefly before disappearing on the distant horizon. The brilliant starry sky was breathtakingly beautiful.
At the same time, Ben Mao, who had been lying behind Raymond, suddenly raised its head, staring blankly at the meteors streaking across the sky.
...
That night, Raymond had a dream. He dreamed of New Year's Day last year, January 1, 2025.
The streets were adorned with festive decorations, crowded with people. Stores had hung celebratory banners, offering promotions and discounts, tirelessly advertising. Young couples walked hand in hand, oblivious to everything around them, indulging in public displays of affection.
Everyone's faces were brimming with joy. On a large screen at the street corner, the local TV station's New Year's Eve party was being replayed.
Suddenly, his phone rang. It was a message from his mom, asking what time he'd be home for dinner...
"Meow~~"
"Ah!!!" Raymond woke up with a start, gasping for breath. He touched his cheek and found it slightly wet. Fortunately, the only witness was a cat.
At some point, Ben Mao had jumped onto his bed and was now lying next to his hand. It gently licked his hand, meowing softly, then rubbed its head affectionately against his arm. Raymond couldn't help but laugh. "Are you comforting me? Haha, you seem smarter."
As he spoke, he playfully teased the cat. Perhaps tickled, Ben Mao rolled over, lifting all four paws and exposing its soft belly.
"Hey, wait!!" Raymond quickly tried to stop it, but it was too late. Ben Mao's paws flailed wildly as if trying to grasp something, and with a thud, it rolled off the bed.
Raymond facepalmed. Retract my earlier comment, my cat is still an idiot. Rolling off the edge of the bed—what kind of maneuver is that?!!
...
Brush teeth, wash face, eat breakfast. Breakfast was a smoked ham sandwich and vegetable soup.
Taking a bite of the sandwich and a sip of soup, Raymond glanced down. Ben Mao was quietly eating its cat food.
Ben Mao liked to sit lazily like a human, lie flat in a starfish position to sleep, and spent most of its day lounging on the sofa or windowsill, looking idle. Initially, Raymond thought it was just lazy.
Later, when he casually flipped through a book about Scottish Fold cats in a bookstore, he realized that Ben Mao's behavior was due to pain rather than laziness.
Scottish Fold cats, as their name suggests, have ears that fold forward, resembling little caps on their heads. People find this appearance cute, but for the cats, it's a source of pain.
Their folded ears are a manifestation of a genetic defect. Born with a defect in their cartilage, these cats' ear cartilage is several times softer, causing their ears to fold forward. This genetic defect affects their entire skeletal system, leading to lifelong pain.
Ben Mao often sits in its unique human-like posture to alleviate its discomfort.
If it were before doomsday, when a meteor fell in the city, there would certainly be news reports, crowds gathering, and rumors spreading. Finding it wouldn't be difficult. But now, in this empty city, there was only Raymond. It turned out to be unexpectedly troublesome to find that fallen meteor.
The main reason was that Raymond didn't know its exact landing location.
Before, he thought he could roughly estimate the distance, but that was wishful thinking. It's hard for one person standing high up to determine how many kilometers the horizon is. When the distance is far, the deviation naturally becomes larger. Moreover, the city was so intricate, with buildings everywhere and roads crisscrossing. As a result, Raymond spent a week searching but still couldn't find the meteorite.
Gradually, he began to lose interest.
In the end, the so-called meteorite was just a special stone that had fallen from the sky. Even if it had some research value, it had nothing to do with him. He wasn't a scientist. "Forget it, let it be fate."
Anyway, he was the only person left on this earth. He didn't have to worry about the meteorite being picked up by someone else. Raymond felt that he was probably a Buddhist survivor.
However, there was actually another more important reason that prompted him to give up searching for the meteorite. That was the change that had happened to Ben Mao over the past week.
Honestly, the night after the meteor shower, when Raymond woke up the next day, he had already vaguely noticed some changes in Ben Mao. But he didn't take it seriously, just thinking it was a sign of his pet's intelligence.
But unexpectedly, strange changes began after that day.
Ben Mao became quieter day by day, and in the last two days, it didn't even make a sound all day. Most of the time, it sat quietly on the windowsill, gazing into the distance, sometimes not even eating.
Raymond once approached and couldn't help feeling uneasy because its eyes were too calm and deep, like... like those of a person.
Yes, just like a person.
It was somewhat ridiculous to say a cat was like a person, and Raymond had also wondered if it was his illusion. But every time he thought of those cat eyes, he couldn't help feeling that something terrible was happening to Ben Mao. What was even more bizarre was that several times when Raymond woke up in the middle of the night to urinate, he found Ben Mao squatting on his bed, silently staring at him, its eyes flickering faintly in the darkness.
The first time he saw it, Raymond's heartbeat skipped a beat. He didn't know how long it had been watching him like this, nor did he know if it would continue to stare at him in the darkness after he closed his eyes again. He didn't know if it stayed awake all night, just staring at him...
"I say, can you understand human speech?"
Waking up again in the middle of the night and being startled, Raymond didn't turn on the light but remained silent before asking Ben Mao.
But Ben Mao didn't react, just kept staring at him, its eyes gleaming faintly.
The window was half open, and the night breeze blew the thin curtains, with moonlight shining in, falling precisely on Ben Mao. Raymond glanced at it, and its claws seemed sharper than yesterday.
"You're affecting my sleep quality like this," Raymond said.
He was still brave, but if he were more timid, he probably wouldn't dare to sleep at night. Ben Mao still didn't react.
Raymond waited for a while, then sighed and said helplessly, "Forget it, watch if you want."
"Meow~" Ben Mao suddenly meowed, looked away, jumped off the bed, and disappeared into the darkness.
The next morning, Raymond got up with dark circles under his eyes. This week, his sleep quality had been greatly affected. Although he was brave, the thought of eyes staring at him incessantly in the dark would make anyone sleep poorly.
He rubbed his eyes, yawned, changed clothes. Brushed his teeth, washed his face, had breakfast. Raymond still took Ben Mao out for a walk as usual. No matter how weird this cat had become, he still had to take it for a walk.
"Woof woof woof!!!" When he walked to the nearby park, a sturdy yellow dog suddenly raised its head not far away. After glancing at Raymond, all the fur on its body stood up, and it jumped back, showing its sharp teeth, barking ferociously, and slowly backing away.
The dog's barking came too suddenly, and Raymond was startled. "What's wrong with this dog? Huh? This dog..."
"Woof woof woof!!!" The yellow dog barked frantically at Raymond, as if facing some huge threat.
"Meow~" Ben Mao suddenly meowed softly.
But as if it had been greatly frightened, the yellow dog turned around and fled in panic, disappearing in an instant. Seeing this, Raymond looked down at Ben Mao and asked, "Did you scare it away?" Ben Mao squatted down, showing no response.
Raymond frowned, looking in the direction where the yellow dog had run away, lost in thought...
In the days that followed, every morning when Raymond took Ben Mao out for a walk, he would encounter that big yellow dog. It didn't come close, always staying far away, barking ferociously, but as soon as Ben Mao meowed, it would flee without hesitation, obviously terrified to death.
Encountering it more often, Raymond gradually remembered, he might know this yellow dog. No, he should say he might recognize it. Because it looked a lot like the one his sister used to keep, just bigger and dirtier than he remembered. But Raymond hadn't seen his sister's dog for a long time. When doomsday came, he didn't see it when he went to his sister's house to bury them. He only saw a broken window... Besides, this kind of yellow dog wasn't a rare breed; it was just a common Chinese rural dog, so he wasn't very sure.
However, this dog seemed to have a special persistence towards Raymond. Although it was afraid of Ben Mao, it still came over every day. Raymond guessed it was trying to warn him.
Days passed. Ben Mao's changes became more and more bizarre, and the barking of the yellow dog became more and more anxious. Even once, when Raymond went out for a walk with Ben Mao and it moved away slightly, the yellow dog seized the opportunity to suddenly appear, biting Raymond's trouser leg desperately trying to drag him away. The atmosphere was so thick with unease that it seemed tangible.
But Raymond did nothing. He felt he was too indifferent, but also felt a faint sense of playing with fire. But... life was no longer so boring. He watched day by day like a bystander, enjoying it, without any precautions until that day. When he woke up, he found Ben Mao was gone.