Dora Lin found it hard to imagine a world without zombies. Only a few old photos left by her family gave her a glimpse into that bygone world.
Her family had described it many times, but she struggled to visualize it concretely. If there were no dangers in the world, what would people do every day?
No wonder so many tall buildings had been constructed—people were clearly idle.
"Where did you come from?" Dora Lin suddenly asked Alex White.
Alex White's questions were always puzzling, while hers were quite direct.
"I came from…" Alex White hesitated. How should he explain it? Did he just stumble in after getting drunk?
He didn't even know why that drink had cost him so much—he had paid with half his life. If possible, Alex White wished he could swap places with his boss, let the boss be bitten by a zombie, so he wouldn't have to deal with so many damned questions and meetings.
"You're about to lie," Dora Lin said with certainty.
"No, I… got infected. It's like a dream."
"Oh?"
"I feel like I came from a place without zombies."
"How could such a place exist?" Dora Lin laughed, clearly thinking it was just a dream.
But even in her dreams, she had never imagined such a place—the world without zombies her family had talked about.
"How did you get bitten by a zombie? Are there new zombies in the city?" Dora Lin asked again.
"New zombies…"
Alex White found the term awkward, as if he were a fresh zombie himself.
He had never thought he would discuss such strange topics or hear such odd terms. It would have seemed more reasonable if zombies had been snarling and closing in, signaling the collapse of civilization.
"It was an old zombie," Alex White recalled that decrepit creature, which was indeed very old.
"You didn't contract some terminal illness and let it treat you, did you?" Dora Lin's expression became a bit strange.
"How could that be? What on earth are you thinking?" Alex White really wanted to open her head to see.
Dora Lin shrugged, noting that getting bitten by an old zombie was indeed quite unusual.
She even managed to ride a bicycle through a crowd of old zombies while wrapped in her heavy coat, wielding a hoe.
"What is a place without zombies like in your dreams? Is it just idle people building towers?"
"It's not… idle; there's still a lot to do," Alex White thought about his unfinished projects and years of overtime.
Strangely, after being infected, his days were actually the most relaxed.
"For example?" Dora Lin asked.
"Hold meetings, revise plans repeatedly, socialize with the boss, and so on," Alex White said.
Dora Lin lost interest, dismissing it as nonsense. The food was ready. She stood up, feeling a bit lightheaded from low blood sugar, paused for a moment, then scooped a large spoonful for Alex White. He pretended to blow on it, though he wasn't afraid of the heat; he was just a bit resistant to the change, trying to act like a normal person by cooling it before eating.
"Eat more," Dora Lin said.
"Hmm?"
"Don't you notice anything different between you and those zombies outside?"
"I eat food? Eat vegetables?"
"Exactly. Maybe that's one reason why you're improving. They always seem hungry and refuse to eat."
"I'm always hungry too," Alex White said.
"But you eat," Dora Lin replied.
That makes sense.
Alex White somewhat agreed. When he was first infected, he couldn't digest food; he kept wanting to throw up. Once he began to digest, he started to improve. He didn't know if there was a connection.
"And since you're vegetarian, you should eat more."
Dora Lin said this as she took the remaining rice from the pot and served herself before heading to eat in another room.
She knew the feeling of only eating vegetables and not meat—people had little strength without meat, and it was essential to eat it.
After finishing her meal, with the sun still high and the afternoon heat persisting, she put on gloves and picked up a knife to split bamboo, preparing to make a bamboo basket. The bamboo basket she made last year was nearly worn out; otherwise, she wouldn't be using a snake skin bag.
A bamboo basket could be carried on the back, freeing up the hands and sometimes offering more safety. Unlike today, when carrying a bag and holding cabbage, encountering a rat made it inconvenient. Rats weren't afraid of people and charged straight at them. She had to drop the cabbage and shoot the rat dead with one shot.
"I can make this," Alex White said.
Dora Lin thought for a moment, then went inside to find a pair of gloves for him and told him to put them on.
Alex White took over Dora Lin's task. Dora Lin scratched her ear, pulled over the makeshift screen, took a quick shower, and washed away the stench of rat blood.
To Alex White, Dora Lin had seemed a bit fierce earlier—a girl carrying a bag with a dead body in her right hand, skinning and deboning it without a hint of hesitation, like an old butcher.
In fact, just walking around with a gun all day was already quite intimidating.
When Dora Lin finished her shower, changed into loose clothing, and sat on the doorstep with a fan, she looked much more normal.
"What about those locust flowers?" Alex White asked, noticing the large bag of locust flowers. She had brought back a lot, of which she had only eaten a little.
"Save some for tomorrow, and dry the rest for soaking," Dora Lin said.
Alex White noticed that she had a habit of storing various things. It wasn't just elm seeds that needed drying and saving, but also locust flowers. This might be a result of years of survival, always keeping reserves; even if they weren't used for soaking, they could come in handy in emergencies.
"Isn't there something like a survivor's settlement?" Alex White suddenly asked.
"Hmm?" Dora Lin paused.
"You know, where the remaining survivors band together to fight against disasters. More people means more strength."
"Even if there were, it would be human-run," Dora Lin replied. If a zombie was encountered, it would most likely get a bullet.
"Is there really?"
"Probably… I heard of a place like that in the Northern Plains a few years ago," Dora Lin said, recalling carefully, "but I don't know if it still exists."
"Why don't you go?" Alex White asked, puzzled.
"Why would I?" Dora Lin was even more puzzled.
Alex White had intended to suggest that it would be a better life, but seeing Dora Lin's demeanor, he suspected there might be some hidden reasons he didn't know about.
"Why don't you go?" Dora Lin countered.
"…I'm a zombie," Alex White thought for a moment and said.
"What about before you were infected?" Dora Lin asked.
"I don't remember."
Alex White felt a sense of sadness. The world had collapsed from the beginning, and even if he wanted to find an organization, it had to be one that would accept him.
Survivors banding together was always easier than living alone… probably.