After the unbelievable scene that unfolded downstairs at noon, Shao Ming and Li Long both decided to skip their afternoon classes.
After making a call to his family, Shao Ming spent the entire afternoon sitting on the sofa, scrolling through all the information about the aftereffects of the virus. The more he read, the more his brow furrowed.
Meanwhile, Li Long started his intense workout routine again, as if only lifting weights could calm his nerves.
Slowly, Shao Ming's research expanded beyond just reading online. He even brought out several sheets of paper and began taking notes.
A couple of hours later, the noise on the street began to grow. Many people walked out of their homes, heading toward supermarkets to stock up on supplies.
Just as the two of them hesitated, wondering whether they should join the crowd and grab some necessities, an elderly man suddenly collapsed on the street below.
The man was already in poor health, and his wife, who had planned to help him to the hospital, began crying helplessly. However, no one dared to approach. People instead moved farther away, with some even choosing to walk around the block entirely.
As expected, it wasn't long before the man, who had spent a lifetime with his wife, sank his teeth into the neck of the woman he had loved for so many years.
But the chaos didn't last long. Public services were still operational, and the police and doctors quickly arrived at the scene to subdue the mutated individual.
Such incidents had already occurred in most neighborhoods around the city, in most cities across the country, and in many countries around the world.
But for Shao Ming and Li Long, this was enough to scare them into agreeing that it was best not to leave the apartment for now. As the evening approached, the golden light of the setting sun streamed into the room.
"Since this afternoon, there have been 48 siren sounds outside," Li Long said, setting down his dumbbells.
"Look at this." Shao Ming stood up and dragged an old whiteboard out from the corner of the living room. He placed it in the middle of the room and wrote down a date on it — "3.5."
"Three days ago, on March 5th, the first video appeared online." Shao Ming showed Li Long his phone, which displayed a video of a man with blood-red eyes chasing his family through a house. Blood was still dripping from the corners of his mouth.
"When the video first came out, many people thought it was just special effects or a short film," Shao Ming continued as the video ended, "so it didn't cause much of a stir online."
"Then yesterday," Shao Ming wrote "3.6" on the whiteboard, "more of these videos started popping up everywhere, and yesterday, we were all busy preparing for today's exam, so we didn't check our phones and missed all this."
Li Long took the phone and scrolled through the afternoon's video history. There were at least a hundred videos from different locations, each featuring different protagonists. However, they all shared one thing in common — the eyes were completely bloodshot, with no visible sclera or pupils — just like the baby they had seen this afternoon.
"And today," Shao Ming wrote today's date on the board, "there are already tens of thousands of related videos coming out from around the world."
"And the place with the most concentrated outbreaks is… the UK."
"Shit, is it really zombies?" Li Long asked.
Shao Ming shrugged and replied, "The problem is that these people all turned into this after suffering from the aftereffects about half a month after the initial infection. Of course, some young people have mutated much faster."
Li Long's face turned pale. If this was related to the pandemic, he wouldn't be safe either.
Seeing Li Long's expression, Shao Ming comforted him, "There's still no direct evidence…"
What Shao Ming didn't say was that many bloggers had already mapped out the locations of the videos, which coincided with the pandemic's initial spread half a year ago. Many people suffering from aftereffects would experience rapid declines in the final days or even hours, showing symptoms like blindness or internal bleeding.
Although no one had documented exactly how people were transforming into these terrifying creatures, the aftereffects seemed undeniably linked to becoming a zombie.
"Let's hope so…" Li Long slouched on the sofa, "If this is real, I don't want to end up like that…"
"Don't think like that," Shao Ming patted Li Long on the shoulder, "There's still no 100% certainty that people infected half a year ago will definitely relapse now, and even if they do, it's not certain they'll mutate."
Before Shao Ming could finish speaking, a loud rumbling noise came from outside the window. Both of them looked toward the sound and saw a large shadow rapidly falling from the sky.
A few seconds later, they saw clearly — it was a large passenger plane.
The plane crashed into a high-rise building in the city center, followed by a violent explosion.
"Shit…"
They looked at each other. It seemed like the apocalypse had truly begun.
Half an hour later, gasping for breath, the two of them packed up everything useful in the apartment.
Two boxes of instant food, two large barrels of bottled water, a few apples, sixteen bottles of beer, six bottles of cola, one frozen pork chop and one frozen lamb chop, some vegetables, seasonings, ten or so bags of various snacks, a few hundred masks and gloves from the pandemic, a baseball bat, and a kitchen knife.
Conservatively speaking, it would last them about a week.
"Should we go outside and check it out?" Li Long asked, "We're running out of supplies at home…"
Shao Ming wasn't sure whether they should go out. Not only did he not know if there was anything left in the supermarket, but if what the bloggers said was true, how could they know if the people outside had already relapsed? There was a risk that anyone could turn into a zombie at any time.
Shao Ming glanced at Li Long. At least for now, his friend seemed safe.
But he also feared that his companion might become one of the mutated zombies at any moment. He knew it, and Li Long knew it. Both of them were avoiding the topic.
"I should've listened to my mom back then," Shao Ming said with a bitter smile. "Six months ago, during the pandemic, my parents told me to stock up on supplies, but I didn't take it seriously… Now we're paying the price."
The real question now was whether they'd starve to death in the apartment or go outside and risk getting bitten by a zombie.