Shao Ming rushed to the window to check what was happening. Across the street, a person had broken the glass and was standing on the windowsill. The person appeared to be quite young, barely an adult.
Before Shao Ming could react, the person leaped forward, jumping from the seventh floor.
Thud! The sound of impact echoed as the person hit the ground, struggling for a moment before lying still.
From the building above, the woman's cries could be heard. Shao Ming turned toward the sound, seeing a middle-aged couple at the window, screaming in agony.
It wasn't long before a group of mutated creatures crawled out of the alley and pounced on the body, starting to feast.
Shao Ming took a few steps back, his stomach turning. Although he had seen scenes like this in the past couple of days, seeing a person devoured alive still made him feel nauseous.
"What's going on?" Li Long asked from behind.
"Someone jumped," Shao Ming replied.
"Zombies?" Li Long asked, recalling what he had seen in the hospital the day before.
"No... They still seem human," Shao Ming shook his head, "I'm not sure what's going on."
"Maybe they couldn't take it anymore, thought everything was too unreal," Li Long murmured.
Shao Ming gazed out the window again. Everything did seem unreal.
Across the street, the woman was still crying uncontrollably, while the man was desperately trying to coax her back inside. Judging by their age, they were likely the parents of the person who had just jumped.
Below, the mutated creatures were enjoying their "meal," seemingly indifferent to the cries from above.
The woman, who could be the mother, collapsed on the ground in despair, while the man clung tightly to his wife.
Suddenly, the mother broke free from her husband's grasp and, without hesitation, jumped down after her child.
The mutated creatures, still feasting, received a fresh "meal" from above.
Shao Ming was stunned.
"No way…" He murmured.
"What happened now?" Li Long asked.
"Uh… I think… his mom jumped too…" Shao Ming stammered.
"Ugh…" Li Long sighed. "What kind of world is this becoming?"
The man upstairs collapsed to his knees. Shao Ming could hardly imagine the heartbreak of losing both his wife and child in just a few minutes. The suddenness of death and loss had become all too familiar in these last few days.
The man shakily rose to his feet, then turned and walked back into his apartment.
Shao Ming stood at the window, watching as the mutated creatures devoured the remains of the mother and child. The smell of blood attracted even more creatures, and Shao Ming was shocked to see that some mutated beings were even emerging from nearby buildings, crawling or climbing their way toward the feast.
Yet, less than a minute later, the man's silhouette appeared in the hallway.
In his left hand, he held a wooden stick, and in his right, a kitchen knife. He screamed in rage as he charged at the creatures gnawing on his family's remains.
He fought like a warrior, swinging his weapons with all his strength.
The mutated creatures, irritated by his interference, surged toward him.
The man swung the stick, knocking one creature away, then slammed the kitchen knife into the head of another. The mutated creature's face was half-sliced off, and it collapsed to the ground, motionless.
The man swung again, this time the knife embedding itself in the shoulder of another creature. But the blade got stuck, and before he could pull it out, more mutated creatures swarmed in.
Shao Ming quickly closed the window, but the man's screams still reached their ears.
Li Long opened his mouth but didn't need to ask to know what had happened.
"Another one," Shao Ming muttered. "Dying wasn't so bad, I guess."
Neither of them said anything further. The silence in the room was heavy, broken only by the distant sounds of chaos outside.
Two hours passed. Shao Ming sat in the chair, refreshing Twitter over and over, hoping to find something useful.
"I've finished it," Li Long finally spoke, handing the laptop over to Shao Ming.
Shao Ming took the laptop and scanned through the email—it was addressed to Consul Wang at the Manchester Consulate. It seemed fine after a quick glance.
"Send it to the consul," Shao Ming said. "Hopefully, we'll get some good news."
But to be honest, neither of them held much hope that the consulate could help at this point.
Li Long took back the laptop, carefully double-checked the email address, and clicked send.
Outside, the rain had started falling, soft at first, but the sky was slowly darkening.
Shao Ming stood up and walked to the window. Across the street, all that remained were bones and bloodstains. The mutated creatures had wandered off, as though uninterested in the carnage anymore.
Walking over to the living room window, Shao Ming looked out at the street. Only a few mutated creatures were still wandering around.
Maybe the creatures didn't like the rain. Shao Ming thought to himself. If so, then they had chosen the wrong country to invade.
With little else to do, Shao Ming began rummaging through his apartment, hoping to find something useful.
Li Long sat on the bed, scanning news online and checking his email for any responses.
Outside, with the soft sound of rain pattering against the window, the mutated creatures slowly shuffled into the stores along the street.
From within some of the buildings, sporadic sounds of gunfire, fighting, and screams echoed. Survivors hid in their homes, praying that they—or their loved ones—wouldn't turn into monsters.
The city had fallen into desolation. Streets were blocked with abandoned vehicles, and in some areas, fires burned unchecked, sending thick columns of smoke into the air.
Shao Ming weighed a clothesline pole in his hand, considering how to turn it into a usable weapon. He grabbed a kitchen knife and tested it against the pole—it wasn't the easiest to wield.
Maybe it was better as a spear, he thought, remembering how he used to enjoy pretending the clothesline pole was a spear when he was a child.
This clothesline pole had been sent to him by his mother, despite his protests. He had argued that it was unnecessary—no one hung clothes outside in this country, and the building had a dryer anyway. But his mother insisted, giving two reasons: one, the public dryers were charged and unclean, and two, clothes dried outside in the sun had a special smell.
It was a bit of a hassle for her to send it, but Shao Ming had still received it in the end.
Now, as he turned the "clothesline pole from home" around, he realized that if he sharpened the wooden end, it could actually serve as a sharp, long-handled weapon.