Upon hearing this, the few people immediately raised their weapons, as if ready to fight to the death.
Seeing this, Xu Yiwen quickly waved his hand and said, "What's the meaning of this? We're all survivors now… shouldn't we be helping each other? Why fight here? Think about it: if we cause a commotion and attract even one walking corpse, none of us will make it out alive."
"Yes, yes, what's there to argue about? Do we really have to fight? You have to eat, and we have to eat too. Just because you chose to hide here doesn't mean we can't also share, right?" I quickly followed up, "Let's split the supplies half and half. You get half, we get half. How about it?"
The two girls opposite us were clearly less aggressive and immediately began persuading the two men to share.
But just as the tension seemed to ease, a sudden violent retching came from behind the shelf where they had been hiding.
One of the girls' expressions changed drastically as she ran toward the shelf.
The remaining three glanced at us warily before rushing after her.
Seizing the opportunity, Xu Yiwen hastily grabbed a few large bags from the cash register and handed them to us. We intended to pack what we could and leave, but suddenly a loud wail came from behind the shelf, forcing us to pause.
"Lin Wei, don't scream! You'll attract the walking corpses! Please don't scream, I'm begging you!" cried another girl. Though she was trying to persuade Lin Wei, her voice was choked with tears.
But the girl called Lin Wei continued to sob uncontrollably: "Get up! You have to get up! Don't close your eyes! Please, get up!!!"
I glanced outside the store, confirming no corpses were near. Then I put down my bag and walked cautiously toward the shelf.
Chen Ming shot me a look: "Don't meddle. Just grab the stuff and go."
Xu Yiwen nodded grimly, stuffing items into his backpack. "Right. Get what we can and leave."
"We have to at least check. With all that screaming, every corpse on the street will be drawn here soon. We need to warn them," I said, stepping behind the shelf.
What I saw froze me in my tracks.
In the center of the four people, a man lay on the ground — his abdomen gruesomely torn open, entrails spilling out. Lin Wei beat on his chest, sobbing. Each strike made the gaping wound gush more blood, but otherwise, there was no response.
Without thinking, I stepped forward, grabbed Lin Wei's arms, and pulled her back. Her companions immediately rushed over to pull her away from me, but I shouted urgently: "He's dead! Bitten! He's going to reanimate! If you don't pull her away and shut her up, we'll all die when the walking corpses get here!"
The others froze, hesitating only a few seconds before finally acting. Together, we dragged Lin Wei aside, though she continued to cry and struggle, trying to crawl back toward the body.
Chen Ming stepped in and, with a quick hand chop to the back of her neck, knocked her unconscious at last.
With the girl quiet, we finally exhaled in relief. Xu Yiwen ran to the door to keep watch while the blond boy, gasping, turned to me and asked, "How did you know? How do you know he'll reanimate?"
"It was all over the news before the signal went down. I also saw it with my own eyes," I said grimly, forcing down the image of my brother's twisted figure back at the hospital. "Only way to stop it is to smash the brain before they get up."
No sooner had the words left my mouth than the corpse on the ground opened its dead, milky eyes.
With a wet, guttural growl, it tried to rise, but Chen Ming, without hesitation, cleaved its skull in two with a sharp knife.
The room fell silent except for the heavy breathing of the living.
Keeping this group calm was harder than climbing a cliff without rope.
We quickly finished packing our supplies and prepared to leave. But before we could, the two boys blocked our path.
"Can we… come with you?" one of them asked hesitantly.
Bringing back new people was almost routine now; after all, our parents were getting used to it.
With our numbers growing, we quickly cleared out two more rooms. Ling Xue was placed in one to rest.
Every day, Qiqi and I sorted the collected supplies into cardboard boxes, wrapping them carefully to keep out moisture.
The blond boy introduced himself as Xu Wenxiang, nickname "Huou." The other boy was Sun Miao — quieter, more serious. Though he didn't talk much, it was obvious he had a commanding presence.
Later, Chen Yu whispered to me that Sun Miao wasn't actually their team leader — their real captain had been Li Lei, the man who had just died. Li Lei had also been Ling Xue's boyfriend. No wonder her breakdown was so intense.
The two boys had been part of a cycling team, riding cross-country when the outbreak started. Our small city had been a stop along their journey. When the world fell apart, they were trapped here and forced to scavenge for survival — which eventually led them to us.
Huou (Xu Wenxiang) was an extremely outgoing chatterbox. When he wasn't talking, he was either eating or sleeping — and even then, sometimes he mumbled in his sleep.
This contrasted sharply with Sun Miao, but surprisingly, they were still good friends.
Li Lei's death hit Lin Wei hard. She and my devastated mother bonded quickly, spending hours mourning either their son or their boyfriend together.
Grandma's illness still showed little improvement. Sun Miao had studied traditional medicine; after checking her pulse, he shook his head and said solemnly, "Blood stagnation… It's grief that's eating her heart."
As the days wore on, we slowly grew accustomed to each other, even as the desolate silence of the outside world pressed on us like a heavy blanket.
Occasionally, we spotted walking corpses wandering through the yard. At first, we trembled in fear; now we barely flinched.
Time is cruel. Like an enormous grinding wheel, it silently erodes every detail of our lives until, in a sudden moment of clarity, we realize everything has already changed.
I admit that the days of relative peace had made me soft, perhaps even naive.
We found more alcohol, allowing us to drink hot water or cook porridge. Besides caring for Grandma, my favorite pastime became sitting on the balcony with Xiaoyu, Qiqi, and Huou, chatting idly.
Most conversations drifted to old memories. Life now was too empty, too bleak to provide new stories.
Our parents — true to their nature — gradually adapted. They took up the cooking duties without being asked.
Sun Miao and Chen Ming became ghost-like figures in the house, barely speaking. Sun Miao's silence felt almost autistic at times, his expression dazed. As for Chen Ming — his face was as cold and unreadable as ever.
My brother's death was a wound we kept hidden, but sometimes, when I looked downstairs and glimpsed his familiar figure among the wandering dead, my fists clenched involuntarily.
I couldn't show weakness. Though life inside seemed calm and safe, it was only an illusion. We were hanging by a thread.
For instance — our food supplies were once again nearing depletion. The supermarket was empty.
One afternoon, Chen Ming left the building and returned with several daggers — more like scalpels, really — though I wasn't sure exactly what scalpels should look like.
Sun Miao, Xu Yiwen, Qiqi, Xiaoyu, and I all gradually realized we were losing our strength. Under Chen Ming's strict supervision, we stopped wasting our days idly and started training.
It wasn't fun. It wasn't easy. But it was necessary.
We needed to stay fit if we wanted to survive our next food run.
Every time I collapsed doing push-ups, Chen Ming would stand there, smirking at me with that irritating look, as if mocking my weakness.
It made me want to jump up, punch him, and scream: "Just you wait! I'll show you!"