Chapter 16: Fighting the way out after being surrounded
Fighting the way out after being surrounded
Zhang Xiao Qiang woke up in the morning. Looking out the window, the sky was hazy. There was a cool breeze blowing against his face, making ripples in his heart.
Zhang Xiao Qiang has moved houses 3 times before. The house he’s living in this time has been the longest time. He’s spent half his life here. At first he thought that he would have spent the rest of his life there as well but fates changes. Today he will have to abandon it.
After packing his travel bag and checking his weapons. He changed his clothes and went outside, doing one last look around his house. He kept everything in this house firmly in his mind as he doesn’t know if he will ever return. He also didn’t know what he would face in the future. Walking from the living room to the kitchen to all the way to the bed room and finally touching his computer, he sighed,
“In future with no computers or the internet, I forever bid farewell to the title of recluse.”
Next to the computer was the cockroach in the plastic bottle. The cockroach was still at the bottom, playing dead. It seemed to be oblivious to what was happening outside the bottle. Zhang Xiao Qiang picked up the bottle and shook it. The cockroach, being subjected to movement, crawled around, trying to find a way out. Two days without water and food didn’t seem to have an impact on it.
Zhang Xiao Qiang suddenly felt compassion. Cockroaches are so humble, so small, yet so calm in such a desperate situation. It saved up every bit of energy in its body, minimizing energy consumption, silently waiting for the opportunity to escape one day. Even if it is the cockroach’s natural instinct, it is this very instinct that he admires. Suddenly Zhang Xiao Qiang had hope for the future, he was no longer worried.
“I will follow the cockroach’s example. I will survive in this apocalypse like the cockroach.” Zhang Xiao Qiang told himself.
Unscrewing the lid, he poured the cockroach out and it quickly run to a corner. Zhang Xiao Qiang blessed it in his heart “May you live on”.
Zhang Xiao Qiang opened the iron gate and took one last look back at the house then walked out.
The iron gates were locked. He wore the key on a string around his neck. It was close to his heart, it will forever be his spiritual guide, the home of his soul.
27th March 2013, it’s been 90 days since the apocalypse. Zhang Xiao Qiang had officially left the house to face the apocalyptic future.
The mutant cat body had already been burnt to ashes. The air was filled with a burnt stench, mixed with the smell of dead bodies. There were still 7-8 zombie bodies scattered across the concrete floor. Zhang Xiao Qiang was too lazy to bother with them and started heading downstairs. The zombie crowd from yesterday had already scattered, but there was still 40+ zombies out in the garden.
Zhang Xiao Qiang reached downstairs. There were a dozen zombies near him on the ground with bones that were crushed by the zombie crowd. These zombies turned to face him, opening their mouths wide, they released an odor. They wanted to bite him but were unable to climb up. He crossed the floor of zombies and went down the path leading to the street.
He used the MP9 Sniper crossbow to take care of any zombies on the street that got in the way. After passing by the 2 mutated dogs hunting, plus the ones that he had killed yesterday on the platform, there were now only a dozen zombies left in the garden. Now within the 1000m was a total of less than 100 zombies, so there was only 1 in a 10m radius.
The street that lead to the city centre had been blocked. The end of the street that leads to the outer city would take 3-4 hours walking. There would definitely be zombies on the way there, even though the population density was low, there still could be tens of thousands! Now he could only just start walking and see.
Zhang Xiao Qiang was standing at the centre of the street. He only needed to face the less than 50 zombies at the end of the street. Looking at these zombies, he felt distressed about the remaining steel balls. Even though he had half a pound worth of balls, once used they’ll be lost. He needed to at least kill one zombie for each ball.
Zhang Xiao Qiang walked along the street carefully, sprinkling some rice wine on his body. The pungent smell of alcohol made him feel a little dizzy, “Had I knew this day was coming, I would have learnt to take alcohol better”.
Zhang Xiao Qiang was carrying the sniper crossbow, carefully tip toeing. He was carefully walking around the broken glass on the ground. The spear was slotted in the leather buckle at the side of the backpack. The tip was pointing up and every now and then it would hit the back of his legs. The smell of the rice wine made it so that zombies outside of a 30m radius couldn’t smell him. Too bad it doesn’t work if they are any closer.
Zhang Xiao Qiang walked past the zombies one at a time, carefully making sure not to alarm them. It felt like a live action version of <>. When facing a zombie couldn’t be avoided, then he would slowly approach it within the 30m radius and wait for it come closer to him, then he would shoot it with the sniper crossbow at close range to kill it.
After the reaching the end of the street he didn’t know how many zombies still wanted to eat him. Zhang Xiao Qiang can only try to save every bit of energy, in case of an unknown crisis.
When Zhang Xiao Qiang killed the eleventh zombie he was finally at the intersection of the street. He let out a deep bitter sigh. It wasn’t easy getting here. The sight before him made him tear up.
Going forwards at this intersection was the main road leading to the city. A large dump truck that was carrying sand had rolled onto the street. Its 8 metre long body completely blocked the road.
On the left road of is a building material warehouse, which lead into a development area. There were factories over in the development zone. Just one factory alone would have thousands of employees, which are probably all zombies now. Zhang Xiao Qiang going there wouldn’t be finding escape but rather be looking for death.
On the right road, it had all kinds of small restaurants, all the way until the river’s edge, containing a port. The number of zombies on that street was no less than there were behind him, but all he could do was bite the bullet and go down the street towards the river.
The zombie density here was much higher. It took a lot of effort for Zhang Xiao Qiang to walk through here. Sometimes he would have to face 2 zombies at once but he also became more proficient at killing the zombies. He was no longer waiting till they got close. He was killing them from afar. He also managed to kill two D zombies. Luckily, he didn’t come across any S zombies. The strength of the D zombies didn’t matter much to him as they weren’t facing him, giving him time to aim. But facing S zombies made his heart race. They were too fast. If he wasn’t careful, they could easily wound him and if they wounded him he would become one of them. Zhang Xiao Qiang still didn’t want to be a zombie.
After walking halfway, he stood by a tall glass wall and took a break.
“crash”
The glass wall shattered. The air was filled with broken glass. A tall D zombie jumped next to Zhang Xiao Qiang. A massive right swing was heading towards him. He hurriedly ducked and the claws flew through the air above his head, hitting the spear in his backpack. The force went from his backpack to his body, the momentum causing his body to be thrown onto the ground. He was facing the sky. The D zombie then bent forwards and swung its hands down.
Zhang Xiao Qiang quickly rolled to the side.
“bang”
The claws hit the cement pavement. Bits of debris was flying everywhere and countless bits of sand fell onto his head and into his collar. Zhang Xiao Qiang had been stunned by the zombie. He just kept rolling. The military water bottle he was carrying was making clinking sounds. He rolled until he was behind the zombie and pulled the iron hammer out of his backpack. Mustering up all his strength, he hit the D zombie in the ankle.
“Bang…”
A great recoil force was transferred back, pulling the hammer back from the shock. The force was strong enough to almost knock the hammer out of his hands. The muscles in his palm were torn, they felt like they were burning.
A big foot was about to crush him and Zhang Xiao Qiang dare not deal with any more other D zombies, so he tried to roll to the side of the river desperately, until he hit a wheel at the side of the road. Only then did he get up. He felt dizzy. The D zombie started to walk towards him. Behind it was was broken the glass wall with countless number of zombies rushing out. There were at least 4 S zombies running past the tall D zombie, running towards him.
Zhang Xiao Qiang felt the urge to pee. Screaming out loud, he turned back and started running towards the river. After running for 3 steps he saw that the road ahead had zombies that were slowly surrounding him. It must have been the breaking glass before that got their attention. He had been completely surrounded by the zombies.