Chapter 22: Yang Ke Er
Yang Ke Er
Zhang Xiao Qiang stood outside the car and watched the girl, she was sitting in the car in a daze.
“huu are yuu”?
It had been too long since he had talked to someone else. Plus, this is the first time Zhang Xiao Qiang had seen another living person since the apocalypse. He was really excited, so his pronunciation wasn’t very accurate.
“Cough, cough, who are you?” Zhang Xiao Qiang tried again.
“No response?”
Zhang Xiao Qiang waved his hands before her eyes.
“Still no response?”
Zhang Xiao Qiang put his hand on her shoulder and nudged her a few times. She was moved around by Zhang Xiao Qiang’s pushing. “Still no reponse!” Zhang Xiao Qiang looked up and around. A few dozen zombies had appeared at the pond behind him. He was running out of time.
“pa…” Zhang Xiao Qiang slapped her across the face,
“waaahhh…” she started to cry. “Finally a response.” Zhang Xiao Qiang said with a sigh.
“Who are you” Zhang Xiao Qiang asked.
“waaahwaaahwaahh..”
“Stop crying” the zombies continued to increase in number, he was getting a little annoyed.
“waahwaaahwaaahh…” ignoring him.
“pa!” he slapped her across the face again. It was like turning off a noisy music player. It was finally quiet again.
Zhang Xiao Qiang pulled the door open, put his things in and closed the door with a “ka”. “Start the engine” Zhang Xiao Qiang said sitting in the back seat.
“Quickly start the car!” the surrounding zombie figures were beginning to crowd.
“Do you want to be eaten by zombies like him?” Zhang Xiao Qiang shouted, pointing at the dead body.
“Uncle, do you think this is a biochemical crisis?” the girl said to Zhang Xiao Qiang.
“un, un, uncle?????” Zhang Xiao Qiang was in the back seat, he quickly touched the beard on his face.
“Did i shave before going out? Zhang Xiao Qiang thought while feeling his stubble. “pa!!!” slapping himself, now is not the time to be thinking about this.
Zhang Xiao Qiang pointed at the bodies of the zombies scattered on the floor and cried: “what are they if not zombies?”
“They’re monsters!! Zombies in the movies are a mess of rotting flesh, they are not like this kind of monster flesh!!!” the girl argued back.
Zhang Xiao Qiang really wanted to slap her again, but if he does it might get them all killed. What kind of time is this to be arguing trivial matters like semantics.
“I don’t care if its a zombie or a monster, if you don’t want to be eaten by them then start the car” Zhang Xiao Qiang’s eyes flashed with rage, in his mind a thousand bombs just detonated.
“i don’t know how to! I’ve always wanted to learn by no one would teach me!” she said to him.
Her words were like a bolt of lightning striking his skull, leaving him fried.
Zhang Xiao Qiang didn’t say anything and got out of the car. He put on his backpack and water bottle, getting ready to leave on his bicycle. He took one last glance back at the woman sitting in the car, to find her watching him in a daze!
“Let’s go! you sitting there is waiting to be killed!” Zhang Xiao Qiang growled at him, he really didn’t know how this stupid girl managed to survive this long.
“Oh…” she responded, and walked to Zhang Xiao Qiang staring at him pathetically at a loss, with tears in her eyes!
The veins on zhang xiao qiang’s forehead were about to pop, “sit behind me” he roared from his chest.
She then clumsily climbed onto the bicycle frame.
Zhang Xiao Qiang then used his strength to pedal quickly leaving the scene, “ahhhh!!!” the girl at the back was screaming. She tightened her grip, Zhang Xiao Qiang was almost pulled off by this girl.
“What now???” Zhang Xiao Qiang stopped the bike and looked back at the girl. “I, I wasn’t sitting right.” she lowered her head like a little girl, Zhang Xiao Qiang didn’t say anything more and start pedaling quickly again.
Zhang Xiao Qiang was on the bike seat, and she was sitting behind him.
He had met her at 3-4pm, they were hurrying to the road. It was getting dark, but Zhang Xiao Qiang found a small forest before it did. The small forest was by a stream. There wasn’t a home within a 1km radius, so naturally there shouldn’t be any zombies around.
Zhang Xiao Qiang cut some wood for a fire with the shovel.The iron foodbox was added to the fire, cooking rice in it. Zhang Xiao Qiang didn’t say a word and she didn’t make a sound.
“What’s your name” Zhang Xiao Qiang said breaking the silence. Although she had caused his much distress today, him being alone has also been kind of lonely, so he endured.
“Yang Ke Er” she said looking at the fire, sounding depressed.
“Yang Ke Er?” Zhang Xiao Qiang curled his tongue, feeling some resentment, Ke Er? where is it? [TLN: I believe her name has some reference to big breasts] Her body odor had a stench of urine, and her body was still underdeveloped, she was young! very young. Other people’s chest areas were the size of a papaya, or an apple, or at least 2 eggs. Her? eggs, more like fried eggs. She seemed featureless, but she is youthful, which her only point of merit!
“Who was he to you?” thinking about the person that was reduced to pieces of flesh, he wasn’t even sure if it was a male or a female.
But that the question made her sad so she didn’t answer.
Zhang Xiao Qiang remembered seeing a pair of adidas shoes on the ground, “must have been your brother right?” Zhang Xiao Qiang thought of his own sister.
“No! it was my husband!”
Zhang Xiao Qiang glanced at her, with an appearance like this, who would have wanted her? That guy must have been really desperate and didn’t have a choice! Zhang Xiao Qiang felt reverence towards his commitment! Saluting his volunteering comrade!
“How did you survive the days?” zhang xiao qiang continued to ask.
She looked up and recalled: “That day my husband and I went shopping together…………”
The viral outbreak was on the day of her boyfriend’s birthday, they were skipping classes to go out. They were going to the supermarket to buy food in preparation to go by to the park by the river and be alone. While they were carrying the food out of the supermarket, “the whole world changed.”
“It was so scary! The people on the street were all going crazy…” she said in a trance.
90% of the people on the street began to mutate in succession, husbands eating wives, mother tearing into daughters and sons being chased and bitten by their mothers. Seeing the chaotic street, and seeing the crazy people, her knees felt weak and she knelt on the street. Her boyfriend who liked to play games had better mental fortitude, so he held her and escaped to the supply truck in the supermarket.
“Those monsters kept hitting the car. No one was picking up the phone, no one picked up when we dialed 110, my mom and dad weren’t picking up either, i was really afraid!” She said while eating rice.
“I haven’t had rice in so so long, it smells so nice..” her mouth was a little busy, so Zhang Xiao Qiang started eating his biscuits and she continued her story.
“Uncle! do you carry meat in your bag? I haven’t had that in a long time either!” she said pitifully, with a few grains of mouth still in her mouth.
“It was fed to the dogs!” Zhang Xiao Qiang did not respond politely, biting into the biscuits and imagining himself biting into <>.
“If you don’t have any then that’s fine!! so short tempered! Oh, it was a good thing it rained heavily for a few days… “ she ate and continued.
After the heavy rain the zombies started to evolve, becoming to threat to them.
“The monsters were constantly scratching away at the vehicle, from the morning to the evening never stopping, I was so afraid that they would finally scratch through. The monsters also rammed the car, shaking it. It was so scary! Luckily my husband was there with me!”
And like this she and her boyfriend stayed in a supply truck eating and drinking the supplies for 3 months. Eating and sleeping in the truck, up until yesterday.
“We heard a car coming so we looked through a crack in the door…”
Two men drove a honda to the supermarket to find food, unfortunately they never came back out. Her boyfriend’s dad was a pickup truck driver, so her boyfriend learned to drive small truck at home. So while the zombies were in the supermarket they took the opportunity to run, using the honda the boyfriend drove out of the city. Reaching the suburbs they saw a small shop. After having cold beverages for months he wanted something different, and so eventually he ended up in the zombie’s stomach
“That’s it!!!” she finally said.
Zhang Xiao Qiang looked at the fire then his watch, 10.05, a few small incidents took her 4 hours to tell. Most of the time it was her being scared and her husband being good to her.
Zhang Xiao Qiang threw the thick silk quilt at her, saying 2 words: “good night”.