Beijing, a year later.
"Is Nanjing really safe?"
A group of survivors huddled inside a torn down mall, exchanging information and food. Each of them had pitched their own tents, and were taking temporary shelter. One of them, a large middle-aged man, was the one who asked the question.
"I don't know if it's safe, but it's our best bet. I heard they have a cure for the infection."
"You know how quarantine bases are falling one after another to the zombies these few months. Some people have even seen them behaving like a centipede, their bodies stuck together as they crawled on the sides of the buildings. It's creepy."
A girl that had been listening in shuddered.
"I think they're mutating. You know, I once saw two zombies that were moving in sync. It was as if the two of them were being controlled by a single mind."
"Alright, can you stop all of these horrible talk?" A young mother covered the ears of her little daughter, glaring at them. "We have a long day tomorrow, so let's just get some rest."
After various agreements, all of them took out their sleeping bags and turned off their solar lamps.
Naturally, there were people who could fall asleep quickly, and there were also people who couldn't.
Tossing and turning for more than an hour, the young mother finally decided to sit up. She couldn't sleep because of the creepy stories she had heard. Turning on her solar lamp, she felt that her bladder was full and got up to go to the bathroom.
"Hello?"
On her way back, she suddenly heard a timid voice calling out to her. The voice sounded young, just like a little girl's.
The young mother gripped her pistol with a pale face and didn't respond. Moving slowly with quiet footsteps, she moved to the direction where the voice was coming from.
The young mother was confused. Did a young child get lost? It was well-known that a zombie couldn't talk.
"Hello?" She heard the young voice calling out again.
Finally, the mother found herself inside a women's department store. Behind a clothing rack, she saw a young woman standing with her back facing her.
Her hair cascaded down her back in a stream of silken threads. Her clothes were clean and neat, without a speck of dirt.
It was obvious that despite the apocalypse, she had taken good care of herself.
"Hello?" The little girl's voice continued again. "My name is Xiao Xiao. What's your name?"
The mother raised herself on her tiptoes, trying to peek over the partition to see what the young woman was holding.
She let out a gasp. It was a talking doll.
The voice sounded again, mechanically repeating itself, this time sounding a little eerie.
"Hello? My name is Xiao Xiao. What's your..."
As soon as the young mother tried to flee the scene, a hand clutched her throat, lifting her in the air. She tried to scream, but no sound came out. She grabbed hold of the hand and tried to loosen it. But the grip was too strong.
The young mother flailed her legs desperately, her fingernails clawing at the pale hand that was slowly suffocating her to death.
Just when she was skirting the edge of death, losing oxygen, her attacker released her.
The young mother collapsed on the floor and gasped for air. Looking up, she finally saw the face of her attacker.
He was a handsome young man. Jet-black curls, pale skin that looked as if he hadn't seen the sun in years, and oily black eyes. Although he looked strange, almost like a ghost, there didn't seem to be any major abnormalities with his appearance.
At the very least, he didn't look like he was a zombie.
The mother didn't have time to breathe a sigh of relief when the young woman she had been peeking at earlier turned around, dropping the doll that she was holding.
The young woman's lips curled in a snarl, her eyes filled with starving hunger. The zombie lunged forward, hands formed into claws.
"Ahh!"
As her throat was still hurting, the young mother's scream was only a soft gasp of air.
The pale youth stretched out an arm, and the young girl immediately stopped her attack. Like she was afraid of him, she took another step back and kept still despite her overwhelming hunger.
"Jia, don't dirty your hands." His voice was flat, emotionless. There was no trace of humanity in his voice. "I'll dismember her for you."
The young mother felt her whole body erupting in goosebumps, a cold chill running down the entire length of her spine.
"You...that's a zombie..."
She tried to speak to convince him, but the young man only took another step forward.
Filled with fear, the young mother suddenly shouted, "There's a cure for the infected in Nanjing!"
The young mother had seen how the young man had pampered that zombie girl, so she must be his former lover.
The pale youth stopped. He tilted his head, his cold and dark eyes staring at her.
"Is that true?"
The young mother fervently nodded her head.
The pale youth took the the young girl's hands. The zombie trembled, as if instead of the pale youth being afraid of her, she was afraid of him instead.
In her terror, the young mother didn't think more about their strange interaction. She simply wanted to get out of there as fast as she could.
"Jia, let's go. I'll find you more food."
As soon as they left, the young mother breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't know that outside the mall, there was a horde that had swelled to a horrific size.
From the shadows of buildings, there crawled out several zombies joined at the limbs, crawling like a human centipede. From alleys and streets, strange-looking zombies stepped out. Some of them walked on all fours, with their forearms twisted backwards, in the wrong direction.
Their wrists were in the direction of their feet, just like a human dog. When they ran, they moved as fast as a cheetah, and could catch up with an accelerating car in mere seconds.
There were also zombies that stood still, like a statue. Only when a human was within their vision would their whole body explode in motion, with frightening strength.
A crowd of thousands of zombies, all moving quietly, without the animal noises that were expected from them. It was as if they were all waiting for someone.
The pale youth stepped out of the mall, his hands still holding the zombie's hand. He lifted up his head, to the direction of the city of Nanjing.
"A cure?" His eyes, which looked like a dead person's, suddenly flickered.
Ye Minzhe looked at the girl standing next to him. The same face, the same eyes, the same body.
But the heart inside his chest was still.
Ye Minzhe looked at the hand that he was holding, and suddenly twisted it. The zombie fell to the ground, keening in pain from her broken hand.
She hadn't evolved yet, so she wasn't as strong as them. When he stepped on her chest and broke a rib, he still didn't feel anything.
No heartbeat.
"Jia, if you're cured, would you become interesting again?" Ye Minzhe knelt down and grabbed her hair.
He pressed a gentle kiss on her forehead, but left her on the ground as he started to walk away. Two zombies behind him carefully lifted the keening zombie.
One of them had a bulging belly, his hair dyed yellow.
"Let's go to Nanjing."
As soon as the words were dropped, like an army of ants or bees, all of the zombies started to move in one direction, following the cold youth's command.