Nanjing, a day later.
Ding Xiuxiu's tears spilled down as she ran down the stairs, chasing Gong Qiye's back.
"Qiye, wait for me!"
The alarms shrieked, red lights flashing in the hallways. Darkness descended as the power went out, and somewhere around her, Ding Xiuxiu could hear glass shattering. The wind came roaring and howling through the broken window, bringing with it the strong smell of blood.
Bombs and grenades exploded outside, shaking the walls. She could hear screams and shouts from the other wing, as zombies clambered over corpses of fallen soldiers to get inside the building.
"Qiye!" Ding Xiuxiu screamed.
But Gong Qiye continued to run forward as if he didn't hear her. Ding Xiuxiu stumbled and fell down, bruising her knees. She couldn't help but cry even harder. Just a few months ago, she had agreed to become his girlfriend.
Ding Xiuxiu remembered the night when Ye Jia had been bitten. Ye Minzhe didn't abandon her, and in the end, he even committed suicide just so that he could stay by her side.
Why couldn't she have that kind of love?
"Wuu..." Ding Xiuxiu sobbed as she huddled herself against the wall, to prevent herself from being trampled on by the stampeding crowd.
When everything became quiet, Ding Xiuxiu wiped her tears with the back of her hand and lifted her head. Her gaze met with a pair of red eyes in the darkness, watching her.
Ding Xiuxiu froze.
The zombie slowly walked closer, and Ding Xiuxiu saw under the moonlight that the zombie was walking on all fours. Its mouth was gnashing, teeth clicking together, like an insect. Its eyes bulged out, almost leaving its skull, and had no lips, only teeth.
"Ahhh!"
Ding Xiuxiu grabbed her knife and plunged it into the side of the zombie's head, her mouth open in a wide scream. In the past year, she had also learned a few basic moves to defend herself.
She knew that the best way to kill a zombie was to aim for the brain.
But it seemed that this zombie didn't get the memo, because except for the increasing amount of saliva that dribbled out of its chin, it continued advancing towards Ding Xiuxiu.
"Ahhhhhh! No!"
Ding Xiuxiu's scream abruptly ended as blood sprayed in the air.
...
Amidst the panic and screams, in one of the laboratories located inside the quarantine base, everything was deadly quiet.
The balding doctor dropped the syringe that he was holding to the floor, looking nervously at the pale youth.
"I...I did it, I injected her with the cure. Sir, young master, can you please let go of me now?"
He didn't dare look at the walls of the laboratory, which had numerous eyes staring at him. Dozens of zombies had plastered themselves on the wall like lizards, covering the paint entirely.
Ye Minzhe ignored him, as the young woman that was lying down on the gurney finally stirred.
He looked at her as if there was only one person in the world that deserved his attention. Only her face was reflected in his pupils, like the rest of the world didn't exist.
As he came closer, tiny fluctuations appeared in his heart. The organ that he thought was already dead, suddenly started to tremble.
The young girl slowly opened her eyes.
Ye Jia met Ye Minzhe's expectant eyes, dark and intense, filled with indescribable emotions.
At that moment, everything, even the air, went still and silent, so sharp it was almost cutting.
Ye Jia didn't have the time to call out his name when Ye Minzhe wrapped his hand around her throat, his gaze terrifying and filled with madness.
"Who are you?" His voice was hoarse, trembling with pure rage that filled the room. "Where's Jia?"
The zombies trembled, scuttling in fear, trying to escape. The doctor fell down on the floor, his whole body trembling.
"No—brother—"
Ye Jia tried to escape with all of her might, her fingernails drawing blood across his skin while kicking her legs out. All of her blood vessels twisted, as the virus that was still inside her body was forced to invade her cells again.
In the end, her body couldn't take it. Blood oozed from her nose and mouth, and from her once beautiful blue eyes, came tears of red.
Ye Minzhe parted his lips, saying a single word.
"Kill."
Zombies that were hanging on the walls dived down and tore the doctor limb from limb, his screams echoing non-stop inside the room.
"Ahhhh!"
That night, the last quarantine base in the country fell down.
As Ye Minzhe stepped out of the burning building, his whole body was covered with blood. He glanced up at the sky, where a full moon hung above them like a large white eyeball, insidiously sinister.
The hope that he had been carrying inside him had withered.
His heart was dead.
Ye Minzhe seemed to have fallen into a bottomless pit, and the cold air went inside his lungs, freezing his breath.
He would never see her again.
The long-lost emotions poured into his heart like a tidal wave, but he could not speak. Ye Minzhe wanted to laugh, but his expression was permanently frozen in ice.
Never.
He would never be able to see her again.
And in that moment, the last trace of his humanity had left him.
In other countries, zombies started to spread like wildfire. They began to mutate, to evolve. Even a bullet to the brain couldn't stop them, nor a drop from a high place. Bombs, grenades, and fire proved to be ineffective.
No single organization of humans proved to be capable of fighting against them.
In what seemed like no time at all, the whole world was filled from top to bottom with the undead.
It spelled the end of the world for all of humanity.
But as humans became extinct, it became the new beginning for an entirely new species.
An army that didn't fear death, an army that only followed the command of a single person.
Their undead king.
End of Arc 4.
...
...
A/N:
I didn't make this too angsty, because every arc ending has a different emotion to it.
Also, sorry for the late update! I will start dropping answers now, because I plan for the next arc to become Jia's last mission. Thank you for staying with me until now, I will do my best to make it an HE!
Fufufu~