Chapter 88

After the first zombie crisis, people no longer feared zombies as “terrifying monsters.” What they worried about now was the danger to their lives.

The unlucky guy who had passed out in the courtyard was actually quite experienced at killing zombies. Unfortunately, he had no protective gear or weapons.

Although many people now regarded zombies as oversized wild dogs, zombies were ultimately different from wild dogs.

If you were bitten by a wild dog, the greatest danger was rabies—and there was still a vaccine for that, a safety net of sorts.

But the zombie virus was highly transmissible through blood. Once you were scratched or bitten, it was all over. To this day, the country had never announced a case of anyone being immune. So people did their best to avoid direct physical contact.

The man had returned carrying a laptop bag. In a moment of crisis, he had swung the bag around as a weapon, using it to block several zombie attacks.

But the zombie in front of him was probably a second-generation zombie—fast and powerful. Without protective gear, it was extremely difficult to deal with. So after swinging the laptop bag and knocking the zombie away, he immediately ran.

When he looked back and saw the zombie pouncing at him again, he swung the bag a second time, smacking it directly in the face and knocking it aside.

Then he kept running.

As he ran, he screamed for help. “Somebody come help meee! This is a second-gen zombieee! I don’t have a weapon aaaaah! Fuck, is anybody thereee?”

Someone should come. He had seen several people in the group chats saying that, whether the messages were true or not, they had decided to return. That was why he had come back too.

There was no way to shake off a second-generation zombie. All he could do was scream himself hoarse for help.

Li Jiangbing turned around and ran without a second thought.

Jiang Cheng didn’t move immediately, because she had to put on her armor first.

While she was getting dressed, she saw that Li Jiangbing had not yet appeared downstairs. Someone else had already gone to the rescue.

The residents of Youth Apartments did, in the end, possess a certain degree of camaraderie.

The person who had come to help wasn’t even a property owner. He was the young security guard who had taken shelter in the guard booth by the east gate.

Jiang Cheng recognized him. She didn’t know his exact name, but she knew his surname was Fang, and everyone called him Little Fang.

Little Fang had been lucky when he woke up—he hadn’t mutated. Then he heard the cries for help.

The place where the unlucky guy had passed out was actually not far from the east gate. He had fled for his life all the way to the center of the courtyard.

Little Fang cautiously poked his head out to observe. After confirming that the complex seemed relatively clear and that there was only one zombie in sight, he bravely put on his protective gear and went to save the man.

For a weapon, he chose a steel pipe over a U-shaped fork.

The U-shaped forks were meant to be used when several people formed a combat formation. They were auxiliary tools. For a solo attack, a steel pipe was definitely the better choice.

Little Fang charged out with the steel pipe in hand.

At last, someone had come. The unlucky guy finally breathed a sigh of relief.

While Little Fang attacked the zombie, the unlucky guy did not simply run away. He turned back and continued swinging his laptop bag at the zombie’s head, creating openings for Little Fang to attack.

Li Jiangbing soon appeared in the courtyard as well, and the Building Three resident also came out.

By the time Jiang Cheng finished gearing up and reached the lobby via the stairs, Su Yu happened to be coming down from the elevator in a full suit of protective armor.

Aside from Jiang Cheng, none of the female property owners had armor.

Earlier, there had not been enough protective gear, so it had been distributed first to the stronger male residents—the ones with greater physical strength and combat ability.

This wasn’t limited to the women. Among the male residents, the shorter, thinner, weaker, or less courageous ones had not received armor either.

But Su Yu had always wanted a suit of her own.

After the zombie crisis ended, the armor had not been collected. The property management office kept a few sets, while most of the rest went home with the last people who had used them.

Su Yu had posted on the forum asking to buy one, and someone sold her a suit for five hundred yuan.

It was a medium size, though Su Yu should have worn a small. The shoulder guards were a little loose, but they had straps to hold them in place, so it wasn’t a serious problem.

This was Su Yu’s first time going into battle wearing armor.

She ran into Jiang Cheng in the lobby as Jiang Cheng came down the stairs, and her eyes lit up.

There was no time for greetings. The two of them ran outside together.

By then, Li Jiangbing had already engaged the zombie at close quarters. When Little Fang saw him arrive—and spotted another fully armored male resident rushing over in the distance—his courage increased dramatically.

He shouted as he brought the steel pipe down on the zombie.

The Building Three resident also reached them. The unarmored unlucky guy backed off a little, allowing the three people in full armor to take the front line and battle the zombie.

Jiang Cheng and Su Yu also came into view.

At that moment, the zombie took a blow to the neck and fell to the ground. Its head lolled to one side, and it propped itself up on one arm, sprawled on the ground like an injured person.

Of the three people in full armor, Little Fang had the least experience.

He had taken part in the battle on the Sunday morning when the zombie virus first broke out. After that, the temporary residents’ committee had quickly been established and begun assigning work in an organized manner.

As a security guard for the property management company, Little Fang’s primary responsibility was to watch the gates, making sure no zombies or thieves got in. He was also responsible for checking residents for injuries when they returned to the complex.

Until the zombie crisis ended, he had never participated in another battle. He had the least experience of the three.

When he saw the zombie injured and lying on the ground, he rushed forward excitedly, eager to kill one with his own hands.

Since the zombie was sprawled on the ground, Little Fang had to bend forward to strike the back of its skull with the steel pipe.

That was when two people shouted at the same time.

Little Fang had no idea what they were saying. Everything happened too quickly. The zombie suddenly rolled over and sprang up from the ground while still in that prone position. Its wide-open mouth, reeking of foul breath, lunged straight at Little Fang’s face!

Little Fang was horrified.

Li Jiangbing had sensed that something was wrong the moment the zombie fell facedown.

He had always been one of the complex’s main fighters. Later, he had joined the militia, and every day he woke up to do one thing: kill zombies. Kill zombies, and kill more zombies.

He had far more experience with zombies than Little Fang.

That wounded, prone posture was too unlike a zombie. It was too human.

Yes—too human.

Humans felt pain. When injured, they lost strength, which was why they assumed postures like that.

But how could a zombie?

Even if a zombie had only half a body left, as long as its head remained attached, it could still use both hands to “run” toward you.

Zombies didn’t assume humanlike poses, as though they were injured!

Li Jiangbing realized something was wrong in that instant, but Little Fang had already rushed forward.

He instinctively shouted, “Back!” But it was too late. Sure enough, the zombie sprang up from the ground.

Li Jiangbing’s pupils contracted sharply.

Fortunately, he wasn’t the only person there with extensive field experience.

The unlucky guy had also once been part of the militia.

That was why Li Jiangbing had immediately rushed downstairs without hesitation after taking one look through the window. The unlucky guy had once been his comrade.

Because he was holding the laptop bag and had stepped back instead of joining the fight, the unlucky guy had a clearer view of everything.

He reacted even faster. He swung the laptop bag straight at the zombie!

The bag struck the zombie squarely in the face, saving Little Fang’s life.

Li Jiangbing and the other man rushed forward and smashed the zombie’s head several times.

It was over.

Little Fang sat on the ground, his heart pounding violently. He had nearly pissed himself.

How could zombies deceive people now, too?

The unlucky guy hurried over, crouched down, and grabbed the man by the head, checking him over from top to bottom and side to side. Only after confirming that he wasn’t injured did he turn to Li Jiangbing and say, “No injuries.”

His movements were remarkably practiced.

They had honed those skills back when they served in the militia.

By the time Jiang Cheng and Su Yu came running over, the fight was already over.

Jiang Cheng had seen what happened just now. When she reached them, she didn’t ask what had happened first. Instead, she said, “Let’s check whether there’s anyone else in the courtyard.”

Little Fang gathered himself, stood up, and said, “There are two by the entrance.”

Little Fang had been guarding the east gate. From the window of the security booth, he had watched one resident after another return after hearing Jiang Cheng’s announcement.

At first, there had only been a few people. Then their numbers gradually grew, before thinning out again.

Song Jingshuo was one of those who had returned late.

The group temporarily set aside what they were doing and headed for the east gate.

The unlucky guy had neither armor nor a weapon, so he didn’t dare separate from them. He picked up his computer bag and hurried after them.

Sure enough, there were still two people on the way to the east gate.

The first one they encountered hadn’t woken up yet and was lying on the ground.

Li Jiangbing went over, pried open his eyelids, and took a look. The whites and pupils of his eyes were normal, and his skin color was normal too.

“This one’s fine!”

They left him where he was and continued running toward the east gate.

Inside the east gate, just a few meters past the entrance, another person was sprawled on the ground. They could see him clearly from a distance.

But after they had taken only a couple of steps, the man moved on his own and stood up.

He had already mutated.

Everyone tightened their grip on their weapons and tensed their bodies, preparing in case it suddenly charged.

The zombie saw them and did begin to charge—but it wasn’t a sudden burst of speed.

It staggered toward them at a leisurely pace.

Everyone: “...”

Li Jiangbing: “Fuck.”

It was actually a primitive zombie.

After fighting for a month and a half, especially now that they were fully equipped with armor and weapons, they had long since stopped taking primitive zombies seriously.

Their main opponents were second-generation zombies.

Seeing a primitive zombie all of a sudden gave them an odd sense of familiarity.

But something was wrong.

Shouldn’t humans who fell unconscious and mutated directly from the virus, without coming into contact with a primitive zombie, all become primitive zombies?

After killing this primitive zombie, they exchanged glances. Unease and suspicion were evident in every pair of eyes.

Li Jiangbing said, “The one just now wasn’t a second-generation zombie either.”

Little Fang felt it most deeply. “That’s right! It actually knew how to trick us!”

The zombies had learned to feint.

Su Yu asked, “Has it evolved?”

The issue of zombie evolution had already been hotly debated on the forums and in the chat groups while Jiang Cheng was still away on a business trip.

So no one was unfamiliar with the subject.

Jiang Cheng asked the unlucky guy and Little Fang, “Did the one just now mutate directly?”

The unlucky guy knew the situation best. He nodded. “It was extremely close to me. I woke up first, and then it got up.”

The facts were clear now. This outbreak of the zombie virus was different from the previous one.

Although some people still mutated into the relatively weak primitive zombies, others could mutate directly into zombies that were one level more evolved than second-generation zombies—zombies with intelligence.

Had the zombie virus undergone a generational evolution?