Apocalypse Escape: Day One of Survival

Comrade Song You’ai looked deeply troubled, as if she carried the weight of the world on her shoulders. ”Ningning, are people really carjacking in broad daylight now? Life is so hard for us ordinary folk.”

”Yeah.” Xie Ning frowned, lamenting that the RV couldn’t fit into her portable villa.

’Little Spider had already made an exception and expanded her Dimensional Space, so she was too embarrassed to bother it again...’

However, today’s carjacking incident had served as a reminder.

Xie Ning asked her mother to lock the door while she ran to the backyard. She glanced at a bicycle and a scooter-style electric bike parked against the wall.

With a wave of her hand, she temporarily stored them all in her living room.

’If something happens to the RV, at least I’ll have some form of transportation in a pinch.’

After storing the vehicles, she heard her mother’s voice talking to someone at the iron gate.

Xie Ning hurried over and saw her third great-aunt and her aunt standing by the gate, chatting and laughing with her mother.

Her third great-aunt handed her mother two bottles of mineral water. ”You’ai, we really have you to thank for yesterday. We would have died of thirst otherwise.”

Comrade Song You’ai wouldn’t accept them, waving her hands repeatedly. ”No, no, Third Auntie. Take them back for Xiao Long. There are only two of us, and we still have some well water stored up. It’s enough for us.”

”That won’t do.” Her third great-aunt insisted on stuffing the water into her mother’s hands. ”A debt paid makes it easy to borrow again. You’ai, please take it.”

”Third Great-Aunt, we’ll just take one bottle. You can take the other one for Xiao Long.” Xie Ning pulled out two packages of sliced bread from her backpack. ”We found some expired bread at the supermarket today. It’s vacuum-sealed, so it should still be edible.”

”No, no, we can’t.” Song Guang’s wife quickly waved her hands, refusing the offer. ”Xiao Long and his dad went to the supermarket today and had a pretty good haul. We can’t take your food. You and your mother should keep it for yourselves.”

”It’s fine.” Song You’ai forcefully stuffed the bread into her aunt’s shoulder bag. ”Give this to Xiao Long. Hide it well, and don’t let those shameless bastards like Zhong Shichong steal it again.”

Song Guang’s wife’s voice choked up. She just managed an ”Mm.” ”Zhong Shichong and his group went out to scavenge for supplies today, too.”

The mother and daughter chatted with them for a few more moments before the third great-aunt and her aunt left.

Song You’ai watched their backs as they left and sighed. She suddenly turned to Xie Ning and said, ”I’m going upstairs to practice my superpower. Ningning, let’s just boil some noodles for dinner, something simple! We need to make every second count.”

Xie Ning didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as she watched the whirlwind that was Song You’ai depart. Just as she was about to go upstairs, she heard Ge Yan calling for her at the gate.

Xie Ning had no choice but to run back and pull open the iron gate.

She saw Ge Yan standing at her door, holding a large bag of frozen meat. When Ge Yan saw her, she hurriedly tried to stuff the big bag into her arms.

Xie Ning quickly tried to refuse. ”Ge Yan, what are you doing? You should keep all of this for yourselves.”

”Hey, don’t worry about it! I went out with my dad today and we got pretty lucky. We found a ton of stuff in the freezer of that small supermarket by the west gate.”

”You take this. If we can’t eat it all, it’ll just go bad anyway.”

”Don’t you have a Space?”

”My Space is only fifteen square meters; it can’t hold much.” Ge Yan pushed the frozen meat toward Xie Ning. ”Just take it, Ningning. I saw so much frozen meat that had already spoiled and gone bad. It’s such a waste.”

”Anyway, I’ve got to go. Cook it. Cook it and eat it quickly. It’s too hot these days; it might spoil by tomorrow.”

”My dad just got back from picking up my cousins. They were all beaten black and blue. Luckily they didn’t run into any zombies, or they all would’ve been goners on the road.”

”The roads aren’t safe right now. You and your mom, two women on your own, need to be extra careful. People are even stealing electric bikes now. My cousins said the five men who stole their vehicle were complete strangers. I wonder if they’ll make their way to our Song Family Pavilion.”

Xie Ning couldn’t get a word in edgewise. She listened as Ms. Yanzi rattled off everything in a single, machine-gun-like burst, then turned and ran off.

She looked down at the frozen meat in her arms, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, shook her head, and closed the iron gate.

She reached out and felt the bag of frozen meat, hefting it to gauge the weight. It felt like it weighed at least five or six pounds.

The meat was already soft and couldn’t be refrozen. Xie Ning called Comrade Song You’ai, who had been diligently practicing her superpower, downstairs. The two discussed it and decided to make all the frozen meat into patties.

Comrade Song You’ai said that with the recent heat, she didn’t have much of an appetite for anything, so they should also make two basins of liangfen with seasonings. They could store it in the Space and scoop out a small bowl to eat whenever they wanted.

By the time they were done with everything, it was almost four in the afternoon.

The mother and daughter had eaten a quick lunch on the road, so now they were feeling quite famished.

So, they decided to have an early dinner.

After cleaning up, Comrade Song You’ai, eager to get back to it, went upstairs to continue practicing her superpower. Her spirits, it had to be said, were remarkably high.

Xie Ning returned to her room to practice her Gold Ability, pondering how to improve her Metal Spikes.

It wasn’t until nine at night that she turned off the rechargeable energy-saving lamp and rolled onto her ice-silk mat to sleep.

The young woman’s sleep was extremely restless. It felt as if a heavy stone was pressing down on her chest.

It made her chest feel tight, to the point of suffocation.

Black-and-white, movie-like images began to flash before her eyes, second by second, endlessly replaying a single scene.

At the small fruit and vegetable market, Boss Pi, whose carotid artery had been pierced by a sharp Metal Spike, was slowly getting up from the rain-soaked ground. With each of his howls, nearby zombies gathered around him.

For several days, Boss Pi hadn’t left the vicinity of the supermarket, but had been continuously gathering a horde of zombies.

And just today—just moments ago!

Boss Pi suddenly let out several furious howls at the sky. On his face, covered with rotting flesh, his cold, sinister eyes shot toward the Song Family Pavilion.

Hundreds, thousands of zombies began to move as one, howling as they set off. Urged on by Boss Pi’s screeching roars, they growled and bellowed, heading for their target: the Song Family Pavilion.

It was this Spiritual Sense that startled Xie Ning awake.

The room was sweltering, but she was drenched in a cold sweat from the shock.

She checked her phone for the time out of habit.

September 21st, 3:00 AM on the dot.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

In the past two days, Song You’ai had more or less gotten used to sleeping in the scorching heat without air conditioning.

But her sleep was never sound.

The moment her daughter knocked, she woke up instantly and scrambled out of bed.

Xie Ning held the long, rechargeable energy-saving lamp in one hand and turned the doorknob with the other. ”Mom, we have to go!”

”Huh? Go where?” Song You’ai asked, but her hands were already moving quickly to change her clothes.

”We’re leaving the Song Family Pavilion. Now.” Xie Ning, her forehead beaded with sweat, told her mother, ”I sensed a zombie horde heading straight for the Song Family Pavilion. We can’t stay here any longer. We have to leave immediately!”

With a wave of her hand, Xie Ning moved all seven or eight large and small buckets full of water from her mother’s room to the second-floor terrace.

Then she haphazardly bundled up the things on her mother’s bed, stuffed them onto the living room sofa in her portable villa, and stacked them with her own bedding.

Aside from the bedding they used every night, everything else that needed to be packed was already ready to go.

The moment Xie Ning said they had to retreat, Comrade Song You’ai grabbed the black backpack from her bedside, slung it on her back, and was ready to leave.