Book 1 Chapter 7: StrivingTogether!
Ye Chen was momentarily startled, immediatelyafter, he shook his head saying: "Out of the question, you are still too weak,even I"m not strong enough to guarantee your safety."
Ye Zhu suddenly raised her head and staredstraight at Ye Chen with eyes filled with conviction saying: "You must let mego with you!"
Ye Chen could only smile bitterly; heunderstood well how stubborn his little sis can be, he knew that persuading herfurther was a futile affair, sighing softly, he said: "If it"s gonna be likethat, then you must listen to everything I say when we"re out there, no actingon your own, you hear?!"
Ye Zhu was delighted, nodding her head whilegiggling, she replied: "I knew you would agree, c"mon, lunch is alreadyprepared."
Ye Chen chuckled wryly before closing the doorbehind him as he entered. He headed straight for the washroom in order to cleanoff any chunks of flesh and blood that clung on him. After a through cleansing,he entered the kitchen. Upon the gla.s.s table, he spotted several home-cookeddishes; he couldn"t help but feel a sense of nostalgia wash over him. Under theawaiting gaze of his younger sister, he pinched a piece of sliced potato withsome chopsticks and popped it into his mouth.
"How does it taste?" Ye Zhu inquired with a tingeof apprehension, normally, it was Ye Chen who was in charge of preparing meals.This could be counted as one of her first attempts at cooking a proper meal.
Too salty!
Ye Chen could feel his tongue suffering; it wasakin to tousling a slab of salt in his mouth. However, upon noticing theexcited gaze of his antic.i.p.ating little sister, he forcefully swallowed inorder to protect her feelings. With a strained smile, he replied: "These slicedpotatoes are not bad; I never expected that you had such talent for cuisine."
Ye Zhu"s cheeks reddened, with her head heldlow, she stuttered softly saying: "T-this….actually is….p-potato silk…"
Ye Chen was flabbergasted.
With fl.u.s.tered cheeks, Ye Zhu pinched a pieceof potato and delivered it past her rosy and delicate lips. Immediately after,with a frantic puff, she spat it back out, exclaiming: "Too salty!"
Ye Chen chuckled, pinching another piece, hewolfed it down in an instant, saying: "No big deal, this is still quitepalatable, you should eat the other dishes."
Salty?
In the later stages of the apocalypse where itwas fortunate to have something to eat at all; would taste still be of concern?
Ye Zhu gazed at her brother, lifting the plateof sliced potatoes; she spoke in a low voice saying: "Don"t eat any more, I"lladd some water to it and boil it for dinner."
After thinking briefly, Ye Chen nodded.
"Right." Ye Chen remembered about the piece ofmutagenic flesh he had stored in a plastic bag and immediately took it out andpresented it to his sister saying: "Eat this, it will boost your stamina!"
Ye Zhu received the black plastic bag with aface coloured with surprise, she opened it. The bag appeared to contain aquestionable piece of meat similar to lamb fat. Confused, she inquired: "What"sthis?"
"Mutagenic flesh!" After a brief consideration,Ye Chen spoke saying: "In simple terms, it"s an edible piece of meat thatstrengthens your body; it contains vast amounts of energy."
Ye Zhu responded with an "Oh", she immediatelyreturned it to her brother saying: "You have it; I can"t imagine myself gettingmuch use out of it anyway, when you get stronger, you can better protect me."
Ye Chen smiled gently saying: "I"ve had a lotalready; this tiny bit no longer has much effect on me, but if you eat it, itshould bring your strength up to that of a strapping young man, if it came downto escaping, you"d need that extra stamina to keep up with me."
After a brief consideration, Ye Zhu no longerrefused, placing it slowing into her mouth, she carefully chewed, beforeswallowing it."
A brief period later.
"Sure enough, my body feels lighter!" Ye Zhuglanced over her own body with a look of surprise, how inconceivable; a tinypiece of meat like that actually had such miraculous effects!
"Alright now, let"s continue with lunch." YeChen chuckled before continuing with his meal.
Time pa.s.sed….
After the two of them were finished with theirsimple meal, they rested from 11:30 till 1:30. After getting up, Ye Chenproceeded to ready their weaponry. Awakened by the movements, Ye Zhu went overto inspect the four watermelon knives placed on the cabinet. Picking up awatermelon knife, she gave it a few swings, seemingly quite excited.
Ye Chen exasperatedly glanced at her; she waslike a newborn that has yet to experience fear. She may seem excited now, butthat will soon change when she comes into contact with the brutality and terrora.s.sociated with zombies. Before setting out, Ye Chen remembered to bringanother bottle of gasoline, it would be his life saving ace when things wentsouth.
But shouldn"t he bring more?
The reason was simple; carrying more would onlyenc.u.mber him needlessly, affecting his movements. Moreover, with his currentstrength, anything less than a combined a.s.sault of seven zombies or more couldbe handled with minimal risk.
After he was done with the preparations, heturned around to gaze at his little sister wearing a T-shirt and a pair ofjeans. Dejectedly, he muttered: "Go change into some thick clothes and camopants, they"re in the closet, I bought them just the other day."
Ye Zhu blinked her eyes in a daze; she briefly gaveher ensemble a look-over before obediently heading into the bedroom to getchanged. Her battle wear consisted of a black short sleeved top and thick camopants, appearing quite amusing. She was a duckbill cap away from resembling abreak dancer.
"Take this." Ye Chen handed her a watermelonknife for self-protection before warning her in a grave manner saying: "Whenwe"re out there, make sure to stick close behind me, don"t let down your guardand no acting on your own unless I say otherwise."
Ye Zhu obediently nodded her head.
Ye Chen was still worried, but there wasnothing more he could do. He hesitantly beckoned: "Let"s go!" before exitingthe door after making sure the coast was clear.
Behind him, Ye Zhu closed the room"s door witha "click".
Leaving their safe haven behind them, theyproceeded carefully. Their deathly silent surroundings gave a subtle sense ofsuffocating dread. Ye Chen maintained his calm demeanor, with Ye Zhu in tow, hecarefully gave the entire floor a sweep, with no wandering zombies in sight, hemarched onwards to the floor below.
When pa.s.sing the stairs, Ye Zhu was startled atdiscovering zombie corpses lining the corners; she stumbled to hold herselfagainst the wall, repulsed into a fit of vomiting.
Ye Chen felt reluctant to carry on, hesympathized with the fact that anyone who came across such a gore encrustedscene would not be able to tolerate it. He approached her side and gentlypatted her on the back, attempting to ease her discomfort before saying:"Perhaps, you should head back for now, there"s always next time."
Ye Zhu immediately stifled her vomiting, wipingher lips clean, she gave a snort before pouting her lips grumbling: "You wish!Humph, they"re nothing but a dumb bunch of c-corpses! N-nothing to be mindfulof." After her brief declaration, she spun around to glare at the zombiecorpses in a chastising manner, appearing to say: "Humph, I"m not afraid ofyou!"
However, when gazing at the corpses, her lineof sight accidently landed upon their exposed craniums, with blackish bloodoozing from their gaping lacerations….
"Urk."
The revolting sight once again prompted herinto a renewed fit of vomiting.
Ye Chen could only chuckle bitterly, insituations like these; she could only rely upon herself.
After a brief period, Ye Zhu had regurgitatedeverything she ate during lunch; her beautiful face was ashen, yet her eyesshone with an unprecedented stubbornness. Immediately after she recovered, sheturned around to once more confront the sight of the zombie corpses. This time,although her delicate eyebrows were knitted into a sullen furrow, she managedto overcome the urge of throwing up once more.
"Let"s go!" Ye Zhu urged after gatheringherself into a calmer state.
The air was thick with the stench of rot; YeChen was already quite familiar with such a smell. After all, in the laterstages of the apocalypse, you"d be hard pressed to find a place that didn"treek of such a rotting stench.
The two once more, began descending the stairs.
As they pa.s.sed by the zombie corpses, Ye Zhu"sdelicate features were still ashen, her body trembled slightly and her eyesglistened with a hint of tears. However, biting her lips, she pushed on whilstforcefully suppressing her fears.
"I"ll not let you suffer fighting this battlealone, never!" Staring at the familiar sight of her brother"s back, Ye Zhu eyesshone with resolute persistence.
The 17th floor, within its corridorshung a grave air of silence. Standing at one end of the corridor, the two gazedinto the distance that permeated a stifling pressure. With his usual calm, YeChen carefully crept past the room containing the mutant ant, arriving at thethird room on the left, this room was locked.
Ye Chen gave the door a knock.
"Rrrargh!" from the enclosed room came abeast-like roar followed by a series of loud bangs on the door.
Ye Chen placed his ear near the door, afterlistening carefully, he deducted that there were a total of three zombies inthe room. Considering the st.u.r.diness of this door, he estimated that it wouldhold for roughly another three minutes, after all, three zombies wereequivalent in strength to nine adult men!
Ye Zhu who was standing behind was frightenedby the mad snarling of the zombies, the disturbing growls brought forwardmemories of the few instances she beheld their savage countenance. Feeling achill run down her spine, she couldn"t help but vividly realize what kind ofmonsters her brother had been battling!
Her delicate hands gripped the watermelon knifetightly, due to her nervousness, her palms were sweating profusely. With bothher hands trembling, she recalled a method of calming down she had oncewitnessed on a certain TV programme. Silently, she began to repeat in herheart: "I"m not afraid, I"m not afraid…."
While the zombies were hammering on the door,Ye Chen dove into the second room that was previously occupied by the eightzombies. At the moment, it was completely vacant making it perfectly safe.
Ye Chen closed the door and immediately wentwith the old method of stacking sofas behind the door, allowing it to open justenough for a zombie to squeeze halfway through. Shortly after the preparationswere done, the door of the third room was forced open, following the scent ofwarm blood, the zombies scrambled for the second room entrance. Shoving madly,they fought for the opportunity to go first.
After battering through the previous door, thezombies had expended much of their strength; they weren"t as ferocious as theywere before.
Ye Zhu was standing at the corner, through thegap in the door; she could see a zombie forcefully stuffing half its head intothe room. Its eyes were mad with bloodl.u.s.t, snarling its bared fangs; it lockedits sinister eyes upon her, claws scratching furiously in her generaldirection, no matter how persistently it struggled, it couldn"t quite reachher.
The sight caused her delicate features to paleeven further.
Shluk!
Standing on the other side, Ye Chen chopped outthe watermelon knife with a cold indifference, with one precise stroke, he tookthe zombie"s arm clean off. In the midst of its agonized howl, Ye Chen closedin and smashed the flat tip upon its forehead, forcing it back.
The ma.s.sive impact forced the zombie to tumblebackwards, leaving the gap wide open. Diving at the opportunity to enter, theother two zombies forced their way to the forefront. Seeing their exposedclaws, Ye Chen effortlessly began lopping them off one by one. Afterwards, headjusted the sofas to allow the gap in the door to widen. Immediately, one ofthe zombies bulldozed its way to the forefront. Ye Chen was already awaitingfor it behind the door, with a clean stroke upon its exposed skull, the zombiewas slain.
The other two zombies suffered a similar fate,forever silenced through a blade to the head.
After dragging their corpses into the room, YeChen shut the door behind him. Looking at the three armless corpses as well astheir severed appendages strewn across the floor, he approached one of thecorpses and indifferently began to split open its torso.
"What on earth are you doing?" Ye Zhu"s facewas pale with terror; her two hands clenching the watermelon knife trembledincessantly. Anyone who had been forced to witness such a h.e.l.lish scene would beshuddering in raw terror.
Ye Chen smiled gently saying: "That mutagenicflesh I gave you was found within the chest of one of these zombies; I"m justlooking for more."
Ye Zhu watched as her brother dissected thecorpse and rummaged through its internal organs. Yet whilst doing suchunspeakable things, how could he still be smiling? The frightening experiencewas causing goose b.u.mps to rise all over her body and her scalp numbed withincreased intensity. But it didn"t end with that. Out of the blue, she wasinformed that the strange piece of meat she ingested earlier came from thebodies of these grotesque creatures, the shock literally drove her to the brinkof losing consciousness. Grasping desperately onto the walls beside her, shebegan retching uncontrollably.