A sense of comfort flooded Tang Ye as the beef he bit into turned into warm streams coursing through his body. A huge sigh escaped him as the itch on his skin induced by hunger vanished instantly. All that remained was a liberating feeling and the extreme craving for meat he previously had would no longer be felt.
Tang Ye gave a puzzled glance at the half-eaten raw beef in his hand. Surely, other zombies should have pounced on it. It perplexed him why none of them tried to snatch it away.
He never thought there would come a day when he would gnaw on raw beef. But what choice did he have? Chewing on beef was certainly better than feasting on human flesh! This sure tasted much better than the chips!
Upon inspecting the large piece of beef, Tang Ye figured he must have consumed over five pounds of it. Still, he felt no sense of fullness. His belly seemed just as flat as before; the raw beef he swallowed seemed to have vanished into thin air inside him.
To avoid behaving unusually due to hunger in the future, Tang Ye decided to finish off the chunk of beef in his hand. The feeling of losing control over his body was simply too awful!
With a large piece of beef packed in cling wrap in his left hand and a smaller piece in his right, Tang Ye set off on the move, munching away as he headed towards the roll-up door. Unwillingly, he sent silent blessings towards the woman he left behind.
He strolled out of the supermarket and moved towards the outskirts of the city. The contrast between the bright blue sky above and the crumbling city below created an overwhelming sense of desolation.
Munching on the raw beef he held, Tang Ye had no idea where to head. He wanted to do something significant, like saving lives!
He had now reached the North side of the city. The streets had fewer zombies than where he used to live, but they were still quite scattered around.
An emaciated zombie staggered towards Tang Ye. He stared at it and moved directly into its path without any intention of evading it. He was intrigued to see how the zombie would react.
As the two closed the distance, the undernourished zombie found its path blocked by Tang Ye. It lifted its decayed head, gave Tang Ye a detached look, and simply took a detour around him.
Ha! Quite polite, huh!
Tang Ye found it amusing, and after gobbling down the last bite of his beef, he wiped his greasy hands on his clothes, eyeballing another zombie, this time a middle-aged one larger than him. He walked directly toward it, intending to test the overall conduct of the zombies.
Soon, Tang Ye was face to face with the middle-aged zombie, which, unlike the previous one, did not step aside for Tang Ye. Instead, it continued to walk straight towards him, bumping into Tang Ye before he could react.
God damn it! You need to work on your manners, buddy!
Hmm? Tang Ye mused, seemingly sensing a natural order among zombies. To validate his hunch, he located a smaller zombie and again walked towards it head-on.
Sure enough, there seemed to be a hierarchy within the zombies. The smaller zombie avoided Tang Ye when they came face to face. Tang Ye realized that in case of an altercation between two zombies, the smaller one would invariably back down.
Now that Tang Ye had discerned the pecking order among zombies, he saw no point in testing their manners anymore. He started wandering aimlessly, his senses inured to the bloody carnage on the ground.
Zombies seldomly remained idle. In the absence of live humans, they loitered around like fools. Tang Ye was no different; he was at a loss for what to do. He could have played with his phone, but he foolishly smashed it in a moment of impulsiveness.
Along the way, he spotted several zombies lazily attempting to act dead in the shade. Finding himself in a playful mood, he approached them and delivered resounding kicks to their butts.
The blazing sun in the sky rendered Tang Ye weak to the point of softness in his arms and shoulders. Now, he understood why zombies preferred to play dead - sleeping appeared to be the only solace. Tang Ye took cover from the sun, plonked down in the shade of some steps, and eventually stretched out on the floor, finding it more comfortable.
A modified off-road vehicle sped through a street teeming with zombies, knocking over countless zombies in its wake, leaving a trail of nauseating and wheezing sounds as the tires rolled over flesh and blood!
"Shit! Screw you, Old Liu! Hauling asses so far away to find food, are you trying to get us killed?" grumbled the robust man behind the wheel while steering frantically.
"If you can grab it from the evolved zombie, then I wouldn’t stop you!" retorted Old Liu frostily.
They had the Lianyi Supermarket close to where they resided but an incredibly fast zombie had made it its territory. Several from their group had already died in its clutches, which made Old Liu extremely wary to the point of choosing to go the long way round.
Old Liu’s retort left the heavyset driver silent for a moment. He was dreadfully scared of that evolved zombie from the supermarket. Its speed was comparable to that of the car. They had had a close shave before, chased by it for an extended period with it latching onto their side mirror. Had Old Liu not acted in time and chopped off its hand, they would’ve been its meal by now.
There were five people in the car, each clutching bags of assorted snacks sourced from another supermarket. The vehicle pressed on, its front end out of shape due to repeated collisions.
As they forged ahead, the density of zombies in the front seemed to increase. The sight made the driver’s pupils constrict.
"F*ck! When did so many zombies pile up here?" The robust man wanted to turn the car around and take another road, but the trailing zombies wouldn’t allow it. The revving sound of their vehicle had attracted scores of repugnant zombies.
It would take some time to turn the vehicle around, ample time for them to fall prey to the zombies. They couldn’t bank on the torque of their vehicles, so the driver had no option but to bulldoze his way forward.
Everyone in the vehicle could feel an intense resistance. Sensing the clatter, hordes of zombies converged on the location, leaping onto the hood and the roof of the car, banging on it frantically!
Their hearts pounded with dread. The driver gritted his teeth and floored the accelerator. Nothing mattered more than staying alive!
The car managed to break free from the encircling zombies, brutally crushing those in the path and causing flesh and blood to splatter. The driver heaved a sigh of relief just when a minibus seemed to appear out of nowhere in front. His heart wrenched with panic.
PS: This is not a lovey-dovey story. Oh my goodness.