"Which side are we going?" Leng Pan asked as soon as she was ready.
"Let’s go to the city center. We might also be able to meet other people or soldiers and inquire about the situation in other places." Lu Zhen replied while turning the key and starting his bike.
Leng Pan followed suit as she shouted back over the ’vrmoom’ of the two motorcycles.
"I’ll follow behind you then." Placing her foot on the bike she started moving as soon as Lu Zhen moved out.
Some people from their building and the near buildings in the same community heard the sound of the heavy-duty motorcycles and rushed to the window to look out.
No body expected that anyone had the courage to leave their house at a critical moment . Even a madman wouldn’t dare to take such a risk. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ ɴovᴇl(ꜰ)ir(e).nᴇt
Yet, someone had really not only left their house, but the community too.
Looking at the two motorcycles speeding towards the gate, one could tell that it was a man and a woman following closely behind him. How could these two people be so courageous?
Don’t they care about their lives? Aren’t they afraid of being bitten by zombies and getting infected?
These were the questions in everyone’s mind and some even started discussing Leng Pan and Lu Zhen’s actions with their families.
"Do you think those two are crazy or why do you think anyone would leave the safety of their house at this moment?" One wife asked her husband.
"I don’t know if they are crazy, but I must commend their courage. Not many people would do what they just did." Her husband replied with some admiration in his voice.
"Admiring them is one thing, but you better not get any ideas about going out. They are crazy, so they can go be crazy wherever they want, but don’t get infected by their craziness." The wife added with some authority in her voice.
Her husband shrank back and wiped off the admiration on his face. It was replaced by a serious look as he said to his wife, " But honey, we are already running low on food. Soon, we won’t have anything to eat. Whether we like it or not, we will have to go out to look for food."
Even though he listened to his wife about everything and he was a little afraid of her, his brain was still working fine. He knew that things seemed to have changed and they couldn’t access supplies as readily as they did before.
They couldn’t go to the supermarket or the mall to buy stuff like they were used to. They couldn’t even call delivery service to have food delivered to them because everyone now was locked at home and refusing to leave.
In such a situation, calling others crazy was the same as calling oneself crazy. Because, eventually, they were all going to be doing the same thing; going out to look for food.
"What do you know. Some families have plenty of food in stock. We just have to pretend to be pitiful and ask them for something to eat. With so many people in this building, we will definitely get something.
Going to several families, we can get enough to save and use for a while." The wife shamelessly voiced her plan.
Even her husband who was used to her tyranny was shocked.
"How can you think of doing something like that? Some of those families have children and the elderly. Taking their food is the same as killing them with starvation!" The husband was indeed flabbergasted.
He knew his wife had always been overbearing, but talking about taking other people’s things with such an attitude was really beyond what he had anticipated.
"What are you shouting for? It’s not like I’ll be taking them forcefully. If I ask and they behave like holy mother and give their supplies to me, even if they die of starvation, what does it have to do with me?" This time, her words were even more shameless.
Lu Tao who was on the top floor and had been eavesdropping was so shocked that he dropped the cup of tea he was holding.
This was the first time in his life he realized that humans could lack morals to such extend.
He had thought that his sister-in-law was exergerrating her words before, but now, he realized that she had been too reserved in her description.
How can someone take other people’s things disregarding their lives and even feel entitled to them?
"Son, what’s wrong with you? Why do you look like you’ve seen a ghost?" Li Yunjia and her sister-in-law who was sitting beside her helping her make clothes were startled by the commotion.
Looking at Lu Tao who looked as if his worldview had collapsed, she asked the question in case her son turned into an idiot with the way he seemed.
Upon hearing his mother’s voice, Lu Tao pulled his mind back and stopped listening.
He looked at the two elders beside hims and said, "I have never seen anyone as shameless as that woman."
Of course Li Yunjia and her sister-in-law didn’t understand what he meant. It felt as if he was telling riddles.
"What do you mean?" Li Yunjia could only ask further. She had never seen her son looking so shocked before.
He always tried to imitate his brother and put on a stoic face all day long. Now that he looked more like someone his age, sh wasn’t used to it.
"My brother and sister-in-law have left the community. They left on two heavy-duty motorcycles that made a lot of noise alerting many people of their departure.
Thus, a lot of people started watching them and discussing about how careless they were to leave the house at a time .
But that’s not what shocked me. Some people started discussing about how they were running out of food and might have to behave like brother and sister-in-law and go out to look for food.
That isn’t the disturbing part either. What truly shocked me was one neighbor who upon hearing her husband admire my brother’s and sister-in-law’s courage to go out shut him down by telling him that he shouldn’t even think about going out.
When he mentioned about their food dwindling, the wife shamelessly suggested...." Lu Tao continued to relay the conversation between husband and wife to his mother and aunt.