"Honey, honey, wake up. Wake up..." My husband's familiar voice pulled me away from that terrifying scene. I opened my eyes, drenched in cold sweat. It was just a nightmare.
As soon as I woke up, I pushed my husband aside and sat up to check the crib next to our bed. Plump Shuai Shuai was sleeping soundly inside! Whew~ My precious baby! You scared Mommy to death!
But once I calmed down, my tears wouldn't stop. I leaned against my husband's chest, crying incessantly because of the dream. It was so horrifying, it felt so real! I absolutely cannot accept my baby suffering even the slightest harm! If anything happened to Shuai Shuai, I think I would lose the courage to live on!
After hearing about my dream, my husband held me tightly and said, "Believe it or not, I've had similar nightmares these past few days too, dreaming about our family being hurt! It's completely normal. In an environment like this, our biggest worry is naturally our loved ones! I just didn't tell you, afraid it would add to your pressure! It's okay, it's okay, trust me, I will definitely protect our whole family!"
Ever since the incident started, although my husband and I quickly suppressed the panic and despair in our hearts and immediately started making various preparations, all just so Mom, Dad, and Shuai Shuai could survive, these busy days ended with us exhausted and falling asleep early at night, never really leaving time to process our emotions!
And if negative emotions aren't handled properly, once they erupt, the damage to oneself might be even greater than that caused by tangible enemies.
I looked straight into my husband's eyes and asked him, "Honey, tell me the truth, are you scared?"
My husband hesitated for a moment, but still answered honestly, "Of course! And, very scared! This situation has surpassed what humans can calmly endure. It's different from wars between humans. People eating people... this is something I fundamentally can't accept. But honey, our family has the old and the young; I'm the only pillar supporting them. So, I don't have the right to panic, and even less the right to despair! On the contrary, I not only have to make myself stronger, but also make the whole family full of hope for survival! Especially our son, I'm his father, I must protect him and let him grow up!"
Opening our hearts and communicating has always been the most effective way for us as a couple to get along harmoniously, and this time was no exception. So, my husband Canaan didn't hide his inner thoughts. Even though he admitted he was very scared, I still felt reassured.
"Honey, me too. On the day it happened, I was so busy moving food from downstairs that I didn't seem to have time to be scared. But these past few days, once I have free time, my heart feels panicked. It feels like a nightmare; I somewhat resist accepting this as reality. And I always think wildly, often imagining Shuai Shuai being caught by a zombie, screaming in agony. Just thinking about it feels like my heart is being cut by a knife! It's like when he was just born, looking at his tender little body, I was always worried about whether I could raise such a small baby. Actually, everyone grows from a baby into an adult! Ah, I almost had postpartum depression back then! Lately, I've felt that panic is shameful. I'm a mother, I must be strong, I must be calm. But actually, I'm very fragile inside. If I hadn't talked to you about this today, I would have kept forcing myself until one day I collapsed."
I let out a breath and felt a miraculous calm inside. The fear, worry, and the feeling of disdain for that fear that had been tormenting me these days slowly disappeared.
"We are human, with all human emotions and feelings. Fear is one of them. We shouldn't feel ashamed because we feel fear. The question now is, we must face the fear head-on and overcome it! If we let fear control our hearts, we will be defeated without even fighting. How can we talk about protecting Mom, Dad, and the child to survive?" After saying this, I saw my husband's face become very gentle. Clearly, he had also let go of something in his heart.
Yes, let go! We fear something because it can bring unpredictable consequences, consequences we are afraid of. But fear doesn't solve the problem; on the contrary, it makes the situation worse! Facing such a terrible world, without enough reason and courage, forget protecting the children and elderly, we ourselves wouldn't be able to survive.
After calming down, I said to my husband, "No, I must find out whether there's any hidden danger in the neighbor's house across the hall! If they turned into zombies inside, I won't feel at ease until we clear them out! If no one is inside, I'll only feel relieved after confirming it!"
My husband thought for a moment and said, "There is a way! Isn't there a locksmith right outside the main gate of our compound? He has a small shack there. I've heard that locksmiths make a master key that can handle ordinary security doors. Maybe we should go look for it and see if we can find such a key. We might need it later anyway!"
I looked at him in surprise. My usually upright and somewhat dull husband actually had quite a few tricks up his sleeve! He even knew about such things.
"Should we ask the others to go together tomorrow?" I asked.
"Okay, let's sleep now."
The next day, clear weather.
The heavy snow buried all the dirty blood and flesh beneath it, making the compound look pristine and white, hiding any signs of evil.
Wu Xiaofeng was responsible for installing water purifiers on the taps for our several families.
Wang, Liu, and Qiao went with the two of us to look for the key. Ling took Guo Guo to my place to be with our family.
The process was surprisingly smooth! Besides dealing with a few zombies wandering aimlessly near the main gate, we didn't encounter much resistance.
The locksmith had also turned. He wasn't far from his shack, wandering around aimlessly. Do zombies have a homing instinct? Or maybe it was a coincidence.
The door to his shack wasn't locked. We went in and quickly found the legendary master key in a drawer. And there wasn't just one; there were three! They were long and looked quite strange. Anyway, they were different from ordinary door keys! We didn't know how to use them or if they worked well.
We'd find out once we got back and tried them!
There was an unexpected find in the locksmith's shack: a fire axe. It was quite heavy, but the men could manage it. Mainly, its killing power was strong! The kitchen knives were getting chipped from chopping! We needed to switch it up eventually.
The locksmith was quite mysterious. He probably kept it for self-defense, since he slept in this shack at night.
After returning, we immediately used the key on our neighbor's door across the hall. The key was amazing! After some fiddling, the supposedly sturdy Feiyun security door opened. Thankfully, zombies don't know how to use these!
As I had hoped, the neighbor's house was empty. Actually, I knew deep down that if there were zombies inside, it couldn't have been so quiet. They would have been making noise constantly; they get hungry, after all!
However, we found some good stuff in their house! Some definitely controlled items!
Guns!
And not just one. A whole drawer full of them. I don't know guns; I've never seen a real one. They looked like toy guns. Could they really be toy guns?
"They're all real," my husband went over, picked one up, and hefted it. "How do you know?" The others looked at him doubtfully. After all, this isn't America; very few ordinary people ever see a real gun in their lifetime.
"My dad was a criminal police officer when I was young. He often took me hunting and trained me to shoot bottles," my husband replied lightly.
My husband's father died of illness when he was very young. I never met this mysterious father-in-law. But now that he mentioned it, I remembered my husband telling me that when he was little, his father, though silent and not good with words, loved hunting and was a real man. Their family lived on a farm, not in the city, so back then, using guns to hunt in the mountains, while not exactly legal, was what everyone there did.
"So you know how to use guns? You have to teach us!" Little Wang said urgently. We all understood his desire to kill more zombies to avenge his wife!
"I will. Let me first see if there's enough ammunition. Without bullets, these Type 64s are just scrap metal." My husband checked them one by one and found most were empty.
"Look for bullets. Someone with this hobby would definitely not just have guns without ammo. I really wonder what he did for a living." As he spoke, we split up and rummaged through the neighbor's house.
Now I somewhat understood why this family kept others at a distance. Where there's no secret, there's no darkness. They were afraid that if they got too close to us, we'd discover their secret!
How dangerous! Our family has the elderly and a child, and their family had a drawer full of guns. That's terrifying!
"Found it! There are two boxes of bullets here." Liu dragged two boxes out from under the guest bed.
My husband went over and looked, very pleased. "Indeed!"
"Move them to whose place?" Liu asked.
"Don't move them. Leave them here. We have the key to get in anyway. It's not safe to keep the guns at anyone's place. Our house has kids and elderly, and you guys don't know how to use them yet. Just leave them here. And unless absolutely necessary, we shouldn't let gunshots attract more zombies! Let's try to use blades as much as possible." My husband loaded bullets into each gun. Then he neatly arranged them on their dining table, ready to be fetched whenever needed.
"Tomorrow I'll teach you how to use guns. This is a must-learn." After saying this, my husband led us out of the neighbor's apartment and locked the door again.
The guys had also brought back knife sharpening tools from Carrefour because they found that kitchen knives got dull after chopping zombies and weren't very effective. So, knives need sharpening every day, and bodies need training every day!
We also opened the two apartments on the 17th floor. They were ordinary households. Looking at the photos in these two homes, they seemed to be couples living together, but they probably wouldn't be coming back.
We opened the empty apartment on the 16th floor too.
Then the 14th floor, and the 1st floor...
In the empty apartments, we distributed any edible food still left in the refrigerators.
Both apartments on the 1st floor had people. 101 was occupied by a family of four: a couple, Zhu Yang and Zhou Ming, their two-year-old boy, and the child's grandmother. The grandfather had been out strolling that day and met his end. Their family had relatively ample food reserves; they still had some left after holding out for half a month. That's not easy! Our arrival saved them; the food suitable for the child was running low!
102 was occupied by a man in his forties, named Zhang Ming. He was divorced, and his child was abroad with his ex-wife. After the incident, he had tried to contact his ex-wife, but the phone was already disconnected. He was the only person we found who had bravely gone to the supermarket downstairs. So, his home also had ample food and water.
The 11th floor was all empty apartments. The 10th floor was all empty. The 9th floor was all empty...
Regrettably, from the 11th floor down, they were all empty apartments! The incident happened on a Sunday. People in our compound liked to go out shopping as a family on Sundays, or take their kids out to play.
The only one who didn't go out, the old lady on the second floor, had turned and was dealt with by my husband and me.
We wrapped the stinking corpse of the old lady in a large bedsheet, carried it to the garbage disposal area at the back gate of the compound, and buried it with snow.
Now we are sure the entire building unit is safe!
We have a total of 16 people.
Now, we must rely on each other, trust one another, and persevere!
(To be continued...)