(This world is a fictional, alternate reality. Please do not relate it to real life! Brain storage area:)
Location: Planet Aqua - Great Gan Country - F City - F University
The air was thick with a nauseating metallic scent, the signal of fresh blood evaporating into the atmosphere. Lin Xuan was panting heavily, his chest burning as if it had been scorched by fire.
Just ten minutes ago, Lin Xuan had been standing at the school gate, watching Su Qing—the girl who once swore to stay by his side forever—sway her hips as she climbed into Xu Boda's flashy Porsche 911. Xu Boda's mocking face and Su Qing's cold gaze had pierced his pride like knives.
But now, that bit of romantic resentment had long been washed away by the instinct for survival.
"Bang!" Lin Xuan slammed heavily against the dormitory door, reaching back to twist the lock shut.
"Lin Xuan? Are you freaking crazy? Running like you're in a hurry to be reincarnated?" His roommate, Mo Xiaotian, was wearing headphones and playing games, jumping up in fright at the massive commotion. His pale face, a result of years of staying up late, was written with confusion.
Lin Xuan ignored him, his eyes bloodshot as he stared fixedly at the thin wooden dormitory door. What came from the hallway was no longer the familiar sounds of laughter and play, but a heavy, dragging footstep accompanied by hair-raising tearing sounds and inhuman low growls.
"Quick! Help me push that wardrobe over!" Lin Xuan pointed at the solid wood wardrobe against the wall, his voice incredibly hoarse.
Mo Xiaotian froze for a moment, not yet realizing the gravity of the situation. "No, what's going on? Did that grandson Xu Boda find people to corner you? Is it really necessary..."
Muttering to himself, he walked toward the window and looked down. In that instant, his voice was cut off as if by an invisible giant hand.
Below the window, the once-peaceful campus boulevard had turned into a living hell. Students who were doing morning readings just hours ago were now being pinned to the lawn by several blood-covered "monsters" with twisted limbs. A girl's scream lasted only half a second before turning into a gurgling sound of blood bubbles; her throat had been ripped out, blood spraying onto the white walls of the teaching building. Those monsters—or rather, things that used to be human—were frantically devouring every living thing in sight.
"This... what is this? Filming a movie? Or..." Mo Xiaotian's face turned deathly pale instantly, his legs going weak as he nearly collapsed to the floor.
"Stop talking nonsense! Come help!" Lin Xuan roared, his arm muscles tensing. Due to extreme tension and fear, his strength exploded to its limit at this moment. With a sudden surge of power, the heavy wardrobe scraped against the rough concrete floor, making a piercing sound.
Mo Xiaotian finally reacted, scrambling over to help Lin Xuan brace against the wardrobe. The two of them fought with all their might to move it to the entrance, firmly blocking that wooden door that could be burst open at any moment.
"Thud! Thud! Thud!"
Impacts followed one after another, shaking dust loose from the wardrobe. A trickle of dark red liquid seeped through the door crack—the residual spray from some unlucky soul outside whose neck had been bitten through. Through the peephole, Lin Xuan saw a face with half its skin torn off pressed tightly against it. That cloudy, white eye held no human emotion, only the most primal craving for fresh meat.
"Shh... don't make a sound." Lin Xuan pressed down hard on Mo Xiaotian's shoulder, signaling him to be quiet.
The light inside the dorm was dim, with only the faint blue glow from Mo Xiaotian's computer screen, which was still on. The two sat on the floor with their backs against the wardrobe, listening to the terrifying sounds of chewing and the ear-piercing scratching of nails against the wood outside.
Lin Xuan clenched his fists, his nails digging into his palms. In this world where order had collapsed in an instant, staying alive had become the only truth.
Lin Xuan felt his pocket; there was only a folding knife he usually used for peeling fruit. He needed weapons, he needed food, and more importantly, he needed to figure out exactly what had happened to this world.
The screams outside gradually thinned out, replaced by a deathly silence, occasionally interspersed with a few beast-like low barks. Lin Xuan felt his adrenaline slowly receding, replaced by a bone-deep chill and a sense of hunger.
Lin Xuan leaned hard against the massive wardrobe, the wooden texture poking painfully into his back, but this pain actually helped his chaotic brain regain a sliver of clarity. That ear-piercing sound of nails scratching the wood continued outside, accompanied by a low, beast-like gurgle of swallowing saliva.
Lin Xuan wiped the cold sweat from his face, his palms still carrying dust and unknown slime from when he was running for his life.
"Calm down, Xiaotian, calm down..." Lin Xuan took a deep breath, his voice low and hoarse, like sandpaper rubbing against the floor. He forced his trembling fingers to steady as he pulled out his phone, which already had a crack across the screen.
Mo Xiaotian was like a frightened quail, huddling by the computer chair and staring blankly at the constantly vibrating dorm door. "C-calm down? Lin Xuan, did you see those things outside? Those were living people! They... they're eating people! Are those zombies? Like in the movies?" His voice carried a sob, his teeth chattering uncontrollably.
Lin Xuan didn't answer him, instead quickly dialing "110."
The phone screen emitted a blinding white light, looking exceptionally eerie in the dim room. Lin Xuan's heart hammered wildly, every impact against his chest clearly audible.
"Beep— Beep— Beep—"
A long dial tone. Every second of waiting felt like a century.
"Sorry, the number you dialed is busy, please try again later. Sorry, the subscriber you dialed is busy..."
The mechanical electronic female voice sounded particularly piercing in the dead silent room, like a heartless mockery. Lin Xuan gritted his teeth and dialed "119" and "120," even calling the school security office once.
The result was without exception. Busy tones, or a deathly silence where even the cold prompt disappeared.
"Fuck!" Lin Xuan growled angrily.
"How is it? Did it go through? When are the police coming? What about the army?" Mo Xiaotian, as if grabbing onto a final lifeline, scrambled over, his bloodshot eyes staring fixedly at Lin Xuan's phone.
"No one's picking up," Lin Xuan answered briefly, a bone-chilling coldness rising in his heart. If even these emergency communications were paralyzed, it meant the situation outside had spiraled out of control to an unimaginable degree.
"Go online... right, go online! There must be news!" Mo Xiaotian seemed to remember something and lunged toward his computer, which was still on.
Lin Xuan leaned in, watching him use the mouse with trembling hands, frantically refreshing web pages. Weibo, Tieba, local news sites... every tab had that agonizing little loading circle spinning.
"It won't load... why won't it load! Even if a zombie outbreak happened, the signal couldn't vanish this fast, right?! Did the zombies pull down the towers?" Mo Xiaotian complained angrily while frantically hitting the F5 key.
Finally, a page from a local forum barely managed to load halfway. The headline at the very top was shocking: [Emergency Shelter! Unknown virus outbreak citywide, infected are extremely aggressive, DO NOT go out under any circumstances!!!]
Below it was a blurry photo, the background being the school's Second Cafeteria. In the photo, a man in a chef's uniform was pinned on top of a student, his hands thrust into the student's abdominal cavity, pulling out a long string of bloody intestines, while the surrounding crowd was screaming and fleeing for their lives.
Before the two could look closer, the webpage suddenly jumped to a massive "404" error. Immediately after, the network connection icon in the bottom right corner of the computer turned into a cold yellow exclamation mark, then completely became a red X.
The internet was cut.
The last window for help was completely shut; in this era of information explosion, they were suddenly abandoned on a helpless, isolated island.
Mo Xiaotian stared blankly at the screen, the mouse slipping from his hand and hitting the floor with a crisp "clack." He suddenly seemed to go mad, rushing toward the balcony door, wanting to pull back the curtain to look outside.
"Don't go!" Lin Xuan was quick, grabbing him by the back of his collar and slamming him hard onto the floor.
"What are you doing! I want to see if anyone else is out there! I want to find my parents!" Mo Xiaotian roared hysterically.
"Looking outside right now will do nothing but make you break down faster!" Lin Xuan straddled him, his hands pinning his shoulders down firmly, his eyes staring closely into those fear-filled eyes. "Listen, Xiaotian, the outside world has gone mad. Whether it's a virus or something else, no one is coming to save us right now. If you want to live, shut up and hold back your tears!"
Mo Xiaotian was frightened by Lin Xuan's appearance; he stared blankly at him, his lips trembling a few times, finally only letting out a suppressed whimper.
Lin Xuan stood up and walked to the gap in the curtains, cautiously peering outside.
The sunlight was still brilliant, but beneath it was a scene from hell. On the playground, several boys who used to sweat on the court were now wandering with eerie postures, their clothes torn and their exposed skin a deathly gray color. On the campus road not far away, Xu Boda's once-beautiful Porsche 911 had crashed into a crooked tree, the front of the car severely deformed and emitting billows of black smoke.
Lin Xuan squinted and saw that the car door was open. The driver's seat was empty, with only a large spray of blood staining the white leather seat red.
Where was Su Qing? Where was Xu Boda?
A complex emotion flashed through his heart—was it pleasure, or sorrow? Lin Xuan couldn't tell. But quickly, his attention was occupied by more realistic problems.
There was only half a jug of purified water left in the dorm, shared by the four roommates. On Mo Xiaotian's desk were a few bags of spicy strips and half a can of opened potato chips. In his own cabinet, there was one unopened bag of instant noodles.
These things wouldn't last more than a few days.
And in the hallway outside the door, the scratching sound of nails had disappeared, replaced by a dull thudding sound.
"Thud..."
"Thud..."
Every hit struck their hearts. It was a zombie using its body to ram the door.
Lin Xuan looked down at the folding fruit knife in his hand, barely ten centimeters long, then at the multi-functional army knife on Mo Xiaotian's desk. These toy-like weapons were laughably pathetic in front of monsters that felt no pain and only wanted to devour flesh.
"We need real weapons," Lin Xuan muttered to himself, his gaze falling on the iron bed frames in the dormitory.