Chapter 10

"Fatso, wake up!"

Li Fatso felt someone shaking him and suddenly remembered the horde of zombies outside, which made him sit up with a start.

Tony was standing beside him, the one who had woken him up. Looking around, he noticed that everyone else was also awake.

"What’s going on?" Li Fatso asked, utterly confused.

Albe also got up from the sofa and asked, somewhat helplessly, "Do you know you snore?"

Seeing Li Fatso’s puzzled expression, Albe pointed to the door.

It was already light outside, and a few more zombies had gathered at the door, continuously pounding on it.

"Sorry, I sleep pretty deeply. I didn’t realize my snoring could attract zombies. That’s pretty funny," Li Fatso said with a self-deprecating smile.

As Tony walked towards the door, he exaggerated, "Fatso, your snoring. Oh-my-god, it’s like thunder. I thought you were dying in your sleep when I heard it."

"Be careful!" Hao Chen warned, seeing Tony get too close to the door.

"Don’t worry, the door should be fine," Tony said, rearranging the sofas that had been pushed aside.

Li Fatso looked at his watch; it was already past eight. Although they had only slept for four hours, no one seemed sleepy.

"Shouldn’t the police station be open by now?"

Everyone laughed at Hao Chen’s question.

"That’s a pretty cold joke," Li Fatso said as he stood up. "We don’t know how long we’ll be trapped here. We should clear out the bathroom; otherwise, it’ll be a hassle to use the toilet."

Everyone nodded in agreement. In fact, Hao Chen and Albe had really needed to use the bathroom, but they were too scared to enter because of the pile of zombie corpses inside.

Li Fatso led the way to the bathroom, saying, "We four guys will handle the bodies. You two girls, check the bodies for anything useful, especially food, phones, and cigarettes."

The KTV only had one main door, so they had to throw the bodies out of the second-floor windows to clear them away.

Looking at the dead people, Li Fatso and the others hesitated. A few hours ago, they had been drinking with these friends, and now they were separated by life and death.

The two girls couldn’t help but cry when they saw the familiar faces. The four guys were also deeply affected but managed to hold back their tears.

"Let’s get to work," Li Fatso said, breaking the hesitation.

The four of them made trip after trip to the second floor, and it took them half an hour to clear all the bodies.

After everyone had comfortably used the bathroom, they regrouped.

"I’m really hungry. Let’s see what we can find to eat," Tony said as he rummaged through the items they had found on the bodies.

There were phones, wallets, cigarettes, lighters, cosmetics, keys, bus cards, and so on. The food was scarce, with only a few chocolate bars.

Tony broke the chocolate and threw pieces to the others, but each person only got a small piece, which wasn’t enough to satisfy their hunger.

"Fatso, is there any food in the KTV?"

Seeing everyone’s hopeful eyes, Li Fatso got up and went to the workroom, returning with two Tesco plastic bags.

"Hooray! Ha, I’m starving!" Tony eagerly took a bag, and the others gathered around.

"The KTV only has some fruits for fruit platters, nuts, and snacks. You know, the stuff you eat in the private rooms."

Li Fatso held up the Tesco bags and continued, "This was my week’s supply, which I was planning to take home after work. Now I can’t go home, so you guys get to have it. Sigh!"

With Li Fatso’s supply, everyone finally had a full meal. If it weren’t for the zombies outside, they might have been able to sleep again after eating.

"Fatso, couldn’t you have bought some sandwiches or salads? Why did you buy so much raw pork?" Tony asked, munching on bread and waving the pork in his hand, clearly dissatisfied.

"Be grateful. It’s good to have bread. Although we can’t cook the pork, we can use it to lure zombies if necessary. See how forward-thinking I am? If we can leave safely and find a place with a kitchen, I can make you some stir-fried pork or fish-flavored pork, and you’ll be in heaven."

The others were amused by Li Fatso’s words. Xiao Yajiao put down his chips, wiped his mouth, and said, "I’m Si Yao, a second-year media student."

"I’m Albe, also a second-year media student."

"I’m Tony, a third-year business management student. My Chinese name is Fatso, but I prefer you to call me by my Chinese name."

"I’m Hao Chen, I just arrived this year and am still in the INTO language course."

"Yan Zekun..." the tall, thin guy paused and then added, "a first-year accounting student."

"Li Fatso, KTV waiter."

After Li Fatso finished, he saw the queen’s displeased glare and had to add, "Okay, a biology graduate student. In the same department as that Korean from last night."

Li Fatso was the oldest, and Hao Chen was the youngest. After everyone introduced themselves, they fell into silence again.

After only four hours of sleep, the drowsiness returned after they ate, and they took turns napping.

When Li Fatso woke up again, it was past noon. The number of zombies outside had doubled, apparently due to his snoring.

Li Fatso picked up a random phone from the ground, went to the second floor, and threw it out, using the same trick.

This worked again, and the pressure on the door was significantly reduced.

The noise Li Fatso made woke the others, and Hao Chen’s face became even more somber.

"No one has come to save us," Hao Chen said, her eyes welling up.

Albe gently patted Hao Chen’s back, trying to comfort her.

"Fatso, it looks like more than just Norwich has fallen. If something this big happened, the government would have responded by now. This can only mean..." Tony stood up and said to Li Fatso, who had just returned from the second floor.

"It means the world has ended!" Xiao Yajiao, the glasses-wearing boy, finished Tony’s sentence.

Yan Zekun lowered his head, silent, lost in thought.

Xiao Yajiao’s words extinguished the last bit of hope Hao Chen had.

"Sniff... Dad... Mom... What should I do..." Hao Chen couldn’t hold back her fear anymore. The night’s suppression and endurance turned into tears, which burst forth.

Albe gently covered Hao Chen’s mouth, signaling her to be quieter.

The atmosphere in the KTV became very oppressive. Albe and Si Yao, influenced by Hao Chen, also had red eyes.

Yan Zekun and Tony sat on the side, silent.

Everyone was probably thinking about their families.

The events unfolding forced the six of them to accept the reality of the end of the world.