Chapter 1

"Damn this apocalypse!"

The cold wind woke Wu Xiaotian up. He pulled back the blanket, and the bone-chilling cold made him shrink his neck. After getting dressed, he still couldn't tell if this was reality or an untraceable dream, as both were filled with zombies of various forms. The difference was that in reality, he hadn't been eaten yet.

He picked up the clothes scattered on the bed and put them on. As the warmth returned to his body, he cursed helplessly.

Standing by the window in the living room, he looked down at the mindless zombies wandering below, calculating how many days the remaining food would last. Another gust of cold wind made Wu Xiaotian step away from the window. They say the northern cold wind is like a knife, direct and sharp. The southern cold wind is gentle, but now it had become just as direct and sharp.

Back in the bedroom, he turned on the computer and looked at the time in the bottom right corner, his thoughts drifting back to a month ago.

At that time, it was the day of the Mayan prophecy, December 21, 2012. But nothing happened that day; instead, the neighbor's dog died. Many doomsday forums and websites lost their usual buzz. However, the next day, the sky changed, and a group of uninvited guests arrived on Earth. The meteor shower didn't hit the land but the sea. The meteor shower brought not only tsunamis and earthquakes but also an unknown virus. The media reported extensively, and doomsday forums and websites became active again. Governments tried to dispel the rumors, but they couldn't stop the panic. Prices soared, and rice, salt, water, and other essentials were frantically hoarded. Some restless people emerged, committing crimes, rapes, and robberies, revealing the ugliest side of human nature. Various institutions stepped in to suppress, pacify, and relocate.

The panic subsided after a few days, and the criminals were thrown into detention centers.

On January 7, 2013, a Monday, it rained. When the office workers and students, who had just finished the weekend, were in the morning rush hour, the unknown virus erupted. Zombies appeared. Countless people, regardless of their identity—men, women, children, beggars, civilians, and thugs—were infected or turned into zombies. The method of infection was simple: being scratched, bitten, or eaten. Unprepared people were either infected or eaten.

Wu Xiaotian had just woken up, thinking it was early, and was about to go back to sleep when a sudden scream made him shiver. He jumped out of bed, opened the window, and shouted, "Damn, watching horror movies so early in the morning, are you trying to die?" But instead of others joining in, a group of people turned to look at him with bloodshot eyes.

"What are you looking at, never seen a naked man before?"

Ignoring them, he noticed a car in the middle of the group, with several people lying in front of it. The people on the outside were desperately reaching out, as if trying to grab something. The people in the middle seemed to be eating something. Upon closer inspection, a man was lying face-up on the car hood, his head tilted to one side, his entire abdomen torn open. One person was holding a heart, another a kidney, and two others were fighting over a piece of intestine.

Wu Xiaotian's legs gave out, and he fell to his knees. His stomach churned, and he crawled to the bathroom, vomiting. Tears and snot streamed down his face. After vomiting everything in his stomach, he slowly stood up, leaning against the wall, and wiped his nose and eyes with toilet paper. He wondered what had happened to these people, if they had gone mad. No, they were like zombies in movies, eating people, something that only existed in the past.

He slowly made his way back to the window. The group of people eating had dispersed, leaving only the man's remains on the car. The others were still wandering aimlessly.

Wu Xiaotian shouted in his mind, "Zombies, they are zombies." Shaking, he went to the bedside table, picked up the phone, and called his parents. The line was busy, and he was so anxious he wanted to throw the phone. After taking a deep breath, he tried again. A familiar yet tense voice came from the other end.

"Xiaotian, are you okay, Xiaotian?" His mother was safe. He asked, "Mom, where are you? Is Dad okay?"

His mother replied, "We're fine. Your cousin took us to an airport early this morning, saying we're going to Yanjing. Xiaotian, come quickly; we're all waiting for you."

Wu Xiaotian sighed, "Mom, I'll try to find you, but there are zombies eating people downstairs!"

"What should we do? Your cousin is on his way. I'll give you the phone." "Okay."

Then the phone went dead. Wu Xiaotian threw the phone in anger. Soon, the landline rang. He rushed to the living room to answer it.

"Xiaotian, listen. The plane is about to take off. The world is in chaos. TV, phone, and internet signals may be lost. Find a radio, the frequency is FM87.8. Time is short; I have to board the plane. Remember my words, don't forget." The phone went dead again.

Wu Xiaotian's cousin, Wu Xiaolong, was a soldier. Even his parents didn't know what he did. But he was the most accomplished, mysterious, and reliable of the second generation of the Wu family. Wu Xiaotian felt safe knowing his parents were in his care.

"Mom and Dad, you're going to Yanjing. My sister is already there. As the capital of Huaxia, it has the strongest army, the best defense, and the center of power. You should be safe." Wu Xiaotian muttered to himself.

He climbed to the roof of the building. The office building was on fire, car alarms were blaring, and the screams of dying people and occasional gunshots created a bleak apocalyptic scene. He lit a cigarette and took a deep drag.

His thoughts returned to the present.

He went online and opened various portal websites. Unlike before, they were no longer colorful but had a large headline: "Apocalypse Crisis." He opened a video, which showed a tired but imposing soldier with a few spots of blood on his face. The soldier, without any preamble, gave a standard military salute and began his speech.

"Dear citizens, this is Yanjing time, January 17, 2013. The D virus has been spreading for 17 days. Out of the 7 billion people on Earth, from the South Pole to the North Pole, 90% have been infected with the D virus. Huaxia is one of the hardest-hit areas.

The national emergency response plan was just activated when the virus destroyed most of the city's administrative systems. Due to the sudden nature of the virus, it is difficult to prevent. Being bitten or scratched will result in infection and aggression within an hour.

This virus has been named 'Destroy the Order of the Devil' by global scientists, with the Chinese name 'Destruction of Order by the Devil,' abbreviated as D virus.

People infected by the D virus will attack others within an hour. Characteristics include: no pain, no thinking ability, stiff movements, extremely sensitive sense of smell, blood and flesh consumption, average hearing, extremely strong exposed bones, and strong destructive power. They are particularly sensitive to bright colors and have a low recognition rate for cool colors. They lack self-preservation instincts, so their strength is twice that of a normal human, their speed is 0.3 times that of a normal human, and their maximum speed is a jog. Their explosive power is average.

The enemy is powerful, but please rest assured, the Huaxia military has gathered nearly 15% of its forces and will provide aid as quickly as possible. Please stay at home and tune to FM87.8 for the latest information. This will help the bases in various cities provide assistance. The following bases have been contacted: BJ, SY, SH, SZ, ZJ, DG, ZA, TY, CD... Since people infected by the D virus have lost human characteristics, the government has granted survivors the right to kill the infected. The best way to kill them is to destroy their central nervous system or blow their heads off...

Wu Xiaotian had watched this video many times and found no new information, so he started browsing the comments.

"The comment contains extreme remarks and has been deleted."

"Who can save me, I'm at location XX..."

"Can someone save me, I'll give them anything, I'm at location XX."

"There are 3 zombies at my doorstep. Come save me."

"Is anyone there, come save me."

"** Come save me."

...

Just as he was about to look for more information, the internet connection was lost, making Wu Xiaotian stomp his feet in frustration. He slowly calmed down, setting his first goal in the apocalypse: to survive and see his parents.

Surviving means there's hope. But seeing the zombies wandering downstairs filled him with fear, imagining being dragged and eaten like in his dreams. He was in his old house, as the new one was far from the city center. The old house was in a village within the city, with buildings close together. Most of the time, it was rented out. If the tenants downstairs had turned into zombies, there would be at least 10 of them.

To survive, he needed food. Wu Xiaotian immediately left the computer and began inventorying his remaining supplies. After a busy morning, he had counted everything. Due to his laziness, he had stocked up on a lot of food and supplies: half a bag of rice (about 30 pounds), two boxes of instant noodles, two cases of cola, 11 pounds of cured meat, 101 eggs, 3 pounds of noodles, two packs of sausages, 11 cans of fish, half a chicken, 0.5 pounds of spinach, 10 heads of cabbage, one bucket of water, 3 cartons of cigarettes (30 packs), and some unharvested leeks and scallions on the roof garden. The two water towers on the roof were full, as the village had low water pressure, and each house had a water tower supplied by a pump. Wu Xiaotian calculated that he could last for two to three months.

With food secured, his safety should be guaranteed. His old house, renovated in 2005, had five floors. Floors one to four were rented out, and he lived on the fifth floor. One side faced the main city road, and the other faced the village. From the second floor up, there were security cages, and the entire building had two concrete awnings, so zombies couldn't climb up. The stairwell between the fourth and fifth floors had a security door. Wu Xiaotian took a deep breath, feeling temporarily safe.

Electricity shouldn't be a problem for a few months, as he was confident in the power infrastructure. The internet was already down, and he had hoped to find useful information online.

PS: Xiao Zhu is a new writer, please be kind.