Mei Lang

The city was in total chaos. At first, the number of zombies wasn't that high, but just like in movies, it spread quickly, and in no time, the city had fallen. Kai was driving through the city with his bike, circling around the university, trying to find his friend, Li Shi, who had left using the other exit. He tried to call him or text him, but the Internet and the signal were dead too, so it was impossible to communicate with his friend.

'I just hope he is fine,' thought Kai. That was something impossible to be certain of, especially considering the situation around them.

"Please, help me! Give me a ride, young man!" a middle-aged woman yelled when Kai passed by her on the street. Not everyone was lucky enough to have a vehicle to get out of the city. The streets were packed with cars too, so even those who did have a vehicle were having a rough time getting out.

For a moment, Kai felt bad at the sight of that poor woman asking for help, but he knew very well he could not afford to help her at that moment. Kai had to focus on finding his friend and his sister, and of course, focus on his own survival. There was no way he would carry someone he did not know.

'I watched too many TV shows to know they can just stab me in the back,' realized Kai. Once Kai reached the other part of the university, he saw many students running away, fleeing from the zombies that were taking over the city. Some students were not so lucky, and their destiny was to get eaten by the zombies.

With a focused mind, Kai tried to spot Li Shi in the crowd, but he didn't find him. The whole place was a mess, just like the entire city, so it was pretty difficult to spot a specific person in the crowd of people.

Among everyone, Kai did find someone he knew. It was a pretty girl from the university who often played chess and was one of the few girls who actually spoke with Kai. She noticed him too, as she started running toward him.

"Mei Lang, did you see Li Shi?" Kai asked.

"I did not," Mei Lang said, "But he is not among the corpses, so he should have gone away! And what is this bike of yours?"

Mei Lang knew Kai and Li Shi, and spoke with them sometimes, but it was not something they saw as a friendship. Kai liked her because she was not an asshole like the others who treated him badly, but he wouldn't risk his life for her or anything alike.

"Are you certain you did not see him around? Fuck, how can I find him?" Kai cursed. He wanted to find his only friend and survive the apocalypse. The idea of his friend dying and getting eaten alive like a pig was daunting, but Mei Lang tried to comfort him, "I don't mean to be rude, but if you are alive still, so Li Shi is probably too. He is a badass while you are as skinny as a stick."

She did not sound rude; it was more like a playful way of saying things, and it made Kai calm down.

"You could have used different words, but you are right nonetheless. Do you want a ride out of here?" Kai asked.

Kai saw no reason to deny her a ride, especially when the message from his new system still rang inside his head.

"Hell yeah!" she said, jumping on Kai's bike.

They traversed through the city in a rapid manner, way faster than most of the cars that were stuck in traffic. The number of zombies was increasing a lot by each second, and Kai knew very well that leaving the big towns was the smartest move.

"We need to go to the interior, as there are fewer zombies there. The only way to survive such big centers is with weapons, cars, and supplies, and we don't have that," said Kai.

"Agreed. So you have a meeting point with Li Shi, right? Can we stop by my house before going there? I need to see if my family is okay!" Mei Lang asked.

Kai would never agree to it, as it was not a good idea to go to a different location instead of the one he was supposed to go to meet up with Li Shi, but Mei Lang's house was close to the location, and that was the only reason he agreed to it.

"Sure. Tell me where it is," Kai said.

With her on the back guiding him, Kai drove past the cars and the zombies, leaving the big city and going to the hallway. From there, the only path was forward, which wasn't difficult to follow even without her help.

"Turn left here," Mei Lang said, pointing at a muddy road.

The place was near the woods, and the lights were basically nonexistent before the apocalypse started, and now with the apocalypse, it was even worse. Kai could barely see it, and the only light was the one from his bike.

They kept going through a muddy road, all the way until they found a big house surrounded by walls and an electric fence. At first, it looked like a decent place to have a base, but Kai disliked that it was too close to the big city.

"This is it," Mei Lang said, "Let's go inside to see if my parents are here. It's been a while since the last time I spoke with them. We kinda argued," she said.

Mei Lang had a key to the house, so she was the one leading the way. Kai was constantly looking around to check if anyone was coming. During an apocalypse, zombies were not the only enemies.

"Strange, their car is not here. Did they leave?" Mei Lang murmured.

She grabbed a flashlight in the garage and handed it over to Kai, "It's dark inside and there is no light so we will have to use this."

Kai turned the flashlight on and went inside the house with her, not knowing what he would find.