Chapter 4: The Gatekeeping Dogs

At 7:30 a.m. on January 20, 2013, Zhang Xiaoqiang was roused by the alarm on his mobile phone. He got up and went to the living room. As was his routine, he took stock of the remaining supplies. More than half of the Chinese cabbages he had risked his life to obtain five days ago were still left. There were about four to five catties of rice. The cigarettes had run out yesterday, and for a long - time smoker like him, the days without cigarettes made him feel thoroughly uncomfortable.

A loud "bang" came from the direction of the anti - theft door.

Since five days ago, the zombies outside the door had been relentlessly trying to break the iron door. Their craving and greed for flesh made them guard outside his door ceaselessly, just like loyal dogs.

The stench of corpses in the room had grown even stronger. Fortunately, Zhang Xiaoqiang had already gotten used to it. Sometimes, he subconsciously thought that only this kind of smell was normal. All the things of the past were gradually slipping away from him, leaving only the instinct to survive.

He walked into the kitchen, turned on the induction cooker, poured the leftover cured - meat rice from the previous day into a frying pan, added water together with the chopped Chinese cabbages, and boiled them. After cooking, he divided the food into two portions, one for breakfast and one for dinner.

After having breakfast, Zhang Xiaoqiang, as usual, walked to the window of the computer room and looked at the zombies downstairs, at the end of the road, and at the dim, heavy, and oppressive sky. The murky clouds carried a bit of a cold and gloomy air, weighing on his heart and making it difficult for him to breathe.

How he wished that suddenly a motorcade would appear at the end of the road. In the camouflage - colored carriages, there would be a row of People's Liberation Army soldiers, using the steel guns in their hands to sweep away the despair in the world, driving those foul - smelling zombies into hell and allowing him to return to the old days.

However, fantasies were just fantasies. The zombies were still wandering around, and Zhang Xiaoqiang still had to worry about food. He returned to the living room, put his hands on his head, and prepared for today's physical training. After being a homebody for a long time, his body had gradually become weak. If he wanted to survive, he had to strive hard to improve his physical fitness. Even the slightest improvement was better than nothing.

"Forty - seven", "Forty - eight"..."Fifty"

..."Huff" Zhang Xiaoqiang exhaled a long breath and propped himself up on the ground with both hands. He was extremely tired. He hadn't exercised like this for a long time. Thinking that the zombies were still outside the door and the food at home was running out, Zhang Xiaoqiang took a deep breath, put his hands on his head, and started again.

He placed the 8 - pound sledgehammer in the corner and picked up a towel to wipe the sweat off his face. Two thousand frog jumps and five hundred swings of the 8 - pound sledgehammer had really worn him out. The food he had for breakfast had almost been digested, and his stomach started growling again.

Sitting on the sofa, Zhang Xiaoqiang was pondering how to deal with the six zombies outside the door. He had left the shield outside. Without defensive equipment, he couldn't compete with the zombies. The anti - theft iron door opened outwards, so he couldn't block it from the inside. If he opened a crack and dealt with them one by one, even though he had eaten steamed rice for a few days and had some strength, it was impossible for him to take on six zombies at once.

Unable to come up with a solution, Zhang Xiaoqiang held his head with both hands and scratched his scalp vigorously. He had thought of all kinds of methods but still had no idea. When he saw the Huangguoshu cigarette pack on the tea table, he habitually picked it up. After shaking it, he remembered that there were no cigarettes left since yesterday. Looking at the cigarette butts in the ashtray, he found a piece of white paper, opened the cigarette butts, and carefully piled the remaining tobacco on the paper, rolling it into a strip.

He found a lighter and lit it. Taking a puff, he leaned back on the sofa and stared blankly at the landline phone at home. He wondered how many months he hadn't paid the landline phone bill. Was it three months or four months? The pretty girl at the telecommunications business hall should have turned into a zombie too. There was still over 80 yuan of phone credit in his mobile phone, which had been wasted as a contribution to the telecommunications company. Wasn't he at a great loss? His mind was filled with random thoughts, and Zhang Xiaoqiang's eyes unconsciously glanced at the telephone line.

"Wait a minute."

The telephone line? Zhang Xiaoqiang refocused his gaze on the telephone line. A flash of inspiration crossed his mind, but he just couldn't grasp it.

Staring blankly at the telephone line, his mind started to race. What else could the telephone line be used for besides making phone calls? Hanging clothes, drying quilts, tying things... As he thought about it, his heart brightened. "It can be used as a rope." He stood up and paced back and forth. He could find a rope, tie one end to the doorknob of the anti - theft door, fix the other end, and then when he opened the door, he wouldn't be afraid of the door being pushed open by the zombies. He could open a crack and deal with the zombies outside one by one.

As soon as he had the idea, he took action. Zhang Xiaoqiang found a thin hemp rope in the storage room. He tied one end to the iron railing of the window and left about ten centimeters of the other end to tie to the doorknob. Using a hammer as a weapon wouldn't work because the space was too small to wield it. Zhang Xiaoqiang found a galvanized water pipe about 1.5 meters long. After sizing it up, he thought its power was too weak to deal with the zombies.

He continued rummaging through his father's toolbox and sighed inwardly. Fortunately, his father was good at everything. In the 1960s, he went to the countryside to dig irrigation canals. In the 1970s, he was the director of an electrical machinery factory. Although there were only a dozen or so people and it was a collective enterprise, he was still an official. In the 1980s, he opened a restaurant and was one of the earliest "ten - thousand - yuan households" in the small town.

It was a pity that his father liked to have fun, going fishing and hunting, and didn't focus on the business. Otherwise, he could have become a wealthy person. His father's fishing rod and shotgun were all made by himself. During a period when China launched a crackdown on illegal guns, his father was too timid and threw that handmade muzzle - loading flintlock gun into the Yangtze River. Although his father had passed away, those tools were left behind.

"Found it."

He took out a triangular file. The file was about one chi long. It had been placed there for some time, and the body of the triangular file was blackened but not very rusty. The tool steel from the 1970s was definitely of guaranteed quality.

He used a knife to whittle the wooden handle of the file so that it could fit into the water pipe. After trying it out, he was afraid it wasn't secure, so he nailed the connection between the water pipe and the wooden handle firmly with iron nails. Then he wouldn't have to worry about it failing at a crucial moment.

With everything ready, Zhang Xiaoqiang stood behind the door and checked his equipment. The military coat had been washed clean, but unfortunately, it was going to get dirty again today. The running water had been cut off. He didn't expect to be able to drink it, but he had hoped to use it for washing clothes.

He held the self - made iron spear in his left hand and opened the door with his right hand.

"Bang"..." Zhang Xiaoqiang closed the door again. It was too stinky. The stench of the decaying zombie he had killed a few days ago was so strong that he couldn't even open his eyes.

There were no masks at home. Zhang Xiaoqiang found a woolen scarf to cover his mouth and nose and sprinkled some toilet water on the scarf to make it more bearable.

He opened the door again. A dark, black claw reached out towards his face. The owner of the claw was desperately trying to squeeze in through the crack of the door. This time, he was prepared and not scared. He carefully sized up the zombie. The flesh and skin on the zombie's claw were drawn inwards, and the joints were all exposed, just like the claws of an eagle reaching towards him. The sharp nails retracted and extended back and forth with the dry fingers. The zombie was desperately trying to push its head through the crack of the door. The flesh and skin on its face were just like those on its claw. Its eye sockets were sunken, and the protruding cheekbones rubbed against the iron door, as if it wanted to sharpen its head to get in.

Zhang Xiaoqiang raised the iron spear with both hands and stabbed the triangular tip of the triangular file towards the zombie's eyes. He held the water pipe tightly with both hands and pushed it out with all his might. It was the first time he used the iron spear, and he couldn't control the strength well. He just knew to stab outwards. His mind was in a daze, but a surge of bloodlust hidden deep in his bones burst out from his body. He became excited and felt that all the zombies were nothing much and that he could kill them all.

Two more claws reached out towards him through the crack of the door. The two claws swayed in front of his eyes, making him come to his senses. He pulled out the tip of the iron spear. The zombie's eye socket had become a deep black hole, and dark, sticky blood slowly oozed out. The zombie first fell onto the zombie next to it and then slowly toppled to the ground. Its head was facing him, with one white eye without a pupil and one black hole oozing with dark blood. The extreme contrast made a chill run down Zhang Xiaoqiang's spine.

"Five more left," he murmured to himself and didn't look at the dead zombie again.

He had never used a long spear before and couldn't control the strength well. He used his extremely crude way of using the spear to wear down and kill the remaining five zombies. When the last zombie fell to the ground.

"pang"

Zhang Xiaoqiang could no longer hold the iron spear and let it drop to the ground.