Chapter 9: Infected

Zhang Xiaoqiang wiped the tears from his face, stood up, and collected the scattered supplies. The heavy rain was still pouring, and the only sound in the entire world was the pattering of the rain.

With nothing in his mind, he mechanically gathered all kinds of supplies one by one and moved them to the living room.

"Bang..." The iron door was closed by him. Zhang Xiaoqiang came to his senses. He was still wearing the raincoat, and the rainwater was constantly dripping from the bottom of the raincoat onto the floor tiles. The clothes inside the raincoat were completely soaked, and the cold and chilly feeling made his whole body tremble.

Zhang Xiaoqiang changed his clothes, sat on the bed wrapped in a quilt, and turned the heater to the maximum setting. The red light in the heater reflected on his face. The hot light pricked his skin like countless small steel needles, but it still couldn't drive away the cold that had penetrated into his bones. Zhang Xiaoqiang shivered, hugging the quilt. The rain outside the window was still falling.

He thought of the white wine he had found a few days ago. "White wine can drive away the cold."

He dug out the high - quality "Daohuaxiang" at the bottom of the box, unscrewed the lid, and took a big gulp. The 52 - degree white wine was held in his mouth. The pungent taste of the wine stimulated Zhang Xiaoqiang through his taste buds, and he almost spat it out. He swallowed it with difficulty, and his tongue began to go numb. The white wine was like a stream of hot oil, scalding all the way from his throat to the bottom of his heart. The burning feeling spread from the bottom of his heart back to his throat.

The cold that had been trapped in his bones seemed to be gradually dissipating. Zhang Xiaoqiang turned down the heater and sat there, hugging the quilt and staring blankly at the heater.

His hungry stomach woke Zhang Xiaoqiang up. It was time to eat something. He got out of bed, walked to the living room, and took out a box of wafer biscuits. He tore open the package, and a cockroach fell out of the box and scurried around on the ground. Subconsciously, he raised his foot to step on the cockroach.

An empty mineral water bottle was placed on the computer desk. The cap was screwed on tightly, with two air holes left on it. The cockroach lay quietly at the bottom of the bottle, motionless. In the end, Zhang Xiaoqiang didn't step on it to death. He just locked it in the bottle without giving it any food. He wanted to know how long it could survive without food.

In this desperate city, Zhang Xiaoqiang was like a castaway living on a lonely island. There was no hope, no future. Besides the zombies wandering downstairs, only this cockroach accompanied him. Loneliness was like a wild beast, constantly biting at his heart, and like a poison, constantly corroding his soul.

Sometimes Zhang Xiaoqiang would think whether he was the only human left on Earth now, and he was the king of the whole world, a king of one person.

"If you can't stand loneliness, then learn to enjoy it."

Zhang Xiaoqiang chewed on the wafer biscuits and calculated how long the current supplies could last. He even thought about taking advantage of the rain to escape from this city. Unfortunately, he couldn't drive, let alone steal a car.

"Go out?" Zhang Xiaoqiang shook his head and gave up this crazy idea. He didn't know how many more days the rain would last, whether all the zombies liked to be in the rain. He didn't know where he could go. In his life, he had only been to Wuhan City and X City where his sister got married.

"The future is so uncertain. Sigh!" Zhang Xiaoqiang sighed.

Before he knew it, he had finished a box of wafer biscuits. His mouth was dry. He picked up a bottle of mineral water and took a big gulp. As soon as he swallowed it, he lost all his strength.

Zhang Xiaoqiang, holding the plastic water bottle, fell to the ground and his whole body began to twitch. His heart felt as if it was being hit by a big sledgehammer again and again. He opened his mouth to shout loudly, but no sound came out. Only a "gurgle, gurgle" sound came from his throat. It was as if a red - hot iron ball had been thrown into his internal organs, rolling around in his body continuously. His five internal organs and six bowels seemed to be on fire. The burning feeling spread from the inside out. The skin on his hands turned red. Zhang Xiaoqiang was in so much pain that he wished he were dead. For the first time, he wanted to die. Only death could end this kind of pain.

Zhang Xiaoqiang lay on the ground and hit his head against the floor tiles again and again. Blood flowed into his eyes, and he couldn't see clearly. His vision was sad. Zombies, food, survival... None of it mattered anymore. He just wanted to end this excruciating pain. Even if it meant ending his life, he didn't care. He just instinctively hit his head against the ground, hoping to pass out.

I don't know if it had been a few hours or a few minutes. The pain finally ended. Zhang Xiaoqiang opened his eyes. Blood, mixed with tears and snot, covered his face. His whole body was curled up like a cooked shrimp, and his body was still twitching subconsciously. His teeth were clenched tightly and he couldn't loosen them.

Zhang Xiaoqiang lay quietly, doing nothing and thinking of nothing. He hadn't yet come to his senses from that terrifying pain.

The mineral water bottle in his hand was crumpled into a ball, and the mineral water was constantly spraying out from the bottle mouth, splashing on his body and on the ground. The clothes he had just changed were full of blood and water stains.

An extremely cold feeling suddenly appeared in Zhang Xiaoqiang's body. It wasn't the kind of cold that penetrated into the bones, but the kind of cold that could freeze the bone marrow. Zhang Xiaoqiang threw away the bottle and hugged his chest tightly with both hands. His whole body was shaking. His teeth, which had just been clenched tightly, also loosened, and his upper and lower teeth kept chattering. His legs rubbed against each other, hoping to generate a little warmth.

Zhang Xiaoqiang was ice - cold all over. He wanted to go to bed, but he had no strength at all. As the cold in his body became more and more intense, his vision began to blur, and his mind became more and more drowsy.

"Is it over?" Zhang Xiaoqiang murmured. "I'll see my old man and my mother, right?"

The intense pain woke Zhang Xiaoqiang up. The feeling of being burned by flames made his whole body twitch again. He didn't know how many times this had happened. Every time he was frozen unconscious by the cold that penetrated to the bone marrow, and then woke up in pain from the burning sensation all over his body. He didn't know the number of times, and he didn't know the time. If there was a hell in the world, he was already suffering in it.

The pain and the cold were still as intense as at the beginning, but Zhang Xiaoqiang's nerves had begun to numb. As he passed out and woke up again and again, his mind was no longer blank as it was at the beginning. He didn't know anything and didn't want to know anything!

The pain was still there. Zhang Xiaoqiang lay on the ground, looking at the ceiling, as if his body no longer belonged to him, and all the pain had nothing to do with him.

"There must be a virus in the rain. I must have accidentally swallowed the rainwater in the rain." Zhang Xiaoqiang kept thinking. The cold was scurrying around in his body again, as if even his blood was beginning to congeal.

"Am I infected? Does it hurt so much to turn into a zombie?" Zhang Xiaoqiang continued to think. The cold on his body began to intensify, and his thinking began to slow down.

"It takes 45 minutes for a zombie to mutate. Haven't I reached that time yet? It's going so slowly!" At the moment of passing out, "Hurry up and turn into a zombie..." and then there was darkness.

At 7:30 on February 1, 2013, the alarm on the mobile phone rang over and over again. Zhang Xiaoqiang was awakened by the ringtone in the bedroom. He opened his eyes. His consciousness was still a bit fuzzy. He found himself lying wet in the living room. He wanted to stand up, but he had no strength at all. He propped his hands on the ground and straightened up. Zhang Xiaoqiang sat up. Everything that had happened last night came back to his mind.

"Have I turned into a zombie?" Zhang Xiaoqiang quickly looked at his fingers. His nails were neatly trimmed. He touched his teeth. "Flat..." He shouted. "I haven't turned into a zombie!" With a little strength in his body, Zhang Xiaoqiang struggled to stand up and walked to the bedroom. The figure in the dressing mirror looked very down - and - out. His hair, which hadn't been washed for a long time, was a bit tangled. His face was covered with bloodstains. His eyes were a bit small, and his dark - brown pupils could be clearly seen.

Not turning into a zombie didn't make Zhang Xiaoqiang happy, nor did it make him depressed. After experiencing the purgatory - like pain yesterday, his mood was now completely calm. He looked out of the window. The rain had stopped!