Perhaps it was already afternoon…
But Xie Xishu couldn’t be sure.
Ever since he realized something was wrong, the sky had remained a dull gray, neither bright nor dark, as if no matter how much time passed, nothing would change.
The only thing that kept growing denser was the smog spreading throughout the city. Everywhere Xie Xishu looked, everything seemed shrouded in a kind of faded filter.
Color, time, space…
The normal perceptions of the world that humans rely on to survive were gradually becoming blurred and chaotic in the ever-thickening layers of fog.
Xie Xishu had been attending school at ThirdHigh for quite some time, yet after being dragged out of the campus by Qi Wu, he found everything around him to be strangely familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time. He had barely taken a few steps before completely losing his sense of direction. He had no idea where Qi Wu was taking him, nor did he know what awaited him.
But he didn’t dare leave Qi Wu. After everything that had happened, the broad back of the boy in front of him had become the only thing he could rely on in this strange and surreal world.
…
As before, a faint metallic smell lingered in the mist. But as the two continued to move forward, the metallic scent was quickly replaced by the smell of blood, and then by the distinct stench of burning protein.
Xie Xishu couldn’t help but glance toward the source of the smell. In the depths of the fog, there was a flicker of orange-red light, seemingly from a fire.
Not far from the fire were some shadowy figures. At first, Xie Xishu thought they were other people—maybe the fire was caused by an explosion, or perhaps it was a signal set by other survivors in the city to call for help. But upon closer inspection, he quickly realized that the shadows around the fire seemed unusually… unusually slender and flexible.
Far too slender, far too flexible. And at that moment, they were swaying slowly and gently, like seaweed drifting in the deep ocean.
Then, Xie Xishu heard some faint sounds.
[“Help—krak krak—me—kakakada—akakada—”]
[“Someone—krak—help—kakak—”]
…
It sounded somewhat like cries for help.
Xie Xishu’s heart tightened slightly for a moment, but upon listening more closely, he realized the tone of those voices was actually quite strange.
Rather than resembling spoken language, they sounded more like some kind of eerie chanting.
Xie Xishu involuntarily tilted his head, trying to hear more clearly, but the next moment, a sharp pain pricked his wrist: Qi Wu had yanked him back suddenly.
“Ignore those things.”
The boy turned around and sternly said to the young man behind him.
“And you’d better not stray too far from me.”
Too far?
Xie Xishu froze for a moment.
Then he realized with a start that, without even noticing, he had somehow drifted several steps away from Qi Wu—he hadn’t been distancing himself intentionally, but rather, his wrist was now entwined with something thin and wet.
Just a moment ago, the thing holding his wrist had clearly been Qi Wu’s “hand.”
And Xie Xishu’s toes were pointed directly toward where those shadowy figures were.
“Sorry.”
Xie Xishu’s face paled slightly.
He quickly apologized, forcing himself to ignore the strange, wet sensation on his wrist, resisting the human instinct to recoil.
“I’ll be more careful from now on—”
He continued.
Qi Wu didn’t respond. Whether it was because he had undergone some sort of mutation and no longer fell entirely within the human spectrum, or because it was simply his nature, the boy’s face always lacked expression, making it hard to gauge his true emotions.
However, Xie Xishu could sense that the tentacle-like appendage coiled around his wrist tightened noticeably after he apologized, forcing him to stumble forward several steps, almost colliding with Qi Wu’s back.
Xie Xishu gritted his teeth and made no further sound.
Silence once again enveloped the two of them.
In the deathly stillness, Xie Xishu followed closely behind Qi Wu for a short distance.
At a somewhat familiar street corner, they saw many facilities clearly meant for setting up quarantine zones. Along the street were numerous vehicles and equipment, clearly from official sources, but they had all been completely destroyed.
Puddles of blood were left on the ground.
“…”
Xie Xishu and Qi Wu paused briefly beside a toppled warning sign.
Neither of them commented on the scene before them, and they numbly stepped over the obstacles, continuing forward.
Beyond this point, the number of cars and people on the street gradually increased: but “cars” referred only to wrecks mangled into piles of twisted metal and shattered glass, and “people” referred only to the scattered, dismembered chunks of flesh strewn across the ground.
Occasionally, among the blood-soaked wreckage, something would stagger forward, but without exception, all of these things had mutated into the same twisted monstrosities Xie Xishu had encountered before.
Fortunately, compared to the creatures in the school, the “things” now appearing by the roadside were noticeably weaker. Whenever they tried to approach, a few cracks would appear on Qi Wu’s body, and the extra “mouths” seemed to emit some sound Xie Xishu couldn’t hear. The monsters would then reluctantly retreat into the gray-white fog.
Just when Xie Xishu thought this long journey would continue like this, a few indistinct voices suddenly emerged from the thick fog.
[“Help—krak krak—me—krak krak—”]
[“Is there—kakak—anyone—left—save me—save me please—krak krak—”]
…
Xie Xishu’s body trembled, and he stopped in his tracks alongside Qi Wu.
“That is…”
He could tell that it was the same “cry for help” he had heard before.
But he had clearly already walked a long way.
Why did that voice sound just as close as before?
“Don’t speak.”
Qi Wu interrupted Xie Xishu rather abruptly, turning his head to coldly gaze in the direction from which the “cry for help” was coming.
Although Qi Wu didn’t say anything more, Xie Xishu could clearly sense that Qi Wu’s expression had grown a bit more somber than before.
“This way.”
Qi Wu said. The next moment, he suddenly reached out and grabbed Xie Xishu, almost forcing him as he swiftly dragged him toward a pharmacy by the roadside.
The pharmacy was just like the other shops on the street; its metal shutters had already been completely pulled down. But the thin gray sheet of iron was as fragile and delicate as ever in front of someone like Qi Wu.
“Clang clang—”
Qi Wu easily lifted the shutter, and the metallic clatter echoed far through the air.
For some reason, the sound made Xie Xishu feel a twinge of dread.
Fortunately, Qi Wu quickly opened it just enough for a person to slip through, and then he dragged Xie Xishu inside. Afterward, the cracks on Qi Wu’s body opened up again, and several thin tentacles extended out, deftly pulling the shutter back down.
“What’s with that voice?”
Seeing the shutter closed, Xie Xishu felt a slight sense of relief.
“Nothing, but you… you reek of blood too much. We need to deal with that.”
Qi Wu said.
His voice was very low, almost a whisper, as if he didn’t want to alert something.
However, just as the two stood up and began walking toward the depths of the pharmacy, two bright red lights suddenly flickered in the darkness, followed by a sharp electronic sound.
“Welcome—”
The pharmacy was pitch-black because the entire city had lost power.
But as the automatic greeting chime rang out, a dim yellow light flickered on, just enough to illuminate the figure behind the cashier’s counter.
A man was sitting there, dressed in a simple t-shirt and shorts, with glasses perched on his nose. He looked like any ordinary cashier in any pharmacy.
It was just that the dim light made his face appear waxy yellow.
He didn’t seem to show any signs of mutation, and he even had an overly enthusiastic and friendly smile on his face, like a newly hired store owner in retail who was still overly eager to please customers.
As the light came on, he turned his head, focusing his gaze on the two at the entrance.
“Welcome.”
He said.
This man didn’t reveal any strange “organs”—no teeth growing in his eyes, no cracks opening on his body from which writhing tongues emerged.
But when Xie Xishu heard the “Welcome,” he felt a chill in his chest that was even stronger than when he had encountered the grotesque monsters before.
Because, when the man spoke, both his tone and his voice were identical to the electronic greeting toy hanging on the glass door.
Seeing that Xie Xishu didn’t respond, the man stood up from behind the counter the next moment.
“Welcome wu lala jiji di awa wa-kaka-da-da-la—”
Judging by his expression, he was no more than a normal pharmacy employee earnestly asking customers what they needed.
However, the sounds that spilled from his throat, aside from the first word that was human language, were nothing but a series of short and indistinct guttural noises.
It wasn’t any language—it wasn’t a dialect, it wasn’t a foreign language, but it wasn’t pure gibberish either.
It was something else… a sound that only monsters could make.
A sound that belonged to a monster.
“Kakaka ga-da—hee goo goo ka?”
As he spoke, the man leaned out from behind the counter, his voice rising, the smile on his face growing even more radiant, even more fake.
This time, Xie Xishu clearly saw something glinting on the man’s deep purple gums.
It was a woman’s metal earring.
The earring was embedded deep in his gums, and it seemed to still have traces of blood on it.
Each time the man said a word, as his lips moved, the earring would flash slightly.
Xie Xishu instinctively reached out and grabbed the boy next to him tightly.
“A monster—another monster—”
He muttered in terror, retreating toward the door, only to end up directly backing into Qi Wu’s arms.
“Tsk.”
He heard the boy let out a faint snort.
“When they were about to open up my skull, you were pretty brave, weren’t you?”
Qi Wu muttered, pulling Xie Xishu closer to him.
The next moment, a few red streaks suddenly shot out, brushing past Xie Xishu’s cheek and stabbing toward the strange “man.”
“Splurt—”
It sounded like a rubber band filled with liquid had been punctured.
Although the “man” appeared thin and gaunt, when Qi Wu struck him, his whole body gushed out a large amount of thick, crimson liquid, as if he were a water-filled sack.
At the same time, the “light bulbs” on the ceiling began to tremble. Xie Xishu looked up in shock, only to realize that those “light bulbs” were actually enormous, swollen eyeballs.
The veins and nerves behind the eyeballs writhed like living things, making the sight extremely nauseating. Fortunately, after a few flickers, the light went out, and the disgusting image didn’t linger long in front of Xie Xishu’s eyes.
However, without the light, the pharmacy, with its doors and windows tightly shut, plunged into darkness.
Xie Xishu’s vision was also consumed by pitch blackness.
The brief transition between light and dark caused him to momentarily lose the ability to see, and all he could feel was something in the dark suddenly lunging toward him.
But that rush of stench stopped abruptly. After a muffled grunt, something soft and heavy thudded to the ground.
What followed was the squishy, indistinct sound of flesh rubbing against flesh, along with the friction of something soft and sticky being dragged along the floor.
Xie Xishu held his breath, instinctively gripping the small knife in his hand, even though he knew very well that the knife, long dulled and soaked in blood, was essentially useless by now.
The hair-raising sound persisted in the darkness for a long time.
It seemed to come from everywhere, from the ceiling to the corners of the walls.
Xie Xishu endured it for a while but still heard nothing beyond the chewing sounds.
Suddenly, he felt a twinge of anxiety.
“Qi, Qi Wu?”
Xie Xishu didn’t even know why he had called out that person’s name.
“Are you… are you okay?”
His throat was dry, his voice trembling slightly.
The chewing abruptly ceased.
*
A few seconds later, the sound of a lighter flicking open broke the silence.
A flickering flame lit up.
Qi Wu held the lighter in his hand, raising it to extend the light as far as possible.
“I’m fine.”
Qi Wu stared at Xie Xishu and responded.
The boy, who had long since mutated, looked no different at this moment from how he had before. His skin was smooth and unblemished, without a trace of blood.
It seemed as though he had merely stood in the dark, holding Xie Xishu for a brief moment, without doing anything at all.
But in the faint light, Xie Xishu immediately noticed that the area behind the pharmacy’s counter was completely empty—the strange “cashier” from earlier had already disappeared without a trace.
*
Xie Xishu really didn’t want to think too deeply about what method Qi Wu had used to deal with that “person’s” body.
*
“That wasn’t a person.”
Seeing Xie Xishu’s face suddenly turn deathly pale, a slight tremor flickered in Qi Wu’s eyes.
He discreetly inhaled, and for once, he offered an explanation.
“It looked like a person on the outside, but the thing inside it was almost fully hatched. Those light bulbs on the ceiling were just mimics—”
“I know.”
Xie Xishu abruptly interrupted Qi Wu.
“Thank you for… taking care of that thing.”
Though his face was ashen with fear, the boy’s expression was unusually earnest when he gave his thanks.
“Mm.”
Qi Wu lowered his gaze and gave a soft grunt.
*
After dealing with the “local resident” of the pharmacy, Qi Wu seemed a little more relaxed than before.
At least, that’s how it appeared to Xie Xishu.
The pharmacy itself was in some disarray. It was clear that the original owner had been in a panic when closing up, with no time to tidy things up. But for Qi Wu, the toppled shelves and scattered boxes inside the store seemed to pose no obstacle at all.
In no time, he expertly rummaged through the cluttered medicine cabinets and found a few candles.
After lighting them, the light wasn’t particularly bright, but it was enough to illuminate the corner where Xie Xishu stood.
However, the flickering light also revealed the fresh, crimson bloodstains on the floor.
Xie Xishu had been preparing to bandage his wounds at Qi Wu’s urging when he caught a glimpse of the blood, along with bits of yellowish fat and red fragments of flesh mixed within. He hesitated for a moment.
Qi Wu let out another sigh.
Before Xie Xishu could open his mouth to object, he felt something soft and wet tighten around his waist—some kind of damp, pliable appendage lifted Xie Xishu up, placing him on the pharmacy’s cold glass counter.
“Ah, actually, I can just stand—”
Before he could finish his sentence, Qi Wu, completely ignoring him, approached with ointments and bandages for treating external wounds.
“Take off your clothes.”
Qi Wu stood in front of Xie Xishu. After a brief pause, he commanded.
__
Author’s Note:
The moment Xiao Qi has been waiting for has finally arrived!
