"Global outbreak..."
Zhang Su was stunned. At first, he was wondering if it might be a biochemical weapon deployed by some country. But now it seems... the possibility still couldn't be ruled out. Those who opened Pandora's box may not be spared.
The once peaceful life was definitely gone forever. It wasn't worth delving into how the disaster was triggered. He was only concerned about the situation in Qin City, and more closely, he just wanted to survive!
"Forget about what's happening abroad. I'm afraid we can't even leave our residential area right now. Check if there are any updates in the homeowners' group. You're in it, right?"
Zhang Su rubbed his temples and shook his head helplessly.
"I joined, I joined."
Zheng Xinyu found the Sheng Qin Home owners' group. There weren't too many unread messages, but there were still more than seventy, including some from previous days. She scrolled to find the messages starting from today.
6:37 AM, 8-2-702: Good morning, September 27, X023, Wednesday, the thirteenth day of the eighth lunar month. Morning is the beginning of hope. I wish everyone sunshine in their hearts and a smile to welcome Chaoyang. Good Fortune will definitely embrace you, rose/.
"The first message was around half-past six. It seems nothing had happened by then?"
Zheng Xinyu asked.
Zhang Su neither agreed nor disagreed, gesturing to continue reading.
6:45 AM, 11-1-201: Whose car has license plate XC·XXXXX? Come and move it quickly, blocking my car can't get out. Hurry, hurry, hurry, @everyone.
6:48 AM, just like this: @11-1-201, girl, you're not a group admin. @ing everyone is useless. I suggest you ask the group owner for help.
6:50 AM, 11-1-201: Thanks for the reminder, a big brother came and helped me move it out.
7:03 AM, Happiness and Joy: @7-1-601, Hello, can you keep it down in the morning? My old man just had surgery and is resting at home. Let's understand each other.
7:06 AM, Sister Ling of Fruits: Dear friends, I ordered
An obviously unfinished message.
7:07 AM, 301: Family, I heard an explosion. Whose house is it? It's so freaking scary.
7:10 AM, Better Tomorrow: Family, there was a fight downstairs. Look quickly, there's blood everywhere.
7:11 AM, Brother Wang from Building Ten with Seafood: Some crazy people on the road are biting others, a bunch of cars crashed, and Haibin Road is completely blocked. Can't deliver seafood on time today!
7:13 AM, 3-1-402: Who's the uncultured one yelling in the garden so early in the morning? Next time, just call the police!
10:55 AM, Winter Plum Blossom: Murder! Monsters are biting people to death!
At the same time, 12-3-1101: Voice message, unreadable.
The following ten-plus messages were all voice notes, and even without hearing them, just guessing could give you a rough idea.
Zhang Su took Zheng Xinyu's phone, scrolled through it, and said, "It seems the zombie virus outbreak was around seven in the morning, and within less than half an hour, the network went down..."
The community group had almost no useful information. All they could do was deduce the outbreak's timing from the message timestamps, providing limited help to the two of them.
"Seven o'clock..." Zheng Xinyu pursed her lips and said, "Seven is during the morning rush hour, right? Adults going to work, kids going to school. Oh my god, I can't even imagine."
"The community has about seven hundred apartments. I learned about it when paying for parking, and the occupancy rate is around sixty percent, which means just over four hundred households. Assuming three people per household, we have about twelve hundred people in our community. I don't know how many are still alive now."
Zhang Su didn't mention the infection rate because how many were infected didn't matter. Not being infected didn't mean they wouldn't be killed by zombies. Surviving was what mattered.
Thinking of the scene downstairs, Zheng Xinyu shook her head sadly. "Probably at most half."
"Half..."
Zhang Su thought to himself, this girl is really optimistic. Based on what he saw earlier, he felt that maybe only a tenth or a twelfth would survive, meaning surviving two hundred people would be good enough!
Suddenly, he thought of the two employees he had.
The 24-hour convenience store had a shift change at eight in the morning. But unlike Wu Lue, the girl on the day shift usually arrived at the store early for a diligent handover.
If only...
Zhang Su stopped his train of thought. It was all a waste of effort. Instead, he'd rather conserve his brain cells to think about useful things.
"Xinyu, let's think about what to do next."
"Yeah, Brother Su, I'll follow whatever you say!"
As the two were planning in the room, occasionally, the sounds of wailing drifted in from outside the window. Fortunately, the excellent soundproofing prevented the noise from being too loud, and both tacitly ignored it.
However, when an explosion rang out, they could no longer remain calm. Looking at each other, their expressions were grave.
Vroom vroom vroom...
Immediately, an unusual noise reached their ears.
"What is that?"
"A helicopter!"
Zhang Su quickly realized and dashed to the bedroom window, pulling back the curtains. The first thing he saw was black smoke billowing in the distance, obviously from the explosion earlier. He had no time to care about that and looked up, spotting three helicopters flying in a wedge formation across the sky.
"Model 11 helicopters..."
"Brother Su, are those military helicopters?"
Zheng Xinyu asked with hope.
In the face of a major disaster, ordinary people naturally pinned their hopes on the military, government, and country.
Zhang Su shook his head and said, "They're SWAT helicopters."
Although they were far away, one could faintly see from the paintwork that they weren't military.
"SWAT? SWAT is good too. It seems the police aren't compromised. That's great. They'll definitely come to rescue us, right?"
Zheng Xinyu clasped her hands and looked devout, like a believer praying for divine intervention.
"Think, how many people are in Qin City? How long will it take before it's our turn?" Zhang Su looked at Zheng Xinyu with a complex expression.
No longer the naive student in an ivory tower, Zheng Xinyu had learned many things from crawling through the internet, including the warmth and coldness of human relationships. The slander from trolls had made her see through many things.
It had only been a fleeting hope in the panic. Once Zhang Su pointed it out, she naturally understood the key.
"Brother Su, you're right. Even if there's rescue, we need to stay alive until it arrives..."
Zheng Xinyu wiped her tears, sniffed, and instantly became much stronger.
"Damn!"
Zhang Su suddenly cursed through gritted teeth.
Zheng Xinyu looked at him, puzzled.
Feeling utterly frustrated, Zhang Su said, "I really should have brought up all those things you bought last night!"