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墨書 Inktalez
The sky above the Roundabout crackled with lightning, and the bar was shrouded in dark clouds, silent as a grave.
The graduate student's words echoed in the air, accentuated by the chilling wind and rain, adding an eerie atmosphere. A virus named panic was rapidly breeding, spreading silently. No one responded to him; the open balcony seemed to have been drained of air. Despite the pouring rain and wind, a sense of suffocation lingered.
"Do you understand what I mean?" The graduate student's hands trembled slightly as he fumbled for a cigarette from his pack.
"I... I don't quite understand," Lin Daozhang spoke up, but everyone else remained silent. Old Lin had no choice but to press on, as he truly wasn't clear on the matter.
The graduate student nodded, casting a grateful glance at Old Lin. Clearly, he needed someone to help share this message. Steeling himself, he said, "The morgue at the hospital has no air conditioning. With all this rain these past few days, Ming Ge means to leave the body there until the rain stops before taking it to Cien Cemetery for burial. The body was brought there by me and Song Jiu. That day, Song Jiu happened to be present as well. He felt it was too stuffy in the cold storage and worried it would accelerate decomposition, so he left the body on the morgue table."
"Get to the point," Ming Junwei interrupted lightly. He understood that the graduate student was trying to give everyone some breathing room, but he had already pieced together part of it and could hardly wait for him to finish his buildup.
The graduate student paused, furrowing his brow as he took several deep drags from his cigarette before speaking in a trembling voice: "Old Hu's body showed no signs of bites; there were knife wounds on his head—penetrating injuries."
"So what?" Lin Daozhang still couldn't grasp what the graduate student was trying to convey at this point.
The graduate student sighed and patiently explained, "Only a kill shot would leave penetrating injuries on the head. Do you understand? What I mean is that Old Hu, who died from Pulmonary Edema, has somehow turned into a corpse."
Lin Daozhang froze, opening his mouth but remaining silent for a long moment.
Although those around them had already guessed what the graduate student meant, they couldn't help but gasp when he finally voiced it.
Luci furrowed her brows tightly, trying to find another explanation. However, after considering it thoroughly, she realized there was no other explanation; after all, Zombies only bite and devour—they don't carry food like animals in nature.
"So," Ming Junwei, now resembling a narrow slit with his eyes squinted, tapped his fingers against the damp tabletop and said calmly: "It wasn't that the Zombies from the city slipped in; it was Old Hu who caused this chaos."
The graduate student shrugged helplessly and replied, "There might be two others involved."
"And why is that?" Ming Junwei skipped over any baseless speculation and asked directly: "Did you check the body? Could he have been bitten a few days ago?"
"I looked; there was only one wound on his head," the graduate student said with a smile full of resignation. He scoffed, "Unless he went crazy and injected himself with Zombie fluid."
Taking a deep breath, Ming Junwei stood up and said, "Let's get something for everyone to eat first. Later we'll search the Roundabout; we must find the bodies of those two others."
"Then what?" The graduate student lifted his eyelids, guessing Ming Junwei's thoughts, and sighed, "Doctor Yu is dead. Even if we find him, we can't check the cause."
"No need to check," Ming Junwei gently shook his head and said, "It doesn't matter whether they died of natural causes or something else; we can't just kill a living person to see the results."
"But what if the cause of death isn't a disease?" The graduate student boldly proposed again, "At first, I thought it was Acid Rain causing illness leading to death. Now it seems, could it be a precursor to corpse transformation?"
"Are you saying that everyone who gets sick will die and then turn into a Zombie?" Chef Jia's face turned somewhat pale as he pointed downstairs, saying, " Jiu Jiu brought back two patients who were admitted earlier; they're still downstairs."
Ming Junwei waved his hand to stop the discussion among the group and said, "Don't scare yourselves. Let's go down and take a look. Don't tell anyone about this for now."
The group nodded in silence and left the breezy balcony in single file. Liu Yan remained seated under the sunshade, staring into the rain curtain lost in thought. The words of the graduate student and Ming Junwei lingered in his ears; he seemed to think of something but couldn't grasp it. The plastic round table beside him was wet from the rain, splashing water that dampened scattered cigarettes. Liu Yan shook his head in frustration, picked up a cigarette, and prepared to go downstairs. In that moment, he seemed to notice something and turned back to the table. He dipped his finger into some water stains, pinched it lightly; his fingertip remained damp but showed no abnormalities.
Liu Yan furrowed his brows as vague guesses in his mind became clearer. He rolled his eyes around and a thought emerged.
Across from the bar's restroom was a small office. When Ming Junwei and the others first arrived at the bar during winter, Luci was in deep slumber. To avoid any accidents, they set up a small bed in the office for Luci, feeding her liquid food daily and locking the door at night to keep her alone inside. Later, as spring returned and Zombies revived, Luci miraculously Awakened. By then, the Roundabout camp had taken shape, and Luci no longer needed to sleep alone; thus, the small office was left vacant.
Today, someone else had moved in here; unfortunately, she did not plan to stay long.
Xiaofei lay flat on the small bed, her face pale and drenched in sweat, her eyes wide open with mist swirling in her beautiful gaze. Her lips were cracked and her breath faint.
Song Jiu sat by the bed, looking at Xiaofei's ghastly face with an indescribable feeling surging within him—he felt uneasy and unable to express it. On the other side, Pockmarked Girl was crying; initially, both sisters clung to each other sobbing uncontrollably. Later on, Xiaofei weakly comforted her. Anyone who walked in would likely think that Pockmarked Girl was the one bitten instead of this pale-faced girl.
The bedside companions had changed several times while Song Jiu stayed by her side throughout. He found it hard to endure this farewell scene; usually when someone dies it’s like a light going out—everyone understands without needing to express their grief openly. However, this situation was different; not only did Roundabout have nowhere to go, but Xiaofei's tight grip on his hand made it impossible for him to pull away.
Pockmarked Girl cried until she was exhausted; both sisters had said what they needed to say. The room fell silent for a moment before Pockmarked Girl stood up and left the room. Before closing the door behind her, she solemnly told Song Jiu four words: "Stay with her."
Song Jiu did not refuse nor could he refuse. The room fell silent again except for their heavy breathing.
"Does your hand still hurt?" Xiaofei tilted her head slightly, her gaze landing on Song Jiu's hand still holding onto the bandage.
"It doesn't hurt anymore," Song Jiu replied with a slight smile.
"You saved me three times, and I never said thank you." Xiaofei's voice was faint as she coughed a few times, a light red droplet of saliva staining the corner of her mouth.
Song Jiu sighed silently in his heart; this was a sign that the end was near. He had seen many such moments over the years, but none felt as powerless as this one. He lost focus, not responding to her words, his mind racing with thoughts of whether he could have gotten her to the hospital sooner or if he hadn't left the hospital at all—perhaps this girl wouldn't have been attacked by the Zombie.
"I was thinking that you would come to save me," Xiaofei continued, her gaze gradually becoming unfocused. "And you really did."
"I came too late," Song Jiu said softly.
"Not too late." Xiaofei forced a smile, speaking in broken phrases. "Actually, I have so much to say, so many things I wanted to tell you, but I never had the chance."
"Go ahead, I'm here."
Xiaofei weakly shook her head. "It's not enough; there's not enough time."
The atmosphere in the room was both sorrowful and heavy. Song Jiu suddenly wished that Pockmarked Girl or Chef Canon would appear; he felt that Xiaofei would have much more to say to them rather than uttering these heart-wrenching fragments to him.
"It's happening too fast; I can't even get close to you." Xiaofei's breathing became rapid, her words slightly slurred as if she were struggling to speak.
Song Jiu hurriedly helped her sit up; she clutched his hand tightly, unwilling to let go. Dark red blood trickled from her mouth, staining her pale neck and soaking into her clothing.
"Song Song Wine."
"I'm here."
The moisture in Xiaofei's beautiful eyes finally spilled over, two streams of silent tears flowing down her cheeks, mingling with the blood at the corners of her mouth. Gathering all her strength, she choked out, "Can you kiss me?"
Song Jiu paused for a moment before nodding and slowly leaning in closer.
Xiaofei smiled, her gentle gaze fixed on his face, which seemed still somewhat unfamiliar. Tears slipped from the corners of her eyes as her smile froze and faded away.
The next morning, in the hospital lobby.
All the bodies had been gathered, including the dismembered limbs that were barely recognizable as human. They were all wrapped in canvas and carried away. The graduate student, his eyes bloodshot from a sleepless night, had brought back the scattered remains from various locations around the Roundabout with the Militia. The final count matched the camp personnel list with only a discrepancy of seven or eight, indicating that they were likely all in the canvas. Last night, the graduate student had first gone to the morgue, and as he suspected, three bodies were missing. The other two found at the KTV also had fatal head wounds, their claws stained with blood, clearly indicating that many had died at their hands.
"Seal off the hospital," Ming Junwei said as he stubbed out his cigarette and sighed.
"Understood," the graduate student replied, then paused to ask, "How is Xiao Wei doing?"
"Still running a fever; the situation isn't looking good," Ming Junwei shook his head, hesitating to say more.
Song Yao bit her lip and said softly, "Should we try again? My brother's subordinate seemed like he was done for, but he managed to hold on until now."
"I can't guarantee it will be effective," Luo Yu said after a moment of surprise at Song Yao's suggestion. "Ziqian had only flesh wounds; he wasn't sick."
"We have no better options," Ming Junwei rubbed his temples. Cyclops was also flushed and murmured, "A doctor won't just fall from the sky."
"Not necessarily," Yinuo suddenly mumbled from the doorway, her expression strange as she waved her hand toward the sealed entrance of the Roundabout when everyone turned to look at her.
Ming Junwei and the others exchanged glances before rushing to the door. Peering through the rain curtain, their expressions changed in unison to one of disbelief.
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