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墨書 Inktalez
At noon, with no wind, the sunlight was blinding and the temperature scorching.
A sense of lethargy enveloped the yacht. In the shaded areas of the deck, many people were sprawled out, towels draped over iron buckets beside them. From time to time, someone would wet a towel, spread it over their face, and enjoy a moment of coolness.
Song Jiu was among them, shirtless, his lips cracked as he weakly asked, "Old Dai, is it going to rain today?"
Dai Wei wiped his face and sat at the edge of the boat, tilting his head back to gaze at the azure sky. He murmured, "This area has a tropical rainforest climate."
"Yeah, yeah, I’ve memorized it—high temperature, high humidity, high salinity," Yang Xiaomeng chimed in with a tired tone, rolling her eyes and muttering, "So is it going to rain or not?"
"No," Dai Wei replied with a bitter smile, shaking his head. "It's typhoon season now."
"I can't take it anymore; let's stop the boat. I need to get off and cool down," Song Jiu said as he tossed aside his towel and stood up unsteadily, swaying toward the side of the boat as darkness flickered before his eyes.
"Useless! If you climb back up, you'll just be covered in salt; it's even hotter," Sun Houqi said while leaning against the stairway, fanning himself with a hat and laughing. "Just hang in there; it'll be better once it gets dark."
"How much longer? This is already the third day," Song Jiu remarked. It was just a casual comment; this stretch of sea was notorious for its dangers. He had seen shark fins break the surface more than once and wouldn't dare go into the water even if he had the courage.
"Today is the third day. Tomorrow—at the latest tomorrow—we'll reach Taiping Island. We'll rest there for a bit before heading to Yongshu Reef," Surveyor replied. He had to answer this question several times each day. They had left during a period of heavy rainfall and had encountered storms near the island. On their return journey, they prayed not to encounter any more rain. Now that heavy rain had ceased, they were faced with drought instead.
"I told you we should have taken a fishing boat," Xiao Xu grumbled irritably. Fishing boats were equipped with air conditioning; at worst, they had fans to keep cool. It shouldn't have been this unbearable. The yacht was indeed luxurious, but one engine had burned out previously, and the backup could only maintain navigation and water production. If they turned on the central air conditioning, it would definitely overload.
Song Jiu cursed inwardly but didn't respond to him. The sun was too harsh; he didn't have the energy to argue. They had prepared plenty of food and drink for their trip, but perishables like fruits and vegetables were limited. With the heat rising, everyone was starting to feel a bit faint from heat exhaustion. Their lack of experience at sea was a significant drawback; Cao Zheng and Dai Wei had never been to the South China Sea either and knew little about tropical maritime climates. There was no doctor on board to address climate-related issues; they could only tough it out. Habitually sniffing around him revealed a familiar scent that lingered in the air.
The group shared knowing smiles as they guessed the answer among themselves, except for Xiao Xu, who remained oblivious and immersed in an imaginary atmosphere of suspense as he kept asking questions: "What? Is there really a Survivor? Didn't you say there were no Living Persons confirmed?"
Facing his only enthusiastic audience member, Sun Houqi smiled gratefully before elaborating: "We thought that even though everyone on board had died, there might still be supplies left—perhaps some non-perishable food—so we followed the scent over there. The medical ship is quite large with two decks; we climbed up to the second deck where the smell was still present and getting stronger."
"What? What?" Xiao Xu's eyes widened in disbelief.
"There’s a helicopter landing pad on the aft deck of the second level—it's empty now. Someone must have escaped before the Zombies arrived," Sun Houqi recalled with a hint of nostalgia in his voice as he continued softly: "But some were unfortunate; when the helicopter took off and lowered its rescue ladder, those below didn’t make it in time. The ladder must have been grabbed by Zombies, so those on board cut it loose and abandoned their own."
"The one who was left behind died in the mouth of the horde, the soft ladder tangled with a few Zombies, accidentally mixing with the fixed lock, trapping them until we boarded the ship."
"You know about the helicopter landing pad, right? It's open-air, directly facing the sun. The aroma we smelled was from those Zombies entangled in the soft ladder, roasting alive on the landing pad."
Sun Houqi happily revealed his findings, but aside from Xiao Xu's astonished expression, the others wore faces of indifference.
"Roasted... roasted?" Xiao Xu stared blankly, clearly shocked by the image his mind conjured.
Sun Houqi continued to describe vividly, regardless of others' interest: "Yes, the meat is cooked, but the Zombies are still alive. I suspect that those who boarded the ship were infected by the virus and turned into attackers without any care. Most of them were only wearing underwear; they must have encountered trouble at night. Their flesh was completely charred, dried out and blackened, all the fat rendered out—just like dry-fried beef, it smelled particularly good."
The onlookers found it hard to listen any longer. They had never seen Zombies roasted by sunlight, but they had witnessed plenty consumed by flames. It was undeniable that there would be a smell of roasted meat at the scene; however, mixed with blood and decay, they could not connect the charred remains with dry-fried beef.
Song Jiu couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine. Grimacing, he asked, "And then? You two didn't eat the Zombies, did you?"
The onlookers exchanged glances, staring intently at Sun Houqi with identical questions on their faces. Xiao Xu, who had been too engrossed earlier, was now dazed.
Sun Houqi grinned but then his expression dimmed. After a moment of silence, he looked up and asked, "Do you know how my Deputy died?"
"No way," the onlookers gasped in disbelief.
Sun Houqi blinked and shook his head. "At first, I thought he was joking and didn't take it seriously. We discovered medical equipment on one deck, so I hurried back. After moving the equipment, I realized he hadn't followed me."
Xiao Xu swallowed hard; his face turned pale.
"We patrolled for two days and our supplies ran out. Everyone was really hungry at that time; it was June and scorching hot—many team members suffered from heatstroke." Sun Houqi flicked away a cigarette butt and sighed. "He must have also suffered from heatstroke and wasn't thinking clearly; of course, I bear some responsibility too."
"I didn't pay attention at that time. When I prepared to return and count heads, I found he still hadn't come back. That worried me; I thought maybe he had been attacked by a Zombie lurking in a corner. We searched the entire ship with our reinforcements but found nothing. That’s when I realized something was wrong. By the time I returned to the landing pad, it was already too late." Sun Houqi exhaled deeply; his expression twisted as he lamented, "I've seen Zombies eat people before and heard stories about living people eating others, but seeing a living person eat a Zombie for the first time—you can't even imagine."
Yang Xiaomeng felt a wave of nausea wash over her as her mind involuntarily recalled those Zombies in the mountain passage. What kind of hunger would drive someone to eat those things? The story began dull but ended with a highlight; however, no one could applaud his account—the only takeaway was that their inner heat had diminished considerably.
Staying away from Zombies was certainly a good thing, but everyone understood deep down that whether it was The Establishment or Garrison or Jin Bo's island, they were merely places to escape from Zombies. From a distance perspective, they were indeed getting farther away from Zombies; however, in reality, Zombies had never left—the Land remained under their dominion. The longer they avoided it, the slimmer their chances of returning to Land became.
Clouds drifted across the sky at just the right moment, occasionally blocking the scorching sunlight and casting a brief shade over the Sea Surface. The complaints on the deck quieted down, and the idle crew fell silent, each lost in their own thoughts.
Seeing his little story plunge everyone into silence, Sun Houqi felt a bit embarrassed and said awkwardly, "I was just saying that casually; you can just listen without thinking too much about it."
Song Jiu turned his face, their gazes meeting for a moment. He then asked, "If this ship were to drift aimlessly at sea and our supplies ran out, would we resort to killing each other for survival?"
The others looked at Song Jiu, then shifted their gaze to Sun Houqi, exchanging glances without answering.
Suddenly, there was a sound of footsteps running up the stairs. Pockmarked Girl rushed onto the deck with her apron tied around her waist, looking oddly at the group of idle crew members. She shouted, "What are you all doing? I've been calling you for ages to eat! Are you deaf or mute? Hurry up! Sister Jia is cooking today and made stir-fried fish pieces for you!"
Everyone sat there in stunned silence, frozen in place.
"Hey, what's going on?" Pockmarked Girl asked in confusion, looking around before turning to Song Jiu. "Come on!"
"No, I'm not hungry."
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