As a fresh, juicy tree, the mutated wutong actually wasn’t very flammable.
Unfortunately, those cunning humans not only attacked with fire, they used alcohol to feed it. In under half an hour, it was burned to the edge of death, standing rooted in the middle of the road, motionless.
The group besieging it erupted into cheers—only to be quickly barked down by a middle-aged man.
“What the hell are you cheering for? It’s not over yet! Little Chen, you and Old Ma go grab fire extinguishers, everyone else keep at it! If we don’t burn this thing to charcoal, I, your father, don’t deserve the name Wu!”
The middle-aged man spat to the side, his gaze sweeping the street—then he abruptly froze.
A few seconds later, Su Ze watched him walk over.
“Miss, where did you come from? It’s far too dangerous alone, hurry back… oh, sorry about that, young man—didn’t see clearly just now… ahem!” The middle-aged man cleared his throat, embarrassed.
He had a classic square-jawed face, thick brows, big eyes, and a robust build. His bearing was honest and steady, with a hint of menace underneath—clearly a trained fighter.
Su Ze shook his head and asked a question he already knew the answer to: “It’s fine. What are you all doing?”
“Oh, we were heading for the countryside, but ran into that tree right after leaving the complex. There are monsters everywhere now—kill one if you can, so they can’t hurt anyone.”
Then, with concern, the man asked Su Ze: “And you? Coming from that direction, you’re heading into the city? I’d advise you not to. It may look quiet now, but monsters are hiding everywhere. It’s dangerous.”
“Monsters?” Su Ze very much wanted to produce a puzzled, innocent expression, but the difficulty was too high—he could only compensate as best he could with his tone.
“You don’t know?” The man’s eyes went wide. “You don’t know what happened last night?”
“I sleep early.” Su Ze offered up a half-true, half-false statement.
“Then you’re lucky…” The man sighed long and deep. “Honestly, we don’t know exactly what happened either. All we know for certain is that a lot of monsters have appeared… and some people, even, have turned into monsters?”
Su Ze’s brow furrowed. “People? Turned into monsters?”
“Yes. Seen zombie flicks? It’s a bit like that, but worse than zombies—tremendous strength, fast and agile. Two of my friends turned into those monsters…” At the memory of last night, the man’s expression twisted slightly—fear and fury, with grief lurking underneath.
He wiped his face, forcing down the roiling emotions, and counseled him again: “My friends can’t be the only ones who became monsters. Add in those other creatures, and the more people in one place, the more dangerous it’s bound to be. Whatever you do, don’t head into the city.”
Following the man’s gesture, Su Ze glanced at the half-charred mutated wutong and asked, suppressing the heartache: “So you’ve decided on the countryside?”
The man nodded. “Right. Fewer people out there—safer than the city.”
“…But the countryside has more trees,” Su Ze paused, then added, “and more animals.”
The man understood at once and fell into silence.
After a moment, he wiped his face again. “You’re right. People become monsters, plants become monsters—no reason animals wouldn’t. The city at least has mostly small animals, but the countryside… sigh. Oh, I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Wu Chengzhi, an army veteran. Those guys over there are all my old army buddies. And you?”
“Su Ze,” Su Ze replied tersely, glancing up at the mutated wutong. “Can I get a closer look at the tree?” To see if there was anything left worth salvaging…
Wu Chengzhi checked the mutated wutong’s condition, then nodded readily. “Sure, a look’s a good idea—so you won’t panic if you run into one again.” With that, he turned and walked toward the mutated wutong, keeping himself in front of Su Ze the whole way.
The moment they got close, someone holding a fire extinguisher called out: “Squad Leader, the tree’s all charred now—can I put the fire out?”
Wu Chengzhi walked over and smacked the back of his head: “I had you grab extinguishers to keep the fire from spreading, not to put it out for its sake! Let it burn!“
“Oh. Hey, Squad Leader, where’s that kid from? A foreigner?”
“What foreigner? He’s from Hua State…”
Before Wu Chengzhi even finished, another man came over: “Old Wu, when are we setting out? The road’s not far, but with this many people to settle, any later and it’ll be dark.”
At those words, Wu Chengzhi’s face darkened. “…About that—I was just about to discuss with you all whether we should still go to the countryside.”
Surprise crossed the man’s face. “Wasn’t this already settled? And you’re the one who said Old Ma’s house in the countryside is big enough to take in all our families no problem. What changed?”
Wu Chengzhi patted the man’s shoulder, soothing him: “Easy, Old Liu. It was that young brother’s reminder that made me realize. Think about it—if even trees have turned into this, can the animals possibly be sitting still? Our Liyang sits right up against Changling Mountain, and the countryside is at the mountain’s foot. Even in peaceful times there were wild boars prowling around. In a situation like this, if some monster comes charging out, how could we possibly hold it off?”
Old Liu was silent for a while. “…Then what do we do? Barricade ourselves indoors? If we run into more like Little Li and Little Zhou… one or two of them we can handle, but there are almost four million people in this city!”
Thinking of the friends who had turned into monsters right in front of him, Wu Chengzhi fell speechless.
Last night, his army buddies who ran the auto shop with him had gathered at his place for drinks. Partway through, Little Li and Little Zhou fell asleep, and no one thought much of it—just figured they were drunk. But when the party wound down at midnight, the two of them suddenly erupted, lunging at their old comrades.
Slow to react, the scene had descended into utter chaos. It took all five of them tremendous effort to subdue the two, and nearly everyone came away injured. Even trained soldiers had been left in such a sorry state—what chance would ordinary people have?
At the thought, Wu Chengzhi felt his upper arm—where Little Li had bitten off a chunk of flesh, live and raw—begin to throb faintly.
The man with the fire extinguisher looked at Wu Chengzhi, then at Old Liu, and suddenly smiled. “Honestly, it doesn’t matter where we go. What matters is that we brothers stick together.”
At that, the solemn-faced Wu Chengzhi raised his hand and dealt him another smack. Then, amid the man’s yelp of pain, he said to Old Liu: “The city does have monsters, but they seem terrified of light and don’t come out during the day. The countryside really does have fewer people, but it has more of the other monsters, and they’re active day and night. I can’t honestly say which is safer. Better to gather everyone and discuss it together.”
“Alright.” Old Liu, somewhat resigned, called the other two over in a loud voice.
Su Ze glanced at the five men debating whether to go or stay, then lifted his foot and prodded the mutated wutong’s now-completely-blackened root.
The skin was burnt, the inner cortex seemingly burned away as well—nothing left but the stele… The Mutants Wu Chengzhi and the others mentioned sounded formidable: five veterans had only managed to handle two Mutants. No wonder the rooms with coarse panting had been almost entirely blood-smell…
But what was with the light aversion?
Before Su Ze could work it out, Wu Chengzhi’s voice reached him: “Little Su, we’ve decided on the countryside after all. What about you? Want to come with us?”
Su Ze turned to look at Wu Chengzhi and the others, puzzled. “Why?”
“The dangers in the city are all visible ones. The countryside at least has fewer people. The rest… probably won’t be that hard to deal with,” Wu Chengzhi said, glancing at the completely charred mutated wutong. “We’ve got families in tow. We really don’t dare take risks.”
Su Ze wanted to say: if you don’t want to take risks, shouldn’t you stay somewhere familiar? But on reflection, he’d never personally witnessed a Mutant and couldn’t confirm how dangerous they were, while Wu Chengzhi and his group had clashed with Mutants head-on. Their concerns were perfectly understandable.
He thought for a moment, then said: “I’m going into the city.”
Disapproval immediately showed on Wu Chengzhi’s face. “Little Su, you haven’t seen those monsters, so you don’t know to be afraid. They… aren’t human anymore.”
With that, Wu Chengzhi took off his jacket and pulled up his short sleeve, revealing his bandaged upper arm: “And it’s not just me—everyone here has been bitten more than once. If we hadn’t been trained, we’d probably have been bitten to death while still alive. They seem terrified of light, so they’re all hiding during the day, but that doesn’t mean things are safe. Little Chen’s car was parked in the underground garage, and we wanted to drive it out, but…”
As if recalling some horrifying image, Wu Chengzhi drew a deep breath. “…Long story short: these monsters hide in the dark. Take a word of advice from your big brother—go anywhere but the city center, where the people are thickest!”
Su Ze looked at the crowd chiming in agreement and answered: “I’ll be careful.”
Wu Chengzhi could only relent. “Fine, then. Take care of yourself.”
With that, he walked over to the mutated wutong, confirmed the great tree was thoroughly dead, then worked with the others to clear a path through the street. Afterward, they went into the complex, and before long came driving out in three vehicles.
The lead SUV stopped in front of Su Ze, and Wu Chengzhi leaned out the window: “Little Su, the power’s still on for now, but who knows when it’ll cut out. You have to stock up on power banks and keep your phone charged. Sigh, it’s not like when we were kids, with radio broadcasts and such. These days the country can only get messages out through the communications networks—so you absolutely have to keep your phone charged!”
Su Ze nodded, glanced at the woman in the passenger seat and the little boy in her arms watching him with curiosity. His lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he said only four words, quietly: “Safe travels.”
Wu Chengzhi smiled. “Thanks. Stay safe out there. Goodbye!”
Watching the three vehicles drive off, Su Ze turned to look at the complex named Oriental Scenery Community—at the passage at its entrance leading straight down to the underground parking garage.
After listening carefully for a while, he decided to head back to Su Qiuyu’s home first.
His rations had been burned, and he had no idea where a new “supplier” might be. Fortunately, the roots in his backpack would keep him fed for two or three days. No need to rush for now.
The most important thing now was figuring out the current situation.
Returning without incident to the Pingyuan Residential Complex where Su Qiuyu had lived, Su Ze didn’t head straight home. Instead, he stopped at the door of a third-floor apartment.
This household was one of the two with blood-smell and coarse panting; the other was on the second floor. Su Ze climbed that extra floor not because he was too full to know where to spend his energy, but purely because there were no living people across from this unit—no matter how much noise he made, no one would see.
Looking at the tightly closed door, the relevant information about this household surfaced in Su Ze’s mind.
Two elderly parents, a son nearing forty. The family rarely socialized with the rest of the complex—a thoroughly ordinary three-person household.
But now, there was only one sound inside: the coarse panting of an unknown Mutant.
Su Ze drew a deep breath and reversed his grip on the wrench, handle outward. He’d “borrowed” the wrench from a hardware store on his way back, thoughtfully leaving a note and his phone number behind.
Not that anyone would be coming to collect!
So thought Su Ze, expressionless. With a burst of force, he drove the wrench handle straight into the keyhole, violently destroying the entire lock cylinder.
Freed from the lock cylinder’s control, the door creaked open the moment he withdrew the wrench.
