As evening approached, we surrounded a father and son.
The older man had been scratched by my companion. Even if he escaped, he would soon become one of us.
There was a look of determination in his eyes.
This expression had become increasingly common to me lately, and every time I saw it, it made me uncomfortable.
But instinct outweighed everything.
I lunged forward, tearing a piece of flesh from his shoulder. I heard a voice, old and pained, yelling “Run away” near my ear.
There was no escape.
I thought to myself, pressing him down onto the ground, and viciously bit through his windpipe. Some blood splattered onto my face, hot and making me feel a bit warm.
I always guessed accurately, like how this time we only lost one companion, how this father would definitely be the first to go, and how that son would not escape.
In this case, numbers were on our side. His son definitely wouldn’t escape.
By killing him, he wouldn’t have to watch the person he desperately tried to protect die.
Moreover, being the closest to this old man, I could eat his brain. This way, he wouldn’t become one of us, and I could enjoy a good meal.
Unfortunately, I acted too slowly. I’d definitely miss out on eating that son’s brain.
As I shoved food into my mouth, I experienced the various fragments appearing in my mind.
Yes, eating someone’s brain allows me to see things.
Maybe they’re just hallucinations, but they feel very real.
I saw the old man losing his wife, losing his young daughter. Oh God, his young daughter was killed by his wife. How pitiful.
I also saw their once happy family before the disaster, a couple in love, and bickering siblings.
And the old man’s unforgettable first love. Tsk tsk, she was truly beautiful.
By the time I came back to my senses, to be honest, there was nothing left of the corpse.
You should know, considering the ratio of over twenty zombies to two people, we weren’t eating too quickly.
And these food sources really weren’t enough to fill us.
But few people wander around after dark. They mostly come out during the day, seemingly with the same motive as us—to find food.
It’s very much like the food chain, isn’t it?
After finishing the food, we gradually stood up in groups and continued walking.
Uh… I suddenly realized that my prediction seemed to be a bit off. Besides losing one companion, another companion had an arm broken.
A bit of withered bone was protruding, swaying and looking quite painful.
If she could still feel pain, that is.
It seemed she noticed me looking at her, and the woman snarled and bared her teeth at me.
I didn’t understand her words, but I guessed it was probably a “mind your own business” kind of thing.
I shifted my gaze forward, thinking that I couldn’t be bothered with such matters. I was just a bit worried that something like this might happen to me one day.
Having a broken arm makes it very disadvantageous for grabbing food.
So far, all my limbs were intact. I suddenly felt quite lucky.
Happiness, perhaps, is that feeling of family harmony the old man once had.
Blindly walking along, the sun must have set at some point. The sky darkened, but it wasn’t dark enough to make it hard to see the road.
When we reached the front of a store, I heard clattering sounds again.
Damn it!
Everyone’s heads turned around again!
I silently noticed that I had also turned my head…
Although I was never very talkative.
There was nothing I could do, so I decided to keep moving.
The glass was shattered thoroughly, and on the ground were some dried-up, relatively clean bone frames.
As I approached, I quickly smelled the scent of living humans.
And a bloody smell.
I felt a bit excited. This store must have been abandoned early. Inside, there were still some items on the shopping racks, but its location was too obvious. And who knows if there were any of my kind inside the building?
I always thought no fool would wander in here looking for something.
I suddenly recalled a saying about waiting for rabbits by the stump.
Then I was frustrated to realize I couldn’t remember the meaning of that saying.
Wandering inside, the smell of blood became stronger, dispersed in the air. To be honest, this affected our judgment because the scent was too scattered.
I heard someone stepping in a sticky liquid. It was blood.
There was a lot of blood on the ground.
Nearby, there was an overturned rack.
In front of me was a large liquor cabinet. See, I told you there were many obstacles. Now I had to change direction.
However, just as I turned my head, I heard a “thud” sound from behind.
Not only me, but all my companions turned to look.
On the ground was a severed arm, with withered bone exposed halfway.
The woman herself looked down, let out a cry, and slightly shrugged.
False alarm.
We slowly turned back around. Then suddenly there was a “bang” in my ear. I saw a companion fall down.
The surrounding partners became restless, and we quickened our pace a little.
I hesitated for a moment, standing still.
Gunshots would attract those skin-and-bone creatures. This food was getting a bit too hot to handle.
Inside, there was a commotion of “Who fired the gun!” I reflexively turned back, slowly following behind those ahead of me.
Then came the second gunshot, third, and fourth, and another guy fell down.
I also heard some screams, and the sound of things falling off the shelves.
It didn’t seem like there was much food.
I was a bit frustrated. I had just passed a shelf when I heard some urgent breathing from inside, along with the sound of a handgun being reloaded.
There was someone between two rows of shelves.
I turned my head. I knew I might die the next moment, but this damned reflex was truly beyond my control.
As I turned my head, that person had already raised their handgun, and then, bang, they shot me in the ribs.
A novice, huh? You should aim for the head.
I thought while moving forward.
The next moment, the handgun was level, and the dark muzzle was probably aimed at my forehead.
But that person didn’t pull the trigger.
Out of bullets?
Is heaven so kind to me?
I walked between the shelves. It suddenly became dark around me.
But wait… If there were no bullets, there should have been a blank shot, followed by panic.
I continued forward. The person’s breathing became more hurried, and they instinctively backed away, lowering the gun a bit.
Haha, is this person an idiot?
Even I could see a bottle of liquor nearby. If they picked it up, smashed it, and jabbed it at me, they’d live a bit longer.
It was too dark between the shelves, and I couldn’t see the person’s figure, but the increasingly unstable breathing told me this was a living person.
Food.
Just as I was thinking that no companions were following, so I could have a good meal, a hand suddenly reached out from the outer shelves, grabbing the person’s gun hand and half an arm, shaking it on top of the shelf…
Sister, you’re really persistent, even in this state.
The person inside exhaled and, with their hand and gun grabbed, had no way to shoot. They reflexively grabbed a bottle, broke it halfway, and jabbed it into the woman’s brain.
That must have hurt a lot.
The sharp half of the bottle was still in the person’s hand. The person on the other side of the shelf had already fallen. I heard the sound of gnawing behind me, occasional gunshots, and someone shouting to run.
But in my eyes, all I could see was the face of that person illuminated by the light through the cleaned shelf.
A smaller version of… uh, no, a normal-sized… that person.
I suddenly remembered…
The thing I saw during the day should actually be called a poster…
Outside, it had become quieter.
The person’s bottle swayed, the handgun also swayed, and then they all fell.
He leaned against the wall, frowning slightly, with what seemed to be tears in his eyes, looking at me.
He seemed very sad.
In the old man’s memories, the now-changed wife walked toward him and his young daughter. They also had such expressions. Then the wife grabbed the daughter, and the old man wailed, hitting his wife’s head with a baseball bat.
I stopped in my tracks, feeling a bit strange.
My teeth itched, and I wanted to pounce and eat.
I was very hungry. I wasn’t full yet.
But I didn’t make any move to open my mouth.
There was some noise behind me again. My companions, perhaps having smelled or seen that there was still a living person here, wanted to come and try.
I moved my feet, getting closer to him.
He closed his eyes, turned his head to one side, and shiny stuff trickled down his face from his eyes.
The footsteps behind me were gradually speeding up.
I had to keep moving forward, or they would get ahead of me.
Then the most incredible thing happened.
At such a crucial moment!
That unlucky woman just couldn’t sweep the bottle back!
Don’t you know that tripping people is unethical?
I actually fell!
By coincidence, my outstretched dirty hands slid down the person’s shoulder, making their not-so-clean light blue shirt even dirtier.
My head hit their arm, and the blood and filth from my face seemed to stick to them.
The person’s body trembled.
And then the second incredible thing today was—he actually reached out to help me.
My head slowly moved away from his arm. I unconsciously bit down, but only bit air.
The feeling of my teeth clashing together wasn’t pleasant.
I straightened up, and the footsteps behind me stopped as well, with several bottles rolling away.
I reflexively followed the sound.
The two companions who were originally behind me sniffed, then turned and walked away.
Oh right, he was covered in a lot of dirt.
I looked back at him, and he was still looking at me.
Is he insane?
After such an embarrassing moment, I lost my appetite for this person and followed my buddies out.
Just a few steps later, I suddenly smelled that rotting odor.
I stood at the door, glancing back at that person.
Unlike us, skin-and-bones creatures can detect life through heartbeat, though they need to be very close to sense it. If they detect you, it’s definitely a dead end.
I felt compelled to hum a few times towards the inside.
That person no longer had any companions, and it seemed this wasn’t his first encounter with such things.
When I looked back at the door, he had already stepped out of the shelves, looked down at his clothes, then looked at me and actually followed me.
His scent mixed with the life energy, but I had smelled that life force up close. He could deceive other companions, but not me.
But he obviously didn’t know this.
I watched him, skillfully mimicking our staggering walk, and thought he looked quite foolish.
We still had more than ten people. If I pounced now, I would definitely be left hungry.
Hmm, I think I was probably good at math before becoming this way.
Let him live a little longer.
