He felt excruciating pain radiating from his shoulders and back, and also heard the sound of skin and muscle being torn from his body. The moment he collapsed, he suddenly thought of the monkey from "Journey to the West," the one crushed beneath the Five Elements Mountain by the Buddha.

Suddenly, a strange flush spread across Brian Cooper's face, and a beast-like roar erupted from his throat. He went berserk, swinging his fists wildly at the zombies gnawing at his body, biting at their flesh like a rabid dog. Within his field of vision, he saw David Thompson, who had caught up and was desperately swinging a club; Grace Sutton, her face pale as she stabbed frantically with a dagger; and Henry Sutton, who was emptying the cylinder and quickly reloading bullets.

Brian Cooper felt his intestines being pulled out, his liver being torn by teeth. The virus-controlled infected were like shipwreck survivors who hadn't eaten in weeks. Damn it... they're eating my lower body, they're... they're eating my testicles.

His consciousness grew increasingly hazy. The fat man struggled to turn his head and glanced up at the sunlit slope, groaning with infinite hope and longing.

"Huang... Yi... help... help me."

Until his eyelids closed completely and darkness swallowed his mind, Brian Cooper never saw the woman he loved.

She ran very fast and didn't hear the fat man's final cry at all.

……

The afterglow of dusk shone through the gaps between buildings, making it impossible to look directly and forcing people to hide in the shadows. It was already near nightfall; in at most half an hour, the entire city would be plunged into the deepest darkness.

This was a hardware and electrical shop adjacent to the road. It wasn't large, but it was enough to shelter four people. Perhaps feeling that the few-centimeter gap under the rolling shutter lock wasn't safe, David Thompson simply fixed it firmly with a dozen cement nails.

There were walls on three sides and no second exit. The only way to leave this place, which they had turned into a temporary cage in two hours, was to use the shop's oxygen tank and acetylene generator to cut open the shutter.

The room was filled with a strong smell of engine oil. To avoid attracting the wandering corpses in the night, the survivors didn't use the shop's diesel generator, relying instead on a few candles to keep the darkness at bay.

On the table was a pile of plastic bags filled with all kinds of food: steamed buns and bread, large chunks of cooked meat and roast chicken. There were also several boxes of mineral water on the floor by the table legs. All of these were spoils looted from grocery stores and supermarkets during their escape.

Henry Sutton ate very slowly. Roast chicken and steamed buns were rare delicacies in the future, extremely expensive. At that time, only powerful figures like generals would be entitled to enjoy such things.

Grace Sutton sat on a chair by the wall, tearing bread into small pieces and slowly stuffing them into her mouth. She silently watched the red candle burning on the table, her face showing no emotion.

David Thompson had already taken off his bloodstained shirt and changed into a blue work uniform he found in the shop. He looked very hungry and ate quickly, his cheeks bulging as he occasionally washed down the food with a gulp of beer.

Emma Harris sat on a wooden crate a little distance from the table, eyeing the char siu in the food bag with a critical gaze. She used her slender fingers to poke through the sauce-covered meat, frowning and muttering, "It's way too fatty, I just can't eat this."

The other three all looked up at her at the same time.

"What are you all looking at me for?"

Emma Harris wiped her hands with a tissue in annoyance and said unhappily, "I'm a dance student, I have to keep my figure. Grace Sutton, aren't you the same?"

"That's right! You're absolutely right——"

David Thompson swallowed his food hard, staring at her, and sneered, "That little fat guy was crazy about you, but you didn't even look at him when he was dying. Girl, I have to admit, your heart is really black—you're a match for the Evil Queen in Snow White."

"I never liked him——"

A venomous look shot from Emma Harris's eyes as she glared fiercely at David Thompson, raising her voice: "He could never provide the material things I need. So short, so fat, and always following me around like a dog. Just seeing him annoyed me, and thinking about it makes me sick."

"Material things?"

David Thompson kept his eyes on her ample chest, grinning wickedly: "How much do you think you're worth? The top hostess at 'Dihao' nightclub only gets five thousand yuan for an overnight job. For your kind, even five hundred is too much for me."

"You..."

Emma Harris's face changed instantly as she was about to shout, when suddenly something dark flew at her and hit her on the head. She reached up and felt it—it was a picked-clean roast chicken carcass.

"Shut up, all of you——"

Henry Sutton slowly chewed the chicken in his mouth and said coldly, "Do you want a microphone to call all the zombies in the city over? Believe me, I'll throw you out right now and let those monsters have you for a midnight snack."

……

Half an hour later, dinner was over.