Chapter 5
Life went on, with its bumps and stumbles and its quiet, ordinary days.
Before I knew it, a month had passed since the outbreak.
Perhaps the earth knew humanity was enduring a catastrophe. Fittingly, the weather stayed overcast for days on end, everything shrouded in gray.
Severed human limbs littered the streets, alongside wrecked cars and stripped-bare shops…
It was a thousand times crueler than any scene in a zombie movie.
The city seemed to have become a city of the dead.
If it weren’t for Zom, I’d probably have been cold and dead myself by now.
Thinking of him reminded me of some strange things that had happened lately.
He’d been taking longer and longer to find food. Often, it was almost noon and there was still no sign of him.
The amount he brought home had dwindled, too.
Sometimes it was only a piece of bread. Sometimes a bottle of drinking water.
Sometimes he returned empty-handed, with nothing but injuries of every size.
While tending his wounds, I’d casually asked how he’d gotten them.
But Zom seemed unwilling to tell me. He always dodged the question and changed the subject, even claiming he’d been “attacked by zombies that went berserk.”
He was the zombie king. Why would zombies attack him?
In the end, I hadn’t pressed him.
When he couldn’t hide it anymore, he’d tell me. Pestering him wouldn’t help.
Sure enough, this evening…
After disappearing for an entire day, Zom pushed open my bedroom door and stood before me.
As I stared in shock, his knees gave way and he collapsed onto them. The wound in his arm was deep enough to expose bone.
He stopped hiding it and weakly told me the truth.
“I’m sorry, Ning. I can’t find food for you anymore.”
“Four days ago, a human rescue team arrived in the city.”
I froze for a second.
Joy welled up inside me, impossible to contain.
A human rescue team…
Was this nightmare finally going to end?
But just as a smile reached my lips, Zom continued.
“They’re also clearing out the zombies.”
I went still.
Zom was a zombie, too.
So humans had given him those wounds while he was out searching for food for me.
And his trips had taken longer because he’d been evading their sweeps.
“I didn’t tell you because I wanted more time with you.”
“But now you don’t need me to feed you or protect you. They’re looking for survivors. They’ll find this place soon.”
“Ning, every second I’ve spent with you has made me happy.”
“I wish so much that I were a normal person…”
As I bandaged his wound, he rambled on without stopping.
I looked up, tracing his profile with my gaze. His features were finely shaped, his jaw sharply defined. I could almost see the confident young man he’d been before he turned.
I couldn’t help feeling wistful.
Time had gone so fast.
When I’d first met him last month, he’d been a savage, violent zombie with little intelligence, forcing out his words one syllable at a time.
Who would have guessed that now he could even recite Li Sao?
“Where are you going?” My voice was calm.
He hadn’t mentioned parting once, yet every sentence was a goodbye.
But where could he go?
Humans weren’t going to set up shelters for zombies.
The moment they found him, he’d be met with a hail of bullets.
The light in his eyes dimmed.
“The books say humans and zombies belong on different paths. My existence is a threat to you. So I was going to…”
I finished for him.
“Go and let them ‘clear you out.’ Is that it?”
Zom paused, then nodded awkwardly.
I smiled faintly and said nothing.
When I’d finished bandaging him, I sat on the couch with my head bowed, lost in thought.
A shadow suddenly fell in front of me.
Zom stood before me, then slowly crouched and cupped my face in both hands.
I met his gaze—there was something almost reverent in it—and froze.
I watched him lean closer. Then something soft and slightly cool touched my lips.
As our breaths mingled, tears fell silently. I didn’t know whose they were, only that I could taste their salt.
“Goodbye,”
he said.