Chapter 2
Volume 1: [The First Year], Episode 2: Night of the Dead
The once blue sky was now a dead gray, looming over An Sheng with its gloomy and oppressive skyscape. The streets below him were flooded with a blood-red liquid, and a building not far away was emitting thick smoke. The explosion must have come from there.
An Sheng gulped in fear as he saw figures floating on the blood-red water, ‘Was there a flood? Why is the water red?’
Five words blared and etched itself onto An Sheng’s mind, “The End of the World.”
An Sheng crouched down onto the floor, attempting to calm his ensuing panic attack, but the noise outside his unit snapped him out of his thoughts. Outside, he heard yelling, crying, and cries for help.
The previous explosion woke many of the tenants up, and the terrifying scene outside made many of them feel overwhelmed.
Some found that their partners were no longer alive beside them, some were heavily injured by the glass exploding onto their sleeping bodies, some…
The residents on the second floor ran a business on the first floor, and many of them treaded through the flooded first floor to rescue their goods, but were hesitant to step into the strangely-coloured water.
One man jumped into the water, but never came back up. Another man tried to save him, but he too, didn’t resurface.
Soon, people discovered that something was very wrong with the water. The corpses of the two men soon floated back up, and the residents fled in shock. In just a mere ten minutes, more than thirty residents died because of the blood. The residents who touched the rain last night out of curiosity died in their sleep as well.
This threw the entire building into chaos – most of them fled into their respective units and shut the door behind them, using every mean to isolate themselves from the outside world and becoming extremely paranoid of the water.
An Sheng was peering out of the corridor at this time, and he too, was scared and confused. Hearing the wails and warnings of his neighbours, he thanked the heavens that he washed the blood off of his body. The vivid images of the previous night rushed back into him, figuring out that it wasn’t all just a dream.
An Sheng couldn’t sit still – he returned to his unit and dashed towards the window, intending to repair it. It seemed like the rain had no intention of stopping.
An Sheng could only find a poncho and a sleeping bag in his house, and his paranoia grew larger. He immediately dismantled his coffee table and dining table, nailing them to the window frame clumsily.
After doing so, he slumped onto the sofa. He needed to think and calm down.
He pinched his thigh, making sure that he wasn’t in a dream. Unfortunately for him, the piercing pain mercilessly reminded him that this wasn’t a dream, but cold-hard reality.
Before this, he had watched many films and read many novels about the end of the world. Despite the bizarre storylines, they still impart a lot of fundamental survival knowledge.
‘Right. I need food… and water!’
He praised himself as he had just bought a ton of groceries the day before. This would last him for about two months, and if he rationed the food, six months.
The next concern was water. Of course, nobody sane would even attempt to drink from the tap.
However, there was a water tank in case of emergencies in his unit, so he was sure that his tank was full. Besides, he had two large buckets of water in his bathroom, so water shouldn’t be a problem for now.
He felt slightly more at ease, and decided to hide at home to wait for any updates. It is best to wait until help arrives.
There is no way that his country would sit by idly and do nothing, he figures. Maybe the rescue team was already on their way.
It was still a commotion outside, and most of the building’s residents were still wailing in fear. Thankfully, there were still strong-minded people who stepped forward to temporarily maintain order amidst the chaos.
Several veterans and older people formed a temporary support group, coming to the conclusion that people died when coming into contact with the water.
Of course, some still came into contact with the blood water, and were starting to develop symptoms like a high fever and fatigue.
The temporary support group was divided into two teams – the first team gathered the corpses and stacked them in the corridors of the second floor, while the other team went door-to-door to gather those who were sick so they could isolate them.
Ultimately, this was useless. There was no way to determine whether this strange virus was contagious.
Most of the victims who died lived in the second floor.
An Sheng didn’t want to go out to help. He was intensely paranoid that he might come into contact with the bloodied water, and he might run out of luck the moment he steps foot outside.
The flood, of course, caused a large power outage. Strangely enough, the mobile phone signals were also lost. Now, they had no way of knowing what the outside world was like.
An Sheng stared at the window that he had crudely repaired, wondering if there was a reason for this, “Just how long will this rain continue?”
Normal people would believe that this is the beginning to the end of the world.
An Sheng spent the rest of the day hiding in darkness, alone with his fearful thoughts.
Soon, he was hungry, but he couldn’t get up. His legs were numb from staying in the same position the entire day, and he had to press against his legs firmly to restore blood circulation.
He made two steamed buns with pickles and drank a glass of water.
Feeling that his strength has returned to his body, he wondered, ‘What’s going on outside?’
An Sheng crept towards the door. He wanted to go out and take a look, but he was afraid. ‘Curiosity killed the cat,’ he thought repeatedly. ‘But satisfaction brought it back.’
He gently opened the door to his house.
A few of his neighbours were sitting by the corridor, and he assumes they were there due to the lack of light inside.
He could see that everyone’s expressions were solemn. Many of them were traumatized by the corpses scattered across the building earlier today.
‘If we don’t get rescued soon,’ An Sheng thought. ‘We might die too.’
He couldn’t blame them. After all, they were all ordinary people. Drastic changes like this was bound to traumatize them.
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