For some unknown reason, the zombies beneath the ladder ceased their ascent.
Several of them began to stagger away, moving in different directions.
Noticing this peculiar shift, Little Zhao swiftly reported the development to the two others inside the granary.
His face, already pallid from blood loss in his arm, now looked alarmingly unhealthy as he sank down against the wall.
“Be careful not to fall into the rice, or you’ll sink right in.”
Jing Lan called out, then picked up a snare and placed it at the junction of the outer ladder and the platform, considering it a safeguard.
Leng Yu had already taken out his phone to call the base—naturally, he was calling his master, Li Shuwu.
–”What’s up?”
Old Li answered almost instantly.
Leng Yu succinctly recounted the recent events to Old Li.
Old Li, remarkably calm, asked for the details again before stating, “This kind of situation is truly unexpected.
Don’t panic over there; we’ll discuss countermeasures immediately.
Hand the phone to Little Jing; we’ve just received some intelligence related to him.”
Leng Yu, unable to fathom what information could possibly concern Jing Lan, passed the phone to him.
On the other end, the voice belonged to Wen Hao; it seemed he had snatched the phone from Old Li.
–”Jing-ge, things are getting spooky.
Just now, an old man in our camp with diabetes ran out of insulin, so I took two brothers to a pharmacy at a nearby service area to gather some medicine.
–On our way back, we noticed a freshly dug pit by the roadside, and it immediately struck me—that’s where you buried your brother!”
A thunderous roar echoed in Jing Lan’s mind as he heard this, and the fleeting shock vaguely contained something more profound—memories and emotions he had tried to suppress surged forth once again, now imbued with an astonishing new possibility.
“Say that again? The pit…”
–”Next to a huge cypress tree, with a farmhouse inn billboard further down the road, right?” Wen Hao continued.
“My two brothers and I checked the pit.
There was nothing else inside, nor did we find any other digging marks nearby.
–Dude, your brother… he seems to have risen from the dead.”
Jing Lan’s hand, holding the phone, trembled with a nearly audible sigh of relief.
He immediately re-examined his memories from the past two days: after he had strangled Ling Yechen, could Ling Yechen truly have still shown signs of life?
He had confirmed everything he could: breath, pulse, pupils.
When he finally buried her, her body was indeed cold.
If she could still rise from the dead after all that, it could only mean she had turned into a zombie.
A wave of disappointment washed over Jing Lan at this thought.
Becoming a zombie was clearly the most probable outcome, yet every person he had seen turn into a zombie mutated rapidly, defying the natural circulation of bodily fluids.
How could Ling Yechen have taken nearly two days to reanimate?
While individual exceptions were normal, Jing Lan found himself unable to dismiss one particular possibility—could Ling Yechen still be alive?
This possibility, like an addictive craving, seized Jing Lan, compelling him to repeatedly ponder it until it rapidly transformed into an intense urge.
‘I must go and find her.’
If it truly was merely a cruel joke of fate, and Ling Yechen had ultimately become a zombie, then there would be nothing more to say.
But what if, just what if, she hadn’t died?
What if her stopped breathing and absent pulse were merely illusions, and a flustered Jing Lan had failed to detect a faint heartbeat, leading to her reawakening after burial and crawling out of the pit…
This scenario was simply too melodramatic.
Even so, Ling Yechen had been bitten, so wouldn’t she still turn into a zombie?
Or perhaps, after two days, the zombie virus would simply become inert?
Jing Lan found himself uncontrollably losing his composure, the thought ‘I must go back and find her immediately’ surging wildly within him.
Even as he questioned himself: ‘Why do I care so much about her? She’s just a friend.’
‘Isn’t a friend enough?’ an indignant voice immediately retorted from deep within his heart.
With a sudden surge of resolve, Jing Lan stood up.
****
“Your good brother ran off on his own?” Leng Yu listened with a hint of disbelief as Jing Lan recounted the anomaly Wen Hao’s team had discovered, though he didn’t seem overly concerned.
“He’s probably turned into a zombie.
Have you seen ‘The Walking Dead’?
In that, no matter how a person dies, as long as their brain is intact, they’ll become a zombie.
Perhaps your good brother is the same way.”
“I’m going back now.
I’m going to find her.”
Leng Yu grabbed Jing Lan’s shoulder.
“Are you insane?
We can’t leave now; we have to wait for the people from the camp to arrive and see if we can negotiate.
You should know the situation better than I do—going out now is a death sentence!”
Leng Yu paused, then, seeing Jing Lan’s almost possessed expression, continued to shout at him, “Snap out of it!
Your brother is dead!
And what’s a brother anyway?
What’s one death?
The whole damn world is dying right now!
Are you queer?
Why do you care so much about him?”
Jing Lan glanced at Leng Yu, a faint smile gracing his lips.
“That person, who was as timid as a girl, ended up stepping forward to protect me.
I truly can’t accept that she would close her eyes after making such a stand.”
In a world twisted into this monstrous state, reminiscing about how Ling Yechen had sincerely befriended and comforted him online during peacetime now felt utterly out of place.
All that remained was the fervent warmth and profound emotion of a close friendship, clinging stubbornly to a heart exhausted and battered by disaster.
“So, even if there’s only a one-in-ten-thousand chance, I’ll fight for it.
For a reunion with her, and of course, Keke… everyone I care about, I don’t want to lose them one by one.”
“Alright, alright, you’re loyal, you’re Guan Erye reincarnated, but how do we get back now?
Tell you what, I’ll have Old Li assemble a small team to search for your brother nearby.
Whether he’s alive or dead, they’ll bring him back to the camp exactly as they find him for you to see!
But you need to calm down now, calm down!
If we go back now, we’ll be walking into a hail of bullets, understand?”
Yet, Jing Lan’s expression had already regained its composure, the misty nostalgia for his lost companion vanishing from his somewhat haughty face.
“No, we must act immediately.
Come with me; let’s go outside and see.”
Standing on the platform outside the granary door, the two looked down to see that the zombies previously gathered beneath the granary had dispersed.
Moreover, they were no longer aimlessly wandering like strollers; instead, they were moving in a unified direction, advancing towards the office building.
“I wonder if they’re using scent or something else to control the zombies’ movements.”
Jing Lan, of course, couldn’t forget the night he and Ling Yechen had spent in the farmhouse inn—all the zombies had been drawn to Ling Yechen, suggesting they were more sensitive to certain people’s scents.
“In any case, once they’ve herded the zombies back into the office building’s garage, they can send out gunmen to surround us beneath the granary.”
“If we can’t fight, we’ll just defend here; at least we have rice to eat,” Leng Yu remarked.
Jing Lan’s gaze fell upon the parked truck by the side wall.
“If we can call for reinforcements, why can’t they?
There might be enemies nearby.
They won’t wait for us to slowly summon help.”