Chapter 1: Doomsday

Doomsday

TL: WhatTranslate,Niku

Editor:Niku

“I close my eyes, and the world doesn’t exist!”

Zhang Xiao Qiang wakes up due to a burning sensation in his stomach, then he sat up, clutching his stomach in a daze, unable to distinguish if this was reality or a dream. The intense hunger in his intestines forced him to get up, all of his senses returned to his body. The room stunk with the smell of dead mouse, outside the window the sky was gloomy. In addition, the sounds coming from the zombies downstairs of various sizes and shapes stepping on broken glass made him feel a chill to his bones.

From the bedside desk he picked up half a bag of instant noodles, opening the bag he took a deep breath through his nose, the food’s aroma caused him to salivate, as if the stench was no longer there. Crushing the instant noodles, he put it bit by bit into his mouth** savoring the taste. Before he knew it, the last bit of noodles disappeared in his mouth. He used scissors to carefully cut open the bag of instant noodles, licking up the remaining crumbs of the noodles, he then rinsed out his mouth with mineral water and swallowed it with the residue. After he finished the rest of his water and got out of bed, he stood by the window watching the zombies on the street wandering around, contemplating how long the remaining food will last, unconsciously he started to think about 2 weeks ago.

Zhang Xiao Qiang is a recluse, his parents died of cancer, **married to another family,[TL that’s what it says in the raws, I assume its someone like his sister] he is the only one left in the house. The unit leader resigned and returned home after an argument, he paid for the starting capital for a small restaurant in WH City with his friend. He was too lazy to find a job and he used the computer daily from the morning till night. His parents left him an shopfront to receive rent from so he doesn’t need to worry about money for food or drinks. 1 month’s rent will buy a month of supplies for the home. His weight slowly increased to 170 pounds due to living an easy low profile life.

This year, 2012, he’ll be 34. All over the internet there was talk of an apocalypse but he didn’t care, that is not to say he didn’t see the destruction of the world in 1999! By March, Mount Fuji erupted, so subsequently there were eruptions all over the world, causing public panic as there were various rumours. Later, world leaders televised a program to deny the rumours, many experts tried to prove that all the events were due to natural causes. Once June arrived, the Earth started to calm down; there were no more earthquakes and volcanoes stopped erupting. The economy was beginning to recover; the price of pork reduced, apocalyptic websites began to shut down and life was looking good, but even so he continued as usual, waiting to die.

As the 21st December 2012 passed, nothing happened and the apocalyptic forums were silent; just some noobs complaining at home about how they cant finish the food that they bought because they bought at least a couple thousand pounds, and also that biscuit prices have increased on the market.

On the 24th December 2012 the news reported that a small cluster of meteorites fell into the pacific, but there was no economic loss. It was only on the 31st December 2012 at 9 in the morning that the world changed.

Zhang Xiao Qiang had a late night and was preparing to go to sleep when he noticed a strange smell. He closed all the windows and doors, took a hot shower and used the expired air freshener that his sister left behind. Holding onto the quilt, he slept in the darkness. He woke up at 9, ate some food and turned on the computer. When he accessed his homepage, he realised that most of his novels were not updated. He looked for old books to read whilst cursing the authors and after an hour, he realised something wasn’t right. His house was far from the centre of the city where electricity and water was produced. There are always cars coming and going so usually the sound of cars can be heard all the time. However, from when he woke up till now he had not heard a single car,

“could it be that the roads were under construction?” Zhang Xiao Qiang whispers.

Suddenly, a scream rings out. He was so startled by the sound, that he didn’t even wear his shoes and he went to the window barefooted and looked out.

There were 3 to 4 people huddled under a street light. Zhang Xiao Qiang wiped his glasses on his clothes and put them back on and after carefully looking, they seemed to be eating something. The coldness beneath his feet reminded him that he was barefoot so he put on slippers to find a piece of cloth to clean the windows, which were dirty as he was too lazy to take care of them. Looking again, he realised that in the middle of the few people were a pair of legs. Then the person facing away from him sat down, the light from the street light was shining into the middle of the group. A man was laying on the ground, head tilted to one side, his chest was ripped open and the two people squatting by were fighting over the lungs and liver whilst biting into the flesh. The one who was facing away, was holding onto a heart that he was chewing.

Zhang Xiao Qiang went limp and knelt on the floor. He felt nauseous, his throat was dry and his eyes were itchy. He quickly got up and rushed to the toilet and vomited, he vomited until his lips were bitter and he could no longer vomit, after a while only did he get up with the support of the wall. He rubbed away the tears in his eyes and filled a cup of water from the water fountain to rinse his mouth. Sitting on the floor, his head was filled with thoughts of a biochemical crisis that he had seen in horror movies, Dawn of the Dead, Cannibal Cry, and Human Meat Bun etc.

After sitting down for half an hour, he started to feel a little better. He went to the window to observe and saw that the number of people eating increased. Beyond the illumination of the street light, there were figures walking towards the group. Under the dim light it was all so strange, he was trembling, he got goosebumps, he felt fear in his heart!

Remembering the police, he quickly found a phone to dial with, in his hurry he couldn’t remember the number, he started to sweat anxiously! Zhang Xiao Qiang took a breath to calm himself and after calming himself he dialed 110. God seemed to be toying with him as the line was busy, he then dialed 120 but that didn’t work either. He also tried to call several relatives and friends but either no one picked up or the line was busy. Anxious and unable to wait, he flushed his home phone down the toilet.

The crowd gathering outside the window became quite large; the corpse of the man is now just a pile of bones at the feet of the crowd and there were many people lying on the bloodstained ground. People were continuously getting up after being knocked down and the others kept taking bites until they are knocked down. Endless screams could be heard in the distance. Everywhere there are places on fire making the night sky as bright as day.

Seeing the city that he grew up in being ruined by the apocalypse, he felt a sadness rip through his heart. Lighting a cigarette, he inhaled a mouthful. He felt a little better, then he turned on the computer and opened up the news page. The whole page was filled with “Virus attack, only after spreading did we know that the viral symptoms could be found all the around the world; from North America, Alaska to South America, Argentina. From the African continent to the Eurasian continent, there are people who are infected with the symptoms and now the whole world is a mess.” This post tells the story of the infection.**

From roughly 10 o’clock in the morning, the country found out that people randomly started to attack others for no reason. After the infected increased in number and began to spread, the national emergency plan did not get enough time to start. As the virus became a disaster, the whole administrative system was destroyed and because of the virus, you don’t know if your family, colleague or comrade, will suddenly go mad. Bites and scratches will cause the person to start attacking others within 45 minutes.

The virus was named DestructionOfTheWorld in Europe and in America, it was called World’s Destruction of D virus.

There are two ways to get infected; airborne and contact. The infected are very strong, they have about 1.5 times the strength of a normal person and their speed is the same as normal walking speed. Their sprinting power lowered and the teeth and nails have become sharper thus normal clothes cannot withstand biting and scratching. External Features: No pupils, no sense of vision, stiff walk, both arms extend to knee length. Sharp sense of smell, eats flesh and blood, if you are scratched or bitten, you will start to mutate. Normal people are powerless in comparison to the infected. Destroying the nerve centre or cervical spine is the only way to kill them. Until now, no new mutations have been found. Preliminary infection rate estimation is up to 90%. If anyone is reading this post, please try to continue and live on, only if you live will there be hope.

If you live, there will be hope. It was clear to Zhang Xiao Qiang that the crowd outside the window were infected. He didnt know if he had been infected, not knowing when he will start to mutate, but he is afraid of death, afraid of being eaten by the infected. He thought of his own arm being ripped off, his intestines being pulled out and eaten, he was afraid. He walked back and forth with a restless mind, lighting a cigarette to calm himself and think of a way out. He didn’t even think about going out to call for help as the zombies downstairs are waiting to eat him. Zhang Xiao Qiang sat in front of the computer and began to plan. Tap water was undrinkable, only God knew if there were any zombies in the water at the water plant. Luckily he was too lazy to boil tap water, drinking bottled water instead, and the house still has half a barrel of water so there is water shortage so far. What about food? Thinking about food he hurriedly stood up, on the tenth of every month he receives rent to buy one month’s food and today is the first so there will only be 10 days left of food. He doesn’t dare to turn on the light so he uses the light from his phone to look around the house for food.

He was busy for half a day, making an inventory of all the food and materials. He was lazy and normally does not tidy the house so the house is a mess; he didn’t even know what he had in the house. Zhang Xiao Qiang’s food and materials are: 17 bags of instant noodles, 12 pounds of rice, two pieces of bacon weighing about 8 to 9 pounds, it was brought by his uncle and there is some fat that he didn’t like to eat, 21 eggs, 2 pounds of noodles, 0.8 bag of salt, 1.5 barrels of bottled water, 16 cigarette packages and countless small plates. No vegetables but it should be able to last a month if I use it frugally.

Now that the food is secured, security needed to be considered. His house is a building from 97’ and the building was soon to be demolished. He lived on the second floor with a platform at the front and the back. Outside there is a common area which is nearly 400 [TL: Raws didn’t say 400 of what..], the platform had two structures with twenty five to twenty six steps which gave access to neighbouring platforms. There was a small platform for a garden, on which some people kept flowers, at the back is where is dad and a couple other neighbours built a courtyard with an iron grid. From the computer room one can see the courtyard through the window, and after he went to the front office, checking that the doors and windows are closed, all the windows of the front office have been covered with newspaper

After finishing, he sat down in a daze. There’s no lack of electricity as the two hydroelectric dams should be able to guarantee at least several months of electricity. The internet should disconnect soon, so he should download some manuals on how to increase one’s survivability at home. After thinking about it, he started.