Chapter 3: Guard Dogs

Guard Dogs

On the 20th of January, at 7:30am, 2013, Zhang Xiao qiang’s phone alarm woke him up. After he had gotten up, he went to the living room. There, he checked his inventory, 5 days ago, he risked his life in exchange for what was left was the greater half of a cabbage, 2-2.5kg of rice, and cigarettes which he is now out of. He was a chain smoker, the days that go by without cigarettes make him feel both unsatisfied and uncomfortable.

A loud “BANG” could be heard from across the room from the direction of the security door.

Starting 5 days ago, the zombies outside the door started to unrelentingly beat at steel security door. They craved for human flesh, as though they were a faithful dog waiting at his master at the door.

The room was filled with a dense stench, but fortunately Zhang Xiao Qiang had begun to used to it.

He went to the kitchen, and placed the rice and bacon with the remains of the cabbage into the wok and added water to allow for it to boil. He divided the meal 2 parts for 2 meals, one would be for his breakfast and the other would be for dinner.

After eating breakfast, Zhang Xiao Quan as usual, walked to the computer room and looked out the window, down onto the zombies. He looked down the end of the road, saw the dark dull sky and at some clouds which obscured his view. The grey clouds brought with them a cold draft. This left him with a unpleasant feeling leaving him with a hard time breathing.

He wishes a convoy would just appeared at the end of the road. The convoy would be camouflaged and full with rows of soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Their rifles would swep the world of despair, sending the putrid zombies back to hell, sending them back to where they came from.

But all in all, fantasy is just fantasy, the zombies were still roaming the earth, and he still had to worry about the scarcity of food. With both hands on his head, he returned to the living room to prepare for today’s physical training. A recluse like himself would gradually become weak, in order to survive he must desperately improve his physical fitness, even something small would be an improvement.

“47, 48…. 50”

…Zhang Xiao Qiang let out a deep breath with both his hands on the ground, he was tired as he had not exercised in a long time. He thought about the zombies that are still outside the house, the food inside the house was also running low. Zhang Xiao Qiang with both his hands on his head, took another deep breath, and began to start over.

He placed the 8 pound hammer down and used a towel to wipe the sweat off his brow. After 2000 Chinese leapfrogs and waving the hammer around 500 times, he felt tired and lightheaded. The food he ate for breakfast had already digested and his stomach began to growl.

Zhang Xiao Qiang laid on the couch, thinking about how he could solve the problem of the 6 zombies outside his house. He had lost his shield outside the door, and he had no defensive equipment to fight off the zombies. The metal security door of the building can only be opened from the inside. He slowly opened the door a bit by bit. He thought to himself, even if if he ate rice for several days to build up his strength, he could not take on all six by himself.

He couldn’t think of a plan, Zhang Xiao Qiang with both hands on his head, began to scratch his scalp. he thought of various ideas, a whole range of them infact, yet he still had no plan. While thinking he saw his pack of cigarettes on the table and instinctively picks them up and shook it, before remembering that it was empty since yesterday. He looked at the ash tray and took the cigarette butts. He took a blank white sheet of paper, split the cigarette butts and lined them carefully along the paper before rolling it.

He found a lighter and lit his makeshift cigarette, inhaled, and leaned against his couch, staring at the home landline phone while in a daze like state. He thought about how many months it had been since he had paid the telephone fees. 3 months or 4 months ? That pretty MM Telecom tower is probably filled with zombies now too. His phone also had 80 or so dollars in prepaid credit, all gone to waste, what a loss. Zhang Xiao Qiang mind filled with all sorts of ideas and he glanced back towards the telephone line.

“Wait”.

Telephone line? Zhang Xiao Qiang stared at the telephone line, his heart filled with a glimpse of light. But he could not fully capture his idea.

He continues to look blankly at the telephone line, his mind began to pick up in speed. Telephone lines are uses apart from connecting calls are hanging clothes and drying blankets … His heart lit up and he exclaimed “It is to act as rope”. He paced back and forth before he found a rope, tied one end around the security door handle and made sure the other end was also fixed. this will ensure that he wont be attacked by zombies when he opens the door, and it will also so he can deal with the zombies one at a time.

Once he thought of this idea, he acted. Zhang Xiao Qiang went the storage room and obtained a thin rope and tied it to the window’s railing, and left 10cm distance from the door handle.The opening was too small to use the hammer as a weapon. Instead, Zhang Xiao Qiang found a galvanized water pipe approximately 1.5m, but after re evaluating he thought that a blow would be too weak and wouldn’t do harm.

Zhang Xiao Qiang continues to rummage through his dad’s tool box, he feels a sigh or relief. Fortunately his father during the 60’s would go to the countryside to dig ditches, 70’s he owned a motor factory, and 80’s opened his first small restaurant in a small town of Wan Yuan Hu. Unfortunately his father liked to play, fish, hunt and had no mind for his own business. The business was under a loan, but his rods and guns were owned by his father. There was also a period where there was a large crackdown on firearms in china. His father, in fear of being caught, threw his shotgun into the Yang Tze River. Although his father is now gone, his tools still remain.

“I found it”.

He rummaged out a triangular filer. The filer had not been used in a long time, yet its edge is still black metal with no rust, that is just the build quality from the 70’s.

He uses another knife to cut the wooden handle of the filer to fit the water pipe. He used nails to attach wood securely the pipe to ensure that it would not come apart during a critical moment.

Everything was ready, Zhang Xiao Qiang checked his equipment and stationed himself at the door. His military outfit had finally been dried and cleaned, it would be a shame that it has to be dirtied again today.The water from the tap had already stopped flowing, he didn’t expect to be able to do the laundry again.

He opens the door with his left hand and preps his spear with his right.

“bang”…..

ZXQ closes the door behind him, it stinks out here,the zombie he killed the previous day had an overpowering stench, enough to almost make him not able to open his eyes.

He didn’t have any masks at home, so he used a woolen scarf to cover his nose and mouth, and sprayed it with cologne to musk the smell of the zombies flesh.

He once again opened his door. Immediately a black claw scratched at his face. The zombie tried to force itself through the opening in the door. but this time Zhang Xiao Qiang was not scared, he looked carefully at the zombie. The zombies claw was like an eagles, its joints tightening with sharp finger nails. The zombies are desperately trying to enter the gap created by the door Its appearance, it deep empty eyes and prominent cheekbones which were hard pressing against the iron door forcing/drilling its skull through the opening.

Zhang Xiao Qiang held the spear with both hands; the points of the triangular file pointed at the eyes of the zombie. He then shoved the spear into its eyes, using both hands to tightly hold the pipe, exerting all his strength to thrust outwards. The first time he used the spear he did not have enough grip strength, he only knew to thrust outwards. Then he went into a daze, but his body erupted with energy that came from deep within his being. He started to get excited, he felt like all the zombies were no match for him, and that he could kill them all.

Another 2 claws clawed at him through the door, the two claws swinging through the air before his eyes woke him from his daze. He pulled out the spear head, the zombies eyes turned into a dark hole, with dark sticky blood slowly flowing out of them. The zombie first fell onto the other zombies and then slowly onto the ground. The head of one zombie facing him didn’t have pupil whites, another one just had blood dark blood flowing out of the holes. These two extreme contrasts gave Zhang Xiao Qiang chills.

“There are five more” he said to himself, he didn’t look at the dead zombie

again.

He hasn’t used a long spear before and he also didn’t have good grip strength. He then used his superficial spearing technique to kill the remaining 5 zombies, until the last one was lying on the floor.

Clang!

Zhang Xiao Qiang did not lose grip and let the spear fall to the ground.