Chapter 19: Alive or Not
Chapter 19: Alive or Not
Chen Jiao snorts at Anran’s back and lies back down on her bed, turning away from Anran, pulling up the blanket, and looking out the window, too angry to speak.
The ward falls silent for a moment, and the sound of zombies banging on the door outside grows much quieter before gradually fading away. But before Anran and Hu Zhen can relax, Chen Jiao’s soft sobs soon begin again. She is smart enough not to cry loudly, making only a faint sound like a mosquito, which is hard for Anran and Hu Zhen to ignore.
Anran is extremely annoyed. Turning over, she decides not to stay silent anymore. She lies on her bed and says to Hu Zhen: “Here’s the thing. I’ve been thinking. Our only way out now is to climb down from the window. If we get outside and find rescue, we can bring help back to save our children. Time is crucial. Our children have been away from us for over 15 hours. If they’re still alive, they haven’t eaten for at least 5 hours. If we delay any further, they won’t last much longer.”
Regardless of whether they are alive or not, Anran needs to see her daughter with her own eyes.
She reasons that 15 hours ago, the hospital was still functioning normally. This doesn’t rule out the possibility that some people outside had already been infected and turned into zombies. Anran remembers that a day ago, the news started reporting about rioters on the streets, and she wonders if it is related to the disease in the hospital.
Regarding this hospital, it definitely isn’t the first to be infected. Anran recalls that when she gave birth to her daughter, the doctor came to check her daughter’s temperature and jaundice. The doctor noted that the jaundice was high and the temperature was slightly low but advised sending the baby directly to the newborn department on the fifth floor. Everything seemed normal at that time.
The hospital’s mutation, if calculated, started about 5 hours ago. Anran noticed the problem with that young nurse about 5 hours earlier.
So if the infection in the hospital happened around the same time, her daughter has likely been hungry for over five hours, assuming she is still alive and not turned into a zombie. On the positive side, she hopes that in the newborn’s blue light room, no infection has occurred. Otherwise, Anran is truly worried that her daughter might have been eaten by zombie doctors and nurses.
“This is the fourth floor!” Hu Zhen, also lying on her bed, shakes her head in distress. “And I had a C-section; I can’t move at all.”
“Then you wait here, and I’ll go find help!” Anran sits up and looks at the bed sheets. “I can tie the sheets together and climb down from the window.”
With that, Anran starts to sit up and rummages through her maternity bag. She needs a sharp tool to tear the sheets in half, so they will be long enough to go from the fourth floor to the ground. However, her maternity bag doesn’t have a suitable tool. The only thing sharp enough is a baby nail clipper!
“Use this.” Hu Zhen grits her teeth, props herself up with great effort, and, sweating profusely, retrieves a fruit knife from a drawer and hands it to Anran.
The fruit knife is about the length of a hand, with a light green sheath and a green-and-white handle. It is clearly a cheap, ordinary fruit knife bought from the supermarket for a few bucks, but having such a knife now is already quite good.