Chapter 27: Just Like Killing a Chicken
Chapter 27: Just Like Killing a Chicken
This is already the third zombie Anran has killed. She is getting more skilled at it, starting to get a feel for it. Zombie heads, when stabbed, seem just as fragile as watermelons. These zombies used to be humans, but are human skulls really as delicate as a watermelon?
She has never killed a person before, so she has no point of comparison.
Once this zombie’s limp body slumps down, Anran loosens the door slightly, letting the zombie slide through the crack and fall to the ground. Its brain matter spills out as it hits the floor.
But at this moment, Anran has no time to think about it. Killing zombies inevitably causes some noise, and now a second zombie is already approaching. It trips over the first zombie’s body. Anran quickly grabs the second zombie’s hair with one hand, lifts its head, and in one swift motion, slashes its throat.
But that doesn’t do any good. Thick, strawberry jam-like blood oozes from the zombie’s throat, but it isn’t dead. Acting fast, Anran delivers another strike, driving the tip of the knife into the throat, deeper this time, and easily severing the zombie’s head.
Perfect! She mentally scores her own move—it is just like killing a chicken.
But this does not make Anran feel happy. In that moment, all Anran feels is an overwhelming sadness that makes her want to cry.
Because these zombies still look so much like people. Aside from the fact that they have fangs and bulging veins on their foreheads, killing zombies feels eerily similar to killing humans.
Anran has never killed anything before, not even a chicken. Whenever she craved chicken, she would go to the market to buy one, and she would watch as the butcher lifted the chicken’s head, stretched its neck upward, and with a single slash, slit its throat to drain the blood.
She shudders. She doesn’t know what kind of person she will become if she continues to kill like this—a murderer or a psychopath? She doesn’t know if these zombies can ever be saved or if she is committing murder today. All these thoughts make Anran feel like her life, even if not completely destroyed, is now pretty much in pieces.
It isn’t just her life that is breaking—it is her beliefs, her entire sense of self, all gradually fading with each zombie that falls.
Anran’s face shows a kind of desperate determination. She watches as a third zombie approaches, also stumbling over the second zombie’s body. Before it can even get up, she strikes it down too.
A diamond falls from the brain of the third zombie, landing on the ground. It gleams brightly under the hallway lights.
Anran picks it up. Then she digs through the brain matter of the first and second zombies and finds diamonds in their heads too. It seems that each zombie has one of these pomegranate seed-sized diamonds inside its brain. But what are they for?
She doesn’t know. They look beautiful though—maybe they really are diamonds. If so, does that mean she’s struck it rich? For now, she stuffs them all into her pocket and decides to figure it out later.
With the nearby zombies dealt with, Anran hears the slow shuffle of other zombies coming toward her from farther away. She stays perfectly still for ten seconds, and the zombies lose track of her, dispersing and wandering in different directions.
She climbs over the pile of zombie bodies and enters the neonatal department, quietly making her way toward the blue light therapy room. The door to the room is heavy. A door like this probably requires a keycard, fingerprint, or some kind of password. Without one, there is no way anyone from outside can open it.