Chapter 74: Can It Be Saved?
Chapter 74: Can It Be Saved?
She hurriedly runs up the escalator, the screams still echoing in her ears. Following the sound, An Ran turns at the top and sees Chen Jiao. Chen Jiao is holding a bottle of hand sanitizer and throwing it toward a baby crawling on the ground, all while screaming.
An Ran's heart races as she watches the baby slowly inch forward. A dull pain wells up inside her. Looking up, she sees Chen Jiao huddled against the wall.
An Ran shouts angrily, “Stop screaming! The zombies on the third floor are coming up!”
Chen Jiao's piercing screams nearly give An Ran a heart attack. If she doesn’t quiet down, An Ran decides she might have to knock her unconscious.
“What happened?” Hu Zhen bursts in, rushing to Chen Jiao's side. She freezes upon seeing the baby zombie on the ground, letting out a scream of her own. “Where did it come from?”
“It must have crawled out of the belly of the pregnant zombie,” An Ran replies, tilting her head to frown at the deceased zombie at her feet. She had thought the pregnant zombie would die after she killed it, but it turns out there is still a living zombie inside. The baby zombie has no idea how to escape its mother’s belly. Now, lying among the corpses, the mother zombie’s belly is torn open like a balloon, her intestines and internal organs devoured by the baby zombie while it is still inside. The remaining skin hangs limply from the ribs, a disturbing sight.
This baby zombie crawling on the ground is different from the immobile ones An Ran encountered on the fifth floor. Although it moves slowly, it can crawl.
Zombies are indeed evolving, but what causes this evolution? Is it due to eating? Or is it the virus? It remains a mystery.
“Kill it.”
An Ran raises her knife, biting her lip as she approaches the little zombie on the ground. She tilts her head, glancing at Hu Zhen and Chen Jiao. Chen Jiao looks frightened, cowering behind Hu Zhen, while Hu Zhen turns her head away, tears streaming down her face, unable to bear looking.
“Is it... can it be saved?” Hu Zhen asks, her voice thick with emotion.
Could she bear to do it? They are all mothers. The child she and An Ran care for is the same size as the little zombie on the ground.
This baby zombie is no different from an ordinary baby, save for the veins on its forehead and the fangs in its mouth. It can crawl and is obviously stronger than other babies of the same age. If they don’t kill it now, it could pose a threat in the future.
An Ran shakes her head. “I don’t know. Maybe someone will have answers, but we need to survive first to ask them.”
They will have to seek out the smartest minds left in the world—the scientists conducting various research and experiments—to understand why the world has turned so cruel. Why do normal people become zombies, and why do zombies have to feast on humans?
Why must either they die, or we die?
With these questions weighing heavily on her mind, An Ran swings her knife and severs the head of the little zombie. She then stands up and turns to face the zombies that are climbing up the escalator behind her.