Zombie Brother - Chapter 5
The ability of the monster was considered by those net-citizens as the skill of seventy-two metamorphoses of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King. And the monsters were nicknamed Zombie Brother which bore phonetic similarity to “Dashixiong” or “Senior Fellow Disciple”.
At the sight of Zombie Brother, Bai Xiaofei almost threw the mouth onto the screen, yelling, “Zombie Brother, brother my ass.”
It was unknown how many people had drank the polluted water in H City and became such monsters. Their families, friends and colleagues fell first victim to them. As they killed, swallowed and grew, their mutations got even more complex and powerful, which would be followed by an increase of the dead.
At this moment, H City had become a living hell against the black night.
But to a majority of net-citizens, it was nothing but a farce without any vital interests. They should bother to give a nickname to the monster- Zombie Brother- Brother my ass.
It was a deep-rooted bad habit in Chinese. Splendid as the five-thousand-year civilization was, the history had deposited within itself the stains. Those on-lookers of the Internet were never standing in others’ shoes but overlook their anguish and even considered it a scene to watch and laugh about. All sorts of hideousness were amplified on the Internet.
No wonder Lu Xun said it that it was not the body but the mind of Chinese that should be cured promptly.
Bai Xiaofei held down his rage and continued his search of information online. There were some pieces of news that gave him reliefs. The pollution was seen only in H City across the whole country. And it was not a nationwide or worldwide outbreak.
The government had sent the best special forces and chemical prevention forces to dispose the reservoir, the source of pollution. Except the polluted tap water plant in H City, the other two tap water plants were in a safe supply of water. Ever since the supply of reservoir got cut off, the source of pollution was curbed, without there being new infected persons.
The top-tier biochemical experts were pressing ahead with the research and development of vaccines. Zombie Brother would not create a chain infection like biochemical zombies after they got a bite of humans. In another world, as long as the Brother Zombie in H City was wiped out, the peace would be restored.
Bai Xiaofei was now staring at an announcement released by the government where it understated that only a few hundreds of infected people were found in H City. Armies and medical personnel had been dispatched by relevant authorities. It could be expected the situation would soon remain under control and recovery. And it was desired that the public should not make rumors or circulate rumor, if not aware of the facts. Otherwise 500 forwards would constitute a detention.
There was a news link below that concerned with a stupid guy forwarding a photo of Zombie Brother and receiving detention as his penalties. The clear the doubt, the photo had been processed with Photoshop.
Bai Xiaofei snicked within himself, “A few hundreds of infected people? Believe it or not, I don’t buy it anyway.”
Just look at the apartment building, there had been numerous infected people. The apartment building seemed small in terms of its scale. But deep inside, a room could accommodate several poor commuters. They did not have extra money to buy mineral water or barreled water. Tap water had been indispensable to drinking, cooking and showering. Once infected, the people would have brought disasters to this apartment building.
Typically, official statistics regarding the tremendously devastating accident had been cut down. It would be closer to the actual situation to multiply the official figures tenfold or hundredfold.
There suddenly came the sound of the firecrackers from outside the window.
Bai Xiaofei was surprised that somebody should set off the firecrackers at a midnight. However, it dawned on him that it was not a sound of firecrackers but guns.
After all, there was something true in the official announcement. To purge the Zombie Brother, the armies had been deployed.
Things got even more complicated.
In the architecture of Chinese governments, there were many forces to crack down riots. The city inspectors were one group of them that could take down anyone and even stop the kids from crying with their terrifying impressions. Police was also a powerful team. Topping it all was the People’s Armed Police. If armies were to be mobilized, those militia forces would be at disposal. An army was there only when the foregoing forces were disabled.
So now, even the governmental authorities would come to admission that Zombie Brother was too forceful that regular weapons would not eliminate them. And an army would be essential.
How would the news be released that an army was mobilized in the metropolitan H City with a population of tens of millions people, had the Zombie Brother not caused the deplorable sacrifices and losses and imposed overwhelming pressure on the senior officers in the government?
It was only too powerful, fierce and destructive of Zombie Brother.
Bai Xiaofei could not help putting on a bitter smile. So it was such a powerful monster that he was gonna fight against and save Wei from?
Fortunately, he recalled that he did not take a sip of tap water for a whole day. He was not infected.
It turned out that Bai Xiaofei worked overtime in his unit in daytime when the mean boss threw him some loafs of bread that approached their time limit of quality assurance and several bottles of water that were covered by dust in some corners. For a day straight, he did not drink the tap water.
He did boil a kettle of water when he got home, only to be scared off by the screams coming from next door. It was totally a matter of luck. It had to be pointed out that the first zombie he killed was his life savior, otherwise he would have drank the bottle of hot water and mutated.
Bai Xiaofei’s mind was an absolute mess now. He raised his hand and patted on the cheek so as to get himself together. No matter what was ahead of him, he should find Wei and save her.
Still, there was one thing to do before coming to Wei’s rescue.
Bai Xiaofei dialed a number with his phone.
“Hello?”There came a voice of an old fellow. It was sleepy and faint, as if the man was just woken up from his dreams.
“Dad, it’s me, Xiaofei.”
“Xiaofei? Why’s it that you call me now? Is everything okay? Were you engaged in a fight or caught up in the anti-pornography campaign? You…you little bastard. I’ll bail you out from the detention house first.”
“Dad. You are being ridiculous.”Bai Xiaofei was flustered and moved. A son woke up his senior parents at a midnight from a distant city, only leading to misunderstanding of the them. Still, the anxious tone was a fine display of thick family love.
“Dad, I’m fine. I really am. I am more than good,” continued Bai Xiaofei, “there was something wrong with H City. An epidemic or something. But rest be assured that I wasn’t infected. I’m alive and kicking. I’m safe above all. The government has sent troops and doctors to protect us. I will soon be transferred to somewhere safe. And there might be poor communication signals in the coming days. So I might not be able to say hi to you and my dear mom.”
“What did you say? Darling, go turn on the TV for news. What’s the trouble with H City?” There then came the news announcement from the telephone receiver. And the announcer was reading the official announcement in a serious and rhythmic manner.