Dark Civilization Volume 1 Chapter 2

Book 1 Chapter 2: The Apocalypse Cometh!

Chicken eggs are a rich source of protein as well as being a versatile food ingredient. In the later stages of the apocalypse, eggs have long ceased to exist.

Other than these, Ye Chen also bought large quant.i.ties of foods that were both nutrient rich as well having a long shelf life. As for meats and vegetables; he didn't bother with those at all. Fresh vegetables were excellent, however they expired too quickly. Meat products on the other hand would be instantly contaminated during the apocalypse causing rapid decay. It was pointless stock up on those.

Due to Ye Chen's ma.s.sive food purchase, the supermarket attendants had to arrange for all the goods to be delivered to the hotel where Ye Chen was staying. After thinking it over, Ye Chen decided to request another room directly beside their original room for storing all their food.

When Ye Zhu saw the mountain of food, she was nothing short of astonished. Her delicate mouth formed the shape of an 'O', even then, she fought back the urge to question Ye Chen.

With the food problem dealt with, Ye Chen glanced at the time; it was already 3:00 in the afternoon. He left the hotel and headed towards a hardware store in order to purchase five watermelon knives. He originally thought to buy a pair; however he considered the fact that they might be damaged while fending off the zombies, so he decided to buy some extras as a precaution.

Lastly, Ye Chen calculated his remaining funds. He had roughly eight thousand left, he took out a thousand and spent it on bottled mineral water, it would be his contingency when mutant rats started to damage the underground water pipelines. As for the remaining seven thousand, he dumped it all into purchasing gasoline.

Gasoline was quite the volatile substance which would explode when ignited; he could fill an empty can or water bottle with the stuff in order to serve as a makeshift explosive. This would serve as a suitable weapon in case he came across a powerful mutated beast.

When he was finally done, it was already 5:00 in the afternoon. Ye Chen took the watermelon knives and returned to the hotel. There, he wearily glanced at Ye Zhu for a moment, without a word he shut the door, dropped the knives in a corner and collapsed on the bed.

"Let me sleep first, later no matter who knocks on the door, do not open it, remember! Wake me up when its 7:00." Ye Chen sleepily told Ye Zhu before falling into slumber.

He was simply too tired….

Right now was before he strengthened his body. After running all over the place for the entire day, he had long since exhausted himself. Therefore he almost instantly fell asleep when he dropped on the bed.

Ye Zhu mildly knitted her slender brows. She sat on the sofa in utter silence, Ye Chen's slew of incomprehensible actions simply left her flabbergasted.

Thud thud!

From beyond the door came the sound of footsteps.

Ye Zhu glanced at her watch; it was already 7:02. She had prepared to awaken Ye Chen, however she hesitated when she saw how peacefully he slept. She simply couldn't bear to disturb his slumber. When she heard the footsteps, her brows mildly furrowed as she got up to approach the door.

The footsteps outside seem to react towards the noise. Whatever it was, it had already decided to move on, however, it instantly spun around and vigorously hammered the door with loud bangs.

"This hotel's attendant is simply too full of vigor!" Ye Zhu thought. She twisted the doork.n.o.b to open the door.

"Rrrargh!!"

The door had just opened before a horribly savage growl akin to a wild beast entered Ye Zhu's ears. Immediately after, she was greeted by the sight of a man dressed in a black tuxedo pouncing towards her. The man's face was covered with pustules oozing rancid yellow pus, his pupils were milky green and his teeth were protruding. He looked every bit like a jiangshi! His fingernails were pitch black and three inches long, sharp as knives.

"Aaah!" Ye Zhu had never encountered such a terrifying person, she was instantly sent into a frantic state of terror. She subconsciously held out her hands to protect herself while closing her eyes tightly in a shriek.

Sphhhlt!

Blood splattered to the side followed by a body hitting the floor with a thud.

"Don't be afraid!" a gentle voice like calming nature entered her ears. Ye Zhu opened her eyes in astonishment, she saw Ye Chen whom she didn't even know when had awakened, carrying a watermelon knife, its blade glistened with blackish blood, and the frightening man from before had his head split wide open and was laying on the ground not moving an inch.

"Bi-big brother…. y-you killed someone!" Ye Zhu stuttered in panic.

Ye Chen gave a smile while patting her shoulder, saying: "You go back into the room first; I'll explain things to you in a bit."

Ye Zhu glanced at him, after giving it a thought; she eventually turned and entered the room.

Once she left, Ye Chen withdrew his smile. He bent down and heaved the corpse away from the doorway. Fortunately there was only one zombie in the corridor, had there been more, it would have been a disaster.

Ye Chen had a glint of coldness in his eyes as he hacked at the corpse's chest a few times before parting the skin to reveal its innards. While committing such gory actions, he maintained a calm and collected demeanor, as though he had long since become accustomed to such sights.

"There's no mutagenic flesh!" Ye Chen furrowed his brows while shaking his head. "Makes senses, on average, only one in ten zombies contain mutagenic flesh, there is no way it could be this easy."

With that, he got up and entered the room while closing the door behind him, as though it was all just a trifle.

As for disposing of the zombie corpse?

Completely unnecessary.

Thing is, with zombies being so bloodthirsty, why won't they attack each other? That's because once they become zombies, their blood will start lacking a certain substance which turns the colour from a once bright red to an inky black, and zombies will only go for blood that's bright red.

Therefore, this zombie corpse would not attract any other zombies over.                               

Of course, in the later stages, even zombies will start to develop a certain level of cognitive thinking. For example, it would discover a corpse of one of their own, therefore come to the conclusion that there was another living creature in the vicinity, attracting it over. The early stage zombies without such intelligence could be called "naive" in that sense.

In the room, Ye Zhu was quivering on the sofa, completely lost in a daze, her thoughts incomprehensible.

Ye Chen placed the knife into a cabinet on the side before walking over to pat his little sister's shoulder, he smilingly asked: "What's on your mind?"

Ye Zhu gazed at her brother before releasing a sigh, saying: "Brother, I believe that no matter what you do, there is a reason behind it. I only beg of you to not attempt anything foolish!"

Ye Chen couldn't help but broke into laughter.

Confused, Ye Zhu stared at him while asking: "What are you laughing about?"

Ye Chen tapped on her beautiful nose, saying: "I'm aware that you must have a belly full of doubts, now that it has really happened, I should tell you about it."

Ye Zhu expression was coloured with apprehension.

Ye Chen withdrew his smile. After a moment of thought, he mentally compiled the important points before turning to stare straight at Ye Zhu. With a solemn tone, he spoke: "The person I killed just now was not human, he was a zombie!"

"Zombie?" Ye Zhu was clearly astonished.

Ye Chen nodded before saying: "You may find this hard to believe, but starting from 7:00, the world as we know it has been plunged into an apocalypse. A catastrophic virus has been unleashed from North America and has since swept the entire earth, from 7:00 onwards, over 70% of the human race has been transformed into zombies. As for the animals, they have evolved into horrifying bloodthirsty monstrosities!"

Ye Zhu's eyes widened, although she has never doubted her brother's words, what he just said was simply too shocking to believe.

The end of the world?

It should be noted that, ever since the year 2010, there had been numerous debates over the apocalypse approaching in the year 2012. At the time, there were even various large scale natural disasters and earthquakes happening all over the world, seemingly indicating the world's end. In the region of j.a.pan, there was also an incident where nuclear waste leakage resulted in countless creatures in the ocean experiencing slight mutations.

However, it is a fact that the world did not end during the year 2012, all speculations and indications leading up to it were instantly revoked. Yet at this very moment, Ye Chen was suddenly suggesting that the world outside was currently swarming with monsters, wasn't this a bit of a stretch?

Ye Chen seems to have antic.i.p.ated her thoughts, he did not press further. He knew that convincing someone of the harsh reality of things immediately was truly an almost impossible task, therefore having decided to keep things simple for now, he said: "In any case, no matter what, do not open the door no matter who comes knocking!"

Ye Zhu was clearly still a little out of sorts, she responded with only a few nods of her head.

Ye Chen sunk into the sofa nearby, contemplating his next course of action as well as giving his sister some time to herself.

"Big brother…." Ye Zhu suddenly called.

Ye Chen was jolted into turning around, the girl seems to have calmed down considerably and was staring straight at him. Speaking with conviction, she declared: "I believe you!"

Ye Chen's heart quivered, he felt his blood suddenly surge all over his body. After staring blankly for a moment, he mischievously asked: "You actually believed what I said?"

Ye Zhu earnestly nodded her head, saying: "Brother, ever since we were little till now, you have never lied to me."

Ye Chen could only smile bitterly.

Ye Zhu flitted her eyes playfully, giving others the sense that she had none of the concerns or fears a.s.sociated with a world ending apocalypse. The girl acted like a mischievous child, raising her hand while saying: "Big brother, I have a question!"

Ye Chen rubbed his nose while saying: "Name it."

Ye Zhu blinked her eyes with inquisitive fervor asking: "How did big brother know about the apocalypse?"

Ye Chen was momentarily at a loss for words, he gave a dry cough before breaking into a righteous fit of pa.s.sionate zeal saying: "This, obviously was a natural case of receiving a prophetic dream from the heavens. Its definitely a blessing from a higher power, surely you are already aware that I, your big brother am an incarnation of luck descended upon this very earth. Ah! Don't start yawning now, at least listen to me till I'm finished? Eh, are you asleep?"

 Ye Zhu waited for him to finish before opening her eyes, she pouted her lips before saying: "Alright, another question."

Ye Chen rubbed his nose once again saying: "Ask away."

Ye Zhu considered carefully before asking: "Brother, why did you decide to bring us here, if you were looking for a st.u.r.dy base, there are surely more secure locations, like somewhere in a rural area perhaps? The zombies there would naturally be quite limited."

Ye Chen no longer danced around the subject, but seriously replied saying: "I picked this location for two reasons. The first reason being that hotels were both convenient and hygienic, you should know that the virus not only turns humans into zombies, animals as well as insects, will evolve into monstrosities, far more fearsome than zombies! What's more, the place with the least mosquitoes and bugs was undoubtedly a five-star hotel."

Ye Zhu instantly understood, she replied saying: "Following that line of reasoning, doesn't that mean that rural areas were far more dangerous that the city?"

Ye Chen nodded in agreement; the average person would flee the city the instant they saw the hordes of zombies thinking that it was safer out in the wilds. However, if infected humans were mutated into zombies, would infected animals maintain their forms unaffected? Naturally they too would mutate into unspeakable monsters!

And animals were obviously more concentrated in rural areas.

"What's the second reason?"

"The second reason being that this hotel has st.u.r.dy doors and walls, able to hold up against your average zombie without a problem." Ye Chen chuckled. Anyone who's been to this hotel will know that the doors, although seemingly made of wood, had a layer of steel within making them feel quite weighty when opening and closing the doors. Even against a pack of ten zombies, it would take a considerable amount of time for them to break through.

Ye Zhu then glanced at him with suspicion before asking: "Then why haven't we become zombies?"

Ye Chen's eyebrow twitched, before immediately saying: "Have you forgotten, we have always been self-reliant ever since we were young, making our bodies strong. What's more, we've just had our vaccination done last year, naturally we'd never turn into zombies."

"Is that truly so?" Ye Zhu eyed him suspiciously.

Ye Chen was inwardly ashamed, he knew not the specifics. However, having experienced the apocalypse once before without turning, he was certain that in this second life, he would remain unchanged. As for his little sister Ye Zhu, she died during the apocalypse at the hands of a zombie, which meant that she too was originally unaffected.

Translator's Notes:

Jiangshi is a Chinese vampire, a reanimated corpse from Chinese legends and folklore, its rigid body probably due to rigor mortis causes it to "hop" after its prey with both hands outstretched.