Chapter 2: The Horror of Legend Descends

  "Really swollen? Haha, you're so dead!" I think it's a good thing she learned her lesson, at least she won't be doing crazy experiments on herself again. "Still pretending to be a zombie! You've eaten your fill and now you're just causing trouble, huh? Do you think I'll fall for that?"

  "I'm telling you, sis! Luo Xiaonian nervously leaned in close to me and whispered, "Just now I was washing my hands in the bathroom and splashing cold water on my belly to stop the itch. Suddenly, I heard someone fighting in one of the stalls inside. Oh man, the one getting beaten up was crying out so pitifully, like a pig being slaughtered!"

  I frowned, "Two women fighting over a squat toilet? Is there really a long line?"

  "The bathroom is empty, except for me, there's no one else. I heard that sound and suddenly thought of the zombies we chased together, it scared me to death." Luo Xiaonian said with a pat on her chest.

  I gave her a white eye, "Look at the trouble Duan sister got into! You really have a good reputation, watching a walk fire into madness, zombies aren't something you can see just because you want to, okay?"

  "Really, really," Luo Xiaonian lost all appetite, picked up the juice and drank several big mouthfuls, "that fighting sound was too strange, and there was only one girl screaming, screamed a few times without a sound, then it was a chewing meat sound, compared to our chewing steak sound, it was much louder and more brutal."

  "You're so full, it's disgusting to make such a metaphor! Besides, where's your sense of justice? Didn't you go in to pull the safety bar?" I put down my fork. "At least help call Security Auntie, or someone might really get killed."

  "I wanted to go in and take a look, but I didn't dare... When I came out, I didn't see the security guard, so I ran back first. We come to Kaidi every day, when have you ever seen the security uncle? Don't even know where he hides to sleep..." Luo Xiaonian suddenly pointed outside the restaurant and exclaimed, "Oh my god! Sister, look quickly!"

  Then I saw the scene from the beginning, all the delicious food that had just been eaten, rushed out of the esophagus...

  Of course, the shock only bound people for a short while. The northeastern guys were still powerful. That short and fat guy first shouted loudly, "Damn it! Wu Fengzi hurt someone! Everyone go up to rescue! Wife, you call 110! Hurry up!"

  His loud roar on the flat ground awakened everyone present, not just his wife. Many people, including me and Luo Xiaonian, grabbed their phones to call the police at the same time. However, strangely, the emergency line was always busy, and no one could get through.

  The men in the restaurant showed great courage, they worked together and rushed forward, angrily like catching a wicked thief, probably they believed in the definition of the short and fat man, and regarded the female sanitation worker as a madman.

  The onlookers subdued the madwoman, grabbing her arms, hair and clothes, pulling her away from the poor receptionist. Some people even went to find ropes to tie her up tightly, preventing her from wreaking havoc again.

  The men were fierce, but none of them had expected that such majesty would not intimidate the female janitor. Her arms were pinned down, and she was forced to kneel on the ground, struggling to get up, but she suddenly turned her head and tore off a large piece of flesh from the righteous hand on her shoulder. The owner of the hand was a male waiter in his early twenties at the restaurant, who let out a sharp cry of pain due to the intense agony. Before others could react, the welcoming sister, who was being lifted onto a chair by several men for rescue, suddenly burst into fury, hugged the man's head in front of her, and bit down on his nose fiercely. Blood splattered everywhere instantly, accompanied by the man's frantic cries. The sister then sucked out his eyeball, which was terrifying. Her strength was astonishingly great, and the tall man, who was more than a head taller than her, couldn't struggle out of her embrace, as if her slender and delicate hands had turned into iron pincers in an instant.

  Who would have thought that the victim who was on his last breath just now turned into a violent thug and committed such an atrocious crime? And the female nurse, who was the mastermind behind this, looked like a demon from hell as she savagely chewed on human flesh. Before she could bite others around her, the men holding her down were so frightened that they collectively let go of their grip and jumped far away, afraid of being bitten by her.

  The men were also shocked, their earlier bravery suddenly drained away. Everything in front of them was too abnormal, they realized that the female hygiene worker was not just a violent lunatic, she might be a carrier of some kind of terrifying virus, and the welcoming little sister had undoubtedly been infected, so she had also become a flesh-eating monster.

  "Damn it, they're zombies!" Shorty shouted in a changed tone, making a new judgment. I and Luo Xiaonian had actually wanted to shout this for a long time, but we couldn't bring ourselves to say it out loud.

  Because my partner and I were just guessing, Luo Xiaonian and I are fans of horror movies, especially doomsday and zombie-themed ones. After watching all the movies and TV shows we could find online, we started searching for more doomsday content and actually found a female-perspective doomsday novel written by an author from our hometown, Bin City. The story was about a doomsday without superpowers, which made it feel more down-to-earth. Although some plot points were not very convincing, at least it satisfied Luo Xiaonian's and my doomsday fantasies and gave us a better understanding of the current situation. But to be honest, no matter how many zombie movies we watched, if we hadn't experienced it ourselves, it would have been pointless. Now that we're in this situation, we're both scared out of our wits, and on top of that, we've been too embarrassed to say the word "zombie" out loud.

  "Is it really a zombie? Or is Ebola spreading in China?"

  "Ebola patients bite people? Don't you watch the news? It's just like a zombie!"

  "How can there really be zombies......"

  "It's been there all along! Afraid of causing panic, they've been covering it up and not telling the common people?"

  "Oh no, there's a zombie...!"

  "Shut up! Try to survive before the police arrive!"

  "If they're zombies, you have to blow their heads off to kill them!"

  In the restaurant, people were shouting to boost their courage and communicate, even picking up knives from the tables, some holding forks, but none of them really dared to take action. It's not that they didn't want to, it's just that there was still a bit of rationality left in them, who would dare to go over and kill someone without saying a word? Many people say that Northeasterners are like Northeast Tigers, meaning they're reckless, but actually, Northeasterners are tigers on the surface, but precise in their hearts. When it comes to big things, they're very cautious. Killing someone is a matter of losing one's head, and these days, even self-defense can lead to being charged with a crime. It's enough to make you sigh at the absurdity of the law in this country, which makes everyone collectively hesitant in the face of evil, unable to muster up any impulsiveness.

  "Grab your bag and let's get out of here, it's too dangerous!" I finally came to my senses, grabbed my own backpack and pushed Luo Xiaonian, reminding her to put on her own bag. Who knows what the situation is? Can't just assume it's the end of the world and forget about our wallets, right? What if that woman was just a martial arts fanatic or a serial killer? Having to go back to the bank to replace my card would be such a hassle.

  Everyone has left their seats and is running wildly in the restaurant. Several young waiters are fleeing desperately towards the outside of the restaurant, rushing past the female janitor and the welcoming little sister, successfully escaping into the mall. Others who think they don't have this kind of strength and courage retreat to the interior of the restaurant. Everyone wants to stay away from those two things that are biting people alive, no matter what they are. It's clear that their danger index is off the charts.

  The female hygiene worker and the welcoming little sister suddenly abandoned the already motionless restaurant manager, rushed towards us, and we couldn't help but let out a terrified scream. I and Luo Xiaonian had squeezed to the innermost part of the restaurant, and were separated from the iron plate-burning large table, while the few unlucky customers at the outer edge of the crowd were pounced upon by the two women, and another wave of mournful cries erupted. Although they held weapons in their hands, they still couldn't muster up the courage to counterattack, and could only futilely push and struggle, even when there were wild swings of dinner knives slashing against the two women's bodies, it didn't hinder their frenzy in the slightest.

  At this time, we two wanted to run but couldn't get out, people were desperately squeezing in, until they squeezed us into the back kitchen.

  Who would have thought that outside was such a mess, yet there's still someone in the back kitchen! It's a slender young man with big eyes wearing a chef uniform, he solemnly blocks our way, "Sacred territory of the back kitchen, please do not trespass!"

  "Little brother, it's chaotic outside, let's come in and hide. Please don't block our way." I said to him sincerely, while feeling a bit strange - this young man has great composure, the outside is in chaos, yet he remains here calmly.

  "It's that serious? Then you two don't touch anything randomly, I'm keeping an eye on you." The young man was like a sacred kitchen guardian, warning very seriously, but he finally agreed not to drive us out.

  Before he went out, the back kitchen was squeezed in by a group of people, who were just eating teppanyaki with us at a table. The little chef watched as the back kitchen was packed to capacity, and by this time the wailing outside had become incessant.

  Taking advantage of the moment when no one was paying attention, I quietly took a multi-purpose stainless steel knife that was placed on the large cutting board. This knife is much larger than the one at home, wider, longer and sharper. I often hold the multi-purpose knife at home to practice slashing, imagining how to use it to kill zombies and how to exert force. With the knife in hand, my heart felt much more at ease, while the small dinner knife was discarded by me.

  I wrapped the multi-tool in a cloth and stuffed it into my backpack, reassuring myself that this wasn't theft, if danger passed I would definitely return it to its owner, and if the world fell apart, at least I'd have something to cling to.

  Lu Xiaonian also picked up a similar thin-bladed knife, not sure if it was for slicing raw fish or cutting beef. The people around us seemed to be reminded by the two of us, and soon they all grabbed the various knives in the back kitchen.

  The wailing outside has spread, not just the Blue Ocean restaurant, but it seems that the mall is also in chaos. My heart is sinking more and more. Perhaps some people think that those who like to watch doomsday movies enjoy doomsday, but that's not true. I'm most afraid of the arrival of doomsday. I love my current life and absolutely don't want to be in a situation where I can't even sleep soundly on doomsday, let alone see monsters from movies appear in reality!