Chapter Sixty-Two: Clues of the Monster

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Liu Hao awoke from his sleep in a daze. When he opened his eyes, he found himself enveloped in utter darkness, unable to see anything at all.

He had no idea where he had ended up. The last thing he remembered was being chased down the street by a horde of living corpses. As a doctor, he was long accustomed to dealing with cadavers, but imagining the anatomy professors, once soaked in formalin, all rising from their tanks together—no doctor, however seasoned, could withstand such a blow to the mind.

"You're awake?"

Just as Liu Hao struggled desperately to piece together what had happened, a sudden voice broke the silence. Immediately after, a faint beam of light flickered on beside him, illuminating a face so ghostly pale that it chilled him to the bone.

"G-ghost... a ghost!" Liu Hao's face contorted in terror. He wanted to cry out, but his throat felt blocked, rendering him mute. In the end, the terror before him overwhelmed his senses, and he let out a piercing, blood-curdling shriek that shattered the stillness of the night. His spine froze, his eyes rolled back, and he collapsed stiffly onto the bed.

Fan Li, holding the flashlight, stood rooted in place, momentarily at a loss for words. Thanks to his night vision, he hadn't needed to light a candle or lamp in the room. He only turned on the flashlight when he saw the other man wake up. Who could have guessed that a simple question would send the man into a fit and cause him to faint again, foaming at the mouth?

Fan Li felt helpless. He couldn't fathom how someone even more timid than Yang Shuo had managed to survive these past twenty-odd days.

"Roar!"

The man's scream resonated with the family of three outside the house. Perhaps they had been hungry for some time—the pangs in their bellies spurred them into a frenzy, and their cries, like feral cats in mating season, filled the night with raucous noise.

An hour later, Liu Hao slowly regained consciousness. As if recalling something dreadful, he began to tremble when he spotted the faint glimmer of light in the distance.

"You're... awake?" Fan Li spoke, though recalling the previous incident, he instinctively softened his tone.

"A gho... wait, you're a person?" Liu Hao shuddered, his face pale and anxious. Yet, having been frightened twice already, it seemed his nerves had toughened a little. Noticing the indistinct silhouette by the light, he finally realized that the figure was not a ghost, but a living human being.

"There are no ghosts in this world. But there are quite a few living dead outside," Fan Li replied, lounging lazily in a chair, now that he was fed and rested.

Relieved that he had not been bitten by zombies, Liu Hao nonetheless spoke stubbornly, "I... I'm not lying. I've really seen a ghost—not like the zombies outside, but a real ghost!"

Liu Hao seemed to recall something dreadful. Curling up under the covers, he pulled the blanket tightly to his chest and began to shiver.

"A ghost?"

"It's a real ghost!"

"What did it look like?"

"It was covered all over with arms, legs, and human organs!"

"This morning—yes, this morning—she appeared again. We were hiding on the third floor, but that monster suddenly smashed through the door. Professor Li died. Ma Xiaolin died. Wang Dong died as well—they were all swallowed whole. She was three meters tall—no, even taller."

As Liu Hao spoke, he grew more agitated, his hysteria mounting. Clearly, the moment he saw this so-called "ghost," his mind had been stretched to the breaking point. No wonder he had fainted twice in a row.

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Trembling with fear and terror, Liu Hao clutched the blanket even tighter. After some time, a muffled sob escaped him.

Fan Li pressed a hand to his forehead in exasperation.

Though he understood the pressure Liu Hao had endured, he couldn't help but notice that the blanket the man was using to wipe his tears was the very one Fan Li had planned to use for himself that night.

"You said it was covered in arms and legs. What did it actually look like?" Fan Li took a sip of water from the table and pressed for details.

"Can you imagine it? A ghost shaped like a human, but with human legs dangling from its arms. It was like a giant magnet, drawing all sorts of severed limbs to itself to form a monstrous body," Liu Hao whispered, nervous and tense.

It was clear that this was his deepest nightmare. The mere memory of the creature's appearance made his skin crawl.

"She looked like a woman on the outside, but her mouth wasn't just a mouth—there were clusters of mouths all around her lips. She opened up and swallowed Professor Liu in one gulp, and then... and then..."

Liu Hao's voice grew hurried. With his night vision, Fan Li saw the other's pupils constrict.

"And then her belly started speaking in Professor Liu's voice. He said... 'Little Liu, it's so warm in here... She told me to come in too...' I didn't know what to do, so I squeezed out through a gap in the ghost's body. There were zombies everywhere. I just ran and ran... until I ended up here."

"Alright, I understand," Fan Li interrupted, nodding.

Though the man’s story was confused by his anxiety, Fan Li could nonetheless piece together one thing: the "ghost" Liu Hao had described was a fully evolved monster.

A creature over three meters tall, formed from countless organs, could not be a mere Weeper in its advanced state. This was a true monster.

"Where did you see it?" Fan Li's voice turned cold, so cold that the air itself seemed to chill.

"Zhongshan Hospital," answered Liu Hao, not understanding why the other man was asking, but unable to stop the name from tumbling out, a name that filled him with terror.

"Get some rest. Tomorrow, I'll be leaving. There’s still plenty of food in this house, but remember—don't open the room filled with junk outside. I've locked three zombies in there," Fan Li said. He had his own path to follow; he could not stay behind to care for a stranger. There was enough food here to last about ten days—after that, what became of Liu Hao was no longer his concern.

As for himself, his goal was to return to the camp as soon as possible, gather his people, take up his katana, and hunt down the monster haunting the hospital. All for the sake of justice.

"Thank you, thank you so much for saving me—wait, what did you say? Zomb... zombies?" Liu Hao had prepared to express his gratitude, but as he listened on, he realized something was amiss. This man had locked zombies in the courtyard—three of them, no less!

Zombies weren't guard dogs—who would keep them in their yard for fun these days?

For Liu Hao, this man was a beacon of hope in his darkest hour, a lost lamb finding a glimmer of dawn in the night.

But now, as that sliver of light threatened to move away, Liu Hao felt a hollow emptiness inside. His voice trembled, his tear-reddened eyes fixed on that faint glow, "You don't want me anymore?"

Fan Li: "..."

If this man were to turn into a zombie for any reason, Fan Li would not hesitate to cleave him in two, straight down from skull to tailbone.

"Sorry, but in this apocalypse, survival is hard for everyone. As harsh as it sounds, you are nothing but a burden to me," Fan Li said with indifference.

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Dominant and unyielding!

Fan Li was well aware that he inhabited a world of genuine horror. Someone who fainted at the slightest scare could hardly be trusted even to open or close a door, let alone more vital work. He would not turn into an outlaw, running amok in this lawless land, but neither would he risk his own safety for the sake of compassion.

To help was a favor; to refuse was his right.

Rejecting the man, Fan Li felt not a shred of guilt.

"Please... don't do this..." Liu Hao, who had experienced utter helplessness and despair, could not bear to let go of this last ray of hope.

"I'm not a burden! I graduated from a top university, got a full scholarship every year, earned my driver's license last year, studied sketching for four years, played basketball... I... I can even rap—here, I'll rap for you right now!"

Liu Hao seemed desperate to prove his worth, but what use were these skills? Fan Li shook his head, ready to ignore him, when Liu Hao added, "I'm also a doctor—a real one, an orthopedic surgeon. After my internship in Yuan City, I came back here and joined Zhongshan Hospital as an orthopedic surgeon."

"A doctor?" Fan Li recalled the nightmare he had faced while searching for medicine. In this chaotic world, injuries were inevitable, but with society in ruins and countless lives lost to zombies, seeing a doctor had become a luxury beyond reach.

Fan Li stood up from his chair and walked over to Liu Hao. Only now did Liu Hao get a good look at him—he was younger than expected, not thin, of average build, and actually rather handsome, though not as handsome as himself.

"An orthopedic surgeon?" Fan Li asked again.

"That's right!" Liu Hao nodded emphatically. "I've been practicing for a year already. Everyone calls me Doctor Liu—a full employee, not one of those fake ones!"

Fan Li bent down. To Liu Hao's bewilderment, the man's broad hand clamped down on his thigh.

Liu Hao: "?"

Crack!

A sharp sound rang out. Liu Hao and Fan Li stared at each other, both momentarily speechless.

"Was I too gentle?" Fan Li muttered to himself. He pressed Liu Hao's thigh again, this time twisting with full force.

Crack!

Another crisp snap. At last, Liu Hao understood what had happened—the man had just broken his left leg!

Agonizing pain shot from his thigh straight to the core of his brain. All the curses Liu Hao wanted to utter condensed into a single, primal scream.

"Ah!"

The shrill, ear-piercing cry rang out, and in response, the three zombies outside began howling again. Tonight was destined to be a sleepless one.