Chapter 24: The world, in silence

*Warning: Gory scenes in this chapter. *

19 June, after 18:00

While speeding on the motorcycle, Xiao Mo kept worrying for his family as well as the gloomy and murky sky. So much that he failed to notice the change in the colour of the rainwater.

Only the kid behind him kept track of it behind his helmet visor. He pursed his lips and looked dead serious.

The motorcycle zoomed past in the rain, and after a few moments, both adult and child were soaked thoroughly, except for the portion where their bodies stuck together.

When they passed by Zhou Gang Station, they saw an ambulance that had flipped over.

Zhou Gang Village was one of the few places with a lot of survivors after the second virus outbreak. There were a few people walking along the road side, talking to each other. When some of them saw the both of them, they waved to him, looking as if they wanted to ask him for information.

Xiao Mo did not stop. He did not even bother to slow down a little to entertain them. He coolly zoomed pass Zhong Gang Station and broke through the quarantine zone.

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18:45

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If motorcycles and bikes did not exist, people could only walk between roads that were jam-packed with cars and other obstacles.

The people that collapsed on the road that were either dead or unconscious, made it even more arduous to maneuver around. They not only caused physical obstruction, but also added phycological barriers and trauma to them.

Just who exactly was able to walk stress-free in such a situation that looked just like a slaughterhouse’s cemetery, despite knowing that at least 80% of these people were still alive, and only unconscious.

But the other 20% of the people were dead… Xiao Mo did not dare to look at the people that were unconscious but alive under the wheel.

“I am an accomplice.” This sentence kept circling round his mind. If only he had taken the system’s words seriously… But it was all too late, unless he could start all over again.

The man was entirely engulfed in the sea of guilt; thoroughly hating himself.

If a single person knew that he had gotten an opportunity to save the world from such a disaster, but instead let this chance slip off his hands without even knowing it, what would he do to not collapse?

Black blood was flowing all over the floor. People were not only dead due to uncontrolled vehicles. They had lost consciousness too suddenly, so the things that always seemed harmless had all suddenly turned uncontrollable and transformed into a weapon of murder.

Like a bone penetrating your throat, a rice ball stuck in your airway, a bathtub full of water that could drown you, or a hair straightener that could easily scald you.

At the side of the road, there was a shop that had apparently exploded. The glass doors and windows were all shattered and even flew all the way across the road to the other side.

There were a few cars that had crashed straight into the automatic gate of San Li Secondary School, and the metal gate had bended and curved inwards upon impact.

There was a truck whose hood had been entirely buried into a café by the roadside.

As they continued travelling, outside of a one of the buildings they passed by, there were several construction workers. They were either laying or hanging limply around the bamboo scaffolding. Some were even suspended upside down outside of the scaffolding.

And this was only on the surface; what about the underground situation?

Even though there were auto-driving systems in place as preventive measures, but who could fully guarantee that the subway system was able to do an emergency stop itself?

Looking at the situation, Xiao Mo’s heart became even more restless and anxious.

Faster, I must be faster!

In spite of his wishes, there were a lot of blockage and obstruction on the road. Together with the heavy and dense rain blocking his sight, even if he desperately wished to go faster, he was unable to do so.

Just right in front, there was a tank truck that had flipped over, and around it, there were massive fires and explosions breaking out. Burned body and metallic parts were scattered around the road, cutting off the road entirely.

Xiao Mo jammed the brakes down hard and avoided this road and swiftly turned into another single lane. He thought, if he used this lane to drive to his brother’s house, he would have to go against the traffic laws. But who cared about the laws at times like these?

Xiao Mo was both hateful and thankful of the rain at the moment. If not for the rain, the city would have long been burned to the ground.

Even though the rain had not been able to entirely extinguish the fire, it was at least able to stop the fire from spreading.

After reaching the end of the single lane, there was a city hospital. A plastic sheet covered on the laboratory and hospital bed buildings. The heavy rain fell onto the plastic sheets, creating a loud cacophony, as if several people were on the drums.

Inside the hospital, there were still lights on, and one could clearly see that there were living people inside it.

Xiao Mo noticed the plastic coverings and got distracted with the black water marks flowing down from them. The motorcycle passed the city hospital quickly and he didn’t look back.

“There is a person!” Standing near the window observing the situation outside, Wang Cheng shouted excitedly.

Qian Wen Kai was observing the patient when he heard Wang Cheng shout. The both of them hurriedly ran out of the hospital building, but Xiao Mo had already long turned around and headed to another road.

The both of them were disappointed. Turning to look at each other, the both of them were soaked with rainwater, before heading back to the hospital.

In the hospital building, there were some survivors that were foraging for food. They had all gathered around. Wang Cheng and the first batch of policemen that had survived the infection was trying his hardest to stop the people from running out of the hospital.

However, a patient ignored Wang Cheng and the policemen’s threats and ran out of the building. Seeing him successfully escaping out of the building, the rest of the survivors also gathered their courage and ran out of the hospital one after the other.

Wang Cheng and the policemen were unable to control them. They also did not want to exert force and hurt them, so they had no choice but to let them leave the hospital.

Soon, there were lesser patients in the hospital hall.

“Yun Kai?”

Qian Yun Kai looked outside and pushed his spectacles up. He no longer needed any prescription. Back then, he would wear them only during autopsies, but now… Despite not having near-sightedness, he instead wore them, only changing his prescription lenses to non-prescriptive ones.

“Can you guess, besides the first batch of people that were infected and survived, how many more people are awake now?”

Wang Cheng himself was unsure, “According to the number of phone calls incoming as well as the number of calls that had not been picked up, I am afraid that there is not much people awake in the country currently.”

He had called all of his classmates, friends, colleagues, relatives. Everyone that he knew and had their numbers, he had called, and these people were scattered all over the country.

“It is not only Wan Xiao Village.” Qian Yun Kai removed his spectacles and delicately wiped them with a cleaning cloth. “I tried calling my friends and colleagues that lived overseas, to no avail.”

“Are you saying that this virus outspread is worldwide??” Wang Cheng was dumbfounded.

“A very high possibility.”

“The end of the world is really coming?” Wang Cheng could not even believe what he himself have said.

“Not matter what, let us go out and take a look.”

“Hold on, the colour of this rainwater isn’t normal.” Wang Cheng who had ran out was quite observant, and felt that the rainwater was rather abnormal.

“That’s why we need to go out and have a look. If the rainwater really has got something wrong, we can’t escape too.”

Yeah, they definitely could not make it, they had already been thoroughly soaked in the rain. Wang Cheng stared at Qian Yun Kai’s drenched hair and felt dejected. They had only been hospitalized for a few days and their vigilance had already fell so much. It should not be like this!

19:30

Xiao Mo was still travelling in the rain.

The kid suddenly pulled on his shirt from the back seat. Xiao Mo slowed down his motorcycle and turned his head to look at him.

The kid pointed to his left.

Xiao Mo wiped the raindrops from his helmet visor and turned his head in the direction. He had thought that the kid saw a miserable situation and was frightened, and was about to console him. Instead, he saw…

Screech! The man hurriedly braked and stopped the motorcycle.

Towards the left of the way they were travelling was a highway viaduct that crossed the whole of Zhong Shan City. But now, there was a large hole on it, and a high-speed rail had veered off the highway and a third of the body had dropped off from it.

Right below the viaduct were rows of carefully preserved old residential houses, and all of these ancient buildings had been crushed like soft mud by the derailed high-speed rail.

Just as he was thinking whether another railway train would crash into the tail end of the other, he saw a similar train that had obviously lost control of its speed rushing head on to the end of the other train.

Obviously, it could be seen that automation was not invincible and all-mighty. Some automated systems even required the use of manual setup and programming before it could be put to use. Therefore, before all the people became unconscious, how many of the equipment and machines have been self-automated?

Xiao Mo thought of the passengers inside the carriage, the residents that were living in these old housings…

Xiao Mo’s hand trembled unconsciously.

Suddenly, the man turned his head and forcefully turned the engine of the motorcycle and rushed forward.

The kid hurriedly grabbed hold of his waist tightly.

Left turn, right turn, forward, pause, slowly moving and then fast forwarding… Xiao Mo kept his focus all on driving the motorcycle and did not bother checking his surroundings.

Xue Li Hong looked at the horrible scene indifferently. Actually, the thing he wanted to show Xiao Mo was not the derailed train that had crushed the old residential houses, but the unidentified object that flashed past the sky just now.

Xiao Mo’s brother’s restaurant was named “Kang Fu Eatery”. It was located in a small and old residential area near Tong Tian Street. The place was located quite strategically, just a 2 minute walk and one would reach the train station, and there were quite a few bus stops scattered around too.

The convenient location and ease of travel that used to be the greatest advantage had become extremely disadvantageous to Xiao Mo. His heart was on fire as he became extremely anxious once again.

As the spell of unconsciousness had hit during the evening peak period, the cars had fully packed the road and the streets were full of people that were traversing but had collapsed. Until 20:15, Xiao Mo had spent almost double the time he had spent slowly crawling his way through the streets, until finally, the both of them finally reached the subway entrance of Tong Tian Street.

Tong Tian Street was an old residential zone; hence the roads were all quite narrow. Together with the unconscious people that had dropped all over the streets and the cars that had stopped crookedly all over the roads, even a small motorcycle that Xiao Mo was riding could not move.

Standing at the junction of Tong Tian Street and Zhong Shan Nan, one could see clearly that there was one high-powered, high performance mustang sedan car that had plunged into the sea of people. It even left a slanted track of dried-up blood.

The owner of the car had been stepping on the accelerator previously, and when he lost consciousness, his car rushed out about three hundred metres before finally plunging head on into a wall and coming to a stop. The hood of the car had been entirely flattened, and the owner was 90% dead. It was as if this was harvesting season; anything that fell under or around the track of the car was gone, their lives harvested instead of wheat.

Besides the mustang, there were many other cars that were in a similar predicament. “Tong Tian Street”( 通天街) had now turned into “Tong Tian”( 通天) Street. Except that this street had an appearance that it would lead you to hell instead of heading straight for heaven.

Blackened rain that had mixed together with blood flowed down the drain.

The sewer’s cover and drains were filled with all kinds of trash. Bits and pieces of meat and organs like coagulated with the rubbish.

Xiao Mo removed his helmet.

“Bleurgh!” He used his hand to cover his mouth and nose while his expression distorted in pain.

The kid also removed his helmet, but compared to the dead people, he seemed to be much more interested in the unnatural rain. He even tilted his head and opened his mouth to taste some of the rain water.

Contamination? Death? Xue Li Hong was totally unconcerned. If he was able to die, he would instead thank the gods.

Those that got hurt did not feel any pain. There were children that had fallen onto the fall, living status unknown. People with missing arms and legs were a common sight, there were even those with their intestines hanging outwards of their stomach, as well as people that had been chopped into several pieces.

The streetlamp was shining way too brightly, making everything crystal clear in his eyes.

Xiao Mo did not notice that tears had started flowing down from his face. If bowing and kneeling with his head on the floor could bring everyone back, he did not mind doing it a million times. He could even kneel and bow after every step he took. Let him do anything to fix this!

Unable to proceed, the two dismounted from the motorcycle.