Chapter Six: The Food Chain

The corpse had already been gnawed beyond recognition; there was nothing left of its face. Both the chest and abdomen had been torn open with gaping holes, and all the flesh and blood inside had vanished without a trace.

Staring at such a grotesque scene, Liu Chang forced himself to suppress the urge to retch as he bent down and picked up a pistol of unknown model from the ground.

Like most students, it was Liu Chang's first time seeing a real handgun. Yet, since the mechanism was not particularly complicated, he stood there fumbling for only a minute before he understood the safety and magazine, and even fired a test shot on the spot—he had never used a gun before, and he didn’t want a mishap at a critical, life-or-death moment.

After firing once, he checked the magazine. Only two rounds remained.

Police pistols could not be compared to military ones; they were generally low-powered, with small magazines—usually only six or seven rounds. The officer had used several shots earlier, and with this test shot, only two bullets were left.

He searched the mangled corpse again, but found nothing else. Still, he knew that ordinarily police officers in China did not even carry guns. To have come across one with a firearm was already a stroke of luck; he didn’t dare hope for more ammunition.

Besides, in the present circumstances, a small pistol with an effective range of only fifty meters was almost useless for what lurked outside. He kept it merely as a precaution. At this point, even if someone handed him a submachine gun, it would make little difference in the ever-shifting, pitch-black world outside.

So, after wiping the blood from the pistol, Liu Chang tucked it inside his coat, masking the metallic tang with a strong perfume, and set off again toward the school.

It is the instinct of all social animals to gather together in the face of overwhelming danger.

Liu Chang was no exception.

After walking another ten minutes or so, he finally found his way to the school gate. By now, a large crowd had gathered—mostly men and women in their forties, likely the parents of students who had rushed over after the arrival of the blood mist.

The school had always been a small boarding school for repeat students, with few people, a small campus, and only local students. The sudden influx of so many people now packed the campus to the brim.

Though visibility was limited to about three meters, the constant rustling sounds from afar revealed just how dense the crowd had become.

Liu Chang even spotted some elderly people among them—probably students’ grandparents.

Holding onto a sliver of hope, he pushed into the crowd, searching for those two familiar faces. But after searching all around, he did not see a trace of his own parents.

He fumbled his way back to his classroom, which was just as noisy and chaotic.

“Hey, Four Eyes.” Entering the classroom, Liu Chang found his familiar roommate. “Four Eyes, did you see my mom?”

“What does your mom look like?” The review school had only just started, so while everyone wasn’t exactly strangers, they weren’t close either. Four Eyes had never seen Liu Chang’s parents.

“Forget it,” Liu Chang stamped his foot in frustration, sending a tingling ache through his injured ankle. “Did anyone come to the classroom looking for me just now?”

“No,” Four Eyes shook his head. “Over the past hour, loads of parents arrived—almost every student’s parents have rushed here. Some teachers tried to organize parents to find their children over the loudspeaker, but for some reason, halfway through, the broadcast just stopped working.”

“Probably chewed through by those little bugs. The whole world’s in chaos now.” Liu Chang thought of how he’d encountered danger three times on his short trip home and sighed deeply.

“Should we start collecting some food?” Four Eyes, well-read in apocalypse literature, knew that food was always the scarcest resource.

“We definitely need food, but if we gather too much, we won’t be able to defend it.” As he spoke, Liu Chang glanced toward the classroom door. “Besides, in this apocalypse, food doesn’t seem all that scarce. There are all sorts of strange plants growing outside now, and most of them are probably edible.”

“That’s not necessarily true.” While they spoke, the model student Liu Tao walked over, gazing out into the fog. “Those plants may look the same for now, just growing faster. But the blood mist has only been here for, what, two hours? Who knows how they’ll change tomorrow or the next day? No one knows how long the red mist will last. It’s never too early to prepare food.”

“True,” Liu Chang nodded absentmindedly.

Though it was the apocalypse, Liu Chang’s mind was not entirely on future preparations. Other matters weighed on his heart. Family always becomes the strongest bond in times of peril. Though he often found his parents nagging and irritating, sometimes even at odds with them, when danger struck, they were all he could think of. The sheer number of parents at the school made this plain.

The end of the world is never just one person’s end.

“What do we do now?” Four Eyes turned to Liu Tao. “And what about your parents?”

“My parents have always worked in Beijing,” Liu Tao replied, waving his hand and glancing at the silent couple standing behind Four Eyes—his parents.

“We can only wait and see,” said Fatty, who had come over. Next to him stood a middle-aged woman, even larger than himself—presumably his mother.

“Yeah, we still have no idea how long this strange fog will last,” Liu Tao continued, peering into the thick mist outside. “Liu Chang, you just went out. What’s it like out there?”

“It’s dangerous…” Liu Chang briefly recounted his trip home. “Almost every animal and plant is undergoing unbelievable mutations—and the changes are still happening.”

“Sounds about the same as when we arrived,” Four Eyes’ father chimed in. “All we can do is wait for the army to come rescue us.”

“Will the military come?” Liu Chang looked at the three of them, doubtful. Their faces reflected the same uncertainty.

After all, in every apocalypse film or novel, the military never seemed to play a positive role for ordinary people. In the end, those who survived always relied on saving themselves.

And in this world of red mist, with visibility under three meters, guns and tanks were almost useless—no one could be sure they wouldn’t shoot their own, and inside a tank, you couldn’t see anything anyway; the fog would obscure every viewing port.

As for airplanes? Have you ever seen a plane take off in thick fog?

But even this wasn’t the scariest thing. The most terrifying part was that you never knew what would change in the next second, and you didn’t even know who your enemy was.

Zombies? Insect hordes?

No, none of that—this was still Earth as it had always been.

Only now, every living thing had changed, and it seemed as if all creatures had decided to challenge humanity’s position at the top of the food chain.

Humanity’s task was to defend its supremacy.

As for Liu Chang, his mission was simple: survive.

“Why don’t we take over a convenience store?” Just as Liu Chang was frowning in thought, Liu Tao suggested in a low voice, “There should be plenty of food stocked there, and it’s small enough for us to defend. With all the chaos here and no one in charge, things will go bad sooner or later.”

“That’s a good idea. Mom, what do you think?” Fatty turned to his mother.

“I’d still rather go home,” she objected.

“We agree about the convenience store,” Four Eyes’ father spoke up before his son could respond. “Too many people is dangerous, but too few and we can’t defend ourselves.”

“Yes, we agree,” Four Eyes’ mother and he both nodded.

“Then we’ll come too!” Seeing most people on board, Fatty’s mother hurried to add her consent.

“What about you, Liu Chang?” The group turned to him.

“I want to stay here and wait for my parents!”