The summer wind is blowing, and the night shrouded the river, the water waves reflect the lights on both sides.
The Wujiang River runs through the entire city A, but the short section of the road as far as the eye can see is not gorgeous. The food stalls on the side of the street are ushering in the busiest time of the day, with loud noises and cheap beer.
Ji Cha stood in front of the grill, watching the squid skewers grilled by the charcoal fire followed the master's skillful reversal movements and gave off bursts of fragrance.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The spices interacted with each other to form a rich and seductive breath, rushing into the nasal cavity, and the induced appetite almost made the intestinal tract clog each other tightly.
This kind of hunger comes out from the bone, and it is impossible to suppress.
Just when he was extremely intoxicated, the squid skewer on the grill suddenly turned into a fat and oily human leg, and the spices could not cover up the carrion and wounds on it, and the maggots squirmed and fell off the black tissue On the charcoal fire, there was a stench.
Even the boss, who was originally agile, turned into a living dead with cloudy eyes and a sluggish face.
"This...meat...do you...want...how much...how little?" His voice unnaturally dragged on and slowed down, his eyeballs rolled around in their sockets and fell out uncontrollably.
Ji Cha was so frightened that he took two steps back, only to look up to find that the surrounding scenery had changed into unspeakable decay and depression in an instant.
The people who were sitting in their seats and eating barbecue with relish just now turned into expressionless zombies, holding various parts of the human body to eat. The air is full of blood and rancidity, the familiar taste of these season teas.
His expression relaxed instead. Because after so many years, purgatory is like a life of fear, hunger, and need to worry about whether you will die at any time, which is the daily life after the end of the world.
I had a lucid dream, Ji Cha recalled it, and when he was smiling wryly and trying to wake himself up from this dream, he suddenly thought: where did he fall asleep
In the tenth year after the end of the world, even sleep has become a luxury that requires trepidation. If you are not careful, you may die at the hands of others. Only then did he really feel fear, and began to desperately want to wake up from the dream.
In the dim university dormitory, on a small bed less than one meter wide, a young man was half rolled up with the quilt, and the half-new air conditioner was blowing cold air, ignoring the scorching heat outside. His brows were furrowed, as if he was experiencing a disturbing dream that he couldn't break free from.
The phone under the pillow vibrated unsuspectingly at this moment.
The young man's body jumped up suddenly, he opened his eyes in an instant, almost subconsciously shrunk to the corner of the wall immediately, and then looked around his environment defensively and vigilantly.
The mobile phone was still vibrating, and the air conditioner was making a muffled sound of operation. Three of the four desks in a row opposite the bed were empty, leaving only one with a laptop on it. The power source is beating regularly with light.
The heavy blackout curtains were drawn, a gleam of light was revealed through the gaps, and the sun was shining brightly outside.
Ji Cha's eyes widened, his shoulders gradually relaxed from tense, and he stretched out his hand to touch the metal railing beside the bed in disbelief. The metal railing was cold from the air-conditioning wind, and there were brand new welding traces at the bottom. This was raised by the whole school after a student accidentally rolled from the upper bunk to the ground and was injured last year while sleeping.
The vibration of the phone finally stopped, but it rang again stubbornly within two seconds.
Only then did Ji Cha take the small piece of metal with the light on in his hand with a little bewilderment and clumsiness, and looked down to see the name of the caller displayed on the screen: Wang Ergou.
What exactly is going on…
He swiped to answer the call with erratic movements, and before he put the phone to his ear, a loud and hasty male voice came, "Damn it, Ji Cha, the train will leave in half an hour, don't tell me you're still alive sleep!"
"Train... train?" Ji Cha murmured softly, with a questioning tone, where did the train come from
Less than a month after the outbreak of the doomsday virus, the national transportation system was completely paralyzed, and the complex transportation network such as trains was the first to die.
When Wang Qinxue on the other end of the phone heard Ji Cha's bewildered tone, his voice suddenly rose an octave, and he cursed, "Fuck, Ji Cha, you're not really sleepy, are you? If you can't catch this train, why don't you think about it?" Don’t want to practice anymore? Let me tell you, it’s been a long time coming, if you play this game on the first day, people will kick you without saying a word, believe it or not?”
It was almost time-old memories that slowly flooded into Ji Cha's mind. It seemed to be two months before the end of the world. He had just finished his second semester of his junior year and found a very good internship with three roommates in the dormitory. The three of them went out in advance that morning, and they made an appointment with themselves to meet at the train station. He overslept, received a call from Wang Qinxue just like at this moment, and accidentally lost his phone when he hurried to the train station.
"I, you guys go, I'm not going." Ji Cha came back to his senses, and said to Wang Qinxue who was still anxiously urging on the other end of the phone.
The current situation is either a dream, or he came to a parallel time and space, or is he really lucky enough to do it all over again? No matter what the reason was, Ji Cha didn't think he could really be happy.
Purgatory on earth is destined to come, but I believe no one wants to go there again.
"What did you say?" Wang Qinxue on the other end of the phone thought that Ji Cha was sleepy, but remembering Ji Cha's usual confused character, he paused and tried to soften his tone, "No, Ji Cha, hurry up now." It's still time to take a taxi here, and the school is only 20 minutes away from the train station... "
"I'm really not going, Ergou, how about you guys?" Ji Cha climbed down from the upper bunk holding his phone, just about to say that you don't want to go, but stopped before saying anything.
He just gave up an excellent internship opportunity that no one else could ask for, which is already crazy enough. Now that he asks three roommates to give up this opportunity, I'm afraid it's not just considered crazy.
They are all poor students in the dormitory, and they all want to seize every opportunity to go one step higher. No one will be stupid enough to listen to his nonsense.
"Are you really not coming?" Wang Qinxue's voice became calmer, but he didn't mean to force Ji Cha's wishes, "Ji Cha, it's a pity, really."
"Well, I know." Ji Cha had already walked to the window barefoot, grabbed the curtain and pulled it open. The sunlight outside the window was hot and dazzling, illuminating the narrow bedroom in an instant. Outside the window, the green leaves swayed gently with the hot wind, the sky was blue, and the cicadas were singing.
Ji Cha hung up the phone, and put his palm on the glass sliding door. The sliding door cut off the temperature inside and outside, and it was slightly hot. He saw his hands, with slender white nails that were still pink, and they were no longer the rough and dark appearance he had been familiar with for many years.
Has the end times really come? He opened the door of the dormitory toilet, and occupied a small half of the wall in the mirror. Ji Cha's eyes were immature, and his expression was bewildered, as if he was just a young man who just woke up and had a very bad nightmare.
In the dream, he and his companions went to city A for an internship, but the ordinary trip suddenly turned into a different experience when the virus outbreak swept the world when the internship was about to end. Two of the four people were infected with the virus, and they woke up in the middle of the night and almost ate him and Wang Qinxue. City A, as the capital, is too densely populated, and the normal people who are not infected with the virus are less than half of those who are infected with the virus. He and Wang Qinxue tried their best to escape from City A, but it took them ten years to join the team and leave the team. Human society almost returned to its original state in a few years.
Such primitiveness not only means the distance from modern technology, but also means that the concept of modern civilization has been stripped off in an orderly manner, revealing the brutal reality inside. Everyone is for survival, everyone is alive, and everyone is for themselves. In addition to the small groups formed by families, suspicion and distrust inevitably exist in larger settlements.
Mistrust in modern society may result in nothing more than a broken relationship, a failed business order, or a false love. But in the last days, mistrust means killing, cruelty and deprivation. I can't trust you to take my supplies and my life, so to protect myself, I might as well take yours first.
The word morality is worthless in front of survival, and the bottom line becomes even more difficult to figure out.
Ji Cha opened the glass door and took a deep breath. The lawn downstairs has only been mowed in the morning, and the air is mixed with a faint smell of green grass at this moment, which makes people feel peaceful.
It seemed to be just a terrible dream. Ji Cha touched his stomach, it was a little empty, but he didn't have the slightest feeling of eternal hunger that he was familiar with.
Ji Cha turned and walked into the dormitory. On the balcony behind him, no one saw three or four sparrows falling weakly from the sky, twitching and falling into the lawn.