These mutated monsters should all have their own
territories, but...
There was no solid evidence to prove it. What if they were a pair?
Still... when I made it safely to the tall wall surrounding the villa district, I let out a long breath. That proved
my guess was probably right.
I looked up at the three-meter-high white wall, put the military knife back against my chest, and took half a step back. Then I
suddenly put all my strength into it!!
Female Corpse
Today was September 11, 2027. The weather... was fairly clear, I supposed. As I looked up at the blue sky, I
counted the days in my head.
I was standing beneath the high wall, knees slightly bent as I stared at it. I pushed off hard with my feet, and for a moment,
I felt as if I were flying. Then
I grabbed the top of the wall with both hands and hauled myself up, lifting my body with my arms.
What lay before me... was a spacious villa district, with more than a dozen two-story villas, each standing alone behind its own walls. Each villa had a small yard,
enclosed by welded iron railings. I pushed myself up with both arms and stood on top of the wall, looking down. Here and there, two or three Zombies
wandered around the small park in the middle, where a statue stood. They were still some distance away, though, and probably wouldn't spot me.
I looked down. There was a patch of grass, probably part of the landscaping. It looked quite tidy. It seemed that when the outbreak began,
this place hadn't been too chaotic...
That made sense. Only rich people lived in villa districts. How many of them would spend all day cooped up at home like me?
Bracing one hand on the wall, I jumped down. Three meters was nothing for me now, especially with soft grass below. The instant I landed,
I gripped the katana at my waist and made no sound at all.
I glanced around. There was grass on both sides, with thick weeds almost reaching my knees. They'd probably grown naturally after
a month without being trimmed.
Keeping low, I listened for movement around me. It was fairly peaceful. Every now and then, a few grasshoppers—locusts, really—hopped through the weeds.
Insects... weren't affected by the virus?
I was puzzled as I thought about what I should do first...
*I've never been to the villa district... I don't know its layout. Right now, I most want to find a working vehicle to get around in. There are Zombies wandering over there,
which might mean there aren't any mutated creatures in this neighborhood. That's at least somewhat good news for me.*
As I thought it over, I headed toward the entrance to the neighborhood. After all... I needed to learn the layout, and at the very least, find
some information about the vehicles. For example... where were the keys? What kinds of cars were there?
At the entrance was a guard booth, with a duty room beside it. Maybe I could find something useful there.
I didn't take the main road, since that would make me too conspicuous. I still had no idea how well these Zombies could see, but
better safe than sorry.
I looked both ways, then followed the wall through the grass. The neighborhood entrance was to the south. After all... Chinese people tended to believe in feng shui, and the wealthier they were,
the more likely they were to believe in it. Of course... there were exceptions, but they were few. So rich neighborhoods like this were usually
built with feng shui in mind.
I'd never been inside the villa district, but it was close to home, and I'd sometimes passed the entrance and peered in. I could only see
a garden, though. Beyond that, nothing was visible.
But I remembered the entrance clearly. There were usually two guards on duty: one standing watch while the other rested, taking shifts around the clock. Only when the weather was
especially bad would the guards go back inside the booth to rest.
I made my way through the grass, head lowered as I thought.
Just as I parted the branches of the third ornamental tree whose name I didn't know, a rotten, stinking face suddenly appeared right in front of me!
"Ugh!!"
"Bzzzzzz—"
I instinctively covered my mouth and stumbled half a step back, dodging the countless flies that nearly blocked my view! I quickly
drew my military knife, ready to fight, but...
"A corpse?"
It didn't suddenly spring up and lunge at me like I'd expected. Once I got a good look at the face, I immediately vomited bile...
"Urgh!!"
Her once-pale face had turned slimy, with countless maggots crawling over her. Her pink dress was stained with blood, and what stood out most
was that the woman's lower half was exposed; her skirt had been pulled up.
"Did... a person do this?"
I frowned instinctively, covered my mouth, and forced down the nausea as I stepped closer to take a look.
Her face was almost unrecognizable, but judging by her figure—and the cut of her clothes—she'd been quite attractive. She must have been
a beautiful woman in life. People in wealthy neighborhoods had money to spare and paid more attention to their appearance. It was quite normal for an ordinary woman to get a skin-whitening
procedure, and those with a bit more money to spare might even get plastic surgery.
There was a small bag beside her, its contents scattered through the grass. The most noticeable thing was an ID card, half buried in the ground.
Avoiding the corpse, I went over to the ID card and picked it up.
"Wang Lin."
The person on the ID card was beautiful. At least, if she still looked good without makeup, she would probably look lovely with it on.
I put the ID card down and searched the ground again. I spotted a set of keys and picked them up. After a moment's thought, I slipped them into my pocket.
Then I turned back to look at the corpse.
Maggots had already covered her lower body, and flies swarmed over her once alluring thighs. What caught my attention most,
visible only from where I stood, was the deep wound on her neck.
"Was she killed with a knife?"
*But... could a death like this really have been the work of a person? After all... in the normal world before the outbreak, if a corpse like this had been lying here, any guard who walked by
would have spotted it right away. So...*
She had definitely been murdered, and... raped before she was killed. Her underwear had been thrown to one side, and judging by her position,
that was the most likely explanation.
It was safe to say that she'd died in the chaos of the outbreak. Someone had taken advantage of the confusion to rape and murder her,
then left her body here, where no one had come to deal with it.
I looked at the filthy pink dress she was wearing. There were patches of dampness on it, probably from rain a few days ago.
"If... my guess is right, then the murderer should still be somewhere in this neighborhood..."
At the thought, a chill ran through me, because...
I was much more beautiful than this woman had been in life. I wasn't disrespecting the dead; it was simply the truth. If that person could bring himself to rape and murder someone amid the chaos,
then if I ran into him, he might set his sights on me too.
Diary
After thinking it over, I murmured, "Amitabha," to the deceased and turned to leave. After all... she was neither a Zombie
nor alive, so to me, she was just someone who'd once existed. Still, her corpse had helped me at least a little by telling me that there might be
other living people in this neighborhood.
Actually, I'd thought as much before coming in. Every villa in this district stood alone, and there weren't many people around. A high
wall enclosed the area, so if they'd locked the gates when the virus broke out, each villa could have been a place where people might survive. With the high walls keeping things out, there was no...
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