The hope of the army arriving, always...
But... there was no news at all. Those two monsters outside, who no longer looked human in the slightest, had been guarding the door for
three days... I... couldn't hold on
any longer. If... someone came here in the future, saw my body, and found this diary, I hope... you won't
laugh at my cowardice..."
Before I knew it, I had read the words in the diary aloud. The handwriting was neat, with no joined-up letters or anything like that. It seemed this
person had been quite serious by nature.
Below that were five words: "Yu Deshui... final entry."
After thinking it over, I turned the diary back to three days ago... the day I got into trouble.
"August 8th... The weather is hot, not a cloud in the sky. It's Sunday. My boss invited me to his home to discuss some
business, but halfway there,
I suddenly saw a madman attacking people. Then something happened that I just couldn't accept: the person who had been bitten
suddenly sprang up and began attacking
other people. In an instant, chaos erupted..."
I read the diary in my hands, curious about what had happened that day.
Chapter 34: The Search
"I've always been a coward, so I ran away in the chaos, all the way to the villa community. Fortunately, nothing had happened there
yet. I was just about to go in
when I suddenly saw someone covered in blood rushing out of the villa community, shouting for help. In that instant,
every hair on my body stood on end!"
At this point, the person's handwriting had begun to tremble. He must have been absolutely terrified.
"In my panic, I forced my way past the security guards and ran straight into this guard booth. I locked the door, and outside,
I suddenly heard one of the two guards
scream. Then the other guard frantically pounded on the door. I was terrified..."
"I didn't open the door. I felt terribly guilty, but when I looked outside through the crack in the door, those two guards had also
turned into monsters. But for some reason,
they didn't leave. They just kept wandering around by the door... Do they hate me?"
The August 8th entry ended there. After reading it, I couldn't help turning to look at the corpse lying on the bed and shaking my head.
"If you'd been able to speak up and stop them back then, and at least saved the guard who was knocking on the door, then... you might not have died in this
guard booth."
At the very least, as far as I knew, these security guards had some martial arts training. Even if they didn't, they were big and strong. Once they calmed down, they shouldn't have let the zombies bite them.
If there had been two of them, surely they could have figured out a way to escape from the one zombie outside, right?
I put the diary on the table and sighed. This man had died because of his own cowardice. There was no denying that in the old world, someone
like him could have survived, but in a world like this...
I shook my head, brushing away my jumbled thoughts, and picked up a work log from the table. It lay open, recording
the vehicles and people entering the community.
I looked it over. It listed license plates, car owners, villa numbers, and even the makes of the cars. It was very
detailed.
"No wonder this is a wealthy neighborhood. Even their entry logs are this detailed."
That one sentence concealed all my envy and jealousy...
And when I saw the car brands listed there, my feelings grew even more complicated.
"Ferrari... Porsche... Jaguar... Mercedes-Benz... BMW..."
There were dozens of cars I could never afford in my entire life, perhaps even over a hundred. The log recorded
one month's worth of traffic. When I turned to the third page, I suddenly spotted a name.
"Wang Lin..."
I froze. That name... looked a lot like the one on the ID card of the woman I'd just seen.
I followed the entry with my eyes.
"Model: Maserati; license plate: 8528; residence: No. 13."
As I read it, I unconsciously tapped the listed residence with my finger, remembering the key I had just picked up.
"A Maserati... huh? That doesn't seem very suitable."
I wasn't thinking about the brand, but the type of vehicle. Weren't Maseratis mostly sports cars or sedans? Forgive me for not knowing much about cars.
After a pause... I kept flipping through the pages. Three or four pages later, I saw the same residence number again, but the person's name was completely different.
"Model: Yamaha sport bike; license plate: 5825; residence: No. 13; name: Li Jiahui... Is this a
couple's license plate?"
8528 and 5825—weren't those couple's license plates?
After hesitating, I finally rested my finger on the number "13" in the log.
"A sport bike, huh?... Maybe that'll work."
I liked bicycles more than cars, but the Yamaha brand was famous. It had been popular for decades. I remembered
my father had always liked this kind of bike when I was little. Maybe it was in my blood, but ever since I saw those sleek designs, I'd fallen
in love with motorcycles!
Though my mother had stopped him from buying one, and he never got to own a motorcycle before he died. My mother always said, "We already have a car, and
those things are dangerous and expensive. Why buy
one?"
After she said that a few times, my father gave up on buying a motorcycle. But whenever my mother wasn't around, he'd tell me all about how great motorcycles were.
Over the past few decades, motorcycle designs hadn't changed much, but they still had all the features that had seemed so impressive back then. I'd seen plenty of
brands like Yamaha, too. Nowadays, all the racing bikes used engines from old airplanes, and some high-end models even had jet engines.
They were powerful, but also heavy. Even though I couldn't afford one, I often browsed official websites, and whenever I saw them, I'd imagine myself riding one,
racing along a wide-open highway.
But I'd never made that dream come true before the apocalypse. I'd ridden Long Tianfeng's motorcycle sometimes, but it would never be mine.
Now, though, I might have a motorcycle of my own, even if it was only because no one else wanted it.
I took the keys from my pocket, tossed them in my hand, and looked at the villa community map posted on the wall beside the table. I searched for the number...
"No. 13... No. 13... Here?"
Following the number, I found No. 13 at the eastern corner of the villa community, not very close to where I was. I also checked where the garage was. It seemed to be all the way
at the back, almost next to the north gate.
I hesitated...
Should I check out Wang Lin's villa first, then go get the bike? After all...
I looked at the keys in my hand. There was only one Maserati key fob on the ring, and the motorcycle key
wasn't on it.
"Was the motorcycle... the male owner's?"
I lowered my head and thought it over, then looked at the name in the log again. "Li... Jiahui?"
After hesitating, I suddenly remembered how Wang Lin had died. My finger, resting on "No. 13," paused, then tapped it firmly.
"Decision made... I'll go to the villa and look for the key first."
I nodded and glanced at the corpse lying behind me. I said nothing more.
In a world like this, cowards... couldn't survive. But people who were too reckless couldn't survive either.
Only those who were cautious yet possessed a fierce will could make it through.
I walked to the Iron Gate and peered outside through the peephole. After confirming that only the two dead zombies were lying on the ground, I drew my military knife and slowly turned the doorknob.
The Iron Gate opened. I looked both ways, then quickly left the guard booth and slipped into the grass beside the wall. Keeping close to the fence, I moved forward,
feeling my way along.
At that moment, I instinctively checked my watch.
"11:43."
"It's that late already? There are still eight or nine hours before dark. I hope things go smoothly today. That helicopter... don't leave without me."
I muttered under my breath as I walked along the wall. The grass was mostly up to my calves, and there was also a row of fairly tall ornamental trees ahead of me,
so I felt somewhat reassured as I moved through the shadows.
The diary that man had left me didn't offer many clues. The only thing I learned was that the virus had broken out on August 8th,
and I'd also been attacked by a...