Give You the Hope of Survival

Chen Gang was like the ruler of the building's survivors.

He commanded immense authority.

He watched as Xiao Bin—the young man who had suggested killing the four elderly people—moved constantly through the crowd, pulling each survivor aside to whisper with them in a corner.

Chen Gang noticed that the survivors Xiao Bin had taken aside shifted from startled to conflicted, then finally resolute. The changes in their eyes were impossible to hide.

Clearly, Xiao Bin had talked them around. It made sense, too. Resources determined how long they could stay alive. When it came to their own lives, who could truly be selfless?

Two elderly people sat in bamboo chairs.

"Guifen, we're old now, and our supplies are running low. Those young people probably want to get rid of us old folks who are holding them back. I think we should give them the hope of survival. This country, this society, still needs young people to build it."

The old man gently patted his wife's hand.

They had supported each other through fifty years of life.

It would be all right to leave this way.

The old man was Wang Zhongguo. When he was young, he had been a soldier. At the time, the country was in ruins and waiting to be rebuilt. Countless people had been eager to work, filled with unwavering faith in building the nation, and he had been one of them.

He had fought in many battles, big and small, risking his life for his country and devoting his youth to it.

His wife had once been a military doctor. She had followed the army to the battlefield to treat the wounded. It was sometime in the seventies when war broke out, and Guifen saved him after he was injured. They had taken a liking to each other at first sight and stayed together ever since.

"All right. I'll listen to you." Granny Guifen smiled. She knew what those young people were thinking and what they were after. They had seen all sorts of things over the years. When she was young, she had used her keen eye to catch several spies. It was easy enough to see through the plans of a group of inexperienced youngsters.

They were living here because of their children. Neither of them had joined the military or become doctors; instead, their children had gone abroad to do business. After buying them an apartment here, they rarely came back.

Now that the apocalypse had erupted and zombies were everywhere, there was an eighty percent chance they hadn't escaped either.

"Brother Wang, you really know how to take things in stride."

An old man sitting beside them chuckled softly.

His name was Zhou Aijun. He was sixty-nine and still in fairly good health. He was a military engineering expert who had developed many weapons for the country and earned numerous medals of honor. In recognition of his contributions, the country had rewarded him with an apartment in Fangji International.

Old Man Wang chuckled. "Brother Zhou, you feel the same way, don't you?"

Old Man Zhou said, "I spent my whole life giving. I don't know how to do anything else. I can't blame the kids, either. Staying alive has to come first."

Old Man Zhou's wife looked at him. "You've spent your whole life with those hunks of metal."

"My dear, I'm sorry you had to suffer alongside me," Old Man Zhou said with a sigh.

His wife had been a teacher, though she had retired long ago. In recent years, the only thing she had enjoyed doing was keeping an eye on her scholarship website. She put her entire pension toward helping poor children get an education and make something of themselves.

"We've suffered for decades already. What good does it do to say that now?" His wife rolled her eyes at him.

At that moment,

a group of people Xiao Bin had persuaded walked toward the four elderly people as if on cue.

The apocalypse had pushed them close to breaking point. The urge to stay alive consumed their minds. While Xiao Bin had been talking them around, they had felt a brief pang of reluctance and fear.

But as Xiao Bin laid out the benefits, they had decided to throw the four elderly people off the building so they could survive.

First, they would save supplies.

Second, they would find out how many zombies were still in the compound. The noise of someone falling would surely draw out any zombies hiding there. If they were lucky and the zombies headed out of the compound, all the better.

Old Man Wang Zhongguo stood up. "Children, we know what you're thinking. Don't worry, we won't use up your supplies, and you don't need to push us downstairs. Doing something like that would have a harmful effect on you and torment you, too. We old folks can each go back to our homes and wait to die."

The people, who had been about to make their move, froze in surprise at his words.

They hadn't expected him to see through them.

They felt deeply ashamed.

They all lived in this building and naturally knew the four elderly people before them.

They had always been kind.

"We can't let them go. Who knows if they'll go downstairs and open the security door, letting the zombies in?"

As soon as someone spoke up,

the people around them immediately came to their senses.

"Exactly. If we let these four old folks out, who knows what they might do? We have to throw them downstairs."

As they voiced their thoughts, their hearts grew more and more agitated. They had become completely brazen and fearless. In their eyes, the lives of the four elderly people were worth no more than ants.

Suddenly,

someone knocked on the metal door, and a voice came from outside.

"Mr. Chen, are you there?"

The voice was quiet, but to the people preparing to do something terrible, it sounded like thunder, exploding in their ears.

How could someone have come?

"Mr. Chen, I'm the person who called you earlier. I'd like to rent your place." Lin Fan stood outside the metal door and spoke softly.

Chen Gang's expression changed at once when he heard this.

"Who are you, really?" Chen Gang didn't believe the other person was actually there to rent a place. Was he out of his mind? At a time like this, who cared where anyone wanted to live?

"I'm here to rent the place. Didn't we agree on the phone earlier?" Lin Fan said calmly from outside.

"How did you get up here?"

"I walked."

Xiao Bin came over to Chen Gang, wary. "Brother Chen, don't open the door. Things have already gotten this bad. We can't let anyone in. We don't have supplies to spare."

"Besides, if he's been bitten by a zombie, he'll turn into one, too."

From the voice, Xiao Bin could tell the other person was young. If they let him in, wouldn't that mean adding another rival? The only thing that worried him was that the security door downstairs had been locked. Without a key, how had the man opened it?

Chen Gang nodded. "Yeah, I know. I'm definitely not letting him in."

Suddenly,

Xiao Bin's eyes lit up as an idea struck him. He leaned close to Chen Gang's ear and whispered, "Brother Chen, here's what we do. Tell him you'll rent the place to him, then watch him go downstairs. Once he reaches the bottom, we throw those four old folks down and make a commotion. When the zombies come out, he'll definitely run, and he'll lead them away for us. Then we'll be even safer."

Chen Gang heard him and thought, Right. That makes a lot of sense.

The way he looked at Xiao Bin changed.

That kid really was clever.

And nasty, too.