novelsite Chapter 1 Lu Chen
Chapter 1 Lu Chen
The first rays of morning sunlight shone on Wanshun City, but the city was not bustling as it used to be; instead, it was deathly silent.
boom!
A loud bang echoed through the street.
A robust zombie, over two meters tall, was frantically smashing the stainless steel door in front of it, followed by more than a dozen other zombies.
In less than a minute, the stainless steel door collapsed with a crash.
Inside the house, a middle-aged man, his face filled with terror, brandished a kitchen knife, attempting to resist.
But the robust zombie ripped him open with a single claw, ripped out his heart, and the sound of chewing echoed in the morning air.
The zombies behind it, though their eyes were filled with a thirst for flesh and blood, all stood obediently, none daring to step forward.
As it devoured the food, the robust zombie's body swelled up like an inflating balloon, emanating a dark red glow.
Suddenly, it abruptly turned its head, its sharp eyes scanning the residential area across the street, as if searching for prey.
In a residential building across the street, Lu Chen, who was observing from behind a gap in the curtains, suddenly pulled his head back.
He leaned against the wall, his heart pounding for several moments before calming down.
"Damn it, it's only the third day." Lu Chen's face was grim. "These zombies are evolving too fast. And that zombie... it's clearly intelligent, knows how to search, and can even command its own kind."
He took a few deep breaths to suppress the pounding in his heart.
We can't wait any longer. Today is only the third day of the apocalypse and it's already like this. If we wait another night, who knows what that thing will evolve into?
He has to take action today!
Lu Chen's gaze shifted to the doorway, where there was a simple iron cage.
It's called an iron cage, but it's actually just made of security bars that were taken from the windows and pieced together.
Several rusty security grilles were tied together with strips of cloth cut from bed sheets, the seams wrapped round and round. Desks, buckets, and stacks of bundled books were piled up in the four corners as supports.
Above the cage, an old-fashioned solid wood wardrobe is suspended by a nylon rope. If the rope is cut, the wardrobe will fall down and crush the zombie.
At least, that's the theory!
This is the "zombie catcher" that he spent two days making.
The reason he went to such great lengths was entirely due to his special abilities.
Ten days ago, a blood moon appeared, causing global panic. However, for the next seven days, nothing happened, and some even began to say it was just an astronomical phenomenon.
Then on the eighth day, the apocalypse broke out without warning.
Half of the world's population has turned into zombies, while a very small minority have undergone a special transformation, gaining abilities beyond the norm: superpowers!
Lu Chen is one of them, and his superpower should be very strong.
Because his special ability is to control zombies!
However, there is a fatal limitation: during the activation process, it is necessary to maintain continuous contact with the target zombie for a full 10 seconds.
That's why he needed this iron cage.
Two days before the apocalypse, taking advantage of the zombies' inactivity during the day, he removed the security bars from the windows, cut the bed sheets into strips, and pieced together this device. He tied every knot in the iron cage by hand, and checked every seam at least three times.
But in the end, it's just something pieced together from strips of cloth and rusty wire mesh.
Lu Chen squatted down and pulled on the knots one by one to check for any looseness. He tightened his fingers, and the cloth strips creaked as they came to rest.
"This is the only way." After finishing the last check, he gritted his teeth and said, "Let's take a gamble."
However, he did not act immediately.
Based on his observations over the past two days, he knew that once the sun was fully up after 8 a.m., the zombies' activity level would drop significantly, and that would be the time to make a move.
He raised his wrist and glanced at his watch; it was exactly 7:30.
There's still half an hour left.
Lu Chen walked into the kitchen. The power had been cut off on the first night of the apocalypse, so the refrigerator was now just a storage cabinet. He opened the door and found quite a few things inside.
In the seven days following the arrival of the Red Moon, all sorts of rumors flew around, and he also stockpiled goods.
A box of instant noodles, a few packs of sausages, a box of water, some canned goods and self-heating food. Not much, but if one person eats sparingly, it will last for half a month.
"Let's have a good meal today."
He took out a packet of self-heating rice, opened it, poured in water, and soon steam hissed out.
Breakfast is ready in fifteen minutes, and the kitchen waste is cleaned up.
He went back to his bedroom, took out his phone, and turned it on.
The battery indicator shows 50% remaining, and there's a fully charged power bank in the drawer, which I rushed to fully charge before the power outage, so battery life isn't a problem for now.
His gaze shifted to the top left corner of the screen, where the 5G signal had only one bar remaining and was still flashing weakly.
Yesterday there were still three bars, so it's clear that the cell tower is gradually becoming ineffective.
Lu Chen opened the owners' group chat, a group with 487 people.
On the first day of the apocalypse, the group chat was flooded with messages so much that my phone lagged. There were calls for help, people looking for others, and people sending voice messages crying out.
The number plummeted the next day.
As for today, no one is speaking anymore; the last message was posted at 3:17 PM yesterday.
"Less than 10% of the people still alive in Xiangyang Community are probably still here." Lu Chen silently closed the group chat.
Then I opened the browser to load the official information page, but the progress bar was as slow as a snail's pace; it took a minute to load a single image, let alone a video.
"We'll have to wait for the 9 o'clock announcement."
Time quickly came to 8 o'clock.
He didn't act immediately, but held his phone and waited for something else.
Not long after, at 8:02, a new message popped up on WeChat.
Lu Yao: "Brother, Mom and Dad, I'm all safe and sound last night. How are things on your end?"
Lu Chen breathed a long sigh of relief and quickly typed: "I'm safe and sound too."
His parents and sister were all in their hometown village. On the day the apocalypse broke out, he was most grateful that his family members had not turned into zombies.
In addition, the town has a low population density, not to mention the village. As long as you get through the first day, it is much safer than the city in the short term.
"Did you check the official news yesterday? Your Ningcheng City shelter should have announced a rescue plan, right?" Lu Chen continued typing.
On the second day of the apocalypse, official shelters in major cities announced their locations and rescue plans via broadcast.
Those who are able to go on their own can go by themselves; those who are not able to or live far away can only wait for the rescue team to search area by area.
"Yes, the plan has been announced, but our town's rescue priority is relatively low," Lu Yao replied quickly.
Lu Chen's fingers paused for a moment.
The towns are all further back, what about the villages? Who knows when we'll have to wait?
He suppressed his frustration and typed: "It's okay, you and Mom and Dad hide well, I'll figure something out."
"We're safer here than you are! Your parents were just worried about you, so don't do anything reckless," Lu Yao replied immediately.
Lu Chen's lips twitched. "Didn't I tell you? I'm a superhuman. I'll prove it to you later."
"I believe you, I believe you, but don't do anything reckless."
Looking at this reply, Lu Chen felt both annoyed and amused. This girl said she believed it, but she didn't really believe it at all.
No wonder, he couldn't produce any evidence a couple of days ago.
He stopped arguing, sent a final message of "Be careful" and then turned off his phone.
The moment the screen went black, his own face appeared—dark circles under his eyes, chapped lips, and stubble he hadn't shaved for three days.
He stood up, walked to the window again, and looked out at the street through the gap in the curtains.
The sunlight had fully illuminated the road, and there were significantly fewer zombies on the street than half an hour ago.
The remaining few moved slowly, some of them had already shrunk into the shadows of the building and remained motionless, as if they had entered a semi-dormant state.
"We can move out now!"