Returning to the compound, Dr. Xiaoshuang didn't even pause to shower or eat a hot meal before immediately attending to the sick children. Fortunately, the little patients were only suffering from malnutrition and fright, nothing major. After taking the medicine Dr. Xiaoshuang prepared for them, they all fell asleep.
Ah, Xiaoshuang is truly the savior of the compound's children! We didn't know how to thank her enough. I arranged for her to stay in our unit, giving her a very comfortable room – 1101. It was well-decorated; clearly the original occupants had some taste and a solid financial foundation. We also supplied Xiaoshuang's family with ample daily necessities, food, and purified water.
Of course, Wu Xiaofeng immediately and voluntarily installed a water purifier for Xiaoshuang's room. Actually, the water source still isn't contaminated, but it's always good to be prepared for the worst!
Xiaoshuang is a doctor, and a female one at that. You can imagine how cleanliness-conscious she must be! Finally able to take a hot shower, she spent a long time washing up. After she and her family were clean and changed into new clothes, a welcoming dinner was served.
Xiaoshuang told me that although her compound had lost power, the gas supply was still on. So initially, they could eat hot meals. But later, when their vegetables, meat, rice, and even pickles ran out, her family had to survive on canned food and instant noodles. They hadn't had a proper meal in over a week.
I curiously asked Xiaoshuang why she seemed unusually calm when I first called, but became so excited when I mentioned we could bring her family over.
Dr. Xiaoshuang smiled wryly. She said these days, many surviving parents had called begging her to treat their children, but none had the ability to rescue her– they only asked her to come to them. She, a vulnerable woman, how could she manage that? So, when she first received my call, she felt despair, thinking it was just another plea for help. But when she heard we had the ability to rescue her entire family, she was overwhelmed with excitement!
Xiaoshuang's parents were in good health, both under 60. They quickly hit it off with my parents. Hearing my dad recount how we organized self-rescue and helped our neighbors, Xiaoshuang's parents were astonished, their gazes towards us filled with amazement. They also repeatedly praised my parents for their good fortune. I pretended not to hear, feeling a bit helpless – but that's how elderly folks are; they always take pride in their children's achievements, no matter how small. My parents, of course, enthusiastically praised them in return, saying how proud they must be of their daughter Xiaoshuang for becoming a doctor at such a young age. I could see Xiaoshuang's parents were indeed very proud of their daughter!
Watching the elderly gradually return to normal emotions from despair, regaining their chattiness, filled me with immense relief!
Slowly but surely, we voluntarily cleared out the wandering zombies from the other buildings in the compound. Then we did our best to help the survivors in need. Our unit had a relatively high number of survivors; some units only had one living family left.
Regrettably, we found many people who had starved to death in their homes. Too afraid to venture out, and with little food left, they had starved. There were also suicides! This reminded me of cancer: no matter how much doctors publicize that cancer isn't necessarily fatal, so many patients die from fear rather than the disease itself.
The virus in the smog didn't affect them; they were among the lucky ones. They could have survived坚强地 (jiān qiáng dì - steadfastly), but fear made them choose to give up.
The hearts and minds of modern people are truly too fragile. If we have evolved to this point, with quality of life reaching its peak, then our physical strength and mental resilience have plummeted to their lowest point.
I often used to hear about people committing suicide for reasons that weren't major tragedies – just depression, a broken heart, or losing a job...
Is it really worth it? Isn't life more important than any external circumstance? Where is human willpower?
I used to always ponder these questions. Although some friends would scold me for thinking about useless things, I still couldn't control it. What is the meaning of human existence?
Is it merely to reproduce? That seems like the purpose of primitive humans.
Modern people always talk about success. What constitutes a successful life? Having a car and house, money and leisure? Or possessing a healthy body and comfortable finances – does that count as true success?
Where does the inherent meaning of life itself lie? Why did humanity appear? Why have we stubbornly lived for thousands of years? Why did we evolve? And why might we face extinction?
These thoughts always linger in my mind, impossible to dispel. The advent of the apocalypse has deepened this contemplation. On the surface, zombies are insane, chasing people to tear, bite, and devour them. But the spiritual madness of pre-apocalypse humans was probably thousands, tens of thousands of times crazier than the zombie species!
The冷漠 (lěng mò -冷漠 indifference) between people, compared to zombies, might even be worse.
Is this outcome a kind of punishment for humanity from the universe? If we refuse to repent, will the human species be utterly erased from the vast cosmos?
But I am unwilling! My whole family are kind, simple people, our hearts full of compassion and warmth. This warmth isn't limited to our own family; towards any human, I feel a desire to connect. This innate tendency has been with me since birth, unaffected by this cold world. Towards strangers, I am still willing to trust and like them unconditionally – as long as I don't find out they have harmed others.
Should such people also be destroyed together? It's not fair! Really not fair!
We did no evil, why should we be punished together? No, in fact, I feel grateful. If humanity is truly being punished, then those of us who survived must have been spared. I truly believe that. However, being spared is one thing; to survive in such a world, we cannot rely on kindness alone. We need more survival skills!
It feels as if a god is telling me: "I grant you survival. The rest of the path, you must walk yourselves. How you walk it is up to you."
No matter what, I will adhere to my principles, be a person with a soul. Even if this environment causes me immense pain, I will not hand my soul over to the devil!
When the last corpse was pulled from a home, the entire compound could be considered clean.
Disposing of the bodies was also troublesome. Fortunately, it was winter. We wrapped each body tightly in its own quilt cover or bedsheet, tied them securely, and stacked them neatly at the garbage station outside the compound. It was quite far from the compound, an empty area. We planned to burn the corpses.
Luckily, it was snowy, so it wouldn't cause a major city fire. In a dry autumn, starting such a large fire in the city wouldn't be safe!
In preparation for emergencies, we had fetched many buckets of gasoline from the gas station. They were usually stored in the guard rooms at the compound's three exits – three separate small rooms. Even if an explosion occurred, it wouldn't affect the residential buildings. Access was convenient. The men fetched several large buckets and evenly poured the gasoline over the pile of corpses.
Several lit lighters were simultaneously thrown onto the pile. A fierce fire instantly roared to life. We all involuntarily took a few steps back.
Even though we wore thick masks, we couldn't stop the foul stench of burning flesh from assaulting our noses. Everyone in the compound with their windows open would smell it.
We stood there until the large pile was mostly burned, leaving only some black ash and remnants, before withdrawing back into the compound.
At least, for now, within the entire city, our compound was temporarily clean and safe!
Besides the underground garage, the compound had three exits: Gates 1, 2, and 3. Each exit had a vehicle entrance and a pedestrian entrance, all iron gates controlled electronically. Without a compound access card, you couldn't get in.
The power was still on, so even if a zombie occasionally tried to enter from outside, it couldn't. The iron gates were very sturdy!
But I didn't relax because of this. If one day the power supply was cut, the vehicle entrances would be okay because they were sliding gates on one side; if the power failed, they wouldn't retract, just render vehicle passage impossible. However, the pedestrian iron gates would be dangerous – a simple pull would open them.
So, back to the saying: prevention is better than cure! We began researching Plan B for security.
Reinforce the compound's pedestrian iron gates and each unit's iron doors. We must ensure that even in a complete power outage, zombies could still be physically blocked!
Reinforcing the compound's pedestrian gates wasn't difficult. The guys found many thick iron bars and welded them horizontally across the pedestrian iron gates – one each at knee, waist, and chest height. This way, even without the iron gate itself, the slow-witted zombies couldn't get through, only fruitlessly bumping against these bars. Even if they bumped for ten years, they wouldn't break them; the guys made them too sturdy!
For humans coming and going, it was a bit more troublesome. You needed to first use the access card to open the pedestrian iron gate, then bend down and crawl through the gaps between the bars. However, very overweight people probably couldn't squeeze through and would have to jump over.
As for the compound's perimeter wall, it consisted of two parts. The lower part was a thick wall about 1.5 meters high. On top of this thick wall were welded tall iron railings. We inspected them carefully – genuinely sturdy. The compound's houses weren't cheap; the materials and construction were quite conscientious. Furthermore, the tops of the railings were pointed. Previously, this was probably to prevent thieves, hence the strict measures. Although zombies are stronger and more dangerous than thieves, they can't climb walls. So they couldn't enter the compound except through the gates.
But! Even if the compound's entrances are secure, we can't relax. The unit doors must also be reinforced!
The units in our compound are like this: outside the main unit door, there's a glass vestibule with a high ceiling. The vestibule also has a door, usually wide open. Although this vestibule is glass, its frame is made of steel bars. That means even if all the glass is smashed, the frame remains unbreakable. However, the spaces between the frame members are quite large. What if a zombie gets a little smart? A simple bend at the waist, and it could crawl in.
Of course, the gaps in the iron bars at the three pedestrian entrances are very narrow. A zombie merely bending over couldn't possibly get through; it would require complex body movements, and the zombie would need to be relatively thin. But the distance between the frame members of the unit vestibule is almost a meter – that's totally unreliable!
Solution? Weld reinforcing steel bars onto the steel frame! Only steel can thwart the zombies' determination, fearing neither death nor pain! There was a construction site nearby with plenty of steel bars. We rallied the stronger, younger men among the survivors, planning to go fetch steel bars to reinforce the unit vestibules.
There weren't many males among the survivors. This led to our current temporary group having more people needing care than those capable of providing care. I had already taken a census of the survivors in the compound: 182 people in total. 45 elderly, 32 children, 43 women, and only 62 able-bodied young men! That means all these elderly, children, and women rely entirely on these 62 young men for care and protection!
Facing the tide of tens of thousands of zombies in the entire city, our small number seems so weak. But the desire to survive outweighs everything! Facing the massive horde of the living dead, what we need, besides sticking tightly together, is a desperate, fighting spirit.