When Chu Muge woke up again, the sky had already darkened.
Her long eyelashes fluttered as she opened her eyes in confusion, feeling the cool skin beneath the back of her head. She was resting on Gu Yao's lap. Looking up, she could see nothing but two soft mounds.
Chu Muge coughed, rubbing her temples, and softly said, "Senior."
Gu Yao looked down at her faintly, her grayish-white pupils reflecting the sleepy and groggy look on Chu Muge's face.
The sunglasses Gu Yao had been wearing had already been taken off. With the sun setting behind the mountains, the dark lenses had become useless. It was more comfortable for her to see without them.
Chu Muge shifted, letting out a small groan as she struggled to get up from Gu Yao's lap. Inside the pharmacy, she sat half-dazed on the floor, staring blankly at the medicine cabinets. The cat ears on her head wobbled back and forth, and she seemed a bit muddled as if her brain hadn't quite caught up from the deep sleep.
After a few seconds, the "cat computer" successfully booted up. Chu Muge blinked, recalling where she was and what she needed to do. She stretched and prepared to stand.
"They said they have a car."
Chu Muge said, reaching out to pull Gu Yao up as well, speaking calmly:
"I want to go check it out."
After leaving the pharmacy, the fading golden light from the fourth-floor corridor windows cast Chu Muge’s shadow onto the wall, creating a pitch-black silhouette. She glanced down at the bloodstains and indescribable pieces of flesh under her feet and frowned, then looked out the window:
"It's getting late."
Indeed, it was getting late. In a little while, the sky would be completely dark. Leaving at this time would certainly not be a wise decision.
So, what should be done?
Chu Muge retracted her hands into her sleeves again. "I'm hungry."
She needed to eat.
---
The kitchen was probably on the third floor.
This psychiatric hospital wasn't that large. The fourth floor housed the pharmacy and was the residence of the men and other survivors. It used to contain various medical departments. The third floor was the kitchen and dining area, the second floor the wards, and the first floor was an abandoned lobby.
Chu Muge walked down the stairs and glanced at several half-eaten corpses on the third floor. Stepping over the bloodstains and chunks of flesh, she casually said to Gu Yao, who followed behind her, "Senior, where are the zombies?"
Gu Yao pointed to a corner.
There, three headless corpses were piled up, their heads shattered, forming a crooked little hill.
These three zombies were of no use, and they were revolting to look at. Destroying them seemed like the best option.
—Dogs were still cuter.
The two zombie dogs waiting on the third floor wagged their tails and ran over to Gu Yao, circling around her.
Chu Muge frowned.
Ugh… disgusting.
The third-floor kitchen wasn't very big. It seemed that meals for the patients were likely outsourced, and this place was probably just for the staff to cook for themselves occasionally.
When Chu Muge walked in, the first thing she saw was a half-prepared human body. The skin had been stripped off, revealing yellow fat and red or pink flesh underneath.
The victim's head had been chopped off, and only the upper body was prepared, likely ready to be boiled down and served to the survivors for their meals later.
Gu Yao glanced at it and quickly looked away.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to look—she was just too tempted.
Gag—
A struggle inside.
Gu Yao had indeed lost some empathy, but her memories from being human still remained. The thought of eating human flesh disgusted her, even though the craving arose.
Chu Muge tugged on her hand. "Senior, you can’t eat this."
Gu Yao didn’t need her to say it; she knew that perfectly well.
Chu Muge's tone at times like this was always so earnest, as if she were speaking to a child. "Eating this is unclean."
And it could become an addiction. She didn’t want her senior to ingest something like this.
In a way, Gu Yao was indeed an anomaly among zombies. From the moment she became a zombie, Chu Muge had found her and kept her by her side, living more like a human than most people.
Compared to other zombies, she was like a pet dog among wild ones. She didn’t join in the killing, didn’t devour flesh, and the spikes on her body never grew out.
Not to mention she was also a zombie queen.
She had retained some of her rationality and humanity, which meant losing the chance to become stronger. Was that a good thing or a bad thing?
Chu Muge rummaged through the kitchen, only to arrive at a disappointing conclusion: there was nothing else to eat here.
More specifically, there was no other meat.
On the fourth floor, however, she had found many compressed biscuits and canned food. These items were stored in several large boxes, untouched, possibly meant to be taken to the car by the men.
Left with no choice, Chu Muge pulled out a can, opened it, and began eating her dinner. She glanced at Gu Yao, who was silently watching her, and waved the can a little. "Senior, do you want some?"
Gu Yao shook her head.
The canned food didn’t appeal to her at all. Meat would have been much tastier.
Speaking of meat, Gu Yao suddenly felt a bit pitiful.
Up until now, she hadn’t eaten a single bite of meat.
After finishing her meal, Chu Muge led Gu Yao to the man’s bedroom, rummaged through the drawers and cabinets, and finally found the car keys.
"It might be in the outdoor activity area."
She looked out the window at the darkening sky. "We’ll go tomorrow."
---
Chu Muge casually found a bedroom and lay down for the night. Her clothes were stained with some blood, and the moment she hit the bed, she closed her eyes without saying a word. When she opened them again, it was already daytime.
She rubbed her temples and looked at Gu Yao sitting by the bed. Smiling, she said, "Good morning, Senior."
Outside, the sky remained overcast, casting a gray filter over the entire world like an old black-and-white movie.
Gu Yao glanced at her faintly, then looked away.
The cat ears were gone.
This time, Gu Yao had kept a close eye on Chu Muge. She watched most of the night, and naturally, she had seen how the ears disappeared.
A flash of white light.
So magical. Just like that, with a flash of white light, as if little stars had twinkled and vanished. It perfectly showcased the fantastical nature of this power.
Gu Yao had thought it would be more natural, like the ears slowly retracting or something.
...So, how exactly did this power come about?
It was probably idle thoughts like this that arose from boredom. Chu Muge swiftly got up, took Gu Yao's hand, and returned to the third floor.
She picked up a handgun, skillfully checked the magazine, counted the five bullets inside, and then reloaded it.
The man had probably used the gun to kill someone before, but it was unclear who the unlucky person had been.
Actually, the situation at the time had been very dangerous. Chu Muge had seized the opportunity because the man wasn’t proficient with firearms, and her powers gave her an advantage. Luckily, the man hesitated for a second. When the knife flew toward him, he instinctively tried to pull the trigger, but if he hadn’t been slow, it could’ve been a mutual loss situation.
"This is decent too," Chu Muge said, picking up the fire axe she had casually left on the floor. "It’ll do for now."
The axe was still stained with black blood. Chu Muge easily lifted it with one hand and looked at Gu Yao, blinking:
"Does this remind you of *The Shining*?"
---
Chu Muge returned to the fourth floor and used a red marker she found to write large bold letters on the white sheets:
**[Please save us.]**
She wrote it over and over on several sheets and then hung them outside all the windows on the fourth floor.
Outside the psychiatric hospital, the white sheets hung vertically, with the blood-red writing standing out vividly.
After that, Chu Muge became a food porter.
She moved the boxes of food down to the second floor, glanced at the trembling patients who didn’t dare come closer, and shrugged at Gu Yao. "I can’t save them."
There were too many people, all burdens. She didn’t have the energy to deal with them all.
"The best I can do is make sure they have enough to eat, and if they’re lucky, maybe someone will come to rescue them." Chu Muge opened the boxes, revealing the canned food and compressed biscuits inside. "At least they’ll have something to smile about before they die, right?"
In this era, there were no superheroes who could truly save everyone from disaster.
Everyone was insignificant.