Zombie Siege: The Road to Survival Begins at School - Chapter 40

“Then why did you go back to the dorm afterward? Were they running out of food?”

“Pretty much. At first, they had enough, but that family was used to eating lavishly and didn’t try to save anything. After about a week, they realized they were running low. Turns out they usually ate free lunches at the school cafeteria, so they hadn’t stored much food at all.”

“You said Uncle Long’s grandson took the Samoyed away… and later ate it?”

“No, they didn’t plan to eat the dog at first. They were afraid it might be infected with some unknown virus. But eventually, when there was nothing left to eat, Uncle Long’s eldest son—the guy who worked as a cook in the cafeteria—ended up butchering the dog himself.”

“I’d probably do the same,” Zhang Wei said without much concern.

Human life is more valuable than an animal’s.

He wouldn’t eat human flesh, but cats, dogs, and other animals? In extreme circumstances, he’d eat them.

After all, in his previous life, he’d eaten rat meat.

Even toad meat—despite it being poisonous.

“But Samoyeds are so cute. How could they think of eating it?” Pei Wu asked, puzzled.

“Excuse me, were you involved in any animal protection groups when you lived in the States?”

“No, not really.”

“Are you a follower of Chinese Buddhism then?”

“Nope.”

“Okay then. If you had to choose between killing a cat and a Samoyed, which would it be?”

“Of course the Samoyed… But this cat’s not even mine. I’ve just been feeding it for now.”

“Exactly. That family was just choosing between life and death. Not everyone is some noble saint.”

“But they were feeding the dog leftover bones in the beginning, saying how cute it was…”

“People change. Did you ever think they might’ve just been pretending to be kind in front of you?”

“Pretending?”

“Sure. They wanted to use your help to escape. Of course they’d act like good people around you. That way, if rescue ever came for you, they’d have a chance to go with you… Speaking of which, can you actually contact any rescue teams?”

Zhang Wei knew some people had special ways to get in touch with rescue squads.

Not everyone was just sitting around waiting.

Rich folks probably fled to safer places right after the outbreak began.

In his past life, he’d seen those “rich zones” with survivor bases—people in fancy clothes, guarded by heavily armed soldiers, completely different from the common folks.

“I don’t know. I have a phone, but I don’t have a Huaxia SIM card. My phone doesn’t get signal here. I used to use a landline, but ever since the outbreak, I haven’t left my dorm. The nearest landline is at a public phone booth by the cafeteria, around a hundred meters away. But the place is crawling with rioters—I can’t get to it.”

“Those aren’t rioters. They’re zombies. Don’t you foreign folks call them ‘the walking dead’? You know, walking corpses…”

“Fine, zombies it is.”

“You mentioned a phone. I actually have one. But can you really call for help?” Zhang Wei was starting to take an interest in Pei Wu’s possible connections.

If a helicopter or something could come, he did know of better shelter locations.

Of course, if she had nothing, he wouldn’t bother mentioning them.

“Phone? A cordless one? That won’t work. Uncle Long’s family had several, none of them could connect to anything.”

“Oh, then never mind. Mine’s dead anyway… I kinda left it outside on the ground…” Zhang Wei said awkwardly.

“So, about that ‘Smiling Angel’—what happened to it? And how does it tie in with your cat?”

“Well, I wouldn’t call it my cat exactly. It came in over the wall from outside campus. Uncle Long had fed it before, so it kept showing up to beg for food. It’s very trusting around humans.”

“No wonder Big Bro got it to come over with just a handful of dog food…” Lu Renjia muttered.

“It was beef jerky. Beef jerky, got it? Don’t go spreading nonsense. The dog food was for the Samoyed,” Zhao Zhenxiong shot back defensively.

He still wanted to scam some food off this girl.

Zhang Wei’s forehead twitched, and he glanced around.

Yeah… everyone here might as well be a Samoyed.

“The one who butchered the dog was that same cook—the eldest son. Don’t underestimate that dog. It probably weighed seventy or eighty kilos. That family actually started dividing up the meat right in front of me. They even split up the dog’s head…”

“Ugh… that’s so brutal. What about its, uh, you know, that part?” Zhao Zhenxiong asked.

“That part?” Zhang Wei didn’t get it at first.

“You know… that part. The one they say is really good for your health,” Zhao said with a wink.

“If eating that helps with anything, you should eat more pig’s head meat,” Zhang Wei said once he figured out what Zhao meant.

“Pig head meat? I’m so hungry right now I could eat an entire pig. I miss the smell of steamed white rice so much.”

Pei Wu continued, “I don’t know exactly what you’re talking about, but they didn’t waste anything. They even boiled the dog’s intestines and liver.”

“Right, I remember you foreigners don’t eat animal organs.”

“Yeah, they even invited me to eat with them, but I didn’t dare. I was worried it would turn me into a zombie. I accidentally saw that dog eating the rotting flesh off Uncle Long’s body…”

“Wait, wait, wait—are you saying the dog ate human flesh, and then they ate the dog? Including its guts and intestines?” Zhang Wei’s expression suddenly changed.

This is bad. This is really, really bad.

It’s basically the same as eating zombie meat. That can cause you to turn too!

Even boiling or high-heat disinfection doesn’t help.

In his past life, the worst kinds of people—those who had lost all humanity—only ate normal human meat. Not zombie meat.

Zhou An suddenly remembered Uncle Long’s teeth and felt like throwing up again.

“Your cat didn’t eat any of that rotten meat, right?” Hu Die asked, eyeing the well-behaved kitten in Pei Wu’s arms.

“Of course not! I’ve kept it locked in my room the whole time, feeding it bread and dried fish,” Pei Wu replied happily.

That’s why she was so panicked earlier when she opened her door and couldn’t find it. She didn’t want her cat turning into a meat-eating monster.

“So they just ate the dog like that?” Lu Renjia asked curiously.

“I’m not sure. By the time I got there, they’d only eaten one of the dog’s legs. The cook was still working on the organs, and the kid was helping him out. But I doubt they cleaned it properly. They didn’t have enough water left. The stored water came from the tank above the pump room. I don’t know if they collected any rainwater afterward. That was six days ago. I saw the whole family eyeing my cat like it was their next meal, so I made an excuse to take it away…”

“And you haven’t left your room since then? They never came looking for you?”

“Yeah. I’ve been surviving off bread and oatmeal. I’m usually a vegetarian anyway. The dried fish for the cat was from the girl who used to live in my room.”

“The previous tenant?”

“Yeah, her last name was Lin. She was a Huaxia exchange student in the U.S., and I got her room when I came here.”

“Lin? Could it be that girl?” Hu Die murmured.

“Which girl?”

“The school belle.”

“I thought the belle was that zombie chick, Zhang Ya?”

“Zhang Ya was just a class beauty, at best. She looked good because of makeup and styling. If we’re talking about actual looks and figure, she wouldn’t even make it into the school’s top ten,” Hu Die said with disdain.

“Alright, enough with the gossip,” Zhang Wei cut in. He didn’t even want to think about Zhang Ya anymore. As for school belles? He wasn’t interested. Odds were eight out of ten of those “top ten” girls were now zombies.

“If you haven’t gone downstairs for six days, and they haven’t come up looking for you… something must’ve happened to them,” Zhang Wei said seriously.