When the Bleeding Sun Rises

Prologue

No matter how magnificent a person's life may seem, it’s still tough to get rid of the mediocre feeling when we look back in the end. It’s needless to say that every kind of life will leave regrets, but one is too late to think of "should have been done earlier" when we are already standing right in front of death.

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He stared at the fallen sun, then looked down at the crowd beneath his feet.

The wind swept across his cheek with a hint of coolness. The yellowish-red sunset was absolutely gorgeous, just like the droplet of blood on orange silk, even distant buildings were plated with a layer of gilt. All the hustles and bustles seemed to be isolated at the moment, he tilted his head a bit, the crowd under his nose was like a flock of ants, he could even vaguely hear their roar and screams.

The boy held out his hand to the setting sun, and the glow gently kissed him on the cheek through the space between his fingers.

He never found this scene so beautiful.

Chapter 1 Dusk before Night

The darkness before dawn was the most desperate.

"Tris! Tris!" The boy carrying a conspicuous red sports bag shouted in the crowd, successfully attracting the attention of people around him, but not the guy he was shouting at, "Tris! Jesus, is he deaf or something...Tristan!"

He wound his way through the crowd, and the huge bag that kept bumping into others now became a burden. He almost cursed, almost. After shouting sorry to the students nearby for the sixth time, he finally reached his friend and immediately threw himself on the poor boy: "Tristan! Get the damn headphones out of your ear! "

Tristan tripped forward like a goose with broken legs with the boy leaning on his shoulder, he balanced himself for a second and knew who was behind him right the way. After raising his head slightly to check the crowd around them, he finally took out his earphone and gently hit his friend on his back: "Quit screaming Joon, everyone's looking at us right now."

"Like I care?" Joon shrugged and put an arm on Tristan's shoulder, he knew his friend too well that Tristan won't be able to spill out a word as long as many people are paying attention to him, and a sigh eventually escaped from his mouth: "Look Tris, we are juniors now, you gotta get yourself out, get me?"

"...am trying."

Joon raised an eyebrow, slightly opened his mouth but no words came out. After several failures to speak, he finally let out another sigh. There's really nothing he can do about his friend: "Sure then, but don't forget the plan alright?"

Tristan blinked his eyes that were filled with confusion. He stopped walking and tried to recall his memories real hard: "Oh. Oh yeah, Christmas sleep-over."

Then he mumbled. "But it's not even Christmas yet."

"We're definitely not gonna sleep tonight buddy, don't ever think about it." Joon smirked, "and guess what?"

Tristan questioned him with a threatening gaze.

"Jonah and Zane are comin' too, surprise?"

That name immediately hit the nerve in his brain. Tristan stopped his footsteps and swallowed hard under Joon's scrutinizing eyes. He suddenly forgot where to go, and the unknown feeling terrified him a bit.

"Very surprised then. If you said so."

Joon sighed again. He had already done it too many times today, and he should really stop. They walked out from the gate and directly headed to Tristan's apartment, the sun fell down in front of their eyes, dyeing the world into burnt orange color and casting a dark shadow under two boys' feet.

"You're such a timid rat buddy."

"Sue me."

The night chased behind them.

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The apartment wasn't that far, but the two ended up in a deadlock in front of the door.

"Okay, I know shit happened between you two, but why don't you just take some courage and knock on that door?" Joon narrowed his eyes at Tristan standing beside him.

"I got the key here."

"Sure, but I thought you are the one who want to drag your brother out from his room and speak to him?" Joon yelled in a low volume.

"Well I'm not going to deny that," Tristan decided to take his first move and got the key out from his pocket, "but highly likely we will be ended up standing in front of this door for the whole night because he will never come out from his room and open it for us. Wanna try?"

Poor Joon could say nothing but groaned in frustration, eventually followed Tristan, and walked into the apartment. "I just can't understand why you guys can't make things easier."

Tristan shrugged his shoulder and threw the key on the cabinet.

After closing the door, Joon went straight into the living room, ended up lying on the couch. Tristan followed behind him, tons of thoughts were causing chaos in his mind.

Why can't they make things easier? How can they make things easier?

He knew that the purpose of his parents buying this grand apartment and forcing him and his brother to live together was to bond their relationship, but how on earth can he fix this giant hole when he's the only one trying here?

Their parents weren't doing their jobs in the first place.

He pursed his lips and gave one last look to the boy on the couch, then slowly walked to a closed door. The cool air from the air conditioner escaped out from the door sweep, but there wasn't a sound coming out from inside. After a good minute of standing in front of the door quietly, Tristan finally took a deep breath and gently knocked on the door: "Gab, my friends are coming for a sleep-over."

"No sleeping!" Joon yelled from behind.

Tristan decided to ignore him. "If you're hungry, just come out to get something or knock on the door, alright Gab?"

No responses as expected. The silence was the only answer.

Tristan waited a few seconds for nothing, then he finally walked back and threw himself on Joon. The boy on the couch gave a blood-curdling scream like he was going to suffocate until Tristan threw a hand on him to shut his mouth: "Shush Joon, what you wanna eat?"

"More like what we wanna eat—"

"That's the same thing." Tristan rolled his eyes. "I'mma go make some salads and chickens, order some food from outside if you guys need it."

"Aw, our Tristan is making us dinner!"

"Just shut up, Joon."

The doorbell ringed at six.

Tristan threw a look at Joon who was now spreading the bedsheet on the floor. Joon looked back and smirked without a sign of moving.

Not again. Tristan pointed at the door silently with wide eyes, wishing Joon could stand up and open the door for God's sake, and Joon was clearly not willing to do so. Or in another word, he was trying to let Tristan open it himself.

One day I'm gonna beat his ass up, Tristan put down the fork and swore. After giving Joon a murderous look, he wiped his hands on the shirt and moved to the door in a rush.

Two boys were waiting behind the door.

"Hey Zane." He nodded to the brunet who was also smiling at him, then turned his head at the taller guy. The guy has the bluest eyes he has ever seen with a small scar on his left cheek, those eyes were always so gentle that Tristan even wondered if the boy had ever been angry.

"And hi, Jonah."

Jonah whispered hi back with a smile. He deliberately ignored the playful look casted from Zane beside him and went into the house with the boy. Joon was already waiting for them on the mattress, and he immediately got up and ran to them when he saw the two: "I thought you guys crashed on the road—"

"O lord, it's only six Joon, and can't you just say something nice for a day? Last time you thought we were kidnapped, next time you probably gon' say we got into jail for some god knows reasons." Zane and Joon bumped a fist and started to yell at each other as usual.

"Bro you sent the message at four, who knows you gonna drive for a good two hours?"

"Because I didn't drive here right after I texted, brat!"

"I swear if you call me that again—"

Tristan and Jonah stood away from the chaos. They looked at each other with an amused face, then slowly shook their heads. Under the sound of the quarrel, Jonah looked around and saw the unfinished vegetables on the cutting board. Apparently, someone left in a hurry without finishing the cut.

"Need any help?"

Tristan turned his head and saw Jonah staring straight into the kitchen, his vegetables lying peacefully at the end of his sight. He opened his mouth wide, but only managed to utter a word from his mouth at last: "If it doesn't bother you."

The two seemed to work more efficiently together than Tristan alone, and the table was soon piled with dishes. The small Christmas tree bought by Tristan a few days ago sparkled with colorful lights. Just a few minutes ago, this poor tree was almost knocked down by Joon who was running around to escape from Zane.

These two boys didn't plan to sit quietly at the dinner table to eat, each of them held a chicken wing in their hands and laid on the sheets on the floor, with a replay of the football match on the TV in front of them.

Jonah and Tristan decided to stay at the lunch table. Tristan was the only one who hasn't started eating yet. Under Jonah's inquiring eyes, he quietly filled a plate with some chicken wings and two pieces of pizza ordered by Joon from the outside.

He came to the closed door again, the chandelier hanging high from the ceiling casted . "Dinner, Gab."

The plate full of food ended up on the small table next to the door. Tristan wished the boy could come out and take the plate himself, but he knew it's not gonna happen. He turned around, but his feet were rooted on the ground.

He could not move, nor could he speak. The silence was killing him.

"Tris! Come here!"

Well, at lease he was not alone.

"Am comin'!"

Joon overestimated their abilities to stay awake for the whole night. It wasn't until three o'clock, and the four boys all fell asleep on the sheet.

The night without the hustle of the day was filled with tranquillity, even the winds slow down its pace, afraid to disrupt one's sweet dream.

The world fell into silence, until a low roar stroke down the sky.

Chapter 2 Blue-Skinned

The glamorous world can be devastated overnight.

"Wake up Tristan!"

Tristan was awakened by the noises. He rubbed his eyes, only to find that the other three were awake. His brain wasn't clear enough, but he still could vaguely remember the fact that these dudes would not get up till afternoon on weekends. Well, with the exception of Jonah. Tristan barely picked himself up and looked at his watch.

It was only eight o'clock.

He had no mood to deal with his abnormal friends, with the gentle sunshine kissing on his cheeks, Tristan closed his eyes again and tried to fall back to his sweet dream.

"God, get your ass up Tristan! We are screwed!"

Tristan opened one eye and looked impatiently at Joon standing next to him. After seeing the anxiety on Joon's face, he finally decided to wake up. He has hardly seen Joon this anxious, one of the few times he can remember was when Joon found out a 5000-word paper that he hasn't touched will be handed in the next day.

“What on earth happened?" He asked.

As soon as his voice fell, Zane, who was standing not far away and looking out, uttered a voice of surprise and fear: "Okay guys...this is not good at all."

Things are getting out of control. Unable to stand it any longer, Tristan quickly stood up and rushed to the balcony where Zane stood. He looked down on the balcony railing but there was nothing. Just as Tristan was about to ask, a groaning man climbed into the street, leaving a trail of red behind.

The man lost his right leg and his shirt was covered in blood. Tristan narrowed his eyes—no, he doesn't really look like a human. His exposed skin was no longer a normal flesh color, but an eerie blue. Tristan couldn't believe what he just saw, he poked his head out trying to give a closer look.

Until the blue man turned his head, looking straight into Tristan's eyes.

Tristan felt as if his soul were being squeezed in one's hand so tightly that he nearly lost his breath.

Zane was right, this is not good at all.

Jonah instantly noticed something was wrong with Tristan. He stepped forward and led Tristan who was now trembling back to the living room.

Jonah was the first to wake up and realized that something was wrong after hearing the roar outside. He saw with his own eyes on the balcony how that man's leg was torn off by a group of abnormal blue humans, but he didn't expect that the poor man would become one of those in less than half an hour.

After a few seconds, as if something triggered his nerve, Jonah turned his head abruptly and patted Joon on the shoulder: "Joon, can ya try to turn on the television?"

Joon pulled out the remote control in a pile of messy pillows. The screen on TV was already a bit pixelated, even the audio wasn't functioning very well. The emergency news was broadcasting on every channel on TV, and the world seems to have fallen into a dead silence again, leaving only the monotonous, breaking-up voice of the hostess: "...spread rapidly...city...HIV...highly contagious...virus...citizens...symptoms...blue skin...lose consciousness...aggression..."

"government...lockdown...infected city...protective measures...infected...rescue...carried out... "

The four continued to listen for a while, until the TV started to flash and no longer alive.

“Fun. "Joon threw the remote control away, deadpanned. "Now we gonna see the real zombies. May even become one. Fun."

"Did you try calling your parents Jonah?"

"Tried and failed."

"Not surprised, same here." Zane raised his hand.

"How about you Tri—"

Joon turned his head and saw Tristan walked past him, straight into the hallway. "Gab," He knocked on the door with no more hesitation, "Gabriel, I need you to come out."

Tristan finally heard some sounds inside the room. After ten seconds, the door finally opened a crack. A boy who's two inches shorter than Tristan stood inside the door, looking at him impassively. There was a trace of inquiry in his eyes, but the boy obviously had no intent to speak.

"Hey Gab," Tristan's voice became more softer after seeing the brother, "I know you are not willing to talk, but please just come outside alright? Something happened out there and I need to check on you..."

"Not my business." Gabriel said coldly.

"Yeah sure, not your business till you get bitten by those monsters and became an ugly zombie version of Avatar." Tristan turned his head and saw Joon coming forward.

"What the hell Park?" Tristan lowered his voice and pinched Joon hard. Joon winced a little, turned around and shrugged his shoulder: "I'm just telling the truth, you've given enough care to this kiddo Tris, he need to grow up more."

He then put his gaze back on the boy. "So what do you think, Gabriel?"

Gabriel stared at Joon quietly, and the three men stood deadlocked for two minutes. None of them spoke for a word.

It was Gabriel who took the first move. He looked back onto the ground and went straight into the living room. Joon raised an eyebrow at Tristan, followed behind. Jonah sat on the couch looking at the ground as he was planning something and Zane was on the balcony. His frowning brows never soothed. After hearing the noice inside, Zane gave a last look at the blue figures crawling on the street and came back immediately, only to find out an unfamiliar boy standing in front of the couch. He saw Jonah nodded his head at the boy, so he did the same.

"So are we staying or leaving?" Zane broke the silence.

"Waiting is a nice choice, but the food definitely ain't gonna support five people that long." Tristan shook his head, regretting not preparing enough for this kind of situation. He then murmured: "Plus we got four adults here."

"I remember Gab just turned 17 this year." Joon kicked the pillow on the ground, but then got kicked by Zane standing next to him: "That's not the point."

Jonah who sat on the couch for a long time finally spoke: "We don't know how long it will take for the government to come rescue. "

"How long could the supplies support us Tris?"

"Two days at max. Well, if we eat less, maybe three."

"Better than I expected, " Jonah raised his eye brows and stood up, those blue eyes sparkled vaguely. "Then how about we stay for two days. If we're lucky, we gon' have a hotpot after, but if we're unlucky..."

He took a deep breath.

"Forget it."

Chapter 3 Nightmare

The boy fell while staring at his eyes. The boy fell in his eyes. He saw him smiling yet trembling before taking the last step, and with the desperate roar, he fell into the darkness.

Jonah suddenly opened his eyes and sat up, panting hard like he just finished a marathon. He looked around in the darkness, after finding out he was still in the bedroom, he slowly hid his head into his elbows. The sound also woke Joon up, who rubbed his eyes and frowned: "You good?"

Jonah panted for a while, then slowly nodded his head.

"I don't think so, seems like you just got a nightmare."

Jonah mumbled a yes. He rubbed his hair frustratingly and finally let himself fell back on the bed, holding out his hand into the darkness. The atmosphere got creepier when it’s quiet, those roaring, crying and screaming crawled into their ears without a warning.

"I'd be surprised if you can fall back to sleep under those noice." Joon turned around, tried to perceive Jonah's face in the darkness. "So if you wanna ask something, do it now. People spill truth at night, better not miss the chance."

Jonah opened his mouth but failed to say a word. The atmosphere was quiet for a few minutes despite those roars, and Joon was waiting patiently until Jonah's voice finally joined the darkness in the room: "What happened...between Tris and his brother?"

Joon low but disappointed voice immediately went into Jonah's ears after the question: "That's not what you really wanna ask, buddy. "

"You wanna ask what happened to Tristan, isn't it?"

Jonah pursed his lips and decided to stay silent. Joon didn't intend to push him any further, after a sigh, he put his hand on the back of his head, "Fine then."

"It was their family. Back then when Tristan was still a sophomore in High School, his dad found his mom cheated on him. Wanna guess who his mom's new lover was?"

Jonah didn't speak. Joon knew how smart he was, his silence was already an answer.

"This clever move successfully destroyed both families. Oh, and it also angered Tristan's grandpa to death, he had already got a heart disease, if I remember it correctly. Later after the divorce, Tristan's mother and Gabriel's father came together, but the relationship between the brothers was pretty bad. Or you can say, Gabriel was extremely resistant to be with his brother, you saw him rarely came out already."

"When Tristan was about to go to college and Gabriel went to high school, their smart parents bought this apartment for them to live together, and went on a vacation somewhere God knows. They send a large amount of money back each month, but I only saw them for once. Sometimes I even feel sick seeing Tristan has to take care of his brother and bear the guilt his mother brought to him every day."

Jonah clenched his fist, and even the Joon next to him felt his tension.

"They don't deserve this, but reality bites, just like how we're all in chaos now."

Those gruff roars outside the window were one after another, quieter than during the day, but even more frightening in the dark. Every once in a while will be a tragic scream hitting their eardrums, and even the wind was unwilling to be neglected, beating against the windows to proclaim their existence to the sobers.

But how many people are sober like them at such a late hour? Jonah took a look at the moon high in the night sky with a wry smile, mumbled: "Now you know him more than me, Joon."

Joon didn't seem surprised to hear it from Jonah. "It needs time buddy. Tristan's a timid one, reasonable though, lots of things happened to him. He's willing to share it or I wouldn't have told you, but sometimes you gotta take steps too."

Jonah's words were blocked for a moment, his voice then reappeared in the space, such low that Joon almost missed it: "I did."

"I know, " Joon closed his eyes, sounded tired, "I know."

The moon could not be seen clearly that night. Joon eventually slept, Jonah still couldn't, however. He told himself it was because of the noice outside, but a voice in his mind told him that it wasn't exactly the case. He was scared that the sound of turning over would wake Joon again, after sitting by the bed pondering for a moment, he walked lightly out of the door, decided to go to the balcony for a breeze.

What he didn't expect was that Tristan was on the balcony too.

Tristan turned his head when he heard the footsteps, and the moment he saw Jonah seemed to make him go stiff for a second. The balcony light wasn't on, Jonah walked up to him in the dark and put his hands on the railing, "Can't sleep either?"

Tristan nodded and put his gaze back to the street below. "I saw some of them. They're getting more and more, but somehow they are not that active when it's quiet. They get aggressive when people scream. Just saw two girls did that, and there they are right now." He pointed to the distant street lamp, where a blue-skinned girl was already wandering nearby, and another was lying on the ground twitching.

Jonah hesitated for a moment, then gently pressed Tristan's palm, which was already soaked in a cold sweat. Tristan's hand trembled a bit, but he continued: "I also saw someone jump down from the opposite building just before you came, quite high, I highly doubt that he'll survive the jump. The infected didn't bite him though, they didn't seem to be interested in the dead. "

"And I don't understand why he did that, if it was me I would never do so. The height is scarier than those blue-skinned zombies for me." He said.

Jonah closed his eyes. He didn't know why everyone said Tristan is timid. He was the most independent and strong person he has ever met. Suddenly, he opened his eyes and the nightmare that kept him awake all night came to his mind. He held Tristan's hand a little tighter, not willing to recall the scene for the second time: "If—I mean, if we fall into a bad situation, don't do it either, alright?"

Tristan was stupefied for a moment, then finally gave the boy a tender smile.

"We will never."

During the following days, Joon changed back to his old loafing manner, which relieved the serious atmosphere a lot. Gabriel is still silent and untalkative, but his willingness to come out of the room has already put Tristan in a good mood.

However, the worst-case still happened. On the third morning, Tristan came to the kitchen and glanced at the bags stacked in the corner. Now they only got two bucket of instant noodles and half a bag of expired bread. There was still no signal, none of them could even send a message. If it goes on like this, they will definitely starve to death even if they will not be bitten to death by those infected.

”We have to move, guys." Tristan sighed and walked out from the kitchen.

"Cool, but we need to move in a group though."

Joon turned around, looking at Zane like he was crazy: "What? It's way too obvious to have six people together bro, we are becoming free lunch for zombies!"

"Listen, now we still don't have a signal and can't even make a noise unless you wanna attract them. How on earth do you think we can get in touch with each other under all these messes?" Zane frowned, "It's absolutely unrealistic to go to the store downstairs. I'd say we can try to get into those unlocked homes to look for food if we're lucky, and if not, we still can stay in it for one night."

"I don't think it's a smart choice." Joon looked at him solemnly in a low tone.

"We don't have a choice now, Joon."

Chapter 4 Ava

The air was filled with young souls' anger and resignedness in the face of an unfair fate. All the knives in the kitchen were taken out, Tristan even led the boys to a hidden cabinet in his room, from which he took out two pistols and some spare magazines.

The boys opened their eyes wide, as if surprised to see the existence of the two guns in Tristan's house, even Gabriel slightly raised his eyebrows. Joon looked at the two guns in his hand with surprise and horror: "Jesus Tristan, have you ever thought about taking out this thing when I annoyed you?"

"A few times sir, if you ask."

Tristan loaded the gun and glanced at Joon who just ran far away from him.

He was definitely not joking with him. Definitely.

These two days, the sound of walking and crawling outside the door has become less. Jonah took a breath, gently opened a crack in the door, and threw out a sponge that was originally used for washing dishes. There was no passing shadow, no ghastly roar. He waited for a moment, then poked his head out and glanced from side to side. A few big pools of blood lied on the ground screamed death, but no sign of the infected.

So far.

No one felt real when the long-blocked door was finally opened. After a moment of hesitation, they finally squeezed themselves out from the crack and tiptoed across the pools of blood on the ground.

Tristan remembered there was a kind old man living next door to him who helped him a lot when he was in the down state, but now the door of his house was wide open. He gazed at the blood inside and pursed his lips, slightly bowed his head in that direction.

Simple mourning for another dead soul.

”Quickly pick one and go in Zane, it's hella risky to wander out here. I'mma scared my shit out." Joon frowned and pushed Zane's shoulder, his voice became extremely low compared to before.

Zane clenched his teeth nervously and pushed open one of the closed doors, it still startled him when it was opened, making Zane stagger half a step back. It was a little dark in the house but not out of sight.

Jonah walked next to Tristan and Gabriel, pointing the pistol at the living room, while Zane and Joon moved behind the kitchen door and walked slowly into the kitchen.

Joon reached out his left hand to the doorknob and pressed it, but it didn't feel right.

There was some warmth left on the doorknob.

Joon's eyes suddenly flared wide, before he could speak a word, a cold gun had been affixed to his temple, and a female voice behind him came into his ear in the dark: "You guys better tell me who you are, or this bullet will go through your head."

"Calm down miss, you gotta calm down..." Joon swallowed a bit, "Jesus, why do I always have a problem with guns! Tristan!"

He felt that the muzzle of the gun had begun to rub against his temples, but he also found that the girl's hand was slightly trembling. Just the moment when he was about to speak, Zane's voice appeared: "We're coming for supplies, not to hurt you miss."

"Did your mom ever tell you that it's not okay to break into a stranger's house?"

"Well, then did your mom ever tell you that it's not okay to point a gun at a stranger's head? You didn't even lock the door!"

"I didn't?"

Joon took a deep breath—

"How else do you think we can get in here!"

Now six people were sitting in the living room looking at each other awkwardly, the light was still not on because the girl told them the light will attract the attention of the infected.

"Ava, right?" Joon leaned out his upper body a bit, decided to break the silence.

"Ava Keller. Ava is fine."

"Alright, alright."

The atmosphere fell back into deathly silence.

"Okay so, " Jonah decided to bring up the topic: "we're sorry for disturbing, but we're running out of supplies, so that's why we are kinda...wandering around. We're waiting for the rescue, we saw the helicopters the previous days, but they didn't stay long."

"Hmm." The word "rescue" seems to amuse her, in a negative way. Ava smiled sarcastically and shook her head: "Look, the people out there are scared to come down, and the trapped people are scared to get out. To be brutally said, the rescue is just for show here."

"Unless we can get to the rooftop, then we might have a greater chance. If we are staying in the house waiting for the rescue, we probably need to wait until death."

"Now that sounds dumb."

"So that means no one got our back then?"

Their atmosphere quieted down again.

It was not until now that they finally felt the fragility of teenagers. It never occurred to them that they needed to watch one by one of their own kind twist their limbs and open their mouths unnaturally on the ground, until they were reduced to being neither human, nor ghost.

Right now, they don't even have a solid guarantee.

The wandered kids who are half-abandoned by others, can only rely on themselves.

“Well, I can provide you guys with food if you accept eating instant noodles every day." Ava stood up and looked out to the sunset outside the balcony. At the end of her line of sight, a helicopter was slowly heading into the distance. "Almost christmas boys, it's so lonely to die alone."

It made them burst into rare laughter.

"That couldn't be better."

Chapter 5 Dad

6 years ago.

The laughter disappeared in the soft sea breeze. They stepped on the wet planks beneath their feet, accompanied by the frolicking of seagulls, turned back to give the people on the shore who were waving hard to them a last gaze.

That spring, more than 400 passengers waved goodbye to the shore.

"Let's make a deal, I'm going to share a cabin with Jonah." Tristan put his arm around Jonah's shoulder, the luggage in his hand was taken by Jonah, who was trying hard to hold back his bright smile. Joon shook his head helplessly, drew two from the stacks of tickets in his hand and slipped them into Tristan's: "Sure sure sure, brats, I’ll be the isolated one here."

Jonah, carrying two people's luggage, smiled but didn't say a word. He glanced at the cabin number on the ticket and his smile on the face was even wider.

"God, how can these two be so annoying..." He really wanted to beat these two up if he can—Joon rolled up his sleeves and looked at his arm.

He estimated his chances of beating the muscular Jonah and got a result of zero.

Tristan, who had been "robbed" of his luggage by Jonah went on deck where the seagulls were all hovering there. There were only a few people on deck, he leaned alone on the railing, and the reflection from his phone screen was playing hide-and-seek on the wall behind him. "Hey dad. "

"Yeah, we're on the ship already." Tristan stared at the blurred horizontal line in the distance. The sound from his cell phone was getting a bit blurred.

Though, even in the case of bad signal, his dad's voice was still gentle. "You better take good care of yourself these days, alright Tris? Don't come back sick after a trip. When you come back..." Dad paused for a moment, "I'm gonna take you and your friend to the Cinnamon Mountain when you get back. Don't you want to go there the most?"

It took Tristan ten seconds to finally realize what his dad just promised him. He looked foolishly at the phone in his hand and the shock on his face condensed into a smile that could not be hidden. Before he could say anything, his dad's voice came back through his phone: "However, it would only happen if you come back safely, you hear me boy?"

"No worries dad, just keep your promise, we would be back in a week—" Tristan laughed.

"Alright, be sure to have a good time and take some pictures. I have to go real soon." Dad chuckled. Hearing a goodbye from the other end, Tristan finally hung up the phone. He smiled so brightly and jumped around like a child who just got his favorite candy, after calming down for a moment, he put his phone back in his pocket and turned into the cabin.

Before he found his room, Joon's howling voice in the distance broke into his ears: "No way! Why do I have to share a cabin with both of you on the ship! God please just leave me alone! "

Now he doesn't have to look for it to know which room he gonna sleep in. Tristan walked quickly in the direction of the sound, and his collar was unexpectedly grabbed by Joon's hands: "I'm so done dude, it's not fair, why—"

Tristan laughed like crazy and slapped Joon's hand.

It was getting late, and the atmosphere at night was quite different from that during the day. The lights of the passenger ship were scattered on the dark blue sea and covered the night with a trace of serenity. The night scene was always so beautiful and tranquil, the sound of the waves on the ship wall mixed with the singing of the cruise ship singer gradually put people to sleep.

Of the four people in the cabin, two were huddled together in the lower bunk to play games, and a stranger was watching a movie silently in the upper bunk. Joon was outside listening to the singing on the deck and seemed to have no intention of coming back.

It was a great night, mixed with the singing, the lapping of the waves, the conversation of tourists, and the dozing sound of roommates. Neither Jonah nor Tristan slept. Tristan, who was sleeping in the upper bunk, quietly poked his head out and looked down at Jonah in the lower bunk. They both laughed silently at the moment when their eyes met.

God knows how much he wanted the time to freeze at this beautiful moment.

However, dad didn't keep his promise.

When their trip was over and he happily dragged his luggage home, his father was already gone. Tristan heard from his mom that he had gone far away and would never come back. Tristan didn't believe it. He called his father again and again, but there was no gentle voices replying him back again.

His father really left him without saying a goodbye.

Later, he somehow got a new father and a brother who glanced at him with an expression of hatred every day.

He also heard from others what his mother had done. Sometimes he just sat there and listened to them cursing his mother, and some even himself. They said that he would certainly be as shameless as his mother, that he gonna choose money over morality as his mother.

They said they didn't even know whose child he was.

So up to now, he still had no idea either.

So up to now...

Tristan opened his eyes amid roars and screams, and the pillow under his head was already soaked.

So up to now, he's still stumbling in the endless dark.

Chapter 6 Where to Go

I appreciate the sympathy in your eyes.

The noise outside was getting louder today.

Everyone was woken up by the noise outside the door in the early morning. Ava and Joon stood behind the door, listening carefully to the noise. Someone was running, maybe was a crowd. Their footsteps were so messy that Ava and Joon could not tell whether they were running away from the infected or running to the rescue. They shared a look, the frowning brows clearly displayed their confusions.

It didn't seem logical to them for running around and making these noises. It was an effective way to attract those infected, though.

After thinking for a moment, Joon reached out his hand to the doorknob—he wanna check if the door was locked. He didn't trust Ava for locking the door after that incident, and luckily, when he turned the doorknob, the door stood stubbornly in place and did not move at all.

The crawling sounds were getting closed, now they can tell that the later sounds were all came from the infected. It seemed like they were chasing those poor people, and they indeed heard some painful screams not long after.

"Goddamn, now they're attracting the infected to the higher floors." Ava frowned, said in a cold voice.

Their situation was getting worse. Those infected normally would not go to the top, but now that group were leading them upstairs. It obviously made them harder to go to the rooftop for rescue. It's not that they were unsympathetic to the victims, but at this tragic stage, they might not even be able to take care of themselves, let alone others.

When Ava and Joon returned to the living room, they only saw one person sitting on the floor.

It was Gabriel.

He was looking at the balcony, Ava and Joon couldn't see his face from their angles. It was unusual for him to wake up this early and stay in the living room. Joon blinked his eyes and went up to him, "Gab?"

Gabriel turned his head and slightly nodded, then put his gaze back to the same place.

"What are you looking at Gab?"

Joon turned his head at the balcony and saw Tristan and Jonah standing over there. They were both peaking at the street, probably observing those infected again. The balcony door was closed, successfully blocking the two sides' conversation.

Joon stared at Gabriel and then set his sight on Tristan again. After glimpsing the confusion and grievance hidden in Gabriel's eyes, he felt his heart was tightly grasped and squeezed. He had so many things to say, but all the sudden he lost, he didn't know what to say first.

He didn't know if this was a suitable scene to talk about either.

"Gab...he cares about you, a lot."

Gabriel didn't move, nor did he say anything. Ava sensed the tension in the air and she quietly took her leave. Joon closed his eyes, he knew how lively Tristan was before all those incidents happened, and his sudden change was the most heartbreaking thing to see.

"I know you are frustrated and confused, so is he. But it wasn't him who create all the messes, why did he have to take all the consequences? "

Did he ever tell you how badly he was humiliated? Joon wanna asked but he didn't. He knew Tristan would never tell his brother a word about that.

"I really don't understand, Gabriel. "

Gabriel still didn't say a word when Ava came out from the room. Joon was quiet, too, until Tristan and Jonah finally opened the door and came in.

"Hmm, did you two just murder some poor guys?" Jonah raised an eyebrow, eyeing this heavy atmosphere, eventually put his gaze on Ava who was standing aside.

"Don't ask me, I just came out." Ava rubbed her hair, looking around, "And are we missing a buddy? I remember we got five boys."

"Zane always hide himself in his room these days, God knows what he‘s doing in there." Jonah sighed, then suddenly raised his head: "We saw a helicopter comin', just now."

”No wonder why they were running like crazy. Pity for them though, that wasn't a good choice."

Joon raised his head, finally stood up. "How comes?"

"Look, the structure of this building is not as simple as you think. It's six stories high if counted the rooftop, and there are eight households on each floor, similar to some serviced apartments. Am I right Tristan?"

Tristan nodded his head.

"We are currently on the fourth floor, simple math, there would be probably no more than thirty infected scattered on the floor below us, that's just an estimation. However, the third floor of the direction in which those people fled was connected to the student apartment beside. Those students there were not convinced when the virus broke out, in the end, most of the students were infected. There were at least four students living in each room there, just think about how many people will be infected there."

"If they are alarmed by the noise, what are the chances that those people will survive?"

Tristan narrowed his eyes. "That means we have to go the other way then."

"There are two elevators in this building, but in this case, the elevator can no longer be used. I'd say, the only way to escape is one of the two safe passageways on the left and right."

Jonah added on. "The left side is connected to the student apartment as what Ava just said, so we might have to go to the right, plus there should be a time pattern for the helicopters...we will see it later, I guess."

Ava patted her leg and stretched her muscles.

"Sounds solid. Compared with those infected, our advantage is that we can move faster than them, but if the worst comes to the worst..."

"We can only confront them head-on."

To put it bluntly, those infected are acting no different compared to zombies, but zombies are dead, the infected are still alive. There might be drugs for them, who knows, but now the only thing in their mind is to survive.

Their kindness can push them into the abyss of darkness.

Joon nodded and teased: "Lucky that your parents didn't let you guys live in the student apartment, Tristan." He then turned to Ava.

"But Ava, how do you know about the student apartment? Even I have no idea."

Ava was almost in front of her room. She paused when she heard the question, and slowly turned her head at them.

"Because that's where I escaped." She said.

“The only one on my floor."

Chapter 7 Explosion

Stuck in despair is the simplest way to turn a man into a madman.

Helicopters patrolled the area in the early hours of the morning these days. The weather was getting colder and colder, especially in the early morning and at night, the cold wind can make the people in the room shiver even if it was blocked out of the glass window. It didn't snow yet, though.

Tristan's exhaled heat left a layer of fog on the cold window. He stretched out his finger on the window and slowly drew a big sun, he tilted his head, then drew a big smile beside the sun.

He stared at the smile and slowly raised the corners of his mouth. Christmas will be in a few days. He didn't know if he needs to celebrate early, it would be a pity to miss it. While he was thinking, all of a sudden, there was a deafening loud bang straight into his ears, and the glass in front of him broke all over the floor, leaving a scratch on his face.

Tristan instantly rolled to the side and hid by the bed, clenching the pistol hard in his hand. After a while, the door was suddenly open and Jonah rushed in: "Tris! You okay? Did you hurt—" Jonah widen his eyes and cursed in a low volume after seeing the bleeding scar on Tristan's face, Tristan had no idea what was going on, after the shock subsided, he followed Jonah out of the room.

"What the hell is going on?!" Joon finally pulled Zane out of the room this time, looking out at the window. A corner of the building opposite has been blown off, and some people can even be seen falling from the gap. "Did the military come?"

"I don't think it's going to be a rescue sent by the military at this time. Even if it is, they don't have to blow up a building." Jonah deeply exhaled the stinking smell of corpses and shook his head, narrowing his eyes: "I'd rather believe this is a man-made unrest."

"Maybe the infected accidentally blew it up?"

"Do you think it is possible for infected who lose their way of thinking to cause such an explosion?" Jonah raised an eyebrow and pointed to the building that had collapsed several stories outside the window.

The world was in chaos, and the living must be prepared to adapt to it. The originally prosperous city will lose all the order and law, and what is terrible isn't only the horror brought by the infected or virus, but also the conscious people. In specific, the conscious people who are no longer lucid. The world without rules is no different from hell, and if they cannot adapt to the world after these changes, they will definitely not gonna end well.

"Let's put that aside guys, I think we should worry about this problem first." Ava said, pointing to the window. Lots of windows are broken due to the strong aftershocks, if they are not dealt with in time, the infected people in the corridor can easily climb in through the gap.

As soon as the words dropped, an infected person who had been gnawed off half his face poked a head through the gap and roared at them, trying to climb in. Ava didn't expect this to happen this quick and staggered back with fear, Jonah frowned and quickly took the gun from Tristan's hand and shot the bullet into the head of the infected person.

The infected person was solved, but the gunshot now raised the roars of other infected.

"The cabinet...quick, move it over here first!"

They hastened to drag the cupboard over and managed to plug the gap in the window, although there were still some gaps, it barely stopped the attack of the infected.

"I'm telling you guys, I've had enough! We should just go and wait for that damn helicopter! " Zane finally roared out uncontrollably, "Or else who knows when we'll be blown up by those psychopaths!"

"Now? Now all the infected are alarmed by the damn explosion, are you going out to party with them?!" Joon stood in the way of Zane and said with a look of disbelief.

Zane opened his mouth but didn't know what to say. Joon was right, now all the infected people have been awakened, going out is just a dead end. He just couldn't stand it any longer, the mental strain these days had made him on the verge of collapse.

But who isn't the same?

At night, the infected locked out of the safe passage scratched the door all night, creaking like scratching on the tip of a person's heart.

Jonah failed to fall asleep again, staring blankly at the dark ceiling with that empty blue eyes. Although he was pretty good at fighting, it was his first time to shoot killed his own kind. It made his hands chill in retrospect though it happened instinctively in that split second. He didn't know how long he will live, if he can't be strong, he might as well die now without suffering from fear.

He looked at the gun on the nightstand and was suddenly frightened by the idea that he was beginning to collapse.

It was definitely not a good state to survive.

Chapter 8 Broken

Some look forward to God's salvation, others say it’s God's punishment.

The explosion and the gunshot indeed alarmed the infected.

When they first got up this morning, they were horrified to find a larger gap behind the cabinets that were supposed to block the broken windows. It seemed that the infected people were trying quite hard to push open the cabinets at night.

To make matters worse, their supplies are running out again. They have to leave tomorrow at the latest.

"Let's get to the rooftop tomorrow morning, at least get Gabriel and Ava out of this place first." Joon closed his eyes and laid back at the couch. He can't deny that he was terrified of the possibility of being bitten or even becoming one of those infected, but if the world saves him rather than the youngest and the girl, he will certainly spend the rest of his life in regret and shame.

This remark has obviously aroused the opposition of some people. Ava stood up and yelled, "No way, I'm not leaving first. Not gonna. Never." Gabriel frowned his eyebrow, obviously not agreeing with that saying either.

Zane turned hesitantly to Joon, but Jonah spoke before him: "That's the worst-case scenario, but when we really have to, we have to do it, Ava."

"I'm—"

Ava nearly cried from the anxiety, but the sound outside cut her words off.

"Help me! Let me in! Please! Help!"

They all stood up. That voice sounded like a little girl, Tristan found the voice quite familiar, after a moment, he suddenly widen his eyes: "Annie!"

"Annie is that you?!"

"Let me in please! They're after me! Let me in!" The little girl cried outside the door, and the knock on the door became more hasty and desperate. Tristan tried to run to the door, but Zane, who was already frowning, stood in his way: "Tristan, it's too risky, don't do it."

Tristan can't hear to anything now. He tried to get rid of him but failed, after several attempts, he finally shouted to Zane in despair: "But she's a little girl...they gonna kill her..."

"They are going to kill her Zane!" Cried Tristan with tears streaming down his face. Even Jonah and Joon could not stand it either, Jonah frowned and went up to Zane, "If we open the door now we still can save the girl, they are not here yet."

Zane fell in silence for a moment. "It's her fate, we can't help."

"Zane—"

It was too late, too late. The girl screamed in horror right after Tristan's words. It was the most terrifying and heartbreaking scream they've had ever heard. They immediately knew what happened without opening the door, and the knocking sound eventually disappeared.

Tristan turned his head in disbelief, unable to believe what had just happened. His hands were frozen and trembling in the air. He reached for something, but caught nothing.

The screaming and knocking sound disappeared like nothing just happened, left the groans from the infected.

"Annie?"

He went up, but not one was blocking his way now. "Sweetie Annie?"

Annie?

Tristan asked softly over and over again, waiting for a response from outside the door, but there was no more Annie's voice outside, not even a yell. Memories flashed through his mind, and the image of that girl who alway smiled brightly at him lose the color after all.

"Tristan! Are you sure you are not coming to our house for dinner? Are you sure are you sure?"

"Tristan you're too tall, squat down a little bit! "

"Let's play hide-and-seek, Tristan!"

"Tristan..."

Another person who cares about him left.

Tristan squatted down slowly and murmured, "And you're gone, too." Gabriel bit his lips, subconsciously reached out his hand. Jonah clenched his fist in pain and gently pulled Tristan back. "Tris, Tris come back to us."

"She's dead now, isn't she?" Tristan said in a dry voice, turned his head at Jonah, looked straight into his eyes. "I didn't save her, didn't I?"

"Annie's gone too..." He mumbled, the pain filled in his eyes, "She's gone too, Jonah."

Who would be the next?

"Tristan! Look, it's not your fault—"Jonah tried to pull him back to the couch, but Tristan took his hand away and went straight to Zane step by step. His deep black pupils stared straight into Zane's eyes, as if to look directly at his soul from his eyes. He opened his dry lips slightly, but kept the air as quiet as a grave. He stared into his eyes, and he finally shook his head as if slowly.

”I get it now.”

Zane swallowed and was about to ask Tristan what did it mean, but the distant door was suddenly slammed, and then the roar of infected loudly declared their existences to the survivors inside.

The three infected who had just infected Annie smelled them inside and began to gather outside the door.

The cabinets were not going to hold up either. It kept being slammed by the infected outside the door over and over again, as if it was going to fall down the next second. Everyone looked at the door alertly. Zane clenched the gun in his hand, Jonah noticed his movement and whispered, "Don't shoot, Zane. The gunshot will attract all the infected in this damn building here."

Joon bit his lip anxiously. All of a sudden, he seemed to recall of something and rushed into the kitchen. After a while, he came out with a roll of hemp rope with a hook at the top. Tristan narrowed his eyes and recognized that it was the roll of rope piled up in the corner of the kitchen. "Come here!" Joon ran to the balcony with the hemp rope, and now everyone knew what he wanted to do.

He took a deep breath and threw the rope against the balcony railing on the upper floor with all his strength. The hook crashed against the metal railing, but the rope eventually fell.

Just as Joon was about to try again, Zane suddenly stretched out his hand and said, "Let me try one time."

Joon glanced at him and handed him the rope. Zane threw the rope up hard, but he also failed. "Guys, we need to hurry up..." Ava has been paying attention of the distant door, and it seemed like the infected were really trying their best to break that door.

Zane gritted his teeth and threw it hard again. The rope didn't fall off this time.

They were not going to waste time. Zane grabbed the rope and climbed up as soon as he saw success, and soon climbed to the balcony above within a minute. At the same time, the door behind them was forced slammed open. Jonah turned his head, those blue eyes caught the eyes of the infected.

"Ava! Go! We're running out of time! " Joon rolled up his sleeves and held on Ava from below. Ava immediately grabbed the rope and climbed up. Unluckily, she was a girl who was untrained after all and was exhausted by the time she climbed to the balcony.

"Joon, watch out!"

Joon was pulled aside by Tristan before he knew it, the infected behind him grazed his back and hit the railing, and was about to pounce on Joon when Jonah stabbed him in the chest with a fruit knife. "God, that was close..."

Gasping for breath, Tristan looked up and saw that Ava could hardly hold on to the rope. He stood up and shouted anxiously, "Zane! Give her a hand! "

Ava looked up with all his strength, and immediately saw Zane's face on top of him, but she found the face was full of guilt. Ava gasped for breath, then she finally saw the bright knife in Zane's hand.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, “I’m so sorry Ava…”

“I don’t mean to.”

Under Ava's wide-open eyes, Zane held the knife and slashed it on the rope.

It eventually broke.

Chapter 9 Gone

Ava fell like an autumn leaf, looking in disbelief at Zane on the balcony.

Zane eventually disappeared.

"Ava!" Tristan opened his eyes wide, rushed to the railing and grabbed Ava's arm as fast as he could. Now that Ava's whole body was hanging outside, Tristan held her tightly for fear that she would fall downstairs the next second. However, the situation behind him was not optimistic. Two more infected appeared in front of them.

One of them roared, suddenly jumped on Jonah.

Jonah glanced at Tristan behind him, clenched his teeth and rolled to the side, leading the two infected further away from Tristan. Yet, one infected person was already difficult to deal with, let alone two, Jonah rolled to the right, avoiding the attack of one of the infected, but was pinned to the ground by the other.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Joon rushed to Jonah and cut the knife at the infected who pinned Jonah on the ground, but Jonah shouted in panic when he saw Joon coming:

"No! Watch out Tris!"

It was only then that Joon realized it, but it was too late. Another infected has shifted his target and rushed towards Tristan. Tristan had almost pulled Ava up, and there was no time for him to dodge. He clenched his teeth, pulled Ava in with his last strength, and closed his eyes.

However, there was no pain on his back.

”Gab!”

It was this cry that made Tristan's heart fall into the endless abyss.

He slowly turned his head, Gabriel stood behind him and thrust the knife into the infected's head from the side with one hand, but the infected had already bit him on the shoulder. After getting the knife into the head, the infected twitched for a while then finally fell down, and Gabriel knelt unbearably on the ground right after it.

“Oh no…no Gabriel…” Tristan staggered up to Gabriel and held him in his arms, ”no Gab…don't joke with me like that…”

“I’m fine...stop crying,” Gabriel breathed a bit hard, “It makes you look stupid. You’re stupid enough.”

Jonah and Joon rushed up as soon as they got rid of the infected. Gabriel's shoulders were covered with blood, gradually showing some blue. “Lord, oh Lord…hold on there Gabriel…”

Gabriel shook his head and began to lose consciousness. He braced himself up and said, “I want…I want you to kill me…”

”Gabriel you are not gonna die, you are not gonna—“

“Hey, hey.” Gabriel interrupted Tristan, trying to evoke a smile. “I don’t wanna become one of them, alright? They’re too ugly.”

“And I don’t regret what I just did.”

Joon clenched his fist, then seemed to remember something, quickly turned around and ran back to close the door that had been slammed open by the infected. Gabriel trembled and exhaled again, but the blood on his shoulder never stop, dyed Tristan's arm red.

“Why...it shouldn't be like this...we could have live well after we get out...why...why!"

Tristan roared in tears. It was because he had never anticipated the possibility that he still felt like he was dreaming and could not believe what was happening in front of him. He never thought that his brother, who had never give him a good attitude, would sacrifice himself to save him–this fact made his heart ache as if it had been pierced by a knife.

Gabriel stared quietly at Tristan, the brother who had taken care of him for years, who never abandoned him no matter how mean he was to him.

It was the first time he spoke to him this close.

“I don’t regret what I just did.”

It was the first time he smiled at him.

“Thanks, brother.”

Unfortunately, it will also be the last time.

The wind kissed Tristan on the cheek in an attempt to wipe away his unstoppable tears. He felt so cold that he held Gabriel as if he were holding his dead self. Tristan stared helplessly at Jonah like a lost child, Jonah squatted down and gently hugged Tristan, who had just lost two important persons in a day, and slowly covered his eyes with his hand.

"Let him go at ease, Tris."

They eventually put Gabriel on the bed in a cleaned room and tucked him in. They didn't even have a place to bury him properly.

"It's too much of a blow to Tristan." Joon walked around the living room with his hands behind his back. Now Tristan has locked himself in his room and refused to come out. Ava soon came out of the hallway, Joon and Jonah gave a look full of hope at her, but she only shook her head slowly at them.

Jonah clasped his hand, hit the sofa angrily at the thought of Zane. Joon beckoned Ava to come and sit down. "Are you all right? You were almost... "

He suddenly lose his voice too.

Ava was silent for a moment, the fear of death really engulfed her heart, but there was more disappointment with Zane: "he cut the rope and took away the supplies. Most of them. Now we only have two packets of instant noodles left. "

"No wonder," Joon sneered. "with fewer people, he can live on that food for a few more days."

"so what do we do now?"

"We have to go. Sooner or later. Have nothing to lose anyway."

"How about Tristan..."

Jonah can't sit still anymore. He sprang to his feet and walked to Tristan's room under Ava's worried eyes, but he didn't know what to do when he got to the door, he could only stood quietly without a word.

Only till the birds came home at dusk, he finally knocked on the door, swallowed and said word by word, "Tris...he wants you to live."

Live.

There was no sound coming out, just like the scene where Gabriel had been in the room before. Jonah stood for a while and left.

That night, the lucky survivors who were unlucky couldn't close their eyes.

Tristan pushed the door and came out in the wee hours of the morning, startled all three in the living room. He walked up to them quietly, as if nothing had happened, but it made them even more worried: "Tristan…?"

"Let's go, it's time now." He tilted his head, said it calmly.

Joon jumped from the couch and threw himself at Tristan. "God—don't act like this to scare me-"

Tristan staggered back a few steps, slightly stretched out his hand wanting to hold his friend, but closed his eyes and sighed at last: "Let's go. I'm fine."

Joon looked at him doubtfully, but still didn't let go of his hand.

Chapter 10 It's Still Us

The infected were not so active at dawn, those who stayed on this floor either die, or leave.

Jonah gently opened a crack in the door, luckily, there was no sound coming from infected outside. A large pool of blood was lying on the ground, leaving no trace of the infected person.

They ventured out of the door and Tristan accidentally stepped on the blood on the ground, stained with blood on his shoes. The whole building was silent like a grave, shattered countless people's bodies, souls and dignity inside. They tiptoed to the right, where there were fewer infected. They hope.

The survivors walked slowly towards the stairs, suddenly, there was a faint groan coming from the infected downstairs. They paused where they were and the hand immediately reached the knife on their waist, but no infected rushed up.

There was no danger along the way, they only saw a few bodies on the stairs, some of their faces were familiar to them, and some were even completely out of breath. They had no idea of when those people will turn into a totally different kind, so they didn't dare to stay too long, only moved on in a hurry.

However, they were not so lucky on the fifth floor.

Joon was walking when he was suddenly pulled into the corner by Jonah. At the end of the corridor, two infected people were frantically biting a child, who was apparently unconscious and may even had lost his breath. Tristan also noticed it, he clenched his fist and was about to leave quietly when Jonah, who was standing next to him, rushed out at lightning-speed.

"Hey! Jonah!"

"Tristan," Joon tried to calm his breath, pointing forward to the two infected, "one of them...one of them is Zane. "

Tristan paused, and his whole body started to tremble. Jonah ran towards the two infected people under his eyes, as a survivor, he chose to confront the infected head on. Jonah clearly knew that his move was not wise and sober at all, but this world was no longer awake anymore.

The infected also found him and pounced on him ferociously. Jonah threw his knife directly at one of the heads and sidestepped the other's attack. The infected Zane lost half his face and roared to pounce on Jonah. Jonah frowned, just as he was about to pull out the knife that was stuck in the head of the fallen infected, Zane trembled violently and then fell to the ground.

Tristan stood behind him holding a knife with blood.

Jonah didn't seem to be surprised by his arrival. Under his eyes, Tristan squatted quietly and slashed his knife over and over again at Zane, who had fallen to the ground.

"Tristan—"

Joon and Ava quickly came up, but Jonah shook his head and stopped them: "Let him do it."

Tristan slashed Zane's head, arms, and torso, each filled with anger, hatred and sorrow. It was not until Zane's body had been chopped up that they could no longer see a good place, he stood up gasping for breath, as if he had let go of everything.

"Let's move."

They didn't speak a word all the way. No one knew what happened to Zane after he escaped on his own. It was obvious that he didn't have a good ending, but no one was willing to give him a bit of sympathy. His betrayal almost killed Ava and took the biggest step towards Gabriel's death.

At least for them, it was already unforgivable and unforgettable.

Jonah suddenly thought of the days with Zane in college, and a group of them used to eat together, even skipping classes together. Jonah was a top rank student, but he can't deny that those experiences left a deep impression on him at that time. Even now.

Unfortunately, how close they were at first, how much they hate now.

They walked slowly to the iron gate on the rooftop, the door connected to the outside world, they could already see the blue and orange sky outside from the door. The winter wind slipped in from outside, but they didn't feel any coldness, even Tristan slightly smiled for the hope.

To their surprise, there was a man and a woman standing outside the door, and a helicopter was already there. They pushed open the rusty iron door, and the man and woman immediately turned their heads when they heard the noise behind them. When they saw that they were not infected, they looked at each other and climbed into the helicopter at lightning-speed the next second.

They approached the helicopter with confusions, but when the people in the helicopter saw them, they immediately waved and yelled: "two people! Can only carry two more people at maximum! "

God really likes to joke with them.

They looked at each other, never thought that they would face this situation. After a while, Tristan finally spoke in a low tone, "You three decide. I'll stay anyway."

"What the hell?" Ava frowned.

Jonah opened his eyes wide and immediately turned around: "Tristan—"

"Listen," Tristan looked up and said with a straight face, "you guys are the only people I care about at last, it would be best if I could get out of here, but if it doesn't work..."

"then I'll just stay here with Gabriel."

Joon took a step forward anxiously. "But—"

"Then Joon take Ava and leave first, Tristan and I will wait for the next." Jonah frowned and said to Joon, "I can fight with those infected much better, I can take care of Tristan here."

"Bro you haven't had my consent yet!"

"Joon," Tristan took a deep breath and approached Joon: "Joon. I need you to listen to what I'm saying. Remember: you still need to take care of your mom. Your dad just passed away, don't let your mom continue to lose another family member, as pitiful as I am. "

Jonah silently reached out and patted Tristan on the back.

"Your mom loves you very much, and I don't need to take care of my parents. They can take care of themselves. They didn't take their duty as parents at all anyway."

"You have a family, but I don't."

Joon clenched his fist. Tristan sighed and gave his friend a big hug: "If we could get out of here, you must treat us for a month buddy."

Joon has never shed a tear these days. Even when he was only one step away from death, even when he missed his mother at midnight, he has never shed a tear. However, today, when he was finally rescued, when he finally saw the hopeful dawn, he cried and lost control in his friend's hug.

"You'd better come back as soon as possible, I'll...be waiting for you."

Tristan smiled. "Yes, I promise."

Tristan and Jonah eventually went back to the fifth floor, found a safe room and went in.

They waited on the roof for a few more hours, but they didn't see another helicopter appeared. It was winter and their fingers were frozen so long that Tristan and Jonah had to go back.

It was not until then that they understood what Ava meant by "just for show".

They threw themselves wearily on the couch and didn't want to move. After lying down for a long time, Jonah finally dragged himself to the kitchen in the darkness. They were not familiar with this room, so it took him quite a long time to find the cupboard that stored the food.

"Alright, at least we got more food now." Jonah came out with two bags of bread. They surely knew that the bread must have expired, but it was extravagant enough for them now.

Tristan opened his eyes. He glanced at Jonah and suddenly smiled: "Jonah, it's still us walking around."

Walking around for years.

Jonah placed the bread on the table. Today's time seemed to pass quickly, it turned dark in a twinkling of an eye. He started to question about the how long they've been waiting on the roof. "Selfishly, I actually wish you could leave with Ava. You've been through too much Tris."

Tristan turned and closed his eyes. "That's the exact reason why I'm not afraid of dying anymore."

He looked again at those blue eyes, the eyes that had drawn him all the time. He opened his mouth silently.

I know you will definitely stay, so selfishly, I also want to accompany you to the end.

But Tristan failed to say it out at last.

Jonah pursed his lips and waved, "Come, let's eat first."

The two of them fell asleep together on the couch that night. Oddly enough, Tristan slept pretty well. It was the best day he had slept these days.

Chapter 11 Waiting for Dawn

Since discovering that Jonah was in the same college with him, Tristan, who never step into the classroom till the moment when the bell rings, frequently appeared in the classroom earlier in the morning.

"Jonah..." Tristan poked Jonah's arm on the desk. "Jonah?"

"Yeah?" Jonah put down the book and saw the boy next to him lying on the desk. After a moment of silence, he also decided to put the book down on the table and look at the boy sideways.

In the past, Jonah would definitely look impatient, not willing to pay much attention, but in the face of those clear and black eyes, he always failed to show a bad temper.

"Why are you so studious? Seriously you are literally reading this early in the morning, no wonder your grades are so good. God—" Tristan's eyes flashed, a yawn appeared on time to show how tired he was. Jonah scratched his hair and jokingly said, "Well, don't talk like your score is very low Tris."

The two boys just laid on their desks looking at each other. The overhead fan above them was still creaking, desperately trying to drive away the stubborn heat.

Someone should go turn on the air conditioner, Tristan thought.

For a while, Tristan seemed to remember something, suddenly got up and rummaged through his backpack. After a while, he took out a nautical bracelet from his schoolbag. "Was about to give you this morning, but I forgot."

Jonah picked the eyebrow and stared at it for a long time with the bracelet before wearing it.

"How is it?"

Jonah turned around, glanced at the boy playful smirk and immediately turned his head. "I guess, not too bad?"

The moment fell into silence, a peaceful one.

"Jonah." Jonah's arm was poked again by the boy.

"Hmm?"

"Has someone ever tell you that your eyes are so blue..."

Tristan wanted to say something more, but before he could finish his words, the bell rang all over the campus, and the professor's staid, monotonous voice slipped into their ears. At this time, the two finally realized that the empty classroom was already full of students.

"Okay, good morning everyone, today we will be discussing the content of our paper last time. The overall score of the class was pretty good, but there were—" The professor purposely said it heavier, "there were two students wrote I don't know directly in blank space for some analysis questions. I hope this kind of behavior won't happen again. You should at least try if you don't know the answer, alright?"

Joon and Zane, sitting in the second row, could not help laughing, and the professor vigorously pat the mountain of books beside him: "Quit laughing! I was talking about you two! Huh!?"

This successfully made the whole class burst into laughter, and even Jonah and Tristan, who were sitting in the corner, failed to control their amused faces.

After the paper was handed out, the two got a high score again as expected. In the following time of explaining the content of the paper, the two were obviously so bored that they secretly took a blank piece of paper and wrote down the conversation.

"To be honest this is so childish..." Their friend sitting by turned his head and glanced at the two boys and shook his head.

The two made faces as a reply to him.

Tristan found himself lying on the couch with a blanket on top when it was already dusk. He suddenly realized where they really were, and he reached out his hand trying to catch his dream, but it eventually slipped away.

It was still there, but never came back.

He raised his head and found Jonah standing on the balcony outside, staring at the fallen sun. Jonah heard the noise inside and immediately came in, Tristan has already stood up from the couch: "You didn't wake me up?"

"No. You slept quite well last night, and you slept...pretty long." Jonah blinked his eyes. He was telling the truth, Tristan really slept a day off.

"How about the helicopter?"

"Well, you know what, "Jonah scratched his neck, "I also woke up quite late today too, so…"

Tristan raised his eyebrows, he was pretty surprised at the fact that Jonah waking up late, it was actually his first time hearing this. He chuckled: "Forget it. What were you looking at? Just now."

"Oh, the sunset was pretty." Jonah turned his head and reached out his hand. Tristan started at his hand for a while, eventually put out his and held on to it.

It was indeed gorgeous.

He stared at the fallen sun, then looked down at the crowd beneath his feet.

The wind swept across his cheek with a hint of coolness. The yellowish-red sunset was absolutely gorgeous, just like the droplet of blood on orange silk, even distant buildings were plated with a layer of gilt. All the hustles and bustles seemed to be isolated at the moment, he tilted his head a bit, the crowd under his nose was like a flock of ants, he could even vaguely hear their roar and screams.

The boy held out his hand to the setting sun, and the glow gently kissed him on the cheek through the space between his fingers.

He never found this scene so beautiful.

After a long moment of silence, the sudden sharp scream took away his attention.

Tristan looked down again and sighed softly, scratching at the railing: "Another one."

Jonah looked down too. A little girl stumbled out under his eyes, but eventually got thrown to the ground by those creepy humans. He swallowed a bit and went forward to cover Tristan's eyes. He didn't intend to say anything, nor did he know what to say. After holding back for a moment, he just shook his head.

"Let's go back—"

"It's a child Jonah." Tristan blinked his eyes under Jonah's hand, the eyelashes brushed his palm over and over again.

“I’d say around eight years old, maybe younger. Who knows.”

Jonah closed his eyes and gently pat Tristan's back.

They stayed like that for a while, Tristan reached out his hand and gently pulled Jonah's down, putting his gaze back at the sun. "I dreamed about our past, Jonah. Back then in the freshman year."

"I gave you a bracelet, remember?"

Jonah turned his head at Tristan and quietly raised his forearm, a brown nautical string bracelet was right over there. Tristan stared at it and gave a sigh: "Back then Professor Jonathan's courses were really my sleeping pills, 'm not exaggerating."

"You were pretty outgoing during that time." Jonah quietly said, the memories were so vivid in his head like it just happened yesterday.

"Indeed, and I turned to a timid rat later." Tristan chuckled, but the sound was full of bitterness and pain. Jonah frowned and looked into Tristan's eyes: "Tris you are the strongest person I've ever seen."

"Oh, well...that comforted me, I guess." Tristan said with a tiny smile, but that smile vanished very soon.

They don’t wanna die with nothing like the ashes of the fireworks, even though Tristan said to himself that death was nothing to him anymore. They were still in the prime of life, they still have so many things to do, so many things to say. The silent room was so dark that in a moment, the golden sun was like the last spark before everything fell into the night.

"Jonah."

The boy turned his head.

"Jonah, after we go out."

The two looked at each other. They knew too well what each other was thinking, although they also knew the way home was likely to be a road of no return.

"After we go out." Jonah pulled Tristan into a hug, said with his eyes closed. A lump came into his throat, and he failed to distinguish between happiness and sorrow.

He has been waiting it for too long.

"Wanna try tomorrow?" Jonah asked quietly, slowly led out a breath.

"Don't wanna die a horrible death, Jonah."

"Ain't gonna happen when I'm here."

Neither is the way Tristan and Jonah want to die, but it is a pity that they are at the end of the day.

It was a prelude to a moth before it caught fire.

The way home is close at hand, and there seems to be no choice but to fight to the death.

The top floor is their only hope. God can no longer hear the prayers of his people, and now he can only hope that they are lucky enough to catch up with the helicopter.

The red sunset shone on them, and the screams sounded somewhere else. Jonah slowly rubbed his thumb against Tristan's palm, and then was tightly held by Tristan.

The helicopter will no longer show up after sunset, and they will have to stay up one more night.

At the end of the day, they waited for the dawn.

Chapter 12 The Sun Rose

The glamorous world can be devastated overnight. Or it might has already been devastated.

They slept so soundly that Jonah even had a dream about a flock of seagulls hovering over the sea, and there was an abandoned building by the sea. Tristan stood on the abandoned building and looked at him with a smile.

The whole building has been washed in blood, and the infected have shifted their targets.

After a moment of hesitation, they finally came out and tiptoed over the blood. Along the way, some of the doors were closed and some were so open that you could even see the dark red in the hall from the outside. There was an old man living in the house, and now the door was wide open, and it was estimated to be unlucky.

Tristan was walking when he was suddenly pulled into the corner by Jonah. At the end of the corridor, two infected were frantically biting the little girl who was trying to escape. The girl screamed and soon died. Tristan clenched his fist, but it was a pity that they didn't leave in time, and a zombie immediately found the two men.

Jonah immediately pulled Tristan to upstairs, but then thought about the possibility that there would be more infected coming up, and the noise was bound to attract other infected, so he had to stop, but he didn't expect to be figured out by Tristan and threatened, "Jonah, if you dare to run back alone, I will not be finished with you."

He didn't have time to say anything more, and the infected soon caught up with him. The ferocious face made people feel cold. He could not even hold the knife in the face of the inhumane infected. Relying on hatred and fear, he swung a knife at the infected's torso and forehead with instinctive reaction, regardless of how bloody the scene was in order to survive.

Tristan was holding down another infected person, but the situation was not optimistic either. Jonah, without gasping for breath, hurriedly turned around and cut straight into the back of the infected's head with a knife full of blood.

The infected twitched and finally fell on Tristan.

Jonah leaned against the wall and felt sick to his stomach when he looked at the blood all over the floor. The next second he stood up, knelt beside Tristan and plucked away the body that had been poured out on him.

"Did it bite you?"

Tristan's blood stung Jonah's eyes, and his voice trembled, gently wiping off the blood spattered on Tristan's face: "Did it bite you? Tris? "

Tristan was speechless, staggered, stood up and shook his head.

"I…I need some water."

"Can I have some water?"

The view from the top floor was incredible and gorgeous, the sky was still a dark blue with a hazy layer of fog, the orange color appeared in the mountains in the distance, and the sleeping birds were all awake.

The sunrise became particularly valuable to the two.

"Jonah, look. "

Jonah turned his head and found a dead body lying not far away without his right arm. Half of his face was covered with flesh and blood, and a large piece of his left leg was missing. Tristan barely recognized it after looking at it for a long time.

The height of the top building is not low. Tristan was so afraid of heights that he didn't even dare to go near the edge of the rooftop. Let alone let him have a look, just imagination can make his legs weak. Jonah didn't plan to take him to the edge. He bowed his head and thought for a moment, then picked up a plank to block the door behind him.

There was a rare stillness all around, and occasionally a whimper sounded in which direction, not knowing whether it was the survivor or the infected, but it gave people some sense of reality. The two men were lucky enough to find a small black spot in the distance a moment later, which became bigger and bigger, and they finally saw the figure of the helicopter.

God now saw them.

The helicopter also found the two survivors and accelerated their arrival. It suddenly stopped as it approached the two men before finally landing. They stumbled and ran at the urging of the other survivors, but as they approached, they all shivered. Jonah didn't think too much and pushed Tristan into the helicopter.

As Tristan turned around, he finally saw his frightened eyes.

Before he knew it, there was a sharp pain in his shoulder. Jonah let go of the hand that grabbed the helicopter, turned and waved behind him, an infected fell to the ground, and then crawled up and jumped again.

That infected lost his right arm.

The helicopter had begun to rise, and Jonah turned his head and saw Tristan flapping against the window.

He was shouting, he was trying to get out from the helicopter. Jonah saw it.

The blood dripping from the infected's face fell into his mouth, he spit it out and rolled out of nowhere to the edge of the rooftop. The infected was completely out of his mind and only knew how to bite. Jonah grabbed the rusty iron railing and hung the whole body outside, and finally threw off the zombie.

He actually wanted to let go already.

The helicopter was not far away, and Jonah finally sighed and crawled back, grabbing the railing. He wanted to tell Tristan to go back to his seat and sit down, he was afraid of heights but had been leaning against the window, Jonah was scared that Tristan will cry.

But he...was already crying.

Tristan lost his mind and couldn't see the people on the roof more and more clearly. He knew that Jonah had been watching him, but it didn't matter.

"Why the hell are you guys saving him? Look at the blood on his body..."

He squatted down, looked blankly at the other side, and suddenly realized that the sun was half out. The discussion behind it became more and more blatant, more and more extremely hurtful, spreading like a tide, no different from the zombie virus. Tristan listened to it, but didn't seem to listen to it.

"How would I know?!"

"Are you blind or something? I just told you not to take risks!"

"Can't you guys lower the voice—"

"so what do we do now? Let him down? You think he will? "

Tristan felt a little cold and gathered up his clothes. Even though he could feel the sun clearly, he still felt extremely cold, colder than every night he had spent with Jonah.

All of a sudden, he opened his mouth and stood up trembling. "Take me back then, or else I ain't gonna leave."

"He's looking at me. He's gonna come find me. I don't... I don't want him to walk too far. "

In the end, he took the path that was the most disgraceful and frightening to him.

Was it the infected or the so-called normal who killed the world? Tristan can no longer be able to give an answer.

"Tris—"

I'm back my sun, but farewell.

He fell while staring at that boy's eyes, and he fell in that boy's eyes. He was smiling but still trembling before taking the last step, and with the roars that had changed a little, he finally returned to the darkness.

The sun eventually rose, unveiling the devastation and scars of this blood-soaked world.

Chapter 13 Tris, Tris

"It was as if I had been silent in the stormy night, immersed in the river hovered by fireflies, climbed over the snow-capped mountains and covered with those stars on the night sky, while this man not far away came to me with endless tenderness, and the spark in his eyes, that beating wantonly in my heart, looks so real yet vague."

Rescue was still going on on and off, and there was no sign of life in the empty streets, leaving only a few infected wandering aimlessly, trampling on fresh or old blood. However, on that street, there was only an infected guarding a place day and night, and no infected dared to step on it. All the infected and survivors who accidentally bumped close to this place were killed by that infected.

In the area he guarded, there was only one dead body lying there, with dried blood underneath, apparently dead before being infected with the virus, discouraging the interest of other infected.

The infected's body was covered with scars from fighting and biting, which looked shocking, but the bracelet that he wore was strangely polished. Every day he will try to pronounce a few vague syllables from his throat, trying to talk to the dead boy.

But after the boy died, he never had a chance to open his eyes again.

The infected never got annoyed, still trying every day, and sometimes he wanted to squat down to help the dead body tidy up his appearance, but he had to give up because of physical disharmony.

One day, the weather was particularly fine, the sunset was burning like a flame, and the wind from the south picked up the fallen leaves on the ground and the black hair of the teenager stained with blood. At dusk that day, the zombies finally uttered relatively clear syllables after constant attempts.

"Tris..."

The infected looked so excited that there was an imperceptible smile on his already stiff face, happily repeating the word for fear that he would not be able to say it again.

The setting sun left a long shadow behind them. A long time ago, there were two boys looking forward to tomorrow at dusk.

It's a pity that they no longer have a "tomorrow".

The infected said the name again and again, suddenly, he burst into tears, but an infected shouldn't shed tears.

No one knows why.