CHAPTER 691: ZOMBIE OR NOT ZOMBIE?

As I stepped out of the car, they questioned me about why I was following them. I told them I was looking for my family.

They all laughed at me for a bit, then told me that everyone they encountered was either zombies or dead.

I got scared, like what everyone would react to hearing that. But rather than killing me on the spot, they surprisingly offered me a job.

Clean up the houses, they told me. All I had to do was hose down all the blood stains back in the village, and they would help me find my family.

I showed them the picture of my family, and they let me go back into the car.

Driving back to the village, I started hosing the entire village. Just shoot water at every single place, no matter if it is clean or not.

After I finished hosing the village, I waited. I stayed in the village waiting for their response.

Days turn into weeks. Weeks turned into months, months turned into years. There was no response from anyone at all.

I started to get a little desperate. I told myself, maybe they were just playing with me. Maybe they never intended to find my family.

I drove to the same place every day. But no one was there. The old semi-trucks were still abandoned on the road for a whole year.

Just as I thought, maybe I should just end it all, a man showed up in a semi-truck. The new semi-truck that drove off with the batch of zombies.

I immediately approached the man and asked him, only to get a response that my parents and kid had all died in an experiment.

He told me they couldn’t cure them. It was a complete failure. In my head, I was in complete despair.

There was no purpose to live anymore... Until the man pulled up the trailer, revealing a familiar-looking woman sitting in a chair.

It was my wife!

She was tied down to a chair, unconscious. I couldn’t believe it. She was still alive! I tried to run up to her, only to have the man pull me back.

The man warned me that the woman sitting there was a zombie. My heart dropped. I couldn’t believe his words.

She looked almost perfectly fine. I tried to convince myself that the man had told me a lie. There was no way a zombie would sit there so calmly.

I chose to ignore his advice completely, pushing him aside and running up to her, hugging her as she stared back at me in silence.

The man’s face was shocked, but he didn’t stop me. He let me untie her from the chair and watched me carry her out of the trailer.

I thanked him for upholding his side of the bargain. Just as I helped my wife back into my car, the man mysteriously handed me a brand new phone and a gun.

He told me to call him if anything went wrong. I threw that warning aside and went back into the car.

As I started driving back towards the village, my mind suddenly started to notice how quiet my wife was.

She didn’t say a single word back. Her eyes were red and her skin was way too pale compared to what she usually looks like.

Nothing would cause her to react. I even had to help her put on her seatbelt as she just sat there, looking out the window with no emotion.

At that exact moment, my mind was starting to realize... Maybe the man was right. But my heart still told me no zombie would sit next to a human like this.

---

"Your wife is 100% a zombie, isn’t she?"

Major Lan interrupted his story as he began to realize the man in front of him might just be delusional, or even insane.

"She is not a zombie. If she really is a zombie, how could I still be alive? Why would she sit there and not hurt me?"

Wen Zhang’s point made him fall into silence. If Wen Zhang’s story was really true, he was right that a zombie should have killed him a long time ago.

"You said it yourself. Her eyes are all red and her skin is all pale. What kind of human just sits there and does nothing?"

"Oh. No. She didn’t just sit there and do nothing... Major Lan, you notice something on your neck at all?"

As Major Lan looked down for a second, he suddenly could see what seemed to be a transparent claw right below his chin.

Something sharp was pressed up against his neck. Ready to kill him on the spot if he moves a single muscle.

"Wen Zhang, what’s this for?" Major Lan asked coldly as he put his pistol back into the holster.

"I should be the one asking you, Major Lan. You’re the one who pulled the gun on me first."

"I sincerely apologize for my mistake... Now, can you tell your wife to move that thing away from my neck?"

"I don’t trust you, Major Lan. I don’t trust you a single bit. I’m afraid you’re going to pull the gun on me if we let you go."

"Well, then we can stand here all day... Unless you want to kill me and get put on the most wanted list."

Seeing Major Lan refusing to compromise, Wen Zhang’s face flinched a little before raising his hand a little.

Within seconds, the cold touch was removed from the neck, allowing Major Lan to breathe as he was genuinely scared the whole time.

"If you really want to, I can give you a car to drive out and leave this place. I’ll just pretend I haven’t seen anything."

"That’s not what I wanted."

Wen Zhang’s rejection surprised him a little, but Major Lan didn’t give him another offer as he waited patiently for him to continue.

"I heard you guys have a lab... I want to find a cure to help my wife."

"A cure? I thought you said your wife isn’t a zombie." Major Lan asked in confusion.

"She’s... She’s not a zombie. But she isn’t a human... I know you might think I’m delusional, but she’s a separate race from zombie."

Major Lan stood in silence as he couldn’t really respond with an answer. He wanted to say it just sounded ridiculous.

But knowing his life was still on the line, he only let out a small sigh. Getting ready to speak up about the reality Wen Zhang faced.

"If you really wanted to know what your wife is exactly, I think I might just know what kind of... living being she is."

"What is it?"

"She’s... She’s a mutant."

"A mutant?"

Seeing Wen Zhang’s face looking all confused, Major Lan took a step back before pointing his finger towards the thing blocking the wind next to him.

"Do you mind telling your wife to reveal herself?"

As Wen Zhang snapped his finger, a pale woman appeared right out of thin air, standing fully naked with extremely sharp fingernails.

"Ahem, sorry about that."

He quickly ran in front of her, taking off his shirt before putting it over her body as she stood still, looking back at the two with her head slightly tilted.

"Yep, I can definitely confirm she’s a zombie... She reminds me of those invisible zombies—Ahem, I mean invisible mutants that we had encountered in the past."

"What’s the difference between a zombie and a mutant?" Wen Zhang curiously asked, not minding Major Lan’s mistake.

"A zombie can infect someone and has no special ability. A mutant can’t infect humans, but they usually have special abilities and..."

"And what?"

"They usually are bloodthirsty in killing humans."

"She hasn’t killed a single soul ever since she was with me. She’s clearly not a zombie or a mutant then."

Seeing Wen Zhang already drawing his own conclusion, Major Lan shook his head, signalling him to calm down.

"I said usually... It’s not always true."

Major Lan paused for a second, looking over the balcony before turning back over to him.

"I can’t confirm this exactly, but there had been rumors in the military that our commander found some mutants who can even talk to humans."

"Talk to a human?"

Wen Zhang looked completely shocked as he couldn’t believe his ears, but he quickly recovered his cool as he got a little curious.

"Who’s this commander you’re talking about?"

"The commander in chief... He’s probably the only person I know who can help you with this realistically."

"How can I meet him?" Wen Zhang asked, his face filled with a hint of impatience as his voice got a little louder.

"Meet him? I haven’t even seen him since April... I can try my best to help you and your wife get in a call with the General instead."

"Will he help me get in contact with the commander in chief?"

"If he can’t do it. Then no one else can do it... But I have one condition that I need you to fulfill for me."

"What is it?" Wen Zhang asked, his face looking much more willing to accept anything from him as the tension eased from his face.

"What happened to my missing soldier?"