We entered a 7-ELEVEN convenience store and found a cardboard box under a pile of disheveled shelves. Inside were biscuits, chocolates, and milk.

They were probably expired food that the supermarket hadn't had time to deal with.

The elevator wasn't working, so I followed the child and climbed twenty flights of stairs to reach his home.

There were no signs of anyone living on this floor.

The end of the corridor was blocked by stacked tables and cabinets, and the child disappeared into the bottom cabinet.

I followed and crawled in, only to discover a door with a hole behind the cabinet.

After I entered, the child blocked the hole with a wooden board.

"Mom, I'm back."

He ran to the bedroom with biscuits in his arms, but stopped at the door.

"Mom, I found biscuits. Hurry up and eat."

"I brought a big sister back with me. She said she has seen Dad. Dad went to eliminate monsters."

There was heavy breathing coming from under the blanket, and a rotten smell filled the room, similar to that of a zombie.

I crouched down and whispered next to the child, "Is your mom under the blanket?"

"Yes, she has a cold and can't speak."

It's probably not just a common cold.

"You find a place to hide first, and I will ask your mom to do a zombie makeup for me."

The child entered another room holding the chocolate.

I picked up a broken mop on the floor and stood one meter away from the bed, lifting the blanket.

What was hidden under the blanket could no longer be called a person.

Her hair fell out, her skin was rotting, and a pair of crimson eyes were staring at me.

The child's mother had turned into a zombie.

I turned around to escape, but the zombie behind me jumped out one word at a time, "Take, Ch-En, and go."

Just like her husband, she was still conscious.

"I, will, help, you, put, on, makeup, hide, from, zombies, you, take, Ch-En, and go."

The zombie woman mechanically got up from the bed, picked up foundation and blush, and walked towards the kitchen.

She picked up a kitchen knife, cut a piece of rotten flesh from her body, and mixed it with foundation and blush.

Even though I had seen plenty of decomposed corpses in the past few days, I couldn't bear the scene before me.

So, it was the scent of Ch-En's similar blood that made those few low-intelligence zombies leave.

"Aren't you afraid that when I have no food to eat, I will eat his flesh and drink his blood?"

"I, have, no, choice."

From her broken voice, I heard the despair and helplessness of a mother.

"I will help you find release and bury you and your husband together."

"Tha-nk, you."

My heroic lie fooled a child, but it couldn't deceive a wife.