Chapter Thirty: Prophecy

“You mean Zhang Yongming saw all of this?” Zhao Qiang sat in the front passenger seat of the armored van, staring at Wei Tao, who was driving.

“Only a few fragments,” Wei Tao replied coldly.

“And you believed him just like that?” Zhao Qiang was confused. How could Zhang Yongming, who was in the supermarket, have seen everything that happened at the hospital?

Wei Tao said, “As soon as you left, Zhang Yongming said he saw the barricade made of corpses, and the zombies surrounding you on the sixth floor of the outpatient building. At first, I thought he was hallucinating. But last night, Zhang Yongming said he saw you fighting the Crusher and the zombie hounds alone. This morning, when you still hadn't returned, I got worried and came over to check.”

“So you found out everything Zhang Yongming described was true, is that it?” Zhao Qiang understood what had happened and was even more astonished by Zhang Yongming's prophetic abilities. Could this be the direction of Zhang Yongming's mutation?

Wei Tao nodded, but didn't answer Zhao Qiang directly. In his mind, if something existed, it had to be reasonable. But Zhao Qiang was different; he liked to get to the bottom of things. Predictive abilities were, even in fantasy novels, a rare and advanced skill possessed by only a few. And now, someone in their own group had this power, though it was still unclear if it could foresee far into the future.

With a mind full of questions, the group finally returned to the supermarket. Without stopping to rest, everyone was eager to know what had happened to them. They crowded around Mei Qiu, bombarding her with questions about the results of her experiments.

Mei Qiu was just an ordinary surgeon. Though she had studied related subjects in medical school, hematology was not her specialty. After collecting her thoughts, she finally gave her conclusions.

The issue everyone cared about most was their physical recovery abilities. Mei Qiu had analyzed everyone's blood, including Zhang Yongming's. The results were bizarre: current medical equipment detected nothing abnormal in the blood, but DNA analysis identified it as an unknown species. At first, Mei Qiu thought the instruments were malfunctioning, but after comparing multiple samples and those already in the lab, she had to rule out equipment error.

Meanwhile, Mei Qiu had also analyzed zombie blood and saliva samples they had collected before. Previously, the group thought zombies infected humans through viruses in their saliva or blood, but in the lab, no trace of any virus or bacteria could be found in any sample.

“Dr. Mei, are you saying that all we've proved with this operation is that we’re no longer human?” Cai Jiashu interrupted, dazed. After all their efforts, the conclusion was just that they were no longer human. He looked at his hands in disbelief. If not human, then what was he?

“Cai!” Zhao Qiang pulled the bewildered Cai Jiashu back to reality. “It doesn't matter if we're human or not. What matters is that we're still alive! Please, Dr. Mei, go on.”

“Time was short, so I could only do these experiments. The hospital equipment wasn’t enough for deeper research,” Mei Qiu said, clearly troubled by the results. “I found a strange component in zombie saliva. When I mixed it with the survivors' blood samples, the fresh blood quickly turned semi-coagulated, just like zombie blood. I believe this explains why being bitten by a zombie leads to infection.”

“Is there any way to avoid infection?” Zhao Qiang asked.

“Once this substance enters the bloodstream, the process is irreversible. It isn’t a bacterium or a virus, so antibiotics are useless, and the body cannot develop antibodies against it.”

“So once you’re bitten by a zombie, there’s no hope?” Cai Jiashu pressed.

Mei Qiu nodded. “In theory, yes. If we can find better equipment in the future, maybe we’ll discover a solution.”

“If there’s still hope, let’s set it aside for now,” Zhao Qiang said. If a solution couldn't be found immediately, it was better to wait for the right moment. That was the way he handled things. More urgent now was to summarize the battle. Under Wei Tao’s training, Zhao Qiang had developed this habit. After a few words to calm everyone, he asked, “Cai, what do you think about this operation?”

Cai Jiashu thought for a moment, then shook his head. “Doesn’t seem any different to me.” He was a man who cared only about fighting; he paid no attention to anything else.

It was Wei Tao, the newcomer, who noticed something different. “In the past, when we fought zombies, all of them would swarm us. Even if the road was blocked, they wouldn’t scatter. But this time was different. When I arrived, there was no sign of a large zombie gathering. I almost thought you’d already left the hospital.”

Zhao Qiang nodded, picking up the thread. “That’s right. Our actions this time weren’t much different from usual, but the zombies behaved completely differently. Their assault was highly organized.”

A silence fell. Everyone knew the zombies had set an almost perfect trap this time. It seemed to have begun the moment they left the supermarket. The zombies didn’t attack the departing vehicles, but let them enter the hospital. Shortly after they arrived, the assault began. First, a tidal wave of zombies herded them into a confined space. After that, the regular zombies withdrew, which was why everyone survived the night. The calm made them drop their guard, but the real killers—the Crusher and the zombie hounds—were lying in wait. If Zhao Qiang hadn’t insisted on scouting ahead, they would all have perished in vain.

“Zhang, do you have any suggestions?” Zhao Qiang finally remembered Zhang Yongming, whose mysterious predictive abilities were still unexplained.

Lately, Zhang Yongming had been deeply frustrated. While everyone else was busy, he felt useless. He was becoming increasingly lethargic, his body weaker by the day, and he was plagued by inexplicable hallucinations. At first, they were just scattered images, but over the last couple of days, those fragments had started to form short sequences.

At first, Zhang Yongming thought they were mere hallucinations, so he never told anyone—not even his wife. But then he noticed the scenes he thought were illusions kept coming true. He wanted to tell the others, but by then, Zhao Qiang and the rest had already set out for the hospital.

With each prediction, Zhang Yongming felt his body grow weaker. He could sense it: every time he foresaw something, he paid a price in vitality. But he didn’t want to burden the others with this knowledge. Forcing himself to stay alert, he said, “I’m not sure. But I can sense there’s a zombie nearby who’s a lot like me.”