​​Chapter 01

am Dai Mei, 27 years old, currently serving as the Safety and Fire Manager at a large warehouse supermarket.

When the air raid siren sounded over City X, I was in the supermarket's surveillance room.

Over the past two days, City X had plunged into a frenzy of panic buying. To prevent stampedes and hoarding, the supermarket had implemented crowd control and purchase limits. Despite these measures, on-site stampedes occurred frequently.

Who could have predicted that the H virus from across the ocean would arrive so rapidly?

On the surveillance monitors, dozens of zombies were already swarming the ground parking lot.

As my gaze swept over the checkout counters, my boyfriend Qiu Ze's panicked face flashed by.

"Damn it, what a mess!"

grabbed my riot baton and charged into the store.

The crowd was in chaos—screaming, crying, and waves of people trampling over each other. The supermarket’s entrances and exits were jammed beyond capacity.

spotted him! I leaped onto the checkout counter and grabbed his collar, dragging him toward me.

"Dai Mei?! Quick! Run!"

Qiu Ze screamed at me, his hand tightly gripping a girl beside him.

There was no time to overthink it. With one hand, I forcefully fended off charging customers using the riot baton; with the other, I yanked him toward the store's interior.

"It’s dangerous outside! Follow me!"

"Have you gone mad?!"

Qiu Ze shoved me away in a panic, pulling the frightened girl close. The intimacy made me freeze for a split second.

"Qiu Ze! Zombies have broken into the parking lot! If you want to live, follow me!"

He paled, terrified by my words, and scrambled to grasp my hand.

"Wh-Where to?"

had no time to explain. With the riot baton, I carved a path forward.

bespectacled man sprinted over and shouted:

"Sister Dai! Can I go with you?"

It was Xiao Chu, a sales promoter. Seeing me nod, he immediately fell in step beside me.

led them to the General Management Office, quickly bolted the security door, and spun around to find several others already inside.

There sat Chairwoman Li Mingzhu, General Manager Xing Dong, Secretary Lin Ling, Security Manager Zhao Kai, Cleaning Auntie Zhou, and two suppliers—one stout, one lean.

Including me, Xiao Chu, Qiu Ze, and that girl, we were ten in total.

"Barricade the door! Now!"

directed everyone to reinforce the door with filing cabinets while Lin Ling and Auntie Zhou pulled down the blinds entirely.

Chairwoman Li was approaching fifty, with a cool and aloof aura. Her right foot was badly bruised from being trampled by customers, leaving her unable to bear weight. As I assessed her injury, the girl Qiu Ze brought began wailing:

"Zezegogo, I'm so scared! I want to go home!"

Her baby voice made my stomach turn.

"Shut up!"

My voice was icy. "Draw the zombies here, and none of us will survive!"

Terrified, she immediately buried herself in Qiu Ze’s arms, widening her doe-like eyes at me as if I were a demon.

"Dai Mei, Ruan Tingting is my junior. Don’t frighten her."

Qiu Ze shielded her like a hero.

Ruan Tingting? Qiu Ze’s unreachable crush.

So what did that make me?

Just days ago, he’d been cooing "baby," yet now he casts me aside for her?

"So Qiu Ze, are you breaking up with me?"

"No, no, not really."

Qiu Ze pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses; his thin lips trembled slightly:

"This… can we talk about it later?"

‘Later.’ What an answer.

His evasion is the answer.

"Hah. Don’t bother—I’m dumping you."

Even if I still loved that scoundrel’s charming facade, it was time to cut ties—though my heart felt gnawed by ants.

"Dai Mei, I didn’t mean it that way."

"Get out."

Qiu Ze blanched, retorting that I had dragged him here—he’d leave once the crowd thinned.

didn’t utter another word.

This was survival. No time to waste on trash.

rushed to the window, peering through the blinds into the parking lot.

Zombies lurched with blood-drenched jaws, tearing into flesh as faces contorted with terror and despair.

The sight chilled the marrow.

The apocalypse—had come.