His sister had given him the precise location of where she lived, including photos. He, on the other end, sent her some money and a list of what he recommanded she should take. He hoped she was as ready as possible. Li Jun and Luo Ming didn't contact him, except for a small text telling him he was in trouble for his absences.

The last 3 days had been quite trying and tiring for him. It was hard to gather the right material and get in a good spot to perform the modification without attracting the attention of the authorities. He had slept 5h per day for the first 2 days, and only on the previous night did he get to sleep a full 8 hours. He had to break in a few locations, sometimes failing to be discreet and having to run away. Still, he managed to finish his vehicle. He even got himself some good medical equipment: a monitoring machine, a defibrilator, a scanner, a breathing machine, a blood a.n.a.lyser, and some examination and surgery tools.

Jiang Lius.h.i.+ was ready to go, but he didn't move yet. The Sta.r.s.eed had warned him that, once the incubation period was over, the mutation would start suddenly. If he was driving at that time, he could very well crash and get himself stuck or seriously injure himself. That was without counting on the other people on the roads, and how eye-catching his vehicle was. It was better to wait until after the crisis started to move.

As he was waiting, his phone rang, and when he checked the id of the caller, he saw it was Li Yuxin. He though something had happened to her and was quick to answer, mildly panicking.

"Yuxin! What's going on? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Jiang Lius.h.i.+, I am really sorry. I'll be leaving soon," Li Yuxin regretfully said.

"Leave? Do you have any idea of what's going to happen?" he asked, thinking of the roads about to be filled with infected.

"I'm sorry. Jiang Lius.h.i.+, you should listen carefully to what I'm about to say. You were right about something happening. The end of the world is coming, I just learned about it today. The car is waiting outside, so I must leave."

"Wait. WAIT! When the outbreak start, you can't be sure that person next to you won't turn bad! And if you're driving when that happens, you may cras.h.!.+"

"I understand, but I'll be fine. We have an escort. Go to the North high-speed entrance. The army is there, when you reach them, they should take you to the Shenhai Island!" Li Yuxin said hastily in a low voice.

"I can't. I'm going to get my sister in Nanjing City. I had her prepare for the worst a few days ago. I wish you good luck Yuxin. I hope to see you again at Shenhai."

Suddenly, loud voices could be heard from the other end of the phone. Li Yuxin had no other choice but to hurry.

"Thank you, Jiang Lius.h.i.+. I wish to see you there as well. Goodbye."

Lius.h.i.+ stared at the phone even though Yuxin had already hung up. He was once more touched by her actions, telling him about something that was obviously supposed to be kept under warp. Also, the army had started evacuating. The scientist just didn't have enought time to developp something to counter the super-virus, they couldn't save mankind. The only thing they could do was save the elites to rebuild later. The establishment of "Safe Island" all over the world could ensure that humankind would continue to exist, and Shenhai Island was one of them.

Shortly after his talk with Li Yuxin, all over the world, people began to change one after the other.

It started with a flushed face, cold sweat. Those near them would wonder if everything was alright, and some time later they would feel the same bout of weakness. It would look like it was just a dizzy spell, until a few hours later. People would feel the symptoms of a syncope, and it would escalate. Headaches. Illusions. Twitching. Nosebleeds. Irregular heartbeats. There were slight differences in how everyone was affected. But without exception, everyone had a very painful experience, especially to those who could not overcome the virus infection. They felt an excruciating pain! A lot of people screamed, the sound seemed to come directly from their lungs. It wasn't a sound humans could make, but it sounded like roar of a beast!

Jiang Lius.h.i.+ was not spared, as he gripped the steering wheel of his Doomsday Ride tightly, teeth clenched as he tried to bear the pain. But he collapsedto the side, on top of his weapon harness. Thankfully, the blades were covered and he had his biker gear. He had a seizure and nearly bit his tongue of.

On the highways, vehicles crashed one after the other. Hundreds of thousands of vehicles were involved in pileups, not only in highways, but also on roads with speed limit above 50km/h. Many drivers instantly died, and some instinctively stepped on the brakes while they were in the pain. In the towns and cities, in all kinds of factories, frequent accidents happened because people had instantly convulsions and loss of consciousness. There were explosions here and there, fires started one after the other, and dense black smoke started covering the sky. Nearly all of the aircrafts that happened to be in the sky at that time crashed. Some were lucky because the auto-pilot was engaged and remained as such, and the pilots (and copilots for some) didn't turn.

Jiang Lius.h.i.+ was in a state of confusion when he woke up. He could hear automatic fire alarms and screams everywhere around him without clearly realising why. Being a.s.saulted by illusions of his childhood didn't help. Before he regained control of himself, the last thing he saw were the smiling faces of Zhuying and Yuxin, gazing lovingly at him.

He checked himself first, and noticed he was drenched in sweat, and his body was still a bit numb. Since he trashed around on top of his weapon harness, he bruised his side a little. When he gazed outside, his heart sank. He finally registered the sounds he heard, and there was a thick mist in the air and the sky was dark despite the time being only 3.50 pm. He had been unconscious for 1 hour, 1 hour had pa.s.sed since the start of the outbreak. He may have been prepared for it, but actually experiencing it was sobering and terrifying.

"... I guess this is it now. The previous era has come to an end. The fight for survival has started."

With that said, he took a deep breath, ignited the engine of his truck, activated the co-pilot and security programs, and departed.

Jiang Lius.h.i.+ may have known how to drive a small car, but driving this truck was something else. If not for his co-pilot program and advice from the Sta.r.s.eed, he would have crashed several times. Once he got on a large enough road, he could better contemplate how much damage the outbreak caused.

It was also the moment he discovered what happened to the humans that couldn't handle the mutation started by the super-virus. Bloodshot eyes, b.l.o.o.d.y teeth with sharp fangs, sickly skin. Some were mutilated, clearly infected by what he would come to call the "original" zombies, while he would call the victims "infected" zombies.

The moment they noticed the truck, they rushed toward it wildly. Jiang Lius.h.i.+ wasn't worried. He made his Doomsday Ride to be tough enough to whistand crashes with other vehicles, and the gla.s.ses from the windows and winds.h.i.+eld were reinforced. Still, he was startled by the banging sound on the body of his truck. After all, it was his first time being attacked by zombies, during the apocalypse.

Furthermore, unlike previous zombie movies, they weren't slow. Not at all. He didn't want to test if he could outrun them on open ground. They could also jump, as they tried to get through the door windows. After the first few seconds, he averted his gaze. Watching the faces of the zombies was quite unerving.

He stepped on the accelerator, and the vehicle responded swiftly, completly unlike what was expected from something of that size. He had to go somewhere, and no time to waste.