ตอน 24: A Classmate's Wedding
"Is it really here?!"
Howard gave Miranda a look. Understanding his cue, Miranda used both hands to forcefully, yet slowly, slide open the massive screen. At the same time, Howard raised his sword 'Cold Moon' and ferociously chopped forward.
"Ah!" A man's terrified scream could be heard. Howard quickly sheathed his sword and darted to one side. Miranda swiftly retracted her nails. Behind the screen, the restaurant appeared similar to this side, littered with zombie corpses but no monsters in sight.
A man in a suit, terrified, clutched his head with both hands, holding a dinner knife. This kind of knife might be fine for slicing steak, but slicing zombies? Surely you must be joking!
"Don't kill me, I'm not a zombie, don't kill me!"
The man cried out in panic. Yet, fearing that his loud cries might attract zombies, he could only shriek in a pinched voice, sounding very strange—like a rooster being choked mid-crow.
"Stop shouting, it's unbearable!"
"We know you're not a zombie. Are you the only survivor here?"
Howard looked around to ensure the floor was secure, with no hidden spots for monsters, before he asked.
"No, ah, not just me!"
The man frantically stood up, accidentally knocking over a cup while steadying himself on the table. To the average person, the cup fell too suddenly to react. But in Howard's eyes, as the cup dropped, time seemed to slow, allowing him to clearly see its trajectory.
His own movements were incredibly quick, reacting even before the cup could hit the ground. Just as the cup was about to land, Howard caught it with his foot and gently tossed it back onto the table.
"What I mean is, I'm the only one on this floor, but there are other survivors upstairs!"
The man was startled by Howard's agile and quick movements and quickly stood up to explain. When he realized that it was Howard who was asking him, his eyes lit up, and he exclaimed excitedly, "Howard? Is that you? Howard? It's me, Isaiah!"
"Isaiah? Isaiah from the high school team?" Howard was taken aback when he heard the name. He had not expected to encounter a classmate here! "Oh, it's great to see you're alive and well, I didn't expect to see you here!"
"It looks like you're doing well, already a doctor, huh? Impressive!" Isaiah noticed Howard's white lab coat and quickly praised him. Setting aside other things, the mere fact that Howard could freely move around a floor with monsters showed his bravery and was worth getting on his good side.
"How come you're here? Are the other survivors also from our high school?" Howard gave a noncommittal smile and then asked.
"Today is Cyril's wedding from class three. I was on the school basketball team with him, so he asked me to be his best man!" "Who knew that halfway through the wedding, a zombie outbreak would occur? The scene was terribly gruesome!" Isaiah recalled the bloody scene at the wedding, where what began as polite interactions suddenly turned into biting and gnawing at each other, sending chills down his spine.
"Cyril? Is that the Cyril who won first prize with 'My District Governor Father'?" "Yes, that's him, the captain of the basketball team. You remember him?"
"I only remember him because of that article, otherwise I wouldn't know him well!" Howard laughed and waved his hand. Now, with the apocalypse and zombies erupting, he wondered if Cyril's district governor father could still help him.
"Is he still alive?"
"He is, along with the bride and a few bridesmaids. Everyone is up in the VIP box area on the fifth floor, where it's safer."
"If it's so safe there, why did you come down here?" At this question, Isaiah's face reddened, and he scratched his head, "At the time, the VIP area hadn't been opened to guests, so there were no zombies—very safe."
"But no guests meant no food. The boxes were completely empty, and everyone was starving, almost skin and bones. So, I volunteered to come out and look for food!"
"Who knew that the food on the tables would be contaminated with zombie blood. Even the food that wasn't contaminated had been out all day in the heat and had spoiled; it wasn't edible."
"All I found were a few unopened bottles of drinks!" Isaiah said, pulling a plastic bag containing seven or eight drink bottles from under the table.
"You're not telling the whole truth!" Howard squinted at Isaiah, saying each word deliberately. Isaiah wasn't known for being so altruistic, especially considering, by his own account, there were quite a few people trapped upstairs. With so many close to starving, they'd just send one person out for food?
"That's impossible!"
"Being a doctor really is different, huh? You saw right through me!" "Actually, it was my girlfriend Blossom who asked me to go out and find some food. After all, it's only natural for a man to protect his woman, right?" Isaiah said sheepishly.
"It's normal for a man to protect his woman, but…" Howard was about to say, if Blossom needed food, why didn't she come out with you? Just waiting in the box? That doesn't quite add up!
However, Howard held back his words when he saw Isaiah's embarrassment and decided not to rub salt into the wound.
"I have some food here; you can take it back to make do!" Howard said, pretending to rummage through Miranda's bag for a while, then directly used 15 food points to conjure up two unwrapped sausages, which he stuffed into Isaiah's plastic bag.
"These are from the deli's fridge, absolutely safe. If you trust me, take them and eat!" "Of course, I trust you! How could I not? Howard, I didn't realize before, but you're truly a stand-up guy, no wonder you've got such a beautiful wife!" Isaiah was of course reassured by the sausages Howard took out of the bag.
With resources scarce and in short supply these days, who would bother to keep contaminated sausages in their bag? The bag itself would be useless, and who would keep carrying it around?!
Now he could finally go back and report to Blossom. Just thinking about getting his girlfriend's approval filled Isaiah with strength.
"Since I'm here, I might as well go up and see the classmates!" Howard said.
"Great, that would be wonderful. They'd be thrilled to know you're in the same hotel!" "But be careful, there's a monster in this building, very frightening and elusive."
"And there was an explosion outside just now, pretty scary. You two should just stay with me in the VIP area and wait for military rescue. Definitely don't wander around!" Isaiah thought Howard and Miranda were just dining in the buffet area and had luckily survived.
He couldn't imagine that these two had come from two blocks away, cutting through zombies all the way here.
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