Back home, Ike said nothing, and Yingli did not ask anything.

She heated some hot water and brought out a clean set of clothes. Ike changed casually. The clothes that were covered in blood when they came out had been disposed of by Yingli. Anna had been staring at the window for some time.

In the street below, the water ran deep.

The narrow lane flowed with a gurgling stream, and with a broom poking out, the color of the rain darkened in the night.

Then Tom pulled the woman's body out through the door, the dark rain flowing away under the body in two colors.

Her body was left in the water outside the convenience store.

"I'm a little sleepy. Going to take some rest," Ike said to Anna and Yingli. The two women looked at him warily, and Anna's eyes were red.

"It's all right," Ike said to her.

"Negan and I will go down to the police station in the morning, but I don't think they'll have time for this. If everything goes well, we'll be back this afternoon."

No big deal.

The death of a woman in a home invasion by a teenager in self-defense is, of course, nothing compared to the disaster in this city.

"OK," Yingli said. "Go and take some rest." She didn't ask many questions. Ike was tired now, and he didn't feel relaxed until he got to bed.

But he thought he could fall asleep as soon as he touched the bed, and the result was he became more awake.

Did the killing cause him some kind of psychological discomfort? Ike went over all the details of what had happened.

Ike sat up, pulled a cigarette from the nightstand, lit it, took a puff, and found himself unimpressed once again.

He went out, leaned against the head of the bed, and stared into space. The room was dark, the walls and the ceiling was white.

There was a diamond-shaped ceiling lamp, and it had a pattern of overlapping pink, purple, and blue. There were a few inconspicuous black spots on the lamp.

They looked like the bodies of some tiny flying insects.

On the left was a closet with two doors, and across from it was a desk with a set of high-quality computers that he had saved up to buy.

He wondered if he could turn it back on after taking a call.

Ike woke up the next afternoon.

Anna pulled a small, repurposed leather bag out of her bedroom, slightly bigger than a palm, made of two pieces of canvas stitched together with a simple needle and thread.

It also had her stamp, "A flower", although it looked incomplete.

Anna told Ike, "In this bag, I've got band-aids, masks, cold medicine, headache medicine, and a bottle of alcohol spray. Wrap everything in plastic wrap to keep it safe from water, in case you need it. And I think you'd better have a bottle of mineral water and a compressed biscuit in your bag, so if you get stuck somewhere, it'll last you at least two or three days."

She rambled on like an old lady, stuffing mineral water into Ike's backpack as she spoke. The little thing she had transformed into a fanny pack was hanging around Ike's waist. "So this is the legendary EDC."

Anna looked at the fanny pack and touched her chin with a sense of accomplishment. Ike mentioned it to her, and she remembered.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

"It should be." Ike responded.

Anna found a handmade calendar out of nowhere.

"Today is October 29th, it's already afternoon. If you don't go now, the police station will close." Ike laughed and said, "They should be too busy to stand on their feet. There is no such thing as off work."

"Who knows? Maybe I'm more relaxed than you think. I'm asleep." Anna thinks cops are normal people. They don't always work.

Ike put Backpack on a raincoat, and ready to go out, Ike said hello to Yingli.

"Be careful on the road." Having washed the dishes with filtered rainwater, Yingli, who was simply disinfecting the tableware with alcohol spray, turned her head and replied.

"Ok, I'm leaving." Ike responded.

Ike went downstairs and headed out to the police station with Negan and Tom, who had been waiting for him, and Regus, who had gotten the news this morning.

Regus didn't get the news until this morning.

But Regus was so embarrassed that he couldn't hear everything that had happened last night. He never thought Ike would kill himself over this...

But he didn't say much. He knew Ike needed to process it himself.

Four people braved the pouring rain, walking on the road with the waves.

The police station was some distance from the street, and there were more people on the roads than usual. Many families were on the verge of collapse, and not everyone was as lucky as Ike.

He had plenty of cash, a survivalist friend, and a well-placed reminder that he had stocked up on supplies.

Many families didn't even recognize the need to stockpile supplies until food relief was distributed.

So when they went out to buy things again, they found that they were short of cash and that the things in the store were almost sold out.

For now, convenience stores and shopping malls on the street are mostly closed. They didn't dare sell anymore, afraid of being robbed.

At the end of South Street, Ike suddenly stopped. Tom noticed Ike and asked. "What's the matter?"

Then they all followed Ike's line of sight to the entrance of a small shopping mall at the intersection. There were four or five bodies sprawled there.

The shutter doors that should have been closed were damaged, and the iron holes could have accommodated two or three people.

Looking through the dark hole, though it was so dark that you could hardly see anything.

But everyone knew it must have been empty.

The bodies lay in front of the door, and the rain had washed away the stain so that no trace could be seen.

But their eyes seemed to be able to travel through time, and the blood was visible. Looks like they're still there.

Ike, Regus, Negan, and Tom walked down the street in search of a drugstore. Their goal was to find some medicine.

"To his surprise, Ike ran into the woman he met earlier at the mall who asked him for a loan. Her eyes looked dull, and her skin was pale," Ike said.

"Do you know them?" Regus's voice was cold. Ike shook his head. "Only once."

"Let's go," Ike said.

The crowd moved on with heavy hearts.

If the last time they went out they had found the cruelty of the city, and now they saw it again, it was completely different. The dilapidated streets, the closed doors of the shops, the watchful, inquisitive eyes hiding behind the security nets, the sound of the rain and running water in their ears, the bodies piled up in the corners of the city—everything was so harsh and surprisingly strange.

There was a shout coming from the alley. Regus subconsciously wanted to see what was going on but was pulled away by Negan, and the four walked hurriedly away from there.

"Let's mind our own business," Negan said. Regus squeezed his fist and remained silent.

"Be careful not to go down the alley," Ike said. "The narrow lane and the corner make it easy to hide people, and some houses are in a special position. If someone throws a stone from above, it may hit them. The other roads are still safe."

At the police station, there were hundreds of people inside and outside. They had not yet arrived and heard the noise here, guessing that the police must not be doing very well. But when they arrived, they were still surprised by the scene here. Although the sliding chain door of the doorway is closed, the people who enter and exit do not take it seriously. There is no one on duty in the security booth, and the entrance and exit valves are inoperative.

The scene inside the hall was chaotic, with people both inside and outside shouting, police sirens blaring, whistles blowing, and rain adding to the cacophony.

"A place to live? Find a hotel, find a B&B, or even find a big shopping mall for a few days. You won't be of any use here causing trouble with me!" said a police officer to the crowd.

"If you have no money, go to the bank! Do we have any money here? Can I send you money? I have no money of my own!" another police officer also said helplessly.

"The report, the registration form is over there. Fill it out yourself. Write down your address and phone number. We'll call you one by one! Insufficient police force! How many times do I have to say there's not enough police?! A dead body? Dispose of the body yourself! Take it to the hospital! You have this time, you might as well go to the bank and queue up to withdraw money! Get out of my way! I don't know how many times I've told you! All of you, get in there and squat! Stay at home! Don't go out!" the policeman shouted over a loudspeaker.