Chapter 5 – Hunger

When they were halfway home, Wen QingLing returned his parents’ awareness back to them.

Jiang Lan chattered the entire way.

Wen QingLing was silent the entire way.

He was pondering over a question, if he was a “leader”, then what were his parents?

He already made them try, but they were unable to control the zombie horde. He assumed his parents were the same as ordinary people, they had consciousness, emotions, could talk, could think, they were just stronger and faster. These all weren’t problems, the biggest problem was: they would revert back to their zombie instincts the moment they encountered live humans.

This was extremely dangerous, this wasn’t the same as he had imagined.

He didn’t want his parents to become zombies with consciousness and their strength comparable to evolved zombies, but still monsters that had to eat humans!

Wen Zheng thought more than Jiang Lan, he also understood that he would lose control the moment he saw a human and would become a mindless monster that only knew how to eat.

Wen QingLing silently put away the medical supplies and drugs they had brought back before asking them, “Are you very hungry?”

Jiang Lan and Wen Zheng both looked at him, they didn’t say anything.

They truly were hungry, extremely hungry. When humans were hungry, they could endure it, but their hunger wasn’t within the realm of endurance. They would lose their minds and live only to eat.

Wen QingLing fetched his backpack. “Want to eat blood anemones?”

Two pairs of eyes stared at the blood anemone, they clearly wanted to eat them, but they shook their heads.

Wen QingLing said, “If blood anemones can take care of your hunger, I can help you grow them, but you can’t eat humans. Once you’ve got a taste for human flesh and blood, you will really become mindless zombies. We need to resist our hunger and instincts, you’re hungry, I’m also hungry, but I can hold it.”

Jiang Lan, “T-then, you eat the blood anemone.”

Wen QingLing shook his head. “It’s all bloody and gooey, I wouldn’t have the appetite to eat it.”

Jiang Lan, “T-then, should we try boiling it?”

Wen QingLing and Wen Zheng both looked at her.

Jiang Lan also reacted.

Wen QingLing, “We can try.”

When they were gathering medicine, they had also found crackers and instant noodles. Wen QingLing had eaten a bit and ended up vomiting until black spots appeared in his vision. It was more painful than ingesting poison. His body didn’t accept this type of food, so he could only continue starving.

He was unable to eat, his parents must also be in a similar condition.

If their bodies could only accept a carnivorous diet, then they could think of some ideas.

The first thing they needed to test was whether they could eat cooked food.

When Jiang Lan got home, she boiled a bowl-sized blood anemone. The scent that wafted out smelled heavenly, the three zombies couldn’t stop salivating.

The cooked blood anemone shrank quite a bit in size. The family split it into three portions and everyone also got a bowl of blood anemone soup to go along with their piece of the blood anemone.

Wen QingLing took the first bite, its taste was rich, the blood anemone’s texture was also quite crispy like jellyfish skin.

After the piece of blood anemone and soup was eaten, Wen QingLing finally felt full, there wasn’t the slightest bit of discomfort.

Jiang Lan and Wen Zheng also finished their portions, finally resolving the maddening sense of hunger.

Jiang Lan, “Cooked blood anemone tastes even better, where did you get it from? We can farm a few.”

When Wen QingLing explained the origins of the blood anemone, Jiang Lan and Wen Zheng both froze.

Wen QingLing, “If it needs blood as the culture medium, then it might not necessarily have to be my blood, we can also try animal blood.”

In this day and age, zombies ate humans, mutated plants and animals also ate humans. Humans would also eat them, of course, except the zombies.

Wen Zheng said, “I’ve been thinking whether our recovery was due to your blood or the blood anemone. If it’s your blood that is unique, then even if we use animal blood, we might not be able to grow blood anemones.”

Wen QingLing, “Let’s try it.”

The family of three each carried a knife, ropes, and bag. They drove to find mutated animals.

The whole South City was quiet, there was only their car engine sound. Such a loud commotion, but none of the zombies attacked them. This made the survivors who snuck into South City doubtful.

The outer city practically didn’t have anymore mutant animals, most of them had become the survivors’ food. They had to go towards the city center.

Their luck was quite good, they quickly encountered a mutated pig. Its whole body was pitch-black, it had two heads, and was significantly larger than an adult cow. The pig’s speed was very fast, Wen QingLing drove the car in pursuit. The mutated pig ran towards the Mound City’s city center.

When they were about to reach the city hall, Wen QingLing abruptly stopped the car. The fleeing pig also stopped, its hind legs trembled, retreating continuously.

“What’s…”

“Shhhh—!” Wen QingLing motioned for them to keep silent.

Not a single zombie was around them, it was very quiet.

A cleaver suddenly flew out from nowhere, instantly cutting off the mutated pig’s head. It’s blood spewed everywhere.

A sturdily built zombie slowly walked out, it was nearly two meters tall and had a potbelly, the flesh around its body was basically intact. It walked towards the mutated pig, picked up the cleaver on the ground, and looked in Wen QingLing’s direction.

Jiang Lan and Wen Zheng have never seen this kind of zombie before. The evolutionary pressure bore down on their heads, freezing them in place through fear.

“It’s a level one evolved life-form, ‘butcher’.”

The ‘butcher’ was built tall and sturdy, movements slow. Similar to humans, they like to use weapons, preferring a butcher’s knife or axe.

“Stay in the car, don’t come out,” Wen QingLing opened the door and stepped out. He stood face to face with the ugly and dangerous ‘butcher’.

Based on their levels, the status of a ‘leader’ was higher than a ‘butcher’. There was no reason for him to be afraid, the one who should be afraid is this ‘butcher’.

The ‘butcher’ didn’t approach, but it roared at Wen QingLing.

Wen QingLing felt that he had been slighted, he was a level six evolved life-form ‘leader’, but a mere level one ‘butcher’ dared to try to intimidate him? What was he? Dead?

Wen QingLing breathed in and let out a very intimidating zombie roar!

On roaring, who doesn’t know how?

The ‘butcher’ was silenced, intently watching Wen QingLing for a while, before trying to take the pig’s head. Wen QingLing didn’t stop him and the ‘butcher’ pitifully walked away with the pig head.

End of Chapter 5

THISBRO: Here are the first 5 chapters of Apocalypse Clinic! I’ll be leaving it here~
There’s a lot to look forward to: unconventional zombies, hybrids, a revenge plot, fluff, and the ML appears in chapter 8 ; )
The length of chapters is on the shorter side and the language isn’t hard to translate. Thank you for reading!