Chapter3
On the day the apocalypse arrived, the sunrise over the Pacific Ocean was breathtakingly beautiful.
I sat in the central control room of my private island bunker, a glass of Macallan single malt whisky on the rocks in hand. Before me stretched an entire wall of ultra-high-definition surveillance screens, connected to an encrypted military satellite network, displaying live footage of Los Angeles without any obstruction.
2:03 PM. The prophetic moment has finally arrived.
The once clear skies of California, as if infected by some unknown virus, quickly transformed from azure to a nauseating, dark, blood-red hue. Then, torrential rain lashed down on the bustling streets of Los Angeles.
But these were not ordinary water droplets; they were a crimson rain of blood, as if poured from hell.
On the screen, the piercing sound of air raid sirens wailed through the sky. The highly corrosive red acid rain relentlessly ravaged the city, instantly corroding the exteriors of luxury cars like thin paper, emitting pungent white smoke; pedestrians who had no time to escape screamed and rolled in the streets, their designer coats, and even the flesh beneath them, hissing and dissolving rapidly into blood under the drenching rain, making a chilling sound.
As I coldly watched this hell on earth, the encrypted phone on the console desktop, whose signal I had deliberately preserved, suddenly started flashing.
An ironic name flashed on the screen: Elena.
I forced a smile and pressed the speakerphone button.
"Ethan! You penniless bastard waiting to die in the sewers, can you hear me?" As soon as the call connected, Elena's sharp, perversely pleasure-filled voice exploded in the quiet control room.
Then came David's unrestrained, maniacal laughter: "Hey, bro! How's the 'Red Rain Shower' outside? Your poor cardboard box hasn't burned through yet, has it?"
Listening to the mockery of the two of them, I leaned back in my leather ergonomic chair and slowly took a sip of whiskey: "Sounds like you two are doing quite well?"
“Absolutely fantastic! It’s perfect!” Elena boasted eagerly, her tone filled with a morbid excitement of revenge. “Although we didn’t get your money, David maxed out all his credit cards and took out high-interest loans, so we rented an entire penthouse in downtown Los Angeles! Bulletproof glass, reinforced steel doors, and an endless supply of steak and wine. We’ll just stand here and watch those idiots below turn into a smoking pile of minced meat!”
“However,” David interjected sarcastically, “out of our past ‘brotherly bond,’ if you’re willing to kneel on the ground right now, kowtow loudly into your phone and beg us, and admit you’re a complete loser, we might mercifully give you an address. There’s a doghouse outside the penthouse terrace, though it only keeps out the rain a little, but if you behave and bark like a dog, we can give you half a can of leftover dog food every day. How about that? Better than melting in the street, right?”
I listened quietly as they reveled in their self-directed and self-acted superiority, and couldn't help but laugh out loud.
Laughter echoed in the empty control room, carrying a chilling undertone.
"What are you laughing at?!" Elena demanded angrily.
"I'm just wondering how you two idiots, whose combined brain capacity is less than that of a paramecium, could have the audacity to call me at a time like this." I put my feet on the console, watching the Los Angeles streets gradually change on the screen, my tone dark and cruel, "David, Elena, do you really think... this global apocalypse is just as simple as a mere corrosive acid rain?"
There was a brief silence on the other end of the phone, then Elena's voice carried a barely perceptible hint of panic: "You...you stop playing tricks! What else could be out there besides acid rain? Everyone's dead!"
"Oh? Is that so?" I sneered, tapping my fingertips lightly on the table. "Since you're standing on the top floor dozens of stories high with such a great view, why don't you look down now and take a good look at the street below?"
Two hesitant footsteps could be heard over the phone, seemingly heading towards the bulletproof floor-to-ceiling window.
The next second.
"Oh my god... what is that?! David, the officer who was half-corroded yesterday... how did he stand up?!" Elena's terrified scream pierced the loudspeaker.
Through high-resolution satellite images, I clearly saw the transformation taking place. Those "corpses" that fell in the red rain, their skin and even muscles corroded and rotting by the strong acid, were not truly dead. An unknown alien virus mixed in with the red rain was frantically recombining their cells.
On the screen, a corpse with only half a face remaining convulsed violently a few times in an extremely twisted, inhumanly grotesque manner, before suddenly sprang up. An out-of-control SUV had just crashed into a fire hydrant on the street corner; the door opened, and a man with only minor injuries scrambled out.
The "monster" infected by the red rain instantly turned its head, its pupils turning deathly white, and let out an extremely ferocious roar. With a powerful leap, it pounced on the surviving man with incredible speed and explosive force, like a cheetah, and opened its festering, blood-red maw, biting through his carotid artery!
The piercing screams were chilling even through the screen.
"Zombies...it's zombies!! Those people who got rained on by the acid rain have all mutated!!" David's previously arrogant tone on the other end of the phone had turned into utter fear and hysteria. He screamed desperately, "This can't be! And that monster just jumped almost three meters high! It was too fast! What the hell is that thing!?"
"Welcome to the real hell, my 'good friends'." I swirled the glistening, intoxicating ice in my glass, watching the mutants on the screen surging forward and beginning to climb the building's exterior like wild beasts, my eyes filled with indifference and mockery.
"In this zombie world enhanced by strong acid chemicals, enjoy your penthouse apartment, which is like a coffin high in the sky with no way out."
Before they could utter any more cries of pain, I smiled and cut off the communication without hesitation.
Outside the window, the Pacific Ocean breeze remained gentle, while the distant North American continent had been completely transformed into a carnival feast for bloodthirsty mutants.
