Before the Black Tide erupted, Lin Zhimian quit her job and bought an abandoned lighthouse on an offshore island.
Her plan was simple: stockpile water and medicine, repair the generator, lock the doors, and, ideally, have no neighbors at all.
On the day the apocalypse truly began, her first neighbor climbed over the wall, covered in blood.
Lin Zhimian raised her gun, but the other woman looked up and called her by a familiar nickname:
“Shorty.”
Ming Zhuo, her high school acquaintance who had been missing for twelve years.
She was also the only person back then who would touch Lin Zhimian with bloodied hands, then obediently go wash them when told they were dirty.
Twelve years ago, Ming Zhuo left without saying goodbye.
Twelve years later, she barged back into Lin Zhimian's life with a whole host of problems.
Beyond the lighthouse, the city was falling.
The seawater, radio broadcasts, infected people, and the old systems left behind by humanity were all spiraling out of control.
Lin Zhimian made the rules; Ming Zhuo kept finding ways to skirt them.
They stockpiled supplies, sealed off the island, observed the infected, and searched for water. And with every escape route they planned, they gradually began to include each other in their plans for survival.
Later, they discovered that the Black Tide was far more complicated than mere “infection.”
Some infected people still remembered their names, jobs, and the people they had loved.
Some had even begun making choices they had never made before.
The old world could never be restored.
So they decided to live in a different way.
It began with a lighthouse inhabited by just two people, and grew into a new city that truly belonged to the survivors.
Lin Zhimian once hoped she would never have a single neighbor.
Many years later, she had neighbors, friends, a wife, and a home where someone knocked on the door every day.
Theme: Rebuilding people's right to choose in a world gone awry
