Apocalypse Ground Zero: Refusing To Leave Home

Chenghai was already standing before the thread pulled a second time.

Zhenlan took the tablet from beneath the television and saved every file Han Zhi had sent. Yuche moved Lingyun’s arm from around his waist and lowered him carefully against the couch cushions.

Lingyun watched him do it.

"No."

Yuche didn’t look up. "You can’t fight."

"I can burn things without moving."

"You reopened your ribs walking across a market."

"That was different."

"You were being shot at."

"Exactly."

Apparently, that explained something inside Lingyun’s head.

I pressed my fingers against the scar on my calf and followed the two moving threads without reaching for them properly. They were still east of the city, moving slowly and stopping every few minutes.

Vehicles.

Gu Han had put the marked people into vehicles and was driving them somewhere.

The other thread near the road had stopped moving. The one farther south had almost disappeared.

Whatever Gu Han planned, he had already started.

I stood.

Chenghai’s hand closed around my waist before my leg finished straightening. "Can you walk?"

"Yes."

The scar pulled again.

I grabbed his shirt.

"Mostly."

He lifted me.

Zhenlan crossed the room and touched the back of my calf. His fingers stayed just above the old bite while his gaze moved toward the east windows.

"How far?"

"I don’t know. They’re past the roads we repaired."

"Heading here?"

"Not directly."

That was the problem.

One thread pulled east. The other shifted south, then east again. Gu Han might have been taking them toward another shelter, circling around the mansion, or testing whether changing direction made the zombies move differently.

I didn’t care which one.

He had already sent one bitten man to my barrier.

Now he was moving more.

"We’re going to his house," I said.

Lingyun pushed himself upright.

Yuche placed one hand on his shoulder and put him back.

I looked at both of them. "All of us."

Yuche’s expression didn’t change, but his fingers tightened around Lingyun’s shoulder.

"He stays in the vehicle," he said.

Lingyun smiled immediately.

"He stays in the vehicle unless something is actively trying to eat us," I added.

"I can work with that."

"You’re also wearing whatever Yuche puts on you."

His smile weakened.

Yuche was already walking toward the medical supplies.

Zhenlan picked up the tablet and opened the building controls. He locked the message screen, shut the exterior access system, and checked every entrance around the mansion.

The barrier was sealed.

Only Yuche or I could open it.

No workers needed to come inside while we were gone. No guards needed to replace us. Everyone outside had their own buildings, food, water, and instructions for what to do if something reached the outer roads.

They could survive one afternoon without four men organizing them.

Probably.

The screen buzzed while Zhenlan was shutting it down.

A weather request appeared for half a second before he turned the system off.

The vegetables were going to have a difficult day.

Chenghai carried me upstairs.

I changed into dark pants, boots, and a shirt I didn’t care about ruining. The moment my feet touched the floor, Chenghai knelt and checked the scar himself.

The skin looked the same.

Old bite marks. Pale damage. Nothing moving beneath it.

It still felt like someone had tied fishing line around the bone and was pulling from far away.

Chenghai pressed his mouth against the side of my knee before standing.

It wasn’t a date kiss. He didn’t linger or try to distract me. His hand moved behind my neck, and his forehead touched mine for one second before he handed me my jacket.

Zhenlan waited near the bedroom door with two knives, a handgun, and the look he usually wore before large numbers of things died.

I took the knives.

He kept the gun.

My plants were better than both, but it seemed rude to interrupt whatever made them feel prepared.

By the time we returned downstairs, Yuche had wrapped Lingyun’s ribs so tightly that he looked offended by breathing.

A reinforced vest covered the bandages. Yuche had cut part of the inside padding away so it wouldn’t press against the worst bruising, then strapped two knives to Lingyun’s uninjured side.

Lingyun touched the vest. "This is excessive."

"You’re coming," Yuche said.

Lingyun stopped complaining.

The baby vine waited near the garage door.

Both heads lifted when they saw us dressed.

"No."

The vine followed me.

"You’re staying here."

It wrapped around my ankle.

I looked down at it.

One head opened its mouth and bit the edge of my boot. The other stretched toward the garage as the man inside the box struck the wall again.

The sound was weaker than before.

I pulled the vine loose and handed it to Chenghai.

He put it in a large planter near the hallway.

The vine immediately climbed out.

Zhenlan caught the stem with a small current of wind and dropped it back inside.

Both heads snapped at him.

"Watch the house," I told them.

That sounded more important than stay in the pot.

The heads stopped moving.

One slowly turned toward the front windows.

Good enough.

We entered the garage through the interior door.

The reinforced box remained in the centre of the concrete floor. Yuche checked the ventilation, water line, and locking mechanism one final time while the rest of us loaded weapons and supplies into the SUV.

The man inside shifted when he heard us.

"You’re going there."

It wasn’t a question.

I stood several feet from the vent. "Yes."

"He’ll move them before you arrive."

"He already did."

The metal wall gave a small shake when the man leaned against it.

"He’ll leave some behind."

"Then they can tell me where he went."

His breathing moved through the vent.

"You’re going to get them out?"

"No."

The garage became quiet.

I wasn’t driving across the city to rescue every person Gu Han had locked beneath a house. I wasn’t bringing them home, feeding them, or putting them in the buildings outside my barrier.

I was going because Gu Han had sent his problem to my front door.

Because he knew about my bite.

Because he had written plans for my house, my men, and people who weren’t his to count.

If some of the prisoners were still alive when we opened the rooms, they could leave.

That was where my responsibility ended.

The man inside understood eventually.

"Kill him," he whispered.

"That was already the plan."

Chenghai opened the SUV door for me.

Yuche settled Lingyun into the back seat and fastened him in place before climbing beside him. Zhenlan took the front passenger seat with the tablet balanced across one knee.

Chenghai drove.

The barrier opened only long enough for the SUV to pass, then sealed behind us. Roots closed beneath the road. Vines crossed the gates, and the mansion disappeared behind walls of green.

The outer buildings stayed where they belonged.

A few workers stepped out beneath the covered walkways when they heard the engine, but no one ran after us. One man near the eastern building lifted a radio.

Zhenlan’s tablet buzzed.

He ignored it.

Chenghai took the road east.

The farther we travelled, the harder the thread pulled. I kept one hand over my calf while Zhenlan watched the route Han Zhi had marked through Head Luo’s records.

Gu Han’s cul-de-sac sat beyond three abandoned neighborhoods and an old commercial district. The normal road had collapsed near a bridge, but Chenghai knew another route through the service lanes.

Of course he did.

The city became quieter as we moved east.

Too quiet.

Cars remained abandoned along the road, but there were fewer zombies between them than there should’ve been. The ones we passed didn’t wander randomly.

They faced the same direction.

Gu Han’s streets.

One turned as we drove by.

Its head followed the SUV, then snapped back toward the east as soon as we passed.

Zhenlan saw it too.

"He’s gathering them."

"Or something else is," I said.

The scar pulled again.

This time, both moving threads stopped.

At the same time.

Chenghai accelerated.

We reached the first barricade outside Gu Han’s neighborhood less than twenty minutes later.

The gate was open.

Men stood along both sides of the road with weapons lowered but ready. More waited on rooftops behind them.

They weren’t surprised to see us.

One man stepped into the middle of the road and raised his hand.

Chenghai didn’t slow until the bumper was close enough to make him jump aside.

We passed through the gate.

People watched from windows and porches as the SUV entered the cul-de-sac. Most moved away from the street when they recognized the vehicle.

Gu Han stood in front of the largest house.

Clean clothes. Armed men behind him. A smile on his face like we had arrived for a meeting he had arranged.

Chenghai stopped the SUV in the middle of the road.

Zhenlan opened his door.

Yuche checked Lingyun’s vest one last time.

I looked through the windshield at Gu Han.

The man lifted both arms slightly, welcoming us into the settlement he had built from stolen food, dead shelters, and people chained beneath houses.

He thought we had finally come to talk.

I opened my door.

"Where did you put the bitten people?"

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