Apocalypse Ground Zero: Refusing To Leave Home

The thing beneath Gu Han’s house hit the basement wall again, and this time the foundation managed to crack.

A line split across the front steps, travelled through the yard, and stopped a few feet from my boots. Every root I had beneath the house recoiled at once, pulling back from the tunnel so quickly that several tore through the soil on their way out.

Well, that had never happened before.

My plants ate zombies like kids that were let loose in a candy store. They wrapped themselves around the evolved zombies, tore the different colored cores out of their bodies, and it took forever to get them to back off.

They didn’t normally run away like this.

Chenghai looked from the roots to my face. His hand remained at my back, holding me steady while the tether pulled against my calf. "What is it?"

"I don’t know," I admitted, which wasn’t a sentence I enjoyed using.

Something slammed against the basement wall again. The marked people beneath the surrounding houses screamed louder, and the threads twisted through my scar until it felt as if someone were trying to pull my leg apart from the inside.

Whatever was inside the tunnel wasn’t following Gu Han.

It was following the marked people.

Possibly me too, which was rude considering I hadn’t invited it.

The front door of the largest house flew open, and Gu Han stumbled back onto the steps. For half a second, I thought he had changed his mind about hiding. Then the floor inside the house lifted behind him.

Wood cracked as something pushed upward from the basement, throwing broken boards and furniture across the room. Gu Han ran down the steps while the entire front of the house shook behind him.

"What the fuck were you keeping under there?" I demanded, my brow furrowing in confusion. If he wanted to apply for a Darwin Award, he really shouldn’t have involved me.

His face had gone pale, but he still managed to look offended by the question. "That isn’t mine," he protested, looking over his shoulder for a second. "The tunnels connect to the old eastern service system. We found signs that something had been using them, but it never came this far."

Because of course they did.

He had found a tunnel with chains, locked rooms, and signs that something enormous lived inside it, then decided it was the perfect place to store people who attracted zombies.

Truly, it was shocking that this had gone badly.

One of the front windows burst outward. Glass sprayed across the yard as a thick grey arm punched through the wall beneath it. The hand at the end had too many fingers to belong to anything that should still be moving. Some were long and almost human, while others were short, blackened, and half-rotted. They opened and closed against the bricks as the thing inside pulled itself higher.

"I’m going to assume that wasn’t here when you bought the place," I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose.

Gu Han backed toward us. "Close the connection," he snarled at me, not bothering to reply to my statement. What was even better was the fact that he still sounded like he believed I worked for him.

I looked at Chenghai. "Can you hit him now?"

Chenghai had already started forward when Gu Han grabbed one of his own men by the back of the vest and shoved him toward the house.

The man barely had time to shout before the grey hand closed around him. Too many fingers wrapped around his chest, head, and arms before dragging him through the broken wall.

His scream stopped with a wet crack.

Everyone in the street froze. Even several zombies climbing over the barricades turned toward the sound.

Gu Han used the distraction to run for our SUV, thinking that he could take what was mine and leave me here to deal with his shit.

Yuche closed his hand before he got close.

The gun still twisted around Gu Han’s wrist pulled his arm backward so hard that he spun and struck the road on one knee. He tried to tear the metal loose with his free hand, but Yuche tightened it until another bone shifted beneath the skin.

Gu Han screamed out loud.

"You should stay where Rouxi can see you," Yuche told him before turning his attention back toward the house.

Lingyun remained near the broken kitchen window across the yard, exactly where Yuche had told him to stay. One hand pressed firmly over his ribs while fire moved across the pavement outside, burning the zombies that made it past the barricade before they could reach us.

Yuche glanced toward him long enough to confirm he was still behind the wall. "Don’t come any closer."

"I wasn’t planning to," Lingyun replied as he sent another line of fire through the yard. "The view is fine from here."

Good. At least one thing didn’t need to become more complicated.

The largest house split open before anyone could say more.

The front wall tore away from the foundation and collapsed into the yard. Dust rolled over the steps as the creature inside dragged itself through what remained of the living room.

It might have been human once.

Several humans, judging by the number of arms and faces.

Its body was too wide to fit through the hallway it had destroyed. Grey flesh stretched over a swollen chest while smaller bodies appeared to be melted into its sides. Heads pushed from its shoulders and back, some missing their faces while others opened their mouths and breathed together.

The largest head sat in the center. Black skin had grown over its eyes, sealing them shut, but every face turned toward me anyway.

The marked people beneath the street started to scream again.

My scar answered with a bolt of pain that made my knee buckle. Chenghai caught me around the waist before I fell and moved in front of me, although the creature paid no attention to him.

"Well, that seems personal," I muttered, gritting my teeth through the pain.

Zhenlan stepped between us and the house. Lightning spread across both arms before striking the creature directly in the chest.

The blast lit the entire street.

Several of the smaller heads burst. Flesh burned away from the center of its body, and the creature slammed back into the remains of the house.

Then the mouths along its sides opened and the burned skin started moving.

It wasn’t healing. Something beneath the ruined flesh pushed the damaged pieces aside, making room for more of the bodies trapped inside it.

"That didn’t work," I pointed out, clearly unimpressed.

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