Chapter 257: Survival... And Dinner
"You frightened him," Zhenlan replied, looking back at the child who was now hiding. "And I really, really do not want to think about you and Rouxi like that."
"Prude," sneered Lingyun, shrugging his shoulders. "Besides, I was a fantastic role model. I taught him that a smile could be scary and he learned to be scared. That’s valuable."
The path narrowed after the ration area, and the ordered parts of the base ended faster than they should have.
Tents and storage crates gave way to tarps, plastic sheeting, crooked poles, and shelters patched together from whatever people had managed to keep. The smell changed too. Less disinfectant and fuel, more smoke, stale water, damp blankets, and too many people trying to live too close together.
Zhenlan kept his pace steady.
Walking too quickly would make them look nervous, and walking too slowly would make them look like they’d come to inspect the poor. Neither situation would help.
He kept his hands visible, his expression calm, and his attention on the people around them rather than the mess they were standing in.
Chenghai walked half a step ahead of him, loose and ready without making a show of either. Lingyun stayed on Zhenlan’s other side, which would’ve been comforting if Lingyun were the kind of man who made situations calmer by standing nearby.
Instead, he made people look twice and then decide they preferred looking somewhere else.
Several people shifted into the path ahead before they reached the first real row of shelters.
There were five standing, with one older man sitting on an overturned crate to the left with a length of metal pipe resting beside his foot. He didn’t touch it, but he didn’t have to. The message was clear enough.
The man in the center was thin, with hollow-cheeks, and was holding a rusted pipe in both hands.
He looked at Commander Li first, then at Tan Wei and Sun Ming. His gaze slowed on Chenghai, flicked to Lingyun, and finally stopped on Zhenlan’s clothes with the kind of dislike Zhenlan had been expecting from the moment he stepped out of the car.
"You here to take more people?" the man asked, his eyes darting back to Commander Li.
Commander Li’s expression hardened. "No."
The man laughed once. "That what they told the last ones too?"
Tan Wei’s hand tightened on his rifle.
Chenghai looked at him. "Don’t."
Tan Wei’s eyes cut to him.
"Not unless you plan to shoot everyone watching," Chenghai said.
Tan Wei’s jaw worked, but his hand loosened.
Good.
The last thing they needed was for a nervous soldier to turn a conversation into a massacre because someone with a pipe had hurt his feelings.
Zhenlan stepped forward before Commander Li could answer like a commander. Orders wouldn’t help here, and neither would official reassurance. These people didn’t want a speech. They wanted to know if they were about to be dragged away.
"We’re not here to take people," Zhenlan said.
The man’s eyes narrowed. "Then why are you here?"
"To offer you a way out."
That got a reaction.
A woman near the back lifted her head even as one of the younger men standing behind the pipe-holder shifted closer before catching himself. The older man on the crate finally rested two fingers on the pipe beside his foot.
The man in front didn’t lower his weapon. "Out where? And for how long?"
"A private residence outside the base," Zhenlan said, his voice completely blank. "And forever, if you do your job and everything works out."
Several people laughed, and Zhenlan didn’t blame them.
If a clean man had walked into this place and offered him a private residence during the apocalypse, he would’ve assumed the man was either lying, insane, or selling something worse than death.
Unfortunately, all three options were still possible when Rouxi was involved.
The man with the pipe spat to the side. "A private residence. In the apocalypse."
"Yes."
"You expect us to believe that?"
"No," Zhenlan replied. "I expect you to decide whether taking the chance with us is better than staying here."
That was the first thing that made the man pause.
Zhenlan kept going before Commander Li could ruin it by sounding official. "We need builders, electricians, plumbers, welders, mechanics, roofers, and anyone who understands solar panels, batteries, water storage, reinforced doors, damaged walls, cracked ceilings, and how to make a house survive people who make poor choices near it."
Someone behind the man muttered, "A house?"
Lingyun smiled. "A very important house."
"Shut up," Zhenlan snapped, his eyes never leaving the man in front of him even as he spoke to Lingyun.
"I’m helping."
"You’re not helping, you’re making it sound worse."
"It is important."
"It’s also cracked," Chenghai added.
Zhenlan looked at him and narrowed his eyes, but Chenghai didn’t look sorry at all.
The man with the pipe stared between them for several seconds like he couldn’t decide which one of them was the problem.
That was understandable.
Zhenlan had spent days asking himself the same question and had yet to find one answer that covered all of them.
"You walked into the outer section," the man said slowly, "during a protest, with soldiers, asking for roofers?"
"Yes," Zhenlan replied. "Among other trades."
The man blinked.
For the first time, the pipe lowered half an inch.
Lingyun leaned closer. "I think he expected something worse."
"Most people do," Chenghai replied.
Zhenlan ignored both of them. "We have food, protection, and a location that can be made defensible with the right work. We’re not asking you to join the military. We’re not asking you to serve command. We’re not taking anyone who doesn’t choose to come."
The older man on the crate spoke for the first time. "And if we say no?"
"Then you stay here."
The man with the pipe looked at Commander Li. "And him?"
Commander Li’s face didn’t change. "I’m here to make sure no one from this base stops you from choosing."
That was better than Zhenlan expected, and several people noticed it. The man with the pipe noticed it too, though he clearly didn’t know what to do with it. His grip shifted as his eyes moved from Commander Li to Chenghai, then to Lingyun, then back to Zhenlan.
"What’s the catch?" he asked.
Zhenlan thought of Rouxi’s rules. Her pantry. Her couch. Her bedroom. Her absolute refusal to let strangers treat her house like public property.
He thought of the cracked ceiling, the blood on the floor, the vine hiding body parts, and Yuche sitting beside her as if the entire world could wait until she decided whether she wanted a snack.
"The owner hates strangers," Zhenlan said.
The man stared at him.
Lingyun nodded solemnly. "Deeply."
"She also hates people touching her things," Chenghai added.
"Violently," Lingyun agreed.
Zhenlan sighed. "She’s injured, heavily armed by association, protected by plants that eat people, and is unwilling to move under any circumstances."
Someone behind the man whispered, "What the hell kind of offer is that?"
"An honest one," Zhenlan answered with a shrug. "I’m telling you everything that you will encounter if you follow us. I figured you would appreciate that more than empty promises that will never be kept."
The man with the pipe looked at him for a long moment. The pipe didn’t lower all the way, but he stopped holding it like he planned to swing first and think later. That was progress, even if it was ugly progress.
"What are you paying?" he asked.
Finally, a useful question.
Zhenlan smiled.
"Survival," he said. "And dinner."
