Chapter 283: The Universe Was A Bitch
Apparently, when you make a stupid statement... kind of like me challenging the world, the universe decides that it was a bitch and wanted to slap you in the face.
The way the universe decided to bitch slap me?
Through a massive explosion that shook the entire mansion.
The blast came from somewhere beyond the trees, hard enough to shake the windows and send most of the Oompa Loompas running before they remembered that the ceiling was not currently falling on them. A second later, a burst of gunfire rolled across the distance in long, angry bursts.
Not the slow pop of someone taking careful shots at zombies.
This was people trying very hard to kill other people.
Everyone in the room went quiet before they went back to doing whatever it was that they were doing before the blast, but I was already moving toward the front of the house.
Yuche fell into step beside me without asking whether I wanted him there, which was probably smart considering what Lingyun had ordered before I left the bedroom.
Ah shit.
Lingyun.
He was not going to be happy I tied him to the bed.
Oh well.
The vines that had been holding the house together from the outside shifted as I approached, opening a narrow path through the jungle around the mansion. I stepped outside and listened while the gunfire grew louder.
An engine screamed somewhere down the road, drawing both mine and Yuche’s attention. I felt two more people coming out behind us and I grunted a greeting when Xu Zhenlan and Zhou Chenghai stopped on either side of us.
A truck appeared between the trees, moving far too fast for the broken pavement. Three people were crowded into the cab while several more clung to the back, firing at two vehicles chasing them. The second group returned fire without caring where the bullets landed, and one of the passengers leaned out of a window with blue light crawling over his hands.
The air cracked around us and a bolt of electricity struck the back of the fleeing truck. One of the people hanging from it dropped onto the road.
Not a single person stopped for him.
The vehicles disappeared around the bend, but the screaming engine and gunfire continued long after I could no longer see them.
"Well," I muttered, folding my arms over my chest. "That didn’t take long."
Yuche watched the road with a look that had gone completely cold. "They weren’t fighting over the truck."
"No. They were fighting over the people and whatever else was inside it."
Another column of smoke was already climbing into the sky farther east. It was too dark and thick to be coming from a few burning bodies. It appeared that someone had set a building on fire, and from the amount of shouting drifting through the trees, the people inside had not left willingly.
The vines near the road stirred again, warning me that more people were coming.
This next group moved quietly on foot. A few men and women stumbled down the road carrying bags, children, and whatever weapons they had managed to find. Most looked as though they had been walking for hours, but they didn’t say a single word.
They slowed when they reached the intersection that led to our little corner of the world.
Several abandoned vehicles had been dragged across the road to create a wall, and armed men stepped out from behind them. One wore an old police vest while another one had military boots with regular clothes and a third stood in the middle of the road with both hands buried in his pockets like he was waiting for a bus.
The ground rose behind him and a thick wall of cracked pavement and dirt pushed itself out of the road, closing the last open space between the vehicles.
They were all fucking power users.
Of course.
The survivors stopped. I could not hear every word from this distance, but I heard enough.
The one with the earth power wanted the standard list of demands. Food, weapons, gas, women, anyone with a useful ability, whatever the other people thought was worth their life to give up.
In this case, it was over half of everything they owned and agreeing to join whoever controlled the road.
One man protested that they had already paid at another checkpoint, but the power user didn’t seem to care. He pulled one hand from his pocket and flicked his fingers.
A spike of stone shot out of the ground and punched through the man’s leg. His scream carried all the way to the mansion, but none of us moved an inch.
The armed men laughed while the rest of the survivors dropped their bags.
"I thought I knew a thing or two about daylight robbery, but this is ridiculous," chuckled a weak voice coming from behind me. Spinning around, I glared at Lingyun.
He was leaning against the side of the house like he was calm and relaxed, but anyone with eyes could see that he was pale, sweating, and... of course... bleeding.
"How did you get out?" I demanded. I flicked my wrists and some of the bigger plants and vines moved so that they created a large chair. Lingyun looked at me with a tired smile on his face and sunk down into the piece.
"Apparently, your baby doesn’t like the idea of bullets near you any more than I do," purred Lingyun as he tickled my baby under its chin. The traitor didn’t even hiss or show his teeth.
Nope.
Not dealing with all that now.
I turned my attention back to what was going on down the street. We had enough of a vantage point from the porch to see them, but I knew that they probably couldn’t see us. After all, if they could they wouldn’t have stopped at that intersection.
"The world had always been full of men who wanted to be kings. Most of them had simply lacked the power, weapons, or opportunity to force everyone else to kneel," shrugged Yuche like it wasn’t that big of a deal. "It’s not a new concept. It’s how we made our millions after all."
Lingyun hummed as I blinked. Millions? Somehow, I didn’t really picture Yuche as a millionaire. Xu Zhenlan? Yeah. That man practically sweated money. But Yuche was just... Yuche.
As if he could read my mind, he looked down at me and chuckled. "I would have had more, but someone stole a shipment that was supposed to be sold for half a billion."
I was going to reply when movement caught my eye again. A woman from the group at the roadblock tried to pull a teenage girl behind her. One of the armed men pointed toward the girl, then toward the other side of the barricade.
Of course, men always wanted the younger ones. Easier to train than someone who knew their own mind.
The woman shook her head and I could see her bracing for whatever came next.
Was that what a mother was supposed to do? Protect their daughters from the bad things in the world?
It must feel nice.
The man raised his gun, and, before my mind caught up to what I was seeing, my vines were already crawling toward the road.
Yuche’s hand closed around my wrist. "Not yet," he warned, his voice harsh. But he didn’t understand.
Hell, I didn’t understand.
But I couldn’t get that look out of the mom trying to protect her daughter at the cost of her life.
Nope.
Besides, I was far enough away. I could save them and deny it if anyone asked.
Not to mention, killing someone would definitely put a smile on my face.
And I hadn’t smiled in a really long time.
