Chapter 293: What Belongs To Us
The largest house on the cul-de-sac sat at the back of the circle. It had a three-car garage, a wide driveway, and enough open space around it to act as the center of the new compound.
Gu Han pointed toward it as he approached, his voice ringing with the authority of the only person who could make the big decisions. "Clear this place first. Supplies go into the garage until they’re counted. Medicine stays inside the house, and no one touches the food until we know how much there is."
Chen Bo relayed the orders while another man marked the front gate with a strip of red cloth. The same cloth would appear on every house once it had been searched and assigned.
The first scream came from somewhere to Gu Han’s left, but it ended just as fast.
A window shattered two houses farther down, followed by the sound of someone shouting that they were alive and not to come inside. The team outside didn’t force the door immediately. They waited for Gu Han to decide their next step, exactly as they’d been ordered.
By the time he reached the house, a family of five had gathered behind the front window. A grey-haired man stood in front of the others with a kitchen knife in one hand and a ball of pale blue fire trembling above the other.
The fire barely reached the size of his fist.
His wife stood behind him with one arm around a teenage girl. Two younger boys watched from the stairs.
"This is our house," the man shouted through the broken window. "You have no right to come in here."
Gu Han stopped at the bottom of the front steps. "Open the door."
"No." The older man’s voice was absolute, and before everything had turned to shit, Gu Han might have actually felt bad.
But he still had the scar on his back from the last person he showed mercy to. Now he had none left to give.
"You can join us or leave. Those are your options," he announced, his voice never wavering. "Or you can die. If you don’t like the first two choices."
The other man’s face twisted with both rage and fear. "Leave and go where? There is no place to go anymore. This is our home."
"Whatever you chose, that’s your decision," replied Gu Han. "But you can’t stay here and not be one of us."
"And our food? Our vehicle?" The woman’s voice shook when she asked it. She flinched badly when Gu Han turned to face her.
"They stay," he grunted with a cold smile. "We all know that if you leave, you probably won’t have the powers to keep them anyway."
For a second, the man looked too shocked to speak. Then the blue flame in his palm grew slightly larger.
"I have power," he announced, but what he was showing might have been impressive to him, but not to anyone who had actually lived in the outside world. "You expect us to walk out with nothing while you steal everything we own?"
Gu Han didn’t bother explaining that ownership only mattered when someone had the strength to defend it. The man already understood. That was why he was standing behind a locked door instead of opening it.
"You can take clothing and whatever fits into one bag each," Gu Han continued, being more than generous. "Join us, and you keep your shelter. You’ll receive a share of the food as long as you work. Leave, and you take what you can carry."
The woman behind him whispered something, but the man shook her off.
"This is my home."
"Not anymore," sighed Gu Han. Why didn’t people understand? It really was tiring.
The flame shot through the broken window, but Gu Han didn’t move.
The fire stopped less than a meter from his face before dropping straight to the ground. It struck the front steps and disappeared with a hiss, leaving a dark stain across the stone.
Inside the house, the man stared at his empty hand.
Gu Han raised his own, and the pressure hit without warning.
The front door tore open as the man was dragged through it and thrown onto the porch. His knees struck first, followed by both hands, but the force pressing down on him didn’t stop. Wood cracked beneath his palms while his body flattened against the steps.
The knife slid from his fingers even as the man tried to lift his head and couldn’t. His wife screamed his name, but that just made everything that much worse.
Gu Han walked up the steps and stopped beside him. "I gave you a choice."
The man’s face reddened as he fought for air. "My house."
Gu Han increased the pressure.
The porch groaned beneath them. One of the man’s arms bent at an angle it hadn’t been designed to reach, and his scream ripped through the street.
Nobody inside the house moved.
Nobody outside spoke.
Gu Han released him before the pressure crushed his chest. The man collapsed against the damaged boards, gasping while his useless arm rested beneath him.
"Take him inside," Gu Han ordered. "If the woman agrees to the rules, treat the arm."
Two men stepped forward and dragged the injured resident away from the entrance.
The woman stood frozen behind the broken window. Her sons had disappeared from the stairs, but the teenage girl remained beside her, staring at Gu Han with a hatred she wasn’t strong enough to act on.
Gu Han met the woman’s eyes. "Do you want to stay?"
She looked toward her husband and swallowed. "Yes."
"Then you’ll be assigned work with everyone else. Food is distributed from the central house. No one hides supplies, and no one leaves without reporting to the gate."
Her gaze shifted toward the armed people surrounding the property. "And if we don’t agree?"
"You already saw what happens."
The woman closed her eyes for a moment before nodding.
Gu Han turned away. There was nothing else to discuss. They chose to submit. And that was teh best decision they could have made.
The remaining occupied houses surrendered without resistance.
By late afternoon, every building had been searched. The zombies were dead, damaged doors had been marked for repairs, and the supplies found inside the houses had been moved into the three-car garage at the center of the cul-de-sac.
It wasn’t enough, but Gu Han already knew that it would never be enough.
The shelves held canned food, rice, flour, bottled water, medicine, batteries, tools, and cleaning products, but twelve houses with supplies couldn’t support the group forever. Several vehicles had fuel in their tanks, and one garage contained a generator that still worked, but fuel would disappear quickly once they began using it.
But that was tomorrow’s problem.
For tonight, they had walls, beds, and only a single road to defend.
Gu Han stood in the center of the circle while people moved between their assigned houses. Families were kept together when possible, but power users and fighters were spread across the street so no single building could be taken without resistance. Guards had already climbed onto two garage roofs, giving them a clear view of the entrance and the yards behind the houses.
Chen Bo approached with a folded map in his hand.
"The scouts finished the first sweep," he reported. "The streets immediately east and south are mostly quiet. Several houses are occupied, but the groups are small. There are more vehicles farther west, and someone has cleared part of the road."
"Recently?"
"The bodies were moved instead of left where they fell. There are tire tracks from trucks, too."
Gu Han looked at the map as Chen Bo pointed toward the surrounding streets. The marks ended well before the edge of the neighborhood. They didn’t know how many groups were nearby, what they possessed, or how much territory they had already claimed.
That would change.
"Send two teams out at first light," Gu Han decided. "No fighting unless they’re discovered. I want every occupied house marked and every road mapped."
"What about supplies?"
"We secure this street first. Then we take what we need from the next one."
Chen Bo folded the map again. "And if someone else already claims it?"
Gu Han glanced toward the house where the injured man’s family had chosen to remain. A strip of red cloth now hung from the gate, the same as every other property in the circle.
"Then they can join us," he answered. "Or they can move."
The last vehicle rolled sideways across the entrance as the sun began to disappear behind the houses. Chains tightened between the bumpers and the metal posts driven into the ground, sealing the only road into the cul-de-sac.
Gu Han watched until the barricade was finished.
This wasn’t another temporary shelter.
They wouldn’t pack the vehicles and move again when food became scarce or another group came too close. They would strengthen the entrance, spread into the surrounding streets, and take whatever they needed to remain.
By morning, anyone approaching would understand that the road belonged to someone.
Gu Han turned toward the houses.
"Secure the street tonight," he ordered. "Tomorrow, we find out what belongs to us next."
