Chapter 296: Someone Else’s Territory
The red cloth wasn’t decoration.
Xu Zhenlan watched another strip pass outside the passenger window. It was tied tightly around the base of a street sign. It looked new. The fabric was still bright, the knot hadn’t loosened in the wind, and there was no dirt ground into the edges.
All that meant that someone had placed it there recently.
The same was true of the next one and the one after that.
They appeared at the entrance of every second side street, sometimes tied to utility poles and sometimes stretched across damaged fences where they would be impossible to miss. There was no writing on them and no symbol that Zhenlan recognized, but there didn’t need to be.
People had marked their territory long before the apocalypse ever happened. Flags, signs, walls, armed guards—it all meant the same thing.
It all said ’this belongs to us’.
Chenghai slowed the SUV as they approached an intersection that had been partially cleared. The abandoned vehicles hadn’t been pushed randomly onto the sidewalks. Someone had moved them into two uneven lines, leaving enough room for one truck to pass through the center.
Once again, the work had all been recently done.
Zhenlan could still see pale scratches across the pavement where the cars had been dragged aside. Several zombie bodies had been stacked near the mouth of an alley instead of being left where they fell. Their crystal cores had been removed, and the heads had been crushed again afterward to make sure they wouldn’t get back up.
It was all organized, careful.... and a little too close.
Rouxi remained tucked against Jian Yuche in the back seat, watching the red strips flutter past the window. "How much territory are they claiming?"
"We don’t know yet," Zhenlan replied. "We didn’t even know they were out here. See? It is a good thing that we poke our head out of the house every so often so that we know where the threats are."
Lingyun glanced toward him from where he sat behind Chenghai. "That sounds... helpful."
"It’s the truth."
The markers began several streets back, but that didn’t mean the settlement itself was close. A strong group might claim more ground than it could actively patrol. A weaker one might spread its markers deliberately, hoping the appearance of control would keep strangers away.
The cleared roads suggested this group had enough people to work.
The missing crystal cores suggested they understood their value.
The fact that no one had challenged the SUV yet meant either that the territory wasn’t well guarded or they were already being watched.
Zhenlan looked toward the rooftops as Chenghai drove through the intersection. Most were empty. A few had broken tiles or dark windows beneath them, but there were too many places for a person to hide.
His first instinct was to turn around.
They should return to the mansion, launch the drones, and determine how far the red markers extended. They needed numbers, patrol routes, weapons, powers, and the exact location of the settlement. If someone had begun expanding toward Rouxi’s property, they needed to know before that group decided the mansion belonged inside its territory.
The thought came naturally... So did the urge to tell Chenghai to take the next turn and bring them home.
But Zhenlan didn’t do either.
He had spent too much of his first life making all the decisions for everyone and calling them protection. And he knew where that road ended.
Instead, he turned slightly in his seat so he could see her. "The roads have been cleared deliberately, and the bodies have been moved. Whoever placed the markers has enough people to patrol or wants everyone to believe they do."
Rouxi listened without interrupting.
"They’re organized," he continued, not knowing where her mind was at. It wasn’t like her to not have a sarcastic comment. "We don’t know where their settlement is or how far they intend to expand. The craft store is inside the area they’ve marked."
Chenghai glanced at him, then looked back at the road.
He noticed it all as well.
Of course he did. For years, the two of them had made decisions without needing to speak. Chenghai knew that Zhenlan wanted to turn the SUV around. He also knew why he hadn’t ordered it.
Rouxi shifted slightly against Yuche’s side. "Are you telling me we can’t go to the craft store?"
"No. I’m just telling you what we know," Zhenlan replied, waiting for her to make a decision one way or another. Between him and Chenghai, they should be able to protect her.
Plus there was Jian Yuche and Wei Lingyun.
"And what don’t we know?" she asked, still snuggled up against Jian Yuche.
"We don’t’ know how many people there are, what kind of powers they have, or whether they’ll object to us entering," explained Chenghai, glancing up at the woman through the rearview mirror.
Lingyun rested an elbow against the window. "They might object."
"Then they can do that quietly," Rouxi replied with a half shrug.
Zhenlan waited. He didn’t point out that returning home would be safer. Rouxi already understood that. There was no way she couldn’t.
Her gaze dropped briefly to the jeans she had complained about putting on before looking back through the window.
"Keep driving," she decided. "I already put on real pants. I’m not wasting the effort."
Chenghai’s mouth twitched even as Zhenlan turned toward the windshield before Rouxi could catch his own reaction. "You’re the boss. We’ll continue on the planned route."
"I didn’t need you to tell me that," Chenghai chuckled.
"Well, I still did," shrugged Zhenlan. "What are you going to do about it?"
The farther they travelled, the more obvious the changes became. Wooden barricades blocked two smaller roads, but neither was strong enough to stop a determined vehicle. They were designed to slow people down and force them to approach through specific streets.
A house near the next corner had red cloth hanging from its front gate. Inside, its windows were covered, and the grass had been flattened by repeated foot traffic. Someone had been using it recently, although there was no smoke from the chimney and no vehicles in the driveway.
Zhenlan marked the location on the folded map resting against his leg.
Rouxi saw him. "I thought this wasn’t becoming a reconnaissance mission."
"It isn’t."
"You’re writing things down."
"I’m remembering where not to drive on the way home."
She narrowed her eyes at him through the gap between the seats.
"You’re good. That sounded almost believable."
