Apocalypse Ground Zero: Refusing To Leave Home

Chapter 322: Pure, Clean, Cold Water

That night, Lin Xiaoyu woke up thirsty enough that her tongue felt stuck to the roof of her mouth.

Her brother was snoring in the next room, and the rest of the house was quiet. Lin Xiaoyu sat up slowly and pressed one hand against her stomach.

The empty feeling was back.

It had started a few weeks ago. At first, she thought she was hungry, but eating didn’t make it go away for long. Some nights, she finished every bite on her plate and still went to bed feeling like she had skipped dinner.

Her cup was empty.

Lin Xiaoyu sighed, pulled on her boots, and went outside.

The spring was only a few minutes away. Barrels sat around it for people to fill during the day, but Lin Xiaoyu liked drinking straight from the metal pipe sticking out of the hill.

She crouched beside the pipe and filled her cup. The water was always cold and clear, and people had started saying the spring was the reason Qingxi Village had survived when so many other places had fallen apart.

Their water came from so deep underground that they never had to worry about it being contaminated.

The first drink settled the strange emptiness in her stomach, so she took another before filling the cup again. As she lifted it to her mouth, something shifted near the edge of the trees.

Lin Xiaoyu stopped and listened, but the sound disappeared before she could figure out where it had come from. She waited another few seconds, then decided it was probably a rabbit. There were still a few living around the valley, although people didn’t see them nearly as often as they used to.

She finished the water, wiped her mouth, and started back toward the houses without giving the noise another thought.

Behind her, the dirt near the trees slowly lifted before sinking back into place. Another thin line appeared a few feet away, followed by several more moving through the ground in the same direction.

Lin Xiaoyu never turned around to see them spreading across the damp soil. By the time she reached her house, every moving line had disappeared beneath the ground surrounding the spring.

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By the second day away from Qingxi Village, Wang Lei was already regretting volunteering for the supply run.

The four of them had left before sunrise with two empty carts, enough food for three days, and strict orders not to tell anyone where they came from. Qingxi Village had survived because people kept their mouths shut, and no one wanted a flood of strangers showing up after hearing about the place where the dead stayed dead.

Wang Lei understood the rules. He just wished the person giving it had also warned them that half the roads were blocked and every pharmacy within walking distance had already been emptied.

"Anything?" he called toward the broken storefront.

Liu Fang stepped through the shattered door and shook her head. "A few bandages, some cough syrup, and enough birth control to last until the end of the world."

Wang Lei looked at the empty street around them. "Bit late for that."

She gave him a tired look before dropping the supplies into one of the carts. "At least it’s something."

Behind them, Pei Shuo twisted the cap from another bottle of water and drank half of it without stopping. He had been doing that since they left Qingxi Village. Every time Wang Lei looked at him, he had a bottle in his hand or was asking who still had one left.

"You’re going to drink us dry before we find anything useful," Wang Lei warned him. They didn’t always get along, but they weren’t enemies either. Still, it wasn’t fair that the other man was drinking all their spring water.

The water outside just didn’t taste the same.

Pei Shuo wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "I’m thirsty," he replied, his voice sharp.

"You’re always thirsty," Liu Fang hissed as she threw something into the cart before going back. "What? Are the rest of us not thirsty?"

"I’m still thirsty now," grumbled Pei Shuo. He was the valley chief’s son and made sure that everyone knew it. But he was suffering just as much as the rest of them.

No one argued with him after that. Pei Shuo looked bad enough that joking about it had stopped being funny sometime that morning. His clothes hung from his shoulders, his cheeks looked hollow, and dark circles had settled beneath his eyes even though he claimed he had slept fine.

Everyone in Qingxi Village was suffering. That’s why they needed these supplies more than anything. They couldn’t stop until they had enough to bring back to everyone.

The fourth supply runner, Tang Mei, reached over and pressed the back of her hand against Pei Shuo’s forehead. "You don’t feel hot."

"I told you I’m fine," he growled hoarsely, pushing her hand away. "I don’t need you to baby me."

"You don’t look fine," she replied, completely ignoring him. If something happened to him while they were out looking for supplies, the village chief would never forgive them.

Pei Shuo pulled away from her and picked up the cart handle. "I’m hungry and tired. That makes me exactly like everyone else."

He managed three more blocks before his knees gave out.

The cart tipped sideways as Pei Shuo collapsed beside it, spilling empty bags and a few loose bottles across the road.

It was clear that he wasn’t fine anymore.

Wang Lei dropped his end of the other cart and rushed over, catching Pei Shuo beneath the arms before his head struck the pavement.

"Easy," Wang Lei muttered as he lowered him to the ground. "Sit for a minute."

Pei Shuo tried to answer, but the sound that came out was little more than a dry breath. His lips had gone pale, and his eyes struggled to focus on the people standing over him.

Tang Mei knelt beside him and pulled open his jacket. "We need to get him inside somewhere."

"There’s a house down the road," Liu Fang replied, looking toward the row of abandoned homes ahead. "We can rest there."