Apocalypse Ground Zero: Refusing To Leave Home

Chapter 328: The Things Inside

"Burn it."

Lingyun didn’t move.

For half a second, the fire remained wrapped around his hands while his eyes stayed fixed on the young vine curled tightly around my wrist. The dark line beneath its skin had already climbed past the last healthy leaf, but it was still holding onto me as if letting go would somehow make everything worse.

"Rouxi," Lingyun murmured, his voice uncharacteristically concerned.

"I know," I replied. If this was a person, I wouldn’t care. But the plant that was warped around me trembled in fear, thinking that I could save it.

But I couldn’t and it was actually breaking my heart.

The vine tightened even more when I tried to pull my hand free. Its body continued to tremble against my skin, its leaves folding inward as whatever had entered it continued eating through the stem.

I ran my thumb over the side of its head one last time. "Let go."

It didn’t.

Behind us, the ground shifted again.

Yuche still held the severed roots suspended over the road, each infected piece wrapped in thin bands of metal so none could fall back into the dirt. Several dark lines moved through the exposed roots, racing toward the broken ends as if they knew the plant was no longer connected to anything else.

"We don’t have time for this," Chenghai warned.

"I’m aware."

I caught the vine just below its head and carefully unwound it from my wrist. It resisted at first, curling around my fingers, but there wasn’t enough strength left in it to hold on for long. The last loop slipped free and dropped against the road.

Lingyun waited until I had stepped back before his fire moved.

The vine caught first.

Flames covered it from the roots to the tip in one clean sweep while Yuche lowered the severed pieces into the same burning circle. The young vine twisted against the pavement, not because it was trying to escape, but because the things inside it were.

Thin shapes pressed against the green skin in every direction. Several raced toward the cut roots, only to meet the fire waiting at the ends.

The smell hit a moment later.

Burned leaves were bad enough. Burned leaves mixed with whatever had been crawling inside them was worse.

I covered my nose with one hand. "That’s disgusting."

Lingyun glanced at me without lowering the flames. "I could make it hotter."

"Please do."

His smile returned, although it wasn’t as bright as usual.

The fire tightened around the plant, turning white near the center. Yuche kept the infected roots suspended over it while Zhenlan pulled the smoke upward and away from us.

For several seconds, it looked like everything was burning properly.

Then the vine’s skin split.

Small pale shapes dropped onto the road and immediately began twisting toward the dirt. Some were no longer than a fingernail. Others were thin enough to disappear inside the cracks before I could properly see them.

"Left," I warned.

Chenghai brought the flat edge of the shovel down over the first one, crushing it against the pavement. He struck again before lifting the blade and dragging it across the road to catch another.

A darker shape curled into itself near the ditch.

Zhenlan’s wind caught it before it reached the soil and threw it back into Lingyun’s flames.

More shapes spilled from the roots.

Lingyun swept fire across the road, scorching the ground in a wide circle around us. The pale ones shriveled almost immediately, but the darker ones kept moving even as their bodies blackened.

Yuche drove the strips of metal into the cracks, slicing through anything trying to escape beneath the pavement.

For a few seconds, the road became nothing but fire, smoke, and small bodies twisting against the heat.

Then the ground beside the ditch moved.

"Again," I ordered.

Lingyun redirected the flames toward the shifting soil, but the movement spread faster than the fire. Thin lines raced beneath the surface, separating as they crossed the burned section and headed toward the abandoned houses.

The plants nearest the road pulled farther back, dragging their leaves and roots away from the infected ground.

Chenghai stepped toward the ditch with the shovel raised. "They’re spreading."

"No shit."

Yuche looked over the road, searching for anything metal buried beneath the soil that he could use. "We need to cut off the entire section."

Before I could answer, a low groan came from between the houses.

Everyone turned.

A daytime zombie shuffled into view, probably drawn by the noise and smoke. It moved slowly, dragging one bare foot across the road while the other twisted sideways beneath it. Half its shirt was missing, leaving several open wounds along its ribs and stomach.

Lingyun lifted one hand toward it.

"Wait," I told him.

He looked at me. "You want to keep it? Like... as a pet?"

"I want to see what happens."

The zombie stepped closer and the ground around the ditch stopped moving. For one strange second, everything became still. Then every thin line beneath the soil changed direction.

They raced toward the zombie.

The movement passed under the burned grass, crossed the ditch, and reached the road before the corpse had taken another full step. Dirt lifted around its bare foot as the first shapes climbed over its ankle.

The zombie didn’t react.

Several pale forms slipped through the cracked skin around its heel. Others disappeared into an open wound near the shin.

The zombie took one more step before its leg started to jerk wildly.

The knee folded, sending it sideways against the road, but it pushed itself up again with one arm and continued dragging forward.

More movement climbed beneath its grey skin.

Thin lines travelled through the calf and thigh before disappearing under the torn edge of its pants. The zombie’s stomach twitched as the parasites reached the open wounds along its side.

Lingyun’s fire remained ready, but he didn’t move without my order.

The zombie crawled another meter before its hand flattened against the pavement.

Its fingers curled as the arm collapsed beneath it.

For the first time, the corpse stopped trying to reach us.

The skin around its stomach began sinking inward.

It happened faster than it had with the man beneath the tarp. The zombie had already been rotting, and whatever had entered it didn’t have to fight through healthy flesh.

The ribs appeared sharply beneath the grey skin before the chest folded around them. One side of the face sagged as something moved beneath the remaining cheek.

The plants stayed far behind us, but none of them tried to attack.

They watched.

So did we.

Within minutes, the zombie had become little more than loose skin stretched over bone. Its jaw opened once, releasing a dry sound that might have been air escaping or something moving through its throat.

Then the head dropped.

Nothing inside the corpse tried to make it stand again.

That was when I finally understood.

The dead man had been human. The vine had been alive. The zombie was already dead.

It hadn’t mattered.

The things beneath the ground didn’t care what they entered, how long it had been dead, or whether it had roots, blood, or rotten flesh.

They only cared that there was something left to eat.

The zombie hit the ground and stayed there.

The things inside it were still hungry.