Apocalypse Ground Zero: Refusing To Leave Home

Chapter 331: Make Everything Better

The three newcomers stood beside a handcart piled with bags, blankets, tools, and empty containers.

They all looked thin, but the man was one strong breeze away from becoming someone else’s problem. His cheeks had sunk deep into his face, and his trousers were tied tightly around his waist to stop them from falling.

One woman kept rubbing the side of her neck, her fingers pressing against the skin as though she couldn’t get comfortable. The other held an empty water bottle against her chest so tightly that I almost expected someone to fight her for it.

But what stressed me out the most was the fact that the plants had abandoned the road around them.

Several vines had climbed onto the nearby roofs rather than remain in the dirt close to the strangers. Flowers that usually snapped at unfamiliar people had turned their mouths toward the walls, while the grass lay flattened away from the cart and formed a rough circle around the group.

They were alive, they were food, but the plants didn’t care.

The woman holding the bottle straightened when she saw us approaching. Her gaze moved over Zhenlan, Chenghai, Yuche, and Lingyun before settling on me. "Are you the person in charge here?"

I glanced behind me as though checking whether someone more responsible had arrived. "No. I just enjoy walking into dangerous situations while everyone else waits for my permission to move."

Old Chen turned his face away and coughed into his fist, but his shoulders shifted suspiciously.

The woman stared at me, her grip tightening around the bottle as she tried to decide whether I was serious.

Yuche stepped closer to my side and ended her struggle. "Yes," he replied calmly. "She’s in charge."

I looked up at him. "Traitor."

The man beside the cart took a cautious step forward, probably hoping to rescue the conversation.

Every plant within reach pulled back at once.

Yuche’s expression changed immediately. He raised one hand, and a strip of metal tore free from the cart’s frame before bending into a barrier between us and the strangers.

"Stay where you are," he warned. His voice remained quiet, but the man froze before Yuche finished speaking.

He lifted both hands and glanced uneasily at the metal hovering in front of him. "We don’t want trouble. My name is Wang Lei. This is Liu Fang and Tang Mei. We’ve been searching for supplies for several days."

I looked over their hollow faces and loose clothing. "And during those several days, did all three of you forget how food works?"

Wang Lei blinked, clearly unsure how to answer.

"You look like you’ve been starving for months," I continued, nodding toward the belt holding his trousers in place. "Not wandering around for a few days."

Tang Mei pulled the empty bottle tighter against her chest. "Food has been limited."

"Water too?" I asked, watching the way her eyes dropped toward the bottle.

"We ran out this morning," Liu Fang answered from beside the cart. Her hands remained locked around the wooden handle, as though she didn’t trust herself to let go.

Lingyun leaned closer until his shoulder brushed mine. "Magical water," he whispered with far too much satisfaction.

I drove my elbow into his side before he could start celebrating.

Wang Lei looked between us, confusion mixing with the exhaustion on his face. "We only need enough food and medicine to make it home. We can trade."

"With what?" I asked.

He gestured toward the cart but didn’t step closer again. "Tools, batteries, and some medicine we found but don’t need."

"No water?"

His eyes flicked toward the empty containers tied beneath the cart. The movement was quick, but all four men noticed it. "Like she said, we ran out."

That wasn’t comforting.

"Where did you come from?" I asked, folding my arms.

The three of them exchanged a look. Tang Mei lowered her bottle slightly, while Liu Fang’s hands tightened around the cart handle.

Oh, good. A secret. Cause that always brings out the warm, fuzzy feelings.

"A settlement north of here," Liu Fang finally answered.

I tilted my head. "I didn’t ask which direction you walked from."

Wang Lei drew in a slow breath before answering. "We can’t tell strangers where it is. If people knew about the settlement, too many would come."

"Why?" I glanced around at the abandoned houses. "Do you have hot showers?"

Tang Mei answered before Wang Lei could stop her. "Because it’s safe."

I looked down at the plants trying to crawl through walls to escape her boots. "Obviously."

Her expression tightened, and she pressed her fingers against her neck again. "You don’t understand. Zombies don’t come near our village. Mutated plants don’t grow there, and the dead never rise. We’ve lived there for almost a full year without being attacked."

"And yet here you are," I pointed out. "In my front yard no less."

Wang Lei’s jaw tightened, but exhaustion won over irritation. "We need medicine."

Lingyun leaned closer again, although this time he kept his voice barely above a breath. "Definitely magical water."

I didn’t elbow him because I was beginning to think he might be right.

Wang Lei looked past us toward the smoke still rising near the mansion road. His eyes narrowed when he noticed the burned trench. "What happened over there?"

"We had breakfast," I answered.

Zhenlan slowly turned his head toward me.

I lifted one shoulder. "What? Something was eating."

Nobody appreciated that either.

I sighed and gave Wang Lei the answer he actually wanted. "We found a body near the edge of my property. Someone covered him with a torn tarp and left him beside the road."

Tang Mei’s hand fell away from her neck. She went so still that even the empty bottle stopped moving against her chest.

Wang Lei’s face changed a second later, while Liu Fang clenched the cart handle until her knuckles turned white.

"What did he look like?" Tang Mei asked. Her voice had dropped, and she seemed afraid of the answer before I gave it.

"Thin enough that his clothes barely touched him. Dark jacket, metal buckle on his belt, and an empty water bottle beside the body."

Tang Mei covered her mouth with one hand. "Pei Shuo."

The name meant nothing to me, but their faces explained everything else.

"You left him there," I guessed.

"We couldn’t carry him," Wang Lei answered. His shoulders sagged, but he didn’t look away from me. "We waited to make sure he wouldn’t turn, then covered him properly. We thought we could return after finding medicine."

"You should probably reconsider that plan."

Tang Mei lowered her hand from her mouth. "What happened to him?"

"We burned him."

Her eyes widened, and she stepped forward before remembering the metal barrier between us. "You burned his body?"

"There wasn’t much of him left by then."

Her face tightened. "What does that mean?"

"It means something had eaten most of him from the inside," I explained, watching her carefully. "When the body started moving, those things tried to crawl out through his mouth, eyes, and every other opening they could find."

Tang Mei shook her head immediately. The movement looked desperate rather than certain. "That’s impossible."

"So was a flower eating three people at once until mine did it," I replied. "The world’s full of surprises."

"Pei Shuo came from Qingxi Village," she insisted. Her voice rose as though volume might make the claim stronger. "Our people don’t turn after death."

"He didn’t," I answered.

For half a second, relief loosened her face. She looked toward Wang Lei as though I had just proven everything they believed about their village.

I almost felt bad for ruining it.

Almost.

"The corpse stayed dead," I continued, keeping my eyes on her. "The things using it didn’t."

Tang Mei slowly looked down at the road. The plants around her feet continued pulling away, their leaves curling tightly while the vines searched for anywhere else to go.

"He never turned," she repeated, but the certainty had disappeared from her voice. "He never became a zombie."

I watched the final patch of grass flatten away from her boots before meeting her eyes again.

"Was that supposed to make everything better?"