"Come to Mama!" I yelled as I got off the ATV that I was driving. Chen Zi Han, Wang Chao, and a few others followed closely behind me. Between the fact that they were the standard ATVs (nice and safe) and the streets were somewhat plowed, I didn't do too badly.
Honestly, I was quite impressed with myself. But as soon as I saw that giant pile of boxes in the snow, and understood that they were all mine, I couldn't contain my joy. I am sure that my love/ dependence on supplies before the end of the world would have been a symptom of some type of mental trauma or another, but I think living through a zombie apocalypse and the collapse of humanity counted as enough of a mental trauma. In other words, I would happily collect all the supplies I could and anyone else could kiss my ass.
I heard Liu Yu Zeng's chuckle as he walked towards where I was. "No belly flops into the supplies. You will end up hurting yourself," he admonished me with a half smile on his face. How he even knew that was what I wanted to do, I had no idea. I only got feelings from him. And the conversations of course, but that was more like picking up a telephone and not like what I experienced with Wang Chao.
Pouting, I flicked my wrist and made the countless boxes, bins, and bags disappear into my space. I would have to wait and see who Chen Zi Han was thinking about for the logistical side of things before I took them out for someone to organize. Or maybe I would do it myself… just for the Hell of it. Couldn't be too trusting of people nowadays.
Once the 10 piles were put away, I ran over and hugged Liu Yu Zeng. "Where's Liu Wei?" I asked looking around. There were still men bringing more and more boxes out of home and, as much as I tried, I couldn't suppress my delight over everything. Wang Chao was almost done with the number and then we could see how we were doing.
I saw Liu Wei coming out of a house maybe six doors away from where I was currently standing. I took off running before flinging myself into his arms. "There you are!" I said happily, no coffee needed. "What are you doing wearing so little?!? Where are your snow pants?" I asked, sounding like my foster mothers in the middle of winter back in Canada.
"Inside," he said as he tilted his head back to indicate the house that he had just come out of. He wrapped his arms around me and leaned his cheek against the top of my head. "I missed you," he whispered to me, his voice taken away by the wind. He was close enough to me that I was able to hear him and I melted.
"Missed you too," I admitted. I didn't like it when the five of us were apart. It made me feel like there was an impending sense of doom surrounding me whenever that happened. Now that I had Chen Zi Han and Liu Yu Zeng's flame, it was a bit easier to deal with, but for the most part, I hated the feeling.
"But we have a problem," he said, a weary sigh passing his lips.
"But I got all the supplies," I assured him, looking up and smiling at him. He dipped his head to give me a soft kiss on the lips, taking his time as we enjoyed the taste of each other.
"That's not what I am talking about," he answered once our lips had parted. Landing a soft kiss on my forehead, he grabbed my hand as the other three men approached us.
"What's going on?" I asked concerned. The man in front of me, MY man, practically radiated irritation, a murderous aura enveloping him.
"It would probably be better if you come and see for yourself," he admitted as he turned around and brought the five of us, to the house he was just in. I guess Wang Chao had dismissed the ten guys that we brought with us to help the other teams with emptying the houses.
Liu Wei led me into a beautiful mansion that had to have cost a pretty penny. Walking in through the front door, we were greeted with a grand staircase, the wooden step and curved handrail gleamed with the love and care that it had been shown. The white marble floor was still sparkling, not a spec of dust to be seen anywhere in the foyer.
That fact alone was enough to send warning bells screaming in my head.
After the EMP, when humans spent their time like rats scurrying around, keeping their homes washed and dust free was the least of their concerns. Hell, this house was cleaner than my ranch house even before the world went to pot.
There were a lot of people that seemed to think that an unkept house with dust and spider webs was a creepy house, a home to serial killers, but I was not one of them. This, this was the house that screamed serial killer to me. No one but a killer could be this meticulously clean.
Liu Wei continued to lead us down the hallway and I saw all sorts of paintings, tables, and vases that screamed wealth, without a speck of dust. At the other end of the house, Liu Wei opened a door, revealing what could only be described as a chef's kitchen. The marble floors continued into this room and the white cupboards, white granite countertops, and top-of-the-line appliances made me drool. This room would have been bigger than my whole apartment in my first life. I closed my eyes, wondering how I could make all this mine. The appliances would have to be replaced, and I didn't know if I wanted the glaring white in my space kitchen or my ranch simply because it would be a pain to keep it that white.
Sighing at the fact that I couldn't take this kitchen home with me, I looked at Liu Wei, not seeing any problem with anything so far. I mean, besides the serial killer vibe. But I could deal with it.
He walked over to a pantry door that had five locks on top of the door handle. I mean, I wasn't all that impressed, I had 10 locks on the pantries in my ranch and eight on the ones in our penthouse. I even added extra locks to Liu Yu Zeng's bedroom door simply because I had some of our supplies in it.
Opening one lock after another, I was surprised to see basement stairs inside of the typical pantry shelves that I was expecting. "You expect me to go down here?" I asked, raising my eyebrows at the man that had clearly lost his fricking mind. There was no way in Hell that I was going down there. Besides the clear serial killer vibes that the whole house had been giving me thus far, I really got the creeps going into any basement. The ranch was the only exception, and that was because I sent Liu Wei down first to explore it. You could never be too careful when it came to basements.
Liu Wei let out a low chuckle as if he was expecting that question. Opening the door all the way, he waited for Chen Zi Han to slip past me, taking out a switchblade in his leather-covered hand, and go down first. Looking deep inside, I stared at his black flame spinning around my own, looking for even the slightest hint of distress. When I didn't find any, I let out a soft sigh of relief.
"Safe," he yelled up the stairs after turning on the lights at the bottom. I noticed that he didn't say 'clear' like he normally did when there was no one in the room or building that he had just searched. Thinking about what the difference could mean, Liu Yu Zeng looked at his brother in a weird way before following Chen Zi Han into the basement.
Waiting for Liu Yu Zeng to get to the bottom, because let's face it, those stairs looked like they could break at any time, I cautiously went down one step at a time, paying close attention to where I was putting my feet. I didn't grab the handrailing in case it wasn't as sturdy as it seemed, so I was extremely slow. But it's not like I was in a rush anyways.
Grumbling under my breath that there better be incredible supplies down here if Liu Wei was forcing me to be here, I looked at the top of the stairs when I was halfway down. Staring at Wang Chao and Liu Wei, my eyes going back and forth between the two of them, I was not happy. "One of you better stay up there to make sure that some random person does NOT lock us down here," I snapped at the two of them as they looked like they were going to try and come down after me.
"I think you have seen one too many scary movies, little girl," chuckled Wang Chao as he looked back at me with a soft look on his face. It was funny that he thought I was joking. The two of them were lucky that I was even trusting them with this task.
"Movies, sure," I said sarcastically. It had only happened to me once on a supply run, but it was… stressful… until I managed to get myself out of the situation. Not the scariest thing to happen to me, but well within the top 3. "If you two come down here, you will be sleeping on your own for a month," I threatened them as if it was a punishment for them and not more so for myself. I knew I was the one that couldn't sleep without the four of them anymore.
There was a pause and then Wang Chao nodded his head. "We'll stay here and protect you from on top," he said, clearly reading my mind.
Sighing, I turned my attention back to the basement and whatever 'problems' it held.
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