Yan Xing sighed as he laid down on his bed. It was back, this sort of insatiable hunger. He had tried eating already. He had eaten much much more than he usually would but he was still hungry. Not only that, all food tasted gross. 

His hunger had been constant for a few days now and it was becoming stronger and more unbearable. The worst part of it though was that the only thing that made it better…was being with Zhao Jiayi.

He felt no hunger when he was with him. He really wondered what it was that made it so he was hungry and why he was only satiated at the sight of him but the longer he thought about it the more outlandish and improper the possible answers became.

He sighed and forced himself to sleep.

—-

Zhao Jiayi wasn’t surprised when his friends started coming to the warehouse early in the morning.

Yi Boqin arrived with Wu Yanyu and He Guang early in the morning, carrying their stuff and some coffee. They seemed nervous.

“I…was still a bit unsure but now I’m starting to think you’re right Jiayi…:” Yi Boqin murmured.

“Has the news started reporting?” Zhao Jiayi asked and led them to a place to put their stuff.

“No…But everything just feels…wrong… maybe it’s just the nerves…” Yi Boqin murmured.

“I wish I could say it is. But I already met someone who’s infected.” Zhao Jiayi said and sighed, sitting down on a couch near the kitchen area.

“Y-You did?! Are you okay?” Yanyu asked, backing away a little with fright.

“I’m fine, they haven’t fully turned into a zombie and they didn’t scratch me or bite me or anything. They probably don’t even know.” Jiayi explained.

“Who was it? How could you tell?” He Guang asked curiously.

“It was just a person walking by the street. It only shows up when they’re infected and It’s hard to see unless you train your eye but they have black marks on their neck and wrists. They go away once they fully turn though.” Jiayi murmured.

“Oh…”

“Most zombies have a distinctive look but stronger ones can blend in perfectly with humans,” Jiayi explained.

“How would we tell then?” Wu Yanyu asked, terrified.

Jiayi shrugged, “I wish I knew.”

In reality, he did know but he couldn’t just tell them all he knew straight away, that would seem suspicious. And he didn’t want to reveal to them that he knew the future. He especially didn’t want them to ask about their own futures, some of them like Yi Boqin were especially pitiful.

“Are your parents coming?” Jiayi asked Wu Yanyu.

“No… Even for this, they don’t want to talk to me…” Wu Yanyu murmured and Yi Boqin immediately tried to change the subject to try and comfort her.

---

Throughout the afternoon, a few more people arrived at the warehouse. Huang Xuhuan, Jiayi’s friend from high school. Ha Yuexin, Jiayi’s former lab partner from when he was in university arrived with her parents soon after Xuhuan arrived. Li Ying, Wu Yanyu’s best friend.

A phone buzzed and Wu Yanyu checked her pocket, “Hu Shi is on his way but he doesn’t know when his parents will reach the airport...He wants to know if the deadline is really sunset.” 

“Tell him that Sunset is the deadline but that when the sun rises I’d be willing to go try and find them if they don’t make it in time. Tell him to tell them to either go to their house and make sure everything is secure by midnight or to go with soldiers if they see any.” Jiayi murmured, He and He Guang were setting up an area for Yuexin’s parents to stay together.

“W-What?! Isn’t it too dangerous for you to go find them?” Wu Yanyu exclaimed.

“I’ll be fine, the situation gets dramatically worse at night but the zombies are confused by the daylight at first so they are quiet in the early morning,” Jiayi explained. He left the rest of the setup to He Guang and moved over to where he had set aside weapons and protective equipment.

“Ge, let me go with you!” He Guang suddenly exclaimed. Jiayi turned to him and nodded, Hu Shi would probably also want to come with them so it worked out. Regardless of whether or not they found Hu Shi’s parents, Jiayi was going to look around to see if he could find Yan Xing and it would be easier to split up if he could leave Hu Shi with someone to make sure he wouldn’t die.

--

Hu Shi arrived just before sunset and vigorously thanked Jiayi for being willing to go find them as soon as possible. 

“They said they’re on their way to the house right now.” Hu Shi said with a tearful look in his eyes.

“They’ll probably be fine then, they can make it to the house and stay safe there until we come to get them in the morning,” Jiayi said and patted Hu Shi’s shoulder.

Hu Shi calmed down but everyone was still on edge as Jiayi went to lock the warehouse doors. Right after Jiayi fully locked everything they all heard a screeching sound in their ears.

“W-what is that sound?” 

“The sound of everything starting,” Jiayi murmured.

---

The night was tense, the cell service soon cut out and Hu Shi started to worry even more. There was wifi in the warehouse but Jiayi had turned it all off after seeing how Wu Yanyu was becoming a mess as she scoped the internet.

The warehouse was in a pretty deserted place. The workers had unknowingly clocked out hours earlier, trying to get home before curfew so they were an hour or two away from the nearest group of possibly infected individuals.

The only windows on the warehouse were completely blacked out, from the outside you couldn’t see anything at all and from the inside you needed very good vision to see out there. Jiayi was the only one with such good vision and the windows were high up in an inconvenient area that only he would dare climb to. Jiayi was perfectly calm so the others felt relieved to have him as the lookout. 

The group fell asleep after a while despite their anxiety but Jiayi stayed awake.

‘So? What do you plan to do?’

Jiayi almost turned around when he heard that but a part of him knew that voice didn’t have a body.

‘The storyline I wanted has already played out so I’ll let you play puppet master by proxy. What do you want to do, Zhao Jiayi?’

“Right now?” Jiayi murmured, “Right now I want to see Yan Xing.”

‘Hahaha, and in the future?’

“I’ll find a way to make Yan Xing human and I’ll end the apocalypse once again,” Jiayi whispered and smiled.

‘And nothing more? How pure of you.’

Zhao Jiayi chuckled a bit, “we’ll see.”

--

Jiayi started getting ready before dawn. He woke Hu Shi and He Guang when he was already done and gave them any equipment they’d need.

The others started waking up as well and Jiayi quickly went through the basics of the warehouse once again. How to load the weapons, the sound of a failed passcode attempt on the door, what to do about noises outside, Radio codes to look out for, stuff like that. He went through it quickly, he wanted to leave immediately when the sun rose.

“What time should we start to get worried…?” Mr. Ha asked.

“4 hours from when we leave,” Jiayi answered.

“Can we have another rule?” Ha Yuexin asked.

“What is the rule?” Jiayi asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Anyone who comes back from the outside or anyone new who comes from the outside should be checked for bit marks or the signs of infection.” Ha Yuexin said and Jiayi nodded, that was definitely something she would say.

“We can add it,” Jiayi said and nodded.

“Isn’t having our bodies checked a little embarrassing?” Wu Yanyui murmured with red cheeks.

“...If I have to examine anyone because you all can’t tell then I’ll do it with no evil intentions but other than that, you would only be examined by someone of the same gender, or rather someone who you’re comfortable with,” Jiayi murmured and turned around, he kind of rolled his eyes a little as he did so and he checked on He Guang and Hu Shi.

--

Jiayi jumped down from the window area when the sun started to rise and he went over toward the door. He glanced at Hu Shi and He Guang. Hu Shi was nervous and He Guang looked determined. He waved at the others and opened the door. This door didn’t lead outside, it led to a separate garage section. 5 identical cars were in the garage. The three of them got in one and Jiayi felt out the perimeter for a second before he started the car, no zombies would be in their way until they reached the city and they could avoid them easily when that happened.

He opened the garage and much to Hu Shi’s relief there were no zombies in sight.

The ride to Hu Shi’s neighborhood was still very tense.

“This car...Is very quiet.” He Guang murmured, the car was nearly silent and very secure with tinted windows and a strong frame.

“It’s Ideal for this kind of situation,” Jiayi murmured.

Hu Shi stayed silent, he was incredibly nervous.

When they arrived at the city He Guang and Hu Shi clutched their weapons as they saw Zombies in the distance, they weren’t moving, they were mesmerized and struggling under the sunlight. It would’ve been worse for the zombies if it were summertime but it was autumn and it was beginning to get colder so they didn’t suffer under the blazing summer heat.

Seeing a zombie in person was much scarier than hearing about them or thinking of them. He Guang and Hu Shi were terrified.

“Don’t get antsy or trigger happy, they haven’t noticed us,” Jiayi said to Hu Shi and He Guang.

--

There was no security guard at the entrance to the neighborhood, and coincidentally, no zombies either.

The neighborhood was quiet but Jiayi still only decided to leave the car right in front of the Hu family’s house.

“Who are your neighbors?” Jiayi asked,  looking at the two houses beside Hu Shi’s.

“The Yan family on the left and Xu family on the right.” Hu Shi murmured, he wanted to check the house immediately but he was so nervous.

Jiayi hummed in response and took the first steps into the house. Hu Shi had his keys on him and he quickly opened the door and then made Jiayi go in front of him again. Jiayi stood inside the doorway for a second, blocking the door.

“There’s no one in here. Zombie or otherwise.” Jiayi murmured.

Hu Shi almost fell to his knees but Jiayi forced him up, “Check anywhere your parents would leave a message.”

Hu Shi didn’t think he would actually find anything so he wasn’t very hopeful but when he did find a note in a little drawer he was so relieved he fell to his knees immediately.

“T-They’re with the military!” He exclaimed.

He almost broke down crying but then they heard the sound of glass breaking and Hu Shi and He Guang panicked.

“...I’ll go check it out, it’s from the Yan house. Stay here and find anything useful that you might’ve left here,” Jiayi said and turned toward the window. He knew what that sound was. It was Yan Xing. He could sense it. He could also sense something else but he wasn’t quite sure what.

“Ge! You can’t go alone! What if it is a--”

“If I don’t come back in 15 minutes or if you hear a loud sound that isn’t a single gunshot, leave,” Jiayi said and left on his own.

He knocked the door down with a kick and was immediately hit with the scent of rotting flesh. A Zombie was dead somewhere in the house. 

Jiayi slowly walked through the house. He could feel where Yan Xing was but he didn’t want to startle him.

‘He’s stronger now. He’s probably in the phase where he can just barely control himself.’

Jiayi stepped inside the kitchen and he saw the zombie corpse. It was a maid, Jiayi couldn’t tell how she’d been infected but he could tell how she had been killed. It was the kind of injury that only an enhanced person or another Zombie could cause. She was stuck in the wall with a kitchen knife lodged in her head. Jiayi could only assume that Yan Xing had thrown it at her in an attempt to keep her from reaching him.

He walked over to the door of the room where Yan Xing was and smiled a little.

He knocked on the door in a little pattern.

“Are you going to let me in?”