In one night, F City became hell on earth.

Screams and wails erupted in a dissonant chorus, as if the city itself had come alive in agony. The hundreds of thousands of residents scattered, running and hiding, curling themselves into corners and praying that someone would save them.

And in this dark night, an armored jeep rolled into the city.

A man sitting in its passenger seat flicked his fingers. Bolts of lightning streaked through the air like arrows. Wherever the car passed, zombies fell over with precise and charred holes in their heads.

That was one of the most distinct memories survivors had of that first horrible night.

In their most hopeless moment, the passing lightning struck. The armored jeep rumbled by, leaving only a fleeting glimpse of the man sitting beside the rolled-down window.

The two men in the car were Lu Hao and Hong Sheng. Hong Sheng drove the jeep, his handling smooth and quick to react to the chaos in the city. Their goal was the university in the southern part of the city, not far from the road to the villa.

Blood streaked the gates of the university campus. Lu Hao quickly dispatched the zombies at the front gate. His energy reserves weren’t as large as he was used to, so he carefully portioned his ability use to only a needle’s worth of lightning.

The zombies at this point were all freshly turned, weak, and confused. They only acted on instinct, and they were slow. By the old timeline’s standards, they were level 0 zombies. But still, their exponentially growing numbers meant an element of danger still hung in the air. Hong Sheng directly drove over the curb into the university grounds, the car bouncing before gliding smoothly over the pavement.

He parked the car ahead of the student dormitories. Hong Sheng threw a quick interested glance over the layout of the dorm building, knowing that Lu Hao had once resided there.

“I’ll take point. Stay safe and cover the rear,” Lu Hao ordered. Hong Sheng nodded, gripping in his hands a strangely-constructed firearm. Hong Sheng had secretly built his own weapons arsenal while Lu Hao pretended to be unaware, but Lu Hao still put on a concerned face and asked, “Where did you get that? It’s not going to backfire on you, is it?”

He held back a laugh at the look Hong Sheng gave him, like he was a little depressed and insulted. “I made it. It’ll work.”

“Are you sure?”

Hong Sheng just answered by raising the strange gun and firing past Lu Hao’s shoulder. A zombie had come hurtling at them as they walked to the dormitory door, but the blast stopped it in its tracks. The back of the zombie’s head exploded, splattering on the ground.

“Hong Sheng, you’re like an action hero!” At Lu Hao’s praise, Hong Sheng pursed his lips, a blush rising. Hong Sheng cast a judgmental glance at Lu Hao like he was wondering, why is he still talking? Aren’t we here to save people?

Lu Hao cooperatively quieted, and a serious look entered his eyes. Once they entered the dorm, Lu Hao quickly eliminated the zombies standing out in the halls. He then listened in with his enhanced hearing, searching for the remaining survivors. When someone was in immediate danger, he manipulated his lightning to burrow straight through the walls and skewer the zombies.

This had the unfortunate side effect of piercing through some of the plumbing and wiring, and Lu Hao heard the burst of water from some pipes in the walls,. Steam poured out from the miniscule holes Lu Hao had torn open. The lights flickered, and the remaining students screamed in their dorm rooms.

The noise alerted some of the other zombies in the building, and any that came into view were killed by Lu Hao and Hong Sheng. After the students quieted into whimpers, Lu Hao knocked on a wall and raised his voice, “My name is Lu Hao, and I’m here to help. Don’t leave your rooms, keep the doors locked. I’ll be doing a sweep of the building. Once the zombies here are dead, we’ll get you out.”

Lu Hao then signaled to Hong Sheng, and the two went door to door. If Lu Hao heard the sound of a zombie, he’d break open the door and disable it. The process was swift, completed in a few minutes. He tried not to kill except when necessary, and shoved the zombies into the closets when he could. As long as the zombies were trapped here, maybe there was a chance for them to return to humanity in the future.

Once done clearing the halls, Lu Hao and Hong Sheng had any of the students interested in escaping the dorms gather outside. Some of them gripped brooms and other makeshift weapons. Lu Hao quickly told them their options: they could leave on their own to try and make it to their families, or they could head south to join Lu Hao outside the city.

Among the crowd were some of Lu Hao’s old friends from the early SG days. In this life, though, they were closer to acquaintances, given how Lu Hao had dropped out earlier and hadn’t gotten a chance to know them. Maybe they would rejoin the SG again, but he wouldn’t force it.

Hong Sheng went to hotwire some nearby cars to help the students travel. Once done, he and Lu Hao got into the jeep and drove to other locations. The local boarding school dormitories, the hospitals, and any residential areas nearby afterward.

This wasn’t a fully altruistic choice. Saving the students was to keep a younger, fighting population alive. The hospitals were among the first to go down in the apocalypse, with concerned family members bringing their ill and feverish loved ones to be treated, inadvertently packing the hospitals with zombies and ability users; but that also meant that if anyone could be rescued, there might be valuable doctors, nurses, and newly awakened ability users among them.

Little did Lu Hao realize, he’d run into a familiar face along the way.

 

 

“No, no, no, this can’t be happening to me, no…”

All alone, a young girl limped down the street. Tears dripped down her face, her arms held tightly around herself.

Nearby, a zombie caught an escaping woman and bit into her. The woman screamed, flailing; on the other side of the street, a pair of boys ran desperately from a crowd of zombies.

But strangely, none of the zombies, and none of the humans, seemed to notice this girl.

“Brother Zhang, Brother Zhang, where are you…”

The girl desperately gripped her phone with shaking hands, dialing the latest number again. The phone screen read that she’d tried calling over thirty times, yet none of the calls went through.

“Brother Zhang… Brother Zhang…”

And then, when the girl walked past another street, her eerie eyes suddenly lit up.

He was there!

Zhang Lie had come out of a building, a group of sturdy men and young women with him. He wielded a baseball bat, which he used to smash the head of a zombie. Blood and gore flew everywhere, making the man look wild and violent. But to Ji Ling, he was her savior.

“Brother Zhang!” Ji Ling rushed over as quickly as she could, but with her injured leg, she could limp herself clumsily toward him. All of a sudden, it was like the spell on her broke; the group of people noticed her coming, and so too did the zombies behind her.

Ji Ling had imagined that when she and Zhang Lie reunited, it would be like one of those romantic scenes in movies; she’d run into his arms, and Zhang Lie would hold her tight, vowing to never let anything happen to her. That was all that kept her going when she woke up alone in her cramped, suffocating bedroom, hearing the rasping bodies of her mother and father clawing at her door.

When she heard those inhuman sounds, she had shivered, wishing that they’d just leave her alone, ignore her like they always did—and then, somehow, the corpses moved away, like they’d forgotten her. Ji Ling carefully crawled out of her house and tried to call her boyfriend. When he didn’t answer, she ran, ran toward his apartment, passing by all sorts of horrible creatures and dying people, just wanting to be with him again and feel safe.

And now they were together. Ji Ling had found him. Even though Zhang Lie was already surrounded by other people, she ignored them, like Zhang Lie was the only person in her eyes.

But Zhang Lie—

In the brief moment his eyes first landed on her, Ji Ling saw it.

That flash of disgust and contempt.

Ji Ling froze. When she looked a moment later, that expression was completely gone. But he didn’t look at her again. Instead, Zhang Lie turned to the people in his group and said something. There was a woman clutching at his arm, and when Ji Ling noticed her, she clenched her fists, her eyes going hot and red with tears.

“Zhang Lie!” Ji Ling shouted, still limping toward him. Her face started twisting, a sick rage burning in her belly. “Zhang Lie, you’re my boyfriend!”

But Ji Ling was too slow; Zhang Lie was already turning away, the people in his group dashing toward the cars parked nearby. Her eyes burned as she watched them climb into the car without her, and one of the woman even looked back at her with a disdainful, pitying look.

It was that look!

It was that look again!

Why!

Why did everyone look down on her?!

Ji Ling stared furiously, not even blinking as she tried to run to the car like a mad woman possessed. Her body twisted from the strain she put on her injured leg as she screamed, reaching out to the car with hands contorted into claws. Like this, with her eyes so wide and crazed, she even looked like a rabid zombie herself.

But her efforts resulted in nothing. No matter how hard she ran, she was still too far away. The car’s rear lights turned on, splashing red light over Ji Ling, and they drove away.

He’d left her.

Zhang Lie, her dear Zhang Lie.

He’d abandoned her like garbage.

Ji Ling broke down, the strength in her leg giving out as she fell to the ground. She let out a pained cry, curling up there on the rough asphalt. Her skin abraded when she fell, giving her even more wounds.

It was only then that she heard the sounds behind her. The shuffling, terrifying sounds of inhuman footsteps, the low groans of growls of the zombies. But Ji Ling couldn’t even spare the effort to look up. She just cried, letting out a wail of anguish, and clutched herself on the ground.

She was going to die here.

She was going to die… all alone…

No one would even care. No one wanted her. No one was going to save her.

The shadows of the zombies fell over her. Up above, the skies were a horrible dark red, and the ominous clouds blocked the stars and moon. Ji Ling saw the faces of the zombies as they reached out to her, and gazed back numbly.

She had already given up.

But then.

Bang! Bang!

The heads of the zombies exploded out the back. They collapsed, just inches away from Ji Ling.

It was so sudden that Ji Ling didn’t know how to react. She lay there in a daze, tears still running down her cheeks, until she heard the sound of boots stepping toward her.

She stiffened, and raised her head.

There was a teenage boy there, with long bangs and a gun in his hands. He gazed down at her. His dark, frightening eyes felt like they saw straight into her soul; it made Ji Ling feel frozen, exposed, like she was a bug pinned down and put on display. Nothing about her could escape this boy’s notice, and even though Ji Ling had always hated how everyone looked through her, how no one ever saw her, when confronted by those eyes—she was terrified. He was more horrible than a zombie.

But that terrifying boy knelt down next to her. He seemed so cold, and distant, like he rejected being around people—but he still asked with a quiet voice, “Are you okay?”

And when he saw her wounds, he held out his hand, offering to help pull her up.

 

Standing by the car, the corners of Lu Hao’s lips dipped into a frown.

Hong Sheng was too moral.

Even though he’d overheard what happened to Ji Ling, Lu Hao hadn’t intended to intervene. Whatever happened to her wasn’t his problem.

But Hong Sheng—he still followed the old tenets of the Survivor Guard, and he still thought Lu Hao was a good guy who still believed in them, too.

Back when Lu Hao had founded the SG, one of the major principles was to always retain a sense of humanity. If it wouldn’t put you in danger, when you saw someone who needed help, you should try to help them. And in a situation like this, where a helpless high school girl was about to be attacked, it was inexcusable to ignore her.

So even if Ji Ling was a mortal enemy that had betrayed them and led to Hong Sheng’s death, Hong Sheng still stopped the car and saved her.

Because that was what the SG did.

Though Lu Hao himself no longer shared those iron principles.

In the first place, he doubted that Ji Ling had actually been in danger. She had her ability that let her escape from all zombies’ and people’s notice. In the critical moment, as long as she instinctively activated it, she would have been fine.

But it was interesting that at the moment, Ji Ling was still completely human. If she hadn’t started as a zombie in her first life, did that mean she had become a zombie later? But Lu Hao had met her in the first year of the apocalypse. What magical method did she use to retain her human form and intelligence even after becoming a zombie?

The ‘healing spring water’ flashed through Lu Hao’s mind. His gaze darkened, but he quickly controlled himself. As he watched Hong Sheng lead the injured Ji Ling over, Lu Hao hid his aggression deep, not letting a single trace of it slip.

“Did the zombies bite her?” Lu Hao asked in a casual tone. He knew they hadn’t. But Ji Ling flinched under the question, sensing that Lu Hao didn’t want anything to do with her.

Hong Sheng shook his head. “Abrasions and a twisted ankle.”

Lu Hao threw a detached glance at Ji Ling, the smile on his face tinged with cold. “We can drop you off at your home. The military will probably send out a search for survivors in a few weeks.”

Ji Ling shivered, cowering even more. “I—I can’t go back. My mom and dad are in that house… and they’re both zombies…”

Lu Hao didn’t bother to answer. He wasn’t bringing her to the villa. She could fend for herself or die.

But Hong Sheng furrowed his brows, and he looked at Lu Hao questioningly.

“Can… can I come with you?” Ji Ling begged to Hong Sheng, her fingers pulling on his sleeve. “I don’t have anywhere else… I, I won’t cause trouble…”

Lu Hao stared at where her fingers gripped Hong Sheng’s clothes. His smile stayed the same, yet the air seemed to grow chillier by several degrees.

Hong Sheng didn’t answer. He just glanced expectantly at Lu Hao, who said and did nothing, silently throwing the decision back in Hong Sheng’s hands. Hong Sheng was the one who saved her. She was already lucky enough to not be killed outright by Lu Hao. Hong Sheng pursed his lips, and he opened the car door for Ji Ling. “Get in.”

Ji Ling did so, moving gingerly from the pain. She looked with watery, pitiful eyes to the front of the car, her expression perfectly captured in the rear-view mirror. Unfortunately, neither Lu Hao nor Hong Sheng spared her a glance.

“So?” Lu Hao said, when Hong Sheng sat in the driver’s seat.

“Keep going. And… bring her to the base,” Hong Sheng replied, casting his gaze down.

Lu Hao frowned, and in the end, sighed. “Alright.”

If Lisa Xi and the other researchers couldn’t figure out the secret to that jade pendant, it was better to have Ji Ling on hand. That way, they could pry answers from her.

He’d just need to keep a close watch on her.

Though Ji Ling was still innocent in this timeline, the moment she even hinted at causing trouble for Hong Sheng, Lu Hao wouldn’t hesitate to get rid of her.