Chapter 23—Who digs symmetrical fire pits in a perfect 120 mile radius?

by Bocchan13

Lan Zhou and co. were tired and decided to find shelter for the night instead of travelling to the Sun Base that the stranger pointed out. Their jeeps were worse for wear, so it was up to Wang Cheng to take out spare parts and have Lu Jingxiu add them on to the already altered jeeps. Xiao Zi and Yu Ci were on lookout and Wang Cheng checked their storage. Lan Zhou set up the perimeter and built the fire. A small blue flame enveloped from the wood before turning red, as Lan Zhou sat down on his padded backpack, staring off into the flames.

Yu Ci and Xiao Zi determined that there weren’t any zombies afoot and would do nightly lookout. Before they turned around, they spotted something on the edge of the prairie. Covered by the long overgrown weeds, they saw…a circle pit filled with zombies. A lattice built of bamboo covered the top except for a hole that would fit two zombies. Dug almost ten feet down, it looked like the perfect trap. No edges or corners for zombies to get out from, the sides smoothened down.

“Hey boss, you gotta take a look at this.” Lan Zhou hurried to them and saw the trap, his brows furrowed.

“You think it was the black hooded figure today? He seems smart enough to do this.”

Xiao Zi looked down and saw that under the zombies were ashes.

“It’s a fire pit.”

“The dude probably made these traps to burn them later. Smart.”

“If he does this, then that means he lives around these parts.”

“Not sure…it could also be the Sun Base.” Lan Zhou looked at the bamboo latticework. Very intricate and stiff. Properly maintained and easy to make and use. Yu Ci was right, the man who made these were definitely smart.

“Don’t touch the trap. You don’t know what else that person has made for the zombies.” Xiao Zi and Yu Ci nodded, going back to prepare for dinner.

Wang Cheng had taken out a few bowls and prepared sweet potatoes and beef jerky. His space was storage, and kept most things fresh and tasty. Anything perishable was always put in Wang Cheng’s space. Unfortunately, his space wasn’t large. It could fill two standard rooms so mostly food was inside.

The sweet potatoes were wrapped in leaves and buried under the fire, ready to crisp. Wang Cheng also brought out a box of cereal, adding a shake in each bowl. It wouldn’t fill their stomach, but their rations were depleting a bit too much for comfort.

“What do we have to exchange with the Sun Base?”

“I hear it’s very small. Only around three hundred residents of mostly religious fanatics. They had barricaded their town the moment someone died there. We can exchange the jeep or three handguns with 120 bullets inside.”

“We don’t know how many ability users there are, so better prepare for a very unwelcoming welcome.”

Everyone sighed. They honestly didn’t want to deal with other people. But they were searching for the pure ability user. Either by fate or if the cosmos shifted after everyone was reborn, the pure ability user did not come to B Base. Because Lan Zhou terminated the doctor team responsible for the torture of dozens of ability users, the one they were desperate to find never surfaced.

They received many benefits from the Army Base, but that was leagues away now, and they didn’t bring anybody else from the Army Base because they didn’t know who to trust. Lan Zhou rubbed his forehead and couldn’t help but think about the black cloaked stranger.

He felt familiar. But with the hood and the mask, it was hard to discern a person based on eyes alone. Everyone finished their dinner and delegated night shifts.

…

Lu Jiangxi and Xiao Zi were on first watch. They sat down on their backpacks and stared at the surrounding prairie.

“Do you think…this is a hopeless endeavor?” Xiao Zi sighed and nodded faintly.

“I’ve studied the zombie virus for close to 20 years…and even I think the vaccine might not work.”

Lu Jiangxi closed his eyes.

“Don’t you just want to…go somewhere? Just a safe space where we can just live a little easier?” Xiao Zi held Jiangxi’s hand, leaning his head on his shoulders. He continued to listen as he whispered,

“Saving the world isn’t our responsibility. We spent so long fighting. I just want to build a small cottage with just us…” Xiao Zi deep inside wanted the same thing.

In their past life, Xiao Zi and Lu Jiangxi were in an awkward position. Both had feelings for each other, but didn’t want to confess for fear of destroying their dynamics. They spent 20 years pining for each other, just staying by each other’s sides through hardships and failures. By the time they were 45 years old, they had both just let go of their youthful love in favor of comfortable companionship.

When they made their expedition to Paradise Base, many of their comrades died alongside Wang Cheng and Yu Ci. When the group didn’t have any more supplies or manpower Lu Jiangxi had left in the middle of the night, disobeying Lan Zhou’s orders to get more support.

In the end, by the time he came back, he found out that Xiao Zi and Lan Zhou had both perished. The sadness and despair he felt was akin to torture, and he died from heartbreak three days later.

He never got to confess his love to Xiao Zi nor bury his bones.

When they were reborn, they both got together rather quickly, never wanting to separate from each other. Lu Jiangxi held Xiao Zi’s hands tightly as he shook his head.

“I have a responsibility. Even if the vaccine doesn’t work, at least my conscious will be clear that I did all I could for the purpose of humanity.”

Lu Jiangxi could only suppress his pain and fear as he brought Xiao Zi closer in his embrace. His beloved Xiao Zi was alive in his arms. He lightly kissed his temple and continued to guard as Xiao Zi took a small break.

Lan Zhou had not slept yet when he heard their conversation. He knew that they were in love with each other. But the painful ache in Lu Jiangxi’s voice was so visceral and poignant, Lan Zhou felt guilty.

He didn’t know if it was his own personal mission to look for the pure ability user. When he wanted to go on the expedition despite his older body, his friends decided to follow him. They had all grown older, their strength now in building a society in the zombie apocalypse. It his own selfishness that caused them to go. But they followed him anyways. They always did.

They stuck together for so long, a family of brothers that never left them behind.

Maybe…if they never found the pure ability user…they would settle somewhere. That vision he had in his head…of a small cottage in the forest. A running farm, green grass and a crystal lake, and a warm embrace holding him tight when he came home.

If they wanted…maybe Lan Zhou should find a paradise rather than the cure.

During the night, they switched several times until morning broke. Lan Zhou calculated that they would make it to the Sun Base in the afternoon. Waking up the rest of the crew, they picked up their gears and started the jeeps, leaving the forests for overgrown farmland.

Yu Ci was in the passenger seat when he glanced at a familiar object.

“Boss…is that another trap?” Lan Zhou slowed down the car and looked at the expanse of weeds. Indeed, off the right was a peek of green bamboo weaving. Getting off they surveyed the symmetrically circle holed dug approximately 10 feet deep, a bamboo net over it.

“It’s probably the Sun Base…”

“It’s too far away from them to do something like this.”

“Let’s see if there are any more. Mark it on the map, Xiao Zi.”

“Roger boss.”

They kept driving, and whenever they saw a hole, Xiao Zi marked it. Over 120 miles of driving later, they were all peeved looking at another hole in the ground, this time it had over 20 zombies inside.

“How many traps have we seen?” Lan Zhou looked at the rearview mirror to Xiao Zi.

“Around 20 these past 100 miles.”

“Do they lead to the Sun Base?”

“No…I think it curves. If it continues, it will hit the glacial mountains to Country O than the Sun Base in the east.”

Wang Cheng heard it on the walkie-talkie and couldn’t help but ask, “What kind of dedication does someone have to dig so many traps?”

Lu Jiangxi shrugged and gnawed on some beef jerky. “Someone who doesn’t want zombies coming any closer to them. Easy cleanup. It looks like these traps haven’t been touched in a while.”

“The…black stranger?”

“Most likely.”

Yu Ci whistled in appreciation.

“Gotta say, man’s got dedication.”

“Why do you think no one has found these traps?”

“Mostly because the Sun Base is the farthest in A Country, anything farther, we hit ice mountains, small villages, and no place for gas. It’s a suicide mission to go any further. The black figured man is smart. Total isolation.”

“If we can’t get anything from the Sun Base…”

Lan Zhou remembered the hostile look on the black strangers face.

“That’s as a last resort. We don’t know how dangerous he is. Judging by his tactical traps, fighting skills, and smart enough to go into deep isolation…he is very very dangerous.

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Song Yu burst into tears once again thinking of Lan Zhou’s gentle gaze on that skinny twink. He punched his pillow in vexation, his snot flying all over the place. If dogs could sigh, Squinty would be doing just that.

“Curse you, you don’t even have balls. You don’t know anything about love!”

“Woof! Woof woof woof! Woof!”

At least I have self-respect! I’m not some whiney crybaby who preens for no one to see!

“Gasp! You take that back!”

“Woof! Wwwwooofff!”

Yeah, I said it. Now hurry up! I wanna finish watching The Unt*med!

Song Yu could only ugly cry at the TV screen as the ‘sworn brothers’ played romantic music to each other at a waterfall.