Chapter Text
I stared out of the window; I don't remember how long it had been; it could've been a few minutes, but as well as a few hours.
Time was most likely the first thing I lost track of when the outbreak happened.
The only indication of a day that had once again passed was the sunrise every morning, the last thing I would see before closing my eyes to set off to a haven.
Although it would feel dangerous to sleep during the day, when the zombies are most active, gege had pressed me on the heart that it was the safest option.
Perhaps it was because we could hide easier in the depths of darkness, or because my gege is just more of a night owl, but whatever the reason is, we travel by dusk and sleep at dawn.
Once the sun sets, gege would wake me; if I had not been awake already.
Sometimes, gege would have food ready; other times, there was nothing, but we had to be grateful that we survived another day, so neither of us spoke about it, rule 2.
In the beginning, it was hard to adjust, the world had turned upside down overnight, but we don't talk about the old world anymore, rule 3.
"Didi?" The voice of my gege cut my train of thoughts as I turned my attention back to him.
I watched my gege tick with his fingers on the steering wheel as if he was trying to play a tune from which he had forgotten most of the notes.
"Yes, gege?" I turned my body to look behind us while gege held the same speed.
There were no zombies in sight.
"I turned back, "safe." My gege just hummed, and I could practically feel him smile.
"Sucks to have no rearview mirror; guess I should keep it in mind for tonight." I didn't respond, letting the peaceful silence fall over us like a thick blanket.
I used to hate silences, but ever since the outbreak started and gege ran off with me, I adjusted to the situation, just like the way I adapted to this new life.
"Didi, if you're hungry, there's something in the back of the car," my gege had said in a way that I knew he was hiding something.
I turned around again, letting myself hang half over the backseat of the car to grab the black bag.
Once it was between my hands, I felt a box.
I carefully opened the plastic bag, which had a little carton box inside with a sticker of a tiny bunny on top.
Without even opening the box, the waves of vanilla scent hit me hard.
It was my favourite cake, the exact cake I had been eating every year on the same day; my birthday.
"Gege!" He let out a light huff, still focused on the road as I smiled, my heart feeling too heavy for my body.
"Happy birthday to us, didi," my gege whispered as I looked at the road ahead.
Everything got covered in darkness.
***
Wang Yibo’s POV
It was silent throughout the chaos inside my mind.
The only thing that reminded me of my mission was the ragged breathing of Lily, whose footsteps I followed.
My eyes roamed around to look at the world; a place that once used to carry beauty and grace was now in flaming havoc.
The world I used to know, where kids laughed and played outside with adults at the side, smiling at their children. All of that had been burned to the ground, the ashes of it blown away, together with my dreams.
In the world we now live in, the idea of the world we once had would seem like a Utopia.
Shaking myself out of my daydreams, I looked up, and Lily's deep emerald eyes caught mine as I finally realised it had been the effects of the medicine kicking in, with the way my mind wandered off further than usual.
"Tracer!" Her soft but stern voice calling my name caused the last bit of sleepy side effects to be gone.
I nodded back at Lily, looking over her shoulder to be sure there was no obstacle, and when I confirmed so, I gave Lily a signal.
We came and went from shadow to shadow as quickly as we could.
The outside world was war ground; no one was safe, and everyone was a threat.
It no longer mattered if you were from the same species; it was either fight or die.
And perhaps, the core of a human is indeed to be monstrous.
Lily stopped; we were hiding behind a piece of bug metal that probably was the construction of what once would have turned out to be a beautiful building if it wasn't for the pandemic.
"If it turns out that there are zombies nearby, you run into the supermarket and see if there's anything left; I'll deal with the zombie horde outside, and then I'll come to find you, okay?" I nodded, knowing the underlying message; if there are zombies outside, I'll deal with them, most likely attracting the one's inside the shop so you can sneak in.
But neither of us voiced that out, ever.
Unconsciously my grip on the daggers at my hip tightened, just in case Lily had said when she gave it as a birthday present the first year we were on the run together.
At first, when I realised Lily had gifted me a dagger, I wanted to decline, but soon, I found out those daggers prevented me from dying multiple times, and each time I got better at handling them.
I shook the thought away as Lily counted with her fingers, and when she reached one, Lily sprinted towards the shop, her eyes moving fast and her body coordinated.
I watched her run into the shop, and when it stayed quiet, devoid of the usual sound of dragging and heavy breathing from zombies, I slowly got ready to run towards the store too.
My legs knew this plan better than my mind did.
And while I ran towards the shop, my eyes roamed around, doing a quick scan, and just like Lily, I saw no zombies, which for some reason, felt unsettling.
When I stepped inside the store, I looked around carefully, and at the end of the hallway, there seemed to be a heap of dead zombies, and from the smell they put out into the place, they seemed to have recently gotten killed.
Slowly, I walked towards the zombies while the light in the shop surprisingly still worked, although it flickered so often, almost like a morse code.
The closer I came to the zombies, the worse the smell became, and I adjusted the mask, covering my face by tightening it, even though it did not help the smell.
The clothes of the zombies were ratty, old and worn out if not coloured with old dried blood.
For some reason, the longer I stared at the dead pile of zombies, the more unsettling the situation felt.
As I went closer, crouching next to the dead zombies, holding my breath against the stench, I saw wounds and bruises seemingly quite freshly, some still bleeding and at the corners had started drying.
I leaned closer to inspect the wounds, and they seemed not to have gotten inflicted with something sharp, so it could not have been a knife or something like that, perhaps a baseball bat of some kind.
It would explain the bruises.
I should ask Lily about it.
When I recalled Lily, I shot up, looking dazedly around, but her tiny figure was nowhere in sight.
Upon examining the place a bit better, there was not much to find, as I expected, but still, disappointment settled like a heavy weight inside my chest as I heaved a deep sigh.
All the food racks were thrown to the ground and broken down, and as I took a few steps away from the zombies to waft the smell, I crouched, seeing no food anywhere near.
I ruffled a hand through my hair in frustration when I stopped mid-way because of a muffled groan.
Once again, the groan got heard, this time only a fraction louder, and by accident, Lily's name escaped from my mouth even when I knew it was most definitely not Lily who was groaning in what seemed like pain.
The voice seemed to belong to a man.
The silence was what continued to meet me as I kept my mouth shut, and for a moment, I thought I had gone insane by hearing things; when, once again, the same groaning in pain echoed throughout the place.
The voice seemed to be on the other side of the supermarket, and I focused on listening to any sound while quietly stepping over the broken pieces of wood adorning the place.
A sane part of my mind told me not to go because it could've been a zombie. It did not sound like one.
Or that it perhaps can be a bitten one. And if whoever is groaning in pain is not?
But I turned my mind off, going based on instincts as I approached closer to where I believed I had heard the sound until I reached a corner of the supermarket with a bar.
The bar was surprisingly still intact, which probably meant that zombies hadn't really touched this part of the place much.
Behind the bar, there seemed to be clear sounds of something rustling but so soft that one with no trained ear could barely hear.
When I looked up, blinking twice, I noticed how much darker this part of the supermarket was, and I stretched out, standing up to look behind me, and indeed.
The beginning of the store had brighter lights, though still dimmed, the further you walked, the darker it became, yet I barely noticed.
Turning back to the bar, the rustling sounds had stopped, and now I could hear clear heavy breathing.
But it was different from how zombies breathed; this seemed to be a more human breath, calmer and quieter.
Would I really risk my life for a human?
I gathered all the humanity I had left inside me as I followed my heart, who had made the decision the moment this pandemic had started.
Nothing could make me lose the want to help people.
Stepping out of my comfort zone, I pushed through, calmly walking towards the bar and turning the corner.
There at the other side of the bar lay a man, a very tall man, my brain registered.
His black t-shirt seemed stained with blood, and his once blue pants too, and it didn't spare his shoes either.
On his left cheek, there was a drop of blood; in the form of a heart, and I couldn't help but lean closer towards the man, feeling a pull.
And I knew I was closer than was safe, but something about the man's face seemed to catch me.
I looked at the man, searching for open wounds that were still bleeding, but all I could find were some scratches around his arm, the blood seemingly having dried hours ago.
But that didn't mean I could let my guards down.
I had learned the hard way that even if some wounds seem to have dried hours ago, it isn't always the case, and those people could still have been bitten and turned.
As I let my thoughts run further, I dissociated.
Out of nowhere, a hand grabbed my wrist, tight like a fist; my breath got caught by the pain as I bit my lower lip, staring right into two almond deep eyes.
I gasped, lost for breath as I frowned at the untold stories and raw feelings visible in the eyes of the man, not realising quiet footsteps were approaching me from behind.
I tried to get myself loose from the man's iron grip, but the more I tried, the more he tightened his fingers, and his eyes continued to bore through mine.
And just like how he grabbed me out of nowhere, he let go, and I saw the deep red marks left behind by him, and as my eyes went back up to the man, he was unconscious again.
When I heard rustling beside me, I turned around slowly, almost in fear of facing a zombie even though I knew that they would never be this quiet, even if it were only one zombie.
My eyes met Lily's warm and familiar gaze, laced with worry, as she nodded toward the man.
He lay there, half his body sprawled over the ground and his upper body leaning against the bar, his clothes drained in blood. There was even blood in his hair upon closer inspection.
He almost seemed dead .
But I had seen how a dying man looked, and I had seen his eyes, the raw emotions, and I knew that he was still alive, no matter how pale he looked.
My eyes wandered off to the man's body. This time, searching for weapons, but there were none, at least in sight.
And by the build of this man, he was tall but slim, so how has he survived this long?
"Is he . . . ?" There was no need for Lily to finish that sentence as I shook my head, and as if to prove my statement, the man moved.
It was just a little movement, probably because he was hurt, but it was at least a sign that he was alive.
Lily's eyes found mine, and I knew neither of us would let this man die if there was a way to prevent it.
In the end, it was Lily who made the first movement after what felt like ages to me but was perhaps only seconds as she stood up and strode forwards toward the man.
As I watched Lily, she reminded me of a grim reaper, totally dressed in black, and I remember it was also my first thought when I met her that fateful night.
Lady of the night, reaper of souls, and daughter of the moon.
Crouched behind Lily, I glanced over her shoulder, keeping her every movement in my eye.
She held the man's wrist carefully, in one hand, searching for a pulse, a sign of life, as I inspected his face more thoroughly.
Even though there were droplets of blood on his face, the man looked ethereal and young in a way that was hard to say how old he was.
High cheekbones, milk-white skin - which was most likely by nature and partially because of his wounds -, plump red lips with a tiny mole under them, long eyelashes, and if I were to ignore whatever he wore and the blood on his face, he looked like a prince who had stepped right out of a fairytale.
But I no longer believed in happily ever afters, not when I had to witness the death of tremendous amounts of people, some of whose hope died in my arms.
"His pulse is weak, but he'll survive as he doesn't seem to have any other exterior significant wounds. I don't think the blood on his clothes and face are his either, but that, of course, only leaves the option . . ." Lily let her voice trail off as our eyes met, the realisation settling upon us like a heavy cloak.
My mind brought me back to the piles of zombies at the entrance, bloody and dead.
Had it really been him who killed them all?
I knew the natural instinct was to back away from this man, whoever he was, but neither of us did it.
"Did you find anything?" Lily shook her head as I sat down, amidst the mess, next to a half-dying man whose identity was still a mystery.
"I have checked the whole place, and except for some medicine and a few water bottles, there was nothing to see. And of course, the pile of zombies," Lily said, whispering the last sentence for only me to hear, as I nodded, giving the affirmation she needed.
"Do you want to wait?" Lily gave me a soft smile, knowing that me sitting here besides this man had actually already answered her question.
After a few more seconds, Lily decided to sit down too, a bit further away from the man, but her eyes fixated on him.
"I don't see any bite marks, but those scratches tell another story; they can be just some scratches that he got while fighting the zombies if he was the one who fought them in the first place. But even then, we should know what caused the scratches." I hummed, watching Lily adjust her mask while her eyes were scanning the place once more.
If it weren't for the circumstances we had found ourselves in, it would have been highly unlikely for me to have ever talked to Lily.
She seemed sweet on the first eye, but she knew which fights to pick better than anyone else.
If it weren't for Lily, too, I might have long ago lost myself to zombies, whether it would be willingly or unwillingly.
I immediately cut off my thought as I saw another tiny movement in the man's face; his eyelashes fluttered as if he was fighting to open his eyes.
Lily had noticed it too as she stepped backwards, just in case something would happen.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lily making a movement, wanting me to move back too, but I didn't.
My heart was racing as I held my breath for the nth time this night, watching the man slowly, almost in slow-motion open his almond-shaped eyes.