The plants slowly disappeared behind us as the SUV got as far away from the Costco parking as humanly possible.
In fact, I was pretty sure that we left skid marks on the asphalt in our hurry.
Not that I blad Yuche, hell, that creeped out, and I was hard to creep out.
Of course, I wasn’t creeped out enough that I hadn’t completely stripped Costco of everything it had. I an, I left the zombie rats and the humans... but the food, the snacks, the supplies? Yeah, all that was mine now.
I had no idea what I was going to do with ten mini fridges, but I was sure that I could co up with sothing...
If not, it wasn’t that big of a deal.
Either way... waste not, want not.
And I wanted everything.
I heard the long, drawn out sigh of four n who thought that the threat was long gone, but I knew better.
Even several streets away, I could still see movent in the rearview mirror every once in a while. Vines slipped across abandoned vehicles while tree branches stretched farther into the roads than I rembered.
And that was only on the surface.
Anyone who was smart knew that a plant’s powerhouse was under the ground where the roots could reach out.
But I refused to worry about the fact that the greenery looked thicker now.
Hungrier.
Like the rats had been fertilizer with legs.
Honestly?
That sounded like a them problem.
My problem was... where the fuck were we going now?
"This doesn’t seem like the way ho," I said, looking at Yuche and wondering if he was pulling the sa shit as Zhenlan and Chenghai. "In fact, I would almost say that we are going in the completely wrong direction."
Yuche looked at for a second, his eyes going wide. "Fuck," he grumbled under his breath like he didn’t even realize it.
"This is the direction of our old base," chuckled Lingyun. "I know you warned us about what muscle mory could do when you panicked... but I didn’t think that even you could get turned around like that."
Yuche shot Lingyun a glare. "I am not panicked," said the other man, straightening up in his seat. His hands gripped the steering wheel tighter for a single second before he forced his body to relax. "I ant to go this way."
"Uh-huh," I agreed. "But can we now head back ho? I’m more than done with today." I jerked my thumb back toward the way we ca as if Yuche needed help figuring out where to go.
Yuche stiffly nodded his head, and was about to turn the SUV around when Chenghai opened his mouth and continued to ruin my day.
"We need to stop sowhere else."
I turned slowly in my seat.
"I’m sorry," I start, blinking rapidly at him like he had suddenly started to speak a foreign language "...Why would we do sothing stupid like that?"
"We didn’t get enough supplies," was his imdiate answer. His face was dark but expressionless as he looked at . "If we want to survive, we need more things."
I stared at him for several long seconds. I an... I get his need for more supplies... but.... no.
I looked at Zhenlan, the man who had once never been able to say no to . But he was completely useless, giving the sa look that Chenghai was.
Still not convinced, I turned back to Chenghai again.
"You saw the zombie rats, right?" I asked, wanting to make sure that we were all on the sa page. I an... there really was only one page.
My page.
"We left with almost nothing," ca his reply.
"We left with our lives," I pointed out. "I think that makes us higher up in the standings if you know what I an."
"That’s not the sa thing," said Zhenlan. "We can’t hid in a house and wait for death. Without supplies, we might as well walk out into a horde and let it tear us apart."
Honestly, the fact that he said that with a straight face felt deeply concerning.
Lingyun looked horrified too. "No. Absolutely not. Costco was enough adventure for one day. My vote is going ho."
"The downtown core should still have supplies," Zhenlan said calmly. "If the infected population moved outward during the early outbreak, then most of the stores downtown should still be intact."
"Or," I suggested, "we could go ho."
Nobody answered imdiately even though Lingyun was frantically nodding with .
I crossed my arms and leaned back against the seat. "I still don’t understand why everyone feels the need to leave their hos during an apocalypse. Don’t they listen to the governnt when they say ’shelter in place’?"
Lingyun snorted softly. "Most people don’t have killer plants protecting their driveway."
"That’s a minor detail."
"That’s an extrely important detail."
I waved one hand vaguely toward the window. "If you’re going to die anyway, you might as well die in your own bed. At least you get to be comfortable."
Lingyun stared at through the rearview mirror.
"That is genuinely one of the most depressing things you’ve ever said."
"No," I corrected. "Depressing was getting eaten alive by zombie rats in a Costco. I’m pretty sure that all those people wished that they hadn’t left ho."
"...Okay, fair."
Yuche’s fingers tapped once against the steering wheel before he glanced toward the mirror.
"They’re not wrong about the supplies."
Fucking traitor.
I narrowed my eyes at the side of his head.
"We’re already out here," he continued. "If downtown is emptier, then we should take advantage of it."
"That’s exactly the kind of logic people use right before becoming cautionary tales. You might as well be auditioning for Shark Week with the whole ’we only went in for one last swim.’"
Chenghai ignored completely. "The farther inward we go, the fewer scavengers there should be."
"And the fewer scavengers there are," I muttered, "the more likely sothing horrible already ate them."
Nobody argued with that, but the car still wasn’t turning around. In fact, it changed direction just enough that I could see that we were heading toward downtown Rongdu.
The sa place where the radio was telling everyone that would listen to NOT go.
But hey... what did I know? I only survived this once. Why not test my luck a second ti?
Gritting my teeth, I stared out the window.
Out of the frying pan and straight into the fucking fire.
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