To the Start of a New World

2.17

Author's Note

Next update this weekend. Arc 3 will be posted weekly.

Content Warning: suicide, angst

The world had been coming to an end a long time ago.

But when Lu Hao watched the elevator doors close with Hong Sheng on the other side, Lu Hao realized where his world had begun, and where it now ended:

The little boy from back then, consumed in shadow.

That morning.

"You're a goddamn idiot!"

Lisa Xi watched Hong Sheng gear up to go on the suicide mission with Lu Hao. She cursed, running her hands through her hair. Hidden in the bag behind her was the last scraps of her research.

The plan had been to escape the F City region and pray that Ji Ling wouldn't outright murder them.

No matter how Lisa Xi and Hong Sheng thought about the underground lab Ji Ling and Lu Hao were going to investigate, it could only be a trap. And that was why Lisa Xi cursed and wanted to avoid it, and why Hong Sheng, with enough determination to move mountains, insisted on going.

"You're going to die, you know that?"

Hong Sheng didn't say anything. He just moved forward.

Yu Qiu watched the trio leave the safehouse where the rest of the SG stragglers stayed. She thought of Hong Sheng saving her, and how wary he seemed of that older sister. Tightening her fists, she left to go with him. She might not be powerful, but at least, she wanted to keep Hong ge safe.

At first, everything went smoothly.

They entered the military complex, hidden from the hundreds of zombies by Ji Ling's power. The mass of bodies stood there in eerie stillness. The four of them didn't say a word, wary of disturbing the silence, and made their way deeper into the base until finally, they reached an elevator.

And as they descended, Ji Ling's expression changed, shock and horror on her face.

"Lu Hao, the safe house—it's in danger. An enormous zombie wave is coming towards them. I can make sure none of the zombies accidentally break into the safe house where the rest of the SG members are, but I'll need to focus all of my ability there. That means that over here..."

The rest of the three looked to her with varying gazes—there was terror in Yu Qiu's eyes, doubt and thought in Lu Hao's, and a dark, unreadable mire in Hong Sheng's. Lu Hao asked her, "You really can't spare any of your ability?"

"No. If I slack on my concentration, then..."

Lu Hao closed his eyes for a moment. The elevator was reaching the bottom, the only sound in the air being that of the rickety metal and the buzz of the emergency power. "Then don't," he said. "Concentrate on keeping the safe house intact. We'll just have to do our best to make it through."

They couldn't take the elevator back up, not with that mass of zombies waiting on the surface.

The elevator landed at the bottom with a dull thud. The doors opened, revealing an empty liminal space. A single underground light flickered over the doorway in the distance.

After that, the plan had been to wait until the zombie wave passed. They didn't know what horrors would be waiting in the underground base, so it was safer to wait until Ji Ling could spare some of her power to shield them from detection again before they moved forward.