Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 243: Well, Well, Well

Chapter 243: Well, Well, Well

Okay, so maybe it was a Catch-22 when it came to picking to start on the top floor and work our way down.

While I thought it was a good decision to save time and energy, I still hated to go up all those fucking stairs.

Rip chuckled from where he walked behind me as if he could read my mind. At this point in time, though, I was sure that he did know me better than I knew myself.

"I remember bitching when the escalators broke down before the world went to shit," grumbled Si Dong from wherever he was behind me. "And we had to walk up all the steps. That still feels like more of a slap in the face than this."

I scrunched my brows in confusion as we made it to the top of the third floor. Only one more left to go.

"He used to think that escalators were out to get him because they always seemed to break down whenever he wanted to use them," explained Ye Yao Zu, looking over his shoulder at me. "We told him that it wasn’t the case, but he seems to still be holding on to that grudge."

"How else would you explain it?" protested Si Dong, outrage in his voice. "You all managed to get up the escalator just fine. But the moment I stepped on them, they broke, making me walk up them like a sucker."

I blinked, not realizing that that was an actual thing. I continued to listen to the guys chirping at each other as we made our way up to the final floor.

"Fourth floor: household goods, books, and women’s lingerie," chuckled Si Dong as he finally got off the broken escalator.

"Haha," I replied, rolling my eyes. Until I looked at the store right in front of me and blinked rapidly. Women’s lingerie.

"Did you want to stop in there and pick up a little somethin’ somethin’?" he continued, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Actually, yes," I smirked, walking into the store. As far as I was concerned, you could never have enough sports bras and underwear. Not to mention the pajamas and hand lotions. Maybe I would even grab a couple of bathing suits in case we wanted to go swimming in the lake behind the cabin.

All the guys quickly followed in after me, splitting up to make sure that the store was safe. The fact that they ’quietly’ passed things to Fan Teng Fei just made me smile.

Grabbing everything they had in my size... plus some... I brought my arm full of clothes to Fan Teng Fei. "Are you sure you have room for it all?" I asked, my eyes barely peeking over the things in my arms.

His response was to just make everything disappear before taking my hand and leading me out of the store.

He pointed to the one beside it, and I nodded my head. It was nothing but purses and luggage, but you never knew what was going to come in handy during the last days.

We continued going through every store, grabbing whatever we could.

And yet... we had yet to run into a single zombie.

"So, is this bothering anyone else?" asked Bai Long Qiang as we finished with the last shop on the third floor. "I mean, it’s weird... right?"

"You think it’s weird that we aren’t currently fighting for our lives?" asked Cheng Bo Jing, confused.

"Well... yeah," agreed Si Dong, nodding his head. His wrist was resting on the butt of his rifle from where it hung in front of him. "I mean, something’s not right here."

I shrugged as everyone’s eyes turned to me. My skin was still crawling, but not with enough intensity where shit was going to hit the fan any minute now. It was like... if I made the wrong decision, then it would be worse.

But if I made the right one, everything would be fine.

Closing my eyes, I tried to feel the life force of everything around me. But it was strangely absent.

Confused, I looked deeper. However, all I could feel was my men around me.

It was like nothing in this world existed but us.

Shrugging, I opened my eyes. "Maybe I have to be outside," I guessed. This was the first time I had tried to use the latest power upgrade inside, so maybe being surrounded by so much ’dead’ stuff was preventing me from using my power fully.

After all, I couldn’t pull energy from metal and glass.

Bin An Sha looked out the window and narrowed his eyes. "It looks like we only have a few hours of daylight left," he grunted before turning his attention back to me. "I think we should finish off the last two floors and then find someplace safe to spend the night."

"I agree," nodded Cheng Bo Jing, both of his hands on his gun as he looked over the side rails of the third floor and down to the second one. "This place is too big for us to set up camp. We could be attacked on all sides, no matter where we were."

"And just because there is nothing jumping out of the shadows during the day doesn’t mean that there might not be at night," grunted Rip. "Zombies are able to see better than humans in the dark. Maybe they’ve adapted their hunting to when the prey is easier to catch."

"That’s a thing?" I asked, my eyes wide as I looked around at the guys. Even Si Dong was looking suspiciously serious.

"A good hunter knows how to adjust to their circumstances," replied Cheng Bo Jing, not quite answering my question. But it was enough to know that I wanted to find a nice, small hole to hide in when the sunset.

My cage would have been ideal, but I was trying to get over that impulse.

Bin An Sha led the way down the escalator, the guys keeping me in a protective position right in the middle of the line.

Suddenly, my skin felt like it was on fire. "Uh, guys?" I grunted, unable to stop myself from digging my nails into my arm. Luckily my sweater kept me from actually causing damage.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" smirked a man standing at the bottom of the escalator, a gun raised and pointed straight at the doctor.