Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 275: Another Moment

Chapter 275: Another Moment

Wait... what did Fang Ting Guang just say?

Since when were we there to save them? I thought we were here for supplies and a place to sleep for the night. The mall was big enough; we could have easily divided everything up into two different areas and been on our way in the morning.

I don’t remember offering to save anyone.

"Mama, didn’t you just say that was a bad idea?" asked Wang Chang Ming, his voice echoing in the silence.

Rolling my eyes, I looked at him very seriously. "That is right. I did. And do you remember why I said that always rescuing people was a bad idea?"

"Because you didn’t know who was going to eat you or not."

Out of the mouth of babes.

"Exactly," I replied, a tight smile on my face as I looked at the grown-ass man who should have been smarter than a three-year-old.

"You... you don’t have to save us. It’s okay," murmured the girl, hunched over in front of Fang Ting Guang. "We understand. We really do. Besides, if you stay here tonight, the zombies are going to eat you too."

"Zombies?" asked Bai Long Qiang, turning to look at me.

Tilting my head from side to side, I wondered how I could answer his question without giving anything away. Yes, there were zombies here. But they had left and weren’t coming back any time soon.

"We are part of one of their farms. They divided us up and kept us in different malls around the city. Each mall has enough supplies to keep us well fed and occupied, and they chain and lock the doors from the outside so that no one escapes. Every night, they will come and take one of us away," explained the girl, never looking up.

"And the ones with guns?" asked Ye Yao Zu, raising an eyebrow. It was nice to know that I wasn’t the only one to be able to smell the bullshit this woman was coming up with. I was sure that this might be what she was talking about, a human farm for zombies, but I don’t think that she was telling us everything.

"They were going to fight the zombies when they came tonight," interjected another woman, her head down as well. "And hello, Bai Long Qiang. I’ve missed you."

Hearing his name, Bai Long Qiang stiffened; a look of fear flashed on his face as he looked at me and then at the woman who was coming to her feet.

Her hair, like the damsel’s, was perfectly washed and styled. She didn’t have a single bruise on her, and except for being stylishly thin, she wasn’t suffering in any way. In fact, it almost looked like she had just stepped off the runway.

"I have no idea who that is," Bai Long Qiang assured me as Fan Teng Fei let out a snort of disbelief. "Seriously, absolutely no idea."

"But... I’m Ye Mei Hui," said the woman as she started to walk around the other women sitting on the floor. "Don’t you remember me?"

"Nope," disagreed Bai Long Qiang, frantically shaking his head. "I don’t remember anyone with that name."

"The girl in high school who kidnapped me, thinking that if I were gone, she’d be able to marry you," I reminded him with a sigh. Truth be told, I didn’t recognize her at all. She looked so different than she was when she was 15.

However, her name was one of those that I would never forget.

"The bitch that kidnapped you?" shouted Bai Long Qiang, pulling out his gun and pointing it right at her, forcing her to stop moving. "Well, this is a surprise."

He pulled back the safety of his gun, only to have Jia Yu Sheng stepping in between the two. "I don’t know what happened when you were kids, but clearly, everything has worked out just fine," he said, holding his hand out for the gun.

Now, it was Ye Yao Zu’s turn to laugh. "That’s not happening. Besides, you just met the girl; why do you care if she lives or dies?"

"Look, I don’t know what you think of me, and clearly, you don’t think much. But humans are no longer at the top of the food chain. We are being hunted, picked apart, and eaten. There is less than a quarter of the people still in the world. Those of us left alive need to do whatever we can to save those we can," explained the man as Bai Long Qiang lowered his gun.

"Is anyone else finding this more than a little weird?" asked Chang Guo Zi as he looked around at the other three teams. Even Zhong Yong Zheng, the head of Betrayed, seemed to be smitten with one of the women on the floor of the massive mall.

I raised my hand, and even Wang Chang Ming raised his little arm.

"Anything?" asked Chang Guo Zi, his eyes lighting up as if he saw a treasure.

I rolled my eyes, not wanting to be bothered by the man who was treating me like his own version of Google.

"You didn’t actually ask a question," I pointed out before I turned around and walked out the door. I couldn’t be in that room anymore. With every word spoken, the ants on my arms got worse and worse.

There was a problem with the women; I just had no idea what it was.

"Are we sleeping outside?" asked Fan Teng Fei, following quickly after me.

I looked at him and let out a long sigh. I had no idea what to do. I started this whole thing because I couldn’t stand the thought of them out of my sight, and now... I still hated the idea.

I wasn’t equipped to make normal, everyday decisions; a part of me was still scared that I would make the wrong one.

I opened my mouth to tell him all that, to let him know that I was barely able to keep my head above water when Rip and Bin An Sha appeared out of the darkness.

"Is everything okay in there? What are you doing out here?" asked Bin An Sha, his comfort knife twirling around in his hand.

"I don’t know," I replied honestly. But one thing I did know was that I would much rather sleep outside than in right now. "But I cannot stay in there another minute."