Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 285: Had To Be Crazy To Leave

Chapter 285: Had To Be Crazy To Leave

The woman, Wang Shu Lan, tilted her head back and laughed. I could have sworn that it sounded like bells dancing in the wind or something.

"I ask myself that almost every day," she assured me. "Li Dai Lu had to be crazy to spend so much time and energy getting this place set up, only to leave and never come back."

I nodded my head as I continued to look around; I wanted to connect with the energy of this place, to bring a part of it in with me so that I could always carry it around. It felt like home...

No, it felt like it could have been home. But as much as my powers seemed to love everything, my heart was still calling out for my home in City D.

"Your brother must have a silver tongue to convince Li Dai Lu to leave," I chuckled, watching the horses race against the vast open space.

"I doubt that. That man is an ass and couldn’t put a sentence together if it weren’t related to the military or business. In fact, I have a theory that he just picked her up, put her over his shoulder, and walked away. If it was me? I would have been kicking and screaming the whole way out."

Once again, I nodded my head. Yeah, if I had set this place up, wild horses wouldn’t be able to take me away.

"But I guess they had to go rescue some of Liu Wei’s family," shrugged Wang Shu Lan. "The things women do when they love someone. Even if they don’t exactly realize it." She turned to look over her shoulder at her husband, her eyes telling a story I knew nothing about.

"Very true," I agreed. I had left my bunker to try and find the guys. I was kidnapped, beaten, and used for years before I was freed, and it wasn’t until I had completely given up that I managed to find the guys. Or, more like they found me.

"Growth doesn’t come from taking the easy route," continued Wang Shu Lan as we started walking down the road and toward the two story ranch house. The building was massive with a wrap around deck and huge doors. It looked like something out of a movie.

"No," I agreed. "It really doesn’t."

----

We found ourselves in the living room, a massive room with a beautiful wooden fireplace, white couches, and an entire wall of windows facing the fields and the mountains. Wang Shu Lan invited us to sit down, and a quiet woman brought in a tray of tea and snacks.

"This is Mama Li," introduced Wang Shu Lan. "She has been looking after me since I was young. When my brother all but ordered us here, I had to bring her. She is the closest thing to a mother I have ever had."

The woman, Mama Li, bent forwards and kissed Wang Shu Lan on the head as she patted the other woman’s hand. "You are the only reason why I am still living. I can’t leave until I get a couple of grandbabies out of you."

She turned to look at Wang Shu Lan’s husband, who threw up his hands in his defense. "It’s all her decision. You know that. I will do what she wants when she wants," he laughed, sharing a look with his wife. She blushed bright red and turned toward me.

"Anyway," she said quickly, changing the subject. "Tell me about what’s been going on in the outside world. You said something about zombies?"

My eyes opened wide at her question, and I couldn’t help but blink. "You’ve never seen a zombie before?" I asked, flabbergasted. It was almost inconceivable to me that she had never seen one, but then again, neither had most of City A.

Then I remembered my vision. It was no wonder City A wasn’t prepared for when the zombies came. Other than the guards guarding the walls, most would never have seen one.

"We arrived here before the EMP hit, thanks to my brother. So even though we did suffer from the strike, everything had been set up so that we didn’t need to worry about supplies or anything along those lines. In fact, we are completely self sufficient. Everything we need, from food and water to clothes and entertainment, is here. None of us have gone further than the treeline."

I continued to stare at her blankly. Now, I envied her for a whole other reason. "Any idea how I can set that up for myself?" I found the word coming out of my mouth before I even knew it. I blushed, wanting to slam my head against a wall.

"Not like I am trying to get something out of you. That just sounds perfect to me. I have a few bunkers set up that I would like to go back to, but my supplies are finite. To be completely self sufficient would be a dream," I admitted with a sigh. When I first started squirreling supplies away, it was more of a means to ease my anxiety than for any specific reason.

If I had known then what I know now, I would have done things a bit differently. Invest in cattle, sheep, and chicken to start with, and maybe fill up the lake behind the cabin with trout or bass or whatever would do well in that environment.

I would have made a dedicated place for fields while still keeping the trees around.

Yeah, there were a lot of things that I would have done differently.

"I can give you some stuff if you want. Honestly, we have more than a year’s supply of food and things with even more growing. Too bad you don’t have a place to put things or else I would give you even more. I swear to god, the chickens are trying to kill me with the amount of eggs that they lay each day. I don’t even like eggs." It was cute to watch the woman grumbling over things like that.

Especially when so many would kill to eat even one egg.

"I am a space power user," admitted Fan Teng Fei. As per usual, he was standing beside the window looking out. "I can store whatever you want to give us."

The woman looked at him, intrigued. "Space power user? What’s that?"

Once again, the guys and I were struck dumb by her question.