Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 307: We Can’t

Chapter 307: We Can’t

307

Hu Wen Cheng looked at me like I was speaking a completely different language, and perhaps I was. But this tree gave me the same feeling that the Tree of Life did, and here it was, growing inside the lobby of this building.

"I am guessing that no one here has had a midnight zombie visitor," I smiled, turning my attention back to the tree that was practically begging for my attention.

Connecting with it again, I let my power flow into it.

And in return, I took some of its power, too.

"Now that you’ve mentioned it, no, we haven’t," mused the Guild leader as he stared at me. "I thought that it was just because the zombies assumed that there was no one here."

"No, they tried," I said; I could feel the pain from the tree from where parts of its roots had been cut. But it healed almost as fast as the zombies did, so eventually, the zombies had just given up.

In fact, the tree felt... proud that it was able to protect the people inside of the building.

"Did you see that?" asked Hu Wen Cheng, his eyes wide and his voice lowered as if scared that someone could overhear him. "Is that why you told me to get everything living?"

I really wanted to say, ’Yes, that was exactly why I did it’, but that wasn’t the truth. I was hoping that I could have a power source inside this city that I could turn to when I needed it, but this...

This was completely unexpected.

So, instead of answering, I just smile at him. He could come to his own conclusions.

----

"So, what’s going on outside?" asked Bai Long Qiang as we got comfortable around one of the main-level conference tables. "Does it have something to do with the zombie attacks?"

"Yes and no," sighed Hu Wen Cheng as he held out the chair at the head of the table for me. After I sat, he took the seat to my right.

"Well, that answer was clear," I smiled at him. I could see that the stress of the past few days was weighing heavily on him, and he was one bad decision away from losing everything. I had no idea what that decision was; I just hoped that, at the end of the day, he wouldn’t make it.

"Sorry. The people they were burning today..." Looking over to where Wang Chang Ming was happily playing in the corner with a plant, Hu Wen Cheng leaned forward and dropped his voice. "Most committed suicide, not able to take the attacks anymore, and decided that it was just easier to end it all."

Cheng Bo Jing looked at the man beside him and nodded his head. "You said most, but not all?"

"No," said the man. "They were rumored to have tried to sneak out of the base during the night. Their families found them the next morning, a bullet in their head."

"The guards were killing deserters?" clarified Ye Yao Zu, sharing a look with Bai Long Qiang.

The two had mentioned the idea of just taking me and leaving the city, but if that plan was going to be met with a bullet to the head, then they would have to come up with something else.

"I have yet to meet a zombie with a gun," shrugged Hu Wen Cheng, not admitting to anything. I guess that was a smart move to make when you couldn’t be sure who was on your side and who was not.

At least he shouldn’t have to deal with any listening bugs. Those would have been squashed when the EMP first hit.

"I see," I said with a sigh as I leaned back in my chair. "Then that puts a different spin on things."

"May I ask why?" asked Hu Wen Cheng, cocking his head to the side as he looked at me.

"Because according to the Princess, the best way to stop the ’creature’ attacks is to kill me," I smiled with a shrug of my shoulders.

"Then you should stay here. I’ll have a whole floor set aside for you guys to live," stated the guild head, coming to his feet.

"Hold off for now," I said. I loved the idea of living here, especially with that red maple in the lobby, but for some reason, I just had the feeling that now wasn’t the right time to move. "If it gets too bad, I’ll come here, and then we’ll make our way out of the city."

"Wait, you’re going to leave the city?" demanded Hu Wen Cheng.

"Yeah," I replied, more than a little confused. "The city is going to fall," I reminded him, just in case he forgot that little tidbit.

"I thought you meant that the city was going to fall, not the people," he admitted, looking around at my guys.

"Everyone here will die when the city falls."

"Then what the ever loving fuck are you still doing here?" This time, when Hu Wen Chen looked at my men, he got the reaction he wanted. Every last one of them was glaring at me like I should have said something sooner.

But really? I thought I was abundantly clear. I mean, how many ways could you really interpret ’the city will fall’?

City A was also the capital of the country before the end of the world... I thought it would be understood that when the city fell, everything fell with it.

The majority of men in this room were military, and if not that, part of some secret organization or mafia.

"City A will fall, the country is going to fall, people are going to die..." I spelled it out for everyone. "In fact, most of the people living in Country K will die."

"How can we stop it?" asked Bai Long Qiang, his face turning a shade I had never seen before. It was somewhere between white and puke green. It wasn’t a pretty color.

"Stop it?" I repeated. Now, it was my turn to look around the room and stare at the men inside of it. "We don’t stop it. We can’t."