Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 321: The Alpha Zombie

Chapter 321: The Alpha Zombie

Rip looked around the condo for the woman who meant everything to him, but he couldn’t find her to save his life.

One after another, zombies picked up the men around him and brought them out of the condo. Some decided to take the stairs, while others chose to just jump out of the window. But whoever came near him was ripped apart.

It didn’t matter if they regrew their limbs and cloned themselves, creating more and more zombies; all that mattered was that he continued to rip through them again and again until he could hardly stand.

"You are the Reaver," grunted a new zombie, coming through the window in front of him.

Rip paused and looked around, seeing that he was the last one of his Little Bird’s men in the room.

Taking a deep breath, he straightened up, towering over the zombie alpha. "I am," he said, his accent coming out thick.

"But you aren’t a Reaver, are you?" asked the Alpha, tilting his head to the side. "So many not what you seem."

"I am what I am," shrugged Rip. "But you cannot kill me."

And that was the truth of the matter. He had no idea if it was possible for him to die. Technically, they probably could if they took his head, but that would be a difficult feat.

"I don’t want to," replied the Alpha, an open mouth smile accompanying those words. "Save nine males and a building. That’s the deal."

His words caused Rip to freeze. There was only one person who would have made a deal like that. And hopefully, she wasn’t doing something stupid in return for it.

"Take me to her," said Rip, no longer willing to play around. Striding to the window, he jumped, not caring about the 20 stories between him and the ground. It was the fastest way down.

Bending his knees as he landed, he absorbed the impact that would have killed any human. Straightening up, he looked at the zombies assembled in front of him, waiting.

Some of them had the men over their shoulders like a sack of potatoes, while others just stood there silently, swaying back and forth.

"Is this the building?" grunted the Alpha as he landed beside Rip.

"No, there will be a tree guarding it."

The Alpha nodded and roared again. A few zombies peeled off from the larger group, and Rip could only assume that they were going to find the guild building.

Wang Tian Mu would be pissed if something had happened to it, especially if something happened to Zhao Xi Feng.

The world might not survive if that was the case.

Without another word, the Alpha strolled through the zombie horde in front of them, with Rip following closely after.

He was taking him to see his Little Bird. Everything else could be figured out after.

-----

I looked up at the sound of multiple footsteps approaching from behind me. I was still neatly tied to the stake, unable to go anywhere, but that didn’t matter to me. I was connected to the earth and everything else.

I continued to pull power into me, refusing to take it from the zombies. The last thing I needed was for the Alpha to know exactly what I could do.

Especially since I had taken his life force from him before.

Oops.

My eyes were closed, and my head hung down to my chest as I waited for the Alpha.

"Little Bird," sighed a voice in front of me, and it was the sweetest thing that I had ever heard.

"Rip?" I whispered, looking up and into the eyes of my mountain man. The Alpha had found him.

Sighing in relief, I looked around. "What about the others? Are they okay?"

"A bit embarrassed being carried around by zombies, but they’ll live," chuckled Rip as he brushed aside some of my stray hairs and cupped my cheek.

He was about to say something else but was immediately cut off by the Alpha.

"They’ll live for now," it said as it approached me. "A deal is a deal."

Nodding my head, I looked at the zombie. "I either need my hands to touch you, or you touch me," I said quickly. I could see my men in the early morning sunrise, and I was anxious to finally hold them again.

The zombie stared at me for a minute before shoving Rip aside and touching me where my Reaver just had.

Concentrating on his touch, I let my power pour into him.

However, it came to a sudden halt. The Alpha was perfectly healthy. In fact, I didn’t really know what I was supposed to be fixing.

But if his body was fine, then I needed to go to his brain. Maybe it was like how Rip’s was when I first started healing him...

I withdrew my healing from the body and concentrated it into the zombie’s brain. Quickly, before I could second guess myself, I entered its brain, sending out a quick prayer that I would be able to find my way out at the end of the day.

But the zombie’s brain was like nothing I had ever seen before. It was literally a madhouse of mirrors and fragmented memories covered in darkness with only bits and pieces showing.

Plans and strategies floated around, their presence like words on the tip of your tongue... disappearing the second I tried to focus on just one.

I spun in a circle slowly, taking in everything that I could. It was absolutely amazing.

No worries, no memories of the past, only the here and now.

I wanted to reach out and touch one of the covered mirrors but pulled back before I could.

I was here to heal the Alpha zombie, not learn all its darkest secrets.

Taking in a deep breath, I let my power flow, not bothering to restrain it or guide it somewhere. I had faith that it knew what it was doing more than I did.

Bit by bit, the chaos and darkness around me started to retreat, leaving a man standing in front of me.

"Thank you, but that’s enough," he said, his words flowing out of his mouth smoothly. He appeared to be older than me, maybe around the same age as my father, but his entire demeaner screamed scholar.