Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 351: Welcome Home

Chapter 351: Welcome Home

I was still being eaten alive by guilt with every step we took away from the hotel, but I knew that Zhao Jun Jie would be able to look after Chang Ming well.

After we determined if the cabin and bunkers were still in working order, we could all move in there, and there would be nine fewer people on Zhao Jun Jie’s plate to deal with.

But the walk alone was two days.

"You walked this whole way from the hospital?" Bin An Sha asked as we passed the aforementioned hospital. "With zombies all over the place?"

"In my defense, I hadn’t come across a single zombie outside," I shrugged. "They were all in the hospital, and once I got out, the majority of issues were because of car accidents and the like."

"Still, that couldn’t have been easy. What did you do on the first night?" asked Si Dong as he gently rubbed my back.

"I slept in the footwell of a car," I shrugged. "It really wasn’t that bad..."

Rip nodded his head as he continued forward. He was taking the lead, letting me direct him where to go, but for right now, it was easy: Keep going straight.

-----

The sun set in the western sky, and I fought to stay awake. We had walked for miles, and I knew that there was still more to go.

Fan Teng Fei got the tent out, while Bai Long Qiang and Ye Yao Zu set up a fire for a quick dinner.

Ugh, I never thought I would ever hear myself saying this... but I was really wishing for some fresh fruits or veggies. Something to displace the amount of sodium in my system from all of the instant noodles and pre-made meals we had been eating.

Fan Teng Fei always offered to bring out some of the ’good stuff’ like the eggs from the ranch, but I really couldn’t bring myself to eat them.

What if we needed them more in the future and we had none?

Mr. Noodles was good enough for me right now. Hopefully, I could make the coconut and lentil soup I had stored in a jar when I got to the bunker.

I fell asleep that night in Rip’s arms while the men divided up the different shifts. There were just the eight of us, and we were out in the open. While City D might have been vacated, it didn’t mean that there weren’t threats from other humans, zombies, and Reaver.

----

The next morning shone bright and cheerfully, almost giving me the sense that everything was going to be okay. That I would find the cabin the way I had left it.

We packed up as quickly as we could and started walking again, this time in silence. But the silence wasn’t awkward or anything. We had been together too long by this time to care about always having to have a conversation.

And frankly, I was enjoying hearing the birds and the insects as we moved forward. Letting my power go, I connected with the nature around me.

----

The sun had set for a while now, and we were just walking down the overgrown driveway to the cabin. Bai Long Qiang had made several torches for us so that we could see where we were going, and I could make out the cabin’s windows.

"This way," I said suddenly, veering off course and deeper into the woods. The vegetation around us was so much thicker than it was when I first came here, but that was a good thing. At least that way, I knew that no one had been here.

"But..." started Si Dong, confused as he looked between me and the cabin.

"That’s going to be our house, yes. But there is no point in sleeping there tonight. I have another place in mind," I said, hoping that they would just go with it.

Si Dong nodded, and the rest remained silent as I made my way down the path that only I knew.

Finally getting to the raspberry bush that hid the main entrance, I stopped. The first time I was here, I needed to crawl through the patch, but now...

I waved my hand, and the bushes split, giving us the ability to go through without being hurt.

"What?" gasped Ye Yao Zu as I crouched down to the wheel that opened and closed the entrance to Bunker One.

I tried to open it, but there was too much dirt caught up in the wheel for me to be able to turn it. Seeing my struggle, Rip came and managed to get it going. But before he had completely opened it, he stepped back and gestured for me to do it.

"It’s yours," he said softly.

Nodding my head, I finished spinning the wheel and pulled the hatch open.

The ladder was still there, and I quickly went down, excited to hear the hum of all my appliances. My generator had been going all this time. I had no idea how that happened, but it did, and I was thankful for that.

I expected to be greeted by the smell of beer, but there was nothing except a bit of dust from where the fans had been bringing in fresh air from the outside.

"Welcome home," I sighed as I collapsed on the couch.

"What is this place?" asked Bai Long Qiang as he dropped down from the ladder and looked around the first bunker.

"Home," I repeated. "A place that I had set up before the end of the world so that the six of us had a place to go in case something happened."

"Did you know ahead of time?" asked Cheng Bo Jing as he walked toward the kitchen and pulled open the fridge. Seeing a bottle of beer, he grabbed it. "It’s still cold."

"Nope, I didn’t have a clue," I shrugged, watching the rest of the guys getting something cold to drink that wasn’t water. "After my parents died and left me all that money, I started to build these bunkers. I prepared for everything, nuclear war, an EMP, an invasion... you think it, I probably watched a conspiracy video on how to survive it."

"Zombies?" smirked Si Dong as he twisted the cap of his drink and plunked himself down on the couch beside me.

"Yeah, that, too. But the zombies in the videos were a bit easier to kill. And there always seemed to be more humans surviving than actually did."