Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 372: That Is Why The Zombies Come (The End)

Chapter 372: That Is Why The Zombies Come (The End)

I lost count of the number of orgasms that Fan Teng Fei, Ye Yao Zu, and Si Dong managed to wring out of me before I ultimately passed out.

Not that I was complaining in the least.

I woke up wonderfully satisfied, without a bone in my body and my brain blessedly silent for the first time in a long time.

Life was good.

"Good morning, Cuddles," smiled a very sleepy Si Dong as he wrapped his arms tighter around me. I think it was just the two of us in bed right now, but I wasn’t willing to open my eyes to check.

"Morning," I croaked out, my voice more than a little hoarse. Si Dong smiled as he burrowed his face into my neck.

"What’s on the docket for today?" asked someone from the entrance of the master bedroom. I cracked open one eye as I looked at Bin An Sha.

"Does there have to be anything on the docket for today?" I asked, completely happy to spend the rest of the day in bed.

"Absolutely not," he assured me, walking into the room and climbing into the bed so he was resting on the other side of me. "But I thought it was better to ask than just to assume that there was nothing."

"Smart," nodded Si Dong. "I was just working on the assumption that everything was done, and we never had to leave this bed again."

"Nice try," I laughed, rolling over so that I was on my back and could see the two men. "Technically, Alpha still needs to die; we have a hospital to set up and civilization to restart."

Bin An Sha nodded his head. "All of which can happen after breakfast."

Rolling over so that I was lying on his chest, I closed my eyes again as he started playing with my hair. "That works for me. Nap time before breakfast?"

"Whatever you want and need. From now on, no matter what happens, it is us against the world. Your happiness comes first. The rest we can figure out later."

There was absolutely nothing I could do to keep the grin off my face, so I didn’t even bother trying.

-----

Rip looked up as the Alpha continued to hang from the wooden cage Wang Tian Mu managed to create for him. His legs had healed at a weird angle, but Rip could only assume that it was because the Alpha was in a confined space and couldn’t stretch out enough for them to heal naturally.

"You don’t need to have that superior look on your face," grunted the Alpha, his tongue apparently completely regrown. Rip would have to remember to tell his woman that bit of information. He was sure that she would find it interesting.

"And why not?" asked Rip, his hands in his pants pockets. "From where I am standing, this is nothing more than fair play. You kept my woman in a cage for years before she managed to escape; you could barely go a week."

"Your woman," sneered Alpha. "I should have killed her the second I saw her. Maybe in my next life, I’ll be able to do that."

"It’s cute that you think there will be a next life for you," nodded Rip, "But I am afraid that this is the end of the line for you."

"As powerful as you might like to think that you are, you aren’t in charge of the wheel of life," smirked Alpha. "I’ll be back with all my memories intact... then we can see who has the last laugh."

A figure materialized from out of nowhere to stand beside Rip. He wasn’t as big as the Reaver, but there was something... intimidating about the way he held himself.

"What are you doing here?" demanded Rip, his eyes narrowing. They had parted yesterday, and he was hoping that they would never cross paths again.

"We owe you an apology and a favor," shrugged Liu Wei as he stared at the Reaver in the cage. "We thought that we had killed him a long time ago."

"You killed his body double," replied Rip, his face twisted with rage. If this man thought that he could take this kill away from him, he had another thing coming.

Liu Wei studied the man beside him. "I’m not looking to take the kill from you. I am just here for his soul."

Inside the cage, Alpha tipped his head back and burst out laughing. "See, Rip? No matter what you do to my body, I will come back. You will never be able to get rid of me that easily."

"Ah," interrupted Liu Wei. "I don’t think that you understand exactly what is going on. Rip is going to kill your mortal body in whatever way he desires. I am then going to take your soul, torture it for years in a place where it could never escape from, and then when I feel that you have been properly punished, I will finally grant you eternal death. There will be no life after this one."

"You can’t do that!" screamed Alpha, his hands gripping the wooden bars. He started shaking them madly, trying to get them to loosen, but it was no use. They refused to budge.

"I am Death," Liu Wei shrugged as if it wasn’t that big of a deal that he was one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. "I can do that. And I will take great joy in it, too."

"How can you prove that his soul is completely gone?" asked Rip, turning his attention to the man beside him. "I won’t have my family looking over their shoulder every day for the rest of their life, wondering if he was alive or not."

"I can bring you to watch the final process," offered Liu Wei. "Li Dai Lu will be the one to light his soul on fire, destroying it. But I swear to you, on the souls of my children, that we will not let any piece of Alpha survive to re-enter the circle of life."

"Fine," grunted Rip. "I will trust you this once. Don’t disappoint me."

"My wife still considers herself to be best friends with yours. She wants to rebuild that relationship again, if at all possible. Even if they never manage to be that close again, she would forever watch over the Healer."

"Then, if you want to be friends with her, I highly suggest that you use her name. While she acknowledges the title Healer, she hates it when people call her that. She is Wang Tian Mu. She is so much more than just a healer."

Liu Wei froze for a moment before nodding his head.

"I understand. And I’ll let Li Dai Lu know that, too."

Rip nodded once before walking over to the cage and touching the structure. As soon as it tasted him, it opened his unvoiced command and dumped Alpha to the ground before dissolving away, its purpose done.

"Don’t worry, Alpha," smiled Rip as he stood over the Reaver. "This will only hurt a lot."

Gripping Alpha’s wrist and index finger, Rip ripped the finger off of his hand. Throwing it over his shoulder, he didn’t notice Liu Wei flicking his fingers towards the limb, killing anything living inside of it.

"I hope you weren’t expecting a fast death," smiled Rip as he moved on to the second finger. "I am going to enjoy inflicting as much pain on you as possible before finally ripping your head from your shoulders."

Alpha tilted his head back, letting out a long roar of defiance before Rip took his tongue and lower jaw. He wasn’t satisfied with this ending. He should have been the one to rebuild the world in his image. Fucking Rip. Fucking humans. And fucking Healer.

-----

Fan Bo Jing quickly piled up leaves and twigs over top of his sister, trying to hide her from anyone who might try and hurt her. Her large brown eyes looked up at him, begging him to be careful. "It will be fine," he assured her. "I saw what looked like a town a kilometer away. I’ll see what I can find out. Maybe they have someone who can fix you."

She nodded, not daring even to speak. Quickly placing one last branch over her face, Fan Bo Jing sprinted away and toward the buildings.

There were no gates or barriers, and he couldn’t see any guards on patrol. That, in and of itself, was a huge red flag for him, but his sister needed medical attention. He had to try, even if it was a Reaver village.

The closer he got, the more uneasy he became. Fields of rice were growing, he could hear the sound of water running, and people were talking quietly while they worked. But the scent of fear that he normally got when approaching other people didn’t appear. They weren’t scared.

"Excuse me?" he said softly. The man in front of him raised his head and took off his hat. "What is this place?"

"The official name is City D, but we all just call it Angel’s Sanctuary," replied the man with a smile on his face. "Just don’t tell her that."

"What about the zombies? Are they the ones in charge here?" continued the man, looking around frantically for the creatures that had taken over the world.

"Oh, they visit every so often. Mostly when they need to be healed; otherwise, they just leave us alone," shrugged the man as if it wasn’t that big of a deal.

Fan Bo Jing took in a deep breath. "My sister needs medical attention; how does she get it?"

The man blinked at him a few times; his head cocked to the side as he studied the man in front of him. "The hospital is about 45 minutes away."

"You have a hospital?" asked Fan Bo Jing, almost scared to hope.

"Of course we do. And schools, and shops, and grocery stores—you name it, we have it."

Fan Bo Jing made a split-second decision: "How can I make it so we can stay here? We have some supplies..."

"Not really needed," replied the man, putting his hat back on. "A few blocks after the hospital is city hall. Lai Dan Dan can help you get organized and find you a place to live."

"What about money? Currency?"

"You contribute what you can. As long as you are trying and working... nothing will be denied to you."

"What if I don’t try?" wondered Fan Bo Jing out loud.

"Well, that is why the zombies come every so often."