Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 87: Start With The Attic

Chapter 87: Start With The Attic

"Holy fucking shit," I gasped as I pushed open the door to the primary bunker. It was no wonder the zombies didn’t come after me. It smelt like the bottom of a keg that had been left outside in the sun for a week.

I’ve smelt dead bodies that had smelled better.

Resisting the urge to puke, I slowly made my way to my bedroom, avoiding the living room carpet as much as I could.

Turning on the shower, I set the temperature to somewhere between lobster boil and molten lava.

I didn’t care about anything as I stripped off my clothes and walked into the steaming shower. I wanted to sit down on the floor as I let the water do its job, but I knew that would be a stupid idea.

Instead, I braced my hands on the back wall of the small shower and leaned forward, letting the slight stretch work out some of the kinks in my back. Combined with the water hitting my lower back, I was starting to feel a bit more human.

After a few minutes, I stood up and turned around, letting the water hit my chest, causing my pale skin to turn bright red.

Huh, not hot enough.

I reached forward and turned up the water just a smidge. There, much better.

I must have stood like this for twenty minutes before I started actually washing myself. I didn’t want to take the chance that I would run out of hot water, but I also knew that I had a big enough tank to sustain in for a while.

I had planned on this place being enough for six people. Ensuring that there was enough hot water was a given.

My body feeling more like my own, I turned off the water and got out, drying myself off.

I threw on a pair of fleece pajamas, not caring about anything else. Now that I had a shower, the next thing I needed was sleep. In an actual bed.

Tomorrow was soon enough to deal with the smell.

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Fan Teng Fei and the others approached the small bungalow in the middle of the suburbs. It had practically been their home for the past few years, and yet, not a single person recognized it beyond the address.

The door had been destroyed. What was left of it hung from the three hinges swinging back and forth at the mercy of the wind.

Fan Teng Fei raised his gun and looked over at Si Dong with a nod. The two brushed past a stunned Bai Long Qiang and Cheng Bo Jing and made entry.

The house itself looked like a hurricane had gone through it. The furniture was overturned but not damaged. Lamps were utterly shattered, the glass from the lightbulbs on the floor, and the shades ripped to hell.

"Clear," grunted Si Dong.

"Clear," nodded Fan Teng Fei.

There was no one in the living room.

The two walked carefully as if this was nothing more than a mission, another house that needed to be cleared in order to find the target. They entered the kitchen and quickly scanned around.

All of the cupboards were completely ripped off, the dishes left where they were, but any sign of food was gone.

Even the refrigerator had been emptied, the door left open, stinking up the room a bit.

"Clear."

"Clear."

The bathroom was clear, but all the toilet paper had been stolen.

Even the basement had been gone through; the closets ripped apart as if whoever had broken in was looking for something.

But one there wasn’t in this house was Wang Tian Mu.

"Clear," said Si Dong half-heartedly.

"Clear," sighed Fan Teng Fei as he dropped his gun, letting it rest in front of him.

"Where the fuck is she?" asked Si Dong in a harsh whisper. "She was supposed to be here. So why isn’t she? You don’t think..."

"No!" snapped Fan Teng Fei, cracking his neck back and forth. "There is no chance of that, and I won’t even entertain the idea, so get it out of your fucking head. It’s a big country, and it is now April; she has had a lot of time in the past few months to go anywhere. We will find her. Just a matter of time."

Si Dong nodded his head.

The two went back upstairs, where the rest of the men were waiting. "House is clear," said Fan Teng Fei as if that fact wasn’t tearing him apart.

"Do you believe me now?" asked Bai Long Qiang, turning to Cheng Bo Jing.

The other man stood stubbornly quiet. Until he saw her body, anything was possible. Fuck, she could even be a zombie right now.

As long as she was alive, it didn’t matter what she looked like. She was his.

"We’ll stay here for the night and leave in the morning. The tide is heading toward City Y. Maybe if we can make it there before they do, we can..." suggested Ye Yao Zu, looking around at the other men.

"We can what?" asked Bai Long Qiang, raising an eyebrow. If his other half wasn’t part of this world anymore, then there was no need for it. The world, that was. Might as well let the whole thing burn and him with it.

"We can make sure she wasn’t turned and joined the tide. And we can take as many of them out as possible," shrugged Ye Yao Zu.

"Is Doc Phil really contemplating revenge? Isn’t that a no-no for the educated lot?" smirked Si Dong, his sense of humor coming back.

"’He who seeks revenge digs two graves’," said Fan Teng Fei as he looked out of the window at the dying sun. "Confucius."

Bai Long Qiang nodded his head. "Smart man. But in this case, I think I’ll dig a lot more than two graves."

"What are you thinking?" mused Ye Yao Zu. He had known this man for most of his life. There was no way he was not planning something.

"City Y didn’t come and save City D," started the other man as he looked around at the men he considered to be his family. "Why not let City Y experience the same thing?"

Cheng Bo Jing raised an eyebrow at the suggestion, not bothering to hold back his smile. "I like the way you think," he said with a nod.

"We’ll go through the house and grab what we can before heading out," said Fan Teng Fei. "Something tells me that Wang Tian Mu had a lot more hidey holes than the obvious ones."

"She stashed stuff away in the ceiling of her work. I’d start with the attic."