No Time

The city was vacant as anyone with the right mindset would have moved to a safe city or base. And it had already been a month and a few weeks into the apocalypse, so unless a person stored enough food and water, they would be dead from starvation or dehydration.

I briefed them on our mission.

"Recently, there's been sightings of mutant weeds, nicknamed 'Weed-vines'. We'll be taking some as samples. They aren't weak and come out from underground in dark areas, so everyone needs to be careful. And as for zombies, kill noiselessly and if you encounter an abnormal zombie, contact me immediately."

Everyone on the team nodded and split up into two groups.

There were eleven people including me in the team. I went with the three researchers and Yun. The other group was compiled of Xiao Lai, Zhang Xing, Shane, Andrei, Li Hua, and the hacker girl.

The other group was going to go fight zombies to collect nucleus. My group was preparing to go to secluded areas that zombies weren't in.

We easily found a dark alley where even the surroundings were abandoned.

"The weed-vines must be here. Even zombies get captured by them, so they avoid the plants."

Weed-vines were murky white-ish green and very tough to handle as they age. They didn't need anything but bones and water. The zombies fell prey to them because they had strengthened bones.

When I died, Weed-vines were terrifying because they had grown powerful and could hide their presence even from the best of plant ability users.

But fortunately, right now, they were weak and couldn't come out into the sunlight. And judging by the numerous cracks and holes on the pavement, they couldn't properly hide their paths and traces.

Their weakness was light, not even the adult weed-vines could completely come out during the day. They burned and burst into powder if they stayed out for too long. Their other weakness would be acid. They would be corroded with the use of spit if they were this weak as they were right now. During the apocalypse, acid could only be stored by a person with poison or chemicals as an ability. We couldn't even turn on the light to avoid them at night because it would attract other bad things. Hard times.

Anyways, Weed-vines were starting to come out.

They were nothing like the whip-like, long, brittle vines that terrified everyone during the night. Instead, they were weak, feeble, string-like, and crawled.

I laughed slightly and got out a bottle of vinegar. I could tell, these weak-looking things were acting. Luring would be the correct term.

I turned on my core device and started a live stream.

Immediately, almost all of the people in the base got on.

Comments flooded in.

"..."

Yun was snickering and the researchers were trying to hide their laughter.

"Alright, quiet down, today, I'm going to capture a mutant plant called the Weed-vine. It's a murky white-ish green plant that uses bones and water as a supplement. It usually comes out at night or in dark areas from underground. The weakness for it is light and acids. As they aren't very powerful right now, even vinegar or spit will do. If you encounter them, just run out into the light or accurately spit at them."

I didn't bother looking at the comments since Yun laughed as soon as he saw them.

"Spreading vinegar around them will only capture them temporarily since they can go underground. What you need to do is splatter them with vinegar. They'll melt, but it'll slow them down. And after they're shriveling, just pull them out. But wear gloves or cloth. We have enough strength to pull them out without getting bones broken, but if a regular human had their hand wrapped with Weed-vine, their hand would be crushed."

I showed them how to pull them out. By grabbing directly at the bottom, I was able to grab a large clump of them and pull them out.

After they were out of the ground, the plants stopped as if they had died. But I wasn't going to fall for it and took out a large metal box.

The metal box was specially made for this capturing Weed-vines.

The box had vinegar painted on the walls of the inside and there was a pile of soil in it. I stuffed the faking plants in it and after the box was closed, for a short while, thumps were heard. But it soon stopped as they realized that the bottom of the box was even worse than the walls. If they tried to burrow into it, they would touch the frozen piece of sulfuric acid that was even more fatal to them.

"Ok, we're done. We'll head over to the others now."

Even with the map shown by the core device, I couldn't find my way, so the navigation was left to the other members of my group.

We took about 5 minutes to read the map and gave up. Yun was ok with maps, but he didn't know the city, and the researchers were all similar to me - directionally challenged...

We just decided to go back to the place where we split off at and then head towards the direction that the other group ran off to.

While we were walking back to the "Start Point", my core device rang.

The researchers' eyes lit up happily. They were very interested in studying zombies, especially more so, the abnormal ones.

I picked up the call, "What's the situation?"

"Rain! Hurry up! It's serious!" yelled Shane.

Hearing the frantic tone and the sounds at the back that seemed to be of fighting, I knew it wasn't something good.

"Where are you?"

"Near a hospital! There's a really tall skyscraper here, hurry!" this time Hua answered.

I frowned. What really was happening there?

"What happened?"

"If you have time to ask, get over here! Or else, someone's going to die!"

"..." I ended the call.

The researchers were all ushered into my space as Yun and I changed into our animal forms.

"I haven't flown yet... Only just small flutters..." he muttered in worry.

The Harpy Eagle form made him look slender but not boney. He had hair that started out White but turned Navy at the ends. His feathers were blue-ish grey and his nails had grown into sharp talons. His eyes were now a warm brown color instead of dark brown.

"Well, we have to hurry. Or you can stay in my space."

"Yeah, I'll give up for now. I'll probably drag you down at this rate," he sighed.

"Wait," I called out.

"What's wrong?"

"Just in case. Go find and prepare some blood packets and a first aid kit. They should be somewhere in the space."

Although Yun was confused about my request, he went searching for the items.

Thankfully, this time I wouldn't get lost. I'd be stupid if I got lost when there was a huge skyscraper 10 miles away.

...Reality proved me wrong. Nothing was in my sight currently. No hospital. No people. Just more buildings. And a few zombies.

My core device rang again.

"Rain? Where are you, are you lost again?" It was Shane. And the situation seemed to have calmed down since he didn't sound so anxious as before.

"Unfortunately, yes. What happened?"

"A huge crowd of zombies came from the hospital when we were fighting a couple of zombies nearby. We were able to fly up and get onto the roofs while carrying the ones who couldn't fly, but we got tired really quickly. Except for Li Hua and your brother, we didn't have much strength to stay up in the air. Zombies kept on clambering up towards us and we ran around everywhere. Most of us aren't as powerful as you. Sure we can use our powers, but it takes too much of a toll on us... We should have come more prepared. But this is really strange. Why is there suddenly a large horde when the previous groups only encountered few?"

I was curious about that too. But I soon figured out the answer.

"The things I talked about, Weed-Vines. They might be the culprit. They probably chased out the zombies from the area I'm in. The area you guys are at right now hasn't been explored since the other groups haven't reported anything about going near hospitals."

"Ok, got it. I think that may be right. The hospital has a large ground area and the nearest building is still a bit away. Anyways, can you get here soon?"

"What does the nearest building to the hospital look like?" I asked.

"The nearest building is a skyscraper that looks like a half cut banana standing. It's a beige-white color. Can you see it?"

"I see it. I'll get over there right now."

And right now, it was. Before Shane finished the call, I was there right in front of him.

"So tenacious..." I muttered as I kicked off a few groaning zombies who were reaching towards the roof of the hospital.

The door to the roof was barricaded but it was thumping brutally and the metal door was caving out and already had a couple of nasty imprints.

The other group was all tired looking. It made sense that they couldn't take on these few hundreds of zombies. They weren't that powerful.

But I looked towards the one person in their group that could have done something.

"Xiao Lai."

The sitting boy who had his head lowered looked up at me.

"...Yu Ge."

"What happened."

"I freaked out. I didn't imagine I would be fighting with this many... things."

"How many did you kill off? Or, did you even try?"

Li Hua came up furiously at me, "Shui Yu, he killed the most out of all of us. You weren't there, how would you know the situation? If we weren't people who went through the zombie trial, we would have died from the scratches and bruises! We were practically run over by the monsters! He's just a kid! Leave him alone!"

"Hua, this is between me and my brother, don't butt in. I'm not trying to scold him. I'm just trying to find out what he's done," I frowned and sighed. Rubbing my glabella, I looked around me. Shane and Andrei looked tired, Hua was freaking out over stress, the hacker girl looked terrified and was crying, Zhang Xing just stared off into space with an unknown look, and Xiao Lai was in front of me looking down. Shane seemed to get my mood, so he ushered everyone away from us.

"Xiao Lai, can you not take this? Although I allowed this team to happen because I thought you guys could handle it even at a young age, I really should have set an age limit, shouldn't I," I said. I was thinking about setting an age limit already, but I hadn't talked about it before. This was now being used to make Xiao Lai speak up.

"...I was scared. I don't want to come out here anymore. I DON'T EVER WANT TO SEE ANOTHER ZOMBIE EVER AGAIN!"

He was crying hysterically. I wanted to hug him tight and wrap him around so that he would be safe, but that wasn't the best thing to do right now.

I hardened my resolve and spoke.

"Xiao Lai, are you that weak? Then what were all these years of training for? You have the potential to clear up every one of these zombies in a moment. Why are you so afraid?"

He looked up at me with tears in his eyes. One by one, they dropped, piercing my heart.

I really couldn't take it.

"Don't cry. Don't cry. I'm here. I just want to know. What should I do? I know it's too much of me to scold you like this, but I'm really worried. What are you going to do without me? And if you're traumatized by this, you won't properly be able to do missions in the future. I know you don't like others providing for you. I know that you want to fight zombies. Didn't you say that it was cool? What do you want? I'm so worried. So confused. What am I supposed to do?" I began to ramble as my trembling hands wrapped around his head.

I heard more sniffling and hugged my younger brother tightly.

"Yu Ge... in the middle of the fight, I saw something," Xiao Lai finally talked while still sniffling.

While he wiped his tears, I stroked and patted his back repeatedly, something I use to do for him and Xiao Bing when they were younger and we all slept together in one room.

"Ok, don't cry, what did you see?" I softened my voice.

"I saw myself dying. By zombies," he whispered.

My hand froze and my eyes shook.

"In that place, we weren't prepared for the apocalypse. We ran like fugitives warily. We starved. We didn't know how to use our powers. We were even with our parents and that bastard girl."

Although I was afraid, I still asked, "...And then?"

Xiao Lai scoffed, "And then? I died. I was thrown by Dad to the zombies to save his ass. I only heard your desperate screams, Jing Ge yelling for me, and Xiao Bing sobbing. I couldn't see anything. Blood was trickling down my eyes and it blinded me. I could feel every inch of my body tearing down. I didn't even become a zombie. I became scraps. Scraps I tell you!"

He starting crying again but it was more miserable.

"Yu Ge, is this why you were so afraid for me during my zombie trial. Is it because in your previous life, I died? Is this why you hate Dad and Mom so much? Even for the short experience I had during the apocalypse in that life, it was horrible. It got worse for you didn't it? I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I've been so bratty. I've been so spoiled. I-I'm just really sorry..."

I hugged him again, but tighter.

"It's not your fault. Don't cry. It was my fault that you died. I was too careless and believed that everyone would stick together. You didn't have it easy. Nobody had it easy. Don't cry. O-or else I'll cry too..."

"It's not your fault..." he sniffled.

I felt tears trickling down my face and tried to smile.

Xiao Lai also gave a smile but it was wobbly and collapsed quickly again.

He set his head on my shoulder and sobbed quietly. I could only try to stroke his head and pat his back.

I really didn't expect this. Why was the world so cruel to him? My little brother had it bad enough already in his last life. What crimes did he commit to be so tormented in this one too? Instead of me being reborn, I'd rather have him happy and ignorant.

"Ahhh!" suddenly a girl's shriek rang out.

I wanted to scold them that there was an emotionally disturbed person here and that they would be attracting zombies. But when I looked over, I immediately knew something bad had happened.

"C-chief! Zhang Xing! He collapsed! H-he's turning white and purple!" the hacker girl stuttered out.

Xiao Lai turned around and froze in fear.

Anyone would be scared if the person they liked was described that way.

He stumbled and walked quickly towards the green-haired boy.

I followed and looked at Zhang Xing.

"Xing Xing, don't scare me! What's going on?" Xiao Lai tried to talk to the boy, uneasy and distressed.

But it wouldn't be any use.

Zhang Xing was turning into a zombie.