Chapter Text
After several months, Wei Ying had concluded that, contrary to expectations, a zombie apocalypse was not actually a great environment for a necromancer. Sure, he could control some of the zombies--they were close enough to dead for his power to work--but only some of them. Not all of them. Not enough of them to do more than make a bubble around himself so he didn't join their ranks.
Not enough to keep everyone else safe.
Certainly not enough to raise a zombie army to either protect or destroy the world, depending on which rumour was floating around.
The problem was that most people he met didn't understand that. In the early days, he hadn't been too careful about telling people what he was, and as soon as people heard the word necromancer, everything inevitably went wrong. They either clung to him for protection he couldn't reliably provide, or they blamed him for the entire mess and tried to hunt him down.
It didn't matter which option they picked; the end result was always the same: people dead, zombies everywhere, Wei Ying forced to flee with whatever supplies he could shove in his backpack before the mob caught him. Once or twice, he barely managed to grab the backpack before running. There had been some hungry weeks as he tried to gather scraps and get himself far enough from the last disaster to feel he could stop running for a while.
He didn't announce what he was any more. There were rumours flying everywhere about the Yiling Laozu, and it had taken Wei Ying a while to realise that was him. Depending on the source, the Yiling Laozu was either a heartless monster who refused to use his gifts to protect the weak, or he was a heartless monster who was raising the dead to carve out his own empire in the zombie-infested wastelands.
Somehow social media hadn't collapsed when half the rest of society did--federated social media had a lot to answer for--and there were competing conspiracy theories about the Yiling Laozu's role in the origin of the zombie virus. Wei Ying didn't find them as funny as he wanted to.
The zombies had nothing to do with necromancy. He hadn't even been in the same city as the first outbreak. He was a physics teacher, not a biologist.
Wei Ying hadn't even realised there was an apocalypse starting for the first couple of weeks. There were a few rumours about a new type of flu emerging in a city in the north west, but he'd been busy with exams and coaxing teenagers through lab assessments without accidentally blowing anything up or inventing a new branch of physics. Rumours about a new flu were less important than making sure none of his students ended up with singed eyebrows or sent into pocket universes.
(It had happened once, with a kid who didn't know he had powers, and Wei Ying had spent a panicked afternoon working out what happened, rescuing him, and then working out how to explain it to the school authorities without giving away the whole "some people have powers" thing. The general consensus in the powered community pre-apocalypse was that it was safer if nobody knew who didn't need to know. The pocket universe kid needed to know. The school did not. The school wouldn't have believed the kid if they were told the truth, and the kid needed guidance on how to use his new power rather than mental health evaluations. Wei Ying had contacts, the kid transferred to a new school, and the authorities had a neatly typed report that they could all pretend was the truth that didn't mention pocket universes once. It was fine.)
So yes, Wei Ying hadn't known about the impending apocalypse until it was too late, but that didn't stop rumours about the involvement of the Yiling Laozu in the origin of the zombie apocalypse, because it didn't matter to anyone except him. It was easier to blame a mysterious figure with a scary name and power than accept it had been an ordinary group of humans and an accident that caused the catastrophe.
The world learned about powers shortly after learning about zombies, and they learned how utterly useless powers were against a zombie apocalypse almost as fast. Nobody cared that powered people were as vulnerable as anyone else. That their powers were small and nothing like the superhero cartoons. They cared that powers couldn't stop the coming storm, and therefore they hated the powered people almost as much as the zombies.
It took nearly four weeks for the new plague to reach the city he'd called home for the last few years. It took less than a week for Yiling to collapse.
By the time Wei Ying met his first zombie, he'd seen enough of them on shaky phone videos to know what he was looking at, but it was still shocking. So he protected his students as much as he could. He went out scavenging with them, helped them set up a safe base to call home, and then he left when the rumours about him became a danger to them. He left spectacularly, so that nobody could possibly think his students and the remnants of their families were harbouring him, and he ran for a full week before he dared to slow down.
He met the Wens three months later. The enclave they were building was the first place he'd stayed in for more than a few days and it was the respite he'd sorely needed. Wen Qing had a healing power that couldn't fix zombies or prevent someone turning after they were bitten, but she repaired Wei Ying's broken collar bone in a few minutes. He didn't hide his necromancy and they didn't expect anything from him that he couldn't give.
It was a good few weeks. He protected their scavenging teams as much as they would let him. He worked in the vegetable garden they were trying to establish. Supply chains had broken down early and until they were re-established, looting was the only way to find food. Looting for seeds and farm equipment was a better long-term strategy than venturing further and further afield to find undisturbed caches of preserved food, the Wens decided. Wei Ying discovered how much he enjoyed burying his fingers in the rich, crumbly earth and for a while, he thought their little enclave would survive until the world righted itself.
It couldn't, of course, because the rumours about what he could do--and Wen Qing's younger brother--started to circulate and that brought a mob to their door. They brought zombies trailing behind them, the awful sounds carrying on the wind and turning the angry mob into a panicked one.
In the space of a few minutes, Wei Ying found himself escaping through a hole sliced in their fencing with a toddler clutched in his arms.
"I can't take care of a child!" he'd shouted as Wen Qing handed A-Yuan to him and shoved A-Yuan's stuffed rabbit in his backpack.
"You can protect him," she'd told him fiercely. "We can't."
"But--"
"Shut up and go. We'll find you again if we can."
He went.
They were on foot for a while, never staying anywhere for more than a night or two until they were far away from the enclave. Carrying a child limited Wei Ying's options in some ways--he wasn't the only one going hungry and A-Yuan didn't sob quietly--but it was also easier to hide what he was.
A too-thin young man with a small child in his arms wasn't exactly welcome, but only the cruellest people refused to shelter them. That young man couldn’t possibly be the dangerous Yiling Laozu. He had a baby.
The fragile bubble Wei Ying could hold around himself when zombies attacked was small enough for one frightened toddler, particularly if he strapped that toddler to his chest. He could control zombies enough to slow them down, muddle them so he could kill them if there weren't too many, or escape if there were. There was no sense reanimating the dead when they were already walking around, he just had to control enough of the already-walking ones to create a barrier around them.
Whatever fueled the zombies, it spread by bite and the only way to guarantee they couldn't rise was by destroying their brains. Gunshots and decapitation were equally effective. Watching fiction come to undead life wasn't as entertaining as anyone pretended it would be.
Wei Ying had met enough bullet-riddled zombies to know that most people weren't able to make a clean headshot under duress. He'd also worked out early in the apocalypse, before he left his students in their safe haven, that ammunition would quickly run low and needed to be conserved. Three of his former students and several of their parents were excellent shots.
Wei Ying found a sword. It meant stepping within arm--and therefore biting--range but he was a necromancer. It worked out.
His sword and his backpack of essentials were the only things he hadn't lost so far. Somehow, the electricity grid was functional in a lot of places and the cell towers were still powered. He always had several fully charged battery packs on him and he'd maximised power consumption efficiency on his phone so it could last for days on a single charge. He had chargers that were compatible with anything that could provide a current and he never passed up a chance to recharge everything. He carried tools for minor repairs to electronics and a couple of water bottles that he tried to always keep full. A-Yuan's stuffed bunny became an essential.
With his phone, Wei Ying could receive occasional messages from his former students, so he knew they were okay. He hooked into a network of mutual aid groups, which gave him access to information and shelter as he travelled. He tracked how the world moved from an immediate crisis mode into a more sustained survival mode. Maybe one day survival would shift to rebuild.
He didn't hear from the Wens.
He thought about looking up people from his old life, before he was a physics teacher, but he'd burned most of those bridges long before the world caught fire. It was better to keep putting one foot in front of another, never looking back.
A-Yuan was a quiet little boy with an infectious smile. He didn't smile often at first and he cried into his stuffed bunny every night, but he slowly recovered. Travelling and meeting new people every few days became normal for him. He was always shy when they first arrived in a place, and sometimes they had to leave before he'd grown confident enough to leave the safety of clinging to Wei Ying's leg, but he charmed nearly everyone they met with his big eyes and polite manner.
A couple of times, they found places where Wei Ying almost thought they might be able to settle. Friendly places with good defences and other children for A-Yuan to play with. It never worked out. Someone always noticed that zombies didn't behave quite right around Wei Ying, and Wei Ying could never just let someone die if he could stop it.
He picked up an electric motorbike a couple of weeks after setting out with A-Yuan. It was in a showroom and someone had already looted the viable electric cars. Wei Ying holed up for a few days and tinkered with it until he had a bike that could connect to anything with a current and travel 200 km on a single charge while towing a light trailer. Or further and faster if he had to ditch the trailer.
He installed a small, secure seat in front of his own, reasoning that A-Yuan would be safer between his arms than riding pillion. They put any supplies they could afford to lose in the trailer, stuffed the rest in his backpack of essentials, and A-Yuan shrieked with joy as they set out.
It was easier with the bike. Fewer people approached them on the road and they could afford to travel further to find safe shelter. Only one person tried to steal the bike and Wei Ying discovered he could use his sword on the living as well as zombies, if he was defending his child's best chance of survival.
Their meandering route around the country took them towards the ocean eventually. It was almost a year since the world fell apart and Wei Ying hadn't found anywhere that looked like a safe permanent home for them both. Leaving A-Yuan with strangers was impossible.
He wasn't even aware that he'd got so close to the ocean until he turned a corner and recognised the road ahead. His eyes burned for a moment and he slowed the bike to a stop until his eyes stopped blurring.
"Xian-gege?" A-Yuan said. "Why stop?"
Wei Ying scrubbed his eyes clear and took a deep breath. He dropped a kiss on A-Yuan's head. "It's pretty, isn't it?"
A-Yuan made a thinking sound. "Mn?"
Wei Ying chuckled. "I lived near here once. A long time ago. If we keep following this road, we'll get to the ocean! I used to do that sometimes with...with friends."
"Oh." A-Yuan seemed to think about that. "Ocean. Go to an ocean. What's an ocean?"
It was as good a direction as any. Maybe they could find a boat. Maybe if they floated around on the ocean for long enough, the world would become a safe enough place for them. Wei Ying kicked the bike into life again.
Mountains rose on the horizon as they rode, shrouded in mists that Wei Ying didn’t have to close his eyes to remember. It would be easy enough to turn the bike towards them, but he didn’t. They kept heading for the ocean.
According to the GPS on his phone, they were less than fifty kilometres from the coast when he decided to stop for the night. There was a farmhouse that seemed secure and it still had power. The electricity map promised that power would stay on here until at least tomorrow morning. The Zombies, Track! app had the area marked green and Wei Ying hadn’t seen anything bipedal--living or dead--all day. There was a commune a few kilometres away, but dusk had already fallen and even the friendliest commune wouldn’t open its doors after dark.
The farmhouse should be safe enough.
Wei Ying set up his usual motion detectors and brought the bike into the farmhouse. He got the phone charged before he plugged in the bike, just in case, and pulled the trailer up close to the house. A-Yuan helped him carry their sleeping bags and some food into the house and they set up a cosy little den.
They ate a hot meal for the first time in a couple of days and A-Yuan was asleep almost before his head hit the pillow. Wei Ying curled around him and their precious backpack and checked a few things on his phone before he dropped into a light sleep.
The motion detectors went off as Wei Ying was clearing up the congee he’d given A-Yuan for breakfast. Adrenaline sent his heart pounding and his stomach rolling as he dropped the plastic dish he was drying and dove for the backpack. A-Yuan was holding his stuffed bunny and they couldn’t afford the precious seconds to transfer it to a more secure place.
“Hold onto Bunny, okay?” Wei Ying said as he scooped A-Yuan up in his arms.
He unhooked the bike’s chargers and threw them into his backpack, dropped A-Yuan into his little seat, cursed as his fingers fumbled the clips a couple of times before he managed to buckle A-Yuan in.
An arm punched through a window. Wei Ying swore more fluidly.
He climbed onto the bike and wheeled it towards the door. They would have to abandon the trailer, their supplies, everything except what he carried on his back. It had been so long since he’d last set out with nothing, but he could feel the weight of dead flesh moving outside the house. He couldn’t control it for long enough to repack the trailer. Escape had to be their priority, he’d figure out the rest later.
A-Yuan whimpered softly and Wei Ying took a deep breath.
He unfocused, hummed a tune under his breath, and reached.
Dead flesh, freed from its soul, responded. Wei Ying's stomach rolled again, sweat beaded on his forehead, but he held on and forced the zombies outside the door into stillness. He leaned forward over A-Yuan and yanked the door open.
"Close your eyes, baobei," he said, trying to keep his voice warm and reassuring.
"Mn!" A-Yuan said, a little muffled, and Wei Ying allowed himself a precious moment to glance down.
A-Yuan was holding on tight to his stuffed bunny, face tucked down into its soft fur. Good enough.
Wei Ying turned the bike on, relieved to see the indicators flash into life. He tightened the straps on his backpack and gripped the handlebars tight. He started whistling. Outside, the nearest zombies shuffled back a few steps at his command. It was reluctant, sluggish, nothing like commanding a normal corpse, but they obeyed him and he cleared a path to wheel forward out of the door.
His heart sank. Never mind abandoning the trailer, there were so many zombies out there that he didn't know how they'd get out alive. So many zombies. More than he'd seen in one place for months.
The Zombies, Track! app was wrong. This was a red area. Was there a colour beyond red? Black? That's what this area was. Black and fucking lethal. If they survived, he was going to write to the creators and complain because people relied on their app and it was so fucking wrong.
The zombies nearest to them were still quiet, frozen, and Wei Ying moved forward a few feet. Further away from them, the zombies were confused. Something was wrong, but there wasn't enough intelligence left in their undead brains to put anything together.
A zombie started moaning. Another joined it, and another. Wei Ying could feel A-Yuan shaking.
Nothing was trying to grab them yet. He gave a brief thought to going back to the house, but it wasn't defensible. Too many glass windows, a wooden door. They'd be overrun in a minute.
He moved forward a few more feet, still whistling. Reached for more zombies, but he was already stretched to the maximum. He couldn't control any more. One of the nearby zombies shuffled, took a step closer. Wei Ying could feel his control slipping.
One of them lurched forward to swipe at him and he felt dirty, clawed fingers scraping over his jacket sleeve. He yanked his sword out of the sheath across his back and decapitated it in one swift motion, but it was as though that was a signal. The zombies he couldn't control began moving closer, moaning louder, scenting something in the wind, and Wei Ying couldn't push the ones under his control away from him. Couldn't maintain the protective bubble under so much pressure.
He struck again and again with his sword, gaining a few feet here and there, but they were surrounded and he was shaking with the effort of fighting and whistling and trying to force his control onto new zombies each time he eliminated one. A-Yuan was sobbing, shaking, and Wei Ying's heart was breaking. It was all over. They weren't going to survive this and everything he'd done was for nothing. He should have left A-Yuan with one of the groups they'd stayed with. It was foolish to keep moving on when--
A shot rang out, loud even over the constant drone from the zombies. Another shot and another, the loud punch of shotguns and revolvers instead of the indiscriminate rattle of semi-automatics. People who knew the value of making every headshot count.
Wei Ying felt a burst of energy rush through him, the hope and adrenaline combining into an intoxicating high. He froze the zombies crowding in close and clung to the bike's handlebars with one hand so he could use his sword in the other as he kicked it into gear and charged.
They burst through the mass of zombies and Wei Ying was distantly aware of figures in white moving around him, fighting with guns and swords and even the odd guandao. They didn't matter; what mattered was getting A-Yuan safely away.
A-Yuan was wailing into his stuffed bunny now, a high-pitched sound that Wei Ying had to fight to ignore because they weren't safe. They'd never be safe.
Wei Ying lost track of everything except the fight around him, zombies appearing and disappearing under his sword or someone else's. A-Yuan was still strapped to the bike so he couldn't let go of it, but he couldn't find any openings wide enough to escape through. They needed speed to escape and he couldn't get it, not when there were living humans tangled in the fight.
There were other sounds filtering in now, shouts and commands, the low hum of vehicles. The white-clad figures were organised, Wei Ying realised, trying to herd the zombies into groups that could be dispatched more easily. He tried to weave around them and let them work, hoping they'd realise the man on the bike wasn't their enemy even though he had to look almost as filthy and blood-spattered as the creatures they were fighting.
A group of zombies broke away, stumbling into Wei Ying's path too late to swerve. He tried to anyway, felt the bike start to tip under him, and he put a foot down to keep the bike from falling entirely. A-Yuan shrieked and Wei Ying couldn't reach these zombies, he'd run out of juice and he couldn’t catch his breath. The bike was barely upright, he couldn't keep it that way and use his sword, it was over.
He curled forward over A-Yuan and screwed his eyes shut to brace against the pain.
It didn't come. Something cool and clean rushed over his head and the zombie cries abruptly cut off.
A hand touched his shoulder and Wei Ying looked up, straight into a pair of eyes he hadn't seen for thirteen years. Those eyes widened slightly in recognition.
"Wei Ying?"
For a moment, Wei Ying couldn't breathe. Lan Zhan. He was older, leaner, the last traces of teenaged softness melted away, but it was unmistakably Lan Zhan. Wei Ying had spent enough hours studying him, sketching him, annoying him into friendship and teasing him into rule breaking. Enough hours then thinking about him after that part of his life ended. He couldn't have forgotten Lan Zhan if he'd tried, and he never wanted to.
Lan Zhan's eyes flickered to the side and Wei Ying reacted on instinct, ducking away and allowing Lan Zhan to decapitate the zombie behind him.
"Go," Lan Zhan said, pointing.
There was a vehicle not far away, built like a cross between an armoured truck and a bus. It was painted white, the Lan school crest stencilled in pale blue, but it looked solid and impenetrable. The door at the back swung open slightly.
"I'll cover you," Lan Zhan said, stepping away.
Wei Ying opened his mouth to protest, but Lan Zhan's gaze flickered down to A-Yuan in front of him and Wei Ying understood. He nodded tightly and pulled the bike fully upright again. The lights flickered to life when he pressed the start button and relief made him dizzy for a moment.
No, not just relief. Exhaustion. He was all out of power and holding the bike steady was making his arms shake. Their escape was only a couple of hundred metres away, but it was over rough ground and he didn't have anything left in him to run. He kicked the bike into gear and shot away as fast as he could. Behind him, he heard gunshots and zombie moans suddenly cut off, but he didn't dare to look back.
He didn't stop until they almost collided with the armoured bus. The back doors swung open and hands reached down to pull him and the bike up. Someone unclipped A-Yuan and pushed the bike further into the vehicle. Wei Ying collapsed onto a bench, holding A-Yuan against his body as tight as he dared, feeling the way that small body shuddered and shook against him.
"It's okay, baobei," he murmured into A-Yuan's hair. "We're safe. They're friends."
The door opened again and several figures in white tumbled inside. Wei Ying searched and was relieved when Lan Zhan lifted his head and their eyes met.
Wei Ying nodded to him, offering a tight-lipped smile. Lan Zhan's face softened for a moment, and Wei Ying felt something inside release, fear draining away to be replaced by profound exhaustion. A-Yuan had already cried himself out and he was slumping against Wei Ying's chest in the soft way that meant he'd fallen asleep. Their bus rumbled into motion. Wei Ying let his head drop back against the wall and followed A-Yuan into sleep.
***
Wei Ying woke up when someone shook his shoulder. It was odd, because he didn't startle the way he usually did. Waking was a gentle thing, a languid surfacing from somewhere slow and safe, and when his eyes blinked open all he thought was "of course".
It was Lan Zhan's hand shaking him, Lan Zhan's eyes he met. Wei Ying smiled, warm and easy, and there was that softening in Lan Zhan's features again, as though he was smiling without moving his lips.
"Xian-gege?"
The sleepy contentment disappeared and Wei Ying startled upright, wincing as his backpack suddenly dragged at his shoulders and he realised the vague ache in the middle of his back was from something inside it digging into him. A-Yuan was standing just behind Lan Zhan, one finger in his mouth and a worried look in his eyes. His hand looked filthy, worse than the stuffed bunny clutched in his other arm, and Wei Ying tried not to worry about how many germs he was ingesting.
Their transport wasn't moving and Wei Ying realised he'd slept through the entire journey. He must have been asleep for hours, if they were where he suspected they were. Everyone else had left, it was just him, A-Yuan, and Lan Zhan.
He scanned quickly and found the bike, pushed against the solid metal barrier that separated them from the driver's cab. Some of the worry drained away on seeing it.
Lan Zhan's head turned, following his gaze. "I will make sure it isn't lost."
Wei Ying nodded. "Thanks."
He turned to A-Yuan and held out his arms, trying not to sound too pained when A-Yuan flung himself forward and almost strangled him in a hug. He ached everywhere, his head was pounding, several muscles were shrieking every time he moved or breathed, and his ankle was throbbing, but he held A-Yuan close for a long moment.
Lan Zhan's expression was unreadable. "Is he...yours?"
Wei Ying made himself smile. "Sure is, I birthed him with my own body."
A tiny frown appeared between Lan Zhan's eyebrows, and Wei Ying couldn't stop himself chuckling tiredly.
"Ah, Lan Zhan, you were always so..." he trailed off, unsure how to finish the sentence. "A-Yuan, this is my old friend, Lan Zhan. Can you say hello?"
A-Yuan reluctantly stopped trying to strangle him and turned around. The finger was back in his mouth. Wei Ying really needed to clean his hands.
Scratch that, Wei Ying really needed to dump the entire child in a bath and burn his clothes, but he'd settle for being able to wipe A-Yuan's hands. Maybe if he could get A-Yuan a bath, Bunny could join him and then they'd both be slightly cleaner.
Lan Zhan didn't smile, but his features softened again and he held out a hand. "Hello, A-Yuan."
A-Yuan eyed the outstretched hand suspiciously. After a minute's thought, he took his finger out of his mouth and shook Lan Zhan's hand. Wei Ying fought down a fond smile at the way Lan Zhan's eye twitched on contact with the dirty, wet finger. To his credit, he didn't snatch his hand back, although he did surreptitiously wipe it on his trousers when A-Yuan released him.
“Can you stand?” Lan Zhan asked.
“Probably.” Wei Ying gritted his teeth against a groan as he put A-Yuan down to demonstrate. “See? No problem.”
Lan Zhan didn’t look convinced, but he was quiet as he led the way off the bus. A-Yuan held onto the hem of Wei Ying’s jacket as they followed him, Wei Ying only looking over his shoulder at the bike once before he remembered Lan Zhan’s promise. The air smelled sweet and clean when he hopped to the ground and helped A-Yuan down. It was a familiar sweetness, of green growing things and crisp mountain breezes, and he inhaled deeply.
When he opened his eyes, the trees and white gravel were so familiar, it made his heart ache a little.
The bus stood in a row with two others, all painted white, although one of them was scratched and dented. Several smaller cars were dotted around the carpark, all looking bulky in the way armoured cars did. A few trees had been cut down since Wei Ying was last there, ensuring a clean space around the carpark where nothing could sneak up and surprise anyone, and the fence was taller, but otherwise it was almost possible to pretend nothing had changed.
“This way,” Lan Zhan said. “You will require a medical assessment.”
Wei Ying tried to follow, but A-Yuan was hugging his leg, clinging like a small, dirty limpet.
“Buddy, you can walk,” Wei Ying said.
A-Yuan shook his head. Wei Ying sighed and scooped him up, feeling several muscles complain as he settled A-Yuan awkwardly on his hip. It would be easier if he didn’t have his sword and backpack on his back, but he wasn’t willing to leave those behind, even here. Not yet, not until he was sure it was safe. Bad enough that he was leaving the bike.
Lan Zhan waited for them and Wei Ying could feel his curious gaze but refused to meet it, focusing instead on his surroundings. At first glance, this was the Cloud Recesses he remembered from his schooldays. But as they walked, he noticed the changes: new fencing, sturdy gates, shutters ready to slam across doors and windows. Wei Ying silently approved. Multiple layers of defence, the ability to seal off sections before the entire place was overwhelmed.
“Fortress Cloud Recesses?” Wei Ying said.
“Cloud Recesses Safe Haven,” Lan Zhan replied.
“Yeah, that’s a better name.” Wei Ying grinned. “You can lock it down like a fortress, though.”
“It is a safe place.”
They stopped outside a building that had been a small infirmary the last time Wei Ying was here. They’d built onto it recently, but it looked as sturdy and protected as everything else.
“Second door on the left,” Lan Zhan said, leading the way inside.
Wei Ying nodded. His arms were screaming with exhaustion as he shifted A-Yuan to free one hand and knock on the indicated door. A muffled voice called out and he opened it to slip through, blinking when he saw the figure hunched over a desk on the far side of the room.
“Wen Qing?” he whispered.
She looked up and, for a moment, she was slack-jawed with surprise before her expression melted into a brilliant smile. She crossed the room in a moment and pulled him--and A-Yuan--into a brief, rib-crushing hug. That was followed up with a punch to the shoulder, which felt more normal, and Wei Ying realised he was smiling and crying at the same time.
“You--!” She seemed at a loss for words, so she dropped her gaze to A-Yuan and her smile turned warmer. “A-Yuan.”
The little boy was speechless, but he allowed Wen Qing to pull him out of Wei Ying’s arms and his arms wrapped around her neck in one of his strangling hugs. Wei Ying scrubbed the tears away from his eyes, feeling more welling up immediately, and he wasn’t embarrassed because Wen Qing also looked a little teary around the edges.
“Why didn’t you contact me?” he asked. “I was waiting.”
Wen Qing grimaced. “I lost my phone and I couldn’t remember your number. Your old social media profiles were dormant.”
“Yeah, after the Yiling Laozu rumours started, it seemed safer,” Wei Ying said.
“That’s unexpectedly sensible of you.”
“Hey, you entrusted an entire child to me and you’re surprised I can be sensible?”
“Yes.” Wen Qing carried A-Yuan over to an exam bed and clicked her tongue. “Over here, I need to examine both of you before we let you roam the compound.”
He endured her poking and prodding as patiently as A-Yuan, until she stuck a needle in the pad of his thumb.
“Ow!”
She squeezed a couple of drops of blood into a small plastic vial and released him to push the lid on.
Wei Ying sucked on the tiny wound. “What the fu--uh, heck--was that?”
Wen Qing did the same to A-Yuan’s thumb. He didn’t even whimper.
“A test,” she said, setting the vials aside. “Ninety-seven percent of zombie bites convert within five minutes.”
“How long do the other three percent take?”
“Up to forty-eight hours.” Wen Qing’s expression was grim. “That’s why outbreaks happen in the middle of compounds we thought were safe.”
“I’d know if I’d been bitten.”
“Really? Care to strip off and let me check? Because adrenaline can do things like make people fail to notice their broken collarbone or walk around carrying small children on a badly sprained ankle, so I’m not convinced you’d notice a bite.”
“There’s a difference between not noticing, and knowing you’ve broken your collarbone but not having time to do anything about it.”
“Really? And the ankle? What’s your excuse for that?”
Wei Ying’s ankle throbbed. Getting his combat boot off was going to be a bitch later, he could already tell.
“Does your test work?” he asked.
Wen Qing shrugged. “We’ve been using it for a month, here and a few other places, and it’s been accurate so far.”
“What happens if I test positive?”
“You get a choice. You can leave the compound or you can stay and be a test subject.” She shrugged. “If you leave, we’ll grab you after you convert, so it’s the same thing but you’re much more dangerous to everyone if you leave.”
“You’re experimenting on zombies?”
“Observing.” Wei Qing tilted her head. “Studying the conversion process. We don’t torture them, Wei Ying.”
“That’s very comforting.”
"I'm hoping we'll eventually be able to use what we learn to develop a treatment, maybe even a vaccine."
Wei Ying smiled at her. “You'll do it, I know you will.”
Her cheeks went slightly pink. “Not just me, there’s a few of us working on it in different places. But I think we’ve got the best chance of really understanding the process here. Between the zombies we’ve studied and A-Ning--“
“He’s here? Where?” Wei Ying grinned. “How many times has he been bitten now?”
Wen Qing pursed her lips. “It’s not a badge of honour.”
“Says you.”
“He’s out with a patrol,” Wen Qing said. “Congratulations, you’re not a zombie. Yet.”
She held up the tiny plastic vials. The liquid inside both was bright blue.
“Neat.” Wei Ying grinned, but sobered after a moment. “How many of you...?”
“Some.”
“Granny? Uncle Four?” Wen Qing shook her head and Wei Ying reached out to squeeze her arm. “I’m sorry.”
Wen Qing pressed her lips together tightly for a minute before she took a deep breath and shook him off. “I’m going to heal your ankle. For everything else, I prescribe several days of rest and lots of food. You look like a walking skeleton. At least A-Yuan is in better shape than you.”
She was as good as her word, healing his ankle and a tiny bruise on A-Yuan’s knee, but refusing to do anything for Wei Ying’s bruises and scrapes beyond cleaning the worst of the cuts and applying a few butterfly stitches.
“A-Yuan, do you want to stay with me for a while?” she asked when she was satisfied.
A-Yuan shrank closer to Wei Ying, his lip wobbling. A wave of guilt rolled over Wei Ying, but Wen Qing just sighed and looked understanding.
“You’re the only constant he’s had for the last few months,” she said. “I’m not surprised. Go on, someone will have your room assignment by now.”
A-Yuan hugged her again before they left, but he latched onto Wei Ying’s jacket hem as soon as she released him and Wei Ying shrugged.
Lan Zhan was waiting at the infirmary exit. There was a thin scratch down the side of his face that Wei Ying hadn’t noticed earlier, but he looked unharmed otherwise. Clean and tidy, in that way he’d always had and now felt so surreal in the middle of an apocalypse.
“Did you know Wen Qing was here?” Wei Ying asked.
A tiny frown appeared. “You know her?”
Wei Ying glanced down at A-Yuan. “Yeah. I stayed with the Wens for a while. It’s how I got A-Yuan. She's his cousin.”
Lan Zhan glanced down at the little boy, who was now crouching down and hugging Wei Ying’s knee tiredly.
“Ah.”
Wei Ying shrugged. “Looks like I’m keeping him for a while longer.”
He didn’t say that he wanted to keep A-Yuan forever, that the idea of giving him away to anyone else or leaving him behind was impossible, but there was a light in Lan Zhan’s eyes that he thought meant Lan Zhan understood anyway.
“Wen Qing said something about room assignments,” Wei Ying said.
“Mn.”
He had to pick A-Yuan up again and it felt worse than ever, all his muscles screaming so much that he thought he probably wouldn’t have noticed his sprained ankle even if Wen Qing hadn’t healed it. When he caught up, Lan Zhan gave him an indecipherable look and reached for A-Yuan.
Who let himself be transferred, and even wrapped one arm around Lan Zhan’s neck. Wei Ying gaped at him for a moment before hitching his backpack higher and deciding not to question it.
They walked along white paths, past familiar buildings made strange by their adaptations to the new zombie-infested world. There were a dozen questions Wei Ying wanted to ask, but he was too tired and the silence was nice. A-Yuan was nodding against Lan Zhan’s shoulder and Wei Ying was surprised to realise it was dusk already. It felt like only a couple of hours ago that the motion detectors had gone off.
They were on another familiar path when Wei Ying realised where they were going. He frowned. Ahead, a metal fence with an open gate had been added, but he recognised the bamboo gate behind it and, beyond, the garden and single-storey house. The fence looked electrified and the gate could probably be closed from a panel in the house. Wei Ying approved and felt another tiny bit of tension melt away even as he turned to Lan Zhan.
“This is the Jingshi,” he said. “It’s your home. We can’t stay here. There must be guest dormitories, there always used to be.”
Lan Zhan’s expression didn’t change. “We have to conserve space.”
“By invading your home?”
“Mn.”
The problem was that A-Yuan was half asleep in Lan Zhan’s arms, so Wei Ying couldn’t simply turn around and demand to be put in a dormitory corner somewhere. He had to follow Lan Zhan up the steps and into the Jingshi or risk upsetting A-Yuan, which he could never do.
Like everything else, the Jingshi was mostly the way that Wei Ying remembered it, but not quite. He’d never been here when he was a student at the school that used to be here, but on the single visit he’d made in the summer break of his second year of college, this was where he’d stayed. Lan Zhan had made excuses about guests and space then, too, and Wei Ying had been too excited about getting two whole weeks with his best friend to care where he slept. Lan Qiren had made odd noises whenever he spotted the two of them together, but Wei Ying hadn’t thought to wonder about that until months later, when everything had gone to shit and he’d realised that visit was the last memory he’d have of Lan Zhan. He generally tried not to think about that visit unless he was feeling particularly maudlin.
Soft lights flickered on when Lan Zhan touched a panel on the wall and Wei Ying slid the doors shut behind him automatically. A privacy screen had been added in the corner furthest from the bed, and there were a couple of new paintings on the wall.
Lan Zhan lowered A-Yuan to the floor and the little boy looked around, rubbing his eyes sleepily. Wei Ying loosened the straps on his backpack, then took it off with a muffled groan. He set it on the floor by the door--ready to grab if he needed to leave in a hurry--and propped his sword next to it. He felt oddly light with the weight gone. When he bent to unlace his combat boots, he wobbled for a moment until two hands caught him around his waist to steady him. It was almost enough to make him fall anyway, but he managed not to startle or lash out, and it felt good to step out of his heavy boots.
There was a hole in the toe of one of his socks. Wei Ying grimaced at it before straightening up, pushing down a whine when Lan Zhan’s hands fell away.
He was just tired, like A-Yuan. Tired and worn through, and Lan Zhan’s hands had felt so good there, holding him steady.
He focused on A-Yuan instead, who was tired and ready for bed, but also filthy because they hadn’t been able to bathe for a couple of days before they were attacked by zombies. He was probably hungry, too. Wei Ying debated with himself over whether to prioritise a bath or food before realising that he’d left all the food back on the trailer.
He offered Lan Zhan an apologetic wince. “Is there somewhere I can get some food for A-Yuan? And I should put him in the bath because we both smell terrible and he’ll make your nice sheets all gross.”
“I will get food,” Lan Zhan said. “You should bathe him. I have arranged a bed for him.”
Wei Ying blinked a couple of times, his eyes feeling hot, before he managed to produce a watery smile. “Thanks, Lan Zhan.”
“Mn.”
Lan Zhan slipped away before Wei Ying could say anything else, and A-Yuan frowned after him for a moment before turning his attention to Wei Ying.
“Xian-gege?” A-Yuan said.
Wei Ying smiled. “Lan Zhan has gone to get us some food. You are a very stinky, dirty little boy, so you’re having a bath.”
The bathroom was exactly as Wei Ying remembered it. A-Yuan protested tiredly for as long as it took for Wei Ying to run a few inches of water in the bath and strip him, then he decided he was quite happy to sit in the warm water. Wei Ying found a soft facecloth and washed him down thoroughly, concluding that washing A-Yuan’s hair could wait until they were both less tired.
A-Yuan might have been happy to stay in the bath forever, but Wei Ying eventually hauled him out and dried him, then wrapped him in the towel. He eyed the filthy clothes A-Yuan had been wearing with distaste.
“We’re going to steal some of Lan Zhan’s clothes,” he said. “Pretty sure we can make one of his t-shirts work as a nightshirt for you.”
A-Yuan eyed him dubiously, but allowed himself to be led out of the bathroom. The room outside was warmer than it had been earlier and there was a covered tray on the low table he’d eaten at the last time he visited. There was a sound from behind the screen and Lan Zhan emerged holding a pillow.
“I made up the bed for A-Yuan,” he said.
That hot, itchy feeling in Wei Ying’s eyes came back and he swallowed a couple of times. “Oh. Thank you. That’s very kind.”
“Mn.”
“Can we borrow a t-shirt? Can’t put dirty clothes on clean little boys.”
Lan Zhan glanced over his shoulder. “I brought pyjamas for him. They might be too big.”
“Your t-shirt was going to be way too big, so it sounds like an upgrade to me.”
It was only a little folding bed, but the blankets were soft and Lan Zhan had put a hot water bottle in them to warm them up. The stuffed bunny sat on the pillow. The pyjamas were pale blue and fleecy, two sizes too large but Wei Ying tightened the drawstring on the trousers and they stayed up. They’d keep A-Yuan's toes warm while they ate.
“Are you hungry?” he asked when A-Yuan was dressed.
A-Yuan thought about the question carefully before nodding. “Mn.”
“So am I, buddy. Let’s see what Lan Zhan brought for us, hmm?”
He watched carefully as they went to the table, but A-Yuan didn’t trip on his too-long pyjama trousers and he left the bunny behind on the bed. That was a good sign.
Before Wei Ying could kneel down, Lan Zhan levelled a look at him. Wei Ying frowned.
“You should also shower,” Lan Zhan said.
Wei Ying looked down at himself; at the long-sleeved t-shirt that was damp from bathing A-Yuan and spattered with stains where his jacket hadn’t covered it; at the skinny jeans that had a couple of new rips and could probably stand up on their own from dirt; at the hole in his socks.
“Lan Zhaaaan,” he said, but there wasn’t any force in the complaint. It was more out of habit than a real protest.
“The food will keep. Your shower will not.”
“Are you saying I’m stinky and filthy?”
“Stinky,” A-Yuan said, giggling. “Xian-gege is stinky.”
“Wow, attacked on all sides, I must really smell awful,” Wei Ying said.
“You also should wash your hair,” Lan Zhan said without changing expression.
Wei Ying reached up and touched his hair, wrinkling his nose at what he felt there. “Can’t fight zombies without getting a bit messy, I guess. Unless you’re you, but we’re not all you.”
“Mn.”
“I’ll have to steal some of your clothes,” Wei Ying said.
Lan Zhan nodded. “Take what you need.”
Over the last year, Wei Ying had become an expert at the fast, efficient shower, so A-Yuan was still sleepily spooning up rice when he emerged from the bathroom. He'd stolen a pair of pyjamas that hung loose on him and almost covered his hands, but the trousers finished an inch above his ankles, which told him where Lan Zhan put his extra couple of inches in height. As he pulled the drawstring tight around his waist, he had to admit that perhaps Wen Qing had a point about his weight.
He settled down next to A-Yuan and ruffled his hair, receiving a sleepy smile in return. When he turned back to his own bowl, it was filled with rice and vegetables in a dark sauce, still steaming. Lan Zhan didn't meet his eyes, but the corners of his mouth were twitching in a poorly suppressed smile.
Wei Ying picked up his chopsticks and began eating, but after only a couple of bites, A-Yuan dropped his spoon in his bowl and sighed gustily.
"Ready for bed, baobei?" he asked.
A-Yuan frowned and said, "Not a baby."
Wei Ying chuckled. "Yeah, not a baby. I agree. Time for bed, though, before you face-plant in your bowl and undo all my hard work getting you clean."
"Not tired," A-Yuan said, rubbing his eyes sleepily.
"Uh huh, I can tell," Wei Ying said. "But Bunny is lonely, so maybe you should lie down and keep him company, hmm?"
A-Yuan eyed him suspiciously, but allowed himself to be picked up and carried behind the screen to the bed without complaint. Wei Ying briefly wondered whether he should find toothpaste and a brush, but decided that they could think about dental hygiene tomorrow.
There was a lot they could work out tomorrow.
Despite his declaration of not being tired, A-Yuan was asleep almost as soon as Wei Ying pulled the blanket over him. He spent a moment watching the soft flutter of A-Yuan's eyelashes, listening to the gentle snuffle of his breath half buried in his toy bunny, before dropping a kiss on A-Yuan's forehead and creeping away.
His bowl had disappeared from the table, but the door was slightly open. Wei Ying slipped outside and closed it behind him. As he'd half-expected, Lan Zhan was sitting on the step, the bowl next to him on top of a folded blanket. Wei Ying wrapped himself in the blanket and sat down. The bowl was piled with even more food, including something that looked a lot like shredded chicken.
It was a beautiful clear night, quiet and still in the way he'd always associated with Cloud Recesses. He ate quickly, hungrily, and even though it could have used more flavour, it was the best thing he'd eaten in days. Weeks. Maybe since the Wens.
His stomach was over-full when he set the bowl beside him. Lan Zhan stood as if he was going to get more food, and Wei Ying shook his head.
"No more, please, I'll explode if I eat another mouthful." He chuckled. "I may explode anyway. You're too generous."
Lan Zhan shook his head. "It is the least I could do."
Wei Ying shrugged. "The least you could have done is walk by when you saw us in the middle of a zombie mob. Most people would, but you didn't. Why were you out there to rescue us anyway?"
"We were looking for zombies."
"Good news, you found some. They're not that hard to find right now. You probably didn't even need to go that far, I'm sure there's a bunch right on your doorstep."
"We keep our doorstep zombie-free."
Wei Ying looked out at the peaceful garden, the fence with its open gate. "Yeah, you probably do."
"There is a commune not far from where we found you." Lan Zhan was studying the gravel path intently, avoiding Wei Ying's eyes. "They called us for help yesterday. They were being attacked. We were able to kill some of the zombies and drive the rest away. We stayed to repair their defences before we pursued the remainder."
Wei Ying sighed. "Good thing I didn't push on to ask them for shelter last night, then. Sounds like we would have run right into a nasty fight."
"Mn." Lan Zhan's expression didn't change, but the corners of his mouth twitched as though he wanted to make a face. "The mob that attacked you. That was our--my--fault."
"What?"
"We thought the area was uninhabited. We sent the mob to you."
"Huh." Wei Ying rubbed his nose thoughtfully. "Guess that's why the Zombies, Track! app had it as a green area. You had no way to know I was out there, it's not your fault."
"We should have been more careful."
"Yeah? How?"
"Not allowed them to escape."
Wei Ying raised both eyebrows. "Yeah? You'd have left the commune to fend for itself with holes in its defences? What if zombies snuck around behind you and went back for them? It only takes one really bitey zombie to infect a group like that. Sounds like you did your best and I happened to be in the wrong place this morning. Not the first time it's happened, probably won't be the last. Luckily for me, you caught up with the zombies at just the right time."
"Wei Ying--"
He put his hand on Lan Zhan's forearm and squeezed. Lan Zhan turned to him and Wei Ying made himself meet his eyes, refusing to look away or hide his gratitude.
"Thank you," he said quietly.
"No, I--"
"Thank you," he repeated, squeezing Lan Zhan's forearm again for emphasis.
For a long moment, they didn't move. Wei Ying didn't know what he was looking for in Lan Zhan's eyes, but he searched anyway. It had been so long since he'd seen Lan Zhan. He thought he'd memorised Lan Zhan's eyes, the warmth so at odds with his cool exterior, but it turned out that he'd only remembered a pale imitation of them. The reality was more intense, so deep he could drown in them if he wasn't careful. Maybe it was because the younger him had been too busy not looking, not seeing, that he'd remembered the wrong thing.
Wei Ying felt his cheeks flush and he blinked, breaking the moment. He laughed awkwardly as he pulled his hand back, tugging the blanket more securely around him. The air was cooler in the mountains, but that wasn't the only reason he shivered.
"It's late," Lan Zhan said.
Wei Ying nodded, grateful for the excuse. "I guess the day is catching up with me."
He yawned theatrically, which triggered a real yawn, and when he opened his eyes there was that soft look on Lan Zhan's face again. He blinked and it was gone, but if Lan Zhan kept doing that, he might start getting ideas and he probably shouldn't let himself indulge that urge.
"Just show me where to set up my bedroll," Wei Ying said, struggling to his feet. "And where I can get a bedroll, because mine is currently a long way away and surrounded by zombies."
His muscles had stiffened up while he sat and he almost fell over, until Lan Zhan wrapped a large hand around his elbow and steadied him. Again. Really, Lan Zhan keeping him from falling over was getting to be a habit, one that Wei Ying suspected was dangerous to acquire. He was too tired to shrug him off, though, and it was even nicer when Lan Zhan's hand moved from his elbow to the small of his back, guiding and steadying him all at once.
He was so distracted by that hand that he didn't notice where he was being guided to until he was standing next to the bed. Lan Zhan's bed.
"Um?" he said.
Lan Zhan reached around and pulled back the covers.
Wei Ying peered up at him. "This is your bed."
"Mn."
"I can't put you out of your bed. Where will you sleep?"
There was a hint of dry humour in Lan Zhan's voice. "It's a large bed."
Wei Ying eyed it and agreed. But. "Are you sure?"
The corner of Lan Zhan's mouth twitched. "It wouldn't be the first time. My bed was smaller then."
It was...a good point. A really good point. Lan Zhan's bed on that college visit so many years ago had been smaller and they'd shared comfortably. It hadn't even occurred to Wei Ying until later that maybe cuddling up to your best friend every night for two weeks was part of the reason everyone had given him such odd looks during the visit. Everyone must have known there was only one fairly small bed.
It had been even later before Wei Ying realised how much he'd liked the cuddling.
"I'll try not to octopus you this time," he said weakly.
"Mn."
Lan Zhan's expression was difficult to read. Wei Ying couldn't tell whether that was an agreeing sound or a tired sound or something else completely. He thought it was probably the latter, because he remembered so many things about Lan Zhan and that sound was new.
The bed looked comfortable and inviting, Wei Ying put one knee on it, but then his tired brain got caught in a confused loop about what to do with the blanket still wrapped around him. Dropping it was untidy, but he couldn't sleep wrapped in it, but he also didn't want to get cold while he folded it.
Lan Zhan solved the problem by pulling the blanket off his shoulders and Wei Ying immediately slid into bed and pulled the covers up to his chin. His hair was still damp and it would be a tangled mess when he woke up. He should probably braid it, but he didn't have the energy for it.
Instead, he watched through slitted eyes as Lan Zhan folded the blanket and turned the lights down. A low buzz signalled that shutters were going down across the doors and windows, keeping them safe. Some of the tension seeped out of Wei Ying at that sound. Lan Zhan disappeared into the bathroom and emerged a few minutes later, dressed in a pair of pyjamas that fitted him perfectly. The bed dipped slightly as Lan Zhan slipped in and lay down on his back.
Wei Ying rolled over to face him, making sure there was a polite distance between their bodies.
"Good night, Lan Zhan," he said quietly.
He thought he caught a hint of a smile at the corner of Lan Zhan's mouth before the lights went out.
"Good night, Wei Ying."
Exhaustion pulled him down and Wei Ying fell into the comforting darkness of sleep.