Chapter Text
The cold was going to kill him. It was biting at Wei Wuxian’s face, stabbing through clothes, turning his bones to aching ice, and there was nowhere to hide. Nowhere left to go. Nothing left to use to try and keep warm. Shivering, Wei Wuxian cuddled the baby nestled against his chest even closer, trying to keep the cold away from him for as long as possible. The child was zipped inside his jacket, only the top of his little hat poking up out, and Wei Wuxian could feel the tiny, warm puffs of his breath against his chest.
It was the only warmth left to Wei Wuxian. He wasn’t sure how long they’d been in the freezer. He wasn’t sure how much longer they’d be able to stand it.
He didn’t know what else he could do.
Li Xiuying had long since lost consciousness. The metallic emergency blanket he’d ripped from the first aid kit was wrapped around her, and Wei Wuxian’s jumper was cushioning her head, its sleeves covering her ears and nose to try and ward off frostbite, but she was still pale as death. He could hardly see her breath anymore as it misted weak on the air.
He closed his eyes. The last thing he needed was more tears to freeze on his cheeks.
Two days ago, he’d thought the world was turning in his favour. Lan Zhan was returning from studying abroad for his masters, and as per his official duties as Best Friend, Wei Wuxian had volunteered to pick him up from the train station. He’d been so excited to see Lan Zhan after a full year apart that he’d left early.
So, he’d done as Jiang Cheng had asked him before he left the house. Stopped for petrol. The gas meter was hardly a hair below the halfway line – only in Jiang Cheng’s books could it count as running low. But at the end of the day it was Jiang Cheng’s car, and Wei Wuxian was running on time. So he’d pulled into the petrol station.
He never made it to the train station.
With every last fibre of his being, Wei Wuxian prayed that Jiang Cheng and Yanli were still at home, that they hadn’t come out to find him, that they hadn’t been caught outside when everything fell apart. That they’d had the sense to barricade themselves inside. He prayed that the Peacock had made it home from work, that he was keeping Yanli and Jiang Cheng safe. That they weren’t – that Wei Wuxian wasn’t –
Tears burnt beneath his closed eyelids.
Nestled against his chest, A-Yuan shifted in his sleep, making a soft little ‘mn’ noise. Wei Wuxian closed his eyes tighter, lowered his head to press his lips against the boy’s hat. Two days ago, he had never met Xiuying or A-Yuan.
On the way to pay for the petrol, Wei Wuxian was swiftly distracted by the biscuit aisle. The selection was especially good for a shabby little service station, and he perused it with great interest. Right by the end of the aisle, he saw it – a yellow packet of lemon biscuits, the kind that Lan Zhan liked. It was the last packet on the shelf, and he grabbed it with a grin.
“Ah, thank you, young man.”
Wei Wuxian turned, blinking, to find an older woman behind him, her lips pursed into a tight smile, her hand outstretched towards him. “For…?”
The woman’s nostrils flared, though she kept the bland smile on her face as she nodded towards the biscuits. “I’ll take those.”
“I don’t work here,” Wei Wuxian told her.
“Oh? Well, in any case…” She kept her hand held out expectantly, and Wei Wuxian frowned.
“Furen, I’m afraid I’ll be buying these,” he said, as politely as he could.
“There are dozens of biscuits here,” she said dismissively, her pinched smile fading. “I want those ones, thank you very much.”
“There are dozens of biscuits here,” repeated Wei Wuxian. “Help yourself to any of them.” He turned away, ignoring her splutter of indignation and trying to remember if there was anything they needed at the house that he could pick up while he was here. He was notoriously bad at forgetting these sorts of things.
Eventually, he came to the conclusion that there was nothing else he needed, and he joined the queue. Somehow, Biscuit Lady had made her way to the front of the line, and had passed a full basket to the boy at the cash desk. There was a man beside her, presumably her husband, who looked rather fed up as Biscuit Lady wondered aloud why the cashier didn’t automatically know which pump her car was at, and why there weren’t more people on duty.
Behind her was a much younger woman who seemed to be about Wei Wuxian’s age, with a pram in front of her, one of those fancy ones like Yanli wanted, which you could detach from frame and wheels to use as a car-seat. Given that the young cashier looked completely unaffected by the woman’s diatribe, Wei Wuxian ignored it and shifted to get a glance of the child in the pram. It was a baby, cheerfully chewing on his own foot, and when he saw Wei Wuxian looking he tilted his head to the side curiously. Wei Wuxian stuck out his tongue and scrunched up his nose, and the baby gave a squeal of laughter.
The baby’s mother glanced over her shoulder, smiling at Wei Wuxian, who quickly stopped pulling the face.
“Sorry,” he said, grinning. “He’s just so cute!”
“He is, isn’t he?” she said, beaming proudly and rocking the pram a little. “Are you making friends, A-Yuan?”
The baby – A-Yuan – gave another happy little shrieking sound, waving his arms up and down, and Wei Wuxian waved back.
“He’s too cute! How old is he?”
“Eight months,” said the mother, reaching out and stroking her baby’s cheek.
Wei Wuxian puffed his cheeks out and crossed his eyes, and A-Yuan gave another trill of laughter. Wei Wuxian laughed, too. “My sister’s pregnant with her first,” he said, “She’s eight months alo-”
The sound of an explosion cut him off, shattering through the air and shaking the windows, and Wei Wuxian jumped, whipping around to stare at the window.
“What the devil was that?” demanded Biscuit Lady as the baby began to cry. “Are they setting off the fireworks this early now? What’s the point of that? It’s ridiculous, ridiculous I tell you!”
“It did sound like it was coming from the funfair,” said the mother, stroking A-Yuan’s cheek and rocking the pram back and forth.
Wei Wuxian strode quickly to the window, peering outside. This particular petrol station was just outside the city, on the other side of the ring-road that circled Yunmeng, but if he looked across the road he could see the wildflower meadow that made the furthest edge of the biggest park in the city. In the distance, he could see the silhouette of the funfair that had been set up at the far side of the park, closer to the city centre.
However, he couldn’t see any fireworks.
“Something might’ve gone off by accident,” he said, frowning. “People might be hurt…”
Biscuit Lady scoffed. “It wouldn’t surprise me. Well, hurry up, boy, I don’t have all day!” Wei Wuxian glanced over his shoulder to see the cashier blink at Biscuit Lady who clicked her tongue. “Are you going to go over there to help? No? Then hurry up and scan my groceries! God, the service here…”
Wei Wuxian’s gut twisted slightly. He couldn’t see any details around the fair, it was too far away, but he had a feeling... Something was wrong.
“We should call the police…” he murmured, almost to himself.
Biscuit Lady scoffed. “And tell them what? If there’s an issue someone who actually saw it will call.”
Wei Wuxian pursed his lips and made to turn away from the window, but as he did something caught his eye. There was a thin coil of smoke rising from one of the rides of the funfair.
Even now, he didn’t know what the explosion had been. He didn’t know if it was a firework that had gone off, or a ride malfunction – or a bomb. The third option seemed most likely, based on what had happened next, but Wei Wuxian couldn’t understand it. The funfairs drew crowds of locals in their thousands, but the yearly festivals Yunmeng threw were so famous they would attract tens of thousands – if it was a spree killer or a terrorist who wanted to cause maximum chaos or casualties then surely they would wait until the Spring Festival?
But only minutes after the explosion, people had started running across the park. There were around two dozen of them, and they sprinted through the field, towards the road -
They didn’t stop.
A screech of brakes and tyres pierced Wei Wuxian’s ears, but it was not enough to stop the car from striking the first woman who’d run into the road. Wei Wuxian choked as her body was flung into the air, as it hit the roof, as it landed head-down in the road, neck snapping, face cracked open, in the path of another car that couldn’t stop –
And the other people kept fleeing, running across the road as cars screeched to a halt around them, and Wei Wuxian’s stomach lurched.
“Oh, god,” cried the young mother, turning away from the window and curling around baby A-Yuan. “Oh, god, why didn’t she stop? Why didn’t she stop?”
Wei Wuxian couldn’t answer. He couldn’t breathe – his throat was closed, his stomach was turning, he –
They were all still running. He could see the terror on their faces, could see those at the back catching up, except –
Except –
The people furthest back did not look like they were fleeing. They were covered in blood, but their hands were outstretched and clawing, and as they grew closer Wei Wuxian could see their lips curled back over bared teeth. Ink dark lines spread up their necks like black veins, and their eyes –
Their eyes were white – down to the pupils.
As he watched, one of those fleeing stumbled, and one of the pursuers caught him by the hair, dragging him back. Like a wild animal, the pursuer closed her teeth around the man’s neck, ripping out his throat with her teeth.
Wei Wuxian choked, stumbling back away from the window with his hand across his mouth, but a second later he snapped into action, racing for the door. Four of those fleeing had reached the edge of the petrol pumps, and Wei Wuxian threw open the door, flinging his hand out.
“What are you doing?” cried Biscuit Lady, but Wei Wuxian ignored her.
“This way!” he called. “Hurry!”
“Shut the door!” shrieked Biscuit Lady. “Shut the door, for god’s sake, make him shut the door!”
“Hurry!” Wei Wuxian yelled, and the fastest of those fleeing drove himself forward with a cry. He snatched Wei Wuxian’s hand, and Wei Wuxian tugged him inside, reaching out for the next person. It was a woman, but the pursuers were catching up, and as Wei Wuxian watched one leapt from behind, grabbing the woman’s legs and sending her crashing down to the ground.
“Close the door!” the cashier begged, as black-veined pursuers charged at the building, and although he could hear people screaming, see people fleeing, he could also see that the pursuers were closer, and he could hear A-Yuan screaming in his mother’s arms, and Wei Wuxian closed the door.
At once, the cashier pushed past him, locking the door, and one by one the pursuers crashed into it, a crushing crowd smashing bloodied hands against the door.
They looked –
They looked like –
Wei Wuxian hadn’t even thought of the word then. It seemed too impossible, too strange, too sudden. He didn’t understand what was happening, how fast it was happening.
He still didn’t understand.
He still didn’t know that the word fit.
But what were they if not zombies?
“What is this?” demanded Biscuit Lady. “Are they on drugs?”
“Don’t know, I don’t know, I - I think, I think, it’s terrorists,” the man panted, his arm wrapped around his stomach. “Or – or some psychopath b-but – someone with c-chemical weapons or – or what else? What else could m-make people act like this? They’re – they’re going everywhere, they’re swarming the city, they-”
Wei Wuxian’s heart turned to ice in his chest, and he tugged his phone out of his pocket.
“No one’s picking up,” the cashier said, his voice high pitched. His phone was back at his ear. “I don’t – I don’t think more people calling the police will help.”
“I’m not calling the police, I –” Wei Wuxian’s heart dropped faster than a stone. His battery line was blood red, and there was a text message on his lock-screen.
Wei Ying. My train is early. ETA 13.54.
“No, no, no,” he whispered, jabbing desperately at his phone, bringing it to his ear. “Pick up, pick up, please pick up…”
The phone rang – and rang – and rang –
“Please, please,” Wei Wuxian whispered, and –
“Wei Ying?”
“Lan Zhan!” Wei Wuxian cried, his voice cracking with relief. “Lan Zhan, listen to me, don’t get off the train!”
“What?”
“Whatever you do, don’t get off the train! Don’t let the train stop here, don’t – don’t get off, it doesn’t matter what you do, just please, please don’t get off the train!”
“Wei Ying, I don’t understand-”
“Something’s happening! Something’s – I don’t know what is it, but something’s happening, it’s a – a terrorist attack or something, but – but – something’s happening, and you need to stay on the-”
He was cut off by the sound of shattering glass as one of the pursuers fists finally burst through the glass of the door. Everyone around him screamed, but Wei Wuxian couldn’t draw enough breath to yell. The man was throwing his arm against the glass, heedless of the way it ripped apart his skin and his muscles and sent blood spilling down his wrists, and –
“Help me!” the cashier cried suddenly, running around to the small shelving unit that stood by the door. At once, Wei Wuxian understood, and he raced over, helping the boy to shove the shelves across the door. Then, he stepped back, and heard the faint sound of a desperate voice coming from his phone.
“-Ying! Wei Ying!”
“Lan Zhan,” he choked, hurrying back away from the door.
“What is going on?” Lan Zhan demanded, a fear in his voice that Wei Wuxian had never heard before. “Wei Ying, where are you?!”
“There was an explosion, at, at the funfair, and now people are running everywhere and – and I don’t know if it’s drugs or a chemical weapon but they’re, they’re frenzied, Lan Zhan, they’re insane, they’re killing people and-”
Another of the pursuers pushed his way to the door, shrieking and growling and pounding on the shattering glass with his fists, his eyes as white as the others, but –
His neck was flayed wide open, down to the bone.
It was the man who’d tripped, the man who Wei Wuxian had watched have his throat ripped out, the man who had died, who had to have died, who couldn’t be alive, who was clawing his way inside.
“Is there a back room?” cried the mother over her baby’s screams and over the frantic shrieks of the Biscuit Lady.
“Wei Ying! Wei Ying, where are you?” Lan Zhan begged.
“Uh, a petrol station,” Wei Wuxian stammered, backing away as the cashier darted towards the back of a shop with a cry of ‘This way!’ “I don’t – Lan Zhan, please, don’t get off the train, promise me you won’t!”
“The train is already in the station,” said Lan Zhan, his voice somewhat strangled and Wei Wuxian stopped dead, horror filling him. “There – there is a fight on the platform. I can see –”
“Lan Zhan? Lan Zhan!” Wei Wuxian’s voice rose to a yell, and the young mother grabbed him by the arm, dragging him after the cashier and into the back room. On the other end of the phone, Wei Wuxian could hear people starting to cry out, he heard the tell-tale hiss of the train doors opening. “Lan Zhan!”
“Wei Ying, what is happening?”
“I don’t know!” Wei Wuxian gasped as the others piled into the back room, as the cashier shut the door and locked it, pushing a chair against the door for good measure.
“Are you safe?” Lan Zhan pleaded. “Wei Ying, are you-”
Wei Wuxian’s battery died.
It was still dead now. There was a USB charger in Jiang Cheng’s car, but that may as well be a world away, and no one inside the petrol station had had a charger that fit his old, cheap phone. Jiang Cheng was always nagging him about getting a better phone, telling him off for letting his battery get so low.
A lump rose in his throat as he wondered how many times Jiang Cheng had called him, how many times Yanli had. He prayed that calling was all they had done, that Jiang Cheng hadn’t left the house to find him. If anything happened to Jiang Cheng because he was trying to find Wei Wuxian, he would never, ever forgive himself.
But a small, frightened part of him also prayed that someone would find him, that someone would come. Beside him, Xiuying was growing weaker and weaker, and Wei Wuxian was getting colder, and the oxygen in the freezer wouldn’t last all that much longer.
He didn’t know what to do.
“What do we do now?” the cashier asked in a trembling voice, breathing heavily. “The police still, still won’t pick up…”
“Stay calm,” said the young mother, rocking A-Yuan in her arms as he wailed. Her face was pale, and tight with terror, but her voice was strong. “Stay calm, we – there’s no windows here, they can’t break through, we’re okay, stay calm.”
“Right,” said Wei Wuxian, shoving his phone back in his pocket and doing his best to pretend his hands weren’t shaking. “Right – right, stay calm!” He took a deep breath, and then looked at the man who’d managed to run to the petrol station. He was still catching his breath, still shivering violently, covered in blood. “Are you hurt?”
The man nodded shakily.
“Do you have a first aid kit?” Wei Wuxian asked the cashier, who nodded, hurrying around to a cupboard. To Wei Wuxian’s relief, the first aid kit he retrieved was large, and well stocked when he peeked in inside. He hurried to the injured man’s side. “I can help you,” he said. “I’m a med student, my name’s Wei Wuxian.”
“I – I’m Wang Liujie,” the man stammered. “Thank you, thank you.”
A quick round of introductions had run swiftly around the room – young cashier’s name was He Su, and the young mother was Li Xiuying. The Biscuit Lady’s real name was promptly forgotten by Wei Wuxian, but her husband was Gao Wenqiu.
Barricaded into the staff office, they had a respite there.
A short one.
Because soon, Wei Wuxian found the worst of Wang Liujie’s wounds.
It was a bite mark, vicious and deep, and the skin was torn where whoever had done it had tried to tear the flesh free.
“M-m-my brother got it off me, he, he bashed its head in but then h-he…” Wang Liujie broke off with a quiet wail, hiding his face in the crook of his other arm.
Wei Wuxian swallowed, and then nodded, forcing himself to smile. “It’s okay, Wang-xiansheng. We’ll get this cleaned up and bandaged, it’s no problem. Don’t worry.”
“Get out.”
Wei Wuxian jumped at the venom of the voice, looking over his shoulder at Biscuit Lady. She was staring at Wang Liujie’s arm, her jaw clenched. When no one else moved or spoke, her face twisted in anger.
“Get out!” she snapped again, pointing at the door.
“What the hell are you talking about?” demanded Wei Wuxian. “If he goes out there he’ll die!”
“And if he stays in here? We all know what those things look like. Have you ever heard a story where a bite isn’t infectious, where it doesn’t turn them into one of those things?”
“You’re saying they’re zombies,” said Li Xiuying, voice wavering on the final word.
“I’m saying they are clearly infected with something! And whatever it is, it seems contagious! So, you need to get out before you kill us all!”
“I’ve never heard a story about them existing in real life at all!” protested He Su, his fists clenching. “Zombies don’t – zombies aren’t real, this – this can’t be that. But even if it is, we have no proof that Wang-xiansheng will turn into one!”
“Right,” said Wei Wuxian, glaring up at Biscuit Lady. “No one’s getting kicked out.”
“Wenqiu!” Biscuit Lady snapped at her husband, who shook his head, and said nothing. Her face pinched. “Well,” she spat. “When he’s murdered us all, don’t blame me!”
“We won’t,” said He Su, glowering at her. Then, he looked down at his phone and swallowed. Suddenly, he looked much younger. “They’re… they’re not going to pick up, are they? The police?”
“Probably not,” said Li Xiuying gently. “They’re probably getting calls from all over the city right now. But if that’s a smartphone, can you post online? Let people know where we are, that we’re trapped?”
He Su nodded quickly. “I can do that. I – I’m going to call my parents, too.”
“Good idea,” Wei Wuxian said, and then he turned his attention back to Wang Liujie’s arm. His stomach turned as he stared at the wound, but it wasn’t the blood, or even the exposed tissue that disturbed him.
If Biscuit Lady was right…
He shook his head, grabbing everything he could from the first aid box. He’d just have to sterilise the hell out of the wound, and dress it as well as he could.
“I’m not – I’m not one of them,” Wang Liujie whispered fearfully. “I promise, I’m not!”
“I know,” Wei Wuxian replied, smiling as best he could. “Just hang in there, okay?”
By the time he finished bandaging the wound, He Su had finished his call to his parents, to Wei Wuxian’s surprise. If his own phone wasn’t dead, if he could get through to Jiejie and Jiang Cheng, or to Lan Zhan, he wouldn’t hang up at all – he wasn’t sure he’d be able to. But the young cashier gave a weak smile and walked over to Li Xiuying.
“Li-furen, is there anyone you wanted to call?” he asked, and she gave a wry smile.
“I left my phone in the car. Baby brain.” She paused, adjusting A-Yuan in her arms and giving a weak smile. “And I’m not married. You can just call me Xiuying.”
He Su nodded, and held out his phone. “Okay, Xiuying. You can borrow my phone, if you like.”
Her lips parted in surprise, and then she gave a sad smile, pushing her lips against her baby’s head. “Thank you, He Su, but I don’t have anyone to call. No one whose number I know by heart, at least. But thank you.”
They had spent several hours in that tiny, stuffy staffroom. It could have been worse. There was a water cooler, which was good, and enough seats for them all, though they weren’t exactly comfy. There was also, mercifully, an adjacent bathroom. Through the door, they’d still been able to hear thuds and grunts and strange, animalistic yells and shrieks from the pursuers – the zombies. When Wei Wuxian borrowed He Su’s phone to try and call his sister there was no signal. None of the other phones seemed to work either – it seemed likely that if it was a terrorist attack, they’d struck the nearest phone towers, too. For the most part, the group had sat in near silence, occasionally murmuring empty bits of hope between them and keeping quiet when the sounds of the zombies grew nearer.
It had been uncomfortable, and tense, and Wei Wuxian’s stomach had been tied into knots as he watched Wang Liujie for any signs of change, and he had spent every second wishing to get out. Now, he wished that he could be back there, a wish so bittersweet tears burnt beneath his eyelids.
They were the only three left now, but A-Yuan was a baby and Xiuying was unconscious, and Wei Wuxian was as good as alone. Alone, and afraid, and cold.
So, so cold.
The sounds from outside had been quiet for some time when they heard the call.
“A-Su? A-Su?!”
He Su leapt to his feet, his face crumpling in relief as he ran for the door. “A-Die!”
“What are you doing?” demanded Biscuit Lady, hurrying to put an arm out. “How do you know he’s not one of them?”
“Because he’s talking to me, they weren’t talking, get out of my way!” He Su retorted angrily, shoving the key into the lock.
“We don’t know that they can’t talk!” protested Biscuit Lady. “We have to be careful, open the door slowly!”
“Okay, okay!” He Su snapped.
“A-Su!”
He Su opened the door. From his position against the wall, Wei Wuxian had a clear glance of the hall. There was a man standing at its end, a fire axe held in his hand, his face pale. When he saw He Su, his expression crumpled in relief.
“A-Su!”
“A-Die! Thank god, thank god, you-” He Su choked off, pelting out of the room and throwing himself at his father.
“Let’s get you out of here, hm?” his father said, looking towards Wei Wuxian. “I think the coast is clear, our car’s just outside. How many of you are there?”
“Uh, five and a baby, not including He Su,” said Wei Wuxian, “but my car’s at the pumps, I – I can drive.”
The man nodded. “Let’s go. The front door’s a mess, I had to climb in over a set of shelves – where’s the backdoor, A-Su?”
“This way,” the young cashier nodded towards the right. “Out past the walk-in freezer.”
“Let’s go.”
They made it to the back door just fine.
But when they pushed it open, it smacked into someone on the outside – someone whose face was smeared with blood from the corpse they’d been devouring.
The zombie stared at them, and then threw its head back, its neck arching unnaturally as it let out an ear-splitting shriek. He Su’s father didn’t hesitate, stepping forward and smashing the axe into the creature’s head, as it fell Wei Wuxian saw more running towards them, first a handful, then a dozen, and they were fast, they were so fast, and Jiang Cheng’s car – he could see it, but –
“Go back! can’t – run, run!” yelled Li Xiuying, and Wei Wuxian nodded, stumbling backwards.
“A-Die,” He Su began, but the man was already taking a protective stance in front of the door, his axe held high.
“A-Su, go back to the staff room. I’ll be right there!”
“But-”
“Go!”
Wei Wuxian grabbed He Su’s wrist. “Come on!” They ran back down the hall, but to his surprise the door was shut, and Wang Liujie was pounding on it.
“Let us in!” he yelled. “Let us in!”
“What the-”
“They just locked themselves in!” he cried, pulling at his hair. “The fuckers!”
Biscuit Lady and her husband were nowhere to be seen.
Fury and terror surged through Wei Wuxian’s veins as A-Yuan screamed, and the shouts of the zombies grew closer. He pounded on the door himself.
“Let us in!” he roared.
“Even if you don’t let me in, the others aren’t bitten!” protested Wang Liujie in a wavering voice. “The baby is out here, please! I’ll stay out here, I’ll stay, I-”
There was a loud slam, and Wei Wuxian looked back to see that He Su’s father had closed the back door, but one of the zombie’s arms was trapped inside, and he couldn’t hold it for long. Wei Wuxian started towards him, but the father shook his head.
“Don’t! Get inside, I’ve got the door! Go on!”
“Please,” called Xiuying, her voice trembling, and in her arms A-Yuan screamed, tears streaming down his little cheeks.
“Wenqiu, don’t-”
The door to the staff room opened, Gao Wenqiu’s pale face staring at them. “In, quick!”
Wei Wuxian pushed Xiuying and He Su inside, grabbing Wang Liujie and shoving him in too when he hesitated. As soon as Wei Wuxian was inside, He Su’s father let go of the emergency door, sprinting towards them. The doors burst open, and the zombies spilled inside.
“A-Die!” He Su shrieked.
“Hurry!”
“Run!”
The creatures were barely a hair’s width behind him, feral eyed and snarling, and some of them didn’t even look human anymore and one of them snatched He Su’s father’s jacket –
Someone barged between them and slammed the door closed.
“No!” He Su screamed, “A-Die, A-Die!”
“What are you doing?” Wei Wuxian cried as Biscuit Lady pressed herself against the door, lips pulled back in a snarl.
“Saving your useless lives, they’re too close!” she snapped. Wei Wuxian grabbed for the door handle, but Biscuit Lady kicked his shin, the heel of her shoe stabbing painfully into his flesh.
“A-Die!” He Su swung his fist towards her, but Biscuit Lady’s husband caught him, pulling him back.
“A-Su-” the father’s cry was strangled by a scream, and then there was a loud thud.
A pool of blood seeped in under the door.
“A-Die! A-Die! A-Die!” He Su screamed, fighting against Gao Wenqiu fiercely, but the man didn’t let him go.
No one replied to He Su’s screams.
Trembling, Wei Wuxian slowly raised his head to stare at Biscuit Lady. “You – you-”
“Don’t look at me like that! It’s not a crime to value my own life,” she snapped.
“Fuck you!” He Su screamed, his face bright red as he fought to break Gao Wenqiu’s grip. “I’m going to kill you, I’m going to fucking kill you! You k- you killed my father, you heartless fucking bitch, I-”
“Calm down,” said Gao Wenqiu, and Wei Wuxian saw red.
“Calm down? You want him to calm down? Get the fuck off him!”
“He Su,” said Xiuying quickly, standing in front of him and putting a hand on his shoulder, even as he fought against Gao Wenqiu. “He Su, look at me, look at me! Don’t fight them, not now. Not now. We need to stick together. As soon as this is over we’ll take them to court – Wei-xiansheng and Wang-xiansheng and I will all fight with you, we’ll make sure your A-Die gets justice, but we need to stick together and we need to stay strong – if you fight now and you get hurt you’ll be in more danger. Your A-Die wanted you to be safe, A-Su, so please, please… Breathe for me, A-Su. Please breathe.”
He Su choked, but slowly he stopped thrashing, and Gao Wenqiu’s grip loosened. Wei Wuxian ripped his arms away, tugging He Su free of the man and putting his arm around his shoulders. He Su swayed on his feet, leaning heavily against him, and Wei Wuxian guided him to sit down, glaring at Biscuit Lady and her husband as he did.
No one had dared leave the room after that. He wasn’t sure, but Wei Wuxian thought they must have been in there for well over twenty-four hours. He Su had shared his packed lunch with Wei Wuxian, Li Xiuying and Wang Liujie, and Wei Wuxian knew that no one felt guilty about keeping the food from the other two. But it couldn’t feed them for long, and eventually, hunger had driven them out into the shop. There had been no sign of the corpse of He Su’s father. No sign of any other person, living or dead, except the blood smeared over the walls, splattered over the floors.
They’d made it to the shop when everything went wrong.
“A-Die,” He Su choked, and Wei Wuxian spun around, dropping the armful of food that he’d grabbed. Sure enough, He Su’s father stood behind them, missing half his face, his single remaining eye dead white, his lips bared –
Wei Wuxian bit down hard on his lip, trying not to remember. Not to remember Biscuit Lady throwing Wang Liujie at the zombies in an attempt to buy herself time to run, not to remember Wang Liujie standing back up after his chest had been ripped open, his eyes now white as the others. He tried not to remember scrambling back to the staff room, not to remember the screams of Biscuit Lady and her husband as they were caught by the corpses of Wang Liujie and He Su’s father, the corpses they’d created.
He tried not to remember the agony on He Su’s face as they closed the door to the staffroom once more, the hours of terror and hunger, Xiuying’s voice both calm and trembling as she tried to keep them together.
He tried not to remember the food running out again. Their final attempt to escape.
He Su scrambled into the front seat of his father’s car, turning the key in the ignition as Wei Wuxian kept a careful watch, the fire-axe tight in his grip. Blood was dripping down it, but the only zombie left in the building had been Biscuit Lady, and he’d been able to steel himself to smash her skull in. Xiuying was running around the front of the car to get to the passenger side –
And He Su screamed.
Wei Wuxian whipped around in time to see the zombie crawling out from the back seat, sinking its teeth into the young man’s throat.
“A-Niang!” He Su shrieked, his voice gurgling and choking, and as he struggled he kicked –
And his foot must have hit the gas pedal because the car lurched forward.
“NO!” Wei Wuxian screamed, but Xiuying had already been hit, and the car kept going, running her clean over, crashing into the side of the petrol station. Horror in his throat, Wei Wuxian ran for Xiuying, found her spitting up blood on the ground. A-Yuan was lying half a foot away, screaming at the top of his lungs, but he wasn’t bleeding, he wasn’t crushed, and –
“Was – was he – hit?” she wheezed, frightened eyes fixing on Wei Wuxian, who shook his head desperately.
“No, he-”
He heard a now-familiar shrieking, saw He Su clambering out of the ruined car, but it wasn’t He Su, it was his corpse, and Wei Wuxian grabbed lifted Xiuying into a fireman’s carry, snatching A-Yuan up off the ground by his baby grow, and he ran.
First, he made his way towards Jiang Cheng’s car, but there were creatures spilling out from behind the petrol pumps, so he ran back towards the back door, but there was a corpse outside it, teeth bared hungrily, and there was only one place left to go...
There was another soft whimper from A-Yuan, and then he began to cry. Wei Wuxian swallowed, glancing down at him.
“It’s okay,” he whispered, wincing as he did. His throat was raw and aching, from screaming or from crying or from the cold, he didn’t know. He tried to jog A-Yuan up and down a little, but the baby’s cries grew louder, more pitiful, and Wei Wuxian felt desperation claw up his throat.
He didn’t know what to do – he didn’t know anything about babies, and Xiuying – Xiuying…
“I’m sorry…” Wei Wuxian’s voice came out as more of a sob, and he curled tighter around A-Yuan. “I’m sorry…”
He had done everything he could for her injuries, but there were so many of them, and he knew that the dark, mottled bruising across her abdomen was internal bleeding. One year of med school didn’t teach you how to cure internal bleeding with nothing but a first aid kit small enough to be stuffed into a nappy bag.
A-Yuan began to cry harder, a slightly desperate tone to his wailing, and Wei Wuxian swallowed. He was probably hungry, but Wei Wuxian had fed him the only baby food in the nappy bag hours ago. And Xiuying…
Wei Wuxian looked down at her, and his heart seized.
He couldn’t see her breath at all, anymore.
“No,” he whispered, his voice cracking, his own breath misting before him. “No, Xiuying, please…”
He held out his hand above her mouth, he pressed his fingers to her pulse, but…
A-Yuan wailed, and Wei Wuxian sobbed too, hugging the baby as tightly as he dared to. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”
“Please, Wei Wuxian…” Xiuying forced the words out through bloody lips, each syllable more pained than the one before it. “Please… look after… A-Yuan…”
“I will,” he swore, frantically arranging the survival blanket from the first aid kit around her, “but you will too. You’re going to be fine, Xiuying, you – he needs you!”
A tear ran down her cheek, and Wei Wuxian dabbed it with his sleeve before it could freeze.
“Wei Wuxian…” she whispered again. “Really… what is there… you can do?”
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, and A-Yuan’s crying grew louder.
They had to move. Wei Wuxian knew it. He looked at Xiuying’s lifeless body, tears breaking free from his eyes. He didn’t want to leave her, but as long as she was inside the freezer, the zombies couldn’t desecrate her body. If there really was an after to all this, if he could, he would come back when it was safe and make sure she got a proper burial.
He forced himself to stand up, slinging the blood-splattered nappy bag over his shoulder.
“Okay, okay,” he said, forcing his voice to be a little warmer. “We’ll go get something to eat, A-Yuan, but I need you to be quiet, okay? Can you do that? Shh?”
The baby wailed, and Wei Wuxian winced. If they stepped outside now, if the zombies heard them… An idea sprung to mind, and he grabbed one of the dummies out of A-Yuan’s bag, using it to wipe the inside of the jar of baby food he’d fed A-Yuan those hours ago. There wasn’t much, but when he managed to pull A-Yuan back far enough to manoeuvre the dummy into his mouth it was apparently enough to interest him.
In the shop of the petrol station, there would be formula. They’d run inside, grab as much as they could, and then run for Jiang Cheng’s car. Their chances of making it were slim, Wei Wuxian knew that. But it was better than freezing or suffocating here in the cold.
Taking a deep breath, Wei Wuxian opened the door.
The end of the world had begun.