By the time I looked up from my drama again, they'd already started moving.
Zhou Chenghai was the one directing it.
He didn't ask for agreement. He assigned tasks like he expected them to be followed—his voice level, his instructions precise, his tone leaving no room for negotiation. Xu Zhenlan would handle internal systems. Jian Yuche and Wei Lingyun would assess the entrances. He would coordinate and monitor.
And for once, no one pushed back.
Zhenlan shifted toward the security panel near the hallway without a word. Yuche moved toward the front entrance, Lingyun falling into step behind him. Chenghai stayed in the center of the living room for a moment, watching them disperse, then turned and headed toward the kitchen to check the rear access points.
No one raised their voice.
No one argued.
They just worked.
I watched it happen without so much as moving an inch from where I was sitting on the couch. From my vantage point, it was obvious what they were doing, even if they didn't say it out loud.
They were turning the house into something that they believed would be strong enough to hold back the zombies.
And it would. Not because of anything that they did. But because the zombies on the other side of the door wouldn't be there forever.
I adjusted the blanket around my shoulders and shifted slightly on the couch, trying to get more comfortable. The cushions gave under me and I managed to settle in deeper, my phone still in one hand and the bowl of cheezies balanced on the armrest beside me.
The sounds around me changed as they worked.
Footsteps moved through the house—heavy boots on hardwood, the softer tread of someone checking rooms upstairs, the deliberate pace of someone conducting a perimeter sweep. Doors opened and closed quietly. I was actually impressed how they could go from trying to kill each other to working side by side in under an hour.
The low murmur of conversation drifted from different parts of the house.
Chenghai's voice came from the kitchen, asking a question I couldn't quite make out. Zhenlan's response from somewhere near the security panel, equally muted. Jian Yuche and Wei Lingyun exchanging brief observations near the front entrance—words that didn't carry far enough for me to bother listening to.
But outside, the noise hadn't stopped.
It was constant now, the scraping against the walls, the dragging sounds of dead people who couldn't be bothered to pick up their feet when they moved. There was even the occasional dull impact against the windows—not hard enough to break through, but annoying enough that I couldn't ignore it over my dramas.
Something hit the side of the house. Then again. Then a third time, each impact slightly offset from the last, like whatever was out there was testing different points along the same section of wall.
Inside, it got quieter.
More controlled.
I continued to half-listen while the majority of my attention was on my phone, but the tone was enough to tell me what I needed to know.
They'd stopped reacting and started planning.
That was good.
Panic was exhausting to be around. Planning was quieter.
I ate another cheezie as I skipped through yet another ad, sighing over the fact that the undead were outside my door and I still had to listen to ads about getting your smile just that much whiter.
It was cruel and unusual punishment if you asked me. But no one ever did.
I hear footsteps move upstairs. Zhenlan's, lighter than Chenghai's, more measured. He must be checking the bedrooms, confirming what he'd already told them—that the doors locked from the inside, that the windows were reinforced, that the upper floor could serve as a fallback position if the main level became compromised.
Wei Lingyun's voice drifted from somewhere near the front entrance. "How many rounds do we have left?"
There was a pause.
"Enough," Jian Yuche said. "But we need to conserve. Only engage if necessary."
"Understood."
Then there was another pause.
"We'll need a rotation," Chenghai announced, his voice carrying from the kitchen. "Someone monitoring the perimeter at all times. Rest cycles. No one goes more than six hours without sleep."
"Agreed," Jian Yuche replied without a fight.
Zhenlan's footsteps descended the stairs. "The upstairs is secure. Doors lock. Windows hold. If we need to fall back, it's viable."
"Good," Chenghai answered with a sigh of relief.
The house settled into a rhythm that hadn't existed before. Not cooperation, exactly. Not trust. But a shared understanding that survival required coordination, and coordination required setting aside everything else.
Zhou Chenghai did one last check of the main areas before returning to the living room where I was.
His boots were heavy on the hardwood, and his pace was deliberate as if he was trying to get my attention without saying anything.
But I could feel his attention on me like it was a physical touch.
He watched me for a second longer than necessary, and I really thought that he was going to say something to me.
Tell me what was going on... tell me that I had to do something. That I couldn't just sit here on the couch while the four of them made the house secure.
But he didn't so much as open his mouth.
Instead, he took a seat on one of the chairs beside me and stared at the TV.
The television continued its loop, the same government broadcast, the same reassurances that help was coming, that the situation was under control, that citizens should remain calm and stay indoors.
I scoffed under my breath. It was the same thing they played in my last life when I was stuck in the convivence store where I worked. I had hidden behind the counter, under the cash register in a spot that was barely big enough for a 16 year old to fit.
I had believed them... back then before I got smarter.
I believe that they would come for me and that everything would be better. I mean, it couldn't be worse... right?
Yeah. Not only did it get worse, it was the government who made it worse.
Clenching my jaw, I took in a deep breath and went back to my phone. Not even a smoking hot eunuch who wasn't an eunuch was enough to calm me down at this moment.
"You don't have to be scared anymore," said Zhenlan softly as he came around to my side. I startled slightly, not expecting him to be that close. "See, the government has a plan, they will save us."
I didn't know if he truly believed that or if he was just trying to make me feel better.
I nodded my head even as he went to sit on the couch by my feet. "Chenghai and I will protect you. Trust me. We are safe."
Does he truly think that if he says the same thing over and over again I would believe it?
I was safe because I was prepared.
It would be up to them if they were safe as well.