We left the house a few minutes later.

I took the passenger seat and didn’t say anything while Chenghai started the engine. Lingyun tried to explain the route for the first few minutes, but once we were actually moving, he stopped talking and started watching instead.

Yuche and Zhenlan sat in the farthest row of the SUV, their silence screaming at the rest of us.

No one bothered to fill the silence and that worked just fine for me. I had no idea why the two were like oil and water, but as long as their cold war didn’t get the rest of us killed, it was fine.

I stared out the window, taking in the city around us. The morning sun did not help the way things looked.

The city was trashed, like someone didn’t clean up from a party before the parents got home.

Seriously.

Car doors were still open, garbage tumbled in the wind, building doors slammed in the breeze.

It wasn’t as bad as it would get in a few years, but the change from what it was to what it is now was.... a lot.

I felt a hand reach out from behind my seat and suddenly my eyes were covered. "You don’t need to look," Lingyun whispered, leaning forward so that I could hear him better. "You don’t need to be scared. You have us. We will protect you. All you have to worry about is what furniture you want, and where."

I couldn’t help but chuckle as he tried to keep me from the realities of this world.

But it was sweet, in a way, too. "Who said I was worried?" I smiled, my eyes still closed. "I think it just looks... dirty. Like someone had a rave and never cleaned up after it."

Lingyun leaned forward slightly from the back seat. "That’s one way to put it."

Home Depot came into view a few minutes later, a giant orange building centered in the middle of a group of ten other big box stores. The fencing around the garden center had been pushed in from one side, and the parking lot was full of cars that had been left wherever they stopped.

There was even a giant eighteen wheeler parked up against the side of the building, the back doors still open. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

It was perfect.

I was worried that I would have to reveal my space just to get everything that we needed home. But now, it was like God was listening to me, giving me just what I needed to keep my secret AND get my stuff at the same time.

Chenghai leaned forward to scan the parking lot a building. There wasn’t a single human around us, but that didn’t mean there weren’t zombies hiding in the shadows. "Here’s the plan. We go in, get what we need, and get out. An hour, tops inside the store. Then we can hit up the other places around here if there is time."

Lingyun snorted. "You say that like we came here for shits and giggles. We don’t need you to tell us what to do."

We parked close to the entrance, but not directly in front of it. It was close enough to the massive truck that we could easily get to both if we needed to make a run for it.

I looked around at the furniture stores, the mattress store, a gas station, a stationary store, clothing stores, home outfitter stores, and even a jewelry store. Nodding my head, I pulled in every last thing that was inside of them.

I knew there wouldn’t be time to go place to place, but I also wasn’t about to let supplies go if I could help it.

I didn’t know what was in there, but that wasn’t the point. More supplies was more supplies. Just because the sheets and towels didn’t match didn’t mean they weren’t useful in the future.

Besides, the idea of leaving supplies for someone else to take in the future left a bad taste in my mouth.

"Well then," I said with a big smile on my face. My hand was already on the door handle as I pulled it open. "Time’s a wasting. Let’s not stand here all day."

The men chuckled but quickly followed me out.

Inside, the air smelled like dust and wood that had been sitting too long. The lights were off, but the skylights let in enough daylight that we didn’t need them. Carts were still lined up near the entrance, and a display of plants had been knocked over and left to dry out where they fell.

No one had bothered cleaning anything after the zombies showed up. Not like I could really blame them.

Yuche took the list from Lingyun and ripped it into three different parts.

"Windows first," he announced, handing one part to Zhenlan, another part to Chenghai, and a third part to Lingyun. "Then wood, drywall, and anything else we can put into that truck. Then locks, fencing, and wire."

I liked the fact that he had spotted the transport truck, too, and had already thought of how to make the most use of it.

"And what are you going to be doing?" demanded Zhenlan even as he pulled a cart out of the line and took his part of the list.

"Odd numbers," Yuche shrugged. "I’ll stay here and look after Rouxi. That way we know that nothing can happen to her."

I was already shaking my head. "Thanks, but no thanks. I’ll stay right here, by myself, and you can help Zhenlan. Grabbing the windows aren’t going to be easy, and getting them to the truck will be even harder. You two need to work together so that we can get out of here faster."

Did I care if they worked together? Not really.

What I did care about was the fact that I was going to slowly start taking everything into my space, and the last thing that I needed was for Yuche, and his sharp eyes, to see it.

They glared at each other and then moved quickly. Zhenlan and Yuche raced toward the window section, Chenghai went toward the hardware aisle, and Lingyun sprinted toward the building section at the far end of the store where all the wood was kept.

Finding a stool still standing behind the cash register, I sat down and rested my chin on the palm of my hand like I was bored.

Truth be told, I was anything but.

The chocolate bars, candy, and lollypops at the check out counters disappeared the moment I thought about them. Then I started at the opposite end.

The seasonal stuff, the BBQs, the smokers, the patio furniture, cushions, wood and coals all went into my space.

Then came the rows upon rows of seeds. I knew I wouldn’t plant them all. I wasn’t interested in half of the stuff, but I also wasn’t leaving it behind for someone else to take and use.

I was putting every last lightbulb and chandler into my space when I heard Chenghai rushing back to me, a look of worry on his face.

"We aren’t alone," he whispered, even as the other men started gathering around. I had been so lost in my head that I hadn’t heard the shuffling of steps and the soft moaning of zombies approaching.

I knew they would come. How could they not?

We had four men with powers acting as a homing beacon for the zombies to come attack us. Mind you, their powers weren’t off the chart, and I had no idea if they would ever develop to that level.

But any human with a super power was like a lighthouse in the middle of the night. The stronger you were, the brighter the light.

And even a bit of light was a lot in the darkness.

Letting out a curse under my breath, I looked at the four men before my gaze settled on Zhenlan.

"We can’t take the chance," he said, his voice harsh. "We got a lot of stuff in that truck. Chenghai and Yuche, you drive it back to the house. Lingyun and I will take Rouxi in the car. We’ll meet you back home."

Yuche was about to say something, when the front doors just off to our left opened to reveal a good sized horde.

"That doesn’t make sense," murmured Chenghai, his brows furrowing in confusion. "I thought they were already in the store when they came across us. But to actually come in from outside?"

"They are tracking us," grunted Lingyun, and I saw him reaching for his waist band, probably looking for a weapon of some kind or other. "But that shouldn’t be possible. I didn’t think the daytime zombies could do that."

"The daytime zombies are the same as the nighttime," replied Yuche, slapping Lingyun upside the head. "And I don’t think that they care what is possible or not."

The men held their breaths as more and more zombies filtered into the store. As one, they turned their full attention to where the men were standing.

Right... my trick of not moving for the nighttime zombies only worked if you weren’t walking flashlights. I forgot that little part.

Zhenlan grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the back loading docks where the truck was waiting for us. "We need to leave, now," he grunted and the rest of the guys followed, their pace matching mine.

I blinked and everything that had ever been in this store had disappeared, vanished from sight.

Yuche narrowed his eyes, the only one not so caught up with the zombies to register what happened. But before he could say anything, the zombies turned toward us and started to follow with scary accuracy.

"Fuck my life," Lingyun huffed as he burst through the bay doors and saw maybe twenty zombies around the truck. "If I didn’t know better, I would have sworn that they were coming right to us."