“I think Guan Yu wants something from us,” Jiang Jin says, peering over Zan Xinyi’s shoulder as Zan Xinyi tries to figure out why the field music continues to play during the summoning. It’s a screechy mess as the two tracks both go off.

  “Yeah, to go home,” Zan Xinyi says, finally spotting the problem. It’s because she’d designated the area as a leveling zone still attached to the second level instead of a disconnected space. Of course.

  “No!” Jiang Jin says cheerfully. “I was talking to him, and it turns out he’s like me! Most of his family is dead.”

  “I thought all of your family was dead.”

  “Wow, you remembered. Yes, but that’s still having something in common with Guan Yu. He only has his older brother left, but his older brother isn’t even at the base! He said that being under martial law was annoying and left. So Guan Yu doesn’t have anyone to go home to. No girlfriend either. Or boyfriend!”

  “You’ve found out quite a lot about him,” Zan Xinyi says.

  Jiang Jin has opened the window in Zan Xinyi’s living room and is perched on it, enjoying the breeze and the swirls of pure white mist that manage to make it through Qingguang’s encirclement.

  “He’s not trying to keep secrets,” Jiang Jin says. “But you know, most people will talk about their family as long as you ask. Or even if you don’t ask, as long as you look interested.”

  “I’ve never had this problem.”

  Zan Xinyi also dislikes talking about her family.

  “It’s not a problem. I love learning about people’s lives.” Jiang Jin says. “But anyways, do you think we should turn the military radio back on? When I realized that it was not supposed to work, I moved the tag off of it while Guan Yu is here...but maybe that would give a hint.”

  Zan Xinyi had noticed the tag being moved, as she always does.

  “You can put it back on,” Zan Xinyi says. “But don’t explain anything you don’t have to. It’s better if he doesn’t ask for anything.”

  “We want him to help us,” Jiang Jin says. Her eyes are fixed out the window, head twitching as she picks up something far beyond even a dog’s hearing. “So, we should help him.”

  “Helping someone doesn’t mean they’ll help you in return,” Zan Xinyi says. “People who would have helped you will do it regardless, and people who will spurn favors will spurn it no matter what. And didn’t we already help him?”

  “We didn’t do anything for him that Zhang Hai couldn’t have done,” Jiang Jin says.

  Which is true, but Guan Yu doesn’t know that.

  And also...

  “You’re being unusually proactive about this,” Zan Xinyi says. “Been hearing something?”

  Jiang Jin nods.

  “There’s been more shooting!” she says. “There’s always at least one military vehicle in our zone these days, and the zombie response has been getting louder and louder. Why don’t we try out the radio one more time.”

  “At this point, aren’t they just feeding their own men to the zombies...” Zan Xinyi mutters. If you as a fisherman put one juicy worm on a hook, and a fish eats it and isn’t caught, that’s a mistake. If you do this every day, and the fish never gets hooked, you’re just spending several hours feeding the fish using an extremely inefficient method.

  “But that shouldn’t be making the zombies so loud,” Zan Xinyi says. “Even if every single military guy ends up turning into an evil eyed zombie, there’s just not that many of them. It won’t make a difference.”

  Jiang Jin shrugs.

  “Maybe they’re attracting the zombies from other parts of the city...?”

  Zan Xinyi blinks.

  Wow, that’s both plausible and annoying.

  “I’ll go get the radio,” she says. And also go retrieve the tag from where it’s stuck on Jiang Jin’s recording set up. Honestly. It’s more useful over there than it is on the radio, so after this she’ll let Jiang Jin take it back.

  She never officially gave Jiang Jin a tag, the way Wei Shengyuan has one that never leaves his bathroom. Jiang Jin’s just been basically borrowing one of Zan Xinyi’s three whenever she needs it for something and then replacing it after a few hours.

  Should she officially tell Jiang Jin she can keep one of them?

  But then Zan Xinyi would only have two completely to herself.

  Zan Xinyi glowers at the mission in the corner of her vision as she moves stuff around until she finds the radio under a pile of handtowels. Actually, in the end this is Wei Shengyuan’s fault for scaring her so she went for another purification tag instead of the far more practical It Will Work tag.

  She hasn’t given it to him yet.

  Giving bonuses in advance two times in a row? She’d be a sucker.

  By the time she gets back to her room, the small living room is incredibly crowded.

  Four people with one in a wheelchair are just too many for an apartment that was a squeeze with two.

  Wei Shengyuan is simply still working, barely glancing up from his tablet, but Guan Yu looks desperately confused where he’s sitting by the window.

  Zan Xinyi sets the radio down on the coffee table, sticks her tag on it, and then winces as the radio immediately screeches and crackles.

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “ALERT! The Grey Rot is evolving. If you see an evil eye zombie horde moving in specific patterns, or making unusual sounds, report back to the base immediately. If you have chosen to live outside of the base, know that we do not conduct rescues even at family request. Also: if some men in uniforms approach and tell you that you must pay for an escort back to the base, they are not affiliated with this base. We do not provide that service.”

  “Vultures,” Guan Yu mutters.

  “What do they mean, unusual sounds?” Jiang Jin says from where she’s perched on the sofa, furrowing her eyebrows. “They make different sounds all the time. Some of them make really high pitched whistle notes, and others only make this kind of low groan. Do they mean the hunting call?”

  “The what,” Wei Shengyuan says.

  “When a zombie spots prey they call their friends. It goes--”

  Jiang Jin fills the silent room with a perfectly mimicked wail.

  “It’s different from the noises they make otherwise. It’s like, I’m hungry, I’m hungry-- FOOD! You know?”

  “You’ve spent a lot of time picking apart zombie noises,” Zan Xinyi says.

  “Well, when I was under the rubble there wasn’t a lot else to do,” Jiang Jin says. “Ah, the radio’s still going!”

  It’s not new information, though. Just a confirmation that the bounty the soldiers had talked about was real.

  It’s news to Guan Yu, though. Not the bounty itself, but...

  “1,000 credits,” Guan Yu says, eyes wide. “That’s more than what I make in three months.”

  “Seems you’re worth more missing than alive,” Zan Xinyi says.

  “But I’m not worth--”

  “You’d better not say that when the time comes to give us the money,” Zan Xinyi says. “My effort is worth 1,000 credits, no matter what your life is worth.”

  Wei Shengyuan rolls his eyes.

  “It’s not your effort that’s worth 1,000 credits,” he says. “It’s the effort of all the military that are combing through the northern part of Zone A. Or the information that they think Guan Yu’s squad had access to. I wonder why they're here? It can’t be to hunt the zombies.”

  He looks over at Guan Yu, who retreats into an even more rigid posture to escape his own discomfort.

  “If you escort me back to the base earlier, they won’t come here anymore,” Guan Yu tries. “You heard the radio. It’s not good for so many people to enter Zone A. It’s a tragic loss of life.”

  “They should just stop coming to Zone A entirely,” Zan Xinyi says. “If they keep causing the zombies to escalate in response, they’re going to be the ones causing a tragic loss of life to people who can’t just retreat back to the base.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. It’s you guys who live there that will face the consequences,” Guan Yu says. “I should’ve realized.”

  His apology sounds stilted and rehearsed, but Zan Xinyi is pretty sure it’s genuine.

  She’d prefer it if it wasn’t, though. Overly genuine people give her the creeps.

  “I wasn’t talking about us.” Though, if the problem really keeps escalating... “There are other factions who live around the edges of our neighborhood. And even more beyond the river, and probably more beyond the highway who will die long before it’s a problem for us.”

  Specifically, Zhang Hai is both very useful and very exposed. She’s sure he’s got his own ways of not dying or else he wouldn’t be doing so well for himself, but being without fortifications is always a disadvantage.

  If anything, Guan Yu looks even more remorseful.

  The look is especially out of place in this company. Zan Xinyi doesn’t believe in remorse, Wei Shengyuan keeps his truly negative opinions squarely to himself, and Jiang Jin isn’t one to wallow.

  “What? Why would this be surprising?” Zan Xinyi says.

  “I just...” Guan Yu shakes his head. “It’s easy to start thinking that you’re the only people left in the world when you’re behind walls. And when you’re driving all and about, all you see are zombies.”

  This is so far from Zan Xinyi’s own experience that she can’t even picture it.

  “You would see less zombies if you stopped shooting very loud guns,” Jiang Jin says kindly.

  “You would see more people, too,” Zan Xinyi mutters.

  Whatever.

  “They’re shooting at the people they see,” Wei Shengyuan points out.

  He gestures at his own scales.

  Hadn’t she meant that?

  “We don’t actually shoot at Reclaimed who don’t seem aggressive,” Guan Yu says, urgently looking over at Wei Shengyuan. “There are some divisions that are entirely composed of...High Risk Individuals.”

  “Use them right until you absolutely have to shoot them,” Wei Shengyuan says, cocking his head to the side.

  It’s not that important, but Wei Shengyuan also does not blink as often as a standard human would. This is only a problem for fools who think they should look into other people’s eyes when they talk. If Guan Yu were like her and stopped doing that over a decade ago, he wouldn’t be so bothered now.

  “No, those are still our fellow soldiers!”

  Guan Yu trails off on his defense when even Jiang Jin doesn’t give him an understanding nod.

  Jiang Jin’s still smiling, of course, but it’s not very friendly.

  “That’s nice,” she says. “But I think we’ve gotten off topic! I promise, I do actually want to help you. And I’ll even try to convince Zan Xinyi to help you, which is far more valuable. If your return is worth 1,000 credits, but your job isn’t worth that much, that means what's actually valuable is your information! If you tell us, then we can help.”

  Zan Xinyi crosses her arms.

  “Personally, I’m not curious,” she says. “And I’m not guaranteeing that we can help even if you tell us. The game schedule can’t be pushed just because of an outside issue.”

  That’s what gets him.

  “It doesn’t bother you at all?” Guan Yu bursts out.

  “What?”

  “You’re living in this-- this strange bubble, like deadlines matter, like schedules matter, like there’s still a playerbase out there capable and willing to play a gacha game-- and none of that is true! This is the apocalypse! The end of the world!”

  Wei Shengyuan and Jiang Jin both wince a little, like they really did fall into such a daze.

  “You should consider it luck that we’re in the apocalypse,” Zan Xinyi says. “Otherwise, staying in such a nice room as this would mean you had to pay rent. You’d have to pay for the food, you’d have to compensate me for the gas we used to drive you here, and then you’d get on the phone for drowning insurance and be told that isn’t covered.”

  She takes a step forward, and Guan Yu takes a step back.

  “You said your life isn’t worth much. Well, it could be worth far less. It could be cannon fodder abandoned by comrades or a body left for the rats. But guess what? I get to say what matters, and I’ve said that my game is going to be the best in the world. It’s not about living in a small, isolated bubble. One day, the whole world is going to be forced into the bubble where they think my game matters. Why? Why is that going to happen?”

  “Why?” Guan Yu breathes.

  He’s still too scared of the green glow from the window to completely press himself against it.

  So she can get closer.

  “Because I say it will,” Zan Xinyi says.

  She'll make it so.