You, the apocalypse and me! [YiZhan FF] Fantasy

Chapter 28 - And escape again

However, since He Peng often talked about wanting to move on and look for other survivors lately, we assumed that he often sneaked off at night to look for a way to get back to civilization. Or what was left of it. He was also eager to look for a hospital, or at least a well-stocked pharmacy, to replenish our medicine supplies and get what was missing.

We therefore assumed that perhaps he was on the road again that night. As always, he had taken his things with him. So we had hope that he was really gone when the attack started and would realize in time that he can't go back to the cave. Because we are friends and we care about him. And after all, he is a human being like us. And we humans have to stick together. After all, there don't seem to be that many of us left.

After resting for a while in front of the fireplace, we actually fell asleep, even if not for long, we decided to get back on the road, since we knew we shouldn't stay too long in one place. The risk of being discovered by creatures was just too great. But where should we go next? Where could we hide and spend the night?

Since we also needed supplies, especially water, Yibo suggested that we go to the nearest city. We would wait in a hiding place until nightfall and then go into the town to look for food and water. While I didn't like the idea, Yibo was also right. We really needed those things. And he suggested that we then work our way bit by bit to get to the place where we thought our parents were. If they were still alive at all. The last contact was 4 months ago.

We set off shortly after and used the last three hours of daylight to get close to a city and to look for a hiding place. And what can I say? Yibo and I were more than surprised when the next city was our city. Although we should have known it, the way there seemed strange to us. As if it was the first time we had driven along there. And the view of the city itself seemed just as strange. Maybe because most of it was destroyed?

Without stopping as planned and seeking shelter, we drove on as if controlled by a stranger and stopped only in front of the apartment building with my apartment. Miraculously, the apartment building was still standing and looked intact. We convinced ourselves that we were not seen and observed by creatures, then got out and hurried to the house entrance. The door was locked. However, for some reason I had always kept the key and carried it with me. So I unlocked the door and we slowly walked upstairs through the eerily silent stairwell to my apartment, which still looked the same as we left it.

I ran into my bathroom, grabbed one of my towels and pressed it to my face, crying. Yibo wrapped his arms around me and we both cried for what must have been five minutes before we regained our composure. The next miracle was that water was still coming out of the faucet. Hot water, even! Which, we knew, was only possible if someone was controlling it. So someone had to be at the waterworks!

Without even looking around the rest of the apartment, we first took a hot shower. We washed our hair surely three times with shampoo and soaped us several times with shower gel. Because it was a real relief to be able to use these products again. We brushed our teeth, because I always had spare toothbrushes and toothpastes there, something we ran out of a month ago, and then we put on clean clothes from my closet.

We didn't have electricity, but we had a gas heater over which we could heat a few cans of ravioli that we had left back then a year ago. In addition, my battery-powered radio was still working, and we found that two stations were still online and at least playing music on a continuous loop.

Yibo dealt with his old radio that we had left behind because it was too big and too heavy and therefore we could not take it with us on our escape from the city. He rewired it and was now able to run it on battery power. And after a few minutes, we heard a recorded voice from the device telling us that there was a group of survivors in the waterworks and so far they were still able to defend it. And that voice sounded very familiar.

While I was still searching for the appropriate name, Yibo bumped my arm and said, "That's the traitor Liu Haikuan!"

"Oh damn, you're right!" I replied. "I wonder if that ass Meng Yao is there too?"

"I don't know. But if he is, they're all fucked up there. Because if you have that one around, you don't need enemies."

"And you want to go there I suppose, don't you?"

"Not anymore tonight. We should try to radio them first and find out more."

"Like what?"

"Well, how many survivors there are. How they're positioned. How good their security is. What supplies they still have there. Things like that."

"You don't seriously think Haikuan and Meng Yao are going to welcome us there with open arms after leaving us at sea and without anything."

"We'll try to make contact first thing in the morning and then see. And if we go there, it will only be for a day or two. I still want to find our parents. And Zhan, I'm not as naive as I was a year ago and trust everyone right away just because we have the same goals."

"But if you don't plan to stay there longer, we don't even need to go there."

"Yes we do, because that's how we'll find out if there might be people there that we know." I knew who he was talking about or what he was hoping for, but didn't say it out loud.

"Mhhh, I'm not sure about that. But then again, I agree with you. There might be people there that we know." I said. Although I was against the idea, I thought that we might actually run into people there that we know. Maybe I secretly hoped that we would find our parents there. That maybe they were coming back to the city to look for us.

And there's one thing we shouldn't forget. We know roughly where our parents were staying, but we had no idea exactly where that was or how safe they had been there for the past four months. It wasn't even certain if they were even still alive.

After dinner, we retired to the bedroom and slept like babies, having finally been able to sleep in a real bed again. It didn't rock back and forth like it did at sea and it's not just straw, hay and a few old blankets. It was a real luxury and a real relief for our bodies.