"It's not healing... don't tell me! Little one, you can manipulate time!!" Zou Yue shouted in shock.
The rat just tilted her head and nodded at him.
"Darn, who knew that beasts could get abilities too..... This is definitely new information." he tiredly leaned against the door and closed his eyes. "Hey you can understand me right?"
The rat nodded once more.
"Then how did you get infested? Where did you get infected," he whispered as his eyes were drooping a little. He slapped his cheeks to stay awake.
The little rat scratched at its whiskers with its mung bean sized eyes narrowed. It turned back and showed him its bum.
"It's okay if you don't want to say..... I just want to know how the zombie virus spread before the apocalypse." he stood up but he felt a small tug to his pants but he decided to ignore that.
While he was conscious, he wanted to barricade the door to keep his parents out as long as possible.
His heavy metal wardrobe was to his right side, just next to his door. With difficulty, he pushed it to the door and made sure it was leaning heavily on the door.
As for the window, he decided to close the glass windows and firmly latched. He jammed a piece of cloth on the nudge so that it won't be easy to open.
The rat pulled at him and showed him its bum again.
"umm..., do you want a scratch?"
He squatted down and gently scratched the coarse fur. When he touched the lower back, the rat's hind legs twitched softly. "Do you like that little rat?"
The rat turned over and glared at him. It then proceeded to spread the fur from its back and showed him multiple needle marks on her.
Dazedly, Zou Yue took her in his hands and gently caressed the needle marks. "So the virus was ....... Created in a lab? The meteor was not blame....." he plopped back into bed. "Then this world is fucked up. Me coming here must have caused a butterfly effect. sigh...."
The rat climbed onto the bed with some difficulty and scurried into his chest.
Zou Yue heart beat rapidly as if it was about to push out of his chest. "I wasted so much time.....if only I knew...... I would have collected supplies"
"Little one, I don't even prepare food and other necessities. How can we survive this... my parents... how will they survive this." he panted softly. His head and muscled started to ache so badly that he lost conciseness again.
The rat squeaked a little and ran to his nose. It touched his nose, trying to take back the virus, but it was not able to do anything. "Squeak..... squeak.." he nuzzled against his neck and watched his every breath.
Outside the room, the things were not as peaceful. Zou's mother returned with a cup of hot water to find the door locked. "Zou! Zou, did you lock the door? Oh, my god Wei! Something is wrong!!" she ran to her husband.
"What's wrong?"
"Come check out his room. It doesn't seem to budge. I think our son might have collapsed just near the doorway,"' she cried and hugged her husband tremblingly.
"Don't panic Nui, Zou must have locked it by accident," he whispered, but his steps hasted towards the door. "Zou... Zou open the door,"
"I'm telling you, he is definitely unconscious by the door," Zou Nui roared loudly. "Zou Wei... I'm scared."
"It's okay, don't panic. I'll...." He squatted down and gently knocked on the lower part of the door. "See, the knock sounds hollow if Zou was near the door it must have sounded deep," he said with a smile. "I think he might have locked it by mistake. We might have to break the door to enter."
"Yes, yes, I'll ask the next-door neighbors. They recently had a repair done in their house. They might have the repairman's number." She ran to the kitchen.
Meanwhile, Zou Wei stood next to the closed door with an unknown look. His hands started to shiver uncontrollably. "Zou... please be okay," he whispered, with tears rolling down his cheeks.
From his previous observation, his son seems to be bullied by this man named Fan Xui and was stressed out.
It looked like his precious son was in a desperate situation. During these vulnerable moments Kids like that tend to be impulse.
"Zou Yue, don't you dare try to hurt yourself? You have your dad and mum here, please, so let us help," he cried softly.
Mother Nui hurried over to her neighbors' and called the repair man while her husband went around the house to check if the window was opened.
"Is it open?"
"no.... he seems to have barricaded the room.." he tiredly wiped the sweat away. "Nui, shall I just to break the door..... What if he is...."
"Zou baba, nothing bad would have happened. Don't worry. Our Yue will not make hasty decisions. As for the door, I think we should wait for the repairman to open the door. You already have shoulder pain,"
She tried her best to calm her husband because in her heart she knew that Zou was in a bad state, but not in a state where he would think of killing himself. "Our son is strong, dear. He will survive through this as well."
Four hours later the repair man came and unbolted hinges of the door and he easily shattered the door lock as well. "Lady, kids should not hav' locks inside their room. Donncha know that." He mumbled as he pulled the door apart.
Zou Wei and Nui just glanced at each other helplessly because they didn't know how to explain it to this man that their son was not a kid.
"oy' what's this!!" the repair man shouted aloud. "Your kid playing fort inside?" he showed them the huge wardrobe that was pushing out the door. "Shall I remove it, man?"
Zou Wei could not understand his accent most of the time; he just nodded and told him to remove the barricade his son had placed n the door.
With just a single push, the heavy wardrobe topples inside the room.
Without any delay, Zou Wei rushed into the room. "Yue! Yue!" he ran to the bed and gently hugged the sleeping figure. He was slightly hot, but his situation seemed much better than before. "Zou mama, bring in a towel. Let's wipe him off,"
"Yes, yes." Zou Nui came back with a towel and both of them gently gave him a towel bath.
"Shall we take him to a hospital?"
"No... I don't think he would want that. Besides, his temperature has gone down." she tucked Yue's hands inside the comforter and gently caressed his wallow cheeks. "Why does he look thinner than before?"
"He looks good." Zou Wei gently held his wife's hands. He contemplated telling her about Zou Yue's situation, but decided not to share the intimate detail. 'It would be better for Zou Yue to open up about his trauma himself,'
He nodded and gently laid next to him on the bed.
A sleepless night later, their son woke up.