2.1

The trucks rolled in from the distance. Lu Hao peered at them from his vantage point atop the wall while behind him, the other members of the Survivor Guard squinted, their hands blocking the sun from their eyes.

The military convoy had five trucks. That was three more than the last time.

Lu Hao's gaze tracked the approaching trucks, watching the dust from the dirt roads kick up from their wheels. It could be that the military trusted the SG more, now that this was their third cooperation. More likely, however, something had happened in the city which caused the military to tighten their resources — and as such, extradite any 'refugees' that the military didn't want to spend resources on protecting.

Now, in the third year of the apocalypse, it was impossible to survive alone. All surviving humans found refuge in bases—military bases founded by the government, or mafia bases backed by criminals and arms dealers.

At first, the government bases tried to take in any and all civilians who needed protection. As casualties rose and infection spread, however, it became impossible to support everyone. Anyone who wished to stay within the safety of the base had to prove their value by working and contributing, and those who failed to contribute sufficiently would be forced out of the base and left to fend for themselves.

Most of these people died, if not from the zombies then from exhaustion or starvation.

It was only in the area of F City that the 'leftovers' were not sent to die, but instead sent to another safehaven — the Survivor Guard.

That was a group headed by a mysterious young man whose powers were rumored to be strong enough to kill any zombie, even the advanced mutations. In terms of strength, he would be considered "S-class". An anomaly far more powerful than anyone, including all members of the military and of the mafia, had ever seen before.

Yet the Survivor Guard he led was exclusively a defensive group. The SG performed rescue missions in the cities, fought back zombies to free resources, and cooperated to restore stability to the region of F city. Over time, the SG's influence expanded until it was almost as powerful as the military force in F city. In light of this, the official government—or what was left of it, anyway—decided to officially recognize the SG as an independent group, and requested to cooperate with the SG for the sake of protecting the country's citizens.

The government would send refugees and resources to the SG. The SG, in return, would perform high-risk specialist missions for the government.

When the military caravan came to a stop at the tall barricade, Lu Hao jumped from the 4-meter wall, landing lightly on his feet. The military officer who had exited the truck paused for a split second, but when Lu Hao approached, the man masked his astonishment and walked forward with a neutral expression.

The two men shook hands cordially, the officer nodding respectfully at Lu Hao. "Greetings, Mr Lu."

"Good to see you, Officer Tang."

After separating, Lu Hao smiled sharply at the officer and directed his gaze to the convoy. The military man stood stock-still, as if not daring to turn away.

"This is more than I was expecting," Lu Hao said, and though he had a smile on his face, the officer felt a cold breeze pass through him.

The officer cleared his throat and reached for the bag slung across his shoulder. He pulled a dossier from it, which he held out to Lu Hao. Lu Hao's gaze alighted on the stack of papers, but he didn't immediately move to grab it.

"This is a list of new arrivals," the officer explained. "Resources we have provided. Most crucial is the intelligence report, which contains all we know of the most recent mutations." The officer's face twitched into a grimace, and a flicker of understanding passed through Lu Hao's eyes.

"I understand. Thanks." To the officer's relief, Lu Hao took the dossier and flipped it open. There on the first page was a report detailing the newest breed of evolved zombie. More powerful than current known limitations, it said. Beyond S-class. King-class.

"Interesting," Lu Hao said.

"The General requests..." the officer began, but Lu Hao cut him off.

"I know. We'll set off after I get these people settled." Lu Hao didn't look up as he replied, still reading through the report on the King-class zombie which had decimated F city and rampaged through part of the military base before eventually being worn down by a series of explosive blasts.

It had retreated temporarily to heal.

Just that act alone showed it to be unprecedentedly dangerous.

After finishing the report, Lu Hao flipped to the next page, which listed a number of resources provided by the military. He took a brief look, then pulled the paper from the dossier and held it out beside him.

A slim hand took the paper. Officer Tang jumped. The girl standing next to Lu Hao hadn't been there a second before, had she? The young woman smiled, the peach-blossom eyes on her beautiful face sparkling. Enraptured, the officer stared at her, but in the next moment, his eyes grew dull once again, and the young woman walked away without anyone noticing.

While Ji Ling went to go covertly check over the resources, Lu Hao continued on to the next page in the dossier. This one was a profile of a person. The name was at the top left, and listed on the rest of the page were age, physical body information, previous career, abilities, skills, and some small miscellaneous notes regarding personality and character. The profiles didn't have any pictures, so Lu Hao flipped disinterestedly through these while listening to the metal bustle of trucks opening and dispensing their cargo.

The crowd of refugees hesitantly exited the trucks. Their number amounted to over 60 people. Though it didn't sound like much, most post-apocalyptic settlements would hesitate to take in one unplanned person, let alone sixty of them all at once. Furthermore, the military hadn't provided any warning to Lu Hao's group, so now they would have to scramble to provide accommodation for these people tonight. Thankfully, the military had also provided tents and sleeping bags to use as temporary lodging.

Lu Hao stopped skimming through the profiles after landing on a certain one. His eyes narrowed in interest. "Officer Tang, this person..." he began.

The dazed Officer Tang snapped back to his senses and leaned forward to peer at the name on the paper. "Ah, yes. This person is one of the most valuable people at our base. Highly intelligent and protected by the higher-ups. Her laboratory had been destroyed in the attack, and she herself had nearly been killed. It was decided that until we can secure the base, it would be best to entrust her to the SG."

The female scientist named Lisa Xi had studied overseas under the leading researcher for genetic mutations and diseases in humans. She was one of the bright stars in the current era. The government at F City hoped she could find a cure to end the apocalypse, though no one held their breath; the scientists at B City's base were better funded and more numerous.

Lu Hao, however, was intrigued. He looked up toward the large cluster of refugees, which the other members of the SG herded forward. The military had provided the SG with the names of the refugees, so the SG did a headcount by calling up each person's name. Each refugee was checked for weapons and infection before being allowed inside. When the name "Xi, Lisa" rang out, Lu Hao's eyes alighted on the beautiful and proud-looking woman who walked out, her hair tied back in a utilitarian style with thick-framed red glasses hanging in front of her eyes. Putting a smile on his face, Lu Hao walked forward to personally greet her.

"Scientist Xi?"

The woman looked over. She had a mature face and body, looking somewhere around twenty-eight years old. Though she had an apathetic expression, a flicker of interest passed through her eyes when she took in the sight of Lu Hao. She tilted her head in consideration, and the corners of her mouth hooked up. "Who's asking?"

Lu Hao could see instantly that she was a woman who knew how to get what she wanted, so he allowed his smile to let out a hint of seductiveness. He made eye contact with the SG member who had been about to check her over, indicating that he would take it from here, and the SG member nodded before calling out the next name, "Fu Xiao!"

Seeing that Lu Hao was in charge around here, Lisa Xi amenably stepped to the side of the crowd with him. Lu Hao introduced himself. "I'm the leader of the SG. I'm interested in supporting your research, so I wanted to discuss what supplies and materials you might need." When he said those words, Lisa Xi's eyes glinted with consideration. Lu Hao held out his hand to shake, and she took it without hesitating. Though her hand was soft and small, she shook his hand firmly.

"Gao Yu!" The SG member kept calling out names.

Lisa Xi withdrew her hand promptly, making Lu Hao feel a bit regretful. "Excellent. After my lab was destroyed, I barely managed to salvage some of my research. I'm looking forward to keep progressing with your assistance." Lisa Xi looked at Lu Hao, the corner of her mouth rising even more. If her expression weren't so calculating, it could almost be a laugh. "And your name?" she pointed out mockingly.

The SG member shouted out another name, "Li Chengpeng!"

Lu Hao smirked. "You can call me Lu Hao," he said, and a moment after those words left his mouth, he heard someone to the side suck in a breath of surprise. But he didn't put much thought into it as he continued chatting with Lisa Xi, turning away to lead her toward the gate. "Come, I'll accompany you to the base. We can find an area to set up your laboratory."

"Alright," Lisa Xi agreed. The two of them began walking forward, and Lu Hao was already thinking about the angle of her smile, the shape of her legs, how her hair would look when fanned out on the bed, and—

"Hong Sheng!" the SG member called out.

—Lu Hao's steps faltered.

Lisa Xi looked at him with a curious expression, and when Lu Hao turned around, she turned to look as well.

Right behind them was a young man who immediately ducked his head and tried to shuffle forward inconspicuously.

Before he could do so, however, Lisa Xi's eyes flashed brightly. She stomped over, her hand shooting out to grab his arm. "It's you!" she said.

Lu Hao could only stare, dumbfounded, at the top of the young man's head. When Lisa Xi grabbed his arm, the young man shuddered in distaste yet didn't say a single word, only silently bearing with it. The flag slowly rose in Lu Hao's mind.

Lisa Xi was an intelligent woman with good social skills, and immediately saw that the man in front of her hated to be touched. She wasn't a polite person, so although she let go of him out of respect, she also walked closer so that he couldn't try to sneak off and escape. With her eyes narrowed, she accused, "You're the one who blew up my lab!"

The SG member, seeing that yet another little drama was about to take place, sighed in his heart and continued down the list to the next name.

Lisa Xi and the young man were now standing extremely close, almost on top of one another. The young man tried to lean back, but that only made Lisa Xi lean forward as she imperiously scrutinized the young man with a glaring expression. The sight of the man nearly being pushed down by such a slender and beautiful woman made some people snicker, but to Lu Hao, for some reason this scene made a strange discomfort churn in his gut.

Still, he didn't act rashly. Putting a smile on his face, Lu Hao walked forward to join them and asked, "Blew up your lab?" Now that he was close, he wanted took the opportunity to take a good look at the young man... but since the other party kept his face turned down, Lu Hao couldn't see anything.

Left with no choice, Lu Hao said pointedly, "Hong Sheng?"

The young man's shoulders hunched defensively, and Lisa Xi cut in instead, "Yes! He saved the base. His quick thinking drove off the King-class zombie. We'd be dead if it weren't for him," she spat, and though her words were all praises, she sounded furious. She glared up at the young man. "He rigged up the explosives according to the zombie's trajectory, and set them off in places that would minimize all human casualties. My lab was one of them. You're only a civilian, aren't you? Hmph," she let out a sound of disdain, "You have more balls than every one of those military men at that base! Those useless wretches. But you, you're good quality. If you're here, then it's fate. From now on, be my assistant!" she ordered.

"..." Lu Hao was speechless.

"..." The young man was also speechless.

Lisa Xi was about to kidnap and run away with him, so to stop that, Lu Hao had to jump in. "I'm afraid we can't decide that so quickly," he told her, and when she directed her glare on him, Lu Hao brightly smiled as he clasped a hand on the young man's shoulder. "Actually, I'm curious. If fate is involved... Don't we also know each other, Hong Sheng?"

When Lu Hao's hand fell on his shoulder, and when he heard those words, Hong Sheng's shoulders trembled. Unable to hide any longer, he finally meekly raised his head.

In the six years since the last they had seen each other, Hong Sheng's dark eyes were the one thing that remained unchanged. Lu Hao's heart strangely skipped a beat when Hong Sheng's face came into view. He was pale and thin, his eyelashes casting shadows over his cheeks, and his small and delicate mouth parted slightly, the wet shine of his tongue barely visible to Lu Hao's advanced eyesight.

His face as a young man was sharper and more matured. He had a mysterious and distant air around him, but under Lu Hao's eyes, Hong Sheng looked clearly nervous and skittish, like a deer. After taking a brief look at Lu Hao, Hong Sheng's gaze quickly diverted to the ground, his head leaning down to reveal the long and pale expanse of his slender neck.

The sight of Hong Sheng as an adult stirred up a whirlwind of unidentifiable emotions in Lu Hao, but the foremost thought in his mind was how Hong Sheng had abandoned him when they were fifteen, and now Lu Hao could finally figure out why.

And so, Lu Hao tightened his grip on Hong Sheng's shoulder and smiled ever more brightly. "Hong Sheng, you remember me, don't you?"

Trembling, Hong Sheng nodded. He peeked up again, then dropped his gaze like he couldn't stand to look at Lu Hao for too long. Lu Hao couldn't figure out why. It wasn't like he was hideous, right?

Lisa Xi now looked at the two of them with a considering air. After feeling that the two had some history to resolve, she snorted. Spinning around, she told Lu Hao, "I'll be going in first! I'll tell you where I want my lab." And with that, she left Lu Hao and Hong Sheng to sort out their problems.

Hong Sheng looked after her with an unreadable expression. Lu Hao's heart pricked. He stepped forward to block Hong Sheng's sight of her—he had become unexpectedly possessive of this woman, or perhaps he simply didn't like his childhood best friend's straying to someone other than Lu Hao.

"So," Lu Hao said to Hong Sheng, who kept hunching up as if he wanted to curl inside himself and disappear. Stopping his words, Lu Hao took another good look at him. Hong Sheng quietly waited for Lu Hao to confront him, defensively waiting to be scolded, almost like a guilty dog in front of his master. And... he looked exhausted.

Life after the apocalypse was a nightmare. You lived every day in fear of being eaten alive, or being turned into a monster, or being killed by your own fellow humans. For someone like Hong Sheng, who barely spoke to others, and who almost never relied on his fellow people—for Hong Sheng, who never fit in and who had never known how, just how much had he struggled to survive in such a dog-eat-dog world? How many terrible things had he suffered, and just how hard must he have worked to survive alone in these past three years?

If you find Little Sheng, please protect him.

Lu Hao had wanted to interrogate Hong Sheng. He wanted to know why Hong Sheng had abandoned him without a word, and he wanted to know where he had gone and what he had been doing for the past six years. But when he saw that thin and delicate frame that looked like it might be blown away by the smallest breeze, all Lu Hao could do was raise his arms and lock Hong Sheng tightly against him, holding him closely.

Hong Sheng froze up in Lu Hao's embrace, and for a second, fear flashed through Lu Hao's heart. Physical contact with people revolted Hong Sheng, unless it was with Lu Hao or Lu Hao's family, but now that they had been separated for so long... was Lu Hao no longer welcome?

In the next second, Hong Sheng began to shake, and Lu Hao nearly pulled away. But Hong Sheng's hands rose up to clutch at him, and when Lu Hao looked down, he saw tears glinting from Hong Sheng's eyelashes. He was crying.

"Lu Hao... I..." Hong Sheng tipped forward, his head coming to rest against Lu Hao's chest.

Hearing his voice—quiet and delicate, yet overwrought with emotion—Lu Hao couldn't help but feel overwhelmed, and without meaning to, he tightened his arms around Hong Sheng.

Lu Hao let go of the anger he had been kindling in his heart.

"I missed you," he said softly. "I'm glad you came home."