“How are we organizing things?” Jin Fang asked as he sat on the front of one of the cars in the garage, watching as everyone else either practiced with guns or with their powers.

“We’re taking all of the rice. So set one or two cars aside just for that. I’ll have everyone look through the clothes and pack some in a duffel bag for themselves so we don’t have to worry about taking all of the clothes. Weapons and artillery can go in 1 or 2 cars—everyone will have their own weapons and ammo with them though—-and miscellaneous things can go in the rest. We can’t pack up everything but we can pack up most things.” Jiayi said and started opening up the trunks of the cars.

The cars were very spacious, they could fit four to 6 people and had a large amount of trunk space and space in the passenger areas for storage. They were something Jiayi dreamed of in the first timeline, but only the military and rich people had these cars and once the apocalypse hit even they struggled to get them.

“Who is going in every car?” Jin Fang asked as he looked over at everyone.

“I want there to be at least 2 drivers per car but that’s not possible with our numbers…I’ll split it up later,”  Jiayi murmured and sighed.

“Got it, boss.”

“Don’t call me that,” Jiayi said, rolling his eyes. Jin Fang just laughed.

—

“Quite a couple of Zombies are coming…” Jiayi murmured and looked at the cameras. Behind him, everyone started to get nervous.

“Wu Yanyu. You should try out your abilities.” Jiayi said and went over to a box nearby.

Wu Yanyu looked nervous, she was worried that she wouldn’t be able to activate her power and get eaten by zombies.

“W-What if….”  Wu Yanyu murmured.

“We’ll protect you.” Yi Boqin assured her, placing his hand on her shoulder.

“But the poison…” Wu Yanyu murmured.

“That’s why we have these,” Jiayi said and pulled gas masks from the box.

Everyone stood in awe at his preparations.

“Wear clothes that cover all of your skin just in case too.” Jiayi added and handed Wu Yanyu a gas mask.

—

Everyone was still nervous. Gas masks, protective clothes could only calm their nerves about the poison, not about the zombies.

All of the ability users stood near Wu Yanyu in order to protect her if she can’t use her ability or if the poison doesn't work or if the ability itself works differently than they expected.

Yan Xing stood near Jiayi and made sure his gas mask was on properly. Jiayi had warned him that if the poison worked it would be the most effective against him and that it’d be very painful and very likely to kill him so he was terrified.

Jiayi put his hand on Yan Xing’s shoulder.

“It’ll be okay.” He said, his voice sounding distorted through the gas mask.

The zombies started to appear in their area quickly afterward. Wu Yanyu hesitated for a second but as the zombies started actively going toward them she managed to actually use her power.

Violet flowers appeared on the ground and from them came a violet mist that spread out toward the zombies. The zombies were unfazed for a second but then they started to keel over and cough up blood and they started to lose control over their bodies and fall apart.

“Oh wow…” Yi Boqin murmured in awe. 

“It’s different from actual belladonna…” Ha Yuexin murmured.

“A-Xing, let’s burn these Bo— A-Xing!”

Yan Xing suddenly fell to the ground.

The zombies were all dead already but when Wu Yanyu realized that Yan Xing was probably being hurt because of her poison she still hesitated a little before topping it.

Jiayi got down immediately and started checking on Yan Xing, he was wearing his gas mask properly but he was clearly still under the effects of the poison, just not to the extent of the zombies, he was struggling to breathe.

“How did he get affected?? We were even closer than he was?” Yi Boqin asked, panicked as he watched Jiayi quickly lift Yan Xing into his arms.

“I don’t know!” Jiayi exclaimed. He carried Yan Xing inside and placed him down on the bed, he was kind of at a loss. He didn’t expect this at all.

“What can we even do? The poison isn’t actually belladonna, I don’t know how to treat it.” Ha Yuexin said and watched as Jiayi took off Yan Xing’s gas mask. She found an infrared thermometer and checked Yan Xing’s temperature and blood pressure as Jiayi tried to get Yan Xing to respond to him.

“A-Xing breathe,” Jiayi said and flowed some of his energy to Yan Xing. 

The energy helped but only slightly, Yan Xing could breathe for a few seconds but his breaths quickly turned to coughs. 

Jiayi glanced at Ha Yuexin and then at everyone who was looking inside of the room anxiously for a second and then looked back at Yan Xing’s condition. He sighed, he knew he couldn’t do much but he had to try anyway.

“I think I can use my ability to help him but I need to concentrate so please leave…” Jiayi murmured. Everyone nodded and left the room, Ha Yuexin left hesitantly but before she did she looked at Jiayi very seriously.

“…I’ll borrow your lab to try and figure something out just in case.” 

Jiayi nodded and got to work as she left. He started using his healing ability to try and heal Yan Xing. His healing ability wasn’t very effective, it was just something he used for minor injuries until he met Meihua, whose ability was specifically to heal. He had used it very few times on other people. One of those times had been to try and help Yan one day when he found him injured from what he said was a ‘misfire’. It didn’t work very well, likely because he was a zombie.

Yan Xing got slightly better for a second but his coughing got worse not too long afterward. He started coughing into his hand, he was a bit more aware now. He backed away from Jiayi’s touch as he coughed up blood onto his hands.

“A-Xing…” Jiayi murmured and tried to go back to healing Yan Xing but Yan Xing only backed away more.

“D-Don’t touch me!”  Yan Xing exclaimed and panicked as blood spilled from his lips and from his hands.

Yan Xing was very aware that his blood could turn people and he didn’t want that to happen. Especially not to Jiayi who desperately just wanted to save everyone.

Jiayi moved closer to him and he just moved backward.

“No…stay away...” Yan Xing said between coughs, his vision becoming blurry. His head was spinning but he was still moving, trying to stay away.

“A-Xing. It’s fine.” Jiayi said and touched Yan Xing’s shoulders. Yan Xing jumped, he didn’t know Jiayi was so close and it caused him to panic.

“No no no, you’re gonna turn—“

Yan Xing couldn’t get out Jiayi’s grip and coughs were bubbling up once again and if he reached up to try and get his hands off he would be wiping his blood on him.

“A-Xing. I’ll be fine.”  Jiayi said and worked on healing him again.

“No… no…” Yan Xing silently cried as his dizziness got the better of him and he passed out in Jiayi’s arms.

—

Yan Xing woke up after a while and he was feeling better but still very weak. He also felt worse as he saw that Jiayi was wiping blood from his palms.

“Don’t worry about it. I won’t turn into a zombie.” Jiayi whispered to Yan Xing who could barely even lift his head.

“B-But the major said…” Yan Xing murmured, tears welling up in his eyes.

“It’s true but…it won’t happen to me,” Jiayi said and cleaned the blood from Yan Xing’s mouth with a wet towel.

“How can you be so sure..?” Yan Xing cried, he couldn’t contain the guilt he’d feel if Jiayi turned into a zombie.

Jiayi stared at him for a while, mulling over whether or not to tell him.

“My father worked to find a cure for the zombie virus…he didn’t find a cure but he was able to make one vaccine…and he gave it to me,”  Jiayi said and stroked Yan Xing’s hair as he wiped his tears.

Yan Xing looked amazed to hear that and Jiayi quickly put his finger toward his lips, “This stays between us okay?” 

Yan Xing nodded slowly. 

“I could let you bite me if that’s what you’re thinking,” Jiayi said as he watched Yan Xing quickly shake his head with an embarrassed face.

“…you are hungry right?” Jiayi asked, moving Yan Xing’s bangs away from his eyes.

“Yeah…” Yan Xing murmured. Jiayi had just given him some energy not too long ago but his body used it up trying to counteract the poison.

“P-Please don’t make me bite you though—“

—

“You don’t need to hurry on that antidote.” Jiayi said to Ha Yuexin, “He’s okay now.”

Ha Yuexin looked at Jiayi with a raised eyebrow, he seemed quite pleased.

“Your abilities seem to be quite strong…” Ha Yuexin murmured.

“I was doubting whether or not I’d be able to actually cure him, I think it only worked because the gas mask protected him from the brunt of it,” Jiayi explained.

“How did it even malfunction…?” Ha Yuexin murmured.

“I’m not sure..” Jiayi murmured. He figured it might just be because Yan Xing was a zombie and more vulnerable to the poison ability than anyone else.

“Is Yan Xing okay?” Hu Shi asked and walked with Yi Boqin toward Jiayi.

“Yeah, he’s just sleeping now.” Jiayi explained.

“…YanYan wants to apologize.” Yi Boqin said and sent Jiayi an apologetic look.

“She doesn’t have to, It wasn’t on purpose. Plus we all knew the risks.” Jiayi murmured and glanced over at the door to where Yan Xing was resting, making sure no one was trying to enter, Yan Xing needed some time to rest.

“Yeah but she still feels guilty…” Yi Boqin murmured.

“Tell her to wait until tomorrow,” Jiayi said and shrugged,

“Yan Xing can’t really listen right now, he’s still out of it.”

——

Yan Xing was bright red as he sat in the corner of the bed.

“That’s S-Source to Source?!” He whispered to himself, his cheeks turning bright red.

Jiayi had fed him through the embarrassing method he had mentioned and Yan Xing had been completely shocked by it.

-

“This is the least embarrassing of the alternatives,” Jiayi said and ruffled Yan Xing’s hair before leaning their faces near each other. He held Yan Xing’s jaw, he couldn’t exactly trust that Yan Xing wouldn’t instinctively bite his tongue off. 

Yan Xing became bright red as he realized what was going on. 

A kiss. One of the many ways Jiayi could feed Yan Xing without having to draw his own blood…definitely less embarrassing than the other options, but also a bit dangerous. 

Putting yourself too close to those sharp teeth was definitely not safe, especially when Yan Xing was hungry.

The kiss couldn’t exactly be an innocent peck either, so it was still very embarrassing for Yan Xing. But the mix of Jiayi’s saliva and energy entered him through the kiss and made his hunger completely disappear. He couldn’t exactly let himself relax though. The kiss was too shocking and the blissful fullness that came with it was much more shocking. 

By the time the kiss ended Yan Xing was a melted mess, sliding down on the wall he was pressed against.

“Oh…that might be a problem,” Jiayi murmured, moving Yan Xing’s hair away from his eyes. Yan Xing’s eyes had turned red now.

That was how Yan was able to fool him. His eyes were a normal sort of amber color when he hadn’t eaten in a while and red when he had eaten recently. This hadn’t happened to Yan Xing and he figured this was because he hadn’t actually eaten anyone so he didn’t think that just that would be enough to make them appear.

Yan Xing’s eyes seemed to hold a more innocent sort of emotion than Yan’s did from the past timeline, it concerned Jiayi…it made him worry about what had flipped Yan Xing to become the Zombie King. He didn’t think he had interfered much with how Yan Xing found out he was a zombie so the real question was…what would happen if he hadn’t found Yan Xing when he did.

His worries were cut short and he just chuckled as Yan Xing seemed to come back to reality after a second.

“Don’t think too much.” He said and left the room.

–