Following Chen Zi Han into the unloading bay of the smallish grocery store, I spun around to see the other three guys. "See!" I exclaimed sweeping my arms around to show them all of the shelves and supplies. A little-known fact was that the storage area for grocery stores was equal to or bigger than the actual part where you shopped.
But since most people never considered it… after all, why would they when all they knew was where they had traditionally bought their groceries, these back storage rooms wouldn't even be touched until months later.
Wang Chao chuckled and gave me a brief kiss on my forehead. "Then what are you waiting for?" he asked, looking at me like I was the most precious thing he had ever seen in his life. Stunned, I realized that he looked at me like how Huang Tian Kuo looked at Hua Chan Juan. Reveling in the feeling, it took me a couple of seconds and a nudge from him before I realized that he was waiting for me to take all of the supplies. In fact, all the men were standing around me with a smile on their faces.
Feeling stronger than ever standing in the middle of the four men, I opened my arms wide and called everything to me. In seconds, the entire 900 square feet of floor-to-ceiling supplies were brought into my space. I debated if I should leave the laundry detergent for the person from earlier, but then I realized that if everyone at the ranch was doing their laundry then we just might need it all.
We left the back of the grocery store, returning the metal door back to its somewhat original appearance thanks to Wang Chao's gifts, and started to walk down the street, Liu Yu Zeng and Chen Zi Han in front of me, me in the middle and Wang Chao and Liu Wei bringing up the rear.
Seeing the stores that had one of our men with their AK-15 guarding the entrance, we entered them, took the supplies, and continued to make our way down the rest of the street. It if wasn't for the chaos going on around us with people running all over the place, screaming and yelling coming from all directions, and just general pandemonium, it would have felt like a nice date.
But, like all dates, this one had to come to an end, and once we had enough supplies (for now), we turned back around and made out way back to the warehouse district. I will fully admit that I was hoping Fuck Face had given up waiting for us and had started on his own… but I wasn't going to be that lucky.
"Where the Hell have you been?!?" came a demanding, high-pitched voice as soon as we stepped foot into the warehouse district.
"Getting supplies," said Liu Wei as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. I was pretty sure that it was, but then again we were talking about General Fuck Face.
"And why didn't you take us with you," the General responded, glaring at us from where he stood in front of his men. For their sake, I was hoping that they would be downwind since the smell coming off of the man's body rivaled that of the food court.
"I'm sorry," said Wang Chao, sounding anything but sorry. "But you were still gathering the supplies at the Honeybee and we didn't want to interrupt you."
"Still, that was yesterday, why did no one come back this morning to advise me what was going on? We have been waiting all day for you to show up."
"Well, Sir, you could have left without us," said Liu Wei, looking around at the men and women of General Yang Bo Wen's unit who were either just standing around or sitting on the ground, waiting for whatever came next.
I know I had bugged the boys about how disciplined their teams were, but with such a stark contrast between the two, I finally understood why they would want such discipline in their men. I couldn't believe that these men and women represented this country.
Shaking my head, I opened my mouth, "Since everyone is ready, should we get going? We probably have about 6 hours of sunlight left before we will want to make camp."
The General just glared at me, like my very presence was an annoyance that he did not want to deal with. Unfortunately for him, the feeling was very much mutual.
Grunting in assent, he let out a sharp bark and his men quickly scrambled into order, holding what supplies they could in their arms.
Raising an eyebrow, Liu Wei looked at the General. "What?" Fuck Face snapped. "You guys didn't leave a single backpack for us," he grumbled pointing to where each and everyone on our team had a huge, oversized backpack almost bursting with supplies.
Shrugging his shoulders in response like it wasn't his fault that they didn't get anything to store their food, Liu Wei and the rest of us turned around and started to walk back towards where the onramp of the highway was.
Day 2 into our trek to City J and I was already done. I wanted to take out the RVs just so I could travel in comfort, but I was not going to deal with General Fuck Face once he realized that we had working transportation and he didn't. Knowing him, he would insist that he be able to be in it with us, and I was pretty sure that that was a special punishment in Hell having to share a small space with that man.
'We wouldn't have to take him,' said Wang Chao as he walked beside me.
'If we didn't have to take him with us, what are we doing right now?' I asked, not bothering to look at the man offering stupid suggestions and he wisely remained quiet. We both knew that General Fuck Face wasn't going anywhere for a while.
Speaking of the man, he was walking ahead of the five of us, scanning the area like he actually knew what to do with a zombie if one pounced on him. He didn't even have his gun up to shoot anything but continued to walk like he was hot shit and controlled the whole group behind him.
I wasn't going to be the one to tell him that normally, the first one in front was the first one to be killed… I was hoping that he would find that out the hard way.
I felt Hades' interest peak as we got further down the highway, not enough to warn me of zombies, but his movements let me know that there was something waiting for us up ahead. Slowing down my step, I pulled the four guys back with me. When Liu Yu Zeng looked at me in concern, I simply shook my head but continued to slow down more and more until we were almost at a full stop.
The men and women that followed General Fuck Face began to quickly pass us as they tried to catch up to the man at the very front of the pack. Our men were smart enough to not overtake us and slowed down their pace until they were all standing at attention behind us.
-----
"What's going on?" asked Hua Chan Juan as she looked at the men around her coming to a complete stop.
"No idea," replied Hua Le Yang, the Captain of her team.
"Then why are we stopping?" she asked again as her husband came up beside her.
"Did your old unit allow you to ask questions?" came the voice of another man from Team A. Hua Chan Juan just looked at the two men in front of her as everyone else came to a stop and divided themselves up into their teams.
"Just answer her question," growled Huang Tian Zou as he glared at the men around him. Since his wife was the only woman in the whole group, it was his responsibility to make sure that the others treated her with the respect that she deserved.
"We are stopping because our leaders stopped. It is not our place to ask why, just to do what we are told to do," replied Hua Le Yang staring at the front. Whatever it was that Wang Chao and Liu Wei were doing, he had the utmost belief that it was necessary to keep them safe. He had been one of the men to question Li Dai Lu when the world came to an end and he was one of the ones that quickly realized exactly how powerless he truly was.
They wanted them to stop? He would stop.
"I'll go and ask," said Hua Chan Juan as she tried to weave in between the men of her team.
"Not a good idea," said a third man, Zhou Hui Fen, said stepping in front of her. He was the Vice-Captain of Team A and he was also one of the ones to learn their lesson the hard way. Their team was considered the best of the best in the Wang Family troops, but they would have all been dead if it wasn't for Li Dai Lu.
"If you insist on going, feel free to join a different team," said Hua Le Yang, putting the whole discussion to an end.
----
"Welcome to The New World, there is an official toll to pass this point and continue on your way. If you don't want to pay or can't pay, that is fine. You will just leave your life as forfeit," came the muffled voice of the man that stepped out in front of General Yang Bo Wen, his own gun up and ready to kill.
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