Zombie Apocalypse: Creation

Then again, what if this illness is permanent? Or what if it can cause someone to die after a day has passed?"

Xiaoyun sat in his seat in silence, still contemplating his choice as the clock on the wall continued to tick.

Eventually, he came to a single conclusion as he moved to Kate's bedside.

"I have to do this... I don't have a choice."

Xiaoyun grabbed Kate by the hand and began imagining her back before she went upstairs with him.

As he continued to imagine it, his head began to have a severe headache, hitting him in waves.

However, it wasn't a bad sign as it meant his ability was doing something, so he continued holding her hand as he thought of it.

But suddenly, Xiaoyun's eyes started to get heavier and heavier, with a surge of drowsiness hitting him right in the head.

"I can't sleep here..."

Without any hesitation, Xiaoyun used his left hand to pull out his knife from the side and stabbed himself right in the thigh.

"Fuck!"

Xiaoyun was instantly turned awake as blood began to flow out of his wound, but he still didn't dare to let go of Kate's hand.

Soon enough, he could finally see progress as the purple dust started appearing on Kate's face.

With high hope, Xiaoyun continued holding on and watched the dust from her face rise into the air as it began to dissipate.

As the purpleness on her face began to fade, Kate was finally awake once again, and she slowly opened her eyes.

"Xiaoyun? Where are we? Why are you holding my hand?"

Xiaoyun wanted to answer Kate's question, but he couldn't open his mouth as all of his energy had gone to remaining awake.

"Xiaoyun, you——"

Before she could finish talking, Kate was stunned by the purple dust rising from her face into the air.

"What's happening to me?" Kate asked in confusion.

But Xiaoyun still didn't answer, making Kate turn her attention towards him.

"Xiaoyun! You okay?"

Kate immediately tries to get out as she notices the knife on Xiaoyun's thigh, but she notices Xiaoyun's eye signal to remain still.

After holding on for an entire minute, Xiaoyun finally lets go of Kate's hand as he instantly collapses onto the bed.

"Xiaoyun, why is there a knife in your leg?" Kate asked again as she quickly got up from the bed and put him on the bed instead.

"You don't remember anything?" Xiaoyun asked as he pulled out the knife without flinching a bit.

"I... I can only remember going upstairs with you. Then I remembered I had a long dream before waking up."

"What kind of dream is it?" Xiaoyun asked calmly, despite blood still coming out of the wound.

"I... I don't want to talk about it... Let me go bandage your leg."

"Wait, here's some bandage."

As Kate accepted the bandage Xiaoyun made on the spot, she began to apply it to his wound.

"What happened after we went upstairs?" Kate asked as she still couldn't understand what happened.

"Well, you got poisoned by some sort of sleep gas, just like all the other soldiers that went upstairs earlier."

After hearing Xiaoyun's explanation, Kate realized what had happened as she bent down to bite the bandage to cut it short.

"Why did you just pull out the knife like that? You're bleeding way too much." Kate worriedly asked as she noticed the pool of blood on the floor.

"Don't worry about it. I'm fine. I'll be back up and running in an hour... You forgot I survived even with a bullet wound through the neck?"

Xiaoyun tries to reassure Kate, but his body looks extremely weak, and his eyelids are barely able to stay open, which only makes her even more worried.

"You're not going to get lucky every time like that. Why did you even stab yourself in the leg in the first place?"

Kate questioned as she could tell the stab would angle, clearly indicating that he did it to himself.

"I had to stay awake to make sure your healing process went through all the way... Now, you don't have any purpleness on your face, so you should be safe."

As Xiaoyun began yawning out loud, Kate suddenly got extremely worried.

'W-Wait, but your face——"

"I know it's all purple. I already tried doing it to myself earlier. It just doesn't work——Fuck!"

Xiaoyun suddenly punched himself on the wound to keep himself awake, yelling in pain as he finished explaining to Kate.

"Stop that. You're already injured."

Kate quickly grabbed Xiaoyun by the hand, not letting him punch himself in the leg to shock himself.

"I had to stay awake. Just let me do it. I can't risk falling asleep right now in this crucial time."

Xiaoyun ordered as he tried to wrestle Kate's hand away, but she refused the order and didn't let go of it at all.

"Leyan asked me to protect you. I can't let you harm yourself like this for me." Kate stated as she started to look for things to tie his hands up.

"This is not for you or myself. This is an order, Kate. Let go of me now——"

"Why do you have to self-harm to keep yourself awake? Is there really no better way to keep yourself awake?"

Kate angrily argued back, as she couldn't understand why Xiaoyun was so fixated on hitting himself on the wound.

"I don't have any other way, okay? Now, Kate, as the mayor and commander of Luoping, I order you to let go immediately."

Hearing Xiaoyun's assertive tone being used towards her, Kate suddenly felt a surge of rebellion towards the command.

"I'm not letting you hurt yourself... That's not happening today."

Kate argued as she finally found a piece of fabric on the bed to tie Xiaoyun's hand with.

But seeing Xiaoyun's eyelid slowly falling more and more, Kate started to panic.

She knew if he fell asleep on the bed, he was going to have the same situation she had earlier.

"I-I... I don't want to do this, okay? This is for your sake."

Xiaoyun couldn't understand what Kate meant until she moved her hand down and grabbed onto his crotch.

"Fuck! Shit! Stop! I'm fully awake now! Let go of it!" Xiaoyun yelled in pain as Kate squeezed her hand, bending it into the shape of her hand.

Seeing Xiaoyun's eyes wide open, Kate quickly let go of Xiaoyun's crotch area, rubbing her hands on the bedsheet as if she had just touched something nasty.

"There, now you don't have to punch your wound every time," Kate pointed out as she returned to untieing Xiaoyun's hand again.

"How the fuck did you think that was a good idea? That was so painful! You know how hard you were squeezing it?" Xiaoyun angrily lashed out his question toward Kate as he still could feel the pain applied to his balls.

"You only said a way to wake up... Besides, I wasn't doing it that hard. You're just exaggerating it." Kate argued as she kept rubbing her hand on the bed sheet.

"Shut up. You don't know how delicate that area is." Xiaoyun lectured as he flicked Kate right on the forehead.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever... Not like I ever wanted to do that again." Kate murmured, her face blushing red as the realization began to set in.

As the room fell into an awkward silence, Xiaoyun signaled Kate to support him up from the bed, which she did without arguing back this time.

"Kate... Can you not tell this to the girls?" Xiaoyun pleaded as his assertive tone began to disappear.

"Of course, I'm never saying that to anyone... You should be the one that keeps your mouth shut."

The two sat in silence again, as they didn't have anything else to say.

But they didn't want to leave each other's sight, as one couldn't move yet, and the other was still a little worried about the injury.

After sitting for almost thirty minutes, Xiaoyun finally broke the silence.

"Kate... Can you um——"

"Just say what you need me to do... as long as it is not over the line," Kate stated, not shying away from it this time.

" I need to confront the secret society later... But I can't walk out with blood all over my leg and pants——"

"I don't have any spare pants." Kate pointed out.

"I can make new ones. All I need you to do is to help me undress and put on my pants. I can wipe the blood off myself."

Kate hesitated for a second but eventually agreed after seeing how much Xiaoyun had done for her.

"I can wipe it for you. There's no need to separate it."