Apocalypse Ground Zero: Refusing To Leave Home-Chapter 72: The World Goes Dark

Yuche slammed the door to the SUV shut hard enough that the metal buckled under the impact.

Three out of four men were there, dumping their supplies into the vehicle, but there was someone missing.

Lingyun wasn’t there. He wasn’t where he should have been.

The space between the other open SUV doors and the street beyond had collapsed. The zombies seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, filling the gap between Yuche and Lingyun so completely that it was hard to see where the distance had even been.

Lingyun stood on the far side of it, the only gun they had between the four of them raised. His shoulders were square, exactly where he had been when they loaded the supplies, holding the rear as if nothing had changed.

But in the rush to get the supplies safe, everything had changed.

He was now alone.

And almost out of bullets.

"Fuck," Chenghai breathed, the word low but sharp, his body already turning away from the vehicle instead of toward it.

Lingyun fired once.

The shot cracked through the street, clean and controlled, dropping the nearest zombie instantly, but it didn’t create any new space. Instead, a zombie behind it stepped forward without hesitation, filling the gap before it could even exist.

Another shot followed.

Another clean hit.

But still nothing.

The line didn’t break. It didn’t even bend. It compressed, tightening around Lingyun as if the space itself was being pulled inward.

Yuche didn’t reach for the driver’s door again.

"We’re not leaving him," he said, already moving away from the SUV instead of into it.

Zhenlan didn’t respond. He turned with him, the crowbar in his hand lifting as the nearest zombie pushed too close to the vehicle. The strike landed solidly, the skull snapping sideways under the force, but the body barely cleared before another took its place.

Nothing that they did mattered. But they weren’t stopping.

They stepped off the curb together.

Not toward safety.

Toward Lingyun.

Chenghai hit the line first, driving forward with his shoulder instead of pulling back. The impact landed harder than it should have. The zombie in front of him was thrown backward instead of simply knocked off balance. It collided into the one behind it and opened a narrow, unstable gap for just a second.

Zhenlan stepped into it immediately.

The crowbar came down in a tight, controlled arc. But like Chenghai, the air in front of the strike felt wrong. Like there was more force behind the blow than there actually was. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

The zombie didn’t collapse into him. Instead, it was driven backward, breaking the line just long enough.

This time, it was Yuche who moved through the small opening. His movements were precise, controlled. His hands caught wrists and redirecting bodies to create space instead of striking whenever possible.

A zombie lunged toward him, and his grip closed around its forearm before it could connect, the motion stopping dead before he twisted and threw it into the side of the car. The metal dented under the impact, but he was already releasing the zombie immediately and kept moving.

They fought like crazy and gained ground.

One step.

Then another.

Lingyun fired again.

The recoil snapped harder into his palm this time, the heat building faster along the grip of the gun. It didn’t stay in the metal like it always had.

Instead, it crawled outward, spreading into his hand, up his arm, until you could see the orange flames around him.

But he ignored it in order to focus on the next target.

He fired again, and this time, there was a big result.

The zombie didn’t just drop. It snapped backward violently, thrown into the one behind it, the force of it breaking the cluster instead of thinning it.

Yuche saw it.

"Push," he ordered, his voice low but immediate.

Zhenlan surged forward, the crowbar already rising again before caving in a zombie’s skull.

Chenghai followed through beside him, his movement heavier but faster, his body hitting harder, each impact creating space that didn’t exist a second before.

They closed the distance.

Five steps.

Then four.

Then three.

The gap shrank—

and collapsed again.

More bodies pushed in from the sides, filling the space faster than it opened, compressing the distance until Lingyun was forced to hold his ground completely.

So, he did the only thing he could. He raised the gun again.

Only this time, he was completely out of bullets.

And Yuche was still too far away to get him more.

His breath caught in his throat. It wasn’t because he was scared, even though he was, but it was because of the feeling of something building inside him.

He felt something similar before when he set the curtains on fire... but this was way worse.

Pressure squeezed his lungs until it felt like he couldn’t breath anymore. There was just too much of it.

He forced air into his lungs and something inside him gave way.

For a single moment, everything stopped.

The sound.

The movement.

The pressure.

The world held its breath.

Then it exploded.

Fire tore out of him.

It didn’t flicker or flare. It erupted in a violent, blinding surge of heat and light that expanded outward in a perfect, unstoppable wave. It wasn’t fire as he understood it, it seemed to have a mind of its own.

And it was focused on absolute destruction.

The zombies closest to him didn’t just fall. They completely disappeared.

Their bodies were consumed instantly, burned so completely that nothing remained but ash carried outward by the force of the blast. And still, the fire didn’t hesitate. It didn’t slow down as it approached the other three men.

It raced outward, devouring everything in its path, erasing the mass of bodies that had cut him off from the others.

The ground blackened beneath it.

The air warped as the heat distorted the space itself.

The wave pushed outward and then it... curved...

past Zhenlan—

past Chenghai—

past Yuche—

and left them completely untouched.

It passed them as if they were not part of its path at all and then it just stopped.

The street fell silent as he stood there with his mouth open.

Where dozens of zombies had stood seconds before, there was nothing left but scorched pavement and drifting ash suspended in the air.

Lingyun swayed where he stood, the strength draining out of him instantly. The pressure in his chest collapsed as quickly as it had built. His vision blurred, stars flashing behind his eyes as the world tilted violently beneath him.

The gun slipped from his hand, the sound so loud in the silence that it caused him to flinch.

His knees gave out just as Yuche reached out to him, catching him before he fell. One arm locked around him as Yuche pulled him upright until he took most of Lingyun’s weight.

"We have to move," Chenghai snapped, already bending to grab the gun Lingyun had dropped, his voice tight but controlled.

Lingyun tried to speak, his thoughts struggling to catch up to what had just happened.

"What—"

The word died in his throat.

They heard it... the sound of moaning that was going to follow them into their dreams every night from here on out.

The zombies weren’t close, but they were coming.

Zhenlan looked around his eyes wide as he could see movement in the distance. There were more zombies than before, their speed seemingly to pick up as they got closer and closer.

It was like someone had rang the dinner bell, and they were starving.

Yuche tightened his hold on Lingyun.

Chenghai stepped forward.

Zhenlan raised the crowbar.

No one looked back at the SUV.

The last strip of sunlight slipped beneath the buildings... and the world went dark.