Chenghai’s head felt like it was splitting open.

The second scream hit harder than the first, causing a wave of pressure to slam through his skull hard enough that his vision blurred while something warm trickled slowly from one ear.

Around them, the zombies became faster, more violent, their movements sharpening with every pulse of sound rolling across the highway.

He should have felt fear. He should have felt something after hearing that blood curdling scream. But the problem was that the scream didn’t make him want to run.

It made him want to kill whatever was making that noise before his head exploded.

Beside him, Lingyun staggered back a few steps before flames burst violently down both of his arms. "Oh, fuck you," he snarled toward the screamer before driving a burning blade through two zombies at once. Blood started to pour from the inner corner of his eyes like tears, but he didn’t wipe them away.

Then the thing screamed again and several abandoned car windows shattered instantly.

One of the weaker zombies nearby suddenly collapsed twitching onto the pavement, dark blood leaking from both ears before its skull split apart completely and a light blue core was revealed.

Chenghai’s expression darkened as he looked at the thing before Rouxi’s vine snatched it up.

"Everyone still alive?" he barked while punching through another zombie hard enough to send the corpse flying backward into a transport truck.

"Debatable," Lingyun shouted back. "I think my brain is melting."

"At least that means you still have one," Rouxi replied casually, a light sound of laughter coming from her voice. The sound was so wrong that Chenghai turned toward her automatically.

Then he froze for half a second as he watched her dancing around the zombies.

She wasn’t affected.

At all.

The vines moving along her arms looked almost lazy as they tore through zombies one after another while the little vine around her shoulders hissed happily at the screaming creature further down the highway.

Even the screamer was still trapped in Rouxi’s vines, completely unable to move anything more than her mouth.

What was worse was that Rouxi actually looked... excited

"I heard about these things once," she said thoughtfully while stepping over a corpse. "Apparently they can turn your brain into liquid until it leaks out your ears."

"That is not helpful information," Zhenlan snapped.

"I never got to see one before though," Rouxi continued with a shrug like he hadn’t spoken. "I have to admit, I’m a little disappointed. I thought they would be harder to deal with."

The screamer shrieked again, once again focusing directly toward Rouxi.

The effect was immediate.

The pavement beneath her feet cracked apart while abandoned vehicles around them groaned loudly enough that the metal started bending inward. Several nearby zombies exploded into pieces completely unable to withstand the pressure behind the scream.

Rouxi tilted her head slightly.

"...That’s it? You’re just a baby, aren’t you? So cute."

The Banshee froze.

Then it screamed louder.

Blood was actively leaking from Chenghai’s ears now. He could feel his pulse hammering painfully inside his skull while more zombies surged toward them recklessly enough that several got trampled beneath the growing horde.

But none of them touched Rouxi.

Not with the vines around her.

One wrapped around a zombie’s throat and tore the head clean off while another pierced directly through a skull before returning with a glowing yellow crystal. The baby vine happily swallowed it immediately afterward.

Honestly, Chenghai was starting to think that little monster was scarier than anything that the zombies could throw at them.

The Banshee screamed again, but this time more in frustration.

Then suddenly stopped.

Every zombie on the highway froze.

Lingyun frowned. "Uh..."

A low laugh echoed somewhere deeper in the city.

The sound was almost worse than the screams, the creepy laughter causing the hairs on his arms to stand straight up.

The laughter continued, getting louder and louder with every passing second.

The Banshee shrieked violently in response, its entire body twisting toward the sound like it had completely forgotten about them.

Rouxi let out a chuckle of her own and for some reason that Chenghai couldn’t figure out, she let her vines unravel from the screamer until the powerful zombie was free again.

Then the zombies surrounding them started moving.

They weren’t attacking so much as it seemed like they had completely lost interest in the humans they were so desperately trying to kill just moments ago.

"What the fuck?" Lingyun muttered softly. "It’s like we are yesterday’s trash. Why aren’t they trying to eat us anymore?"

Before anyone could reply, heavy footsteps echoed through the highway.

The pace was slow.

Deliberate.

An overturned truck suddenly shifted several feet sideways like something massive had slammed into it from behind. Metal screamed loudly before the vehicle flipped completely onto its side.

Then another round of laugher rolled through the air.

The Banshee screamed furiously, and for the first time since this thing appeared, Chenghai realized it sounded afraid.

Something massive stepped out onto the highway.

The creature had once been human.

Probably.

Now it stood close to eight feet tall, its body grotesquely swollen with layers of hardened muscle and thick gray flesh stitched together by black veins pulsing faintly beneath the skin.

One arm looked almost normal compared to the other, which had mutated into something enormous enough to crush a car door flat with a single squeeze.

Its mouth split open slowly.

Laughing.

The zombies surrounding it immediately dropped their heads lower in submission.

"A Banshee and a Butcher," Rouxi murmured softly. "Fun, fun."

The thing’s eyes locked onto her instantly.

Then the Banshee screamed again, enraged.

Its zombies surged toward the massive creature without hesitation which caused the Butcher laughed harder.

Then slammed its oversized fist downward hard enough to turn the first five zombies into paste.

The highway exploded into chaos.

The Banshee’s zombies crashed into the Butcher’s horde while the evolved zombies tore into each other violently enough that limbs and blood started flying across the road. Screams echoed from every direction as the two groups collided like rival armies finally meeting on a battlefield.

And just like that...

The humans stopped mattering.

One second Chenghai had been fighting for his life.

The next?

Completely ignored.

"What do we do now?" he asked honestly, staring at the war suddenly breaking out around them.

Rouxi blinked before she walked over to an overturned car and leaned casually against it. "Take five?" she suggested like this was all supposed to be real life and not some type of fucked up dream.

Before anyone could respond, snacks started appearing from seemingly nowhere. Sandwiches wrapped in plastic came out of her jacket pocket followed by bags of chips, protein bars, and two packs of gummies.

"How the hell are you carrying all that?" Lingyun demanded.

Rouxi ignored him completely while opening a bag of cheezies that came from an inner coat pocket. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

"There’s water and coffee in the SUV trunk," she murmured with a wave of her hand before popping one into her mouth. "An army can’t march on an empty stomach and all that."

Chenghai stared at her.

Then at the two hordes ripping each other apart across the highway.

Then back at Rouxi casually eating cheezies while watching the apocalypse evolve in real time.

"...You planned for this," he realized slowly.

Rouxi crunched another cheezie between her teeth.

"Not really," she replied. "But there is always times for snacks."