I stood in front of the door, making sure that it was closed behind me, as I watched Commander Li’s knee jerk reactions.

It was amazing what you could learn about a person when they were under pressure, and this was definitely a man that was under pressure.

But I had to hand it to him. He never flinched, he never hesitated, and he never let his men make fatal mistakes.

I never knew him in my past life, but he would be one of the very few men worthy of command.

The gunfire was constant now, layered and overlapping, until it was all I could hear. Li’s soldiers held their positions on the porch, their rifles raised, and their bodies angled for stability as they fired and reloaded in practiced rhythm.

But they hadn’t learned the first lesson about a zombie apocalypse. Guns were pretty much useless unless it was as a last resort. Bullets, once fired, could never be used again.

They were just wasting their supplies, and not having anything show for it.

The zombies kept coming, their sheer numbers almost overwhelming as the distance closed from thirty meters to twenty-five, then twenty.

Bodies piled up at the gate and along the driveway, but the horde climbed over them without slowing, their momentum carrying them forward even after headshots landed clean.

To my right, Chenghai stood with his arms loose at his sides, his breathing controlled and his eyes tracked the fight going on in front of us. Zhenlan was positioned to my left, his stance relaxed but ready, and I already knew that he used his powers so that we were no longer gagging on the smell of almost a thousand zombies in a confined space.

Lingyun stood next to Chenghai, leaning against the side of the house, his hands empty but his fingers flexed slightly as he watched the soldiers fire.

Yuche was right beside Zhenlan, his expression calm and his gaze moving between the porch and the approaching horde with measured assessment.

None of them spoke. None of them moved forward.

Each of us was watching the same show... but we were all getting different things out of it.

I saw the soldiers adjust their formation as the pressure built.

Chen Minghao shifted right to cover a gap, his rifle cracking twice in quick succession. Liu Zhenyu reloaded without looking down, his hands moving through the motion automatically while his eyes stayed locked on the next target.

The porch steps were compromised now as zombies climbed over the fallen bodies and reached the railing before being dropped by close-range headshots.

The defensive line was compressing inward, tightening toward the door where I stood. Li’s command had been clear, but the line was bending under the weight of too many bodies moving too fast.

"Go," I said after a moment, my head cocked to the side.

The word was quiet, almost conversational, but I didn’t have to repeat myself.

All four men moved immediately.

Chenghai went first, his body shifting from stillness to motion in a single fluid transition.

Zhenlan followed half a step behind, angling left to create space between him and the others as he cleared the threshold.

Lingyun moved right, his path already calculated before his first step landed.

Yuche came last, after taking one look at me, his movement controlled and deliberate. He positioned himself to fill the gap between Chenghai and Zhenlan, making sure to watch their backs.

They didn’t speak. They didn’t look back. They simply went to work.

Chenghai reached the first zombie before it cleared the porch railing. His fist connected with its skull in a single punch that crushed bone and sent the body sprawling backward into the two zombies behind it.

The punch was a thing of beauty and I couldn’t help but smile as I watched him move.

He shifted immediately to the next target, his hands moving in controlled arcs as he cleared the space around the steps.

His speed was faster than the last time he fought, and his strikes landed faster than the zombies could react. I wondered if he knew how much he had improved in just a few short days.

Zhenlan moved past him into the driveway where the biggest number of zombies waited for their moment.

The air around him shifted visibly, and I could feel the pressure building and releasing in controlled bursts that redirected lunging zombies mid-stride.

One zombie leaped toward him and was caught by an invisible force that sent it tumbling sideways into three others.

The cluster collapsed in a tangle of limbs, buying space that Zhenlan used to advance further into the horde.

He wasn’t scared, he didn’t hesitate. He just make a decision and went with it.

Lingyun stepped off the porch edge and fire appeared in his hands without warning.

The flames formed into balls of light that he threw toward the biggest group of zombies.

Each fireball hit where it was supposed to, lighting zombies up before burning them down into ash. The flames spread fast, forcing the horde to shift away from the heat, bunching up tighter instead of pushing straight through.

Even then, the zombies didn’t drop right away. They kept moving for a few more steps, their bodies burning as they pushed forward before finally collapsing when the fire finished its job.

His position gave him a clear view without getting in anyone’s way, and when Chen Minghao shifted right, he moved left without thinking, covering the gap without needing to be told.

I cocked my head to the side, impressed that these two groups of men were able to merge so well together without even trying.

It was worth it to tell them about the rain.

Yuche stepped into the space between the porch and the driveway, his eyes steady as he tracked his targets.

A zombie came at him from the right and dropped instantly, its head leaving its body with enough force to stop all forward motion. Another lunged from the front and went down just as fast, bone cracking from the force of the hit.

There was no movement to give it away, no warning. One second they were there, the next they weren’t.

The soldiers adjusted without missing a beat. Li didn’t say anything or question it. He just shifted his aim and kept firing, making space for the men who had stepped in.

Zhao Rui changed his angle so he didn’t cross Lingyun’s fire. Sun Ming tightened his position near the door, leaving room for Chenghai to move freely. The line pulled in tighter, but the pressure eased just enough now that the extra weight was being handled.

The zombies kept coming, but the line stopped giving ground.

And I stayed where I was, just watching.