The second the bodies started moving, everyone did too.

Lingyun swore loudly enough that I was pretty sure at least three religions were offended while flames exploded from both of his hands in violent bursts. Fire rolled across the concrete floor toward the nearest wave of rats, and for one glorious second, I thought the problem might solve itself.

Then the burning rats kept running.

Well.

That would teach me to hope for the best.

There was no time to think, no time to really process anything before the warehouse erupted into noise.

The sound of shrieking came from all sides and I couldn’t tell if it was from a human mouth or a rodent. The scratching sound that would haunt me for at least a few hours was definitely rodent... and the wet chewing sounds I prayed was from a rat.

Otherwise.... I’d be having nightmares for a whole different reason.

Bodies twitched against the concrete floor while thousands of tiny clawed feet skittered across the floor in waves thick enough to blur together beneath the emergency lights.

The rats poured over each other so fast they stopped looking individual and started looking like moving black water.

"Move!" Yuche barked as if we weren’t already booking it to the nearest exit. But the moment the word came out of his mouth, metal screamed somewhere overhead.

A shelving unit tore sideways hard enough to crash into the nearest swarm, crushing dozens of rats beneath it in a spray of blood and twitching tails. The wave behind them immediately climbed over the fallen rack without slowing down.

Yeah... no...

I grabbed a bag of chips and held it to my chest like this alone would make everything okay.

News flash.

It didn’t.

"What are you doing?!" Lingyun shouted.

"I’m multitasking!"

"You’re stealing chips during a zombie rat apocalypse!"

"Well I’m not leaving them behind!"

Honestly, I didn’t understand why this was controversial.

The half-dead woman near the wall suddenly convulsed hard enough to throw several rats from her chest. Her cloudy eyes snapped toward us while blood bubbled from her mouth.

The moan that tore out of her told us everything that we needed to know.

Nope.

No thank you.

I was not dealing with zombies on top of the rats. I refused.

But the universe clearly didn’t care about my opinion because the rats surged forward again.

Zhenlan reacted instantly.

Wind exploded through the warehouse hard enough to send hundreds of rats flying backward into shelves and concrete pillars. Tiny bodies burst wetly against metal while others hit the floor still twitching before immediately scrambling upright again.

But there were still too many rats.

Chenghai drove his fist into the nearest swarm with enough force to cave in concrete beneath them. Rat bodies exploded outward in every direction, but the opening lasted less than a second before more flooded into the gap.

The floor itself looked alive.

"Get to the front!" Yuche ordered.

Honestly?

That sounded like an order I could agree with.

The problem was that the rats also seemed emotionally invested in us not leaving.

Black waves poured down from broken insulation overhead while more flooded from storm drains beneath the warehouse floor. One burst through a damaged section of drywall in such huge numbers that the wall itself seemed to collapse into fur and teeth.

Ewe.

Definitely still ewe.

The baby vine exploded from where it was wrapped around my wrist, slamming into the nearest swarm hard enough to carve a path through the moving black mass. Rats flew sideways into shelves, carts, walls, and each other while the vine lashed violently across the floor like it was personally offended by their existence.

"Left side!" Chenghai snapped.

Lingyun immediately threw fire toward the shelving units while Zhenlan blasted another wave backward with compressed air strong enough to crack several fluorescent lights overhead.

The lights in the warehouse flickered for a moment before they dimmed even further.

Wonderful.

Exactly what this situation needed.

Mood lighting.

One of the half-dead men near the wall suddenly jerked upright hard enough to rip himself free from the rats covering his chest. Flesh hung loose from his stomach while his jaw snapped wildly toward the nearest movement.

That makes two zombies for those of us counting.

The rats immediately scattered away from him.

Interesting.

Then the zombie sprinted directly toward us.

Less interesting.

Yuche ripped a metal support beam straight out of the shelving beside him and drove it through the zombie’s skull before it made it three steps.

The body collapsed instantly.

Several rats immediately swarmed back over it.

Okay.

That was somehow worse.

"Move!" Zhenlan shouted.

This time nobody argued.

We ran.

Or at least the others ran.

I moved at what I considered a perfectly reasonable speed given the circumstances and the fact that I was still pulling useful things into my space as we passed them.

Batteries.

Medicine.

Coffee.

Three boxes of instant noodles.

Enough snacks to fill a Costco.

If I was already traumatized enough to be here, then I deserved compensation.

The rats flooded after us.

The sound behind us no longer sounded individual.

It sounded like the ocean.

Black movement spilled through the warehouse aisles while red eyes flashed beneath shelves and between overturned carts. Several rats launched themselves toward Lingyun’s legs before flames swallowed them midair.

He looked one second away from a complete emotional breakdown and I wasn’t going to judge.

The automatic doors at the front of Costco were still jammed open from earlier.

The second we burst into the parking lot, I realized the problem had gotten much worse.

The rats weren’t staying inside.

They were everywhere.

Black waves poured from storm drains and broken storefronts while abandoned vehicles shifted slightly from movement underneath them. One overturned shopping cart suddenly collapsed sideways as dozens of rats spilled through the metal frame like water.

"Oh come on," I complained. "Why are they outside now too?!"

"Because that’s how infestations work!" Lingyun shouted back.

"That sounds like fake news!"

Yuche shoved open the SUV door hard enough to dent the vehicle beside it. "Inside! Now!"

Again.

Smart plan.

I was definitely going to give Yuche a gold star for his performance today.

I climbed into the passenger seat immediately while Lingyun practically launched himself over the back seats trying to get away from the parking lot.

Chenghai slammed the rear door shut a second before a wave of rats hit the side of the SUV hard enough to make the entire vehicle shake.

Nope.

No thank you.

Yuche hit the gas instantly.

The SUV tore across the parking lot while rats flooded between abandoned cars in black rippling masses. Several launched themselves at the tires only to disappear beneath the vehicle with wet crunching sounds.

The second we reached the main road, the situation somehow got even worse.

The rats had spread into the streets.

Black waves moved through intersections and over sidewalks while people-shaped figures stumbled blindly through the chaos only to vanish beneath moving carpets of fur and teeth. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

One zombie fell near a storm drain.

The rats stripped it down to bone before the SUV even reached the next intersection.

Silence filled the vehicle after that.

Not because anyone had calmed down.

Because nobody had enough emotional stability left to process what we were seeing.

Lingyun finally broke first. "I hate this city."

"Yup," I agreed immediately.

Another wave of rats spilled across the road ahead of us.

Then the trees moved.

A vine slipped quietly from the overgrown branches hanging above the street and wrapped delicately around one of the rats before tossing it upward into the leaves overhead.

The sound of crunching echoed through the silence like a gunshot as all of us looked at the tree, completely stunned.

Another vine followed immediately after.

Then another.

Then dozens.

The plants reached into the moving black waves with disturbing precision, plucking rats from the streets one at a time like someone absentmindedly eating popcorn during a movie.

Rats disappeared into the greenery so quickly it almost looked casual.

One vine curled carefully around a rat by the tail before flicking it upward into the branches.

Crunch.

Another wrapped around three at once.

Crunch.

The greenery along the sidewalks shifted softly while roots burst through cracked pavement beneath the swarms. Rats vanished screaming into leaves, branches, and thick flowering vines while the plants fed with horrifying efficiency.

I watched it happen for several long seconds.

Then leaned back into my seat slowly as I lifted a hand to the window.

’See?’ I said silently, turning to look at Chenghai. This was exactly why I wasn’t worried about people trying to attack the mansion anymore. Nothing with survival instincts was stupid enough to crawl through that.

Beside me, Yuche stayed silent while his hands tightened slightly against the steering wheel.

In the backseat, nobody moved.

I glanced toward the rearview mirror briefly.

Chenghai and Zhenlan both stared out the windows at the feeding plants with expressions so tight they almost looked sick.

Good.

Maybe now they finally understood that this was why I stayed home.