Liora didn’t press him any further.
She could see it clearly—Eli was uncomfortable. His little shoulders had gone stiff, and he clung to her as if afraid that saying something would not be right. She didn’t want to force this little guy to speak in front of so many people. Not when he looked like he wanted to disappear.
So instead, she gently stroked his hair and said softly, "If you don’t know, that’s okay. No need to worry about it."
Eli nodded quickly, burying his face deeper against her.
Liora looked up and met the others’ eyes, giving them a quiet look that told them to let him be. He was just a child. Whatever happened, they could figure it out later.
"So," she asked, shifting the conversation, "how are the others?"
"All fine," Zhou Yinuo replied. "Everyone’s here. A little terrified maybe, but no injuries at all."
Chen Wei smiled at her, his tone light but warm. "You should come out and see for yourself. Everyone’s waiting. You’re the last one to wake up, you know."
Liora blinked, surprised for a moment, but then gave a small nod.
Without another word, she stood up, gave Eli one last pat on the back, and walked out of the room.
The hallway was quiet, the wooden floor creaking softly under her feet. When she reached the living room, her eyes widened slightly.
Zhao Ren, Yun Shou, Mei, Shen Haoran, Ji Ming, and Yan Lin were all there.
The sunlight filtering through the dusty curtains bathed the space in gold. The room smelled faintly of warm food and worn wood, and for a moment it didn’t feel like they were in a world full of death. It almost felt like home.
Zhao Ren was the first to notice her. He stood by the kitchen counter with a spatula in one hand with wide eyes.
Then the others followed.
She barely had time to react before a wave of bodies crashed into her.
Mei was the first to reach her, throwing her arms around her tightly. "I thought you’d sleep forever!" she laughed, her voice shaky with concern.
Ji Ming ruffled her hair the moment Mei let go. "See? I told you she’d be the last one up. Always late, even in the apocalypse."
Yun Shou gave her a strong clap on the back. "Glad to see you on your feet. You had us worried."
Even Yan Lin, who usually kept to herself, smiled softly and patted Liora’s shoulder. "Welcome back."
And Zhao Ren, still holding the spatula, walked over with mock seriousness and looked her up and down. "Hmm... Not a zombie. Slightly hungry-looking. Yeah, she’s still human."
Liora laughed, the sound catching in her throat like it wasn’t used to coming out. She hadn’t smiled in so long, not after she had seen her friends dying one after another.
They all made space for her on the couch, and she sat down, still a little dazed. The cushions sank under her weight, and someone handed her a warm bowl of food before she could even ask.
"So," Yun Shou said, leaning forward with a raised brow, "you’re the last one to wake. Got any memory of what the hell just happened?"
Liora shook her head slowly. "Nothing after... after the fight. The last thing I remember was blood. Screaming. And that zombie—"
Everyone grew quiet for a second.
"That freakish monster," Ji Ming muttered. "You saw it too, right? That thing wasn’t normal. I have never encountered a zombie neither have I heard about it..."
"It was smart, like a human," Mei said, frowning. "The way it targeted us. It knew who the strongest were. It went for them first."
"Yeah, and it was fast," Zhao Ren added. "Too fast. I didn’t even see it when it clawed through us and most importantly he has also ability just like us, we have never heard about a zombie having ability."
Liora swallowed hard. "I saw it kill Liang Zihan... and the others... one by one. I saw—" she paused, forcing her voice to steady. "There was no way anyone could survive that. And yet..."
Every single one of them was here, laughing, talking and breathing.
Not a scratch. Not a bruise. Not even a faded scar to show they had ever been torn apart or stabbed or shot.
"It feels like we just woke up from a dream," Yan Lin said quietly, her voice almost drowned by the sound of the bubbling pot in the kitchen.
"But it wasn’t a dream," Shen Haoran said as he walked in, a serious look on his face. "I remember dying. I remember the pain. I remember lying there thinking, ’this is it.’ And now... nothing."
"I had four deep wounds across my chest," Yun Shou said, lifting his shirt to reveal smooth, clean skin. "Now look. Like nothing ever touched me."
Ji Ming laughed nervously. "Honestly, if someone told me I imagined the whole thing, I’d almost believe them. But the fear was real. That cold crawling feeling when we knew we were going to die... I still feel it in my bones."
"And yet here we are," Zhao Ren said, crossing his arms. "All of us in one piece."
They fell quiet again.
Liora looked down at her hands. They were shaking slightly, not from fear but from confusion. She had seen her friends die—their broken bodies lying in twisted heaps, their screams echoing in her ears, blood pooling beneath them in terrifying silence. There had been no hope. None.
And yet, they were all here—laughing together, teasing one another, and even arguing playfully over the stew and whose turn it was to wash the dishes.
"What if someone saved us?" she said slowly. "Someone brought us here... healed us somehow?"
"Then where are they?" Yun Shou asked. "Why not show themselves?"
"Maybe they want something," Mei murmured.
"Maybe Eli knows something or he may have seen him, because he was the only one awake and maybe he had followed who saved us here?" Ji Ming added with a hesitant shrug.
Everyone turned to look at Liora.
She shook her head quickly. "He said he doesn’t remember anything. I didn’t push him. He looked really scared."
"Then we don’t know," Shen Haoran said quietly. "We don’t know how we lived. But I’m not complaining."
"No one is," Zhao Ren said with a crooked grin. "But I’d still like to know how I went from nearly dead to cooking rice again."
That earned a laugh from everyone.
It didn’t answer anything, but for now, no one really wanted to argue how they are still alive.
But Liora was different. While the others laughed and relaxed as if waking from a strange dream, something inside her refused to settle. None of this made sense. It couldn’t. There was nothing in the world that came without a price, not in the apocalypse, not in life.