Chương 117: Sleeping Like a River

A moment later, the walkie-talkie crackled to life with static.

"Vince... not busy at all... We just finished sweeping two buildings and put together a list. You want it?"

"That's not it... We've mostly cleared out the main zombie horde in the Xingfuli Compound. See if you can organize a crew to clean up the bodies..." There had to be over a hundred corpses littering the ground. Even Vince hadn't seen a slaughter on this scale before. He had to actively suppress the urge to look too closely, lest it give him nightmares later tonight...

"Huh?"

"... You wiped them out already?!" Ben's voice echoed over the comms, dripping with absolute disbelief. Vince could hear faint, hushed murmurs from the people around him in the background.

"Back off... Alright, Vince, let's talk in person. I'll bring some guys over through the stairwells..." Vince shoved the walkie-talkie back into his pocket. Reaching down, he hauled the unconscious Bruno up, tossed him over his shoulder, and propped him against the wall near the stairwell entrance. He'd have to explain the guy's situation to Ben in a bit to avoid any misunderstandings. Less than a few minutes later, the unit door of the adjacent building creaked open.

A few spears cautiously poked out, followed closely by several faces.

"Holy shit!"

"That was fast!"

"Look at all these dead bodies..." The exclamations spilled out of the door before the men fully stepped outside. Several spear-wielding men squeezed through the doorway, with Ben trailing right behind them.

"Vince..." Finishing their shock-induced gawking, the group finally noticed Vince standing a short distance away and hurriedly greeted him.

"Damn, Vince, this..." The guy leading the pack was Zack, someone Vince had run into a few times. Being a bit more familiar with him and less intimidated, he took the initiative to speak up.

"This... there's gotta be over a hundred of them here?! You guys took care of all this... in just one morning?" But then he remembered that the powerhouse standing before him defied all common sense. Furthermore, as part of Ben's inner circle, he had heard the rumors about Awakened individuals. Word was that Vince and his four-person squad had headed out together, resulting in this morning's massacre. Zack himself was one of the core vanguard fighters under Ben, tasked with clearing out floors.

No one understood the terrifying physical strength of a single zombie better than he did. Yet, the mountain of corpses laid out before him only intensified his envy of Awakened power.

"Whoa!"

"So many bodies..."

"Urp!" Before Vince could exchange more pleasantries with Zack, Ben squeezed out of the door, followed by a larger crowd. They were bundled up tightly. Some, lacking proper gloves, had just wrapped plastic trash bags around their hands. It looked like the cleanup crew he had organized.

"Vince... Are Claire and the others alright?" Stepping over the gore, Ben approached. He glanced at the large dumpster, and seeing it empty, voiced his concern. It seemed he had heard about their 'Moving Castle' tactic from the scouts earlier that morning, so he didn't find the dumpster odd. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"They're fine... They headed back." Vince scanned the area but couldn't spot a decent dumping ground for the bodies.

"These corpses..."

"I thought about it on the way down. Let's just haul them all into Building 23, seal the doors, and call it a day..." Ben shrugged, looking to Vince for approval. Building 23 was the one that had been gutted by fire previously. Since nobody lacked basic supplies at the moment, absolutely no one went near it. The zombie corpses from the streets and the mutant carcasses had all been dumped there previously—a detail Vince had completely forgotten in the heat of the moment.

"Works for me. You guys handle it. Worst case scenario, we dump them all in there and torch the place..." Vince clapped his hands, finalizing the plan. Getting the green light, Ben immediately began barking orders. The crew systematically stripped the corpses of anything useful—car keys, watches, and the like—before loading them onto handcarts to be wheeled over to Building 23. A designated team then hauled them inside.

Meanwhile, Zack and the armed vanguard set up a perimeter, keeping watch for any lurking zombies or unexpected threats during the cleanup. By now, Seth had finished off the remaining stragglers and returned. Seeing the chaotic crowd, he hung back at a distance. Vince waved him over.

"Patrol the area with them. If any stray zombies pop up, deal with them together. It's free EXP and loot for you. Plus, your stats are way higher than theirs; they'll be safer with you around." Vince patted Seth's shoulder. He knew the kid was socially averse, but that didn't necessarily stem from dislike; it was likely rooted in fear. By assigning him the role of protector, Vince was deliberately pushing him to experience what it felt like to be someone others relied on.

Shoving his walkie-talkie into Seth's hand, Vince pointed at Bruno slumped against the wall.

"Keep an eye on him while you're at it. If he wakes up or if things go sideways, radio me on this channel. I'm heading upstairs. I've got spares at my place..."

"Don't worry, Vince. I'm on it!" Seth nodded heavily, gripping his spear. His voice was a bit hoarse, but carried an unprecedented sense of conviction. After a morning of relentless combat, Vince could sense a shift in the young man's mentality. Pairing him with Zack's cleanup crew was a calculated move. Often, framing a mundane task with the right words gave it entirely new meaning. As Vince had admitted earlier, he rarely knew if his decisions were right or wrong.

But watching that slightly thin, yet surprisingly reassuring figure march off to join the perimeter... he figured he had probably guessed right this time. Vince turned and headed through the stairwell doors. Having fought through several skirmishes himself, he wasn't exhausted, but fatigue was definitely setting in. Precision-sculpting the spear had drained more of his mental Energy than he'd anticipated. It was only noon, but a wave of drowsiness was already washing over him.

Entering his apartment, he noticed two empty instant noodle bowls on the coffee table, the broth completely drained. A few empty braised egg wrappers were tossed nearby. Glancing toward the bedroom, he saw Claire and Zoe sprawled diagonally across opposite sides of the bed. Since neither had reacted to him coming in, they were clearly out cold. Vince quietly washed the grime and gore off himself in the bathroom, toweling off and dumping his blood-stiffened clothes by the door.

Changing into some clean loungewear, he collapsed onto the sofa. His original plan was to hold Claire for a bit and get some solid rest. Ben's crew had swept two buildings and identified several suspicious rooms, which likely meant mutant zombies. He'd have to head out and grind again after a short nap... But he couldn't sleep. The moment he closed his eyes, his mind flashed with the imagery of severed limbs and mangled corpses.

It felt as if he were trying to sleep on a mountain of the dead, liable to drown in the piling tide of flesh and filth at any second... In that moment, he felt a twinge of jealousy toward Claire and Zoe. Compared to him, they were genuinely physically drained, passing out the second their heads hit the pillows. They probably weren't even dreaming. A sudden, indescribable wave of exhaustion hit him, paired with a deep, psychological craving for validation—to anchor himself to something real.

So, grabbing his spare walkie-talkie, he got up and walked into the bedroom, looking down at the two peacefully sleeping figures. He carefully squeezed himself between them, resting his head on Claire's pillow, and pulled her into his arms. Claire mumbled, waking up slightly. Her blurry eyes fluttered open, but seeing it was Vince, she wasn't startled. She simply nuzzled into his embrace out of pure habit and drifted right back into a deep, secure sleep.

He didn't know why, but Claire's body always naturally gave off a faint, cool, and fragrant scent. Even though the weather outside wasn't hot, it was incredibly soothing. Feeling the soft, rhythmic rise and fall of her breathing against his chest, and listening to Zoe's faint snoring behind him, the tightly wound string in his mind finally loosened. A few moments later, he, too, slipped into a dreamless sleep.