Chapter 19—Time will pass
Chapter 19—Time will pass
Song Yu did not dig their graves close the village. Instead, he burned their bodies and carried their ashes in his space. He cleaned up the rest of the bodies, and by daylight, the zombies had started moving around again. Song Yu looked on indifferently at the ugly rotten faces of the zombies, a cruel smile lighting his face. What was he so scared of before? These things looked more harmless that that cannibalistic group.
He didn’t feel like practicing, so in a span of two hours, he had completely killed all of the zombies in the surrounding area. He didn’t look for survivors.
He sat in the car and drove off, his mind in a state of numbness. He drove for several hours until he reached his destination. There was a lake surrounded by mountains and a small area where the locals would sit in the shade of the trees and have picnics while watching the beautiful scenery. There weren’t any zombies around, so Song Yu casually got out and scanned the best area.
When he spotted an area that bloomed wild flowers, he started digging. He didn’t have funeral urns, but he did have clean white linen fabric in his space. He dug deep enough so animals wouldn’t dig it up and placed the clean linen inside. He gently placed three ashes into graves side by side before looking for stones to write their names.
He spent an hour carving their names.
Oh. I forgot to ask how to spell them…
Song Yu guessed the characters and wrote them down. When he was finished, he bowed respectfully to each grave before driving back to his home. Squinty eyes barked happily as Song Yu got out, his small body clinging to his calves. Derpy grazed in the fields and snorted happily when he saw him. Song Yu picked up Squinty-eyes and walked into the grand villa. Reaching his room, he dropped Squinty and took off his hunting gear and put it in his space for purification.
Dressing in a cotton button down and slacks, he sat at the edge of his bed, his eyes still listless. He fell back and the softness enveloped him.
Closing his eyes, he comforted himself.
“Time will pass, and you will be okay.”
He repeated the mantra and lulled himself into a deep sleep…
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.
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Two Years later
Day 788
“NOOOOOOO!!!!! Wei Wuxian!!! He suffered so much!!!” Song Yu bawled and threw tissues at the screen. A drama was playing on the large TV, showing scenes of immense sadness. Song Yu couldn’t help but blubber as he saw the main protagonist hold the other in his arms as soft music played in the background.
“Oh shit! Why you gotta hurt my heart this way? I CAN’T wait for next week, I gotta watch it now!”
Song Yu had promised himself, that to stretch entertainment, he would watch things as if they came out online. TV dramas were usually twice a week while animations were once a week. He had recently been watching the super popular show The Un*amed and could help but binge on this luscious goodness. He had come into it blind, and now has to see if he had downloaded the novel.
Song Yu sniffed again, his heart hurting. He used all of his willpower not to click the next episode and instead got up and went into the karaoke room. His sadness was a disease, as he turned on the machine, clicking the #sadshower playlist.
An oncoming song brought him to the cusp of even more tears. He turned on his microphone and swayed back and forth to the slow beat, and sung with so much conviction, anyone watching would think he had experienced a break up.
Where there is hope! There is always hardship!
You know, you know you know, yeah, yeah!
He spun and dropped down an octave,
I DON’T WANNA CRY
I DON’T WANNA REST
No, who cares if we rest a little?
No, no, no
I don’t wanna lose
It’s always a desert
I told you everything
Then I’ll just be more depressed!
Song Yu rotated through several songs before ending it with a much better mindset. He left the karaoke room and saw Squinty passing through followed by several chicks.
“Squinty! What did I say about bringing them in the house! Out! I tell you, out!” He shooed the balls of yellow through several rooms and sighed when they hopped out of the doggy door.
Squinty had grown ginormous in the last 2 years. Like he had predicted, neither Squinty nor Derpy had become zombies. Almost a year ago, they had developed spiritual awareness. Song Yu was extremely happy, because the more they exercised their spiritual awareness, the more chance they could develop an ability. So far, none of them had one, but Song Yu had the feeling that Derpy would have another awakening soon.
Song Yu checked the time and stretched his back.
“Let’s go check on the fields.”
He heard a loud bark on the other side of the door and laughed. Going into his bedroom, he changed into a nice ivory shirt, brown pants, and working boots. He went to his dresser and took out a nice straw hat—a skill he learned throughout these two years.
Putting it on his head, he left the villa and went into the shed, taking out several farm tools. It was spring now, so there wasn’t a harvest, but buds. He walked southward towards the fields and checked the lattice, which held peppers. The sprouting period hadn’t matured yet, but he could see those tiny green stubs. Making sure he didn’t rub his eyes, he checked everywhere to see a variant. Using the purified water, the plants usually didn’t zombify.
But it wasn’t hard to check.
Once done, Song Yu then went to the vine fields and checked several green vegetables. There weren’t any abnormalities either. Song Yu hummed a happy tune as he took the hose and started spraying. Listening in the background, he heard the sound of happy barking, cows grazing, and chicks chirping. Song Yu couldn’t help but pat himself on the back.
He did good.
It was reaching three in the afternoon, so Song Yu finished up the chores and took Squinty to the tree on the side of the front yard. This tree was almost a hundred years old, its height just perfect for climbing, and its shade perfect for sitting in.
He took off his straw hat and wiped the sweat off his brow. Taking cold water from his space, he gulped it haphazardly and smacked his lips in a crisp sound. Under the tree, there was a large hammock swing equipped with cushions, so he jumped in and swung wantonly. He flicked off his work boots and felt the grass under his feet.
Ahhh…Life was good.
Song Yu took out an e-reader out of his space and looked for the book the drama he was watching. Finding no successes with the name, he searched for the author. Immediately, his eyes lit up as he fist bumped the air!
Yeasssss! I got it! Not one, not two, but three different books? Hallelujah!!
He snuggled in the hammock and let the cool breeze lift his hair. He kept watching until the sun set, then grumpily moved back into the house. Squinty was already in front of the TV, a remote under his paws, passing through different genres of movies.
“What are you in the mood for?” Song Yu slid onto the couch, not minding what he wanted. Squinty pressed the button several times, looking pensive. After scouring the lists, he finally settled on a Christmas movie.
“You miss the snow huh?” Song Yu chuckled. The snow had been fierce the first winter, and even fiercer the second, causing a massive shortage of vegetables. Luckily, he had foraged enough to last. Squinty and Derpy liked the snow and would gallop on the ice lake almost every day.
Watching a movie with Squinty, he ruffled his long hair and decided to make dinner. Nothing too fancy, Song Yu took out lean pork from the fridge that he had put in the morning to thaw. Slicing them up into thin pieces, he then moved on to cut cabbage, green beans, carrots, basil and the likes before tossing them. On low heat, he simmered the lean pork until it was golden brown adding in garlic and salt, a small smidgen of msg and oyster sauce. Putting in the vegetables, he turned the heat lower and let everything simmer together.
He smelled the food happily and turned towards the rice cooker that still had leftovers from lunch. The white rice he had bought had finished a while ago, so he planted, threshed and then dried rice. It wasn’t as white, but it still tasted divine.
He checked the dinner and turned off the stove, hoisting the pan on top of his bowl of rice. The pretty brown sauce dripped invitingly onto the rice before everything else. Song Yu gulped hungrily at the concoction.
He set the table for one, filled the dog bowl and had a nice quiet dinner. Bite after bite of crispy vegetables assaulted by the smell of meat tasted like heaven. Song Yu gave a thumbs up in his heart. Ever since taking those video classes, his repertoire of culinary dishes grew extensively.
He patted his stomach and burped happily. Squinty had also finished his bowl and yipped to signal the dishes.
After cleaning up, Song Yu retired to his bed. Another beautiful day spent in paradise. Song Yu snuggled in the soft sheets, the air con softly breezing in his room. He stretched his arms and hit the calendar on his nightstand. Seeing the date, he grumbled.
Every month, Song Yu would leave his paradise and fight zombies. In the beginning he hardly went out. But after almost 6 months of staying inside, he couldn’t handle it and ventured to the eastern region. The eastern part had more population, so the zombies had wandered farther and farther away. When he sighted a zombie only 3 hours away from his property, he had to do something.
So every month, he would go out and kill zombies in the surrounding area, setting off a 5 hour perimeter. As more time passed, the fewer zombies had come around. Song Yu made sure that zombies never had a chance to create a mob. In the current time, the highest level zombie was a level 4.
The day after tomorrow, he would make his rounds. Song Yu sighed deeply and cuddled further into his nice comforter, going off into a restless sleep.
...
Song Yu's #sadshower playlist (to be updated)
Fix You, Coldplay
Sea, BTS
For forever, Dear Evan Hansen
Achilles, come down, Gang of Youths
Night Flower, Yeeun Ahn
Lend me your voice, Kaho Nakamura
Wrecked, Imagine Dragons
Eight, IU
I'll stand by you, The Pretenders
The answer to everything, Zhou Shen
Grow as we go, Ben Platt
Ephiphany, Jin BTS
You can be king again, Lauren Aquilina
*We stan a multi-lingual Song Yu*