"Water's boiling. Go get a large basin."

The survivor named Yu Donghai stared at the rolling bubbles in the pot and barked the order at Old Qin.

Old Qin shuffled over numbly. With his bound hands, he picked up the large iron basin normally used for kneading dough and dropped it beside the fire with a clang.

Yu Donghai grabbed Little Monkey by the tail and tossed it into the basin. "Now pour the boiling water over the monkey."

"How am I supposed to lift a pot like this?" Old Qin finally spoke, his voice dry and cracked.

Yu Donghai glanced at the rope around his wrists and sneered. "You want me to untie you?"

Old Qin just looked at him, saying nothing.

"Don't think I don't know what you are. You're a fucking veteran. Trained at Shaolin Temple for seven years. Untie you, and the few of us wouldn't last a minute."

"I've been starving for three days," Old Qin rasped. "Where would I get the strength? You're overthinking it."

"Untying you? Dream on. Maybe in your next life." Yu Donghai walked over, wrapped a rag around the inner pot of the rice cooker, and lifted it.

He was about to pour it over Little Monkey when Old Qin suddenly slammed into him from the side.

Clang!

"AHHH-FUCK-!"

The pot flipped directly onto Yu Donghai. Boiling water drenched his body. He screamed, clawing at his clothes, his voice tearing through the Tunnel.

Within moments, horrific blisters swelled across his bright red face.

"HELP ME-!"

Old Qin watched him without expression. He made no attempt to run.

Manager Wei and the others hadn't gone far into the Tunnel. They heard the commotion and rushed back. One look at Yu Donghai-writhing, disfigured-and Old Qin standing there with a faint smile, and they understood immediately.

"Old Yu's finished," the woman in stockings said with a giggle.

Many survivors had gone a little unhinged since the apocalypse.

Scalded this badly, in these conditions? No one could save Yu Donghai. Once he died, that was one less mouth to share the corn and monkey meat.

Everyone watched calmly as Yu Donghai rolled and howled.

Even Manager Wei only made a token show of anger. He had no intention of helping. Instead, he rounded on Old Qin. "This was you?"

"It was me," Old Qin said flatly.

Slap!

One of the men stepped forward and backhanded Old Qin across the face. "If anything happens to Brother Yu, I'll fucking kill you!"

Old Qin was already weak. He swayed, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

Bang! Another man grabbed a rolling pin and cracked it across Old Qin's back, knocking him to the ground. "I'll beat you to death!"

The two men laid into him with fists and feet.

Then Manager Wei spoke up. "Stop. Yu Donghai's beyond saving. We still need Old Qin to dig the grave."

His tone was utterly flat. Not a trace of grief for a dying companion.

Both men stopped and looked up. One nodded. "Manager Wei's right."

The other chimed in. "Yeah. He's still useful."

"Heh... heheh..."

Old Qin, face smeared with blood, suddenly started laughing.

"What's so funny?" Manager Wei's voice went cold.

"I'm laughing because if you keep me alive, sooner or later I'll kill another one of you. That's one less person splitting those corncobs, isn't it?"

Everyone knew exactly what Manager Wei was thinking.

But some things stink worse once you stir them up. Now that Old Qin had said it out loud, all eyes turned to Manager Wei.

"You want to die that badly?" Manager Wei's face twisted with rage.

He stepped forward and kicked Old Qin back down just as the man tried to rise. Then he drew the dagger from his belt and drove it into Old Qin's thigh.

"Heheh..." Old Qin kept laughing, as if the leg didn't belong to him.

"Brother Wei, just kill him!" the woman in stockings urged.

The other woman-who rarely agreed with her-nodded. "Brother Wei, let Xiaoli dig the hole. Old Qin can't be kept."

They both knew the truth. With a ticking bomb like Old Qin around, the two women were the most vulnerable. If he killed anyone, it would be them.

Manager Wei's scheme had been exposed. To prove himself to the others, he had no choice but to kill Old Qin.

That seemed to be exactly what Old Qin wanted.

Death was coming either way. He just wanted it quick.

"Heh. Kill me. Otherwise, the moment I get a chance, I'll take every last one of you with me."

Manager Wei yanked the dagger free. His eyes flashed with murderous intent as he raised the blade toward Old Qin's throat-

Bang!

A gunshot echoed through the Tunnel.

A little girl walked in from the entrance, pistol in hand, the muzzle still trailing smoke.

Everyone stared at Song Xiaodao, faces blank with shock.

Other survivors? Here? In the apocalypse?

But their tension eased quickly. She was just a girl, eleven or twelve at most. Even with a gun-did she actually have the nerve to kill?

Manager Wei slipped the dagger behind his back and put on a smile. "Little girl, that toy in your hand isn't safe. Why don't you put it down?"

Song Xiaodao lowered the pistol.

Then everyone saw a tall man step through the entrance, followed by an enormous water buffalo.

"See that?" Zhao Yin said.

"I'm sorry, Zhao Yin," Song Xiaodao said quietly. "From now on, I'll listen to you."

She had thought not everyone here deserved to die. So after Zhao Yin arrived and confirmed Little Monkey wasn't in immediate danger, he'd let her watch from outside.

Children need to learn.

Now everyone in the Tunnel was sizing up Zhao Yin.

No visible weapons. They relaxed again.

Then their eyes locked onto the water buffalo, and every gaze turned hungry. Starving-ghost hungry.

A beast that size-how many meals would that be?

"Brother, that cow for sale?" Manager Wei asked without thinking.

"Can you afford it?" Zhao Yin replied.

"I... can't." Manager Wei couldn't imagine what he could possibly offer in the apocalypse to buy a beast like that.

He forced a laugh and tried a different angle. "Brother, you're here to take shelter, right? Since you've come this far, we're all on the same side now."

Zhao Yin didn't even glance at him. He walked straight toward Little Monkey.

Manager Wei's smile froze. He shot a look at the woman in stockings.

She moved toward Song Xiaodao without a sound, her eyes fixed on the gun.

"Little girl, can big sister see that toy?"

"Get away from me." Song Xiaodao glared up at her. "I don't talk to dead people."

They had tried to kill Little Monkey. Zhao Yin said he would kill everyone here.

In Song Xiaodao's eyes, they were already corpses.

"Dead people?" The woman blinked, then her expression soured. She forced a smile. "What a sense of humor."

She lunged, grabbing Song Xiaodao's gun hand and reaching for the pistol. "I was being nice, and you refused!"

Manager Wei and the others held their breath.

Then they watched, stunned, as the little girl wrenched free-and her slender arm smashed into the woman's chest.

The woman screamed and flew backward, landing squarely in the fire pit.

She should have been thrashing, shrieking. But she lay motionless in the flames, letting them consume her, as peaceful as if she were sleeping in the softest bed from before the world ended.

She was dead.

She had died before she even hit the fire.

Everyone froze. The Tunnel went silent enough to hear a pin drop.

Then the smell of burning meat began to fill the air.

Song Xiaodao doubled over and vomited.

Manager Wei and the others felt ice crawl down their spines.

They couldn't understand it. Where had that little girl gotten such strength?

They hadn't even seen her move.

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