章節 42: 2.11
Exhausted we came to a dual carriageway, where a college minibus and a refrigerated food delivery lorry were parked alongside around twenty youths, a mix of mainly boys and a few girls just older than me. It seemed Alex and his team were the eldest in their team.
The youths silently cheered as they greeted each other, eagerly stripping the five men from their luggage bit by bit. I understood now why only Alex was luggage free, with an ability like his only he really needed to remain on guard. Though I envied the trust they all had in him to do that.
If only I had Jianyu, though he was a big fat liar, I knew he'd always keep me safe. In a world like this, what more could you ask for?
Alex turned to grip my shaking cold fists, "take them onto the minibus and tell them I sent you to get the engine and heater started." Alex ordered with all signs of his bashful demeanor from before gone amongst his younger peers.
The rocks still hovered, occasionally rotating around him as he talked to those loading the lorry as if confident I would just do as I was told. I twisted my face at that but nonetheless did as he said.
It did not take long before the vehicles set off. Within minutes of the wheels turning both Leo and Holly were fast asleep, leaning on each other, on the seats behind me. I gazed back at them fondly but also felt a bitter ache in my chest. I felt like an awful person, yet could not control the emotions bubbling up.
"Sleep, it's a long drive," Alex pulled a blanket over me as he sat beside me, leaving his friends to whisper whilst glancing at the front. Wasn't he here to interrogate me? Why try and usher me to sleep? What was he planning?
I nodded, pretending to be trying to sleep as I gazed hazily out the window at the foreign landscape. Even the vegetation was different from the only Earth country I was used to.
With each passing moment that the scenery changed, the more I felt like the alien invader I was.
Unsure of when I went to sleep, I woke to Alex shaking my shoulder, "time to put those swords to use," he winked, before moving to wake the teens behind me.
I glanced out the window spotting we were still on the highway; however, each side was lined with extremely tall trees close together that blocked the sunlight from its heavily overgrown forest floor. Spilling out of the green were the rotting corpses of various states and stages of decay.
The lorry was blocking my view in front and I could not see why we had stopped at such a dangerous place.
Deep down I knew exactly what was going on. My heart began beating wildly at the thought that we might just be the very prey intended for this trap.
Jumping out of the minibus I glanced in front, seeing two tall and thick felled tree's from each side, completely blocking the path. This was most definitely a trap or a freak of nature. There were certainly not enough of us to lift their trunks aside.
Taking care of any zombie getting in my way I headed to the tree directly blocking us, crawling up its trunk to get a safe assessment of the situation, and trying to look for a solution. Trees were supposed to be my thing right?
"This would certainly be a good time to test your new abilities," System chimed in, agreeing.
Breaking a few skulls as I walked down the trunk, I glanced down at the roots, which were miraculously still half in and half out of the upturned soil. They'd been simply pushed by brute strength by the looks of it, which terrified me.
Glancing toward a familiar face nearby I called out to Aiden telling him to come over with a friend. Thankfully he listened, bringing a young teen from nearby him.
"What's up?" he asked before crushing a skull with what looked like a golf club. I had noticed a golf caddy on the minibus, so that was his.
"I need you to cover my back whilst I do something stupid that might hopefully help us all." I rambled a little too quickly, but he appeared to get my understanding and nodded without questioning, turning his back to me. I guess having a walking, talking planet as a leader changed their perspectives a bit.
Now confident my back was guarded I dug my fingertips into the undisturbed grass just before the roots. The bittersweet pain of the tree lamenting at its slow death, hit me like a wave, making my mind swirl with the pressure. At least it was still alive.
The faint sound of the many youths cursing rang in my ears, spurring me to focus. I could fix this. I was strong now.
"Tree, use my power, cling to life again, and reach out to your brethren, rise tall again."
My inner monologue made me wonder if all the novels I'd read as Zhiyue had slowly warped my mind.
I jolted as I felt a pull from the soil. My hands and feet both sank a few inches in as I felt the drain on my body. Its roots all came back to life, crawling, burrowing deep into the soil, reaching out for the others nearby.
With a heavy groan, the tree slowly raised, looking like it was being pulled by an invisible thread to the others. Though only I knew what was really going on beneath our feet.
There were a few cheers amongst the sound of groans and grunts.
Catching my breath, I leaned against its now sturdy and tall trunk, feeling overwhelmed by the intricate network of life beneath my feet, all reaching out to communicate with me. Complaining about the death of the tree on the opposite side of the road.
"What happened? Why did you both fall?" I asked out loud by mistake, getting a weird look from Aiden who was still obediently striking any zombie who got too close despite his companion still frozen in shock at what I had done.
What I heard back from the trees was not words, only feelings, and emotions, that I could understand. Alongside them, I felt what they sensed at the exact moment the trees both fell. There were a group of youthful humans, maybe ten, with very sinister intentions.
Leo's hand on my shoulder brought me back to the world above the soil, "Sis, you're freakin awesome."
I blinked at him, since when had I become his 'sis'?
"Alex is calling us to retreat," he began to drag me, uncaring at my hostile gaze.
Aiden and his companion, who I think he called Jax moved behind us. Instead of drawing my sword to fight, I moved quickly, gripping back onto Leo's arm firmly to ensure he stuck by my side instead of swinging his bat.
There was a sense of mourning in the air, with the faint sound of sobbing, as everybody stopped fighting, only getting closer and closer to the minibus whose engine was now running ready to go.
The elder boys with Alex maintained a circle, protecting everybody's rear. It was not until we were all sat back down and the minibus was pulling away I noticed there was a group of zombies by the treeline, all crouched on the floor covering something, or someone.
"Who?" I glanced around the bus, trying to find whose face was missing in the unfamiliar crowd.
"Oliver," Alex replied, sitting beside me with a mobile phone in his shaking hand.
Though he wasn't crying like the rest, I could see the tears he was holding back. He was trying to be strong, but now was likely the only moment he'd get to be weak whilst we all rested.
I found my hand moving to his head before I realised what I was doing. I pulled him to lean his head on my shoulder. Remembering how I had comforted Will before, I dug my finger into his lengthy dirty blonde hair letting the fuzzy warmth spread from my fingertips to his mind.
Just over an hour later of traveling vaguely west back towards the coast, we reached what looked to be a freshly constructed college.
Going off Hannah's memories, it was just under five years old. These mature boys were likely the first students, and now would be one of the last.
We were headed to a tall dorm building on the edge of the grounds, which surprisingly was surrounded by a wall of Earth, two stories high. Had Alex done this?
The vehicles came to a stop where the wall was slightly lower, with a large boulder blocking an entrance large enough for even the lorry to enter.
Alex finally pulled out of my grip, his eyes lingering on me for a moment before he exited the bus alongside two other guys.
All three stood before the boulder and quite quickly it began to shake, rolling aside to make room for the vehicles that slowly entered. They walked in beside us, making it roll back to its protective position.
Sluggishly, the rest of the survivors exited the minibus in an orderly line into the dorm's carpark, giving only brief words to those who rushed out to greet us and staggering into the building not caring about the supplies they'd fought so hard to bring home.
Once the bus was empty I turned to Leo and Holly whose wide eyes were scanning our new surroundings in disbelief. There were so many kids, all looking just over Hannah's age. There wasn't any sign of adults about. Were Alex and his friends the eldest ones here?
"We're going to stay here for a bit," I explained to the two teens. Though the map was in my head, showing me where the next meetup location was, which should have been nearby that massive horde of the dead. I shivered remembering that that entire situation had been entirely man-made.
Had they just been malicious survivors? Or was someone anticipating Alex and his team passing by there?
"What about Will?" Leo asked, his attention completely back on me, though Holly was still nervously scanning our surroundings, watching as the new people offloaded supplies from the lorry, laying them across the tarmac.
"I don't think the meetup location is safe enough, I also don't know how long they will wait there," I sighed, feeling helpless and weak over the idea of heading North to the next meetup point alone with just these two. If only I had my own team of athletic and gifted young men.
"Here is safe, if we stay still Will will find us, I don't think he'll keep going," I bit my lip, feeling insecure about whether Will really cared for Hannah the way she did him. Then there was Noah and whatever sexual attraction he had to this body.
One thing I noticed since waking up here, I could count the number of females I saw with just my fingers alone. As wrong as it sounded, with a body like Hannah's that was both a blessing and a curse. I needed to be very careful.
I glanced briefly at Holly, who had a sweet, innocent-looking face, and the showings of blossoming maturity in her gentle curves. She would definitely be a target in this new world. I needed to be strong.
Though Leo was my priority there was just something endearing about her sparkling blue eyes that I found myself extremely protective of her.
"Host, reach out and touch Holly's bare skin," System ordered suddenly after I finished my train of thought.
I caught her off guard as my fingers rested on her bare forearm, "you okay?" I asked, trying to find an excuse for the sudden contact.
"Y-yeah," she replied, looking at Leo as if asking him to save her from the big bad wolf. Was I that scary?
"Host, you've found another one of those soulmates I told you about, a past body was genetically linked with a past body of hers."
"Is she an immortal too?" I asked, excited.
"No, she will have no memory of her past life, though the more contact you have with her, the greater chance I have of digging into the memories of that life, so please keep her near Host, we need to figure this out as soon as possible. Considering how old you are, we should be much stronger than we are, I'm hoping to see if I can use this as a loophole to grow your soul's strength."
"Sis," Leo shook my shoulder, snapping me out of my internal conversation.
"Sorry," I blushed, letting go of Holly, noticing that Alex was boarding the bus.
"Are you guys all okay?" he asked, leaning on a seat as he stood wearily, "want to come inside? I'll see if there's a room you guys can rest in for now."
I nodded, eager for the comfort of a clean bed.
創作者的想法 
Raychbunni
Raychbunni What System means, is that because she'd lived in a world where her body could live so long, it's assuming it should have been a world where she could gain powers, like the one she is in now.
Using that mentality, the fact they were so weak when they woke up as Zhiyue is wrong, not to mention the lack of memories.
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