The plants weren’t really a big deal, as far as I was concerned. At least, not at this moment.

I knew from before that the plants and the zombies would have a whole standoff thing going on, so as long as we kept our head down, everything would be just fine.

I turned to walk toward the couch, tossing the entire plant thing into the back of my mind. I didn’t even know where they came from this time around, since Wei Guang had said that the scientists weren’t going to put it in the water.

But as long as the ground zero for the plant apocalypse wasn’t my house, we would do just fine.

Flinging myself onto the sectional, I picked up the remote and looked at the TV.

The second I saw the words ’Internet Connection Interrupted’ appear in front of me, I froze. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

No.

No, no, no.

Not like this.

Not after surviving zombies.

Not after surviving the military.

Not after surviving scientists with room temperature IQs and a superiority complex.

I stared at the screen for several long seconds like pure spite alone might force Netflix to start working again.

But nothing happened.

Slowly, I turned toward my cellphone that was sitting on the coffee table in front of me.

Limited Connection.

I felt my soul leave my body.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me!?!" I screeched. "There is no internet?!"

Behind me, Lingyun snorted.

Honestly, the man had a death wish. I had already chosen violence and here he was, being the first volunteer.

"That’s what you’re flipping out over?" he asked while already sounding like he regretted asking the question in the first place. "Actually, no. That tracks."

I spun around on the couch to glare at him. "How am I supposed to survive the apocalypse without television?"

"You have four men willing to keep you entertained, fed, and happy," purred Yuche, like he was promising me the world.

But what he wasn’t promising me was internet.

"None of you can provide me with season three of Kingdom’s Fall," I hissed, turning back around and ignoring them.

Lingyun opened his mouth to reply but quickly shut it again.

Good.

You should know defeat when you see it.

Chenghai let out a long sigh near the window while staring out at the jungle swallowing what used to be my front yard. "But seriously... what are we going to do about all this?"

I looked over at him.

Honestly?

That was a fair question considering that they had never seen something like this before.

The greenery outside had somehow gotten even thicker over the last hour. Massive vines twisted around abandoned vehicles while thick roots pushed through the pavement hard enough to crack concrete apart like it was made of paper mache.

There were more bright flowers larger than my head bloomed between towering trees while insects buzzed loudly enough that I could hear them through the walls.

The world looked less like a city and more like Earth had decided humans were a mistake and was correcting the problem personally.

Then Chenghai frowned slightly. "Maybe it will die once fall really starts?"

I stared at him.

Then at the jungle.

Then back at him again.

"I am willing to bet two bags of chips and five chocolate bars that not only are we not getting fall..." I grumbled while throwing the remote back onto the coffee table, "but we probably aren’t seeing winter for a very long time either."

Nobody argued with me, which meant that they understood that I was always right.

"Stupid plants," I muttered darkly. "Stupider scientists. I thought they didn’t put the shit in the water."

Yuche crossed his arms near the front window. "You think this is connected to the vaccine?"

"I think scientists should stop touching things."

Honestly, I felt like that was a pretty reasonable life philosophy.

The baby vine stretched sleepily around my shoulders before suddenly lifting its head toward the front door.

A second later, something scratched against the outside wall of the house.

Everyone went still.

Then came another sound.

Skittering.

Fast.

Fuck that. Absolutely not. I didn’t have all that many hard lines. But this was definitely one of them.

I got to my feet immediately and marched toward the front door before anyone could stop me.

"Rouxi—"

I ignored Yuche completely and yanked the door open.

Only to immediately come face to face with a wall of leaves and a spider roughly the size of my fist sitting directly beside the doorway.

The spider looked at me.

I looked at the spider.

"...Fuck no," I grumbled.

The thing lunged at me, thinking it had just found an easy meal.

But before it could get anywhere near me, the baby vine shot out from around my shoulders and swallowed the spider in a single bite before retreating back toward my shirt like it had done absolutely nothing wrong.

A couple of crunches later and then silence.

Lingyun stopped beside me and visibly shuddered. "That’s... deeply unnerving."

I looked over at him. "I keep you around to kill all the really big bugs. If my baby can take them out, why exactly do I still need you?"

Lingyun smirked immediately. "Because I give really good massages."

"...That is unfortunately a solid argument."

Behind us, Chenghai stepped outside more cautiously while scanning the overgrown yard with narrowed eyes. Unlike me, he wasn’t focused on giant spiders or the death of civilization through internet failure.

No.

He was being practical.

An annoying trait, if I was to be honest.

"The greenery is too dense," he said after a few seconds. "You can’t see movement through it. Someone—or something—could get right up to the house without us noticing."

That finally pulled my attention back toward the jungle.

He wasn’t wrong, but he wasn’t right either. Nothing and no one was getting through that jungle of plants to get to us. Not for a long, long time at least.

The vegetation outside wasn’t normal overgrowth anymore. It was thick enough in some places that visibility dropped to almost nothing only a few feet away from the mansion walls. Massive leaves blocked sections of the driveway entirely while vines crawled up lightposts and nearby houses like veins spreading across skin.

It felt alive.

The giant flower from earlier slowly peeked back out from behind a cluster of leaves near the front walkway.

Much more carefully this time.

The second I looked at it, the plant froze instantly.

Good.

At least someone around here respected boundaries.

Chenghai followed my line of sight and frowned harder. "This needs to be cut back."

"Or..." I started thoughtfully. "And hear me out here..."

Lingyun immediately groaned. "I never like when you start sentences like that."

"We ask nicely if the killer plants could move."

The silence that followed was deeply judgmental but I ignored it.

The flower slowly lowered itself closer to the ground like it was trying very hard not to attract attention.

That alone proved that it was probably the smartest thing in the city right now.

Yuche rubbed one hand across his face. "Rouxi."

"What?"

"You threatened a flower."

"And it worked."

"...I hate that you’re right."

I crossed my arms and looked back out at the jungle swallowing the neighborhood one street at a time.

Then my phone refreshed briefly before immediately losing signal again.

I felt genuine rage.

"No," I whispered.

Then louder:

"No. Absolutely not. I survived the apocalypse. I am not going to survive buffering."