Ark 3 - of corse it ends in chaos

The entrance to the underground labratory turned out to be a sizable hole in the ground. Big enough to fit a whole car inside and widening even further as the stone from the edges broke off and fell into darkness. After a few seconds of holding their breath they heard the tell tale sound of it hitting the floor beneath.

"That seems to be quite the distance. Will we even be able to jump that far without breaking our legs?"

A young female curiously peered into the abyss but quickly pulled herself back again when the ground beneeth her feet gave way and she almost tumbled head first inside. Nian Zhei had just reached out his arms to help stabilize her when she was already back at their side.

"We don't need to jump. Wait."

Shu Ning slowly made his way towards the hole but stopped where it was still safe to stand. Then he lifted his hands with his palms up and a small flimmer of light seemed to float right above them. It slowly spread outwards untill it became a thin transparent plate at which point he bend down to place it right before his feet.

With wide eyes Hu Jin stepped closer and watched as the almost invisible barrier stretched itself towards the hole and then dissapeared inside. The rest of the group followed the prossedings with rapt attention as well as most of them had never seen Shu Ning use his abillities before.

"Now who want's to go first?"

"Why don't you go first? Who knows if this thing can even hold us?"

Xu Dan leisurely pointed towards the barrier and then raised his eyebrows at Shu Ning in challenge. Before the latter could respond to the provocation though, Zhao Yang pushed aside Nian Zhei, who had the missfortune of standing infront of him, and jumped legs first into the darkness. After a startled moment Shu Ning followed suit and threw himself forward.

With a  whoosh of air he glided over the slippery barrier, not even able to see his own hands and slid right into another body. They both crashed onto the floor in a tangle of limbs and after all movements seized, Shu Ning found himself lying chest first ontop of Zhao Yang's back.

"I'm sorry. Are you alright?"

Hurriedly Shu Ning got up from the other man, startling when a small light from his back illuminated the space. A small fire ball was dancing in the palm of Nian Zhei as he seriously surveyed their surroundings. The rest of the people were gathered behind him with Xu Dan at their front.

"Good job, brother. Your ability truly is remarkable."

Shu Ning nodded at the boy in thanks and then turned around to look at Zhao Yang only to notice the man quickly swivel his head away and making his way through the dimmly lit corridor. The rest of the group followed a few paces behind.

The first couple rooms they passed on their way through the hall were sparsely furnished and all of the equipment had long been destroyed. It was only after they rounded a few corners that they arrived at a proper lab room.

Long rows of tables were placed in the center of the room with glass tubes, electronic containers, gloves, strangely colored liquids and tools you would rather expect to see in a hospital chaotically strewn on top of them. The walls were mostly covered by huge cabinets with glass fronts and the rest of the space was overlaid by a multitude of pictures. Some of them showing different anatomic components of humans and others being plants and herbs seemingly randomly grouped together.

Shu Ning walked across the room to stand next to Hu Jin who was intensely studying a yellow fluid inside of a test tube.

"What do you think? Is it usefull?"

"This liquid is fascinating. It actually contains parts of the zombie virus on top of other things."

"Why is it yellow?"

"I don't know. It could be a reaction to the Turmeric and coneflower properties. They are herbs that strengthen the immunsystem and even help fight certein illnesses."

"We should take some of the plants with us and try to cultivate them. They should be inside of one of the cabinets."

Shu Ning had just started walking towards a cabinet when a young man came running passt him with a frown furrowing his brows. He stopped right infront of Zhao Yang who had been leaning against a nearby table.

"Sir. Sir. There is a group of zombies making their way over. They have almost reached the door. I can feel about twenty."

"Hmm. Everyone gather at the door. We are getting some visitors. Nian Zhei, take the front."

As soon as everyone took their position Nian Zhei pushed open the door and welcomed the undead with a barrage of fire balls. Some of them directly hit the creatures ugly heads, scorching their hair and making the foul smell in the air worsen. The rest of the humans pulled out their knives and metal poles and ran towards the nearest enemy, stabbing and slashing at them.

Zhao Yang stayed in the back of the fight and directed some of his lightling into the floor. So from time to time you could see purple light appearing in between the moving bodys and the zombie's bodys dropping left and right.

The only people who did not participate in the brawl were Hu Jin who had the assignement of searching through the labs interior and Shu Ning who stayed close to the other to protect him if necessary.

Like this they started working through all of the instruments they could find, putting them into three different piles that only Hu Jin could understand. Shu Ning helped as best he could while ignoring the noises coming from around them, jumping from one place of the room to the other while keeping an eye on his working friend.

They were almost done sorting through the mass when a deep growl resounded not too far away from them. With quick reflexes, Shu Ning threw himself infront of Hu Jin to protect the other. But just as he was about to slash at the zombie's throat with his knive a stream of purple lightning encased the creatures head. With a sickening sound the head burst from the inside out and yellow-green liquid splattered all over ground, merely inches from Shu Ning's feet.

"Are you alright?"

Zhao Yang casually stepped over the corpse that had collapsed onto the floor and strode over to his side. The man's hands were still covered by a faint violet colour and his hair was thrown into disarray from the constant electricity cursing through him, giving him a wild look.

"There was no need to step in. I could have handled that."

Shu Ning roled his eyes at his fellow human in irritation and the other at least had the decency to look guilty. With a sigh he turned back towards Hu Jin, who had not stopped doing his work the entire time, trusting that his friend would keep him safe.

"How far are we?"

"Almost done. We just need our walking backpack and then we are set to go."

The walking backpack was a young girl by the name of Lao Lao who awakened a space ability not to long ago. Having someone like that on the team was quite practical as they did not need to carry more than a small bag around with  them and that only because her ability did not yet allow things like food and water to be stored inside. At such a low level the space tended to evaporate all of the liquid inside of the stored objects.

With a wave of his hand, Shu Ning called over the female who had been protected by Xu Dan this whole time and directed her towards the highest of the piles they had created. This one only consisted of metal and glass containers, all empty, and some electronic devices as big as a microwave.

Lao Lao picked up each of the objects one by one and then stuck them into a black hole that always dissapeared again as soon as she pulled her hands out again. After a few minutes the stack had vanished completely and the female triumphantly turned towards Zhao Yang.

"All done."

"Hm. Good job. Put the rest of the things away and then let's go."

Hu Jin nodded and grabbed one of the empty bags they had taken with them to finish his work. The rest of their team derwhile took care of the last undeads and then assembled together again to check their casualties.

"Only three dead and a few others with scratch and bite wounds. I call that quite the success."

Nian Zhei happily looked at the exhausted faces of his peers. Some gave a wry smile back at him but most were too busy catching their own breath to pay attention to him.

Xu Dan was probably in the best shape of all of them as his cheeks were only a little flushed from the exertion and his clothes were slightly crumpled at the places Lao Lao or some others had grabbed onto him in fear. With a frown the youth was watching the people gathered around the laboratory table and as soon as Nian Zhei and the rest didn't look worse for wear anymore he straightened up and loudly addressed the youth standing in the midst of it all.

"Brother. I hope you weren't hurt in all of this? Must have been frightning to witness such a scene."

"I'm fine. No need to concern yourself."

"I think I do though. We are family after all."

With a smile Xu Dan stepped up to Shu Ning and placed a hand onto the others shoulder. The remaining people close behind him.

"I'm glad that Zhao Yang is here to protect you. Who knows what would have happened without him? He really knows how to take care of you."

The crowd frowned at that, looking at each other in confusion. A few even started to wisper among eachother, but Xu Dan just ignored everyone else and instead focused all of his attention at Shu Ning. Going even so far as to soften his expression and gently gaze at the other.

"I wish I had someone as capable as Zhao Yang by my side too. Then I wouldn't need to fight anymore as well and could just laze around in the corner together with you."

"What are you trying to say?"

Nian Zhei impatiently looked at Xu Dan and then walked over to stand right next to Shu Ning. Behind them Hu Jin pushed the full bag into someones arms and pressed his body inbetween his friend's and Zhao Yang's form, getting a glare from the latter which he deliberately ignored.

"You have quite the big mouth for someone so small. I think you should have your eyesight checked, otherwise you couldn't have missed how Shi Wei helped me out here the entire time."

"Helping you? Hu Jin, I know that you consider him a friend, but it won't do for my brother to avoid fighting zombies. I'm just worried that the good treatment he receives from Zhao Yang will make him weak in the face of an undead. And then he could easily die out there. You should understand that."

"He was not avoiding it and he can fight very well. But the mission was to gather this equipment here and that means letting me work in peace. Which he guaranteed by watching my back. On top of that, I did not fight either but you only jab at him for it, why? He did the exact same thing I did."

"That's different. You do not have the ability nor the physical strength to participate but my brother could have used his barriers to protect us. That way those people did not have to die."

Xu Dan desperately looked at the people gathered around him and a lot of them showed a sorrowfull expression as they listened to the conversation. In no time Shu Ning was pierced by multiple hard stares and here and there he could hear the people harshly whisper about him.

"That is enough. How powerfull do you believe I am? I was helping Hu Jin complete his mission all the while keeping an eye out for potential danger and now you think I could have also directed some of my attention towards assisting you guys with barriers? How pathetic are you that you have to blame someone else for your own weakness? You were there at the scene, you saw those people fall and you did nothing to save them. Is that my fault? No, I was doing my job just as everyone else in this room. Those that died knew the dangers they were facing and they still chose to come with us. Such things should be honoured instead of using their death as an excuse to let out your frustration on others."

With grittet teeth Xu Dan opened his mouth to yell at Shu Ning again when a piercing cry shook the present humans to the chore. Everyone turned around to look at the direction it came from only to find a middle aged woman lying in a pool of her own blood. Her chest cavity broken open to give sight to her rapidly slowing heart beat and her face scrunched up in a mix of pain and terror. For a second the entire room is flooded with complete silence before all hell breaks loose.