Kuan Bo stiffened against the wall before he took a chance to peer around it and look in Lu Xing's direction.

Lu Xing had already moved to grab a new gla.s.s cup, and then held it up towards the kid, "Come join us."

Kuan Bo glanced at Li, who simply gave him a bitter smile before hiving a small shrug. Only then did Kuan Bo move towards Lu Xing, he grabbed the gla.s.s cup. Lu Xing grabbed a bottle, and tapped the gla.s.s in Kuan Bo's hand, causing it to slightly tilt, he filled it with kva.s.s.

Kuan Bo warily sniffed it, made a face, then downed it in one go.

Lu Xing chuckled, and Li grinned.

Kuan Bo grimaced.

"Kva.s.s...its a non-alcoholic beverage." Lu Xing explained looking at his cup, "Quite common in Russia, sweet at the start...it'll sour over time."

Placing the cup down he takes the moment to look at Kuan Bo.

Kuan Bo looked fl.u.s.tered for only a few seconds before turning his head and coughing, "I should probably start..."

"Long Zexi and I were students from the same high school..different grades, but when the outbreak happened, I found myself alone, without a place to be." Kuan Bo for a moment seemed quite lonely as he spoke those words, "Plenty of people wound up alone, but I still have hope," he gave a slight smile as if to ease the pain from his eyes, "my older brother was visiting District Jinche where our cousin lives."

Suddenly Lu Xing felt his heart constrict, 'It can't be possible...'

"My brother Kuan Mo," Lu Xing clenched his fist unexpectedly, Li alone caught the action and raised an eyebrow, "is good friends of Long Zexi's parents, so they took me in after that first night." Kuan Bo continued, Lu Xing had already loosened his clenched fist and was acting as though he hadn't been bothered by anything, "Long Zexi's older than me, we really rarely interacting after he had joined high school anyways, so everything felt uncomfortable... and I honestly just wanted to see my brother sooner."

"Your the one who found the list." Lu Xing's eyes widened in surprise.

Li scratched his head, 'should a complete stranger really be told everything?' with a wary sigh, he continued to drink.

"I thought if I snuck into a general's tent, I would be able to find out if any phone lines were working..you know?" Kuan Bo seemed as though on the verge of tears, "I only glanced at it once..but something caught my eye, I was simply going to read but then..."

He swiped at his eyes angrily, "I overheard the officers speaking about a raid on the E-5 block, and how the men were going to have fun raping some of the woman since someone from the higher ranks could cancel out noise over blocks."

'Someone with a Dampener Skill...' Lu Xing thought feeling sick, 'Their clearly on a different level this time.'

'd.a.m.n these monsters!' Lu Xing clutched his cup.

"I could barely think clearly," Kuan Bo spread his hands over his face, his breathing raggedy as he remembered the fear he'd felt, "I grabbed the papers off the desk and then left using the same route, I just wanted to get back here and warn Mrs. and Mr. Long..."

"But it was to late." Long Zexi said as he stepped off the last step, "I had already lost my mother even before Kuan Bo could even get near the street this house sits on." his flashed with anger, "my little sister saw her get slain in front of this house, I owe Stella and Li for killing the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, and Sho for bringing my sister inside when he had."

Li raised his cup up as though a sign of it was nothing.

"Sho rounded up as many of the survivors as he could, some followed him and fought back," Li added as he settled back into his thoughts, "that guy is amazing at how he can react depending on the situation, we all bunkered down in this building for a while, we hid our tracks by setting some of the houses on fire, our houses mainly. Long Zexi's father had also joined Sho's at some point during the chaos in the hopes of getting to his house...except..."

"His wife was dead." Sho answered from the stairs, he too finally joining the group downstairs.

"I understand, but I still don't get how this place was overlooked..?" Lu Xing asked his gaze on Long Zexi.

Long Zexi's hands turned into fist, "In his quick thinking, my father told everyone in Sho's group to hold up in our restaurant. He had then looked at my sister and I, his eyes in such pain, as he told us to get stronger and survive. Grabbing my mother's corpse he went to the house next to us and created a scene."

"He led them away by yelling out his kids name in front of a burning building, and continued holding his wife's corpse in his arms and acted as though he'd lost everything precious to him." Sho spoke as he walked to a small window that faced the east side of the house, "I alone saw his final moments from this very window. My best friend was slain by the man in a black cloak."

"We grew up together..the three of us." Sho said in a hoa.r.s.e voice, "Though we were missing a bud, he and I had been together doing a perimeter check when all the raid happened..if only we'd been faster."

'I'm certain that the third person he just referred to was Kuan Mo.' Lu Xing thought as he saw Sho's gaze become distant.

Still, he felt uncertainty as to whether he should speak up about Kuan Mo's death...

"I failed to protect anybody really though.." Sho finally let out, his shoulders slumped in defeat. "Kuan Mo would've done better if he'd been the one here. This sanctuary we had made, dwindled in people as we split up into three groups, the one that stayed behind, the one that acted as bait, and the one that would try to find a way out..."

Lu Xing was starting to get a faint idea of what these guy's crazy plan had been...and of how it had backfired on this group.