That night, Ying had a peaceful dream. He was dreaming about being in the garden with Sunflower. He dreamt that her babies had hatched, and he was taking care of them. In his dream he was sitting on his regular bench, and Sunflower and her babies were in his lap eating granola. He was so full of pet love and tranquility, he hoped it'd never end. Suddenly, someone gave a high pitched giggle from his left. Ying turned his head, and there she was. Kadie was sitting right next to him with her signature smile on her face. She was normal this time without all the bite marks. She reached a hand out and gave Sunflower some head scratches.
"You've got some adorable new friends." She laughed, "Things aren't going too badly for you so far."
Ying sighed. "If you ask me, things are pretty bad. I mean look at my shoulder." He leaned over and showed her the wound. For some reason, it wasn't bandaged like it was before.
"Oh goodness!" She said, startled. "You gotta be more careful."
Kadie got out a needle and thread and began sewing up the wound. Ying winced.
"Ow! Careful. I've had enough needles in that arm for a while." Ying said with a smirk.
Kadie laughed. "You've still got your sense of humor, I see."
Ying leaned over and gave Kadie a hug. It was a tight, desperate hug.
"I'm sorry…" said Ying with a shaky voice. "I didn't mean for this to happen, I'm gonna fix it. I promise."
Kadie gave him a trusting smile. "I know you will. You can fix anything." She said, leaning into the hug.
"Are you alive?…" asked Ying hesitantly.
Kadie frowned and left the hug. "You have a one track mind, you know that? You can relax sometimes, you know. You don't always have to worry about things like that."
Ying scoffed. "I think thats a pretty reasonable thing to be worried about. Just answer me."
Kadie sighed. "I cant tell you that because you dont know yet. But, if I am alive, I know you'll find me." Her sadness turned back into positivity.
Kadie was never this happy. She was always anxious. It was a nice change of pace, but he still missed the real Kadie.
"I gotta wake up now. I'll be back some time, okay?" Ying said sadly.
"I'll be waiting." Smiled Kadie.
Ying woke up incredibly sore. His left arm ached, and his back was stiff. He groaned and sat up. Time to start the day. He got up, went outside, went to the bathroom, undressed, and washed his face and hair with bottled water. Dirt and grime fell off his hair in clumps. This was truly disgusting. After a 10 minute bottle shower, he walked around for a little bit until he dried off. He decided to visit the garden in his spare time. Sunflower was tending to her eggs when she saw him and flew over.
"Chip-chirp-tweet-tweet!" Went Sunflower.
"Good morning Sunflower." Ying smirked. "Today's gonna be a hell of a day." He said as Sunflower landed on his shoulder.
"Oh yeah!" Ying remembered the granola.
He blinked inside and grabbed a granola bar, and crushed it up for her.
"Anything for you Ms. Sunflower." Ying chuckled.
Sunflower ate her breakfast with pride, and flew back to her eggs. Ying was about dry by now, so he put his clothes back on and got ready for his mission for the day.
"Today's mission: guns." He mumbled to himself.
Ying grabbed a couple energy bars, a bottle of water, and his new distraction devices. He was gonna field test these today if need be. All he needed to do was flick a switch, and the device was primed. When the device hit the ground, it would begin playing a song of Ying's choice. Ying loaded up everything he needed in a small fanny pack he found in the office, and blinked himself into town. Ying began humming to himself as he looked around for the gun store. Ying danced his way through town in his fancy new clothes. He was feeling pretty good about himself right now. After about 10 minutes of shimmying along and blinking around, Ying found his way to "gunz n gizmos", a weird little shack building that had somehow survived the apocalypse around it. All the surrounding buildings had collapsed, yet this one remained standing.
"I've always wanted a gun." Ying said to himself.
He made his way inside carefully. He didn't want a repeat of the grocery incident. His arm still hurt from the bite wound. It was a small room with glass casings all around. All different types of guns were inside. Pistols, shotguns, automatics, explosives, etc. some of the casings had been cracked open, and there were 2 dead gremlins on the ground. Someone fought back here. Ying hopped behind the counter and used a stray piece of debris to start cracking open the glass. He firstly grabbed a reliable looking glock. Smooth grips, light and easy to manage. Perfect. He then grabbed a bulky looking sniper rifle. This was gonna come in handy for picking off gremlins from a distance. Finally, he grabbed an M249 light machine gun. He could barely pick it up because it was so heavy. This was gonna be a last-ditch weapon to defend the science building. Ying quickly blinked a few times to get back to the science building and put the sniper and the machine gun away for later. He kept the pistol on him for safe keeping.
After blinking his way back to the store, Ying went into the ammo section. He grabbed a large backpack off the wall and began stuffing it with gunpowder. He also grabbed some grenades and C-4 on his way. He grabbed a few casings of shells for his new weapons, and a large hunting knife for survival. He was all set. He felt extremely confident with his new arsenal of weaponry. There was no way he was being taken down now. Ying strutted out of the gun store with insane confidence. He twirled his gun awkwardly and gave a huge grin.
"I am the king of the apocalypse!" Ying screamed at the top of his lungs. Just as he said that, her heard a booming crash come from behind him. A behemoth smashed into a building as it turned a corner to face Ying. He froze, and his heart skipped a beat. Its face of tongues thrashed about hungrily, and its arms reached out in Ying's direction.
"I dont think I'm quite ready for one of those!" He said as he turned around and began to run.
gremlins began coming out of the woodwork to join the chase. He fired off a few rounds from his pistol as he ran, but he only managed to hit 2 of the gremlins. He would need to work on his aim when he got back.
"Maybe that victory cry wasn't the best idea…" Ying thought to himself as he blinked to temporary safety.
Ying quickly got out his new invention. The distraction device.
"Now or never!" Ying yelled as he flipped the switch. He threw the device as hard as he could into a nearby parking lot. It twirled beautifully in the air, reflecting sunshine in brilliant ways. A true testament to Ying's skill as an inventor. As soon as it hit the ground, it activated, and…
"WOOO-OOOAH BLACK BETTY, BAMBALAM! WOOO-OOOAH BLACK BETTY, BAMBALAM- BLACK BETTY HAD A CHILD, BAMBALAM THE DAMN THING GONE WILD- BAMBALAM-" The music blasted throughout the city.
Suddenly, all the gremlins ran towards the noise, eager to extinguish this enthusiastic new survivor. Even the behemoth turned and stumbled towards the device, crushing a few gremlins under its hundreds of feet. Ying took this chance to get out of dodge, and quickly. He used the last of his blinks to get on top of a building, get a good line of sight on the science center, and poofed himself home. He collapsed on his couch once he got inside.
"That was a shitshow." He said to himself angrily. "Why on earth did I yell like that? I have to be more careful from now on."
Ying shifted uncomfortably. "More importantly, I need to get started on a permanent room. I definitely won't be sleeping on this crappy couch for the rest of the apocalypse."
He looked over his list again.
"1. Get new clothes, check. 2. Get water, check. 3. Get electricity, working on it. 4. Get weapons, check. 5. Renovate the base. That's next on the list." Ying mumbled.
He had a lot of work to do if he was gonna make this abandoned facility into a home. He decided to get some sleep, it had been a long day and he needed to rest if his shoulder was gonna heal. As Ying drifted off to sleep, he began thinking of ways to improve the building. Working indoor plumbing, electricity, renovating rooms to fit his needs, etc. He was gonna flip this place into something special. He went to bed that night happy that he finally had a place to call home.