1 Tie Ta
Zheng Zha always felt that he was dead in reality. Go to work, come home, eat, go to bed, and wake up; he didn't know where the meaning of his life lay. It was definitely not in that face of his fat supervisor, not in that white-collar woman's body that he met in the bar, and not in this steel and concrete forest – the modern city.
Zheng felt he was rotting. He was going to rot from the age of 24 till the end of his life, then become a part of the earth and leave behind a name. No, not even a name, since no one would remember him. No one would remember a little white collar. Whether he lived as a truly graceful person or just pretended to be one, he was just a tiny piece of this world.
He wanted to change something. He wanted life to have meaning.
'Want to know the meaning of life? Want to live... a real life?'
When he turned on his computer at work today, a message popped up. This was obviously some newbie hacker seeking attention. It would force you to download a virus, whichever option you choose. Zheng laughed at it and was about to close it. Yet, his heart skipped a beat when his hand touched the mouse. He paused.
'Want to know the meaning of life? Want to live... a real life?'
Zheng felt a little lost. An indescribable force attracted him to put his finger on the mouse. Then he clicked on the YES button and lost consciousness.
—
Cold, shaking...
The moment he woke up, Zheng jumped up from the ground. He looked around in panic. The disparity of the vision of his office and the current environment caused chaos in his head, but after a few seconds, he woke up from the confusion.
"Not bad, you have the best quality of the bunch this time." A cold voice said.
Zheng turned his head around and saw a black-haired guy sneering at him. This person was about 24 or 25, had a ubiquitous face, but the few scars on his face made him looked horrifying.
The black-haired guy held a cigarette in his hand and took a deep smoke.
His eyes then looked past Zheng. That was when Zheng realized five people were lying beside him. Three men and two women. Other than that, there were over ten westerners in this concealed room. But what neither Zheng nor the black-haired man knew was that one of the men lying down was already awake. He was lying still and unmoving.
They were in a compartment of a train, and the train was moving very fast. The feeling of cold metal and the intense vibration penetrated the young man's body from the train.
"Where is this place? Who are you? Why am I here?" Zheng asked these people. Furthermore, due to the presence of westerners, he repeated it in English.
The westerners looked at him for a moment, then turned their heads away. Only the black-haired guy said to him, "Think carefully. It should have inserted everything into your head."
Think carefully? Zheng tried to recall everything. He only remembered when he saw the pop-up on the screen 'Want to know the meaning of life? Want to live... a real-life?', and clicked YES, before he fell unconscious.
Wait... Zheng felt there was something in his head, something about survival and life.
This was a game. Whoever created this game was not known. Maybe it was God, perhaps it was the Devil, or maybe they were aliens or humans from the future. Now they had become a player of this game.
A game that brought together those who were lost in life but have yet to become a rotten person. When they chose this game, they would be transported to various scenes in horror movies.
Except one person that was playing sleep was cursing in his head as he recalled the event that led to this moment. He was throwing a big fucking fit and accidentally moved. At this point, he just sat up with a downtrodden face.
This man remembered everything before he appeared with a group of strangers. And he could, without a doubt, say that his arrival was a complete accident. He loved his life.
"It is Resident Evil this time. Your luck isn't bad, newbies. Getting such an easy horror movie on your first time. Even when you die, it will be an easy death." The black-haired guy took his last smoke then crushed the cigarette in his hand.
"Are you saying only our consciousness came inside the computer? Just like in novels? And when we complete this game, our consciousness will go back to our bodies?" A chubby dude next to Zheng asked.
Black Haired took out a gun, a desert eagle. While handling the gun, he said, "I don't know if it's consciousness or not, but you will feel pain, you will get injured, and you will die. And you were wrong, when you finish this movie, you will go to the next one. Maybe you have seen that movie or maybe not. Every time, God will bring in new members to replace those that died in the last movie. Every movie consists of seven to twenty people. In other words, this is a very easy movie. We only have seven people here."
Chubby dude said with a sneer, "How do you know those who died didn't go back to their body? Perhaps they chose to die willingly."
Black Haired raised his head suddenly as though he had become a panther at this moment. He bent his knees, and in a split second, he was already on top of the chubby dude. His desert eagle stuffed inside the chubby dude's mouth.
"Then would you want to try and die? Can you imagine that unending terror? I lived through three movies. The first one was 'Nightmare on Elm Street 1'. There were 15 newbies in that movie, and two experienced survivors. But do you want to know the ending? They all died in their dreams. Another person and I were the only ones that survived. Do you want to know how it feels to get killed by a stupid dream? Imagine everything around you becomes slithering rotten meat. You watch as a pair of scissors slowly cut through every bit of your body in a gruesome factory. Can you imagine the pain? You piece of shit! Do you want to die?"
Black Haired was shouting like a madman. His intent to kill was so vivid and obvious in his eyes. The chubby dude was scared and unable to move. And with a gun in his mouth, he couldn't even plead.
Zheng and the other three people persuaded them to break apart. But the odd young man still sat quietly and didn't say a word. Black Haired walked back to his seat and said, "Dying in a horror movie is real death. Furthermore, when you die here, you will be tortured by the devils in these movies. So if you don't have the determination to live, I advise you to kill yourself now."
A girl with glasses said, "Then we don't have a way to return to our bodies?"
Black Haired said with a sneer, "I have been saying it's not your consciousness that came into the computer. Do you think humans have the technology to create this game? No, this is the work of God. We are nothing more than bugs in his eyes. We are thrown here to struggle just to entertain him. Both our bodies and consciousness have been brought to this world and can't go back. At least I don't think we can go back."
The glasses girl had a sense of calmness. She thought for a moment and said, "By your tone, it seems like there's still a way to go back?"
Black Haired took a look at her and said, "The quality of this time's newbies isn't bad. You're right. There is hope to go back."
Everyone stared at him. "Every time you finish a mission–that is, you lived through a movie–you will obtain 1000 points. You can exchange these points for a lot of things, such as the right to live in a movie for 100 days." Black Haired said.
The quiet guy said, "Who would want to live in a horror movie? That's asking to die."
Black Haired remained quiet. Glasses Girl said, "No, I think I understand what he meant. There are many genres of horror movies, sci-fi-like Resident Evil, where everything can be explained with science. You just have to go outside of where the main events are happening, then the rest of the world is normal.
Black Haired snapped his finger, "Bingo. You can indeed live in another part of this world normally for those days. Think about it, after experiencing a couple of life and death trials, the chance to live normally in this world is a blessing."
Zheng's body shivered. He thought he understood the meaning of this world a bit. Yes, the reason he was feeling rotten was that his life was boring. Once you experienced life and death, then the mundane life would become what you wish for.
Black Haired continued, "Other than exchanging for time, there are many other things. Such as this desert eagle with unlimited ammunition. It only took 100 points. That's 10 days worth. You can also use points to improve yourself, including Intelligence, mental capacity, reaction time, cell vitality, muscle density, and immunization strength. In other words, if you survive this movie, you can double your strength. If you lived through a hundred movies, you could become a superhuman."
The quiet boy was taking all of this in. He hated being fucked with. So the more he knew, the easier it would be to fuck with this God character and kick his ass.
Glasses Girl asked calmly, "Let's get back to the point. How many points does it take to get back to our world?"
"50000 points." Black Haired took out another cigarette. "If you don't use any points, you just have to live through fifty movies. Then you can go back."
Suddenly, everyone quieted down. According to this guy, if you don't use your points, it would be impossible to live through fifty movies.
"Of course, 1000 points is the base reward for every movie. You can do side quests in movies to earn points. According to God's rule, explaining to newbies will reward 100 points. You should've noticed that special watch on your hand." He waved his left hand. There was a black metal watch.
Everyone looked at their own left wrist. There were a few lines of info on this watch. A timer that was counting down from 3 hours 7 minutes. A counter for zombies, Lickers, newbies...
"You will get one point for every ten zombies you kill, 100 points for every Licker, and 1000 points for every newbie..." He looked at everyone with a wicked face. Only Zheng and the glasses girl looked back calmly at him. And the mysterious young man didn't react at all.
"Of course, that's negative 1000. Okay, if you have any other questions, hurry up and ask. This movie is about to begin."
Glasses Girl looked at Zheng, then continued, "I have three more questions. I saw Resident Evil. The ending is the T-virus from the lab spreading throughout Raccoon City. Then if we drive this car and leave the city, wouldn't that let us survive easily?"
Black Haired shook his head and replied, "Take a look at your watch. There's a name on the upper left side. Read it."
"One." Everyone read it out, then they noticed one of the westerners had a faint glow on him, then slowly faded away.
"This is the leader of the mercenaries in this movie. This movie belongs to a specific location genre. The plot only happens in the lab. You cannot leave the plot area or stay too far away from the cast in this kind of movie. If you stay further than 300 feet from One, then bang, you will have nothing left. Understand?" Black Haired explained.
Zheng then asked, "Who is this God that you have been mentioning?"
"God is the thing that manages our entrance to movies. It gives us points, and you also exchange things through it. God is a ball of light. I don't really know what it is either."
Glasses Girl nodded and said, "One last question. This number, what does it mean?" She pointed to the timer counting down.
"This is the time that you must stay in this movie. Once the timer is over, you will go to where God's dimension and get your reward. There you will also wait for the next movie."
The train started to slow down. Black haired guy finished his cigarette and took out his desert eagle, "Okay, the plot is starting. The cast will be able to hear our conversations now. Remember, if they hear anything not belonging to this world or spoilers, 10 points will be deducted for every sentence. Well, newbies, try your best to survive."
The quiet guy moved to the blacked haired guy and asked, "What's your name?"
The black-haired squinted then replied, "Jie."
"I'm Tie Ta. Like the war god," he replied. Tie Ta could tell Jie didn't get it, so he moved on. " I need a gun, Jie."
Jie looked Tie Ta over a few times, then walked up to the mercenaries and said a few words before returning with a pistol and an extra magazine.
"Thanks, Jie," Tie Ta replied in a cold low voice before performing a weapons check.
"So, I'm going to make this simple. Unlike you losers, I liked my life, and I did not choose to be here. But now that I'm here, this is my show. Get in my way, and I will delete you." Tie Ta finished speaking as the train slowed down.
Tie Ta was in the business of revealing secrets. That meant that he didn't trust Jie. Jie was the only veteran, which meant everything that Jie told them was the only information they had to survive, and that's if he was telling the truth or even half of the truth.
Knowledge is power, and in a situation like this, not even Tie Ta would share all of his knowledge.
The mercenaries were cautiously moving out. Jie was the first to follow. The glasses girl took a look at Zheng and the others and followed them out. One was moving further away. The rest moved out also.
Tie Ta watched them leave, then quickly searched the train when he remembered that the package he was looking for was on the train but not inside the cabin. Tie Ta found the black duffle bag carrying a silver case with the T-virus and the antivirus stored inside it on the back end of the train. He put it on like a backpack then chased after everyone as to not get too far.
He wasn't the most physical guy and had put on some weight in the past few years since he received his master's in computer science. But muscle memory was a fantastic thing, and he figured he could keep up with enough willpower.
Outside the train was a platform. Tie Ta recalled the movie, and this was the beginning where people wanted to enter the Hive -Umbrella's underground research facility.
People followed the platform and soon came to the lab entrance, where a metal door blocked their way. On the door was a set of special symbols denoting this lab's company and the danger of this place.
Zheng and the others followed the mercenaries to the door when a woman in a red skirt suddenly turned to One and asked, "I want to know who you people are and what's going on here."
One looked at her then waved to the other mercenaries. They took out a few devices from their bags to unlock the doors.
One then said to the woman, "You and I have the same employer. The mansion above us is an emergency entrance to the Hive, and you are security operatives placed there to protect that entrance."
Tie Ta remembered this scene. This was where Alice asked about the cause of this event. Even though he had seen the movie and knew the truth behind it, experiencing this scene in person gave him a surreal feeling. Then the fear of an unimaginable degree set in as images of future scenes came to mind. But he kept his cool as he remembered how fucked Resident Evil was. He needed to stay frosty or die.
-Mental Limit Breakthrough-
Reward: 500 Points, Mental Capacity Increased By 20, Intelligence Increased by 10, Reaction Speed Increased 30.
'It's not the time for that either. Anonymous mission rule #1: Mission first' Tie Ta then ignored GOD's voice and focused.
Alice seemed a little lost. She rubbed her wedding ring and muttered, "What about this?"
One said, "Your marriage is a fake and just part of your cover to protect the secrecy of the Hive."
"And what is the Hive?" One of the non-mercenary westerners asked.
One turned to a mercenary, "Show them."
He nodded and brought up a screen on the laptop.
"Raccoon City, nearest urban center. The mansion where we found you and gained access to the train, which in turn brought us to the Hive."
A building that looked like a bee's Hive appeared on the screen.
"The Hive itself is located underground deep beneath the streets of Raccoon City. A top-secret research facility owned and operated by the Umbrella Corporation... Our position on the map is indicated by the heat signature."
One explained our location was shown on the laptop. We were standing on the platform on top of the Hive.
"And them?" Alice pointed towards the group of players.
One said, "They are also security operatives. The company has its registered files. But I question if there's an error in the corporate orders. Aside from two people, everyone else is just ordinary people."
Tie Ta raised an eyebrow and figured that God created a background to progress the plot without a hitch. Tie Ta figured that God had absolute control of the movie. It wasn't just the temporal displacement of people. It was a lot more about their situation.
Spence, one of the main cast, then asked, "Why can't I remember anything?"
"The Hive has its own defense mechanisms, all computer-controlled. Nerve gas was released into the house. The primary effect of the gas: complete unconsciousness lasting anything up to four hours. Secondary effects are varied but can include acute memory loss."
"For how long?"
"Subjective. An hour, day, week."
Another non-mercenary westerner said, "So you're saying this place was attacked?"
One looked at him, "I'm afraid things are a little more complicated than that."
Tie Ta recognized this cast member also. It was Matt Addison, who came here looking for his sister, a researcher inside the Hive. She found out the corporation was researching the T-virus and attempted to contact the government. The person she contacted was Alice. But before she could steal the virus, Spence stole the virus and leaked it. She later got infected and became a zombie.
Tie Ta had watched all of the Resident Evils. He was fascinated with T-Virus and the A.I. Red Queen. To kill two birds with one stone, he learned computer science to recreate a Red Queen so that Red Queen could recreate the T-Virus. Though obsession was ever-present, it was soon diluted after his second year of schooling.
At this time, a voice came from the door, "Sir! We've breached the Hive."
One nodded, then he looked at Zheng's group and sighed. He turned around and led the mercenaries to the door.
The door opened under the computer's control, and it was totally black inside. One called a mercenary, "J.D.!"
That person nodded and put on night vision goggles. One paused for a moment. He turned to Jie and said, "Zhang Jie!"
Jie took his desert eagle and just walked in. He also knew the plot. As long as the central computer system stayed on in Resident Evil, they would be safe there. But once the computer system got shut down, this place would be filled with zombies and hunters.
It didn't take long for Jie to turn on the lights. The whole room was lit. You could also see the scenery of the modern city through the window.
The mercenaries and everyone went into the room. A female mercenary said, "Halon gas has dissipated."
When Spence stole the T-virus, he broke a vial of it. Then the ventilation system spread the virus throughout the Hive, and everyone inside was infected. When the central computer system found out, it isolated the Hive and injected halon gas. The only thing left in the lab were zombies and hunters.
It seemed like Resident Evil was a popular movie. Everyone in the group saw it. All of them were leaning on the windows and looking outside. They weren't worried at this moment because they knew this was still a safe place.
Matt suddenly said, "Makes it easier to work underground, thinking there's a view."
Zheng hesitated a moment, then put out his hand, "Zheng Zha... Uhm, I may be a security operative."
Tie Ta shook his head at the idiot's reply. The sheer uncertainty of his career threatened to unravel everyone's identity. Only Spence, Alice, and Matt were hit by the nerve gas.
Matt's hands were handcuffed because his files were not in the corporation. He turned around with a bitter smile, "Handcuffed, I don't think we can shake hands like this... And I forgot my name."
Zheng gave him a friendly smile. Matt was a nice person in the movie and an innocent person. He was just here to look for his sister, and he tried to protect Alice until the end of the film. He was one of the people that lived at the end.
One and a few mercenaries got the elevator door open on the other side. But it was pitch black inside. They threw down a flare and saw that the elevator was at the bottom with the wires cut off.
"Looks like we're taking the stairs," said J.D.
One turned to everyone, "Through the stairs, we must reach the bottom in ten minutes. Everyone follow me."
The mercenaries were well trained, Alice had T-virus, Spence and Matt's stamina weren't bad either, while Jie had gone through three movies already and probably enhanced himself.
Of the remaining six people, even though Zheng was an office worker, he liked to exercise and spent a day in the gym every week.
Glasses Girl looked skinny, and, as a girl, her stamina was weaker than a man's. But she was smart enough to get a hold of the corner of Jie's shirt. So Jie supported part of her weight. He looked at her for a moment then continued moving in front of her.
Tie Ta wasn't moving fast, but he was sweating bullets. Pushing himself to keep up. Breathing in his nose and out of his mouth to keep himself from falling out.
Another alert happened, but Tie Ta stayed focused and kept trucking on. But for some reason, his physical strain lessened, and the run became easier.
-Physical Limit Breakthrough-
Reward: 500 points, Muscle Density, Increased by 30, Cell Vitality Increased by 20, Immunization Strengthed by 10.
There were three more people. A middle-aged man, he was not running fast but kept up with everyone. A middle-aged woman, She was doing worse than the chubby dude. She's at the point where she's walking step by step. The last one was a boy in his teens. His face looked very common, and his body didn't seem strong. But like the middle-aged man, he kept up with everyone.
After a while, the middle-aged woman could no longer be seen. Zheng was following close to Jie all along and suddenly heard, "one out."
Zheng asked curiously. "What? one out?"
Jie sneered, "Her! Don't think of my words as a joke. This is the real world. We will die here. Perhaps you are still not taking this seriously and think of this as a movie, right? Being more than three hundred feet away from him, you will explode. This is one of the rules. She is going to die!"
Bang!
Just as Jie finished his sentence, an explosion came from above. The group looked toward it with a daze, but there was nothing else aside from the stairs.
--------------
Kaplan turned on three computers. His computer skills were alright compared to Tie Ta. His hands were typing non-stop across three keyboards, yet several minutes passed, and the door leading to the central computer was still closed.
Rain asked, "What's taking so long?"
"He's inept. What do you think?" Tie Ta answered.
'If I want everyone alive long enough to face the lickers at the end, I need to replace Kaplan.' he thought to himself.
Without taking his eyes off the computer, Kaplan replied, "Red Queen's defenses are in place. She's making it difficult! Inept my fucking ass, Tie Ta!"
Just as he finished talking, the door finally opened. One nodded, "Let's pack it up." Then he turned to Tie Ta's group, "You stay here."
Behind the door was a corridor about ten meters long, with walls made of glasses, different from the steel and metal walls on the outside.
One walked in first; he was moving very cautiously, careful with every step. Even then, when he reached the center of the corridor, his whole body shivered. Because the glass walls suddenly lit up.
Kaplan's voice came from the speakerphone, "The lights are automated. Nothing to worry about."
'Don't worry until those lasers appear.' Tie slowly began to move towards Kaplan.
Zeng noticed as well. When he was about to say something, a hand-pulled him. He turned around and saw Lan shaking her head.
One finished setting up the transmitter. It was a device similar to a cell phone, and he put it on the door's sensor. Kaplan started typing again. After a while, the door on the other side of the corridor finally opened.
One let out a deep breath and waved to the people outside, "Move up."
Alice suddenly asked, "What is that?"
Kaplan was nearest to her, "That's what will shut the Queen down. Delivers a massive electrical charge. Scrambles the mainframe and forces it to reboot."
As the mercenaries were about to enter the corridor, Zheng couldn't help but shout, "Wait, wait. Don't you feel strange? This computer seems too useless, just letting you reboot it like this. I don't think things are this simple, and there's probably something wrong with this corridor."
The mercenaries stopped and looked at him. Lan let out a sigh and took off her hand. Then she moved over to where Alice was.
One came out from the corridor and silently stared at Zheng. "Okay. You, and you come with us." He pointed to Zheng and Mou.
Their hands and feet suddenly got cold from hearing that. They knew this corridor was a death trap. Anyone that entered will die, even One. He was sliced into tiny pieces.
Zheng finally knew why Jie looked at him like that back there. Yes, he couldn't help but try to change the plot. Yet, it's difficult to sway the plot from its momentum. Even when it did change, God would increase its difficulty just like this.
Mou put his hands on his head and screamed, "No, I don't want to, I don't want to enter it!" As he cried, he started running back from the way they came. Before Zheng's group could react, the mercenaries took out their guns and shot him. By the time his body dropped to the ground, it had become a corpse.
"What!" Zheng and Xiaoyi started vomiting.
A life was taken away in front of them. Zheng was feeling terrible inside because he couldn't mind his own business and caused Mou's death. Tie Ta looked at the man and just shook his head.
One looked at him coldly, "I was suspicious of you from the beginning. Even though your identities were registered in the corporation, you don't seem like a security operative. And now you're trying to stop us from rebooting the Red Queen? Okay, Zheng, come with us."
Zheng felt frozen. His stomach was still feeling uncomfortable from the vomiting. One didn't give him a break, grabbed his hands, and entered the corridor with the others.
Tie Ta chuckled, "That fucking idiot.'
Jie looked at Tie Ta, and Tie Ta gave him a wink. When Lan saw this, she moved closer to Jie as she didn't know what was about to happen.
Once everyone entered the corridor, the doors to both sides of the corridor closed up just like in the movie. One and the mercenaries cautiously held on to their guns, then spoke aloud, "Kaplan?"
At the same time, Tie Ta threw Kaplan out of his seat took his place while saying. " 24K CyberScythe is back in fucking business, bitches. Hold your dicks, and Medic, hold your tits because this is going to be a bumpy ride."
Kaplan panicked and was about to pull Tie Ta away from the keyboard but stopped when he witnessed next-level coding and a keystroke speed he couldn't hope to match. Unaware of his incredible speed, Tie Ta just focused on the job like he had been doing the entire mission.
Due to his physical and mental enhancement, Red Queen's defenses were being slain by 24K CyberScythe, Anonymous' number 2 hacker back in his original world.
"Put it back to sleep."
"Hold your positions. Everyone stay calm."
Tie Ta heard the screams.
Zheng was terrified, he knew the plot had started moving, and he became part of the plot. As anticipated, the glass walls dimmed, then a thin laser appeared between the walls. This laser started moving toward the mercenaries and Zheng.
One was the first to react. He brought down the two people beside him. Zheng was focused from the beginning. He threw himself on the ground when the laser appeared. The laser barely touched his shoulder. He could feel that sharpness and heat passing through his shoulder. Other than this, his mind was totally blank.
"Medic! Medic!" One shouted.
This brought Zheng's mind back to consciousness. He turned around and saw the Medic standing speechless with a burn mark across her throat.
One was holding onto a mercenary who lost his fingers. Then someone shouted, "That's how it's fucking done, Bitches! Before I came here, I was in China fucking their cybersecurity team. Long dick style!"
-Hidden Quest-
Oh, Captain! My Captain!
Save One From Death By Lasers
Reward: 5000 Points + B-rank
Another Alert hit, Tie Ta.
At the same time, the terrified Zheng also heard a voice in his head.
-Mental Limit Breakthrough-
Reward: 500 Points, Mental Capacity Increased By 20, Intelligence Increased by 10, Reaction Speed Increased 30.
"What's this?" Zheng thought.
As Zheng finally calmed down and thought about his luck. It was 500 points, increased mental capacity by twenty points, and reaction speed by thirty points. That was like a thousand points already if you were to enhance yourself, the same amount you would get for surviving a movie.
These 500 points and stat enhancements were like a gift from heaven. Zheng was pleasantly surprised.
When the door opened and several people rushed towards him, he was still standing there in a daze.
Xiaoyi tapped his shoulder, "You're amazing! You survived that!"
Zheng's thoughts came back to reality. He shook his head with a bitter smile. He didn't even know what to say. It was too much stimulation for an average person from a peaceful world.
Lan came over also, "You deserved it. I was reminding you not to interfere all along, but you didn't listen. Jie was right. Our biggest defense here is not luck but knowing the plot. Your luck won't always be there for you. Stop being so impulsive from now on. No one wants to die here. Now you better go and thank Tie Ta. Or he might just turn that thing back on and push you in."
"Tie Ta? It's 24K CyberScythe! He did the U.S. federal reserve hack when he was 13! He said he was fucking China before he showed up. Imagine what we're missing right now!" Xiaoyi cut in.
"You're right." Zheng nodded. Still, a bit unnerved.
That was so dangerous just now. He almost died in there. And the middle age man died because of him. And in the end, Tie Ta had to save him. HE just wasn't cut out for this type of world, and it was beginning to show.
However, that's what a horror movie is. No one is absolutely safe, and they were all merely struggling to survive.
But when all of the nonessential thoughts took their course. Zheng walked over to Tie Ta, who was being hugged by the Medic. She held him tight and didn't let go. Zheng then thanked Tie Ta for saving his ass.
