As Zhan slowly woke up again, he listened to hear if it was still raining or storming. But it was silent. The two gates no longer moved, nothing rattled, and no more raindrops pattered on the roof of the hangar.

Zhan wanted to get up and get a bottle of water, but everything hurt. He had sore muscles all over his body, especially his abdomen. He almost had to laugh when he realized again how many muscles a person has and where they were most strained.

Yibo, who was also slowly waking up, looked questioningly at Zhan, straightened up and felt sore muscles all over his body as well. "This is like doing extreme sports, isn't it?" Zhan asked, chuckling as he struggled to get himself into a sitting position.

"Worse. I feel like an old man right now." Replied Yibo with a laugh. Yibo gave Zhan a kiss and asked, "And besides sore muscles, are you in any other pain?"

"No, I'm fine. Just sore muscles."

"Good." Replied Yibo and scrambled out of the tent on all fours. Whereby he felt as if he had aged at least 60 years in the last few hours, the way his body felt.

The two walked slowly to their car and took out two water bottles, which they drank almost immediately. Yibo's gaze turned to the two gates of the hangar as he did so, and he almost choked when he saw that the gates were open a bit.

Immediately he pulled Zhan to him and pointed at the gates. They weren't open very far, not far enough for a creature. But a human could have easily fit through the gap.

Hastily, the two looked around the hangar, but they were and are alone. No one but the two of them is there. And that means there may be a creature outside that was trying to get in here. Even though both didn't understand why it didn't just come in, after all creatures were much stronger than humans and so it could have easily gotten the gates open.

The two walked slowly towards the gates, watching every step. They looked out through the gap, but couldn't see anything at first. Until something flew past the gates.

Immediately, they both jumped back a step and were about to run back to their tent when something caught Zhan's eye. "It's a gray creature." He whispered.

But Zhan's whisper was apparently not quiet enough, because the creature suddenly appeared at the rift and stuck its nose through. It sniffed and then took a few steps away from the gates. Zhan and Yibo watched it and saw the creature, apparently playfully jumping back and forth, fluttering its wings excitedly and turning in circles again and again.

Again and again, the creature looked toward the gap in the gates, tilted its head, fluttered excitedly, and repeated itself. Zhan was completely fascinated by this creature and said to Yibo, "I think it's the same creature as in the apartment."

"Are you sure? They all look the same, don't they?"

"Not exactly. There are gray ones and black ones. But this one I'm sure is the same creature."

"And what if you're wrong."

"I'm not wrong. Just see how it behaves." Replied Zhan. He ran to the car, got a can of ravioli, opened it and threw it outside. The creature sniffed it curiously, pushed its tongue out a bit, tasted the ravioli and spat. But immediately after, it tasted again. And it did so until the ravioli were all eaten, and then played with the empty can.

The creature romped around until it discovered something. It disappeared for a moment and then came back. In its claws was a bird. It placed the dead bird in front of the gap and pushed it further into the hangar with its nose, then hopped around excitedly.

"Um Zhan, I think it wants us to eat the bird." Said Yibo as he looked at the dead bird in disgust.

Zhan slowly walked to the gates, took the dead bird and showed it to the creature. The creature came a little closer to the gates, sniffed, went back a little, sniffed again, and then came closer. Zhan threw the bird to the creature, it caught it with its mouth and ate it. "wow, this is amazing." Said Zhan.

Yibo grabbed Zhan's arm and tried to pull him away from the gates, but Zhan wanted to stay there. And it wasn't until the creature suddenly looked up, lurking, and flew off in a hurry that Zhan let Yibo take him away from the gates. Just in time, because the next moment one of the black creatures flew by and seemed to be chasing the gray one.

Zhan's heart nearly tightened out of concern for the gray creature. He didn't want the gray creature to get hurt or killed. Especially because it seemed that the gray creature was still a child.

Worried, Zhan ran up to one of the stands and looked out one of the windows. He tried to see what was going on out there. Yibo tried to calm him down and whispered very softly, "I'm sure the gray one is fine. Don't worry."

Zhan nodded, but continued to remain concerned until he saw the gray creature disappear into a patch of forest and the black creature fly away.

After about an hour, the gray creature came back to the hangar and even Yibo now could not tell himself that the creatures were all the same. He himself realized how different the two species were. Even more so when two more gray creatures appeared and greeted the other gray creature affectionately.

The togetherness of the gray ones seemed to be loving and caring. Just like in a family.

Zhan and Yibo even ventured toward the rift and showed themselves to the now three gray ones. None of the gray creatures tried to attack the two. They sniffed with interest and interacted with each other with clicking sounds.

Again and again the gray ones disappeared and came back and this went on for almost two hours. And what convinced Yibo of the good nature of the grey ones was when they came back from one of their expeditions and had fresh apples with them. They placed the apples in front of the gap of the gates, stepped back from the gates and waited for Zhan and Yibo to take the apples and immediately each ate one.

And finally Zhan wanted to know it, he ventured outside to the gray. Yibo followed him closely, holding his hand tightly. The greys backed away, startled at first, but then came a little closer to the two, sniffing and then communicating again with their clicking loud among themselves.

When one of the creatures approached Yibo very slowly and with its head tilted, he held out his arm to the creature. The creature sniffed and then licked all over Yibo's arm. The rough tongue of the gray one, reminded Yibo of the tongue of a cat. And when the gray one came a little closer and Yibo managed to touch the creature, he too, like Zhan a few days ago, could feel the smooth and cool skin. "Wow." He whispered.

The creature lowered its head more and more and then even lay down on the ground when Yibo scratched it behind the ear. The other two also laid down on the floor and Zhan petted them. "You guys feel really great." Said Zhan giggling as one of the creatures even rolled onto its back so Zhan could pet the creature's chest.

After a few minutes, however, it was over again when a noise was heard from a distance, startling the creatures. They seemed to have been summoned, at least Zhan assumed so. Because shortly after, the creatures flew away in the direction from which the noise had been heard.

And for the two of them, it was also getting to be time to pack up and get back on the road. They had to move on and reach their next destination. The last destination before they would then reach Zhan's great uncle's hotel the following night, if nothing interfered.

As Zhan loaded everything into the car and his eyes fell on the radio, he also remembered that he found suitable batteries at the gas station and took them with him. He hurriedly picked them out and replaced them while Yibo packed up the tent.

With a hiss, the radio came back to life. Zhan tuned in to the channel he and his father had made out and called for his father. After the fourth try, he finally got an answer. "Oh my God Zhan, I'm so glad to hear from you." He heard his father say.

Yibo, who had successfully folded the tent and put it back in its cover, came running to Zhan and looked at the radio with delight.

"I was going to call in sooner, but I had to find suitable batteries first." Said Zhan finally.

"That's okay. The main thing is that you're okay. You and your friend. Where are you guys now?"

Zhan told him approximately where they were, because after Yibo's ride, they didn't know for sure. His father then informed him, "We are even farther away. We are making slow progress and found more survivors. Now there is no more room in the buses. During the day, we hide in the woods."

"We spent the last hours in a hangar. We always had a roof over our heads, fortunately. Oh yeah, we've only encountered one vampire so far. Yibo killed him. Another one was there too, but didn't get close to us."

"Be careful. We don't know if they can transfer the poison to humans as well, like the creatures. We have two scientists here who think that only the black creatures are dangerous and also carry the poison. These others, these gray ones seem to be peaceful. Since the two species are fighting, the scientists assume that maybe the gray creatures carry the antidote."

"I see. We also noticed that the grays are peaceful. They even let us pet them. They are very curious and even fed us fresh apples they got."

"Really? Wow, I'll have to tell the scientists about that later. Oh yeah, tell your friend his parents are doing very well. The two of them are helping out everywhere they can. They especially take care of the kids whose parents are dead or missing. They let their son know that they love him, miss him and look forward to seeing him again soon."

"Yibo is listening in. Thanks Dad. How are our friends from the dam?"

"Oh they're doing great. Alina is helping the two scientists with their theories and Hai Kuan is helping my soldiers. Oh, did you know he's with Cheng?"

"Knew that. Good that they can get involved and they're doing well. How is mom?"

"Your mother is doing very well. You know her. She can't be kept down. She bosses my soldiers around and keeps order."

"Haha, Typical mom. Dad, I guess in two nights Yibo and I will be at the hotel. So to save batteries, we won't be reporting back for two nights."

"All right son. Keep your guard up and slow down. We'll see you in a couple of days. We love you and tell Yibo his parents love him too."

"I love you too and Yibo sends his regards to his parents." Said Zhan and ended the conversation.

Zhan and Yibo hugged each other. Knowing that their families were also doing well was good news for both of them.

The two also packed the rest into the car, pushed the hangar gates apart, and then set off again. It would take them a few hours to reach their next destination, and they were already anxious to see where they would spend the next night, or rather, the next day.