Apocalypse Supermarket: My Four Overpowered Husbands Wontstop Hoarding

Chapter 85: Chapter 85 The clean up order

Back in the panic room where Luna had left the guys, the atmosphere had finally settled down a little, but there was still one major problem staring them directly in the face. The entire place was a mess—couches were pushed out of position, chairs had been knocked over, the glass table had been shoved against the wall, and there were still traces of blood from the earlier fight scattered across the floor. Nobody wanted to be the first person to start cleaning.

Adrian eventually sighed and looked around. "I think we should all clean it. We’re the ones living here, after all." He picked up a floor brush and grabbed two more before handing them to the others.

Ethan stared at the brush in his hand like it had personally offended him. "Why should I do this? And Rowan too? Shouldn’t the angry lion chained to the pole be the one cleaning after attacking all of us? He’s the one who scattered the entire room."

Adrian immediately facepalmed. "He’s still new." He lowered his hand and looked at Ethan. "And considering what he just went through, what exactly were you expecting? For him to walk in here after watching his friends get killed and immediately start hugging everyone and thanking us?"

Ethan frowned. "I’m just saying—"

"And I’m just saying you’re expecting way too much from someone who probably thinks we’re about to kill him."

Ethan muttered something under his breath and began reluctantly moving the brush across the floor. Adrian watched him for a second before remembering something. "Actually, forget the cleaning for a second. What even happened?" Everyone looked at him. "I thought Luna was completely against helping those people, and then I came back from taking a bath and found Astrid chained to a pole, Rowan injured, Kai nearly dead on the floor, and the entire room looking like a war zone." He spread his arms. "Can someone summarize what the hell happened while I was gone?"

Kai, who had been standing nearby, immediately saw his opportunity. He practically threw himself in front of Adrian. "Adrian Solis, this is how it all started—"

Rowan groaned. He was still recovering from the injury to his head, and the thought of Kai telling the entire story made him feel another headache coming.

Adrian quickly held up a hand. "I said a summary, Kai. Not the history of humanity." Kai stopped. "We aren’t in class, dude. Just tell me the simple version."

Kai nodded seriously. "Okay, simple version." He cleared his throat. "Astrid is his name. He pressed a button and became the lucky one who escaped. Then we realized Luna had deliberately placed that button there so whoever was smart enough to find it could survive. And apparently, Astrid was that person." He grinned.

Adrian stared at him. There was silence. "That was your summary?" "Yep." "That sounded more like a riddle." Kai shrugged.

Adrian sighed. "Never mind." He already regretted asking. "So basically, Luna did rescue him." "In her own way," Rowan corrected.

Adrian looked toward Astrid. The purple-haired man was still chained to the pole, sitting quietly with his head lowered. He looked completely exhausted. For a moment, Adrian felt a little guilty for assuming the worst.

Rowan slowly lowered himself onto one of the couches. Ethan was beside him, and Rowan reached over to shake his hand. "Thanks for what you and Luna did for me." Ethan glanced at him. "I would’ve died if you weren’t here." Ethan laughed softly. "Even if I wasn’t here, you weren’t going to die."

Rowan looked at him strangely. "What?"

"Believe it or not, I don’t think Luna was ever going to let you die." Ethan glanced toward Adrian. "Or you."

Adrian’s eyebrows lifted. "Me?"

Ethan nodded. "You two are the ones she gets closest to. She shows you a side of herself that the rest of us probably won’t see in this lifetime."

That statement immediately caught Rowan’s attention. He didn’t say anything—he simply looked down.

Ethan continued, "You’re lucky, man. At least you’ve got her."

Rowan immediately pushed the thought away. Lucky? He didn’t consider himself lucky. They were in the middle of an apocalypse, surrounded by monsters and unknown dangers. Their lives were constantly at risk, and Luna’s behavior was difficult to understand half the time. Whatever concern she showed him didn’t have to mean anything more—she was simply worried about him. That was all. And it was better if he kept thinking that way. Otherwise, his heart was going to get involved in something that might not even exist.

"Adrian," Rowan finally said, turning toward him. "Maybe Luna isn’t exactly the person we think she is." Adrian looked at him. "There might actually be a kind person somewhere inside her. Maybe she just doesn’t know how to show it." He glanced toward the door Luna had disappeared through. "But who knows?"

Rowan leaned back. "We all have things that shaped us. We all have trauma, experiences that changed the way we see the world. Luna is probably no different." His gaze settled on Adrian. "And I think you should remember that."

Adrian remained quiet.

"We’re allowed to have our trauma," Rowan continued. "But that doesn’t mean we should use it to judge everyone around us." Adrian’s expression changed slightly. "You have your own problems too. I can see that much." Rowan sighed. "So when you were criticizing Luna earlier, you weren’t completely wrong about what you felt. But what you said wasn’t exactly fair either."

Adrian lowered his gaze.

Rowan continued, "I saw what happened outside. We all did. Astrid tried to save those two until the very end, and what did they do?" He shook his head. "They treated him terribly." The others became quiet. "They were willing to use him as bait. They didn’t care whether he survived. Even when he was risking his life for them, they still expected him to keep putting himself in danger." Rowan’s expression hardened. "I wouldn’t want people like that inside this house either."

Kai nodded from nearby. "Exactly."

Everyone had watched the same thing unfold on the monitors. They had seen Astrid risking his life. They had seen Isaac and Melanie. They had seen how everything ended. Luna’s decision wasn’t as cruel as Adrian had originally believed—she had tested them, and the test had shown exactly who they were.

Adrian slowly dropped the brush he had been holding. He rubbed his face. "Yeah." His voice was quieter. "I understand."

The guilt had been bothering him from the moment he said those words to Luna. It wasn’t entirely about her—it was about him, about the person he used to be, about all the things he had failed to do when he still had the chance. Somewhere inside him, he had always believed that if he had tried harder, spoken louder, or stood up to the people around him, maybe certain things wouldn’t have happened. Maybe people wouldn’t have gotten hurt. Maybe someone wouldn’t have died. And because he couldn’t change the past, he kept trying to make up for it by saving everyone he could. But this wasn’t the old world. Things were different now. And Luna wasn’t responsible for his guilt.

"I’ve heard you," Adrian finally said. He picked up the brush again. "When she wakes up, I’ll talk to her properly."

Rowan nodded. "Good." He reached for another brush. "I’ll sweep." He looked around. "So who’s arranging everything?"

Every head slowly turned toward Kai. Kai froze. He looked around at everyone. "What?" Nobody answered. "Why are you all looking at me?" Rowan raised an eyebrow. Kai pointed at himself. "Me?" "Yes," Ethan answered. Kai looked offended. "What the hell? Why me?" "You’ve been standing around doing nothing." "I was narrating!" "Exactly."

Kai’s mouth fell open. "That is a job." "No, it isn’t." Kai crossed his arms. "Don’t we have a damn worker here?" He suddenly looked around. "Speaking of which, where the hell is Miles?"

Everyone started looking. Ethan’s eyes eventually moved toward the bunk beds. "There." He pointed. They all turned. Miles was lying on one of the beds—sleeping. Completely peacefully. As though the apocalypse wasn’t happening. As though monsters hadn’t just attacked their house. As though there weren’t corpses covering the front yard.

Kai stared at him. "Is he serious?" Nobody answered. "Are you sure he’s alive?" Ethan squinted. "He hasn’t moved." Kai slowly approached the bunk. "What if he’s actually dead?" Rowan frowned. "Don’t say that."

Miles suddenly turned over in his sleep. Everyone jumped. Kai nearly screamed. Then Miles opened his eyes. The moment he saw four people staring directly at him, his entire body jolted. "AH!" He nearly fell off the bed. "What the hell?!"

Kai immediately handed him a brush. "We’re cleaning."

Miles stared at the brush, then at Kai, then at everyone else. "It’s like you people waited for me to wake up."

"You were sleeping through everything," Kai complained.

"I was tired!"

"The world is ending."

"I noticed."

"And we’re cleaning."

Miles looked at the disaster around them. His shoulders dropped. "Fuck my life." He climbed down from the bunk. "The end of humanity really doesn’t have to come with the end of my life too."

Kai immediately sighed in relief. "Finally."

Miles began gathering some of the scattered things around the room while everyone else returned to cleaning. Adrian looked toward Astrid. "Well, I guess I’ll go talk to our new friend."

Kai raised a hand. "I’ll come with you." Ethan immediately looked at him suspiciously. "You’re just trying to avoid cleaning." Kai gave him an innocent smile. "Me? Never." He quickly walked toward Astrid before anyone could object.

Ethan watched him go. "That jerk always finds a way to avoid work."

Rowan chuckled. "Let him."

"I’d rather sweep the whole room than deal with that guy’s temper anyway." Ethan glanced toward Astrid. "That man’s temper is nasty." He swept another pile of debris toward the corner, then his expression became serious. "And speaking of nasty..." He looked toward the monitors. "When are those monstrous things outside going to leave?"

The others stopped working for a moment. Ethan pointed toward the screen. "The corpses and damaged equipment are still all over the veranda and front yard. We need to burn everything before the smell attracts more predators."

Nobody immediately answered. They had already learned that every action outside came with a risk—going out there while the creatures were still roaming around could be suicide.

Rowan looked at the monitors. "We’ll deal with it tomorrow."

Ethan frowned. "Tomorrow?"

"After we’ve eaten and everyone has gotten some rest." Rowan looked toward the others. "We’re all exhausted. There’s no point risking another fight tonight."

Ethan thought about it before nodding. "Fair enough."