Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



I knew that I had dreamed, something about a purple fire, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember it when I woke up. Slowly coming out of my dream, I could feel that I was laying on something soft and someone was playing with my hair and giving me a foot massage. All in all, not a bad way to wake up.

I hummed as I stretched my body, still refusing to open my eyes.  I was tired, had the mother of all headaches, and really, really wanted a chocolate cake. I heard Wang Chao's chuckle and I smiled in response. 

"This place has supplies," he said, his voice could tempt an angel to sin, and I was no angel.

"Supplies?" I said, my attention immediately catching onto his words. "I like supplies." My headache seemed to magically disappear at the mention of supplies. 

He hummed in agreement. "But you are going to have to open those eyes of yours if you want to collect them," he said as his fingers continued to comb my hair.

"Do I have to?" I whined, really happy and content at the moment. Getting up seemed to require more energy than I wanted to spend right now.

"You don't have to…" he said, starting to agree with me, "But then again, I don't know if Zhang Hao Ran or Liu Yu Zeng will walk away with them…"

"I'll kill them," I screeched as I quickly sat up and looked around the room, wide eyed. I was laying on a couch with Wang Chao and Liu Wei at either end and across from me was Lui Yu Zeng and another guy standing behind him.  I looked around frantically, but I could not see Zhang Hao Ran. "Where is he?!" I growled, not willing to let him steal my supplies.

I saved that man twice now… if he dared to take what was mine, he wouldn't have to worry about a third time.

I heard a chuckle on both sides of me and I turned my head to look at Liu Wei first and then at Wang Chao. "Is there something funny?" I snapped, feeling more like myself with every passing moment.  Burnout was not fun, but luckily, I was recovering well. There were horror stories about people that pushed their powers so hard that they became Normal in the end.

"Nothing at all, Sweetheart," said Liu Wei, still chuckling. "Your supplies are completely safe and waiting for you to take them whenever you want."

I nodded my head like that was to be expected and looked at Liu Yu Zeng. "So you guys are here too?" I asked, trying to figure out what was going on.

"So it would seem," said Liu Yu Zeng in a slightly haughty way.

"And Zhang Hao Ran is--?" I asked, looking around the room for him.

"As far as I can guess, he is outside trying to get his brother on the phone," replied Wang Chao, as if that exercise in futility had nothing to do with him.

I smirked, "And how is that going for him?"  Wang Chao just shrugged, not caring about his future brother-in-law. "Alright… so, what's the plan?"

"Apparently we were waiting for you to wake up and tell us what it was going to be," said Liu Yu Zeng, once again giving off an air of superiority.  This was going to be fun.

I raised my eyebrows and smiled at the man sitting in front of me as if he was holding court.  I was surrounded by princes and only two of them were smart enough to understand their circumstances. Looking at my two boys, I widened my smile. "So smart!" I praised them, happy that they didn't do anything stupid until I woke up.

"What is it looking like outside, and how far are we from Liu Wei's house?" I asked, looking at all four of the men around me.

"No movement outside, but not sure if it is because there is a zombie horde outside or just that this neighborhood eliminated all animals around it pre-apocalypse," said Liu Wei, giving me a brief report.

"And distance?"

"We are looking at about 3 blocks away from here," said Liu Yu Zeng. I nodded and stood up.

"Alright, how many men do we have on hand, what is the weapon situation, and what time is it?" I continued. I walked through one set of doors and into what appeared to be a dining room.  It was too pretentious for the farmhouse chic décor that I liked, so I left it all. Making my way into the kitchen, I hit paydirt as I opened the cupboards and found the food that was left behind. Putting it away into my space, I continued with my tour of the house.

Wang Chao and the others followed me around, pointing out things here and there that they wanted.

Surprisingly, Liu Yu Zeng and his shadow didn't say a word as they saw things vanish before their eyes.

"Not including the 5 of us, we are looking at 342 men in total, only enough cold weapons to supply half of the men, unless you have more swords on you, and it is 4:00 in the afternoon," said Wang Chao as he pointed to a vase that he liked.  Meh, if he liked it… I waved my hand and took it into my space.

I paused, trying to think if I had any more swords or daggers or really anything that could remove heads from bodies.  Without meaning to... (Hey! I was still trying to work out the kinks, this space is new to this life I'll have you know) … a pile of swords, axes, and short swords appeared in the hallway in front of us.

"Oops," I said, trying not to show that it was done completely without my knowledge. "Sorry about that. But apparently, we have more weapons. Do you men know how to use them?" I asked Liu Yu Zeng as he reached forward and grabbed a sheathed katana from the pile.

"They should be fine," he replied in a very blasé type of way.

"Good," I said as I stepped around the pile of weapons and continued on my tour of the house. "And that stick up your ass… is it sharp enough to take off a head or should you remove it to sharpen it before we leave?"

Silence met my comment and I tried not to smile… I didn't really try all that hard, but I did try.

Looking over my shoulder, I raised an eyebrow.  When there were no replies coming from anyone, I considered that a win.

I quickly finished my inspection of the house, wanting to make sure that I didn't leave anything that I would need behind. This meant that I took all the beds, mattresses, sheets, towels, and any other useful item that I could get my hands on. I was not going to look back and wish that I took it while I had the chance. I even took all of the living room furniture, just in case!

And if I didn't think that Hades would put up a stink, I would have also taken the small doggy bed, but since he would have, I decided to leave it here.  See, I can leave things behind for others to take in the future…

Feeling in as good of a mood as possible, thanks to all of the new supplies, I opened the door, ready to see what the world had in store for me.

Apparently, that meant me walking face first into a chest and crushing my nose. Who the Hell stands so close to the fricking door anyways?!?  Looking up, my question had been answered.

"What do you want, Zhang Hao Ran?" I grumbled, rubbing my nose to make sure it was all in one piece. It was, for those of you who were worried… I know I was….

"Wang Chao, when are we leaving?" The man asked Wang Chao over my head.  Talk about rude. Well, if he was going to be rude first, there was no reason for me not to retaliate.  Swinging back my foot, I landed a painful kick to Zhang Hao Ran's shin.  Watching him drop down to the floor and holding his shin while screaming in pain brought back all of my previous feelings of happiness.

Practically skipping down the steps, I made my way to the metal doors that saved us all from the zombies. Putting out a quick thank you to whatever God or Gods were listening at that moment, I rejoiced that this horde did not choose to scale the walls. Given the fact that they were only 6 feet high, it was a distinct possibility.

I called my fires, my pink in the left hand and the blue in the right, and motioned for the men to slowly open the doors. I hadn't heard any birds or other wildlife, so I was not going to take any chances that the zombies had gotten bored and left.

Barely opened more than a foot, I quickly slid out of the gates, ready to face the horde again… this time, determined to win.