Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



After a great night's sleep, even with Liu Yu Zeng snoring the whole time, we were more than ready to get started on the tasks for the day.  It took us a few hours to go through all of the remaining floors including the overstock in the basement before we were satisfied that we managed to grab everything.

Well, let's face it, the only one that had to be satisfied with the amount of supplies was me and I was practically giddy. We managed to get enough winter clothing to supply all of the men between Wang Chao and Liu Yu Zeng's teams with jackets, hats, mitts, and boots. I was still looking for snow pants for everyone, but there were not that many available in the stores.

Mentally going through all of the supplies and things I wanted more of, I was caught off guard when Hua Chan Juan approached me and put her hand on my shoulder.  Jumping a bit in surprise I turned around and looked at the other woman.  "You know," she said, looking at me. "If you want to survive what is to come, you need to be a lot more in tune with your surroundings. I should not have been able to surprise you like that."

I smiled at her; she wasn't wrong. But then again, surrounded by over 300 men, I was pretty sure that no threat was going to be able to get so close to me that I had to worry about my survival. "You can't be so trusting of people," she continued as if she knew what was going on in my head. Knowing that she couldn't read my mind, I smiled.

"If I can't trust these men, then they would not be alive," I said in a whisper as if confessing something to her that no one else knew. Pointing to where Wang Chao and the other three I continued. "Even if they could get through one, no one could get through all four."  I might have doubted my standing with them, but after the clarification of Wang Chao and Liu Wei yesterday, combined with the fact that Liu Yu Zeng and Chen Zi Han hadn't even looked at her once, I was feeling on top of the world. 

"Still, as a woman, you should know how to fight for yourself.  It's not like there is always going to be one of them around," Hua Chan Juan said as she scanned the area around us.  Men were quickly taking down our makeshift camp before we headed to the first grocery store on Liu Yu Zeng's list.

"I am pretty sure that there will always be one of us around," said Chen Zi Han as he stepped out from behind us, startling Hua Chan Juan.  I chuckled at the reverse scenario as I looked at the man beside me. "And I am sure that she is quite capable of protecting herself," he continued as he tentatively put his arm around me.  When I didn't shrug it off, he gripped my waist a bit tighter and pulled me closer to him.

"Still," said Hua Chan Juan looking at the two of us. I simply raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to make a comment.  I knew what was on her mind; she had seen me in this exact position with Wang Chao and Liu Wei before.

"Ready to go!" shouted Liu Yu Zeng from the middle of the men, breaking off our conversation.  Nodding his head, Chen Zi Han escorted me to where the other three were waiting for us.

"Let's go!" I said, extremely excited about what we were going to do next. Heck, even the possibility of coming across a zombie horde or two was not enough to bring me down. The boyos chuckled and followed behind as Chen Zi Han, Liu Yu Zeng and I lead the pack. Pulling out Hades, I put him on my shoulder.

He let out a series of meows that sounded like a scorned wife, but all I could do was laugh at his disgusted face and scratch him under the chin. "What can I say? You are my best advanced zombie warning system. But I don't want my little baby getting hurt now do I?" I asked, my tone becoming coaxing as I continued to scratch him where he wanted me to.

I really loved the cat, and if I had my way, he would be free to live whatever life he wanted back on the ranch. But I wasn't kidding when I said that he was my best way to figure out if zombies were around. "Would you prefer me to find another animal?" I asked, looking at my shoulder where Hades perched. It was my turn to hiss as his murder mittens dug into me. "Ok! Ok! I'll take that as a no! But then don't get mad at me when I toss you into the space where you are safe," I grumbled as the two men on either side of me opened the doors to the outside.

Squinting my eyes in the morning sun, I waited to see what Hades would do.  As soon as he settled down and gave me a quick meow, which I took as his sign for no zombies around, I nodded to Liu Yu Zeng to lead the way.  He gave Hades a quick scratch of his own before taking us down the street and to the first grocery store.

There were more people out on the streets today than yesterday which I took to be a good sign, but they seemed to avoid us like we had the plague or something. Not really caring, I stepped into the first grocery store and into absolute chaos. 

People were grabbing items off of the shelves as fast as they could, most of the time not even considering what they were grabbing. Like seriously, I wasn't too sure who was doing that much laundry right now to warrant 5 of the extra large jugs of liquid laundry detergent, but who was I to judge? 

Over in the middle aisles (cause let's face it, the outer fridge and freezer aisles were just useless) I watched two men getting into a fistfight over some crackers while two women who must have been their significant others grabbed what they could. When one man was declared the clear winner (the other one was knocked out and on the ground), he grabbed as many cookies as he could before scrambling out of the crowd and directly toward us. 

I quickly moved to the side, grabbing Chen Zi Han and pulling him to Liu Yu Zeng, and let the frantic couple dash out of the store.  Looking around, I saw that there was no end in sight to the chaos, but that the people were all so focused on the middle aisles that they couldn't see anything else.  Smiling, I dragged the two men out of the store.

"How is it looking?" asked Liu Wei as he quickly got out of our way.  There was not enough room inside the small grocery store for all of us, so we had to split the teams up again and had them go up and down the street to find other supplies.

"Busy," I said with a chuckle.  This was what I was waiting for, the complete chaos calling to a deeper, darker part of me. "Let's go to the express lane," I continued, still pulling Chen Zi Han and Liu Yu Zeng beside me.  Taking us down the alleyway beside the store, I quickly found the service entrance.

Giggling in delight that this area was absolutely empty, I walked up to the locked door. Calling upon my poor, neglected ice, I froze the lock, completely engulfing it in ice.  Ok, so maybe I wasn't trying to engulf it in ice, and maybe… just maybe… it had gotten a tad bit out of control after not being used as much.  Making a note in my head to practice with it more, I motioned to Wang Chao to shatter the lock with his lightning.

And yes, I knew that as a metal user, it would have been a lot easier if I had just got him to open the metal door, and yes, I am sure that he needed to practice his metal as much as I needed to practice my ice, but I was too… happy… to really take that into consideration. Like, seriously, it felt as if I had just chugged three energy drinks without the heart palpations and rush of anxiety that I normally got when I drank that many.

I would try to figure out where all this extra energy had come from later, but for now… supplies!!!!

As soon as the door opened, Chen Zi Han took out his 9mm gun and entered the back room of the grocery store.  I looked at Liu Yu Zeng in confusion.  He simply shrugged his shoulders and said, "It's kind of his thing."

Well, that was helpful.

"As one of the enforcers of Red Dragon Syndicate, he is normally the first one into unknown situations. The fact that he has not been doing that lately had been driving him crazy. When he has determined it to be all clear, he will let us know," said Liu Wei expanding on his brother's statement. See, that made a lot more sense.

It only took a few minutes before Chen Zi Han was back at the door and telling us that it was all safe. I smiled up at the giant and patted his chest twice, letting him know without words that I appreciated what he had just done.

"If I had gone down that hallway in the mall first, you would not have almost died," came the gruff voice from over my head. Looking up at him with a confused look, he simply pushed a strand of hair off my cheek and turned around to gather what food we could.

I guess none of the guys were going to forgive me for almost getting my head taken off any time soon.