Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



We had been very lucky so far in that not only did we manage to not run into too many zombies, but the November snow managed to hold off while we were on the road.

But, as my foster mother once told me, all good things must come to an end. 

It was December 1st and the first month of the apocalypse had officially come to an end. Just as we walked past the "Welcome to City J" sign, the first snowflake of the year fell to the ground.  I stopped and watched as the pristine white flake floated down from the sky, a dark, desecrated city was its background. The contrast struck me hard, and all I could do was stare.

"First time seeing snow?" asked Liu Wei as he noticed my eyes following the lone flake.

"Hardly," I scoffed. "Even if my last life hadn't prepared me for its harshness, my first life definitely did."

"What do you mean?"

"Snow in the apocalypse is not the magical sight that it was last winter. It was a harsh, brutal, slap in the face of what mother nature does when she is pissed," I said. "I have no idea what this winter will look like, but I remember people talking about how brutal it was and that a lot of people died because they were caught unaware.  But then again, your winters are normally gentle compared to what I was used to in my first life." I shrugged, not too concerned either way.

Winter in Canada, especially where I was from, was not for the faint of heart. I mean, it was not like we had the brutal winters that they did way, way up north, but we still got our fair share of the white stuff.  I mean, some parts of my province had upwards of 180-200 cm of snow. Not to mention the below -50 degrees temperatures with the wind chill. Winter was not my concern.

Keeping the boyos and their men alive during it, was.

As more and more snowflakes followed the first one, a sense of urgency hit me.  "We need to find a house or a large building that can house all of us for a long period of time," I said, looking at Wang Chao.  He had admitted to living in this city for a while before being transferred to the army. 

"We can live on base," he said, thinking things through.  "There is a whole apartment building designed for service members. It would not be a problem to move in there."

I shivered as the wind picked up and the snow started to dance in the air, feeling like razor blades as they hit my cold face.  Pulling out my winter jacket, hat, and mitts, I threw the boys their own gear.  I warmed up once I was dressed properly, but by the way things were going, I knew that we would be in for a good storm in under an hour.

"How far away?"

"If we can use the vehicles? About 45 minutes. If we are walking? Almost 2 hours," said Wang Chao, studying the sky.

"Understood," I said as I took out every single vehicle that I had set aside in my space.  "Let's get a move on. Hopefully, this Admiral guy is at the base," I grumbled as I got into the light blue SUV. 

"Vice Admiral," came Wang Chao and Liu Wei as they entered my car quickly followed by Chen Zi Han and Liu Yu Zeng.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I grumbled, not happy about the weather outside. I would complain that I didn't get any advanced notice about this storm, but then again, I can't blame the weatherman when there was no weatherman to blame. Not even I was that petty.

"Really wishing we had the good winter tires," I grumbled as we made out way down the road as quickly as the weather and 'traffic' allowed us to.  Fortunately for me, we had the 8-wheel ATV and it was able to get most of the obstacles out of the way before the rest of us got stuck.

"Good winter tires?" asked Chen Zi Han as if the concept was completely foreign to him. But then again, City H was more of a subtropical climate so it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't have winter tires.  As the car slipped out under me again, I started to swear.  We needed to get out of here and into the base fast.

"Time?" I asked, staring at the road in front of me as it disappeared into whiteness as soon as the RV in front of me cleared the path.  I had never seen a storm pick up this fast.  I was used to the wind acting as a warning before the blizzard struck, but not this. This was something completely different.

"10 minutes to the gate maintaining this speed," said Wang Chao as he held onto the 'oh shit' bar.  I forgot what the actual name for it was… it was just permanently in my head as the 'oh shit' bar. I think it was called the grip handle or something like that, but I was pretty sure that every place had its own name for it.

"Copy," I said, my stress levels officially through the roof.  In my first life, I hibernated like a bear during winter, refusing to leave my apartment unless I absolutely had to, and I wasn't much better in my second life. In fact, I think I was worse since I didn't have work to force me out of the door. I stayed in the compound as soon as I saw the first snowflake and didn't move for at least 4 months. Not even Colin could get me out.

As I said, winter was never a concern for me because I didn't go out in it. And I had enough supplies to make that happen. If the boys wanted to go out, they were more than welcome to, but they forced me here, and they would have to live with the consequences.

I sighed, thinking about my ranch and how much I missed it, but I knew that there was no way I was leaving City J until all this… crap… was gone.

"You don't like it?" asked Liu Yu Zeng, completely calm (if not a bit cramped) in the back seat.

"Like what?" I asked, my eyes burning from my refusal to blink. Less than 10 minutes, I could do this.

"The snow? I know we always talked about wanting to see it," he went on as he looked out of the window. "It seemed to have that romantic movie quality shit that all the girls would squeal over."

I wanted to glare at him, I really did. But I couldn't because I was pretty much convinced that if I so much as blinked I would send us into the rhubarb and there was no rhubarb around.

  "Yeah, sure… magical stuff…" I grumbled. It always amazed me to listen to people who thought snow was the most amazing thing in the world. I tried to keep my mouth shut, knowing that this winter would cure him of any love affair he had with the white stuff, but it was hard not to grumble about all the downsides of snow.

Mind you, I was pretty sure that if I gushed about how magical a monsoon season seemed to be or how much I wanted a cyclone to come, they would feel the exact same way as me. 

"Time?" I snapped as I lost sight of the RV in front of me.  I was starting to depend on the GPS (thank God that still works, even if it isn't hooked up to anything) more than the actual road and that was just plain dangerous.

"Two minutes," came the steady voice beside me. "You are doing good, little girl," he practically purred, causing me to relax for a moment.  That man was lethal…and apparently, I had a few kinks I was unaware of… huh.

The smirk on his face that I could see from the corner of my eye made me blush in embarrassment. Stupid ability to read my mind.

"Yes, but at least it distracted you," he said, "We are here."

I didn't know what I was expecting, but this base was as far away from my vision of a base as it could be.  A tall, white and glass apartment building appeared in front of me and I had to slam on my brakes not to crash into it, causing the car to spin out of control. 

I let out a very dignified squeal of fear before I caught myself and cleared my throat as the car came to a stop.  Getting out of the car, I quickly ran to the front door… at least I thought it was a front door. It was a glass door and it was less than a foot in front of me. I was going in. 

Finding it locked, I looked at my resident locksmith. Clearing my throat, I tilted my head a few times to get him to unlock the door. He smiled as he simply put his hand on the doorknob and opened it.

Only to be greeted by about 10 guns pointed straight at us.