Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



"You know, one of these days, someone is going to have to fill me in on what these steps are," grumbled Chen Zi Han as he switched from rubbing my feet to simply lightly brushing his fingers up and down my legs.

I sighed as I enjoyed the movement of his fingers. "I don't really know if they are still applicable, but when I was reborn here this time around, I can come up with some steps to survive the apocalypse," I said chuckling to myself as I thought back to the steps.

"But from where I am standing right now, some of the steps seem… redundant," I admitted, trying to remember everything on my list.

"Like what?" asked Liu Yu Zeng as he turned around to look at me.

"Like step one," I smiled. "My very first step to surviving the zombie apocalypse was to let them all die."

"Them?" prodded Chen Zi Han.

"People. I was going to hold up on my ranch and not care about anyone or anything," I said softly. "Every person in this world could and should die and I would not have an issue with that."

"And then she met me and couldn't bear the idea of letting me die," joked Liu Wei.

Rolling my eyes, I hummed, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. Getting that fence put in and meeting Liu Wei was definitely the slippery slope that ended me up here, hundreds of miles from my sanctuary and everything I had built.

"Do you regret it?" asked Wang Chao, causing a deafening silence to fill the room. None of the other men moved as I thought about my answer. I wanted to be truthful to both myself and them.

"Every so often," I admitted. "But then I remembered that if we had never gone looking for Liu Wei's family, I would never have met Liu Yu Zeng and Chen Zi Han, so it kind of balances things out for me."

There were almost inaudible signs of relief when I gave them my answer. "But like I said, pretty much every other step now seems like a waste of time."

"How so?" demanded Liu Yu Zeng.

"Step two: Buy a farm," I said counting off the steps on my fingers.

"Which is what brought you to our attention," interjected Wang Chao. I simply hummed in agreement.

"Step three: Sell my old place."

"Which was done by one of our companies," smirked Liu Wei as he looked at me.

"Step four: Move onto the farm and build a fence."

"Which is how you met me in person," pointed out Liu Wei.  I was starting to see a trend.

"Step five: Organize the pantry," I said, raising my eyebrow at Liu Wei in a challenge. Not even he could find a way to connect himself to organizing the pantry.

"Which you needed when we moved in." The self-satisfied smirk was all that I needed to see before I rolled my eyes. That man could make absolutely everything about him.

"Fine," said as this started to be a fun challenge for the two of us. "Step 6: Fill the pantry."

"We helped you do that by buying supplies and you did it to be able to feed us," said Liu Wei raising his own eyebrow as if encouraging me to disagree.  I could help but burst out laughing.

"Yeah, yeah," I chuckled as I thought about what number 7 was. "Step 7: Learn about EMPs."

"Ah yes, back when Wang Chao thought that you were part of the Blood Moon Mercenaries. He was on the fence about you until we found out that you were looking up information about EMPs. Then he became interested."

"You were on the fence about me?" I asked, tilting my head back to look at the man behind me.

"Not once I saw you," he admitted.

"What was step 8?" asked Liu Yu Zeng getting into this little game.

"Gather guns and weapons," I groaned.

"Which you got from us," said all four of the men at the same time. I looked at them in confusion.

"How?" I asked, not sure how my calling up Liu Wei to get the weapons was connected to Liu Yu Zeng or Chen Zi Han.

"Where do you think he got all the weapons from?" demanded Liu Yu Zeng with a grumble of his own.  "One day I had a warehouse full of weapons and then next more than half of them vanished. The only thing he said when I called him out on it was that they were a gift."

That statement had me tilting back my head and laughing uncontrollably. I had to admit it, without me realizing it, I had set myself on this path myself just by wanting to be alone. It was kind of ironic if you thought about it.

"Was there anything else?" asked Chen Zi Han as he continued to trace his fingers all over my skin.

"Not that I can really think of," I admitted. "But step one really stuck with me."

Wang Chao just grunted in reply.  "Should have paid more attention to that step," he said, causing the rest of us to laugh. The topic of the stalker was behind us, and even though we might not bring it up and have moved on, I know it was still in the back of all of our minds.

----

"Have you made your decision?" asked Wang Chao as he opened the door to the apartment the next morning and saw Zhou Gang Jia on the other side.

"Can I come in?" demanded the Rear Admiral as he looked around.

"Fine. But you will need to be quiet," replied Wang Chao as he invited the man into the apartment and gestured for him to sit down in the living room.

"What do I need to be quiet?" Zhou Gang Jia asked in surprise.

"Because some people are still sleeping."

"Your wife?" he sneered as he took a seat in one of the oversized chairs facing the kitchen area.

"Yes," said Wang Chao with a straight face. "And no one will wake her up before she is willing to." Just as he finished his sentence, Liu Wei and Liu Yu Zeng both came out of their rooms wearing a simple pair of black combat pants and a black T-shirt.

"Still sleeping?" asked Liu Yu Zeng as he briefly glanced around the room before heading to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee.

"Yeah," laughed Wang Chao as he sat down on the couch and made himself comfortable. "But who would want to wake up, let alone wake her up in that situation?"  The other two men grunted in agreement as they brought their coffees to the living room and picked seats around the Rear Admiral.

"I call shotgun tonight," claimed Liu Wei as he took a sip of his coffee.

"Childish," said Wang Chao looking at his friend. "And you can't. I already called it yesterday," he continued with a self-satisfied smirk on his face. Liu Wei narrowed his eyes at his friend.

"You can't do that," he growled, looking like he was willing to jump across the coffee table to attack Wang Chao.

"Can and did," the other man stated. "Now, if we could get on with why the Rear Admiral is here before anyone else comes out of their room and all Hell breaks loose?"

The three men turned their attention to Zhou Gang Jia as he sat quite comfortably in their living room.

"Are you not going to offer me a cup of coffee?" he demanded, internally drooling over the idea of a fresh cup of coffee. "And how did you manage to brew a pot of coffee anyways? And is it actually warm in here?" he continued to fire out his questions as he started to remove the outer layer of his clothes.

"No and Li Dai Lu," said Liu Wei concisely. He knew that Li Dai Lu was concerned about her coffee supply, even though she has more than enough to last everyone for at least five years, plus had the ability to grow her own. Either way, Zhou Gang Jia was not welcomed to it.

"I don't understand," claimed Zhou Gang Jia as he looked at the men around him.

"No, you are not going to get a cup of coffee, and Li Dai Lu is the reason why we have the ability to have both coffee and heat," clarified Wang Chao as he took a sip of his own cup. "Now, have you made your decision?"

"I don't know why this is so hard for you to accept," quipped the Rear Admiral as he attempted to stare Wang Chao down. "We do not allow civilians on base. It has always been that way."

"Understood," replied Wang Chao as he finished his cup of coffee and stood up. "Then we will be out of here in under an hour."

"What?!?" roared Zhou Gang Jia as he jumped to his feet. "Is this your way of threatening me so that I give in?"  No longer caring about keeping his voice down, he pointed his finger at Wang Chao, his entire body shaking in anger.

Due to the loud commotion, Chen Zi Han rushed out of his room in only a pair of pajama pants, a gun in his hand, and a look of absolute rage on his face.