Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



Wang Chao looked at the man tied to the chair in front of him. He knew that the only reason why Li Dai Lu had kept him alive was for his benefit, but he still didn't like that fact.

"General. I'm—"

"I heard you the first time, Lt. Yu Xue Yang. What do you want?" asked Wang Chao, as Liu Yu Zeng and Chen Zi Han walked over to him to offer their support.

"What do you mean? What do I want?" replied Yu Xue Yang in confusion.

"Why did you offer up your military identity?" wondered Liu Yu Zeng out loud. "I thought that was supposed to be super hush-hush when you were out on missions."

"I mean, the amount of… questioning… that we had to do for the police that tried to infiltrate us was astronomical compared to you. You were hardly beaten at all," pointed out Chen Zi Han.

"I heard the General's voice," answered Yu Xue Yang as he looked between the three men. "I figured if he was here, he might be here for a rescue mission."

"And why would I be here for a rescue mission?" asked Wang Chao. Yes, he was a general, but he had been 'retired' for a while. It wouldn't make sense that someone thought that he would be the one leading a rescue mission.

"You're not?" replied Yu Xue Yang, his shoulders slumping in defeat. "Then why are you here?"

Liu Yu Zeng chuckled. "I think the better question is why are you here?"

"Wrong place, wrong time," said Yu Xue Yang disparagingly. Wang Chao tried to get a reading on the man but found his spirit ability blocked.

Another spirit user.

"You are just a fountain of answers, now are you?" scoffed Liu Yu Zeng as he rested his elbow on Wang Chao's shoulder.

Yu Xue Yang sighed. "My commanding officer had heard rumors about girls disappearing from around here and sent me to check it out," he admitted, looking at Wang Chao.  "I had been here for less than a month when the world seemed to have gone FUBAR and we were put on lockdown. I haven't been out of this house since then."

"I see," said Wang Chao nodding his head. He tilted his head to Chen Zi Han to untie the man.  "Well, you are free to go," continued Wang Chao as he started to walk towards the stairs.  The other man just sat there, frozen in disbelief.

"Is that all?" he asked with some concern.

"What do you mean?" replied Wang Chao as he turned around. "What more is there?"

"I saw that girl killing three people with weird powers. Are you not concerned about what I might say?"  Wang Chao spun around on his heels and turned back to the man that was rubbing his wrists with a slight smirk on his face.

"And why would I be concerned?" smiled Wang Chao. If this would have been six months ago, yes, he would have done whatever he could for a fellow soldier, especially one that was on a mission. But this wasn't six months ago. He had listened and learned when his little girl had spoken. The world was no longer the same and neither was he.

"You aren't worried that I would return to my team and let it slip that you allowed someone to kill people and then just walked away? Not even bothering to help another soldier?" This time, the smirk on Yu Xue Yang's got bigger as he stood up and turned to look at the man before him. "I mean, that doesn't look too good on you."

Liu Yu Zeng burst out laughing, almost doubling over in an attempt to catch his breath. Standing upright once more, he looked at Yu Xue Yang who was unknowingly trapped between the three men. "Do you want to know why you are alive while they are dead?" he asked, wiping imaginary tears out of his eyes. "Because you played the military card. Sweetness knows that Wang Chao has a weakness for anyone in the military and so she let you live. As a favor to him. Now you seem almost desperate for a bullet to the brain. Or maybe a long, slow poisoning?" Raising his right hand, Liu Yu Zeng showed the black tentacles of his poisonous mist weaving around his fingers.

Yu Xue Yang looked shocked for a moment before turning to Wang Chao. "General?"

Wang Chao only smiled. "Well, you were the one to threaten us first," he pointed out, both of his hands in his pocket. His spirit powers might be useless against another user, but that didn't mean that  Liu Yu Zeng's poison would be.

"You can't let them kill me. I am out on a mission for Rear Admiral Zhou Gang Jia," said Yu Xue Yang, his eyes darting around the three men to figure out who is the greatest threat. "And what about the girls!" he added out of desperation.

"What about the girls?" scoffed Wang Chao. He had noticed that Li Dai Lu hadn't said anything about her plans for them, so he could only assume that she had none.

"Aren't you going to save them?" asked Yu Xue Yang stunned.

"Not sure, that is up to her," replied Wang Chao.

"She said no," pointed out Chen Zi Han. "She even told the girl that herself," he continued pointing to the girl in the farthest cage that Li Dai Lu had spoken to before.

Yu Xue Yang was stunned. This was not going the way that he expected at all. "But enough distractions. I seem to remember a threat of some kind?" smiled Liu Yu Zeng as he took a step towards the outside man. The shadow behind him stretched out in the light, almost like it had a life of its own.

Yu Xue Yang took a step back in fear, his eyes pleading with Wang Chao to intervene. "The Rear Admiral will be upset," he stuttered. 

"I think you have missed a few key points for that argument to work on me," sneered Wang Chao moving closer to the man, forcing him back until he was trapped in an even tighter circle. "The first of which is the irreconcilable argument that we had just before we left the base. In fact, I am not sure if they are even still alive at this point."  Yu Xue Yang's face went pale as he heard those words.

"What—what do you mean?" he asked, looking around for an exit.

Chen Zi Han just laughed. "The only way out is up," he said, pointing to the stairs behind Wang Chao. "And even if you made it past us and up those stairs. There is still one more up at the top. Plus our men. Do you really think that you stand a chance?" This man had threatened his princess. Did he actually plan to get out of here alive?

"I'll tell! I'll tell everyone that she tortured and murdered prisoners!" yelled Yu Xue Yang, his head spinning around looking for an opening, a weakness of any kind.

This time, it was Wang Chao's turn to laugh. "And how are you going to get out of here to tell anyone?"

"The girls, the girls will tell! You can't kill them all! They are innocent!" said Yu Xue Yang trying to find a way out, but he was completely trapped.

"He might not, but that doesn't mean that I can't," rebuked Liu Yu Zeng. His shadow seemed to have grown tentacles of its own and the darkness was slowly reaching out towards the girls still trapped in the cages. Seeing that, the girls let out a piercing scream that echoed in the basement.

There was the sound of the door opening at closing at the top of the stairs and then a fourth man appeared. Chen Zi Han turned towards the newcomer and raised his eyebrow in question.  "Liu Yu Xuan has kindly requested that you shut the fuck up before you wake up the Queen and there is Hell to pay," said Ren Ruo Xuan and he took the fourth point between Liu Yu Zeng and Wang Chao.

"She is sleeping?" asked Liu Yu Zeng, his shadow seemingly retracting as he managed to calm down significantly at the very mention of Li Dai Lu.  Ren Ruo Xuan nodded his head. "Understood," continued Liu Yu Zeng as he turned his attention back to Wang Chao.

"Should we get her set up in another house so she can have a good night's sleep?" he asked, completely ignoring Yu Xue Yang in favor of tending to Li Dai Lu's needs.  Wang Chao looked at the watch on his wrist. It was going to get dark soon, they might as well set up in a house before returning to their base tomorrow morning. It would be safer that way.

Nodding his head in agreement, he turned to Ren Ruo Xuan. "Go tell Liu Wei the plans and have him get the men set up."

Ren Ruo Xuan dipped his head and turned around to complete his task, not bothering to pay attention to anything else in the basement. It just wasn't his business until his bosses told him it was.