Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



I shook my head, not wanting the idea of a Reaver conspiracy to take hold too deeply. I had enough things on my plate to worry about the entire human race being wiped out.

"Do you have any questions, Commander?" I asked with a smile. I really was too tired to deal with any more bullshit today.

"Yeah," snorted Commander Huang Nian Zu as he looked at me from his place across the RV. "Who the Hell do you think you are?"

I smirked at his question, but just as I was about to open my mouth to respond to him, Liu Yu Zeng cut me off. "Your Savior," he said with a smile on his face. He then turned and gave me a wink.

"You remembered," I said with a smile of my own remembering the time that I had said that very sentence to Liu Yu Zeng. It was always my response to that particular question simply because what did you say? And it was not like I was wrong.

The commander only raised an eyebrow at the answer and I shrugged my shoulders, not really caring what he thought. He would learn the hard way or die. Those were really the only two options.

"Whatever," growled the commander as he looked around the kitchen. "Don't you know it is bad manners not to feed a guest as soon as they arrive?" 

What was it with everyone trying to teach me manners?!? I mean, I was starting to take offense.

"Maybe before," I replied with a shrug, "But now that supplies are limited, it is even worse manners to go over to someone's place and expect to be fed. Or are you just tired of eating whatever convivence food you had found and wanted something different."

"I want to finish the apple I was eating," grumbled Huang Nian Zu as he looked around the counters. 

"Fine, I'll give you an apple in exchange for 6 chocolate bars," I bartered with a shrug. I didn't need apples. I had an entire orchard of apples that could never go bad in my space, not to mention all the other fruits and veggies I grew.

Chocolate bars, on the other hand, were in really short supply.

"Fine," agreed Huang Nian Zu with a small smirk. "Give me the apple first and then I will go back and bring you the chocolate bars after."

Did this man really think that I was that stupid? I shook my head with a sad smile on my face. "I wasn't born yesterday. Do you really think I am that stupid? You get my apple now, eat it, and then when I ask for payment, you just shrug your shoulders like you don't understand what is going on. I repeat, do you really think I am that stupid?"

He simply stared at me in return, not saying anything one way or the other.

"Now, you go get me my chocolate, and when you come back, I will have a somewhat shiny apple ready and waiting for you."

"How many apples do you have?" asked the commander looking at me from the corner of his eyes.

Now it was my turn to snort.  "For every 6 chocolate bars you give me, I will give you an apple," I answered with a shrug.

"What about other snacks?" he asked, fully getting into the spirit of bargaining.

"It will depend completely on what you have and what you want," I responded. I was not going to give him any additional information. I have seen people being raided for having particular supplies and I was not going to give anyone the chance to do that to me. Not like it would work, but still.  No point in giving false hope.

"And if I want a chicken?" he smirked, thinking that he had me in a bind.

"Then you are going to need a lot of snacks and also some day to day supplies that aren't food," I replied, not at all phased. "But you and I both know you don't have enough supplies for your team, let alone enough to trade 6 bars for a single apple."

"It would probably be in your best interest not to underestimate her knowledge of supplies," interrupted Liu Wei, not wanting the conversation to continue. I could only smile. I was more than happy to keep talking about supplies, or their lack of them.

"We have enough," insisted the commander and I could only sigh. 

"That's good then," I said completely unconcerned. Not my circus, not my monkeys. But if any of them thought that they were going to be able to mooch off me and mine, they had another thing coming. "There's the door," I continued pointing to the only door to the outside of the whole RV. "Please feel free to leave."

I stood up and Liu Wei quickly grabbed my blanket before it hit the floor. Smiling at the man, I gave him a kiss on the lips before going into my room for the night. The guys could deal with the commander. I was going to bed.

-----

"Now that she is gone," said Huang Nian Zu, going to sit down on the couch. "Are you really going to go with what she says?"

"I don't know," replied Wang Chao as he went into the kitchen and took a beer out of the fridge. Passing each one out, and excluding the commander, Wang Chao opened his. "It would depend on if I wanted to get out of this situation alive or not, I guess," he continued with a shrug before taking a sip from his bottle.

"You really think that there are zombies in the water preying on humans?" asked Huang Nian Zu, stunned. 

"I think that that woman has never been wrong once, in all the time that we have known her," answered Liu Wei as he too took a sip of his ice-cold drink. Huang Nian Zu could only swallow in frustration that no one was offering him a drink.

"There is a first time for everything," he pointed out before standing up and walking over to the kitchen fridge. Opening it up, he saw that it was completely empty. He then started to open up the cupboards inside of the kitchen looking for something to eat. 

The four men just watched him search frantically, not saying a word. They had a feeling that Li Dai Lu would have taken all of the edible stuff, just so nothing like this happened.