Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



I took my time waking up the next morning, not at all in a rush to start the day. And unfortunately for everyone else, that meant that they were working on my timeline and I was the last one prepared to leave. Ask me if I cared. 

"Are you sure that you have searched everywhere for supplies?" I asked as I narrowed my eyes at the commander in front of me.

"Did you see anything on the shelves?" he said, returning my question with a question. 

I groaned in response, not at all impressed. Not so subtly shoulder-checking the commander out of the way, I walked into the gas station convivence store. I knew that I had already emptied all of the gas at the pumps, and, as the man pointed out, all of the obvious shelves had been emptied, probably a direct result of the Sea Dragon team staying there.

I walked through the empty store and up to the door that was marked 'Employees Only'. I turned the handle, only to discover that it was locked. Debating all the different ways that I could get into a room with a locked door, I chose the easiest one.

"Wang Chao!" I called out as I glared at the door that was standing between me and my supplies. 

"Trouble?" he said in return, coming up behind me. I turned my glare from the door to him. 

"Is that a statement, a question, or a nickname?" I asked. "Never mind. Just opened the door, please, and thank you." I gestured to the door in question as if it was not brutally obvious which door needed to be opened. 

Huang Nian Zu came up beside Wang Chao and I chose to ignore him in favor of supplies. Wang Chao placed his hand on the knob and in seconds it melted and dripped down to the floor at our feet. Without the handle to keep it in place, the door swung open to reveal a set of stairs going to the basement. 

"Fuck no," I grumbled, wondering if I wasn't right in the idea that the entire universe was out to get me. "Chen Zi Han!" I shouted this time and impatiently tapped my foot.

"What? The big, bad Savior won't go into a basement?" smirked Huang Nian Zu. 

"With you standing at the top of the stairs? No way in Hell," I said just as Chen Zi Han strolled up to me. 

"Basement?" he asked with a smile and I smiled back. He knew me so well.  Taking a pair of gloves out of his back pocket, he put them on carefully before starting down the dark stairs. 

It took maybe a few minutes when he yelled back up that it was clear. I looked between my remaining three men for a second. "Liu Yu Zeng, can you stay and guard the top of the stairs?" I asked. I knew without a doubt that he would not hesitate to kill everyone and anyone that tried to lock me in the basement. It wasn't that I doubted Wang Chao and Liu Wei, but I also didn't want to put them in that position to have to choose either. 

I knew it might not even happen, that not everyone was waiting for me to go into a basement and then lock the door behind me. But have it happen to you once and I promise you that it would be the last time.

"Of course," he said with a smile as he called up his black mist to coat his hands. A small section of the mist flew away from his hand and shot towards me. Wrapping itself around my arm, I could only smile. Apparently, this was now going to be a thing.

"Thanks, Babe," I said as I started down the stairs, keeping my fingers crossed that there wasn't going to be a kidnapping ring, a serial killer that liked to rip things apart, or scientists that created the Reavers. Thinking about it, nothing good ever came from being in a basement. 

That was, until now.

Chen Zi Han was waiting for me at the last step and took my hand. I was oblivious to everything except for the rows upon rows of supplies. There had to be more than 100 shelves all lined up from one end of the room to the other, and each one was completely filled with boxes.

And unless there were body parts in those boxes, I think that the basement curse has been officially broken.

I pulled Chen Zi Han to the closest shelf with a brown cardboard box on it and, letting go of his hand, I pulled off the one that was at eye level. Now, normally I wouldn't bother to do this, I would just send them all into my space and deal with them later, but I had freaked myself out about body parts and just wanted to double-check. 

I put the box on the ground and Chen Zi Han quickly took out a knife from who knows where and cut through the tape keeping it shut. I looked down as my protector opened the container and rows of chocolate bar boxes were exposed. 

I didn't know how long they had been down here and frankly; I didn't care. I finally got my hands on my elusive chocolate bars and I was happy. 

With a smile and a flick of my wrist, the box as well as every other thing in this storage room was quickly stored away in my space. I even included the shelves simply to keep things organized. 

My smile spanned from ear to ear. An entire room of snack food was almost worth having to put up with the commander and his suicide mission. Almost. But still… it was chocolate.

"Coming down!" shouted the commander. Speak of the Devil and all that, I guess. I shrugged my shoulders and struggled to wipe the smile from my face. These men needed to get a lot more resourceful if they were hoping to keep any supplies for themselves.

Then again, Commander Huang Nian Zu did say that they had enough to do them for a while. So really, it was their decision for me not to share with them.