Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



I watched as Liu Yu Zeng came up to me with an underwater jet ski in his arms. I narrowed my eyes at him. "Does it even work?" I asked.

"Only one way to find out," he said with a shrug. Like he wasn't holding onto it like a two-year-old might hold onto a stuffed teddy bear.

"I take it you really want it?" I said with a sigh. Meh, it was not like I was the one that had to buy it. Everything was possible with a five-fingered discount. Or in this case, a limitless portable space. 

Liu Yu Zeng looked at me and nodded his head. "Fine," I replied and brought everything in the back room into my space. "You'll have to wait until we get into the water to see if it works or not. Fingers crossed it does."

Satisfied that I had once again emptied out an entire shack of its contents, the five of us left. I threw four light grey wetsuits at the guys and sent them to one of the shacks to get changed while I quickly darted into my space to get dressed and check out all my new supplies.

I looked through a few of the diver's knives, but I still preferred to have my K Bar instead. In situations where everything was up to chance, I didn't want to add an unfamiliar weapon into the mix.  I quickly suited up and went into the farmhouse kitchen to fill up more random mugs with coffee.

I couldn't help smirking to myself with some of them. I was really happy that I put in an effort to find them because, in the last days, it was the little things that made you smile.

I tucked my hair in the hood of my own grey wetsuit and double-checked that everything was where it was supposed to be. The last thing I needed to do was put this thing on backwards or something equally embarrassing. 

At least Shark Week also taught me that the zipper was supposed to go in the back. Well, that and never take one last swim.

I sent a little prayer to the Fates, asking them to kindly leave me the fuck alone for a few hours while I did something incredibly stupid. However, these were the same women that thought it would be funny to send me back two more times when all I wanted was the peace and quiet of death.

Blinking my way back to the beach, I checked the time on my cellphone. 4:00 pm. Still two more hours until dusk, and I was not planning on going too far out.

I saw my four men walking towards me, and I almost swallowed my tongue.  Wang Chao had zipped his up properly and every inch of the suit was clinging to his muscles, putting them on display in a way I had never seen before. Liu Yu Zeng and Chen Zi Han were both walking around with the tops of their suits around their waists, showing off their impressive upper bodies and 8-packs. The tattoos on both men seemed to shine under the sunlight, giving them a dangerous vibe.

Liu Wei… he went one step further than Wang Chao and was wearing his wetsuit properly, but with the hood on like me. 

It was official. My men were sexy as hell. And I didn't have to choose.

"Alright," I said as they came closer, looking like something out of a GQ magazine than four men going into zombie-infested waters. "Are we clear on the plan?"

"Fuck it," said Wang Chao with a nod of his head. "I assume that that is along the same lines as SNAFU?"

I blinked a few times as I tried to remember what that one stood for.

"SNAFU?" I asked, quickly giving up.

"Situation Normal: All Fucked Up," replied Liu Wei with a smile and I just realized that the man was not wearing his glasses. 

I shook my head, trying to get my brain away from Liu Wei without glasses (although I think I preferred him with them, but either way he was…yummy), and back to the SNAFU comment.

"Then yes, this plan is SNAFU," I said with a nod. "I am going to go in the water and see if there are any zombies around. I need you four to set up a perimeter so that if more than one zombie arrives, you can keep the others occupied."  I waved my arm and four underwater guns, four harpoons, multiple knives, and even a few spears appeared on the beach in front of the men. 

"Take what you need," I said, tilting my head.

"Give nothing back?" smirked Chen Zi Han as he picked up a few of the bigger knives as well as a gun and a harpoon.

"Absolutely not," I said with a shake of my head. "These are all my supplies, you will be giving them back or you will be responsible for getting me more," I assured him.

"Understood," he laughed in return.

Once all the men were armed according to their preference, I brought the remaining weapons back into my space and walked towards the water's edge. I was in no way prepared for this, but there was one lesson I learned early on in my second life: there was always going to be shit that you weren't prepared for. The key was to not let that stop you. In many cases, it was the difference between life and death.

And apparently, I always chose life. Or life always chose me. I wasn't sure exactly how that worked.

I let the waves cover my feet marveling at how warm it was. Or at least it wasn't the 5 degrees that I thought it was going to be.  I just stood there, letting the soft sounds of the waves give me a sense of peace. It amazed me that something that terrified me could also give me peace.

But I think we have all agreed that I wasn't right in the head anyways.

I took a deep breath and then proceeded to slowly walk in, letting the water first cover my feet, then my ankles. I had on the scuba goggles along with my wetsuit, but that was it. 

I was not prepared to go underwater this time.