Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



I sat forward in the passenger seat of the RV that I was put in, Liu Hong Tao was given the dubious honor of being my driver for the first stretch of this road trip. With no coffee and shit ton of candy, I doubted the boy's definition of a road trip… but I will admit to being in full bitch mode right now.

I watched as the convoy drove through the gates of Elysian Fields and I closed my eyes as soon as I saw the forest that separated my lands from the view of the highway. I couldn't even begin to guess what an average person would think when they saw a bunch of military trucks, 14 RVs, and SUVs driving down the road. I just hoped that we wouldn't be pulled over by any police.

The sad part was the amount of vehicles and supplies I still had on hand in my space. And I might have stolen a few of my livestock to house in the space as well. I was not going to go without anything that I wanted if I didn't have to be.

As we exited the woods and merged onto the highway, I closed my eyes and pretended to sleep. In actuality, I was thinking back to the beginning of the month and all the vaccines I had personally given out.

I was not willing to test the boys' powers on any new zombies, so everyone that received the vaccine had to deal with me on a one-on-one basis. Luckily, the majority of people came out just fine… I didn't tell them about power users or anything like that, there just wasn't time to walk everyone through figuring out what they were. Battle was the best way to do that.

Of the 248 men that Wang Chao and Liu Wei brought with them (250 including themselves…) only 50 turned into zombies in my basement. Honestly, I was surprised by the high level of people that would either be Asymptomatic or a power user. But I would like to point out that even 200 men were more than the 2 that I was promised would move in with me.

There were a few… growing(?) pains that were a direct result of the vaccinations. I refused to allow the zombies to live whereas the guys thought that since they retained some memories, they would do just fine merging back in with the troops.

Awe… aren't men just the stupidest sometimes? Bless their hearts…(Cue eye rolling)

Blue zombies might be able to join a troop of zombies and power users… they tended to be the strongest and most intelligent. The problem was that as loyal as they might be to Wang Chao and Liu Wei, they were not that loyal to each other.

You think the boys understood that difference?

Yeah, they really didn't. I sighed out loud and stood up. If I wasn't stuck sitting down the whole time, then I was going to wander around this luxury RV and see what Hades was up to. The next two days would be a race against time to try to get as far south as we could before the EMP went off and the end of the world came.

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The tension in the air was palatable when everyone woke up on the morning of November 1st. I had tried my best to prepare everyone, and thankfully, the majority of them listened to me. Stepping out of my RV and into the campground that the guys took over, I saw the two of them waiting for me.

"Happy Day of the Apocalypse," I said, a big smile on my face. I would say that it was the same feeling of both relief and stress as waiting for your period to come. You didn't want it to come, but at the same time, you just wanted it to hurry up and get here so you can move on with your life.

The guys looked at me like I had gone crazy, but when they saw the large travel cup of coffee in my hands they understood my happiness. How could you not be happy with coffee in the morning? The only thing that would make it better would be to have a double chocolate doughnut with it, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

Once we made it back home, I would experiment with some doughnut recipes and see if I could come up with something that would satisfy that particular craving.

Liu Wei stepped forward and gave me a gentle hug while the 120 some odd men prepared to leave the camp. We would push forward as much as we could in the 10 hours we had before the EMP would hit. I wanted to be off the road and hidden somewhere, preferably in the woods or a warehouse of some kind an hour beforehand. I wanted to make sure that we had plenty of time to get everything stored away.

I returned his hug, resting my head against his chest. Turning so that my cheek was against his chest and I could still see Wang Chao I smiled at him. "Are you ready for the big day?" I asked. A part of me wondered if they truly believed that the world would end today or if they just got swept up in the tornado that was Li Dai Lu.

Wang Chao leaned down to give me a kiss on my cheek and chuckled, "As ready as I'll ever be," he said. "And more than the majority of the population, that's for sure."

"Did you call your sister to warn her?" I asked, still looking at him. "You can send her to the ranch. Since it is occupied by your men, she should be safe there."

"I'll give her a call and let her know," said Wang Chao as he took his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed her number. Walking away, his head down, it looked like the weight of the world was on his shoulders.

"Is he going to be ok?" I asked, looking up at Liu Wei. He just gave me a sad smile.

"He will be," he said, looking at his friend. "It is hard for him to not tell his grandfather, especially now that Wang Zi Mo is no longer a threat. The Old Master took his death hard. He has barely said two words to Wang Chao since."

I nodded as if I understood, but truth be told, I really didn't. Growing up without a family and then the only person I considered family feeding me to the zombies, I didn't much understand other people's close ties with them. As far as I was concerned, sharing blood was no guarantee of loyalty. In fact, it might just be the opposite in some situations. You can expect those that share your blood to stab you in the back at any moment.

"What about you?" I asked, "Have you heard anything from Yu Zeng?" Liu Wei shook his head, his eyes roaming over my face trying to get whatever comfort he could out of me.

"No, I have tried calling him a few times, but nothing."

"Have you tried calling your grandfather or Wu Bai Hee?" I asked. At his surprised look, I disentangled myself from his arms and pushed him away. "See if you can get a hold of anyone. At this point in time, even Wu Bai Hee would be useful if she could tell you where they were and where they are going."

Liu Wei left quickly, his phone to his ear. I took a moment to take a sip of my coffee and marveled at the organized chaos that was in front of me. Now to figure out how to keep them all alive. Any suggestions? Anyone?

Yeah, I didn't have any either.