Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



08:00 am – T -9 hours and counting.

We were back on the road as soon as the boys had made their phone calls. Surprise, surprise, Wu Bai Hee managed to answer the phone on the first ring and give us their general itinerary. She refused to hand the phone over to Liu Yu Zeng, so Liu Wei was not able to get any type of details. All we knew was that they were making their way to City B and they were hoping to be on the highway by 1 pm.

Great, just great! Let's do that. Even if the zombies don't appear today (it does take them some time to get out of the medical facilities), when the EMP strikes, it will be bumper-to-bumper cars and plenty of raging drivers. Just peachy.

A normal drive from City A to City B would be about 10 hours… but I wanted to be off the highway and in a safe place in 8 hours, so to say that the boys were pushing the speed of the convoy was an understatement. I didn't even pretend that I was okay with it, so I hid in my bunk with Hades and just closed my eyes, hoping that we wouldn't die before the end of the world…

Cause you know, that would suck.

12:00 pm- T -5 hours and counting.

I don't think that I had ever been more impressed to see a group of men manage to cook and eat lunch in less than 20 minutes. But I guess, when you were either in the military or trained in the military, you were used to not having that long of a lunch break.

Me? I wanted to go to a restaurant and eat. You know, because they would not be around much longer, but the soup and sandwiches that we ate at lunch would be there for us for the rest of our lives. But as much as I wanted to complain, I could understand the need to hurry. We had a ticking clock hanging over the top of our heads and not enough time in the world to get to where we needed to be before it turned to 0.

I fed Hades some soft food and let him run around the park for the 20 minutes it took everyone else to eat. I couldn't see Wang Chao, but he had mentioned that he needed to run an errand and would catch up to us later.

Lunch was done and we were back on the road, getting closer and closer to City B.

15:00 pm- T -2 hours and counting.

I had found out that the important errand that Wang Chao had to go on was to raid all of the fast food joints and bakeries around the park that the rest of us were eating in. Coming back with an SUV filled with all the food I could possibly want (and a storage space to keep it fresh) I was in tears with the offering. More than the guns or anything else that he could have given me… this was perfection.

Sitting down in my bunkbed, I happily unwrapped a huge hamburger and started munching on it, not caring about the sauce or the lettuce that fell out. I would get that later. For right now, I would enjoy this little taste of heaven.

I guess it did pay to have a friend that could read your mind. Smiling, I went back to my meal and let the rest of the men worry about the drive.

16:00 pm- T -1 hour and counting.

I had done some research on my phone while scarfing down as many fries as I possibly could and realized that with a population of 27 million people, trying to find 3 people plus their men would be a bit hard. But as far as I was concerned; not my circus, not my monkeys… Liu Wei and Wang Chao could figure that part out themselves.

16:30 pm- T -30 minutes and counting.

I know that I had given the boys more time on the highway. It wouldn't take me an hour to put away all of the vehicles and everything else that needed to go into my space when the timer went off, and I knew that the closer we could get to City B, the better.

Liu Wei was constantly on the phone with Wu Bai Hee, demanding updates and to speak to his brother. I can't say that I was impressed with the whole situation, but I was trying… not to go into a murderous rage every time he mentioned her name… really I was trying.

I wasn't succeeding, but I was trying.

I saw Liu Wei walking towards me from where we had pulled off of the highway and onto the shoulder of the road. It was not a comfortable feeling to be sure, but I was willing to let the boys take the lead. As long as it didn't kill me.

"They are off the highway and at our house in City B," said Liu Wei as soon as Wang Chao joined up.

"Well, that's good I guess," I said, trying to suppress the uneasy feeling that was crawling up and down my skin like ants. We needed to get a move on… we needed to get out of here and somewhere that we can bunk down for a while.

"I think that we should push it… we are only 35 minutes out, and we don't even know if the EMP will go off right at 5 pm," Liu Wei continued, watching my reaction. I know he was concerned about his family, and I was willing to put up with it to a certain extent. Unfortunately, I had reached the end of my leash.

"So, let me get this straight," I said looking at him, my top lip curled into a snarl. "Your family and precious fiancé are safe and sound inside a house right now with…25 minutes to spare. But you want us to what? Drive until the last second, hope that I can get everything where it needs to be just so you are that much closer to them. Did I get that right?" I knew my voice was coming out in a tone that only dogs could hear, but I was pretty sure that I was making my point.

The look that the boys were giving me didn't make me feel any better. They were going to push, but I was not in the mood to move.

"I agree that the EMP might not come at exactly 5 pm, but that is not to say that it doesn't come earlier. If you want to take the chance, then go ahead, and be my guest. But me and my RV will be taking the next offramp and getting someplace safe." With those final words, I walked back into my RV and glared at Liu Hong Tao.

"Stay with me or leave with them, make your decision, you have 2 seconds," I snarled. I made sure that Hades was in the RV before going back to the front to see what his decision was. Seeing him still in the driver's seat, I sat down in the seat beside him and gave him his orders.

"Find the next offramp and take it. If you can find this place-" I said as I pointed out the location that I had picked from my cell phone. "We need to get there in the next 10 minutes."

He nodded and left our position in the convoy to complete my orders. I didn't bother to look if anyone else would be following.

The men might think that they were big shots, that their words could control the fate of the people around them, but they were going to get a harsh dose of reality when they realized that no one was going to care about them unless they controlled a safe zone. And to do that… we would need to be in a safe zone… not driving down a fucking highway minutes before the world ended…

Unless they didn't believe that it would end.

I closed my eyes at that thought. If they didn't believe that the world would end in a matter of minutes, then the friendship that I made with them over the past year was all for nothing. Thinking of that, I felt a sharp stabbing of pain in my chest.

Whatever, fuck them and fuck everyone else. I would survive this… whether or not they did would be up to them.

16:44- T -16 minutes and counting.