Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



I shrugged my shoulders when I saw the look that the boys gave me. In the apocalypse, the only type of humor was dark humor. Hardly my fault. The boys took their position on either side of me and their men fanned out behind us.

I had taken out enough automatic guns for each one of the men to be able to have one, just in case… so I had to say, we look really badass walking down the deserted highway, guns out. I chuckled to myself at the vision in my head. More than a hundred men decked out in black long-sleeve shirts, black cargo pants, black combat boots, and an AR-15-style rifle in their arms. And they were all following me…. (Cue evil laughter)

I tried to remember to get the boys and their men to practice their powers while we were walking, but I kept forgetting. When something was as easy as breathing to you, you forget that it was not the same for other people.

We continued to walk past the burnt-out airplane, past the blackened cars and chard bones until we got to the end of the explosion area. The contrast was pretty striking if I had to say. Behind us was a blackened nightmare of nothing but death and destruction while in front of us were luscious green forests on either side of the highway and you could still identify the cars. If there weren't people screaming and yelling, it would be almost picturesque.

Mind you, people stopped screaming quickly when the zombies came out, so I would let them stretch their lungs while they still could. No skin off my back.

When the people saw us, they came running up fast, as if we were there to save them. I thought of investing in a neon sign to hang above us saying something like 'you are going to die anyways… come here to die faster," but I thought that might be a bit harsh.

The first time a girl flung herself in Wang Chao's arms as if she was so irresistible that simply by touching him, guaranteed her protection, I was able to ignore it. I did roll my eyes, but for the most part, I managed to just keep walking forward, not worrying too much about the guys. When he flung her to the pavement and continued walking forward, I had to duck my head to hide my smile.

By the fifth time, I was no longer in a laughing mood. Seriously, were he and Liu Wei so irresistible that they had a magnetic force, drawing women to them? I cracked my neck and prepared to start shooting.

I took this route because it was the most direct way to City B, and we were close enough that half a day of walking would not be too much of a problem, but humans were really ruining my plans. I really should start putting a cap on the number of people I killed in a day. But then again, I was already at 1, more wouldn't be that big of an issue… right?

Helpless damsel number six flung herself at Liu Wei, completely disregarding me standing between the two men. I knew that I was short compared to them, but still, that was just rude. Stopping where I was, I took out my gun again, this time putting it to her temple. "Excuse me," I said in a very calm, not psychopathic way at all. "You are touching private property. Get your hands off before you lose them. Please."

See, I could still be polite AND a badass at the same time. I was very proud of myself for that.

However, the look that she gave me from where her cheek rested against Liu Wei's chest made me snap. I understood that he was not interested in her touch at all, not by the way he held his arms up in the air. And no, the man was not my boyfriend or husband… but he was mine, and that meant that no one else should be touching him, especially not some bottle blonde bimbo that thought that by hanging on to a strong thigh she would be able to survive what was coming next.

I'll give you a hint… these men were hanging on to my thighs, so she was really barking up the wrong tree.

I couldn't tell you exactly what I was feeling, or the exact moment I snapped… but when I saw her completely engulfed in my pint flames, her body flying off of Liu Wei and the scream of absolute pain leaving her mouth, I felt… content.

Noticing that my pink fame never even touched Liu Wei, I glared at him. "If so much as one more person decides to fling themselves into your arms…you will be the one going up in flames. Have I made myself clear?" I snarled. I mean, it's not like I licked them… but still!

The boys simply chuckled and nodded their heads, agreeing with me. Letting out a huff of expiration, I continued forward leading the boys, their men, and all the civilians that were hiding behind us, thinking I didn't notice them. I did… but unless they were going to do something stupid, then I would leave them alone.

But a new problem popped up, one that I really didn't consider.

The sun started to set on the first day of the apocalypse. It would still be a few hours until it was dark, but I didn't know what to do next. If I was alone, I would get off the road and start to prepare camp while there was still light out, but I wasn't alone.

If we kept pushing, nothing bad would really happen to us. It would take at least a few days for the zombies to make it out here, so the only danger at night was the other humans… hungry humans… hangry humans… but those could be dealt with easily, even if hangry humans were high on the scary spectrum.

There had not been enough of a stressor for the humans to truly discover their superpowers. Those seemed to coincide with the breakout of zombies, so I wasn't worried about any power battles yet.

Discretely I took out my cellphone and looked at the time and compared it to the time left to our destination. Although I did not have a functioning GPS, I had taken a screenshot as soon as I put away the vehicles and could guestimate from there.

It would be another hour and a half to 2 hours before we got to Liu Wei's house in City B. Compared to the current time, that meant that we would get there around 9 pm or so… depending on how many stops we made between now and then.

I had enough sandwiches and food that we could eat while walking to keep hunger at bay… the biggest issue was trying to deal with our tail.

"To kill or not to kill, that is the question…" I muttered under my breath… only the guys close enough to hear me.

"We could probably scare them off by threatening to shoot them," said Liu Wei, always the voice of reason. If he really thought that I wanted a voice of reason right now, he had another thing coming.

"Is that really a mob boss mentality to have?" I looked at him, a look of shock and disbelief on my face. "Like seriously!"

"What did you think I was going to say?" He asked an eyebrow arched. "Kill them all and let me bathe in their blood?"

"Well… yes!" I exclaimed. I did not want to be the only person with murder on my mind… it just wasn't fair! Wang Chao was too cold to say something like that one way or another… Liu Wei was supposed to be on my side! Step ONE people! Let them all die!!!

Wang Chao sighed like he was the only adult in a room full of children. Raising his hand, his men turned to the civilians behind us and raised their guns, eyes trained on their targets. "Stay here or die, the choice is yours," he said in his calmest voice as if he was asking his men to simply take out the garbage. I smiled, it was nice not having to do everything myself.

Turning to his men, he opened his mouth. "Kill anyone that keeps following us. This is as far as they go."

"Yes, Sir," came the voices of over a hundred men… the ground practically vibrating beneath them.

Turning back around, I quickened my pace to almost a run. I was going to take the chance and push us until we got to Liu Wei's house. Fingers crossed we get there in one piece.

I heard a gunshot and then silence, the pounding of footsteps the only sound coming from behind me.

This time, things would go just fine… I tried to convince myself. The third time had to be a charm… right?!?