Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



I watched as the soldiers put their swords on their backs and instead, took the guns that they were more familiar with and raised them as they crouched down. I had seen this formation in the movies, but I never expected to be able to see it in real life. Like a black wave, 125 soldiers flowed into the hotel, led by one of the men I was trying to put in the friend zone, but wasn't successful at it.

I sat down on the curb of the sidewalk outside of the hotel, trying to get myself together. I was never dumb enough to try something like this in my past life. It was a well-known death sentence. So what was I doing agreeing that they could do this?

"They will be fine," came a deep reassuring voice beside me. "They are highly trained."

"I know," I said, my voice catching a bit when I heard the first shot ring out. "But they are highly trained against other humans. Not animals. And these zombies are more like a pack of wolves than a team of humans." A second shot rang out followed by so many that I couldn't keep track.

"And I don't even know if my flames will be enough to save us," I continued as I stood up and dusted my pants off. Picking up a specially made katana beside me, I unsheathed it and put the now empty sheath back into my space. "Shall we?" I asked, looking at Wang Chao, wondering if this will be the last time I ever saw him.

He took my hand, pulling me into his embrace. Giving me a gentle kiss on my cheek, he looked down into my eyes. Whatever he saw, caused him to pause and slowly, ever so slowly leaned down until he could put the softest kiss ever on my lips. "We will be back safe and sound. I promise," he said as he took a step back.

If this was going to be like that manga I read where the asshole MC was shot on his way to his own wedding I would kill someone.

Hearing his chuckle intermixed with the screams and bullets coming from the hotel, I had to smile.

"Come back to me," I said as I followed him into Hell. Apparently, I was willing to follow these two men anywhere.

----

We walked through the glass doors and entered a hotel that Wang Chao must have stayed at before. While I was not overly impressed by the exterior of the building… glass, and modernism were not my thing… the interior was completely different.

Walking across the dark marble floors, I could just make out an area to the left with a large reception area and what was probably once pristine white carpets. Too bad the blue and red blood stains were preventing me from truly taking in the magnificence of this place.

Wang Chao strolled forward as if he owned the place, completely unconcerned about what we were likely to come across. I smirked to myself, thinking that he probably did own it which was why he clearly felt so comfortable here.

"No, this one belongs to Liu Wei," he said, unable to help himself from reading my mind. His statement caused me to pause for a second before I hurried to catch up to him. It was not like I was biased against personal assistants, but it really never crossed my mind that Wang Chao's assistant would not only be a mob boss but also extremely rich in his own right. That begged the question, why the hell was Liu Wei a personal assistant in the first place?!?

Another round of gunfire went off directly in front of me so I had to shelve those thoughts for a bit. But I would come back to them… probably… if I remembered.

We entered into a marble hallway that, according to the signs, led directly to the elevators. Marble pillars were lined on each side of the hallway and Liu Wei and the men were using them as cover, trying to shoot at the three zombies directly in front of us and between the pillars. "May I offer some advice?" I asked Wang Chao as I stretched my neck.

"Of course," he replied, not speeding up or slowing down. The man was designed to give me an aneurysm.

"Thunder is not going to work in here, so try using the metal around us instead. You can also try using the spirit powers, but just warn me ahead of time or try to not have it affect me," I said, picking up my pace as the zombies in front of me finally noticed us. "And if you do use metal, try not to weaken the foundation of this place. We don't want to be buried."

Taking off into a full sprint and leaving Wang Chao behind us, I approached the zombies. Luckily Liu Wei noticed us and the gunfire stopped. Friendly fire really wasn't all that friendly… and it still hurt like a bitch to be shot.

I swung the sword down with my right hand in a single-hand grip. I knew this was not traditional or even close to the correct way to use it, but I needed my left hand to be free. Thankfully, I was able to obtain this sword from a master blacksmith and the sharpness and dexterity of the blade was second to none. Cutting off the head with a single stroke was not as easy as it looked in the movies, but it was a move that I had spent a decade in my previous life perfecting.

The head rolled off the first zombie and I quickly threw out my blue flames, knowing that it had a high enough temperature that the head and body would not be able to regenerate before the flames consumed it to ashes. Seeing that the second and third zombie was approaching even faster than the first, I quickly threw another blue fireball at the third one while once again, trying to take off the head of the second one with a single stroke.

It's a swing and a miss! The second zombie, fully realizing what happened to the first one, was able to duck in time to avoid my stroke. Circling around to my back, I was now placed in the extremely uncomfortable position of being between two zombies that wanted to eat me.

Fuck my life.

The third zombie, the one in front of me, was now a blue flame walking. Not noticing or not caring about the fact that it was on fire, it still advanced toward me. Trying to force me to back away from it and into the waiting grasp of the other zombie.

I tried to picture the elevator doors flying off their hinges and encasing the two zombies, but Wang Chao was either not paying attention to what was going on in my brain or he had a better idea. Truthfully, I am pretty sure that it was the first one… why else was he taking so fucking long to get over here and help me.

And what about Liu Wei and the men… shouldn't they have gotten their asses in gear and joined the fight… wasn't this whole thing their idea?!?!

I grumbled to myself as I weaved and ducked between the two zombies, somehow keeping up with their speed. Or maybe Wang Chao was slowing them down? I wasn't sure, but I was not going to complain. When the second one took a swipe at my face with her nails extended, I barely had enough room to duck. Luckily for me, I was not the only one to do a swing and a miss, because she ended up missing me and nailing zombie number three instead. I sighed when he let out a roar of protest.

If he wasn't standing so closely, he would not have been injured. That should teach him a lesson.

Trying to look around, I cursed at whoever chose the marble design for this hallway… clearly they didn't take into account a zombie apocalypse and the need for footholds. The marble surface was too smooth to be able to climb up to any height, but I needed to get a distance between me and them in order to get their heads off. That was one problem with a sword like a katana, you needed distance to be able to use it effectively.

Finding a gap between them wide enough to slip through I slid across the floor between them and hid myself behind a pillar trying to catch my breath. In the less than a second that I had to compose myself before going back into battle, I looked around and saw the men with Liu Wei and Wang Chao simply watching me…

"Are you fucking serious?!?!" I screeched, ducking even further when zombie two tried to take another swipe at my head but ended up taking out a chunk of the marble pillar behind me instead. I was pretty sure that I was done right now. Done with the boys, done with their men and most of all, done with the fucking zombies!

Letting out a scream of rage, I once again swung the sword, this time managing to take the second zombie's head. Throwing the blue flame at the two separated parts, I turned my attention to the walking flame before me. I now had more than enough room to take care of this problem… but the men needed a lesson before I did.