Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



"I can help," said Zhang Hao Ran from where he stood beside Wang Chao.

"Somehow, I doubt that," I said with a tired sigh. These people all thought that it was easy to kill zombies, but it really wasn't. Combine that with the male attitude that they could do anything and everything, and we were set up for disaster.

"Alright," I continued in a louder voice. "Break yourself off into teams of 10 and the first one line up here." Seeing a single zombie crouching between the cars, trying to stay out of sight, I waited for the men to organize themselves before opening up the door and letting out a piercing whistle.

The zombie snapped his head up and looked around as if trying to find the source of the noise.  I let out a lower-pitched whistle and lightly tapped my foot on the marble floor.  I knew that if I was willing to cut myself, the zombie would get here quicker, but I only wanted one, and blood would call them all.  I continued with my whistling, occasionally throwing in a snap of my fingers and in a matter of minutes, the zombie was at the glass door, her mouth open and her eyes on me.

I opened the door a bit wider and saw the gills in her nasal cavity tremble as it caught the scent of so much prey. Keeping me, the boys, and Zhang Hao Ran behind the door, I opened it a bit father, allowing her to push herself in.  As soon as she had entered the lobby, I quickly shut the door behind her and locked it.

The three men plus seven soldiers quickly surrounded the zombie, their guns up and leveled. "Not the guns boys," I called to them. "Use the swords."

Realizing that Zhang Hao Ran was the only one without a weapon of any kind… and the dumbass still wanted to fight the zombie, I walked over to him and handed him a sword from my space.  "Cut off the head, nothing else," I said, not really believing that he would listen to me, but still willing to give it a shot.

I watched as one of the soldiers that I recognized as a team leader quickly slashed at the zombie, only to have his sword stuck in her neck tissue. I nodded, impressed with what he managed to do. Most people think that it is extremely easy to cut off someone's neck, but in reality, it was extremely hard. Even people that died in the Middle Ages from being beheaded had that axe fall on their neck 3, 4, or even 5 times before the head rolled off.

He pulled the sword down and through, not allowing it to remain stuck in the body. Blood sprayed all over the place but the men managed to avoid it.  Even Zhang Hao Ran managed to not get covered in the blue goo.

Maybe they weren't as helpless as I originally thought they were.

And then Zhang Hao Ran cut off the zombie's arm and all those positive thoughts went right out of my head. "I told you to aim for the neck… what part of the arm made you think that it was a neck?!?" I yelled, looking at him.

"I missed, what's the big deal?" He snarked back to me, taking his eyes off of the zombie in the middle of the circle.

"That," I said, pointing behind him to where the zombie was shaking and another limb regrew. I smirked when his face turned pale as a second zombie stood up and went back-to-back with the original. "And now you have two to deal with.  Men, make sure to thank Zhang Hao Ran for this added bonus," I said sarcastically.

I heard the door behind me shaking as five zombies had come up to the building and discovered us. "Wei," I yelled as I watched the zombie start hitting the glass, looking for weak spots. "I don't suppose you sprung for the bullet-proof glass, did you?"

"No!" He yelled back, taking a swing with his own sword. His strike was better, but it was still not enough to take the head. "Why would we?"

"In case zombies came?" I replied with a rolling of my eyes. "And aim a bit higher, not so close to the shoulders."  Turning my attention back to the other 11 groups, I smiled. "So, my plan went to pot.  Get ready," I said as I opened the door to the hotel and let in the 5 zombies waiting oh so patiently outside for their turn at the buffet.

I would rather have them in here and keep the glass between us and the outside world intact for as long as possible than risk them breaking it and not having control over who or what came in and when.

The other teams quickly picked their zombie and rushed to sequester it in the middle of a circle, not allowing them the advantage of an extra body on their side. I walked around and observed, throwing in advice here and there.  I was lucky that all the other humans that were originally here opted to hide as the lobby would have been much too full to be able to fight.

But that was human nature for you, the majority would run to ensure their survival.

The last group to get a zombie was the first one to manage to decapitate it and I hurried over to burn the corpse. After praising them, I watched as they helped the others take out their own target.  Soon, the only group still fighting was Wang Chao's group, and that was simply because they were now fighting 2 against 1 with five zombies in the middle of the defensive circle.

Looking at the time and the world outside, I decided to call a stop to the training and stepped into the circle between Wang Chao and Liu Wei. Slicing off the head of the first zombie, I set the two pieces on fire and moved on to the second one. I knew that this got easier the more time and practice that you had, and let's face it, there was a steep learning curve.

But we had to get a move on.  I had seen the crows return and I knew that it was safe enough for us to leave, but we might have a limited time before the rest of their horde realized that they weren't coming back and went looking for them.

Like a dance, I moved between the remaining four zombies, pushing myself.  I had to get back to my old standards and fast. I took off one more head before making a mental note to sharpen my sword when we got to Liu Wei's as it was starting to get dull. Setting that corpse on fire, it was now a matter of facing the remaining three.  All of a sudden, I felt Liu Wei grab my arms and hastily pulled me back before there was a hail of long nails hitting the zombies, effectively pinning them to the floor. Impressed, I looked over at Wang Chao where he stood, holding his hand out as if directing an orchestra. 

"Now!" I yelled as soon as the nails stopped and the zombies were helpless. "Cut off their heads!"

The men quickly complied, even Zhang Hao Ran, and took their swords to cut off the heads. Turning everything into a pile of ash on the floor, I turned to the group, "So… what did we learn?" I asked as I put away my sword after briefly cleaning the blue blood off of it.

"That zombies are fucking hard to kill," grumbled one of the team leaders.  I would have to figure out their names later, depending on who survived or not.  Awe, look at that, you can teach an old dog new tricks.

"Very good," I praised. "Now, let's get going, shall we? We wasted enough time."

The men simply formed their lines and waited for me to unlock the door and once again step out into the afternoon sun.

"Take two," I muttered under my breath, already tired and in need of a coffee. Since Wang Chao and Liu Wei would know the area better, I waited for them to leave the hotel and lead the way.  They quickly joined the rest of the group and we started to head east constantly surveying the area around us.

We were lucky in that we managed to escape the hotel without the other people noticing, but the bad news was that Zhang Hao Ran was coming with us. I rolled my eyes as I saw him mingle in with the rest of the men, but the business suit was a dead giveaway that he was not one of us.

I called Hades out and arranged him on my shoulders, not caring about his claws digging in to maintain his balance. He would be our best advance warning of when the zombies were around, and I needed all of the advantages that I could have.  Pulling out another cup of coffee, I sipped on it as the men around me carefully advanced.

I admired them for their focus and determination, but I knew that it would not last long. You couldn't maintain that level of anxiety for too long before your burned out. But I was not going to tell them that.

They could learn that lesson the hard way.  I had to.