Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



Completely lost in my own head, I started bobbing to the songs playing on repeat in my brain when I felt the men around me start to slow down.  Because I did not have to be in charge of finding Liu Wei's house, and there were no zombies currently around us, I slowed down my walking speed until I was in the middle of the group of men and let myself relax a bit.

However, now that we were slowing down, I picked up my pace and moved up to the head of the pack to see what was going on.  Hades was still relaxed, so I knew that there were no zombies around, but I didn't like not being in control... and not knowing what was going on screamed lack of control.  And for me, that was completely unacceptable. 

The men came to a standstill as I stepped in between Wang Chao and Liu Wei, just in case I was wrong and there were zombies in front of us.

I wasn't… just to set the record straight…. In front of us was a group of maybe 200 men with a single individual clearly leading them. For the first time since we set out from the hotel, I took a good look around. We were in the middle of what could only be an affluent neighborhood with large houses, bigger properties, and flimsy metal gates around them. Flimsy metal gates with electronic locks, I might add.

Turning my attention back to the men in front of us, I could feel Liu Wei stiffen.  "What are you doing here?" He demanded, his voice becoming deeper, darker, and a tone emerged that I had never heard before. This wasn't the flirty Liu Wei, or even the prim and proper personal assistant Liu Wei.

Curious, I tilted my head and really studied the man in front of me.  Noting the same black hair and grey eyes that Liu Wei had, I went out on a limb and assumed that this was the little brother.  Cranking my head as far back as it could to be able to see his face… I amended my thought… a really big, little brother.

"Patrol," came the gruff reply. Yup… gotta be related.  He does the same single-word grunts that the other two used to do.

Rolling my eyes and wanting to go back to listening to my music and maybe getting another coffee, I felt Hades dig his claws into me and stand up from his position on my shoulder. He started off in a direction to my right and started hissing.

"Fuck," I grumbled to myself and looked at the two guys. "Are you two friends or are we leaving them to die?" I asked, nodding my head toward the person I thought was the little brother.

"Brother," bit out Liu Wie like the badass I was sure he was when he was a mob boss.  Unfortunately for him, he was cannon fodder if we didn't either prepare to fight or get out of here.

"Flight, fight or freeze," I demanded, pulling out my still dull sword from my space and stared in the same direction as Hades.  "Thanks for the heads-up," I said as I scratched him under his chin and sent him back into my space.

Liu Wei quickly moved his gaze from his brother back to me.  "What do you suggest?"

I looked at the men around me and quickly made a calculation.  "Fight," I said. The men needed a chance to practice what they learned at the hotel… an hour ago… and with over 300 people around, it should make things even in terms of numbers.  Liu Wei and Wang Chao nodded.

"Same grouping as this morning, but we might not be able to have the same strategy.  Put yourselves back to back and fight out," I said as I put away everyone's guns. They still had their swords from this morning and they have finally realized just how useless a gun truly was.

"Someone want to tell me what the fuck is going on?" Asked Liu Yu Zeng as he watched his brother's men follow my direction.

"Maybe later," I said, "Zombies first."

"There are no zombies here. We already checked," said Liu Yu Zeng and he still readied his gun.

"Sure you did," I said as I took a step in front of the men and fired a single shot into the air. Dead silence.

"See," said Liu Yu Zeng.  "I told you, there are no zombies."

"Wang Chao?" I called, wanting to see if he understood me.

"No birds, no animals. Silence after a single shot. They have come to hunt," he replied, effectively calling the situation.

Nodding in happiness, I continued where he left off. "They have been following Liu Yu Zeng and his men. Why?"

"To see their level of threat and see if they could take them out easily," said Liu Wei, walking up to stand on my left.

Once again, nodding in happiness, I expanded on his thought process. "And to see if they could lead them to more prey. So, what does that tell us?"

"Yu Zeng's group alone was not enough to feed them all so no need to attack. If they attack us now, they are confident that they will be able to feed everyone in their horde," said Wang Chao as he came up to my right.

"Exactly," I agreed, scanning the area in front of me.  There was that creepy stillness in the air that only happened right before an attack. 

Liu Yu Zeng fell into step beside his brother and looked at me.

"Who are you?" He demanded as he put away his gun and pulled out two blades the length of his forearms.

"Your savior," I said with a smile. Nodding to the area in front of me.  Coming down the street, weaving in, out, and over the stalled cars was a true zombie horde, but it only looked to be a Class 10, the weakest one.

Then again, weak was a relative term.

"Class 10 horde," I said to the men behind me, wanting them to understand what they were seeing. "This will be the first time you have encountered them outside. It will be easier for you to access your powers. Remember, aim out, and don't hit your friends."

I raised my arms and let out my blue flame. It rose above our heads, breaking off into small balls of fire and just hung there like decorative lights on a summer night. I would not be able to keep track of any decapitated zombies, but I could let my flame lose to burn them on its own. It was a new trick that I was trying… but I really didn't have much choice. We needed to burn them to make sure they stayed dead and there was only one of me and hundreds of them.

Stretching my neck, I turned to Liu Yu Zeng, "Take off their heads, bullets mean nothing, and don't remove any other part of them but their head," I said in a concise enough manner to hopefully make him understand.  Then again, if he was related to Liu Wei, it might take him a few tries before he would get it right.

Not bothering to see his reaction, I sprinted towards the zombie horde, holding out my left hand, and calling on my ice power. I needed to exercise this one more.  The only other time that I had used it was when I lost my shit and froze my bedroom, and that would not be beneficial in this situation.  Thinking about the zombies turning into giant ice cubes, I managed to freeze the two closest to me. 

Unfortunately, the ice was weak and in a matter of seconds, they managed to break free from their capsule.

Shit. They were almost on top of me when I swung my blade and took their heads.  One of the blue balls of light quickly swooped down and set the pieces on fire before returning to its position in the sky. 

At least that trick worked.

I tried to take out as many as I could before they got past me, my pink flame coming out to burn the zombies too. It worked, it just took a bit longer, but still not long enough to allow them to regenerate.  Thankfully it was November and the weather was not too hot so I was able to use my ice with more success. But I was still pretty limited with what I could do with it.

As more and more zombies managed to get past me, I heard more sound of battle coming from behind me.

I was powerless to check to see how my boys were doing, even if there was nothing that I wanted to do more.  I continued my assault on the zombies that approached me and between my sword, ice, and flames I was able to take out a good number of them. Unfortunately, though, they just kept coming.

If we kept this up, we were going to get overwhelmed by sheer numbers.  We needed a place to retreat to.

"Liu Wei!" I yelled, still fighting the zombie trying to take my head off. "We need a safe place! Get the men and go!"

I heard him grunt and I quickly took the head of the zombie before he took mine.  I paused for a second while I gathered all of the strength and power I had. Holing out my arms parallel to the ground, I slowly rose them, creating a wall of blue and pink flames between me and the zombies in front of me.

Picturing a solid wall that surrounded us on three sides, I began to weave my flames to create something solid enough that the zombies could not pass. "Go!" I screamed, pushing more and more power into the wall.

I could feel the zombies hitting the flames on the other side, not caring that the flames were causing them damage. They knew their food was weak… helpless… and right in front of them.