Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



We waited for the zombies to arrive in complete silence. There was such a heavy atmosphere in the clearing that it almost seemed like a struggle to breathe. I didn't bother to shoot my customary first shot as they were approaching us and not the other way around.

They were here to hunt, and like good prey, we needed to remain still and quiet until they made the first move.  And like good prey, if we ran, we would be killed that much faster.

The first zombie stepped into the clearing, walking in a zigzag manner like a shark swimming. It always amazed me just how much of their actions and responses were based on their shark genetic markers.

I stood between Liu Wei and Wang Chao as Liu Yu Zeng and Chen Zi Han had taken the first offensive shift and were hanging out of a skylight, their guns trained on the single zombie. Stupid fools. That was not the zombie to fear.

I watched as the female with the beachball-sized head opened her mouth and tilted her opened her jaw as far as she could, showing off all of her teeth. All in all, as much of a strong impression I was sure it made on some of the men, I was not that impressed.  Her horde sent her in first to see how many we were and how we would respond.

Not getting any response from her dominance display, she closed her mouth and looked around with her pinprick eyes. I knew that she could not visually see us.  We were well hidden behind the vehicles and beyond her 20-foot eyesight limit. However, I knew she could smell us and definitely feel our electrical output. Every time we took a breath or our heart beat in our chests, she could sense us.

We were at a stalemate for a good five minutes before she made her decision. She slowly backed out, refusing to turn her back to us. When she disappeared back through the entrance to the clearing, it was like we could all breathe again.

However, even though the atmosphere had lessened, it did not mean that the men relaxed with it.  They still remained in place, waiting for an order to stand down or remain put.

"What is happening?" Asked Liu Wei, leaning close to me so he could whisper into my ear.

"She is going back to discuss things with her horde," I said in my regular voice completely calm and not bothering to whisper.  These types of standoffs could last hours before being resolved one way or another. One of the men around us looked at me with curiosity. "Discuss things? Zombies?"

I chuckled. "Yes," I said, wanting to pat him on the head as he displayed a child-like innocence. "That was the advance scout. A tester if you will. Her job is to gather numbers and determine if it is a situation that would be beneficial to her horde or not. If she dies in the process, another one will come, and so on and so forth until the horde either leaves or attacks in return."

"So, she is going to report our numbers," confirmed Wang Chao.  I nodded in agreement, "And our chemical scent," I added.

"We do not smell like fear, so we would not only not be tasty to them, but it would prove that we felt on the same level as them. Especially after she gave her dominance display."

"So?" Asked Liu Wei, looking down at me.

"So, we have a 70% chance that they will not attack because we are not easy prey and there is much better-smelling prey in the city," I said, giving them my opinion on the matter. But there were several factors that I had not considered… like how hungry they were, their numbers, that sort of thing.

I stopped talking and started counting.

300—still nothing; but Hades refused to relax.

600—nothing.

There had been no movement for 10 minutes, but I still didn't dare drop my guard.

900—nothing.

910—there! Off to the side of the clearing, a rustling in the bushes!

"It's just an animal," said one of the men around me when he noticed where my attention had gone.

"There are no animals around," cut in Wang Chao as he too looked to the bushes.  When the first zombie stepped out from behind the bush, I shot her in the middle of the forehead and then doused her in blue flames. I managed to do it in quick enough succession that it made her pause for a second, but it was only a second before she continued forward, staggering under the onslaught of the flames.

I concentrated on my blue flame, trying to raise the temperature as much as I could.  I was able to smell the burning flesh from here, but it still didn't deter the zombie. I raised my gun and shot her one more time, this time in the eye, and pictured the blue flame entering her body through that small hole and burning her from the inside out.

This method proved to be the most successful as she finally fell to the ground meters from where the RVs were. Within 20 seconds, her ashes blew away, leaving no trace of her but footprints burned into the ground.

Silence reigned once again in the clearing, and I started to count again.  And then it happened, in less than a minute the clearing when from dead silence to a low rumble as a tidal wave of zombies poured through the narrow entrance.

The men that were positioned as the first offensive team opened fire, and the sound of gunfire echoed around the area.  I pictured the blue flame burning through the holes that the bullets made and going deep inside the zombies. I only half watched what was going on outside the circle as my focus was on what my flames were actually doing, but I saw line after line of approaching zombies falling to the ground and being engulfed in the blue flames until there was nothing left.

Thunder sounded, causing the earth around us to tremble at its might as lightning struck the heads of the zombies with deadly accuracy, my flames swooping in to finish them off. I watched as Wang Chao got better and better with every strike of lightning and every clap of thunder.  The fact that thunder was able to disguise our vibrations did not go unnoticed by either me or the zombies.

Within a matter of minutes, the tide of zombies slowed down as more and more of them were killed and then turned to ash.  The rest of the horde that did not attack with this first wave swayed at the entrance to the clearing, pacing back and forth, but not going near us. 

When the last zombie in the combat zone fell, no one moved. It would be up to the zombies to decide what to do next, I would accommodate them either way. After all, they just lost 80 zombies from their horde while the men on my side stood strong.

A single zombie stepped forward into the clearing, not stopping until he was equal distance between my men and his.

Understanding what was going on, I stepped out from between my men and squeezed between two of the RVs to approach the leader of the horde. I heard my men shouting for me, but I simply waved my hand, hoping that they realized that they needed to stay put and let the adults deal with what came next.

I waited until I was about 2 feet away from the zombie leader in front of me before coming to a stop.  I raised my chin and looked down at the 6-foot lavender male in front of me. I refused to show fear or to even consider it.

He puffed out his chest and showed me a brief glimpse of his teeth. When that didn't get the response he was looking for, he tilted back his head and let his jaw drop open as far as it could. He didn't roar, didn't make a sound, but he was trying to imitate me.

When he closed his mouth and looked at me again, I let out a smirk of my own, also showing off my teeth, and then proceeded to call on both my blue and pink flames, allowing them to surround me until I was covered with an almost lavender haze of my own.  Seeing him still staring at me, I increased the temperature of my flames as well as the height until I looked like a human torch, the ground beneath my feet catching on fire. Flames spread in a straight line from either side of me, letting the zombie know that I was protecting those behind me.

He might be the leader of his horde, but I had my own as well, and I would protect them from anyone and anything. They were mine.

I let my shackles of civilization fall and allowed my true nature to appear. Cracking my neck, I flashed a smile to the Alpha in front of me, showing off my own teeth at the same time. Raising my arms, I let the fires grow until the sight was almost blinding… and then I let it slowly start to crawl toward the zombie in front of me.