Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



"Then left," said Liu Yu Zeng after taking a second to think about my requirements.  Shrugging my shoulders, I assumed that he knew more than I did about this area, so I would follow his lead.

After walking for less than half an hour, we came across the warehouse district of District S. I will fully admit to squealing in happiness, but there was not a single other soul around besides us… it was perfect for loo—I mean, getting supplies.

"How do you want to do this?" Asked Wang Chao as he looked around.  All in all, there were about 15 different warehouses that, according to their signs, stored everything from drinks and water to food and outdoor camping gear.

"We will take Honeybee Food," said the General as he came up from behind and pushed us aside. Confused, I looked at Wang Chao.

"Honeybee Food is another subsidiary of Phoenix Conglomerate," he replied, seemingly unworried about it.  I could only assume that this was the General's poor way of trying to give us the middle finger. To be perfectly honest… the food warehouse was the last place that I wanted to go.

"You have your hands in a lot of pots, don't you?" I asked not really paying attention to what I was saying. It took me a moment to realize all the responses to what I just said, but my faith in men was restored when not a single one said anything.

"Let's head into Mountain Valley," I said, trying to put my comment behind me. But, like most people, that potentially embarrassing moment was just playing over and over again in my head. "Tell the men to literally grab the largest bag they can find and start filling it up. Leave two at the front door and two at the back door to act as guards, but I want the entire building gutted in under an hour," I continued.

Liu Wei, Liu Yu Zeng, and Chen Zi Han left right away to sort out the men and get to the camping warehouse as fast as possible.  There was only one of its kind here and I wanted those supplies for myself.

"Just so you can stop thinking about it," said Wang Chao as he spoke so close to my ear, I could feel his very breath, "There is one more honey pot that I would love to get my hand into."

And there it was folks, the one line that kept circling through my head ever since I spoke those words before. How on earth I could have ever thought that Wang Chao was in any way an icy, composed, CEO, I had no idea… but that man was starting to make me want to crawl out of my skin with some of the things that he did and said.

Trying to shake off the unfamiliar feelings, I quickly followed the men into Mountain Valley Outdoor Goods.

As soon as I entered the glass doors of the giant warehouse, I saw the men scrambling around to grab everything and putting it into a pile by the front door. I would worry about sorting out everything after, but I quickly scooped it all up and put it into my space. Then I made my way towards the back of the warehouse where I knew would have the most number of supplies that I was looking for.

Guns were not as easily accessible in an outdoor store as they were back in Canada, but this one still had a huge supply of bows, arrows, and knives that would be a big help in the future.  Walking through shelf upon shelf of supplies, I gathered them all inside my space, trying to stop myself from doing a happy dance.

By the time I was done with the back, the rest of the men had cleaned out the top floors and around the front. It mostly comprised of tents, cooking utensils, but also a few hundred winter jackets.  Letting out a small sigh of relief, I got the men to grab a backpack and divide the supplies up between them. I would take whatever they didn't, but it was important that everyone had what they needed on hand.

After giving out the directions, I proceeded to grab a bag of my own and filled it with some dehydrated meals, a water bottle, cups, plates, a jacket, numerous socks (cause you can never have enough socks), a fire starter and a few other small things.

I knew I could use the backpack as a way of being able to hide what I take out of my space (thank you online novels) so I wasn't going to fill my bag so full it was a pain to carry.  I was about to reach for a tent when a hand shot out from behind me and took it from me.

"I'll carry it, Sweetheart," said Liu Wei and he tried the tent to the bottom of his own backpack.  "No need to have you carry it when we'll all be using it."

I raised an eyebrow at his statement and then thought it through more.  If I was going to be staying in a tent, then yes, I would have to share it. And if I was going to share it, it might as well be with the boys. But…. I didn't want to be ever sleeping on the ground. 

I tried to come up with a way that we could build a tent city in the trees that could come down every day, but as much as I could conjure it in my head, it was just not practical.  Something like that would be a long-term solution to our problem, but I was not willing to go there. I did not want to be sleeping outside for the rest of my life. That was why I bought the ranch.

Anyways. There was no tent city in the trees, and I would have to come up with a better solution than sleeping on the ground once people truly got the hang of the new world.

Within half an hour, every single item in this warehouse was either stored away in a backpack or put into my space. Now, it was time to move on to another.

The warehouse next door was a clothing store. Since I really didn't care about clothes (we had enough), but it killed me inside to not take supplies, I just quickly stuck my head in and put everything into my space. Once again, I would sort through everything when I had a chance, but better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

And for anyone else that needed it? Too bad, so sad.

Realizing that I was off in my own little world, the four men in charge (yes, I do let them think that), divided up their teams to make better use of time. I think they were supposed to put everything into one pile and then I would come along and take it.

I recognized this as simply a way to keep the men occupied and the General less suspicious than anything else.  After all, I didn't need to see the supplies to take them, I just had to wish them away.

After rai—hunting for supplies for a couple of hours, we had successfully cleaned out 14 of the 15 warehouses. The General was still in the food one… why, I wasn't sure, but good on him. 

I looked at the time and saw that it was close to setting up camp, but I was not sure if I wanted to do it here or try to find a few other stores before calling it a night. The biggest problem with option B was that I might run into people at the other stores and therefore, might have to call it a night while they are around. 

And let's face it… people are not high on my list of desires.

"Let's try to get a few more stores in," said Liu Yu Zeng as I presented the options to the men. "And if there are people, then there are people."

Ahhh… spoken like a man that had never gone through an apocalypse. But then again, he was advocating for more supplies so I guess I could go with his decision.  We went back the way we came and this time continued to go straight and into the shopping district of this place.

The walk didn't seem to take us that long, and truth be told, there still didn't appear to be any people around.  This could either be a good thing or a really, really bad thing, but either way, there was no way for us to tell until we came across it.

The first thing that we came across was a huge shopping mall, and I am talking about one of the biggest ones that I had ever seen in three lifetimes. Standing outside of it, we all looked up. Not a single person to be seen… do we take the risk for the supplies?

Or should we be smart and pass it up for something else?

Well, no one ever accused me of being smart.