Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



We got through the remaining two grocery stores with no drama… thank God, and after meeting up with the rest of the guys, we quickly made our way to the rendezvous point with the general.

I had made sure to put away most of our supplies and instead, everyone carried their own backpack with the bare minimum to keep up appearance. There was no point in having the General know how many supplies we actually had.

Now, I don't pretend to know what goes through Fuck Face's mind on a daily basis, or even an hourly basis at that, but I had assumed that since he was a General in the prestigious army of Country K, he should have some level of intelligence.

But apparently, I had given the man much too much credit.

Because, standing next to him and his team (you know, the ones that depended on us to save their asses from the zombies a few days ago…) was about 50-100 people. Clearly civilians… and clearly high on the list of not my problem.

I tried to figure out what General Fuck Face's plan was with all the civilians, were they simply there to help him collect supplies, provide him with information, or something else that would have proven equally beneficial. But no, that would be too easy.  The longer I looked at them, the more I noticed their bags of supplies being closely guarded by the people and in no way meant to be shared.

This lead me to another conclusion; he was planning on taking these people with him. But how on Earth would he be able to take care of a bunch of civilians when he couldn't even take care of himself? And he was a 'highly trained' member of the military!

Stunned stupid at the man's audacity and stupidity, I could only watch as more and more people flocked to the General as if he would be their savior from the situation they had found themselves in.

And… the most incredible part was that they really hadn't even seen anything yet in terms of hardship as the zombies had yet to arrive at these more rural districts.

I rubbed both my eyes with one hand, trying to rub the picture in front of me out, but it kept on returning every time I removed my hand and looked in front of me.

These people were more useless than tits on a bull (pardon my language) seeing as they were fleeing their district because they simply lost power and couldn't function anymore.

If they couldn't deal with a loss of electricity, how were they going to deal with the zombies, and the Reavers, and the other difficult situations that were brought about by living outside?  At least here they still had their houses for shelter, warmth, and security!

And judging by the way most of them dressed, they were not your average villager either. Based solely on the fact that their designer clothes were only available in the big cities and the women were wearing some of the most impractical shoes I had ever seen, they should have more than enough means to be able to fend for themselves here in the village. So, what the Hell were they doing here trying to hitch a ride with us?!?!

"Do we really, really need to take him with us?" I asked Wang Chao who was standing in this typical spot to my right.

"I'm afraid so," he confirmed, also watching the latest drama unfolding in front of us.

"Why?" I asked for the hundredth time.

"Because he told us to take him and he is a General," came the reply.

I was stunned when I heard his rationalization for the first time.

"You do know the country's military is no longer a thing, right? Like Fuck Face doesn't have any authority anymore other than whatever strength he can prove in a fight. And based on what I saw? He is really far down on the list of powerhouses."

Wang Chao looked at me, really looked at me for the first time in a long time.  "As long as there is Country K, there is the Country K's military, and we will lay down our lives to protect our brothers and sisters and the civilians that cannot protect themselves."

How the Hell did I not notice that this man was a fricking Mother Theresa earlier?! "My case in point," I said with a sad smile. "There is no longer a Country K, so how can there be a Country K military?"

All four men turned to look at me with varying degrees of shock on their faces. 

"Have you guys really not understood that up to this point?" I asked, completely dazed and confused over their reactions. "There is no central government maintaining law and order, there are no syndicates doing whatever it was that they did before all this happened. Hell, there are not even any idiots dumb enough to walk across half of the country to find someone that may or may not be alive anymore."

How could they look out, see the world, and not understand where this was all leading to?

"Us, people as a whole, go someplace where we feel safe and stay there until it isn't safe anymore. The one in charge of that area is the boss, the ruler, the King… and what they say goes because the worst thing that could happen is you being able to be kicked out of that safe place. We are back in the Warring States period, only we aren't fighting each other, we are simply doing our best not to be eaten or killed by another force that is Hellbent on wiping us out."

I shook my head at their foolishness and walked towards the General. I was thousands of miles away from my safe haven and if I ever wanted to get back there, I would need to hurry up and finish this mission that the boys started.

"You ready to go, General?" I asked, approaching Fuck Face and his team of military and civilians behind him.

He smirked at me as if wanting to see me explode for having so many people around him. But unfortunately for him, they had nothing to do with me and mine.  He wanted them? Then he could feed them and protect them himself. My obligation began and ended with traveling him to whatever city we were going to.  Anything he got caught up in, including death, dismemberment, or becoming a zombie was entirely up to him. I was washing my hands of his matters.

"Of course," he said smoothly, "We are just waiting on a few more people and then we can be on our way." He smiled in such a way that I knew he was trying to push my buttons, but I had enough crap for the day that I was not going to bite.

Not my circus…

Definitely not my monkeys.

I went back to where the four men were huddled in a group and waited outside of their circle for them to realize I was there.  After about a minute I cleared my throat. "He's waiting for a few more people and then we can take off."  Message delivered, I disappeared into my space and the ice cream that was calling my name. Hell, a shower and a nap seem to be in order too.

----

"Why is it that every time she opens her mouth, I realize how little I actually know about the world around us," grumbled Liu Wei as he and the other three men closed ranks.

"Well, big brother, I always figured you were blessed with the looks in our family rather than the brains," smirked Liu Yu Zeng, trying to add some levity to the bomb that Li Dai Lu just dropped.

Liu Wei simply glared at his brother, not bothering to dignify his statement with a response.

"Then what are we supposed to do?" asked Chen Zi Han as his eyes followed Li Dai Lu's route to the General before turning his attention to the others. "If there is no military, no government, no syndicates… what good are we?"

An uncomfortable silence descended over the men as they thought about what her words meant.  They didn't doubt her account. After all, everything else she had said up to this point was true, so this had to be as well.

But they never had to doubt their place in society before. They were born and raised knowing who they were and what their destiny held. There were no questions about doing something else or being someone else. They knew their role and by the time they could speak they had stepped up to fulfill it.

But now, if those roles were no longer there, what did that make them?

"Then we redefine our roles," said Wang Chao as he looked at the three men around him who he had always considered to be his brothers. "We were told what it was that was important and what we needed to do as a result, so now, we figure out what is currently important and what we need to do as a result of that."

Liu Yu Zeng scoffed when he heard Wang Chao's decree. "We know what's important, but defining our roles is much more difficult," he said.

Once again, silence reigned as the men attempted to figure out their new roles in the ever changing new world.