Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm

I ordered a herd of 200 cattle, 30 horses, 20 pigs, God only knows how many different types of fish for the ponds, shrimps, and prawns were also purchased at the recommendation of the supplier, and 250 chickens. I think I was good on the livestock front.

Parts of the order had been delivered and the animals set up in their barns and pens. I was right, I would like to point out, the awe of this place faded when I was mucking out barns, feeding cows, chickens, pigs, and horses.

The concrete fence would have to wait to be installed until April when the frost melted. I was told that it would take about 15 to 20 days to get everything installed. Liu Wei and I had been emailing and calling back and forth trying to figure out the color and locking mechanism.

I guess the techs suggested a reflective material like a mirror or something, but I vetoed that idea. If the zombies approaching the fence could see themselves in the mirror, then they would know that something was up. Come on, they were zombies, they weren't stupid.

Liu Wei suggested painting the walls forest green for the spring, summer, and fall, and covering it in white fabric for the winter months. I thought about it and agreed. It was my best option right now, and we were getting close enough to the big bang that I was starting to feel the stress.

Well, it was only March, so we weren't that close, but I was paying attention to the news from Country M and saw that we were on schedule for the November 1st unveiling. Seven months, seven months was all we had and as much as I would normally think that seven months was a long time, I was really feeling stressed. I think it was made worse by it being winter and I wasn't able to do much but slowly buy food.

I looked back at my lists and rechecked my stock. I had 50 lbs of flour, but that felt like too little. Maybe I should increase that to 100 lbs until I could grow my own wheat… wheat! I forgot wheat seeds. Need to add that to the list too.

I kept going through my lists over and over again. Trying to see what I was missing. I only had one chance to get this right and I didn't want to blow it.

-----

Liu Wei was sitting in the middle of a meeting with the heads of the different subsidiaries of Phoenix when his cell phone went off. Surprised, he looked at Wang Chao and then at his phone. Normally there was a rule that all electronic devices had to be turned off during these meetings, but he and Wang Chao were the exceptions to the rule.

Seeing that it was Li Dai Lu, he showed the caller ID to Wang Chao and, upon his nod, stood up and answered the phone.

-----

"Hey, is it a good time right now?" I asked when Liu Wei answered the phone. I was really stuck trying to figure out how to accomplish step eight on my list. It was now July and I was really feeling the pinch. The news coming out of Country M and that was being delivered by Country K was not promising. But maybe this is what happened in the past, but because I didn't transmigrate until a few years after the start of the apocalypse I didn't know these things.

"Of course," came the smooth reply.

"Since I am pretty sure that you guys own everything in City A, do you know where I can buy guns? Like a lot of guns?" I knew that that question was going to come out wrong, no matter how long I spent trying to word it. But I needed guns, and a lot, and ammunition, and grenades? What else was on my list?

As my brain was going a hundred miles an hour, I didn't realize how long Liu Wei remained silent on the other end.

"You want guns?" He asked, his voice going from friendly to stone-cold in seconds. Me, being me, didn't notice.

"Yeah, I have no idea where to buy them, but I am running out of time. I was hoping that if anyone knew where to get them it might be you."

Once again there were a few minutes of silence on the phone and I heard a door open and close.

"Do you want legal or illegal ones?" Asked Liu Wei. It sounded like I was on speakerphone, but I had worked enough with the man to not overly care about small things like that.

"By November, it won't matter whether I got them legally or illegally. It will only matter that I have them."

"Who are you planning to kill?" He asked, his voice soft.

"Humans," I replied, closing my eyes. "Humans are scarier than anything that is coming our way," I continued, willing to trust Liu Wei.

"And what exactly is coming our way?" Came a deep voice from the phone. I could feel my body react, the hairs on my arms standing at attention. I didn't know who just spoke, but I definitely had a reaction.

"Would you be willing to believe the end of the world?" I asked, my own voice soft. I understood that with rule number one I was not supposed to help people, but just this one, I wanted to warn him.

"If you said it, yes," replied the deep voice.

"I will give you whatever information you need. I just need the guns in return."

"Deal, we'll meet at your ranch this afternoon."

I nodded my head, knowing that he would not be able to see. Maybe, just maybe trying to save a couple of people wouldn't be going against my grand plan… right?

----

It had taken only about two hours for Deep Voice and Liu Wei to show up at my newly completed gate. I let them in (electronically… I was not happy) and waited on my deck until they reached my house. Now, if I was expecting only one car with two people in it, I was caught completely off guard when a whole convoy of ten vehicles showed up.

Like seriously, ten blacked-out SUVs?!? Were they driving the President or Royalty?!?

Every time Liu Wei came it was only him in a four-door, normal car. And I say normal cause outside of the vehicles I bought, I knew absolutely nothing about cars.

The doors all seemed to open in sync and two armed men rushed around to SUV number four and opened the back door. Lui Wei stepped out first, followed by the most attractive man I had ever seen. Like seriously, even the dark cloud over his head couldn't detract from his looks. I knew just by looking at him that he was Deep Voice.

"Welcome to Elysian Fields," I said, opening the front door and gesturing for them to enter. "May this be the first, last, and only time you are ever here."

"I did warn you she wasn't a fan of strangers," said Liu Wei as he led the men behind Deep Voice into the house.

I raised my eyebrows but didn't say a word.

He was right… I really hated strangers.