Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



"Reavers?" asked the female scientist. "As in from the word to reave meaning to carry out raids in order to plunder or to rob something by force?" The poor woman sounded so confused that I had to chuckle.

"Yeah," I replied. I was pretty sure the name had stuck from some sort of pop culture reference, but at the same time, her definition worked too. "Something like that."

"It's a stupid name for them," scoffed the man from where he sat in the cage, his legs too broken to walk.

"Seemed appropriate from where I am standing, but then again, that is just me," I said with a smile on my face. I was more interested in getting back to that truck. It really was a thing of beauty. 

"There is no way you would ever have come across someone treated with R3V3RS as they were all killed when the experiment was concluded," sneered the woman and I had to wonder why she was still laying at the guys' feet. I mean, her legs didn't look much better than the man's but there was no way that could be comfortable.

"Then someone didn't get the memo because we have come across a few of them before we arrived here," said Liu Yu Zeng with his signature smile on his face. I wasn't going to point out the thousands of them that would come out of the woodwork in the coming years.

"Is there any way for them to procreate?" I asked. There was no way 20 facilities created all of those Reavers.

There was a snort coming from the man. "I mean, we didn't exactly study their sex life if that is what you are asking."

I really wasn't. And having spent so much time with them, I knew they didn't have a sex life to speak of. "I meant through bites, scratches, those sorts of ways."

Once again there was a snort of disdain. "No, they aren't 'zombies' after all."

"I thought you didn't believe in zombies," pointed out Chen Zi Han. The male scientist simply rolled his eyes.

"Anyways, no, there is no way for them to procreate."

"Unless—" started the woman as she turned to look at the man.

"Like that would happen."

"Unless what?" I asked. I was pretty sure that whatever her 'unless' was, that was what had actually happened.

"Well, they would have to either have access to the antidote or through an exchange of bodily fluids," admitted the woman.

"So, a bite?" I asked with a smile. I was really getting tired of this. I, and most people during the apocalypse, thought that Reavers were humans that became a little crazy because of everything going on. To know that they were created from zombies as a fucked-up way to try to cure zombie-ism (is that even a word?) makes matters that much worse.

Humans should just learn to leave shit alone and not experiment with things they have no business in.

"Well, in order to pass on the retrovirus antidote, they would have to do it intentionally," said the woman airily.

"One last question," I said interrupting her before I got too frustrated. "Would Reavers produce more Reavers or would they produce Zombies?"

"Reavers, of course, not like they would because they are all dead," snarled the man. Like really, he had two broken legs and was clearly not going anywhere without help. Did he really think now was a great time to start burning bridges?

I looked at Liu Yu Zeng and raised an eyebrow. I didn't have to say a single word before the woman in front of us started screaming in pain and the flesh on her body went from pale to red to purple and black within seconds. From there, her skin cracked and sores started to spread all over her body. It looked like pictures of a flesh-eating disease that I had seen before, but I had never seen Liu Yu Zeng's poison do something like this.

I blinked at him a few times as the sores on her face started to bleed. All of a sudden her screams were cut off as her body stopped moving, her eyes and mouth open, and she died. "Let's do that again, this time I'll time it," I said to Liu Yu Zeng, disappointed that I didn't know how long it took him to kill this way.

I mean, it was definitely gross, and apparently more than a little painful. But this was as much different than how he normally kills that I was fascinated. "Sure," he said with a shrug as he turned his attention to the man in the cage. Ah, there was that look of fear that I wanted to see when he was sneering at my questions. I got out my cell phone and pulled up the clock.

"Go!" I said with a smile as I pressed the start button.

"Done," replied Liu Yu Zeng as the screams once again stopped.

"4 minutes 15 seconds," I said impressed. "Not too bad."

Liu Yu Zeng simply hummed as he turned around to look at the bikes and truck. "Now, do you have any idea how to get these out of here?" he asked.

"Space?" I suggested. In all honesty, I had no idea how they would have gotten them in here in the first place unless they built them from scratch.  But they did look like a typical motorcycle you would see on the streets, just with a more specialized paint job and lighting.

Before any of us could move or say another word, a large garage door opened at the back of the room showing another long tunnel, this time with a road leading out instead of stairs. "Shotgun the truck!" I yelled as I sprinted toward the ultra heavy-duty vehicle. Now I have never been a nerd about cars, trucks, and SUVs. As far as I was concerned they were all just different ways of taking you from point A to point B… but this truck was everything I didn't know I wanted and more.

Opening the door, I looked up into the driver's seat.

Okay, this was going to be a problem.