Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm

Liu Wei stood still in her kitchen, everything that just occurred going through his head at lightning speed. There was no way that she could be the second-generation wealthy socialite Li Dai Lu. Her reactions to everything were not like someone that had lived in this country for their whole life. If anything, she seemed to be more of a native to Country M than to Country K.

Liu Wei shook his head. None of that mattered. He would trust what he saw and not what he had read. The Li Dai Lu of today was much better than the one in his files, so he would stand firmly in her court until she did something concrete that would put them on opposite sides.

He shook his head, putting those thoughts to the back of his mind. He was in no way less than Wang Chao in terms of power or family. Just because he preferred to be in the background was not a reason to overlook him. After all, the knife that cuts best was the one that you never see coming.

He quickly left the kitchen to figure out where the mysterious girl went. Finding her in the basement, looking in between two rooms, he cleared his throat.

Watching her jump in surprise made him chuckle a bit. She was so strong when it came to planning for this apocalypse that she even made him believe… but every so often he would get a glimpse of a softer side to her that always made him smile.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked her.

----

I jumped a foot in the air when I heard Liu Wei clear his throat behind me. I swore to God I should put a bell on that man, just so he couldn't sneak up on me.

"I am trying to figure out where the safest place is for you to take the vaccine," I replied, answering his question.

"You look so serious," he said, coming up right behind me. I hummed and leaned back against him. I suppose I should have mentioned that I am a touchy-feely type of girl. Something my psychologist told me was a response to growing up in Children's Services. And if I had to be honest, I haven't been able to relax enough to be touched since Colin, and look at how that went.

On a side note, did you know that for the average person to be denied touch of some kind is considered a type of torture? And that less than eight to ten meaningful touches can result in an increase in anxiety, depression, and stress. I'm not kidding!

That was my excuse and I was going with it. It had nothing to do with how good it felt to be in his arms, or how good he smelled, or how solid he was. Nope, nothing to do with any of that.

I sighed, feeling a bit of the stress leaving me. Given the circumstances, the only thing that I could do was be completely honest. "I'm stressed about you two taking the vaccine at the same time. There are numerous side effects including fever, vomiting, and violent shaking even before the outcome is decided. Plus, if you both turn into zombies, I won't win a fight of two against one. Especially since you have been together for so long."

He slowly put his chin on my head as if that movement would call attention to the fact that I was leaning against his chest… new flash, I couldn't miss it…before he started to speak.

"What do you mean by that?" He asked, trying to figure out where my brain was going. If he could figure that out then I would give him a dull gold star.

"Zombies are not the mindless creatures that they show in movies. They... this is hard to describe until you see it yourself… they maintain what makes them human; loyalty, any military training, love. They just have the added drive of an animal," I said, trying to explain it the best I can.

"So, a person's memory is still there. Is that what you are saying?"

"Yes, it is just a person's genes that are compromised. So, all the memories are intact, but the drive for the three basics of life takes over to a certain extent."

"Three basics of life?" He asked, but I could hear the smile in his voice. I rolled my eyes before giving him a half-answer.

"The three basics of life that everything living thing on this planet needs to live."

"And those are?" he chucked into my ear.

I am pretty sure that if I roll my eyes again they are going to get stuck that way. But my battery had been recharged, so I spin out of his arms and stuck my tongue out at him. "The three f's; feed, fight and…"

Leaving things at that, I went into the two rooms that I thought would be best. I could put locks on the outside of the door until 48 hours had passed. If I let them out one at a time, then I should be able to handle it. Besides, it would give me a chance to see if my blue flame was hot enough to kill a zombie without having to behead it first. It would take a lot less time and effort if that was the case.

"About what you were saying," started Liu Wei as he followed behind me. "Would it be easier for you if we went one at a time or both at the same time?"

"I guess that would depend on your schedule. I could just leave one of you in each room and lock the door behind you from the outside. That would give me more control over when you came out. If we went one at a time, then we would be looking at a minimum of four days, and I don't know if the amazing CEO of Phoenix Conglomerate can afford to take at least four days off. The company might go out of business two months ahead of schedule."

"I'll head back and talk to Wang Chao about it," Liu Wei said as he ran his fingers threw his hair. There is something extremely sexy about that move, I don't care who does it. As if he knew what I was thinking, he smirked at me before seeing himself out. I could only shake my head. It was nice to have a friend that I could relax around.

----

"You're back, how did it go?" asked Wang Chao when Liu Wei entered his office at Phoenix. Since he seemed so relaxed, Wang Chao automatically assumed that everything went according to plan.

"Not horrible, but she did bring up some points that we didn't consider before," replied Liu Wei as he got comfortable on the couch.

"Like what?"

"Like what do we expect to happen if we do not get a superpower at the end of all this," Liu Wei said as he studied his nails. "According to her, there is only a 15% chance of that happening."

"What is the chance of us turning into a zombie then?" Wang Chao asked, making sure to have all the information on hand before making a final decision. It might only be a matter of a couple of months, but he could still accomplish a lot in that time if necessary.

"75%. However, she did say something interesting that we had no idea about."

"And what is that?" responded Wang Chao, leaning back in his chair and listening to what his friend had to say.

"That the zombies aren't what we have been led to believe."

"She does seem to be stressing that but hasn't given us details."

"She gave some today but mentioned that they were hard to explain unless you had a chance to see them for yourself. However, according to her, they maintain their memories and personalities of their… human… life, it's just that the animal genes take over and stress food, fight and fuck more than what she considered a normal human would think about, which canceled out any personality that an individual would have before the transformation. Our loyalty would still remain as would our fighting skills and ability to strategize."

"That means that Country M has created the perfect, indestructible soldier, but did not instill loyalty to the higher-ups as much as they should have. That is why when the human genes were killed off, the animal part of the zombie was able to take control better and they didn't care about who the Alpha was before."