Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



Wang Chao held up his hands in complete innocence. "Nope, unlike him, I don't have any childhood engagements," he said in a reassuring manner. The look on his face, when he turned his gaze to Liu Wei, made me want to laugh, but I needed to hold it in.

"Childhood engagement? No wonder she thinks that you are hers," I said also looking at Liu Wei.

"Nope, I have maybe seen her once when I was 9 and that was the last time. I will not marry her and I don't want anything to do with her."

I hummed, whether in agreement and understanding or with disapproval, I would let him try to figure it out. I left the room and went to bed. There would be enough things to figure out in the coming days… screwing with Liu Wei's mind was just a short diversion.

If he seriously thought that I would take a step back for some girl that I didn't know, simply because his family arranged something for the two of them, then he didn't understand me.

Don't get me wrong, I would never ever step between him and a girl that he was in love with or even liked. I might not be happy, but I would be able to pretend well enough that he would never know how I felt. But that was not the case, so her thoughts and feelings really didn't matter to me. And if she got too much in my way? Step one always came into play.

-----

Another two weeks had passed with everyone trying to get whatever they wanted and needed and the ranch was preparing to hunker down for the foreseeable future. We didn't hear anything from Yu Zeng, so we had assumed that everything was fine on that end and they decided not to come for a visit.

We devised a classroom of sorts in the basement where I was giving lessons of a sort on the zombies; what they were, how they could be killed, their weaknesses, and the progress of humans at the end of days. It took me a while to be able to explain the Normalcy Bias and the great effect that it had on the first few days after the EMP when off. They couldn't understand that it took a normal person at least two to three days after shit hit the fan for them to realize that no one was coming to save them or that things won't just return to the way they were before. It affected more than 70% of the population and so, the other 30% took full advantage and started taking supplies almost immediately after the EMP went off.

Once the majority of the population realized that things would not be going back to normal, most of the supplies that they needed to survive were long gone by the time they went to look for them.

The cities didn't go to pot because the zombies decided to blow up buildings or break windows or crash cars into the side of houses. That was all the humans doing. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the zombies stood off to the side and smiled their creepy smiles as humans killed and destroyed almost everything around them.

At least I was dealing with men trained in the military so they were used to seeing the worst of humanity and could understand what I was trying to tell them. All those scenes of cities after the apocalypse, the destruction, the desolation, all of it was caused by humans. When law and order fell, so too did humanity and social norms.

But it is easier to blame it on the zombies, I guess.

The ranch was coming along better than I could have ever thought or have done on my own. All my little rabbit holes were well hidden from the outside and locked securely in a non-electronic way on the inside.

I stood outside of my front door looking at the place I had considered paradise since the first moment I saw it and sighed. It was October 28th, three days to go, and I had accomplished everything I wanted and more in the year that I had to get ready. I would live happily here in my Elysian Fields and not deal with the rest of the world outside my gates. Everything was absolutely perfect.

Until the fucker known as Liu Wei answered his phone and my entire world came crashing down in flames.

Really, men were more of a pain than they were worth.

-----

I could feel him slowly coming out from the front door behind me, cautiously approaching like I was a ticking time bomb ready to kill him. I looked over my shoulder at his expression and laughed in his face. I turned to him to see what he was going to say or do to warrant that look.

"What's with that look? Everything is ready and we have three days before life as we know it changes. We should be celebrating! Why do you look like I am going to kill you?" I asked as I watched Wang Chao come out behind him, pushing him out of the way to put his arms around me from behind.

I looked at both men, becoming confused. What was going on? We were all prepared, literally anything and everything I could think of was already here at the ranch. What was I missing?

"I just got off the phone with Yu Zeng," said Liu Wei, looking at me from behind his glasses.

"Okay, and?" I asked, not sure where this was going. We had warned him as best as we could without saying 'The end of the world is coming; you might want to prepare'. So what was the matter with him calling?

"He called to let me know that he, Grandfather, Wu Bai Hee, and a few of his men were on their way up here." His words stopped and he looked at me like he was expecting to connect the dots.

"Ok? Why?" I asked, still not sure how this was going to involve me.

"They did not want to take a plane, so they are driving."

"Just spit it out, I am really not understanding what is going on," I snapped and Wang Chao squeezed his arms that were around me as if to make me remember that he was there.

"City H is at least a week of driving from here."

"You are not doing yourself any favors," I growled, still not understanding why he was looking at me like he just killed Hades.

"They are going to be driving when the EMP goes off and the zombies and humans are released from the hospitals."

Ok, I was now starting to understand what he was concerned about but I still didn't see why it was our problem. They were the ones that decided to leave now, even when we warned Yu Zeng that it would be a bad idea.

Liu Wei closed his eyes like the next words out of his mouth would be the hardest that he ever said.

"I cannot leave them out there to deal with everything alone. Wang Chao and I are going to take some men and leave tomorrow in the hopes that we might catch up to them. We want you to come."

"What?" I said, looking at him like I had never seen him before. "You want me to come? But why? I made this place so I wouldn't have to leave it and you are asking me to do just that days before the apocalypse comes and we are hunted?"

Liu Wie closed his eyes and nodded his head.

Well, shit.