Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



"That—" Liu Wei started before I once again held up a hand to quiet him. We might have gotten out of the clearing, but we were in no way, shape, or form in a safe enough position to be making too much noise. They might not have traditional ears to hear us, but our voices made vibrations in the air which the zombies used to be able to pinpoint our location.

They might not be able to listen in on our conversations, but they could still hunt us down by using our voices. And I was not going to take the chance that one body would be enough to fill them up when they just escaped.

As soon as we made it back to the highway, I ran as quickly as I could toward City B and hopefully a safe place. I was not going to take the time right now to try and be quiet, because whether or not our footsteps made enough noise for us to hear or not… they still made vibrations on the ground.

And, say it with me, vibrations bring the zombies. Wasn't this a fun end of days?

I would literally kill for the slow, dumb zombies from the online novels where they didn't advance until the humans around them could. It seemed that here we were constantly playing catchup… and it was not a pleasant feeling.

We continued to run until we entered the city and I stopped again, trying desperately to catch my breath. You would think that I spent the past year training my body for this, but I really didn't. A whole year without exercise was a dream for me.

The men formed a ring around me making sure to keep me safe while I recovered. Knowing I didn't have that much time, I only took a few minutes before I was worming my way through the men and back to the front.

"Ok," I said, still trying to catch my breath. Seeing a bunch of birds picking off God only knows what from the streets, I knew we would be safe for now at least. Pointing to the birds I said, "As long as you see any type of animal around, we will be fine. If they leave, we need to leave. Understood?" I saw the men nodding and a few placing all their attention on the birds around us.

"Now," I said looking at Liu Wei. "What were you going to say?"

"The zombies," he started, looking around the area as if expecting them to jump out at any time. Clearly, this man was not used to being prey. Nodding my head, I motioned for him to continue. "Why didn't we kill them?"

I was shocked for a minute and then burst out laughing as I took the map out of my space and studied it. "Why would we kill them?" I asked, trying to figure out where we were and where we needed to go. Briefly looking at my cellphone (I needed to save the battery until I could get the generators up and running or have time to plug it into the house in my space) I saw that it was 8:30 pm. Not interested in being out in the open much longer, I needed to get us to a safe place as soon as possible.

We were now in the city, and, as we saw before… the zombies were out and running around. "We need to find a safe place for the night. We can try to make it to your home tomorrow," I continued, not really paying attention to the guys.

"Why didn't we kill the zombies," said Liu Wei again, this time with a bit of a snap to his voice.

"Because they weren't trying to kill us," I said as if it made all the sense in the world. If you were in the middle of a pack of lions and decide to annoy one of them, you needed to expect all of the other ones to come after you. All in all, it was a pretty dumb thing to do in the first place.

"But we should have killed them," came a voice from the crowd of soldiers behind me. Taking in a deep sigh, I tried to explain myself… but first… I pointed to Wang Chao, the only one to have remained quiet this entire time, "We need a safe place to go… preferably now."

Nodding his head, he started walking, weaving in and out of the cars on the street. There were no longer people around, but I was not concerned. Hopefully, they would become the first meal out of prison for the zombies and leave us alone.

"Why. Didn't. We. Kill. Them?" Asked Liu Wei for the third time.

"We survived that because they were feeding and we didn't present a threat to them. If we attempted to fight them, we would have been wiped out. Do you understand that?"

"There were only 20 of them and over a hundred of us. Plus, you have your fire."

"My fire," I said, nodding my head like he was making complete sense. "So, how were you planning on knocking them down long enough for me to be able to burn them to ashes?"

"A bullet to the head, or enough bullets to decapitate them," said Liu Wei, proving that he was listening to me to some extent.

"They would have been all over us by the time the second bullet flew. Did you forget that I fired the first shot?"

"If you fired the first shot then why weren't you prepared to finish it?"

"I fired the first shot for a few reasons," I said, trying to be understanding. I know that this is their first experience in this type of situation and movies and video games aren't overly accurate. "First, I didn't want to startle the zombies by appearing without warning. A startled zombie is a dangerous zombie. Second, the snarl implied that they were otherwise occupied. If there was silence after the first shot, then we would have had to prepare for battle," I said, explaining my reasoning.

"How do you expect us to learn how to fight them without giving us a chance to do it?" Asked Liu Wei, Wang Chao was still suspiciously silent, but he was bringing us to a safe place so I would count that as a win.

"Well, at the ranch the idea was to bring in one at a time for your guys to learn, but for some reason… we aren't at my ranch. I have been here before, I had to learn the hard way and I have lost more people than you have behind you to zombies. I know what I am doing and that means, out here, I am your best chance of survival. You want to ignore me or question me? I will wish you the best of luck and will meet you back at the ranch," I said, stopping at raising my head.

"We will do things your way," said Wang Chao, finally speaking. Pointing to a hotel in front of us, he continued, "Would this be okay?"

I looked at the large hotel in front of us and cringed. When I said safe place, I was thinking more along the lines of a house. A small house… where we would be practically on top of each other, but would be able to know for certain that we were the only ones there. This hotel could end up being a nightmare.

My mind ran through the logistics of entering those doors, and I sighed. If Liu Wei wanted a fight, then I guess we were going to jump in the deep end and see who sank or swam. Hanging the AK-15 over my shoulder within easy reach, I took as many swords as I could out of my space. Putting them into a pile I motioned for the men to grab them.

As they proceeded to do just that, I let out a big breath through pursed lips. "Alright, you guys want to try your hand at this, then heaven forbid I stop you. Here is what you need to know. They are fast. They will not die, even if you cut off their heads. A bullet will not stop them at all, even a headshot. If you cut them in half, be prepared to be fighting two of them instead of just one. A severed limb might make them pause for less than a second as a new one regrew… but it would only be a matter of a minute or two before the severed arm also became its own zombie." I looked at the soldiers around me, and closed my eyes, wondering how many would come out of this alive.

"Make your way as quickly as you can to the penthouse suite… or presidential suite, or whatever is the biggest room in the place. Ignore any humans you come across unless they present a threat. If that is the case, kill them," I said, waving my hand for Liu Wei and the soldiers to enter the hotel first. "Good luck," I said, "And may the odds be ever in your favor." I chuckled to myself.