Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



At the sound of my clicking tongue, about four zombies broke off from the group and turned towards us, the others still lost in the carnage in front of them. The men once again dispersed into groups of ten and each took a zombie to try their powers on. Technically, Liu Wei, Liu Yu Zeng, and the other fighters had it the easiest. They simply went up to the zombie from behind and ripped off their head.

Requesting a flame, I sent my purple one to dispose of any downed zombie. I needed to figure out this new power just as much as anything else. The purple flame ran much stronger than my pink or blue flame alone, turning the zombies to ash in less than 5 seconds.

Wanting to see what it would do to a fully healthy zombie; I picked a random one still in the horde and ignoring us completely. Sending out a ball of the purple flame I watched as it engulfed it.  A strange feeling passed through me, it was like there was a small flame inside of where my purple flame burned. The closer the purple flame got to the smaller one, the more the smaller one struggled to hang on until the was completely extinguished.

I shook my head, snapping out of whatever trance I was in, and watched in delight as my purple flame reduced the zombie to ashes in under 10 seconds. I now had a way of killing the zombies without having the extra pressure of trying to dismantle them beforehand. The strangest part was that after I used the purple flame, the exhaustion that I was expecting never came, in fact, I felt stronger for some reason.

I picked out my next target and closed my eyes, concentrating my purple flame on it and trying to see if I could see that weird flame again.

There it was. It looked like a flickering candle in a darkened room, a silver flame instead of the normal yellow, orange, or red. I started at that flame and saw the moment that my purple flame entered the dark space around it.  The silver seemed to flicker faster and faster as if it was trying to return the darkness that my purple flame was eating away.

But my flame absorbed the darkness faster than the silver flame could fix it. Once again, I opened my eyes and watched as my purple flame burned the zombie to ashes.

I looked around to see if anyone saw what I had been doing, but they were all concentrating on their own battles more than on me. I watched as a dark mist spread out and around a lone zombie that Liu Yu Zeng was battling. Wanting to prove something, or maybe disprove it, I closed my eyes and once again saw the silver flame in the center of darkness. This time, I watched as the darkness slowly snuck up on it, the flame completely unaware that part of the darkness was not its own. I saw as it only managed a short defense before the darkness completely consumed it.

Liu Yu Zeng looked up and saw me, "Flame please," he shouted as he turned his attention to another zombie that had seen us and was making its way over here. I shook my head, not sure what was going on, and called the purple flame to burn the body to ash. But this time, there was no boost of energy that I had experienced when I burned the other zombie before. Unfortunately, I only felt tired and drained after calling on my flame.

Concerned and confused, I shook my head, trying to banish the thoughts in my mind.  This had never happened in my past life. There was no blue flame and no purple flame. In fact, there was hardly any pink flame because I refused to use it around others.

But what was the silver flame? And why did it give me so much energy when my purple fire consumed it… and why didn't I get that same energy when I just burned Liu Yu Zeng's zombie?

I couldn't be thinking about this, I couldn't let Wang Chao know that there was something wrong with me. I closed my mind and refused to dwell on what I did not understand. I turned back around and let out a mass of small purple fires that would burn the zombies that the men had managed to kill.

Me? I was going to go deal with the horde in front of me and find out exactly what I could do with my powers.

---

Wang Chao looked up from the zombie that he had just turned to ash with his lightning, his eyes searching for Li Dai Lu.  He could feel her uneasiness, and he felt her conviction to keep him from finding out what was going on with her.  His connection to her was so strong that it felt like a thick rope was tied between them, no matter the distance. He could hear her thoughts and she could now hear his.

He continued to strengthen the bond between the two of them as another zombie made its way over to him from the original horde. He would allow her her private thoughts, he would not bring them up, ask questions, or go where he was not wanted, but at the same time, he would not allow her to hide from him.

He could feel a sense of completeness when she was around in a way that he never knew he was lacking before she swept into his life. He knew that Liu Wei felt the same, and it was becoming a bone of contention between them. Neither one of them was willing to give up this feeling for the other. Even thinking about it caused a jolt of devastation to go through his body.

He would not give her up. Li Dai Lu was his, and he would bring the world to its knees to keep her. 

An almost feral snarl escaped his lips as he turned another zombie into ashes.  Yes, he would bring the world to its knees and then offer it up on a silver platter to his queen. But if Liu Wei thought that she was his alone, then he had another thing coming. Wang Chao was holding on to the rope with both hands, refusing to let go.

---

Liu Yu Zeng looked around the stretch between the highway and the forest where he and his team were fighting zombies.  If you had told him even a week ago that he would be out on the highway, on foot, and fighting for his life, he would have laughed at you and suggested you get your head checked.

And yet, here he was, using a superpower to fight zombies, his second in command and his brother at his back.  He had never felt this... completed… this whole before.  He was almost too young to remember when his brother left, only 7 years old, but remembered feeling like a large part of him was missing.

But now it was back, and he would never let his brother leave his sight again.

He watched as a zombie came gliding towards him as if he was the prey and not the other way around. Letting out a soft breath, he released a few tendrils of black smoke that Li Dai Lu had told him was poison. He guided the mist up and around the zombie and saw the moment that it completely engulfed it. He could feel the mist pulling something out of the zombie, almost like a living creature slurping up its meal.

And then it released it, letting the zombie crumble to the ground, no longer moving. There was a rush of power, of adrenaline that filled him as his mist killed the zombie. It was such a heady feeling that he almost shook with delight. He could see this power becoming addictive as he looked around once again.

Li Dai Lu was staring at him with an indescribable look. Did she know the rush that he felt when he killed the zombie? Did it matter if she did? "Flame please," he called out as if everything were normal and his body did not just get a pure jolt of power.

Looking around, he saw another zombie come towards him, thinking that he would be easy prey away from the group. Joke's on him.

Liu Yu Zeng smiled as he let the dark mist engulf another zombie, and another one after that.  He didn't know what it was that gave him this complete feeling of contentment, but he was happy not to be under his grandfather's thumb anymore.

----

The more I burned the zombies and the more flames that I engulfed, the stronger I felt. I finally knew why so many power users abused their powers, there was something so freeing about using them, about knowing that you were the strongest being around.

But all too soon the zombies were gone and we were left with a very pissed-off General Fuck Face.