Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



What the fuck! Why should I be punished for something this guy said?!? How the Hell was that fair?!?  The worst thing that I could possibly think of was having to give up my supplies, but I didn't think that counted as a 'mafia-style' punishment.

Cutting off a finger? Nope, wrong criminal organization.

I was having an inner panic attack at what Liu Wei was expecting from me. I opened my mouth to say something sinister like 'the head of the woman beside you', but what came out was: "Half of your supplies."

I froze in embarrassment and wanted the ground to completely swallow me up when Wu Long looked up at me in complete disbelief. Even Liu Wei froze for a second before I heard him chuckling. Even the stoic Chen Zi Han let out a snort of disbelief when he heard what I said.

I wanted to backtrack and pretend that I didn't just say that, but that would be worse than keeping with my decision, so I kept my mouth shut and simply raised an eyebrow like I meant to say that this whole time.

Sure, let's go with that.

"Well, that is the worst punishment imaginable when it comes to you. I am pretty sure you think dying is preferred to giving up supplies," laughed Liu Wei, giving me a look that may or may not have melted me a bit. But let's be perfectly clear, I was pissed at the man and no puppy dog eyes or… whatever his eyes were right now… would get me out of my mood.  Probably.

"Death is easy, living without supplies is not," I said as if it was obvious. And to me, it was. Not to mention you didn't need supplies once you died… unless you were me and had a habit of coming back from the dead. Then having a previous stockpile would be amazing!

Wu Long frantically started nodding his head, most likely scared that I would change my mind and offer up a worse price for insulting one of the largest syndicates in Country K. He quickly motioned for the remaining 5 guys that were still standing to put all of their supplies in front of me.

Looking down at the 4 boxes of crackers, a box of instant noodles, 5 boxes of chocolate chip cookies, and 3 bottles of water, I was stunned. Was this all that they had? 

I had completely forgotten how hard it was to get your hands on supplies, let alone make off with them without being a space user. Technically this would have been a fantastic day's haul for me before.

Looking down at the meager offerings, I grabbed one of the boxes of chocolate chip cookies and opened them.  Taking the first one out of the package, I looked at Wu Long in front of me. "Well?" I asked him, wondering what was taking him so long to grab the remaining food. Clearly, this was why he wasn't doing such a great job of getting supplies even though they knew about the warehouse secret of grocery stores.

Wu Long looked at me blankly and then at Liu Wei. "She is waiting for you to grab the rest. She took her price."

"Chocolate chip cookies?" Wu Long asked, stunned. Liu Wei nodded his head.

"Never underestimate the magic a box of chocolate chip cookies can work on a pissed-off woman," said Liu Wei sagely.

"This is stopping me from being pissed off at him. You are an entirely different story… and you don't have the magic of a box of chocolate chip cookies," I said as I crunched on yet another cookie.  I could practically feel the sugar melting into my bloodstream making me happy. 

Hearing what I had said, Liu Wei quickly snatched up another box of cookies from the pile that Wu Long had yet to take back and offered them to me.  I rolled my eyes. It didn't count if he didn't get me the cookies himself. Those were still Wu Long's cookies so even if I took them, it would count towards him and not Liu Wei. 

Refusing the box, I walked past Wu Long who was now inadvertently blocking my way out of the alley by kneeling in the middle of it and back out onto the street.

Liu Wei quickly caught up to me, gently shaking the box to me like I was a puppy and that was my treat. "Go give it back," I snapped, refusing to look at him. Chen Zi Han followed behind me slowly, as if he didn't want to get too close to me. "What?!?" I said, this time spinning around to look at him. "Do I smell or something?!?"

I mean, I know I haven't had a shower in a few days, but it shouldn't be so bad that he refused to be near me. He was just fine like 10 minutes ago.

Since I had come to a stop, he walked a couple of steps forward to come to a stop a few feet from me. "Unlike Wang Chao, mind reading is not one of my superpowers. You are going to have to tell me what is going through your head before I call you stupid."

His gaze down on the ground, Chen Zi Han stayed silent.  Realizing what was going on, Liu Wei went back into the alley to give me and Chen Zi Han some time to ourselves and hopefully to return the box of cookies to Wu Long.

"Honeybear," I said and watched the scary enforcer that just took down five guys in less time than it took me to finish a chocolate bar flinch when I called him Honeybear. "You don't like Honeybear?" I said, a mild panic in my voice. Was he offended that I had given him an endearment?

I thought that it would be okay because he was starting to touch me and hug me. Did I read that wrong? Or was it the name itself? "Would you prefer Honey Badger? I mean, badgers are kind of ugly so I didn't want to call you that, but I guess they are fierce too so maybe you would prefer that to bear? Or did you just not want me to call you anything other than Chen Zi Han?"  I knew I was a bit stressed when my words ran together like that, but Chen Zi Han was becoming as important to me as Wang Chao or Lie Wei, even though I hadn't known him that long.

Apparently, he took pity on me and grabbed me roughly into his arms as he put his face between my neck and shoulder. "So…" I started, now confused about what just happened. "Is that a yes to Honey Badger over Honeybear?"

I felt more than heard him chuckle, but as he tightened his grip around me, I figured I would let him have his moment and then he could tell me where I went wrong.

"I am sorry," he muttered, not willing to lift his head.

"Sorry? For what?" I asked my confusion in no way lessening with his confession. "For not helping me come up with a suitable punishment for Wu Long? Because if that is the case, then that whole thing falls on Liu Wei… there is nothing to be sorry for."

"I am sorry that you had to see me like that," Chen Zi Han confessed, still refusing to look at me.

"Like what?"

"Like that," he said again, this time releasing one of his arms to indicate the alley.

"I am really sorry, Sweetheart," I said, honestly not understanding what he was apologizing for.

"I am sorry that you saw me beating those guys. I am sorry that you saw that part of me."

"Oh, Honeybear," I said, "You really are stupid," I continued, this time understanding what was going on. "Maybe, in the previous world, before the EMP and before I died twice, that… display… might have been off-putting or would have caused me to be scared, but not right now. Not in this place and time," I tried to reassure him without confessing to how hot I found it that he completely dominated those men.

But what I said was also true. In my first life, seeing violence like that would have made me sick to my stomach and left me shaking in fear for a long time after it had passed. But I was pretty sure that even then if it had been Chen Zi Han, I would have gotten past it.

Now, however, the world has changed completely, and here, only the strongest survived. It was… comforting… to see him like that, as a protector because someone called me a bitch. And there was no way I would ever turn away from him for that.

As if realizing that he still had his gloves on, he frantically tried to pull them off and threw them to the ground like he wanted no part of them.  But now I understood their significance. I saw their connection to Chen Zi Han the enforcer.

Gently unwrapping him from my body, I leaned down and picked up the gloves, carefully brushing the dirt and dried blood off of the soft leather. "Keep these," I said calmly as I handed them back to him. "I might have some ideas involving them."

He looked at me confused, but I refused to elaborate. He would figure out what I was talking about when the time came.

Convinced the crisis between us was over, we waited for Liu Wei to rejoin us before looking for the next supermarket to raid.