Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



"Then how do we kill them?" asked Deng Jun Hie as he looked between me and Wang Chao.

"You have to first cut off their heads before you burn them," said Liu Yu Zeng as he opened the door to the RV gesturing for everyone to get out. "If you only cut off their heads then you have two zombies to deal with once they regenerate. If you only set them on fire then it doesn't phase them as they regenerate as fast as the flame burns them."

I feel like we have been saying this so much that I want to bang my head against a wall every time we do. Is it possible to send out a mass email? Mass text? No…

Stupid fucking EMP.

Or maybe I should blame it on all the movies and video games that rotted everyone's brains to think that killing the living dead was easy. They were living dead for a reason. (They didn't stay dead!)

Either way, we were starting to sound like a broken record. And not a single person listened until they realized that we were right.

I cracked my neck from side to side before walking past everyone in MY RV and walked out the door. "Come on boys, there is work to be done," I said as the rest of my men followed me out of the gates, but not before they locked the door to our home after the unwelcomed guests left. With a wave of my hand, I brought it into my space, just to make sure that if something happened and we didn't get back to base, I would still have access to it.

----

"So, where are the bodies?" I asked Major General Deng Jun Hie as we stopped in the middle of the road. This was the place where the team from City D said that they had killed the zombies, but surprise surprise, there was nothing here.

Deng Jun Hie looked around as if a dead body was going to magically appear on the asphalt. I'll give you a hint; it wasn't going to happen. Those dead bodies just up and walked away.  And when they came back? There would be a lot more of them.

"But these are the coordinates that they gave me," said Deng Jun Hie.

I nodded my head, pretending sympathy that I really didn't feel. "Don't worry, it happens," I said with a smile. "But now do you understand that simply beheading them won't work?"  Mutely, he nodded his head in reply. Well, at least that was progress.

"Fight, flight, or freeze," I asked the guys.  I was willing to bet money that the scouts would still be around, especially if they multiplied. They probably dispatched the clones to inform the various hordes what was going on while they stayed here to keep an eye on things.

"I prefer the fourth option," grumbled Liu Yu Zeng as he pulled out his sword that he had strapped to his back. The poor baby seemed to need to exert some frustrations out on the unsuspecting zombies. "But if that is not an option, then I say fight."

I nodded in agreement before I turned to look at the Major General who was standing beside me. Li Shoi Ming and Yang Meng Yao had also followed us out, but I didn't really care about them at that particular moment. "Are you going to fight or are you turning back?" I asked him with my head cocked. I put in a single earbud from my headphones and hooked them up to my cell phone.

Not for the first time I thanked God that the EMP didn't affect my space.

"I will fight," said Deng Jun Hie as he took off his military-issued jacket to reveal the same olive green t-shirt that my men sported on occasion. I would have to admit that my impression of the man rose a notch knowing that he was not going to retreat. I mean, it still was about ground level, but I was impressed.I think you should take a look at

"Take off their heads and only their heads. Once that is done, yell for me and I will burn them to ash," I said as I scrolled through my playlist. Finding the perfect song, I pressed pause.  "Everyone ready?" I asked as I looked at my men. They nodded their heads and I was actually starting to get excited. This was what I wanted, this feeling of fighting side by side with my men.

Grinning with what I could only imagine was a wide look in my eyes, I turned to the Major General. "Ready?" I asked him. He took a steadying breath and pulled out his military knife. Looking down at it, I took yet another sword out of my space. Seriously, I was running low on those.

Handing it over to him, I tried to tame down my emotions. "If it gets too much, turn around and run. Don't fight if you aren't going to win. We can keep them off of you." I raised an eyebrow when he let out a small snarl at the idea of turning tail and running.  Patting him on the shoulder I took a few steps forward.

I was a firm believer that if you knew how to do something, you also know how to obtain the complete opposite result too. For example, a doctor was really good at saving someone's life. On the flip side, they also know how to ensure that someone died. In my case, I learned how to avoid zombies like the plague. Flip that on its head and I was also good at knowing what would attract them.

I tilted my head back and let out a roar similar to how an Alpha would sound if he was issuing a challenge to any surrounding hordes.  It was one of those sounds that you only needed to hear once in order to never forget it.  There was silence for a second and it was one of those unnatural ones that I used to hate when I was the prey. Unfortunately for the zombies, they were no longer the biggest bad.

I tilted my head back, arching my body with it as this time I screamed out my challenge. One second passed before there was an answering roar. Music to my ears. I pressed play on my cell phone and the strong came through loud and clear; 'ABCDEF---'.

By the time the song got to the 'U' part, a zombie had emerged from the side of the road. I could make out the purple blood on its shoulders and shirt so I assumed that this was one of the original zombies that had gotten its head cut off.

It was swaying back and forth not coming too close, but close enough that it could study me as much as I studied it. It tilted back its head and showed the teeth, not making a sound before it closed its mouth. It stared at me, not sure what to do. I grinned at it with all of my teeth on display, but I had enough of playing with my food.

I couldn't afford for this zombie to get away. I needed to get stronger, I needed the zombies to tremble in my very presence. They terrified me in my second life. If I closed my eyes, I could still see them as they ripped chunks out of my flesh, but this life was about living on my own terms, and my terms required me to be the badest bitch.

Not giving the zombie a chance to run, I sprinted toward it as the song's heavy beat got my blood pumping. At the next 'F.U' I leaped into the air, my sword drawn as I spilt the zombie in two, not giving it the chance to strike back. Throwing a purple fireball at the two sides, I watched as the corpse crumbled into ashes, only to be taken away by the wind.

I was still jamming to the song when the second zombie came out of the forest at top speed. It must have been watching what happened to its horde-mate (was that a thing?) and wasn't about to give me any chance at a surprise attack.

It was maybe about 10 feet away from me when it leaped up into the air. Pulling up its legs, it cleared my head and landed behind me. Its right hand was drawn back, ready to rake its claws down my unprotected back when I spun around and slashed out with my sword. I missed the head but managed to take the hand.

Not thinking about anything, the music blasting in my ears, I threw out a flame to burn the hand so that it couldn't regrow into a whole new zombie and faced the second zombie.

That was my mistake.

I forgot how fucking crafty these things were, too confident in my skills. I felt the wind brush against my skin right before the pain hit, causing me to arch my back, screaming in pain. I never saw the third one until it was too late, my back was flayed open by the razor-sharp claws.

I could feel my blood pouring out, but I couldn't focus on the pain. Instead, I was trapped between two zombies, my men nowhere near me.