Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



Wait… there were still at least five days left until the tide came, and they knew about it for a week and a half now… "What have you guys been doing for the past week and a bit to get ready for the horde?" I asked looking at the guy whose rank was under Wang Chao's.

"We have been making plans," the Major General assured me. He gestured around the room as if he was trying to bring my attention to the men and woman sitting around the table.

"You've been having meetings?" I asked, my eyes widened. I mean, I knew that the higher up in rank you went in any organization, the less of a hold on reality you had. And that was a very P.C way of me saying that I had yet to come across an intelligent officer of high rank.

'I think I have to take offense to that, little girl,' growled Wang Chao in my head.

'Present company excluded, of course. Here, you look thirsty, have a drink,' I said as I took out a coffee mug full of a steaming cup of coffee from my space. The fact that it said 'I survived another meeting that could have been an email' was a complete coincidence.

"So you haven't sent people out to lay down traps or dig pits? How about a trip line? Bear traps? Anything?" I asked, wondering where this guy's head had been.

The look he gave me might have scared someone else, but considering I just froze an entire hallway, it didn't have the desired effect. "I'll take that as a no," I answered my own question. I swore, if I rolled my eyes any more they would stick in the back of my head.

"Hear me out, instead of meetings that aren't going anywhere, maybe you get some people outside to… I don't know… cut down on the zombie numbers?"

"Thank you for your advice, I will take that under advisement," said the Major General in a tone that suggested he had said that phrase more than once.

"No worries," I said with a shrug of my shoulders. "It's your funeral."

I tapped Chen Zi Han's arm and he let me go. I strolled to the door knowing that my men would follow me. This was nothing more than a waste of time, and I had much better things to do. The first thing on my to-do list was to kill a woman I had never met, followed by getting some supplies from the surrounding area.

City Y Sanctuary Base was located just outside of the downtown core of City Y and I didn't know how seriously they took gathering supplies. I mean, they didn't take the zombie threat too seriously so there might still be more than a few things I could grab. Might as well try to make this a productive trip.

"What's up first?" asked Liu Yu Zeng as we reached the still-frozen hallway. The ice had started dripping from the ceilings, but there was a definite temperature difference between here and the meeting room. Maybe I should have charged them for the air conditioning services.

"Going to find Chen Zi Han's soulmate and kill her," I said with the largest, completely not unhinged smile on my face. I felt the men behind me stop dead in their tracks as they looked at me. "What?" I asked as if I didn't have a clue what I just threw out. This was my roundabout (or not so roundabout) way of figuring out the guy's feelings on the matter.

"Want to take a moment to expand on that thought, Sweetness?" asked Liu Yu Zeng from where he stood about 5 feet from me.

"Not particularly, and not because I have already killed your soulmate. I just don't think it is a conversation for a hallway. Besides, you let the men wander around the base, don't you want to gather them all back up so we can get going?" I said as I turned back around and opened the fire door to the stairwell. I miss elevators.

I had almost made it down a full set of stairs before I heard the men behind me. There was silence, and as much as I wanted to look and see how the boys were feeling, I also wanted to give them their privacy. I opened the door to the outside and saw the sun shining bright before me, a beacon of hope in the world.

I scoffed at that thought. The sun was not necessarily a beacon of hope, but rather a never-ending reminder that the world as a whole kept on spinning, no matter how much your world had shattered.

I managed a few steps away from the building and was about halfway to the gate when the guys came up to me. "Is this a better place?" asked Wang Chao as he looked around. I smirked at him. "Sure, why not?"

"Then, would you mind repeating what you said?" asked Chen Zi Han as he stood so close to me that my nose was practically brushing his chest.

"The part about your soulmate or the part about me going to kill her?" I asked, tilting my head back to look at him.

"The first part," he growled menacingly.I think you should take a look at

"Well, the voices in my head have told me that there is a perfect woman waiting for each and every one of you. That you two will go off and save the world and live happily ever after. Doesn't that just sound perfect?" Yes, I knew that I was sounding a tad bit crazy talking about the voices in my head, but this thing had been eating away at me and I finally snapped.

"My shadow's shadow is somewhere around here. I just have to find her."

Chen Zi Han placed his hand under my chin and forced me to look him in the eyes. "There is no soulmate if she is not you," he said sounding so certain and confident in that statement.

'He is not yours, the one he is destined for is here,' came the hissing voice. Hearing its words, I yanked my chin out of his grasp and frantically looked around.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," I sang as I looked around, paying particular attention to the shadows.

"Sweetness," said Liu Yu Zeng coming up behind me when I wasn't paying attention. "There is no one for us that isn't you," he promised as he drew me into his arms.

"I know," I said nodding my head. I turned to face him, but he was becoming a bit blurry. "That's because I killed yours," I continued with a smile.

"Good," he said with a shrug of his shoulders, like killing off the woman he was destined for was not that big of a matter. "Now, do you want help hunting down Chen Zi Han's?" he asked as the world started spinning.

I nodded my head, trying to keep upright but my body was weaving back and forth as the world continued to spin faster and faster. "Yes," I hissed, right before the darkness encompassed me. The last thing I felt was the warm arms of one of my men surrounding me.

----

"You cannot do this," said the gentle voice. I was back at the rocks, surrounded by darkness and a red river.

"Watch me," I snapped, turning around to face where I heard the voice coming from. All I could see in front of me was more darkness.

"You cannot kill them!" the third voice said, no longer sounding as gentle as it did before. That made me smile.

"I beg to differ," I responded with a shrug of my shoulders. I turned around and walked towards the red river off in the distance. "They are mine. They are meant to be mine. And let's face it, I don't share well anymore."

"Do you know why you keep being reborn?" asked the cold voice, causing me to stop. I never even thought about that. I assumed it was because I had regrets and things I needed to change. Why else would I constantly come back?

"People hated you," continued the cold voice. I stepped forward, drawn to the river in front of me. I had the feeling that no matter where I went, that voice would follow. "Well, they didn't hate you per se, they just hated what they knew about you. The men always left to go defend those that spewed hatred at you, and you had enough."

"Don't tell her anything more," came the hissing voice. I closed my eyes as I heard the absolute heartbreak in that hissing voice as if they were talking about it and not me.

"She needs to know," came the gentle voice. "Maybe that way she will let them go find happiness and she can go back to doing her duty."

"My duty?" I scoffed at the very thought of what my 'duty' could possibly be. "What has my 'duty' ever done for me? I mean, after foster care, I had a 'duty' to help others in my situation, no matter what I felt like inside. I had a 'duty' to put others before myself. And then I died. Then I had a 'duty' to save all those that I could, and they threw me to the zombies. So fuck 'duty', I don't give a shit about what my 'duty' is. I will live my life according to my own thoughts and feelings and no voices will deter me from that."

I took in a deep breath.

"Even if the voices are me."