Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



"Li Dai Lu? What the fuck are you doing here?" demanded a voice as soon as Liu Wei opened the door to the conference room for me. I was startled. This was the first time in two lifetimes that anyone had called my name like that. Like they knew me.

And then it hit. My stomach twisted so badly that the pain almost knocked the air from my lungs and my legs almost gave out. I would have collapsed to the ground if Chen Zi Han hadn't quickly wrapped his arms around me. Pinning me against his chest, I listened to his heartbeat, not noticing the reaction of my other men.

Liu Wei and Wang Chao slide in front of me protecting me from the eyesight of whoever knew me in this room while Liu Yu Zeng stood beside Chen Zi Han, protecting my back. I knew they could feel my pain, but I didn't know how to stop it nor could I spend the energy worrying about it.

I had never had this much pain in any of my lives before. Not even being ripped apart by the zombies was this excruciating. I opened my mouth, trying to get a breath of air, but my lungs refused to work.

"Li Dai Lu?" said the voice again. The condensation in its tone practically dripped out with every word he spoke. As soon as he said my name again, the pain was back, this time stronger than before. And considering that I wasn't able to function against the first wave, let alone recover before the second wave, I was ready to pass out. Damn the consequences.

'Go into your space, little one,' said Wang Chao as his voice penetrated my mind, causing some of the pain to go away. I debated whether or not I should, I knew that no one would see me blinking in and out, but that meant that I was running away from whatever it was. And I refused to run away.

Taking a deep steadying breath, I concentrated only on breathing in and out… in and out… in and out.

"Wang Chao?" said the voice, but this time, it wasn't as painful.  "Hello, I am Li Shoi Ming, we have met a few times in City A."  Wang Chao nodded his head in acknowledgment but otherwise ignored the other man.

He walked over to the same empty chairs that we sat in yesterday, but instead of sitting down, he held it out for me. Straightening my back, refusing to back down any more than I already had, I walked forward and tried my best not to collapse as I lowered myself into the chair. Grabbing the chair beside me, Wang Chao sat down shortly after. The rest of the men fanned out behind us, refusing to go to the wall where the other people acting as security waited.

"I am so sorry for the inconvenience, Wang Chao," said the guy whose voice sent ripples of pain through my whole body.  I clenched my hand, refusing to give in to the pain. I didn't understand what was going on and not knowing was almost worse than the pain itself.

"What inconvenience?" asked Wang Chao, finally turning his attention to the man sitting across the table from us. He was young, and when I say young, I meant that he was probably around Wang Chao's age. He looked like a businessman before the EMP, his posture and the words that he spoke screaming privilege. And while he might have a slight bloody aura now, it was not as much as my men had.

I looked at the woman that sat just to his right. Like him, she wasn't here yesterday and was probably part of his team. I would fully admit that she was stunning with long black hair and blue eyes. In fact, she looked a lot like me. Her eyes widened as she looked at me and realized the same thing.

"I am so sorry for making you escort my cousin around. She should have been in City A though, I don't know what she could possibly be doing here," he said as he smiled at me. The smile promised pain and torture and my body quivered as it tried to make itself smaller. The reactions were so strong that I couldn't stop myself.

This was not me. I no longer had panic attacks since all four of the boyos started to travel with me. I thought that I had gotten over it. Apparently not.

"Cousin?" asked Wang Chao, his voice smooth and confident as he picked up my trembling hand and brought it to his lips. "I had no idea," he continued as he felt me relax from his touch.

"Yes, we are cousins on our father's side," the man, Li Shoi Ming, said before he turned his attention back to me. Having his eyes on me shot my fear back into a DEFCON 1 level. "Come here, Li Dai Lu, don't be so stubborn. Leave the man alone and stop clinging to him. It is embarrassing. I thought that Uncle and Auntie would have taught you better than this."

I heard a scoff coming from behind me, right before I felt Liu Yu Zeng's hand on my shoulder. With two of my men touching me, my body relaxed even further and I laid my head on his stomach as I looked up at him. "I don't think she likes you. Are you sure you are related?"I think you should take a look at

All the guys knew that I didn't have any memories from this body's previous life. I knew absolutely nothing about her, well, other than she was loaded and didn't seem to have any family. But maybe that was her choice. Maybe it was her fear and pain that I was feeling. Something so ingrained into her that it became more of a muscle memory than anything else.

"She is merely throwing a temper tantrum, just ignore her. We had a fight a while back and haven't spoken since. Apparently, she hasn't gotten over it."

If the feeling that this body was giving me was anything to go by, it was more than a simple fight.

"I think she is fine, right here," said Wang Chao as he stared at the man claiming to be my cousin. Li Shoi Ming… even thinking the name was causing me to start hyperventilating. I guess he was going to have to die.

"I understand that you are very protective of women," said Li Shoi Ming as he took his eyes off of me and turned to look at Wang Chao. "But you don't need to worry about her anymore. She will be coming home with me after we sort out this horde thing. My father has been missing her and so has my mother. They will be ecstatic to know that she is safe."

That did it.

I closed my eyes, flashing into my space and into my bathroom in the house. Bending over the toilet, I started throwing up, tears coming to my eyes at the force that I was expelling everything from my stomach. Unfortunately, since I only had cake and coffee for breakfast, I was quickly out of stomach contents and had moved on to dry heaving.

And in my opinion, dry heaving is much, much more painful than actually just throwing up.

I sunk down to the floor, still holding onto the edges of the toilet seat as my stomach continued to rebel, the need to throw up never letting up for a second. Blindly, I reached over to the toilet paper and pulled it to me, tearing it off after a while.

I wiped my tears and my mouth just as my stomach reminded me that it wasn't done yet.

With another painful contraction, I groaned as nothing came out, just the unrelenting feeling of pain and nausea.

I was so out of it that I didn't notice the soothing hands on my head as they gently pulled the elastic out of my hair that was holding up my bun. My stomach heaved again, but the hands just started to massage my scalp, allowing me a brief bit of pleasure amongst the pain.

"Do I even want to know how you got in here?" I asked as more bile came out. Putting down the lid and flushing the toilet, I rested my cheek against the cold porcelain and opened one eye to look at where Chen Zi Han kneeled right behind me, my head in his two massive hands as he tried to help me with the headache that was starting to form.

He let out a low chuckle as he started finger-combing my hair, gently pulling it together so that he could braid it. "I don't think that there is anywhere you can go that we can't follow," he admitted, my hair gliding through his fingers as he weaved them back and forth. Before I could say anything, the braid was done and tied off with the scrunchie from before.

"Well, isn't that convenient," I said with a smile, still refusing to lift my head or otherwise move.

"I think it is," he agreed as he stood up and went to the sink. His actions were careful and precise.