Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



I stared at the woman in front of me, who seemed to have a death wish. Was it really too hard for her to understand that Wang Chao was mine? That he was not someone that could be coveted by someone like her?

I took in a deep breath. I was trying not to kill so many people, but they were really making it really hard to justify keeping them alive.

"Wang Chao, I challenge you for the head of City A. Fight or submit?" I asked, not bothering to turn and look at the man behind me. Instead, my gaze stayed fixed on the woman smirking in front of me. 

The man in question left his place and walked in front of me. Standing beside the other woman, he dropped to his knee and bowed his head. "I submit," he said, not even hesitating for a second. I could hear movement off to the side as the horde of hundreds of zombies dropped to their knees, their heads bowed as they looked at me. 

"Submit," growled the Alpha, his posture the same as the others. I nodded my head in approval. 

"Hao Jing Ya, I challenge you as head of the human faction of City I. Fight or submit?" I continued; it was getting well past my bedtime, and I wanted to get some sleep. Not to mention, I needed to get back to the club to see what happened there, too. If the recruiter had been there while I was dealing with this bullshit, I was going to be… unhappy.

"Fight!" she yelled just as she lunged at me. With a flick of my wrist, I surrounded her in a vortex of purple flames. They weren't close enough to hurt her, but she could definitely feel their heat. She looked around in wide-eyed panic as it quickly sunk in that I was not going to be fighting her blow for blow.

Anyone stupid enough to take on a fighting power user on their own terms deserved the beating they got. 

"I submit!" she screamed as a few of the flames licked her tender skin. She was no longer looking as put together as she did when she first entered my club. In fact, she looked like Hell warmed over right about now.

"Alpha," I called out to the zombie, not sure what else I should call him. "Your horde can have her men," I continued, my eyes glancing over to where Wang Chao was literally holding one of the men by his neck, snarling at him. "You are welcome to her."

Never suffer a fool to live. 

I watched as the zombies descended upon the few men that were brought with her. They would still need to go to the water to feed, but at least it was enough to take the edge off. I felt Alpha approach me and stop in front of the purple flames, not daring to go any further. And this was proof that zombies were much smarter than humans were any day of the week. 

I dropped the flames, and the zombie Alpha descended upon Hao Jing Ya like a starving man. Or zombie. She didn't even have a chance to catch her breath before the zombie ripped a massive chunk out of her throat. The poor thing must have been starving if he wasn't even bothering to play with his food. 

"You will follow Mao Jing as if it was me, do you understand?" I demanded as I watched the defeated Alpha gulping down his food. He stopped long enough to turn and look at me, a piece of intestines hanging from between his teeth. Quickly wiping the blood and flesh from his mouth, he stood up, leaving Hao Jing Ya to slowly bleed out.

"I serve you," he said with a bow of his head. "Mao Jing serves you. We serve together for humans and zombies."

Well, I guess I really couldn't ask for anything more than that.

I nodded my head, content with the resolution. "If you need to speak to me quickly, find Beta in the water, and he can pass on the message."

The Alpha paused for a moment before shaking his head. "No want. Want link," he said as he stepped on Hao Jing Ya's extended hand. I wasn't sure if she was trying to reach out for help or was trying to escape, but either way, she was shit out of luck. 

"Are you sure about that?" I asked, raising my eyebrows in surprise. I forced the link on Beta because I couldn't trust him in the water, but now Alpha wanted it. Even asked for it.

"I want link," he assured me, staring straight into my eyes with his own. "Need link."

"Understood," I said with a shrug of my shoulders. Pulling out a small purple flame from within my center, I quickly found his own flame. Merging the two flames was much simpler now that I had done it before, and very soon, I had an eggplant purple zombie standing in front of me. 

"Thank you," he breathed out, and I could hear the smoothness of his words. "I will represent the zombies of City I and make sure that they comply with all of your orders." He continued, standing up straighter. 

Cracking his monstrous head back and forth, he smiled at me. "Don't fuck this up," I warned him. "Don't get killed, and for fuck sake, don't let anything happen to my people."

"Your humans?" he asked, raising an eyebrow and looking at Mao Jing. "There is more than one?" I watched as the bond between us strengthened, allowing Alpha to be able to stand still as he spoke to me. 

"I have more than one," I assured him. "And more than a few zombies, too."

"Females," he grunted, remembering what brought all this about. "I remember."

"Nothing is to happen to them," I stressed, staring down the zombie that was at least a foot taller than me. Chen Zi Han's fire still continued to burn brightly, lighting up the area. 

"Understood," grunted the zombie as he raised his foot and stomped down on Hao Jing Ya's back, preventing her from moving another inch. "I need to meet with them," he continued as he leaned down and ripped off the arm that had been reaching toward me. 

I nodded my head, not at all concerned with the fact that he was eating a severed limb in front of me. I mean, people eat turkey legs out in public all the time. Was this really that much different? "Fine," I agreed, thinking about when the best time would be to do that. "Tomorrow morning," I continued. I didn't want to deal with humans freaking out over an Alpha in the club. It might affect the profits. 

"Done," he grunted, picking a piece of flesh from between his front teeth. 

Letting out a sharp whistle, my men and Mao Jing came over. "Let's head back to the club," I said, stifling a yawn. "I want to know if the recruiter was by tonight."

"He won't be," said Mao Jing out of the blue, causing the rest of us to turn around and look at him. The man blinked at us, his eyes widened like an owl. "What? Are you looking for him?"

"We are," answered Wang Chao. "And how do you know him?"

"I told you, I was originally in charge of the fighters," shrugged Mao Jing as if it wasn't that big of a deal. "He comes the last Friday of every month."

I blinked rapidly, only now realizing that I had no idea what today was, let alone when the last Friday of the month would be. Did people still use calendars and schedules at the end of the world? Learn something new every day, I tell you.

"And when will that be?" asked Liu Wei, taking the news that there was still a schedule to be had quite well. I am sure that he was dying to pull out a paper planner just to be able to write something down on it. 

Mao Jing stared at us like we were crazy for not knowing what day of the week it was. "Today is Wednesday, April 25th, 2124. He will come to the club in two days," he said slowly, looking between all of us. It was almost like he was preparing to have to tell us when April was. 

Liu Yu Zeng reached up and clipped him upside the head. "Leave it to humans that even when the world comes to an end, and the population is going extinct, we still need to schedule every hour of our day."

Mao Jing shrugged his shoulders. "Bad times don't last forever. There will come a time when we no longer have to worry about zombies and get back to living our lives. And when we do, it is important that we remember and record what happened and when. Only by understanding our past can we make sure that something like this never happens again."

I thought about his words and grunted my agreement.

"Bad times don't last, but bad guys do," I quoted with a smile.