Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



"So, what's going through that little head of yours?" asked Wang Chao as he took a seat on the couch of my RV. The five of us were inside with Wang Chao and Liu Yu Zeng on the couch, the latter flipping through the downloaded options on the tv. Chen Zi Han was in the little kitchenette throwing something together for dinner and I was sitting on Liu Wei's lap by the dining room table.

"Shouldn't you know?" I smirked at him as I rested my head on Liu Wei's shoulder.

"I know, but I think that is something that needs to be discussed. We are a team, we do everything together," he replied as Chen Zi Han came out with a beer for everyone and a pop for me. I really didn't like the taste of beer at all.

"What is he talking about, Sweetheart?" asked Liu Wei as he looked down at me.

"I think I need to go out and explore a bit… by myself," I said, cringing. It wasn't that I was going to sneak out and not tell the guys, but… I didn't want to tell them this soon.

"No," said Liu Wei in a straight forward manner.

"Not a chance, Sweetness," answered Liu Yu Zeng as he turned his attention away from the tv and back to me.

Chen Zi Han didn't say a word, just stared at me. For some reason, I would have preferred him screaming at me. This look was causing my stomach to twist into knots.

"You might as well tell them the rest," said Wang Chao as he took a sip of his beer.

"There is more?" asked Liu Wei with a raised eyebrow.

"Not really, I will only be gone for like… a day," I said. Now, I understood that I could have just told them the way things would be, and they would have to accept it. But that was not how I wanted this relationship to work. I wanted to stand at the top of the world, but I didn't want to be that person all of the time. I wanted there to be times when the boys took over for a while to give me a break. No one was strong every hour of every day. It just wasn't possible.

And if that was what I wanted, that also meant that I couldn't run rough shot over the boys. Their wants, needs and opinions were just as important as my own. And that was why my stomach was in knots. I didn't like upsetting the guys because I knew that if this was one of their ideas, I would lose my mind.

"Thank you, little girl, it means a lot to all of us that you think that way. But you are not being completely honest. Tell them why you want to go out alone," said Wang Chao as he put his beer on the table beside him. All four men turned their attention to me.

"It is for a few reasons," I said, scratching my eyebrow. "I need to try and find that tide. I need to know what is going on with it because it was a big thing in my past life. It swept over the southern half of the country, and if it doesn't happen in this life time, I don't know where things are going. I can't predict the future anymore."

"And it is important that you can predict the future?" asked Chen Zi Han as he leaded against the kitchen island.

"Yes," I said, closing my eyes. There were things that needed to be changed, there were people that needed to be saved. And if I didn't know when and where they were expected to be, how could I save them?

"What else?" asked Liu Yu Zeng, his entire being centered on me, his smirk nowhere to be seen.

"The stalker," I said with my eyes closed so I wouldn't have to see the look on the men's faces. "I don't know if the zombies are scared of us, or my stalker. And if they are scared of my stalker, then I need to know what type of threat they are."

"No," said Liu Yu Zeng simply as he leaned back against the couch. I opened my eyes and looked at him. "I know you are a bad bitch. I know you could take on a whole horde by yourself and not flinch. I know that we are alive because of you. But I can't sit back and hope that you come home to me," he continued in a rare looked of seriousness.

"Okay," I said with a nod of my head. I mean, I could understand where he was coming from. Confronting someone that may or may not kill you, by yourself was not the smartest thing to do. But if that was the case, then it only left plan B.

"Then we need to send some of the men out to find the horde and see what is going on. If it is my stalker that is keeping them from the base, then we might have to leave to allow the tide to come. I am not here to save everyone. I am here because Chen Zi Han's soulmate is here and there is something else calling me."

"So, we aren't trying to stop it?" asked Liu Wei as his grip tightened on me.

"No," I said, but there was a lot of conflicting emotions going on inside of me. "Maybe slow it down until I can figure out what I am doing here."I think you should take a look at

"And your stalker?" asked Liu Yu Zeng.

"I'll put them on the backburner for now, but I don't think I can do that for the rest of my life. At some point in time, they will have to be dealt with. I can't stand having a threat breathing down my neck," I said with a shake of my head.

"Did you want to take over the base?" asked Chen Zi Han as a timer went off from somewhere. Turning his attention back to the kitchen, the rest of the men looked at me.

"I can't say I didn't consider it," I said. "But there are issues to taking it over."

"Like what?"

"Like supplies, like having people I trust managing it. It sounds evil and villainous to take over a base, but in fact, it is more of a headache than it is worth."

"That's why you don't want to take it over? It would be a headache?" asked Liu Yu Zeng letting out a bark of laughter.

"Yeah," I admitted seriously.

"So how were you planning on taking over the world?" asked Liu Wei.

"Seriously? I haven't figured out that part yet. You know, there is a big difference between saying that you want to take over the world and actually doing it," I grumbled as I crossed my arms across my chest.

"Taking over the world can wait," said Chen Zi Han taking off his oven mitts. "Dinner is ready."

---

"She's not wrong," said Liu Wei as the guys made themselves comfortable in Li Dai Lu's RV. She had fallen asleep a little while ago and now the men were making themselves comfortable. "We are going to have to address this stalker thing."

"Not to mention the horde," added Liu Yu Zeng. "Anyone know how to start a zombie tide?"

Chen Zi Han scoffed into his beer before lifting it to his lips and taking a sip.

"We need to take things one step at a time, starting with the most important one to her," said Wang Chao as he stared at the beer bottle in his hands.

"The reason why we are here," nodded Liu Wei as he ran a finger over the lip of his own bottle. The men weren't that much into beer, none of them had ever relaxed enough to overindulge, but sometimes it was nice to just have one.

"Any ideas? We know she is not big on answering calls," chuckled Liu Yu Zeng as he took a big gulp of his beer.  The others chuckled with them.

"We know it is not connected to Chen Zi Han's soulmate," said Liu Wei as he too took a drink of a beer that was starting to turn warm.

"My soulmate is laying in bed in the back room," snarled Chen Zi Han. It had been bugging him for a while, the fact that Li Dai Lu was so certain that there was another woman out there for him. Now, at 31 years old, and the oldest of everyone in the group, he had never been celibate. There were times when he was younger when he looked for a one-night stand to scratch an itch. But that was more because he thought that was what he had to do, rather than because he was interested.

As he moved up the ranks of the Red Dragon Syndicate, he became too busy for that, his time better spent working or sleeping or at the gym. But ever since Li Dai Lu entered his life, he understood. The reason why he didn't care was not because there was something wrong with him, but because he was waiting for her.