Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



A gentle knock on the door to the RV snapped all the guys out of their own thoughts and their attention turned to the door. Their men were all out in various sections of the base gathering information and going undercover, so they knew it wouldn't be one of them.

The knock came again, this time sounding more urgent.  Liu Yu Zeng stood up from the couch and placed his hand on the middle of his back where he always kept his 9mm. The other men remained seated in their places, but they too took out their handguns and laid them on their laps.

Whoever was at the door was in for a rude surprise. They just had to make sure that they didn't wake up Li Dai Lu.  Standing up, Liu Wei walked over to one of the overhead cabinets in the kitchen and opened the door. Taking out a cylinder object, he screwed it onto the end of his gun.

The knock came again, and with a brief look at the other three men, Liu Yu Zeng opened the door, blocking the way so that no one could slip past him.

"You are Liu Yu Zeng, right?" came the whispered voice of the woman outside. Liu Yu Zeng didn't respond, his face remaining impassive.

"I know you are Liu Yu Zeng. I can help you," she continued to whisper. Chen Zi Han rotated his head and stretched his neck from side to side. For some reason, he could feel his calm start to collapse with every word out of her mouth.

"And how do you think you can help me?" asked Liu Yu Zeng leaning against the door jam, preventing the stranger from entering the RV.

"I know you are looking for your brother, I have information about him," she whispered.

"Let her in," said Wang Chao, his face nothing more than a block of ice.

Liu Yu Zeng looked at the other man. He wasn't happy about that call, but he took a step back and allowed the woman to slip through.

She breathed a sigh of relief as the door closed behind her. "So nervous," smirked Liu Yu Zeng. "You would think that there was someone hunting you or something. Do you fear for your life?"

She looked at him and then turned her attention to the rest of the men in the room. Her gaze skimmed over Wang Chao and Liu Wei without any recognition, but then froze as soon as she saw Chen Zi Han.

"You aren't supposed to be here," she said as she continued to look at the man standing behind the island counter. She couldn't draw her gaze away from him even if she tried. It was like he called to a part of her that she didn't even know existed.

"Then where are we supposed to be, little bird?" asked Liu Yu Zeng coming up behind her. Not so close that he would touch her, even by accident, but enough to use his size to intimidate her.  He followed her gaze to Chen Zi Han.

To an outsider, Chen Zi Han looked calm and collected, but Liu Yu Zeng was not an outsider. He knew the other man just as well as he knew himself. Chen Zi Han was furious in a way that Liu Yu Zeng had never seen before. In fact, if Chen Zi Han didn't have a steadfast rule about not killing women and children, Liu Yu Zeng would have thought that the other man was going to jump over the island and strangle her himself.

At that thought, Liu Yu Zeng stood up straighter and looked at the other men in the room, his eyes wide.

"You said that you knew something about Liu Yu Zeng's brother?" asked Liu Wie as he pushed his glasses up his nose.

The woman tore her gaze away from the most attractive man that she had ever seen and to the man that just spoke. He looked familiar, but she was sure that she had never seen him before. She shook her head and then nodded. "I know where you can start looking for him," she confirmed. "He should be in Country S right now."

All the men in the room tensed at those words. "How do you know that?" asked Liu Yu Zeng taking out the same leather gloves as his two brothers. He had no problem killing the woman in front of him. Unlike Chen Zi Han, he understood that some of the most poisonous snakes in the world were women. But he refused to touch another woman with his bare skin.

The woman, not knowing the danger she was in, just shook her head. "I can't tell you that," she said as she moved to sit down on one of the stools near the island… near Chen Zi Han.

"Is that because you transmigrated or reincarnated?" asked Wang Chao as he took a sip of his beer. The bottle was almost empty, but he didn't care.

The woman stiffened at his words and a look of fear passed over her face. "Who are you?" she asked in a voice a little over a whisper. They had all kept the conversation low, simply because they didn't want to disturb Li Dai Lu and the other woman was just following their lead.

"I am a friend," replied Wang Chao tilting his head towards Liu Yu Zeng who was moving over to the island. Warning bells rang loudly through every guy in the room. "Who are you?"I think you should take a look at

"My name is He Xin Yi," she said as she turned to look at Chen Zi Han behind her. "Who are you?"

Chen Zi Han remained impassive, not answering her question. Every time she opened her mouth it was like nails on a chalkboard. "You know me, but you don't know him?" asked Liu Yu Zeng raising an eyebrow. "How unexpected."

He Xin Yi shook her head. "I don't know you, I know about you," she admitted looking at Liu Yu Zeng for a brief second before her attention was drawn back to Chen Zi Han.

"And what do you know?' Liu Yu Zeng purred as he came close to her.

"I know that you are looking for your bother," she stuttered, almost hypnotized by his voice.

"And what else do you know?" he continued to press her while still staying well away from her.

"I know that a tide is going to come and completely wipe out everything around here," she said as she stared into his eyes.

"We are a little far from the water to be concerned about a tide," smirked Liu Wei, his face giving away nothing. This woman was a threat, to them and to Li Dai Lu. She could not be allowed to leave here alive.

"Not that kind of tide," she said with a shake of her head, "A zombie tided. Hundreds of thousands of them coming for all of us."

"If that is the case, what are you doing here?" asked Liu Yu Zeng, drawing her attention back to himself.

"I was on my way out when I heard someone calling your name. I knew I had to tell you to leave. You are too important to the future to let you die when I can stop it," she continued with a rush. She tried to grab Liu Yu Zeng's forearms, but the man pull back, out of reach.

"And how is he too important to the future?" asked Wang Chao as he studied the woman in front of him. She was not a spirit user so they would keep playing with her for a bit longer. Get all the information out of her that they could.

There was a scoff behind the island as Chen Zi Han's voice sent a shudder through the woman. She swung around to look at Chen Zi Han as if there were no other people in the room. "He is going to be the one to build all the communication towers. He is going to—" She stopped suddenly and slapped two hands over her mouth, looking at Chen Zi Han fearfully.

"You might as well keep going, I mean, you've gone this far," said Liu Wei as he adjusted his leather gloves around his wrists.

"In order to find his brother, he built communication towers throughout the south, even though it was pretty much taken over by zombies. Because of that, and his power, he became one of the strongest men in the world."

"Just him?" asked Wang Chao as if he didn't already know his fate in the last life. In his nightmares, he could still taste the human flesh between his teeth.

"No," she said shaking her head. "His second in command was also there."

"And who was that?" asked Liu Wei, looking at the man behind the island, noting the whitening of his knuckles. They would have to wrap this up soon. Wang Chao should be able to get what they need from her head.

"Chen Zi Han," she whispered shuddering, as if saying his very name had given her a visceral reaction.

"You know him?" asked Chen Zi Han. She shook her head. "I wish. I just heard about it after."

"After what?"

"After Liu Yu Zeng saved the world."