Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



"If you value your life, you should stop," said Wang Chao as he turned his attention back to the water. To save the man or not, that was the question. It was too bad he didn't know the answer.

"What do you mean?" answered the woman innocently as she blinked her large eyes at him.

"He means that if you lay so much as one claw on him, you will be joining your commander in the water. And no matter how much people beg on your behalf, I will still let the two of you die," I said as I once again walked over to Wang Chao.

I mean, seriously, leave the guy alone for five minutes and there are already women wanting to touch what was mine. 

"Can you bring him back?" asked Wang Chao as he turned to look at me.

"I can," I said confidently. As to how confident I was, I think there was a 10% chance I could get the zombie to return to the commander. But it was a bit like taking candy from a baby, so I felt a little bad. Beta was so happy when I told him that he could have the human. "I don't suppose anyone would be willing to take his place?"

When no one jumped up to volunteer, I nodded sadly. "Yeah, I thought that would be the case." Turning out to the ocean, I called the zombie back. I could feel his resistance on our link, so I pushed a bit harder. I wanted to be able to promise him that I would bring him more humans later, but I didn't want to make him all hopeful just to not be able to follow through.

It felt like a bitch move.

There was splashing and screaming just off to my right and I turned my head to see what was going on. Beta, my eggplant purple zombie, was strolling out of the water like he was on a Sunday walk, and behind him, being pulled by his ankle, was Commander Huang Nian Zu.

"Ah, commander, you are back," said Wang Chao as if he didn't have anything to do with the commander being thrown into the water. "Did you have a good swim?"

"Fuck you," growled the commander as he glared at Wang Chao.

"You might want to be a bit politer, commander," I said as I smiled at the man. "He is the only thing stopping you from going for another swim. Besides, weren't you guys the ones to insist that there was nothing in the water to worry about? Why so worried now?"

With a cranky roar, Beta threw the man onto the beach before he turned around and went back into the water. I got the distinct impression that he much preferred the water to land now. Well, good for him.

"Now, where were we?" asked Wang Chao as he walked over a crouched beside the commander. "Ah, yes. If there are no boats, then we aren't helping you retrieve the device. And no, we will not be swimming the 45 minutes out to the site. No matter how many times I might have done it in the past."

The soaking-wet commander looked up at him with a glare before turning his attention to his team. "We are going to have to find a way to Jerry-rig another boat to be able to take us to the site," he growled low under his breath.

I almost felt bad for the man. I was sure that eating crow was not as delicious as it sounded. Not that it sounded particularly delicious. I think I'll leave that particular delicacy to him.

"Yes, commander," said the man that originally mentioned the boat and how hard it would be to get a second one. However, I am pretty sure that humans have been using boats long before there was electricity, so it shouldn't be that hard to find something.

Hell, they could grab a normal hard bottom inflatable boat … what were those things called? RIBs? And paddle the thing out to the sites. There were also canoes and kayaks, all sorts of things that they could use.

I was willing to put money on the fact that there were a lot of camping stores that sold boats and that sort of thing along the way. Not to mention, wouldn't the military base have a bunch of them too? They should at least have the RIBs. As far as I could tell in my first life, those were pretty standard in any Navy.

Yeah, I was no longer feeling too bad. They had plenty of options. The fact that they were just trying to make us swim that distance just solidified what giant assholes they really were.

"Should we get going?" I asked as I watched the commander stagger to his feet. Since I had been in his position only a day before, I could almost feel bad for what he was going through.

"Yeah, Reaper is getting a bit antsy," smiled Liu Wei as he walked over to me and took my hand. "My Lady?"

I chuckled at his show of chivalry before I turned and followed him back to the parking lot. Take two, I guess. Hopefully, no one will be shocked this time around. I mean, I wasn't completely counting it out. I was pretty sure that they weren't playing with a full deck, if you know what I mean.

For the second time in less than 10 minutes, I was climbing back onto Reaper. "Thanks," I said to the bike, petting him on the handlebars for a moment before Liu Wei sat down, and I was forced to move back.

"Any time," replied Reaper, and I could only smile in response.

"How are we going to get back to the base?" asked the commander as all the boys got onto their bikes.

"Might I suggest a nice run?" asked Wang Chao as he looked over at the man. "It's only an hour and a half," he continued with a smile. "You've definitely done that distance before, right? It won't be any problems at all. We'll meet you there." With those final parting words, Wang Chao and the rest of us put on our helmets, and the bikes took off down the street and back onto the highway.