Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



"Done. Have you taken all the freeze-dried meals?" I asked out of curiosity.

"The ones on the shelves, yes. And the spices, camping stoves, burners, and fuel," she added.

"Have you checked out the stock room yet?" I continued. We really didn't need the MREs, but anyone not looking for food right now would be suspicious.

"Not yet, we heard you approaching before we could get back there."

"How much of this stuff then is free game?" I asked, a smile on my face.

"Depends on what you want?" she answered looking at me.

"Bed sheets?" I said, pointing to the wall of matching bed sheets in various sizes.

"Yours," she replied with a shrug.

"Thanks." With a flick of my wrist, I brought all the sheets into my space. I watched her face and was impressed when she didn't so much as flinch. "Power user?" I asked.

"Nope, just read way too many online s," she chuckled.

"Really nothing like what is going on, right?!?" I laughed.

"Tell me about it," she groused.

"Do you have enough sleeping bags?" I asked.

"Can you even have enough?" she retorted.

"Never," I answered with a shake of my head.

"Exactly."

"Maybe we can vacuum seal a bunch of things into bags for you. Might help save on space," I suggested, pointing to all the medium and large Ziploc bags.

"No electricity to do that," she pointed out. Another flick of my wrist and one of our backup generators appeared on the floor in front of us. "Space user," she said with a sigh, "I wish I was one."

"It took me three tries to get the power," I said with a half smile. "Chances are, you are a power user of some kind or other."

"I've tried," she said, sticking out her tongue. "No such luck."

"It tends to come out in moments of high stress," I consoled with a shrug. "Just wait."

"Is that how your space power came about?"

"Nah, I had to die a few times for that one to happen," I said in a joking manner.

"Maybe that's my problem. I've only died once," she bartered back, a smile of her own.

"Ah, see I am on my third time. You still have a few deaths to catch up with me." We both chucked as we went through all the aisles dividing things up between the two groups.

I found a bunch of canoes and kayaks, even a few paddle boards that I put into my space. I didn't think the paddle boards were something that I was overly comfortable using in the middle of the ocean, but nothing here really screamed 'Safe for shark-infested waters.'

We condensed all the other woman's supplies, and once the front was completely emptied, the 11 of us made our way into the back storage area.

We spent several hours going through each and every box back there. Anything that the other group didn't want to take, we did, and vice versa. But let's face it, there was not much that I wasn't willing to take.

The sky had turned to dusk by the time we were done going through everything, and I was more than satisfied with our haul.

"Are you going to camp here for the night or take off?" I asked as I went to stand next to the woman, who was looking out the window at the darkening sky.

"Might be smartest to stay here for the night," she said with a sigh before turning and looking at her piles of supplies. Even vacuum sealing everything, there was still a lot of stuff. "There is no way that it won't take more than a few trips to get this back to our place."

"Need a car?" I asked out of the blue, surprising myself. The look she gave me made me realize that I was not the only one surprised by the offer.

"Yes," she said, raising her eyebrow at me. "Do you happen to have a spare?"

"I do. I'll even let you pick your color," I answered with a grin. I didn't mean to offer one of my SUVs, but now that I did, I wouldn't take it back.

"Do you have one in black?" she asked, as if not expecting me to answer.

"I do," I said, and with a flick of my wrist, I brought out the black SUV and set it beside Cerberus. "It might be a tight fit," I said with a cringe. I was willing to give her one vehicle, but it would cut out a piece of my heart to give her two.

"We can make it work," she said as she looked at one of her men and then tilted her chin to the SUV. "We got a present," she answered the unasked question. "And here is us not having anything in return. Wait!"

She ran off briefly before returning with a small box. "I thought this was cute, but with your collection, I think you would appreciate this more."

I took the box, confused. I wasn't expecting anything in return. Opening the box, I pulled out a coffee mug. "Touch my coffee and I will slap you so hard even Google won't be able to find you," I read out loud and showed the mug to Liu Wei, who had just arrived at my side.

There was clearly an unimpressed cat on the mug holding its own cup of coffee and looking half asleep.

I thought it was fricking hilarious. "Thanks," I said with a smile. "This should help," I added and brought out a few jerry cans filled with gas. "It's pointless to give you a car without gas."

"Thanks," she said and looked at me seriously. "You really are a lifesaver."

"No," I said with a shake of my head. "I am not. But you deserve the best. Remember that."

The two of us hugged before breaking back off into our two groups. The guys and I stayed in the store and watched the woman and her men drive off into the darkness, all the supplies stuffed to the ceiling.

"Didn't see that coming," said Liu Yu Zeng as he looked at me. "You feeling okay, Sweetness?"

"Yeah," I said softly, "Something in me wanted to do that, so I did. Besides, with the bikes and Cerberus, it's not like we need the SUVs."

"And we still have all the RVs and ATVs," added Chen Zi Han. He came over and gave me a kiss on my forehead. "You did good."

"Yeah," I said, looking out into the distance where the SUV had disappeared. "I think I did."