Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



The scouts parted to let their Alpha through, and I watched as the light blue zombie approached me. His head was tilting back and forth as he stared at me. Opening his mouth slightly, he showed me his bloody teeth with chunks of flesh caught between them before closing his mouth again.

I bared my teeth. I knew that they were nowhere as impressive as his, but combined with my purple flame, I think he got the point.

"What want?" he hissed at me, his voice scratchy from lack of use.

"To feed you," I replied with a toothy smile on my face. "I know where you can find all the dumb meat you want," I continued, remembering what the zombie king had called humans.

"What catch?" asked the zombie, his eyes narrowing on me as he swayed back and forth in a hypnotic manner.

"No catch," I assured him. "You leave this city and follow the roads, eating whatever you happen to come across."

"Leave city?" he questioned as if he had never thought about doing that before.The source of this ᴄontent is nov????l(f)ire

"Yes. There are too many of you and not enough prey. Leave the city and find new prey," I said, trying to speak slowly and clearly so he could understand. It wasn't that he was stupid; there was simply a language barrier between us.

"Leave city, find new prey," he repeated, cocking his head to the side and studied me.

"Exactly."

"No catch?"

"No catch."

He let out a grunt and let out a loud roar that the hundreds of zombies repeated. He looked at me again for a moment before the scouts dashed past me. Since the Alpha hadn't moved, I didn't bother to leave either.

After about fifteen minutes, the scout came back and went to stand in front of the Alpha. No words were exchanged, no sounds or anything else to describe what he saw, but soon, the Alpha grunted and turned toward me.

"Many stupid meat," he said, narrowing his eyes on me like I had lied to him or something.

"There are," I nodded, thinking that he meant the line of humans that was trying to keep me and my men inside the city. "You eat."

Great, now I was grunting my sentences like he was. Cracking my neck, I let out a frustrated breath of air before I opened my mouth. "There are four men from my horde; you will not touch them, or I will kill you painfully. Kill the others," I said, not too sure how much the Alpha would have caught.

"Four live, rest die?"

"Sure, let's go with that," I said, sending out a message to my men not to turn around until I told them it was safe to do so. "The four to live will have their backs to you," I continued, hoping that this would work. The next time I wanted to recruit a horde, I would have to think of a better way to keep my men and my zombies separated.

Don't get me wrong, by no means was I concerned about my men dying. I just didn't want them to kill my cannon fodder so soon.

The Alpha grunted before taking off in the direction that I had come from, his horde following quickly after him. I stood still, letting the zombies part around me like a rock in the river.

'They're coming,' I said through my link with the guys. 'I hope you didn't want any of the other humans to stay alive.'

I waited until the last line of zombies passed me before turning around and returning the way I came.

The world really was a different place when you truly understood your role in it, I thought to myself.

There was a time when I would tremble in fear over just the thought of seeing a zombie on a supply run; now, I got cranky when I didn't see one.

Yes, the world had definitely changed for me.

I started to sing a sweet song about looking good for someone under my breath as I slowly walked toward what I could only assume would be a massacre. What I completely missed was a single pink flame hiding inside of one of the buildings, watching the whole scene between me and the zombies.

----

"Any idea what she meant by that?" asked Liu Yu Zeng as he leaned against Chen Zi Han. There was a group of maybe 20 or 30 people demanding their help in front of them, not letting them leave the city unless they submitted to their demands.

Unfortunately for the humans in front of them, the only demands they would submit to was that of their Queen.

"No idea," grunted Chen Zi Han, wondering how Liu Wei and Wang Chao had so much patience to deal with those people. If it were up to him, he would have started shooting. Then the situation would have been over long before now.  "But no matter what happens, don't turn around."

"Yeah," sighed Liu Yu Zeng. "The only problem is that I am getting the feeling that there is a huge threat at my back. It is taking everything inside of me not to turn around."

"And you think that isn't the same as the rest of us?" chuckled Chen Zi Hand, and Liu Yu Zeng could see that the other man's hands were clenched into fists, his knuckles turning white from how hard he was squeezing.

"But this is what the Queen told us to do," said Liu Wei from over where he stood beside Wang Chao. The two were keeping each other in check to make sure that they didn't do anything stupid. However, the man in front of him kept screaming in his face, like the louder he yelled, the more likely Liu Wei was to agree to his unreasonable demands.

"This is what the Queen told us to do," confirmed Liu Yu Zeng.

There was a brief second where the world seemed to stand still, and the hairs on the back of Liu Wei's neck stood up straight. When time seemed to restart, there was a rush of zombies bypassing the men like they didn't exist and descending on the humans in front of them.