Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm



"He's right there," I said as I pointed to Wang Chao who was sitting right beside the commander, finishing off his dinner finally. "So talk."

"I want to talk to him privately," replied Commander Huang Nian Zu as he stared at me from across my RV. After he ate my apple. And wanted to talk to my man. If he thought that we were going to roll over and let him be in charge, he had another thing coming.

'Force him to submit,' growled the voice in my head for the second time that night, and in this case, I was inclined to agree. The commander would have to learn his place, and it was not as the alpha male that he thought he was.

"You can speak to me here," replied Wang Chao as he turned around and rested his arms behind him on the countertop. 

"It is classified," snarled the commander turning to look at my man. 

"There is no central government, no ruling party, no military. Even if it was classified before the end of the world, it is not anymore. Talk or leave. We are tired and want sleep," responded Wang Chao raising his brow in challenge. 

The man wasn't wrong. 

I sat back on the couch and got comfortable. Wang Chao would handle this, and if not, I could step in later.

---

Wang Chao looked at the man that he considered to be a good friend in the military. They went through basic together, and even though they chose different career paths, they still managed to retain their friendship. It was really too bad that Huang Nian Zu chose to throw all that away for the sake of a mission.

Then again, it was understandable at the same time… at least it would have been understandable if the world still worked the same way.

"Did you decide to finally tell me what we were getting into by agreeing to help you?" asked Wang Chao as he continued to study the other man.

"What do you mean?" asked Huang Nian Zu as he stiffened up defensively. "I have no idea what you are referring to," he repeated himself.

"Your six men that died," stared Liu Wei as he went to sit beside Li Dai Lu on the couch. Wang Chao was happy with that move. Someone needed to be close to her and Liu Wei made the most sense. "It didn't occur to me until a few minutes ago that they were your six top divers."

"What does that have to do with anything?" snarled Huang Nian Zu as he looked around the room. Wang Chao's and Liu Wei's facial expressions never changed. Thanks to their woman, they now knew exactly what they were getting into… and it was a death sentence for most people. 

"The zombies in the water," smiled Wang Chao. "Or are you going to say that you had no idea what killed an entire scuba team?"

"It was zombies?" repeated Huang Nian Zu as he looked around and took a seat in the booth on the other side of the RV.  I think you should take a look at

"Are you saying that you didn't know?" asked Liu Wei, his eyebrow raised in disbelief.

"I didn't know," insisted Huang Nian Zu. "We thought it was sharks. When the bodies floated to the surface, there were bites taken out of all of them. Inside of a few of the wounds were shark teeth."

Liu Yu Zeng scoffed when he heard the other man's explanation. "How many missions did you go on where you were swimming with sharks and not a single one attacked you? And yet, for some reason, on this one everyone you sent into the water died?"

"I mean, of course, it was weird," admitted Huang Nian Zu as he looked at Liu Yu Zeng. "But at the same time, every mission we go on, we assume that we will die on it."

"And the zombies?" asked Wang Chao. "How did you justify the zombies?" 

"We hadn't actually seen zombies," admitted Huang Nian Zu. "We met people on the roads that warned us that we would want to find a safe place at night because that was when the zombies attacked."

"Wouldn't you have to go through City B in order to get here?" Li Dai Lu asked curious.

"We avoid cities when we are on a mission," said Huang Nian Zu and Wang Chao was happy that he was starting to show a bit more respect to her. "In this case, we took a boat from City N to the device location and then after we were attacked, we made it to River W before we were hit and capsized."

Wang Chao raised his eyebrows in surprise. "And yet you still thought that it was only sharks that attacked you?"

"After the initial attack and the bodies floated to the surface, there was a pod of orca whales that breached, almost falling on our boat. We barely got out of their way, however, they continued to pursue us until we reached the river where one finally managed to capsize us." 

Wang Chao looked at Li Dai Lu to give her opinion on the matter. 

"Humans tasted weird, orcas are a staple on their menu and a pod of them came around at the right time. The zombies probably chased them down until they were able to get at least one," Li Dai Lu said after a few minutes of thinking.

Wang Chao agreed with her. If the zombies in the water did not have humans as part of their normal diet then the Sea Dragon team was probably just a prime example of wrong place, wrong time. Then when their normal food appeared, they hunted them, causing the orcas to freak out. While Huang Nian Zu on the surface thought that the orcas were pursuing them, the orcas were, in fact, just trying to get away.

This was turning into a huge nightmare.

"How do you know where the exact location of the device is?" asked Chen Zi Han as he started to clean up the dishes. 

"We know it is about 45 minutes outside of City N base going northeast using one of the newer model missile boats," admitted Huang Nian Zu.