Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm

"Do you think she is alright?" Asked Liu Wei for the hundredth time, the concern evident in his voice. He brushed her bangs out of her face, marveling at how smooth they were, how soft her skin was. He couldn't seem to want to stop touching her. Wang Chao shifted from where he sat on her right side, her hand tucked firmly in his oversized one.

He never knew how small she was, how fragile... until he saw her like this…

They never left the room after Li Dai Lu was given the vaccine. If there were questions or things to be addressed, they either did it from the room or they would take turns leaving. They put the troop leaders in charge of gathering supplies, both from the lists that they came up with as well as the things that they could remember from her lists. That way, when she woke up, she would not feel like she was behind schedule.

But in the last 5 days, she was not left alone for a single minute.

That right there was the biggest worry. When everyone else had taken the vaccine, even he and Lui Wei, it had been 48 hours of tossing and turning, of nightmares and fevers… but with her? Nothing… not a single thing.

In fact, they had to install an oxygen and heart rate monitor on her in order to be assured that she was still alive. Her breathing was shallow, her breaths few and far in between. And when she did breathe, they could barely see her chest rise.

She had the stillness of death with only a brief glimpse of life, like a single candle flickering in the darkness.

"She will be fine," said Wang Chao, not accepting any other outcome. Even if she turned, he would join her horde just to stay by her side. "She is special." ｂｅ𝚍ｎｏ𝚟𝚎ｌ.𝚌𝚘ｍ

"That's what I mean," said Liu Wei, deep in thought. "She is so special that it could be considered a miracle that she is even here with us right now," he continued, his words coming out slowly, like if he said his worries out loud then they would come true. "But what if this vaccine or whatever is reacting in her, sends her back to her world and the one that we are left with is the Li Dai Lu from City A?"

Wang Chao paused as if he never considered that before. She confessed to him that she had transmigrated when Liu Wei was undergoing his vaccine, but it never bothered him. If zombies could come to life from a vaccine and an EMP take out the world as they knew it, why couldn't she transmigrate from one world to another? To be reborn again after that?

But if this vaccine killed her, or sent her back to where they couldn't reach her?

He thought about it for a few minutes before he opened his mouth and spoke. "If the woman who wakes up is not our little girl, we kill her or kick her out of Elysian Fields. But I will not have someone walking around in her body not being her."

"Technically that body isn't hers to begin with," replied Liu Wei, his eyes closed as he thought about a future without her.

"I licked it, it's mine," came a whispered croak from between the two men. Startled, they looked down to see the most beautiful blue eyes that they had ever seen. "I'm serious, I licked it, it's mine… no takebacks."

Wang Chao nodded his head in complete seriousness. "You are correct, you licked it, it's yours," he said as if he had made a monumental business decision and everyone in City A had to obey it.

She let out a tired smile before falling asleep again. But this time, the men were more relaxed. They climbed under the covers beside her and the three of them fell asleep for a much-needed nap.

-----

In her dreams, all Li Dai Lu could remember was being alone in complete darkness, not knowing which way was up or down.

Combined with the darkness, there was utter silence. At first, it was comforting, knowing that she was alone and didn't have to worry about anyone or anything. But then the silence turned deafening. She still liked the darkness, the ability to just float in place, with no sense of urgency to do something, but then she started to hum, just to break up the quiet.

Humming worked for a while, but as soon as she stopped, the quiet came back with a vengeance.

Then she noticed something else… it started at her toes… the fingertips of the darkness claiming her toes for itself. She was impassive as she saw her toes disappear into the darkness. There was a pause, as if the darkness was testing her reaction, and then her fingertips also started to go from pink at the tips to black. She watched in detached fascination as the darkness went from her nails to her first knuckle, to her thumb… as if she was slowly placing her hands in a body of water and watching it go beneath the surface.

The darkness continued its movement, up from her feet to her ankles, to her legs, from her hands to her wrists, to her arms. As much as it started out slowly, it sped up, completely engulfing her in its embrace. She opened her mouth to scream or to take one final breath, she didn't know. But as soon as she did, it was like she opened the gates and all of the darkness was able to slide into her body through her mouth until there was nothing left.

Even the darkness inside of the space was sucked into her, her body absorbing everything.

When she opened her eyes again, she was at the edge of a forest, looking down at a city that she had never seen before. It was on the banks of a body of water, probably by the seaside or something like that. The buildings that must have made up the downtown core had mostly collapsed, although there were a few still left standing. It looked like a bomb or something had gone off. Even this far away, she could hear the screams of people dying, could actually feel their lives slipping away.

Then she heard them, the voices of men that she recognized.

Looking further, past the buildings to the streets below, she could see her men standing in a circle of their men. All around them, as far as the eye could see, was another sea of light blue and purple.

Screaming in rage, she felt her blue flame come to life and wrap itself around the pink flame as if to protect it. As her pink and blue flames bound together tighter and tighter, they created a light purple flame that she had never seen before. As her new lavender flame shot out, she could feel the life force of every living creature around her, from her men to the zombies to the very earth itself.

And that was when she woke up, the dream fading into the background as she saw her guys staring down at her.