Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm

Silence met my remarks as the men turned around and started to head back to where the offramp was. We ignored the screams of people as they begged for help, running as quickly as we could to a safe-ish area. The people that could run with us, some begging us to take them and others cursing us for not caring about their safety or for not taking them to a safe area.

Mind you, as far as I was concerned, there were no safe areas left in the world. Well, there was one left, and I was counting down the minutes until I could return to it. I scanned the area to my left and right as we ran down the highway. We needed to get off of it because even if the explosion from the jet fuel did not kill us, it would send off a chain reaction to all of the cars still on the highway.

To my left, I saw a low guard rail that acted as a barrier between the highway and the ditch and forest beside it. Veering towards the guard rail, I quickly jumped over it and quickly took a look at the ditch in front of me. We were in luck. This ditch was fairly deep with high walls on either side. I slid down the embankment and ran to where I thought the deepest part of it was. I quickly lay flat on the ground and watched as my boys and their men followed me.

There was not enough time to worry if everyone had made it, and I didn't care about the water soaking into my clothes. My Hail Mary plan was for the ditch to protect us and have any fire go over the top of us in the event of an explosion. I could extinguish the fire, but without knowing the size or intensity of it, I was not going to risk myself like that. The men could learn the hard way.

I watched as Liu Wei wrapped his arms around Hades' cage and without a second thought, I vanished it into my space. I let out a small chuckle when it took him a second to catch himself from falling headfirst into the muddy water of the ditch, but hey… they wanted to see what was going on. They needed to learn to listen to me first, then satisfy any curiosity that they might have.

I quickly laid my cheek as far into the water as I could while still keeping my airways free (breathing is a great thing, especially if you are planning on staying alive) and curled my arms over my head. My nervous tick of counting in my head came out as I started whispering numbers in my head.

I felt the heat on my back at 20 seconds, by 25 seconds I heard the woosh of the explosions and by 30 seconds I could see the fire overtop of us from the corner of my eyes. I tried to get an eye on the boys from my position, but I was only able to see their backs… a wall of flame maybe 6 inches from it.

I closed my eyes and tried to access my ice. It was both easy and hard to call it forward. It didn't like the heat, but the cold water soaking into my body helped push it out. I pictured it acting as a barrier between me and the people around me and the fire above me. When I felt the cold air, I knew that I had succeeded. By 50 seconds, the fire was gone, leaving only small embers and fires spread out.

Feeling that it was safe to stand up, I looked around at the men beside me. Checking Liu Wei and Wang Chao for injuries and not finding any, I quickly looked around and took stock of everything. Their men were coming to their feet, with no obvious signs of injuries. The others? Well… I really didn't care about them. Turning my attention back to the wall of dirt in front of me, I started to try to figure out how to get out of here. Should we cut through the forest behind us or take the highway?

As I was trying to plan out our next move, an angry man came rushing up to me. Looking him up and down and then dismissing him as a threat, I took the map out of my side pocket and started to study it.

"You guys are soldiers! We pay you to look after us and you just left us like that?!? How dare you?! Do you know who I am?" The man screamed, trying to get in my face. I continued to ignore him and left Wang Chao to intervene. A confrontation like this was pretty standard at the end of days. So many people thought that the world owed them something and that other people needed to save them.

I was not going to play those games anymore. Listening to the man turn his attention to Wang Chao and continue screaming, I had just about enough. Pretending to pull a gun out of the small of my back when I was actually pulling it from my space, I held it to the stranger's face, my eyes still on the map, my brain caught between protecting something that was mine and the need to get a move on.

Pulling the trigger without warning, I ignored the gasps and screams coming from the people around me.

That's it! That is where we were going to have to go.

Putting the gun back into my space, I looked at Wang Chao, completely disregarding the dead body in front of us, its brains and blood flowing into the water and down the ditch.

"I found the route; are you guys ready?" I asked looking between Liu Wei and Wang Chao. They had an indiscernible look on their face that I chose to ignore. I expected them to be shocked. It's not like I was like this at the ranch. But the ranch was my space, where I was safe. I knew I wasn't safe here, and I was don't taking chances.

"Could you take us?" Asked a soft voice coming out of the crowd of people that were not part of my men.

"No," I said flatly, returning the map to my pocket and scanning Wang Chao and Liu Wei one more time for injuries.

"P-please?" The voice came again, this time injecting a hopeless tone in it. "P-please?" She asked again, stepping away from everyone and walking up to Wang Chao. "I-I won't be a burden. I really won't be." I looked up, my eyes looking the woman up and down. She couldn't be more than 20 years old, her black hair was in soft curls that hung around her thin shoulders and to the middle of her back. Her nails were done to perfection and her white skin practically glowed in the sunlight.

She was the definition of a beauty, and a helpless one on top of that too. I turned my attention to Wang Chao, wanting to see what he was going to do.

The look he gave her caused me to burst out laughing. "Sorry, Sweetheart," I said, drawing her attention towards me. "He only listens to me," I continued giving her a smirk, "I'm sure that one of these other men would be more than welcome to play hero to a damsel in distress."

As if fate was working in my favor for once, a voice called her name from out of the crowd and a young man elbowed his way from the crowd. "KeKe, what are you doing?"

Ah… the boyfriend… I chuckled to myself, not interested in watching the drama unfolding in front of me.

"Wang Chao?" I started, nodding my head towards the dirt wall I had no chance of getting over by myself. "A little help here?"

Quickly turning his attention back to me, he gripped me by my waist and lifted me up over the barrier that saved our lives. Even with everything that I had seen in my past life, the destruction that I saw in front of me right now caused me to pause. I pretended it was because I was waiting for everyone to join me, but my body was frozen in place.

The sight that greeted me was what I sometimes pictured Hell to be. There were skeletons of cars with fires still burning inside, but that was the only source of color for miles. Everything was black, from the roads to the remaining cars. Even the dead bodies reduced to nothing more than bones were black, their hands stretched forward… the desire to flee still ingrained into their bones. The jet fuel acted as a bomb, completely destroying everything around it.

We were too far from the plane itself to be able to see it, but I wouldn't be surprised if it too was reduced to nothing more than its inner structure.

"Well," I said forcing a cheerful tone into my voice. "At least the highway has been cleared for a bit. We'll go this way."