Rebirth in the Apocalypse: Third Time's a Charm

"Congratulations!" said the ice-cold voice as I regain consciousness with a groan. I felt hungover (not like I have ever been, but I've heard about it). My skull was pounding, my body felt like I had just run a marathon and my mouth felt like I had groomed Hades with my tongue.

I licked my lips a few times, trying to bring moisture back into my mouth. Moaning at the voice, I opened one eye before quickly closing it again when my head screamed in pain. It wasn't even like it was because of the light that was shooting spikes into my temples. because I have yet to see actual light in this place.

"What are you talking about," I snarled, not at all happy to be here, wherever here was.

"You just consumed the souls of almost 3,000 zombies, not to mention almost 200 human ones too. The human ones don't taste as good so I was surprised when you went after them as well," came the snippy reply but I was not in the mood to deal with the riddles right now.

"What. Are. You. Talking. About?" I asked very slowly, enunciating each and every word so that there could be no misunderstandings.

"You really don't know, do you?" the icy voice said, a hit of confusion and uncertainty to its voice.

"I really don't," I said as I splayed out on the ground looking like a starfish. The world was spinning and I didn't want anything to do with it.

"I thought you did. I thought you had remembered," said the voice hesitantly. "I am sorry."

"And what was I supposed to remember?"

"Who you are," it admitted.

"And just who am I?" I asked, my eyes still closed as I willed my body to not throw up.

"I am really sorry," it said and I could tell that it was sorry. "But I can't tell you until you remember."

"Won't I remember faster if you tell me?" I said snarkily. I had lived three lives and I have remembered every part of every one up to now. Was there really something more that I was missing?

"I can't push it if it is not time for you to remember." If voices could shrug, that one would have.

"Okay, back to the flames then. Can you explain that?" I asked. Because if this was the result then I needed to stop doing that fast. I felt like I had been hit by a Mac Truck. Hell, even my bones hurt.

"What you call flames are really the souls of every living being," it started.

"Zombies are living?" I asked completely confused. Because as far as I was concerned, they were dead, animated dead, but dead nonetheless.

"After a fashion. After all, they need to eat to survive," it said as if I was the dumb one.

"And that is the level we are working with? They eat?" I asked. Maybe it was because I was in pain that I didn't seem to understand what the voice was trying to say.

"Please pay attention, I am only going to say this once… okay?" snapped the voice and I moaned as it made my headache all that much worse.

"Okay," I groaned just so she didn't make that noise again. "Please go on."

"All living things require consuming something in order to live. Do you follow me?"

"If I say no, are you going to yell at me?" I asked with a cringe.

"Probably, yes," the voice admitted.

"Then yes, I follow you." The voice groaned and my head throbbed as a result.

"What do you think defines a living thing?" it asked and apparently we were going all the way back to elementary school science. Unfortunately for me, I had no idea what the answer was.

"A heartbeat?" I asked with a cringe only to hear a scoff inside of my head at my answer.

"Plants are living things, but they don't have a heartbeat. Are you sure that that is the answer you are going with?"

"Look, I barely remember my name right now, can you please just tell me what I need to know?" I begged. I just wanted to go back to sleep, but there was something telling me that I needed to understand what the icy voice was going to tell me.

"Fine. There are seven characteristics that classify a living thing," the voice said as it started to sound like my Grade 4 Science teacher. "Those characteristics are; sensitivity, movement, respiration, growth, reproduction, excretion, and nutrition."

I narrowed my eyes when I thought about reproduction and excretion. Those were two things that I didn't need to think about when it came to the zombies. I shook my head to get the thoughts out of it and then hummed like I understood.

"Okay, so I guess by that definition, zombies count as being a living thing," I said as my mind continued to try and conjure up images of zombies reproducing and… excreting. I shuddered.

"And every living thing has a soul, or a flame as you call it," said the icy voice as if it was talking to a child.

Well, I had seen the zombie flame so I guess the voice was right in that regard.

"But because the zombie is not natural, as in they didn't exist before humans created them, their soul is not the same as a normal human."

"Is that why they are a different color?" I asked, finally being able to put the pieces together. I just hoped that I wouldn't be tested on this.

"Exactly, it is also why you become a lot stronger after consuming their soul versus that of an ordinary human." The voice sounded so pleased that I was understanding what it was saying that I was sure it would be patting me on the head right now if it could.

"So I was consuming the souls of zombies and humans when I was consuming the flames," I said slowly as I tried to work things out in my head.

"Right," the voice said, still icy but with a tinge of happiness to it.

"Then if I am able to consume souls, what the Hell am I?"

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