After the End

"Argh!!!"

Sophie straightened in her bed as she screamed, her face pale as her memories flooded her mind.

After the Great Tremor, any surviving humans were left wandering.

To claim the last hardtack, her boyfriend, Yorick Lahm, and her best friend, Susan Zinger, plunged their razor-sharp daggers into her temples, sending her blood gushing…

So what was going on? Shouldn't she be dead?

Sophie looked around to see that it was an unfamiliar room and searched her mind… And realized it looked like the apartment she had rented in her junior year at college.

On the nightstand sat a pink cellphone, the same one she'd used back in college.

But she remembered losing it during the Endless Flood…

Picking it up and swiping the screen, she was greeted by the home screen that read 11:12 a.m, March 23, 2024.

Sophie's eyes widened in shock.

Could she have reincarnated?

She got out of bed and went to the balcony.

She saw children playing downstairs, along with the elderly sitting nearby, playing cards and chatting.

Sophie couldn't help but wonder to herself just then—how long had it been since she'd last seen such a peaceful scene?

Suddenly, her phone rang, and she quickly answered, tears streaming down her face as she breathed, "Mom..."

She had been studying at a college in Stockton, far to the south, and couldn't get home when the apocalypse struck.

At first, communications weren't cut off, and she still managed to contact her parents in Jonestown from time to time.

But then the floods came, submerging the coastal city and crippling communications and transportation. Her father quickly spent all his savings on an old speedboat to reach her, only to go missing and never to be heard from since.

Meanwhile, Sophie's mother and younger brother stayed at home, on the sixth floor of an apartment building. It was on the top floor with an attic, where her parents prudently stockpiled in the face of the natural disasters.

However, not long after her father left, their hostile neighbor led a group of thugs who broke into their home and drove her mother and her brother out.

Soon after, the two died outside from acid rain, their bodies left strewn in pieces, until Sophie returned.

She had managed to make it home when the acid rain ended and was told about all of this by the other neighbors downstairs.

Having journeyed all the way up north, she was no longer the innocent college student she once was, having witnessed one too many atrocities that exposed the dark side of the human condition.

After meticulously planning for several days, she killed all the thugs and the neighbors who had taken over her home.

Her fearsome feat left the many neighbors terrified, but she didn't care—she gathered and buried her family, even though the remains hardly bore any resemblance to her family now.

With that done, she headed to a government shelter, determined.

But it was there where she encountered Yorick Lahm and Susan Zinger, her boyfriend and her best friend respectively. They had long since hooked up and conspired against her, stealing all her supplies and kicking her out of her rental…

"What's wrong, Fi? Did someone give you grief? Who was it, a classmate?" her mother exclaimed, clearly worried to hear her sniffle, even using her old pet name.

"No, no no..." Sophie sniffed as she wiped away her tears and took a deep breath. "I just missed you, Mom…"

'I missed you so much!'

It had been eight years since she finally heard her mother's voice again. Such a feeling of regaining something thought to be lost forever was most definitely enough to make anyone cry tears of joy.

"Oh, you silly girl," Tina chided jokingly. "You're in your junior year and still so homesick? What will you do after you get married?"

Sophie, her voice still nasal, replied, "I'm never getting married! I'm staying with you and Dad forever!"

"Yeah, yeah, you'll always be our little girl." Tina laughed cheerfully.

Sophie smiled, vowing in her heart that she would protect her family for the rest of her life—fending off all who meant to do harm while they stayed together happily ever after in the apocalypse.

That was when Tina continued, "Anyway, I'm sure you and Yorick are running out of money after your trip to Southport. I'll wire some over."

Sophie then remembered that around February in her previous life, she and Yorick had gone on a trip to Southport.

Yorick said that he was running out of money and would pay her back for all the expenses on the trip. But perhaps because she was paying, Yorick had spent a ton, choosing the best hotel and fine dining.

In fact, he spent almost five grand on a trip lasting little more than a week.

And as if to add insult to injury, he asked for another grand to buy a platinum chimera pendant. She thought that the quality was mediocre and not worth the price, but Yorick insisted on borrowing the money, so she had no choice but to give him her remaining money.

Yorick was tall and handsome, but his family was of a modest background at best.

Sophie was herself insecure, as she had a birthmark on her face, and she had always caved to all his demands. Since they started dating, she had been the one who paid for almost everything.

After she made it into a prestigious university, her parents threw a banquet and gave her some money, along with the gifts from her elders. It all totaled around five grand, but it was quickly used up soon after she started dating Yorick.

And when Yorick said that he was just 'borrowing' for the trip, they both knew Sophie wasn't getting her money back.

With that in mind, Sophie said, "Yeah, I'm out, Mom. Please send me some money. By the way, I'll be checking out internships available at big companies, since I'd like to buy a car, so travel will be more convenient."

"That's good. Finding a job is tough these days…" Tina trailed off, hesitating. "But buying a car is a big deal. I'll talk to your dad about it later, but he did say just the other day that electric cars are cheaper now. I'll ask for his opinion."

"Okay!"

Over the phone, Sophie didn't know how to tell her parents about her reincarnation, or that they urgently needed to stockpile all resources. As such, she simply made up an excuse to get more money.

After she hung up, a cold smile crept onto her lips.

In the past year and a half, Yorick owed her far more than the money he'd burned through on that Southport trip. And she would make him pay, one way or another!

She checked the date again: March 23—that was a little over ten days before the apocalypse, so she really must gather supplies soon.

Returning indoors, she got changed and was about to leave when she passed the full-length mirror by the wall and saw her reflection.

Then, she froze.

She had a black birthmark that stretched from her left temple like a valley. It was about the size of a walnut, and it had been there since birth.

Sophie had developed an inferiority complex because of that birthmark, even though her family was relatively affluent and her parents had always pampered her to bits.

Even though she had a pretty face, the birthmark stood out.

On top of that, no boy had ever wooed her aside from Yorick, which was why she had quickly succumbed to Yorick's sweet talk.

But now, the birthmark was gone, and she was left staring at a fair, flawless face.

Where had her birthmark gone?

Even as she spaced out, she saw a square white room in her mind's eye.

It was roughly 800 square feet, like the interior of a large shipping container.

Sophie was herself a fan of web novels. And as she stared at the strange white room that seemed to exist in her mind, she remembered her missing birthmark.

Could the birthmark have been a void pocket that was triggered when she was stabbed in the birthmark in her last life?

So the birthmark was the key to the void pocket?

She was just thinking if she could put her coat inside, and her hands were suddenly empty, while the coat appeared in the void pocket.

She tried taking it out, and in the blink of an eye, the coat was back in her hand exactly the way it was.

Sophie's eyes lit up even as she fought back her thrill.

She had initially been worried, even with prior knowledge of the apocalypse to come. After all, it was the whole shebang: river floods, tsunamis, extreme heatwaves, acid rain, deep freeze, drought, eternal nights, and earthquakes…

Every survivor was therefore displaced, and no place was truly safe for anyone.

While Sophie and her parents could still hoard a ton of supplies and resources, where would they store them, and how could they withstand the deep freeze and extreme heatwaves?

That problem had just been solved!

As long as she was certain that the supplies in her void pocket would stay fresh, she would have no issue keeping them there forever.

She took a pen and made a list of everything needed to survive the apocalypse, prioritizing the more vital ones, and then put on a mask before heading out.