Reborn before the apocalypse.

“Anyway, he’s nothing but dead weight now. He consumes our supplies and slows everyone down. It’ll take at least two weeks to reach Sydney Base from here, and anything could happen along the way. Who has time to look after him?”

“My brother needs a better environment to recover after receiving the Superpower Core. Sophie told us to take good care of him during the journey. There’s only so much room in the car. We can’t waste space carrying someone who’s practically a corpse.”

“That makes sense, but I’m worried Michael won’t agree to this.”

“Don’t worry, Doctor. Mum will handle Dad. Besides, by agreeing to the transplant, he already accepted that this useless piece of trash might die. He knows what matters more: losing one person or losing the entire family. Without my brother, none of us will survive the journey to Sydney Base. When the next zombie horde attacks the base, we’ll all be killed!”

“Alright, then. I’ll stop giving him his medication.”

“Good. There’s no point wasting medicine on him. Doctor, leave the rest to me. You can go now.”

...

In a dark basement beneath a house in Melbourne, Liam Bennett lay barely conscious on a filthy metal bed. His face was deathly pale, and his breathing was so weak that he seemed close to death.

His thin arms and legs were chained to the bed with rusty chains. His oversized hospital gown was stained with blood around his stomach, and it looked as though nobody had changed it since his surgery. The sheets beneath him were filthy too.

He couldn’t move. All he could do was turn his head slightly towards the half open door.

He couldn’t see anyone, but he could hear a man and a woman discussing what to do with him.

The woman was his stepsister, Chloe Bennett. She was talking to the family doctor.

Their cruel words reached his ears, sounding like whispers from demons.

Liam felt no sadness. Two days ago, his family had taken his Superpower Core from him. He had already known they would throw him away once he was no longer useful.

Now, he almost felt relieved.

Soon, he would finally be free.

Two years of suffering had been more than enough.

Bang!

The basement door flew open after someone kicked it hard.

Chloe walked in wearing a black and white tracksuit. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail, and she held a large syringe filled with thick, pale yellow liquid.

Liam knew what it was.

It was a special nutrient solution used in hospitals after the apocalypse to keep seriously ill patients alive. For the past two years, it had been the only thing keeping him breathing.

Chloe walked up to him without hesitation. She grabbed his jaw, forced his mouth open and poured the liquid down his throat.

As an awakened superhuman, she was far stronger than an ordinary person.

Liam struggled weakly. The chains dug into his skin as he tried to resist, but he had almost no strength left. He choked on the liquid, struggling to swallow and barely managing to breathe.

Clatter!

Chloe pulled the syringe away and dropped it onto the floor.

She looked down at him with a cruel smile. Her pretty face was filled with amusement as she watched his pale cheeks turn red from choking.

“Enjoy your last meal!”

Liam gasped for air, coughing painfully. He clenched his teeth and glared at her through his watery eyes.

“Why... why waste those nutrients on me? I’m already dying anyway... Cough!”

Why couldn’t they just leave him alone?

Why couldn’t they let him die in peace?

“Hahaha!”

Chloe suddenly burst out laughing. She looked at him with the same disgust and pity someone might show a stray dog.

“You said we wouldn’t die easily, remember? Well, now I’m going to show you exactly what that means!”

She crouched beside the bed, her smile growing wider.

“This nutrient solution contains a special anaesthetic. It’ll keep you alive for another ten days, even in your current condition. The experts say the zombie horde will overrun the base in about a week.”

Liam finally understood what she was planning.

He wanted to speak, but his tongue had become heavy, and his mouth barely moved. The drug was already taking effect.

Even if he wanted to bite his tongue and end his life, he no longer had the strength to do it.

Chloe noticed the fear in his eyes and laughed even harder.

“Brisbane Base is evacuating its central district tonight. Everyone important will be transferred to Sydney Base first, and our family will be among them. We won’t have to stay behind and watch the zombies arrive.”

She leaned closer, enjoying every moment of his helplessness.

“But you’re staying right here! You can watch those disgusting creatures tear you apart. Let’s see how long you survive when they come for you! Useless trash!”

She spat on the metal bed.

Chloe turned and walked towards the door. Just before leaving, she stopped and looked back at him.

“Oh, and thanks for the purified Superpower Core. My brother is recovering much faster now. We’ll make good use of it.”

Her smile turned cold.

“Enjoy rotting here.”

Bang!

The door slammed shut.

Her footsteps slowly disappeared, leaving Liam alone in the darkness.

He closed his eyes in despair.

He couldn’t even decide how he wanted to die.

How unfair was that?

Yet there was nothing he could do.

Anger, exhaustion and hopelessness overwhelmed him. Before long, he drifted into a restless sleep.

Liam had no idea how much time had passed when the base’s emergency sirens suddenly rang out.

The noise was deafening.

Gunshots and screams came from somewhere above him. People were shouting, running and fighting for their lives.

A few moments later, the basement door burst open.

The horrible smell of rotting flesh filled the room.

A group of zombies rushed inside. Their faces were twisted and rotten, their mouths stained with blood. They snarled as they rushed towards Liam.

He could do nothing as they climbed onto the bed and began biting and tearing at his body.

Thankfully, his suffering did not last long.

One of the zombies bit into his throat.

His vision began to blur, and his body grew colder by the second. The only sound he could hear was the disgusting noise of the zombies feeding on him.

Brrrt!

Sudden gunfire erupted beside him.

A bullet struck the zombie on top of him in the head, and the creature fell away.

“Liam Bennett!”

“Liam!”

A man in tactical gear stood nearby, holding an AK rifle and calling his name.

The voice sounded familiar.

It took Liam a moment to recognise him.

Jack Sullivan.

His ex boyfriend.

The man he had broken up with on his own before the apocalypse began.

Liam tried to speak, but blood spilled from his mouth.

“Ghk... cough...”

Jack rushed to his side. His face twisted with panic as he pressed a hand against Liam’s neck, desperately trying to stop the bleeding.

He kept saying something, his voice full of fear and desperation.

But Liam could no longer understand him.

The sounds around him grew quieter. His vision faded, and he could feel himself slipping away.

The last thing he heard was Jack screaming at him in a broken voice.

“You fucking idiot! Why didn’t you come to me?!”

“Why didn’t you come to me?!”

“Liam!”

“LIAM!”

Hearing Jack’s desperate cries, Liam had never wanted to cry so badly.

For more than two years, ever since the apocalypse began, he had wished for death.

He had suffered so much that dying had seemed like the only way to escape.

But now, when death was finally taking him, he desperately wanted to live.

He wanted another chance.

Before the apocalypse, when his mum died, he had wanted to find Jack.

So why had he gone to his useless father instead? A man who had never truly cared about him?

Why hadn't he tried harder to find Jack?

It was the apocalypse. The world had already fallen apart.

Why couldn't they have put their differences aside and started again?

If only he had gone to Jack back then, perhaps he would never have suffered so much.

Perhaps things could have been different.

Perhaps he could have been happy.

Regret filled his heart as his consciousness slowly disappeared.

The last sound faded away.

Liam sank into endless darkness.

...

A low buzzing sound broke the silence.

Bzzzt... Bzzzt...

Early in the morning, a phone vibrated on the bedside table in a bedroom with the curtains tightly closed.

Someone shifted beneath the doona, clearly unwilling to get up.

After a few seconds, a hand reached out from under the covers and searched blindly for the phone.

“Hello?”

A polite female voice came through the speaker.

“Hello, this is QuickCash Australia customer service. We noticed that you recently applied for a personal loan through our platform, but you haven’t completed the final verification. Is there a problem? If you need any assistance, we can—”

“I don’t need it anymore. Thanks.”

Before the woman could finish speaking, Liam ended the call.

A moment later, he yawned, kicked off the doona and sat up.

Still half asleep, he rubbed his neck out of habit.

Then he suddenly froze.

“Huh?”

His eyes widened.

A second later, panic spread across his face as he looked around the room. His gaze finally landed on the phone screen.

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

13 August 2036, 9:25 am.

Sunny.

“What...?”

Liam slowly raised a hand to his mouth.

“Holy fuck!”

At that moment, countless memories came flooding back.

The terrible drought.

His mum’s death.

The toxic rain.

The virus.

The zombies.

The apocalypse!

Liam quickly pinched his arm several times.

“Ouch!”

The pain was real.

He wasn't dreaming.

Although the air conditioner was running at full power, sweat began to form on his forehead. His cheeks flushed as shock, fear and disbelief overwhelmed him.

He didn't even bother putting on his slippers.

He jumped out of bed, rushed to the window and pulled the curtains open. Then he threw the window wide.

Hot, fresh air rushed into the room, carrying the faint scent of flowers.

Outside, the sun shone brightly in a clear blue sky.

There were no thick clouds blocking out the sunlight.

No poisonous smog.

No ruined streets covered in bodies.

No dry, blackened land contaminated by the virus.

No rotting zombies wandering through the streets.

Everything looked normal.

The world was still alive.

After staring outside for a long time, Liam finally accepted the truth.

He had travelled back in time!

According to the date, he had returned to the world just two weeks before the toxic rain that would mark the beginning of the apocalypse.

It was also ten days after his mum’s funeral.

His mum had battled stomach cancer for two years before finally passing away.

During those two years, Liam had spent almost everything he had on her treatment. Their once comfortable middle class life had slowly collapsed under a mountain of debt.

Friends and relatives who had once been close to them had gradually become distant. Some avoided his calls, while others no longer wanted anything to do with him.

His mum had known how difficult things had become.

While she was still alive, she had repeatedly forbidden him from selling their family home.

She wanted him to have somewhere to live after she was gone.

She didn't want him to lose both his mum and the roof over his head.

But Liam had only wanted one thing.

He wanted his mum to live.

Even when the doctors told him there was little hope of recovery, he had refused to give up. He kept searching for money, hoping that every extra dollar might buy her another day.

He had borrowed money from anyone willing to help him, promising that he would sell the house and repay everyone after his mum passed away.

That was how he had managed to pay for her treatment.

Unfortunately, his mum still died.

Soon after her funeral, his relatives arrived at the house and demanded that he sell it as promised. They were worried he might change his mind and refuse to repay them.

Liam didn't blame them.

He had borrowed their money, and he had promised to pay it back. It was only right that he kept his word.

Money didn't grow on trees, and nobody was obligated to lend him anything. Those who had helped him had done so out of kindness.

He owed them his gratitude.

So, even though he knew he was selling the house too cheaply, he accepted the offer because he needed the money quickly.

Fortunately, the sale brought in enough to repay all his debts.

After settling everything, he had less than A$10,000 left in his bank account.

With nowhere else to go, he rented a temporary room.

Exhausted from everything he had been through, he soon fell ill. He bought some medicine from a chemist and took it on his own, spending the next two days drifting in and out of consciousness.

And now, somehow, he had returned to the past.

Two weeks before the apocalypse.

This time, Liam Bennett swore he would never let history repeat itself.