The last survivor

CHAPTER ONE: THE LAST SURVIVOR

My name is Aeron Miller, and I was the last human alive, or so I thought. The city around me has been dead for three days.

No lights shine in the broken windows of the broken, luxurious houses; the only sounds are the distant howl of monsters and owls and the occasional crackle of burning, collapsing houses.

I limp through the ruins with one hand pressed against my bleeding stomach; blood seeps through my fingers. I knew I wouldn't survive the night, but I kept walking. I had lost too much blood, and the fires ruined the hospitals and medical houses.

After five years of the apocalypse that destroyed the earth, giving up had been a luxury I couldn't afford.

Before the system appeared, I had been a nobody, better known as a wimp, bullied from childhood to adulthood and was still bullied at my workplace.

Then one day the sky changed; the system descended. I can still remember that day clearly; it was on 17th October 5087. By 7 a.m., I had been on my way to work when the world changed as we once knew it.

Monsters appeared across the world, descending like flies upon the earth. People awakened strange abilities. Governments collapsed within weeks; everyone was fighting for survival. Mothers forgot their daughter just as fathers forgot their sons. Husbands and wives became strangers; those who couldn't survive became food for the hideous monsters.

I had survived everything: the monsters, the war for food and water, the famine, the cold that lasted for one year. I had watched trillions of people perish, people that I knew, even those bullies. I watched some of them being eaten by the monsters.

And now, I was alone. I reached the dilapilated remains of an apartment building and leaned against a broken wall. I couldn't see clearly; a clear blue screen appeared in front of me.

(HP:13/100)

(Warning: critical condition.)

" Thirteen?" That was better than death. After five years, I had been strong enough to withstand the apocalypse and stand among the strongest survivors, and yet am still going to die when the countdown hit zero.

Footsteps echoed through the ruins, and I slowly turned toward the sound. They weren't monsters; they were humans. I had thought I wouldn't see any more humans in this life.

Three silhouettes emerged from the smoke; my hand tightened on my blood-stained, almost rusted sword. The front man stopped a few meters away; he was tall, wearing dark blue armor, covered in the slimy blood of the monsters.

I recognized him immediately and sighed a long sigh of relief.

Julius Everton, my closest friend, or so I thought, smiled a devilish smile that made me recoil in pain.

"Still alive, Aeron"

I stared at him, unsure if that was a question I was meant to answer.

"Jul............"

He raised his weapon; behind him stood the two people I had spent the five years of the apocalypse protecting, giving them the last drop of water so that they could survive.

I understood everything immediately; they had come for the last gemstone I got from killing a big monster, the one treasure powerful enough to push someone to the highest rank. I slowly reached into my pocket, my fingers closed around the cold crystal.

Julius's eyes brightened. Give it to me, wimp"

"Are you going to kill me for this"

"No, you useless waste. I am going to kill you because you are no longer of any use to us"

The word hurt more than the pain of the wound on my stomach, not because I was surprised, but because a little part of me thought that I had finally found my squad.

I closed my eyes as Julius's sharp sword pierced through my stomach, over and over again. Pain exploded through my whole body as blood splattered all over the concrete. My eyes began to slowly close, and the last thing I saw was Julius holding the gemstone and laughing devilishly; then everything went black.

(Life function falling)

(HP:0/100)

(Declining heart rate)

(Death Confirmed)

(Calculating Achievements)

The robotic voice of the system echoed through my head.

(Achievements unlocked))

(You have survived the apocalypse longer than 99.9999% of humanity)

But what good are the achievements when I was already dead? Then the message continued.

(Hidden mission fulfilled)

( Initiating temporal restoration)

What the hell is going on?

(Returning host to the beginning of the apocalypse)

My eyes opened, My lungs burned. I bolted upright, my hands flying to my chest, clutching at the fabric of a cheap, oversized cotton t-shirt. I expected to feel the sticky warmth of blood, the jagged hole in my lung, the smell of iron and decay. Instead, I felt the soft, slightly damp texture of a mattress that smelled of old sweat and cheap detergent.

I stared around the room, Small. Cramped. The walls were a peeling, sickly shade of beige, illuminated by the flickering blue light of a holographic advertisement floating outside my window. The ad displayed a smiling woman promoting the latest neural-link upgrade for the city's elite.

I swung my legs over the side of the bed. My skin felt too tight, my limbs too light. I walked to the cracked mirror hanging over a rusted sink and stopped.

The man staring back wasn't the scarred, hollow-eyed survivor who had spent five years eating rat meat and sleeping in ruins. He was soft. His cheeks were plump, his eyes lacked the thousand-yard stare of a soldier, and his shoulders slumped in a habitual posture of defeat.

This was the Aeron Miller of the past. The wimp. The punching bag.

I reached up and touched my face. No scars. No missing finger from the encounter with the Void-Hounds in Year Three.

I looked around; I was in my small bedroom, the morning news playing in the background. I rushed to the window and looked outside; everything was normal: cars moving along the road, a school bus picking up kids for daycare, and the elderly women gambling near the minimart.

I blindly searched for my phone and unlocked the cracked screen; today's date was 10th October 5087. My heart nearly stopped. Seven days from now, the apocalypse will begin, and the world has no idea.

I stared at the peaceful city for a long time, then I laughed out loud. I knew what was to come, and this time, I would be ready.