Ketika Usahaku Dibongkar Ibu Mertuaku

Julian... please, my leg... I can't run any faster!" I gasped, stumbling over a pile of trash. My knees hit the wet asphalt hard.

​My hands were raw, caked with dirt and dried blood. Over my shoulder, through the rain, I could see the twisted, blood-soaked faces pressing through the widening gap under the shutter. Gray teeth clicking. Milk-white eyes staring ravenously.

​I reached out, grabbing the hem of Julian’s tactical jacket.

​Six months ago, Julian was the charming, silver-tongued heir who promised me a fairy tale. He had smiled so warmly when he convinced me to hand over my family’s corporate shares, to sign over my grandfather’s estate, and to abandon the man who had loved me for half a decade.

​Julian turned around. But there was no warmth in his face. No love. No panic, even. Only a cold, ugly disgust.

​He looked down at my hand on his coat as if I were a cockroach.

​"Julian?" My voice trembled, choked with rain and fear. "Help me up... we can make it to the armored rig. You said... you said you’d protect me. You promised we’d get married once we reached the safe zone..."

​Julian let out a dry, breathy laugh that sent a chill straight to my bones. He slowly reached down and unclipped my fingers from his jacket, one by one.

​"Married?" Julian sneered, his voice laced with venom. "Evelyn, are you really still that stupid? Look around you. The world is over. Money is trash, and your family's estate is useless rubble."

​My breath hitched. "What... what are you talking about?"

​"I never cared about you," Julian leaned down, his eyes gleaming with dark malice. "I wanted your family’s land because of the underground bunker your father built beneath it. But I couldn't get the keys without you being stupidly in love with me. You handed me everything on a silver platter—and you destroyed your family in the process."

​The shutter behind us gave way with a deafening CRACK.

​A deluge of hungry, rotting corpses spilled into the alleyway, screeching like ravenous beasts.

​"Julian!" I shrieked, scrambling backward on my hands and heels. "Julian, save me!"

​Julian didn't hesitate. He pulled out a heavy hunting knife, but instead of swinging at the zombies, he drove the blade straight into my thigh.

​"AHHHHHHH!" I screamed, a jagged, agonizing pain exploding through my leg. Blood welled up instantly, staining my torn jeans.

​"Consider yourself useful one last time," Julian whispered coldly, stepping back toward the emergency ladder at the end of the alley. "They’ll stop to eat you first. It gives me thirty seconds to get up to the roof."

​"Julian! No! Please!"

​He turned his back on me without a single look backward, leaping onto the iron ladder and scaling it with ease.

​I lay on the freezing ground, gasping, clutching my bleeding leg. The horde swarmed forward, driven wild by the scent of fresh, hot blood.

​As the first wave of gray, putrid flesh collapsed onto me, tearing into my shoulder, a tidal wave of realization crashed over my mind.

​It was all a lie.

​My family was dead because I had trusted Julian. My father had died of a broken heart after I stole his life's work. My mother had perished in the early days of the outbreak, unprotected because I had stripped them of their security assets for Julian.

​And Derrick...

​A violent sob escaped my throat as teeth sank into my collarbone.

​Derrick. The man who had cherished me since high school. The man who had stayed up all night building me a wooden jewelry box with his own hands. The man who had looked at me like I was his entire universe—until I publicly humiliated him, called him a broke, ambitionless loser, and threw him away for Julian’s flashy, fake promises.

​Even after I destroyed him, when the zombies first hit, Derrick had tried to reach me. He had fought through a burning district just to check on me, only for Julian’s guards to beat him and throw him into the street.

​My last memory of Derrick was his bloodied face, staring at me through the darkened window of Julian’s SUV, eyes filled with shattered, agonizing heartbreak.

​I threw away real gold for poison, I wept internally, my vision blurring as darkness crept in around the edges. Pain tore through my body as the horde devoured me alive. Derrick... I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry... If I could go back... I would bleed for you... I would do anything...

​The world faded to absolute, suffocating black.

​Gasp!

​I sat bolt upright, violently clutching my chest. Air rushed into my lungs so fast it burned my throat.

​"Haaah... haaah... haaah..."

​I was sweating profusely, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird. My hands frantically mapped my body—my shoulder was whole. My thigh wasn't cut. There was no rot. No blood. No tearing flesh.

​I blinked, wiping the sweat from my eyes, and looked around.

​Soft morning light filtered through sheer white silk curtains. I was sitting on a plush, king-sized bed in my old, scented room. On the vanity table sat my old family framed photos.

​Hands shaking uncontrollably, I reached for the sleek glass smartphone sitting on my nightstand. I swiped the screen awake.

​Date: June 14, 2026

Time: 08:15 AM

​Ninety days.

​Exactly ninety days before the outbreak of Patient Zero.

​A choked laugh bubbled up in my chest, quickly turning into hot, silent tears. Fate had given me a second chance. My family was still alive. My estate hadn't been transferred yet. Julian hadn't won.

​Knock. Knock.

​The bedroom door clicked open. My mother stepped in, holding a tray of warm tea, her eyes soft and caring.

​"Evelyn, sweetie? You're awake early. Aren't you supposed to meet Julian to sign over the property deeds today?"

​I stared at my mother, my eyes burning with fierce, uncontrollable emotion. I threw back the covers, ran across the room, and threw my arms around her, sobbing deeply into her shoulder.

​"Mom... Mom, I'm sorry... I'm so sorry," I sobbed.

​"Oh, sweetie, what's wrong? Did you have a nightmare?" my mother asked, gently patting my back.

​"No," I pulled back, wiping my tears with the back of my hand, my eyes instantly shifting from terrified panic to deadly, icy resolve. "The nightmare is over. Cancel the meeting with Julian. I'm never giving him a single dime."

​I had three months. Three months to build a fortress, stockpile weapons, hoard food, and crush Julian into absolute dust.

​But as I looked down at my phone, my thumb hovered over a contact name I hadn't dared to look at in years: Derrick.

​My heart squeezed with suffocating weight. I needed him. Not just to survive the coming apocalypse, but because my soul was tied to his.

​Without hesitating, I grabbed my coat and car keys, sprinting out of the house. I drove like a madwoman through the morning city traffic, pulling up outside a familiar automotive repair shop on the south side of town.

​The garage door was rolled up. Inside, under the chassis of a raised pickup truck, stood a tall, broad-shouldered man in a grease-stained tank top. Flexed muscles, dark messy hair, and hands calloused from hard labor.

​Derrick.

​My eyes welled up again. "Derrick!" I cried out, my voice cracking as I ran into the shop toward him. "Derrick!"

​Derrick froze. He wiped his hands on a shop rag and slowly turned around.

​For a fraction of a second, an old, instinctively tender warmth flickered in his dark eyes—but as soon as he recognized me, his face locked into an impenetrable wall of glacier-cold ice.

​I reached out, my hands trembling, stepping close to touch his arm. "Derrick, please, I need to talk to you—"

​Clang!

​Derrick slapped my hand away with brutal force.

​He didn't yell. He didn't scream. He just stared down at me with a look of pure, unadulterated disgust and quiet hatred that sliced deeper than Julian's knife ever could.

​"Don't touch me," Derrick's voice was a low, terrifying growl. "I don't know what kind of sick game you and your new rich boy are playing, Evelyn, but get the hell out of my shop before I have you thrown out."

​I took a step back, my breath hitching as I looked into the eyes of the man who used to worship me—and realized that in his heart, I was already worse than dead.