Chapter 2 — Three Months Earlier

Evelyn woke, choking for air. Her body jerked violently upright before she even understood where she was. The movement sent the blankets tangling around her legs as panic crashed through her chest hard enough to make her dizzy.

Rain.

Teeth.

Blood in her mouth.

Hands dragging her down...

A warm hand touched her arm.

“Babe?”

Evelyn flinched so hard she nearly fell off the bed.

Damian stared at her through sleep-heavy eyes, confusion pulling at his face as he pushed himself up against the headboard. Early-morning light spilled weakly through the apartment blinds behind him, turning everything pale gold rather than gray stormwater and death.

“Jesus, Evie.” His voice was rough with sleep. “What’s wrong with you?”

She couldn’t breathe. The room tilted around her.

Not the alley.

Not the cold.

Not dead.

Her gaze snapped wildly around the bedroom.

The familiar dresser was beside the wall.

The laundry basket was overflowing near the closet.

There was a tiny crack running across the ceiling fan.

The soft hum of traffic was heard outside the apartment window.

Normal.

Everything looked painfully, horribly normal.

Damian reached for her again. “Hey.”

Evelyn recoiled before she could stop herself.

The second his fingers brushed her skin, her stomach twisted violently. She scrambled backward across the mattress like something inside her body recognized danger before her mind caught up.

Damian froze.

“What the hell?”

Her pulse hammered painfully against her throat.

He was alive.

Warm.

Breathing.

Looking at her with sleepy irritation instead of guilt.

No rainwater on his face.

No red taillights disappearing into the dark.

Evelyn’s eyes dropped to his hands automatically.

Clean.

No blood.

No shaking.

No death grip on a steering wheel while he abandoned her.

A sound escaped her throat before she could stop it.

Not quite a sob.

Worse.

Damian frowned harder. “Are you having a panic attack?”

The question barely registered.

Evelyn lunged for her phone on the nightstand so fast it nearly slipped from her shaking hands.

The screen lit instantly.

Thursday, September 14th.

Three months before the collapse.

Her vision blurred.

“No,” she whispered.

Damian slowly rubbed one hand down his face. “No, what?”

September 14th.

Not December.

Not the freezing ruins of downtown.

Not the end of the world.

Her stomach lurched violently.

Evelyn shoved herself off the bed and staggered toward the bathroom before Damian could stop her.

“Evie?”

She barely made it to the toilet before vomiting.

Her knees slammed painfully against cold tile as her entire body shook. Sweat dampened the back of her neck despite the chill crawling through her skin.

The alley flashed behind her eyes again.

The infected are tearing into her flesh.

The sound of her own screaming.

Damian is driving away.

Evelyn gripped the side of the toilet hard enough that her knuckles ached.

This isn’t real.

It couldn’t be real.

People didn’t wake up before they died.

The bathroom door opened behind her.

“Hey.” Damian’s voice sounded cautious now. “Talk to me.”

Evelyn looked up slowly.

His reflection appeared in the mirror above the sink.

Alive.

Comfortable.

Safe.

For one awful second, she remembered how desperately she used to love him.

Then another memory crashed over it.

Claire was wrapped in Evelyn’s thermal blanket.

Damian is locking the SUV doors.

I can’t save everyone.

Something cold settled heavily in her chest.

Not rage.

Not yet.

Something worse.

Clarity.

Damian crouched beside her carefully, reaching toward her shoulder. “You probably just had a nightmare.”

The touch never landed.

Evelyn stood too quickly and backed away from him.

His hand hung awkwardly in the air for half a second before he slowly lowered it.

“What is going on with you?”

She stared at him silently.

The soft gray T-shirt. The familiar tattoo along his forearm. The concern on his face looked so real that it almost made her hate herself for doubting it once upon a time.

Maybe he even believed it.

Maybe that was the worst part.

Damian always cared just enough to think he was a good person.

Until things became inconvenient.

Evelyn’s breathing slowly steadied.

Three months. Evelyn had three months.

The thought slammed into her so hard she nearly swayed again.

Three months before: the riots, the quarantine failures, the infection waves, the military checkpoints, the starvation, the cold

Three months before Damian left her to die.

Damian stood carefully now, watching her with growing unease. “You’re scaring me a little.”

The irony nearly made her laugh.

Instead, she looked past him toward the bedroom.

Toward the apartment.

Toward the life she had died trying to protect.

And suddenly, all she could see were weaknesses.

Too many windows.

Not enough supplies.

No backup power.

No weapons.

No real food storage.

No survival plan.

In her first life, she had spent those three months worrying about overtime schedules, grocery bills, and whether Damian was pulling away emotionally.

Meanwhile, the world had been ending beneath them.

Her pulse steadied further.

Thoughts sharpened.

Move money.

Secure fuel.

Medicine first.

Leave the city early.

The speed of it frightened her slightly.

Damian noticed the shift immediately.

“Evie?”

She looked at him.

Really looked at him.

And for the first time in years, she saw him without love softening the edges.

He looked tired.

Soft.

Unprepared.

Weak.

Not evil.

That would almost be easier.

Just selfish enough to sacrifice someone else when survival demands it.

A chill crawled slowly down her spine.

Because now she knew exactly what he became when the world got hard.

Damian stepped closer carefully. “Talk to me.”

Evelyn opened her mouth.

Nothing came out.

What was she supposed to say?

You abandoned me to die three months from now?

Instead, as she asked quietly, “What time is it?”

He blinked at the question. “Uh… almost seven.”

Seven in the morning.

Three months before the apocalypse.

Outside the apartment window, traffic moved normally through wet streets. Somewhere downstairs, someone laughed. A car horn sounded faintly in the distance.

The world hadn’t ended yet.

But it would.

Evelyn wrapped her arms tightly around herself.

This time, she would survive it.

A sharp pressure suddenly bloomed behind her eyes.

Bright blue text flashed across her vision.

WARNING.

Evelyn stumbled violently backward.

Damian swore under his breath. “Jesus, what now?”

The words spread slowly across the air in front of her.

Clean.

Cold.

Impossible.

SURVIVAL PROTOCOL DETECTED.

COMPATIBLE HOST CONFIRMED.

INITIALIZING LOGISTIC UTILIZATION SYSTEM…