Blood For Blood!

CHAPTER ONE

“No! Let go!…Argh! Elias…Help!”

Violet shot upright on her bed, gasping for air, her eyes wide with fear and terror.

A nauseous feeling bubbled up in her stomach and the room spun before her eyes. She hit the ground with a thud, coughing deeply.

She ran her hands over her body. There was no blood, no broken bones, no wounds…

Even the skin on her face felt soft and smooth to the touch. No blisters and no burns scars.

Violet stumbled to her feet and ran to her vanity.

She stopped in shock as she stared at the reflection in the mirror before her.

She had her smooth, healthy skin. Bright green eyes. Her red hair was vibrant and fell to her waist in soft curls.

Yes.

It was all a dream.

She sighed in relief, her body still trembling from the nightmares that she’d just woken up from.

In her dream, the world had come to an end.

There had been an extreme heat apocalypse, the temperature hitting 212•F (100•C) heat. At first, everyone thought it was just a brutal summer. All they needed to do was hide in air conditioned rooms and wait for the rains to fall.

But then people began roasting alive with their skins peeling off of them, catastrophe after catastrophe happened and humans mutated into horrifying monsters that preyed on people and tore them into shreds, the world order collapsed and everyone turned on each other, desperate to survive.

But thankfully, it had all been a dream.

She was back in the clean home she shared with her husband and his family, her room air conditioner and the weather outside is normal.

Violet lowered herself to her bed, her hand to her heart, relieved beyond measure.

It had all been a dream. Yet why did it feel so…real?

“Good morning, everyone! If you thought last summer was hot, you might want to brace yourselves. Meteorologists are predicting record-breaking temperatures this year, with several cities expected to experience unprecedented heat waves…”

The TV in the room blared on and violet froze on the bed. The next second, she bolted forward to the television, her eyes wide with shock and her hands trembling with fear.

She remembered this announcement. In her dream, there had been an announcement such as this one a month before the apocalypse.

Everyone had looked forward to the summer where they could get the best tans but instead they’d gotten roasted instead.

What does this mean? Violet mused, So it wasn’t a dream? Have I been…reborn?

Violet’s nostrils flared with realization as she said those last words, her hands clenching around itself.

More memories came rushing back to her.

If it wasn’t a dream, then that must have been her past life.

In her past life, the heat apocalypse had hit the world. Violet, her husband and his family had been plunged into despair, thoroughly unprepared for the doomsday.

As the good and filial housewife that she was, Violet had spent the next five years of the raging apocalypse, doing everything in her power to make her husband and his family survive.

She scavenged for food at night when the heat was a bit low, braving off mutated beasts. At the survival base, she’d worked her ass off for points to get them a place to sleep and some sort of protection. She’d faced head on other scavengers who were armed and bigger than her just to escape with a bottle of water.

None of this had been appreciated by the Carter family. She’d gotten betrayal instead.

When finally, their base was attacked by the mutated humans and beasts, her husband and his family had not hesitated to push her out to them.

While she screamed for help, and begged them to let her in, Elias, her husband had told her she was better off dead and away from him.

“Violet, you’ve been a thorn on my side all these years. Because of you useless orphan, I could not be with Bianca peacefully, ” he’d said, his face contorted with anger and cruelty, “Once you’re gone, we can finally be a real family. Me, Bianca and our son, Theo.”

“Just die already! You’ve been wasting our hard earned resources, you useless leech!” Her mother-in-law Evelyn, said with her usual look of disgust.

“Violet, don’t take it to heart,” Bianca, her supers sister-in-law uttered, snuggling into Elias’ arms, with a malicious smile, “But we needed a nanny for our son. Someone who will not complain, and I needed to be with Elias. You were the perfect pawn. It’s your own fault for being so worthless.”

Violet had been so shocked that she’d almost died of an heart attack right then and then. But then the mutated beasts had gotten to her before that, tearing her to shreds before the shelter, while her husband and his family laughed in triumph.

“If there ever was a next life, I’ll make you all pay blood for blood!”

Those were her last thoughts before she’d woken up just now on the bed.

The terrifying feeling of being torn to shreds still clung to her, and Violet knew now without a doubt, that it wasn’t a dream.

She’d been reborn, given a second chance at life

She stared at her bedroom door leading to the house, her eyes red rimmed with rage.

If she truly had been given a second chance, she was not going to repeat the same mistakes she did in her past life.

She would make them pay.

She advanced towards the door, ready to confront her husband and his disgusting family.

Suddenly, a line of text appeared before her eye.

[Host, the Apocalypse Survival System: GENESIS has been activated!.]

Violet stumbled backwards, a soft gasp of shock escaping her lips.

An apocalypse survival system? What the hell?

She reached out and gently clicked on the bind option.

[Binding complete! Host can now complete tasks, gain rewards and upgrades to survive the apocalypse!]

Rewards? Upgrades?

Violet rubbed her eyes to be sure she was seeing things clearly. Before she could process what was happening further, another line of text appeared.

[TASK 1: Purchase an Apocalypse Survival Fortress.]

Violet blinked in astonishment, staring at the line before her.

Her first task was to purchase a fortress?

Yes, she most definitely needed something that could help her survive in the apocalypse. The apocalypse came with raging heat, sandy storms, no water, and mutated humans and beasts.

Without a formidable fortress she was definitely not going to last long in the apocalypse when it came.

Her second chance would be wasted.

Her shoulders sagged in defeat, and a look of despair crossed her face.

Where on earth would she get the money? All her salaries were handed over to her mother-in-law, Evelyn and she had no savings or precious items.

Just then, the screen of her cell phone on the nightstand lit up with a text message.

“Good morning, Miss Ashford. This is Andrew Whitmore, your late father’s lawyer. Your father’s investment portfolio has matured, and the proceeds is ready for transfer to your account within 24 hours. You are the sole beneficiary of his estate as well, as stipulated in his will. Please contact my office when you have the time.”