Chapter 1:I Died Once

I was dying.

I knew it because I could no longer feel my legs.

The cold concrete beneath me had become strangely comfortable, even though blood was spreading beneath my body.

I tried to move.

Nothing.

My fingers scraped against the floor.

"Help me!"

My voice came out weak.

Nobody answered.

Of course nobody answered.The shelter was only a few meters away.

I could see the thick steel doors through the rain. I could see the people packed behind them.

And I could see my husband. Adrian.

He was standing beside the evacuation vehicle with his mother and brother.

Safe.

Leaving.

My heart cracked.

"Adrian!"

I forced myself to scream.His head turned. For one brief second, our eyes met. I thought he would come back.I was his wife.

After everything I had done for him, he couldn't possibly leave me here.

Could he?

Then his mother grabbed his arm."Adrian, we have to go!" He looked at me again.

His lips moved.I couldn't hear him through the storm.But I knew what he said."I'm sorry."

The vehicle started moving.

"No!"

I tried to crawl after it.My palms slipped against the wet concrete.

"Adrian!”

The vehicle disappeared behind the wall of rain.

I collapsed.A laugh escaped my throat.It sounded pathetic.

After everything...After all the food I had found for them. After all the medicine.

After all the nights I had gone hungry so they could eat. After protecting his family when the entire city turned into hell...

He had left me. I closed my eyes.

Maybe I deserved it.Maybe I had been stupid.

For years, I had believed that family meant something. That marriage meant something.

I gave enough, loved enough and sacrificed enough, people would eventually do the same for me.

I was wrong.A strange sound came from behind me.I opened my eyes.

They were here.

The infected.A woman stumbled through the rain.Her clothes were covered in blood.

Her mouth hung open, Her eyes were cloudy.She saw me.

Then she ran.I tried to move. My body wouldn't respond."Stay back...

My voice trembled. The woman threw herself at me.I screamed.Then everything went black.

I woke up gasping.

I sat upright so violently that I nearly fell off the bed. My chest heaved.My hands flew over my body.

No blood.

No wounds.

No broken bones.

I stared at my hands. They were clean, Warm. Alive.

I touched my face. Smooth skin. No scars. My breathing became faster.

"No..."

I looked around the room.

My room.

The old bedroom.

The curtains.

The vanity.

The photograph beside my bed.

Everything was exactly as I remembered it.

Except this room had been gone for years.

I stumbled out of bed and ran toward the mirror.

A young woman stared back at me.

My face.

My hair.

My eyes.

But there was no exhaustion.No scar across my cheek.I pressed both hands against the mirror.

"This isn't possible."

My voice shook.I grabbed my phone from the bedside table.

The screen lit up. I froze.

June 24.

My fingers tightened around the phone.

I checked again.

June 24. I looked at the year.Then I stopped breathing. Sixty days.

Exactly sixty days.

My knees weakened.I sat down on the edge of the bed. The apocalypse was sixty days away. The first outbreak.

The panic.

The hospitals.The quarantines.The screaming.

The infected.

The collapse of the cities.The deaths.I remembered it. Every horrible second.

My eyes filled with tears.

I thought about the last day of my life. The shelter.

The evacuation.

Adrian.

His mother.

His brother.

The people I had trusted.They were all alive.I covered my mouth.

A sob escaped.

But this time, the tears weren't only from fear.

I had another chance.I had been given another chance. I slowly lowered my hands. Then I laughed.

It was a quiet laugh at first.Almost broken.

Then it became stronger.I laughed until tears ran down my face."Sixty days..."I looked at myself in the mirror.

"That's enough."

In my first life, I had spent the entire apocalypse trying to save everyone else.This time, I would save myself.I grabbed a notebook from the desk.

My hand shook as I opened it.

Then I started writing.

Food.

Water.

Medicine.

Fuel.

Generators.

Solar panels.

Batteries.

Weapons.

Vehicles.

Seeds.

Communication equipment.

Construction materials.

Everything I remembered became impossible to find.I wrote faster.There was no time to waste.The infected would come.Society would collapse.

Money would become uselessPeople would kill for food.Hospitals would become slaughterhouses.

And the people who smiled at each other today would be fighting over a bottle of water tomorrow.

I knew because I had lived through it.I turned the page.Then I stopped.

There was one more thing I needed.

Money.A lot of it.

In my previous life, I had barely had enough money to survive.

But something had happened sixty days before the apocalypse.

Something I had completely forgotten about until now. My biological parents.

I had grown up in an orphanage.

For most of my life, I believed my parents had abandoned me.I was wrong.

They had died when I was young, leaving behind an inheritance I didn't even know existed.

In my previous life, a lawyer had contacted me on this exact day.I had received the inheritance.

And then I had spent almost all of it on Adrian and his family.

Food.

Rent.

Medicine.

Cars.

Luxury. Everything they wanted. I had believed we were building a life together.

Instead, I had financed the comfort of people who would eventually leave me to die.

My phone suddenly rang.I stared at the screen.An unknown number.

My heart jumped.I already knew who it was.

I answered."Hello?"A man's polite voice came through.

"Is this Miss Scarlett Vale?"

"Yes."

"My name is Richard Morrison. I'm an attorney representing the estate of your biological parents."

I closed my eyes.The same call.The same day.The same voice.

"We have completed the necessary legal procedures concerning your parents' estate," he continued. "There are several matters I'd like to discuss with you."

I looked at my notebook.At the long list of supplies.At the date on my phone.Then I smiled.

"Mr. Morrison."

"Yes?"

"I want to sell almost everything."There was a pause."Everything?"

"Everything."

"The estate contains several properties, investments and other assets. Are you certain?" Yes."I looked out the window.The city was peaceful.Cars moved along the street.People laughed.A delivery man carried boxes into a nearby store.

Nobody knew.

Nobody had any idea what was coming.In sixty days, this peaceful city would become a graveyard."I need the money as quickly as possible," I said.

"How quickly?"

"Within two weeks."

The lawyer was silent.

Then he asked "May I know why?"I looked at my reflection in the window.

"I have my reasons."

I ended the call.My phone immediately rang again.This time, I knew exactly who it was.

Adrian.

I stared at his name.

In my previous life, seeing his name on my screen had made me smile.Now it made my stomach turn.

I answered.

"Hello?"His voice came through.

"Scarlett, you're awake?"

I said nothing.He laughed softly.

"I was actually going to ask you for a favor."Of course.

It had only been a few minutes since I returned to this life. And already, the past was knocking on my door. I looked at my notebook.Then at the date.

Sixty days.

I slowly smiled."Sure, Adrian.""What is it?" he asked.I tightened my grip on the phone.

"Tell me what you need."He began explaining.I listened.

And for the first time in two lifetimes, I understood something very clearly.

The apocalypse wasn't the only thing I had to prepare for.Before the infected came...I had to deal with the people who had betrayed me.

This time, they would not get a second chance.

Neither would I.