Chapter 1: Ten days before the doom

Sera jerked up from the bed, panting so hard her heart nearly exploded.

Sweat drenched her body, clinging the thin fabric of the nightwear to her skin.

She darted her eyes around the room frantically, panicking. She pressed a palm to her chest, realizing she was in her room, and that was shocking.

Her reading reading table leaned to the wall, arranged with books she never thought she'd see again, the coffee mug that was left there one year ago was still there— cold, impossible to explain.

This was different from the last thing she remembered.

What she last remembered was terrifying.

The bodies, the blood, the collapsed electrical grid, and the world crawling with undeads.

He placed a hand to her chest, dragging it down. "Relax, Sera. Relax. Think." She told herself, breathing through her mouth.

Had everything been one long nightmare?

Her phone buzzed. It startled her, cutting through the haze in her mind. It was Nathan. Her boyfriend. She didn't pick up. His missed calls piled up on the notification.

Sera looked at the date.

10th March 2029.

The apocalypse happened exactly ten days from this day. 20th March 2029.

Her chest hammered.

She'd just woken up ten days before the apocalypse.

She remembered in the first life the reason why she was dead. It was her boyfriend. Nathan.

He left her to die along that hallway crawling with zombies after she went with him to get medicine from the hospital to cure his severe injury.

Nathan had left her for death, holding the hand of another woman, Cassandra, Sera's biggest adversary in Titan combat academy and the woman he swore he hated, he disappeared with her into safety and left her in the middle of the horde. He didn't look back.

The memory burned in Sera's head like a heated metal.

"Nathan, we can't go back to her again, she'll slow us down." Cassandra had told him. And Nathan listened. He abandoned her, walked away with another Cassy.

Sera was bitten by those dead walkers.

Mutating to become one of their kind, the last thing she remembered was saying,

"If I had another chance, I'll never be with you. And I'll make you regret your betrayal."

Then everything shut down.

She gasped awake on her bed.

Her chest tightened to the memories of his betrayal, aching deep from inside where trust and love once lived.

Her phone chimed.

Nathan.

Her expression twisted into something ugly. Seeing his name alone twisted her belly.

Before the apocalypse, she would have picked his call instantly, but that urgency and attention ends today.

Sera swiped his call to the red icon. And surprisingly, she didn't feel the slightest hint of unease from doing so.

Nathan had called tenth times.

She swiped clean the notifications off without thinking about it twice.

His text came in two seconds later.

"What's going on, Sera? Been trying to reach you for eternity. I have been at Babio restaurant since 40 minutes past Seven. Have you forgotten we fixed a Date at Seven?"

Sera scoffed. "Not interested." Two words. Absolutely detached. She didn't text back.

She was done with him. This Sera was the girl she once killed, and this time she wasn't going to let him push her to death while performing Hero for another woman.

Sera left the bed. She looked outside through the window. Everything was completely normal. Almost like the nightmare she woke up from was delusional. But she knew it wasn't.

Her mind reeled around one thought. Survival.

She needs to make plans. To protect people that needed protection— people who mattered to her, and cut off people who betrayed her in the first life— people like Nathan.

During the apocalypse, everyone in her family died. Her step-mother, his father, and her step-sister. This time around, she'll warn them. They must survive together.

She picked up her phone with the kind of speed urgency demands and dialed her father.

"Hello, Dad," Sera greeted him quickly, "where are you? mum and Rosalinda?"

"Rosalinda is in her room. Your step-mother travelled out of the city. She'll be back in a month?"

A month?

Sera's finger tightened around the phone slightly.

"Listen Dad, tell her to return in the next five days. I'll explain everything later."

"You've never sounded like this before, Sera," Her father asked, "is there a problem at the Academy?"

"That's because I'm serious. Tell her to be back in the next five days."

She disconnected the call.

Ten days is apparently long, but it's not long enough to be wasted. She had to act fast.

The door gilded. Evelyn,her roommate and best friend walked in, a glossy shopping back in her hand.

"You're back."

Evelyn kicked off her heels across the room, sank to the edge of her bed, sitting across from Sera. An exciting smile plastered to her face.

"I got a beautiful dress for myself." She gushed and emptied the contents of the bag on the bed.

A crimson gown spilled out with other accessories: Heels, lipgloss, underwear...

She stood and raised the gown to her body, posing in front of Sera to check out the fitting and design.

"How will I look in this? Is it perfect for a date?" Her cheek flushed.

"You're going on a date with Jim?" Sera asked.

Evelyn lowered the gown, her smile dropping to disappointment.

"Doesn't look like he's going to ask me out. Just hopeful he will. Soon."

In the past life before the apocalypse, Evelyn died on the first day of the apocalypse, and Jim who survived was heartbroken by her death. He loved her.

"I'll do everything to keep you alive this time around, Evelyn."

Sera promised in her mind.

She looked at Evelyn squarely. "Why don't you propose to him?"

Evelyn looked at her, eyes narrowing in surprise. Then she let out a sharp laugh. "C'mon Sera, I'm not desperate."

"It's not." Sera clipped. "You might never have the chance again to be with the man that makes you happy again.

Evelyn froze in place.

"Did Jim pay you for this talk or you're just.."

"I'm stating a Fact, Evy." Sera cut through her words, voice tight.

Evelyn stared at her for a long time.

"You're speaking like the world is going to end."

Sera couldn't bring herself to tell her the part of her death. It'll scare her to death.

"An apocalypse is going to hit the world. Zombies." She said, cutting out the part of her death.

Evelyn's eyes narrowed. "How?

"I don't know, Evy" Sera said sincerely, staring into the empty air. "The priority now is not finding reasons. It's surviving."

Evelyn let out a sharp skeptical laughter. "Sera you've been watching a lot of horror movies lately and it's beginning to affect you."

Sera held her gaze seriously.

"I saw it." She said, but her sounded unconvincing. "Listen you don't need to believe me right now. You will when the time comes. I just need us to work together."

Silence settled in the room.

Ding!

A sharp automatic sound chimed in Sera's head.

A blue hologram interface appeared before her eyes, startling her to shock.

"What the heck?" She gasped, eyes widened to the screen glowing in the air. "Can you see that?" She pointed to the screen, but Evelyn saw nothing except the painting on the wall.

"See what?" She frowned slightly. "You mean the wall paint?"

Sera swallowed, realizing she was the only one who could see the screen floating in the air.

The screen flashed boldly:

[STRATEGIC ZOMBIE SYSTEM ALERT]

[ SYSTEM SYNCHRONIZING WITH HOST: 10%>>20%>>50%>>>70%>>>100%]

[Host name: Sera Mercer.]

[Age: 21]

[Ability: Combat skill 50%]

[Rank: B rank. Skilled 25% with hand fighting and 25% with two weapons: Gun and knife:]

[ Intelligence: 40% Can't survive apocalypse. Needs upgrade]

[Survival instinct: 5%. Too Bad]

[ Active skill: None.]

[ Pain tolerance: 2%. Very poor]

[Strength: 42%]

Sera's jaw dropped, eyes fixed to the screen.

The scene shifted to a real-time time stamp.

09:23:41:17

"Nine days, twenty-three hours, forty one minutes and seventeen seconds before the start of the apocalypse.'

The screen shifted again.

[MAIN MISSION QUEST ALERT]

[Main Mission: Find the most powerful man in the Academy.]

[Cruciality: Very crucial. Without him you can't survive alone]

[Target: Unknown]

[Target location: Unknown]

[Time Limit: 5 Days]

[Progress: 0%]

[Reward: hidden]

[Failure: Fatal Death before the apocalypse.]

Sera gasped.