Chapter 3 – My Cheating Fiancé Died Before Christmas

[CHRONOS CHRISTMAS SYSTEM ACTIVATED. INITIATING EMERGENCY TEMPORAL DISPLACEMENT: PLUS TWENTY YEARS.]

A blinding sphere of electric-blue light detonates around my body just as the burning warehouse roof caves inward, swallowing the roaring flames whole and hurling me sideways through an invisible tunnel of freezing static. My stomach lurches violently as gravity flips upside down three times in a row, and an instant later, I slam face-first into a three-foot drift of dirty, ice-crusted snow.

"Gah! Cold! Freezing! What in the name of—cough, cough—where did the fire go?!" I gasp, scrambling up onto my knees and spitting freezing grey slush out of my mouth while slapping snow off my singed wool coat.

Around me, the roaring warehouse inferno has vanished completely. Instead, I am kneeling in the middle of a shattered, snow-buried six-lane avenue lined with half-collapsed skyscrapers whose broken windows yawn like jagged black teeth against a bruised, slate-grey sky. Shredded red-and-green Christmas banners hang limply from snapped streetlights like frozen rags, fluttering mournfully in a howling arctic wind that cuts straight through my clothes. Burned-out husks of abandoned cars lie piled against snow-drifted storefronts, and motionless, frost-covered bodies litter the cracked asphalt like discarded mannequins after a riot.

"Okay, either smoke inhalation gave me the most vivid hallucination in medical history, or Santa Claus really let the neighborhood go to hell," wait a minute this look like our city no way, Holy Shit did I just get transported to the future!”

Before I can even take three steps toward the nearest ruined storefront, a second violent flash of electric-blue light crackles twenty feet behind me, spitting a screaming, flailing figure straight into a toppled pile of rusted metal garbage cans with a deafening clatter.

"Zinnia?! What kind of sick, twisted magic trick is this?!" Dorian Ashcroft shrieks, scrambling out of the trash heap in his unbuttoned designer trench coat while clutching his forehead with both hands. "I went back into the warehouse to make sure the fire caught properly, and the whole room exploded into blue lightning! Did you hire a demolition crew and a Hollywood special effects team?! Where the hell are we?!"

"Oh, look! The garbage literally followed me through the time portal!" I shout back over the wind, planting my hands on my hips and glaring across the snowdrift at my former fiancé. "Welcome to the apocalypse, Dorian!Ten out of ten atmosphere, minus a million stars for the company!"

"Stop talking nonsense and tell me how we got from the riverfront warehouse to—to whatever movie set this is!" Dorian snaps, stumbling over a snow-covered mailbox as he glances wildly up at the ruined skyscrapers and swaying holiday wreaths. "My phone has zero signal! Even the GPS satellite grid is completely dead!"

"That’s probably because satellites tend to stop working twenty years after civilization collapses, genius!" I holler back, pointing at a rusted street sign half-buried in ice that reads FIFTH AVENUE & WINTER STREET."Though honestly, even if cell towers were working, I doubt AT&T covers afterlife-adjacent temporal anomalies!"

"Shut up! Look over there!" Dorian’s voice cracks into a high-pitched, pathetic squeal as he points a trembling finger toward the shattered glass display window of a nearby luxury department store.

Out of the pitch-black interior stumble a dozen rotting figures wearing blood-stained winter coats, tattered business suits, and faded holiday sweaters. Their skin is grey and peeling off their cheekbones, their eyes are completely milky white, and guttural, rattling snarls echo down the empty avenue as they catch sight of us and break into a jerky, relentless sprint across the ice.

"Actors! They’re just crazy, underpaid method actors!" Dorian babbles backward, slipping on a patch of black ice and catching himself against the rusted hood of an overturned taxi before his eyes lock onto the nearest creature’s exposed, decaying ribs and snapped jawbone. "No—no, those aren't prosthetics! Those things are dead! Run, Zinnia, run!"

Without a single second of hesitation, Dorian lunges toward me across the slush, grabs my shoulders with both hands, and hurls me violently forward directly into the path of the leading zombie. "Take her! Eat her first!She’s closer and she has way more meat on her bones!"

"You absolute, spineless human garbage!" I roar, twisting mid-air as my boots skid across the frozen asphalt.

Instead of stumbling into the creature’s outstretched, blackened claws, I drop flat onto my hip and kick both heavy leather boots straight into the back of Dorian’s knees with every ounce of strength in my legs. His knees fold instantly like a cheap plastic card table, sending him crashing face-first onto the frozen pavement directly beneath the lunging monster.

CRUNCH!

The zombie drops onto Dorian’s back like a falling anvil, burying its jagged, blackened teeth deep into the side of his neck and left shoulder with a sickening wet snap that echoes sharply across the quiet street.

"AAAHHH! IT BIT ME! IT ACTUALLY BIT ME! ZINNIA, HELP ME!" Dorian screams at an ear-splitting volume,thrashing wildly in the bloody snow as four more corpses pile onto his legs and torso, tearing viciously through his cashmere trench coat and silk pajamas. "I’m sorry! I swear I’ll tear up the asset transfer papers! I’ll turn Calista and Belladonna in to the police tomorrow morning! I’ll give you back your grandmother’s diamond ring!Zinnia, please pull them off me! Don't let them eat me!"

I stand ten feet away, panting clouds of white mist into the freezing air while watching the man who drugged me and locked me inside a burning warehouse twenty minutes ago get devoured alive in the middle of a ruined street.

"Let me check my calendar, Dorian!" I yell over his frantic, echoing shrieks, tapping one gloved finger briskly against my chin. "Hmm, today I’m completely booked solid with not dying for a cheating coward, followed immediately by watching karma work faster than overnight express shipping! Give my warmest regards to the zombies!"

"You cold-blooded monster! Help me! Zinnia, please—gurgle!" Dorian’s final, high-pitched scream cuts off abruptly into a wet, choking rattle beneath a snarling pile of twelve feeding corpses fighting viciously over the fresh meat in the center of the intersection.

"Enjoy the holiday buffet, boys, and make sure you floss afterward!" I shout at the feeding pack before turning briskly toward the shattered glass entrance of a massive, snow-covered shopping mall thirty yards down the block.

Right on cue, a towering zombie wearing a shredded mall security uniform and a crooked plastic Santa hat lifts its blood-smeared face from the crimson snow, locks its milky white eyes squarely onto mine, and lets out a piercing, bone-chilling shriek that echoes off the surrounding skyscrapers. Instantly, half the pack abandons Dorian’s remains and charges straight toward me across the ice, their frozen joints cracking loudly with every stride.

A crisp blue holographic screen chimes loudly beside my face, hovering steadily in the freezing air as I backpedal rapidly across the slush:[TEMPORAL DISPLACEMENT COMPLETE. TRAITOR ELIMINATED. FIRST SURVIVAL MISSION ISSUED: ESCAPE IMMEDIATE HOSTILE ENCOUNTER AND SECURE SHELTER. FAILURE RESULTS IN PERMANENT DEATH.]

"Oh, fantastic! Not only am I stuck twenty years in the future without a spare pair of thermal socks, my floating blue hallucination has a sadistic sense of humor!" I yell at the glowing text, spinning on my heel and sprinting at full speed down the snow-choked avenue toward the shattered revolving doors of the Grand Starlight Mall ahead, with a pack of snarling, blood-soaked corpses thundering less than twenty feet behind my heels.