CHAPTER FOUR

"I'm fine," I said.

She nodded and left, humming something under her breath. When the door clicked shut, I let my face go. I'd been holding the smile so tight my cheeks ached.

I went to the window and pushed the pink curtains aside.

Down below, the street was ordinary.

A bus was wheezing at the corner. A guy in a bad suit was running for it with a coffee in one hand. Two kids were fighting over a scooter by the playground, and somebody's dog barked and barked at nothing.

A woman on the third floor across the way was shaking a rug out over her balcony railing.

All those people. Not one of them knew.

In thirty days that woman would be dead, or running, or something worse, the kids with the scooter and the man with the coffee.

And I was standing here with the whole thing in my head, every road that would jam, every pharmacy that would be emptied in the first week, which shopping mall had the loading dock that stayed safe the longest, and which of my neighbors would sell a stranger out for half a tank of gas.

What I'd learned, mostly, was that I'd been wrong about one thing. I'd thought the monsters were the dangerous part.

"System," I said, feeling like an idiot.

Nothing.

"System?"

I called again with my brows arched.

The silence stretched. I was starting to wonder whether I'd imagined the whole thing, whether I was lying in a hospital bed somewhere, in a coma, putting together a very detailed dream, when a voice slid into my head, flat and polite and a little too cheerful.

[Host command recognized.]

I nearly knocked the curtain rod down.

A pale blue panel unfolded in the air in front of my face, edges glittering, like a window made of cold light.

[Apocalypse Survival System. Host: Emma.]

[Survival countdown: 30 days.]

"You're real," I said.

[Correct.]

"What do you actually do?"

[The System assists the Host in surviving, and in growing stronger, during the Apocalypse.]

"That's not an answer. That's a brochure."

[The Host may complete missions to earn rewards.]

I crossed my arms. "What kind of rewards?"

[Food. Water. Weapons. Medicine. Currency. Skills. Abilities. Equipment. Storage space. Special items.]

I'd been about to say something sarcastic, but I stopped.

"Storage space? Is that what you mean?"

[Yes.]

"How much?"

There was a pause, and I swear it was a smug one.

[Current capacity: 100 cubic meters.]

I did the math in my head, badly, and then just laughed out loud, because it didn't matter, it was a room.

It was an entire room I could carry around in my pocket. In my last life I'd once fought a man for a half-empty bag of rice.

"Okay," I said. "Yeah. That'll do."

And right behind the laughter came the second thought, which was money.

I had some.

Not rich-people money, not the kind that would later buy someone a private compound and a dozen armed guards, but I'd been saving since my first job, stubbornly, boringly, out of some instinct I'd never been able to explain, and it was more than enough to get a start.

More than enough, because I knew things.

I could feel how much I knew, like a second spine. Which stores would be stripped in the first forty-eight hours. Which highways turned into parking lots by the end of the first week.

Where the army set up the first evacuation point, and how long it lasted before it fell.

Who in my building would help, and who'd lock their doors.

And I knew the biggest mistake I'd ever made, which was putting other people's judgment above my own.

"System. Can I change it? What happens?"

[The future is not fixed.]

"What does that mean?"

[The Host's actions may alter future events.]

I smiled. It felt strange living a life I had lived once before.

Good. That was exactly what I wanted to hear.

I pulled the wardrobe open and stood staring at my old clothes, and my brain started throwing a list at me faster than I could write it down.

Food. Water. Medicine, so much medicine. Batteries, a generator, fuel, solar panels, boots, winter coats, rope, a proper knife, one I'd actually sharpen.

Anything that might still be working when nothing else was.

And a place. A real one. I'd followed Daniel to his sanctuary last time, and it had been a trap with a nice sign on it: too many people, too little food, and by the second month they were killing each other over the soup.

This time I'd build my own. A sanctuary I could call home. A place even many high officials would never think of.

That was exactly what I was going to build.

"System, do I have a mission?"

The blue panel flickered and rearranged itself.

[New Mission available.]

[Mission: Prepare for the Apocalypse.]

[Objective: Gather enough resources to survive the first ninety days.]

[Time limit: 30 days.]

[Reward: Beginner Survival Gift Pack.]

"And if I fail?"

[The Host's survival probability will decrease significantly.]

I rolled my eyes. "Wow. Thanks. Very inspiring."

[The System is not designed to inspire the Host.]

I stared at the screen. Then I snorted, and then I was laughing for real, helplessly, with my hand over my mouth so Mom wouldn't hear. It had been so long.

"You're really annoying," I told it.

[Statement acknowledged.]

"Of course it is."

I picked my phone up off the desk. It was old, with a crack in the corner I'd forgotten about, and when the screen lit up it was so bright it hurt. I opened my banking app, expecting the worst, and just stood there blinking.

The number was bigger than I'd remembered. Of course it was.

This was before the panic buying and the price spikes, before I'd burned through everything in the first awful months. I'd honestly forgotten what it felt like to have money, and to know it would still be worth something tomorrow.

"All right," I said quietly. "Let's see what you can do."

I went to my contacts, thumb already moving. I'd start with my landlord. I needed a place with more than one way out, and thick walls, well away from the center of town, something I could reinforce without a neighbor asking questions. I had my thumb over the call button when the phone buzzed in my hand.

I looked at the name and it flashed with the name Daniel with a heart attached to it.

I'd put the heart there myself.

The phone kept buzzing. I could feel the vibration in my wrist, and every nerve in my arm was telling me to throw it out the window.

Two years. I'd loved him for two years. I'd trusted him with my life and my sister's life, and he'd looked straight at me and said you were useful.

It kept ringing for a while before I found the courage to pick up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, finally."

That warm, easy voice, so full of itself and so completely relaxed.

"What took so long?" he said.

I closed my eyes. This was the voice that used to make my whole day better. Now it was like touching a live wire.

"Sleeping."

"Ah." He laughed. "Lazy. Listen, are you free today?"

"Why?"

"I want to take you out. Just us. I feel like I never get to see you."

I said nothing.

"Emma? You there?"

"I'm here."

"So? Yes? No?"

In the mirror across the room, a girl was holding a phone to her ear. She had a calm, flat, careful face. I almost didn't recognize her.

In thirty days this man would shove me against a railing and ride an elevator down with my sister. But that hadn't happened yet. He was still just a boy on the other end of a call, being nice, with no idea that I knew exactly what he'd do.

"Sure," I said. "Why not."

"Really? Seriously?" He sounded so pleased. "Great. I'll swing by in an hour."

"Okay."

He hung up first. I lowered the phone and watched the screen go dark.

Daniel thought he had thirty days left of the life he'd planned. A pretty girlfriend, a pretty sister, a very comfortable lie.

He was wrong. He had thirty days left, and so did I. But I knew what came after them.

I opened my contacts again and scrolled until I found the number of the wholesale warehouse my uncle used to buy from. It rang twice.

"Hi," I said, when someone picked up. "I need to place a large order. Food. A lot of food."

Outside, the bus finally pulled away. Somewhere downstairs, Mom was calling us down for pancakes.

The panel hanging in front of me flickered once more.

[Main Mission activated: Survive the Apocalypse.]

[First sub-mission: Spend $10,000 on survival supplies.]

[Reward: 500 Survival Points.]

I smiled, and this time, it fit.

"Let's begin."

This time, I was not going to be at the mercy of Daniel and Lily.

It was going to be controlling the narrative. A smile appeared on my face as I walked out of my room.

All I had was just thirty days to prepare and get ready for the human dead zombies.