chapter 10

Serena POV

"What am I supposed to do now?"

The question echoed in the hollow, terrifying silence of my mind like a cruel joke.

I stood paralyzed in front of the flickering security monitors, watching the blue light wash over my hands. The sight on the screen was a nightmare painted in real-time blood. Marcus's betrayal had ripped away my last line of defense.

Everything I had planned, every calculation I had made since the moment I woke up in my past life—it was all crumbling to dust. What was the point of being reborn? What was the point of returning to the past, of stockpiling tons of supplies in an infinite spatial void, if I was just going to be slaughtered in my own home anyway?

It felt as though the universe was mocking me, dragging me backward through time just to force me to watch my downfall all over again.

I bolted out of the security room, throwing my body into the dimly lit corridor.

The mansion had descended into total, unadulterated chaos. The deafening, rhythmic BANG! BANG! BANG! of gunshots echoed through the eastern wing as my remaining security officers frantically fired their weapons, but their gunfire was drowned out by the screams of terrified staff sprinting blindly toward the main residential quarters.

Outside, the courtyard was a drowning sea of nightmare. Hundreds of infected streamed through the secondary gate Marcus had opened, crashing against the lower glass walls, smashing heavy wooden doors off their hinges, and tearing down everything in their path like a ravenous, unstoppable tide.

"I have to reach the primary panic room!" I gritted my teeth, gripping my heavy iron bar until my knuckles turned ghost-white.

I turned the corner toward the main hallway, but my breath caught in my throat.

The corridor was completely choked. A cluster of snarling, blood-drenched zombies turned simultaneously toward the sound of my footsteps. Crimson eyes locked onto mine, their graying faces slick with rain and fresh gore.

There was no time to turn back.

I screamed a fierce, desperate battle cry and raised the iron bar.

CRACK!

I swung with all the force in my body, smashing the rod directly into the head of the lead creature. Brain matter and black fluid splattered against the wallpaper as it collapsed like a sack of stones.

Before I could reset my stance, a second zombie lunged out from the shadows, its filthy, claw-like hands clamping around the lapels of my coat.

"Get off me!" I shrieked, struggling against its unnatural, dead weight.

It yanked me forward violently, dragging my chest against its chest, its unhinged jaw snapping inches from my face. The stench of copper and rotting flesh choked my throat. I drove my knee upward into its midsection with every ounce of strength I had left, forcing it to stagger back just enough for me to bring the iron bar around again, crushing its windpipe.

THUD.

It fell, but the momentum carried me off balance.

Out of my peripheral vision, a shadow moved. A third infected hurled itself at me from behind the velvet curtains.

Before I could turn, sharp, jagged teeth tore through the fabric of my sleeve and sank deep into the meat of my left arm.

CHOMP.

"AAAAGH!"

A blinding, white-hot agony exploded up my limb, screaming straight to my brain. Pain tore through my nerves like liquid fire.

I stumbled backward, my boots slipping on the blood-slicked floor, slamming hard against the wall. I kicked wildly, driving my heavy boot straight into the creature's chest, shoving it away until it tumbled over the banister.

Chest heaving, tears of absolute agony blurring my vision, I clutched my left forearm.

I slowly pulled back the torn leather of my jacket.

Two deep, jagged puncture marks dripped dark, crimson blood onto my sleeve.

My heart stopped. The world around me seemed to go entirely mute.

"No..." I whimpered, a breathless, broken whisper escaping my lips. "No... please, God, no..."

I stared at the bite mark in utter horor. I knew what this meant. In my previous life, I had watched dozens of survivors get bitten. I had seen the black, venomous veins spread like spiderwebs beneath the skin. I had watched them sweat, convulse, lose their minds, and transform into mindless, flesh-eating monsters within hours.

I was going to die.

Not by being torn apart in the dark. Not by a locked door. I was going to turn into one of them.

After everything I fought for... after coming back... I'm going to turn.

"Grrrr..."

Another zombie stepped over the bodies in the corridor, its dead eyes locked on my blood, lunging toward my defenseless body with its mouth wide open.

"Get away from me!" I screamed in pure, primal instinct, raising my injured left hand defensively toward the approaching monster.

Suddenly, a blinding, electric blue light erupted from the tips of my fingers.

BOOM!

A deafening crackle of lightning exploded from my palm, shooting down the narrow corridor like a jagged lance of pure energy. The blinding flash illuminated the dark hallway in brilliant, terrifying white.

The lightning slammed directly into the zombie's chest. The impact threw the creature backward six feet through the air, its body twitching violently in mid-air as blue sparks danced across its charred skin before it slammed into the wall and collapsed into a motionless, smoking heap.

I froze, pinned against the wall.

The air in the corridor smelled heavily of ozone, scorched fabric, and burnt flesh.

I stared down at my trembling left hand. Tiny, delicate tendrils of crackling blue electricity were dancing across my skin, wrapping around my knuckles like living threads of fire before fading into my pores.

What... what is this?

My jaw hung open. I had never possessed an ability like this in my previous life. I had been a normal, weak human who relied on weapons and luck.

Down the hall, two more infected rushed around the corner, drawn by the sound of the explosion.

My heart hammered a frantic rhythm against my ribs. I lifted my trembling left hand again, focused every ounce of my desperation onto the approaching threat, and willed the fire in my blood to rise.

STRIKE!

CRACK-BOOM!

A second bolt of blinding blue arc-lightning tore through the air, driving straight through the chest of the lead zombie and arcing into the one behind it. Both bodies dropped instantly, their nervous systems completely fried, smoke curling from their blackened clothes.

I stared at my palm, gasping for air, my whole frame shaking uncontrollably.

A power. A true, elemental ability.

Before my mind could even process the magnitude of what had just happened, a strange, mechanical chime echoed directly inside the deepest recesses of my consciousness.

A glowing, translucent screen of blue light materialized right before my eyes:

> [NOTIFICATION: COMBAT ABILITY AWAKENED]

> [ELEMENT: LIGHTNING / TIER 1]

>

My breath hitched. A hysterical, disbelieving laugh rose in my throat. I had an elemental power! I could fight back! I could defend my shelter!

But before the thought could even settle, the screen flashed a violent, flashing crimson.

> [++ WARNING: CRITICAL INFECTION DETECTED IN LEFT FOREARM ++]

> [PATHOGEN SPREADING RATE: 4.2% PER MINUTE]

>

The blue light faded from the screen, leaving me standing alone in the dark, smoky corridor.

I slowly lowered my gaze to my left arm.

The skin surrounding the bite mark was already turning a sickening, bruised black. Dark, ink-like veins were rapidly crawling outward from the wound, spreading upward past my wrist, marching steadily toward my heart.

The nightmare was real.

I had awakened a godlike power... but I was already a dead woman walking.