Chapter 2: Keep Your Head Down And Don't Fall In Love With The Male Lead

JUNO'S POV

I have read 217 apocalypse novels.

In 189 of them, the heroine falls in love with the first hot guy who saves her.

I swore I would never be that stupid.

That was before Kai Storm carried me like I was a princess in a war movie.

His arms didn't even shake. Those giant guns were strapped to his back and he was still carrying me like I was a bag of flour. A very traumatized, ash-covered, zombie-blood-splattered bag of flour.

"You're bleeding," he said, not looking down at me.

"I'm not. That's not my blood," I said quickly. "It's... it's Rotter blood. From the ones you exploded. Very... moisturizing."

He didn't laugh.

Tough crowd.

He kicked open a rusted side door of the pharmacy, the green cross sign flickering, and ducked inside. The air inside was stale and smelled like old medicine and dust.

"Hold on," he said, and then he jumped.

I screamed again because there was a hole in the floor. A trap door. He jumped straight down into it with me in his arms and landed in a basement.

A real safe house. Exactly like in Chapter 2.

Cots. Water bottles. A small camping stove. Guns on the wall. A cracked mirror and a calendar from 2016 that was stuck on March.

This was too detailed to be a hallucination.

He finally put me down on a cot. My legs actually gave out again, but this time from adrenaline.

He threw me a water bottle and a protein bar that expired two years ago. "Drink. Eat. You look like you're about to pass out."

I drank. The water tasted metallic but I chugged it anyway. My hands were still shaking so hard I almost spilled it on myself.

He crouched in front of me, reloading those massive guns, watching me.

"Where's your base?" he asked.

I blinked. "My... my base?"

"Your survivor base. You don't survive out here alone without ARK. You don't have an ARK glow. So where are you from? Haven? The Jackals?"

ARK. The System. Of course.

In the book, everyone who survived had been chosen by ARK — the System created by the good scientist, Dr. Elara Quinn, to fight Dr. Crowe's virus. It gave you a power. It glowed faintly blue on your wrist if you were chosen.

I looked at my wrist. Nothing. Just my burn marks.

"I don't have a base," I said honestly. "I have... I had an apartment. In... Queens. With a roommate who steals my leftovers and I'm pretty sure hates me too."

Kai frowned. "Queens? There's no Queens Sector."

"No, like... New York. Queens, New York."

He stared at me like I just said I was from Mars.

"New York fell in Year 1," he said slowly. "There's no Queens anymore. Just the Dead Zones."

My stomach dropped to my knees.

"Year? What year is it?" I asked, even though I knew. I needed to hear him say it.

"Year 10 After C," he said. "After Crowe released the C. Virus."

Year 10 After C. Chapter 1 timeline.

I was really in it. I was really in Alice in Apocalypse Land.

"Okay. Okay, okay, okay," I started muttering, pacing even though my legs felt like jelly. "Okay, so lightning struck, phone electrocuted me, I got summoned like those isekai novels where the truck-kun hits you but mine was lightning-kun, and now I'm in the book. I'm in the book I was reading. That I made fun of."

Kai stood up. "What book?"

"The book!" I turned to him, desperate. "Your book! Alice in Apocalypse Land! You're Kai Storm! You're the male lead! You're 27, you have Overdrive, you have a scar on your jaw from when you were 19 fighting a Rotter that killed your little brother! You meet Alice Ward in this exact pharmacy in Chapter 1 and you both go to the high school base and... "

I stopped because Kai's expression changed.

From suspicious to... concerned. Like I was having a psychotic break.

"Pizza girl," he said carefully, hand hovering near his gun. Not to shoot me, but like I might bite. "You hit your head when you fell. You have a concussion."

"I did NOT hit my head! I got electrocuted!"

"Same thing."

"No, it's not the same thing! I'm telling you, I know this story! I know you!"

He took a step closer. I took a step back and hit the cot.

"Do you know me?" I demanded. "Have you ever seen me before? In your life?"

"No," he said honestly.

"Exactly! Because I wasn't in the original manuscript! I was never supposed to be here! I'm an extra! No scratch that, I'm an error!"

As soon as I said the word 'error', something happened.

The air in front of my eyes flickered.

Blue light. Text. Just like in the novel's descriptions of ARK activating.

But Kai couldn't see it. He was still looking at me like I was crazy.

The text floated in front of my face:

[WARNING: FOREIGN ENTITY DETECTED]

[ENTITY NAME: JUNO COOPER]

[ORIGINAL TIMELINE PRESENCE: 0%]

[ROLE: UNASSIGNED]

[TIMELINE STABILITY: 98% - MINOR FLUCTUATION]

[ATTEMPTING TO CORRECT...]

The text glitched. Sparked.

[CORRECTION FAILED]

[ATTEMPTING TO ASSIGN COMPATIBLE ROLE...]

My head started to pound. A sharp, needle-like pain behind my eyes.

"Ah!" I grabbed my head.

Kai moved fast. He was in front of me in one step, hands on my shoulders to keep me from falling. "Hey. Hey, look at me. Breathe."

His hands were warm and rough.

The second he touched me, the text changed and an image flashed in my head, not text, an actual image.

I saw Kai, in this same basement, ten seconds from now, letting go of my shoulders and saying, "You need to rest."

It was so fast, like a memory that hadn't happened yet.

Then he did it.

He let go of my shoulders. "You need to rest," he said.

I gasped and stared at him, eyes wide.

"I... I saw that," I whispered. "I saw you do that just before you did it."

He frowned. "What?"

Before I could answer, the trap door above us banged open.

Footsteps. Multiple.

Kai spun, gun up instantly, shielding me with his body.

"Clear!" a female voice shouted.

Two figures dropped down into the basement.

The first was blonde, ponytail high, combat suit so tight I could see every muscle she had earned surviving the apocalypse. Dual pistols strapped to her thighs. Beautiful in a scary way.

Alice Ward.

Oh my god! It's Alice Ward!

The original female lead. The heroine of the book I was now inside. The girl who was supposed to end up with Kai.

The second was a woman with a shaved head and arms bigger than my entire body, carrying a war hammer over her shoulder like it was a purse.

Commander Vera Stone.

Or I like to call her miss A****n.

And behind them, silent as a ghost, a man dropped down last. Long blonde hair covering half his face, two katanas on his back. He didn't make a sound when he landed.

Ren Hayashi. The second male lead. The one all the readers fought over in the comments. Including me.

All of them. The whole main squad. In one basement.

I was having the worst and best fan-girl moment of my life while also actively having a migraine and being covered in zombie blood.

Alice's gun was pointed straight at my forehead.

"Who is she?" she asked Kai, eyes never leaving me.

"Found her in Sector 7," Kai said. "Alone. No base. Says she's from Queens."

Alice's eyes narrowed. "There's no Queens."

"I know!" I squeaked, hands up. "I know there's no Queens anymore! I'm not from here! I'm..."

"She says she knows you," Kai cut in. "From a book."

Vera snorted. "A book?"

Ren said nothing. He just stared at me from behind his hair. That stare was worse than the gun.

Alice lowered her gun an inch, studying my face. "Are you bitten?"

"No!"

"ARK signature?" Vera asked.

Kai shook his head. "None."

"So she's a civilian? How did a civilian survive Sector 7 alone during a herd?"

That was a good question. A question I didn't have a good answer for because "I got plot-armored by the male lead five minutes ago" sounded insane.

I looked at Alice, at Vera, at silent Ren, at Kai.

I was supposed to be dead already. In the original book, the girl who was in my position in the street, a random scavenger, died in Chapter 1 to show how dangerous Rotters are.

I was supposed to be the throwaway death.

But I wasn't dead. Because Kai saved me.

And the blue text in front of me flickered one last time, brighter, and then settled.

[ABILITY ASSIGNED: SPOILER - LVL 1]

[DESCRIPTION: TOUCH TO SEE 10 SECONDS OF TARGET'S IMMEDIATE FUTURE]

[SIDE EFFECT: MIGRAINE, NOSEBLEED]

[WELCOME TO ARK, JUNO COOPER]

[ROLE: ERROR]

I touched my nose and felt the blood.

You gotta be kidding me.

I had a power now.

I looked up at the four most dangerous people in this apocalypse, all staring at me like I was a puzzle, and I managed to smile even though my head was killing me.

"My name is Juno," I said, my voice shaking. "And what would you say if I told you I know exactly where you hide the meds and antibiotics?"

~