All Chapters of 72 Hours to the Apocalypse: Rebirth of the Heiress: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Zomy POV"Please, just let me in..."My voice is nothing more than a dry rasp, scraping against a throat torn raw by screaming into the frozen wind. Outside the iron gates of the Blackwood estate, the snow is dyed a dark, ugly crimson where my bare fingers clawed at the frozen earth. Through the towering floor-to-ceiling windows of the grand ballroom, I can see the amber glow of the chandeliers. I can see the crystal flutes catching the light as Lucas and Christina raise them in a toast. They are laughing. They are celebrating the final seizure of everything my parents left me, while I freeze to death in the ruins of a dying world where the dead are already rising from the snowbanks.A rotting groan echoes from the darkness behind me.I turn my head, my vision blurring with black frost, and see a jagged silhouette stumbling toward me through the blizzard—a neighbor whose jaw is half-missing, eyes milky and dead.I gave them my heart. I gave them my blood. I gave them my empire. And as

Zomy POV"Open the damn gate."My hand grips the heavy iron bar of the main estate gate, the cold rusted metal biting deep into my palm as I shove the massive barrier inward. In my past life, I only ever saw these gates from the outside, pressed against the frozen snow while I begged for a scrap of warmth and a morsel of food from the monsters who locked me out. Now, the heavy brass key turns smoothly in the ancient lock, and the sprawling, overgrown sanctuary of my ancestral home opens wide just for me."Zomy, are you out of your absolute mind?"Uncle Arthur’s furious voice barks through the phone receiver the second I step onto the neglected stone pathway, but I hit the disconnect button without a single word of hesitation.I walk through the towering double doors of the main manor, my boots echoing against the dusty parquet floor. It's neglected, drafty, and choked with years of undisturbed dust, but it is solid, fortified, and completely isolated from the rest of the city. I push

Zomy POV"Seventy-two hours. That is all I have before the world goes completely up in flames."My hand flies across the lined notebook paper, pen scratching out endless lists of canned protein, purified water gallons, industrial antibiotics, fuel barrels, and heavy-duty iron locks. In my past life, I spent these exact three days fussing over flower arrangements and menu choices for an engagement party that was nothing more than a slaughterhouse setup. Now, I am standing in the center of my ancestral manor's grand library with blood-shot eyes and an unyielding, frantic focus, converting every last square inch of my assets into pure survival currency."Thank God for that spatial storage," I mutter under my breath, my mind dipping into the dark, silent void where an entire wholesale warehouse's worth of dry goods currently floats in absolute suspension.I don't need trucks. I don't need shipping containers. I can empty grocery stores, medical supply depots, and hardware shops with a sin

"We don't have thirty-six hours anymore. We have thirty."My hands don't stop moving, my wrench biting hard into the heavy steel bolt I'm driving into the reinforced window shutter of the manor's ground floor. Metal screams against metal, the abrasive sound echoing through the cold, cavernous hallway as Job heists another massive water tank into position by the back pantry."Keep your breathing steady, Zomy," Job's deep, gravelly voice cuts through the clatter of tools. "Panic burns calories you can't afford to waste.""I am not panicking," I snap back, though my heart hammers a frantic, jagged rhythm against my ribs.Upstairs in the guest bedroom, little Kitty is finally fast asleep, her small fingers tightly clutching her battered crayon sketchbook to her chest even in the dark. Every hour we pull closer to the court-ordered injunction hearing, the phantom chill of my past death creeps back into my bones. In my previous life, I died freezing, forgotten, and utterly helpless outside

Zomy POV"Welcome to your new home, Kitty."My arms open wide as the small, dark-haired girl sprints across the cold gravel driveway of the estate, launching herself straight into my chest with a breathless giggle. I catch her effortlessly, spinning her around once before setting her down on the flagstone path, watching her wide, solemn eyes light up as she gazes up at the towering stone facade of the manor.Job steps through the open iron security gates right behind her, slinging a heavy duffel bag over his broad shoulder while his sharp, cautious eyes sweep the tree line."I still say we should have brought more canned goods from the north warehouse," Job rumbles, his voice carrying that familiar, commanding weight that makes my pulse hitch."We have enough supplies stored away to outlast a nuclear winter, Job, and you know it," I reply, straightening my posture as I walk over to meet him by the steps. "The perimeter is locked down, the generator is running at full capacity, and our