Bias Apocalypse Short Stories & Novels

It was the apocalypse. A zombie apocalypse. We should've been running for our lives, but my girlfriend, Yvonne Brown, refused to. She wanted to buy as much time as she could for her incompetent childhood friend, Yves Claude, to hop into the last helicopter that would take survivors away. But the retreat was our group's only way to survive in this apocalypse. Yves was not showing up anytime soon. I had no choice but to knock her out and drag her into the chopper. And Yves, the one she could never seem to forget, died in the swarm of undead. I, however, survived thanks to what I did. Yvonne and I lived happily in a safe zone. And then that fateful day came. I was going to take over the territory and lead humanity on an attack against the zombies. The night before that decisive strike, Yvonne spiked my water with anesthetics. When I was caught helpless, she tossed me into the horde of zombies. The swarm of undead tore my flesh open, and the pain killed me. Yvonne? She stood on the wall coldly, a sneer decorating her lips. "Yves could've lived, but you took that chance away from him! You selfish monster, you killed Yves! I will make you suffer what he suffered! You'll pay for it with your life!" Death took me, but it tossed me all the way back to the day of the retreat. The day Yvonne adamantly insisted on waiting for Yves. Well, if she was so happy to live through a world like this with her friend, who am I to say no? I would grant her that wish, even if she would end up as zombie food.

The fortress I'd built with all my soul as refuge in the apocalypse was seized on the day of, and by my boyfriend with his childhood friend no less. Just as a zombie was about to chew through my neck, I suddenly heard his thoughts. "Who would know?! Not all zombies want to eat humans! But it's not like we have chips and cookies to munch on!" In just a flash, I whipped out the sleeve of Oreos I was carrying around. The zombie's eyes lit up. "You can understand us?!" I nodded repeatedly. "Yes! And it's not just Oreos—I have Lay's chips, Reese's Puffs… all the snacks you would want! Just name it, and I'd have it!" As I spoke, I took out all the snacks I was carrying, and the zombies promptly swarmed forward, munching and tearing up with emotion. "Argh… It's been so long since I've had these! I miss being a benign human!" "These chips are great! I could keep munching on them forever!" That was when the zombie in the lead threw an arm around my neck. "I hence declare that you shall henceforth be the queen of all zombies!" My eyes widened in shock. "M-Me?!"

When the heatwave apocalypse hits the Earth, the ozone layer has completely dissipated, forcing mankind to move into the underground city. My husband, Rhett Calloway, and I get to stay on Level Two, seeing as we've funded the construction of the underground city. On day in the third year of the heatwave apocalypse, Rhett brings back a sickly young woman from the slums located on Level Three out of the blue. "Nora, the living conditions on Level Three are very difficult. Anna is in poor health. I can't just sit by and watch her suffer." After that, Rhett carries Anna Archer into our home. I keep my gaze lowered as I remind him, "Don't forget that there's a strict population count on Level Two. The available slots in every family are fixed." "I know that. That's why you need to head down to the slums on Level Three to replace Anna for the time being. Once she recovers from her illness, I'll bring you home." The moment I hear Rhett's response, I remain rooted to the spot for a long time. After walking out the front door, I do my best to suppress the quiver in my tone as I call a number that belongs to Level One. "I've already thought it through. I've decided to join the project to end the apocalypse on Level One."

In order to find clean water for his beloved Liana Hughes to bathe, Castiel Fenton, my brother, left the base with all the able-bodied men. But among the zombies, a sentient Zombie King emerged and took it as an opportunity to invade the base. June Morgan, my pregnant sister-in-law, was torn in half by zombies while protecting me, and Poppy, my little niece was devoured down to the bone trying to help me escape. To save the base, I called Castiel for help. Upon hearing the news, he had no choice but to abandon Liana and rush back with his men. Eventually, the zombies were driven out of the base, but Liana was eaten by a passing zombie. Castiel said nothing and only collected Liana’s remains expressionlessly. On the day of Liana’s funeral, Castiel deliberately pushed me into a horde of zombies and let them feast on my body. “If you hadn’t called me back, Liana wouldn’t have died! You must pay for her life!” When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day the zombies invaded the base.

On day forty-three of the end of the world, my fiancée, Selena Reed, injected me with poison herself and left me outside the shelter. She was wearing my hazmat suit, curled against Damian Hale, the man I had trusted like a brother. Damian took my storeroom keys and smiled down at me. "You had everything handed to you from the day you were born. Too bad you were never any good at reading people." Fallout rained down. Mutant beasts closed in through the black rain. I watched helplessly as they shut the iron door and survived on the supplies I had gathered. When I opened my eyes again, I was back seven days before global nuclear war broke out. This time around, Damian still played the concerned friend, offering $2.4 billion for my stake in the group, a stake worth $3.8 billion. Selena still talked to me sweetly over the phone about selling the company and taking her around the world. They thought I did not know that the two of them had betrayed me long ago, and that together they had killed my father. I did not call them on it. I only signed my name on the contract. Seven days later, the company, the stock, and the mansions would all be worthless. Only cash could still buy food, medicine, weapons, and a fortress. They took the shares and started planning the wedding of the century, waiting to watch me go broke. I used their money to clear out warehouses and turn a hilltop estate into a nuclear-proof fortress. On the night of the wedding, the city's elite stood outside my door and laughed at me for hoarding canned food. A second later, a strategic alert tore through the night, and the first warhead detonated high above the city. Selena threw herself at the closing steel gate, covered in blood. "Noah, save me—" I watched her through the blast glass. This time, I am your god!

Three years into the apocalypse, my girlfriend, a captain of the Spark Sanctuary, kept me stuck living in the outer quarantine belt for 1,095 days. Every time I dragged my battered body to her with an entry pass in hand, she would put on a conflicted expression. "Shane, you're my boyfriend, so I have to avoid showing favoritism. These spots need to go to the families of fallen soldiers. Just wait a little longer. You don't have special abilities, so you're just regular muscle inside." I bought her excuses completely, turning right back around to risk my life fighting through swarms of infected. It wasn't until the day I accumulated my ninth entry pass, crawling back to find her while burning up with a 104-degree fever, that I caught her handing the last spot to her ex-boyfriend. She shielded him. "Logan's healing power is humanity's greatest hope. I have to look at the big picture." She snatched the blood-stained entry pass from my hand and tossed it into the trash can. In that instant, it all clicked. Her supposed "difficulties" and "big picture" were nothing more than convenient excuses to sacrifice me whenever it suited her.

My coworkers and I are forcibly dragged into a bizarre game with the initial title displayed as "War of the Plants". Everyone crowds around to choose camps or safe houses with abundant water resources. I am the only one who picks a plastic apartment in the desert with no water or electricity. My female supervisor mocks me in front of everyone, saying I must be out of my mind. No one is willing to team up with me, and they even bet I won't last three days. When choosing abilities, everyone rushes for practical powers like spatial storage or metal control. I, however, choose reverse photosynthesis that allows me to gain energy from air humidity. Everyone immediately mutes me in the game. Clearly, no one wants to hear my desperate cries for help later. But when the system revokes team permissions and administrator functions, everyone is stunned. The game's name is reset to "Magnet Apocalypse".

When the extreme-heat apocalypse arrived, surface temperatures reached 158°F, and the first group of people began moving to Frostpoint Base. As a scientist, my wife had two spots to bring family members with her. Everyone thought she would take me without hesitation. But in the end, she put the name of her graduate student on the application. "He's my student, and he doesn't have his parents with him. I can't bear to leave him alone in a place this hot." She submitted the application without a second thought. Her next words chilled me to the bone. "Ethan, you're different. You've been tough since you were a kid. I know you can survive until the second group is evacuated." I forced a bitter smile and said nothing. That night, as I watched the temperature continue to rise, I calmly made a phone call. "You once told me you would grant me one wish, no matter what it was. Does that promise still stand?"

The end of the world was upon us, but there weren't enough spots for evacuation. The roars of the zombies echoed in my ears as my fiancé, Oliver, gritted his teeth and pulled me onto the rescue vehicle—securing the last available seat. I arrived safely at the survivor base. Lina, his first love, did not. The zombies tore her apart. Oliver still went through with our marriage, but I never expected that he had only done so to make me suffer. In his eyes, I was the one who had killed Lina. If she had to endure such agony, then I should, too. For five years, he hated me. My life was worse than that of a stray dog scavenging for food on the street. On the day my divorce was finalized, he kidnapped me, dragged me into the wilderness, and wrapped his fingers around my throat. Then, he threw us both into the swarm of the undead. When I opened my eyes again, I was somehow reborn on the day the apocalypse began. The rescue team was shouting impatiently, "One more! We have room for one more—hurry!" I turned to Oliver, watching his hesitation. Then, with a quiet smile, I took a step back and let someone else have the last seat.

The day they threw me into the horde was the same day I planned to propose to Sasha Frost. The crystal-core ring I had bought with every last cent I had rolled across the ground. It was stomped into the mud by someone in the garrison uniform. It was my best friend, Rafe Donovan. "Nico, don't blame me." He looked down at me without a shred of guilt in his eyes. "Sasha deserves better. And you, some deadbeat who talks to corpses, were never going to give her a future." I stared past him at the familiar figure behind his shoulder. Sasha, the woman I had loved for three years, was leaning into Axel Kain, the base commander's son. She did not spare me a single glance. Her eyes were locked on the ring on Axel's finger, forged from an S-class crystal core. It was 10,000 times brighter than my pathetic little stone.

My older sister Katie said she missed me and requested I visit her. The second day at her place, the apocalyptic heatwave arrived. I fought tooth and nail in the supermarket for food and coolant—she told me I'm shameless and have no self-respect. I offered a high price in the community chat for supplies—she sneered at me and said that anything stored for so long must be disgusting, contaminated by bacteria. Yet, she threw herself into the arms of the man living across the hallway just for a bit of food. While cuddled in his arms, she watched me die in the heatwave. When I opened my eyes again, I heard her on the phone saying she missed me. Well, keep on missing me!

I had just found out I was a perfect match and was preparing to donate a kidney to my wife’s foster brother. That night, he left his iPad in the living room, and the screen lit up with a chat history between him and a doctor. “Doctor Evans, whatever you do, don’t tell my brother-in-law,” the message read. “If his kidney is removed, his hidden heart condition will flare up, and he won’t last three months.” The next day, I decisively canceled the donation. My wife was furious, calling me cold-blooded and forcing me to sign a divorce agreement that left me with absolutely nothing. A day later, I overheard his smug laughter from outside his hospital room. “He’s so stupid,” Boyd said. “I just photoshopped a fake chat log, and he actually believed he was sick. Now, we’ve stolen his luxury penthouse, and we can finally be together out in the open.” My wife kissed him. “Good boy. I’ll buy you a better kidney on the black market later.” Standing outside the door, I sneered. Of course, I knew the record was fake. After all, I had just reincarnated from the future. In half a month, a zombie apocalypse would strike, and this toxic pair of secret lovers would not only steal my medicine but also throw me to the undead. This time, with only three days left before the city is overrun by zombies, I want to see something. I want to see exactly how many days a sick bastard without a kidney transplant and a heartless woman without any survival supplies can last inside my luxury penthouse.

My girlfriend, Summer Reeds, told me the apocalypse was coming and sent me to a snowy peak in the dead of night, saying it was for my own safety. "There's going to be a period of extreme heat and torrential rain, so this is the safest place you can be in! Stay here and be good. I'll go get the supplies!" Summer was a meteorological data analyst, so I trusted her. However, even as the day crept into night, she still hadn't returned. Wearing nothing but a thin T-shirt and shorts, I shivered uncontrollably in the icy cave. I took out my phone to call her, only for the screen to automatically switch to the surveillance feed from home. My entire family was gathered around my foster brother Aster Rivers, celebrating his birthday. With an elated expression, Summer exclaimed, "Don't worry, I've already tricked Charles into going up that snowy mountain, so he won't be coming back any time soon!" Aster covered his mouth, looking worried and guilty. "What? What if something happens to him up there? Maybe… maybe we should go bring him back. I-I can endure it, I promise…" Summer sighed. "See? This soft-heartedness of yours is why Charles keeps bullying you! Don't worry, I've left supplies for him up there, so he's fine!" My parents nodded in approval. "That's right! He threw you out in the rain, so he can get a taste of what it feels like to go hungry and freeze!" "Yes, consider it payback!" "He won't bully you anymore once we go bring him home after a month, alright?" Outside, the blizzard grew fiercer, and my heart grew more and more numb from the cold. Too bad you didn't know that there were no supplies in this cave at all. Too bad you didn't know that I was never coming back. You wanted to punish me to vent your anger for my foster brother? Fine. Then I'd use my life to appease him.

In the tenth year I stayed in this world, I found out my husband, who used to say he loved me more than his life, was unfaithful. He cheated with my so-called sister, the one who took my place growing up. For her, my parents called me cold, and he called me selfish. Somewhere along the way, everyone forgot that I had only stayed to save this world. I used my own lifespan and life force to keep the world from falling apart. Ten years passed, and the world got used to it. Even the people who once treated me like a goddess started saying I was petty, that I didn't see the bigger picture. In the end, not a single person stood on my side. So I chose to let it all go and go home. The moment my consciousness began to fade, the world started to break. Floods, earthquakes, tidal waves all hit at once. In the middle of it, I thought I heard someone crying, calling my name.

During the fifth year following the zombie apocalypse, my father becomes the base commander. It is all because Beckett Walker, my younger brother, and I both have antibodies in our blood that can counter the zombie virus. Mom and Dad give the majority of the supplies and resources to Beckett, because I'm just his "backup". But since I'm the backup, I'm still fed and provided for to ensure that nothing happens to me. However, when I accidentally take the food that was meant for Beckett, Dad slaps me in anger. "You already received your portion of the supplies, so why are you trying to steal Beckett's? He's not only your younger brother, but he's also the hope and future of the base!" Mom shrieks at me, "Are you trying to kill your brother so you can take his place?" I want to refute them. I only took it by accident. I didn't do it on purpose. But before I can, Dad locks me up in the cryopod. It's dark and freezing. I curl up in a corner, my body shaking. I'm sorry, Dad. It's so cold. I promise I won't ever be greedy for food again.

My name is Hazel Falken, and I am the only daughter of the Base Commander during the apocalypse. Even though it is the apocalypse, I am still spoiled left and right by my family and raised to be their little princess at home. My dad, Ernest Falken, is worried that I will marry into a family that will mistreat me. So, he decides to choose four husband candidates and bring them up in our own home for me to pick from when I'm older. In my past life, I chose Curtis Granger, whom I have liked for a long while, when Dad asked me to pick my husband. However, not long after our marriage, Curtis volunteers himself as a guard to be stationed outside the base perimeter. He never returns home after that, and I am left living as a widow in the safety of the base's inner district. 30 years later, when my hair has turned fully white, I decide that I can't wait for him anymore and go out to find him. I then realize that he has formed another family outside the base without my knowing. It then dawns on me that Curtis never liked me. He had also only married me because he wanted to repay Dad for bringing him up. Not long after that, a wave of zombies attacks us. Curtis pushes me down and shields me under his body. "Hazel, I know that I never should've lied to you. I'll give up my life to repay the kindness that Commander Falken has shown to me. "But if there is a next life, I hope that you won't pick me again." When I open my eyes again, I find out that I have travelled back in time to the day when Dad asks me to pick my husband. "Hazel, these four people are my right-hand men. Whom would you like to pick as your husband?"

I get reborn, this time bound to a simp system. In my previous life, when the apocalypse happened during Christmas Eve, I gave Victoria Blake, a beautiful woman, shelter and respite, only for her to backstab me in the end. Apparently, she had revealed my home's location to a scion named Tristan Cole when I wasn't paying attention. Not only did those bastards take over my shelter, but they also tossed me to the zombie horde. When Tristan asked Victoria if she felt guilty, she just reclined in his arms while tittering daintily. "That's just one of the lapdogs I've reared. If he's dead, then so be it." Now that I'm given a second chance at life, I'll make sure to repay them for the pain and hurt they've caused me in my previous life.

The apocalypse was coming. The ground temperature was 158 °F, and the first batch of human beings started moving to the base at the North Pole. As a scientist, my husband was allowed to bring family members with the first batch. Everyone thought that he would take me along without hesitation. But in the end, the name he wrote in the application form was one of his master’s students. “I trained her myself, and she does not have parents. I can’t bear to leave her alone in such a hot place.” He casually submitted the application form, and his words just chilled me to the core. “Rose, you’re different. You’ve been through tough situations. I believe you can make it until the second batch moves.” I forced a resigned smile and said nothing. That night, as the temperature climbed, I made a calm call. “You promised to grant me one wish, no questions asked. Does that still count?”

On a stormy night during the apocalypse, my own mother threw me out of the house while I was burning with fever, along with my husky, so my little brother would have a better chance of surviving. She shouted through the crack in the door, “Take that useless mutt and go die somewhere. Stop wasting your brother’s food!” I huddled in a pile of trash with my dog in my arms, convinced I was going to die. Then my husky suddenly spoke. “Host’s vital signs critically low. Infinite Supply Search System activated.” “Supermarket warehouse one hundred meters ahead. Three thousand freeze-dried meals detected.” “Pharmacy five hundred meters to the left. Five hundred boxes of antibiotics detected.” Three days later, I’d built a fortress with packs of dogs and mountains of supplies. I sat inside eating steak and watching the show. Outside the barbed wire, my mother and brother were on their knees, fighting each other over half a piece of moldy bread. I smiled. “Mom, even dogs wouldn’t eat that. Better savor it.”

I had just been confirmed as a match and was preparing to donate a kidney to my husband's adoptive sister. That night, she left her iPad in the living room. The screen was still on, showing her chat with the doctor: [Doctor, please don't tell my sister-in-law. If she has a kidney removed, her hidden heart condition will flare up, and she won't live longer than three months.] The next day, I canceled the donation without a second thought. My husband flew into a rage. He called me cold-blooded and forced me to sign a divorce agreement that left me with nothing. The next day, I stood outside the hospital room and heard my sister-in-law laughing smugly. "She's so stupid. I faked one chat screenshot, and she actually believed she was sick. Now her penthouse is mine, and we can finally be together openly." My husband kissed her. "Good girl. Later, I'll find you a good kidney on the black market." Outside the door, I sneered. Of course, I knew the chat log was fake. I had come back from the future, after all. In two weeks, the zombie outbreak would begin. Those two so-called siblings who were actually lovers would not only steal my medicine, they would push me out to feed me to the zombies. This time, with only four days left before zombie hordes overran the city, I wanted to see how long a sick woman without a new kidney and a scumbag without supplies could last in that penthouse.