Plot Twists Short Stories & Hypocrisy Apocalypse Novels

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.

At the base entrance, the guard stopped us for the usual inspection. “Your infection test came back negative, right?” I nodded. The guard was just about to let me through when Ethan Cross, the team’s new medic, suddenly spoke up. “Wait, Captain. What about that scratch on your arm from the mutated rat?” The air froze. The guard’s expression changed at once. “Captain Hale, is that true?” I gritted my teeth. “It is. But the wound has already been treated, and I have antibodies.” “I’m carrying a top-level mission. I need to enter the base immediately.” The guard hesitated, his hand already moving toward the gate controls. But Ethan stepped across my path and blocked me. “Captain! You were coughing badly on the way back. What if you’re a carrier?” Then he turned to the guard, his voice firm and absolute. “I request immediate quarantine for Falcon Squad and a full screening for Captain Hale.” The guard’s eyes sharpened. He raised his weapon. “I’m sorry, Captain Hale. You’ll need to come with me to isolation first.” I froze where I stood. A full screening would take at least forty minutes. But the zombie king in the base laboratory would awaken in thirty. I had to lead my team in and stop it before it broke free.

In a drought-ravaged apocalypse, I kept our entire apartment block alive with my “watermaker” ability. But when I grew weak, my neighbors shattered my limbs and turned me into a living water source. Later, when raiders stormed in, they dragged me out to take the blade for them, only to realize that even my severed arms could still produce water. So, they shouted about “saving humanity,” then shoved me into the crowd and fled in the chaos. People rushed forward one after another, tearing at my flesh. But I didn’t die. What was left of me fell into the hands of a monster, and I was subjected to inhuman torment day after day. Ten years later, when the apocalypse finally ended, that monster tossed me into an incinerator. Only then did I die. When I opened my eyes again, I had returned to the moment I first awakened my ability, just as my neighbor knocked on the door, begging for water.

On the day the zombie outbreak occurs, I tell my boyfriend, Valerio Petrucci, to come over and hide in my apartment, where my front door is already reinforced. Soon, sounds of the door being knocked can be heard. I'm about to get up when transparent comment bubbles appear in front of my eyes. "Don't open the door! Valerio isn't the only one out there—there are a bunch of loan sharks with him as well!" "One of them is already infected with the zombie virus and is about to turn into a zombie!" "You'll die if you let them in!" Someone knocks on the door once again at that moment.