Chapter 3

Zachary's voice came through the phone, sounding entitled and a bit annoyed. "Anya, what the hell are you doing? You haven't picked up your phone for a whole day and night. Are you trying to get yourself killed or something?

"Listen up, I've already made plans with my friends to camp out on the mountain tonight and watch the meteor shower. Get over here and be my driver, and don't forget to bring the tent and all the food. Got it?"

Back then, it was that so-called "meteor shower" that started the end of the world.

Those weren't meteors at all, they were meteorite shards carrying the zombie virus.

The mountaintop was wide open, with nowhere to hide, so it became one of the first disaster zones.

Zachary and Vanessa got lucky and survived by hiding in the car, while I was out there like a fool, setting up their tent, and almost ended up as zombie chow.

I let out a cold laugh, then spoke into the phone with icy calm.

"Sorry, who are you? The signal's terrible here."

After that, I hung up and blocked every way to reach Zachary and Vanessa, their numbers, WhatsApp, Line, everything. Deleted, gone.

From now on, those names are gone from my life for good.

I leaned back on the couch, fired up the home theater, and picked the hottest comedy from before the world went to hell.

On screen, everyone was laughing and living it up, but outside, the death knell of the old world was about to toll.

I called my parents, who were working in another city.

"Dad, Mom, don't ask anything, just listen to me. Drop everything and head to the airport right now. Get the earliest flight to my place. If there aren't any flights, go straight to the train station. Whatever it takes, get here as fast as you can."

My dad was clearly thrown off by my sudden outburst. "Anya, what happened? Just tell me, take it easy."

"There's no time to explain! Dad, do you believe me?"

I couldn't help but let a tremor slip into my voice.

After a moment of silence, Dad replied calmly, "Okay, we trust you. Send me your address, we'll head out right away."

After hanging up, I let out a long, relieved breath.

In my last life, with all the phones dead, I didn't find out my parents' city had been completely overrun until six months into the apocalypse, when I was holed up in a survivor camp.

I never wanted to feel that kind of helpless despair and pain ever again.

This time, I swear, I'll make sure my whole family survives, together.

After taking care of everything, I sat in front of the security monitors, quietly waiting for the end of the world to arrive.

At four in the afternoon, the sky started to darken in an eerie way, like a massive curtain was being drawn over the sun.

On the news, the so-called experts were still insisting it was just some rare astronomical event, trying to calm everyone down and telling them not to panic.

I smirked and turned off the TV.

Soon enough, the first "meteor" shot across the sky, blazing with a weird green fire.

Then came the second, the third... Thousands of meteorite shards rained down like doomsday fireworks, slamming into the bustling city below.

Five minutes later, the first blood-curdling scream echoed through the mic I'd set up outside my base.

The apocalypse had begun.

I flipped through the security feeds, the city had already become a living hell.

People exposed to the meteorite fallout transformed into mindless zombies within minutes, their only instinct to tear into flesh.

Car crashes, fires, explosions... In a heartbeat, all the order that once held the city together collapsed into chaos.

On the streets, people were fleeing in terror, with zombies stumbling after them, relentless and hungry.

A man fell, and in seconds, he was overrun by a horde of zombies, only a few brief, agonized screams marked his end.

I watched everything happen without a flicker of emotion.

It was not that I was heartless. After surviving five years of this nightmare, I'd witnessed scenes far more brutal than this.

In the apocalypse, compassion was the most worthless, and deadliest, thing one could have.

Eight p.m., my phone rang, it was a number I didn't recognize.

I hesitated for a second, but picked up anyway.

"Hey, is this Ms. Grant? Pegasus Courier here. We've got an urgent package for you from another city. It's already at the mountain base you specified, but the road's blocked and we can't get through. What should we do?"

It was my parents!

They actually managed to get themselves here by courier!

My heart warmed up, and I rushed to the console. "Stay in the car and don't move! Lock the doors! I'm coming to get you right now!"

I pulled on my body armor, snapped on my helmet, grabbed my razor-sharp military knife, took a deep breath, and opened the base doors.

The overwhelming smell of blood slammed into me.

At the foot of the mountain, a few roaming zombies were lured by the blaring horn of the Pegasus Courier van, stumbling closer in a daze.

My gaze hardened as I crept silently around the side, making sure not to make a sound.

Five years of brutal survival in my last life had forged me into a predator at the top of the food chain.