Chapter 1: Woke Up in a Dreamlike Reality
The kind of life she led was devastating.
Can it even be called life?
When the world was torn apart inside out, and zombies ran rampant in every corner of the Earth, it would be a miracle for someone to even live this long.
***
Crunch
A woman trudged along the ground floor of an abandoned parking lot inside a building. Behind her back, a bag, carrying what was left of her supplies, slightly swayed as she moved. Her direction was the old truck that made a lot of noise—one she had been using since she got separated from her team.
It wasn’t the most ideal form of transportation since it attracted a lot of zombies. But she had no choice, since it was the only one working. Other cars had already been taken or torn apart for their batteries and gases.
She shoved the bag into the truck, got inside, inserted the car keys in one fluid motion, and quickly left the parking lot.
The outside was even worse to look at.
The touch of what could resemble life was stripped away. Bloodstains that had long turned into brown smudges, bodies that hadn’t mutated into zombies but rotted away, littered the road. Cars blown and abandoned were everywhere.
Of course, zombies, who are now the main citizens of this ruined world, were around as well. They aimlessly wandered, not knowing when a new foolish human prey would end in their midst.
As a human, she should’ve been afraid. Run and hide from them.
But...
She looked down at her bandaged arm. Blood was already seeping through. Wrapping a new one around the wound was impossible. Not with what was left of her supplies.
Besides, what was the point?
Outside the wrapped bandage, ghastly blue marks branched out across her arms, climbing to her shoulders, chest, and neck. She looked in the rearview mirror.
Her left eye had long lost its use. The eye no longer resembled a human’s eye, lacking a distinct sclera and filled with hollow darkness. The only feature left was her pupil, which had turned bright red. Marks resembling the ones on her arms have also started to show on half of her face.
She was mutating.
Ah, life was good.
At least, before she died and became a zombie, she could read the novel she had been dying to get her hands on. It was her only form of escape from the harsh reality of the apocalypse.
As she drove down the street, the sound of the car attracted several zombies. But she didn’t stop, accelerating her speed as if nothing else mattered.
"Grrr."
"GRRR!!!"
From inside the car, she could hear them growling. Prolonged hunger made them sensitive and violent.
"Come on, you motherfuckers."
She smiled as she sped up once more.
"Catch me if you can."
And then—
A small form stood in the middle of the road.
It was a zombie child.
It shouldn’t affect her seeing a zombie appear before her. Especially, a child wasn’t a rare sight either. It was the harsh reality of this world. No one was safe from total destruction when the apocalypse arrived.
But pain ripped through her the moment she caught sight of it. The child faced the truck with unfocused red eyes. Jaw dribbling in drool and snarling ahead. What was left of that face barely resembled what she could remember.
Startled by the sudden appearance of this zombie child, her foot involuntarily pressed hard on the brakes—and froze.
Her heart dropped.
Do it. Her mind screamed inside, telling her to ram the truck into that small form.
Even so, she couldn’t do it.
Instead, tears ran down her face. Her lips curling into an ugly, pained smile.
"Let’s go, little brother."
CRASH!
Yet, she still couldn’t bring herself to harm the child.
She missed the form before she could hit it, swerving to the other side and ramming against the wall. The impact hit like a bomb. She was thrown forward like a rag doll. Her body collided against the concrete wall like an egg against rock.
Agony erupted through every inch of her body. She couldn’t tell which part hurt the most—it all just hurt.
Is this my... end?
The thought scared her.
At the same time, it gave her some relief.
She tried to look out, just to get one last glimpse of that small form she saw just now. Once more. Let me see you one last time.
She fought to stay awake, clinging to the pain to keep her eyes open. But it was no use. Darkness swallowed everything before she could see her little brother one last time.
And then—
She woke up.
Facing a strange ceiling with bright lights and the smell of sterile chemicals didn’t register immediately. Blinking, she moved her eyes around. This was clearly a hospital room. And she was lying in a hospital bed.
But she could’ve sworn she’d died. The crash might have been the reason, but if the mutation moved faster than the death caused by that crash, she would’ve been roaming around or trapped inside the car as a zombie.
Not lying in a clean-looking hospital room.
Is this a dream?
But something was definitely off.
If she pinches her arm, she might wake up. She did just that and jolted with pain.
"..."
"Maybe it wasn’t enough?"
Pinching might not be sufficient. Could it be that she had to jump from the window and see if she wakes up from it?
She turned her head to the window; the wind was blowing through the white curtain. It was open and big enough for a person to crouch out into.
Testing her theory, she walked to the side of the window. It was slightly higher than she thought. She was already taller than most girls. How high can this window be?
Dragging a chair beneath the window, she climbed on top of it and grasped the windowsill.
Half of her body was already halfway out of the window when a sound came from inside the room.
’Clattering’.
She turned her head, poking out of the window to look inside. A woman in a nurse’s uniform stared at her in a horrified manner, jaws pried wide open.
"Miss Aisha! What are you doing?!"
The nurse’s face broke into panic, shocked and horrified by the scene before her.
Annoyed by the patient, the nurse said, "Step away from the window and get back inside. This performance should end now!"
But the woman halfway out of the window glanced at her with a disinterested look. She poked a leg out, leaving only one leg to step on the stool.
By the time the nurse finally reacted, she was already tilting her body downward.
That foolish bravery and indifference shocked the nurse. This was not a joke. She truly wants to jump!
Looking out the window, the scene mesmerized her before her. A clear, bright sky. Streets were filled with people, no zombies roaming around, and the miasma that had lingered in the air was not there.
It’d be nice if this were real.
"Oh, well, time to wake up."