Chapter 1: Chapter 1-I’m Back!

Chapter 1—I’m Back!

by Bocchan13

The heat was unbearable. Song Yu opened his eyes and just stared as the fan on top blew hot air in the small room. He blinked in confusion before he slowly got up. Making sure there were no sounds as he moved, he carefully surveyed his surroundings. His nerve endings were on high alert against anything, even his heart pumped lightly in tandem to the silence.

Strange. It looked familiar. The bed he was sleeping on looked to be intact; the bed sheets weren’t the ugly yellow-gray ones from the factory. They were luscious and plump. It smelled of sunshine and lavender. Song Yu was even more confused, his ears pricked to hear if there was any danger, but the only sound he heard was the whirring of the fan.

The sudden feeling of nostalgia entered his mind when he perused the shambled desk, books on farming, botany and agriculture. The very same subjects he was studying in university. His hands trembled as he picked up the book, opening its pages and seeing his haphazard notes strewn all over. Heart clenching, ears roaring, he felt like he would throw up.

“Am I…back?”

Looking down at his hands, they weren’t the scarred callused ones he was used to, but smooth and sleek, with pink nails and slender veins. He touched his face. Not weathered by time or hardship, but plump and delicate. He tore through the small apartment and caught sight of himself in the mirror.

He was back. He was back! His eyes widened in the mirror as he pressed and prodded his lean body. It looked like he had come back to the very beginning. When he was just a youth, bursting with energy and life, finishing up university.

He scooped his phone from the bedside table, his fingers feeling somewhat unused to the motion. Opening the screen, it read:

Sunday, March 13^th XXXX

A bubble of laughter erupted in his mouth, and it took all of his self-restraint to throw his hands up and shout hallelujah! This boisterous emotion, something he hadn’t felt in a long time!

“I’M FUCKING BACK! YES!”

He didn’t contain his happiness, throwing himself on the bed and rolling in its sheets. Oh! The bliss! The fluffy pillow! The springy bed! The electricity! He scurried to find the AC and turned it on full blast!

He used to swelter in the heat due to the AC costs, but no more! He was celebrating! The AC whirred a bit from the non-use, but soon after, cold air spewed from the fans. Song Yu happily got under it and smelled that weird funky smell, but he didn’t care! There was AC!

Tears soon blurred his vision, and Song Yu had no choice but to cry. His nose soured as waves of emotions accosted his senses. The relief that he was back. The happiness of still being alive. He sobbed in front of the AC, the cold wind touching his damp face. Song Yu cried while laughing, cried while smiling.

He…really came back to beginning.

On June 13^th year XXXX, the world would end. A small meteor would fall from the sky, bringing it a horrific virus. People near the crash zone started to show symptoms of lethargy, hunger and heat. The heat wave, due to global warming was a cesspool for viral infection. They thrived in the heat. After the meteor hit, the heat got stronger. And people started to die. 3 days after, the virus had already gone airborne, causing the sky to turn a deep red.

Those that died from the heat started to come back to life. But this time, not as themselves, but as flesh eating monsters.

The zombies broke out in small waves, annihilating everything in its path. The death count rose, the government was useless in the first month. And Song Yu, a university student, did his very best to survive.

In the beginning, Song Yu was just like everyone else, trying his best to get away from the horrible monsters. He and his family of three struggled to survive. He fought against the monster, helping his younger sister and mother, whilst getting supplies. The chaos in the beginning was immeasurable. Although zombies ran amuck, it was the people that scared Song Yu. Infighting, tricking and murdering…all for a pack of crackers.

The people they encountered were like hungry wolves, doing their upmost to survive, even if it meant stomping on others. Song Yu and his family ultimately sought shelter in B Base, in the southern district of their city.

In those initial three months, Song Yu went out of the base as a scavenger, bringing back supplies, while also getting ‘income’ from the government.

But, when abilities started appearing, it came as a shock and surprise. The virus that infected the zombies had also infected living people. Changing them, and granted them immense strength. It was as if God threw a stone.

These abilities ranged in many uses. From elementals, to healers, to even space abilities. Song Yu did not expect that he would become one. Song Yu had a special space ability, where if you could put things in it, it would purify. So any foods that were put in and taken out, would not have the zombie virus, and would instead grant healing and leveling properties.

It was a highly coveted skill. When he realized his ability, he wanted to keep it a secret from B Base, but he never expected that he would be thrown under the bus by his own family.

He told his mother about his concerns; and his mother, the pragmatic, told him that he would be okay. But the next day, they immediately sold him to the base. B Base was one of the earlier bases that brought in survivors and was at least equipped with many things. One of them was a scientific research team that came from the meteor crash site.

When abilities started appearing, it was a blessing and also a curse. The scientists wanted to understand how people could gain these abilities, to what extent they could control them and how to use them to counter-attack the zombies.

At first, Song Yu became an important space ability user. He was treated with good care and his family was given an entire storage of food.

But soon after, they started doing horrible things to him. They chained him to a bed and cut open his body. They took his blood, his flesh and opened his brain. Putting him in harsh environments, even putting zombies in his space to see if they would ‘purify’. If Song Yu was still a human, he would have died.

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They did not kill him, but killing would have been better than this torture.

Song Yu survived four intense months in the hands of B Base before escaping with fellow ability users. They ran far away and settled in a colder climate area. And there, Song Yu became one of the leaders of his very small base.

He didn’t want this position initially, but his ability was highly needed during the apocalypse and his fellow comrades all unanimously decided on him. And so, twenty years passed. His small base became bigger, his ability levels increased and ultimately, the Survivors Base became a known paradise in the apocalypse.

Song Yu had tried his best. Trying to get back to how society used to be. Making factories, opening shops, dealing with crime, and making their own leaders association. Twenty years of non-stop work. Although back-breaking, he envisioned a world of peace and happiness.

And all of it went to shit.

He didn’t know that he was just the work horse, the slave. The person who would pile their blood, sweat and tears into forming the survivors base. No. People had to get greedy. Not even a few hours after his 45^th birthday, a group of his loyal friends lured him away from the party and threw him in pit of zombies.

He could still feel his flesh being ripped apart. He saw their gnawing mouths, black teeth oozing with the virus, penetrating his skin. He remembered how easy it looked. The skin slowly being shredded from his bones. Blood seeping his clothes, his mouth chocking on it. And the pain…the horrific pain.

The last thing he saw were the very comrades who escaped with him…the ones that were by his side for 20 years, watch with cold…bitter eyes as his body was torn to pieces.

Like ice water dousing his veins, he could only curse the heavens. And then he woke up 23 years in the past. 3 months before the apocalypse would occur.

He came back to when everything started. The tears that fell ultimately stopped. A resolve formed in his mind.

He would not go down this path again. He couldn’t trust people again.

You never really knew a person, and not even till the end did Song Yu understand why they did that to him. He was dispensable. He was not needed anymore. Peace had already been assured. And politics started to matter.

Song Yu wiped away those tears and huffed to himself. He still had 3 months. He could do what he needed to do. But first, he wanted food. Checking the time, it was only ten in the morning; Song Yu opened the windows and watched as the bustling roadside was aloft with people. The sky was blue, the birds were singing. He got dressed immediately, smelling detergent.

Oh! The smell! So used to the smell of dust and blood, he inhaled that soft scent that tickled his senses. The small things. It was these things that he needed now.

He took out his wallet and checked how much he had before going downstairs. On the commercial streets, he could only look back and forth, the choking feeling coming back again. Even when peace was restored, the people were not like this.

Carefree. Laughing. Happy.

The people in the apocalypse soon changed into ability users. The weak and the strong. They became tougher, more alert. They didn’t trust anyone. And they were lawless. So watching as a mother looked at the correct expiry date on meat, or the aunties haggling with the vendors in good fun. Or even the drunks that littered the 24/7 bars.

All of it was really wonderful.

Song Yu pressed his hands together. He could not save these people. He had saved hundreds of thousands in his last life. Killing himself every day for 20 years…just to die. Even if Song Yu was selfless, he could not go back to that time. He would not do it again. Song Yu thought that that was enough. He built an empire for 20 years.

He already did his best.

And now he was going to live for himself.        

 

 

 

 

 

 

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