"Aurora..."
Vivian whispered the name, softly. Tears streamed down her face, mixing with the snot covering her nose.
She snapped her eyes open.
There were no teeth tearing at her skin.
Vivian blinked, wiping her nose with the back of her hand, as she looked around.
She was sitting on a small bed in a tiny, cramped room. Boxes were piled in the corners. Dusty books were on the table, and sunlight shot through a small window in the ceiling.
This was the attic. The exact room she grew up in.
"Aurora!" Vivian cried out, removing the sheets.
She looked for her baby. She searched the pillows, the blanket, the floor. Nothing. Her hands flew to her stomach.
It was flat. Even her waist was snatched.
Vivian gasped. Was it all a dream? The zombies? The five years of running, starving, and fighting to survive in the apocalypse?
No. It couldn’t be a dream.
She could still feel the pain of teeth ripping through her shoulders. The betrayal of Julian and Chloe leaving her to die.
Vivian stood up, walking over to the dusty mirror leaning against the wall.
She stared at her reflection. She still had her slim, youthful figure.... the one she had before the pregnancy made her fat and swollen.
Her skin was flawless and smooth. Her long red hair was flowing down her back. There were no scars from claws, no dirt under her fingernails, and no bite marks on her shoulder.
Vivian slowly walked back to the bed. Her old smartphone lay on the mattress. She picked it up and checked the screen.
August 31st, 2026.
Vivian shook her head in denial. "No, no, no. This is wrong. It’s supposed to be 2032."
During the five years of the apocalypse, people had completely lost count of the exact days or months. They just knew the years were bleeding by as humanity died. But she knew it had been five years.
"Where is my baby?" she whispered, tears spilled over her eyelashes again. "I want my baby..."
Ding!
A sound echoed directly inside her head. Vivian jumped, dropping her phone on the bed.
[Congratulations. The host has been granted a second chance. Return to the past and rewrite your destiny.]
A glowing blue screen appeared in front of her face.
What the hell was happening? Was she still dreaming? Was she losing her mind?
She was back in her old room, and now she was hearing voices and seeing magical floating text?
"I’ve never even done drugs," she muttered to herself, gripping her hair.
[I am COMPASS, your personal Apocalypse Survival System. I am here to guide you through your regression.]
[Character Status loaded:]
Name: Vivian Rubio
Age: 19
Weight: 55 kg
Height: 5’3"
Status: Healthy (Pre-Apocalypse State)
Description: An ordinary human with hidden potential. Currently experiencing high levels of emotional trauma.
Vivian let out a bitter laugh. She was definitely dreaming. This was ridiculous.
She pinched her arm as hard as she could. It stung. She raised her hand and slapped her own cheek. A smack echoed in the room, leaving a red mark on her skin. The blue screen didn’t disappear.
"A second chance?" she whispered, staring at the text. "So... I really am back in the past."
Vivian looked around the messy room. Memories came rushing back. She remembered the exact year she was forced to move up here. It happened right after her father brought home her new stepmother, a woman whose mission was to make Vivian’s life a living hell alongside her wicked daughter, Chloe.
At the thought of Chloe holding Julian’s hands flashed in Vivian’s mind.
’Your baby can be a midnight snack for the zombies. Love you, sis.’
’Things changed. All men cheat, I’m not the first.’
A tear rolled down Vivian’s cheek. "I will make them pay. I will make both of you suffer a hundred times worse than I did."
Ding!
[Do you wish to formally accept this second chance and link with COMPASS? Yes / No]
Vivian hesitated.
The apocalypse was scheduled to start in January 2027. That meant she was exactly five months away from the end of the world. She was the only person on earth who knew the nightmares that were coming. If she accepted, she would have to live through all that suffering, hunger, and blood again.
[System Warning: Accepting allows you to change your fate. Refusing will result in system deletion.]
"Change my fate?" Vivian said clearly. "I accept."
She didn’t care why or how she was given this miracle. She had suffered enough in her past life. She deserved this chance, and she was going to take it.
[Link Established. Welcome, Host Vivian.]
[Alert: Host has awakened as a Guide.]
[Current Rank: D-Class Healer Guide.]
[Ability Description: You possess the power to heal minor injuries and low-level creatures. As your rank increases, you will be able to heal humans and cleanse even the dark energy of the strongest Sentinels.]
The vengeance in Vivian’s heart turned into disgust.
"No," she whispered. "A Guide? You didn’t tell me I would awaken. Of all the things in the world... a Guide?"
She despised them.
In this world, certain humans awakened special abilities as Guides or Sentinels once they turned eighteen.
Families celebrated when their children awakened. Society worshipped them. Companies fought to recruit them.
The stronger their rank, the more valuable they became.
The Sentinels were weapons of destruction, adored and feared by the public. The Guides were the only ones who could calm a Sentinel’s mind and heal their instability.
The government cherished them. They built fancy academies for them, gave them luxury, and if you were an S-Class Guide, the entire world practically worshipped you like a god.
But Vivian knew the truth. When the zombies rose five years ago, every single Sentinel and Guide vanished from the face of the earth.
They ran away to their hidden sanctuaries, leaving ordinary, helpless humans behind to be eaten alive.
They were cowards. And now, she was one of them.
Suddenly, a sharp pain erupted inside her left wrist. Vivian winced, holding her hand over her arm as it burned. She pulled her fingers back to look.
Right on her skin was a glowing, silver mark shaped like a wing wrapping around a drop of water.
[The healer guide sigil.]
Before she could even process the mark, her bedroom door burst open.
"Vivian!"
Chloe stood in the doorway, staring at her with her hands on her hips.
"You’re still sleeping?! Mom is going to whip your ass today," Chloe snapped, looking around the room in disgust. "You didn’t do the dishes last night. The fireplace chimney she asked you to clean is filled up with ash, and you didn’t sweep the rusty leaves in the garden. You’re dead meat!"
Chloe scoffed, walked away while laughing to herself.
Vivian sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the empty doorway.
She looked down at her glowing silver mark on her skin, then at the calendar on her phone.
Five months until the world ended.