Chapter 1

The pain of having my flesh torn apart by a pile of infected was still screaming at the ends of my nerves when I jolted upright on the sofa, gasping.

No wave of infected.

No stench of blood.

What I saw instead was a chandelier worthy of Beverly Hills and the floating scent of Jo Malone perfume. Only the distant gunfire and sirens beyond the windows reminded me the world was breaking.

Day Three of the outbreak.

Day Three of the community lockdown.

I stared at my intact hands. Shock drained away, replaced by pure ice.

I was reborn.

Splash—splash—

Water ran in the bathroom—lavish, shameless. I strode over and shoved the half-closed door open.

At the wide marble vanity, my mother twisted open a bottle of outrageously expensive Fiji water and poured it into a crystal basin without blinking. Four or five empty bottles had already rolled aside.

That was the second-to-last case from the garage.

“If I don’t wash with lukewarm water, my custom high-end cream won’t absorb at all,” she muttered at the mirror, picky fingers tracing the fine lines at the corner of her eye—completely unaware the city’s water system had collapsed thirty hours ago.

A needle of memory stabbed my brain.

This woman—when the city was at its most desperate, with no power and no running water—still burned through a whole case of premium water every day just to wipe herself down.

This woman—disgusted by “preservatives” in high-calorie military rations—forced my brother and me to risk our lives raiding supermarkets outside the block for organic vegetables.

And this woman—when we tried to break out of the infected tide—shoved me straight into the monsters to lighten her load.

The back of her head running away in my memory overlapped perfectly with the face in the mirror now, coated in expensive cream.

I pressed my rage down into absolute calm.

I stepped in, snatched the bottle from her hand, and shoved it—along with the remaining half case—straight into my tactical backpack.

“What the hell are you doing?!” my mother shrieked, her manicured nails nearly scraping my hand.

I looked down at her from above, emotionless, and threw out one cold sentence:

“Then rot with a ruined face.”

“You dare talk to me like that?!” Her eyes bulged in disbelief. She screamed, shaking with fury. “Put the water down! That’s my last skincare water!”

The noise drew someone from downstairs.

My father appeared on the staircase landing with half a glass of expensive whiskey. He wore a neat cashmere sweater, brow furrowed, posture dripping with fake authority.

“What are you doing? Apologize to your mother. Now.” He walked up, voice heavy with unquestionable parental command. “We are family. Outside is only temporary unrest. Your mother needs to maintain her dignity and standard of living. Family comes first—tolerance and discipline. That is upper-class upbringing!”

Dignity? Family comes first?

Disgust rose in my gut.

In the last life, the first time looters broke in, this same man shoved my brother out to take the blast, then locked every security door behind him.

Selfishness was carved into their bones.

I didn’t waste a second on his sermon. I shoulder-checked past him and walked straight into the garage.

Everything I’d stockpiled before the disaster was here: high-calorie ration bars, military MREs, first-aid kits, water purification tablets.

“Starting today, supplies are being redistributed.” I yanked the waterproof cover away and turned back to the two of them as they rushed in, pressure naked in my tone. “My share will be separated. Now.”

“Split supplies? You want to ‘split the family’?” My mother’s shriek nearly punched through the garage ceiling. “I refuse! Why do you get to take the family’s things?”

“In this house, I am the decision-maker.” My father finally snapped. He slammed the whiskey glass onto the hood and strode in, lifting his right hand—trying to restore his sacred authority with a clean slap.

To a real apocalypse survivor, his boardroom intimidation meant nothing.

I didn’t blink.

My left hand shot out like a steel clamp, locking his wrist. I twisted and pressed down—

“Ah!”

A dull crack. He didn’t even graze my cheek before I flipped him into a hold and slammed him face-down onto the SUV’s hood. The glass rolled off and shattered; expensive liquor sprayed across the floor.

“Let go!” he struggled.

My pressure on his joints was like a thousand-pound stone. He couldn’t move an inch.

“Understand the situation.” I bent close to his ear, voice cold as a blade. “Your inflated fatherly act is worthless in a world without law. There are man-eating monsters outside and you still want to play the tolerant gentleman? Fine. Take your principles and give a speech to the infected on the roadside.”

I shoved him off.

My father staggered back, humiliated and red-faced, too stunned to speak.

I turned, split the stockpile fast, and divided everything into three precise piles.

“This is my share. Three hundred rounds, a tactical knife, all broad-spectrum antibiotics, and half the MREs.” I yanked the canvas bag zipper shut—zzzip—like cutting the last chain.

At “rations,” my mother pinched her nose in disgust. “That preservative garbage—I won’t eat a bite!”

But at “antibiotics,” she lunged like a triggered animal.

“You can’t take the anti-inflammatories! I’m doing facial microneedling tonight!”

She barely made it halfway.

I drew the tactical knife from my thigh and—thunk!—drove it straight into the oak table top, blade buried to the hilt beside her fingers.

The knife vibrated violently, a low hum filling the garage.

My mother’s scream strangled in her throat. Her face went paper-white. She stumbled back three steps, legs buckling.

“Touch my stuff again,” I said, yanking the blade free and wiping it clean, eyes like dead glass, “and next time I won’t be pinning wood.”

The raw, bloody killing intent froze them both.

For a moment the garage was silent except for their quick, terrified breaths.

Their precious sense of control had been pulverized by one pure fact: violence.

“If you want to die stupidly, don’t drag me with you.” I shouldered the heavy pack.

Just then, the side door of the garage was pushed open.

My brother stepped in, wearing a dark coat. As an ER attending, his white coat cuffs were still stained with dried black blood.

Seeing the shattered whiskey glass, my mother trembling, and the supplies separated and packed, our parents reacted like they’d found a lifeline.

“Stop your brother! He’s gone insane! He attacked us and wants to take the supplies!” my father snapped, pointing at me.

They expected my usually restrained brother to climb the moral high ground and condemn me.

But my brother didn’t spare them even a glance.

He calmly scanned the knife scar sunk in the tabletop, then looked at the pile of hard currency I’d deliberately left for him.

Then, to everyone’s shock, he walked straight past our babbling parents and stopped at the table.

“That split is very reasonable.”

His voice was flat.

He grabbed his share—high-calorie rations and water purification tablets—and stuffed them into his large medical pack without hesitation.

“You’ve lost your mind! That stuff is full of toxic additives!” my mother screamed.

My brother didn’t respond. He buckled his straps, then lifted his head, eyes passing right over our stunned parents and locking on me.

Just one brief look.

In his deep, ice-cold eyes—without a trace of familial warmth—I caught the same ruthless clarity I carried.

That wasn’t the gaze of a doctor coming off a night shift, facing “temporary unrest.”

In that moment, I understood completely:

The one who crawled out of the blood mountain and came back—

wasn’t just me.