We Will NOT Fail the Second Time

The explosion seemed to come from the Chemistry Lab nearby…

Suddenly…

"Pssssst!"

Hmm? Someone's calling us from somewhere.

"Hey! Over here!"

It's coming from the window near the door

There seems to be a person wearing a hood

"The coast is clear! Let's go!" The person said enthusiastically.

We hurried over outside to where the person was calling us. It was a good opportunity since everyone else was still distracted from the explosion.

"Right here! Come on!"

The person guided us to the parking lot safely. We were hiding behind some cars and were checking if anyone had spotted us. We waited until everything was quiet, until we decided to run for Antonia's and Ken's car. We were about to reach the cars when suddenly a person wearing a dark hood dove out from one of the windows. She did a tiger jump out of the window and into a front roll. She then stood up and casually walked towards us.

"Hey Sabrina! We're here!" The mysterious person with us called over the person she was referring to as Sabrina. Who were this people?

"How was that for a distraction Boss?" The person called "Sabrina" asked as she was walking towards us.

"Boss? Did you just call me boss?"

Why does this feel familiar to me? Only a few people called me that in the previous life. They didn't answer my question but instead, both of them removed their hoods and… OH. EM. GOODNESS. Two familiar faces were shown.

"Now this is a surprise… Shadow… Shine…" Ken said with a voice filled with awe.

"Who knew you guys would be here? We thought you guys were from Texas?" Yan asked curiously

Without a second thought, I hugged both of them. I really missed these two ladies.

Shadow and Shine were known as the Tyrannical Twins in my past life. They might be young and were not that tall, but their strength was something that you don't want to mess with. These ladies were our main tankers back then. Shadow wields a giant sledge hammer while Shine handles a giant axe. Small as they are, they can wield such weapons with agility and strength as if they were holding a spoon and a fork. They make it seem light! Shine's body is as hard as diamond while Shadow's body allows physical attacks to pass through. So they don't just deal heavy damage but they also absorb heavy attacks as well. But after they were able to send their memories to the past, they were devoured by 10th grade zombies.

"How have you been you two?" I asked

"As you can see…." Shadow said

"We're doing great!" Shine finished

"When did you guys 'remember'? There was no way for us to contact you or to break you memory block" Antonia inquired.

"I was the first one to 'remember' and I unlocked Sabby's memory block." Shine answered.

"That was 3 weeks ago, and we left our house secretly and made our way here. And now we're ready to kick ass boss! Sabrina and Sophia Avilon reporting for duty!" Sabrina said cheerfully.

We're almost complete. A little more and the gang would be together again. But the rest are still far from us and who knows when they will "remember". But in a few days we will be forgetting everything again.

"Let's head for the mansion first. We'll discuss our plan there." I instructed

Everyone didn't say a word and just nodded their heads. We then headed back to the mansion to plan out everything properly. As we parked down the garage, I spotted Jerome waiting for us in the drive way.

Great! I have to explain why I'm home early…

Think Dwayne, what should I say? Think… think… think… I should tell him that someone caused an explosion at school and we were asked to go home until they would confirm that the school was safe. Yeah, I'm sure that would work!

"Lady Antonia, I see that Master Dwayne has come to his senses?" Jerome said casually.

Eh?

"Well Jerome, it wasn't that easy. He tried to kill us in the process!" Yan said.

Eh? Eh? Why does it sound like they know each other?

"Oh my… will you be okay Lady Yan?" Jerome asked in a concerned tone

What is going on here? Did I miss something? How come these guys know each other?

"I will be if you prepare food for me…" Yan said with a pair of puppy dog eyes

"Ooooh! oooh! I'll have a tuna sandwich please!" Ken butted in

"Food is good." George added plainly...

"Master Ken, Master George, right this way please. And Lady Yan, please stop riding on the horse statue. Thank you." Jerome said as if it was a normal day.

"Stop! Stop! Stop! Am I missing something here? How come you all know each other already?" I shouted.

"Dwayne…" Toni said calmly to grab my attention. She then started to say "The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again."

Then it hit me. Those were the last words of Jerome before he died in the previous life. Yes, I remember. A week has already passed in the apocalypse and I was still devastated with what the world was transitioning in to.

It was when I was at the garage, laying down on top of one of the cars when suddenly a horde of 1st grade zombies barged into the gate. You see, these zombies at their level were harmless on their own. But as a group, they're a pain. I went to the nearest gun shelf and started loading a few guns. I was only able to load a few guns since these guys were the fast-type 1st grade zombies. Hungry, terrifying and they love going about in big groups. I was able to kill most of them but when the last few zombies arrived, I ran out of bullets. Jerome came in just in time to save me but in the process of fighting the zombies, he lost his life.

Our abilities manifested after one month into the Death of the Moon so we were practically vulnerable during this time. Before dying, he said this line to me, "The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again." He even said that it was destiny. He hoped that after this trial he'd meet me again in the next trial and hopefully everything will work out. Jerome even told me to give these words to the one I trust the most. So that if ever the person I trust the most would meet Jerome, he would definitely know.

I didn't understand it all back then. Well, in fact I didn't understand how Jerome knew who I was when the apocalypse started. I couldn't even recognize him. He had to prove it through the pictures we had. He didn't even know how he knew me, as well as my real name. A lot of things didn't make sense back then. But somehow, now it became clearer.

I told Antonia the same line before we used the Mind Jump Device just in case. She must've used this code to get to Jerome. That's why Jerome was pushy in getting me to school.

They actually planned it all!

"I met Jerome a year ago when I was out doing groceries." Antonia explained.

"I recognized him from the photo you showed and I tried to get to know him. He was defensive at first, but when I told him the code, he surprisingly understood what it was and we planned in getting the others together. But you were busy surviving your father so we couldn't get you earlier." Antonia started to tell the story

It did make sense. In the past year, I have been dropped in the wilderness, the desert or an island with no population, around 8 times. And some took days and others took weeks in getting home. Those painful memories still haunts me.

But the question is, how did Jerome know the code when he wasn't able to send his memories? He a few days after the apocalypse started. There was no way he could have sent his memories to this life.

This was really strange. I should ask him later.

"Alright, no need for formalities then." I just realized that that wasn't the most important thing right now. We had to plan for the apocalypse.

"Let's begin planning." I said in a serious tone.

I then started to initiate the plan and began giving orders.

"Sabby, Sophy, go and try contacting the others. Use whatever methods you can to get them here before the apocalypse

"Aye Aye Boss!" The twins joyfully answered.

I gave the first set of orders to the twins since contacting the gang is our utmost importance. They needed to be here now. In fact, they were supposed to be here weeks ago.

"Antonia, work with Jerome in getting the rooms ready for the shut in. Write the information needed on the walls of each room for each member. Make it convincing enough so we can easily believe the message when we wake up on the first day."

"As you command Master Dwayne" Jerome stated while giving a short bow, Antonia on the other hand didn't respond and directly went to the direction of the rooms. What's her problem?

The plan and our personal information should be placed on the wall. This was to make sure that we will remember who we are when we wake up. In the first day of the apocalypse, we will lose our memories as well as vital information.

"Yan, Ken, start putting armor on the larger vehicles and hide them in the underground garage. Make sure that we have enough vehicles for escaping and attacking."

"You got it!" They both enthusiastically responded.

We planned on making this mansion as our main base since we have everything we need here from food, security, vehicle, and more. But we have to be prepared to run raids and we need vehicles for escaping just in case. This place wasn't built to withstand a mid-grade zombie attack. We have a chopper, but in the 3rd year of the apocalypse, people would use their weapons to hunt down any survivors that use flying vehicles, so it was practically useless.

"George, I trust you can clean, load and prepare the guns and other weapons for fighting?"

"George will make it happen." He said flatly

I don't need to monitor a weapon expert. Though we had the ability to summon weapons at our command, it was a month after the apocalypse started that we were able to do so. That's why we need all the weapons we can get for now.

"What about you Dwayne? What will you be doing?" Yan curiously asked.

"I'll be restocking and ordering food that doesn't expire for 2 to 3 years. What we have right now will probably expire in a year's time."

After the apocalypse happened, food was really scarce and raiding grocery stores were really dangerous. 1st grade fast type zombies would immediately come after you if you try to enter stores. Also, hunting animals was fine during the first year of the apocalypse, but after a year. Animals gained abilities as well, making them a hard target.

"Food must be enough for all of us." I stated it with confidence.

"In that case, can I come?" The voice came from behind us.

It was a familiar voice.

When I turned around, a woman who was the same age as I was, was leaning on the door frame and was smiling at me. She was wearing her white dress with black leggings underneath while wearing a pair of sneakers. Even before the death of the moon, she remained the same. So I instantly recognized her.

"Look who decided to show up. Fairy, you really took your time." Antonia came out of the kitchen with plastic bags filled with spray paint in both hands.

"Antonia, you knew better than to call me by that name. I go by Lovely Daniels for now. And I was late because I had to take care of some things on my end." I could feel the sarcasm on Lovely's voice.

These two ladies have always been arguing in our previous life. But even if they did, when there was a battle at hand, they made the greatest tag team duo you could ever find. Antonia was one of our mid-range defender and attacker. She was good at crowd control. With her long Spear, she could finish anyone off using shock waves from her spear. This was caused by thrusting her spear with force creating a massive shock wave.

Someone has to watch her back though. That was lovely's job. She was our fast-paced, wide-range sniper. While George would focus on stronger individual targets, Lovely was in charge on heavy fire towards stray zombies headed for the melee attackers. She used a bow powered by wind so she doesn't need physical arrows. This allowed her to fire at a rapid pace. She also had one thing that other people in the apocalypse don't, and this caused a lot of envy in this world.

SHE COULD FLY!

That's right! Fly! She was our eyes in the sky. If she wasn't as beautiful as she is, I'm pretty sure people would have hunted her down.

To be honest with you, the reason as to why these two kept on fighting was because of me.

I know it sounds like I'm boasting but hear me out.

Before the apocalypse began and when my parents were still here, Lovely was engaged with me through an arranged marriage fixed by both our families. I wasn't against the idea since resisting was futile. But I believed that marriage should be about love and that's why I purposely delayed the engagement. That was until this whole thing happened and I didn't see her since.

Three years in to the apocalypse when I was already together with Antonia, Lovely saved us from a horde of 3rd grade zombies. She knew I was special to her because she had a locket with my face in it. Though we both couldn't remember, it was still awkward. She then insisted on joining our group. And so, ever since then, we've been travelling together while these two ladies would argue a lot.

And now that she's here…

"Tonia, did you become fatter than usual?" Lovely teased.

"Don't call me that! And who are you calling fat you TWIG?!" Antonia retorted.

"What did you say FATSO?"

"Guys…" I released a small amount of killing intent...

They then became silent

"Lovely, you're with me… Let's go…"

Without any hesitation, everyone went and started doing their jobs.

And while we were doing our tasks, one thing stayed in my mind the entire time.

We will not fail the second time.

Suddenly, an angry voice was calling for me from the front gate. Molotovs were being tossed all over our front yard. When I saw who it was that did this…

___________________________________________________________

-- End of Chapter --

Characters that have appeared so far and their class and power summary:

1.) Dwayne Ricks (Paradox) - (?)

2.) Antonia Hills (Toni) - Spear Master

- Uses a spear to protect the front liners backs and the stray zombies heading for the ranged attackers

- Specializes on midline defense.

- Uses the power of shock waves to deal with large crowds. Is very useful in crowd control

3.) Ken Needy (Kaizer) - Knife Specialist

- Is able to summon knives out of thin air and control them with ease

- Damage dealer and is also good at crowd control

4.) Yu Yan Fields (Jaden) - Assassin Class

- Uses giant claws as weapons and is good with assassinations and poison manipulation

- In charge of scouting and stealth operations.

5.) George Miles (Nine) - Sniper/Gunner Class

- 100% accuracy with extra abilities such as copy shot, infinite ammo and breaching

- Is excellent in melee and range gun fighting.

6.) Sabrina Avilon (Shadow) - Warrior/Tank

- Super strength used in wield a giant sledge hammer

- Has a body that allows Physical attacks to pass through.

7.) Sophia Avilon (Shine) - Warrior/Tank

- Super strength on par with her sister and is used to wield a giant axe

- Has a body whose durability is like of a diamond.

8.) Lovely Daniels (Fairy) - Sniper/Sorcerer

- Uses a bow to hunt down enemies and to deal with large hordes so the main sniper can focus fire on high grade zombies

- Is able to fly and fight from the skies. Is able to spy enemy camps from 5km in the sky

9.) Jerome (?)