Ch 2- Back to the year 2019

"Love, let's talk about love"

Zian woke up gasping for breathe his heart racing as if he had just single - handily fought off a hoard of zombies .

" Bree…"

Zian whispered in the dark looking for his niece before the tragic memories of the past flooded his mind.

A sweat soaked pyjama top clung to his skin as he madly looked around in the dark.

' Where am I ? Didn't I die? Am ,I in hell?'

The last comment was more of an afterthought. How could he end up anywhere else after killings so many creatures? Yes ,it was for survival so he had no regrets.

Zian knew he tried to be a good person but where had that gotten him?

Huh? He was lied to , deceived and betrayed! He was a f*cking ,gullible fool.

So it was much better to be a bad guy since they seem to survive like undying cockroaches!

Soon his eyes adjusted to the unfamiliar dark place.

' Wait a minute! Isn't this my room? '

Was this a dream? This place was his apartment when he went to university. He recognized the swimming and academic certificates as well some band posters on the wall. He had books lying on his desk and could feel cool air on his skin from the aircon. For a long while Zian lay frozen on the bed unable to figure out if he was in some sort of bizarre dream or reality.Time passed by both exceptionally slowly and fast .

"All the stars are closer."

"All the stars are closer"

When he snapped out of his trance Zian soon found there was the sound of music that somehow his frazzled brain manage to ignore.

The song ' All the Stars' by Kendrick Lamar blasted in his ears.

Picking up his iPhone X he switched off the alarm and was shell-shocked.

The date read 2 February 2019, time read 02:41 a.m., on the screen it showed 5 missed calls from Zander .One year before the apocalypse.

Yes, the dreaded nightmare that the world became was on 02/02/ 2020. A colourful fiery red glowing asteroid that struck the earth at midnight . Bringing a living hell and zombie mutations with it.

The phone abruptly fell from his hand onto his chest and Zian hurriedly grabbed it like a lifetime. Tears flowed from his eyes uncontrollably and he could barely hold back His heart wrenching sobs.

He didn't care about the why and how he just felt as if he had been granted mercy by the Gods!

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What was this! Was he reborn ?Did that mean everyone was still alive? His sister ,father and Zander were all alive and well. His niece Bree was yet to be born…

"Huh haa" he gave off a pained and crazed laugh while tears streamed down his cheeks.

'I got a second chance! This time I will protect them and do all it takes. Destroys all those who try to harm us!' Zian vowed.

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If before Zian's miraculous rebirth one asked him what was the happiest time or moment in his life he would easily say before 'the accident'.

Before the living hell that was the apocalypse he went through a personal emotional hell when he was 14 years old. In the accident his loving mother and his amazing older brother passed away in a car crash due to a drunken driver .It was a head on collusion yet the drunken driver survived but his family died .It was ironic how those were innocent and faultless suffered but the scum of the earth always got away.

Well you couldn't say got away…The man was sentenced to life imprisonment however after 6 months it was said that he committed suicide. Zian knew that his father had that scum secretly tortured in prison for murdering his wife and son but at that time he felt his father was serving justice.

It was only during the apocalypse that he found out the truth his brother and mother's death was a plot of the Bennett family.

When the truth came out Zian was outraged and even foolishly blamed his father.After all the Bennett family wanted his political and military power while the daughter of the Bennett family was obsessed with him.Those b*rstad's wanted to kill his father but because of last minute arrangements his mother was the one who was in that car. Since, Michelle Bennett was in love with his father she hide that piece of information hoping to become his father's new wife.

It was because of his stubbornness and cruel words that sent his father on a martyrs crusade to end the Bennett family or die trying .In the end leading to his father's death and his sister's untimely end when she tried to save him.

Zian's favourite and most vivid memory the one he replayed in his mind over and over again to fight of nightmares during the apocalypse was that of two weeks before 'the accident'.