Chapter 3: The Last Breath of My Past Life

My heart pounded as we ran through the crowded streets, but every step felt like a dream, a nightmare on repeat. As Mia's grip tightened around my hand, my mind drifted back to my previous life—to the moment everything unraveled, to the moment I failed. The images played in my mind like a broken reel of film, jagged, disjointed, but clear enough to burn every detail into my memory.

I was going to relive it.

And it began with a simple mistake.

It was a month into the outbreak, and the world was already in ruins. Cities had become graveyards, hollow echoes of what they once were. Buildings were skeletal structures, their windows shattered, and streets littered with debris, the last remnants of civilization. The stench of death clung to everything.

At first, the outbreak had spread quietly, like a virus slowly taking hold. People didn't understand what was happening. Hospitals were overrun with patients, and there were rumors—wild, terrifying rumors—that the dead weren't staying dead. But it wasn't until the infection started tearing through entire towns that the world truly descended into chaos.

I had never been much of a survivor. I hadn't prepared for the end of the world. I didn't have weapons or a safehouse, just blind hope that maybe someone would fix everything. I thought we could ride out the storm, that help was coming. How naïve I was.

Mia and I had found temporary refuge in an old school gymnasium that had been converted into a shelter. The government was gone by then, replaced by panicked militias and desperate survivors. Food and water were rationed, but there wasn't enough to go around. People fought over scraps, alliances were formed and broken in hours, and every night, we prayed that the infected wouldn't find us.

I remember the sound of the door being kicked open that night. I was half-asleep, exhaustion weighing me down, but the second the door flew open, my eyes snapped wide. Mia was next to me, still sleeping. My body froze. We all knew what that sound meant.

The infected had found us.

Panic set in before I could even move. People screamed, tripping over each other as they scrambled for the exits. The infected—a dozen or so of them—poured into the gym, their hollow, lifeless eyes scanning the room. Their skin was gray and mottled, their movements jerky and unnatural. It wasn't just hunger driving them—it was something far darker, a mindless, unstoppable need to consume.

I grabbed Mia's arm and pulled her toward the emergency exit. "Come on! We have to go!"

But there were too many of them. The infected were everywhere, their snarls filling the air as they tore into anyone who got too close. One man, a tall guy in his forties, tried to fight back with a metal pipe, but he was overwhelmed in seconds. His screams still haunt me.

We were trapped.

Mia looked up at me, her eyes wide with fear. "Jake… what do we do?"

I didn't have an answer. My hands were shaking, my mind blank. I had never been the kind of person who could make decisions under pressure. But I knew one thing: I couldn't lose her. Not Mia. She was all I had left.

"Stay behind me," I whispered, my voice trembling. "I'll get us out of here."

I grabbed a broken piece of wood from the wreckage nearby, something to defend myself with. It was pathetic, but it was all I had. As the infected closed in, I swung it wildly, hitting one of them in the head. The sound of the impact was sickening, but the infected didn't stop. They never stopped.

"Run!" I shouted at Mia. "Get to the door!"

She hesitated, but then she ran, darting through the chaos toward the exit. I stayed behind, fighting off the infected as best I could, my arms growing tired, my heart pounding in my chest. But there were too many of them. For every one I hit, two more took its place.

And then I felt it.

A sharp, searing pain in my side.

I looked down, and my blood turned to ice. One of the infected had grabbed me, its decaying hands digging into my flesh. Its eyes—once human, now empty—locked onto mine as it lunged, sinking its teeth into my shoulder. The pain was blinding, a white-hot flash that ripped through me like a knife.

I screamed, but no one heard me.

The infected tore into me, dragging me down, and I felt the world slip away. I tried to fight, but my body wouldn't respond. Blood pooled beneath me, staining the cracked gym floor, and all I could think about was Mia. I needed to get to her. I needed to protect her.

But I couldn't move.

The last thing I saw before everything went black was Mia, her face twisted in horror as she stood at the exit, too far away, too late to save me. I had failed her.

The memory hit me like a punch to the gut, and I stumbled, gasping for breath as the streets of the present blurred around me. Mia's voice snapped me back to reality.

"Jake! Are you okay?" She tugged on my arm, her face pale.

I blinked, trying to focus. We were still running, weaving through the chaos of the early outbreak. The infection hadn't spread yet, not fully, but it was coming. I could feel it in the air—the tension, the fear. I couldn't let that happen again. I couldn't let Mia die.

"I'm fine," I lied, my voice hoarse. "We just need to keep moving."

We turned a corner and found ourselves in an alleyway, narrow and dark. It wasn't the best hiding place, but it would buy us some time to catch our breath. I leaned against the wall, my hand still trembling from the memory of my past death. It felt so real, as if I could still feel the infected's hands clawing at me, tearing me apart.

Mia stared at me, her eyes searching mine. "You're not fine, Jake. What happened? You were… you were gone for a second."

I didn't know how to explain it to her. How could I tell her that I had already lived through this, that I had died and come back, only to face the same nightmare again? She wouldn't understand. Hell, I didn't even understand it myself.

But I couldn't keep hiding the truth from her.

"I… I didn't just live through the outbreak, Mia," I said quietly, my voice barely above a whisper. "I died. I died trying to protect you."

Her eyes widened, and for a moment, I thought she was going to laugh, or tell me I was crazy. But she didn't. She just stood there, staring at me with a mixture of fear and disbelief.

"What… what do you mean you died?" she asked, her voice shaky.

I took a deep breath, the memory still fresh in my mind. "It was a few weeks into the outbreak. We were hiding in a shelter—a gym. The infected broke in, and… I tried to fight them off. I tried to keep you safe. But I wasn't strong enough. I got bit. I died right there, in front of you."

Tears welled up in her eyes, and she took a step closer to me. "But… but you're here now. How is that possible?"

I shook my head. "I don't know. I don't know how any of this is possible. All I know is that I woke up yesterday, and I was back. Back before it all started. And now… I've been given a second chance. To do things right this time."

Mia's tears fell, but she didn't speak. She just wrapped her arms around me, holding me tightly as if she were afraid I would disappear again.

"I'm not going to let it happen again," I whispered, my voice breaking. "I swear to you, Mia. I'll protect you this time. No matter what."

She nodded against my chest, her grip on me tightening. "We'll make it through this, Jake. Together."

I held her close, the weight of my past pressing down on me like a thousand stones. I had failed before. I couldn't afford to fail again.

This time, I would be ready.

This time, we would survive.