Creating A Planet

That night, Arjun woke up several times, his body tense, his mind restless. Each time, he lay still, listening. Distant noises drifted through the silence—faint voices, eerie and indistinct. But beyond that, nothing. No sudden crashes. No footsteps creeping closer.

He forced himself to take deep breaths. It's fine. Just sleep.

Easier said than done. But eventually, exhaustion won over his paranoia, and he drifted into uneasy slumber.

By early morning, Arjun was awake again. His body ached, stiff from sleeping on the floor, but he pushed past it.

He found some bottled water and used it to brush his teeth. There were gallons of it stored here—one less thing to worry about. Taking advantage of his rare moment of peace, he made his way to the manager's private bathroom, stripping off his clothes.

Warm water ran down his skin as he scrubbed away the grime and sweat. It felt... refreshing. Almost normal. As if the world outside wasn't falling apart.

After his bath, he searched the storage room and found clean clothes—a simple t-shirt and cargo pants. They fit well enough.

Dressed and feeling slightly more human, he stepped out of the office. His first priority was to check the shopping center, making sure no zombies had broken in overnight.

He moved carefully, his senses on high alert. But as he searched each floor, relief washed over him.

No signs of forced entry. No blood trails. No movement.

Good. This place is still safe.

But when he reached the second floor and looked out the window, his breath caught.

The street outside was swarming with zombies.

Again.

His grip on the window frame tightened as he took in the scene. The bodies he had killed yesterday still lay where they had fallen, dark pools of dried blood surrounding them. But now, a fresh wave of undead had arrived, filling the roads once more.

"Where the hell do they keep coming from?"

He exhaled slowly, forcing himself to stay calm.

There was no point in going out there again. Killing them all would be a waste of energy. He had done it once, and yet here they were, as if the city itself kept spitting them out.

No—he needed a better way.

Turning away from the window, he walked back to the manager's office and sank into the chair.

His fingers tapped against the desk absentmindedly.

Last night, he had barely begun to understand what Genesis was. But now, an idea was forming in his mind. A realization.

This could be my way out of the apocalypse.

A spark of excitement flickered in his chest.

He didn't know all the answers yet, but one thing was certain—Genesis held the key to something much bigger.

Arjun pulled out a blank sheet of paper from the desk and picked up a pen. He needed a plan.

His mind raced with everything he knew about the universe—how planets formed, the forces that shaped them, the delicate balance required for life. He had to put it all down, step by step.

If the internet still existed, he would have searched for answers in seconds. But here, he had only books.

He reached for a small stack he had taken from the bookstore earlier—ones that seemed relevant. The first was The Earth: A Very Short Introduction by Martin Redfern.

Flipping through the pages, he absorbed everything—the formation of Earth, plate tectonics, the Big Bang, the evolution of life. His fingers traced diagrams of planetary orbits and atmospheric compositions. Each detail mattered.

Hours passed. He barely noticed the ache creeping into his neck, the heaviness settling behind his eyes.

By the time he finished his second, then third book, his mind felt saturated, like an overfilled glass on the verge of spilling.

But he had learned enough.

Arjun put down his pen and took a slow breath.

"If I'm going to make Genesis work, I need to understand the science behind creation."

With that thought, he closed his eyes. The world around him faded.

And when he opened them again, he was back in the void.

His sun burned brilliantly in the endless darkness, its golden flames flickering like a heartbeat in the silence. Warm. Powerful. The first step toward something greater.

But a sun alone wasn't enough. A world needed more.

He exhaled, letting his thoughts settle.

In the real world, Earth orbited the Sun at roughly 150 million kilometers—one astronomical unit. But his sun was different. Smaller. Maybe half the size of the real one.

That meant his planet couldn't be placed so far away. It needed to be closer—somewhere between 0.4 and 0.5 AU.

And somehow… he just knew this.

The distances, the measurements, the space itself—it all felt instinctive, as if the universe whispered its secrets directly into his mind.

Was it because this place belonged to him?

Standing there, surrounded by the vast nothingness, he felt it.

Not just control.

Not just power.

Something deeper.

Here, in this space, he wasn't just a survivor in an apocalypse.

He was a creator.

An omnipotent being, shaping a world from nothing.

Arjun took a deep breath. There was no time to waste. He had to get to work.

He started with the foundation—the molten core. Iron and nickel, the very heart of a planet, swirling in a sea of fire, remaining molten for billions of years. He focused his thoughts, and before him, a blazing sphere came to life. It pulsed with heat, radiating an intensity even greater than his sun. Waves of molten energy rippled outward, searing the surrounding space.

The next step was the mantle—a thick layer of semi-solid rock that would transfer heat from the core. He envisioned its slow, churning motion, the movement that would drive tectonic activity. As the mantle formed, the surface trembled, signaling the birth of something immense.

Now, the crust. This would be the land, the very ground upon which life might one day stand. He carefully layered solidified silicates, carbon, and metals, shaping continents and valleys. Volcanoes erupted, releasing gases and minerals, filling the newborn atmosphere with the building blocks of an ecosystem.

But a world without water was barren.

He stretched out his hand and imagined vast oceans. In an instant, a massive surge of water flooded the surface, covering nearly one-third of the planet. The sight was breathtaking—deep blue seas shimmering against the rugged land.

It was complete. His world.

Arjun took a step back, observing his creation. The planet glowed with a soft blue hue, its oceans reflecting the light of the distant sun. He had placed most of the land in fertile regions, barely focusing on the icy poles. It didn't need to be perfect—not yet.

But something still felt… off.

It looked lifeless. Unstable. The air was still, the land untouched. Could it really sustain life?

Maybe it just needed a push.

Like a conductor leading an orchestra, he raised his hands and willed the molten core to spin. At first, it was slow, almost hesitant, but then—it accelerated. He could feel the planet coming to life, its internal engine awakening. The spinning core generated powerful electric currents, and in turn, a magnetic field surged outward, wrapping the planet in an invisible shield.

But as one force awakened, so did another.

The tectonic plates beneath the surface began shifting, colliding, and breaking apart. Mountains formed. Valleys deepened. The land he had carefully shaped started changing on its own.

He frowned. He couldn't control everything.

Maybe he wasn't supposed to. A planet had to find its own balance, its own way to exist. He would have to trust it.

Summoning his strength, he gathered every ounce of energy within him. His fingers trembled as he extended his arm, releasing a final surge of power. A shockwave pulsed through the planet, setting it into motion.

It began to spin—slowly at first, then faster, settling into a steady rhythm. Day and night had been born.

Then, as if guided by an unseen force, the planet drifted into an elliptical orbit around the sun. He released his hold, watching as it moved naturally, drawn into the cosmic dance.

A smile crept onto Arjun's face.

Pride swelled in his chest.

Maybe this was how gods felt when they shaped worlds. Maybe the universe itself had been created this way.

Whatever the truth, it didn't matter.

This—this was his creation. And he was proud.

[ Energy : 10,000 ]

Creating the Earth, took 10 times more energy then creating the sun itself. It must be because of how carefully it was designed. Arjun had to do it, if it was not carefully designed it would not be suitable for life to take place.

Little by little, Arjun was beginning to understand how his space worked.

The rules here weren't different from the real universe—gravity, motion, energy, all of it followed the same physical laws. If it didn't, he wouldn't have been able to create anything at all.

But now came the real challenge.

A sun, a planet—those were just the beginning. A world wasn't truly alive without civilization.

But how was he supposed to create that?

Civilizations didn't just appear out of nowhere. Life itself took millions—no, billions—of years to evolve from simple bacteria to complex beings.

He exhaled slowly, deep in thought.

"Is it even possible? Could I accelerate time here?"

The idea sent a thrill through him. There was only one way to find out.

Closing his eyes, he focused.

He imagined time surging forward, speeding up beyond normal perception. As soon as the thought took shape, a powerful force surged through him, draining his energy like a flood.

A shimmering glow spread across the planet's surface.

And then—

The Earth moved.

Not just its rotation, but its orbit. It spun on its axis, tilted just right, and circled its sun in a perfect elliptical path. Beneath the surface, tectonic plates shifted—what should have taken eons now happened in mere moments.

"It's not the planet moving faster," he realized, watching the land transform before his eyes. "It's time itself accelerating."

He let it continue for a while, watching continents take shape, mountains rise and fall, oceans carve into the land. It was mesmerizing.

But it wasn't enough.

With a thought, he stopped time's rapid flow and returned to normal speed.

Now, it was time for the next step.

He needed life.

With another thought, he willed himself down to the planet's surface. In an instant, the endless void vanished, replaced by solid ground beneath his feet.

The land stretched vast and empty before him. Dry. Barren.

The only sound was the distant roar of waves crashing against the shore. Each impact sent tremors through the land, like nature itself was trying to awaken.

"Life doesn't just appear—it has to start somewhere."

He reached into his backpack and pulled out a plastic bag filled with decomposing waste—leftovers from the shopping center. It smelled awful, but that was exactly what he needed.

"Bacteria."

This was a simple experiment, but if it worked, it could be the first step toward something bigger.

He crouched down and dumped the biodegradable waste onto the dry soil.

But something told him it wasn't enough.

Life needed a spark.

He pulled a small knife from his back pocket and pressed it against his palm.

A quick slice. A sharp sting.

Dark red blood droplets spilled onto the decaying matter, sinking into the earth.

"Maybe this will start something."

Without hesitation, he stepped back and disappeared once again, shifting his consciousness outside of time. He reached out, bending the flow of time itself, making the seconds stretch into years, then centuries. The planet's rotation resumed, faster than before, stabilizing into a smooth cycle of day and night.

And somewhere, deep within the soil—something stirred.

Then—he watched.

For the first few years, nothing changed. The blood he had spilled dried up, its crimson stain fading into the soil. The garbage bag remained untouched, merely another discarded object on an empty world. But deep within, the microscopic battle had begun.

His DNA, once whole, had long since fragmented. The bacteria—tiny survivors from Earth's ecosystem—fed on the organic materials in the waste, breaking them down and multiplying. Over centuries, mutations took hold. Some strains perished, unable to adapt, while others evolved, becoming more resilient in this alien land.

P.S.: Hope you liked the new zombie apocalypse novel! I'm trying something new. Please don't forget to leave comments and votes.

AU = Astronomical Units.

1 AU is the average distance between Earth and the Sun, approximately 150 million kilometers (93 million miles).