[Aria's POV]
The screaming woke me up.
Not normal screaming. Not the kind you hear in movies. This was real—raw and terrible and full of pain that made my stomach twist.
I shot up in bed, my heart pounding so hard it hurt. Through the window, I saw people running in the streets below. Then I saw why.
A woman was eating another woman.
Actually eating her.
"Marcus!" I screamed for my fiancé. "Marcus, wake up!"
He stumbled out of the bathroom, and that's when the glowing screen appeared in front of my face. Floating in the air. Bright blue letters that made no sense.
[CONGRATULATIONS! THE AWAKENING HAS BEGUN!]
[You have survived the transformation. 90% of humanity has become infected. You are among the chosen survivors.]
[Scanning your potential...]
I couldn't breathe. What was happening? The screaming outside got louder. Glass shattered somewhere close. A man's voice cut off mid-scream.
[SCAN COMPLETE]
[ARIA CHEN - Power Rank: F]
[Ability: Basic Healing - You can heal small cuts and bruises]
[System Name: Minor Support System]
F-Rank? What did that mean?
"Holy..." Marcus breathed beside me.
I turned to look at him. His screen glowed brighter than mine—golden instead of blue. Lightning crackled between his fingers, actual real lightning, dancing across his skin like he was some kind of superhero.
[MARCUS ZHAO - Power Rank: SSS]
[Ability: Lightning Emperor - Ultimate electrical manipulation and destruction]
[System Name: Thunder God System]
My mouth fell open. SSS-Rank. The highest rank possible, according to the information flooding into my brain from the system.
And I had F-Rank. The lowest.
Something crashed against our apartment door. Once. Twice. The wood cracked.
"We need to go!" Marcus grabbed my arm, pulling me toward the window. His grip hurt. He'd never held me roughly before. "Now, Aria!"
"What's happening?" My voice shook. "Marcus, what's—"
The door exploded inward.
A thing that used to be our neighbor stumbled inside. Mr. Peterson from 3B, who always smiled and held the elevator. Except now his skin was gray and peeling. His eyes were white and empty. Black veins covered his face like spider webs.
And his mouth—oh God, his mouth was full of blood.
He turned toward us and shrieked.
Marcus pushed me behind him. Lightning exploded from his hands, so bright I had to close my eyes. The smell of burning meat filled the air. When I looked again, Mr. Peterson was on the floor, smoking and not moving.
"Did you... did you kill him?" I whispered.
"He was already dead." Marcus stared at his hands, electricity still dancing between his fingers. "The system said 90% transformed into these things. Into zombies. We need to get somewhere safe."
My phone buzzed. Text messages flooded in from everyone I knew. Most cut off mid-sentence. Some just said "help" over and over.
One message stood out. From my stepsister Vivian: "Warehouse. Dad's pharmaceutical warehouse on Kent Street. Bringing survivors. Get there if you're alive."
"The warehouse," I told Marcus. "Vivian says—"
"I saw the message." His jaw was tight. "Can you fight?"
"I... I don't know. My power is healing—"
"Healing." He looked at me then, really looked at me, and something in his eyes made my chest hurt. It wasn't the warm look I was used to. It was cold. Calculating. Like he was doing math in his head. "F-Rank healing."
"I can help! I can heal you if you get hurt—"
"If I get hurt, I'll already be dead." He moved toward the door. "Stay close. Don't slow me down."
Those words cut deeper than they should have. We'd been together for five years. He proposed six months ago with tears in his eyes, saying I was his whole world. Now he was looking at me like I was a burden.
But I pushed the hurt down. This was an apocalypse. Of course he was scared. Of course he was different. We'd be okay once we got somewhere safe.
We wouldn't be okay.
The trip to the warehouse was a nightmare. Marcus killed zombies with lightning while I ran behind him, useless and terrified. My healing power did nothing against the dead things trying to eat us.
When we finally reached the warehouse—my family's warehouse, the one Dad built before he died—there were already twenty people inside. Vivian stood in the center, her platinum hair perfect even now, furniture floating around her in a circle.
[VIVIAN CHEN - Power Rank: A]
[Ability: Telekinesis]
A-Rank. So much stronger than me.
She saw Marcus first. Her eyes lit up. "Marcus! You made it! What rank did you—" She saw his lightning and gasped. "SSS-Rank? You're SSS-Rank?"
"Looks like it." Marcus actually smiled at her. His first smile since this started.
Then Vivian saw me. Her smile disappeared. "Oh. You survived too, Aria." She looked at Marcus. "What rank is she?"
The warehouse went quiet. Everyone stared at me.
"F-Rank," Marcus said. His voice was flat. "Healing. Minor cuts and bruises only."
Someone laughed. Actually laughed.
"F-Rank?" Vivian's perfect eyebrows rose. "The lowest possible rank?" She looked at the others. "In an apocalypse where we need to kill zombies to survive and grow stronger, she got... healing?"
"I can help!" My voice came out too loud, too desperate. "I can heal people after fights, keep everyone healthy—"
"We need fighters," a man said. He had B-Rank strength, according to his system. "Not someone who heals paper cuts."
"She'll slow us down," another woman added.
"No, I won't! This is my family's warehouse. All these supplies, the medicine, the food—this is mine. I'm sharing it to help everyone!"
Vivian's face went hard. "Was yours, you mean. Your dad's dead, Aria. In this new world, things belong to whoever's strong enough to keep them."
I looked at Marcus. My fiancé. The man who promised to love me forever. "Marcus, tell them. Tell them I can help."
He met my eyes for one long moment.
Then he looked away.
"Her power is useless," Marcus said quietly. "In a world where we need to kill to survive, healing minor wounds means nothing."
The words hit me like a punch to the stomach.
"But I—we're engaged—"
"Engaged in the old world," Vivian said sweetly. "This is the new world, sister. And in this world, the weak don't survive."
She was right. I could see it in everyone's faces. They were calculating my worth. Finding me lacking.
But what scared me most wasn't their cold expressions.
It was the way Marcus moved closer to Vivian.
The way she smiled up at him.
The way his hand brushed against hers, and he didn't pull away.
"Get some rest, everyone," Marcus announced, his voice taking charge like he owned this place. Like he owned my family's warehouse. "Tomorrow we start forming teams. We'll hunt zombies, gather supplies, and build something strong here."
People nodded, looking at him like he was already their leader.
No one looked at me at all.
I stood there in the warehouse my dead father built, surrounded by people I thought were friends, next to the man I thought loved me.
And I realized with cold, creeping horror that I'd made a terrible mistake.
I'd brought them here. I'd given them shelter and supplies.
And now they didn't need me anymore.
Vivian caught my eye across the room. She smiled—a small, cruel smile that promised something awful.
Then she leaned close to Marcus and whispered something in his ear.
He looked at me one more time.
And the coldness in his eyes told me everything I needed to know.
I wasn't his fiancée anymore.
I was just dead weight.