The night was eerily still, broken only by the shuffling groans of the undead. Shadows chased her through the twisted remnants of a once-vibrant city, now a haunting landscape of crumbling buildings and flickering streetlights. Heart pounding, she darted down a narrow alley, its walls smeared with the remnants of a society torn asunder. A piercing shriek echoed behind her, followed by the sickening sound of decaying flesh tearing into the warm body of its intended prey. In that moment, the world became a blur. She felt the air thicken with despair, tasted the metallic tang of fear, and ran faster than she ever thought possible. But fate had other plans. As she turned a corner, her foot caught on an unforgiving piece of concrete, sending her sprawling to the ground. The creatures were upon her in an instant—claw and fang, the reeking stench of death filling her lungs. In a matter of moments, her cries faded into the night, swallowed whole by darkness.
Then, just as suddenly, everything changed. She jolted awake, soaked in a cold sweat, the remnants of the nightmare clinging to her like a second skin. As her breathing steadied, she turned her head slowly, eyes locking onto the clock that remembered the moments she could not. Time had rewound itself unceremoniously—1:27 AM on the 4th of May on a typical Tuesday morning, one year before the world began to crumble. The very hour her family had turned their backs on her. Sitting up, the girl felt a rush of conflicting emotions, disbelief twining with a flicker of hope.
In the chaotic reel of memories from the future, she could vividly recall the extreme natural disasters that had reshaped the planet—the earthquakes that ripped through cities, storms that swallowed coastlines, and firestorms that turned the skies to ash. Although haunted by the visual tapestry of loss, she was imbued with the knowledge of survival. With newfound determination igniting a fire in her chest, she realized she had been granted a miraculous second chance. Armed with the wisdom and experience of the girl who had fallen to her fate, she had an entire year to prepare. The relentless ticking of the clock echoed in her mind, reminding her that every moment mattered. As the specter of the apocalypse loomed closer, she was ready to face it head-on—to transform what had been a disastrous ending into an extraordinary beginning. Racing against time, she would not merely survive; she would thrive. And in a world soon to be unrecognizable, she would carve her own path through the chaos, one step at a time.