Crash!
Bang!
Boom!
Glasses were shattering, doors were being broken down, bullets flew everywhere.
A young thin woman was running bare footed as fast as she could through the broken glasses on the ground. She was very battered, bloody marks filled her skin, legs was all ripped because of the fragments of glasses on the floor, her right eye was now a black eye.
Just then a three story building in front of her collapsed just before she reached it. Her heart dropped as tears sprang to her eyes.
"Why is this happening?"
A shrill cry was heard from across the road. She looked over her shoulders just to see a woman being crushed under a fallen part of a three story building.
"Oh my gosh!" She screamed, immediately looking away, running through the debris.
Panic and chaos tore through the town. Women were screaming for their children, children were crying looking for their mothers, but where were the men?
The thin woman had already made up her mind to get to safety before any of this chaos would catch up to her. All she needed to do was to get to the city's strong tower and she would be safe.
Just as she was about to jump across a small puddle of muddy water, something shot through her.
Was that a bullet?
She looked down, numb with shock to see the hole created in her stomach with blood spewing out of it.
Ka-boom!
Another shot right through that stomach, and another, and another.
She had been shot three times.
Her body stiffened, and her mind raced with thoughts, but she could hear only one voice.
I am dying.
She looked over her shoulder to see the shooter, "Marcus?" She managed to squeeze the words out of her mouth.
Marcus with fumbling hands didn't respond, instead the pistol fell out of his hands, as he fell to the ground on his knees.
BOOM!
He exploded in front of her.
The force of the bomb carried her in the air, making her spin backwards till she landed on the ground filled with debris of collapsed buildings, shattered glasses and more.
She was badly burned from the force of the explosion, she was no more than a walking skeleton.
Blood blurred her vision, "I could not live my life. How wasted I was," she swallowed hard, "It is over."
Then she blacked out.
---
Soo Min-ji fluttered her eyes open.
The world was silent.
No crashing.
No banging
No booming.
Nothing.
She lay on her back, trying to register what happened to her, and why she was on the ground like that. Her eyes flickered as she yawned, then stretched real good.
A smile tugged at the corner of her lips, before her eyes snapped even wider, "I am alive!"
She raised her arms to look at them, but there were no bruises on them at all, she even raised her legs to observe them, there were no bruises either, though the dust clung to her skin - which she didn't notice at first.
"I was given a second chance," an appreciating smile light up her eyes, "Thank you Heavens," she lifted her eyes towards the sky.
"Hm?" She froze when her eyes caught the sky.
It was cloudless, blank, smeared crimson red.
She blinked confused, before titling her head to the side. She was lying on sand!
She immediately bolted up, sitting upright observing her surroundings. Her head ached immediately she sat up, her vision blurring for a few seconds.
"What the hell?" She grimaced.
She was in a kind of desert! There was nothing, but sand for miles. No trees, no water, no signs of standing buildings, this place was void of them.
"I can swear I saw buildings, and people, and.." she finally got to her feet, "It is all.. gone?"
Not that she needed them anyway.
"I was told I was dependent," she dug her nails into her palm, "That is not happening again," she wiped her mouth.
Images of Mark, shooting her then exploding right in front of her, sent chills down her spine.
Tears sprang to her eyes, but she quickly blinked them back, "No way am I crying over someone who didn't care."
Mark was her fiancé, and they were planning to get married the following month before the chaos erupted. Everything was going fine, before those strange creatures came out of nowhere, and began attacking everyone.
Why they just decided to attack, she doesn't know, but what she knew was that she tried to fight, but it was no use. They attacked with full force, until they turned families against each other.
Husbands were killing their wives, just to find favor in the eyes of those creatures, wives were doing the same, parents were offering up their children as sacrifices.
It was all blood, chaos, destruction.
Still none of those worked, they still died anyway.
Tch.
"Oh well, that is all behind me now. Since the Heavens decided to grant me a second chance, I am going to use it properly," a proud smile tugged at her lips.
She paused, standing akimbo, her eyes lifted towards the sky, "Why is it so red? Is this an aftermath of the Apocalypse?" A listless sigh escaped her lips.
Now that she was given a second chance, why was it so hard to figure the next way forward?
"This was not the kind of second chance I signed up for," she groaned, eventually dropping to her knees.
She let out a heavy exhale, "Phew."
Suddenly, she heard a strange noise behind her.
"Wait, someone is here too?" Her eyes widened, as she quickly whipped her head behind her shoulders.
No, it was not someone else.
It was a small creature, with rotting, pale skin with a very foul stench. Its eyes were hollow, and sunken into their sockets, its contorted face had missing patches of flesh, and its teeth were jagged yellow. Its hair was falling out, leaving very visible bald parts on its decaying head. Its arms and legs were all very skinny looking as though they could not carry its weight. It wore ragged clothes, stained with something that looked like blood.
It looked exactly like those creatures. No, it was one of those creatures that had attacked them on doomsday.
She froze in her spot, not knowing what to do, just staring open-mouthed at this creature, that walked unnaturally towards her.
It let out a low, long groan as it kept advancing towards her, "Uuuhhh!"
"What the actual hell?" She came to her senses, then took to her heels.
Unfortunately for her, it began to chase her.
She screamed at the top of her lungs, "Help!" She had forgotten there was no one around to help her.
"I was literally reborn a few hours ago, why am I going to die again?!" She croaked.
The creature kept chasing her, making it unusual sounds.
"No, no, no!" She looked over her shoulders to see it was catching up with her.
She tried to increase her pace, but the sand was not helping matters at all. She stumbled, falling to the ground, but she rolled over to her feet.
No way she was dying again!
Before she knew what was happening, she saw the creature in front of her!
Was it not behind her a few minutes ago?
"Oh no," she proceeded to run the other direction but the creature leapt at her.
Panic surged her veins, so she had to act fast without thinking. She just punched it twice while it was close enough to swipe its claws at her.
Pop!
It vanished like smoke in midair.
She heaved heavily, "It's gone? It's gone! I did it!" She jumped up and down in celebration of her little feat.
[Beep!]
A holographic screen flickered to life in front of her, glo
wing blue.
[CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE ACTIVATED THE AEGENESIS SYSTEM!]