A Familiar Trick

"I'm not going! There are mutated zombies in there—I'd die!" Eliza shrieked as she flung the man's hand away, darted behind me, and clutched my clothes like a lifeline.

A trace of mockery curved at the corner of my mouth. "Weren't you just talking about helping each other? Now that someone's asking you to step up, you don't want to anymore?"

"I-I…" Eliza's face flushed a deep, ugly red. Tears brimmed in her eyes, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't force out another word.

Everyone had figured it out by then. Handing over a detonator meant all of us would die—unless someone went into that forbidden death zone to fetch a new one. Eliza had been generous with her words, tossing out other people's lives with a flick of her tongue.

But the moment it was her turn to risk herself, she shrank back. Lavish with what didn't belong to her—nothing more.

Seeing the tide turn against him, the man on his knees immediately switched tactics. Wearing a pitiful expression, he crawled toward Eliza. "Miss, if you can't give us one, can you… Can you take us with you? My child and I can work! We'll do anything. Please don't leave us behind!"

I narrowed my eyes at him.

In my previous life, he'd grabbed the detonator and run. In this one, failing to get it, he wanted to worm his way in instead. He was clearly no good.

"Sorry," I replied coolly. "We don't have spare supplies to share. You should go check the subway station yourself."

The man stiffened, then spat viciously under my stare. "You bunch of heartless swines! I'll remember this!" He shot me a venomous look, then turned and vanished into the shadows of the ruins.

There was no time to waste on him. I installed the detonators while barking orders. "Fire in the hole! Fall back now—or die!"

'Boom!'

Rubble exploded outward, dust and debris filling the air.

"It's open! Let's move, Captain!"

Cheers erupted as the team piled into the vehicles, scrambling to leave. Once I was inside, I pulled an old military communicator from my bag. If I could fix it, we could contact the rear base and claw our way back from the brink of death.

But in my previous life, the moment I'd opened the device, Eliza had walked over holding a cup of water. She'd said I looked exhausted and urged me to drink.

Then, the vehicle jolted—and the entire cup splashed straight onto the exposed circuit board. Sparks crackled, and the communicator was ruined beyond repair.

She'd cried her eyes out afterward, swearing it hadn't been intentional, that she'd only wanted to look out for me. Everyone had comforted her, saying it was fine, that there would be another way.

That "way" had been leaving the convoy to search for an abandoned relay tower.

In the name of finding rescue, I'd taken only minimal supplies—only to be framed by Eliza for trying to steal resources and flee. I'd been thrown out of the base and left to rot alive under radiation.

This time, I wasn't letting her succeed.

Sure enough, just as I removed the back casing, I caught sight of Eliza approaching with an enamel mug in her hands, her face full of guilt.

"Iris, have some water." Her voice was soft and fragile, her eyes still red. "What happened earlier was my fault. I shouldn't have tried to make you give away the detonator—I almost got everyone killed. I was just… too soft-hearted. Don't be mad at me, okay?"

As she spoke, she bent down and extended the cup toward me. The angle was carefully chosen—dangerously so. One tiny jolt, and the water would pour straight onto the exposed circuitry.

I kept my expression neutral, pretending to focus on the wiring in my hands. "No, thanks—I'm not thirsty."

"Just one sip," she pressed gently. "I made it especially for you. If you don't drink it, I'll feel awful—ah!"

The jolt came right on cue, and water arced forward, splashing straight toward the communicator.

Reunion at the Edge of Ruin

I shoved the communicator into my jacket and twisted sharply to the left, moving fast enough to hook out a leg as I went.

'Splash!'

The entire cup of water went straight into Eliza's face, dripping down onto the deck. She screamed and tumbled awkwardly onto a seat.

"Eliza! Are you okay?" A few of the male teammates instinctively rushed forward to help her up.

Eliza sat on the floor, wiped the water from her face, and tears instantly flooded her eyes. "Iris… if you didn't forgive me, you could've just refused to drink the water. Why did you have to push me?"

The way she twisted the truth really was second nature to her.

I pulled the communicator—completely intact—from my jacket and gave it a casual shake. "Eliza, choose your words carefully. Everyone here saw it—you slipped and lunged forward on your own.

"This is the only communicator our entire team has. Even a single drop of water could've destroyed it. You were waving a full cup of water right over it—were you trying to make sure we couldn't contact the base and just waited to die in the radiation storm?"

The teammates glanced at the delicate piece of equipment, then at the puddle of water on the deck, and all of them felt a chill run down their spines. In the apocalypse, survival came before everything else.

"Yeah. That thing's our lifeline."

"Eliza, we all know you mean well, but maybe you should keep your distance from Iris from now on."

"I-I didn't! I just wanted her to drink some water…" Eliza stammered, flustered, but I cut her off.

"Whatever your intentions were, stay away from my equipment. This thing's fragile—not like certain people, whose lives are tough enough to survive any kind of recklessness."

Eliza shrank back into her seat, nodding meekly, her eyes full of resentment as she stared at me. I ignored her and focused on tuning the device.

'Bzzz…'

'We've got signal!'

I immediately dampened the sound, making sure Eliza didn't notice.

…

That night, the signal came and went, but I successfully intercepted a crucial message: the main force was stationed at a secure base to the southwest.

We changed course immediately.

Over the next few days, Eliza stayed unusually quiet, curled up in a corner of the vehicle.

To reach the base, we had to pass through an old chemical plant zone. In the pale green fog, several modified off-road vehicles gradually emerged, their bodies marked with a distinctive insignia.

'That's… Alec's team!' My heart skipped violently, and I shouted, "Stop the car!"

The other side reacted at once. Alec Kessler jumped down with a heavy sniper rifle slung across his back. He was tall and broad-shouldered, his features sharp and cold, a lethal edge settled between his brows.

Before the apocalypse, I'd been a pharmaceutical graduate student buried in lab work, while he'd been a special recruit from the same university—a former special forces soldier. After the world fell apart, I'd devoted myself to researching anti-radiation medication, while he fought on the front lines, bleeding to save others.

In my previous life, we'd met right here and traveled together. No matter how many times Eliza tried to drive a wedge between us, he'd always trusted me.

But later, when he went to look for a signal tower to protect me, Eliza had accused him of assaulting her, claiming we were stealing supplies to run away together. In the end, an enraged crowd had beaten his legs until they were broken, and we'd both been cast out of the base.

Before we died, his hand had been nothing but bone, yet he'd gently held me as I was on the verge of turning, using a dagger to give me release.

"Iris… in your next life, don't give your trust away so easily."

Those had been the last words I ever heard.

Now, watching Alec walk toward me completely unharmed, my vision blurred red.

"Which unit are you?" Alec asked warily, raising his gun as his gaze swept over our vehicle.

"Alec!" I jumped out of the car and pulled off my protective mask. "It's me—Iris."

He froze. Shock flickered through his eyes before giving way to raw disbelief and joy. "Iris? You're alive?!"

When Jealousy Turned Deadly

"Long time no see." I forced down the sting in my eyes and nodded at him.

Four simple words, yet they carried the weight of two lifetimes.

"This is my squad," I said briefly, gesturing behind me. "We're rendezvousing with the main force."

"Same here." Alec nodded. "This area's unstable—lots of mutated infected. Since we're heading the same way, let's travel together."

"Gladly."

As we talked, Eliza climbed down from the vehicle. The sight of us facing each other like that stabbed straight into her, and jealousy burned brightly in her eyes.

Even before the apocalypse, she'd had a crush on Alec. I just hadn't expected that love would rot into hatred—and that she'd end up killing him because of it.

She walked over, deliberately edging closer to Alec. He frowned, stepped back without a word, and positioned himself at my side instead. "Miss, keep your distance," he said coldly.

Rebuffed outright, Eliza bit her lip, clearly wanting to say more. However…

'Clang. Clang. Clang.'

A shrill metallic banging suddenly tore through the air.

"Shit—that's a lure!" Alec's expression instantly turned grim.

From within the green fog came countless hoarse roars. Dense black shapes crawled out from every direction, their skin rotting, eyes blood-red, surging toward us like a tide.

"Horde incoming—get in the vehicles!" Alec shouted, already raising his gun and firing.

"What's going on?! Where did all these zombies come from?" Eliza screamed, her legs going weak.

I whipped toward the source of the sound. On top of an abandoned water tower not far away, the man who'd begged for a detonator earlier was standing there, wildly hammering an oil drum with an iron rod.

"I was planning to scam a detonator and blow open a vault. Since you wouldn't give me one and got my brothers starved to death on the road, none of you get to live! I'll drag in a zombie horde and send you all to hell with me!"

Just as I thought—he was anything but decent.

"Open fire!" I snarled, raising my gun. But the horde moved too fast. In an instant, our formation was torn apart.

In the chaos, the man slid down a pipeline. Taking advantage of us being surrounded, he charged straight at our armored vehicle like a rabid dog.

"Die, bitch!" He cried out, lunging at me with a rusted dagger, stabbing straight for my chest.