Apocalypse Reborn : The Doomsday Archive

Chapter 2:The Countdown

Chapter2–The countdown . 

[Welcome back, Ethan Cole.]

[Your second life begins now.]

He read the messages again, waiting for them to disappear.

They didn't.

"What the hell is this?"

He tapped the screen, but nothing happened. He tried swiping the messages away, then pressed the power button to turn the phone off.

The screen went black and back to normal again 

Ethan let out a breath.

Maybe he was hallucinating, he thought . Perhaps the pain of dying had been so intense that his mind had created this strange dream to protect him from the truth.

He looked around his bedroom again.

Everything appeared normal. His clothes were scattered over the chair near his wardrobe, his laptop sat on the desk, and a pair of sneakers lay beside the bed. 

There was no blood on the floor. No broken windows. No smell of rotting flesh.

He was alive but he still couldn’t believe it

Ethan grabbed his phone again and unlocked it. He went straight to the date.

He checked the year, the month, and even the time. Everything matched his memories.

"No way."

He opened his banking application.

His account balance appeared on the screen, and he stared at it for several seconds. He remembered how much money he had possessed before the first wave of the apocalypse. He remembered spending most of it on supplies after the world collapsed, until he had been left with almost nothing.

But now, the money was still there.

He checked his transaction history, scrolling through familiar purchases and payments. There was no sign of the desperate weeks he had spent searching for food and medicine. No withdrawals made after the world ended. 

His fingers trembled slightly.

He opened his messages next.

There were conversations with friends he had lost during the apocalypse, messages from colleagues he had assumed were dead, and old chats with Victoria and Dexter 

He stopped when he reached their name.

Victoria sent a new message again right on time 

“Baby, please remember to get some food tomorrow. I'm craving something sweet.”

Ethan's jaw tightened.

He could still hear her voice from the day she had refused to open the shelter door.

“ The baby isn’t yours !” 

He threw the phone onto the bed.

"That bitch."

The words came out before he could stop himself.

His chest rose and fell as anger rushed through him. He wanted to find Victoria immediately, drag her in front of him, and demand to know how she could have betrayed him so cruelly. 

He also wanted to punch Derek in his face 

But what would that accomplish?

In this timeline, she hadn't done anything yet only Ethan knew what she would become.

He closed his eyes and forced himself to calm down..

He had only seven days to prepare for the end of the world.

He couldn't afford to waste them chasing after people who weren't worth his time.

First, he needed to confirm that he had truly returned to the past and what this weird messages on his phone were about . 

He got out of bed, grabbed a shirt from the chair, and hurried downstairs

He walked through the living room, checking every corner as though he expected to find something out of place. The television was still on standby, the refrigerator hummed softly in the kitchen, and the tap released clean water when he turned it.

He stood at the kitchen sink for a moment, watching the water run over his fingers.

During the apocalypse, he had gone three days without drinking a proper amount of water. He remembered the headaches, the dizziness, and the desperate relief of finding a half-full bottle in an abandoned car.

Now he could drink as much as he wanted.

Ethan cupped his hands and drank directly from the tap.

When he finished, he leaned against the counter and let out a long breath.

It was real.

He was back.

Ethan left the house a few minutes later.

He needed to see the city with his own eyes.

The moment he stepped outside of his property , he stopped walking.

Newton was exactly as he remembered it.

Cars moved along the road, people hurried to work, and shop owners opened their stores for the day. A woman stood beside a bus stop, arguing with a driver over the fare, while two young men walked past him laughing at something on one of their phones.

Everything was normal..

Ethan stood on the pavement, watching people go about their lives without the slightest idea of what was coming.

In seven days, this same street would be filled with abandoned vehicles and blood.

The shops would be looted. The roads would become hunting grounds for creatures that had never existed in the human world before.

And the people walking past him now would either die screaming or fight desperately to survive.

“ Ethan ! How do you do man? I heard about your wife’s pregnancy, congratulations…..” 

A voice came from behind , he remembered this woman , Mrs Harris ….She was his neighbor and most importantly, he remembered this exact moment from his first timeline . 

He was too stunned to speak , memories from how Mrs Harris died on the second wave of the apocalypse flashed his mind , he rushed back inside his house and straight to his phone .

[Doomsday Archive initializing…] 

His phone lit up immediately he grabbed it ,Ethan sat on the edge of his bed.

"All right. What are you?"

A new message appeared.

[Welcome back , Ethan Cole.]

He frowned.

"Who is this? Are you some kind of application? I don’t remember installing this ..,, "

There was no response.

He waited several seconds before speaking again.

"Did someone install this on my phone?"

The screen remained unchanged.

"Who is controlling you?"

There was still no response, Ethan's patience began to wear thin.

"Listen, I don't have time for games. I just died, and now I'm back seven days before the apocalypse. If you know what's going on, tell me, is this a dream ?"

The screen flickered.

[Your return was not an accident.]

Ethan leaned forward.

"What does that mean?"

[You have been chosen for a reason.]

"Chosen by whom? Why me?"

The screen flashed again.

[The same reason your wife and best friend killed you is connected to your selection.]

Ethan's entire body went still.

His anger, which had settled into a dull ache, returned with such force that he almost crushed the phone in his hand.

"What do you mean?"

He typed the question into the message field, but there was no ordinary message field. The Archive seemed to respond only when it wanted to.

"Why did they kill me? What do I have that they wanted?"

The screen remained blank.

"Answer me!"

A new notification appeared.

[Certain records are currently inaccessible.]

Ethan stared at it.

"Inaccessible? What kind of answer is that?"

[Additional information will be revealed when the appropriate conditions are met.]

He let out a frustrated breath.

"So you expect me to trust you without telling me anything?"

There was a pause before another message appeared.

[Trust is not required now.]

Ethan almost laughed, At least the system was honest about that, nobody or nothing was worthy of his trust .

He rubbed his forehead and tried again.

"Who created you?"

Still no response .

"Who is your maker?"

The screen glowed faintly.

[In time, you will find out.]

"That's all you're going to tell me?"

[For now.]

He threw the phone onto the bed.

"Wonderful."

His phone suddenly vibrated, Ethan glanced at the screen, he was expecting a message from the system notification but it was an ordinary message that arrived.

Dexter: Bro, you coming over today? We can play a few games. I'm tired of losing to randoms online.

“ Mother fucker !” He muttered under his breath but before he toss the phone to the other side , the screen went blank and the flash came back on . 

[Timeline synchronization complete.]

He frowned.

"What now?"

The blue screen filled the display.

[FIRST WAVE Countdown initiated.]

The numbers appeared beneath the message.

6 DAYS. 20 HOURS.

It took a while for it to dawn on Ethan that this was  the countdown for the apocalypse, the screen went back to normal

He  looked at Derek’s message one last time before locking the screen.

“Enjoy your last peaceful days,”