The Apocalypse Is My Second Home

5

After Emmanuella left, Mrs. Richard walked over to her husband, who was still seated in the sitting room, and complained bitterly about what had happened.

Mr. Richard smiled and patted the space beside him.

“Don't worry too much, my wife. I've already made some arrangements.”

A mysterious smile spread across his face.

His wife recognized that expression immediately. Whenever her husband was plotting something particularly wicked, he wore that same smile.

Her frustration vanished, replaced by excitement.

“Tell me what you've planned, my husband!” she urged.

Mr. Richard glanced around the sitting room. Although nobody else was present, he remained cautious. He leaned closer to his wife and whispered something into her ear.

Her eyes lit up.

*******

When Noah reached Jason's room, he retrieved some clothes from the wardrobe and headed straight for the bathroom. He hadn't showered in a long time, and he desperately needed one.

As he walked, he began assessing the condition of his current body.

This body is incredibly weak.

The weakness wasn't entirely due to the accident. From what he could tell, Jason had never exercised properly or eaten enough to maintain his physical condition.

However, Noah was confident that a little training and a few herb mixtures would soon make him stronger. Before long, he would have enough strength to protect himself.

From what he had seen so far, the people in this world were nowhere near as strong as those in the apocalypse.

As he began undressing, he felt something around his neck. Instinctively, he reached up and touched it.

It was a necklace pendant.

The moment his fingers brushed against it, his brows furrowed. Something about its texture felt strangely familiar.

It felt exactly like his favorite necklace, the one a mysterious old man had given him during his younger days in the apocalypse, after Noah had offered the man food.

Noah had always considered the necklace his lucky charm.

Ever since he began wearing it, his circumstances had changed dramatically. He could train faster than others, and his body absorbed energy at an astonishing rate. He could also endure more than an ordinary person, while his energy recovered much faster. These advantages allowed him to push himself harder without worrying about exhausting himself too quickly.

Although he had no evidence that the necklace was responsible for these changes, he had long since come to regard it as his lucky charm.

Noah pushed the thought aside.

There was no way this could be the same pendant. Even if it felt strangely familiar in his hand, it was probably just a coincidence.

Still curious, he lifted it to examine it more closely.

Then he froze.

It was exactly the same!

The pendant consisted of a bright red, flat, circular stone with strange runic symbols carved into its surface. The markings were identical to those on the necklace he had worn throughout his life in the apocalypse, symbols he had never managed to decipher.

Noah immediately searched through Jason's memories, trying to discover how the young man had obtained the stone.

He found nothing.

As far as he could tell, Jason had been wearing the pendant since childhood.

This made no sense.

The pendant was identical to the one the mysterious old man had given him in the apocalypse. There wasn't a single difference between them.

How is this possible?

Are these two worlds somehow connected?

He had heard that the world had been different before the apocalypse began, but he had never learned much about that era.

There was plenty of information available, but as someone focused on survival, he had never had time to seek out knowledge that offered no immediate benefit.

By the time he had grown powerful enough to concern himself with matters beyond survival, his attention had shifted to conquering the Western Region of the apocalypse. Something as distant and seemingly irrelevant as the world's pre-apocalyptic history had never interested him.

Consequently, he couldn't say for certain how the world before the apocalypse compared to this one, although the two shared plenty of similarities, including cars and skyscrapers.

After a moment, Noah decided to continue bathing. There was no point dwelling on questions he couldn't answer right now.

He pushed his shock to the back of his mind and reached for the metal showerhead to turn it on.

The moment his hand touched it, a violent electric shock surged through his body.

Sparks burst from his skin.

Before he could react, his consciousness slipped away, and everything went black.

*******

Noah opened his eyes and found himself staring at a familiar expanse of blackish sand.

His mouth was filled with grit. He pushed himself upright, spat out the sand, and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before looking around in confusion.

This was nothing like the modern world he had found himself in.

Burnt-out cars lay scattered across the desolate landscape, their twisted frames and blackened bodies bearing the marks of long-ago destruction. Nearby, ruined buildings stood in various states of collapse, while the remains of towering skyscrapers rose into the distance. Some had lost entire sections of their structures, leaving jagged edges exposed to the open air. Strange black grass clung to the surviving sections, spreading across the ruined buildings like an unwelcome stain.

Not far away stood several old military vehicles. Their weathered bodies and abandoned positions suggested they had been left there for a very long time.

Noah slowly surveyed his surroundings.

Everything was terribly familiar.

This is the apocalypse!

His eyes widened as he struggled to make sense of what he was seeing.

How did I return to the apocalypse?

Confusion flooded his mind. He instinctively reached for his neck, expecting to feel the familiar necklace.

It wasn't there.

He lowered his gaze to his chest and noticed something even more astonishing.

Although the necklace was missing, a strange mark had appeared on the left side of his chest. It looked like a tattoo, bearing the exact same runic symbols that had been carved into the pendant.

Even the color was identical. The markings were a vivid, unmistakable red.

Noah stared at the mark, unable to comprehend what had happened.

However, one thing was clear.

He was alive, he was back in the apocalypse, and the pendant was somehow connected to what had happened to him.

He raised his hand in front of his face.

It wasn't his original hand.

It was Jason's.

Does this mean I've been transported to the apocalypse in Jason's body?

Was this the work of the pendant?

Is there some god out there playing games with me?

Questions flooded his mind, but he had no answers.

Just then, a low growl sounded nearby.

Noah's head snapped toward the noise.

A zombie was shambling in his direction.

It wore a tattered shirt and a pair of equally ragged trousers. Its eyes were a sickening shade of liquid green, almost as though someone had poured green syrup into its empty eye sockets.

Noah's expression hardened.

There was no longer any room for doubt. He was back in the apocalypse.

But that was only the beginning of his problems.

He had no weapon, and he was practically naked. He had been about to take a shower when the electric shock struck him and transported him to this place.

Now, with a zombie approaching, he would have to find a way to survive.