After school, the sunset painted the sky orange-red as Zion walked slowly along the path home, his backpack slung over one shoulder. His thoughts wandered, filled with homework and the upcoming exams. The gentle rustling of leaves in the breeze and the occasional bird song accompanied him. Suddenly, a faint meow caught his attention. Zion stopped and looked around, spotting a kitten trapped in a ditch by the roadside.
"Poor little thing," Zion murmured to himself. Without hesitation, he ran over, crouched down, and carefully picked up the frightened kitten. He could feel it trembling in his hands. Just as he was about to stand up, a runaway truck suddenly hurtled toward him, accompanied by the screeching of brakes and a tremendous impact. Zion's world went black. In the final moment before losing consciousness, he remembered shielding the kitten with his body.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in an unfamiliar room. The room had old furniture, and the air was filled with a musty, dusty smell. Zion struggled to sit up, feeling a splitting headache and blurry vision. He blinked hard, trying to clear his thoughts.
"Where am I? Wasn't I supposed to be dead?" he muttered hoarsely, his voice dry from thirst. He reached up to touch his head, wincing at the sharp pain, and frowned.
Looking around, he saw an old clock on the wall pointing to four in the afternoon. The half-drawn curtains let in dim light, making the room look gloomy. Zion tried to find clues in his memory, but suddenly, a wave of unfamiliar memories flooded his mind. He realized he was no longer his original self; he had crossed over to a parallel world called Tera, inhabiting the body of a high school student with the same name.
Tera was almost identical to Earth, with one crucial difference: this world had just experienced an apocalyptic event. A week ago, a meteor shower had rained down on Tera. Following that, flesh-eating zombies and mutated animals began to appear.
Zion discovered that the room he was in felt very familiar. It was the home of Tera's version of himself in the A Empire's C State, Lincoln City. Technically, it wasn't a home, but a government-arranged welfare housing. In this world, Zion's parents had died in a car accident years ago, and with no relatives willing to take him in, the government had placed him in a community similar to an orphanage. Each room in this building housed one or two orphans, depending on their age, and the government provided for them until they turned eighteen.
Zion strained to recall what had happened. He remembered falling ill with a high fever after the meteor shower. The next day, he had been awakened by screams and saw flesh-eating monsters on the streets through his window, prompting him to lock himself inside. Weak from the fever, he had slipped into unconsciousness until now.
"My head hurts so much. I am the Zion from Earth, and I am the Zion from Tera. I had loving parents and kind classmates. My parents died in a car accident years ago, and I've been living alone in this welfare home. I'm cheerful, but I'm also reclusive." Conflicting memories flooded Zion's mind, causing him immense confusion and a sense of disorientation.
"These memories… some are mine, some are not." Zion clutched his temples in pain, trying to alleviate the headache. The fusion of memories brought not only physical pain but also deep psychological discomfort.
"It seems he died from a fever-induced coma, and I was fortunate enough to inherit this body. But things don't look too good now. After being in a coma for a week, not only am I in pain all over, but I'm also incredibly thirsty and hungry."
Zion took a deep breath, trying to move his body to find something to eat to regain his strength. He knew that if he didn't eat something soon, he wouldn't make it through the day. He struggled to lift his arm, feeling like his joints were rusted, with each movement bringing sharp pain.
"Sigh! Brother, you passed away in your sleep without feeling any pain, but I'm going to die of hunger and thirst." Zion made a grim joke to himself, though it wasn't really funny.
"It hurts so much. I need some time to move bit by bit. But time is what I lack the most right now." Zion felt his strength rapidly draining away, his throat burning like it was on fire, dry to the point of cracking.
"God, please, at least let me sit up." Finally, after half an hour of effort, Zion managed to sit up slowly. But even this small movement had exhausted him completely. Zion felt like his throat was on fire, and his lungs seemed to be burning too.
"Being a good person is so hard. I saved that cat with my life, and now I've been sent to this damned world. Sacrificing myself should have sent me to heaven, right?" Zion's hallucinations and random thoughts were caused by his severe dehydration.
After a while, Zion snapped out of his delirium and regained a bit of strength, but his throat's dryness had reached its limit. "If this is really the end, I wish I could have one last sip of ice-cold cola." At that moment, he felt a strange energy surging within him. Suddenly, he felt what little strength he had left being drained away. Zion nearly toppled over, his vision blurring. Then, something unbelievable happened. A cold liquid appeared above his head out of nowhere and spilled all over him.
"Oh my God!" Zion was drenched in the icy liquid, instantly snapping awake. "What's going on? Is there a leak upstairs? Wait, why is this water dark? It smells like cola!" Zion looked up at the ceiling, but there was nothing there. Driven by his intense thirst, he instinctively stuck out his tongue and licked a drop.
"This is cola! Ice-cold cola! My wish came true?" Zion was overwhelmed with joy. "Can I have some more? This time, I need to catch it." As he thought this, Zion felt another wave of dizziness and more of his strength being drained. He was almost entirely spent. But once again, a miracle happened. Another glob of liquid appeared above Zion's head. Having been doused in ice-cold cola earlier, Zion was now very alert despite his fatigue. He realized he could control the size and position of the liquid.
Zion concentrated, thinking, "Smaller, just enough for a sip." The glob of liquid shrank in response. Zion was ecstatic but knew he had to stay calm to avoid another drenching. "Good, now closer to my mouth." The liquid slowly moved toward Zion's mouth. "Yes! Just like that!" Zion carefully controlled the liquid's movement, feeling a sharp pain in his head. "It must be consuming mental energy or something. It's like in the movies where you use the Force to move objects." (A joke)
A few seconds later, the liquid reached Zion's lips. He could feel the coldness and smell the distinct aroma of cola. Gulp, gulp. Zion successfully drank the ice-cold cola. The carbonation tingled in his mouth, and the unique flavor of cola flooded his taste buds. He could taste the sweetness spreading in his mouth, with a slight bitterness, and the cool sensation flowed down his throat, revitalizing his entire body.
Zion closed his eyes, savoring this moment of bliss, feeling as if the cola had washed away all his fatigue and pain. He felt like his soul had been redeemed.
"That's right! I'm in heaven!"