Chapter 1: The Fall
Pain. That was the only thing I could feel, a sharp throb piercing through every inch of my body, as I stared ahead, unable to move. The world felt distant, blurry, like a dream I couldn't wake from. My limbs were frozen, heavy with the weight of betrayal. I could hear the screeching of tires, the sound of the car speeding away, leaving me behind. It wasn't the car that had hit me—no, it was the speed of its departure that left me feeling abandoned, cold, and utterly alone. The car, my so-called friends inside, had abandoned me to die.
My name is Li Wei, and I come from the Li family. We were one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in China. I had everything—a fortune at my fingertips, status, power—life was perfect, or so it seemed. Trained from the time I was young to inherit my family's legacy, I was expected to carry on the legacy of wealth and influence. It all came easy to me. Or, at least, it did until the moment everything I knew came crumbling down.
When I was 15, my mother passed away from what they said was cancer. But I never believed it. There were whispers I overheard, strange conversations that didn't make sense, but I was too young to understand. All I knew was that she was gone, and my father... my father was distant. He seemed to shut himself off from everything and everyone.
But just a year later, my father introduced a new woman into our lives—a mistress. And with her, a son. A boy who looked exactly like me—same dark eyes, same sharp features. It wasn't long before I realized that this boy wasn't just some random child. He was my father's secret heir. He bore my father's surname, and I could see the way my father looked at him—a look that I had once received, but was now reserved only for him.
I was furious. Betrayed. Confused. But most of all, I was angry. Angry at the woman who had stolen my mother's place in my father's heart. Angry at my father for hiding the truth from me. And angry at the world for turning upside down.
As I grew older, I realized the depths of the betrayal. The woman and her child—my stepbrother—wanted everything I had. The family fortune, my inheritance, everything that was rightfully mine. They tried to manipulate me, tried to take everything from me, and I had to fight. I fought to hold on to what my mother had left me, what my father had promised me, but it was a constant struggle.
Then I met Mei Li. She was the one person who seemed to see beyond my wealth, beyond my family's name. She saw me for who I was. And I loved her with everything I had. She was my rock. We were supposed to be together forever. She was the one I wanted to marry.
But fate had other plans.
The world as I knew it ended one fateful evening.
It started with a blood-red moon, then came the earthquakes. The earth shook beneath us, the ground trembling in fear. Tornadoes ripped through the city, buildings crumbled, and fires spread like wild animals. Chaos. The apocalypse had begun. It was impossible to process at first, but soon enough, the undead appeared. Zombies, more horrifying than anything I could have imagined, started to roam the streets, devouring anything that moved.
Mei Li and I, along with a few of my friends, tried to escape the chaos. We managed to make our way back to City B, where we found refuge in a military base. There, we discovered something about ourselves. We weren't just ordinary people. We had powers. I could control thunder. Mei Li was a healer. We weren't the only ones with powers; the others in our group had abilities too—some with strength, others with speed. Together, we formed a team to fight the zombies, gathering supplies, and protecting each other.
But despite everything, I still couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. I wanted to believe in our group, in our unity, but my heart kept telling me otherwise. And I was right.
We set out on one of our usual expeditions to gather resources. We were supposed to be a team, working together to survive, to fight back against the undead. But something changed that day. I didn't know it then, but it would be the beginning of the end for me.
We were ambushed.
It wasn't just the zombies this time. It was them. Mei Li, my friends—my so-called teammates—betrayed me. They pushed me out of the car, directly into the path of an oncoming group of zombies.
Why hadn't I seen it coming? Why hadn't I noticed the signs? The way they'd grown distant, the way Mei Li's eyes had changed when she looked at me—everything had been a lie. But I had wanted to believe in her. I had wanted to believe in them.
But I was wrong.
I didn't have time to react. I tried to move, to use my thunder powers to protect myself, but it was too late. Mei Li had given me water that morning, and I had no idea until it was too late. The water had been poisoned. It was a flower used to suppress the abilities of those like me—superpowered humans. Without my powers, I was powerless to defend myself. I couldn't even fight back.
As I was thrown toward the zombies, I closed my eyes, accepting my fate. I had no strength left to fight.
But then, something unexpected happened.
A figure appeared before me, shielding me from the oncoming horde. It wasn't human—at least not fully. The creature who shielded me had a look in its eyes that were unmistakably human. But his body... his body was shifting between human and something else. Something broken, yet determined.
It was the last thing I sew before my eyes and consciousness went blank.