[A/N: We already have the name of the main character, and also a secondary one, even if it is in dreams.
Now, we need one in real life. Some people will ask: Why so few characters? (Although nobody has actually asked me hahaha).
Because the important characters will be known with the beginning of the apocalypse.
Remember to comment if you find something you don't understand or if you have questions, I will try to explain everything without giving you a spoiler.
Another thing, there's something I don't understand about WEBNOVEL, I've been uploading chapters every day but now it appears that I've only uploaded 1 or 2 in a row. I don't know if it's important, but it's discouraging me a little hahaha.]
At the base.
We hugged each other for a couple of minutes. Anna, between her sobs, called her parents, lamenting that she couldn't help them or be with them in those final moments. After a few moments, she realized that we were hugging each other and suddenly let go of me.
"Thanks for comforting me, Alex", she said, her voice still tinged with sadness.
"You're welcome", I replied, downplaying the gesture I had, as I returned to my place at the table.
"I'm sorry I yelled at you earlier, but seeing you give up on your parents broke my heart", she told me with a bit of guilt in her voice.
"No problem. What I said is true, it would take me days to get to them by driving, and besides, they were in poor health even before this apocalypse. I just hope they didn't suffer in their final moments", I said with a touch of sadness in my voice.
"I'm sorry to hear that, and I apologize again", she said, comforting me. "Are you thinking of joining a group?", she asked me, trying to change the subject.
"As I told you before, I was in two different groups. At first, I was in a group formed by the community where I lived before, but it didn't work out", I said, trying to get out of the previous topic as well.
"What happened?", she asked curiously.
"What always happens, a few people within the group tried to take over all the resources with the supposed goal of sharing equally with everyone, but they were just taking advantage of others", I answered superficially.
"And the second group?", she asked me.
"Well, this is actually one of the military groups. This group was well organized, or at least when I was there it worked. However, it didn't seem like it would last much longer, or at least as it was formed at that time it seemed like it wouldn't last long," I answered. It seemed that talking about these issues brought her out of her sadness, or at least momentary.
[A/N: Do you think the military or police could deal with an apocalypse if they knew it was coming?]
"And why didn't it work out? They are military after all", she asked with many doubts.
"Because the people who are in charge of the government, who are the ones who order the military from the safety of their bunker or safe zone, only make decisions thinking about their own benefits, and are not at all interested in the safety of the people. On the other hand, I was lucky enough to hear that there was a group of soldiers who wanted to make their own decisions. Which would lead to a situation like what happened in the first group. It could even end, but, since they control many weapons, therefore, a lot of power, and humans always tend to lose their minds when they have a lot of power", I said while drinking some water. I didn't seem used to talking so much, or at least lately.
"I see. It seems like you've been surviving the apocalypse for a couple of years, and not this half month since everything started", she told me a little surprised by my analysis.
We finished eating and I took her to the couch again. I went back to tidying and cleaning everything as usual and got ready to check the traps around.
I returned after a few minutes to the house and found Anna checking the bags again.
"Do you need anything?", I asked her. She seemed to be looking for something specific in the bags.
"Yes, I'm looking for an Ibuprofen or a Naproxen. I want to take one so my ankle doesn't swell for tomorrow so I can walk", she said as she continued searching.
"You seem to know what you're talking about. Are you a doctor?" I asked.
"No, I'm just a nurse, and I studied pharmacology before, although it was only technical studies", she answered as she continued to focus on the bag. "Here it is. With this I'll be able to walk tomorrow", she said as she showed a box of medicines.
"Tomorrow, I'll tell you where the groups I was telling you about are, you can take everything you need", I said with a slightly serious tone.
"Mmmm… Okay", she answered as the joy faded from her face. "I guess I didn't notice she didn't want to leave", I thought as I watched her face.
"It's time to go to sleep", I said, helping her up. We walked slowly up the stairs, and while she didn't avoid being near me now, she looked much more dejected.
I left her in her room and went back to tidying everything up. I tidied up the bags and left them next to the other supplies, checked the traps around again, and set up the ones that were meant for the stairs. Once I finished everything, I headed to my room to sleep and ended this long day.
"Good night", Anna said when she heard me open my door. She sounded a little depressed.
"Good night", I replied as I entered my room and closed the door.
"I hope I can get out of this awkward situation", I thought as I waited to fall asleep.
Wednesday, November 4, 2026, in the morning.
"What a great invention curtains are", I thought as soon as I woke up. It had been several days now that the sun did not dare to interrupt my sleep, and I could sleep peacefully until my alarm woke me up.
I took my phone and saw on the screen a reminder that I had set the day before so that I wouldn't forget to write down the dreams.
The first thing I wrote down was that I started the day with the girl I saved the last time in my dreams. However, I noticed that I couldn't remember her name, nor did I remember her face at all, what I do remember is that she was blonde and young, or so it seemed.
In the morning nothing important seemed to have happened. Well, nothing important except for the fact that I seemed to be quite knowledgeable about weapons and had a large variety of them hidden under my bed.
I had given the blonde a couple of weapons and a radio while I went out to look for supplies. Which made me witness the first zombies and the first dangerous situations within the dreams. Just remembering those situations makes my hair stand on end. Although they don't seem dangerous, a simple bite and its game over. The good thing I was able to get out of that experience is the limited capacity they have for movement and sensory, in addition to knowing that direct contact with blood did not cause someone to become infected.
I kept trying to remember other things, but apparently, they were not important. What I would have liked to remember is the blonde's name.
I finished doing my morning routine, which lately includes the exercises I do in dreams. It has helped me a lot to start the day better, I feel a little livelier and more energetic.
I quickly left my house in the direction of my work.
Once I arrived at the company, I tried to find my supervisor. I went to his office and found him talking to a colleague who had entered the company at the same time as me, and an important detail is that he is a little crazy. He is like the people in that Telegram group I found yesterday, he believes in very varied conspiracies, even last year he told me that the government tries to control us through dreams with chemicals that they add to food. What can be associated with what I have been dreaming about, starting to make a little sense.
"Now that I think about it, his name is David, I don't think he is the guy from the Discord group, or is he?", I thought while trying to link each thing with the dreams.
I waved from the entrance to my supervisor, and he pointed to a table where the schedules of each driver were. I looked for mine and set it aside, noticing again that I would have two orders later and that I had a little time to visit those groups to look for more information.
When I was making plans of what material to look for, I noticed David approaching me. Out of pure curiosity about his knowledge about conspiracies I began to talk to him.
"Hello, how are you?", I said when we were close.
"I'm fine Alex and, how are you?", he answered me amicably. We had never gotten along badly, and unlike the rest I did not distance myself from him because of his beliefs.
"Well, I'm a little tired lately, I've been dreaming things that leave me quite tired in the mornings", I told him, trying to steer the conversation back to dreams.
"You should rest a little more and stop eating things that may come from big companies, prefer natural foods, or prepare your own ingredients", he told me, a little worried.
"I will… Now that I remember, you had told me that you did research on dreams. Is it possible that I dream and the person in my dreams is someone else?", I asked him.
"Mmmm… From what I researched, in dreams it is very rare that you dream from the perspective of other people, generally it is yourself, or maybe when you wake up you think it was another person so that what you have dreamed makes more sense", he answered with many details. "I would love to continue talking, but I have to prepare for a delivery", he told me, looking at the time on his cell phone.
"No problem, thank you very much for helping me with that doubt… See you later", I said.
"Bye", he said, shaking my hand firmly.
As I approached my truck, I thought about what he had told me. Everything pointed to the possibility that they could be simple dreams, or rather hyper-realistic dreams. On the other hand, if the dreams are real, I would like to have more information so I can prepare myself beforehand and warn the people around me.
"Although who would believe me if I told them that the end of the world was coming? They would treat me like a madman, or at least avoid me like they do with David", I thought as I analyzed who to tell and who might believe me.
Sitting in the truck, I downloaded information to my cell phone about a wide variety of things from the groups, some videos on how to make homemade weapons, among other videos. Also, books on similar topics, there were even manuals on building simple mechanisms, or how to operate heavy machinery.
In some of the Discord channels there were people talking about various topics. In one of them, they were talking about the key times to face each type of apocalypse.
The one that surprised me the most was one of the cases about alien invasion. These were based on the technological difference between us, the type of invading life form, and the location in which the people were. For example, the worst-case scenario would be living in a coastal area and facing a much more technologically advanced civilization, and that could also survive both on land and at sea. They were not doing very well within the first 24 hours. Some in the group were very pessimistic about this type of encounter, as well as there were people who believed that we could quickly adapt and defeat them.
In the case of zombies, the best situation according to them would be to know some clue in advance that would give clues of its beginning and prepare accordingly.
"I definitely have to find out when it will happen", I thought listening to the survival perspectives.
"Although it would be best if it didn't happen soon", I told myself, trying not to think too much about how tragic it would be.
[A/N; I really want to find a Discord or Telegram group where they talk about the apocalypse, or at least share series and movies about it.
New character unlocked. We'll see if he'll participate in the story or if he's just a character we'll forget about after a few chapters.
What do you think if I make a parallel story about some characters? Would that be good?
For example, a story about Anna, where she shows her point of view of everything she suffers in the apocalypse, losing loved ones, running away from zombies. And that finally ends just when she takes refuge in the security booth of the village where Alex will live.
Comment what you think about the idea.]