From Zombie Survivor to Space Exile

Today's agenda: Not dying by a horde of zombies ready to eat my brains out. Luckily, I died from blood loss first.

Blood seeped through my fingers and pooled on the cold floor, slowly congealing. It was annoyingly sticky and warm to the touch.

"I guess this is the end," My lips curled into a faint smile.

The blank walls seemed to lean slightly to the side, my head grew heavy.

The sweet, coppery taste of blood lingered on my tongue, and I swallowed it back down. It was a taste I'd become intimately familiar with.

The smell of decay hung in the air like a bad omen, causing my head to throb with a dull ache, the headache lingering just out of reach. Closing my eyes, I shut everything off.

The smell.

The sounds.

The feeling of weakness.

CRACK!

The wall shook.

A soft chuckle rumbled up from my throat before I coughed up blood. My body was losing sensation every second, the blood cooling against my skin.

I guess I couldn't ignore it anymore.

I wouldn't survive.

My vision snapped back. The cracks in the wall grew sharper. The zombies' roars echoed in my ears.

Post-death clarity.

"Agrhh!"

The zombies roared, a dry and hollow rattle that seemed to vibrate directly against my ears.

I didn't blink.

I didn't move.

My body slid down onto the cold floor as the last of my strength left me.

If only I'd been stronger, but regret wouldn't stop the bleeding.

CRACK!

I hoped to survive a little longer.

Pieces of stone began to rain down with a slow cadence.

The zombies' roars faded first.

Then the cracking wall.

Finally. . .

My ragged breathing.

Did I truly want to die?

No.

The smell of old dust hit me first.

It wasn't pleasant, but it wasn't overpowering either.

I was alive.

My finger twitched.

I wasn't eaten? Was I saved. . . No, too quiet. I couldn't move. Nothing like the quiet strength I was supposed to have.

The ceiling was a mechanical silver, no seams or cracks. The room was small, but not cramped. I guess my saviors didn't intend to take care of me forever. Bummer.

But at least there were no walking corpses.

I gritted my teeth, the somber mood instantly evaporating.

Of course I'm not dead. Just something like losing my strength for no reason.

Where the hell am I anyway?

Annoyance bubbled through me, fueling strength that wasn't there. Years of surviving on moldy bread and relentless training.

My muscles.

My abs.

Gone

Everything.

That bravado lasted a good three seconds before I fell back onto the floor with a harsh thump. My face twisted into a raisin. Ouch.

Why did I fall like a sack of potatoes?

No.

A sack of stones.

Guess I'll just have to die.

Before the pain even hit, I moved.

Instinct.

Habit.

I curled up like a cooked shrimp and a dull, invading pain hit me in the head. My boney knees pressed against my chest, a stinging pain following.

I gritted my teeth, taking a sharp breath, my vision darkening to black, before fainting. . . My eyes fluttered open and I cursed softly.

Freak.

I stared at the ceiling, plain and unadorned like my life.

Aries Evengarth... her name.

Yup.

That's my name now.

Wasn't this cliché trope about two decades too late? Like, c'mon. I spent my whole life surviving an apocalypse. Couldn't I get something new?

I'd been reincarnated into the body of a love-brained idiot.

How exciting...

I pushed myself into a sitting position. My fingers curled around my arm and squeezed lightly. Noodles looked healthier than this skeletal frame.

If I ignored the fact that I was tens of millions in debt, and was on a high radiation planet, I'd actually been reborn into a decent life.

🙂

Crossing my legs, I looked up at the ceiling and clasped my hands together. I looked so thoughtful and otherworldly.

So basically...

I died and reincarnated into a noble lady who ended up exiled to a planet because of a crush.

Coughing into my hand, I wondered what kind of planet she was sent to? She was a noble, it couldn't be that bad.

My head started to ache a bit and fragmented pictures poured into my mind.

. . . Never mind.

It was a so-called Red Planet by interstellar standards.

I wiped my hand onto the rag like shirt.

I'm also exactly thirty million dollars in debt.

That's a solid three hundred years of mining coal on a resource planet. Well, that's what's in her memories.

I looked down at my sallow, skinny fingers, and my body went rigid.

A fresh wave of dizziness hit me.

I definitely...

Didn't want that.

⸻When will I get beautiful again 😔

My expression cracked, and I fell back in despair. I swear my bones crackled, but I was too caught up in my helplessness to care.

Second life, second chance...

What if I was reborn with loving parents and a charming husband?

I quickly threw away that dangerous idea.

On the upside, it was the interstellar era. With advanced technology, I wouldn't have to sleep on dirt that smelled faintly of piss anymore.

Right.

I'd been exiled.

Never mind then.

Expressionless, I crawled toward the singular window in the cramped room, my skin scraping painfully against the floor.

Maybe I shouldn't do that.

I wouldn't want an infected wound.

Standing up, my knees tried to buckle, but I was better than that and simply leaned against the wall.

Looking at my reflection, my expression was stoic. My lips twitched slightly, my skin was dry and cracked, my hair brittle, and my eyes dull.

Slowly, my face twisted in fear.

Fuck.

My face.

My hair.

Why did I look like someone who went through ninety-nine trials to become a legendary warrior?!

In my past life, I wasn't exactly good-looking, but come on.

What the hell?

Taking a deep breath, I nearly choked back tears. My nose tingled, and I rubbed it harshly before looking around the small stone room.

I had subconsciously ignored it at first, but the air was heavy and irritating my body.

Searching through my memories, I found the reason.

Red Planet.

A backward planet by interstellar standards.

Zerg.

Creepy bugs crawling everywhere.

High radiation.

I quickly picked out the information I needed.

Radiation levels from lowest to highest:

Blue.

Green.

Yellow.

Red.

Black.

Simple, right?

I was speechless for a moment before slowly closing my eyes.

Just my luck.

I was never the luckiest person in the bunch.

With a deep breath, I coughed again.

Freak.

I really needed to stop that habit.

Pinching my nose, I searched around the room. It wasn't large. Metal boxes were scattered around, along with occasional rats that made me want to die.

After a short but grueling search, I found something resembling a watch.

It was almost paper-thin, completely black, with a green rectangle in the center.

Nothing else.

Although there was scrap metal...

And a handy-dandy nest of dead rats.

Extra protein!

According to my predecessor's memories, this was her brain watch or something similar.

It had all the functions of a pre-apocalypse phone and much more.

I smiled happily and clicked the green rectangle.

"No connection!!"

The words appeared on the translucent blue screen.

I casually looked around, but there was nothing else to focus on.

With reluctant despair, I looked back.

Guess I can't ignore this either.

"How disappointing," I muttered.

I couldn't count how many times I'd been disappointed already.

It would be quite disappointing.