Pain.
Blood.
Death!
The sound of a sharp gasp filled the silent room right before Grace's deep green eyes flew open.
She heaved as panic surged through her chest. Her breathing was sharp as she struggled to inhale some much needed oxygen. Her hands instinctively gripped the surface beneath her as she struggled to get a hold on herself.
She just died.
She was still able to feel the coldness of the blade that pierced her skin - again and again - each strike came from the very people she once called her own. Yet, they betrayed her and left her bleeding out on the cold bunker floor, covered in her blood and their lies.
She had died. She was certain of it.
But then where was she now?
Still out of her breath, she looked around. She was expecting to see the gloomy bunker walls, to smell the stench of decay, and the suffocating darkness she had grown used to over the years. Instead, she found bright sunlight streaming through the wide glass windows that were left open.
Grace blinked a few times, as if doing so would have changed the view in front of her eyes. But nothing of that sort happened. As she allowed herself to take a proper look at the room, her breath got caught in her throat as she immediately recognized her surroundings. This wasn't the bunker she had been living in for years. No. This was her office. Her old office.
The sight left her frozen... and confused. The polished mahogany desk stood in front of her, with a huge computer set up in one corner along with a laptop and some neatly stacked files. A vase of fresh lavenders also sat on the other corner, filling the room with its light and soothing fragrance.
The air was fresh... too fresh. Not the damp, metallic air she had grown used to. And her clothes - she let her fingers brush against the soft, luxurious fabric of the elegant beige colored two-piece dress she was wearing. The fabric felt so delicate and expensive, nothing like the rough leather she had worn for years in the apocalypse.
Her gaze then shifted to her left wrist and she half expected to see the scars from the past, but there was none. Instead, a very familiar white jade bracelet adorned her fair wrist.
The jade bracelet.
Her mind reeled. This wasn't the apocalypse. This was nothing like the world where she fought for her survival for five long years, nor was it the world she had died in.
She ran her hands over her body while her heart raced with disbelief. There were no wounds, no scars from years of surviving in a wasteland. Not even the aching deep cuts she just received only moments before were there. They were all gone.
Every mark of her suffering had vanished as if those horrors of the apocalypse never touched her in the first place. She looked like the woman she once used to be - the powerful mafia queen who once lived in riches and luxury.
Confusion filled her mind as she struggled to understand exactly what was going on. Was this a dream? Or was the apocalypse a dream? The questions overwhelmed her.
She was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard a buzzing sound. Her gaze darted to the desk in front of her and she finally noticed a very familiar looking smart phone sitting next to the laptop. It was her phone, one she bought about half a year before the apocalypse.
She just stared at it for a moment as disbelief clouded her senses. She hadn't seen a smartphone or a laptop in years, at least a functioning one. The apocalypse wiped out all communication, all technology that humans worked so hard to build over the centuries.
She hesitated for another moment before she reached out to pick up the phone. Her fingers were even trembling a little as she watched the screen light up. The moment she saw the date on the screen, she was left completely dazed.
It was 9:22:2024. Exactly a hundred days before the Doomsday.
Her heart raced wildly as she stared at the phone. She struggled to accept that she had returned to the past. That she wasn't just dreaming.
Her mind suddenly flooded with memories of her final moments in the bunker, the betrayal, the pain, and the suffocating despair. She could still see their faces - those who had followed her loyally for years only to turn on her in the end. She still remembered the anger in their eyes and the cruelty with which they struck her down.
She still couldn't understand what she did wrong to deserve such a fate? Was she too lenient? Too soft and forgiving? Was that her fault?
Her fingers tightened around the phone and she let out a shaky breath. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, trying to steady herself. She was alive again. She didn't know why or how, but she had been given a second chance. A chance to do things differently. A chance to change her fate.
Her gaze once again returned to the beautiful jade bracelet wrapped around her wrist, and she found herself wondering if her rebirth had anything to do with it.
Right at that moment, she heard a soft knocking on the door. She immediately turned around while her body went tense. She stared at the door, half expecting to see the face of someone among those who betrayed her.
But instead, someone else stepped inside - someone familiar, someone who died protecting her in her previous life. Someone who stayed loyal to her till their very last breath.