West Wing, Sierra Valley University, California, United States of America

5:38 p.m, December 22nd, 2028

The west wing of the university harbored the community college program and evening classes for failing university students, or aspiring high school students. Students who were typically poor and couldn't afford the full tuition fee for the university found a place here as well.

There was a singular building with signs of wear and tear, surrounded by flowers and nature. Its exterior was aged, but the interior gave a homely feel.

"This takes me back," O'Brien sighed lightly, looking up at the entrance before moving forward.

As time went by, even the little things began to drown his soul in nostalgia. In these past three months, every dose of a once familiar sight was potent.

O'Brien chuckled inwardly at himself, thinking he was beginning to sound like those Paradise Seeker nimrods.

He was thankful though. If their beliefs hadn't been so popular, he wouldn't have had many old comrades who were Paradise Seekers. Because of them, he could vividly recall many things that happened at the start of the apocalypse, which has been very helpful in making plans for the second future.

*

O'Brien halted in front of a classroom door. Gazing through the upper glass section of the door, his eyes captured their target.

There she was.

He drank in the sight of her at the front of the bright room; a cascade of red hair, eyes dancing with wit and compassion as she spoke animatedly to her students. His heart swelled even as it broke anew.

Her vermillion suit and white underblouse complemented her red hair and sapphire blue eyes. She had an explosive body with very sizeable breasts and buttocks, along with a shapely curve that drove strange men mad.

But O'Brien couldn't bring himself to look at her lustfully, even without the scars of the future. The same was true for her class of students made up of hormonal teenagers and young adults.

Miss Rose was like a saint. She took care of them; her goodwill was like a material substance that blew around her like the wind, warming their hearts and souls like rays of sunshine.

How could they blaspheme such a goddess with thoughts of lust?

O'Brien lurked in the shadows as Miss Rose's class dragged on. How strange to see her like this—carefree, impassioned by knowledge and learning. The weight of coming calamity had not yet settled upon her shoulders. But even then, she didn't waver. No, she shone even brighter than before, using her powers to help the less fortunate.

He was sure he had regressed to the past, but even then he couldn't help subconsciously being a broken record thinking, 'Oh, if this is here, or that person is here before me, then it must be real.'

"Seeing her again makes this feel even more real..."

O'Brien looked at the person who had long turned into a memory, revived before his very eyes. He searched for the differences between his last image of her and the present with a weary sigh.

The only telltale signs for those familiar with her then were just her eyes; the weariness hidden behind them as they glowed brightly, determined to light their path in the darkness, a new inhabitant that was not within her before the apocalypse.

But it is only within the toughest times that people show who they are. Many were dirty to their very core, but she was more dazzling than the light of a thousand stars.

He had almost forgotten how to make simple conversation after the harsh years he had been through in the future. Pleasantries felt foreign on his tongue. He ran through potential openings in his mind, scraping off the layers of bluntness that now armored his speech. The months had gotten him used to his young voice, but he had forgotten his previous manner of speech.

At last, the students packed up their things and trickled out. Miss Rose erased the board, her back to the doorway where O'Brien stood obscured. He scoured his memory for the bright spirit he once radiated.

"It's been a while, Miss Rose," he forced the now unusual brightness into his tone. "Have you been well?" He spoke shakily, trying to sound natural. It felt he was a body snatcher who took a poor bright young man's soul and replaced him. Well, in a way he was.

Being polite and friendly was a societal norm at the moment, unlike in the future.

Startled, Rose turned around to find this sudden visitor.

"Oh, it's you, O'Brien," she said, her gentle gaze brushing over him with a hint of concern. "It has been a while. Why do you sound so distant? You and the other three foreign students are the best examples to the lazy little bums from here. I'm glad you are doing so well in school and the new business you started again. You should have come earlier and introduced yourself to the new ones. When you get rich, don't forget your fellow classmates."

With a light chuckle and wink, she turned around once more to clean the old-fashioned blackboard.

The budget for this place was too low, and many were not aware that she helped students with lunch out of her pocket. The warmth and gentleness radiated from her simple words, soft tone, and ordinary movements were too overwhelming for O'Brien, who was now used to the darkness in man.

He felt like a vampire being exposed to the sun.

O'Brien paused, his heart racing for such a simple mundane task as talking, despite the years he bathed in mud and blood.

"Uh, we need to talk…" he started, unsure of how to pose the topic as he flexed his fist. "There's a new pandemic that has been released. M-many scientists are uncertain whether the said virus is even lethal, so it has not been escalated yet, but one of my friend’s cousins is from a research team in Germany, examining the virus. Just yesterday, he told me the harmful effects."

O'Brien felt his throat drying a bit too rapidly. What seemed simple in thought was difficult in practice. "It's a slumbering poison-like virus that lingers before exploding... The longer the exposure, the greater the explosion, which could lead to d-death. But even more so, after death, those near the infected will have their virus advancement rapidly accelerated, and those without the virus will be infected with a mature stage pollutant..."

‘How long has it been since I felt like this?’ he thought. It felt strange straining and stumbling over his words, stuttering a few times and pausing even more often before continuing.

How irritating!

He cursed inwardly several times, feeling his energy and enthusiasm draining like he had stumbled into a nest of blood-sucking worms.

"I know this is a lot," he told her, "and it's hard to believe… But you know me, Miss Rose." Now he looked up to maintain eye contact, willing her to keep her attention and trust. "In all the time we've known each other, I've never lied to you."

In an attempt to be more convincing, he held her hand abruptly, but the abruptness of it, as well as the edges of coldness in his tone, gave him away to this familiar teacher.

In the last few years of his former future, he never participated in something so mundane. As a mercenary, their interactions were zero or blunt between each other. When he visited bases to gain supplies or information, he would be treated with outsider status, plus the lone mercenary favorability debuff, so no one had spoken pleasantly to him in a long time and vice versa.

Curt and direct statements without wasting any words were all that was needed.

‘Shit, I never was a good actor.’

He inwardly cursed.

Even with his attempt to soften the bluntness of his words somehow, Miss Rose still felt a sudden wave of shock and concern as she processed the information about the new deadly virus.

That would be the typical reaction of any sane person, so he could not blame her.

Her mind raced to comprehend the implications and the potential impact on the community. Amidst her thoughts, she couldn't help but notice the abnormal behavior of O'Brien, her former student. Despite knowing him as someone who was not prone to lying, she couldn't ignore the signs of unease or distress that seemed to accompany his revelation.

Something was different about the young man who stood before her.

Trying to find the right words, Miss Rose took a moment to gather her thoughts, withdrawing her hand from his clammy grip at the same time.

"O'Brien, are you sure about this? This is not a small matter or one to underplay."

Her tone was a mix of concern and a desire for confirmation. As she spoke, she observed O'Brien closely, searching for any additional cues that might shed light on the authenticity of the news and the reason behind his unusual behavior.

O'Brien spent quite some time convincing her. He passed on his abnormal behavior to the fact that he himself was still in shock from hearing the news and was doing everything he could to keep his loved ones safe and that he didn't have a full understanding of the virus himself just that it was very dangerous.

His odd behavior can mostly be covered up with that lie, even the prominent flaw of his unnatural voice when explaining it to her.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"We need to move fast. There is a certain area that hasn't been exposed to the virus, and we must move quickly to avoid being exposed too much before we get there," he said as he grabbed her bag and started to usher her to the door, urgency in his voice. "I only want to keep you safe."

‘Please bite and don't make this any harder!’

He had internally fought with himself for quite a while before deciding he had to repay Ignoring her and leaving her to her tragic gate when he could prevent it was something his conscience couldn't tolerate.

He needed his mind to be free from guilt. In the past two months, O'Brien had placed his plans for the last days on a higher level than dealing with her. But now, he decided it was necessary to repay his debts to her and her alone in his new life.

Such was the greatness of the debt he owed to her, now and in the days of the future past.

Monetary debts and materialistic items were the least of them. The truly cumbersome one was that thing that permeated them all. That thing called...kindness?

Being led away, Miss Rose was still out of sorts, not yet recovered from the news just dropped on her, yet her feet moved with O'Brien.

The wind howled and weaved into the halls of the building, mourning a gloomy atmosphere.

At this point, Rose stopped, causing a not-so-patient O'Brien to pause as well, looking at her face to understand why. Silence ensued for a moment before the teacher found her words.

"Wait, I… I still have to get my young niece who is in the city," Rose stuttered, her mind racing. "I promised my brother to take care of her. Th-there's also my friend. She's from the military. She might have some information on the subject."

At this point, she took her bag from him and started to rummage within it, saying, "There's also my other friend, a doctor at Elijah Jones Memorial Hospital. The rest of my family are still in Europe—I'll try and contact them to get them to the location."

Still flustered with many thoughts and concerns running concurrently, Rose pulled out her phone and started to dial a few calls with shaky hands. Experiencing the pandemic in 2020, the sudden outbreak of wars, and new viruses appearing in the past 8 years afterward, Rose was quick to believe her student's words at face value.

O'Brien stared hard at her worried face, while she held her phone to her ear and waited for someone to pick up.

'Tsk... Unfortunately, it happened after all; a multiplication of burdens.'

So soon, his newborn nervousness faded, and then it was replaced by what he knew best—a numbing coldness.

O'Brien hid this coldness in his eyes and turned away, the memories of her replaying in his mind. He remembered her giving him his first combat card to survive, helping him obtain food, recommending good shelter, protecting him from the tyrannical exploitation of the shelter leader at the time, and teaching him how to get stronger.

Mary Victoria Rose.

She was a 'Blessed One', like the famous Celes Greymore. She had an Innate Card whose great abilities were no worse than the outstanding Blue Phoneix.

She was one in a hundred thousand. Her powerful abilities elevated that to one in a million.

Considering the human population was estimated to be less than a billion post-apocalypse, this was quite impressive.

Her abilities helped her to lead her own group…which she eventually left, moving from place to place to help others once each group was self-sufficient.

'Bloody Mary with a Bleeding Heart' was her famous moniker.

Her approach brought delight to the many refugees of broken cities and lost countries within her path.

Her selfless and heroic acts earned her respect, even among the fiends and tyrants that rose in the last days.

Sadly, to save a group of children after saving six consecutive groups of survivors from a wave of Blood Eye Trolls, she succumbed to monsters. But as expected of someone who could have rivaled Blue Phoneix, although she died, she brought all the monsters down with her. A clan of a Tier 2 alien race was annihilated, just like that. This was merely three years after the Last Days began!

Unfortunately, such a heroic death was desecrated. It would have been better for her to have been devoured by monsters. Several fiends defiled her corpse and later resurrected it as a zombie.

Then she became a real Bloody Mary.

To O'Brien, this was a new beginning, but although his conscience was fine with killing any and everyone in his way, it couldn't hold up against the weight of the debt of kindness he owed her in the days of the future past.

Even now, before it all came to pass once more, he still owed her a lot. While he was her student and was running short, she paid for his rent twice, among when other little things that added up over time. If he didn't repay her, his heart would not be still.

Without her, he would have died very early and would not have been able to even grasp his current grand opportunity.

*

Plop…

The water in the pond rippled, scattering the rays of the afternoon sun as the tossed pebble sunk to the bottom.

"Aunt Rose, as I said before, this guy is too suspicious! There is no news at all about a virus anywhere on the news or social media. Why do you trust him so much?!"

Miss Rose's fiery young niece in her early twenties had strawberry blonde hair and glassy green eyes. At the moment, her gaze flickered in anger as she clenched her raised fists to the heavens as if to curse and ask why her normally smart aunt would be so easily tricked by some student of hers or whatever he was.

O'Brien listened from a distance with a sigh. He'd admit that he didn't think this through; his flimsy lie couldn't hold up to the waves. Even if he fooled her, fooling her family and friends was another matter.

In hindsight, maybe he should have waited two days for the Seven Day Calamities to begin or even waited until it was well underway, like Day 4. It would have been easier to convince them.

The woman who spoke next had full lips and a fit figure. She wore boots, camo pants, and a black tank top that struggled to contain her ample chest. Despite her obvious womanly features, she exuded a commanding presence, blowing smoke from her cigarette with a confident air.

"Settle down, Jules," Roya told the fuming girl before turning to Rose. "Although, Mary, she does have a point. While such a virus would indeed be terrifying, there is currently no evidence to back up his claims, so understandably we are concerned about the truth of the matter with so little to go on." Her eyes flicked over to the young man in question.

‘Just what is that strange smell? It was as if the smoke carried it,’ she thought, discreetly moving her gaze around. ‘A flower? And this guy… Why does he feel dangerous? Rose said he is her ex-student… Is that really all?’

Roya had carried on the family legacy, even as a girl. She was a sniper for an off-the-books special unit. Since the age of eight, her father had drilled martial arts, discipline, and gun control into her head until it spread to every fiber of her being.

Several missions and countless training done in both the wild and enemy territory had given her a sixth sense of danger. Logically speaking, an unarmed university student with barely any muscles shouldn't seem like a threat, but she felt it as clear as day.

He had her late father’s presence, an aura immortalized in her memory.

Or maybe it was just this weird headache she had been feeling lately that was messing with her head. Her usually alert eyes felt heavy as well. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt sick.

Breaking out of her thoughts, she turned back to Rose. "Even if it was happening and the government was covering it up, I would know. But let's ask the local expert right here." This time she found the eyes of a regal-looking blonde, who seemed as if she had stepped out of a painting. The white coat and ID badge hanging from her neck identified her as the doctor Rose had mentioned earlier.

Dr. Lea had been quiet all this time, trying to make sense of the current rush of events. She swayed slightly, feeling dizzy, probably from the stress of everything going on.

"Well…with so little to go off on, I can't say for sure," she said, taking another sip from a water bottle before returning it to Rose. "As you know, doctors don't know everything. We are eternal students constantly learning. Some samples or distinctive characteristics of the virus would be helpful to make a judgment though."

Now, she turned to the idle O’Brien who was playing in the pond like a child. "This might be a bit rude, but can I contact your friend who gave you this information?"

Three gazes filled with wariness, distrust, and suspicion gathered on his body.

Even Rose, as time passed, was starting to feel uncertain, and to some extent, she physically felt strange, like she was sick. She took a sip of water from her bottle, trying to make the nausea she felt go away. She had called several relatives in worry at first, but they either couldn't make it, or were unable to be contacted, yet she somehow didn't find herself calling them a second and third time.

It was clear that with their conversation they were all leaning towards distrust instead of the seemingly neutral stance.

O'Brien had exaggerated the lethality of the virus quite a bit; it was a wonder that they were able to fall for it to even this level. Its features seemed ridiculous to the educated, and they supposedly should have done prior research before coming here to discuss it.

Naturally, the weak support beams for the fake story he made were collapsing quickly.

Perhaps he could have used some news stories as the basis; with some proper research, the unknown could be used as a weapon for reliance.

O'Brien exhaled sharply and got up, walking towards them. ‘As expected, I wasn't good at this type of farce anyway,’ he thought to himself. ‘Takes too much effort.’

"Well, it couldn't be helped after all," he said as he got closer. "I don't feel like wasting breath from explaining to people I could care less about, so I guess this is the only option for me after all."

Rose looked at him, trying to discern what his words meant. It felt like she didn’t know this boy anymore. And in truth, she no longer did. No, the O'Brien she knew was dead and replaced by a weary ruthless killer from the future.

It was at this point that Jules, her niece, dropped to her knees, groaning in pain. Lea instinctively rushed to the girl to offer aid.

"Sorry, I don't like wasting time," O’Brien muttered, looking at the writhing girl without empathy. "This is for your own good, in a way. When you wake up you'll understand."

Roya’s arms were quick to capture O’Brien’s neck in a headlock. "What did you do to her?" she demanded with a growl, but he remained unnaturally calm in her hold.

"You son of a bitch!" Jules gasped, her face almost as red as her hair, glaring as if to rip him apart. "Don't think you can get away with this! People will notice we’re missing!"

Soon, Roya trailed off with a string of curse words as she buckled, letting go of O’Brien and dropping her cigarette on the grass. Lea wasn’t far behind.

Their muscles had tightened and became rigid. With heavy heads and drooping eyelids, they were on their way to temporary paralysis.

Rose felt like her world was being flipped on its head. Her nausea amplified, her breathing running on terror as she processed what was going on. In her bid to save her loved ones, she had accidentally gotten them caught up in…whatever this was.

Roya grunted in disappointment in herself for being caught off guard and poisoned, her twenty years of training now a mockery at being outsmarted by a lanky college student.

In hindsight, the signs were all there, with her smoke smelling different. If she had been more alert and suspicious, it could have been avoided. Roya was already prepared mentally for the worst-case scenario. Such a casual yet calculated plan, she could feel the ruthless fangs dig into her beneath the surface. He executed it too well for this to be a casual drugging occurrence.

Lea felt something similar in not noticing the odd scent in the water Rose had shared with her. Ironically, she was helping her colleagues with a research paper on hallucinogens three months ago!

"It’s not lethal, Miss Rose. It was necessary," O’Brien told the teacher, watching her try to clutch at wisps of consciousness while battling with the whiplash of what she felt was his betrayal.

"H-how…? How…" Rose gasped, falling but fighting to stay awake, eyes shaking in disbelief. Her bottle rolled out of her numbing hands.

O’Brien crouched down to meet her on the ground, a cold but sorry expression plastered on his face. "You’ll understand later…" he muttered before kicking the water bottle away and she saw her last image of him, or anything.