I had just been confirmed as a match and was preparing to donate a kidney to my husband's adoptive sister.

That night, she left her iPad in the living room. The screen was still on, showing her chat with the doctor: [Doctor, please don't tell my sister-in-law. If she has a kidney removed, her hidden heart condition will flare up, and she won't live longer than three months.]

The next day, I canceled the donation without a second thought. My husband flew into a rage. He called me cold-blooded and forced me to sign a divorce agreement that left me with nothing.

The next day, I stood outside the hospital room and heard my sister-in-law laughing smugly. "She's so stupid. I faked one chat screenshot, and she actually believed she was sick. Now her penthouse is mine, and we can finally be together openly."

My husband kissed her.

"Good girl. Later, I'll find you a good kidney on the black market."

Outside the door, I sneered. Of course, I knew the chat log was fake.

I had come back from the future, after all.

In two weeks, the zombie outbreak would begin. Those two so-called siblings who were actually lovers would not only steal my medicine, they would push me out to feed me to the zombies.

This time, with only four days left before zombie hordes overran the city, I wanted to see how long a sick woman without a new kidney and a scumbag without supplies could last in that penthouse.

My eyes flew open as I started to gasp for breath, the pain of my neck being torn open still fresh.

When I thought of Julian and Jessica Taylor, I remembered how they had stolen the last piece of moldy bread I had risked my life to bring back. I remembered how, the moment the zombies broke through the security door, they grabbed me from both sides and shoved me out.

"Melanie, Jessica has bad health! Hold them off for us! I'll never forget what you did!" I clenched my fists, letting the pain remind me this was all real. After a moment, I threw off the covers and got out of bed.

In the living room, Jessica's iPad was still lit on the coffee table. When I saw the chat window on the screen, my lips curled into a cold smile.

Early the next morning, I looked coldly at Jessica in the hospital's VIP ward. She was lying in bed and pretending to be weak while Julian was attending to her at her side. I said, "Doctor, cancel the surgery. I'm not donating my kidney."

Julian turned sharply, disbelief all over his face. "Melanie, are you insane? Jessica's kidney failure can't wait any longer. You're saying you won't donate now? Are you treating us as fools?"

Jessica's eyes reddened, and tears rolled down her cheeks as she tugged pitifully at Julian's sleeve. "Julian, don't blame Melanie. I guess I was just born unlucky... I won't get treatment. Just let me die."

"Shut up! As long as I'm here, I won't let you die!" Julian held her in his arms as if she were some precious treasure, then turned and glared at me. "I never thought you'd be this cold-blooded, Melanie. You were confirmed as a match, and now you're backing out at the last second. Where's your conscience?"

His holier-than-thou attitude made my stomach turn.

"Yes, I'm cold-blooded," I said with a cold laugh. "Since you think I'm so cold-blooded, let's get divorced."

Julian froze, as if he had not expected me to bring up divorce myself. There was a flash of joy in his eyes, then he forced a stern expression on his face and pretended to be heartbroken. "Fine. Divorce it is. I can't spend another day with a selfish woman like you who can watch another person die and do nothing. But don't think you'll get a cent from me. That penthouse downtown was mine before we got married! You'll leave with nothing!"

Without the slightest hesitation, I nodded and said, "Fine."

The next day, I went to the hospital with the divorce agreement ready.

As soon as I reached the VIP ward, I heard Jessica's smug laughter inside. "She's so stupid. She believed one random screenshot. Now we can finally be together openly."

Julian let out a low laugh, his voice full of fondness.

At that moment, I pushed the door open and threw the divorce agreement in Julian's face. "Sign it."

He gritted his teeth and quickly signed his name.

I left the hospital without looking back with the divorce papers in hand. That was because I knew there were only three days left before the zombies overran the city.

After leaving the hospital, I narrowed my eyes against the sun glare.

Julian had owned the penthouse before we got married, but my name had been added to the title. Before the transfer went through, I still had plenty of time to use that hole.

I contacted a loan broker who had spent years skirting the edge of the law.

Some time later, I met up with the broker. I slid a copy of the title across the table with a firm tone. "A 3,200-square-foot penthouse downtown, worth more than two million in the market. I only want eight hundred thousand, paid today."

The broker looked at me, his eyes lighting up. "You really are quite decisive. But the interest..."

"Use your highest rate. I don't care," I cut in.

Julian would be the one paying it back anyway. No matter how high the interest climbed, it had nothing to do with me.

Aside from mortgaging the penthouse, I maxed out every credit card in my name and borrowed the highest amount I could from dozens of online lenders.

In just a day and a half, I pulled together nearly one million in cash.

All those debts that would usually be enough to destroy families were left tied to the penthouse and Julian's name.

After I secured the funds, I found a top security company.

While Julian took Jessica to a high-end restaurant to celebrate his "freedom," I brought the workers into the penthouse. I said, "The main bedroom, living room, kitchen, hallway, and bathroom. Cover every blind spot."

I pointed to each corner and ordered them around.

The workers installed more than a dozen tiny pinhole cameras with backup power using "smart wiring maintenance" as an excuse. The cameras record in high-resolution, had access to night vision, and audio recording.

When the zombie apocalypse arrived, I wanted to watch every angle of that shameless couple's desperate struggle without missing a thing.

After taking care of that, I drove straight to the countryside.

In my previous life, I had heard about an underground air raid bunker halfway up a hill on the edge of the city. It had once belonged to a tycoon who had gone bankrupt. I spent a fortune to get the broker talking and signed a ten-year lease.

When I pushed open the bunker's heavy titanium reinforced blast door, my heart finally settled.

This place was practically built for the apocalypse.

It covered 5,400 square feet and had an independent ventilation system, a deep underground well, a large solar generator system, and even a temperature-controlled hydroponic greenhouse.

For the next forty-eight hours, I became a machine. I bought out the warehouses of three large supermarkets. Fifty bags of premium grains of all kinds, thirty bags of flour, two hundred cases of assorted canned meat, one hundred cases of dried vegetables, and fifty cases of high-calorie chocolate and emergency ration bars. For drinking water, I ordered five hundred jugs and had them moved into the bunker, along with ten high-powered water purifiers.

Aside from food, medicine would become the rarest hard currency in the zombie apocalypse. I cleaned out five pharmacies, buying antibiotics, anti-inflammatory medicine, fever medicine, painkillers, and all kinds of first-aid kits and surgical tools.

Finally, I made a trip to the black market and got three military-grade compound crossbows, several thousand steel bolts, two machetes, and a stab-resistant suit.

When the last batch of supplies had been moved into the bunker, the reinforced blast door slowly closed.

I collapsed onto the couch and let out a long sigh of relief. At that moment, the giant screen on the wall lit up.

On-screen, Julian and Jessica were carrying bags of luxuries into the penthouse, both of them smiling with satisfaction.

"Julian, that old woman is finally gone! This place is ours now!" Jessica threw herself into Julian's arms without the slightest shame as she giggled.

Julian wrapped an arm around her waist, his eyes full of greed and smugness. "That's because she's stupid. Once I sell this place, I'll take you overseas and get you a proper kidney. Then we can live a proper life together."

I sat safely in the bunker, casually wiping the cold, sharp blade of the machete in my hand. As I watched that shameless couple on-screen dreaming about the future, I could not help laughing out loud.

There were twelve hours left on the countdown.

The night before the apocalypse was so calm it felt suffocating.

I stood in front of the bunker's observation window made from bulletproof glass and watched dark red rain pour down outside. It was unusually thick with the metallic smell of blood.

The news kept cutting in with one grim emergency report after another. "Unexplained mutated rabies attacks have broken out across multiple parts of the city. Residents are advised to stay home and keep all doors and windows closed..."

The reporter's voice shook despite his effort to hide it, and faint, piercing screams came from somewhere behind him.

I turned to the screen on the wall that was connected to the security cameras back in the penthouse. Julian and Jessica had no idea what was happening outside. They were soaking in the oversized bathtub, rose petals floating on the water, drinking my prized Romanee-Conti and feeding each other peeled grapes.

"Looks like it's raining. Why is the sky so red?" Jessica glanced at the tall window and asked with little interest.

Julian lowered his head and kissed her neck, his hand moving under the water. "Who cares what kind of rain it is? No one can bother us now."

I watched coldly as I smiled mockingly. 'Enjoy it while you can. This is the last hot bath you will ever have in your life.'

Through the cameras outside the bunker, I saw the people drenched in blood rain begin to convulse. Their skin quickly turned gray, their bloodshot eyes bulged, and animal-like growls tore from their throats.

A man in a suit who had been sheltering from the rain suddenly lunged at the person beside him and bit through his neck. Blood sprayed across the storefront window like a fountain.

The street fell into chaos. Cars crashed into one another and burst into flames. Screams, sirens, and the sound of tearing flesh mixed together. Within just a few short hours, the city had completely collapsed.

Early the next morning, Julian was woken by the endless screams and the sounds of car alarms below. He rubbed his sleepy eyes as he walked to the tall window, cursing under his breath. Then he pulled the curtains open. "Why is it so loud this early..."

His voice was cut off.

On the screen back in the bunker, Julian's pupils widened. He froze as if someone had cast a curse on him.

The once-bustling downtown streets had become a hellscape.

Burning vehicle wrecks were everywhere. Torn flesh and innards littered the ground, and hundreds, maybe thousands, of bloodstained zombies staggered through the streets.

One zombie lay sprawled on the hood of a sedan, greedily gnawing on a human leg.

"Ah!" Julian's legs gave out as he screamed and he fell to the floor, scrambling backward in panic.

"Julian? What's going on?" Jessica woke up with a start and came out in a robe. When she followed Julian's gaze and looked out the window, she let out an even sharper scream.

Then something even worse happened.

As the city's power grid and water system collapsed, the lights in the penthouse flickered a few times before going out.

"Why is the power out?" Jessica ran to the kitchen in a panic and turned on the faucet.

A strange gurgling sound came from the pipe and a few drops of murky yellow water trickled out, then nothing.

No water, no power, and surrounded by zombies.

On the first morning of the zombie apocalypse, that two-million-dollar penthouse had become an inescapable steel prison.

I sat in the bunker's spacious, brightly lit dining room. The ventilation system sent in air that had been filtered several times, and the temperature held steady at a comfortable 75 degrees Fahrenheit.

I brought a sizzling premium steak to the table and poured a glass of wine I had let breathe. I looked up at the screen and watched Julian and Jessica stumble around in the dark like headless chicken, so frightened they could only huddle together and tremble.

I raised my glass and toasted at the screen from afar. "Good morning, Julian. Hell's free trial has only just begun!"