Chapter 1The Only Girl Not Reborn

When the rest of the world woke up with memories of the apocalypse, I became the only outlier.

My parents, who had always loved me more than anything in the world, didn't hesitate to liquidate every single asset we owned, handing every last cent over to the Global Defense Coalition.

Even my boss, a man so notoriously cheap he’d squeeze a dime until it bled, suddenly open-sourced all of our company’s highly classified proprietary tech. He went on national television and said we had to carry the weight of this alongside the rest of humanity.

It was as if someone had pressed a massive, invisible "Unite" button on the entire planet. Everyone was violently, desperately preparing for a coming catastrophe.

Everyone except me. I had absolutely no idea what was going on. I was a stranger in my own reality.

The exact moment my parents realized I didn't possess these "reborn" memories, the look in their eyes completely fractured. It was a gaze so complex and utterly terrifying that it made my pulse hammer in my throat, yet I couldn't put a name to the emotion behind it.

From that day forward, my life went dead silent. They never spoke another word to me.

Just like that, I was thoroughly and completely abandoned by the entire human race.

* * *

Brrrring.

My alarm jolted me awake.

April 3, 2026. The morning sun was pouring through the blinds, bright and completely ordinary.

I was just reaching out to swipe off the alarm when a text popped up from my boyfriend, Gavin:

"Jo, I messed up. I'm so sorry. I can't live without you! Please, just give me one more chance? For the next three years, I swear I won't leave your side for a single second!"

I stared at the screen, entirely dumbfounded.

Why on earth was Gavin sending me something like this? We were still deeply in the honeymoon phase. We hadn't even had a fight, let alone broken up!

Before my brain could even process his text, an audio message from my mom chimed in:

"Joanna, your father and I are on our way to your apartment right now. We're going to be together, sweetheart. All of us. We are never, ever being separated again!"

Hearing the hysterical, sobbing crack in my mother’s voice only deepened my confusion.

What the hell had happened overnight?

It wasn't just my parents and my boyfriend acting like they'd lost their minds. My company's Slack channel was exploding.

"I'm drafting an itinerary to backpack across the globe. Who’s coming with me?"

"I'm in! I’ve been a corporate slave my whole life and I haven't even seen the Pacific Ocean. I'm actually going to live this time!"

"A vacation? Are you kidding me? You selfish cowards, the world is on the brink and you're only thinking about yourselves..."

Two distinct factions were ripping into each other in the general chat.

I sat up in bed, eyes wide, totally paralyzed by the sheer absurdity of it. Our company policy explicitly forbade non-work-related chatter in the main channels. If anyone so much as posted a meme, our tyrannical boss, Mr. Wallace, would usually swoop in and dock their bonuses.

Why were my coworkers acting so recklessly? And was Wallace just sleeping in? Why hadn't he intervened?

Through the fog of my confusion, the doorbell rang.

My parents were here.

I practically sprinted to the door, desperate to ask them what was going on. But before I could even get a word out, my mother lunged forward, wrapping me in a suffocating embrace, weeping so hard her whole body shook.

My dad, a man who treated emotional vulnerability like a physical allergy, had eyes that were bloodshot and brimming with tears. "Joanna, listen to me. We're selling the house. We're giving the funds to the federal emergency mandate, and we're moving into this apartment with you."

"This way, we can do our part for the survival effort, and we get to stay together!"

I physically recoiled, the words tearing out of me: "Dad, are you insane?"

"If you missed me, you could have just come to visit! Why would you sell the house? What about your retirement?"

The second those words left my mouth, my mother's sobbing stopped. Instantly.

Her expression morphed with a whiplash-inducing speed. She looked at me with a bizarre, almost panicked scrutiny.

The warmth drained from my father's face, leaving behind something cold and hardened.

"Joanna, what are you talking about?"

"You're the most educated person in this family. You've always been the rational one. You know perfectly well that right now, humanity has to stand united. We have to give everything we have to the state. Otherwise, none of us are going to live to see retirement."

"How could you say something so selfish?"

I felt like the floor was tilting.

None of this made any sense.

"Dad, I literally don't understand a word you're saying!" I cried. "Are we at war? Did the country get attacked? Even if we are, the government doesn't need the money from our suburban three-bedroom!"

In the next heartbeat, the look in my parents' eyes shifted from confusion into something else. Something resembling pure, unadulterated dread.

When they spoke, their voices were hoarse, trembling with a probing terror.

"Joanna..."

"Do you really... not remember anything?"