While working on his mobile home plan, Rein also began working out. One thing he regretted the most in his past life, is the fact that he hadn’t been strong enough to keep himself alive. Everyone around him seemed to have an easy time keeping one step ahead of him while out in the field. Though a large part of this had to due with Rein not being an ability user, it still caused him great discomfort knowing he was always moments away from dying...until he finally did. This is why he thought it was best to build himself up. Though a weapon helped to fend off potential dangers, a fit and agile body was worth a life. When all is said and done, how well you can run, and keep running, is the difference between life, and zombie food.

“Dang kid, you sure know how to run!” While stretching himself out, after a particularly intense workout at the park, Rein was approached by a rather arrogant looking man. Seeing the self importance ooze off the man as he walked, Rein didn’t feel like talking, so he went back to stretching his legs from his position in the grass instead.

Annoyed that he’d just been snubbed by a kid, the man continued. “You looked like you were practicing for the Olympics ... or running for your life.” The man leaned against a link fence as he pried. Though he looked normal from an outside perspective, Rein could see a slight aggression about him. One that could only be gained when you fought with your life on the line.

This wasn’t the first time Rein came across one of the other Returnees. Once or twice over the last couple of months, the youth had caught site of one or two people buying some very specific items in bulk. Things invaluable after doomsday. He even witnessed a couple people fight over them. Though the number of people who returned from the apocalyptic future were few, it was a given that some of their paths would cross, especially while preparing for the oncoming events. However, this was the first time someone had bother to approach him personally.

“The name’s Eric.” Offering a hand for a greeting, the brawny blond waited patiently for a response, staring expectantly at the other. After carefully observing him, Rein finally decided to respond. Casually getting up from the ground, the teen accepted the handshake. To Rein’s dismay, his hand completely vanished in the palm of the Eric’s larger hand. Fucking Giants.

“...Rein..”

Grateful to finally get a response from the other, Eric’s grin became just a little bit warmer, and only slightly less arrogant. Running his hand through his hair, the man continued to size the other up.

“So Rein, how many years had you spent abroad before returning from Doomsday?” Clearly the man wasn’t worried about keeping things quiet, or else he would have been a little more tactful about his questions. He didn’t even know for sure that Rein had actually been reborn, though the younger wasn’t exactly trying to hide this fact either.

“...five years...” The boy shrugged casually. He intentionally left off five years of his ten to gauge Eric’s reaction. Until now, he hadn’t really interacted with anyone else, so it was better to see what kind of people he’d be competing with at the start of the Apocalypse.

Rein had the suspicion that the increase in returnees was a bad thing, especially when it came to the first few days after the Apocalypse started. In his last life, everyone pretty much started out at the same level. No food, no water, and hardly any weapons. Nobody had been prepared, making the fight for supplies pretty straight forward. It wasn’t until later that ability users started learning about their powers, tipping the scales in their favor. By then people had managed to grab at least a few things to get by. However, if you gave any of these people a little bit of a heads up, or even a few years of apocalyptic knowledge, the power balance would instantly change. Those who know more, would obviously be able to survive longer than those learning things for the first time. Rein could only image what would happen if one of these people happened to be a powerful ability user...things didn’t look good.

“Five years? Dang kid, that’s impressive. I lasted about seven years myself. You must be pretty skilled to of survived that long.” The man made it pretty obvious that he just wanted to brag, but Rein tolerated it for the time being.

“By the looks of things you must of teamed up with some strong ability users. I had an ability myself, it wasn’t all that great though. When I found out my ability was an increase in hearing, I almost bit my tongue off in anger. Of all the cool things I could have gotten, and I get sensitive ears? That’s completely unfair! I’m hoping for a redraw this time. Hey hey, what about you kid?” The man finally looked to the other expectantly, but the kid only shook his head.

“Huh, no ability? That’s a shame, but cheer up, you might get one this time around. You’re on the right track anyway, working out the way you do. I remember a rumor going around my sixth year, that’s the year after the first few ability users started to upgrade. Anyway, I herd that the abilities were usually given to those who were physically strong the day doomsday happened. It makes sense right? I mean why else would most of them show up in the military.”

Rein just nodded along silently as the guy rambled on, well aware of the rumors he was talking about. There were a lot of people intensively studying ability users throughout the first few years, and what they found was that a variety of factors contributed to the establishment of abilities. Though the abilities themselves were random, the way they were obtained was fairly consistent. It wasn’t until the sixth year that the truth came out. Ability users...were people who barely avoided turning into zombies.

---

Most people never thought about it, but how was it possible for a zombie virus to break out randomly in a large population of people? To suddenly have a thousands of people transform into zombies, in various locations over night? Everyone goes to sleep while everything is perfectly fine, only to wake up the next morning to find out that everything, was NOT fine. It makes no sense. Logically there should have been a gradual change. Shouldn’t there have been symptoms showing at least, much like the symptoms one experiences after being bitten by an undead? Well they did, only it happened months before doomsday, in the disguise of a ‘flu’ pandemic.

In theory, most of the cities, where the zombie outbreaks happened, had at one point contracted the zombie virus. Out of the people who were infected, most ‘recovered’. Once ‘well’, these people were released back to their homes, and out into the world. Primed and ready to contribute to the fall of society. But the virus wasn’t the only factor.

If the infected people contracted the virus at different times, then the symptom of zombiefication should of gradually showed up in various people, rather than in all of them instantaneously. Those affected first, should of turned first, then spread like there was some kind of epicenter. A place somewhere that the virus started at, before spreading out to the world. But there wasn’t. Zombies showed up in a few specific cities, in numerous countries, all at once on the same day. People where able to watch as entire cities went into chaos, requiring the military to take action. Unfortunatly, despite pushing back the initial outbreak, these armies still failed at containing the situation, allowing the virus to spread across the world. So then what triggered the virus?

The sun. Radioactive solar flares hit earth, early spring, triggering the virus lying dormant in the blood of those who had the ‘Flu’. Most of these people turned into undead. After that, the zombification spread by blood contact. Bites, or open wounds, were the worst. Fortunately not everyone infected with the zombie virus became zombies, or the people who didn’t contract the disease would have been in a lot of trouble.

A rare few managed to survive the zombie process, and instead evolved into ability users. Most were the military, or physically fit. Thought to be those strong enough to beat the virus, the earliest ability users produced the misconception that you had to be strong to be an ability user. This indirectly contributed to the bullying, and mistreatment of those who weren’t, strong looking. This misconception was only partly true.

Every 1st generation ability user, the ability users that didn’t gain their abilities after surviving a zombie bite, had one thing in common at the start of the apocolypse. They were early risers. Those who would wake up early for work, or go out to exercise were the ones who first saw the sun rise. The military waking up for roll call, Farmers getting ready for a day’s work, All these people woke up before the sun. Some ability users even mentioned never going to sleep the night prior, staying up late partying, maybe making their way home from a night shift as the sun rose over the horizon. So why does this matter?

Because each one of these people witnessed the sunrise on doomsday. The exact moment the radioactive solar flare hit earth. When it hit, the earth was at the exact angle needed to activate, and mutate, the zombie virus. The violet light rising up in the east, dyed the sky in a flash of light, before disappearing again, turning the sky back to normal. So then, all anyone had to do to get an ability, is watch the sunrise the day the world ends? It wasn’t so simple. Witnessing the sunrise only gave a person a head start at combating the virus within them. A person who knows they are dying, verses someone who is unconscious, gets a huge advantage. Everyone affected by the virus while sleeping, no doubt died in a matter of seconds. If you were awake, you instead had a chance to fight it, and keep your heart beating. Even with the advantage of awareness, many old, and young still died. Those too weak to resist still became the undead, while those strong enough to survive became 1st generation ability users.

The abilities of the 1st ability users, were usually stronger than those of the second generation. The 2nd generation of Ability users had to survive a zombie attack, and get infected, before they had a chance at obtaining their own ability. This made things even riskier for those seeking to become ability users later on. The rate at which someone survives a zombie bite, is much lower than those who witness the Violet sun. Unfortunately there weren’t to many of those kinds of sun raises to go around. This was why Rein never obtained an ability in his last life. It was just too dangerous. But now?

---

Seeing that Rein was no longer interested in the current topic, Eric decided to change course. “Actually, the reason I came over is because I’m actually recruiting those who lived through the apocalypse…for a friend of mine. He’s real good you see, he lived just past year ten. Said that after the tenth year things got real wild. Anyway, he’s setting up a new base outside of F city for those who’ve been through this before. He’s already started building a base. He must of ‘won’ a couple lotteries, or something, because he has a lot of money. He even said he can make certain that anyone who joins will end up as ability users this time around. What do you think of that?”

Stopping for a moment, Rein thought about this new information. A pre established base would probably be one of the safest places to be during doomsday, but what worried him was the promise of everyone who joined gaining an ability. Nobody could guarantee the survival of the initial shock of the Zombie Virus. There wasn’t even a vaccine made for it. Though, there was some truth to the information Eric gave. Things did get crazier after year ten.

“So...what about non ability users? Or those who seek refuge afterwards? Families?” Rein asked the older man a few questions to test him. Surly there will be others seeking refuge when word got out about the base. If they didn’t let these people in, they'd be inadvertently dooming these survivors. This could possibly bring more trouble for themselves. The military might also take notice.

Eric just scratched his head awkwardly. “Well, you see. We’ve been trying to keep it on the down low for a while now, and...well. It’s just. Aside from some close family, we’d only be allowing those with abilities. You know how it is.”

Yes, Rein did know how it was. He lived it. Normal people, they were useless in the eyes of an ability user. “Pass.”

Turning around abruptly, Rein decided to leave the park. Panicked that he said something wrong, Eric quickly ran to catch up. “Hold on, hold on. No need to be so brash kid. Here, let me give you my card, that way you can think about it for a bit. If you change your mind, then great! Just give me a call. If not….well. I guess that’s that, but think about it. You yourself lived through that hell for five years. Don’t you think you deserve a bit of a leg up this time around? It’s not like we haven’t tried to warn everyone about the dangers. There are people constantly trying to get word out over the news, but they wont believe us. So, now we’re just focusing on ourselves. What’s wrong about that?”

Thinking back to all the ‘Crazy’ people on the news recently, Rein couldn’t help be feel a little sympathetic for this man’s argument, so he reluctantly took the business card offered to him. Eric grinned happily in response. “There you go kid. That wasn’t so hard now was it?”

Reined frowned. “You do realize I’m not a kid right?” Even if Eric only counted the 5 years he knew about, he’d still be older than twenty five. Hell, adding in the full ten years, he’d be over thirty.

Eric’s response was to grin apologetically.

After this exchange, Rein started to keep a closer eye on the changes the other returnees were making to the time line. He may not be worried about the future changing, but he still had plans. With the added base, things were definitely going to become more complicated. Especially when it came to how the safe zones would function. Last time, all the bases, and safe zones, were organized by the military. This made cooperation between cities easy. If suddenly new, privately owned, bases started to be established, then the original dynamics would become complicated. If that happened, then he could forget about trying to get ‘re intouch’ with anyone he knew from his last life.

He may not have any friends right now, but he met a few important allies while he was fighting for survival...not to mention, him. Rein wasn’t a saint, and he knew it. He had a few regrets that carry over into his new life, and now that he had the option to do something about it, he planned to take advantage of the opportunity. Wouldn’t you? Of course, that would only be possible if he is able to ‘retrace his steps’. If there were too many big changes to the timeline, then all his planning wouldn’t matter. He’d never be able to find the people he wanted to if that happened. Fortunately the other returnees, and their previously pointless antics, began to calm down some. This was most likely due to the fact that they were too busy preparing for the incoming disaster. Once or twice he’d come across another article about the apocalypse, but no new changes really happened.

After a while, Rein’s interest in the new base faded. He was no longer concerned about what it entailed. There was one thing he kept thinking about though. Abilities. The thought seemed to be nagging at the back of his head ever since he met that guy Eric. The thought of becoming an ability user was enticing even to Rein, but he could already guess the method at which that group of returnees would take to gain their new abilities, and it was akin to suicide. Purposely infecting yourself with the Zombie Virus wouldn’t give you superpowers, but he could already tell that’s what the returnee base had in mind. He just hoped they had enough sense not to be in the same room with one another when doomsday hit.

Thinking about what a whole base of zombies would look like mad Rein shiver, it would no doubt turn into the worlds worst zombie horde. Without a doubt, a very bad idea. “But...maybe it wouldn’t hurt to take a quick visit to the hospital to get sick.”