After his death, Rein Matsuo woke up in a small apartment. Disoriented, and drenched in a cold sweat, the nineteen year old took in the details of the familiar room from an old mattress on the floor. Though he was fully awake, the feeling of teeth and claws tearing into his skin still remained. Carefully taking in his surroundings, he determined there was no danger. This didn’t help the lingering fear he still felt though. Lying back down, Rein took in a deep breath to calm himself down. For some reason the musky bedding provided a strange comfort, and cued the teen in on where exactly he ended up, but he had a hard time believing it. Feeling a few loose springs pressing into his back, Rein shifted slightly before finally deciding to move. Feeling death still looming over him, the teen got up and crossed the room to the door and opened it. Though he was no longer being torn apart, it still wasn’t a good idea to wait for the next set of teeth to come along and find him. Now finally haven gotten a good look at where he was, Rein ended up shaken by a new realization.

“I’m...home?”

Aware enough to move around, and certain he was no longer in danger, Rein started to piece together where he was. Not only was he back in his old apartment, but everything he’d ever owned at the time he originally lived there, was still present. It was as if he had never stepped out his front door on doomsday. But that was the least important detail. Having herd a few noises from outsides his window, Rein quickly moved aside a curtain to take a look at what was there. What he saw was the image of a bustling city. Cars driving, and people walking, out in broad daylight much like they had the year before the Apocalypse started, the world was no longer in a state of anarchy. Rein saw intact buildings, with no damage, and herd laughter coming from next door. Disbelief began to take over. This wasn’t right!

“Where the hell am I?”

Over the next few hours, Rein hid in his apartment, trying to figure out how to break out of the illusion. It wasn’t until he felt he was near starvation that inspiration hit. If he couldn’t think his way out of this illusion, he’d have to outsmart whatever was making it. He decided to order a pizza. He was sure whoever, or what ever, had trapped him in this alternate reality, they wouldn’t be able to replicate the taste of the one food he missed the most. Surprising the ‘delivery driver’ with a fifty dollar tip, Rein quickly set himself up to execute, what he believed would be, his last good joke. But the punchline never came, because the pizza was real.

Having established that he really had returned back in time, and spending a bit of time eating tons of take out while gawking at his younger self in the mirror, Rein was presented with a whole new set of problems. For starters, what was he suppose to do now? Though he made the mistake of thinking he was in an illusion, he knew for sure that the Apocalypse he just survived was real. Nobody could fake that reality. He had experienced hell over the span of ten years. Even If he was wrong, then there had to be a reason he’d had such an experience. Dream or not, he knew he had to prepare, because in one year, the world would end.

Nineteen again, and living on his own in a ramshackle apartment, Rein only had a few months before experiencing his second Apocalypse. Marking down February 20th of 2020 as Doom’s Day, Rein started making plans for the next year. Having already entered May, He had a lot to prepare.

The apartment he was in now, was a tiny one bedroom on the 13th floor of duplex. Before the Apocalypse, Rein was a recently orphaned teenager, forced to sell his parents’ home to make ends meet. Times were hard even before the end of the world. Now, having already spent a decade in hell, and dying, the born again survivalist had a new perspective on life. Or rather, a new perspective on survival.

---

Finished cleaning up the mess of tomato soup in his kitchen, Rein looked back to the news program that startled him earlier. “The increased number of these ‘Dooms Day’ believers has started to cause problems outside of social event. Police have-”

Rein apathetically turned it off the TV. “This is the third one this month.” He sighed, going back to packing his things into cardboard boxes.

At first Rein thought he was the only one who knew about the upcoming Apocalypse. Everything seemed like one long case of deija vu as he started his second life. Since there weren’t any changes to the people around him, everything seemed pretty normal. But after a while, that feeling started to fade. Small butterfly affects began to spread, causing things to feel...different. At first it was little things: people winning multiple lotteries, others making millions off quick investments, and random supplies disappearing from store shelves, It’s nearly impossible to find toilet paper now, But then things became more chaotic. Random revenge murders started happening for no reason, and strange doomsday articles started appearing all over the internet. These things started becoming a little too frequent to be a coincidence, making everything seem very ominous. Seeing these changes, Rein knew better than to think these coincidences were by chance. This was the work of people like him, People who had been reborn after the Apocalypse.

Over time the other returnees became more proactive. A frequent number of ‘Crazy’ people started to show up on TV, warning the public of their impending doom, and announcing to the others, who were reborn, that they were not alone. One guy even went so far as to try and recruit these people to form some kind of pre apocalyptic mercenary team. Fortunately Rein wasn’t interested. He already had been apart of multiple ‘teams’ during the Apocalypse, and didn’t feel a need to re live those experiences so soon. Sadly, due to these same proactive people, many problems started appearing for the other returnees. The changes they made to the timeline caused things to become increasingly unpredictable for the others. This caused a few fights to break out resulting in a lot of people getting locked up. If they had just remained low key, and kept out of each others’ way, they may have been able to accomplish something. This is one reason why Rein decided to act carefully as he begin his own plans for the Apocalypse.

Rein’s First goal was to sell everything he owned. Besides the one or two things he’d use over the next few month, everything else was scrapped for cash. Once everything was sold off, the teen then worked on acquiring supplies. Not to the point of hording, but just enough to load into a decent sized truck. One thing that wouldn’t work in the apocalypse, is hauling yourself up in a room for the rest of your life. It might work for the first year or so, but as the apocalypse continued, the natural wear and tear of a building started to increase at an alarming rate. Between missiles, bombs, zombie hordes, looters, mutant plants and animals, the old residential buildings couldn’t keep up. They eventually turned into unusable ruins that killed more people than they protected. This was why Rein put more importance into a sturdy vehicle, rather than a stationary home. However, finding one of these things is easier said than done.

Normal vehicles were already a far cry from Rein’s budget, let alone a modified one with bullet proof glass. If he wanted to obtain something that could survive the apocalypse, he wouldn’t be able to obtain it with money. Using the practical knowledge he’d gained during the Apocalypse, he could probably go out and steal a car right now, but the risk of getting locked up for theft wasn’t worth it. If there was anywhere you didn’t want to be on Doomsday, it was prison. It’s one thing being locked inside a room by choice, but another when someone else has locked you up instead. So, to keep things clean, Rein took out his laptop to do a bit of research instead.

“… I forgot how annoying it is to wait for one of these things to turn on.”

Waiting for his computer to boot up, the youth decided to pour himself some tea, sipping it as he waited. When the screen finally popped up, he was greeted with a colorful background display of a famous comic book hero.

“...This?...was I really a fan of that?”

Silently judging himself, and his past interests, Rein quickly brought up his search browser, covering up the colorful background. Refocusing on the task at hand, he quickly typed a few words into the search bar before pressing enter. ‘Moving Trucks.’

Moving has always sucked, especially for those who can’t afford to hire a moving company to do it for them, which is why companies have started offering truck rentals. All the money spent having people move your heavy boxes can be saved, with the added work of doing it yourself. The cost of just renting the truck is only a fraction of hiring a whole crew. Just remember to buy the packaged insurance in case of a fender bender. Looking over the various vehicles available, Rein carefully noted the duration of time for the leasing agreements. While some could be rented for just a day, others could be rented for more than a week. These were the ones he was really interested in. When the time came, the youth would rent one of these vehicles, knowing full well he wouldn’t return it. Instead he’d take it to a nearby shop and get it modified for the apocalypse. The remaining time would be spent filling the back of the truck with his various supplies, and maybe even making a makeshift living space to use while on the go. He fully intended to make this vehicle his own personal hide away.

Some people might think it a little wasteful to focus on one vehicle, but the fact of the matter is that during the Apocalypse, people traveled a lot. People travel to get food, to find shelter, loot ruins, and even to escape the military, who went so far as to start bombing parts of their cities to reduce the number of undead. Those taking refuge in their resident bases, and safe-zones wouldn’t have the luxury of being able to coup themselves up in their homes all the time. More often than not, people would have to flee from their old homes, or safe-zones, more than once in their life, especially when they get overtaken by zombies. Trying to protect these homes was also nearly impossible to do while out on a mission. You’re better off accepting the fact that it’s better not set up roots at all. Either don’t get attached to anything, or...find a way to bring it all with you. Rein liked the second idea more.

---

The next few weeks, Rein spent a lot of time studying the various models of storage vehicles available for rent, weighing the pros and cons of each one until he was satisfied. He then proceeded to study his favorite by using the schematics he found on the internet. Every now and then he would secretly visit a rental company or auto-shop to get a little hands on experience before getting run off by the local owners. Though he found himself in a little bit of trouble over this, it was never to the point of getting detained. Eventually one of the shop mechanics offered to teach the youth a few things, being swayed by the others inquisitive personality. Much to Rein’s dismay, the two ended up becoming pretty close to one another.

“Not that one. Tighten the one above it. Yeah, that’s right. Not too tight or you’ll strip the bolt.”

Two people hovered over the engine of an old truck, one directing the other on what to do. Rein had started helping out around the garage to get a better chance of learning about the maintenance of a car. In his first life, Rein hadn't even gotten his driver’s license before the world ended. Over the ten or so odd years constantly on the run, he barley learned how to drive on his own. Though he knew what to do to get a car running in an emergency, it still wasn’t enough for him to fix one if it broke.

“Do people really have to go through all this just to change out a filter?”

The enthusiasm was lacking in Rein’s voice. Though he had developed an interest in cars over the last few weeks, it was only because he wanted the practical knowledge he’d need to keep his truck running. If he was going to put the work into modifying a moving van, he wanted it to last for a long time, and that would take some work.

“Yeah.” The old man shrugged his shoulders, handing a dirty towel out for the boy to use. He neglected to mention the dirt the other smeared across his own face. “It’s not the worst thing though. Wait until you have to work with the transmission before you start complaining. There’s a thousand parts that will make your engine useless if they break. You’ll have to get a whole new engine if any of those parts go.”

“That sounds like a pain.” Tired, Rein cleaned the dirt off the wrench he was using.

“Meh, if you keep up with the small stuff you don’t have to worry about it.”

Seeing the man shuffle off to his favorite chair, Rein started to think about the past few days. He didn’t even know this man’s name, but the two of them have settled into this teacher-student relationship. How that worked, he hadn’t a clue. One day the guy stopped trying to run him off from the garage, after the first few times of Rein sneaking in, and since then they’ve been settle into this awkward routine. It probably helped that he didn’t steal anything from the guy, but this kind of relationship really only happened..well, after the world ended. Can’t mourn a person you don’t know. The man didn’t ask for the teen’s name, and in turn he didn’t ask for his. Instead the two started addressing each other as ‘Kid’ and ‘Mister’. Don’t ask don’t tell I guess. Laughing at his own joke, Rein started to put away the tools they used for their project.

“It’s three.” Suddenly the old man called out the time to Rein, “Don’t you have to be somewhere?”

“Are you kicking me out?”

Unphased by the kid’s sass, the guy continued to explain,“No, just thought you might have something planned since you always seem to be doing something at this time.”

Suddenly Rein realized what the guy meant. Usually by three, he’d be running off to either go exercise or look for supplies. There were even a few times he’d be at the library learning. Now that he had the chance, Rein wanted to learn as many skills as he could before the outbreak. He’d been so busy that he didn’t even realize his own daily routine. “...no, I thought I’d take a break today.”

The man just left out a huff. “Don’t work too hard. No point stressing yourself out anymore than you have too. Like these cars, people’s bodies keep running until they don’t, so might as well enjoy and not push yourself too hard. You’ll live longer that way.”

That’s rare. Mister seemed almost concerned about the teen. Now that he thought about it, the guy must have some reason to not kick Rein out of his garage after all this time. For a moment the teen felt a little moved. Was he getting sentimental?

Refusing to look too deep into it, Rein decided to change the subject. “...we forgot to eat again. Want to go to the place across the street? I’m buying.”

“Can you afford it?”

“Not really.” Rein hadn’t been working, and the little bit of money he had left was being budgeted for supplies.

“Then don’t worry about it.” The old man closed his eyes, going back to resting in his chair.

Shaking his head in disbelief at the whole dynamic, the teen couldn’t help but feel this was the best friendship he’s ever had in years. In his last life, Rein had always had trouble maintaining friend ships. Before the apocalypse, he had a few close friends he hung out with, but most of them disappeared after his parents died. It was the remaining one or two people that kept him going. Unfortunately he lost touch with those fiends during the chaos of doomsday. It was probably for the best though. Speaking of, Rein was a little confused as to why he hadn’t seen either of these friends in this life. From what he remembered, they visited fairly often. He would have gone out looking for them by now, but… not all of his choices were good choices in his past life.

Noticing the teen’s gloomy expression as he was deep in thought, the old man suddenly felt a little sad for the kid. “On second thought, I’m craving noodles. I’ll have them deliver it.” He grumbled. Seeing the kid’s expression brighten up, he couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Anyone would end up buying this kid food if they saw that expression. He didn’t know how old the kid really was, but he suspected him to be around sixteen. Where his parents were, well, that was the kid’s business. He might not be his parent, but could indulge the kid by giving him some things to do that will keep him out of trouble.

Excited for the ‘implied’ free lunch, Rein quickly headed to the back where a small makeshift kitchen was located. “I’ll start the tea.” There wasn’t much there, but a sink and stove for the kettle, but it was enough. The thought of getting excited over tea was a little foreign for the teen, but maybe he was getting mentally old?