Four months to doomsday

The air was thick with tension.

Lian stood at the factory gate, her fingers itching to grab her weapon. The scavenger leader, a man with a jagged scar down his cheek, smirked as if he had already won. Behind him, half a dozen men stood ready, their hands hovering over knives and rusted firearms.

"We don't want trouble," he said, his voice smooth. "Just a little trade."

Jiao's stance was rigid. "We're not giving you anything."

Scarface sighed dramatically. "That's not very friendly. See, my boys and I we're starving. Desperate men do desperate things."

Lian's grip tightened on her knife. She had seen this play out before. In her past life, groups like this would start with demands, then escalate to violence when they didn't get what they wanted.

She wasn't going to let that happen.

"We have sick people inside," Lian said. "You might not want to push your luck."

Scarface chuckled. "Oh, I'm real scared."

Jiao took a step forward. "Last warning. Leave, or we'll make you leave."

Scarface's smirk didn't fade, but he lifted his hands in mock surrender. "Alright, alright. No need to get violent. We'll go."

Lian didn't believe him. Not for a second.

And she was right.

---

The Attack

The scavengers left. Or at least, they pretended to.

Hours later, in the dead of night, the factory shook with the sound of an explosion.

Lian bolted upright, her heart hammering. Smoke billowed from the southern fence, where a fire raged.

"They blew a hole in the wall," Chen said, already grabbing his gun.

Shouts echoed through the compound as Jiao's men scrambled to defend the perimeter.

Lian sprinted outside, her mind sharp despite the chaos. The scavengers were storming in through the breach, weapons raised.

The battle had begun.

Jiao's voice rang out over the gunfire. "Hold the line! Don't let them through!"

Lian ducked behind a stack of crates, scanning the battlefield. The scavengers fought like wild animals, swinging pipes, knives, and whatever weapons they could find.

A man with a crowbar lunged at her. Lian sidestepped, grabbing his wrist and twisting hard. He screamed, dropping the weapon, and she drove her knife into his gut.

He collapsed, gasping for air as blood poured from the wound.

She had no time to react before another attacker swung at her. She barely managed to dodge, stumbling backward.

A gunshot rang out Chen's bullet found its mark. The scavenger dropped, lifeless.

Lian and Chen locked eyes. No words were needed.

They fought as one.

---

The First Kill of Many

The battle was brutal.

Jiao's men were outnumbered, but they had the advantage of knowing the terrain. They used the factory's layout to funnel the scavengers into narrow corridors, picking them off one by one.

Lian moved like instinct. A man tried to grab her she slammed the butt of her knife into his throat, then finished him with a clean stab to the heart.

Gunfire roared. Screams filled the night.

She saw Scarface through the chaos, a twisted grin on his face as he raised a pistol toward Jiao.

Lian didn't think she acted.

Her knife flew through the air, embedding itself in his wrist. He howled, dropping the gun.

Jiao wasted no time. He stepped forward and shot him point-blank.

Scarface crumpled, his smirk finally gone.

The remaining scavengers, seeing their leader fall, turned and fled into the night.

The battle was over.

But the damage had been done.

---

The Aftermath

The factory courtyard was a graveyard. Bodies littered the ground, blood pooling in the dirt. Smoke still curled from the broken fence.

Lian wiped her blade on her sleeve, her pulse finally slowing.

Jiao surveyed the destruction, his face grim. "We won."

Chen sheathed his weapon. "But not for long."

They had lost men. The factory was compromised. They wouldn't survive another attack.

Lian exhaled. "Then we start preparing to leave."

No one argued.

The apocalypse had truly begun.

And they needed to be ahead of it.

---