Will the Apocalypse Start Today?

I couldn't believe that a mere dream would take me to a parallel world to experience the destruction and end of humanity. Trust me when I say it changed my life and beliefs. I did not even realize that everything is possible when you close your eyes, or so I thought... There are different kinds of people on Earth. Each one is uniquely molded with a genetic code, and you won't find someone identical to yours. But some rare individuals can use the eyes of heaven unknowingly. Some can see the past and the future through dreams, and we call them "vision-gifted lucid dreamers." These rare souls possess a gift that surpasses the confines of the waking world, allowing them to navigate the mysterious corridors of time and space. In dreams, they are not mere spectators but active participants, seamlessly traversing the boundaries between the past and the future. Through the complicated language of dreams, they wear the threads of time, witnessing events long gone or yet to unfold. And I am one of them. - It was late in the afternoon when I woke up in the silence of my room. The downpour of the rain and the mesmerizing sunset caught my eye. The wind was blowing gently from the open window. I searched for a rainbow, but I saw nothing. Why can't I hear any sound downstairs? My cousins and my grandmother should be home right now. I reached for my phone and checked the time. 3:00 PM I suppose they were still sleeping. It became their habit to rest in the afternoon and study when they woke up. I sat up from my bed and stretched my sore arms. I wanted to go back to sleep, but the sudden banging on the door from the neighbor next to my home made me feel terrible. The movement was so great that it made me look in the direction of their front yard. That man... For the first time, I saw someone with the whitest skin, but dark veins could be seen through his body. His hair was slowly falling as if the rain was acidic. One of his eyeballs was missing, and his bones looked severely dislocated weirdly. How did he stand like a normal person? Suddenly, it came to me that maybe the world was finally ending, similar to those dreams I had since 2021. That person must be a zombie... I felt calm looking at him. Maybe the movies depicted their images so ugly and disgusting that if I am staring at one now, I must say he looked better than those creeps I saw on the internet. I got out of bed and slowly locked all the windows of the house, keeping the action as silent as possible. Then, I opened the door and searched for anything abnormal downstairs, but it disappointed me. I am alone... I saw a note and a family picture pasted on the refrigerator's door. It says, "The last day I saw everyone, 2019." I suddenly felt dizzy. The world felt like turning as my body trembled in pain. I fell on the floor, but I was not even bothered by the impact of the fall. My heart hurt so bad that I wanted to scream, but I was still sane enough to remember that the apocalypse had started. Sweat and tears poured out of me as I gasped for air. The burning sensation in my bones made me wish I could inject myself with anesthesia and drink a bottle of pain reliever. But I couldn't even find the strength to get up. Memories that did not belong to me were engraved inside my brain piece by piece. It was 2019 when COVID-19 started. I remembered fragments of my family's death. Varying from accidents, heart attacks, and illnesses that result in their early deaths. How could they have died when they were with me till 2023? Everything slowly made sense to me. I'm no longer on Earth. On the first night of coming to this world, I felt hunger and loneliness to the extreme. I couldn't believe that one day, I would wake up being an orphaned child with no one to rely on but myself. I asked myself again and again, "Is this truly my new reality?" I hugged myself to sleep. The next morning, I mourned and hardened my heart. I need to survive in a world familiar yet unknown to me. A world as dazzling as the Earth, but it made me cold. I need the strength to move forward! I scanned the house to look for food. Back on Earth, my family owned three houses. One was in the city proper, one was in the suburbs of the city, and one was inside my family's farm. If I choose among the three, I will live in the last house. The area is approximately thirteen acres wide with a small pond. There were fruit-bearing trees, crops, and livestock animals. I want to pray that none of these living beings have mutated into a monster. The fence of the farm was built strongly, with concrete walls topped with barbed wires connected to a live post that could electrocute anything. I just need to get to that place before the evening. I prepared the things I needed to bring, checked the car in the garage, and tried to inspect if it was still working. Luckily, the gas tank was full, and the engine sounded great. When I was gathering all the materials that I wanted to keep, I suddenly saw my mother's jewelry box. She always told me that everything she bought in jewelry stores was mine to inherit. My fingers trembled as I reached for the box. I held the box tightly as the shaking of my hands continued. Then, a tear escaped my eyes. When I opened the box, I was surprised to see a note and a jade necklace. My mom had never bought jade before because she liked gold, but how did one appear here? I put the box down and read the letter. "Happy twenty-fourth birthday, Shang!" Tears welled from my eyes as I picked up the necklace. "Ah!" Blood and tears fell on the jade necklace. I did not notice the sharp edge of the note card. But I saw something fascinating!