Thirty days almost up
1152 Words
The tattoo machine continued buzzing against Kairo's skin.
Bzzzzzzzzzz.
He sat silently while Naya worked.
The Eye of Horus had already been completed across his upper back, and the next design waited on the table.
Ares.
The Greek god of war.
Kairo stared at the drawing.
In his previous life, the man who carried that tattoo had become one of the strongest warriors after the Awakening.
But Kairo remembered something else.
Not everyone with a powerful tattoo became powerful.
Some became monsters.
Some lost their minds.
Some died.
And some…
became zombies.
Kairo's expression changed.
“Naya.”
“Hmm?”
“Can a tattoo kill its owner?”
The machine stopped.
Naya looked at him through the mirror.
“That's an unusual question.”
“Just answer.”
She shrugged.
“Too much ink can damage the skin, obviously. But I've never heard of a tattoo actually killing someone.”
Kairo looked away.
You haven't.
He remembered the first night.
November 3rd.
The Awakening.
People with tattoos had collapsed everywhere.
At first, everyone thought they were awakening their powers.
They were wrong.
Some bodies couldn't handle what was happening.
Their tattoos burned beneath their skin.
Their bodies changed.
Their minds disappeared.
They became violent creatures that attacked anything nearby.
Humanity eventually called them Hollows.
And they weren't the only problem.
Animals mutated.
Dogs became massive predators.
Birds developed unnatural features.
Insects grew larger.
Plants began moving.
Trees developed strange roots that could break through concrete.
The world itself seemed to become hostile.
Kairo had survived only because he had hidden.
But this time, he wasn't going to hide.
He was going to prepare.
---
The next morning, Kairo went to the bank.
He needed money.
A lot of it.
Not because he wanted a luxurious life.
Luxury wouldn't matter after November 3rd.
He needed equipment.
A generator wouldn't be enough.
He needed solar panels.
Batteries.
Water storage.
Food.
Medical supplies.
A stronger door.
Security cameras.
Tools.
A proper training room.
And most importantly—
a stronger body.
He knew something that most people wouldn't discover until after the Awakening.
The body had to be strong enough to contain the power of the tattoo.
A weak person could carry a powerful tattoo and still become a Hollow.
Kairo had no intention of becoming one.
By the end of the day, he had secured a §10 million loan.
He walked out of the bank with a strange feeling.
Ten million.
In his previous life, that amount of money would have changed everything.
Now?
It was preparation money.
He knew the financial system wouldn't remain normal after the Awakening.
Banks would close.
Communications would fail.
Governments would struggle.
The economy would collapse in many places.
Whether the loan would ever be repaid was no longer something Kairo could confidently predict.
But he didn't spend recklessly.
Every amount had a purpose.
---
His house changed rapidly.
The first thing Kairo bought was a solar power system.
Panels went onto the roof.
Large batteries were installed inside.
He didn't want to depend completely on the electrical grid.
Next came water storage.
Then food.
Rice.
Beans.
Canned food.
Flour.
Drinking water.
Basic medicines.
Torches.
Batteries.
Tools.
Everything he could reasonably store.
He also reinforced the doors and windows.
Not because he was afraid of ordinary criminals.
He was preparing for what came after.
The animals.
The Hollows.
The chaos.
The unknown.
His house slowly stopped looking like a normal home.
It began looking like a shelter.
But Kairo wasn't finished.
He needed a gym.
---
A week after returning, Kairo's living room was almost unrecognizable.
A squat rack stood against one wall.
Weights covered another.
A bench occupied the center.
There were resistance bands, a pull-up bar, mats, and other equipment.
Kairo stood in the middle of it all.
He looked at himself.
He wasn't particularly muscular.
He wasn't weak either.
But it wasn't enough.
He remembered the people who had survived the first Awakening.
Most of the strongest survivors had one thing in common.
They had trained their bodies.
Kairo began immediately.
Push-ups.
Squats.
Pull-ups.
Running.
Strength training.
Conditioning.
Again.
And again.
Every morning.
Every afternoon.
Every evening.
His muscles became sore.
His hands developed calluses.
His body screamed at him to stop.
He didn't.
Whenever exhaustion became overwhelming, he remembered the future.
The screaming.
The mutated animals.
The Hollows.
The people begging for help.
The cities burning.
He remembered his own death.
And he continued.
---
Three days later, Kairo returned to Naya.
She stared at him.
“You look different.”
“I've been training.”
“I noticed.”
She looked at the designs.
“More tattoos?”
“Much more.”
She sighed.
“You're really doing this.”
“Yes.”
Naya shook her head.
“You're going to turn yourself into a walking museum.”
“That's the plan.”
She laughed.
“Fine. Sit down.”
The machine started.
Bzzzzzzzzzz.
Kairo closed his eyes.
While Naya worked, he mentally organized everything he remembered.
Egyptian tattoos.
Greek tattoos.
Buddhist tattoos.
Norse runes.
Ancient African symbols.
Animals.
Weapons.
Elements.
Words.
Concepts.
Anything that had produced extraordinary abilities in his previous life.
He wanted them all.
Because Kairo believed one simple thing.
More tattoos meant more power.
He didn't know that this belief was incomplete.
He didn't know that every tattoo carried a deeper meaning.
He didn't know that mastering those meanings would become more important than the number of tattoos covering his body.
He would discover that later.
Much later.
For now, he simply wanted as many advantages as possible.
---
By October 20th, Kairo's house was almost finished.
Solar power.
Water storage.
Food.
Gym.
Security.
Medical supplies.
Communication equipment.
Tools.
Everything had been prepared.
And his body had changed.
His movements were sharper.
His endurance had improved.
His strength had increased.
Most importantly, he was no longer the same weak man who had died in his previous life.
He stood before the mirror one night.
His body was covered in tattoos.
Ancient gods.
Eyes.
Runes.
Animals.
Symbols.
Words from civilizations separated by thousands of years.
His skin looked like a map of forgotten history.
Kairo touched his chest.
“Ten days.”
The calendar showed:
October 24th, 3422.
Ten days remained.
He looked outside.
The city was still normal.
People laughed.
Cars moved through the streets.
Children played.
Nobody knew.
But Kairo knew.
Soon, those streets would become hunting grounds.
Soon, the animals would change.
Soon, the plants would change.
Soon, millions of people would discover that having a tattoo wasn't enough.
And soon…
the world would learn what happened when the human body couldn't withstand the power inside the ink.
Kairo turned away from the window.
He entered his gym.
He picked up the weights.
And began training again.
Because ten days from now—
the world would die.
And something new would be born from its ashes.
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