My Bestie is the Apocalypse's Top Boss

Year ten of the apocalypse. I clawed out of hell a thousand times just to track down my missing bestie. She bagged a toptier survivor boyfriend. They glued themselves together.

Right then, glowing text bled into my vision: [Finally! Writing off this toxic diva! She suffocates Roman. So over her!] [Good riddance. She acts lazy and highmaintenance.

Girls like her don't deserve to breathe in the wasteland.] [FR though. She forced him on a midnight supply run just for a face mask?

I wanted to punch my screen... ] [And now Cleo shows up? Arabella constantly fights Roman to defend her useless bestie.

She almost got him killed.] [His last shred of patience officially ran out.] [Jordan needs to step up.

I need that ultimate power couple!] The "toxic diva" flashing across the comments? That means Arabella.

According to the chat, Roman plans to dump her—tossing her out as literal zombie bait. But these viewers missed one massive detail.

I sit at the absolute top of the Awakened power rankings. Arabella can act like a walking red flag all she wants. I fully intend to keep her alive.

Chapter 1 Some scavenger actually tried to harvest my core and steal my powers while I bled out. I played dead.

The second the scavenger leaned in and reached for me, blinding lightning erupted from my palm. She dropped dead a second later.

I shoved her off, kicking her corpse down the stairwell to distract the horde before I bolted out the back. Two weeks of running. I finally hit the outskirts of another safe zone.

My energy reserves flatlined, my muscles gave out, and I collapsed right there on the asphalt. Through the ringing in my ears, a voice cut through the haze. "Roman, look!

There’s someone over there! Go help her, please!" "Are you trying to get Roman killed, Arabella?" Tyler snapped. "We only came to the perimeter for a supply run.

The horde is closing in. We stay, we die!" "Seriously, Arabella, read the room before you throw a tantrum!" another scavenger muttered. "Roman, you’re actually going?

No way… that chick looks dead already," Tyler protested. The arguing dragged me back to consciousness. I forced my eyes open. That name. Arabella. My best friend.

I scraped together my last ounce of strength, rolling over and propping myself up to look over. Up on the overpass, a crew of survivors glared down at me.

The guy leading them stood built like a tank. Pure Alpha energy. An Awakened, no doubt. I ignored him. My eyes locked onto the girl clinging to his side. She looked tanner. Thinner.

But whole. Breathing. Joy slammed into my chest. I opened my mouth to shout her name. My arms gave out.

I slammed back onto the concrete, the world fading to black. "Cleo!!" Arabella's scream tore through the silence right before I went under. I woke to pitch black.

Arabella crushed me in a tight, desperate hug, sobbing into my shoulder. "You're alive. Oh my god, you're alive!" I patted her back and opened my mouth to comfort her.

Then the glowing text flickered back into the air. I stared at the floating comments, reading them over and over until the truth clicked.

We were living inside a postapocalyptic romance novel. Arabella played the toxic diva. Lazy. Clingy. Brainless. My arrival—the useless bestie—only accelerated her death sentence.

Roman would feel a twinge of guilt after she died, leaving a neat little scar on his heart. A scar meant for Jordan to heal.

The comments kept rolling. [Give me that powercouple dynamic! Jordan and Roman belong together. Lightning and Water Awakened? The combo damage is insane!] [Right?!

Plus, Jordan has that trauma from accidentally killing a random side character. They meet, they grow, they heal each other. I'm obsessed!] [Jordan needs to debut ASAP.

I cannot handle this redflag diva anymore.] Lightning Awakened? My brow furrowed. Same as me? I snapped back to reality, staring at her face.

Arabella beamed at me, tears streaming down her cheeks. That same innocent smile. Unchanged. My throat tightened.

I reached out and pulled her close. "No, I'm just… so happy to see you." Chapter 2 Arabella was flawed. I always knew that. Before the outbreak, she came from serious money.

Her parents treated her like absolute royalty, so yeah, she was a perfectionist. She liked artisan lattes, designer dresses, and being everyone's favorite person in the room.

I hated her at first. My brain was a dark place back then. I resented her face, her trust fund, her entire existence. Then, one afternoon, she just strolled up to my desk.

I blinked up at her. She offered her hand. "Hey, Cleo. Wanna be friends?

I think you're actually so cool." Half an hour prior, Barbara had sent me straight to detention for the entire period after I mouthed off in class.

Arabella leaned in, dropping her voice to a whisper. "Honestly, I can't stand Barbara either." I was too bitter and too much of a coward to tell her to back off, so I kept my mouth shut.

Arabella took the silence as a yes. She clapped her hands together. "Perfect! We're besties now!" I couldn't stand how fragile she was.

A paper cut would send tears welling in her eyes. I rolled my eyes when she tossed perfectly good things just because of a tiny scratch.

And she never knew when to shut up, buzzing in my ear all day long.

I wasn't stupid enough to believe girls like Arabella kept charity cases like me around for real, at least not until the spring of eighth grade, when the car crash changed everything.

I was already an orphan, crashing on Cynthia and Ronald’s couch.

When the doctors said I might never walk again, my aunt and uncle debated for a few days before deciding to give up on me. They decided to dump me into the foster care system.

I mentally checked out. I was done. But the person who dragged me back out of the dark was Arabella. She showed up at the hospital. Chattered my ear off.

Right before she left, she promised she'd come back every single day. She kept her word. For three months, she never missed a visit.

I found out later she'd drained her entire trust fund allowance just to cover my outofpocket medical bills.

She screamed at Cynthia and Ronald, yelled that I was a human being, not garbage they could just throw away. She was still so damn selfrighteous.

But suddenly, all that highmaintenance entitlement? It started to look a little cute. If Arabella was a toxic diva, I was the one who created the monster. I enabled her.

People in our circle used to run their mouths. "Keep spoiling Arabella like that, Cleo. What happens if she never bags a husband?

You gonna fund her lifestyle forever?" I’d keep my eyes glued to my startup pitch deck, not even looking up. "I mean, I could." Arabella would just double over laughing. "Nice try!

You guys are never tearing us apart!" My startup barely got off the ground before the outbreak hit. We got separated in the chaos. I searched for her. God, I searched for so long.

I never thought it would take ten years to find her again. And now, these floating comments were telling me my best friend was about to get permanently written off.

I buried my powers, played the part of a useless civilian, and settled into this safe zone. It didn't take long to figure out Arabella’s exact situation.

She and Roman were the real deal. He actually loved her, catered to her every whim, and absorbed all her tantrums. But everyone else in the camp?

They were completely over her redflag behavior. I had zero doubts. If Roman ever went down, or if he finally got sick of her, Arabella wouldn't survive another day in this place.

Chapter 3 Midthought, Arabella’s voice drifted over. "Roman, can't we spare another ration pack for Cleo? She's so skinny.

God knows what she's been through out there," she pleaded, dropping her tone to a whisper. "You know how long I've been looking for her." Roman sighed. "We already gave her double the standard cut.

Any more and the rest of the camp will complain." The glowing text flared, buzzing with excitement. [Yes! Keep it up.

Keep acting like a total red flag.] [He is literally so done with her.] [I am counting the seconds until she gets written off!] [+1] [+1] My jaw clenched.

I scuffed my boot against the floorboards on purpose. Roman snapped his head toward the sound, eyes narrowed.

Arabella spun around. "Cleo!" She rushed over, scanning me head to toe. "Why are you out of bed?

Did you rest enough?" I forced a smile. "I'm good." Across the room, Roman gave me a curt, expressionless nod. He turned and walked out. Roman carried this suffocating arrogance.

Ten years into the outbreak, he had zero respect left for unawakened civilians. Being Arabella’s best friend didn't change a thing. To him, I was just another useless mouth to feed.

Arabella grabbed my arm the second he left. "Don't be mad at him. He's just like that. I'll rip into him later, I swear." She dragged me around the settlement for a tour.

She dumped ten years of trauma and survival stories on me, then interrogated me about every second of my life. We sat crosslegged on the cot, talking deep into the night.

Exhaustion finally hit her. Arabella slumped against my shoulder, out cold. [Does this diva not realize her only value is warming Roman's bed?

Now she's ghosting his room to play sleepover with her bestie?] [She is literally digging her own grave.] [I need Jordan to debut right now!] [Dropping some pics of our girl to bless the timeline.] I stared into the empty space.

My gaze narrowed. The glowing holographic photos attached to the comments locked my eyes in place. A girl with sharp, striking features stared back.

She looked exactly like the scavenger from two weeks ago. The one who tried to rip out my core while I bled out. The one I blasted with lightning. That was her. Jordan.

The supposed savior of this entire story. And I already put her in the ground. A shrieking siren shattered my thoughts. "Swarm!

Swarm at the gates!" someone roared outside. "Awakened, to the barricades! Civilians, to the bunkers!" Arabella jolted awake.

She locked her fingers around my wrist in a vice grip. "Cleo, don't panic. Stick with me. We'll find Roman. He's going to keep us safe." She yanked me toward the door.

I didn't budge. I flipped my hand, catching her wrist instead. Arabella snapped her head back, confusion twisting her features. I held her gaze. "Stick with me.

I'm going to keep you safe." Arabella froze. She didn't have time to process the shift. "Underground mines. We need to go," she blurted out. Chapter 4 The horde hit hard.

Some biters always slipped past the perimeter. They possessed enough crude intelligence to hide, forcing the Awakened to sweep the entire zone after the main wave broke.

Meanwhile, the unawakened huddled in the underground mines. We sprinted out of the room, booking it toward the bunker. The path swarmed with unawakened civilians just like Arabella.

Families dragged kids along, their faces tight with anxiety but missing that edge of raw panic. Breaches happened constantly. They trusted the Awakened heavy hitters to handle it.

A cold knot tightened in my stomach. The civilians in this camp placed way too much blind faith in the Awakened. I threw a glance at Arabella, my brow furrowing.

I had watched her and Roman closely. Every single one of her redflag diva moments? Roman had allowed them. He had explicitly enabled her.

Roman treated her like royalty, which bumped up the living standards for the entire unawakened population.

But that meant siphoning rations and privileges straight from the Awakened. The Awakened festered with resentment. But they didn’t aim it at the civilians.

They didn’t dare aim it at Roman. They painted a massive target on Arabella’s back. And the civilians? They didn't thank Arabella for their better lives. They worshipped Roman.

They backed his absolute authority, broke their backs farming crops, and handed over supplies without a second thought. Roman was using her.

He was weaponizing Arabella to maintain total control. Did she even realize it? My grip on her wrist tightened. The distraction almost cost us.

One second before we hit the bunker entrance, the shadows tore open. A biter lunged straight for Arabella, jaws snapping. Arabella froze in place.

I yanked her backward with everything I had. Using the momentum, I threw myself right into her spot, shielding her from the jaws. "Cleo!" Her scream ripped through the air.

Before the sound even faded, I drove my blade straight through the biter's eye socket, scrambling its brain. Arabella stared at me, wideeyed.

I let out a breathless laugh. "Don't look at me like that. I survived out there alone for ten years.

I picked up a few tricks." Arabella threw her arms around me, burying her face in my neck. "You're so badass, Cleo. You… you went through hell out there." My chest tightened.

I reached up and patted her back. I kept my Awakened status buried deep. If Roman caught a whiff of my actual power levels, he would never let me walk out of this camp.

And I fully intended to get Arabella out of here as soon as possible. Chaos still raged above ground.

Down in the dark of the mines, I stared up at the glowing text flashing across my vision. My brain kicked into overdrive. [Wait, the horde is basically wiped out.

Where the hell is Jordan?] [I’ve been waiting for Jordan’s badass entrance! She’s supposed to save Roman! Where did she go?!] [Are you guys not looking at Arabella’s feed?

Her useless bestie didn't die!] [Wait, what? If Cleo is alive, Arabella won't pick that massive fight with Roman.

The entire plot is completely derailed!] I read their frantic comments over and over. Finally, the truth clicked into place.

Chapter 5 In the original timeline, Jordan successfully ripped out my core. I became a useless, powerless civilian.

I barely survived long enough to reunite with Arabella, only to get shredded by a horde days after reaching the safe zone. Jordan?

She used my stolen Lightning abilities to bail Roman out of a tight spot during that exact same horde. She secured a spot in his elite squad. They fought sidebyside.

Slowburn romance activated. My death sent Arabella into a total spiral. She blamed Roman, threw massive tantrums, and pulled a disappearing act to force him to chase her.

He hit his breaking point. He didn't go after her fast enough. She never made it back. The toxic diva, officially written off. And me? Pure cannon fodder.

But now… [The plot just derailed! What is happening?!] [Holy shit! The author just dropped an announcement. The storyline is way off the rails. She lost control of the narrative.

The characters are actually becoming selfaware!] [You’re missing the biggest headline! Jordan is DEAD! The female lead is literally dead!!] [I’m numb. What is this?

The ultimate trash ending?] [This is insane. Total wildcard era. I’m addicted, I have to keep reading!] My pulse slammed against my ribs.

I whipped my head around to stare at Arabella, who was nodding off beside me. If those comments were right… our scripted destiny wasn't set in stone. We could break the narrative.

We already had. With Jordan out of the picture… would Roman actually commit to Arabella? Would he treat her right? Was she safer hiding behind him instead of me?

I was just one rogue Awakened, after all. But what happened next completely solidified my resolve to take her away. Deep into the night, the horde finally broke.

The Awakened ran a full sweep of the perimeter. All clear. We filed out of the underground mines and collided straight into the returning strike team. The fighting had been brutal.

The squad looked completely wrecked. Roman leaned heavily against Tyler, his energy reserves clearly flatlined.

Arabella sprinted toward him, panic pulling at her features. "Roman, are you okay?" Her hands fluttered over his chest and arms, frantically checking for bites or gashes.

Roman’s gaze darkened. He grabbed her face in both hands and crashed his mouth against hers. A desperate, openmouth kiss right in front of the entire camp. Postbattle adrenaline.

I hated the PDA, but I understood the psychology. But it didn't stop at a kiss. The catcalls from the surrounding scavengers amplified, echoing off the concrete walls.

Roman’s breathing grew jagged. His hands slid down, gripping Arabella’s thigh with bruising force, his thumb hooking under the hem of her shorts. He pushed higher.

Arabella stiffened. She tried to squirm back, but his grip tightened. Her oversized jacket slipped off her shoulder, leaving her chest dangerously exposed to the leering crowd.

Her throat worked in a frantic swallow. I didn't hesitate. I lunged forward, grabbed Arabella’s arm, and violently yanked her out of his hold.

I shoved her jacket back up over her shoulder in the exact same motion. Roman blinked, completely disoriented.

Before he could even process the loss of contact, a hand cracked across his jaw. Arabella slapped him.

The sharp smack echoed through the courtyard, instantly shattering the heavy, suffocating energy of the crowd.

Chapter 6 Uneasy glances rippled through the crowd, while the Awakened scavengers practically vibrated with frustrated tension. "You've got to be kidding me.

Roman busts his ass defending the perimeter, and he comes back to get slapped by a girl?" Tyler spat. "He deserves way better than this.

She is completely out of line…" Roman’s expression darkened.

He stared at Arabella, a mocking smirk twisting his lips. "You mad?" "Alright." He let out a sigh. "I was a little rough.

I apologize." His apology was entirely hollow, laced with a mocking edge. Arabella's eyes went bloodshot. She didn't say a single word. She just spun around and walked away.

I followed her. A few steps out, my boots locked in place. I couldn't help it. I glanced back at Roman, my face deadpan. "You don't respect her." Roman blinked.

Then, a low, dismissive scoff ripped from his throat. We sat outside under the toxic, gray overcast. "I haven't seen the stars in a really long time," she whispered out of nowhere.

I sat down next to her. Arabella let her head drop onto my shoulder. "I was so mad back there," she murmured. "Half of it was Roman disrespecting me.

The other half… was me." Her voice cracked, muffled against my jacket. "I wanted to prove I was doing great these past ten years. I didn't want you to see him treat me like that.

It was so humiliating…" [Holy shit.

Am I actually feeling sorry for the toxic diva?] [I’ve been too scared to say it, but aside from being highmaintenance, Arabella hasn't done anything genuinely evil.

The hate she gets is kind of insane…] [So what is the actual plot right now?

I am so lost.] [Am I the only one who thinks this useless bestie is giving off major weird vibes?] "I'm just glad you're breathing." I tilted my head, resting it against hers. "You know you're all I have left.

You're miserable with Roman, aren't you? Do you want to leave with me?" Silence stretched between us. Finally, she shook her head. "Cleo, can you just stay?

Can't we just live quietly in the safe zone? They'll protect us. I… I know how to handle Roman.

As long as he keeps backing us, we're safe." Leaning entirely on someone else's mercy without your own survival skills? That would never end well.

I didn't know how to break that to her. I swallowed the words down. Arabella rubbed her bare arms. "It's freezing out here. Come on, let's head back." She pulled me up.

We walked shouldertoshoulder toward our quarters. Halfway down the corridor, I froze. My boots rooted to the concrete. My Awakened senses caught it before she did.

Wet, rhythmic sounds echoing off the cinderblocks. Coming straight from the Awakened training center. A few feet ahead, Arabella halted. She stood frozen, staring dead ahead.

I closed the distance. The metal door to the training room stood cracked open. Through the narrow sliver, I saw them. Roman and some random woman, tangled on the mat.

Skin slapping against skin. Heavy, jagged breathing bouncing off the walls.

I clamped my hand over Arabella's eyes. "Don't look," I said softly, shielding her. "It's filthy." Chapter 7 I pushed her shoulders, forcing her down the corridor.

The dead silence coming from Arabella weighed heavily on my chest. Back in our room, the dead, hollow look in her eyes finally clicked. "You already knew," I blurted out.

A jagged, broken smile cracked across her face. "I'm not an idiot, Cleo.

Expecting loyalty at the end of the world is a complete joke…" Tears cut through the grime on her cheeks, splashing onto the concrete. "I've known for a long time.

Every time Roman and that female Awakened went on twoweek supply runs, I could feel it.

The shift in his energy." "'Neardeath experiences require… physical release.'" Arabella’s voice trembled. "That's exactly what Hailey told me to my face." Hailey had already paraded her victory.

And Arabella just swallowed the humiliation. As an unawakened civilian, her entire survival relied on a fragile, toxic balance with Roman.

If she shattered it, she lost her only shield. So she kept her mouth shut. She knew Roman weaponized her to look like a benevolent leader to the civilians.

She knew she was the lightning rod for the Awakened’s resentment. She knew everything. And she played the naive, oblivious diva.

My nails dug into my palms until the skin nearly broke. "Leave with me." Arabella looked up, her expression completely blank. "Where?" "Anywhere but here," I said, my voice hard. "Trust me.

I'm going to protect you." She scrubbed the wetness from her face and curled onto her side on the cot. "Let me think about it… just let me think…" Stepping out of her comfort zone would take real courage.

Exactly ten days after the last breach, the horde returned with a feral speed that shattered the safe zone's defenses before anyone even had a chance to react.

The Awakened scrambled to hold the line. When the sirens shrieked, Arabella wasn't with me. She had gone to the perimeter to finally confront Roman.

The deadliest place in the compound. By the time I sprinted to the gates, the bloodbath was in full swing.

Biters hurled themselves against the chainlink, piling up like rotting meat while the Awakened blasted them back.

The Awakened were getting exhausted, but the biters kept coming, feeling no fatigue. The primary fence completely collapsed. Level 1 evacuation alarms blared.

Civilians began an organized evacuation. The heavy hitters started falling back, abandoning the settlement to save their own skins.

I shoved against the fleeing tide of bodies, my eyes sweeping the chaos for Arabella. Ten agonizing minutes later, I spotted her.

She was trapped on a rusted watchtower with another woman. The connecting catwalk hung in pieces. They were completely stranded.

The horde swarmed the metal struts, clawing their way up. It was only a matter of seconds before the tower flooded with biters. I recognized the woman cowering next to Arabella.

It was Roman's sidepiece. Hailey. I stood on the tenth floor of the abandoned highrise parallel to the tower. Roman's squad stood right above me on the eleventh