The water was cold. Jin drank the whole glass standing at the kitchen counter, then filled it again and drank half of that too.
It helped a little. His head felt clearer. His hands had stopped shaking.
He leaned against the counter and looked out through the little kitchen window at the city. Same blue sky. Same towers. Same tiny cars crawling along the road below, stopping at the lights, starting again. A bus pulled up at the stop across the street and people got on.
It all looked so normal.
Okay, he thought. So it's that day. So what?
He'd lived through this day once already. He knew how it went. The lights went out, the voice came, everyone got their skills, and then the screen said survive for twenty-four hours, and the monsters came. And he survived. He'd done it with a pocket knife and a lot of luck and no idea what he was doing. It had been the worst day of his life, but he'd gotten through it.
