Team Alpha set off with the Hum-Vee. Bedecked in leather jackets, rifles, and bladed weapons, they felt incomparably more prepared for combat than last time. Tysone drove it until the city's plumes of smoke loomed into sight.
Fires still burned. Car alarms rang endlessly. Discarded possessions littered streets and alleys alike. Bullet shells glittered amidst pools of crimson blood. Corpses rotted.
'How much of the population is still left?'
"How long has it been?" Mai murmured aloud.
They had been two weeks away from the city. And things didn't get better. But Tysone already knew that. Things only ever got worse; it was an inevitability.
"Let's get moving."
As soon as Tysone stepped out of the car, a loud shriek filled the air. The four-man squad whipped around to stare in its direction. Somewhere nearby, probably not far off, stood another zombie horde. From the way they huddled together, clawing at something, it looked like they had cornered some poor soul against a wall.
The first shot rang out, blasting a zombie's head open, and went right through another one for a beautiful collateral. The deafening sound immediately got their attention—though it was already too late for the woman who had been attacked.
Tysone stepped forward.
The zombies rushed; yes, they didn't shamble like usual. Instead, they seemed to walk fast. Of course, fast for a zombie. A healthy human could still easily outrun them. Still, his eyes narrowed. The anomaly wasn't as surprising as it was curious.
Compared to that zombie cop, they looked frail.
Tysone brandished his halberd, his grip tightening.
Behind him, Mai and Takashi readied themselves for the confrontation. Mai had a spear in her hands, while Takashi had a sword.
Tysone swung the halberd.
A spray of foul-smelling gore showered everything around him. A zombie's entire midsection was now gone.
The other one lurched closer, but he swept that one aside just as easily. Several shots rang out simultaneously from both sides of him. Four more corpses dropped lifelessly onto asphalt pavement, leaking brains everywhere. Tysone dashed forward, this time holding the halberd with both hands, and sliced upwards diagonally.
Two zombies fell apart simultaneously. One arm sailed through the sky alongside half of a torso.
Mai and Takashi easily took care of their own opponents, while Kohta picked each straggler off.
As soon as the fight started, it was already over.
Tysone withdrew the pistol from his hip and aimed at the woman's corpse, just in time as she attempted to rise back to life.
And shot.
Thud.
The woman's glazed over eyes remained forever frozen into an empty expression.
Tysone glanced back at his teammates, noticing how, this time, their expressions didn't waver. It seemed like they had fully accepted the brutal reality of this apocalyptic landscape, unlike their first encounters.
They continued walking for approximately fifteen more minutes before stopping. Before them was a building larger than any other surrounding structure; an elementary school building. Tysone stopped momentarily, as did the rest of the group.
Zombified children. They swarmed around the gate; dozens upon dozens. Their tiny figures milled aimlessly, seemingly unaware of the presence of the Tysone and the others. Mai stilled, as did Takashi and Kohta. Zombies or not, there should be lines left uncrossed.
"Children..." Mai's face distorted into something twisted and heart-wrenching. "Why would something like this happen..."
"They're not human anymore." Tysone replied firmly, shrugging slightly. He turned around; the infected kids were still in the school's courtyard, almost as if they were playing. Some walked around, dragging their limp limbs. Others crawled. While some merely stood there.
More importantly, it didn't look like they were going to attack them.
"Let's keep going... we'll raid a couple of convenience stores and then go back." Tysone said.
The party moved onwards, passing by several empty shop fronts as well as boarded up residences. After ten more minutes of careful exploration, they encountered another cluster of infected individuals milling idly along a wide boulevard lined by trees and streetlights.
Some wore casual clothing, whilst others wore the uniforms associated with specific occupations such as policemen, firemen, doctors, nurses, students, office workers...
However, even then, the zombies posed little to no threat whatsoever. Tysone, Mai, Takashi and Kohta easily dispatched every single one they met, with no casualties inflicted upon themselves. It helped greatly that the zombies themselves behaved similarly to sluggish humans. Tysone especially found himself impressed by the drastic improvement in strength—no, more than strength, it was skill. His fighting style was far cleaner now, much less haphazard and reactionary.
Perhaps adrenaline and sheer fear drove them in the beginning, but now everyone acted almost professionally, ruthlessly slicing and gunning down the dead.
Soon enough they located a supermarket. Thankfully it wasn't one of those crowded chains where dozens of civilians piled up. Unfortunately, it was mostly empty, with only a couple of canned goods left.
'To be expected, I guess.' Tysone thought sullenly.
Nevertheless, this was still food. They scoured for anything that was left untouched and put them in a plastic bag.
"This isn't enough..." Takashi muttered.
"Yeah." He nodded. "But it's a start. Anything counts at this point, as long as it puts food on our plate. Besides, it won't just be us coming here, tomorrow Saeko will be bringing her group."
That being said, there was nothing else left. With that in mind, they departed, searching for a different place. The second spot they searched proved equally disappointing: another grocery store with almost everything gone except some packs of expired milk. At least water wasn't scarce yet.
Tysone breathed deeply and took a step forward, his foot brushing against a small object—a child's toy bear. His gaze lingered on it for a brief moment, until he sighed heavily, shaking his head. Suddenly, he sensed danger lurking ahead. He spun around, halberd swinging in a broad arc.
It connected with a zombie policeman. The zombie stumbled backwards, his neck severed.
From behind him, more zombie cops approached. 'This... isn't just my imagination, right?'
Tysone tensed as he beheld their sizes. Though nowhere close to that anomaly of two weeks ago, they were still far taller than the average Japanese man. 'Fuck this.'
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Four successive headshots felled three zombie cops, whereas the remaining ones faltered from the concussive force. Then, with a sudden burst of speed and strength, Mai surged forth. The blade embedded itself inside the fourth zombie's skull, splitting it apart like an eggshell.
The zombies fell down one after the other.
"Hey hey hey..." Takashi gulped. "Why do they seem... bigger...?"
Tysone frowned deeply. "I think they were in the process of mutating..."
"... Let's keep going." Mai interjected quietly. "We can't stay here."
Kohta nodded stiffly. "Yeah..."
Without further incident, they exited the premises.
The rest of their expedition went smoothly enough; they raided two convenience stores and grabbed a few essentials from each location. After a while they called it off, deeming that it was enough for the day. At least they had enough stuff to sustain themselves comfortably for a while.
On the way back, they crossed paths with five or six infected. Those were easy pickings compared to earlier; especially because these infected behaved sluggishly and moved erratically, presenting minimal threat. Even some of the bigger hordes didn't put up much of a fight, but for some reason, there seemed to be less infected around than what Tysone anticipated.
The silence was eerie—but not for long.
A haunted shriek echoed through the streets. The kind that clearly came from a human, but one that was in immense pain. Yet, it also sounded inhuman, somehow. Tysone felt the hairs on his skin bristle; he whirled around to his teammates and pushed them back inside the convenience store.
Within a minute, a group of horrified survivors ran past them.
A group that was easily torn down by the creature chasing after them. Not a zombie; not a human either. Pale, unnaturally tall and lanky, with ridiculously long arms. It looked like something that came straight out of a horror game.
The creature howled like a tortured animal.
It ran, fast—faster than any other Infected they saw previously. Faster than any living human. So fast in fact that the group of survivors couldn't react in time as the entity encroached upon them. The first body went flying with severed limbs, each one going their own way in the air.
Blood gushed out from the stumps wildly.
The second survivor died just as horribly. He screamed, his agonized voice cutting short after the abomination punched him squarely in the chest, the force sending him several meters backward, but not before the entity ripped both his arms off in the same motion.
The third victim received a fist to the face; the sound of his neck cracking made Tysone, and everyone else, shudder uncomfortably. They all crouched low as the monster massacred the last unfortunate soul.
As if nothing happened, the creature's screaming stopped.
It stood there, its arms hanging so low they reached its ankles.
Author's Note:
If you're enjoying the story and want to read ahead or support my work, you can check out my P@treon at P@treon.com/LordCampione. But don't worry—all chapters will eventually be public. Just being here and reading means the world to me. Thank you for your time and support.