At the largest mall in the city, a group of five survivors three males and two females were making their way through the abandoned shops, collecting supplies like bottled water, canned food with expiration dates years away, and basic essentials like batteries and tape.
Staring intently at the multiple shops spread across the floor below, one of the boys who went by the name Luther suggested that they make the mall their base of operations but His suggestion was immediately shot down by the group's leader Veronica.
She wore a blue, blood stained tracksuit, had a slender body and long black silky hair that touched her shoulders and carried herself with a cold, quiet air that made people think twice before speaking to her.
"Why not? This place is more than suitable with all the supplies it has. Only an idiot would pass this up," Emmanuel the other boy, built with a muscular physique argued but
Veronica with her brow furrowed replied, "What do you think the main purpose of a mall was before the apocalypse?"
"I don't know to shop, I guess," Alven, the third boy, replied while trying to figure out the point veronica wanted to make.
"No, you idiots malls were built to allow people to purchase multiple products under one roof," Lily, Veronica's younger sister and the type to only show respect to those her sister acknowledged, said mockingly.
"Exactly," Veronica continued. "And because of the sheer value of this place, making it our base would do nothing but expose us to desperate humans which, I assure you, is far more frightening than any horde of zombies."
Luther, who had been quietly observing the exchange, crossed his arms and nodded slowly, recounting a past experienceand then added"She's right. I've seen what desperate people do to each other out there. I'd rather face a hundred zombies than a single starving human with nothing to lose."
Having made her point and seeing that the others understood, Veronica grabbed her katana off the floor and walked ahead of them, saying she would be waiting in their car parked outside.
Around the same time, Thomas and his teammates had safely reached the mall parking at the underground area, safer movement. Once inside, all four boys switched on their flashlights without wasting a breath since the sun had fully set and the city was engulfed in darkness, barely lit by the pale light of a crescent moon.
Seeing that time was Short , Thomas told the team to split up and quietly gather as many valuable supplies as they could find and regroup at the same spot within 20 minutes.
After everyone had gone their separate ways, Thomas quietly begun searching for any clue that might lead him to Veronica and instead of finding any,wandered into a weapons shop filled with multiple blades.
"Lucky me" Thomas said with a rare smile as he slowly unsheathed a katana with a blue handle, turning it over in his hands to check it's sharpness after which Wasted no time,in filling the large black bag on his back with as many katanas as it could hold one for each member of his team and then some for the others back at the base.
Slowly but surely,the 20 minutes came to an end with only Thomas missing from the meeting point, making the others begin to worry ButJust as they were about to drop their finds and go looking for him, four shadowy figures approached from the darkness,Making The boys immediately tensed whiles raising their axes as they prepared for whatever was emerging from the shadows. Then a voice called out.
"We mean you no harm. Please lower your weapons."
"Who are you and what do you want?" Kingsley asked, not ready to drop his guard for a single second for he knew all too well that humans were far more dangerous than zombies in an apocalypse.
After a short chuckle, the same voice replied, "My name is Emmanuel. Those with me are Luther, Lily and Alven."
A long, suffocating silence followed after that, Then Christian after, studying the group carefully, told his companions to lower their guard for the people in front of them didn't appear hostile, so the least they could do was hear them out.
Seeing the other party stand down, Emmanuel and his companions stepped out of the shadows and thanked them for their understanding.
"Wow , I never thought we'd run into other survivors out here," Charles said, reaching out for a handshake.
"Same here but If I may ask is this all of you?" Alven asked.
Kingsley immediately shot him a cold lookmand said"And what exactly do you intend to do with that information once you have it?"
"No, please I was just wondering if you were with the man we saw fighting a group of zombies on the upper floor," Alven replied defensively.
"Oh, really now," Christian said, his tone skeptical.
"Let's just go , my sister is waiting," Lily said as she began moving ahead on her own.
"Hey, don't go off alone you're still a child," Alven said worriedly rushing to catch up with her.
"I apologize for that," Emmanuel said, turning back to the group. "Our leader has been waiting for some time. But I hope we meet again." with that, he followed the others into the darkness, leaving Thomas's group standing in bewildered silence.
"They're quite the group," Charles said as he watched their silhouettes disappear into the dark.
Around this same time, Thomas was descending a staircase when he caught sight through a broken window, a car pulling out of the mall. Thinking (Hmm more survivors. I hope they're the good kind.) he, watched the vehicle make its final turn to leave but then his eyes widened as he saw that one behind the wheel was Veronica.
It being too dangerous to call out her name, he bolted down the stairs without a second to loose.Seeing him suddenly break into a sprint, Kingsley called out in a worried tone, asking what was wrong butThomas ignored the question entirely and ordered them to grab the supplies immediately for they were leaving now.
(This has to be serious. I've never seen Thomas act like this) Charles thought as the group hurried down the stairs toward the underground parking lot. (And what is moving in that bag on his back?) Kingsley thought, watching the large black bag on Thomas's back shift and bounce with every rushed step taken.
When they finally reached the parking lot, Thomas's heart sank.
Between them them and the mustang stoodTwenty zombies aimlessly,with their animalistic brains.
"Damn it!" Thomas said, angrier than he had ever sounded, as he unsheathed his katana. But just as he was about to charge, Christian immediately grabbed his wrist with an iron grip.
"What are you doing?! Let me go!" Thomas roared, struggling to break free.
"Snap out of it Thomas you're not thinking straight" Christian replied, his face calm but firm.
"But .... but...." Thomas tried to retort but couldn't find the words
"Whatever the problem is, you can't solve it with rage, bro," Charles cut in. "Just breathe, and let all the negativity flow out"he added
Hearing Charles say this, Thomas finally came back to himself,noticing for the first time the worried expressions on his teammates' faces so slowly, his own face relaxed as he said"Sorry about that. I just...."
Before he could finish, the rest of his sentence was swallowed by the dry, deathly roar of the zombies as several of them began to notice their presence.
"I think your apology is going to have to wait," Kingsley said, stepping forward with his axe raised. But Thomas told them to hold.
"Why can we please just run?" Christian said, his voice slightly shaking as he noticed the zombies' eyes begin to glow a dim, eerie green. His hopes were crushed as Thomas shook his head and instead reached into the large black bag on his back, drawing out ten katanas of different colors and laying them out.
"Use one of these," Thomas said, straightening up and slowly unsheathing his own blue handled blade.
"I call dibs on the yellow one!" Charles announced, snatching up the yellow handled katana without hesitation.
He immediately unsheathed it, gave it one appreciative spin and then dashed straight toward the zombies alongside Thomas with a smile on his face.
Charles, riding purely on adrenaline, swung his yellow katana at the nearest zombie but the blade barely grazed its shoulder, sending him stumbling forward from the force of his own swing.
"These things are tougher than the ones at school!" he shouted, barely ducking under the zombie's swipe.
Kingsley, having chosen the red handled katana, rushed in to back Charles up driving his blade into the side of a zombie's head. The zombie staggered but didn't go down. He struck again, harder this time, and it finally collapsed.
"You have to hit them harder than normal!" Kingsley shouted to the others through gritted teeth, already breathing heavily.
Christian armed with a green handled katana and visibly terrified swung wildly at an approaching zombie, missing completely and crashing into a pillar.
"I thought you said these were like toy cars!" Christian shouted at Thomas furiously as he scrambled back to his feet.
"I said driving was like a toy car!" Thomas shot back as he drove his blue katana clean through a zombie's skull but the blade got stuck. He planted his foot against the zombie's chest and yanked with everything he had, finally pulling it free just as another zombie lunged at him from the left.
Thomas dropped low, letting the zombie stumble over him, and drove his elbow hard into the back of its neck as it passed sending it crashing face first into the concrete.
"There's too many of them they keep coming!" Charles said, his breathing ragged as he and Kingsley stood back to back, surrounded by six zombies.
For a moment the situation looked grim. The boys were exhausted, outnumbered and the glowing green eyes of the zombies made them feel like something was deeply, terrifyingly wrong with these ones compared to what they had faced before.
Then Thomas, wiping the sweat from his brow, took a slow breath and said in a low deadly calm voice, "Everyone stop panicking and listen to me."
The others, despite their exhaustion, turned to him.
"These zombies are faster and tougher than what we've dealt with before so brute force alone won't work. Kingsley you and Charles draw their attention from the left. Christian the moment they turn, you strike from behind. Aim for the head every time. I'll handle the rest."
"You better not get us killed," Christian muttered as he repositioned himself.
"Would I do that?" Thomas replied, already moving.
What followed was not pretty it was messy, exhausting and terrifying. But slowly, agonizingly, one by one the zombies fell. Charles took a hit to his shoulder that sent him sliding across the hood of the Mustang. Kingsley's mask cracked under the grip of a zombie that grabbed his face. Christian tripped over a zombie he thought was dead only for it to grab his ankle, sending him into a full panic before Thomas drove his katana into its skull from above.
When the last zombie finally hit the ground, the four boys stood in the middle of the parking lot battered, gasping and drenched in sweat surrounded by twenty headless bodies.
The silence that followed was deafening.
"I think," Charles said between heaving breaths, "that I need a very long holiday after this."
"Agreed," Kingsley and Christian said simultaneously.
Thomas said nothing. He simply stared at the exit of the parking lot the same exit Veronica's car had disappeared through and tightened his grip on his katana.
"We have to hurry and warn the others about the mutating zombies," Thomas muttered as he pulled off his fire coat and got into the car. Seeing the engine start, the others quickly loaded their findings into the boot, got in and drove off into the dark city.
Far beyond the crumbling city and the suffering of its people in a space where neither light nor time existed Lamsion, who had been quietly observing the progress of humanity, suddenly began to panic as she watched the forms of some zombies change abruptly before her eyes.
"Their evolution is happening too quickly," she said, her voice laced with dread as she floated in complete darkness, the only light coming from the glowing screen through which she observed the human world. "At this rate, if I don't do something, humanity will be destroyed."
After pondering the matter for a while, she arrived at a plan — she would awaken the dormant energy within the surviving youths scattered around the world. But as she stretched forth her right hand, the light she expected to appear simply didn't come.
The realization hit her like a stone that She had used up far too much of her energy initiating the apocalypse, and the time remaining was nowhere near enough to replenish it.seeing no where out, decided to rely on an ally
"Leedon!" she called out,a blinding light temporarily immediately dissolving the darkness around her, as in the next moment a figure appeared short in stature with bleach blond hair that seemed to glow faintly in the darkness, his face carrying the innocent, carefree look of a child. But anyone who looked closely enough would catch the subtle weight behind his eyes a quiet, ancient maturity that betrayed just how old he truly was.
"Yes, sister you called?" he said cheerfully.
Lamsion's younger brother Leedon, upon catching the worried look on her face, folded his arms knowing his sister far too well and asked, "What problem have you caused this time?"
Lamsion slowly explained, with visible embarrassment, what she had done and her reasons for doing so.
"Sister what have you done?" Leedon exclaimed. Lamsion immediately knelt still floating —her guilt plain to see.
"I understand that the seal is falling apart," Leedon continued, his voice a mixture of anger and deep concern for his sister's safety, "but why did you have to turn over half the human race into zombies? You of all people should know that the consequences of a god interfering in another dimension without permission are fatal."
What Leedon left unsaid what they both knew was that the penalty for such interference was the slow erosion of a god's divine power, until nothing remained. In simpler terms, Lamsion was dying.
"I know, I know but please, can you help me awaken their dormant energy? Otherwise they will go extinct," Lamsion pleaded, giving her brother an affectionate pat on the head.
"Fine," Leedon said, blushing slightly as he tried and failed to suppress how pleased he was by the gesture. "But this is absolutely the last time I am helping you with your reckless stunts." He quickly shook his head, composed himself and then disappeared in a burst of blinding light.
After her brother left, Lamsion slowly let out a long sigh of relief. Then her expression softened, carrying a quiet sadness as she muttered to herself,
"I already knew of the consequences before I took this action