T City used to be one of the most prosperous cities in their country. If not because of the outbreak, a lot of things have probably changed in this place. Majestic buildings left and right, one taller than one another.
Even though tragedy has befallen in this place, these buildings still stood high. Albeit it already lost its former glory and brilliance, no one can deny that it was once the most beloved city by its people.
Her mother and father used to bring her here back when her mother was still alive, especially during New Year and her birthdays.
Farrah smiled, nostalgic and hopeful.
She knew that somewhere in this place, Dior was waiting for her rescue, just waiting for the time that she'd arrive.
Speaking of Dior, Farrah checked her call logs and saw lots of missed calls. She felt regretful, but then, she couldn't just blatantly answer her calls because she wasn't alone.
She might be open-minded, but these people might not be.
Mom, please bless and protect me, alright? Let me rescue your son-in-law safely; your grandson needs him in his life. I need him in my life.
Farrah closed her eyes, and Megan finally couldn't reign the urge to ask, probably because it was her nature to constantly ask someone to get to know them better.
“What are you thinking?”
Farrah jolted, not expecting someone to speak exactly at her ear. Looking at the smiling Megan, she gasped. “You scared me. What are you asking again?”
“I was asking what you were thinking so hard about. Is it about our mission? You don't have to think that hard... We just had to fight, protect ourselves by doing so, and loot—then, we can go home...”
Megan sounded hopeful, but by the end of her sentence, even she was a bit apprehensive and doubtful.
Could they go home that easily?
“If I were you, Megan, I would stop speaking now. Be vigilant of your surroundings since you are the key in this mission, remember?” Jerald warned, looking at Megan sharply.
Megan nodded, pursing her lips and gripping her weapon as she began to use her perception ability.
Everyone looked at her, waiting for the results.
Fortunately, this little girl did not disappoint. “...I saw it.”
“You saw what?”
“Where we should enter. The main entrance was littered with zombies, all low-levels. If we used that entrance and killed these zombies, the zombies in the upper levels would immediately notice us. For now, I can't detect any zombies higher than level-2. Most of them are normal zombies.”
“Then which way should we go?” This time, it was Farrah who asked.
Megan looked at her as she replied. “Fire Exit. The number of zombies there is lower than that of the main entrance. We can go to any floor we want without disturbing other floors.”
Everyone nodded before turning to their captain, who tilted her chin in agreement.
“Follow her words.”
There's no more argument as the group stealthily went for the Fire Exit. Gracea was the one in front, disposing of small numbers of zombies they would encounter. Some zombies saw them, yet some even fled. It was the opposite of what Farrah was expecting to see.
“It fled to call others. We better move. We might be able to deal with zombies lower than our levels but once we're surrounded, it'll be hard for us.”
Everyone agreed, no longer wasting time by talking to each other. They made their way towards the fire exit, with Gracea leading in front and Twilight guarding against behind. In order not to cause excess noise, Gracea uses her ability rather than her weapons.
Once they arrived at the third floor where the clothing section was located, everyone went separate ways. Farrah was with Jerald in the kid's section.
“Will you be fine here? I'm searching for something...” Jerald asked.
Farrah smiled in reply. “Of course. I can protect myself. Go.”
Jerald hesitated, but seeing Farrah's determined look, he no longer argued. He nodded and left after promising that he will be fast.
Farrah hastily took anything that she can take, putting them in her storage space in a fast manner. As she was about to put a large quilt on the space, she suddenly noticed something amiss.
The smile on Farrah's face disappeared, gearing up her guard as she noticed something around her.
“Huff... Huff... Grr...”
The moment Farrah was about to enter, she heard a growl coming from behind. She didn't hesitate to summon her sword, slashing mercilessly on the zombie that was creeping behind her.
It was a zombie, with a large hole in her stomach and lost one of her eyeballs. She was covered in blood that has already dried up on her decomposing skin.
The undead dodged as if expecting her attack. Farrah stepped back, pointing the end of the sword towards the female zombie.
“Grr...”
The zombie leaped towards Farrah once again, its hands extended towards the woman's face. This time, Farrah didn't hesitate to swing her sword to cut the zombie's head away from its neck.
The head flew away and rolled a few times over, while the zombie's body slowly kneeled, then its upper body directly flopped on the floor.
Farrah sighed, and as her sight swept against the surrounding, she caught a reflection of something not far away creeping behind her back.
Her eyes widened as adrenaline pumped through every part of her body, she dodged the incoming attack and didn't hesitate to swing her sword in an attempt to kill the monster behind her back
“Grrr!” The end of her sword grazed upon the zombie's neck, but because it managed to step back a few inches, she wasn't able to cut its whole neck.
Farrah and the zombie stared at each other. Farrah looked apprehensive, while the zombie looked starving and ready to slaughter Farrah.
Without waiting for the zombie to attack, Farrah quickly ran and swung her sword, killing the zombie without much effort.
As she was about to breathe a sigh of relief, she heard a loud sound of glass breaking coming from the direction where Patrick was located, followed by a familiar swear of the guy.
The sound immediately attracted the zombies from every direction, running towards their place.
“Regroup! Retreat!” Twilight decisively ordered, putting all the harvest on their large storage space.
The zombies from different directions swarmed towards them. Gracea didn't hesitate to take her gun and rain bullets on them.
The fierce fight started as they moved towards the exit, with Twilight and Gracea on the rear and Patrick in front.
Twilight's ability gradually weakened due to exhaustion so she finally used her guns that she doesn't want to use earlier on.
“How could they arrive so quickly?” Gracea huffed, glaring at the chasing zombies.
“Probably because they've been starving for so long. Did someone bring oil?”
Jerald raised his hands, “I did.”
Though Farrah wasn't sure what would oil do in this kind of situation, she didn't ask them and waited in silence only to see them pouring oil at the entrance of the fire exit.
“Quick! They're coming!”
After checking whether the oil was enough, everyone immediately run away. As expected, low-level zombies fell on their trick as they began to crumble like dominos when someone stepped on the oil.
They laughed in unison, running towards their truck. But before they could enter the truck, Megan suddenly stopped. Her face was distorted as if enduring a fierce pain.
Farrah quickly felt concerned. “Megan? Are you okay? What's happening?”
Everyone looked at Megan, waiting for her answer.
“...It's bad, we need to leave here as soon as possible...” Megan's voice trembled, clearly in fear of what she had seen.
“Why? Can you tell us?”
“I—”
ROARRRRRR!
Megan wasn't able to finish her words because the thing she saw using her ability did it for her. A roar filled with power rushed towards their eardrums.
Due to its fierce energy, everyone almost kneeled in pain, covering their ears trying to save their eardrums from damage too bad, the roar was powerful enough to even attack their inner core—their nuclei.1... 2... 8 roars in total. Eight powerful roars filled with power.
In the eighth roar, Megan couldn't take the damage and directly fainted, while Ken coughed some blood. When it finally ended, everything went back to silence.
“...What the hell was that?” Gracea asked, expression grave.
Megan fainted and can't give them a definite answer, so they turned on Twilight.
“It's a... high-level zombie, probably a monarch zombie.”
“Monarch? Are you kidding me? What are we doing here then? Let's f*cking go home, old hag!” Patrick screamed, wanting to enter the humvee.
A zombie monarch... In those three years, Farrah just heard a bit about them. In her memories, a zombie monarch was the most feared zombie by everyone. Not because they're simply high-level but because a zombie monarch, based on the stories she had heard, can easily retain their human intelligence. All the zombies within a certain range will follow their orders unconditionally. Having a zombie monarch by their side was nothing but a death sentence. “What should we do? Shall we go home?” Patrick asked, looking outside using the small space of the barely opened window. Twilight gave him a look and cleared her throat. “Is there even a need to ask? Of course, we'll go home. We can't fight it, y'all saw how powerful its sonic attacks are, then what about its actual attack?” “I didn't know we are this unfortunate. In our most prized mission, we encountered an enemy that we just always hear in legends...” “We can't stay here for
The team immediately set out in fast manner. Their heart was hanging on their throat as fear and nervousness makes their blood boil. Farrah watched the surrounding area blur as the vehicle passes by. She felt that she had failed, leaving behind Dior even though she promised she will rescue him. Indeed, she was still as coward as before. She never had to fight before, because she's always been under her husband's protection. With him, she felt she was invincible. Now that Dior's gone, she saw how her confidence and bravery crumble in front of a threat she knew she couldn't defeat. She wanted to smack herself, wake her up in her misdecisions and ask herself, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺? 𝘉𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘯? 𝘉𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯? 𝘞𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘋𝘪𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘪𝘦? But at the same time, she's assuring herself. 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘺
Successfully provoking the enemy, everyone's smile stiffened and turned ugly. The moment it shoot towards them, Jerald activated her ability Earth Spike. Sharp spike started appearing around the monster, but before it could touch it, the spike started appearing around them instead. “Illusion again!” Jerald furiously withdrew his ability. Gracea activated Ice Wall and surrounded them like a dome. “It can't use illusion continuously. Its ability might have a countdown too.” Patrick solemnly reported. “It's 4-5 seconds in my observation, if we could defeat it in that short of time, it wouldn't be able to use her illusion again.” Twilight looked at everyone before settling on Farrah and Megan who's left behind. “Doctor, protect Megan. We'll fight this out. Everyone, you know what to do!” “Yes Captain!” The Ice Wall f
Everyone exited the car, the kids together with Farrah sneakily escapes from behind while Twilight and the others was still desperately trying to fight off the monarch. But not even few minutes, something they feared has finally happened.The monster kicked Patrick, sending him towards the wall with resounding impact. Patrick immediately lost consciousness after coughing blood.“Patrick!” Twilight screamed, and the monster took this opportunity to attack her with thunder ability.“Twilight, watch out!” Gracea warned loudly, instinctively activating her ability to protect her lover.Thankfully, Gracea's wall of ice managed to lessen the impact of the attack before it broke through her walls. Twilight shouted as she dodged, firing her special gun towards the monster.Bang! Bang!“Die off, you monster!” Desperation laced
Farrah pursed her lips, staring blankly at her zombified husband. It hasn't sunk in, but she's getting there. It's definitely better than him being a mindless monster. Though it seems that he really doesn't remember her anymore, at least he wasn't attacking her for now. Dior wasn't doing anything in particular. He was just there, sitting in one corner, dazed and looking like he's lost in his own world. Sometimes he would suddenly growl at Farrah, then would quieten as if nothing happened, seemingly wanting to communicate with her but unable to. The big reversal of things left Farrah overwhelmed too, so she also didn't speak but just continued to watch her husband in silence. She's unsure of what entails this discovery of hers, but she's d*mn well aware she wouldn't give him up in this life. If he could retain a bit of human instincts, it just means there's a huge possibility that he could become a human again—Farrah just needed to find how and why. She just needed that information
Because there are no clothes around, Dior had to stand naked inside the room. Farrah had to stop herself from laughing and quickly checked if she had wounds on her hand before washing his clothes. She was naturally careful not to get infected, but it didn't hinder her from trying to get close to her husband. Using her ability, he managed to wring out the dampness from the clothes and made them dry in just a few minutes. After that, she dressed him again and comb his now long hair with her fingers. “You looked like DaeDae, but as an adult version.” She eventually spoke, amused. Their son is a kid version of Dior, from his temperament to his mannerisms. They're indeed father and son. “...Dior, I know there's still a little bit of human consciousness in you.” Caressing Dior's cheek, she leaned her forehead on his and smiled. The coldness of his skin made Farrah feel pain for her husband.“Will you please give me just a hint on how did you do it? How did you understand me?” Silence. Fa
“If we can bring back the head of the monarch to the base, we will agree to your proposition. It will be our payment to our dead member's family. Also, if we agree in this deal, how can us be sure that you weren't going to use as a sacrifice?” Twilight spoke lightly, but the challenge in her voice remained evident. She observed the faces of the people in front of them. The man earlier on, a woman with an eyepatch, and a little girl, around Ken and Jerald's age. The captain must be between these two people. It could be the man, but by his words “by the order of my captain” earlier on, it is entirely possible that the captain was this woman with an eyepatch on her left eye. It's just, the presence of the teen girl evoked suspicious and weird feeling inside her that she couldn't explain. It was the eyepatch woman who spoke. “Seriously? Is that all you wanted to ask? I thought it was something bigger like... half of the bounty and the monarch's whole body.” “So it was the bounty you're
Dior chose a very good place because this residential area used to be the most populated. It is really good for hiding without caring about the zombies surrounding it. Also, because it was a residential area, the houses used to have vegetable gardens in their backyards. Though thick grasses has grown beside them, it was easy to clean them all up and harvest some vegetables. But it is definitely not enough. “Dior, can we go back there? Let's get the apples and water.” Approaching Dior, she spoke pointing the place they were before. Dior's eyebrow twitched, apparently still confused what she was saying. Farrah was patient and repeated her questions, but this time, with an example. She gestured as if she's eating something then pointed the direction they came from. It seems that this time, he finally understood. He marched outside, and called out several zombies. The lower-level zombies scrambled as they ran towards Dior. “Ggggrr...” Dior growled in unknown language. Farrah immediate