Dark Apocalypse

Episode 13

Zombie City



Since childhood, Adam, an orphan, spent most of his time within the confines of the orphanage. His memories of childhood were little more than the ever-present walls surrounding the institution, and his understanding of the outside world was limited to the glimpses caught through the window.

Upon leaving the orphanage and stepping into independence, his high school years were a blur of running between classes and part-time jobs. Despite being born and raised in this city, Adam's knowledge of it remained woefully inadequate.

To him, the city felt unfamiliar, almost alien.

After his release from prison, the city appeared ravaged, as if war had torn through its streets. Once-bustling avenues now lay littered with abandoned vehicles, many of them mangled and aflame.

Dusk had fallen, and the sky darkened. The entire city lay cloaked in shadow, save for a few isolated points of light flickering in the distance. The rest of it was engulfed in a deathly stillness.

Guided by the dim glow of the scattered fires, Adam ventured deeper into the heart of the city. Although he had braced himself for the devastation after what he had seen from prison, the scenes around him stirred an indescribable emotion within him.

It was a tangled mixture of fear, confusion, and even a peculiar excitement.

Having already encountered zombies and seen mutilated corpses in prison, Adam was somewhat prepared for the horrors that awaited him on the streets.

"The entire city has fallen into chaos," he muttered. Zombies stumbled aimlessly along the roads, while others crouched on the ground, ravenously devouring whatever they found.

Adam navigated with extreme caution, avoiding danger wherever possible. When a lone zombie crossed his path, he would swiftly eliminate it. Up to three of them posed no challenge; he discovered, to his surprise, that he could dispatch these creatures with relative ease.

As he approached the city's central area, he realized he could no longer advance. The sheer number of zombies made it impossible: they appeared not in twos or threes but in tens and hundreds, with countless more lurking in unseen corners.

Despite the confidence he had gained from his ability to stealthily and effectively combat these monsters, Adam was not foolish enough to rush headlong into a horde.

He found shelter in a nearby building, creeping inside as silently as he could.

Yet, he remained on high alert. The building was far from safe, as the bloodstains and bodies scattered throughout made evident.

The only advantage was the limited space within, which meant that zombies couldn't swarm in large numbers. Though the confined quarters increased the danger, venturing outside into the night would have been far riskier. With the building still powered and the lights on, Adam decided to press onward.

It was an apartment complex. The entrance hall bore the signs of a frantic exodus: scattered luggage and the bodies of the fallen lay everywhere.

"Judging from the scene, it seems the residents fled in panic," he thought, noting the money strewn across the floor. Bills that once commanded people's attention now lay ignored, worthless in this changed world.

Moving cautiously, he ascended the stairs to the second floor, making sure his footsteps were as quiet as possible. His combat boots, aided by the carpeting, muffled his movements almost completely.

The first floor posed no threat; though there were bodies, none were capable of reanimating. But on the second floor...

A prickle of danger ran down his spine. He couldn't see any zombies, yet an ominous sensation loomed over him.

Was it a sixth sense? "I'm not a woman," he scoffed at himself, but he gripped his makeshift weapon—a length of pipe that had served him well, claiming the lives of many zombies—tightly.

Step by step, he climbed to the second-floor landing and paused at the corner.

A faint, grotesque sound slithered into his ears. Though barely audible, Adam recognized it instantly: the noise of zombies feeding.

"One... no, two," he estimated after a moment of careful listening.

As long as there were no more than three, he was confident he could eliminate them without injury.

Sure enough, as he edged into view, he spotted two tattered zombies hunched over a corpse, engrossed in their gruesome meal.

They hadn't noticed him. One was male, the other female—or at least, they had been in life. They wore civilian clothes, likely former residents of the building. Their bodies were horrifically mutilated: the male zombie's right leg and a significant portion of his abdomen were missing, exposing stark white bone and organs. The female zombie's lower body had been torn away, leaving behind entrails and a spine trailing grotesquely across the floor.

Clearly, both had been attacked and turned into the undead.

Adam stifled a gasp as he recognized the corpse they were feasting on: a little girl. She was beyond saving, her small body torn apart and half-devoured. Her head, shattered and unrecognizable, ensured she would not reanimate.

After swiftly dispatching the two zombies, he discovered a photo clenched in the girl's small, lifeless hand. It depicted a happy family of three at an amusement park.

"Sigh..." He looked at the little girl and the zombies he had killed. It was clear they had once been a family. What a cruel fate...

It took him nearly an hour to search the entire seven-story building. Including the initial kills, he earned himself 11 points.

"Sixty-nine points... a modest fortune," he muttered.

Barricading all potential entry points, Adam found a relatively clean room and collapsed onto the bed.

Since leaving the prison, he had killed dozens of zombies and amassed dozens of points. After counting them carefully, he confirmed his total: 69 points. It wasn't much, but it was precious. In this transformed world, his survival depended on these points.

"Antidote, one dose. Three days' worth of rations. Ten bullets for the revolver," he murmured, mentally tallying his resources before exhaustion finally claimed him, and he drifted into an uneasy sleep...