Apocalypse Park

Survive together with Selina?

Chaos erupted in an instant.

Martha’s elbow scraped across the ground after Emma’s fierce tackle, and she winced in pain from the burning sensation. Just as she was about to shout, “What are you doing?” a voice from behind cut through the tension as Landon charged forward, knife in hand, and slashed at both of them.

With a sharp clang, a thin, nimble shadow streaked past Martha’s face, deflected by Landon’s blow. She blinked in surprise and realized it was one of the fallen one's appendages.

Emma rolled and quickly got to her feet. Martha stood up soon after and felt a sudden warmth on her face. When she touched it, she realized her skin had been cut by the appendage, and blood was oozing out.

A few drops of crimson blood splattered onto the floor, staining a small patch of the ground.

“Um… Auntie, can Selina drink this?” A timid, soft child’s voice rang out.

The three of them froze, their expressions turning grim.

The door to the staff room was wide open, and a nauseating stench of rot filled the air. Standing at the doorway was a creature in a light pink floral dress — something no one could rightfully call a little girl — a fallen one.

Unlike the security guard they had encountered before, Selina’s body was smaller, slightly fuller. Her dark brown, shriveled skin was tightly wrapped around her frame, though her floral dress still clung to her. The fabric around her chest had turned black, stained by some unknown liquid — possibly blood, perhaps from her own body. Sparse, thick black hairs sprouted from her sticky skin, held together with what used to be a pink ribbon.

That was probably what remained of Selina’s ponytail.

Seemingly pleased, she twirled her dress and let out a chittering laugh from her appendage. “Thank you, big brother, big sister, Auntie. Selina gets to eat again.”

Emma was about to speak when, suddenly, Selina’s sharp appendage darted forward like a spike. They all jumped back in unison, narrowly avoiding the strike as the appendage swept across the floor, wiping away the blood in an instant.

The moment the blood touched her mouth, Selina let out a furious shriek, her appendage emitting a loud buzzing sound. “Disgusting! Disgusting! I hate this!” Her voice was much clearer than the security guard’s had been. If you closed your eyes, it sounded just like a child throwing a tantrum.

Her large, lidless eyes rolled toward Emma. “So, you’re the mean sister from earlier.”

Emma felt a wave of nausea rise in her stomach. She forced it down and coldly replied, “We underestimated you. I didn’t expect that you fallen ones could have such advanced intelligence.”

Emma was taller than Selina and was standing directly in front of the open staff room door, so with just a glance, she could see everything inside.

Behind Selina was a workbench, and lying face-up on it was the rotting corpse of a middle-aged man in a supermarket uniform, his throat slashed wide open. The foul stench emanated from the decaying body. Despite being badly decomposed by the heat, his face was still frozen in a mask of terror.

Landon’s “eagle eye” ability kicked in, and after a quick scan, he gasped. “Emma, Martha, the corpse has a name tag on its chest… His name is Wang Zhiwei.”

Martha shuddered, exchanging a glance with Emma. They both realized the truth. A second later, their suspicion was confirmed.

“...You knew my dad?” Selina’s enormous white eyes rolled again in their dark, sunken sockets, looking like they might fall out.

“You drained your father’s blood—” Martha started but couldn’t finish. She gagged and swallowed back the rest of the sentence with the bile rising in her throat.

Emma suddenly understood why Selina looked plumper than the security guard — her body was full of her father’s fluids.

“I get it now. When you attacked your father, someone saw it, right? The manager, maybe? She must have been terrified and locked you in this room while you were feeding, using a key. You’re too small and frail to break through the door, so you stayed trapped. When we showed up, you heard us and concocted a plan to trick us into letting you out. I’ve got to admit, you’ve got quite the brain for a dried-up corpse.”

Selina screeched in rage at Emma’s biting words, letting out a loud buzzing noise. “You think you’re so great just because you’re hydrated?” she shrieked, her appendage lashing out at Emma without warning.

Though Selina was small and her appendage shorter, Emma had anticipated the attack. She rolled toward Landon’s side, dodging the first strike. But Selina wasted no time, her appendage whipping back with a sharp hiss in their direction.

Landon raised his knife to block the strike, but with a loud clang, the blade was knocked from his hand, leaving both of them unarmed.

Seeing the danger, Martha rushed forward with her long nails extended toward Selina’s eyes. But the appendage was too fast, coiling back like a snake and smacking her attack aside.

Selina let out a disappointed tsk as she glanced at Martha on the ground — not tasty. Without giving Martha a second look, her appendage buzzed toward Emma again.

But this time, instead of dodging, Emma charged forward. Just as the appendage was about to pierce her throat, she grabbed the sharp end with both hands and pulled it away with all her strength.

Selina’s skin bunched up in layers, almost as if she was smiling. “You i***t, I can drink your blood from your hands too!”

Landon and Martha gasped in horror and rushed to help, but before they could reach her, there was a flash of white light. Selina let out a piercing scream and began thrashing wildly. Her cries were so loud that items began to fall from the shelves.

The once-slick appendage now had a knife embedded deep into it — a knife that Emma was holding onto with a firm grip. As Selina screamed, Emma twisted the handle harder to keep the dangerous appendage pinned down. Then she shouted, “Landon, kick her back into the room! Martha, lock the door!”

Everything happened in an instant. Even though Selina heard their plan, it was too late. Landon rushed forward and kicked her square in the chest with a heavy thud — it sounded like her bones cracked under the force.

Emma let go just in time, and the appendage, still pierced with the knife, flew backward along with its owner, landing inside the room.

Martha had already prepared herself. She dashed forward and slammed the door shut before quickly fumbling for the lock — the keys were still in the lock from earlier. She turned them twice, locking the door securely.

Finally, Emma let out a long breath and collapsed to the ground, her strength spent.

With a heavy thud, Landon dropped to the floor beside her, just as exhausted.

Selina’s sobbing and wailing continued from inside the room. Sometimes she whimpered like a little girl, begging Martha to let her out, and sometimes she screamed in rage. But no matter how much she cried or pounded on the door, the three outside remained unmoved.

“What now?” Landon asked with a wry smile, tossing a few towels to Emma and Martha. “Are we really going to stay holed up in here with a fallen one?”

Emma’s heart was still racing as she wiped the blood from her hands with a towel. She sighed. “Let’s push some shelves to block the door… where else can we go?”

Martha nodded. “We nearly passed out when we went out looking for the keys earlier…” Her voice trailed off as she reflected on the situation. “It’s strange… these fallen ones still retain some of their minds, yet they can do such horrible things to their own family.”

No one had an answer for that.

After drinking some water and resting for a moment, they worked together to push several nearby shelves in front of the door, sealing it off as tightly as possible. Each shelf was heavy, and they deliberately left the items on top to add weight. There was no way Selina would be able to escape now.

Once the task was done, Emma was utterly exhausted. In the past five or six hours, her world had turned upside down — from never having been in a fight to now fighting and killing without hesitation.

Since the supermarket didn’t sell bedding, Martha had stacked up some large bath towels on the ground to serve as makeshift blankets. Emma carefully used half a bottle of water to wipe the sweat and grime from her body before collapsing onto the towels.

The shutter door at the front of the supermarket had been pulled down and locked with the manager’s keys. Outside, the sun blazed down with lethal intensity, but inside the dark supermarket, the three of them lay in a dim sanctuary. Selina’s wails echoed from behind the barricade, sometimes desperate, sometimes furious, but the three friends ignored it, letting exhaustion overtake them.

Eventually, Emma drifted off to sleep.