Apocalypse Park

The next battle... they ran.

“You’re new, so you don’t know yet,” Martha said hurriedly, her speech much faster than before. “To adapt to the new world, humanity has evolved in two different directions.”

“Ah...guh?” A confused sound, almost squeezed out from the throat, echoed from the guardroom again.

“You, me, and Landon—we belong to the first type of evolution. The other type, we call the Fallen.”

Emma raised her head in confusion, not understanding what was happening.

As Martha’s voice grew more urgent, the doorknob, illuminated by the beam of Emma's flashlight, slowly turned with a creaking sound. The door opened.

Martha took a deep breath and quickly blurted out, “The Fallen will do anything to survive, and I’m powerless in a real fight. So, it’s up to you to defeat it, or none of us will survive!” As soon as she finished speaking, before Emma could react, Martha leaped onto a nearby tree.

Emma stared in shock at the spot where Martha had disappeared, then looked down at Landon.

Landon smiled wryly, revealing his sharp rabbit teeth. “Big sis, I can’t move, so stop staring at me. The Fallen is out!”

The flashlight beam quickly flicked back to the guardroom. Just as Emma’s gaze landed on the doorway, she swallowed the words, “Stop calling me big sis.”

She had never seen something so revolting.

The creature, hardly recognizable as human, was still wearing a security guard’s uniform, though the uniform was now far too large for its current form. After a few unsteady steps, the uniform slipped off its body.

The eyeless sockets swiveled, and the Fallen’s gaze locked onto Emma.

“Guh...you’re so pretty,” a buzzing voice, human in tone, came from the mosquito-like proboscis. “Your skin looks so elastic, must be so tender.”

Emma froze.

Suddenly, a low voice came from the ground beside her: “Big sis, it’s all up to you!”

But the voice wasn’t Landon’s. Emma turned her head and saw that the once-handsome young man was now a rosy-cheeked, simple-looking girl, about ten years old, like a child from the countryside.

It seemed that one of Landon’s abilities was shapeshifting, and the form he took might change depending on his target.

This thought flashed through Emma’s mind as she angrily muttered, “I’m injured too, you know!” She quickly took two steps back.

As she retreated, Landon came into view. In the dim light of the flashlight, his small face was full of tears.

Seeing Landon, the corpse-like Fallen with the mosquito proboscis suddenly froze.

Emma cautiously shifted her position.

“Sis?” The corpse took two steps forward, scaring Emma into retreating another meter, fully alert. But the corpse ignored her, its exposed eyeballs fixed straight on Landon. “Sis, what are you doing here?”

The corpse was too close. Before it even finished speaking, saliva from its proboscis dripped onto Landon’s face.

Landon shuddered with disgust, but his expression remained perfectly composed. “Brother, I came to find you. Help me...save me, this iron gate is crushing me.”

The “little girl’s” clear eyes even filled with tears. “Brother, help me lift the gate, it hurts so much.”

“Sis, you shouldn’t have come, you shouldn’t have come…” The corpse paused, as if something occurred to it, ignoring Landon’s plea. With a low sigh, it murmured, “But I’m so happy!” The corpse’s buzzing voice was almost deafening, and there seemed to be a hint of joy in its tone. “Family fluids are so nourishing. I’m so happy. You didn’t have to come back, but you did!”

The sudden statement shocked all three of them. No one expected Landon to suddenly become a vulnerable piece of meat. As the corpse excitedly raised its proboscis, Landon screamed, “Martha, save me!”

“No!” Emma couldn’t stop her, and Martha had already charged forward from behind her.

Emma stomped her foot in frustration and immediately turned and ran in the opposite direction.

But Martha’s reaction was correct. Just as the sharp proboscis was about to pierce Landon’s chest, her long, steel claw struck it hard.

The proboscis was jolted upward, and Martha’s mighty claws, designed only for drawing blood, shattered into pieces and fell to the ground.

Meeting some resistance, the corpse’s exposed eyeballs turned to Martha. It clearly had no interest in her and buzzed, “Get lost! Fake blood, fake flesh... Sis, I’m coming.” It lowered its head but then stopped: “Huh? Who are you? Where’s my sister?”

In just a breath’s time, Landon had transformed into a dry, dark brown corpse with a giant mosquito proboscis.

The two corpses stared at each other for a few seconds.

“Did you absorb my sister?” Seeing its kin’s flesh and blood suddenly disappear, the corpse’s limited intellect failed, and its proboscis vibrated furiously: “Guh...I’m going to kill you!”

This time, its proboscis moved so fast that Martha, reaching out to block it, was struck hard and sent flying, crashing to the ground a short distance away.

As the proboscis descended again, Landon closed his eyes, quietly waiting for death.

But then, with a loud crash, the anticipated blow never came.

Landon opened his eyes to see Emma bringing a car to a screeching halt by the gate. The corpse, knocked back several meters by the Audi’s impact, tumbled away.

Emma jumped out of the car, slamming her hand against the iron gate, and shouted in Martha’s direction, “Martha! Get over here and drive!”

The corpse got up angrily, striding forward.

That last impact didn’t seem to have caused it any injury, and the angry buzzing grew louder. But Martha was faster. As soon as Emma got out of the car, Martha quickly ran over.

White light flashed continuously from her palm, making Emma feel like she was standing under a showerhead, water dripping all over her.

Her arms trembled more and more, but the iron gate didn’t disappear at all.

“I’m trying!” Emma struggled with each word. Finally, a flash of white light caused the gate to disappear for a second or two, only for it to crash back down, kicking up a cloud of dust. “I can’t do it!” she gasped, nearly collapsing.

“Get in the car!” Landon’s voice suddenly called from behind her.

During the brief moment when the gate disappeared, Landon had rolled out quickly.

He climbed into the backseat, turned around, and saw the corpse’s proboscis suddenly extend, shooting towards Emma. “Dodge!”

It was too late for Emma to turn around. She dived to the ground just as Martha kicked the car door open, blocking the proboscis a second time. The proboscis hit the car window, shattering it into countless pieces.

In that brief pause, Landon had already scrambled to pull Emma into the car. Without even closing the door, he shouted urgently, “Go, go, go!”

Seeing the corpse charge again, Martha jerked the steering wheel, narrowly avoiding it. The car scraped past the corpse, producing a bone-chilling grinding sound.

Martha floored the accelerator, and the Audi quickly left the corpse behind.

With the door shut, the group finally began to calm down, catching their breath. Emma’s phone had long since been lost at the entrance to the complex. Now, she and Landon lay in the backseat, looking back. In the faint light of the phone’s flashlight, they saw the corpse stagger after them for a few steps, then, as the distance grew, finally gave up.

It seemed to think for a moment, then turned and walked into the complex.

It looked like there would be no survivors left in Rongjun Complex.

“It seems the Fallen here have a major weakness: they’re too slow,” Martha said, glancing at the rearview mirror and wiping the sweat from her forehead.

Emma handed out bottled water from the car, gulping down half a bottle herself, too stunned to speak.

Everything that had happened in the past few hours felt like a dream.

“Thank you.” Landon took a few sips of water and then bashfully said, showing one rabbit tooth as he smiled at her. “You could’ve run off by yourself, but you risked coming back to save me. Thank you.”

Looking at the two people beside her, strangers who had now fought alongside her, Emma smiled gently for the first time that day. “Yeah, now let’s talk about this crazy world, shall we?”