“Stay close to me, Mel!” Jake shouted, his voice barely audible over the cacophony of growls and screams. His daughter, clutching a small, blood-stained baseball bat, stood behind him, her eyes wide with fear and determination. She had learned to fight, too. There was no other choice in this world. Something lunged at them, its mouth open in a silent scream. It was half dead and carried the smell of rotten corpse along with it. It was called a Rager. Jake drove his spear into its chest, feeling the resistance of bone and muscle before it pierced the heart. Trying to kil them like humans would do nothing most times, depending on the durability of the Rager. This one was no exception as it still continued to move even after its heart was struck. Mel screamed and used her bat continuously to bash its head until it longer moved. The rager fell, but in its place, two more had emerged, their eyes blazing with the hunger for flesh. “Mel, now!!” Jake yelled. Mel swung her bat with all her

“Ragers!” Sam exclaimed, his grip tightening on his riffle. “Move, now!” Jake ordered, leading the way towards the exit. They had just reached the exit door when about two dozen of ragers flooded in from the entrance. These were the hyper-aggressive variants, their eyes wild with furry, their movements unnaturally fast. Unlike this strain, the first set of ragers were slow and had no sense of anything around them. They were nearly alike to the zombies you would read in horror movies. The only thing they knew was their instinct to spread, which they did through mostly by biting or eating their victims. As time progressed, the virus began to mutate, evolved into a hive mind; A hive mind that seemed like it had a goal. Someone or Something was organizing this ragers and making their attacks intelligent. It was scarier to discover a zombie like species who also had intelligence like humans. There were rumors about different strains of the virus but Jake only knew about two; the hyper-aggre

The whole building went apart in pieces, the shock waves sending Jake flying few meters across. He looked at his team smiling, but they all seemed to have a worried look on their face. He turned back to see two hyper-ragers coming his way, running. The shock waves from the blast still made him feel dizzy and weak. Two shots were fired, and immediately the ragers fell to the ground. Sam blew the smoke from his shot gun and Jake smiled. Alex ran over to help him up. “That was one hell of a bomb you built there” Jake said to Liam, half smiling. “And that’s why I’m the mechanic” Liam replied, patting Jake’s back. “Let’s go home” Maria said, hopeful. She was almost in tears. As they moved to head back to the base, a car came crashing in front of them; Something had hurled the car towards them. But what? They all turned back to see the scariest thing they had ever set their eyes on. Among the chaotic horde of ragers, one stood out. It was enormous, towering over the others with a

Mason had Titan power the cannon and shot at the juggernaut, but this time it did nothing than push the juggernaut a few meters back. Mason’s face showed excitement; he was loving the fight. Meanwhile, Jake’s team was managing. Due to the help of the initial sonic canon, the agility of the hyper-ragers were slowed down. It made things easier for them. Rita was a beast; severing heads like she was playing a zombie video game. Maria who was weak was getting a hang of it. She would use the spear given to her by Jake, piercing the heads of ragers. Though she was slow. Rita killed four per one of Maria’s kills. Sam had no problem getting close to ragers. His shooting skills made him keep his distance. Alex and Liam were clumsy as usual, making jokes of everything. Jake on the other hand was weak, still feeling pains from the shockwaves of the explosions. “We are done over here” Jake yelled over to Mason, breathing so fast. “Titan, increase the output and the frequency of the blast.

The group moved out, following Titan's directions. They navigated through the deserted streets, their senses heightened by the ever-present danger. As they approached Ryan's location, they could hear the growls and snarls of the ragers. Ryan was cornered in an alley, desperately trying to fend off the ragers with a makeshift weapon. His face was a mask of fear and determination. "Ryan!" Jake shouted, rushing forward. “I’m sorry Jake. I thought I could show you that I could also do operations.” Ryan said, almost crying. The team formed a protective circle around the boy, fighting off the ragers with all their might. Luckily for them, the ragers were the first strain and weren’t fast at all. Mason's drones provided crucial support, their sonic cannons disorienting the ragers and giving the group a chance to strike. But the sheer number of ragers made it clear that this was a losing battle. "We need to fall back!" Mason shouted. "There's too many of them!" As they started to r