Doomsday Awakening

08. First Small Attack

He could hear the sound of fast and noisy footsteps in the distance. A crowd of ferocious-looking, blood-soaked zombies were rapidly approaching their base.

 

“The zombies are coming!”

 

Luca, who was inexperienced in dealing with zombies in the last days, looked a little nervous and worried. Fortunately, he kept his cool, knowing that they wouldn’t be able to survive for long if the zombies made it in.

 

Ruth looked very calm, as if she was used to hearing Luca’s words. She rushed out and looked carefully in the direction of the settlement in question.

 

In the distance, she saw several figures moving slowly and irregularly. They looked human, but there was something strange about their movements, which were too stiff and staggered.

 

“Pretty fast. I thought they would come in half an hour,” Ruth muttered, trying to justify what she saw.

 

“Unfortunately, reality speaks otherwise,” Luca replied, raising his weapon. “We must be prepared to face them.”

 

Luca pressed a button, making a hole open in the thick wall. It was a human-sized hole with strong wire lining the outside. They designed that way to make it easier to shoot the zombies.

 

Seeing that Luca had already started shooting the zombies one by one, Ruth was still on the edge of her seat. Thinking of a more effective method.

 

“Isn’t there a Dash car outside?”

 

“Hm. Why?”

 

“We should lure them to the car and blow it up.” Ruth began to analyze the situation and thought this idea was doable. “We have Dash’s severed hand that can be used as bait.”

 

Luca turns to Ruth, who looks very serious. He thought about you briefly and responded, “Yes, it’s quite effective.”

 

“The problem is that there are only a few pieces of Dash’s hand.” Ruth tapped her chin, glancing at the abandoned car outside the gate and the approaching zombies.

 

“If we want to gain an advantage, the only way is to let those zombies swarm the car, prevent them from being the first to damage the car and consume the bait.”

 

Luca aimed at the head of one of the zombies, squeezed the trigger of his rifle, and the whizzing of bullets sounded. The zombie died a second time when he shot its head and it fell to the ground. The other zombie comrades stepped on the zombie’s body.

 

After that, he glanced at Ruth again. “Can’t we use the raw meat in the storage room?”

 

Ruth was stunned for a moment, looking at Luca in disbelief. “You want to lure zombies with that? Are you kidding me? Zombies don’t completely eat human flesh, let alone raw animal flesh that they just processed. They feed on the essence of human life, which coincidentally accumulates the most in their blood and flesh.”

 

“Is that so?”

 

“You really don’t know?!” Ruth choked on her own saliva after hearing Luca’s response. Even Dash’s flesh infected with the zombie virus had no effect on luring the zombies, but there was still pure blood dripping from Dash’s used clothes. That could be utilized by them.

 

“Never mind. I’m going out to put Dash’s hand meat and blood-stained clothes into the car. While that’s happening, you should keep an eye out for zombies approaching me.”

 

“Okay...” replied Luca without much thought, then he realized something. “What do you mean, you’re the one going out? Let me get out and you watch from the inside.”

 

Ruth was already walking away, but her steps stopped. “Let me go out and take care of this.”

 

“How could you? Let me do it. It’s dangerous for you outside.”

 

“Don’t insist, Luca. I’ll go out, it’s easier for me, anyway. Even if I get hurt, with the body of a special ability owner, my wounds will heal quickly.”

 

Ruth had no intention of offending Luca for not having special abilities, but her words were enough to make Luca feel a little depressed. True enough, he was just a vulnerable and fragile human being in the end of times.

 

Luca turned an indifferent face and focused his aim again. While Ruth returned to the medical room to wrap the rotting flesh of the hand with a blood-soaked cloth, also added to the time bomb.

 

When Ruth stepped out of the gate, Luca did not stand still and seek safety on his own. He followed a few meters behind her.

 

Ruth stepped quickly. The zombies had already begun to approach. She watched the car intently.

 

“Shit! The car keys are inside. It’s locked from the inside.”

 

“Is that so hard?” Luca helped her open the car door by force, but the security features in the car were really difficult to penetrate. Moreover, the key was still hanging and the heavy weight forcibly turned the key.

 

“How is it now? Those zombies are so close!” Ruth showed a trace of panic. Although she was used to dealing with zombies and had adjusted in the past, it didn’t mean she didn’t have any fears.

 

Especially since she had experienced being surrounded by zombies to death, whether it was a dream or reality, the incident really gave her a psychological burden. She thought she would be able to face this fear, but it turned out that her mental strength was still weak.

 

Recognizing Ruth’s panic and fear, Luca tapped her shoulder to wake her up. He handed Ruth his rifle and pulled the roll of clothes in her hand.

 

“Go hide. I’ll stand on top of the car. When I jump and get away from the crowd of zombies,” Luca explained.

 

“Do you understand?” he asked again as he faced a dazed Ruth.

 

Luca let out a long breath, pushed Ruth back, and forced her to hide behind the fence. Meanwhile, Luca ran and stood on top of the car.

 

The zombies began to move towards the car as soon as they smelled blood and human presence. Luca stood alert and tried to remain calm, kicking and stomping on any zombies that tried to climb up. From behind the fence, Ruth shot each zombie, that tried to get close to Luca, in the head.

 

The zombies swarmed in numbers, surrounding Luca.

 

“Luca, leave the cloth and jump!”

 

Ruth didn’t want to see anyone die surrounded by zombies before her eyes, especially Luca. She came out of the gate and called out, “Hurry up, the bomb will go off in a minute!”

 

Luca unrolled the cloth, stepped on the zombies’ heads, and sprinted. Ruth reached out to him and Luca grabbed her hand without hesitation, pulling his body to safety. Just as he rolled over by Ruth’s side, the car exploded and burned the zombies that surrounded the car.

 

“Come on, get in. There are still some zombies left.” Ruth roused the dumbfounded Luca.

 

“Be careful,” Luca said when he realized a zombie was approaching Ruth.

 

The rifle in Ruth’s hand was less effective for close combat, so Luca pulled out the dagger hidden in Ruth’s pants pocket. He used his long-honed hand skills to rip the zombie’s head off.

 

They ran through the gate and closed it again. Then started shooting at the surviving zombies. Not so many, but not a few either.

 

“Tomorrow we have to clean up the corpses of those zombies, huh ....” Ruth said with a slight complaint.

 

Realizing that, Luca thought of something. “Then let Dash do it. He brought the zombies here. He’ll take care of the corpses.”

 

Ruth chuckled. “Do you think he’s capable? He’ll be so scared. He can only use his strength halfway too. This might be a problem for him later.”

 

“He won’t have that problem.”

 

Yes, but there will be many people who look down on him, especially since his body strength is not as good as yours, who have received training. This is how the world ends. People become very cruel and arrogant, especially those with strong special abilities.”

 

Luca glanced at Ruth and looked at her seriously. Sometimes he found Ruth strange for knowing so many things about the doomsday situation so specifically.

 

“What’s wrong? Why look at me like that?” Ruth felt a little uncomfortable.

 

Shaking his head, Luca took another look at the situation outside the gate to make sure there were no zombies left.

 

“You seem to have a lot of secrets,” Luca said lightly.

 

Ruth clucked her tongue. “It’s true that I have many dark secrets.”

 

She turned to enter the base and clean herself up, leaving Luca still standing behind the iron fence. After making sure the overall situation was safe, Luca pressed the button again to cover the hole in the wall. He checked the gate before returning to the base.

 

Cleansing himself and burning his zombie blood-stained clothes.

 

It was late when everything was done. Luca looked at the food on the table, but there was no Ruth. So he decided to eat alone, check on Dash’s condition, and return to his room.

 

In the darkness, he saw a red light glowing on the nightstand. Luca turned on the light and the red light disappeared. He turned the light back off, the red light appeared again.

 

Was it jade?

 

Luca stepped closer to the nightstand. He saw the familiar jade on the nightstand, but with a different color. It covered its white color in blood red.

 

“This... My blood fused with it.” He touched the new jade. When the skin came into contact with the cold jade, Luca could feel something permeating his body.

 

He frantically withdrew his han, but didn’t feel anything strange. So he touched the jade again, grasped it, and took it to bed.

 

The jade in his grasp slowly melted through the night and seeped into his body. Luca breathed in the cool smell of the mountains, when he opened his eyes, he was in the middle of a dense forest that was unfamiliar to him.