“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
The sun hung low in the sky, casting shadows over the landscape as Jake tightened his grip on the makeshift spear. The strong stench of death hung in the air and he could barely breathe. Literally, there were decomposing bodies all over the city, a grim reminder of what once was. “When would this end?” He muttered to himself. A year had passed since the N-23 virus had shattered civilization, rendering the world hostile and broken. At the onset, people thought they would band together against the threat. But survival instincts made them selfish, turning on one another. Supplies were stolen, fights broke out, and some even resorted to cannibalism. The common enemy was forgotten as the struggle for survival took precedence. Some formed colonies or enclaves to increases their chances. Jake’s enclave, repurposed from an old military base stood as a beacon of hope in the chaos, but supplies were dwindling. He knew that today’s scavenging mission was critical for their survival. He glanc
“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 Ragers were still in the store, looking for them and ransacking the whole place. “We need to move” Jake whispered. “You ain’t go to tell me twice, captain obvious” Liam said, bringing out the bomb he had finished designing days ago. “So, this is lucy. It has the capacity to blow this whole building to bits, but we need to escape. Once activated, we have about a minute or two to leave this building.” “Problem solved then” Alex said almost happy. “You know, for a professor, you are quite dumb. So, we blow the building with us in it einstein? Wonderful idea” For a mechanic, Liam had a very sharp mouth. Alex almost went at him but Jake looked at him furiously. “You guys should pull yourselves together. We are in a big prick of a problem here. We could actually die!”. Jake almost shouted. There was an instant rush of movements outside the store room. He quickly decreased his voice “We need to work together please.” He then turned to Liam. Liam brought out a fancy gadget and scan
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
Following the G.P.S path which Titan has put on the device on his wrist, Mason headed to the point of the disturbance. He had a very wide grin on his face like a kid who had been promised candy. He was so going to enjoy this. Just then, he heard a very loud explosion and he didn’t need his equipment to tell him where it came from. There was smoke rising to the atmosphere some meters from him. He ran, going to the source of the smoke. After some seconds, he found himself near an explosion site, smoke filling the air and almost choking him. “Looks like we have just hit jackpot” Mason said to Titan, grinning. where he saw a group of people trying to escape from a horde of ragers. Amongst the ragers was a juggernaut rager, as Mason has named them. It was running at full speed towards the group, shaking the ground heavily as it ran. “Titan, ready the drones” He had wider grin than before. “Yes sir” * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The creature let out a guttural roar, 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.
“Who the hell are you anyway?” Alex asked, looking directly into Mason’s eyes. Everyone had different questions, but there was no time to entertain them. “I’m the guy who saved your asses. Look, we ain’t got no time for questions. Unless you want that big guy over there ripping us apart, we need to find way to get out of here” Mason said. He was already tired of hearing questions and was already wishing he had left. Jake understood what the team needed and spoke to them in private. He wanted them to avoid asking questions but try to make it back to base. “Alright” Mason said, breaking the silence. “We don’t have that much time. That juggernaut will be back on its feet any minute now, and when it does, it’ll be angrier than before. We need to move fast and quietly" “Wait” jake interjected. “What the hell is a juggernaut? Why’d you call the other ones hyper-ragers” His whole team looked at him, since he was the one that said no questions. Mason took a deep breath, knowing these q