SPACE SYSTEM IN A POST-APOCALYPTIC WORLD

CHAPTER 1; The beginning after the end.

Akim's p.o.v

It was a calm evening as I drove through the busy expressway while listening to my favorite jam, "Come and Get Your Love" by Redbone; reaching my favorite part of the song, I brought out a small box and opened it with my free hand while my right hand was still on the stirring wheel. I had a big grin on my face as I brought up the ring from its box and admired its golden décor… a diamond crested ring worth $10,000, very expensive, even with my work as a military medical aid risking my life on the job when it requires us to be close to the war zones, you’ll be thinking of course the pay would be handsome… but that was not the case at all, the pay was still pretty much average if you ask me. ‘I’ve saved up a little bit to get this ring to finally propose to my love, Alice.’

‘I know I haven’t been that around lately due to my work, but I can’t help it… I needed the extra work and shift for double my pay to afford the kind of life she would want.’ I thought with a heavy heart, thinking about how much I must have hurt her by not always showing up for her. Though I usually send her some money and things to take care of herself, I just hope she doesn’t hate me for this. I placed back the ring into its small container, grinned with a satisfied look on my face, and simply began to sing along with the song I was currently playing in my car.

“Come and get your love

Come and get your love

Yeah yeah! Yeah, yeah-!”

I was immediately caught off by an explosion that shook the very ground, which made the car skit a little bit before getting stable. I took notice of the sudden disharmony from outside the car on the road; while coming out of my car, I saw a little girl who seemed to be crying and searching for her mom. I swiftly removed my seat belt and stepped out of my car towards the little girl while making sure I took my ring box along with me. Upon reaching the little girl, I crouched down and hugged her close, before taking in the view of the chaos around me all the cars on the road had stopped, with some cars crashed into each other before my eyes looked into the sky which now had a strange red like glow and even though it was just evening, the sky looked so clear and all the star shun in amazement… but something didn’t feel right about this… those stars seemed like they were not fixed in the sky like usual… instead they were falling ‘was this a meteor shower’

I looked down at the girl, who kept on crying profusely, but I then placed my hand on her head, trying to calm her down by giving her a calm smile and comforting her. After a while, though, she managed to calm herself down, and when I noticed this, I finally asked her the long-waiting question.

“Hey there kid, now you’ve calmed down, mind telling me where you last saw your mom” I spoke in a calm and kind voice, making sure not to startle her in any way or form, and after a long wait, she finally then nodded and pointed her hand towards the way the blast came from, and with that, I finally understood where to start looking from. With that, I grabbed the little girl's right hand and led her that way, trying to navigate the sudden misty area from the explosion… still, something was screaming to me to leave this place… but I pushed that thought out of my head, and kept on searching with the little girl.

We went on for a while until reaching a large truck that seemed to have crashed in the explosion, and at this point… the number of people I began seeing was now nonexistent… ‘Is this girl's mom still here?’

I thought with a cautious mind, but then I started to see a woman walking towards the girl and me, as she had walked at a very slow pace and seemed to be murmuring something I couldn’t make up. However, it seemed that the girl recognized her mother’s appearance and decided to let go of my hands and towards the mom.

“Mommy! Mommy!” the girl finally reached the mother within all that mist and smoke… but soon enough I started to notice something quite strange from the woman as the mist between us started to clear up a little bit. The woman was covered in blood and seemed to have a large “bite” wound on a very important vein in the neck… as a medicated practitioner with a broad knowledge of injuries and human anatomy… that wound should have bled out by this time… and the woman shouldn’t have the strength to move at all. ‘This can’t make sense… a wound that big on a jugular vein should be a sure death if not attended to immediately-’

“Mom… I’m scared,” I heard the girl cry, shutting out my train of thought as I finally noticed what was going on… the mother’s grip on the child seemed to hurt the child…. And the mummering was starting to sound more… wild and monstrous. ‘what’s going on’

“Erm excuse ma’am, are you okay… you seemed far too injured to move on,” I spoke out in a calm voice while getting closer to the standing still lady, but it seemed that the more I came closer…, the more I could see her sickened state. “Come on, ma’am, I’ll help you and your daughter get safe-.”

Before I was able to complete the sentence the woman opened her mouth so widely that it looked like her face was going to tear off, and roared at me so loud that it made my head ring and made me lose balance falling to the ground, but while I was on the ground trying to get up from the sudden shock, I rose my head towards the sudden cry of the little girl that seemed to shout out in agonizing pain and the moment I looked up to check, I felt my eyes about to burst out of my eye socket as I was met with a gruesome scene of the mother biting into the skull of the shouting girl, taking more and more chuck of the little girl's flesh and ignoring the girl’s pleading cries and kept at it as if the woman was a…

“ZOMBIE!” I heard a sudden cry from a nearby crowd, and the sounds of screams followed almost instantly. I rose to my feet in a clear, panicked state; I began to race towards my car… though I couldn’t help but stare back sometimes at the girl being eaten by her mother. I was about to make it to my car, but the ring box I kept in my pockets slipped out and fell to the ground, and I went back to pick it up only to notice a zombie running towards me at crazy speed. I had thought of leaving the ring box behind and just surviving… but no… it’s too precious for me to give up on ‘I won’t lose it!’

I ran towards it and prepared for the zombie’s attack and the moment the zombie lunged at me, I maneuvered my body to avoid the zombie while grabbing the ring and racing back to my car before the zombie could catch up with me, and immediately I drove off, while hitting some zombies on the way and heading towards my fiancé and I apartment complex to inform her on what I had just witness… with just one thought in mind.

‘I hope she’s all right, please Kami’

I managed to arrive at the apartment complex and decided to rush inside, as I heard my fiancé’s cries; though I decided to become cautious and move with a steady pace so that the zombies inside wouldn’t notice me, I managed to get my emergency desert eagle gun in case of backup. So, I began to make my way towards our room while clicking the gun, ready to launch at the zombie and rush out with Alice to save her… though what I saw next made me rethink what I heard earlier.

I pushed through the door quietly, and as I did this, what I saw became the worst shock of my entire life.

“aaahhhhh~" " Oh my..... " " Yesssshhhhh" " Hnnnngghh" " Ahngghhhhh" "Marceeelllll"

"Right thereeeee" " yesssss" " haangghh" " haaa" " ahhh" "aaaaanghh" "agh" "ah" " hahaha...haaa"

my fiancee Alice, the woman I did everything for, fought so hard for, wasted my life away for, was on my best friend, hoping on him so vigorously like she was going to die if she slowed down and made different types of sounds with pleasure written all over her face, it was something that I couldn't still believe. Did I enter the wrong apartment? Was this Alice? Why's she riding Marcel with that expression on her face and moaning that loud in our bedroom? Am I in a dream? Did the zombies get me? Maybe I'm in a state of shock, right? Huh? Why is this happening? How long has this been going on for? I wanted to say something but I could only choke on the spit caught in my throat as I continued to watch his member freely enter her over and over and over and over and over and over again making me feel like I was caught in a time loop, running me mad and all I could do was just watch. I really couldn't point out what I felt, was it a sudden wave of pain or anger or sorrow? All I could mutter was...

"Alice why?"

Marcel heard this as a terrified look gazed at his facial expression… though Alice, on the other hand, kept on riding him and moaning, totally oblivious towards my presence. I stared at Marcel with my now soulless eyes as he just continued to look shocked. Alice noticed the look on Marcel’s face and decided to look towards what he was looking at… upon turning her head to face, the colors in her face seemed to instantly drain away as she tried to get off Marcel… but even when she tried to say something to me in a panicked way she couldn't say anything. 'say something... Anything..... Tell me this is not real.' I am trying to find a way to escape this reality.

“A-A-Akim, i-it’s not what you t-think” Marcel tried to calm me down, trying to put on his underwear, but I simply ignored his very existence and stared daggers at Alice who was still on the bed covered with the sheets and a grim expression on her face

“A-Alice… how could you…?” the moment I said those words, an explosion happened close to our apartment, and just seconds later, the window in the room busted open to reveal a zombie coming our way.

"Aaaaaahhhhhhh" Alice screamed as the zombie launched towards her, hitting its head on the bed frame and trying to get back up

"W-what-what is that thing?" Marcel asked, shocked "Is that a freaking zombie? "

The zombie finally got up and started growling, Marcel saw this and kicked me in the stomach before taking my gun and throwing me towards the zombie. I lay on the ground, holding onto my stomach in pain as I opened my right eye to see Alice staring at me with tears in her eyes before running out with Marcel… ultimately leaving me here to die alone.

“ah… no… no,” I kept on calling out as I saw the zombie coming my way and was about to pounce on me, I then tried to force myself to get up. My survivor senses kicked in, and as the zombie pounced, I laid flat on my back and rolled back over my head to evade the attack and launch a two-foot power kick that pushed the zombie’s body against the wall, and While this happened, I dashed towards the door and shut it closed before proceeding to the front door. I opened the door to reveal that most of the surrounding houses were now abandoned with screams from afar running throughout the air, I then saw a horde of zombies making their way through the street road and when I saw this, I immediately shut the door and made my way towards the kitchen area and rested my body on the fridge, as I felt a sharp pain at my sides from the kick marcel gave me and it seemed he must have fractured some of my ribs in the process.

I heard a sudden crash from the bedroom, and then immediately, the zombie from before ran towards me, as I immediately took out some of the knives from the kitchen utensils tray. I took a firm position similar to that of a regular soldier knife offense stance, and the moment the zombie reached me, I evaded its sudden pounce and made him hit the kitchen counter where both its hands were placed, so brought up the knives and lunged two of them into its hands, impaling it in place and proceeded to stab it in the head, though this resulted to the zombie removing its right hand free and launching t towards my face, leaving behind a large gash on my left eye and side mouth.

‘damn it’ I held the injury and tried to prevent it from bleeding, but without a single thought, I grabbed the nearest utensil in my reach, and that was a metal rolling pin, as I rushed at the zombie with a furious look on my face.

I used the rolling pin to smash the head of the zombie in multiple attacks, successfully bursting the head into a pile of brain matter; I was relieved that I finally killed it, though I began to feel a sudden wave of fatigue that spread throughout my body and seemed to give me a splitting headache. I fell to one knee and started to feel the sudden but devastating effect of the scratch from the zombie… ‘damn it, no, NO!’ My skin felt like it was tearing and repairing itself, and my bones felt like they were breaking and then healing over and over again, writhing on the floor from the immense pain all over my body that felt like it was taking ages, I finally fainted from the pain

"Boom"

The sound of an explosion jolted me up from the floor of the kitchen as I looked around and tried to catch my breath, seeing the zombie's dead body gave me a sense of relief that everything was all right, I sat upright and rested on the cabinet when a blue glow shunned on my face startling me, when I looked at it well it looked like a floating screen then I tried to tap it and my had gone through it scaring me even more, then a notification popped up.

[SYNCHRONIZING.....]

[SYSTEM UPDATE]

[CONGRATULATIONS USER, YOU HAVE AWAKENED SPACE MANIPULATION]

[USER IS ALLOWED TO USE THE VARIOUS ABILITIES OF SPACE MANIPULATION]

[ERROR USER ISN'T QUALIFIED]

[ERROR]

[ERROR]

[SYSTEM REBOOTING]

[SYSTEM UPGRADE BOOTING____]

[ERROR]

[USER WOULD NEED AN EXTERNAL SOURCE OF POWER TO FULLY USE THE ABILITY]

[USER IS CURRENTLY LIMITED TO A 3-CUBIC-METER STORAGE]

[ANYTHING STORED IN THE STORAGE WOULD BE THE SAME AS IT WAS KEPT IN]

[USER'S ABILITY HAS POTENTIAL FOR GROWTH]

"Ah," I chuckled. What a shitty day this has been.