THE CONCEPTION OF A ZOMBIE KING

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 6

Maxwell stood outside his tent watching the sun rise, since the apocalypse everything had changed. The sun no longer looked yellow but a blood red as if dyed by the blood of those that had died during the past few years, and it was hotter than before the apocalypse. It had been a week since his sanctuary - the only place he had called home since the apocalypse era - had fallen into chaos, he and the remaining survivors were heading north for the closest town. As he thought of things that had happened in the past few days, he could only shake his head and let out a deep sigh.

Returning to his tent, he picked a remote and pressed the button on it to wake the other survivors while he settled down for breakfast. Looking at the quantity of food he was preparing for the remaining members of his sanctuary, he almost broke into tears because it reminded him of the tragic incident on that day. The amount of food he was cooking would not have been enough to satisfy even one - tenth of his actual members but that day, the number of them that fell was just to astronomical in numbers. Most of them were families, friends, relatives and even foes or acquaintances of those that survived.

About three hours later, everyone was good to go and they set out once again, all the while maintaining the northern direction. Turning to Anthonia, he asked.

“How far are we from the nearest town ?”.

“About fifty miles I guess,” she replied.

Letting out a deep breath, he began to take note of complains, needs and everything he did at the sanctuary. ‘Supplies are running short, we have to get more’, he thought as he picked up the supply report. In all honesty, they actually had a lot of supplies back at the sanctuary except they were kept in the reserve but when the sanctuary was under attack, no one could be bothered to care for the supplies. After all what was the use of the supplies if you died trying to get them or got infected in the process. Maxwell had considered going back to get some but the few survivors would not stand for it, they argued that the risk was too much, after all the sanctuary would have become a zombie infested site.

Few hours later, a young raider’s report sounded in his make shift office at the back of a truck.

“Mark what is it?,” he asked.

“Leader we’ve noticed movements on the road behind us from an unfamiliar vehicle, we request permission to engage”.

“Unfamiliar?”, he frowned.

“Yes sir, the vehicle is an RV”.

‘RV?, Now that’s an unusual vehicle to use in the apocalypse’, Maxwell thought as he asked, “Are you sure?”.

“Affirmative sir” ,the raider replied, “besides they seem to be following us sir”.

“Oh? Really? . . .”, he smiled wickedly, “Stop the advancement and prepare for battle.”

“Yes sir”.

‘You want war?, well I’ll give you one’ he thought.

Stepping out of his office, he picked his weapons and jumped off the truck standing in front of his raiders and deputy. Watching the RV approaching, he couldn’t help but feel alert. Whoever was in the vehicle had managed to survive the apocalypse for so long without seeming to be a part of a sanctuary, such people were bound to be dangerous.

In the bus, Ola frowned as she saw the group of people blocking the way with weapons at the ready watching their vehicle. She shared a questioning glance with Mod, but he only shrugged and continued driving.

Despite the fact that the vehicle was not slowing down, the people standing in the road did not bulge even an inch. With no other option, Mod could only bring the RV to a stop. In the living room of the RV, Roosevelt frowned at the abrupt stop of the vehicle. Eyeing the other group members she could see that they were also confused.

At that moment however, ola came in from the driving compartment and told them about the group of people blocking their way. “Seems we have another golden opportunity to flex our muscles” Basit said.

***

Maxwell stood in front of his raiding group, the only group capable of attack or defence in the sanctuary, more like the military. He watched the vehicle come to a stop and the door opened. But contrary to his expectation of rough looking dangerous men jumping, a group of teenagers appeared instead and they were not in the least happy to see them.

“What do you want?.” A furious looking young lady asked wiping his surprised look off his face as he became serious.

‘No matter how young they look, for them to have survived this long on their own shows that they are not to be taken lightly’, he thought before replying. “Where are you going?”.

************

Marvellous felt his consciousness returning as he opened his eyes, he looked around him in confusion. ‘Where was he?, why was he in a room?’, these were his thoughts as he rose to his feet under the assault of an head splitting headache. He walked to the door and pushed it only to realise that it was locked from his own side, ‘Did I lock myself in?’, he mumbled as he

opened the door. He walked out of the room to find himself in some kind of house or stuff like that. Still contemplating on where he was, he heard a furious voice arguing with someone else outside, at that moment he paused because he realised that the voice sounded familiar.

“Wait I know that voice.” he muttered, trying to remember why he seemed to know the person that spoke.

At that moment he heard another voice that he realised he was also familiar with, and in quick succession, more sounded when it all suddenly came back to him, the memories of his relationship with the owners of the voices surfaced in his head as he realised that those were his friends and they seemed to have met trouble!.

Having recalled his memories, his face turned grim and his lips stretched into a thin line as he thought, ‘If that was Rose, then something is happening and it shouldn’t be good.’ “I already violated my promise to protect them once, it won’t repeat itself”. he said with resolution as he walked to the door of the RV.

At that moment however, a man’s voice sounded asking them where they were going. Stepping out of the RV, he saw a group of people standing about a hundred meters in front of them but then he also noticed an anomaly, they oddly seemed so close to him at the same time that he would have thought they were standing in front of him if he didn’t know better. Blinking severally he tried to correct or clear his vision but it turned out to be the same, having no effect.

‘What the heck is this?’, he thought because at the same time he realise that he was beginning to feel hungry just by staring at the people in front of him both his friends and the strangers. Gulping silently while trying to calm his hunger at the same time, he swallowed his saliva as the memory of how he was bitten flashed through his brain. ‘Did I turn into a zombie with memories?’, he thought as he finally dispersed his thoughts. “This is not the time to be thinking. I have to take care of the situation first”, he mumbled.

“And how do our actions or decisions concern you? . . .”, he said before any of his friends could say a word in return to the man’s question, “Do we need to take permissions from you before doing whatever we want to do?”.

Rose was just about to reply the man’s question when she heard a voice that sounded too familiar replying in her stead. With hopes that she was not hallucinating, she turned back in the direction of the voice only to see the rest of her friends turning to. She was obviously not the only one that heard the voice, and she was obviously not the only one shocked by the voice. Looking at that one person that had always made it his duty to protect them, she could not stop her heart from trembling when she saw him walking towards them actually corporeal and real. Thinking back to the day at the warehouse when he was bitten, she could not help but suck in cold air while visibly trembling. Taking a glance at his wrist, she could still see the scar from the teeth of the zombie that indicated that he was truly bitten, but some how he was there and he was ok and even as protective as he always was. She cast a glance at her friends to see them equally amazed at the reality that was before them, their friend was alive and even more healthy and stronger than before he was bitten. How were they to know he was actually trying hard with all his will power to keep from pouncing on anyone of them to satisfy the terrifying hunger that started plaguing him since a wisp of their sent entered his nose.