Of the six jet bombers, only three returned.Squadron Leader Henry was the first to land, jumping out of his plane the very moment he landed and taking out his co-pilot, Mary, who had fainted during the operation out of sheer fright. The ground medical operation rushed to take her in just as the other two landed, all of the pilots safe, but shaken by the experience.The other three bomber jets had been lost to the zombies, where the zombie vultures would crowd around the jet, clouding visibility and letting themselves be sucked into the engines. Pointers 3, 6 and 2 crashed in this manner, killing all pilots onboard, and all the staff and officers of the Air Force base all agreed on one thing.The first attempt of Operation Vulture Strike was a failure.The next meeting convened by General Pierre Antoine Emile had fewer people in attendance, as a large number of those at the previous decided that it was useless to fight against the zombies, and the best option was to wait for death to
Gloria was the only one who stood at the tombstone as the rain fell in sheets around her, looking at the words engraved upon it.‘ELIZABETH MARGARET HOLSTER. 22ND JULY, 1975 — 5TH OCTOBER, 2024.FRIEND, AND SISTER.MAY ANGELS SING WHERE YOU ARE.’For the first time, Gloria regretted their relationship being a secret. There would probably have been a ‘lover’ in addition to the ‘friend and sister’ had anyone known about them. The guilt that hung over her head was thicker than sackcloth. To see Dr. Elizabeth Holster hanging dead from the ceiling, and to hear the doctor say that she'd been dead for as long as a day could only mean that she had committed suicide out of grief. She had also left no note, so that the only proof of suicide was the fact that no one had broken into the house, and it had been locked from the outside.Only she, Grace, knew why Dr. Elizabeth Holster had died.The Allfather had done much to ruin her, to ruin the both of them. They would still be together and happy
Life in the bunker was not so bad for any of the five inmates within. In fact, the place became its own little ecosystem, locking them in from the world.The only time the problem started was when the supplies that Max and Kevin had gathered in the van were coming to an end. At first, they had lived like kings, eating merrily to get themselves out of their misery. The more time went past, the more meals started to become more spare — less stacked, less flavoured, and even less coloured.Then came the day that the final bag of flour was torn open.Default had made Laila the group chef. Ronnie was no good at cooking, and so was Sandra. Max always cooked coarse food, acceptable and digestible to no one but himself, and Kevin always seemed to make his food too spicy or too salty — it was almost always one, and also only tasty to himself.Until Layla put on her magic gloves and cooked the best meal they'd had since zombies ran the town riot. After it, no one debated that she was the best,
Kevin was the man behind the steering this time, while Max chartered away.“It's all your fault man. I escaped alone and found refuge in your kitchen. You found me, saved me from a zombie, and we could have been the best brothers ever. Now we're parents with three children.” Max groaned.“Well… you love them, don't you?” Kevin asked.“That's the weird part. I never used to like people, but now I love them so much it feels weird when we're without them. I'm glad we are surviving with them.”“Me too.”“Have you noticed that Layla likes you?”A guttural laugh escaped Kevin's chest. “Of course. She's got to. With the way you treat her, she's bound to gravitate to someone a little kinder.”“No. She really does like you. She's got feelings for you.”The laugh slowly died out. “What makes you think so? She's just really friendly, and that's all. After all, she's seventeen.”“Seventeen and a human. A girl.”“Why are we even talking about this?”“Because I see it. She embraced you yesterday, a
Max only stood and watched the duo, not knowing what to say.For him, it seemed as though Kevin was struck by how pretty Pearl looked. Even for him, he almost could not believe that a woman so magnificent was here with them in an abandoned Middlestown, but his friend was moving in to speak to her so quickly and smoothly, like a seasoned Casanova would, that there was hardly any time to warn him to be careful as she was a stranger unknown.“So you're somehow riding a bike through an abandoned wasteland like this, Pearl?” He asked, going to lend his scrutinising voice to the conversation. It was not the fairest description for the place, as at least bushes could still grow all over, but without humans, it was still a wasteland.“You think I'm a zombie? Like those horrid, disgusting things?” She asked, turning a pair of beautiful blue eyes upon him.“You thought we WERE zombies. It's fair to return the favour.” He said, laying emphasis on the ‘were’.“Max,” Kevin spoke quickly, pulling o
Left alone, Gloria started to go through the supplies with her.Everything she would need for comfort was packed for her, and she appreciated it, but for the first time, it struck her that she did not know how exactly she was supposed to find the Allfather.That had been when she came to a hard decision.Essentially, she would be turning herself into a bat with her plan. What she needed was a place to hide during the day, where she would sleep for hours upon hours. Then, by nightfall, she would move as silently as she could by foot, making use of thermal imaging to detect any signs of heat. The Allfather had to be a man, a warm-blooded animal after all.Finding a place like this became the next challenge, until she found an abandoned cabin, and moved her bike and everything else she had brought with her before sitting on the floor.For some reason, the cabin was almost empty, save for her large bike that stood within. Obviously, people had stayed here, and it could have been full at s
She refused to believe what her eyes read.“No… no, ” she moaned, taking out the battery from the device and putting it back before switching it on. It came alive again, but this time, with a different message:“YOU'LL LOVE IT HERE. PLEASE MAKE YOURSELF COMFORTABLE. SENDING LOVE FROM —THE ALLFATHER.”Again, she threw the device onto the ground, this time breaking it before running back into the cabin to look for something else she could use to reach out to anyone that could get her out of this place. Any device at all…Her scrambling hands found a small phone, and she pressed the power button, relieved to see the pixels on the screen come alive and display her wallpaper — an image of herself and Dr. Elizabeth. With shaky hands, she unlocked it, and was about to seek the app icon that would be her salvation when the screen went blank, and a new string of letters started to appear. They read:“YOU CAN RUN, BUT YOU CAN'T HIDE. YOU ARE NOW TRAPPED HERE. WITH LOVE, —THE ALLFATHER.”Her
It turned out to be a tree.A tree should be an ordinary thing, indeed. It doesn't move, or make any sound, or feel, or do anything to remind one that it has life even when science claims that it does, but this one was different.The roots were pulled up from the ground, moving like small worms before her. The bark was, just like the appearance of animal zombies, peeling off, and the leaves were brown, but not dry.What made Gloria scream was the head that stuck at the top of this tree, exactly like the head of a Venus fly trap, only that it was almost fifty times bigger, and the branch that reached to curl itself about her as the tree bent to catch her.She rolled away from the reach of the grasping branch just in time so that it harmlessly waved over where she had been only a moment before, and made the mistake of underestimating the tree, because the branch simply extended and pinned her where she was. The smaller branches attached to that branch made her captive with how they wra