(Prominis 21, 58 / 5:32AM)

In an instant, all the candidates huddled up as a blob, their bodies barely touching each other as they ran through the white concrete and big fenced walls. Around them all, the military complex was comprised of a wide open courtyard, big enough for huge groups of zompires to—

(Luke) Zompires straight ahead!

(Luke’s thoughts) That’s a lot of them…

As Luke noticed the horde of zompires heading towards them, he signaled the candidates with his raspy vocals…

(Luke) Alright, commence operation by threes!

Despite the group still being one big block, three mini groups started to form as they all ran together.

The first group in the front was Luke, who was with Luna, Hope, Cameron, and Loraine.

The second group was to the right side, with Miles being the leader, his subordinates being Sean and Jack.

The third group was to the left side, with Stan being the leader.

Fortunately, the horde of zompires also split into threes, with eight to ten zompires per group. Seeing that the zompires were trying to do the same thing as the candidates, Luke gave off a cold smug, scaring the rest of the candidates who were near him.

(Luke) Weapons free!

Luke’s group decided to clash with the zompires group that was drawing near. Using both uzis, he sprayed and paid the zompires from a far distance, the zompires being riddled with holes and bullet wounds.

Despite his guns not working, it was to…

(Luke’s thoughts) hehe.

With a devilish smirk, the bullets then exploded, creating a spectacle of zompire body parts and organs flying in the air. As the black tar rained on the front group, Luke then walked slower, letting someone else take the lead.

(Luke’s thoughts) Go crazy.

(Luna) Come here!

Yet another deathly ballad, Luna wielded both twin bladed double edged swords in each hand. Spinning both swords like yo-yos, she used her legs to spring herself forward, the motion of the lung was hard enough for Luke and the others to see a mini shockwave when Luna lunged.

With an upwelling roar, she thrusted her spinning sword in one strike, taking down a couple of zompires in one fatal sweep, black tar and guts drenching the swords that Luna wielded.

Strike by strike, Luna sliced and diced her way as the front runner, her arms moving along with the sword. The more zompires she sliced, the more her arms pulsated and expanded.

But one zompire managed to sneak right next to her …

(Zompire #1) Save us!

Opening its mouth, the zompire sprinted with enough speed to catch Luna off guard. Despite taking out most of the zompires, she was dealing with an extra zompire on top of the sprinter. Having her left sword holding down the zompire that was biting her sword, she used her right sword to block the sprinter’s charge.

The sprinter caused Luna to be pushed back a couple of steps, barely having enough strength to push them back.

(Luna’s thoughts) Shit!

Her arms were shaking under the pressure, with her legs quivering as she didn’t have the strength to defend herself.

An old gunshot can be heard…

The zompire that Luna was holding with her right sword slowly fell down and started to glitch out, black tar sweeping out of its eyes, mouth, nose, and ears. Glancing at the direction of the gunshot, it was none other than the horse human candidate.

(Cameron) Take your chance!

Luna used her right sword to stab the zompire that she was defending with her left sword, aiming straight at its heart. As the zompire fell, glitched out, and melted, Luna took in a few breaths, her breathing rigid and raspy.

(Luke) Luna, let’s go!

(Luna) Let me breathe for a second!

Luna looked back to see everyone still up and running, dealing with the first wave of zompires.

Hope and Loraine encountered three zompires heading towards them. Since Loraine was in the back of Hope, Loraine sprinted towards Hope, her legs having a lot of pressure as she got closer to Hope.

Putting both of her hands on Hope’s shoulders, Loraine then pushed herself against the pavement, which caused Hope to bend down from Loraine’s weight.

(Hope) What are you doing—

Loraine then used Hope’s posture to lunge herself like a bullet, eyeing two zompires as she wielded her swiss army knife. Firmly gripping her knife, she sprang it forward the moment she was in distance to one of the zompires, right at its core.

Having her left hand on the zompire’s shoulder, she flipped herself over to make an in-air front flip, landing on her feet as her body already made a stance against her next opponent. With the second zompire charging at her, she jumped sideways to have a clear angle at its heart, thrusting her knife again at it.

Hearing a gunshot from Hope’s direction, Loraine’s eyes took a whiff of Hope casually shooting a zompire charging at her, her face looking down at the zompire with no hints of sweat or paleness.

(Loraine’s thoughts) Scary…

Mile’s group was dealing with a horde not as big as Luke’s, the horde containing six to eight zompires. Feeling the wooden yet metallic sawed off shotguns, Miles encountered two zompires charging at him.

(Mile’s thoughts) Here goes nothing.

Miles started to slide off the concrete, having enough inertia and momentum as he dual wielded his guns. As he was gliding past the zompires, Miles fired both his shotguns at the same time, aiming perfectly at their hearts. With both zompires down, he looked back to see Sean and Jack dealing with many of the other zompires.

Jack, despite sprinting, managed to place his right finger on the trigger before precisely shooting most of the zompires. Sean glanced at Jack with a slide glare, moving his legs more to run into two more incoming zompires.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

(Sean’s thoughts) Show off…

Having the tommy gun on his left hand, he dragged a melting zompire’s body so that the first incoming zompire would trip. Sure enough, the zompire tripped, causing the second zompire to go around the melting body to reach Sean.

(Sean’s thoughts) Poor choice of actions.

Sean with good aim, shot at the zompire, then quickly shot the first zompire that was recovering from its trip.

(Sean) Now that’s how you deal with zompires!

(Miles) Just keep up with the group!

Stan’s group saw a large group heading towards them, the horde not stopping as they got closer.

(Stan) Just fire whatever you got!

The quad rained down the group with bullets, their handguns managing to hit most of the zompires hearts. With the smoke and shockwaves circling around them, it wasn’t enough for the group to be taken down.

(Stan) Fred, ready to use that huge whip?

(Fred) On it!

Right as the zompire group reached them, Fred extended his yo-yo razor blade whip to enclose the horde, giving the others a perfect opportunity.

(Stan) Let’em have it!

Stan, Gary, and Diego shot at the leftover zompires that Fred had trapped.

Charging head first again, all the candidates huddled up again, sweat and black tar covering most of the candidates faces. As the tar started to burn onto their skin slightly, the candidates had no choice but to bear with the annoyance, their teeth slightly clenching as their fists slightly shook.

(Miles) I’m going to take a long shower after this.

(Luke) Hey Loraine! How big is this military complex?

(Loraine) The building we have to go through is in the center, so it’s only a kilometer away…

The candidates' faces started to breathe irregularly, their legs aching with the ex hustling pain of setting foot on another stone pavement.

(Fred) A kilometer?

(Luke) We could run a kilometer.

Another wave of zompires were clearly seen from the distance in front of them. This time, it was twice the amount. The candidates started to holster their weapons back up again, with Luke being in the center yet again.

(Luke’s thoughts) They don’t call this the third stage for nothing…

(Luke) Everyone follow me!

Luke then started to make a curve to the right, yet still managing to keep going straight. Everyone followed Luke to the letter, as they were all in back of him, their legs unshaken of defeat and sorrow.

(Luke) Anyone that has mid to long range weapons, come to the left side!

Jack, Sean, Cameron, Gary, Stan, Fred, Diego and even Hope moved to the left end, having a clear view of the zompire horde that was on them. Locking and loading their weapons, the seven of them unleashed a barrage of bullets towards the incoming zompires, taking out dozens upon dozens of zompires.

The zompires that were shot were riddled with bullet holes, bleeding out black tar that was putrid. Most of the zompires that were shot had their hearts damaged, their ability to regenerate extinguished, causing them to glitch and melt.

(Luke) Alright, mid range weapons still stay on the left! Long range, switch with short range!

With the zompire horde still closer as they curve right, Jack and Cameron switched places with Miles and Luna. Reloading their weapons, the left side then commenced another downpour of bullets, hitting their targets with much more precision than earlier.

Only a few were still standing, managing to make their way scaringly close to the group. Because of the switcheroo…

Miles blasted a few of them with his sawed off shotguns, putting permanent holes onto their chests. For Luna, she took a couple of steps away from the group to duel with a couple of zompires that were still alive. Slicing their hearts with ease, black tar splattered onto Luna even more, her face filled with black spots as her hands were drenched with tar.

(Luna’s thoughts) I’ve smelled worse.

She then ran towards the group, catching up to them with ease. With the second horde down, the candidates noticed that they didn’t see a third wave incoming.

Most of the candidates let out sighs of relief, as the pitch black morning constrained them from their view.

(Miles) I think we’re clear.

(Stan) Hey! Don’t let your guard up! They could be anywhere…

As everyone started scanning their surroundings, hoping to find any zompire in sight, they didn’t see any black haired, pale face creatures in the dead of night.

(Gary) It’s too quiet…

With the only sound they're hearing being footsteps, the candidates slowly rapidly moved their eyes to see any zompire, but …

(Jack) Wait, hold up! I see a zompire far in the distance.

With his eagled shaped eyes, Jack saw from afar the darkness a zompire, extending its hands out in the air. Upon seeing the creature, the candidates started to slow down, as the eerie behavior of the zompire caused them to stiffen their bodies.

Far in the distance, the zompire started to—

Smile intensely.

The creature's smile reached up to its empty eye sockets, showing no teeth as it stared at the group with no eyes.

(Luke’s thoughts) Wait a minute…Why is…

The zompire’s chest and stomach was coded with a brownish red, the areas of red showing lines of arteries and veins as well as black tar that managed to leak out like an unclosed hose.

(Luke’s thoughts) Is that muscles? Why is it glowing?

The zompires muscles started steaming, making a mist cloud forming around the body. Looking at the candidates, the zompire’s smile remained unchanged, but then—

Many more zompires slowly walked out to back up the peeled zompire, and like the peeled zompire … the zompires also had steam coming out of them, their chest and stomach muscles showcasing a glowing red.

(Fred) Luke … your call?

(Luke) I’ve never seen this before—

Then the zompires sprinted at them.

(Zompire #2) Help us!

(Luke) J-Just shoot the zompires!

All 12 candidates, their faces pale and sweaty, shot their guns like crazy, hoping that these were just ordinary zompires.

As Jack hit a peeled zompire’s heart with his sniper, the zompire in question—

Exploded in an immense inferno, with many of the other zompires in that group exploding in a chain reaction.

The shockwave caused them to knock them a few steps back, as the burning gust caused them to cover their eyes. Their eyes were parched and dried out, stumbling around as the hot and dry air managed to lose their balance.

Once they were able to see, all the zompires were extinguished, but their faces started to twitch as their hands started to shake.

(Cameron) Exploding zompires!?

(Luna) Are you fucking kidding me? I can’t fight them with swords now?!

(Miles) So much for using shotguns now…

(Jack) … well … works for me.

(Luke’s thoughts) Is this the same explosion … that killed Ryan …

(Stan) Luke, are you sure you want to go through with this?

Luke looked at the gate with his face pale and his hands shaking. Cold deadly sweat dripped down from his left and right temples, followed by his breathing ragged and irregular.

(Luna) Hey!

Luna gripped Luke’s face with her fingertips, leaving burning tar on his cheeks, causing him to lose focus on the harrowing gate. Looking at Luna with still fear in his eyes, Luna continued to hold Luke’s face, looking directly at his red eyes.

(Luna) We’re this close to finishing up this stupid game, don’t tell me you’re going to now chicken out on us!

(Luke) I-I’m not going to chicken out, it’s just …

(Luna) It’s just what?!

(Luke) Nobody has ever seen or heard of that type of zompire… no records or studies documented an exploding zompire, so maybe …

Luke then pointed towards the gate, his finger quivering as his eyes focused back onto the gate.

(Luke) Maybe that zompire … is so rare or so deadly … that anyone has ever laid eyes on it … didn’t come back alive …

Luna, who still had her hands on Luke’s shoulders, let go of him, taking a couple of steps before she looked down at Luke’s hands. Noticing the scars on his palms, Luna then extended her hand to hold Luke’s.

His cheeks slightly flustered, his palms began to sweat gently as Luna rubbed them back and forth with her hands.

(Luna) Where did you get those scars?

With a curious and reassuring tone, she continued to look at Luke’s hands as he stared more into Luna’s.

(Luke) I tried saving my mom … but I was too weak. I wanted to carry all that rubble and get her out … but the world wouldn’t let me.

(Luna) So what are you going to do?

Luna then looked up at Luke’s eyes, her eyes focusing solely on his. As both saw each other in their eyes, Luna gripped his hands firmly, her finger tips tapping Luke’s palm scars.

(Luna) Do you want to get stronger?

(Luke) Of course I do, but.

(Luna) Then instead of being strong, how about strategizing a bit more. Muscles ain’t going to save you from those things.

(Luke) How am I supposed to do it?

(Luna) Ask Loraine!

Letting go of his hands, Luna put herself back into the candidates, as most of them were barely keeping their legs straight and their bodies still. Luke then straightened his back, putting both feet straight across as he cleared up his throat.

(Luke) Loraine! Have you heard of this zompire before?

All the candidates perked up their ears, awaiting Loraine’s response to Luke’s order.

(Loraine) No. But…