Chapter 31
On the surface, both opposing parties thought that things were merrily going their way. But as Murphy’s law goes, ‘Anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time.’
And things did take a dive for the worst. In the future, people would look back and curse all generations of the degenerate group that had a vendetta against the zombies.
General Black immediately knew something was wrong when his secretary barged into his office without his customary knock.
“ Sir!! Something irreversible happened! The researchers are in an uproar! They say to signal the RED alert and say our prayers because we are all finished!” The secretary, Allistair, gasped out while trying to regain his breath.
Black looked at him dumbfounded, “isn’t the situation already hellish? Aren’t we already in red alert -”
Allistair rarely interrupted his superior, but this time he didn’t hesitate, “ this was somewhat containable and we had some degree of control! But what are we supposed to do when nature itself turns it’s back on us?! A group of desperados managed to concoct a plan to trap huge groups of lower zombies and burn them during this week! They were really proactive too! Burning large groups everyday! Those idiots did not even try to think about why the army has restrained themselves from doing the same thing! Now the smoke has already spread around and the rain clouds were contaminated too! The surrounding flora has already started to mutate! The fauna was fucked up, but we still had hope for the plants! Now they fucked that and the climate too! Huge fluctuations in the temperature are being recorded! The researchers say to signal the alert for catastrophes! Drought, glacial periods, Tsunamis, contaminated rain, cyclones, earthquakes; you name it and it’s all going to happen in sporadic bursts! This is the true Apocalypse.... The end of mankind!”
Black sprang up and took to running with swear words spilling along the way. Allistair closely followed behind him while anxiously patting his sweaty face with a white handkerchief.
The soldiers going about their duty quickly got out of the way when they saw the Hyena and his secretary sprinting in their direction. They parted like the Red Sea then converged back to stare at their retreating back.
One blond soldier remarked, “ damn! That old man is quite spry! This is the first time I saw him so agitated! Wonder what happened for him to run and swear like that.”
Another soldier with curly locks spat out, “ you fool! Of course something went wrong! And for Him to react like that, that means we are all fucked too! This may be another RED Alert!”
With that said, he didn’t wait for their reaction and took to running after Allistair and Black. The other soldiers shared a horrified look before following his steps. They prayed with all their hearts that curly locks was wrong.
****
Back at the zombies’ stronghold, the mood was also sombre. Even Tsuki was uncharacteristically quiet. He clung to Alphonse’s arm with his head down while listening to the discussion going on.
“Fuck! Things were finally going well for us! In a few months, the city would have been established and we could have had a foothold over them!” Riot exclaimed.
Mercy echoed him, “yeah! There are more and more cognisant zombies now! This has sped up the development process! Now we even have official groups responsible for each task. A good part of the infrastructure has already been built, and new ones are already in the making! They just had to go fuck it up!”
Veyn listlessly massaged his forehead, “ this is definitely a quandary. Even though we are zombies, we are not impervious to natural disasters. We are not immortals! Just difficult to kill!”
“What about those desperados?” Steve enquired with a stern face.
“ I already sent a small group that I trained to track them down. The army must have sent their people too. We will just have to wait for the results.” Alphonse replied.
Midori scoffed, “not that it would change anything anyway. It can’t be undone. Now we are all in the same boat. It’s changed from Zombies vs Humans to Us vs Nature. And I can tell you that no-fucking-body has ever been delusional about winning such a fight. Might as well just say our prayers and wait for true death. We already died once anyway.”
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“If only things would be simple. But do you think that they’ll just let us be? Desperate people are unpredictable. As the resources, such as food and water, get scarce they may give up all caution and attack us. Either as ‘If I am going down I’ll drag you too’ mentality or to capture and experiment on us all in the hope of creating a more resistant type of human. Anything for the survival of humanity after all.” Veyn mumbled with his face in his hands.
Everyone looked down at hearing that. There wasn’t much they could do after all.
Steve let out a weak breath, “we are just going to have to take it one day at a time; Carpe Diem. It stings to be this helpless and uncertain but so are they. In the end, the one who always had the upper hand was God or Gaia, whatever you believe in.”
Mercy scoffed, “yea, Homo Sapiens my ass. Thinking that nothing could end them. All living things are pawns living on borrowed time and resources that were never theirs to begin with.”
Riot’s grin had a tinge of mockery, “truer words have never been spoken sister. Takes an apocalypse to put us all back in our places, doesn’t it? How pride has blinded us.”
****
Within a few days, the temperature had reached unprecedented highs. It was so hot that the ground was cracking and all of the flaura that had not mutated were already dried out. The animals, mutated and non-mutated, could not stand such temperatures and were dying in droves.
The zombies’ farm suffered a lot. Even after taking precautionary measures and modifying the pens, there was still a great loss.
On the human side, the situation was worse. Victims of the heat could be seen lying at every corner of the street like garbage. Some were corpses decomposing whilst others were one breath from becoming one. Those poor soul, old and young alike, were too dehydrated and didn’t even have the strength to lift their eyelids anymore.
Because of the heat, the corpses were decomposing at a rapid pace and the putrid smell permeated the air. Mutated flies and rodents feasted on the rotting corpses and ferociously defended their food. This made it impossible for others to approach to dispose of the bodies.
All of this culminated and led to the spread of diseases in the compound. At this point, everything was contaminated. Hell, even the simple act of breathing without an apocalyptic mask would make you drop dead.
All of these disasters one after another stirred up the festered tension between the two parties. The human side were now envious of the durability of the HCIZ and wanted to catch some at all cost in order to create a more resistant strain of humans. And if all fails, well, they are dragging them down with them.
The HCIZ were well aware of the covetous gaze of the human side and wanted to attack their hide out en masse to get rid of them once for all.
But what both parties continued to misapprehend, was that their opinion mattered not in the grand theme.
The typhoons that hit in the following weeks kindly put it back in perspective that Nature didn’t give a damn about their plans and wants.
The human side was decimated even more. Floods of contaminated water led to them running to higher grounds in order to find shelter. Surviving gave precedence to going to war with zombies.
As for the zombies, they were lucky that their fort was in the mountains. Zombies could be seen waddling in the flood while carrying livestock up the mountain.
Veyn was seen shouting instructions to the zombies as he stood in the raging wind and rain, “hurry up guys! The lightning is getting more dangerous! This is the last batch that we can bring in! There’s not enough space and it’s getting too dangerous!”
The fort was abuzz with activity. Zombies could be seen running everywhere. It was a bit too cramped but they had to make do.
“Don’t forget the meeting is in 15 minutes in the large cave! Pass the message around! Meeting in 15 minutes in the large hall!” Riot shouted out in a rolled up piece of paper while running around the fort. He looked like a vegetable seller advertising his goods at the market.
Fifteen minutes later, the main hall and the carved balconies overhanging the hall were full to the brim. Those that could not fit were stationed in the intertwining tunnels and caverns; their advanced hearing made it so that the distance problem was null.
Viewed from outside, the imagery was akin to an ant nest colony congregating for report.
Tsuki sat quietly in the front with Midori next to him. They both fixed their gaze at Alphonse who was standing in the middle of the hall. Veyn, Riot, Mercy and Steve stood imposingly behind him with stern expressions on their faces.
“As you all know, the situation is quite critical.” Alphonse stated. “To be frank there is nothing we can do. Unless one of you has some sort of overpowered elemental power or an ultimate shield that can cover a large area and withstand the shitshow going on outside?”
Alphonse slowly looked over all the zombies present while his team facepalmed behind him.
“No one? Okay. Then we are all going to leave this earth sometime soon. It shouldn’t matter much because you were already dead anyway. It was our intervention that gave you a second life, so to speak. Well, that life is going to be quite short so enjoy it while you can.” Alphonse said bluntly.
“ See? I told you we should have written a speech for him!” Riot whispered urgently to the others.
Mercy gave him a sceptical look, “ as if he would have used it.. But you do have a point. We are used to his way of speaking but others....”
Veyn let out a sigh, “ looking at the faces... He did ruffle some feathers.”
Steve grunted, “ doesn’t matter how he said it. There was always going to be some that would rebel. Way too attached to living.”
Mercy jabbed her elbow in his ribs, “ most people are attached to living! They can’t all have the same mentality as us!”
Steve unbothered by her actions gave her a deadpan look, “they are just corpses with a working brain. What difference does it make?”
Mercy threw her hands up in the air in exasperation, “ you are so annoying! You know that it’s not the same for them!”
Riot snickered at their bickering while Veyn did as if he heard nothing about the discussion going on beside him.
Alphonse continued as if he didn’t hear the criticisms coming from behind him, “ I can see many of you are unsatisfied. I am, fortunately, not a god. We were prepared to construct a new city for the Dead and overthrow the humans and prosper etc... That was within our capabilities. But stopping doomsday and ensuring our survival, well, you are welcome to try. Because we sure can’t. Our lives as ‘special soldiers’ meant that we had to be ready to die at any moment so we don’t have any apprehension about that. But I understand that many of you do not have such a mentality. And you don’t have to hide the fact that some of you plan to desert in order to join the human side for a small chance for survival. You don’t have to scurry around. You can leave freely. I assure you that nobody is going to stop you. But let me warn you. Once you cross those doors and join the humans, don’t even dream of coming back. Even if you are crying and begging, I’ll chop you to pieces and burn you piece by piece, letting you see the ‘life’ you clung so hard to whittle away.”
Silence and dread weighted heavily on everyone present at that warning.