Successfully escaping the pet shop, I turned around to the road and froze. There are at least a dozen zombies right in front of us, and to make it worse, they have noticed our presence. The creatures began to stumble towards us, hands stretched out. Although I was trying hard to tell myself to run, my legs stuck like rocks and all I could do was panic in my mind.
Levi hiss and snarls, in my mind I heard him shouting.
I watched helplessly as Levi leaped toward one of the zombies, quickly followed by the silent Hamu. Levi swiped his tiny claws to the forehead of one zombie and to my surprise the zombie’s brain exploded and the creature crumpled down. Hamu pounced the torso of a different zombie, I heard a crack, and the undead launched to the pavement and stopped moving.
The next zombies replaced the dead ones and my two cats finished them with swipes to the head and then used the zombie body to leap to the next brainless corpses. Slowly, the cats opened the path for me, albeit painted with blood, gore, and corpses. In just a few minutes, no more zombies are threatening us and the cats leisurely lick their paws as if they just swatted a bunch of insects.
Having the threat nullified, my body starts working again. I had been holding my breath so I unleashed it and coughed, followed by greedily refilling my lungs. My hands hold my knees to avoid buckling, and I look forward to the cats.
“H-How did you do that?”
Levi and Hamu both look at me. Levi answered,
“But they are big and your claws are tiny. I don’t think cats' claws are supposed to cause a brain to explode.”
“Me? What is my new power?” I can’t think of any and nothing pops up like in games. Despite things being too weird, I believe I am not inside an Isekai fantasy.
“Alright,” I say. I decided it was best to feed them where I was, which ground lacked gore. It is still in the yard of the pet shop, but I trust the cats will know if the ground is dangerous. I sit down on a rock and pull out two small cans of wet food and two packs of kibbles. Levi is an adult cat but Hamu is still 6 months old kitten, their dietary needs are slightly different. Kitten food contains more fat than adult food so I try to separate them. The wet foods are of an unknown Chinese brand, with the image of shrimps and white fish fillets. The kibble for Levi is an expensive European brand since I did not find his usual kibble, while Hamu got his usual Wheskas brand kibble with milk.
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The cats come over quickly but gracefully. I watched them eat, lapping every bit of processed seafood and crunching every kibble. I like the sound they make when they eat wet food and it feels like for now things are back to normal with normal cats as my beloved pets. I remember recording a few of their feeding sessions and uploading them to Yuutube, labeling them ASMR. The internet is probably gone by now, with all my uploaded videos.
“Well, they do not sell Sappy Tom. I think there is one pet shop a bit further from here that sells your favorite.”
I looked at the orange sky and wanted to say it was close to nighttime. But then I remembered that my cats are active from afternoon to morning, and sleep at midday. If I want to be protected by them, I should adjust my wake and sleep time to theirs.
“Sure. But when we pass the minimarkets to that location, I would like to search for stuff for myself. We may also find Wheskas Tastiest Mix, you both enjoyed that one.”
Levi seems to like the idea. I look at Hamu and find him wagging his tail but he still says nothing.
“Hamu, can you talk too?”
<… Yes,> Hamu answered. Ah, he can talk but he prefers to be silent. Different from Levi who talks a lot. Even before today, Levi entertained and pestered me with countless variations of his meow, while Hamu rarely made a noise. Hamu prefers to sit nearby patiently or stare at me when he wants something, and do tiny sounds without opening his mouth when he especially wants attention like if he got locked on the second-floor balcony.
We walked towards the main street, I wanted to find as many places I could scavenge as possible. My district mainly focused on restaurants and cafes, new ones pop up every month and mostly get replaced a year later. The roads were full of motorcycles delivering food and in the afternoon like this, I would compete with them just to walk peacefully. Now, the road is mostly empty beside a few broken vehicles and wandering zombies. Levi takes care of most zombies while Hamu helps when there are too many.
Sadly, all the restaurants were ruined and I don’t think they are worth checking. I hurried up, there are two minimarkets on this road and the next road to the west has five pet shops to check. One minimarket is ruined beyond recognition and the other seems to have already been looted. At least, I found a few empty plastic bottles that I can use to gather water.
The night sky envelops the sky and I gaze up in wonderment. For the first time, I can see the stars and the moon. My city is a metropolis, and the sky is usually filled with smoke, so thick that not a single star can be found. This is beautiful, although I am uncertain I should be happy with the destruction. I start to wonder what happened too, because if a nuclear bomb was the cause of these destructions… wouldn’t the sky be darkened by dust clouds for many years? And the ground rife with radioactive?
We eventually get to check the pet shops one by one. Sadly, they are also looted food-wise. I found some intact cat brushes and stored two in my backpack. Levi was disappointed but said nothing and I started getting tired of walking. In the distance, across the bridge over the blackened river, I see a couple of lights where I think the library was.