I never thought how…lifeless it would feel if I ever became a zombie. And no, I didn’t mean soulless, although a monster who was completely devoid of thought probably didn’t have a soul either. This feeling was a lot more physical in the sense that everything I knew to be important in the human body was no longer there. The blood in my veins, the beating heart in my chest, my lungs pumping oxygen, not even my skin which I expected to feel more rotten.
God, I don’t even think I have anything down there. There was no way I was gonna live the rest of my life without my down there.
Wait a minute…live. Live the rest of my-
“I’m alive!” I screamed, immediately sitting back up from the cold, cracked ground. Something about the world around me looked weird though. I blinked a couple times but I could still see these green traces of, what I assumed to be, energy all over the destroyed town of Forest Hills. Now that I think about it…how the hell do I have eyes in the first place!? Didn't those zombies devour me and rip me apart?
I turned my attention to my body and was utterly shocked and just how much of a change I went through. My body, if you could call it that, was now a skeleton. At that point, I would've already thought I was dead if it weren't for the light green ooze layering over my bones, giving me the physique of a man who'd been working out for years without rest. I was always considered on the skinnier end by a few friends so this was a sudden change for me.
However, there was one thing that confused me and it wasn't the fact that my brown khaki pants were kept intact but not the rest of my clothes. If I was a zombie, or radion as others liked to call them, then how was I still able to think for myself? And why did I look so different? And where did all the zombies that attacked me go!?
With so many questions in my head, there was one that smothered the rest and filled my mind.
Where was my daughter!?
I jumped back to my feet and turned in every direction but I couldn't see Sunshine anywhere. There was this strong feeling in me that I knew exactly what happened to her but I just couldn't for the life of me remember where she went. Could the transformation have messed with my memories somehow?
Damn it! This was just perfect. A girl like her couldn't be alone in this world. She needs me with her!
I looked back at the convenience store and realized something. Savir! Maybe she was inside talking to him. Yeah, that has to be it! She's definitely safe there.
I rushed back into the store and, to my dismay, Sunshine wasn't anywhere to be seen. In fact, neither was Savir. A toxic mixture of rage and fear boiled inside of me as the green ooze around my body began to bubble. I slammed my fist against the wall, ignoring the large crack I left on it.
I walked out of the store but before I looked in another area, this long trail of green energy that went to the back of the store caught my attention. I followed it to the end where it connected to this large mass of green energy with another trail leading to the sky.
It was then that the memory of what happened to Sunshine finally entered my mind, like the final piece of a puzzle. A surge of energy built up around my feet, like a rocket about to be launched. There was no more room in me to think.
Only do.
In that instant, my body was blasted into the air by the green energy, zooming through the air as I yelled the name of the man who kidnapped my daughter.
“Dante!”
There were only three things I knew whilst in the sky. That piece of shit loan collector took my daughter. He left me to die here while he ran away in some green ball of light. That same ball of light left a trail for me to follow and find Sunshine. And that’s exactly what I was gonna do!
After a few more minutes in the air, the trail ended at an apartment complex and, unfortunately for me, it was infested with a bunch of other men in suits who I assumed to be in Dante’s line of work. The energy rocketing me forward dissipated and I quickly descended down to the roof of one of the apartment buildings.
I wasn’t too high in the sky so the eventual drop didn’t actually hurt. Although, I don’t think zombies were necessarily supposed to feel anything in the first place.
I approached the edge of the roof and was shocked to see that the guys down there had chains and leashes wrapped around the necks of a bunch of radioactive beasts. Giant birds, dogs, and even bears—all of them radiating green energy. I couldn’t believe it. These guys somehow tamed these vicious monsters and if I wasn’t careful they would probably make me their next meal.
Wait, are zombies even a part of their diet? I’ll just have to hope they aren’t. But if there was one species that perfectly fit their diet, it was humans. And my daughter couldn’t have been safe here.
“Get that smelly dog out my face!”screamed a voice from below. It was Sunshine. I looked to the left and noticed a couple of small cages lined up near the entrances to the buildings. Big enough for a person to fit in but small enough so that they wouldn’t get too comfortable inside. There was a radioactive dog, the size of a bear, snarling at my little girl and I was forced to hear her screams as the men around her laughed.
A big part of me just wanted to jump down there and beat all their asses like one of my favorite wrestlers but this wasn’t scripted like pro wrestling. This was life or death. Even with this new form as a zombie, I had no idea what my capabilities were besides being able to fly. Or jump really far. I don’t know. Whether it was flying or jumping, I couldn’t control it at all.
So the only way to fight for now was as a human and to be a proper human, I needed a gun!
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There was an exit leading to the inside of the building and I decided to take my chances. As soon as I opened the door, I was met with the sight of one of Dante’s men smoking a blunt–a gun shoved into his pants. Obviously, given my new appearance, he instantly noticed me and fearfully went for his gun, shouting “Fuck, a radion!”
Thankfully for me though, the idiot was so high on that shit that he dropped the gun before he could make any use of it. Once that happened, all I had to do was give him a little punch to the jaw and he was sent flying down the stairs, presumably knocking him unconscious.
And that’s exactly why you don’t do drugs while on the job or ever at all! I’ll make sure to ham that into Sunshine’s skull once she grows up.
I picked up the gun and ran down the flight of stairs until I decided to stop at the third floor.
Luckily for me, there wasn’t anyone guarding or smoking blunts of weed in the hallways so that gave me the freedom to use it in any way I wanted. I quietly opened one of the dusty windows and pointed my newly acquired gun at the dog terrorizing my daughter. Then, with a loud bang, I fired the first shot and the beast’s head was surprisingly blown to bits. Without a second thought, I shot some more bullets, this time at the men near the cages, and I was able to catch a few of them lacking but the many others quickly hid away in spots I couldn't see from the third floor.
“Those shots came from the third floor!”
“Someone get up there and kill that sonuvabitch!”
Upon hearing this, I hightailed it out of there, heading towards the second floor exit and hoping to escape the area before those men got the chance to see me. I was just about to leave when I was blocked by a couple of guys at the staircase–all of them gripping baseball bats and swords and their eyes angrily locked on me. I flinched for a second but regained my composure and fired my gun.
I missed–the bullet instead making the wall on the other side its target. Desperately, I pulled the trigger once more. Nothing came out. The gun was out of ammo!
One of the guys darted up the stairs and bashed my head with his baseball bat, launching me down the hallway. Oddly enough, I didn't feel any pain from that attack. It's not like he did a weak swing either. It looked pretty strong to me.
I attempted to get back up but I found myself surrounded by Dante’s men, filling both sides of the hallway so that there was no way for me to escape.
“What the hell kinda radion is that!? It's all green and muscular and shit.”
“It looks like the one Dante has in that cage in the basement. Is this one of his and it escaped?”
“Doubt it. Not only does that thing have a gun in its hand, it used it to kill Jason. Why would a radion kill a radioactive beast? Aren't they like…connected?”
“That's your issue with the whole thing? That's a zombie using a fucking gun! I have never seen that before!”
“I killed that dog because it was scaring my daughter!”
A resounding “What!?” filled the second floor as every single person there was in shock that a zombie just said words. Some of them dropped their weapons in shock and most of them had their mouths wide open like they just saw the impossible.
“Di-Di-Did that zombie just fucking speak!?”
“That's impossible! Maybe we're just high? Don't you guys smell that? Who the hell was smoking weed in here!?”
“I’m pretty sure it was Mikey. He was knocked out on the stairs with a blunt in his hand.”
“Knocked out? You’re telling me this zombie didn’t eat him!?”
“Nope. Not even a nibble. Most he had was a broken jaw.”
“Hey, that’s enough babbling out of you idiots!” I shouted, growing tired of their growing confusion. “Just release that girl down there in the cage and then tell me where Dante is or else I’ll have to give to ya’ll what I was going to give to him!”
Their expressions shifted from shock and confusion to anger and a boosted confidence at my bold claim.
“This radion’s got some balls! Let’s hurry up and kill it before Dante comes back!”
With that said, the loan sharks charged at me and proceeded to beat down on my body with all their weapons. However, with a fierce roar, I summoned a burst of newfound strength within me and threw my entire weight upwards. In that instant, every person that was close to me was sent tumbling towards every direction in a chaotic heap. They all hit the floor together and those faces of anger became stunned when they realized that none of their attacks did any ounce of damage.
After all, I was just a father trying to save his beloved child. Like they could do any harm to me.
“What the hell is going on!? How is he still alive!?”
“It’s because you fools are going about this the wrong way! Somebody shoot that monster already!”
Bullets hit my back but not only did they not hurt. They couldn’t even get some of this ooze off me with them.
Once they realized that fact, many of the guys ran back downstairs screaming their lungs off.
“You guys understand now, right? You can’t hurt me.”
“Wh…Why you little-”
“I’m not gonna say it again! Release that little girl in the cage and tell me where the hell Dante is!”
It was silent for a bit, as if they were seriously considering doing what I demanded for once. But if I knew anything about guys like these, it was that they’d always find a way to trick you somehow. I’ll have to keep on my toes.
“That little girl…you mean the one outside?” asked a bald man to the side, a red whistle wrapped around his neck. “Black girl, pink hoodie, sunflower in her hair?”
“Will you release her or not?”
The man began to chuckle ominously. “To think a radion would care about human life…” He raised the whistle to his mouth and said “What a horrifying trait to have.”
He blew the whistle and, at first, I was confused by the lack of sound from it. But in the span of a few seconds, the wall on the second floor burst open, sending shockwaves all around and pieces of brick flying towards me. I hurled myself out of the way when I noticed that all of the guys had quickly rushed out of the building already. Except for the man who blew the whistle, who was standing near the exit.
“Jerry! Kill that thing and I’ll make sure that little girl is all yours to chow down on!”
Jerry!? Wait…don’t tell me he-
My line of thought was interrupted by the sound of wings flapping in front of me. Very big wings. Flapping so powerfully that the dust obscuring my vision was immediately cleared the moment I heard the first flap.
And there it was. Jerry. A giant radioactive bird had its beady eyes on me. If I had to tell the truth, I was shaking. Shaking really bad. But you know what?
This was nothing compared to how much my body was shaking when I thought I lost Sunshine for good today. A radioactive bird that’s hungry for some of my daughter?
Like I’d ever let that happen!