Blood splattered onto a thick pair of safety goggles.
A pair of hazel eyes closed painfully behind their protection as a dying whimper rang out. Dr William Toh pulled out his knife from the mutate's head and glanced at a jumble of sine waves projecting onto the holographic screen.
"Still no change..." he muttered as he bent down, pulling out the nodes from the motionless body of his last experiment subject. The hot afternoon sun blazed down on the apartment's open roof, casting a shadow of a man taking off his safety helmet.
William slumped to the concrete floor with his head in his hands beside the corpse. He had really hoped that he had found the right frequency this time to transmute its bio electric field, but it seemed he had just wasted another few months of his life.
The twenty-eight year old engineer reached for the flamethrower to get rid of the corpse before it started to attract flies, but only air came out when he squeezed the trigger. William dropped the fuel tank onto the floor with a loud metallic clang in a barely concealed attempt to hide his frustration.
"And I wasn't even intending to go out today..." He sighed loudly and walked towards the roof entrance.
"Let's get this over and done with."
~ ~ ~
There was absolutely no reason why anyone should still roam these streets. Tiny rivers of trapped rainwater rested between the tiny holes in the uneven road where overturned vehicles now rest. Pockets of wet overgrown grass permeated both sides of the sidewalks, covering up faded traces of dried blood. And yet, in the once bustling central district of Sector 161, only a single, stubborn soul had dared remain.
A faint whirring of bicycle chains echoed off the abandoned walls of shophouses. The solitary cyclist, fully clad from head to toe in hard leather, whizzed past seemingly never-ending rows of abandoned vehicles towards the setting sun. A dark coloured crossbow hung loosely off his back while two bottles of water were strapped close to both sides of his waist.
William pedalled towards the fuel shop, lost in thought. My calculations were correct; why can't I alter their bio-electric field back to normal? Could it be an equipment issue? An energy issue? Ugh... and the flamethrower just had to run out of fuel before-
Screech!
He braked abruptly and looked around. A flood of input threatened to overwhelm his brain as his senses practically screamed at him. William shook his head; it had been ages since he felt so many of them ahead of him. Not since...
Wait, it can't be. I thought I'd already barricaded this area.
William got off his bicycle silently. His fingertips traced the brick wall subconsciously as he inched forward. That sensation was unmistakable. William peeked out from behind the wall. His stomach sank as his eyes confirmed what he had sensed-
Zombies.
Or mutates, as the government would like to call it. Not like it made a difference to the common folk being tackled and bitten by one. William quickly darted back and closed his eyes, focusing his senses. Ten... twenty... fifty... eighty... Oh God. There's gotta be at least a hundred of them in there.
He slowly backed away, trying his best to recall his research while ignoring the distracting pounding of his heart.
Alright, alright. Ohhh shit... Calm down, they're all dormant right now. I'm a lot stronger and faster now, but so are they. That means outrunning them should only be my last resort. I could catch another one of them for my experiment, but how am I gonna do that without alerting the rest of them?
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William threaded the ground lightly and peeked out of the wall once more. CRAP! He screamed internally as a zombie turned around just at the right moment. William flinched violently and backed away in a rush, feeling something hard knock against his heel.
He looked in horror as a metal garbage bin toppled to the ground.
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The resounding crash reverberated around the empty alley.
"SHIT!" William yelled as he scrambled to his feet and tried to pick up his bicycle.
Too late.
He leapt out of the way just in time, narrowly avoiding the snarling teeth of the first zombie to reach him. It crashed into his bicycle, crumpling the two-wheeler like a thin piece of aluminium foil. A sickening screech grated his ears as the zombie got back up with its jerky, inhuman movements.
An arrow pierced through the air, striking the zombie squarely on its forehead. It crumpled onto the ground instantly and a stampede of zombies rushing to him tripped on its limp body. They rolled over each other, their squirming bodies struggling to find footing amidst the uncoordinated movement.
William gripped his crossbow tightly and sprinted out of the alley onto the main street, seizing as much as possible whatever little time he had just bought. His eyes darted around the street of abandoned cars, looking for a fire hydrant of some sort.
But there was none.
William glanced briefly behind him, willing his legs to move faster. What followed close behind him was no longer merely a crowd of zombies, but a flash flood of writhing, decaying human flesh. And a single bite from any one of them would spell his doom within less than half a minute.
Not good. Looks like I have to do this after all.
He leapt over a car and crouched behind it for cover. The zombies bared their teeth as they ran towards him, eager to introduce a new member to their ranks. William squeezed his eyes shut, focusing his mind. Three seconds was all he had.
And that was all he needed.
A torrent of water burst from behind the car like a broken dam. The swell of water swept through the street, ploughing abandoned vehicles into the stampede of zombies. At its source stood a man with his hand outstretched; a seemingly endless supply of water gushing out at incredible speed from the bottles at his waist.
The tidal wave swirled into a huge ball, sweeping up the zombies and everything within it. William's hand trembled, his eyes glowing a light blue as he slowly lifted the large mass of water into the air. He clenched his fist and icicles began spreading rapidly from within the water ball, freezing all its contents.
"Begone."
William threw his hand forward as if throwing an invisible paper ball. The mass of water, which had now solidified into an ice ball, flew out of view in a huge arc.
A distant crash was heard.
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The lone researcher trudged back to the alley. He looked at his mangled bicycle and let out a loud sigh. Damnit, this was the only one I had. Could this day get any worse? William carefully stepped into the abandoned store, avoiding the broken glass that littered the floor.
He looked around for the right fuel for his flamethrower but found himself inspecting some badly charred steel beams instead. What was left of the barricade to isolate his neighbourhood from the zombie infested world had almost completely melted away, seemingly from an extremely intense source of heat. And yet the heat was isolated enough to not set the entire fuel store on fire.
Who- No. What could have done this?
An intense dizziness made the room spin around him like a gyroscope. William groaned and clutched his head as he instinctively grabbed the counter for support. It was not his first time condensing so much water from the air so quickly, but it never got easier. Still, he knew the risks but took it anyway, and now he was paying for it. William looked at the rapidly darkening sky, barely able to keep his eyelids open.
No, now's not the time to be pondering about such things. Gotta get back to safety before the sky turns dark... Gotta ge-
Everything faded to black as William crumpled to the ground, the last of his strength rapidly leaving him.
A faint shadow loomed over the barricade.