Apocalypse: King of Zombies

Chris was practically covered in metaphorical sweat lines, feeling like Brandon was low-key mocking his lack of education—but he couldn't quite prove it.

In the distance, a massive bird was hurtling toward them, its blood-red eyes gleaming with menace. It spread its talon-like claws, sharp as steel hooks, and dove straight for the aircraft like it was trying to snatch it out of the sky.

Ethan and the others didn't even flinch.

The bird's claws were just inches from the cockpit glass, about to make contact.

Ethan's eyes flashed red. In an instant, the Domain of the Dead erupted around him. A crushing pressure surged outward. The giant bird froze mid-air, its bones cracking audibly under the weight of the force. It started to plummet.

But with a casual wave of Ethan's hand, the bird's body vanished—sucked into his storage space like it had never been there.

"Well, looks like we've got dinner. Roast vulture, anyone?" Ethan said offhandedly.

Mia tilted her head, frowning slightly. Something about that didn't sit right.

"Ugh… way to kill an appetite."

After that little detour, the aircraft slowly descended, landing on a wrecked street in Albuquerque.

With a mechanical hiss and a sharp click, the hatch split open and slid to the sides.

The group peered out cautiously. The sky was a sickly yellow, and the wind howled through the ruins, kicking up clouds of dust. The streets were littered with decayed bones, half-buried in the sand. Other than that, it was dead silent.

"Weird… I thought there'd be monsters everywhere," Chris muttered, scanning the area. This was nothing like what he'd imagined.

He'd expected an ambush the moment they touched down.

Brandon looked just as surprised. "Maybe the environment's so harsh even the monsters couldn't survive?"

"No way," Mia said, shaking her head. "Zombies are insanely adaptable. They evolve based on their surroundings. In the ocean, they become Aqua Zombies. In the desert… who knows what they'd turn into."

Chris frowned. The unknown always had a way of getting under his skin.

Still, whatever. He was just the guy carrying the gear.

They stepped out of the aircraft, ready to explore.

The meteor strike site wasn't far—just ahead, the ground was pockmarked with massive craters. The surrounding buildings had been reduced to rubble, clearly blasted apart by some kind of energy shockwave.

The whole city looked like it had been through hell—like a natural disaster had swept through and left nothing but ruin.

Ethan and the others moved forward, scanning the area. Trying to find a stone tablet here felt like searching for a needle in a haystack.

"You sure this intel was solid?" Ethan muttered.

Mia's eyes narrowed. "Hey, I'm here helping you look, aren't I?"

"Oh, then I'll leave it to you," Ethan said with a grin.

"..." Mia was speechless. This guy was totally freeloading off her now.

Behind them, Sean was glancing around, deep in thought. "Actually… I think I might know where the tablet is."

"Where?" Everyone turned to him.

Sean said seriously, "It's gotta be in one of the craters. I mean, every meteor I've seen lands in a crater."

"Uh…"

The group blinked. That… was technically true. But also completely useless.

Still, aside from the bones and the wind, the place was eerily quiet. Not a single monster in sight.

"Could this place really be a dead zone now?" Chris wondered aloud. Then again, maybe that was a good thing—less danger.

But just then, Ethan's expression shifted. He caught a whiff of something in the wind—metallic, sharp, unmistakably blood.

"There's something here."

"Oh?" Everyone tensed. "What is it?"

"I don't know," Ethan said. "Never encountered it before. But it's definitely not human."

The others exchanged uneasy glances. That was saying something—Ethan was the zombie overlord of Los Angeles, practically the apocalypse's poster boy. If he hadn't seen it before, it had to be something seriously rare.

"Let's go check it out," Mia said, cool as ever. She was fearless—probably because she had the skills to back it up.

The group followed Ethan, heading toward the source of the blood-scented wind.

Before long, they came upon a narrow, shadowy alleyway. The surrounding buildings blocked most of the wind, muffling the howling gusts and casting the area in an eerie silence.

But from within the alley came faint growls… and the unmistakable wet, squelching sounds of something being devoured. A wave of putrid, rotting stench rolled out to meet them, thick enough to make anyone gag.

Ethan subtly expanded his Domain of the Dead, creating a barrier that kept the worst of the stench at bay.

Even so, Mia and the others wrinkled their noses, some of them pinching them shut, expressions twisted in disgust.

"What the hell is that smell? It's awful."

"No idea…"

"Could it be… fermented herring?"

"Ugh, I've completely lost my appetite."

"Same…"

They muttered among themselves, trying to joke through the nausea.

The alley was cold and decaying, the dirt walls cracked and claw-marked, streaked with dried, blackened blood.

"Let's go in," Mia said, her slender figure moving forward with her Tachi strapped to her back.

The others followed close behind.

As they moved deeper into the alley, the growling grew louder, more distinct—definitely the guttural snarls of a zombie.

Mia glanced back at Ethan. "You can understand them, right? What's it saying?"

"It's calling for help," Ethan replied calmly.

"What?"

Everyone froze, stunned.

Even zombies… could cry for help?

Did that mean something even worse than zombies was lurking in this city?

A few steps later, they reached the end of the alley.

There, slumped against the base of a crumbling wall, was half a zombie—its lower body gone, guts spilling out, blood and rot pooling beneath it.

Kneeling beside it was a figure, gnawing hungrily on a severed leg bone, slurping and crunching like it hadn't eaten in weeks.

It had clearly devoured the entire lower half of the other zombie.

"It's eating another zombie?!" Chris recoiled, his face twisted in horror.

If it had been some mutated beast, that might've made sense. But this thing looked humanoid—its body pitch black, limbs long and thin, stretched tight over bones like a layer of tar-covered skin. It looked like a walking corpse wrapped in burnt leather.

Brandon's voice was low, uncertain. "Is that… one of those evolved monsters?"

"They're called Black-Skin Zombies," Ethan said.

It was his first time seeing one in person, but he'd read about them before.

Back in Japan, he'd taken down a survivor shelter. Inside, the research lab had files detailing these things. When zombies were starved of flesh for too long, some would turn on their own kind. That cannibalism triggered a second mutation, transforming them into these skeletal horrors—Black-Skin Zombies.

They had no intelligence left, only a primal urge to kill. But they were powerful—at least elite-tier. Basically, zombies that hunted other zombies.

"The more barren the environment, the more likely they are to appear," said Oliver, the pilot. "We saw them in Japan too."

He'd been the one to translate those research notes for Ethan.

"Damn…" Chris muttered, eyes wide. "This is some next-level nightmare fuel."

The others nodded, equally shaken. This was a whole new kind of horror.

Just then, the Black-Skin Zombie froze mid-bite. It had clearly sensed them.

Slowly, it turned its head like a starving wolf catching a scent.

Its eye sockets were empty—just two gaping black holes. Strings of thick, bloody saliva hung from its jaw, swaying as it snarled.

It looked absolutely feral.

...