Pant! Pant!
A young man sprinted through the ruined city streets, his breath ragged, an Uzi clutched tightly in his trembling hands. Behind him, a horde of zombies shrieked and snarled, their decayed forms relentless in pursuit.
"Fuck!!" Damian cursed under his breath. "I can't believe I was betrayed. I should've known better than to trust anyone in this godforsaken world!"
Five years. Five years of surviving in this nightmare, only to die like this? No. I refuse to accept it. His legs burned, but sheer willpower forced him to keep running.
But all of a sudden as if fate decided to mock him, his foot landed on something slick, something small and utterly ridiculous. A banana peel.
Before he could react, his body tilted and in the next moment, he crashed hard onto the pavement. his heart stopped as he heard the frenzied growls drawing closer.
"This is it," Damian said.
As the zombies pounced, their rotten hands clawing at him, their foul breath suffocating to the nose. Pain spread throughout his body as teeth sank into his flesh. his screams echoed, but no one would come to help.
The pain, the horror, it was too much. As his vision blurred, the darkness swallowing him, fragmented memories flashed before his eyes, my
carefree life before the apocalypse, the fall of civilization, the moment everything turned to hell. "Is this the saying your life flashing before your eye when death approaches" Damian muttered under the tearing of his flesh and the growls of the zombies.
Five Years Ago…
Back then, Damian Cross was just an 18 year old shut in. His biggest concerns were skipping class, catching up on the latest anime, and convincing his parents to buy the latest gaming console. Life was sweet and easy.
Until it happened….
It started with a meteorite, a colossal rock from space that crashed into Earth. At first, scientists celebrated its arrival, eager to study its peculiar properties.
Which they discovered something terrifying, it could modify the human body.
At first, it seemed like a miracle, a path to the human evolution. But then, greed took over. Nations fought over ownership. Tensions escalated. Then, the federation of Ethern decided on a horrifying decision:
"If we can't have it, no one will."
A missile strike obliterated the meteorite. But instead of destroying it, the explosion released a mysterious energy into the atmosphere. No one realized the consequences at first… until it was too late.
Animals mutated, growing larger, stronger, more aggressive. Some plants became exotic herbs, while others turned into man-eating horrors.
And for humans, those who couldn't withstand the energy transformed into abominations. But not all humans succumbed. Some of those who adapted, gained extraordinary abilities. They were called Metas, and those who succumbed were called zombies.
POV.
Just as the void threatened to consume him, a mechanical chime rang in Damian mind.
"Do you wish to survive?"
Damian's fading consciousness stirred. What…? Was death playing a cruel joke on him?
The chime rang again. "Do you wish to survive?"
"Yes!" Damian screamed in his mind. "I dont want to die, No-not like this!"
"Successfully bonded with host"
"Host life signs are in critical condition"
"Initiating revival procedures…"
A strange sensation washed over Damian, like thousands of tiny needles piercing through his body. Then...
"Revival failed. Inadequate DNA for healing"
"Collecting DNA from the surroundings…"
"Successfully collected Z-DNA"
"Revival initiated…"
"Revival complete."
"Host is now a zombie"