Chapter 4
The lifeless body of the woman—murdered by Alicia's hands—lay hidden among the bushes, covered by the shadow of the vegetation and the silence of the night. In theory, no one should have found that corpse, destined to be forgotten.
But a zombie crawled through the area, guided solely by the ravenous instinct that drove it to devour anything that still smelled of flesh. Without understanding or purpose, it threw itself onto the woman's body and began to tear it apart, chewing flesh and bone with sickening slowness.
It didn't know what it was doing. It was just eating.
Nor could it understand that this body… was not like the others.
The murdered woman had been marked by the spiritual energy of Little Garden, the same force Alicia had sensed before killing her. An invisible residue to any ordinary human, but lethally unstable to an undead creature.
As it devoured the remains, the zombie trembled.
At first, it was just a spasm. Then, its skin began to crack, its flesh bubbled as if something stirred within its rotting body. The right eye burst, and from the hollow emerged an intense reddish glow, like a spark of emerging fury.
A guttural roar, deeper and more aggressive than any other zombie before, echoed through the darkness.
Without knowing it, something new had begun.
A change.
A mutation.
[•••]
Night had fallen like a heavy blanket over the ruins of the city. Only rubble, dried blood in the streets, and silence laden with death remained.
In a convenience store on the outskirts, three survivors rested among looted shelves and empty bags. Two men and a woman, all young, dirty, and with deep dark circles from lack of sleep. That improvised refuge had become their only hope since they were separated from the group they traveled with.
"I'm going to get water," said Kazuki, the oldest of the group, as he grabbed a battered flashlight.
"Don't take too long," the girl replied without looking up. Her voice sounded dead, but not from resignation, just exhaustion.
Kazuki left through the back door. The alley greeted him with the same darkness that filled every corner of this new world. A few steps away, between a couple of abandoned cars, he spotted a half-crushed plastic bottle.
He crouched down.
He heard nothing.
He saw nothing.
But he felt… something.
A second later, a shadow dropped silently from the roof.
No growl.
No moan.
Only the crunch of his throat being torn apart.
The flashlight fell to the ground, briefly illuminating deformed black claws… and a jaw full of fresh meat.
The mutated zombie stepped back with its prey in its jaws. It didn't eat the body right there. It made no sound. It hid. It watched. It waited.
The rest of the group, worried about his absence, came out minutes later.
"Kazuki…" the girl whispered, her voice breaking.
They found the body.
Or at least part of it.
Chest opened. Organs ripped out with precision. The face unrecognizable. But what chilled their blood the most was the surroundings.
There were no other zombies.
No drag marks.
The place was clean. Too clean.
"What the hell is this…?" one of the guys muttered.
The girl, trembling, took a step back… until something on the wall caught her attention. A clumsy writing, with thick, erratic strokes, stained the broken tiles:
"Eat."
Blood.
Written with fingers.
From left to right.
"… Did a zombie do that?" she asked in a barely audible voice.
But no one answered.
Meanwhile, far from that scene, the wind began to blow harder between the destroyed buildings.
The next day would bring something new.
A different enemy.
One that didn't just walk.
One that learned.
[•••]
I had woken up before the sun.
The world was still asleep. Or what was left of it.
The silence was no comfort—it only reminded me that something was wrong. I felt it the moment I opened my eyes. Like a presence hiding in the corners of my consciousness. Like the cold that comes before a storm.
I turned my head. Alicia was awake.
Sitting on the edge of the couch, legs crossed and her hair still messy from sleep, she held an open package of dorayakis in her hands. She was watching me.
"Aren't you going to eat…?" she asked softly, raising one of the sweets toward me.
I hesitated for a few seconds before accepting.
"Thanks…" I murmured, taking one.
I wasn't hungry.
My mind was still trapped in the night before. The memory still fresh, like a thorn under the skin. I had found her lying in that forest, unconscious. As if the world had stopped for a moment.
Alicia had never lost consciousness. Never.
Not even in the desperation of altering the fate that her mother wouldn't die.
Not when she was wounded in the wars against the Demon Lords of the East.
Never.
And yet there she was. Fragile. Asleep and unresponsive.
It was like seeing an old painting, cracked and abandoned, when you know it once was glorious.
No blood.
No wounds.
But there was spiritual energy… and the bitter feeling that something had entered this game board. Something that wasn't supposed to be there.
She kept eating, as if nothing had happened. As if everything was fine.
But I knew her.
"You slept a lot," I said neutrally, watching every gesture on her face.
"I dreamed something weird," Alicia said, lowering her voice a little. "Everything… the whole place was red."
"Red?"
"Yes. Like the sky, the ground, and the air were all covered in crimson mist. There were no sounds. Just a thick silence… like the world had lost its breath."
Her eyes didn't meet mine as she spoke. It was as if she remembered more with her body than with her mind.
"In the middle of that place… a black silhouette appeared. Dark, blurry… like a shadow that couldn't decide its shape. It moved strangely, like it didn't know who it was. It walked, stumbled… and suddenly, it began to change."
"To change?"
"Yes… little by little it took the shape of a woman. First the outline of the body… then long hair… and finally, the face."
She paused, strangely. As if hesitant to continue.
"And then?" I asked, keeping my voice calm.
"She raised her hands and… started strangling herself. Hard. Screaming. Crying. She just… did it. Like she knew she had to. Like it was part of the dream. I saw her writhe. I heard the crack of her neck. And then she fell. And the red disappeared."
Silence.
She looked down at the dorayaki in her hand, as if she didn't know why she was still holding it.
"I don't understand why I dreamed that," she finally said. "But… it felt so real."
After hearing what she said, my mind inevitably returned to what happened last night.
That trace of spiritual energy in the air… now made sense.
It was no longer just a suspicion. Alicia's supposed "dream" fit perfectly with what had actually happened.
Someone from Little Garden had managed to enter the Gift Game.
And Alicia, upon sensing that intrusion, released the seal she had imposed on herself.
Only because of that was she able to act with the brutal precision that defines her.
She killed the woman who invaded this world and, to keep me from worrying, hid the body.
She probably thought that if I found no evidence, I wouldn't ask questions.
A logical decision… but imperfect.
Her mistake was allowing this childlike version of herself to have a "dream."
A dream that was nothing more than a crack in the wall of her own manipulated memories.
I sighed, barely audible.
If that's the case… then there's a chance, however small, that other individuals from Little Garden are also trying to enter.
And if they succeed…
Then this world—the one Alicia used for the Gift Game—will stop being just a game board for her amusement.
It'll become a dangerous place for the humans in this world.
"How troublesome…"
I let out a resigned sigh.
If dangerous individuals did arrive, I would have to find them and kill them.
I'll have to clean up annoying pests.
I hope it's just my distorted imagination.
And that this scenario… never becomes reality.
Two hours had passed since we left the shelter.
The sun barely pierced the constant haze of this dying world, and the stench of dried blood was now part of the landscape.
And then… we saw it.
A scene completely beyond what we would consider "normal."
Even in a world overrun by zombies, this didn't make sense.
Corpses.
Both human and zombie… devoured alike.
The ground was stained with black and crimson fluids. Remains of shredded bodies.
Broken jaws. Unrecognizable faces. A chaotic and disordered spectacle.
But the most disturbing thing was the complete lack of any logical pattern.
It wasn't an ambush.
It wasn't a fight.
It was indiscriminate hunting.
"Dad…" Alicia's voice sounded cold and focused, with one hand on her chin and eyes half-closed, examining the scene carefully. "I've been thinking that the zombies are starting to mutate… for some strange reason."
She didn't say it like a casual hypothesis.
She said it like someone putting together pieces of a puzzle no one else could see.
"I think the same," I replied, crossing my arms, not taking my eyes off the disaster in front of us. "I don't think a human, out of desperation, would decide to eat a zombie. It's easier to imagine someone going insane and turning to cannibalism… than seeing this."
She nodded, her expression neutral.
"Besides…" she added. "There are signs of abnormal strength. The bite marks… are different. Deeper. And the way the bodies were torn apart… it's not typical of regular zombies. This was done with brutality… but also with precision."
I glanced at her from the side.
She was right.
It wasn't an act of hunger. It was an act of power.
"One of them ate something it shouldn't have," I said softly.
"Maybe a human who wasn't ordinary?" she suggested without hesitation, as if reading my mind.
I didn't answer.
I just kept watching.
The mutation had begun.
And, most likely, it was all because of the body she hid from me.
That corpse…
That mistake…
Was now the origin of a new kind of threat.
A zombie that consumed a body infused with spiritual energy.
A creature that should never have existed in this world.
And now, the humans in this city… would have to face an enemy for which guns, knives, chainsaws, or any type of weapon used to kill zombies… would mean absolutely nothing to this new mutant zombie.
I let out a long, heavy sigh.
"This complicates things."
She looked at me in silence, understanding without the need for more words.
It's time to find that zombie…
Before it starts hunting indiscriminately and exterminates the humans who are still alive.
[•••]
The Humvee rested over the shallow bed of a river, motionless like a temporary fortress. The water surrounded its wheels, but it wasn't deep enough to drag it away.
That was the reason they chose that place to spend the night: zombies didn't cross water.
Inside, their bodies slept as best they could, using improvised backpacks as pillows and keeping rifles close at hand in case they needed to use them. The calm breathing contrasted with the overwhelming silence of the outside world.
Hirano was awake, rifle between his legs and eyes fixed on the brush lining the riverbank. Next to him, Akio Maresato, Alice's father, kept a watchful eye. He wasn't a soldier, but ever since Senji had saved him and his daughter, he understood that he couldn't let his guard down, and had to prevent any tragic accidents.
"No movement," Hirano whispered, without taking his eyes off the horizon.
Akio nodded.
"It's a relief… but nothing lasts forever in this new world."
In the distance, the sun began to tint the sky orange. One by one, the people in the Humvee started to wake.
Marikawa, who had slept in the driver's seat, let out a dramatic yawn and started the engine. The vehicle's soft hum vibrated like an announcement that the day was beginning again.
"Good morning… if that still makes sense," she said in her usual tone, though her eyes betrayed contained tension.
She drove the Humvee back to dry land.
Takagi, Rei, Saeko, and Alice began to climb out of the vehicle. Amid quiet laughter and still-drowsy faces, they looked for a way to change clothes. Komuro, Hirano, and Akio gave them space, stepping aside and standing on the other side of the Humvee, which shielded the women from view.
"Looks like we survived the first night," Komuro commented, stretching lazily.
"For now," added Hirano, with a tense smile.
Once the girls were ready, they slowly began driving the Humvee back onto the road. The engine roared louder, pushing through mud and rocks until they reached dry asphalt.
The road was desolate.
No zombies. No civilians. Only the wind moving bits of paper and dry leaves across the pavement.
"Too quiet," murmured Takagi from the back. "Gives me a bad feeling."
"Maybe the police and defense forces evacuated the civilians," Hirano guessed. "If they did it right, they might be in some secure base."
"And if they didn't do it right?" Rei asked.
No one answered.
Komuro turned to Takagi.
"Your house is two blocks from Higashi Hill, right?"
She nodded, her expression hardened.
"Yes. It's the closest place to look for my family… though I don't have much hope."
Her voice faltered.
"Still… I need to see it with my own eyes."
Komuro said nothing. He just placed a hand on her shoulder, silently.
Their next destination was clear.
And although they didn't know what they would find, they all knew that uncertainty was better than waiting around.
The journey to Takagi's house began. Komuro and Rei were riding on top of the Humvee.
"Hey, Takashi… have you noticed?" Rei asked with a smile.
"Noticed what?" Komuro replied, adjusting the rifle slung over his shoulder.
"Since last night, we haven't run into any of 'them.'"
Komuro's eyes widened slightly, realizing something he hadn't processed until now. It was true. They hadn't been attacked, hadn't heard groaning, hadn't even seen one nearby.
"That's true…" he whispered.
But then I realized something else.
The day before, people were flying everywhere like crazy.
But at that moment, I didn't see a single helicopter or plane.