Apocalypse: Every Woman I Invest In Makes Me Stronger

The night was as dark as ink.

Ethan moved through the ruins like something that had learned the hard way how to stay alive.

The twenty-kilometer stretch from the suburbs into the city center proved far more dangerous than he had hoped. He kept to the shadows whenever he could~slipping between green belts, ducking behind abandoned vehicles, cutting through narrow side streets while the main roads belonged to the dead. Zombie groups moved slowly, but once their numbers climbed past ten the risk of being surrounded became real. Even with his current strength, getting boxed in by that many would be a nightmare.

Whenever a lone zombie blocked his path and there was no clean way around it, he ended the problem without hesitation.

The sword flashed once in the moonlight. A clean arc. The blade severed a neck with a wet, decisive sound, and the body folded to the pavement with a dull thud.

One.

Then another.

By the time the first gray light of dawn touched the horizon he had killed six. After each kill he pried open the skull and searched the ruined tissue. Nothing. Only murky brain matter, blood, and shattered bone. No crystal. No pulse of energy. Nothing at all.

He wiped the contaminated blood from the blade and kept moving.

Looks like zombies are different from mutated animals. They don’t carry cores.

That explained the absence of any reports over the past month. If zombies had held crystal cores, someone would have found them by now.

The sky slowly brightened. By the time the outlines of distant skyscrapers grew clear, he had crossed the outer districts of Nova City. At ten in the morning he finally stepped into the city center.

Five kilometers remained to Century Skyline.

The moment he entered the denser streets his expression hardened. The number of zombies had climbed sharply. Abandoned cars clogged the roads in tangled heaps. Metal shutters of shops had been torn open like tin cans. Dried blood stained the pavement in dark, irregular maps. Torn clothing and scattered debris littered the sidewalks. Every so often he passed a zombie still wearing the uniform of its former life~a police officer, a doctor, a store clerk. Whatever they had been before no longer mattered. Now they were all the same: hungry, tireless, and empty.

Ethan lowered his profile and slipped into a narrow alley.

The place reeked. Overflowing trash bins and stacks of soggy cardboard filled the space. The stench was thick enough to coat the back of the throat. But the alley offered cover, and cover was what he needed.

He was almost at the far end when the air changed.

A sharp, violent rush of wind cut through the silence behind him.

Shit~

His body reacted before conscious thought. He threw himself sideways.

Something black tore past the space he had occupied a heartbeat earlier. The force of the near-miss burned across his back. Fabric split. A hot line of pain opened along his skin. He hit the ground hard, rolled with the impact, and came up with the sword already raised in front of his chest.

Then he saw it.

A leopard.

Except no ordinary leopard had ever been this large. The beast was nearly the size of a small calf, its powerful body covered in black spots that caught the morning light with a strange metallic sheen. Amber eyes locked onto him with cold intelligence. Fresh blood still dripped from its jaws.

”Damn. A mutant leopard.”

The animal lowered its body, muscles coiling under the spotted hide. Claws scraped against concrete with a sound like knives on stone. It was not afraid. It had already decided he was food.

Ethan tightened his grip on the sword.

”Shouldn’t you be in a zoo somewhere instead of ruining my morning?”

The leopard growled low in its throat and exploded forward.

It came like a black blur, claws outstretched, aiming for his face. Ethan stepped back and met the attack with a hard slash. Steel rang against claw. The impact traveled up his arms like a shockwave and left his hands numb.

Too fast.

He retreated again. And again. The blade moved in constant, desperate arcs, turning aside strikes that came from every angle. The leopard’s speed was simply higher than anything he had faced. Its attacks arrived in a relentless rhythm that left almost no space to breathe or counter.

Then he misjudged a step.

A claw raked across his arm. Skin and muscle parted. Blood sprayed in a bright arc.

”Damn it~”

Pain flared white-hot. The retreat stopped. Ethan’s expression hardened into something colder.

Running would only get him killed. Pure defense would end the same way. He needed to take a risk.

He deliberately left an opening.

The leopard saw it and committed.

Ethan dropped low at the last possible moment. The sword swept across the ground in a vicious horizontal cut. The blade bit deep into the animal’s hind leg, slicing through tendon and muscle until white bone showed.

A raw, almost human scream tore from the leopard’s throat. Blood poured from the wound. Its movement slowed at once.

But the injury only fed its rage.

Amber eyes went wild. Ignoring the ruined leg, the beast launched itself at him again with everything it had left.

Ethan barely got his arms up in time.

The impact hit like a truck. His body left the ground and slammed into the alley wall hard enough to drive the air from his lungs. A metallic taste flooded his mouth. The sword tore free of his grip and skittered several meters away, disappearing under a heap of trash.

The leopard landed, turned, and came for him again, jaws wide, teeth coated in blood.

Ethan stared at the closing distance. A cold, ruthless clarity settled over him.

His hand moved.

The pistol Debbie had pressed into his palm before he left appeared in his grasp as if it had always been there.

”Die.”

Bang.

The first shot cracked through the narrow space. The leopard twisted mid-leap and the bullet only scored its flank.

Bang.

The second shot followed instantly. The animal jerked its head; the round grazed fur and left a shallow red line.

Ethan’s eyes narrowed.

The sword can cut its flesh, but the bullets barely bite. So much for the easy option.

The leopard came again.

This time he did not retreat. He waited, every muscle locked, until the open jaws filled his vision.

Bang.

Bang.

Both rounds struck the same damaged area of the skull where the earlier graze had weakened the bone. The massive body jerked violently in mid-air, momentum dying all at once. For a fraction of a second everything seemed to freeze.

Then the leopard crashed to the ground at his feet.

It twitched once. Twice. Then went still.

Ethan remained pressed against the wall, breathing in ragged pulls. He waited several long seconds, pistol still raised, until he was certain the animal would not rise again. Only then did he lower the weapon.

”Finally.”

He pushed himself away from the wall, retrieved the sword, and only then noticed the small object that had rolled free of the corpse.

A green crystal core the size of a peanut, glowing faintly in the sunlight.

His eyes lit with sudden interest. He picked it up at once and stored it in his Space Ability.

Only afterward did he look at the leopard’s body. Already the flesh was beginning to darken. Mutated animals decayed fast after death; within hours the meat would turn black and reek of rot, completely inedible.

”What a waste,” he muttered. That much meat could have fed three people for days. There was nothing to be done about it.

He had just sheathed the sword when new sounds reached him.

Footsteps. Many of them. Mixed with the wet growls of zombies and the sharper edge of human voices.

Shit.

The gunshots had drawn attention. Whether it was a horde or other survivors no longer mattered. He was bleeding from at least five separate places~back, arm, thigh, side. None of the wounds were deep enough to kill him outright, but the cumulative blood loss was already making his vision swim. Another fight right now could finish him.

His eyes swept the alley and locked on a small door at the far end. A faded sign still hung above it: JANITOR’S BREAK ROOM. The door stood slightly ajar.

He moved.

Inside, he shut and locked the door behind him. The room was tiny~a broken table, two battered chairs, a corner stacked with brooms and mops. He pressed his back to the door and listened.

The footsteps drew closer. Closer. Then they passed and slowly faded into the distance.

Only when the last sound had gone did he allow himself to breathe out.

He looked down at the blood soaking through his clothes.

”Yeah... I can’t keep going like this.”

He pulled a Minor Recovery Potion from his Space Ability, uncorked it, and swallowed the contents in one continuous pull. Heat bloomed almost at once, spreading through muscle and bone, reaching every open wound. For several seconds the pain sharpened to a white intensity that made him clench his teeth. Then the bleeding slowed. The worst of the damage began to close.

Ethan leaned against the wall and shut his eyes for a short time.

He could not stay long. Five kilometers still separated him from Century Skyline. Daisy’s last message had been sent three days ago. Every minute that passed was another minute she had to survive alone.

He opened his eyes, the residual heat of the recovery agent still moving through his body.

”Hang on.”

He pushed himself away from the wall, tested his weight, and stepped back into the alley.

”I’m coming.”