Apocalypse: King of Zombies

Darius stared hard at Lil’ Shroom, eyes narrowed with suspicion. He’d already gotten word from Malcolm—if anyone was trying to lure the Zombie Horde toward the human camps, odds were it had to be the so-called Zombie King from the U.S.

And this little freak right here? Looked mighty suspicious.

”Let’s see what the hell you really are!” Darius growled, his face twisting into a snarl as he lunged forward, claws outstretched.

Lil’ Shroom’s eyes darted around, spinning like pinwheels. She hadn’t expected to get spotted so soon. But hey, walk by the river long enough, you’re bound to get your feet wet. She’d used the same trick too many times—no wonder it finally backfired.

So she dropped the act.

With a flick of her wrist, a cloud of fungal spores burst out from her body, spreading like wildfire and engulfing the nearby zombies.

The sudden attack caught them completely off guard. Several zombies were instantly infected, letting out guttural screams as they convulsed and collapsed to the ground.

Lil’ Shroom didn’t waste a second—she spun on her heel and bolted.

Darius swiped through the spores with a snarl. His thick hide and monstrous physique made him nearly immune to the parasitic fungi, but that didn’t stop the fury boiling in his chest.

”Knew it! You’re the damn Zombie King from the States! I see right through you—after her!”

”RAAAHHH!” The zombies behind him roared in unison, surging forward in a frenzied stampede.

Most of them already knew—this was the bastard who’d been stirring up chaos everywhere, getting their own kind killed and weakening the Horde. Their hatred ran deep. There was no way they were letting her get away.

But Lil’ Shroom wasn’t the same as before. She was S+ class now, and her speed was off the charts. Regular zombies didn’t stand a chance of catching her.

And as she ran, she kept releasing more spores, infecting the ones chasing her. Some of the newly parasitized zombies even morphed into mimics—fungus-controlled doppelgängers that rose up and blocked the path of the Horde.

Darius and his crew were falling behind, losing numbers fast.

”Goddammit! This is pissing me off!”

Fueled by rage, Darius kicked it into overdrive. Thanks to his Vampire Race physique, he was able to close the gap between them fast.

The two of them tore across the open plains like twin comets, the landscape blurring past on either side.

Lil’ Shroom glanced back, eyes narrowing. This guy was like a bad rash—no matter what she did, she couldn’t shake him. She couldn’t afford to slip up.

Then, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted something—drones buzzing in the sky up ahead, hovering in formation like they were scanning for something.

”There!”

She veered toward them, sprinting full speed in that direction.

As she got closer, she could sense human presence. On the horizon, figures began to take shape—soldiers in sleek nano-combat suits, armed with Crystal Core Firearms. They were gathered around a massive crack in the earth, peering down into the abyss like they were guarding or investigating something.

Darius was gaining on her fast.

No time to hesitate.

Lil’ Shroom charged straight toward the humans. As she ran, her body began to shift—her face morphed into something stunningly beautiful, her form reshaping into a curvaceous figure clad in a Genesis Biotech nano-suit. She now looked exactly like one of their elite Awakeners.

”Zombie attack! I need backup!” she shouted, voice urgent and convincing.

”Wait, what the hell?!” Darius’s eyes went wide. He watched in disbelief as the zombie he’d been chasing suddenly transformed into a human.

That sneaky little bitch!

The Genesis Biotech Awakeners spotted the incoming Horde and didn’t hesitate. They raised their weapons and opened fire.

Beams of energy lit up the field, streaking through the air like fireworks.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Explosions rocked the ground as the energy blasts tore through the zombies, sending shockwaves that knocked dozens of them flat.

Darius roared in fury, his voice shaking the earth.

”Kill them all!”

The zombies behind him, already bloodthirsty, howled and charged forward.

”Uh... wait a sec...” one of the lesser zombies muttered, something not sitting right.

”Boss, aren’t we... like... fighting humans again?”

”Oh... shit.” Darius froze for a beat, realization dawning.

They’d been played. Again.

He watched Lil’ Shroom’s retreating figure, her graceful, taunting movements making his teeth grind with rage.

But it was too late to back out now. The battle had already begun.

And so, chaos erupted across the plains once more—zombies and humans clashing in a brutal, all-out war.

...

At that moment, Lil’ Shroom slipped into the Genesis Biotech encampment unnoticed. With her appearance fully morphed into that of a human Awakener, no one gave her a second glance.

All eyes were locked on the incoming Zombie Horde.

”Thanks for the assist,” she muttered with a smirk, glancing back over her shoulder.

With Genesis Biotech holding the line, Darius didn’t stand a chance of catching up.

”Another battle sparked. Mission accomplished.”

She clapped her hands together with a satisfied little flourish, like a job well done. Then she turned, ready to make her quiet exit.

Another win for me. Time to disappear...

But as she walked forward, she found herself standing at the edge of a massive, pitch-black fissure in the earth.

The ground looked like it had been split in two by some ancient force. The crack stretched over fifty feet wide, and when she peered down, there was nothing but darkness—an abyss so deep it seemed to swallow light itself.

The same Genesis Biotech Awakeners she’d passed earlier were still gathered around the chasm, scanning it, searching for something.

Lil’ Shroom paused, eyes narrowing in thought.

Something’s definitely going on down there.

”Well, you guys handle the Canadian zombies, I’ll handle the mystery. Fair trade.”

Without hesitation, she leapt into the void.

Her lithe figure vanished into the darkness, swallowed whole by the gaping maw of the earth.

The drop was long—really long—but with her S+ class Zombie King physique, it was nothing she couldn’t handle.

She kicked off the rock walls a few times on the way down, slowing her descent. It took several seconds before she finally landed at the bottom.

By her estimate, the fissure had to be at least two thousand feet deep.

Down here, the space opened up into a wide underground chamber. The air was thick and humid, clinging to her skin like a wet shroud. A foul stench of rot hung heavy in the air.

It was pitch black, but that didn’t bother her. Her vision cut through the darkness like a blade.

Bones littered the ground—some animal, some human. A few looked fresh, but others were ancient, yellowed and brittle, maybe even from before the apocalypse.

”Where the hell am I?” she muttered, scanning the area.

With a flick of her hand, she released a wave of fungal spores. They drifted through the air and latched onto the nearby corpses. Red fleshy growths began to sprout from the bodies, pulsing softly in the dark.

Let’s drop a few scouts...

She moved forward slowly, cautiously, letting her spores spread. Wherever she walked, red tumors bloomed, and mycelium crept across the ground like veins, gradually claiming the entire area.

Her parasitic abilities had evolved to terrifying levels—this was what S+ class looked like.

Then, she felt it.

A faint sound. A subtle shift in the air.

And a smell—metallic, sharp, unmistakable.

Blood.

”There’s something here...”

Her curiosity piqued, she followed the sound. The faint crunching noise grew louder—crack, crack, crunch—like bones being chewed.

The blood scent thickened, clinging to her nostrils.

Something was feeding.

Please don’t be some freaky-ass mutant beast... she thought, though the sound of chewing was oddly... appetizing.

She crept forward, deeper into the dark, until she reached the end of the cavern. There, nestled against the rock wall, was a freshly dug tunnel. The dirt around it was loose, like it had just been clawed out.

The stench of blood was overwhelming now, pouring out of the hole like a fog.

Lil’ Shroom crouched low, tilting her head as she peered inside.

There was someone—no, something—inside.

A humanoid figure, hunched over, back turned to her. Its shoulders twitched with each bite, head buried in whatever it was devouring.

It was completely absorbed in its meal.

...