Apocalypse: King of Zombies

Late into the night, the group lay sprawled across the open-air terrace on the third floor, gazing up at the stars.

The luxury home had lounge chairs—way better than lying on cold hardwood.

Stargazing wasn’t just a way to unwind. It was their edge. As long as no one else figured out the secret, they’d stay ahead. And every night they kept it to themselves, that lead grew a little more.

Especially for Ethan. He’d already gained over 600 extra pounds of raw strength. Even among Tier 4 Awakened, that was no joke.

Normally, a freshly advanced Tier 4 clocked in around 2,400 pounds of force. Ethan? He was starting at 3,000. That kind of gap wasn’t just noticeable—it was crushing. And the longer it went on, the wider it would get.

Chris and Henry had each gained over 200 pounds of strength too. Maybe not enough to dominate their Tier, but definitely enough to outclass most of their peers.

Sean and the others were still early in the process. They’d need time.

After a full night under the stars, they caught a few more hours of sleep. By a little after 8 a.m., they were up, grabbed a quick breakfast, and headed out.

They hadn’t come here just to enjoy the view. The luxury home was a base, not a vacation. Their real goal was power.

This time, their target was a cluster of residential buildings. The zombie density there was even higher than at Starlight State University. And where there were more zombies, there were bound to be more high-Tier ones too.

The area was tight—old buildings packed close together, narrow alleys threading between them. And those alleys were already choked with the undead. Fighting here wasn’t going to be easy. One wrong move, and they’d be swarmed.

When they arrived, the sight of the packed streets made everyone pause.

”Ethan, what’s the plan?” Sean asked, eyes scanning the sea of rotting bodies.

”Same as before,” Ethan said calmly. ”We break into a building and use the stairwell to bottleneck them.”

He activated True Sight, sweeping the area. After a moment, he pointed to a building that looked a little newer than the rest. ”That one.”

Most of the buildings here were ancient—crumbling concrete, rusted balconies, cracked windows. Ethan wasn’t about to risk fighting in one of those. Not with the kind of force zombies were packing these days. Most were already Tier 2, and Tier 3s were becoming more common. A few hard hits in the wrong place, and the whole building could come down on their heads.

They moved carefully toward the chosen building, trying to avoid drawing attention.

But in a place like this, stealth was a fantasy.

A zombie on an upper floor spotted them and let out a guttural shriek. In seconds, dozens of heads turned. Then the horde surged.

”Move!” Ethan barked.

No one panicked. They’d expected this.

As the undead charged, the team broke into a sprint, heading straight for the building. Any zombie that got in their way was flattened by Ethan’s barbell bar—one swing, one kill.

They reached the base of the building fast, but the entrance was already swarming.

No time to hesitate.

With Ethan and Chris—both Tier 4—leading the charge, the zombies didn’t stand a chance. Their sheer strength carved a path through the crowd like a wrecking ball through drywall.

They reached the front door in seconds.

Chris grabbed the iron gate and yanked. It screeched open under his strength, and the group surged inside, bolting up the stairs to the second floor.

”Split up!” Ethan ordered, already moving into position. ”Chris and I hold the stairwell. Sean, Mike, Pete—drag the bodies into the rooms. Henry, you’re on crystal core duty!”

”Got it!”

No one questioned him. They moved like clockwork.

With two Tier 4s guarding the stairs, the zombies had no chance of breaking through. Ethan and Chris stood side by side, barbell bars in hand, swinging with brutal efficiency. Every zombie that came up died before it could take a second step.

The stairwell became a slaughterhouse.

The old-style apartment building had four units per floor. Sean and the others quickly went door to door, kicking each one open.

No luck.

Not a single survivor.

Every unit was either crawling with zombies or filled with mangled corpses, half-eaten and rotting.

They cleared the rooms fast—no time to dwell. Once the spaces were secure, Sean, Big Mike, and Skinny Pete started hauling the bodies from the stairwell into the apartments. Henry followed behind, cracking open skulls and extracting crystal cores with practiced efficiency.

They moved like a factory line—quick, clean, relentless.

Outside, the chaos was escalating. The noise had drawn every zombie in the surrounding alleys. The building was now surrounded, the stairwell packed with the dead, all pushing forward in a grotesque, snarling queue.

Didn’t matter.

Ethan and Chris stood at the top of the stairs like twin wrecking balls. Tier 1, Tier 2, even Tier 3 zombies—none of them lasted more than a second under the swing of a barbell bar.

And with that kind of kill rate, the loot started rolling in fast.

Henry pulled the first Tier 3 crystal core from a twitching corpse and handed it straight to Big Mike. No time to hoard—better to absorb it on the spot and level up mid-fight.

They were grinding power in real time.

...

Meanwhile, across the city, the Starlight City Safe Zone stood like a fortress.

It covered nearly 100 acres—an enormous compound built in a matter of days by thousands of hands: National Guard, FEMA engineers, and volunteers working around the clock.

The walls were fifteen feet high, poured reinforced concrete, ringed with broken glass and steel spikes. Below that, a perimeter of HESCO blast barriers added another layer of defense. Every thirty feet, a watchtower stood with armed soldiers scanning the horizon.

It was, without question, the safest place in Starlight City. At least for now. Inside, you didn’t have to worry about a zombie crashing through your tent in the middle of the night.

But that was the catch—tents. The walls were solid, but the interior was still barebones. Rows of temporary shelters, barely enough to keep out the wind and rain.

Over ten thousand survivors had made it inside. Some were rescued by the National Guard. Others had clawed their way here on their own.

There were no forced labor rules—yet—but if you wanted more than the bare minimum, you had to work. Infrastructure, logistics, cleanup—there was always something that needed doing.

FEMA handed out food daily, but it was one MRE per meal. If you wanted more—better food, gear, supplies—you had to earn it.

And the real incentive? Crystal cores.

They’d started offering them as rewards for outstanding work. That alone had people working harder than they ever had in their pre-apocalypse desk jobs.

But not everyone was thrilled.

Especially the group that had been brought in yesterday from Starlight State University.

Now, they sat together in a corner of the camp, frustration written all over their faces.

”We’re just gonna sit here and rot?” Connor muttered, glancing at Vivian.

”What do you want me to say?” Vivian snapped. ”We can’t leave. Not without clearance. If I’d known it’d be like this, I never would’ve gotten on that damn truck.”

She hadn’t wanted to come in the first place, but she hadn’t found a good excuse to say no. Now she was stuck.

”We should just break out,” someone else said. ”This place is a waste of time.”

”Sure,” Vivian said dryly. ”Go ahead. Let’s see how far you get before they turn you into Swiss cheese.”

Connor scowled. ”So what, we just sit here? We’re losing time. Every day we stay, we fall further behind.”

”If we’d left the university earlier, we wouldn’t be in this mess,” someone muttered.

They weren’t wrong. This group wasn’t made up of sheep. They were ambitious, driven. They knew the truth: in the apocalypse, power was everything. And you didn’t get stronger sitting in a tent waiting for handouts.

Vivian stood up. ”The Safe Zone’s still new. The rules aren’t set in stone yet. They’re being cautious, sure, but that’s understandable. Let’s go talk to someone higher up. Lay it out for them—what we can do, what we want. If we make our case, they might let us go.”

Connor nodded. ”Yeah. Worth a shot.”

...