Apocalypse: King of Zombies

Day by day, time rolled on. Zombies, mutant beasts, and humans alike were all evolving, all pushing to grow stronger.

The Fallen Star compound was expanding at an incredible pace. Under Miles’ command, the outer walls kept pushing outward, swallowing more land, stretching the compound’s footprint wider and wider.

As Ethan’s team continued sweeping through the region, the compound’s population steadily grew.

After the first few days, even the original batch of Enhanced inside the compound were brought out to help with zombie cleanup.

Main reason? Ethan thought digging out crystal cores was too much of a time sink. So he had them handle it.

Thanks to a few days of Miles’ ”training,” those Enhanced were now obedient as hell—cooperative, efficient, no complaints.

What Ethan didn’t expect was that the one leading them turned out to be Harris—the same guy they’d met on the road, the leader of the group that had told them about Knox’s compound.

Ethan was surprised, sure, but he didn’t question it. He trusted Miles. If Miles picked Harris to lead the Enhanced, there had to be a reason.

And sure enough, after spending some time around him, Ethan realized Harris’s loyalty was rock solid.

Later, Miles filled him in.

Turns out, Harris’s wife had been taken by Knox—forced into his harem just because she was beautiful. She was one of the women they’d seen coming out of Knox’s house that day.

For any man, that kind of humiliation would be unbearable.

But Harris had swallowed it. Stayed in the compound, biding his time, waiting for a shot at revenge.

When Ethan’s group first asked him for directions, he hadn’t said anything because he didn’t want to drag a bunch of young people into that hellhole.

But once he realized how strong they were, he told George to lead them there. Then he followed them back.

He’d watched with his own eyes as Ethan and the others tore the place apart, saw Knox get his limbs hacked off.

From that moment on, Harris was all in.

He approached Miles himself, pledging loyalty.

After a few days of observation and testing, Miles confirmed his sincerity and made him the Enhanced team’s captain. He even boosted Harris’s strength to peak Tier 5.

And Harris didn’t disappoint. Even Ethan found him easy to work with—give the guy an order, and it got done. No fuss, no screw-ups.

It saved Ethan a ton of trouble. Otherwise, he’d have had to assign a Fallen Star Squad member just to babysit the Enhanced, which would’ve been a waste of manpower.

With over two hundred Enhanced helping dig out crystal cores, their zombie-clearing speed skyrocketed.

By the ninth day, the group reached a small town about seven miles out—and there, Ethan unexpectedly ran into a Tier 7 zombie.

At that point, the zombie had only gathered around three thousand undead under its command, including two Tier 6s.

But by now, Ethan, Chris, and Henry had all reached Tier 7. The rest of the team were sitting at peak Tier 6.

In other words, this Tier 7 zombie? Total free loot.

Unfortunately, the zombie hadn’t realized just how screwed it was.

The moment it spotted intruders near its base, it got excited—like it thought it was about to feast.

A wave of zombies surged forward, charging straight at them.

Ethan and the others didn’t hesitate—they charged straight in.

By now, everyone had swapped out their old weapons for oversized rebar spears. With their strength increasing, the barbell bars just weren’t cutting it anymore. Machetes and combat knives dulled too fast and broke too easily.

Then one day, they stumbled across a warehouse packed with rebar.

That gave them an idea.

Big Mike used his fire-type ability to melt the metal, while Garrick shaped it with his earth-type ability. Together, they forged a dozen massive rebar spears—each one thicker than a forearm and six feet long, with sharpened tips for stabbing.

With their abilities, they didn’t need to follow any of the old-world industrial processes. Just raw power and creativity.

Sure, the weapons were a bit awkward to grip, but they hit like a truck. Whether smashing or stabbing, the feeling was addictive.

Even Mia, the team’s resident beauty, was all in—though watching her swing a giant metal spike was definitely a strange sight.

The group stormed into the zombie horde, rebar spears swinging. Every strike left bodies in pieces. Wherever they went, the ground was littered with corpses.

Meanwhile, Chris vanished into stealth mode, heading straight for the Tier 7 zombie.

When it came to high-tier targets, Chris was still the fastest option.

Ethan could handle it too, but it’d take more effort—especially with two Tier 6 zombies nearby. Things could get messy.

But Chris? He slipped in unseen, enhanced his weapon with his edge-sharpening ability, and went for the kill.

His mastery over stealth had reached a terrifying level. Almost no one could detect him anymore—except Ethan.

Behind them, the two hundred-plus Enhanced joined the fight as well.

With them handling the stragglers, Ethan’s squad didn’t even need to mop up. The Enhanced had it covered.

Thanks to their solid performance lately, Ethan had rewarded them with Tier 5 crystal cores, pushing all of them to peak Tier 5.

In battles like this, they weren’t in much danger.

And that only made them more determined to follow Ethan’s lead.

They’d been surviving the apocalypse for so long, but they’d never killed zombies this comfortably before.

The fight didn’t last long. In just over ten minutes, the entire horde—more than three thousand zombies—was wiped out.

Chris took out the Tier 7 and both Tier 6 zombies on his own.

With stealth and edge-enhancement combined, he was a walking assassination machine. Killing zombies was almost too easy.

Soon, the battlefield was cleared. Chris walked over to Ethan, holding one Tier 7 crystal core and two Tier 6s.

”Ethan, you take the Tier 7 core,” Sean said. ”The rest of us are already at peak Tier 6. We’ll hit Tier 7 in a couple days anyway. No need to waste it. You using it will speed up your breakthrough.”

”Sean’s right,” Chris added. ”We’re sticking to the same plan—any core that helps you, you take it first. Once you’re maxed out, then we’ll rotate.”

Ethan nodded. ”Alright.”

He didn’t argue. He took the Tier 7 crystal core and swallowed it on the spot.

Normally, going from Tier 7 to peak Tier 7 would take about half a month of nightly stargazing to absorb mysterious energy—six or seven days longer than the Tier 6 to Tier 6 peak jump.

The higher the Tier, the slower the natural progression. But with crystal cores, that time could be cut drastically.

Which meant humans still had a shot at surpassing zombies.

The rest of the team finished cleaning up the battlefield. After handing over the cores to Ethan, they split up to scavenge supplies and search for survivors—something they’d gotten very efficient at over the past few days.

This was when Ethan truly felt the power of numbers.

If it were just their core team doing all this, it would’ve taken forever.

Once the scavenging was done, the Enhanced loaded up the supplies and drove them back to the compound. Ethan gave them the next destination—they’d meet up there later.

With everyone working in sync, their efficiency was off the charts.

...

Two weeks later…

Ethan’s team had cleared nearly every small town within a 30-mile radius.

They’d killed around 50,000 zombies and collected just as many crystal cores. Among them were over 40 Tier 6 cores. Including the ones they’d farmed from their captive zombies, they had more than 50 Tier 6 cores total.

The entire Fallen Star Squad had reached Tier 7.

Ethan himself had been at peak Tier 7 for two days now—on the verge of breaking into Tier 8.

The compound’s population had swelled to over 5,000. Among them, more than 1,000 were Enhanced, all at peak Tier 5.

Miles had handpicked over a dozen promising Awakened and given them Tier 6 cores, pushing them into Tier 6.

The population boom was largely thanks to two small shelters they’d discovered and absorbed during their zombie sweeps.

As for supplies, the compound’s warehouses had been expanded seven or eight times already.

They now had enough food to last everyone a year or two without issue.

The compound’s defensive perimeter had also grown, now covering the core area of the County Seat and the surrounding farmland.

Come spring, they’d be able to start planting crops—no more worrying about food shortages.

Miles was also steadily improving the infrastructure. Everything was falling into place.