Apocalypse: King of Zombies

A few minutes later, a soldier led Ethan and Sean into the Military Command Center.

Ethan’s gaze swept across the room. Along with General Cross, Directors Vaughn and Michael were present—no surprise there—but what caught his attention were the two unfamiliar faces: a man and a woman, both in their late twenties.

What really gave him pause was the pressure coming off them. Both of them... Tier 8 Enhanced.

That was rare—very rare.

Ethan frowned slightly. When did the compound get two more Tier 8s?

”Ethan, you’re here! Come on in, have a seat!”

General Cross stood up immediately, along with Vaughn and Michael. All three moved to greet him warmly.

The man and woman, though, stayed seated. Their eyes locked onto Ethan and Sean with a scrutinizing air, the kind that measured worth in silence.

Ethan gave them a glance, read them for what they were, and didn’t bother returning the attitude. He clasped hands with General Cross, then sat down calmly in one of the chairs.

”Didn’t expect General Cross’s important guest to be this young,” the woman murmured to the man beside her.

”Don’t judge a book by its cover,” he replied quietly. ”They must have some special abilities.”

”Still—General Cross used to be Joint Base Commander. Now he runs this whole compound with three hundred thousand people, and he treats two kids this politely? That’s kind of a joke.”

They kept their voices low, but the Command Center wasn’t that big—and everyone here had sharp Enhanced senses. Their ”whispers” were as loud as conversation.

General Cross shot a quick look toward them, then turned to Ethan with a slightly awkward smile. ”Ethan, let me introduce you. These two are envoys from Atlas City—Victoria Hale and Julian Mercer.”

Ethan raised an eyebrow, nodding in acknowledgment.

Atlas City? That was over six hundred miles away.

It said a lot that Atlas was willing to send Tier 8 envoys that far. They clearly weren’t a city to take lightly.

Still, if Victoria and Julian brought a proper squad and stuck to the highways, the distance wouldn’t be much of an issue—they’d probably run into only a few scattered zombie packs.

Ethan figured their visit had two purposes: check in on Clearford’s situation… and simultaneously remind General Cross who was still watching from above. No surprise there. In the apocalypse, central command had lost its grip on most regions. Some local leaders were bound to start having ideas of their own.

He didn’t press for details—it wasn’t his business. Let them play politics. If they ever tried to pull that crap in Fallen Star City? They’d be out on their asses so fast they wouldn’t have time to sneeze. People didn’t survive this long just to hand the reins back over to some bureaucrat.

”Ethan’s here for the crystal cores, right?” Director Vaughn jumped in quickly, clearly trying to smooth over the awkward tension and refocus the meeting.

”Yeah.” Ethan nodded.

”I’ll have them brought in right away.” Vaughn stood and called out toward the hallway.

Moments later, two soldiers walked in, each carrying a huge burlap sack over their shoulders—clearly already prepared in advance.

”Ethan, our total haul this trip was 172,658 Tier-5 crystal cores,” Vaughn reported. ”Per our agreement, the compound keeps twenty percent—that’s 34,531. The remaining 138,127 are yours. Feel free to verify.”

Ethan grinned. ”Nah, no need. I trust your honesty, Director Vaughn.”

The numbers were oddly specific, down to the last digit. That said enough—clearly they’d counted carefully. Even if something was off, he wouldn’t know. He hadn’t tallied exact expectations himself. Just a rough estimate.

And truth be told, he trusted these three—at least for now.

”General Cross,” Ethan turned. ”Got any spare satellite phones lying around?”

”Satellite phones?” Cross blinked. ”You want one?”

”Obviously. Actually, the more the better.”

”...”

Cross looked conflicted. ”Sorry, Ethan. Satellite devices are still under strict control. Linking to the comm net needs approval from Atlas.”

He spared a brief glance at the two envoys nearby.

”But don’t worry, I’ll submit a request for you.”

”Better make that two. One won’t cut it.”

”...”

”I’ll try,” Cross said with a resigned, half-smiling sigh.

”Appreciate it,” Ethan replied, grinning. ”And hey—if you come through, you’ll definitely be rewarded. I don’t forget favors.”

He stood up. ”Alright, I won’t keep you. Looks like you’ve got other company.”

”No problem. Take care.”

Ethan gave a quick wave and turned to go. He and Sean each hauled one of the heavy sacks onto their backs like it was no big deal and left the Command Center without another word.

”Wait a second!”

The young man—Julian—who’d been quiet till now suddenly spoke up, voice rising.

”General Cross, you’re just handing over all those crystal cores?!”

”They were his to begin with,” Director Vaughn replied flatly.

Julian frowned. ”Do you even understand how important those crystal cores are?”

”One of the main reasons we came here was because of the crystal cores,” he continued. ”Back in Atlas City, teams of scientists have been working around the clock—and we’ve finally made a breakthrough.”

”It’s now possible to extract energy from low-tier crystal cores and compress it into higher-tier cores.”

The statement hit the room like a dropped grenade.

”You’re saying… these Tier 5 cores can be fused into Tier 6? Or higher?” General Cross stared wide-eyed, along with Michael and Vaughn.

Even Ethan looked over with genuine surprise.

”Exactly,” Julian said proudly. ”The tech’s still early-stage, but right now—yes. We can extract from Tier 5s and combine them into legitimate Tier 6 crystal cores.”

”That process… how many Tier 5 cores does it take to make one Tier 6?” General Cross asked quickly.

”Roughly a little over a hundred.”

”Pfft.” Ethan rolled his eyes.

He had a flicker of concern when Julian mentioned fusion—if the conversion rate had been decent, that could’ve been a game-changer. But at 100 to 1? Please.

Let’s do the math.

A hundred Tier 5s for one Tier 6. Then probably another hundred of those to reach Tier 7.

At Tier 5 ratio that meant you’d need 10,000 Tier 5 cores just to build a single Tier 7.

And for Tier 8? A million. One. Million. Cores.

Ethan could just kill a Tier 8 zombie and skip the whole joke of a process.

Still, from the corner of his eye, he noticed General Cross and the others looked… tempted.

They had loads of low-tier cores on hand. Even at a steep cost, being able to turn Tier 5s into Tier 6s could seriously boost their people’s power.

Most Enhanced in the compound were stuck at the peak of Tier 5, bottlenecked by lack of advancement options. Tier 6 zombies were tough—but Tier 5s were still very manageable.

If you could kill a hundred Tier 5s and make a Tier 6-enhanced fighter, you’d absolutely take that deal.

Of course, from what Julian had said, the current tech only supported fusion into Tier 6. Anything beyond that was still off the table—for now.

Still, it was useful tech. Even if it didn’t change the game entirely, it smoothed out a serious roadblock.

Julian smiled, clearly confident he’d stunned the room back into reason. ”So? Still think it’s smart to give away over a hundred thousand Tier 5 crystal cores? That’s enough to produce more than a thousand Tier 6s. Think what that would do for your compound’s strength.”

General Cross didn’t even flinch. ”Sure, it’s impressive. But again—those cores already belonged to them. It’s not giving them away.”

”You—” Julian froze halfway through his next word.

Was this guy serious?

Even now, in the middle of the damn apocalypse, he was still playing the Boy Scout?

Just hand them over? No power plays? No strategic ’reallocations’?

Julian couldn’t help thinking—Yeah, right, like you’re not tempted to find a way to claim them. This is the end of the world, and you’re still pretending it’s business as usual?