《Rise of the Phoenix - Apocalypse Rebirth》Prologue - Zombie King
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Under the last rays of the sun's lights, Aria stood and waited patiently in a side alley watching the horde of zombies chasing a group of people. The 2 dozen group of abilities who were protecting a handful of people she assumed were very important. The last of the evening light reflecting sharply on the body of the two mechs' metallic body, one leading the attack and other other covering from behind.
Not that she cared. Eventually everyone will become a zombie, like her.
Unlike the rest of her brethren, she did not go forward to attack. Why? It's because she's a newly turned zombie. She died a month ago due to being injected with a high dosage of a mutated zombie poison. For some reason she maintained her consciousness even after mutating. She even wondered if there were others like her by observing the gross undead for many months, but she didn't find any hint of intelligence besides the Zombie Bosses above level 10. So going out to attack is just asking for death. Again.
She constantly asked herself what was the point of her still maintaining her human consciousness while her body is cold and blue. She didn't understand what purpose her being alive was supposed to play in this awful hell hole.
She wasn't able to communicate or anything like that but she knew to hide and maintain a low profile while moving along with the horde. If a zombie leveled up after level 1, they need to hurry up and continue to get to level 2 before succumbing to being food for higher leveled zombies.
Zombies can eat their own to level up quicker so even though they all instinctively need to consume fresh human meat, but in times of "drought and hunger", they will turn on their own and fight one another to get more powerful. Luckily she was smart so she kept up with the large hunting group being controlled by a level 15 Zombie King with a strong mental ability that commanded more than 5M zombies under it. So they were able to follow and ambush big groups of humans like the ones in front of her without any problem. This is the 5th group that they have ambushed from City P's military base.
Suddenly a level 6 zombie broke the group of humans in two groups. The bigger group in front continued to fight trying to save the smaller group but an insistent handsome man wearing a light body armor bodysuit kept yelling for them to leave. He looked like he was in his 30's and was well maintained. His skin was still smooth with a healthy glow like he hasn't had a bad meal ever since the ZA happened. He seems to be the most important person the group of 20 abilities and the 2 mechs are protecting. He also looks very familiar but Aria wasn't able to remember where she has seen him before.
Interesting.
His eyes were roaming everywhere, and his mouth kept moving into his mouth piece. Aria realized he was giving either instructions or information to the whole group as he continuously scanned all the zombies around him. He then paused what he was saying before suddenly swiveling his eyes towards Aria's direction. Aria instinctively crouched down to hide behind the dense group of zombies in front of her.
Soon the movements of the group that was broken out shot up and aggressively killed all the zombies around them before regrouping with the man wearing the light body armor. The zombies continued to rush over and attack the humans but the two mechs were able to keep them at bay. It looked like the humans would be able to retreat successfully with half their number. Finally a roar was heard from a few blocks away.
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Uh-oh, the Zombie King is coming. Not good. Aria thought as she continued to follow the group from a safe distance. Now that the Zombie King 15 is here, it's very unlikely that they would escape. Aria then climbed on top of a roof to get a better view of the battle.
Due to the Zombie King's call, the zombies once again were full of vigor and motivation. Even Aria felt a surge of energy in her head, urging her desperately to get closer and closer. To consume.
But she resisted, leaning against the wall to continue observing the battle. It became hectic quite quickly. Aria couldn't help but keep an eye on the man and the people around him. She could tell that they were part of an elite team, they were also the group that was separated earlier.
Watching the mech in the front of the group make a great move using his large mechanical arms to sweep the swarm of zombies away, she was duly impressed.
Mechs were quite popular a century ago due to The Big War which wiped out half the world's population. Soon after the effects of the war were clearly felt throughout the globe. Although the population decreased significantly, the land was so damaged after that the problem of food production was glaringly obvious.
Each countries' budgets were quickly shifted to new types of farming, agriculture, medicine, and energy. The war is over, the global population is cut in half, and the remaining survivors are dying of drought and hunger. Who knew that when the world reached its height of peace, technological and medical advancements, and overall good health, a supernatural event occurred across the globe.
So although the militaries in each country are still doing important research on mechs throughout the decades, the interests teetered out and less people are knowledgeable enough to utilize a mech body. Old mech were either found in museums or scrapped and recycled for parts.
To see these two mechs in the wild at this time and age is quite novel.
Sounds of helicopter blades can be heard in the distance. It looks like the group of people here will be saved after all. The two mechs quickly created a bridge for the group to get onto the roof before the two men inside the mechs got out themselves. Each quickly touched their mechs to store into their storage mech ring. The group of people are temporarily safe on top of the roof as they await the helicopter's descent.
Aria's eyes were immediately attracted to one of the men who previously controlled a sleek black mech. This man was quick, strong, and solid. His lightning ability is sharp and fatal to the enemies around him. Although the lower half of his face was covered, his deep set eyes were dark and penetrating surrounded by dark thick lashes. His eyebrows were thick and clean on his smooth forehead.
This type of male body didn't use to be her ideal body before the Zombie Apocalypse.
He was too big and masculine compared to her 5'3"; coming in at 6'2" or 6'3" with large wide shoulders and arms, a well muscled solid waist, and strong sturdy legs.
Her taste used to lean towards the weaker pretty flower boys that looked gentle and educated. Handsome and harmless.
Now, even though she couldn't see this man's full face, she'd bet he was as attractive as she imagined based on his physique and upper facial structure. Too bad he might die like the rest of this group.
He was protecting and staying close to the other man that Aria couldn't put a name to when the situation got worse as she'd predicted. The Zombie King was now in sight of the group and its power over the mindless minions are magnified.
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They all started to swarm into the building the survivors are standing on. At this time the large helicopter was directly above the group. One by one the team grabbed onto the rope ladder and pulled themselves up.
The large man was still with the familiar faced man and because she was paying close attention to them both as they were the last two up the ladder as the helicopter ascended, she noticed the familiar faced man suddenly turned his body and cut the large man's hands with a hidden knife in his sleeve. The large man's hand slipped and he turned to look at the familiar faced man in disbelief and anger. The familiar faced man then smiled as he lifted his hand with the hidden knife towards the large man's other hand.
Aria doesn't know what made her do it but she instinctively activated her wind power and cut his hand off. Shock was shown on both the men's faces as blood gushed out from the stump. Through pain and anger, the familiar faced man immediately whipped to her location, making eye contact with her, as shock and surprise showed in his eyes.
Aria activated her wind power again and pierced the man's head. His face slackened in disbelief as the life left his eyes while he fell down from the helicopter to land on the roof that Aria was standing on.
She quickly moved to the man and looked at his face, remembering who he was.
After looking at his face for a few seconds, she proceeded to slice it with her wind power until it was unrecognizable. Then she kicked his body hard a few times in anger.
--
The injured man holding the rope was pulled up by his team members but his eyes never left the scene on the roof. He told the pilot to move higher but to continue observing the scene since this was the highest level Zombie King they have ever encountered and needed to have footage of how it operates.
He noticed the female zombie a long time ago. She looked newly turned since her clothes were still neat and clean, indicating she hasn't eaten her first human nor zombie yet. She didn't move like the rest of the zombies nor acted like them either, which was very unusual.
He saw her slicing the Scientist's face brutally and kicking it repeatedly as if in anger. He would've expected her to eat the meat instead of acting like she has a grudge with the scientist. He then saw her reach towards the scientist's head towards the brains, not surprised that she's finally succumbing to the call of human flesh. But then she did something even more peculiar that makes his eyes shrink.
She pulled out a large shimmering golden nuclei from the scientist's head! She then proceeded to clean it using the scientist's clean clothes before putting it in her mouth.
Perhaps finally noticing someone looking at her, she turned her head up and made eye contact with him as the helicopter moved higher.
Her zombie gray colored eyes were large and bright, exotically tilted. Her skin was tinted blue like the usual zombie tone but it was also clean and smooth, like the finest of cold marble. Her face was heart shaped and her features were delicate. Even in death she was a beauty.
His observation of her was interrupted by the roar of the Zombie King from the ground. Her attention was caught by the sound as if she's listening to a commander's orders. All the surrounding zombies stopped moving and turned their heads towards the Zombie King and the low level female zombie. The Zombie King continued to roar at the female zombie while the female zombie stood there silently. Then she went down the metal ladder towards the Zombie King and obediently stood in front of it. It screamed at her a few times as if to test something before it approached her and opened its mouth ready to bite her.
She turned her heart shaped face towards the helicopter and met his eyes. Even though they were far apart, for some reason he could hear a soft sweet voice say into his head, "Fly higher! Go!" before she changed her momentum to attack the Zombie King.
"Hold on tight! Fly us higher! Quickly!" He yelled at the pilot as he grabbed onto straps on the side of the helicopter doors. The rest of the team quickly buckled down as the helicopter hastily ascended at an alarming rate. During that time, the female attacked the Zombie King with her wind ability with extreme accuracy, piercing it's head twice as two nuclei popped out in her hand. She hurriedly stuffed them both in her mouth before the Zombie King's teeth chomped down on her shoulder
Seconds after the female zombie was fully consumed, the surrounding zombies all fell to the ground as if they all ran out of battery and then the Zombie King's body started showing cracks in its skin, lava like colors piercing through.
Suddenly the Zombie King exploded in a massive explosion, all the surrounding zombies also doing the same but at a smaller scale.
Every zombie under the Zombie King's control was blown up internally, spanning half of Country C. That day's recording was watched over and over. The death of the Zombie King that day was a huge victory for mankind, brought on by an unknown level 0 zombie girl.
--
Right when she killed Doctor Edward Xiang, a voice started talking to her.
Voice:
Aria:
Voice: Doctor Edward Xiang has a space storage x8 ability. If you decide to acquire his ability, you will need to swallow his nucleus in the next 10 seconds.
Reasoning out that she was already a zombie, and that it doesn't hurt to take the bastard's ability (he was a level 8 ability user?) even if it's useless to her at this time, she dug out his nucleus, which was the size of a large marble, and swallowed the strange gold nucleus. It was warm and comforting going down her throat to her stomach.
The Zombie King must've sensed something from her actions because it immediately zoomed into her location. It roared a command for all
Voice: This is not good. He wants to consume the gold nucleus you've just swallowed. It has enough power to level him up to 16. Do you want to escape or kill him?
The Zombie King has control over 5M zombies. Even if she wanted to escape, it is not very likely that she would succeed. As for killing it? That has never been something she aspires to do even while alive. She was no heroine.
But seeing as how she would never be able to escape with her pitiful zombie life, she might as well try to kill it. What's the worst that could happen? She'll turn into another zombie?
Plus, she didn't want to continue hanging out with these rotten bodies forever.
Aria:
Voice:
Aria followed the voice's directions and soon died a second time.
— Author's Note —
Update schedule: 1 chapter per day
If you like it, please vote for the chapters since I guess that's what determines the leaderboard.
Thanks and Enjoy!
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