The stench of burnt flesh and gunpowder filled the air.
Smoke rose from cracked rooftops. Zombie bodies, some still twitching, lay everywhere. Elias stood in the middle of the bloodstained street, close to Ivy, who was mumbling some prayers for the humans who had turned undead and... redie.
He gave her all the time she needed and by the time she was done, morning light touched the edges of the sky.
"Are you done?" He asked and she nodded softly. He stared down at the corpse and furrowed his brows in confusion.
There it was again.
A weird symbol was burned into the monster's neck. A circle with spikes. The same damn thing he'd seen on the other tier 3s. He saw it when he mounted the tier 5 monster and attacked it from behind. The symbol was also on the monster.
"What the hell is this?" he muttered, crouching down for a better look. "A cult? A zombie gang? A goddamn fashion trend for the undead?"
He scratched his head, then looked around.
"They all had it. Which means... they were sent."
Sent here. To him.
For what? From who?
"Fucking great," he sighed.
He didn't get time to think deeper. A sob broke through the silence. Then...
People.
The survivors were crawling out of their hiding places, basements, cars, and broken shops. Some were crying. Some hugged each other. Others stared wide-eyed at Elias like he was some war hero.
"Shit."
He yanked his hood up and turned away fast.
He can't allow them to look at him. Even if his face still looked human, his eyes didn't. Bright red. Not exactly normal.
The last thing he needed was a bunch of civilians crowding him, screaming,
'Thank you, mysterious saviour; now let's burn you for looking like a demon!'
He grabbed Ivy's wrist. "Car. Now."
"Huh? Now? But, these people are so grateful. They want to thank..."
"I don't need their gratitude. Let's go. Now!" He said.
She obeyed silently, immediately grabbing the bag she had thrown to the corner. She turned back to the people, waving and smiling at them. They waved back.
After a short walk, they found a car that wasn't too destroyed and hopped in. The car was a mess, it smelled like mouldy socks and rat piss, but it worked.
Of course, it had to work.
Elias hotwired it, and the engine coughed to life.
"I found this while praying for the undead..." She said, taking out a compass.
He turned to look at it for five seconds before turning back to the road.
"Where did you find it?"
"Uh, it was attached to one of their necks. I just pulled it out," she explained. He stretched his hand and Ivy handed him the compass.
The red glow still pointed east.
"East? Are we heading east?" Ivy queried.
"I don't fucking know! Do you think we should trust a compass that's attached to a fucking zombie? What does that sound like?"
"A trap!" She answered and he snapped his finger.
"Exactly, Ivy. Exactly!"
The car fell silent for another few minutes before Elias looked at the compass again. It was still pointing East.
"Whatever this damn thing is, it better not have a tracker inside," Elias said, turning the wheels.
"Hold on!" Ivy paused. "Are we heading East?"
"Yes, we are. If someone is after me, I better go where they need me to be. I'd rather not put the lives of innocent people in danger,"
Ivy just blushed with her face lowered. Elias could see her reddened cheek. He grinned and looked away from her.
They managed to follow the compass for hours, through quiet roads and abandoned fields.
Then the next city appeared.
Elias slammed the brakes and cursed under his breath.
"Holy shit."
This place wasn't like the last one. It wasn't anything like Sector Ten, which had little security and no advanced technology.
This city was different. Too different.
It had walls. Big ones. High-tech towers with blinking lights. Drones flying overhead. Soldiers in black armour patrolling the perimeter.
There were guards with rifles at the gates, scanners, and even giant metal arms with turrets on the walls.
One look and Elias knew: if he walked in like this, they'd shoot him before he could say "Hello."
He parked the car behind a broken-down truck and stared at the fortress.
"Okay," Ivy said, "So... what's the plan?"
Elias bit the corner of his lips and hissed through his teeth.
"We could sneak in."
"Obviously," Ivy muttered. "How?"
"I don't know yet. But I've broken into worse places."
He lied with a straight face. He was in the military, how could he have broken into anywhere?
He couldn't even sneak into the ladies' bathroom because he was scared of being caught.
"Like?" Ivy's voice snapped him back to reality.
"Uh... Your mom's room?" Elias said with a smirk.
Ivy stared at him.
"... I was adopted."
"Oh," Elias blinked. "Well, that explains a lot."
She hit him lightly on the arm. He grinned wider.
Then, he leaned forward and pointed.
"Alright, serious now. I see a maintenance tunnel under that guard tower. Probably for waste disposal or cables. If we crawl through, we might pop up inside without anyone noticing."
"'Might'?" Ivy asked.
"Well, depends if it's not full of shit, spiders, or death lasers."
"Your words are so... comforting."
Elias cracked his knuckles. "Or..."
He pulled out a pair of sunglasses from the glove box. They were cracked and way too small for his face.
"We go in pretending to be a rich, mysterious merchant looking to buy supplies."
"What?"
"I walk up to the gate and say, 'Hello, fine gentlemen. I am Mister JJJ of the JJJ enterprise. May I interest you in trade... or blood wine?'"
Ivy choked on air.
"You'll get shot."
"Yeah," he grinned. "But in style."
"Let's stick to the tunnel."
"Fine, fine," Elias said, tossing the glasses back into the car. "Let's wait for the perfect time to sneak to that tunnel,"
Ivy nodded in agreement.
They waited until nightfall. The drones changed shifts, and the guards seemed more focused on the main gate than the sides.
Elias and Ivy crawled out from behind the truck and made their way to the tunnel.
It was gross.
Slimy walls. Rusty pipes. A rat the size of a cat scurried past them. Ivy gagged at the smell. Elias just grunted.
"Smells better than the last shelter," he muttered.
Halfway in, the tunnel dipped and turned. They heard voices above them. Footsteps. Lights.
"We're close," Ivy whispered.
Then they hit a dead end.
Or so it seemed.
Elias touched the wall. "Metal hatch."
He pulled out a stolen crowbar and forced it open slowly. The sound echoed, but no alarms went off.
They climbed up.
They were inside a storage room.
It was filled with crates, tools, and uniforms.
"Jackpot," Elias said.
He threw Ivy a uniform and grabbed one for himself.
"Put this on. You're now Sergeant... uh..." he squinted at the name tag, "Pickle."
Ivy groaned. "Why do I have to be Sergeant Pickle?"
"Because I get to be Slimy."
"That's not even on the tag!" She grumbled.
"That's not the point. All we have to do is blend in and take them off without getting caught,"
Elias shoved the compass into his pocket and opened the door slowly.
The city buzzed with life. The streets were clean. People walked around like the world wasn't burning outside. They had smiles and laughter on their faces as they were all dressed in crazy outfits and coloured hair.
Security bots rolled by. Cameras scanned faces.
"Welcome to paradise," Elias muttered. "Let's see what hell is hiding behind all this peace."
[END OF CHAPTER EIGHTEEN]