Apocalyptic Terror

Chapter 1

On Day 273 of the Zombie Apocalypse, Washinton was issuing a dire warning.

"Warning! Warning! A nuclear strike on Washinton is imminent. All survivors must evacuate immediately!"

***

"Please, take me with you! I'm offering a million dollars! No, ten million! I am the President of the Titan Group!"

"No, take me! I'm Rebecca Walsh! Have you seen my movies? I'll do anything to survive!"

"Get out of the way! Take me! My father is the Mayor of New Jeral!"

Cries and screams echoed as a desperate crowd surged toward the helicopters on the airport runway.

At the front, a man in a tattered suit frantically waved a check. Stopped by a soldier, he collapsed on the ground, and money spilled from his suitcase. Only six months ago, he was part of the corporate elite, now reduced to begging for his life like a stray dog.

Beside him, a former famous actress quickly stripped off her top, desperately trying to charm the soldiers.

Since the outbreak 273 days ago, 70% of humanity had been infected and turned into zombies. Order had collapsed, and the world had descended into chaos. Even the world's military had crumbled in the face of nearly six billion zombies.

Knowing there were only six helicopters available in the safe zone, hundreds of thousands of survivors in the Washinton Safe Zone were willing to pay any price to secure a seat before the nuclear explosion landed.

However, the soldiers guarding the helicopters indiscriminately beat back anyone who came too close, even mothers with children and the wealthy elite.

"Back off! Anyone who comes closer will be shot on sight!"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The sound of gunfire suddenly cleared the crowd nearest to the helicopters, and screams tore through the air as people scrambled away.

On the periphery of the sobbing crowd, a seven-year-old girl named Anna clung to her mother, her young face frozen in terror. The scene before her resembled a slaughterhouse, shaking her to her core.

"Mommy... where is Daddy? I'm so scared... Is Daddy not coming back for us?"

Listening to her daughter's cries, Wendy Scott was pale. She stared fixedly in another direction. She knew where Anna's father, Ethan Whitman, was.

About two hours ago, after military higher-ups announced they would commence nuclear bombardment, Ethan, a military veteran, had received orders to secure aviation fuel. The mission was perilous, but it was the only way he could earn seats for his family to evacuate.

Suddenly, amidst anxious inquiries from a military official, a heavily armored vehicle, its exterior battered and smoking, burst onto the scene from beyond the runway.

A blood-covered man struggled out of the vehicle.

Ethan, having fought his way back through the swarm of zombies, immediately drew everyone's attention, especially the soldiers who knew just how many horrors lurked beyond the perimeter.

They knew about the number of zombies at another airfield, which even hosted a super mutant capable of destroying tanks.

Ethan's return was nothing short of a miracle.

Seeing that the fuel was secured, a Colonel overseeing the helicopter operations smiled broadly and motioned for the soldiers to approach.

"Daddy!"

Anna screamed joyfully, her eyes welling up as she ran towards Ethan.

After enveloping his daughter in his arms, Ethan leaned heavily against the armored vehicle, struggling to stand.

"Colonel Walker, the supplies you requested... I've brought them back! With this fuel, you should be able to evacuate more people!"

No sooner had Ethan spoken than Felix, previously beaming, abruptly shifted his demeanor and cast a sinister glance in Ethan's way.

"Evacuate more people?"

Felix shook his head slightly. "No, Ethan, you better worry about yourself. I forgot to tell you, although I promised you'd get a seat if you brought back the fuel...

"Unfortunately, Senator Clint Lewis's wife refused to leave her babies behind. So, there's only room for one now."

Ethan's face darkened as he followed Felix's pointing finger. Inside one of the heavily guarded helicopters, a posh woman clutching two hounds looked impatiently towards them.

"Colonel Walker, why are you still talking to this loser? Oh my god! My babies are terrified."

Woof! Woof!

As the dogs barked furiously at him, Ethan realized what Felix meant by "babies." A surge of fury threatened to overwhelm him.

How could this woman call him a loser? Without his desperate mission to secure the fuel, at least half of these people wouldn't have had a chance to escape.

And now, to curry favor with a politician, these bastards would rather take two dogs than more people.

"Ethan, make your choice. Who survives? You have twenty minutes before the nuclear bomb hits. No, maybe I should ask Wendy."

Before Ethan could respond, he felt a sharp pain in his chest.

A dagger was plunged deeply by his wife, Wendy, held firmly in her bloodstained hand.

Unprepared and already severely wounded, Ethan collapsed. He clutched at the dagger as it sliced his palm, looking at Wendy in disbelief.

The pain of betrayal was worse than any physical pain.

He never suspected Wendy would turn on him. After all, he had been risking his life to protect her since the apocalypse began.

"Wendy... Why... Why betray me?"

"Daddy! Daddy!"

As Wendy attacked Ethan, Anna broke free and rushed to him, desperately trying to stem his bleeding with her small hands.

"Mommy, why did you kill Daddy? Daddy, please don't die!" Anna sobbed uncontrollably.

Wendy, unmoved by her daughter's cries, stood up calmly as if she were looking at a stranger.

"Betray you? I just made the right choice, Ethan. Honestly, I've wanted you gone for a long time. Sure, you were good to me, but what's the point? You're too naive, always trying to save others, just a pawn in the end. Like now, if you weren't hurt, we wouldn't have dared to touch you."

With a scoff, Wendy, her right hand slick with blood, casually brushed back her hair.

"Now that it's the end of days, why should I stay with a foolishly good-hearted man? Why not be with someone who actually matters?"

While listening, Anna looked at her mother with disgust. In an apocalyptic world where everyone was ruthless to survive, Ethan had remained good.

Compared to an ordinary man like Ethan, a powerful and ruthless man like Felix was undoubtedly a better choice.

Wendy sneered and then snuggled up to Felix. "Felix, why not dig out his heart while you're at it? I know his secret. He came back from the dead because his heart contains a piece of meteorite that gives him strength. If we had waited any longer, he might have become an invincible superhuman."

Felix nodded, clearly already aware of this fact.

Since the outbreak, meteors had rained down across the globe, bringing disaster but also unimaginable power.

From the intelligence gathered by the military, integrating these meteor fragments into one's body could grant superhuman abilities, transforming someone into an all-powerful warrior—capable of taking on a special forces squadron alone.

Fortunately for them, Ethan hadn't had the fragment for long. Otherwise, even injured, he would have been unstoppable.

"Oh, and take his daughter too. This loser fed her some fragments as well. We can use her blood for experiments." As Wendy indicated for Felix to seize Anna, her tone was as indifferent as if Anna were not her own flesh and blood.

Anna trembled and instinctively clung to Ethan, desperately resisting. But a child's strength was no match for the soldiers.

Watching Felix laugh as he carved open Ethan's chest, Anna struggled helplessly in mid-air, wailing.

"Daddy! Daddy! Mommy, please, don't kill Daddy! I don't want to leave!"

Despite her daughter's pleas, Wendy looked on, almost appreciatively, as Ethan's heart was removed.

"Wendy, I'll kill you!"

"Ethan, I know you want to kill me. Too bad, maybe in your next life."

Wendy ignored Ethan's dying rage. She just smiled as she took Felix's hand and led the captured Anna onto the helicopter.

Although she noted Ethan hadn't died immediately—probably sustained by the power of the fragment in his blood—she believed he would be gone in a minute or two. And after the nuclear bomb fell, there might not even be a body left.

Collapsed on the ground, Ethan's eyes blazed red as he watched the helicopter carrying Anna grow distant.

Blood spurted from his mouth. If hatred could kill, the fury in his heart could ignite the entire world.

'Wendy! Felix!' Ethan roared inwardly.

His consciousness faded as if plunging into an abyss.

As the helicopter vanished and cries filled the air, a blinding light and heat instantly consumed everything.

The flesh of tens of thousands was vaporized in despair.

However, in the final second before Ethan was obliterated, a tiny, almost imperceptible meteor fragment at his heart shone brilliantly as if fusing completely with him in the intense heat, integrating entirely into his being.

***

On Day 300 of the Apocalypse, as torrential rain poured down, a hand clawed its way out of hell itself, suddenly bursting through the ground amidst the ruins of Washinton Safe Zone.