PART 1
August 29th, Sunday.
5th Day of the Apocalypse.
Ethan wakes up, it’s relatively late, and sharing his bed is a beautiful, naked woman, looking tired.
He remembers what happened.
He was exhausted, injured, and everything else was a blur.
Then Bianca appeared, and somehow, all he could think about was her.
The rest is quite vivid; it was an intense night, with him showing what Level 6 Constitution and Level 7 Fitness do to a man’s body.
Ethan smiles and, getting up, walks to the bathroom, turns on the tap and… – “Shit.” – He laughs when not a drop of water comes out.
While laughing, he notices something standing on top of a shelf: a Bible.
‘I asked for strength and you gave it to me…’ – Ethan smiles and puts the Bible away.
The weight of the world on his shoulders almost completely vanished.
He only needed to climax a few times and listen to a beautiful woman beg him amidst moans for a moment to stop.
…
Bianca gets up about half an hour later, groaning as she feels a burning sensation between her legs.
Remembering the intensity, how Ethan dominated her like no man before.
His strength and stamina.
He literally worked all day and still had time to make her beg him to give her a moment to rest.
She’d heard the stories from the girls Ethan’d been with, saying that despite being drunk, he was good in bed, but this… is more than just good.
‘Well, he wasn’t drunk.’ – Bianca thinks and smiles, then smells food and she’s starving.
Grabbing a shirt, she quickly gets up and as she leaves, she hears Ethan arguing.
“Damn it, are you deaf or something?
The damn tap water is gone and in a day or two the electricity will be gone too, if not today.
So focus everything on creating rainwater collectors and tell the farmers to take good care of their wells, we don’t want any infected falling in and contaminating the water.”
“The water’s gone?” – Bianca asks, she didn’t even have the energy to make a joke in such a serious moment.
“Good morning.” – Ethan smiles and sighs.
– “I woke up to clean myself and there was no water, it’s the same all over town.
Luckily I predicted this, so all the bottles and jugs I found were filled with water and stored at the school and clinic.
So water won’t be a problem for a good while.”
“Good to know… you really are prepared for everything.” – Bianca smiles.
“It’s the price of being very handsome and intelligent.” – Ethan says smiling.
“Intelligent I can accept, but handsome?” – Bianca raises an eyebrow.
“I’m handsome, can you deny it?” Ethan teases her.
Bianca blinks and raises her hands in surrender, before wrapping them around Ethan’s neck and pulling him into a wet kiss.
Ethan hugs her, their tongues intertwine and their torsos press together.
Slowly the kiss ends, Bianca touching his lips and saying, “Nothing more than that, I’m still sore from last night.
Animal.”
Ethan laughs and releases her.
Soon they sit down to eat, they don’t talk about anything in particular, they have no topics of conversation, so they just appreciate each other’s company, along with the memories of the sexual intimacy they shared.
PART 2
Ethan takes Bianca to the clinic; it’s been a while since he’s been back.
The place is busier, with people who shouldn’t be there, but Ethan understands.
He wasn’t here to control who comes in and out.
With him saving so many people and not stopping for a single minute, redistributing his personnel to missions and support, it’s obvious they knew about the clinic that was prepared for the end of the world.
Supplies, electricity, and much more.
Sighing internally, he parks and assesses the situation, understanding that he’ll need to move many things; soon the clinic will cease to be a main base, becoming just an outpost.
Bianca went to talk to other women, since she was here in the first few days, taking care of Dina.
And speaking of her, the 6-year-old girl came over to where he is, standing at the entrance as soon as she heard he was arriving.
She didn’t run to him, just stared at him.
“Are you alright, little one?” Ethan asks gently.
Dina nods while hugging a teddy bear.
In the background, Ethan saw Bianca waving at him, pointing to Dina and gesturing.
Ethan took a few moments to understand, then said, “Want to come with me?”
Dina blinked, then nodded, and Ethan quickly lifted her up, walking through the clinic and giving Dina some candy, which she accepted and began to smile.
Ethan wanted to smoke, but he wouldn’t do that with a child in his arms.
“What were you doing while I was gone?” Ethan asked, since he wouldn’t be doing work with Dina in his arms.
“Drawing,” Dina said.
“Really?
Can I see?” Ethan asked, and Dina nodded, pointing in a direction.
“The younger children were put in the second room,” Bianca said.
Ethan nodded, knowing where it was.
A door had a large 2 painted on it.
Ethan entered, finding several toys scattered on the floor and some candy wrappers.
Putting Dina down, the girl runs to a bunk bed, where there are papers scattered on the unmade bed.
Ethan kneels down as Dina shows him her drawings.
He frowns, but automatically relaxes and forces a smile.
– “Very beautiful.” – He ignores some of the drawings, focusing on the most colorful and beautiful ones.
It turns out that Dina is traumatized by the things she saw, especially since she briefly saw her mother being devoured alive.
She saw guts, hanging limbs, open throats, and many things that children shouldn’t see.
She drew this, the zombies, who must be her mother.
“That’s you.” – She points to a scribbled figure, holding an axe, holding the hand of a smaller figure.
“And that’s you.” – Ethan says and Dina nods.
– “You draw very well, you’ll certainly become a great artist in the future.”
“I don’t want to.” – Dina shakes her head, Ethan is surprised.
– “Isn’t it normal for children to accept compliments and be happy?”
“I want to be like you.” – Dina says, staring at him.
“Like me?” – Ethan blinks.
“Yes.
To get rid of the monsters.
I want to hurt the monsters that hurt Mommy.” – Dina says in an unusually firm tone for a 6-year-old.
Ethan shudders, then strokes her head.
– “Dina, let me handle the monsters, I’ll make them all pay for what they did to your mother.
Now, focus on growing strong and healthy, becoming a beautiful woman.”
“No!” – Dina shouts.
– “I want to hurt the monsters!”
She pulls her hand away and glares at him angrily, tears streaming down her face.
“You want to hurt the monsters?” – Ethan stares at her with a firmer tone.
– “Okay, you’ll learn to hurt them.
But only when you grow up and get stronger.
Until then, you have to promise me one thing.” She looks at him and nods.
Ethan smiles.
“Promise me you’ll eat well, grow strong, study diligently?
Only after all that will I teach you how to hurt monsters.” – Ethan says.
Dina nods.
– “I promise.”
“Okay.
And you must never hurt anyone, understand?”
“But the monsters…”
“Monsters aren’t people.
You can’t hurt your little friends when you go back to school.
If you agree to this, I’ll teach you in the future.”
Dina nods; she doesn’t understand the reason for this, she’s never hurt anyone before, but she accepts, it seems easy.
Ethan smiles and picks her up, leading her around and giving her a juice box, which she accepts and drinks as Ethan looks around the clinic’s structure, the solar panels, the warehouse, the armory…
Dina mimics his gestures.
Ethan nods and grunts at the ammunition count, she does the same.
Bianca, who is with him, laughs at the scene. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
Meanwhile, Ethan hears a bark and when he looks, he sees a bulldog.
Small, cute, teeth showing even with its jaw closed.
Ethan frowns.
– “Whose dog is that?” – He asks Bianca while Dina goes to play with the dog that is with other children.
“It’s from a farm, the owners… dead.
Kenny brought it.” – Bianca said.
– “Any problem?” – She was worried by how tense Ethan was.
“I love dogs, but see if any farm will take him, he can’t stay here, not near the children.” – Ethan said without hesitation.
“What?
What’s the problem?
Animals aren’t infected.” – Bianca said, frowning and taking a stance of refusal.
– “And the children need something like this in these difficult times.”
“It’s a dog, I love dogs, but as you said, difficult times.
We don’t have the structure to accommodate a dog right now.
Even if he can’t turn into one of those things, he can still infect others.”
“What?!” – Bianca raised her voice in astonishment, but quickly suppressed it and pretended to those who looked that it was nothing serious.
– “What are you talking about?” – She looked at the dog.
“We’re surrounded by trees and bushes, and even with the preparations and traps set up to prevent these things, some might still get close and be killed.
We certainly won’t clean up the blood that splatters.
So imagine if the dog wanders off out of curiosity and comes back after licking the blood of the infected?
What if it licks a child’s face, or even a wound or scratch?”
Bianca opens and closes her mouth, then says, “You’re being way too paranoid.”
“Am I?” Ethan stares at her.
“Even before this end of the world, there were cases of people having to have limbs amputated because some dog or cat licked a simple, insignificant wound, but passed on a powerful bacteria.
And currently, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, the damned world is full of a deadly bacteria that doesn’t seem to affect animals.
If that accumulates in your saliva and infects a child or someone else, won’t you feel guilty?”
She shudders.
“Seriously, you’re impossible.” Bianca growls.
– “I understand your concern, but stop using logic for everything.
We just have to be careful and we won’t live here forever.
Instead of getting rid of the dog.
You don’t need to be right all the time.” – Grunting, she waves her hand and walks away, not wanting to talk to him anymore.
Ethan frowns, staring at the dog.
– ‘I like dogs, but they’re dangerous, especially in the first few days… seriously, can’t you see something so simple?’
(Author: Sometimes having an Intelligence of 9, a monstrously brilliant level, coupled with being a jerk who cared little about people’s opinions, takes its toll.
Ethan simply doesn’t understand that the bulldog represents a connection to the normality of the past, something related to sanity.
He even understands the logic of having the dog, but the dangers it brings are too high.)
PART 3
After leaving the clinic, Ethan met with Clark.
– “It won’t take more than a week to clean up the city and start turning it into a city by the end of September.”
Clark nods.
– “What will we do today?”
“You will continue with the extermination mission, I will gather more information.
More and more people are fleeing Atlanta, the military is having difficulties with this.
The fleeing vehicles, the hordes of infected.
Their numbers are far outnumbered.” – Ethan sighs, slightly exasperated.
Clark scratches his chin.
– “I don’t see any problems, but will you be okay going alone?
Jasmine told me that you and Bianca argued, right after you spent the night together.
Haven’t you been trying to win her over for more than 2 years?
And you break up on the first day?” – He teases him.
Ethan sighs.
– “Let’s leave relationships, or the lack thereof, aside for now?”
“Okay.” – Clark raises his hands in defeat.
“Anyway.” – Ethan changes the subject.
– “The clinic, I think we’ll abandon it soon.”
“What?!” – Clark raises an eyebrow.
“I told you to be careful who comes in, I wanted this place to be a fortress and even a logistics center, but how many people already know that our main supplies are here?
Our food and weapons for months?”
Clark is embarrassed.
– “Sorry, but Kenny started bringing so many people, the farmers, some survivors he found along the way, and they were hungry.
Without you here to be firm, it was difficult…”
“I know, that’s why I’m not scolding you.
But this can’t happen again, so we’ll need to create a logistics center soon, where we’ll store all our valuable items.
But for now… we’ll have to move.”
“But already?” – Clark frowns.
“Yes.
This place has been exposed to so many people, everyone knows that almost everything that belongs to us is here.
There are a lot of intelligent people out there, Clark, people who will see how many mouths we have to feed, they will reason and understand that if they stay here and don’t find a solution to the problems, the food won’t last more than a few weeks.”
“Yeah, food that would last months has become weeks.” – Ethan laughs bitterly.
– “And these people can band together, because they will focus on themselves or their families.
They will steal, they may kill people in the process.”
Clark frowns.
– “But… we are helping so many people, everyone is so good.”
“Stop being naive, you idiot.” – Ethan nods.
– “Everyone is human, we are flawed and tend to be selfish, simple as that.
When hunger strikes, when we start rationing rations, it will only be a matter of time before riots begin, robberies and even murders.”
Clark grunts, he doesn’t want to believe it, but Ethan always has a hard-to-refute logic.
– “Okay, but what do we prioritize, the city or transportation?”
“Both.” – Ethan says.
– “We have many more people, so put our trusted personnel in charge of transportation, which you will supervise.
Then, whoever knows how to shoot and has participated in missions before, have them imitate.”
Clark nods.
…
Ethan returned to his motorcycle, driving along the roads.
Noticing more people leaving Atlanta, some in their vehicles and others on foot.
Some fleeing from zombies, which Ethan kills with his axe.
In the midst of all this, his Skill [Axe] reached Level 3, without suspense, it had been at its limit for some time.
In the middle of the afternoon, Ethan ends up stopping near a gas station.
It had already been looted; he himself went in earlier to clean up the remains.
Lighting a cigarette, Ethan observes the sky, closes his eyes, spreading his senses.
Noticing someone approaching from behind…
He turns around with a rifle in hand.
– “Come out!”
At his shout, footsteps are heard and a tall, dark-skinned figure approaches.
– “No need for that, friend.” – He has his hands raised, holding a pistol.
[Image] →
The black man is bald, wearing thick clothes and having a serious look.
– “Nice jacket.” – Ethan says, noticing the medals.
“Yeah, I know.” – He laughs.
– “It was my father’s.”
“What do you want?” – Ethan asks.
“Nothing, just passing by.” – He says smiling.
– “But you, a law enforcement officer, with a gun like that and being so… aggressive with civilians, don’t you think that’s a bit extreme?”
“Those same civilians are killing and raping women as they please.
I think my extremes are quite justifiable.” – Ethan says coldly.
“… okay, I can’t argue about that.
I’m Elijah.” – He says smiling as he slowly holsters his pistol.
“Military, I presume?” – Ethan notices his posture, his attentive and observant gaze.
“A deserter?” he surmises.
Elijah frowns.
“You’re quite observant, but how did you figure it out?”
“You have a good build, that’s a standard military weapon, your boots are military and properly fitted to your feet, showing that it’s not something you recently acquired.
I know military personnel wear new boots for a good while to break them in before going on missions.”
“Military too?” Elijah asked curiously, this boot trick isn’t something that spreads so easily.
New boots without proper foot adjustment tend to cause blisters and sores during missions.
Only boots properly fitted to the feet avoid this problem.
“Why did you desert?” Ethan asks.
“I don’t agree with the commands.
Something called Operation Cobalt started…” Elijah said hesitantly.
“What’s that?” Ethan frowns, feeling like he’s heard this somewhere before, perhaps in passing, as he doesn’t remember any details or striking points.
“The government has given up on democracy; now it’s a military dictatorship.
The military is focusing on the major cities, creating isolation zones and… getting rid of the unfit.”
“Unfit?
Monsters, infected, or… incapable people?” Ethan asks hesitantly.
“The third type.” Elijah sighs.
“I didn’t agree with any of this, not after I saw a family executed for nothing.
This is a mess, and I only see it getting worse, so I left.”
Ethan frowns.
“Do you know the details of this Operation Cobalt?
I want to know more.”
“Yes.” Elijah nods, but then looks in one direction; two staggering, grunting figures approach.
Ethan watches, then draws his axe and approaches.
– “Hey, are you crazy?” – Elijah is astonished by Ethan approaching instead of backing away from these things.
Then, to his astonishment, Ethan plunges the axe into the second man’s chest, moving to kneel beside him while kicking the second man in the chest, causing him to fall to the ground.
Pulling out his axe, Ethan kills the second man.
– “What were you saying?” – He asks calmly.
PART 4
Ethan brought Elijah to the school, who was surprised by what this militia had accomplished in such a short time.
The military is still struggling to establish safe zones.
Here they are working on exterminating these things and rebuilding the city.
“You mean the military abandoned small towns like ours?” Kenny asked.
“Yes.
The priority is the big cities, isolating neighborhoods and condominiums, securing civilians, as well as collecting any food, fuel, and medical supplies, including firearms and ammunition.
Everything is collected to be rationed,” Elijah replied.
“I have a question, something I’m already sure of, but I want to ask you,” Ethan said, and Elijah was listening.
“We’re all infected, right?”
At his question, everyone stared at him.
“What are you talking about?” Mercy asked, astonished.
“Are you crazy?”
“What do you mean by that?”
While everyone doubts and questions him, Ethan stares at Elijah in surprise.
– “How did you come to that conclusion?”
“Some time ago I rescued some children… before that, I found a woman transformed into one of these things, I killed her and didn’t notice any bite marks or visible wounds, she died of suffocation.
Besides her, I saw a corpse in a pool of blood simply rise up with a knife embedded in its heart.
I’ve seen other cases, but in general, none died from a bite.”
“Yes, you’re right.” – Elijah says, to everyone’s shock.
– “It was discovered two days ago, a person who dies in any way and whose brain is still functioning, returns from the dead and becomes one of these things.”
“But is it the bite?
Everyone who is bitten is killed and becomes one of these things very quickly.” – Kenny asked, frightened.
“I don’t know for sure, I only know that whoever dies, by any means, becomes one of these things.” – Elijah replies helplessly.
“I think I have an idea of what happens.” “Bacteria, simple,” Ethan says, and everyone looks at him for answers.
“The dead must produce some kind of bacteria so potent that no antibiotic we have can kill it, so it kills us.”
“If the virus is already in our bodies, but dormant, perhaps this bacteria from the dead only superficially awakens the virus in our bodies, accelerating our death, preventing our organisms from fighting the infection and thus causing us to die.”
As always, logical words, difficult to refute.
“I think a doctor said something similar,” Elijah said.
“But I’m terrible at remembering that sort of thing.”
Ethan frowns.
“You said they abandoned us, but you also said they’re collecting all the civilians’ resources, right?”
“Yes.”
“You also said the military is killing anyone suspicious, with visible disorders, exhaustion, or illness, even the elderly, I presume?”
“Yes.
Ever since they discovered that anyone can turn into that thing, the containment methods have become more extreme; we practically shoot first and ask questions later.” – Elijah sighs, his hands trembling, but he manages to control himself.
“Okay, we have to protect our resources and avoid the military as much as possible.
If I get here, we’re going to have war.” – Ethan says coldly.
Everyone looks at him in shock and disbelief.
– “Are you crazy?!” – Kenny shouts.
“I’m being lucid.” – Ethan replies.
– “Yes, I know it’s crazy, but if what Elijah said is true, this Operation Cobalt isn’t just about democracy becoming a military dictatorship; it’s much worse than that.”
“It means they’re going to try to control the situation, but honestly, from what I’m seeing, all the infrastructure is going to collapse in a short time, the barricades are already collapsing, and more and more people are fleeing the city, and I see less military activity.”
“And what does that have to do with starting a war with them?!” Kenny growls.
Ethan stares at him.
“For our survival,” he says calmly.
“If the military comes here and sees what we’re building, that we’re clearing the city of these things and planning to build walls, they’ll take all our food to redistribute as they please, they’ll take our weapons and punishment, our vehicles, the medicine we’re struggling to stockpile since we don’t have any pharmacists.”
“And I’m only talking about the resources that will be taken.
Elijah said they’re killing people on any doubt or suspicion, especially the elderly.
Kenny, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you and your wife are the oldest; you may seem vigorous because you’re the sheriff, but Mrs.
Mercy is already weaker.” Kenny trembles hearing this.
“Not to mention we have people with asthma, I know someone with cancer among our people.
Not to mention there are many more elderly people too.”
Kenny looks at Elijah for help, hoping he’ll deny it.
– “It’s true…” – Kenny clenches his fists upon hearing this.
“But it’s madness.” – This time it’s Mercy who speaks.
– “The military… they’re trained, they have better weapons and armored vehicles.
We don’t stand a chance.”
“You have personnel.” – Elijah said.
– “The forces are concentrated in the cities, securing the urban areas, they don’t have time for the smaller towns and honestly, there’s one smaller town between you and Atlanta, I don’t think you’d bother going through it to get here, but I could be wrong.”
Ethan frowns, his mind racing through a thousand different things, then says.
– “Let’s block the main entrances to the city using the damaged vehicles, or the ones we certainly won’t use, we can remove them in the future.”
“I foresee the collapse of the military, if not from the infected, then from mutiny.
People won’t accept that, I wouldn’t accept it, and I’m a trained officer.
That’s too extreme, even for me.
I can accept showing mercy to people who are obviously infected and about to die, or killing rapists and pedophiles, I would take great pleasure in that.
But… killing indiscriminately…” – Ethan nods, even understanding the hypocrisy in his words.
“They have armored vehicles, they can just push them back.” – A farmer says.
“So be it, we’ll be watching, waiting.
We’ll focus on clearing the city, looting all the supplies, including many houses that have already been cleaned and still have things inside, perishable food.
I want you to collect everything as quickly as possible, the power should go out today or tomorrow, so we need to consume this quickly before it spoils.”
Everyone nods; they have new objectives and work.
Something Ethan didn’t say, and asked Elijah not to mention, is that the military is gradually expanding its perimeter.
If it extends to the city in the coming days, they might decide they’re a waste of resources or incompetent and decide to act.
Saying this will create unnecessary panic.
Everything could fall apart, so Ethan will need to prepare properly and… if necessary, he’ll camp on the main roads the military might come from and massacre them alone, or die trying.
The army has already lost its morale.
Ethan, even if distorted, still has his.