Leader Imani stared down at the pale girl standing before her. Looking into those glowing ruby-red pupils, her mind drifted back three years into the past.
Before the apocalypse shattered the world, Imani had been a Major in the military. On a bitter, freezing morning, she had visited the national military headquarters to submit a high-priority case file.
Right outside the reinforced iron gates of the headquarters, she had seen a lone teenage girl.
The girl was shivering violently in the biting winter cold, clutching a thin jacket around her small frame, yet her eyes burned with a stubborn resolve that was impossible to ignore.
She was protesting alone against the Supreme Commander himself, accusing one of the country’s most powerful military figures of sexual assault.
At first, Imani had felt a surge of sympathy for the girl. But the situation took a dark, ugly turn within forty-eight hours.
Investigations concluded that the girl was an orphan who had fallen into the seduction of money offered by an enemy nation’s intelligence agency.
She had been paid a massive sum to stain the reputation of the country’s most influential general.
The scandal was swept under the rug, the girl vanished into the system, and the public quickly forgot the incident.
That was three years ago, yet the young girl’s face and name had never fully disappeared from Imani’s memory.
And now, that exact same face had appeared before her once again in the middle of a ruined city.
Only this time, she was no longer human. Except this time it was literally true.
Imani looked at Summer’s spotless, pale face, observing the dark crimson veins and the complete lack of malice in her eyes.
It was obvious the girl had forgotten everything about her past life.
Imani considered her options for a quiet moment. Should she reveal the harsh, ugly truth to a child who had already died and turned into a zombie?
Well, it was not like her past was something to be proud of.
Imani considered for a moment, then shrugged. It was not like a zombie would feel shame, and she wondered if this girl kept her shamelessness even as a zombie.
"You were a girl named Summer," Leader Imani spoke slowly, keeping her voice even and neutral. "Three years ago, you were involved in a massive scandal at the central military headquarters. You were paid by dangerous people to falsely accuse a high-ranking officer. You were an orphan who made a terrible mistake for money."
Summer stood completely silent as she listened to Imani’s straightforward words. She could feel the disgust emitting from the woman.
A kind of disgust so deep and mean.
Was she really that bad of a person when she was human?
Summer did not understand most of the complex military terms used by the woman, but one basic truth was painfully clear to her simple mind.
In the past, the human version of her had tried to do someone dirty for money, gotten caught, and became a bad person in everyone’s eyes.
She stared down at her iron gauntlets, her soft eyebrows furrowing as a strange, heavy quiet settled in her chest.
"Hey, don’t listen to her!" Ella stepped forward immediately, wrapping her arms around Summer’s shoulders. "That was three years ago! You were just a kid, and besides, you don’t even remember it!"
"Exactly!" Ilas added, grabbing Summer’s hand and holding it tightly. "The past is in the past, Chubby. You saved our lives today. That makes you a hero in our book, not a bad person!"
"Human politics are full of lies anyway," Angela scoffed, rolling her eyes at Leader Imani. "Who knows if those military scumbags were telling the truth back then? Don’t beat yourself up over something you can’t even remember."
Those words earned her a sharp glare from Imani. Angela merely scoffed at the older woman.
Even One, who lacked the intelligence to understand human language, could sense his master’s downcast mood.
The massive four-armed giant took a step forward and slammed two of his fists hard against his thick chest.
BOOM!
The heavy thud echoed across the street as One let out a low, protective growl, showing his absolute support for his small master.
Summer looked up at the girls surrounding her, then at the gigantic mutant standing behind her like an unshakeable wall.
She took a deep breath of the cold night air and gave a slow, firm nod.
The past version of her was gone. The human Summer had died somewhere in the dark. The current her was different.
She was an Elite Zombie Girl who liked sweet cores, protected her friends, and crushed monsters that tried to harm them.
Deep inside her subconscious mind, the System remained completely silent.
However, beneath its cold interface, it was seething with intense, quiet rage. Falsely accuse someone for money? Seduction by an enemy country?
Only the System truly knew the absolute terror its poor little girl had experienced that day.
Only the System knew her utter helplessness as powerful adults framed her, destroyed her voice, and buried her under disgusting lies to protect a real monster.
The System chose not to speak a single word. It was far better for Summer to move forward without those painful, traumatic memories resurfacing.
"Major... I mean, Leader Imani," Captain Robin spoke up, breaking the heavy atmosphere. "Our armored vehicle is destroyed, but our temporary civilian settlement is only four miles north from here. It’s heavily fortified, and we have medical supplies, clean water, and food."
He turned toward Jacob and his family. "You should come with us. It’s not safe to stay out in the open like this."
Jacob did not hesitate for a single second. "We will come."
He knew his family was at their absolute physical limit. He was injured, Ilas was exhausted, Angela was bleeding, and his wife, Mary, was still waiting in a hidden building down the road.
While Captain Robin and Jacob organized the remaining gear, the two surviving soldiers pulled Leader Imani a few paces away into the shadows of a ruined storefront.
"Leader... are we really taking that thing with us?" one soldier whispered, his eyes darting nervously toward Summer. "She’s a zombie. If the people at the settlement see a disgusting monster such as her walking through the front gate, there will be panic."
"Agreed she’s disgusting," Imani replied, her voice firm. "But look at her. Does she show any violent tendencies like other zombies? She possesses full rationality, at least for now."
Imani paused, watching Summer and One interact. The giant was rubbing the zombie girl’s hair with its gigantic fingers. That looked absurdly funny.
"An intelligent zombie who can communicate and control her kind might be the only key humanity has to ending this damn apocalypse," Imani said quietly. "We are bringing her. Treat her with respect if you want to keep your heads on your shoulders."
The two soldiers swallowed hard, recalling how effortlessly Summer had stolen Imani’s rifle out of her hands.
They nodded quickly and stopped complaining.
Before heading north to the military settlement, the group needed to retrieve Mary from her hiding spot.
Summer led the way down the quiet street toward a two-story commercial building. Standing outside the perimeter were her forty-four controlled zombie puppets, maintaining a tight, silent guard around the entrance.
When the soldiers saw forty-four zombies standing in perfect formation like disciplined guards, cold sweat broke out across their foreheads once again.
Meanwhile, Imani’s decision to take Summer to camp cemented.
Summer waved her small hand casually, and the zombie horde instantly parted, opening a clear path through the front doors.
"Mom!" Ella called out as they pushed open the heavy glass doors.
Inside a secured back room, Mary was sitting on a folded blanket, clutching a steel pipe tightly.
The moment she saw her family walk through the door alive, tears welled up in her eyes.
"Ella! Ilas! Jacob!" Mary cried out, rushing forward to hug her daughters and husband tightly.
However, her relief instantly turned into sharp anger as she pulled back and glared at Jacob and her daughters.
"Are you three completely out of your minds?!" Mary shouted, her voice shaking with rage. "You sneaked out behind my back! You went into a warzone full of mutated monsters just to go after a zombie! Do you have any idea how terrified I was sitting in this room waiting for you to die?!"
Jacob looked down guiltily, unable to argue back. Ella and Ilas shrank back slightly under their mother’s fierce glare, though Ella still held Summer’s pale hand tightly.
"Mary, calm down," Jacob said softly, placing a hand on his wife’s shoulder. "They made a dangerous choice, but... it was because of Summer that we are all standing here alive."
Mary paused, her breathing heavy as her eyes shifted from her husband toward the small, pale girl standing near the doorway.
Summer blinked her crimson eyes, her chubby cheeks puffing out slightly as she met Mary’s intense gaze.
"You know I hate you, right?" Mary asked.
"And you should know you are food to me, right?" Summer asked back.
"See... see? This damn rebellious zombie girl..." Mary cried out.
"See... see? This damn old hag." Summer’s following words choked her.