Chapter 354- Zombies are Everywhere

Chapter 354: Chapter 354- Zombies are Everywhere

No moon. No stars. A ceiling of low, gray cloud pressed down on the ruined town, trapping every sound in a dome of dead air. The only light came from somewhere distant, a faint amber glow on the horizon that pulsed like a slow heartbeat.

A zombified dog stood in the middle of the intersection.

Its body was wrong. The ribs were visible through torn fur, the spine curved at an angle that living anatomy rejected. Its jaw hung open, the teeth long and yellow, the tongue black and swollen. Saliva dripped from its muzzle in thick, continuous strings that pooled on the asphalt. It growled. The sound was low, wet, carrying the distinct gurgle of something that had once been alive and was now running on borrowed biology.

The growl echoed off the empty buildings.

Then the air split.

A yellow portal tore open vertically in the center of the street, the edges crackling with violet-white energy. The oval cut through the zombified dog like a blade, the light passing through its body at the midsection. The dog split in half. Both portions fell to the asphalt with separate, wet impacts, the organs spilling out in dark, steaming ropes. The growl died in its throat. The legs twitched once. Twice. Then nothing.

Cruxius stepped through.

His boot landed on the asphalt with a clean, sharp sound. His hands were in his pockets. His coat was buttoned.

His dark hair caught the faint light from the closing portal behind him. He looked left. He looked right. His expression carried the mild, cataloging interest of a man surveying a property he was considering acquiring.

Four women followed him through the portal before it closed.

The succubus came first. Her golden wings folded tight against her back, her enormous pale tits barely contained by the loose shirt she had found, her blonde hair catching the dim light. Her golden eyes scanned the street with the practiced assessment of a demon who had walked through worse.

The mother came second. She stumbled through, her thick body shivering, her enormous tits pressing against the thin dress she wore. Her dark eyes went wide at the sight of the halved dog, her hand flying to her mouth.

The daughter followed, her small body pressed against her mother’s side, her dark eyes huge, her hand gripping her mother’s thick arm.

Soha came last. Her pregnant belly led her through the portal, her hand cradling the dome, her dark eyes calm but watchful. She looked at the ruined street, the gutted buildings, the bent lamps. She looked at Cruxius.

He smirked.

"Let’s see."

He tapped his boot on the asphalt.

Once.

Kinetic Control activated. The energy traveled downward through his foot, into the ground, and detonated in a sphere. The shockwave was invisible but absolute. A ten-foot radius of pure kinetic force erupted from the point of contact.

The asphalt cracked. The nearest car, a rusted sedan sitting five feet away, launched upward. It flipped end over end, the metal shrieking, the glass spraying. It hit the second car, which flipped into the third. A chain reaction of vehicles tumbling through the air like toys kicked by a child.

The sound was enormous. Metal crashing. Glass breaking. The echoes bouncing off every building, filling the dead town with the announcement of arrival.

The mother screamed.

"What was that~?!"

Four shapes moved in the darkness between buildings.

They came fast. Low to the ground, their bodies scaled, their movements the scuttling rush of things that had once been human and were now something between reptile and corpse. Lizard men. Their skin was green-gray, peeling in patches, their eyes yellow and slitted. Their jaws were elongated, filled with teeth that had grown too large for their mouths. They carried crude weapons. Pipes. Broken bottles. One had a rusted machete.

The mother yelled again.

"ZOMBIES~!"

He blurred.

His body vanished from where he stood and reappeared between the four lizard men. The air cracked from the displacement. His hand came out of his pocket.

The first lizard man split in half at the waist. The kinetic blade, invisible and silent, passing through the rotting flesh without resistance. The top half fell forward. The bottom half stood for one more second before collapsing.

The second and third died in the same instant. A single horizontal sweep of his arm, the kinetic force extending from his palm in a wide arc, cutting through both bodies at chest level. Their heads separated from their torsos, spinning, the yellow eyes still blinking as they hit the asphalt.

The fourth lunged at him. He kicked it. The boot connected with the lizard man’s chest, and the stored kinetic energy from the shockwave, still cycling through his body, released on impact. The creature became a projectile. It flew backward, hitting the wall of a gutted pharmacy, and came apart on contact. The wall cracked. The body slid down, leaving a dark smear.

He pulled his hand back into his pocket.

He turned.

The mother was standing where she had been, her mouth open, her enormous tits heaving, her eyes fixed on the four dismembered bodies. He walked toward her. His hand came out of his pocket and closed around her wrist.

He pulled her forward.

She stumbled, her thick body crashing against his chest, her nose smashing into his coat. Her enormous tits spread against his ribs, the dark nipples pressing through the thin dress. She gasped, her face crushed against him, her dark eyes looking up.

"Sarah," he said. His voice was warm. Conversational. As if they were discussing breakfast. "Why are you yelling?"

She trembled.

Her body shook against his chest, her thick arms pressed between them, her enormous tits compressed. Her voice came out small, muffled by his coat.

"No, I thought... I thought they were going to..."

He looked down at her.

"If you yell again," he said, his voice carrying the same even, unhurried tone, "I’m going to tie you to a bedpost and fuck you all night in your anal."

Her whole body shuddered.

The tremor ran from her shoulders to her thick ass, her enormous tits vibrating against his chest. Her dark eyes went wide. Her mouth opened, closed, opened again.

"I’m... I’m sorry," she whispered. "I won’t. I won’t yell."

He released her wrist.

She stepped back, her face flushed, her thick body still trembling, her hands pressing against her own enormous tits as if trying to calm her heartbeat through the flesh.

The succubus appeared beside him.

She had been watching the entire exchange with her golden eyes half-lidded, her tail swaying, her enormous pale tits rising and falling with controlled breath. She looked at the ruined street, the halved dog, the dismembered lizard men, the overturned cars.

"This is X Town," she said. Her voice was low, informative, carrying the Throne Bishop’s knowledge. "A run-down settlement on the outer edge of the dead zone. It was a human outpost before the virus spread. Now it’s a feeding ground."

She looked at the dark buildings.

"The zombies here are mostly nocturnal. The stronger ones, the evolved ones, are active in the daytime. They sleep during the dark hours. We arrived at night, so we cannot see the people."

He looked at her.

"It’s fine," he said. "It does not matter. After all, night is good since there are no humans. Mostly."

He walked.

His boots crunched on the broken glass. His hands in his pockets. His coat catching the faint wind. The four women followed. The mother behind the succubus, her thick body still trembling, her enormous tits swaying under the thin dress. The daughter beside her, her small hand gripping her mother’s. Soha at the rear, her pregnant belly cradled, her dark eyes scanning every shadow.

They walked through the dead town.

Past gutted storefronts. Past overturned buses. Past a playground where the swings moved without wind, the chains creaking. Past a gas station where the pumps had been torn from the ground and stacked in a pile that made no sense.

The succubus pointed.

"There. The shopping mall."

It rose from the end of the street. A massive structure, three stories, the glass facade shattered but the frame intact. The entrance was a pair of double doors, metal, dented, the locks broken. Light from nowhere reflected off the interior, giving the building a faint, sick glow.

He walked toward it.

He didn’t slow down. He didn’t check. He raised one hand and pushed the double doors open. The metal screamed on its hinges, the sound echoing through the empty mall.

Three zombies rushed.

They came from the interior darkness, their bodies twisted, their movements the lurching, asymmetric scramble of things that had forgotten how legs worked. Their growls were strange. Not the wet gurgle of the dog. A dry, clicking sound, like bones being snapped inside a throat. One of them opened its jaw and the sound that came out was a high, keening wail that bounced off the mall’s walls.

He didn’t touch them.

He opened three portals. One in front of each zombie. They ran into the violet-white ovals and vanished. Three exit portals opened outside the mall, fifty feet in the air. The zombies fell, hit the asphalt, and didn’t move again.

He walked.

The mall interior was gutted. The stores were empty, their gates torn down, their shelves bare. The floor was covered in debris, broken glass, dried blood, the remnants of shopping bags. The ceiling lights were dead, the only illumination coming from the faint amber glow that seemed to permeate everything in this town.

A dozen zombies came.

They emerged from side corridors, from broken escalators, from the dark mouths of department stores. They rushed toward him in a wave of twisted limbs and clicking growls. He walked. His pace didn’t change. His hands stayed in his pockets.