Apocalypse: After Reanimation, I Became The Queen-Chapter 45: _ The Bite, The Swarm, The Horror
I turn and see the cannibals trying to protect their children. I see a cluster of them; mothers, fathers, and a few men who are clearly losing, making a final stand around a group of terrified kids.
And they’re failing.
A woman with a deep bite in her shoulder sobs as she cradles a small girl. "Please! Someone take them underground!"
Her voice is raw with desperation. She knows she won’t last long. She just wants her child to live.
And it shouldn’t be our problem.
They are none of our business. Just like the scavengers weren’t our business. Just like the world outside our little group isn’t our business.
But I can’t look away.
Because I have a kid myself.
And suddenly, I see Maggie. I see her small hands reaching for me, her big, trusting eyes staring up, waiting for me to make things better. I imagine her in this place, alone, scared, with no one willing to help.
No, not my Maggie.
Benji hesitates, but I don’t.
"Go," I tell him, shoving him toward them. "Get the kids somewhere safe."
"There is nowhere safe!" he yells back, slashing a zombie across the face.
"Then figure it out!"
A bloodied hand grabs for my arm, and I hack it off without thinking.
Benji curses but nods. Then he’s gone, rushing toward the kids, and helping guide them toward some half-hidden cellar door.
I don’t get to see if he makes it. Because behind me, Trish shouts, "He’s down!"
I turn toward her voice.
Dom and Trish have finally cut Vic loose. He crumples onto the ground, gasping. His face is pale and sweaty. Blood drips from the deep gash in his leg, pooling beneath him.
Trish kneels beside him, gripping his face. "You good?"
Vic, who seems to gradually lose conscious, lets out a weak and pained laugh. "Nope. Think I’m about to die, actually."
"Not today, dumbass," Dom grits out.
Then, without hesitation, he hauls Vic onto his back. And then, because life is a cruel bastard, the zombies come again.
Trish and Dom fight while carrying Vic, but it’s sloppy. Slow. I fight harder, clearing the way for them. My arms ache, my breath burns in my lungs, but I keep swinging and keep slicing.
Because that’s what you do if you don’t want to stop doing anything forever in the apocalypse.
It’s hard and we are so surrounded and trapped that I begin to regret not reminding Maggie how much I love her before we left.
As I dodge, hack, and slice, I suddenly hear a familiar scream.
"AHHHH!"
I whirl just in time to see it.
Vic.
A zombie latching onto his arm.
Its teeth sinking in.
And everything stops.
I don’t breathe. I don’t blink. I just watch with sheer horror.
Vic’s scream comes out loud, louder than the gunfire, louder than the wailing of the dying, louder than my own heartbeat slamming against my ribs.
His body jerks, his arms flail, his eyes go wide with shock and horror... because he knows.
He knows. We know too.
The zombie’s teeth are buried deep in his arm, right above his wrist. Blood spills in thick, ugly rivulets down his skin, seeping into the torn fabric of his shirt, dripping onto the gore-soaked ground. The creature snarls, gnawing like a wild dog, and Vic thrashes, trying to shake it off, but its grip is ironclad.
"FUCK! FUCK! GET IT OFF!" His voice cracks, high-pitched with pain.
Dom reacts first, dropping his hold on Vic’s legs and shoving a boot against the zombie’s chest. He pushes hard, sending it sprawling back into the dirt. The moment its teeth leave Vic’s arm, blood gushes from the wound deeply and viciously.
No one speaks.
I can’t even if I try. My mouth is open, but nothing comes out.
Vic stares down at his own arm, panting, sweat dripping from his temples. He flexes his fingers once. Twice. The muscles spasm. His breathing shudders.
And then he laughs. It’s a broken, bitter, and terrified laugh.
"Well... that’s not great."
"Vic..." Trish starts, but she doesn’t finish. What is there to say?
We all know what happens next.
But we don’t get the time to process it... because the universe is a cruel, rancid piece of shit, and of course, this is the exact moment the swarm surges forward.
More zombies pour into the clearing, some freshly turned, some half-rotted, all of them ravenous. And worse?
The cannibals... the same bastards who captured us start dropping to the ground, twitching, and turning. The ones who were bitten earlier, the ones who had been fighting, clutching their wounds, trying to keep going... they all start to change.
One collapses onto his knees, his eyes rolling back, foam spilling from his lips. Another chokes, gasping, then suddenly goes still. His body slumps forward. Then, he jerks.
His fingers claw into the dirt. A second later, his head snaps up, and his once-human eyes are nothing but milky and lifeless orbs.
Shit.
"Oh, come on," I huff, shoving my machete through a zombie’s skull. "I am so over today."
Trish kicks another scavenger-turned-zombie in the chest before stabbing it in the throat. "It’s the gift that keeps on giving." 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮
Vic is struggling to stay upright, wobbling as his body weakens. Dom grips his shoulders, propping him up, but we all know it’s temporary.
And then, the sound we’ve been dreading.
A roar comes again. It vibrates through my bones, rattling in my ribcage like loose change in a tin can. The trees around us shudder, the leaves rustling like whispered warnings. The air tightens, like the world is holding its breath.
And then we see it. My jaw drops. The corpse. The thing.
The same rotting, worm-infested corpse we saw before. But it’s not just lying there anymore. It’s moving. Maybe we should have killed it.
Fuck.
Its body is warped, its limbs elongated, its skin wrong. Patches of it seem to crawl, the flesh writhing as if something inside is constantly shifting. Its head snaps toward us as a sickening crack echoes through the clearing.
And its eyes—God, its eyes... are glowing with something
And the zombies... react. They freeze like soldiers waiting for orders.
"Ohhh... fuck," Dom mutters.
Then the corpse moves and every zombie in the clearing attacks.
