Apocalypse: After Reanimation, I Became The Queen-Chapter 47: _ Mutated

The cannibals’ leader’s jaw tightens.

"You don’t get to play the victim here," Trish continues, jabbing a finger at his chest. "We all went through the same apocalypse. We all lost people. We all suffered. But we didn’t start tearing each other apart like fucking animals!"

Her outburst commands silence in the caves

Somewhere in here, Dom lets out a choked sound.

I turn and see him curled up in the corner, arms wrapped around his knees and his face buried on it. His shoulders shake, and when he lifts his head, his eyes are red and swollen.

Vic is gone.

For the first time in his life, Dom is alone.

The sight guts me. I should go to him. Should say something. But what the hell am I supposed to say? Sorry your brother just got eaten alive in front of you? Sorry we couldn’t do anything to save him?

"Sorry?"

It’s not enough. It will never be enough.

The cannibals’ leader exhales hard, running a hand over his face. When he looks at me again, some of the fight is gone from his eyes.

"You think we’re proud of what we’ve done?" he mutters. "You think we enjoyed it? We did what we had to do. Just like you’re doing now."

"No," I growl. "Not just like us."

He scoffs, shaking his head. "We were good people once." His voice is quieter now. Tired. "And then the world made us bad people."

"No." Trish steps closer, her glare burning into him. "The world didn’t make you this disgustingly bad. You chose to be."

Another silence ensues.

Then someone from the cannibals’ group says, "So... are we just gonna stay here and punch each other, or are we gonna figure out what the hell we do next?"

Because yeah. We still don’t know if Benji made it. Vic is gone. And we’re trapped in a cave with people we really shouldn’t trust.

And outside?

The dead are still waiting.

Silence goes on through the cave like a noose around our necks. It’s weighed down by grief, exhaustion, and the fact that I still want to break this cannibal leader’s nose.

I exhale sharply and step forward, cracking my knuckles. "Listen, I don’t care how shitty things got for you people out there, or how ’the world made you bad.’ After this? We still got beef." I jab a finger at his bloodied face. "But for now, unless you want us all to end up zombie chow, we need to shut the hell up and pray that by morning, that horde outside has lost interest."

The others mumble in agreement, some with begrudging nods, others still glaring daggers. The air inside the cave is warm and stale and filled with the scent of blood. Someone coughs, and I swear it echoes too loudly.

Trish folds her arms, shifting her weight from foot to foot. "By the way," she mutters, "what the hell was that thing controlling the zombies?"

The real question. What the hell was that and what is it capable of? Thinking about it makes me gulp in fear.

Yes, fear, I feel it. As much as I don’t want to admit it, I’m no longer sure about the success of this mission. In a few days, all the rations back at the base will get exhausted and I can’t even tell just how long getting to our destination will take us.

I fear for us. I fear for those who are at home. I fear for Maggie.

"Not sure." One of the surviving cannibals rubs his temples like he’s trying to wipe the memory from his brain. "Could be a mutation."

A mutation? Oh, Jesus.

Someone scoffs. "So first we had zombies, and now we got mutant zombies? Great. Love that for us."

The sarcasm is as bitter as the fear creeping into the cave. Another scavenger mutters under their breath, "We were already screwed before, but if more of those things are out there..."

"Then we’re really, really screwed," another finishes, deadpan.

Dom lets out a dry laugh that makes my stomach twist. "So that’s it, huh? Humanity’s just gonna crumble just like my brother did?"

No one answers. No one wants to. The tension crackles and starts to grow teeth.

Then someone panics. "We can’t stay here all night! What if they smell us? What if they hear us breathing? What if..."

"Hey!" I snap, throwing my hands up. "How about you all calm the fuck down before you get us actually killed?"

But of course, people don’t listen when they’re terrified. Someone else starts whispering hysterically about how this is worse than they thought, how the world’s definitely ending, and...

Crack.

A wet, sickening crunch echoes through the cave.

The whispering stops and my stomach drops.

I turn just in time to see the cannibal leader yanking his knife out of some poor bastard’s neck. Blood bubbles from the man’s lips, his eyes wide with shock before his knees give out and he crumples to the ground lifelessly.

The cave descends into a stunned silence.

My mouth opens, closes, and opens again. Did this motherfucker just behead one of his own?!

"What the fuck..." Trish breathes.

The leader wipes his blade on his pants like he just carved up a chicken. "Had to be done." His tone is disturbingly calm, like we should be thanking him. "He was sick. Would’ve died soon anyway."

I blink. "So you just..." I gesture wildly at the fresh corpse. "Fucking executed him?" 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

He shrugs. "Better he died for something useful. I needed to show the others the consequences of not keeping calm. You see, my friend." He made a tsk sound. "Violence is the only language people understand in the apocalypse and also the only language I speak."

His friend?! Who the heck is he calling his friend? He’s got to be kidding me!

My fingers twitch toward my weapon, but Trish grabs my arm before I do something stupid.

"Not now," she hisses.

"Not now? Not now?" I repeat, throwing my hands in the air. "He just straight-up murdered a dude!"

"We need to stay quiet if we want to live," she reminds me, giving me a look.

My teeth grind, but she’s right. As much as I want to punch this guy into next week, we can’t afford more noise.

I can’t imagine that mutated thing coming for us. We still don’t know what abilities it possesses.