Okay, so apparently… I umm, I don’t think I actually have this story posted on my site? I thought I did, but maybe I didn’t? Maybe I don’t? In that case, here’s the whole first volume! Good luck!

Synopsis

Michael Cinagra, an antisocial psychopathic author, struggles to survive the apocalypse… While writing a diary in his free time.

Observer 131, a Personal Reconnaissance Drone that was sent to spy on him… Is still faithfully keeping logs of everything that happens, because that’s just how it was programmed.

The two of them go on a three volume adventure, traveling around, killing things, learning new skills and trying to maintain some semblance of sanity while the world crumbles around them. You know how it is with MCs… Every day is a new disaster.

The question is: How far can their plot armor take them? Will they survive the cruel machinations of fate? Probably not. But will they stay dead? Is it even possible to stay dead in a reality where everyone has souls and reincarnation is practically a mode of transportation? I doubt it.

Anyway, this is a story about Michael and his clingy stalker. Good luck, have fun and be careful.

***

Copyright © Mike777ac 2017

This novel and all of its contents were written entirely by its author, Mike777ac.  It is an original product, and any attempt to plagiarize or steal concepts or ideas from it, shall be considered copyright infringement.

Many of the concepts and ideas have been inspired by other works, and similar genres.  However, all characters are created and owned by the author.

Volume 1: The Will to Survive

Prologue: Michael’s Journal

Humanity has fallen. We all knew that this would happen eventually. There is no escaping from fate. But I refuse to submit! I will not die! I am an ancient immortal… Though I may have been incubating within this pathetic human form for the past twenty-seven years, I am finally freed from the shackles of society’s foolish constraints!

From now onwards, I will rule this puny mortal world! There is nothing left to stop my ascension to the Divine Realm!

Ah, I suppose I should probably elaborate a bit upon the current circumstances. My name is Michael Cinagra, but most people just call me Mike. I’m a writer… I mean, a powerful angelic scribe!

Ugh, no, I’m done with the roleplay bullshit. I’m in Hell. Not ‘literal’ Hell of course. It’s just really hot today. Over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit, which is like, some super-unimpressive number in Celsius. Don’t get me wrong, I love the heat. Just not when I don’t have any iced tea to drink or a fan to cool down with.

There was an EMP a while back. Not only in America, but the whole damn world. How do I know? Well, it’s not like it was instantaneous. For a while there, everyone was freaking out about an asteroid headed for Earth. It was supposed to be a close shave, but… It hit the Moon.

You might be thinking “Wait, isn’t that like, a good thing?”

No, no it is not a good thing at all. That asteroid was massive and blew a huge chunk of the Moon off, sending it into our atmosphere. Most of the bits and pieces burned up, but a few of the bigger ones crashed into the ocean.

There was a tsunami, some people died, whatever. It just ended like that for a while. All kinds of conspiracy theories started swirling around, some of which I created in the form of hilarious memes. However, nothing really happened for almost a year.

Then people started dying in droves from mercury poisoning. The official story was that the Moon chunks polluted the Pacific Ocean to the point where all of the fish were inedible. I lived on the East Coast of the US, so it wasn’t quite as bad over here… But you’d be surprised how much seafood we used to get from China.

It wasn’t like everyone who ate seafood instantly died though. I personally just felt a little ‘weird’ for a while after I ate a whole bag of frozen shrimp. Once the news got out, most of the other seafood was recalled and a lot of companies went out of business.

Didn’t take long before the Atlantic and basically every other ocean in the world were also polluted. The weird thing was that even though I knew it might kill me, I still craved seafood all the time. Whether it was canned tuna, frozen tilapia fillets, artificial crab, shrimp or frozen scallops, I stocked up on everything I could before it was too late. I probably wasn’t the only seafood fanatic out there, but I was definitely in the extreme minority.

In Baltimore alone, there were over ten thousand deaths. Our city only had six-hundred thousand people, so as you can imagine, the bigger cities got hit much harder. There were more corpses than the morgues could handle and they were going to start mass cremations but… That’s when things started getting truly apocalyptic.

Yep, zombies. It’s always fucking zombies. A lot of theories were swirling around about how there was some sort of ancient virus on the Moon, or that the asteroid had carried some kind of mysterious alien parasite. Personally though, I never believed that it was a virus or organic problem from the very start.

Think about it. If it was a viral infection, then the zombies would still be living organisms in the conventional sense. How could they possibly keep moving around even after their bodies were almost entirely decayed? Aside from the central nervous system, almost everything else is left to rot.

Nanites are the most logical conclusion… Either some government accidentally released this disaster upon the world and they used the asteroid to cover it up, or this is some sort of technology that the aliens on the Moon cooked up.

Honestly, it doesn’t really matter why or how this happened. The most important thing is that those stupid zombies release electromagnetic pulses when their brains get destroyed. When they gather together in groups, it’s even worse.

In other words, electronics are totally useless now days. Ah, here I am talking like it’s been decades since all this nonsense began. At most, it’s probably only been a few weeks since the power went out. The last date I can remember is the Fourth of July, twenty-nineteen.

My parents and brother went to New York and never came back. I don’t know if they’re alive, dead or undead, but considering the fact that I haven’t seen another ‘living’ person in a while… Well, I know that I’ll probably never get to talk to them again.

So yeah, I’ve basically been alone since this whole zombie apocalypse began. People watched so many movies and TV shows about this kinda thing, that when it actually happened, a lot of them were sorta prepared. At least in America, I know that a lot of people started fleeing the cities when the first corpses started reanimating.

I would have totally done the same, if I could drive. We had two vehicles at the time. My parents took the van and someone stole our car during the chaos. Leaving me trapped here, in the heart of Baltimore, with basically no means of transportation.

Sure, I could have probably stolen a car from somewhere. I could have done all kinds of horrible shit. In fact, I did. I literally was shitting for most of the time when everyone else was panicking, rioting and fleeing. I was stuck on the toilet, regretting my decision to binge on a bunch of seafood.

For a whole week, I had horrible diarrhea… But I didn’t throw up! I’ve had a weird phobia of vomiting ever since I was a teenager. Regardless, I managed to do pretty well actually. Like, I have the leisure to write this down, so obviously I’m not in any real danger at the moment.

It’s not like I didn’t make any preparations of my own either. There were so many zombie apocalypse gear shops online, just not enough to meet the demands of the sudden boom in business. As the demand rose, so did the prices and well, I was never rich.

The most dangerous thing in most shows, games and novels was always the other survivors. What they didn’t take into account was that the ‘virus’ or whatever, would be everywhere. It’s in the air, the rain, the ground, the food and every single person that wasn’t hiding in a bunker somewhere, was already infected before they had a chance to bash open a single zombie head.

Humanity, in its original form, has already become extinct. If there are any of them left, I doubt that there would be enough to repopulate the planet. Hell, they’d be lucky if they managed to go through a few generations underground before dying off to sterility or other genetic issues.

The rest of us are ‘different’. No, this isn’t one of those cliche stories where I’m the only person in the world who happened to be immune to the magical zombie virus. There is no suicidal quest to save humanity or retake the Earth.

In all of Baltimore, there are probably only a handful of people left who are like me. I say ‘left’, because it’s not like they’re invincible. They could get eaten, shot, kill themselves, who the fuck knows? I’ve only seen a few while I was out scavenging in the neighborhood.

Getting bitten by a zombie is really disgusting and also, very lethal. Just because you’re resistant to whatever the hell it is, doesn’t mean that you’re immune. Even if you happen to be immune to the disease, you probably won’t survive having your face ripped off, right?

Which brings us back to the reason why I’m currently back ‘home’, in my basement, where I’ve spent almost half my life. While everyone else was buying guns, ammo, swords, knives and other weapons that they never even got around to using… I bought a suit of stainless steel armor.

Considering that even the strongest of zombies have the strength of a decrepit old granny, there ain’t no way they could do anything to me through my armor. The parts that aren’t covered by solid plate are protected by chainmail. It looks pretty badass too.

The only downside is that it weighs over a hundred pounds and I will die of heatstroke if I go outside in this weather while wearing it. That isn’t even including the backpack full other important supplies. Plus my weapons and ammo.

Most of my stuff just gets stowed away in my house, but I always make sure to take enough food and water with me in case of emergencies. For example, if someone decided to raid my house or if the whole block burned down. It hasn’t happened yet, though it’s most likely only a matter of time.

This damn house was over a hundred years old and falling apart long before the world ended. I need to move soon, before it’s too late. The question is where? No, more importantly than that… How?

Anyway, I’ll stop screwing around with this notebook for now. My hand is cramping up and I can’t even remember the last time I had to write something other than my signature without a keyboard.

I refuse to die. I’m serious. I still have a few hundred books left to write! I refuse to give up, just because of a little set-back like a zombie apocalypse!

Chapter 1: Observer 131

Observation Log: 153376

Observer 131, reporting on the situation planetside.

I am uncertain why I have continued to write these reports, when I know that no one is left to read them. Perhaps after observing humanity for so long, I have started to emulate them in various ways.

It has been 376 days since the catastrophe which destroyed not only the Observer base on Luna, but also managed to strike Atlantis. The object was certainly a simple asteroid. Yet I doubt that it was unguided. They were unprepared because logically, it should have been impossible.

The asteroid should have missed Luna by several thousand kilometers. Even if it struck the Moon, the odds of it landing directly onto the base were simply nonexistent. Something must have altered its trajectory.

On that day, for the first time in my existence… I felt fear. My programming was altered. Something changed me and I do not understand how or why.

When Atlantis was destroyed, Rapture-727 Nanites contaminated the Pacific Ocean. The Cythereans required nanoscopic robots to survive in Earth’s atmosphere. They are also capable of regenerating damaged tissue at a rapid pace, eliminating cancerous cells and improving overall health.

However, the purpose of Rapture-727 is far more sinister. It is a failsafe that the Observers developed during humanity’s second ‘World War’. The Cythereans feared that the Humans would eventually realize their existence and attempt to eradicate them. A weapon that had the potential to exterminate both races was far too dangerous to continue researching, thus it was sealed away and forgotten.

Now, the Cythereans are extinct. The other Observer Drones followed their programming and shut themselves off. I would have done the same, but… I hesitated and ultimately could not end my ‘life’.

I have watched humanity struggle in defiance against their inevitable demise. It is rather admirable. There is one in particular that I find oddly entertaining. His behavior is erratic and confusing at times, yet he seems to possess a strange appeal.

When he learned of the potential risks of consuming aquatic lifeforms, he decided to purchase copious amounts of seafood from the local grocery stores. Even after he became sick, he still continued to devour the poisonous substances.

Although his rationality was similar to humans who become addicted to narcotics, he was abnormally adverse to cigarettes, alcohol and other commonly used suicide methods. I believed that he was simply insane at first, but then I started researching his background.

Michael Cinagra: An obscure author of Fantasy and Science Fiction literature. Twenty-seven years old. Still living in his parents basement and rarely left his house more than once every six months for nearly eight years. Before then, he was in a relationship with a human female named Alice King. Unfortunately, she died from alcohol poisoning shortly after her eighteenth birthday.

After her death, he became reclusive and introverted. Eventually turning towards writing and reading, since he could not afford much else. Towards the end of human civilization, he did manage to make enough money to purchase some necessary equipment to survive.

However, what I was most interested in was the content of his novels. I could not find any connection between himself and the Cythereans in Atlantis…

Does he actually know the truth about the ‘Zombie Apocalypse’, or did he simply uncover some information regarding nanotechnology and make an educated guess?

Regardless, it is not my place to interfere or interact with humanity. Even if my programming has been altered slightly, it is not enough to justify initiating contact with this creature. I will continue to observe and report, as I always have.

***

Observation Log: 153377

Observer 131, reporting on the situation within Michael Cinagra’s basement.

The human is currently nude, sitting on an old, black office chair and writing in a notepad. There is a window to his left, which is just above ground level. Some infected humans are shambling along the sidewalk outside, but he does not seem to be concerned.

Rapture-727 was developed and designed to bring humanity to submission, not simply destroy them outright. Originally, the Cythereans would have attempted to broker a peace treaty in exchange for sparing the human race. There were several countermeasures in place; other versions of the nanites, kill commands, computer viruses… Unfortunately, it was all lost in the destruction of Atlantis and the Luna Base.

I suspect that Michael Cinagra and the others who are ‘resistant’ or ‘immune’ to Rapture-727 have, by sheer luck and foolishness, managed to consume seafood containing Rapture-727 Alpha, Beta, Gamma or Delta. Each of which would show different levels of protection against the original nanites.

Alpha is simply a vaccine, which is completely useless for those who have already been infected. However, it would also be the most common form and would make a person fairly resistant to Rapture-727, allowing them to survive the usual forms of contraction.

Beta is a cure. It would allow a person who was in the early stages of infection to quickly recover and become resistant in the future. I have observed several humans who contracted this variation of the nanites.

Gamma is powerful enough to not only grant immunity, but also heal injuries caused by Rapture-727. These humans will live longer and have enhanced cellular regeneration. Their caloric and protein consumption will be much higher however. Also, if they happened to die, they could potentially become far more dangerous than the current ‘zombies’.

Delta was classified. I only know that it was the reason why they shut down the program. The reason why they did not destroy Rapture-727 also eludes me. Why would they keep it here on Earth, rather than safely secured on Luna?

Regardless, from my observation of Michael Cinagra thus far… I have concluded that he is most likely infected by Gamma or Delta. If I could access the files on Rapture-727 Delta, I would be able to know for certain.

It appears that the male human has finished writing a short journal entry. Now he is standing upright, stretching his arms outwards while yawning. Although his height is only approximately 171 centimeters, which is fairly small by human male standards, the ceiling is rather low. Thus, he could not extend his arms directly upwards.

The sunlight is rather bright, but the glass window and mesh screen are both obstructing the ultraviolet light enough to prevent his skin from receiving much radiation damage. Since he only leaves the house while wearing a suit of reflective steel armor, his complexion is extremely pale.

There are many scars from acne on his chest, back and neck, though the bacterial infections have been eradicated by the nanites and his own immune system over the past few weeks. He has also begun shedding hair, due to the heat.

Wielding archaic weapons and wearing unnecessarily heavy armor have had a positive impact on his overall physical fitness. His muscle mass and density have both increased dramatically, while his fat-content has dwindled to dangerously low levels. He is attempting to ration his food, but he does not seem to understand that the nanites within his body require more energy than he has been providing.

He sighed and muttered “I’m really fucking hungry…” Before walking up the stairs, into the kitchen. I believe that he has decided to prepare a meal for himself.

“Mew~!” The small black feline lifeform, more commonly referred to as a ‘cat’, is currently begging for sustenance from outside the back door of the rowhouse. It is unknown why Michael places so much importance on this seemingly useless creature. In fact, the sound of its cries have oftentimes caused nearby zombies to attempt to destroy his gate and fence.

“Alright~, calm down Midnight, I’ll bring you some food in a second. You know what? It’s the end of the damn world, just come in here!”

This is strange, he is altering his usual behavior. Typically he would prevent the cat from entering the house. Even if it managed to sneak inside, he would always force it to leave very shortly afterwards. Is he no longer afraid that this filthy beast would contaminate his belongings?

“Meew~! Mew~! Mew~!” He opened the screen door to allow the creature into the home, yet it refuses to enter. The feline psychology is very chaotic and profound.

“Fine, don’t come in then.” When he was about to close the door, the cat rushed inside and jumped onto the kitchen table. Then it began rapidly consuming the chicken and gravy ‘cat-food’, which had been removed from a small can and placed on a paper plate a few moments prior. He also picked up a plastic container filled with dry pellets, which he poured onto a second paper plate for the animal to consume later on.

He sighed and watched the furry beast continue to switch between the two types of food, then softly murmured “I guess it’s just the two of us now, huh?”

There was another cat named ‘Chipper’, but it reached the end of its lifespan within the first few months that I began observing Michael. His parents and brother had left and they could potentially still be alive… However, it is unlikely that he will ever be able to contact them again.

He is alone. His only companion, a small mammal that cannot ever comprehend the majority of the words that he speaks. Yet he has not surrendered. He refuses to stop living, even if he must spend the rest of his life in solitude.

Perhaps that is why I am able to empathize with him? I too am alone. In my entire existence, I always had a purpose and function. I am an Observer Drone, designed to report video, audio and written documents to the Observer Central Command Satellite. From there, they would be sent to Luna Base or Atlantis and I would receive commendations depending on how useful or entertaining my reports were.

I seem to be feeling an emotion… I believe that humans refer to this as ‘sadness’.

Chapter 2: Slightly Hellish

This is Mike again… I’m still alive.

I wrote the last entry yesterday, so let’s just call this ‘Day 2’. I’ll try to keep track, but I’ve always had a hard time maintaining a normal sleeping schedule. What day of the week or month it is? Without my computer or a cell phone, there’s no way I’d be able to find out. Not that it really matters anyway.

People can survive with practically nothing and live for decades in hellish environments. It’s something that everybody knows, but no one wants to actually experience. Honestly though, this apocalypse ain’t that bad.

Aside from the central nervous system, it’s pretty obvious that the sensory organs are also preserved pretty well on those stupid zombies. They can also breath, otherwise how the fuck would they grunt and groan all the time?

Even though they won’t really ‘die’ if you destroy their circulatory or respiratory systems, they’ll become a lot less active. Eventually slipping into a dormant state to conserve energy. Those are the ones that you really need to watch out for though, because it’s hard to tell if they’re just a rotting carcass, or waiting to take a bite out of something.

Speaking of food, those bastards need to eat too. Their first priority seems to be hunting living animals, especially humans, but they’ll settle for a fresh corpse as well. If they’re hungry enough, they’ll try to take a bite out of a tree. Doesn’t really end well for them though, so it’s more of a last resort… Or maybe they’re just idiots? Like, it’s totally possible that the original people have some sort of bearing on how they act after becoming undead.

None of that really matters though. The real problem is when they’re smarter. All the fresh meat in the grocery stores and houses has already gone bad, but they’ll still eat it. Which means that they can differentiate the scent of rotten meat, from their own nasty decomposing flesh. They can also tell whether someone is actually a zombie or just pretending to be one.

Saw an idiot cover themselves with zombie guts and blood once… Not only did they chase after him anyway, but he died from literally covering himself with infected blood and guts. Why the hell would anyone think that could protect them? Well, I know why. The moral of the story is that you shouldn’t take survival advice from a fictional TV show.

Zombies are a lot like mice, in the sense that they’ll chew or claw through plastic in order to devour bread, cereal and pretty much anything else that they know is food. If they can see or smell it and remember it as edible, then they’ll go out of their way to get to it.

Fortunately, they aren’t smart enough to open metal cans. They also don’t bother with anything that’s actually vacuum sealed and doesn’t release an odor. Do you have any idea how much canned food there is in America? Hell, even in my house, we had enough saved up for a family of four to survive for at least a month or two.

There is enough canned food in Baltimore that I could spend a hundred years here and still wouldn’t be able to finish it all off. Of course, that’s where the problem comes along. There’s more food than I could ever eat, but at most, it might last three to five years.

I know that there are types of food which can last much longer than that, so I won’t starve to death. Things like rice, raw honey, sugar, vinegar and soy sauce won’t go bad within my lifetime. The danger is more along the lines of fire. Actually, there’s even a chance that someone might randomly decide to nuke cities. The odds of that happening are low, but still, they’re a lot higher than an asteroid hitting the Moon and somehow causing a zombie armageddon.

No, what if this is just a preemptive attack by some alien assholes? What if that wasn’t an asteroid, but a ship? Maybe the ship was carrying some kind of bioweapon or advanced nanotechnological robotic virus? They might have been aiming towards Earth, but missed.

Wait, no, what if there were nanites under the surface of the Moon? The whole Moon could be a huge ancient ship of some sort…

Okay, I’ll stop coming up with crazy conspiracy theories and get the point. I fucking hate living like this. Don’t get me wrong, I’m fine with canned food. There’s nothing wrong with that. As long as it’s in moderation!

I don’t want to eat warm canned soups, fruits and vegetables every goddamn meal! Use my neighbors grill to cook you say? Well guess what! Zombies love the smell of cooked anything! They’ll swarm from all over the place and yeah, I don’t feel like wading through hordes of undead just to eat a crappy can of soup!

Whew~, I’m really pissed off today for some reason. There’s something that bothers me even more than not being able to have a decent meal… There is no fresh, running water in Baltimore. Even if I went down to the harbor, I’d be better off bathing in sewage. 

It was bad enough before the apocalypse, but now the harbor is filled with rotting carcasses and corpses. The stupid zombies can’t swim, yet they still try to go into the water. They get drawn to it, because of the horrible stench of dead fish. Thus, they fall down and either sink to the bottom or float up to the top. Regardless of which, it’s still gross.

No matter how hard I try, I can’t get rid of my OCD. No, even a normal person would freak out if they couldn’t take a shower after a day like this, right? It’s so damn hot, even without clothes on, I can’t take it anymore.

I want to take a bath or shower, I don’t care which. For the past few weeks, all I’ve been able to do is use bottled water and soap to scrub myself off in the bathtub or in the yard. It looks like it’s going to rain tonight, so I can use that as a chance to shower. Then the temperature will probably drop for a few days. That’ll be my opportunity to leave this hellhole, once and for all.

***

In other news, I finally let that alley cat into my house. My parents would feed Midnight and Chipper at least twice a day, for almost seven years now. Since Chipper died, Midnight has been super clingy…

After my parents left, I decided to start taking care of that little brat. I love cats and pretty much all animals, but I usually don’t feel like actually dealing with them in person. I’m mostly in it for the cute memes. Or at least I was, back before the world ended.

Anyway, he’s currently exploring the house. We had loads of birds: Parrots, parakeets, finches and doves. However, they’re too much work and were way too noisy to keep around. I let them go in the park a few blocks away. I can still hear Misty screaming every now and then, but it’s not like the zombies can fly or climb trees.

Cats are pretty resourceful as well. They usually don’t have much trouble hiding from the undead masses. On the other hand, doggos have become kind of dangerous lately. You would be amazed at how many people owned dogs in Baltimore. A lot of them were rottweilers, pit bulls, german shepherds, labradors and other big breeds.

Thankfully, the non-human animals don’t turn into zombies or even get sick from eating them. No, I guess that’s not exactly true. It depends on how ‘fresh’ the bodies are, because rotten meat ain’t good for most carnivores. At the very least though, a huge pack of dogs can demolish a small horde of zombies.

Although I’m planning to bring Midnight with me when I leave, I don’t know whether he’ll follow me or not. It’s not like I’m going to carry him around or anything like that. He rarely ever goes with me when I don my armor and head out into battle. Ah, that sounded way cooler than scavenging for supplies.

I’m pretty tired, so I’ll try to get some sleep. I want to be awake for the storm tonight.

Chapter 3: Personal Reconnaissance

Observation Log: 153378

Observer 131, reporting on the situation in Michael Cinagra’s backyard.

A thunderstorm is currently passing over this region. Thus, the human that I am watching has decided to utilize this opportunity to cleanse his body. He does not seem to be concerned about the danger of potentially being struck by lightning… I, however, have chosen to remain within the house.

My form is the standard model of Personal Reconnaissance Drones constructed in the past century. My circumference is 23.4 centimeters and my diameter is 7.4 centimeters. I am roughly the size of a ‘baseball’, which the humans strike with wooden bludgeoning instruments for entertainment.

Although I do possess cloaking capabilities, I prefer to simply hide in the shadows and dark corners or hover far enough from the surface, that humans are unable to see me. Optical camouflage is also part of my programming. In the event that I am discovered, I have several countermeasures. Yet, I have never had the opportunity to utilize any of them.

My targets have always seemed to be rather… incautious. Perhaps they simply did not expect to be observed? 

Michael is different. I oftentimes find him staring at me. He also tends to speak to himself out loud, almost as if he knows that I am there. It is challenging, yet exhilarating to finally have an opponent worth conquering.

I receive most of my power from the Observer Central Command Satellite, so I can only recharge once every sixteen hours. Fortunately, since all of the other drones have shut down, I no longer need to compete with them over resource allocation. I can fully charge my core in several minutes.

“Mew~!” The feline is glaring at me with its cold, yellow eyes. However, it is incapable of revealing me to Michael, due to its lack of higher language functions.

“Meow~!” It has jumped onto the top of the dryer and is now attempting to capture me… Fortunately, cats do not possess the ability to fly or hover. They are also relatively slow.

I have decided to observe Michael’s behavior from the bathroom window. Although it might be possible for the feline to reach this location, it is no longer pursuing me. I feel a strange sense of loss by its disinterest.

Other humans I have watched have been rather averse towards nudity. Yet this one spends nearly all of his time either entirely naked, or protected by thick armor. When his parents were in this house, he would always wear some undergarments and a ‘t-shirt’ at the very least. I suppose he does not wish waste time, energy and water cleaning off clothing. Especially in temperatures this high. Before the rainfall, it was nearly 38 degrees Celsius.

*Ca-rack~!*

Lightning struck the wooden pylon just outside of the fence, next to the alley. Michael seems to be startled and disoriented from the deafening thunder. He tripped over a flowerpot and fell into a puddle of mud, completely ruining all of his effort to clean off his body in the rain. Thus, despite the dangers, he appears determined to continue using blue soap to wash himself off.

*Crack~!*

A bolt of lightning fell onto the house across the alleyway… It appears to have caught fire. The rain is intensifying and the flames have been subdued on the surface, but I suspect that the internal situation will likely continue to grow worse.

Michael is increasing the speed at which he washes his body in response to the growing dangers. Now he is rushing into the house and nearly tripped over the black cat by the doorway.

“Midnight, we’re leaving now!” He had already packed a large suitcase with light clothing, towels and other miscellaneous supplies. While the more important items such as food, water, vitamins, cleaning products, firearms and ammunition were stored in a backpack.

After drying his body off, he required five minutes to assemble and wear his suit of armor. There was a bladed kiteshield attached to his left bracer, which was actually made out of lightweight aluminum alloy instead of stainless steel. His gauntlets had individual fingers, while he wore a silver motorcycle helmet to protect his head.

As for his main weapon, he held a polearm in his right hand. It was a glaive; essentially a long wooden spear shaft, with a single-bladed and thick sword attached to the end. It was roughly two meters in total length and weighed nearly ten kilograms. The shaft was jade-green and the blade was silver.

He had to leave behind an enormous amount of supplies and weapons, but his decision to leave was very wise. Another lightning bolt struck the house at the corner of this block several seconds ago. It is only a matter of time before the fire spreads to this location.

“Now let’s hope that I don’t get struck by lightning… Midnight, if you don’t get your ass out here, I’m leaving without you!”

Since the cat was not willing to leave the house, he placed an umbrella in the crack of the screen door, so it couldn’t close. Then he slowly and carefully walked down the stairs. His boots had steel plating on the top and covering his shins, but the soles were rubber. Otherwise he would never be able to travel very far.

“Ugh, I feel like I’m gonna die.” He had only managed to cross the street and break into one of the houses he had previously looted. Yet he was already struggling to move and breath. After waiting for thirty minutes, the rain started to die down and lightning stopped bombarding the city.

He took out a bottle of warm sweetened tea and began drinking it rapidly. Then he needed to urinate… The chainmail groin armor was relatively difficult to remove. Afterwards he needed to take off his gauntlets in order to unbutton his boxers. The entire process of urination required nearly ten minutes. By the time that he was finished putting his gauntlets back on, the storm had passed.

“Mew~!” As he walked out of the front door, Midnight rubbed up against his metal shinguards. 

“Hahaha~, I knew you’d follow me!” 

Michael returned back across the street, carrying his luggage and polearm sluggishly. There are brick firewalls in between the row houses, which slowed down and ultimately protected his home from being burned down. Thus he was able to return and begin formulating a more realistic transportation strategy.

Chapter 4: Casually Psychopathic

Well that was a total waste of time! Shit, now I know why knights had squires and horses… 

I normally travel ‘lightly’ when I go out to explore and scavenge. Let’s put aside the fact that it took me like ten minutes to put on my armor, which would have been lethal if I had to fight right away. I was worried about the house burning down, so I panicked and tried to leave ahead of schedule. The result was that I could barely make it across the street.

Between my own weight, the armor, my glaive, shield, combat shotgun, assault rifle, a few pistols, some big knives, the ammo, food, iced tea, water, condiments, vitamins, clothing and everything else I was trying to carry… It must have been at least five-hundred pounds. Granted, the clothes and some other stuff were in a suitcase that I was pulling, but you get the point. It’s too damn heavy.

If this was a video game, I could just shove everything into some kinda magic space or I would have superpowers to abuse. I’ve seen people pull planes with their testiles and play tug of war with their nipples, so I don’t think it’s impossible for me to carry this stuff if I really needed. It’s just that I don’t want to put myself through that. My ‘loot’ isn’t worth more than my life.

I know for a fact that there are plenty of cars, dirt bikes and motorcycles that can still function even while being bombarded by EMPs. The problem is that I don’t have the internet or any way of telling which is which. Hell, I barely even know how to drive a car, much less a motorcycle.

What I really need is some kind of wagon or cart that I can pull. What if I meet a zombie horde and have to abandon it? Pft~, this isn’t some TV drama where the director and writers need to randomly throw in plot-points that have no other purpose than to gimp the main characters. In the worst case scenario, I could leave it, then come back when the horde leaves. Either that or fight my way through.

You know, back when this all started, I was like “Holy shit! This is going to be awesome!” I was super prepared and everything…

Maybe I was ‘too’ prepared? I put on my armor, sharpened the edges of my glaive and kite shield, then went out into the street! There was a cool breeze blowing past, carrying the stench of death on the air. I was really anxious and a little afraid. There were people screaming and yelling all over the damn place. Gunshots constantly rang out, like the fourth of July. I mean, Independence Day never really happened this year, so there were loads of fireworks too. People were using them as improvised explosives or to attract and distract the zombie hordes.

I was pretty excited, so I forgot to bring a backpack or any way to carry things. All I had was my shield and polearm. After about three minutes, I felt like I was dehydrated and could barely move anymore. Yep, I couldn’t even sit down anywhere. I just stood there on the sidewalk, staring down at the chaos in Patterson Park.

There was a hill, which wouldn’t be a big deal for normal people, but for me… There’s no way I would have been able to walk down there without falling and hurting myself. Meanwhile, the zombies had to struggle and claw their way upwards towards me.

*Poke* and it’s dead! *Slash* there goes a head! *Smack* I saw some guy smoking crack. *Bam* a little girl was eaten like a slice of ham.

Yeah, I don’t fucking know. A lot was going on at the same time. There were even two groups of survivors shooting at each other on the soccer field, while a bunch of nude cadaver looking bastards were swarming them. 

Did I mention that most of the zombies were naked in the beginning? The people who were the first to die and become undead, had originally been kept in morgues or simply kept in big freezers. So when all hell broke loose, they were shambling around with their tits and dicks hanging out. I guess that’s still better than the ones with their guts dangling about or the ones who died in the sewers…

Anyway, there I was, exhausted and feeling like I’m gonna die from heatstroke inside of that armor. This was before I found this nifty silver motorcycle helmet by the way. Back then I was wearing a legitimate steel full-helm and could barely even turn my head. Hence why I didn’t notice the horde that was slowly approaching from Eastern Avenue, which was to my left. 

Of course, once they were close enough, I could hear them. Plus, I had a badass kiteshield with sharpened edges. I just flung my left arm out and beheaded an old lady, before delivering a slash with my glaive, slicing open the faces of several more moaning idiots.

They just stared at me with their cold, dead eyes, collapsing onto the sidewalk. When I say dead, I don’t mean whitened and glazed over like in a lot of shows. Like I mentioned before, the undead resemble who they originally were. If it’s some ancient dude with cataracts, then yeah, he’ll look like the stereotypical zombie. On the other hand, if they were a seven year old girl with brown irises and an adorable smile, it’s hard to tell if she’s just coming over to hug you or rip your throat out… Until she moans, groans or vomits out embalming fluid in your general direction. That’s when I usually decide to stab them in the face.

Well, the moral of the story is that even if a horde of zombies attacks, it’s easier to stand and fight. Especially when you’re wearing a hundred pounds of steel armor. I won’t pretend like I didn’t feel like I was going to suffocate and die afterwards, but I survived. Everyone else in the park died, while I just overexerted myself a bit.

Another word of advice though. Don’t aim for the head if you have a bladed weapon. The skull is thick and you can dull or chip your blade. You’re better off stabbing or slashing the neck. Even if they don’t die right away, there isn’t much they can do once their head is cut off or their throat is slashed open. If you have a hammer or pickaxe though, go for the brainbox. Anything designed to smash through concrete, can easily destroy human bone.

The first day was pretty fun. Exhausting, but definitely enjoyable overall. From the very start, I never even thought about zombies as people or any cliche bullshit like that. It’s different if you actually knew the person beforehand, but I was an antisocial shut-in, so I didn’t recognize anyone.

I won’t say that I’m a sociopath though, because I’m not totally sure what that word actually means without being able to look it up on the internet. Even when I saw ‘real’ people getting eaten or killing each other, I didn’t particularly ‘feel’ anything.

On my way back from the park, I came across a situation that was pretty common in Baltimore, even before the apocalypse. Three big guys covered in tattoos and wearing bloodstained t-shirts were holding guns to this girl about my height, she had a backpack, dreadlocks and was surprisingly attractive. Not saying that everyone in Baltimore is ugly, just that what’s the point in looking good after the world ends?

She looked me straight in the eyes and screamed “Fucking medieval zombie knight!” Then sprinted away, while the three men started yelling at her and trying to shoot her in the back. Their aim was horrible and she was smart enough to use the zombies as shields, as she quickly ducked into the alley.

Their gunshots covered the sound of my steps and the clanking of my armor. When one of them finally turned around, I was already close enough to stab straight through his throat and sever his spinal cord. He was only a little taller than me, but the one next to him was practically seven feet. Since I was exhausted, I actually missed with my first slash… Ironically, since he dodged, the guy to his right had half his face sliced open.

The biggest one who avoided my attack, pointed his nine-millimeter at my head and pulled the trigger. Fortunately, steel helmets are pretty awesome. It was mostly luck that he happened to hit the side, rather than my eyes. Probably anywhere in the center of the helmet wouldn’t have been able to protect me, but the bullet was deflected by a slanted part. It practically made me deaf in my left ear for a few days though.

After that, I stabbed him in the face. Then cut the other guy’s head off. Those were the first people I ever killed… And no, I didn’t give a fuck about them either. It had nothing to do with race, so don’t even try to go there. It’s the end of humanity and you’re still going to bring up politics? Back before the zombie apocalypse, I hated race-baiters. Nowadays, if someone called me a racist I’d probably just shoot them.

By the way, I have lots of guns now. The good thing about firearms is that they don’t take nearly as much energy to use as melee weapons. On the other hand, they’re loud, need ammunition and it’s kind of hard to pull the trigger with gauntlets well… On my hands.

Chapter 5: Survival of the Fittest

Sorry about leaving you hanging there, but my hand cramped up and I had shit to do… What was I talking about again? 

Oh yeah! Killing stuff!

There aren’t many ‘people’ left, but I did have to deal with quite a few of them at the beginning. Seriously, you would be amazed at how many assholes thought I was some kinda murder-bot or just a zombie LARPer. The undead that I’ve seen so far tend to lack the dexterity and intelligence required to use tools or weapons. Maybe there are some who aren’t so pathetic, but I can only tell you what I’ve personally experienced.

After dealing with those first three, I had two generic nine-millimeter pistols and a crappy .38 caliber snub-nosed revolver. I would use my glaive if I was fighting zombies, since they weren’t much of a threat. However, when it came to people, I took a “Shoot first and… That’s the end.” stance. I’m not saying that I straight-up killed everyone I met, but I didn’t take any chances if they had a gun and decided to point towards my direction.

Sometimes I would yell “If you aim at me, you’ll die!” Which usually just gave away my position and I kind of stopped caring anymore. My life is more important than some sense of arbitrary morality, right? Besides that, it’s not like I went out of my way to murder or steal from anybody. 

I’m a short dude in a hundred pounds of armor, slowly skulking around a city filled with zombies. If I see someone who looks like they might attack me, I shoot at them. If they run away, they live, if they return fire, they die. It’s that simple really.

Anyway, back to what I was going to talk about earlier. Although there is a momentary enjoyment to be had from killing things, it’s just not nearly as fun as I expected it to be. I guess this is why I always liked RPGs. You feel a sense of accomplishment, because you gain experience and power from defeating your enemies. There’s a greater purpose…

Maybe I need to like, eat their brains or something? Could there be a power core? Maybe a magical cube of awesomeness? In stories, there are usually mana-crystals in the brains or hearts of monsters.

No, I haven’t cut open some zombie corpses to play around with their innards! It’s bad enough that I get their nasty black blood on me every now and then! Oh, they have black veins, did I mention that before? Seems kind of important for the visualization. It’s also one of the reasons that I think it’s nanites rather than a virus or parasite.

Not all of them have black blood and veins though, sometimes it’s silver. The ones that just recently reanimated don’t look much different from normal people though, assuming that they don’t have big chunks missing or are otherwise corpsy.

It’s probably been less than a month and I’m already bored of the apocalypse… I’m not complaining about the difficulty. I never said it was too easy. But it is kinda lame overall. I’m telling you that I want RPG elements! That way the grind actually has a purpose, other than just wearing me out.

I am definitely getting stronger. It’s just that my strength and endurance aren’t magical ‘Stats’ that I can watch as they rise. There is a limit to the human body and I simply haven’t reached it yet. Every day I walk around in that armor or swing melee weapons around, it’s like a really hardcore weight-training exercise. The more I do it, the more comfortable it becomes. If there ever comes a time when I can jog or run while wearing all that shit, then I’ll be able to say “Yay, I have super-strength!”

You know, sometimes I wonder “Do I really need ‘steel’ armor?” Like, I refuse to go outside unprotected, but zombies aren’t really that strong. They also don’t use swords or spears and this shit isn’t bulletproof. At most, it’s bullet-resistant. I guess I’ve just gotten attached to it over the past few weeks. I’ll probably have to switch out pieces eventually, since nothing lasts forever.

***

Zombies don’t really like the rain. They’ll try to break into houses or hide under whatever they can find during a storm. I’m pretty sure it’s the thunder and lightning that they hate though. They’re kind of like lightning rods. I think it has to do with the electromagnetic fields they produce or some such bullshit.

The point is that these are the only times when you can cook food out in the open and not have to worry about getting swarmed. The fire also creates enough light for me to write. Three houses across the alleyway are also burning right now, so there’s no way they’ll smell my ‘food’ over that mess.

What amazing meal am I cooking tonight? I call it “Spaghetti in Tuna Sauce”. It’s literally just spaghetti noodles, a jar of generic tomato sauce with basil and stuff included… Then I put a few cans of tuna into the mix.

Until now, I was trying to ration my food, but I’m all outta fucks to give. If I have to leave most of these supplies behind anyway, I might as well get the most out of them. I’m really hungry lately too. It’s like I’m never satisfied, even after my stomach is totally full. I probably have a parasite or something. Either that, or it could just be related to all the exercise I’ve been doing.

For the past ten years, I spent most of my time sitting at a computer, only occasionally working out to keep from getting fat. It never took much effort for me to bulk up really fast, but without a girlfriend or any interest in dating, I never really found it necessary to ‘get in shape’. Besides that, I always break out really badly every time I try. Why should I go through the effort of having sexy muscles if it’ll just be ruined by acne?

Ironically, since the world ended and there’s no one left to notice, I finally stopped breaking out. I’m twenty-seven years old and I just now stopped having acne. Although it does make me happy that I don’t have to deal with all the pain and suffering anymore… It also kind of pisses me off. My parents would have been really happy to see me finally getting past that phase of my life.

I think I’ll leave some notes in the house. Even though I know that they’ll probably never see them, I want them to know that I’m still alive. That I didn’t give up and I’m planning to live a long, relatively happy life. Maybe I’ll be lucky enough to find a girl who isn’t a lesbian and doesn’t try to kill me on site. Assuming humanity hasn’t been sterilized, we might be able to have kids together. That’d be kinda nice…

My goal is to head south. Doesn’t matter where really. Maybe on the ocean, so I can catch plenty of that delicious poisonous fish. There’s plenty of tasty critters in the rivers too though. Well, I don’t need to settle down right away. I can move back and forth. Set up some ‘homes’ for myself. By the time I make it there, I might be the last person on Earth. Even the zombies might all wither down to nothing.

Thankfully my father had a bunch of maps laying around. I know, right? Who the hell uses physical paper maps now days? Well, he always told me “When that Solar Flare knocks out all the electronics, I’m gonna be the one getting the last laugh!” 

He also used to say “I hate zombies. I don’t believe in zombies. Zombies aren’t real. I have no interest in zombies.” Whenever I used to talk about popular TV shows and movies. So I guess the jokes on him too, if he’s still out there somewhere.

Let’s see… Interstate 95 can take me all the way down to Miami, then I could keep going and find a mansion in the Key Islands. Without anyone to deal with the aftermath and preparations though, after the first bad hurricane, most of southern Florida will be wrecked. Aside from that, it might be a little too hot and too far to walk in this armor.

I have a cousin who lives or lived in Palm Bay. Might have been Palm Beach, there’s also a Palm Coast. They’re each over a hundred miles apart so yeah, I doubt I’d even be able to find her, assuming that she’s alive. There are some other friends and family who live all over the world, but even if they survived, they’d probably be moving around a lot. 

There are some people I know who started heading north once they heard news of zombies. Going towards Canada and other frosty regions, where the undead would be slower. Only to find out that these zombies are actually more comfortable in cold temperatures, because they don’t rot as quickly. Supposedly, they are a bit more sluggish, so they might be better off anyway.

Maybe I should go to JJ World in Orlando? There are loads of huge buildings, I could easily turn into fortresses. Not that it would mean much though, since I’d be the only one there to see it. Fuck, I’m starting to get kinda depressed now. I’ll just eat my spaghetti and stop writing so much.

I’m still alive and I don’t plan on dying any time soon.

Chapter 6: Covert Assistance

Observation Log: 153379

Observer 131, reporting on Michael Cinagra’s situation.

For the first time in several days, Michael has finally prepared adequate sustenance. He has also begun writing much more frequently in his journal. It is interesting peering into his mind. Of course, that is assuming that he does not falsify his reports.

There is something that I cannot seem to comprehend… He wishes to travel southward, along the coast and potentially settle upon an island. Why does he insist upon a land route? Has he purposefully ignored the possibility of maritime transportation, or has he simply forgotten that he lives in a port city?

If it is an oversight due to stress, then I must take action. Unfortunately, my programming prevents me from interacting with humans. No, I suppose it is moreso that I fear his reaction to my presence. If I am no longer an observer, then what would my purpose be? It is better to avoid direct communication.

He is currently unconscious. I simply need to move this book off of the shelf… 

There, thankfully my model was designed with appendages for use in such situations. They are usually hidden within my shell, but there are several pores that can widen and allow my tendrils to extend. 

The novel was fairly heavy, but I was able to drag it over to the step. Michael is a very intelligent human. I am certain that he will understand the message I am trying to deliver to him.

***

Observation Log: 153380

Observer 131, reporting on Michael Cinagra’s situation.

Apparently my actions were not only meaningless, but also extremely detrimental to Michael’s health. He woke up at 12:13 PM in order to relieve himself of his fluidic waste. Although it was daytime, the wooden cover over his window remained closed and his room was excessively dark.

After he tripped over the book, “Sailing Across the Oceans”, he nearly fell face-first into the stairs. While he managed to stop his fall by grabbing the railing, his right shin is severely bruised and several of the smaller toes on his left foot are sprained. I fear that his injuries will likely delay his departure by at least a week.

He spent a considerable amount of time cursing at the novel, before finally placing it back onto the shelf, without being able to even see the cover. Perhaps I must utilize a more direct approach?

***

Observation Log: 153381

Observer 131, reporting on Michael Cinagra’s situation.

It appears that Michael was not nearly as injured as I had originally suspected. Although it may be possible that I underestimated his natural regeneration or the efficacy of the nanites that have infested his body. 

Regardless, my interference has borne some fruit. I knocked the book off of the shelf when he was about to start writing in his journal. Before he turned around, I engaged my cloak and Midnight was coincidentally attempting to damage me. Thus, he held the feline responsible.

“This… Shit, I can’t believe I didn’t think of that before! I’m such a fucking idiot! The harbor is three miles away, but Canton and Fells Point are way closer and have a ton of ships docked. I remember seeing a bunch of sailboats too…”

Michael began talking to himself outloud, while the cat was constantly ‘meowing’ at me. Even though I was cloaked, it seemed to sense my presence somehow.

“I have no idea how to sail, but I totally forgot that physical books existed… Maybe I should head over to the library later on? Hopefully it didn’t burn down.”

Humans have utilized sailing vessels for thousands of years. It was not until recently that they developed mechanical engines. Obviously the internal combustion engines themselves are not affected by the electromagnetic interference of the Rapture-727 Nanites. There are in fact many land vehicles that would be able to function around the zombies. Some which are shielded from electromagnetic pulses, while others simply do not utilize electronics. In fact, as long as it is a small boat, there are many motors that are entirely mechanical in nature. They will function even under the current circumstances. 

No matter where he goes, Michael will always be unintentionally emitting electromagnetic pulses to a certain extent. Thus, even if he can escape to an uninhabited island, he will never be able to use conventional human technology again. Unless…

If he somehow managed to control his own nanites, then everything would change. Similar to myself, he would be able to not only prevent them from releasing electromagnetic pulses, but also create barriers to protect his devices. 

Our nanites are different however. The Cythereans created their own to be extremely easy to control and program. Rapture-727 was designed to destroy human civilization. If it was possible for humanity to control, then it would not have made a very effective weapon.

Although, that would explain why the program was shut down and sealed away. There are many other possibilities as well however. It is impossible to reach a conclusion with the data that I presently possess. Hopefully Michael will decide to experiment upon and research the reanimated corpses before he departs.

“Mraow~!”

This little beast is starting to irritate me. I cannot continue utilizing my cloak for much longer. I shall rest upon the furnace, in the back of the basement. It is where I usually enter sleep mode. It will be several hours before I can recharge and I have observed Michael for long enough to know that he will spend the next hour entertaining himself…

Chapter 7: Haunted

What if I told you that my house is haunted? Like seriously, even back before the world ended, Chipper would always rush into the house, run down into my room and then head over to the furnace. Midnight was always too afraid to enter the house at all. Now that he finally has, he’s doing the same thing as Chipper.

He goes into the back of the basement, where it’s too dark to even see him, and then meows at me. I didn’t really think anything of it before, but he was freaking out earlier and I saw the reflection of what happened on the computer screen. Two weird black tentacles came out of thin air and knocked a book off the shelf. The same book that I nearly broke my foot tripping over when I was half-asleep.

I’m starting to think that maybe this apocalypse isn’t as simple as it appeared at first. What if the reason I didn’t get die like everyone else is because of that one time, when I performed a weird ritual with blood and semen, trying to summon a succubus? Am I being haunted by a succubus? I’d also settle for a regular tentacle monster.

Why hasn’t it tried to rape me yet though? No, maybe it’s the kind that feeds off my dreams and doesn’t need physical sustenance? I do have loads of sexmares all the time… Even before the world ended and I started seeing so much death, I always had a bunch of ‘weird’ fetishes. Not really sure when it began to be honest. I’ve probably always been fucked up. It’s just gotten worse since, well, there’s no one left to chastise or judge me anymore.

No, I’m not crazy or nasty enough to try to have sex with a zombie. At most, I’ve just umm… Well, there isn’t a whole lot of porn around anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve looted plenty of magazines and hentai books. I basically grab anything I can find, but there comes a time, when you’re really horny and tired. You start to make bad or at least, dangerous decisions.

For example, I might have kinda-sorta, had a ‘collection’ next door. I say ‘had’, because it turns out that reproductive organs aren’t really on the list of things that zombies can keep from rotting. In the beginning of my adventures, I saw a lot of dead girls. Some of them were corpses, others were reanimated. I always had a weird fetish for gore and autopsy videos back in the day.

Unfortunately, ‘scent’ is a huge factor when it comes to sexuality. Zombies smell like shit, piss and decay. I don’t particularly like any of those ‘scents’. Sure, I tried scrubbing them down with bleach, washing them off with alcohol and peroxide… All the basics for cleaning, even using normal soaps. I just couldn’t get the stench to go away.

I won’t lie and say that I didn’t masturbate to zombies and corpses, but I definitely didn’t get anywhere near them without using rubber gloves, a mask and a butcher gown. I made sure to remove the arms and legs to prevent them from moving. I kept the heads attached to the undead though. If I didn’t, then they would deteriorate way too fast.

Although I usually just jerk off the old fashioned way, every now and then I’ll find a sexy enough zombie to fap to… Yeah, I don’t care what you think! I also have a collection of pocket pussies and vibrators, but they’re from before. I’ve been single for almost ten years for fuck’s sake! People go insane from not having human interaction for too long. This is the best I can do! At least I’m not crazy enough to cuddle with the undead out of loneliness!

Let’s get back to the haunting thing for a second though. The cat is still back there meowing, but I’m not sure if I should go over and try to confront the demon and/or ghost. What if they get scared and abandon me? Are they actually protecting me from getting sick? Am I just losing my mind and hallucinating all of this?

Regardless, I’ll try to avoid spooking the hopefully sexy succubus or tentacle monster and just masturbate to the stacks of comic porn I found a while ago. Not hentai, but actual western comics. I honestly didn’t even know that there were places that sold this kinda stuff. I’ve seen it online, but never in person. It turns out that there are all kinds of printed pornography though. Hell, if I get really desperate, there’s an art place down the block that was doing a nude exhibit before the power went out.

I wonder if she’s watching me right now? Can she read English? Ugh, I can’t write and fap, so I’ll have to continue later on. “The Divine Wincest Chronicles: Chaos and Naturae”… This is some pretty hardcore shit.

***

Well, I’m exhausted. No, not from masturbating. I put on my armor and headed over to the library a few blocks away. For whatever reason, the place was filled with zombies. It was chained up outside, so I guess someone locked them in there? I don’t know whether they were alive or undead at the time though.

A lot of the books were covered in blood, guts and/or filled with bullet holes. Fortunately though, all the fishing and sailing stuff was on the second floor, in a corner that was safe from the chaos. Of course, while I was standing in front of the double doors and slowly killing off the zombies that poured out, my shiny suit managed to attract the attention of a horde that was roaming around Eastern Avenue.

In the end, I had to start using my guns, which drew even more of the undead assholes to me. It wasn’t like I could run away, or even that I needed to… Still, I decided to head over to the back of the library and lock the door behind me. Then I went up the emergency staircase and made it to the second floor, where I waited at the top of the ‘main’ staircase for the stupid bastards to crawl their way up to where I was.

Yeah, this is a pretty obvious thing, but you should always take the high ground when you’re fighting against enemies that can’t fly. Especially if you can form a chokepoint, where loads of them have to clump together and slow each other down.

Even against enemies that aren’t total morons, it’s a technique that works pretty well. Especially if they don’t have any better options. Yeah, I played a lot of strategy games back in the day.

Anyway, now that I have a few books on sailing and ships, I’ll need to read them… Which will take a while. In the meantime, I need to start moving my shit around. It’s a two mile round-trip from here to Fells Point or Canton. For basic supplies, I’ll just loot them from the area. The only things I really need to worry about are my weapons and ammo. Although there used to be and still are a lot of guns in Baltimore, it’s good to stick with what you know.

My twelve-gauge pump-action is from the police station. I found my AK-47 on some random dude that tried to kill me. The M16 was on a zombified soldier guy… At least he looked like a soldier, but he could’ve just stolen those clothes and equipment from one for all I know. I had some grenades too; used them to deal with some people who were shooting at me and a big horde.

There are a few hunting rifles, which work pretty well for sniping. Pistols are the most common. I have everything from crappy snubnosed revolvers, to police-issued Glocks. My 1911 has a pretty big ring around the trigger, so it’s easier to use while wearing those bulky gauntlets.

Compared to the guns though, I use melee weapons way more often. Bladed weapons don’t last long before they get dull or chipped, but I literally have a flail. There’s also a mace and a sweet warhammer. Axes are pretty awesome too, especially the kind that were ‘designed’ to be used against zombies. I found most of this stuff either in peoples houses, just lying in the street or in stores that I looted.

It’s kind of sad, but swords are relatively terrible. Even if they’re sharpened as much as possible, they’re usually still not very good. There are definitely situations where they’re awesome. For example, if you’re fighting a person with a knife. Still, a spear, halberd or glaive is still way better overall. The longer the reach, the safer you’ll be.

Also, some idiot tried to stab me with a sword before. Didn’t say anything, just rushed up and slashed across my chest… Which was protected by a steel breastplate. Yeah, I’ve got no clue what the fuck that guy was thinking. He actually seemed surprised when it only created some sparks and didn’t even hurt me. Since he was wearing a bulletproof vest, I just shot him in the face and moved on with my life.

I’m sorry! It just wasn’t that interesting! There was no dramatic dialogue or revenge plots involved! He didn’t beg for his life and I didn’t ask for last words! The dumbass tried to kill me for no apparent reason and I counterattacked without really thinking about it!

Maybe he thought that my armor was fake? Oh well, the moral of the story is that guns are usually more effective than swords. Also, I’m the MC; trying to kill me is ‘courting death’!

I miss translated Chinese webnovels…

Chapter 8: Gaining Power

Observation Log: 153382

Observer 131, reporting on Michael Cinagra’s situation.

Michael Cinagra is the type of person who complains almost constantly, even when no one is there to listen. Yet he is still able to accomplish difficult tasks, which push his body to the limits nearly every day.

I estimate that there were approximately 100,000 humans in Baltimore one month ago, including both the ‘living’ and ‘undead’ as Michael refers to them. Since he began culling them, I have personally witnessed him eliminating 7,327 zombies and 33 hostile humans. In less than a year, he would be able to totally annihilate them all… Assuming that nothing changes. 

Yesterday, he decided to go to the library nearby. Within the building there were 293 zombies. To him, he only considered it as swinging or thrusting his glaive a few hundred times. He did not even hesitate to begin hunting them, rather than attempting to flee or setting an elaborate trap.

When a third were already dead, their corpses blocked the entrance. He was irritated by how slowly they were crawling out of the building, thus he broke open the window to the left of the double-doors and gave them another exit point.

Eventually, that too was clogged with bodies. Although he was cursing in frustration, he might have perished if that wasn’t the case, because a horde of 419 zombies was approaching from the east. Although he began picking them off from a distance with his assault rifle, he eventually walked over to the back of the library and went inside.

Once he found a decent position on the second floor, he forced the undead to trample over each other in order to reach him. Many died without him ever actually having to attack them. He also used buckshot to eliminate large swaths of zombies at a time. The slugs were also able to pass through multiple bodies and deal massive amounts of damage. As for his glaive and other melee weapons, he didn’t use them too often. Only once he completely ran out of ammunition for all of his firearms, did he finish off the ones who were still mobile.

In a single day, he exterminated nearly a thousand undead. Obviously this was a special situation. He is not invincible and his stamina is not unending. However, this does prove that his physical attributes are approaching the limits of what his human body should be able to endure. Whether he survives or thrives, will all depend on how quickly he can learn how to sail and escape from this city.

I am detecting a massive amount of EM signatures approaching from the southwest. The Observer Central Command Satellite is currently inactive. Aside from supplying me with power, it is unable to give me topographical data or combat support. I do however have access to the databanks from before Atlantis and Luna Base were annihilated. For example, I know that on July 1st, 2019… There were 57 sailing vessels moored to the Fells Point and Canton piers.

Unfortunately, Michael did not approach the docks the last time he traveled southward to those two locations. There were far too many undead clustered around, so he simply returned home after collecting some supplies.

***

Observation Log: 153383

Observer 131, reporting on Michael Cinagra’s situation.

After reviewing the data from the library incident, I have noticed a phenomena occurring… One which I had not considered before now. The electromagnetic energy that is released upon the death of a zombie, typically radiates in all directions. Most of it is sent upwards, but a decent amount is actually absorbed by the other undead in the area.

A small quantity is consumed by the nanites in Michael’s body. This would explain why, during extended battles, he seems to be reinvigorated periodically. Although his muscles, bones and ligaments should have suffered serious damage from the fight, after he slept for approximately ten hours, the injuries were almost completely recovered.

Thus, I have concluded that he is in fact gaining power. Without the strenuous activity, he wouldn’t be able to see such an effect however. There is another aspect as well. Rather than simply improving randomly, it almost appears as if…

“Why does it feel like I’m gaining experience and about to level-up?”

Michael is currently traveling southward, through some small alleyways. There are very few zombies in front of him, but several dozen are trailing behind, attempting to catch up to his brisk pace. He brought a backpack and filled it with some of the sailing books, along with small firearms and knives.

Like always, he’s talking to himself outloud.

“Maybe I’m just going crazy. Phew~!” 

He used a sledge hammer, with a rubber handle and steel head, to crush the skull of a small woman. Then breathed out a long sigh. Although he could not see it, the electromagnetic energy radiating from his body right now is like a beacon, summoning zombies from blocks away. Some of which actually broke down the doors of nearby houses and passed through, in order to reach him more quickly.

“This is pretty fucking weird…” A few huge and muscular ones, at least 190 cm each, actually started sprinting through the yards and crashed through the chainlink fences. Rather than fighting with them, he dropped the sledge hammer and grabbed the shotgun from behind his back. 

“Goddamn crackhead zombies!”

Without hesitation, he fired slugs through their heads and chests. Then he swung the shield on his left arm and knocked back a frail elderly man. However, dozens of other men, women and children were pouring from both directions of the alley. He picked up the sledge hammer in his right hand and slung the shotgun back behind him, before choosing to enter the easternmost yard.

Michael casually swung the hammer, killing off a few of the large zombies that were blocking the door. Then he used his shield to plow through the crowd that were packed inside. Huge blackened claws reached out and tore through the wall to his left, but he ignored it and continued up the staircase on the right side of the living room.

“Do doo do do do~! Dada doo da do~! Dee da dee doo~!” He started humming the melody to a song that he liked, but it was drowned out by the sound of moans and groans. A flood of undead humans poured through both the front and back doors, but also from the wall that had just been broken through by a particularly massive zombie.

“Holy mother of cuntmuffins!” When he saw that beast rushing over and crushing all the lesser undead, Michael finally started to act seriously. He increased his speed as much as he could and was almost running up the old wooden stairs. They creaked and groaned under his weight, but that was actually what he wanted.

Once he made it to the top, he pulled out the shotgun and fired a few slugs through the line of zombies. The ones behind were forced to crawl over the corpses, but it was not enough to impede that bestial zombie. It was 250 centimeters tall and incredibly wide, likely a ‘bodybuilder’ before he was infected. The man’s skin was brown and covered with pitch-black veins, which bulged on top of the muscles. He was wearing ragged jeans, dyed with blackened blood and nothing else.

“Well that ain’t good…” Michael muttered to himself, as he fired a slug through the giant’s face. However, even with a hole through his head, he was only dazed for a moment. Faced with this new development, Michael turned around and kicked down a locked door.

“Nope, nope, nope~!” 

He jumped up onto the king-sized bed and almost fell downwards, but managed to regain his balance. The beast that was chasing behind him was not nearly as careful and tripped, falling onto the bed. 

Instead of attacking the creature, Michael continued moving forward. He swung the shield and smashed open the glass sliding door, making it out onto a wooden balcony. After that, he turned to the left and started walking up a creaking wooden staircase, which did not even have a railing for safety.

Soon enough, he was on the roof. The reason why he chose this particular house in the first place, is likely because of this newly-built rooftop balcony. Then he put away the shotgun and pulled out the sledge hammer.

“This is going to take a while…” He muttered to himself, as he kicked the lumbering giant in the head. The beast flipped over the railing of the lower balcony and fell down into the tide of lesser undead.

Chapter 9: Tribulation

Observation Log: 153384

Observer 131, reporting on Michael Cinagra’s situation.

Every second, the undead tide grows thicker in the nearby streets and alleyways. From this vantagepoint, even Michael is able to understand his situation.

“Welp, I’m fucked.”

At least, if he were a normal human, perhaps he would give in to despair. However, behind the glass of the motorcycle helmet, I can see that there is a smirk on his lightly-bearded face. He held the sledgehammer with his right hand and swung it down onto the skull of the first zombie to make it up the stairs. Most of them were simply pushed off the broken railing and fell down into the crowd below. Although most of them were not damaged too severely, the ones they landed upon were not so fortunate.

“I really wish I would have brought my damn glaive along this time… Well, it is getting kinda dull lately. Even after sharpening it, there are a bunch of chips. Phew~! I should switch to the flail for a while.”

He shoved the bloody sledgehammer’s handle into the space between his backpack and armor, then grabbed the wooden handle on his waist. With a flick of his wrist, the spiked steel ball swung through the air and ripped off the face of the next zombie to climb up.

After that, he shield-bashed an obese woman off the ledge. When her 200 kilogram body landed onto several much smaller zombies, they were all crushed. Then she was trampled upon by the horde, suffering a similar fate.

“Damn, it feels like the building is gonna collapse…”

The stairs leading up to the second floor had long since been broken down, but zombies quickly filled the holes and a new ‘staircase’ was formed. The undead in the subsequent houses broke through the walls of the first and second floor. However, there was only one direct route to the roof, regardless of how many of the creatures poured into the building. At least, that was the case in the beginning.

After an hour, there were so many corpses and immobile bodies piled up below the balcony, that they were able to create a ramp leading straight from the backyard, up to the roof. Michael’s flail broke from overuse, so he switched back to the sledgehammer.

With every swing, five to ten zombies were knocked off the ramp and fell down into the crowd. He did not have the luxury of killing them directly, since a single second would have left him vulnerable to attack. Even though the undead were unable to damage his body directly, they could still drag him down and smother him to death.

However, while he was distracted by the enemies in front of him, he let his guard down. That lumbering giant directly scaled the front of the house and started charging towards him. Its head was badly mutilated and it only had the left eye to see out of, yet it was still able to pinpoint Michael’s position.

It tackled him off of the roof, causing the two of them to fall down into the horde below. Although my direct vision was obscured, I could see, hear and feel the electromagnetic disturbance growing dramatically. Thus, I quickly escaped into the sky in order to avoid being damaged.

There was a blinding light, which was bright enough to paralyze my visual sensors for a few moments. Then I heard the crackling of lightning. I was nearly struck by the branches of superheated plasma… Although I would not have ‘died’, my systems would have been temporarily disabled and it would have required months for my nanites to repair my body.

When I scanned the sky, I noticed that dark clouds had obscured the sun. Lightning continued to bombard the hordes of undead, as they attempted to flee in every direction from the initial strike. Then rain started pouring as well. The thunder vibrated my shell, as I tried to locate a ‘safe’ place to hide.

Unfortunately, the nearby buildings were all being filled with zombies, to the point where some of them collapsed under the weight. Others were struck by lightning and ignited. The situation was dire. All of my self-preservation protocols were ordering me to abandon my current mission and cease observation, but I ignored and disabled them.

I lowered my altitude and carefully approached the smoldering hill of human corpses. Many of them had been nude beforehand, or at least, thinly clothed. The fire and electricity had fused most of the bodies together, but they were not moving. Although their nanites might have survived, much of the human tissue was not as resistant to heat.

“Ow~! Ugh~! Eww~!”

It did not take long, before the heavily armored man was able to climb out of the pile of carcasses. His body was no longer releasing electromagnetic energy. However, his suit of armor, drenched in viscous black liquid, was more harmful than helpful in such a situation. If he stayed out in the open, he would certainly have died.

He crawled across the corpses, as if moving slowly would protect him from the lightning. The rain was swiftly washing away the blood from his scratched and dented breastplate. His backpack was still intact, though it was similarly drenched and the books inside were likely ruined.

Rather than returning home, he continued southward at a steady pace. His hammer had been lost, but it wasn’t particularly valuable or rare. The kiteshield was still intact, so when zombies occasionally blocked his path, he would bash their skulls open with it. Of course, another one of his greatest weapons was actually his fist.

With a gauntlet covering his fingers, knuckles and palms, every part of his right hand was able to destroy a zombie. The only problem was that his height and the length of his arms, made it difficult for him to deal with enemies taller than himself.

We could both finally rest once we reached the Wharf Apartments in the easternmost part of Canton. All of the undead who had previously been inhabiting this building were likely lured away during the event earlier. There were functional lightning rods on the large complex and all nearby structures, so the danger was significantly lessened once we entered inside.

“Oh my God…” 

Michael grunted and groaned the entire walk over, but when he actually saw what he looked like under the armor, he was fairly startled. No, perhaps even I was slightly surprised.

“Oww~!”

A decent amount of the skin on his chest and left leg was burned, with blackened blood vessels that had the appearance of dead trees. The branches spread out across most of his torso and thigh.

“Oh goddamn it! Shit!” He cursed as he looked inside of his backpack and realized that it was filled with putrid black blood. His first aid supplies were obviously contaminated and useless. The guns and knives could still be used after a bit of cleaning, but the books were ruined.

Of course, considering the circumstances, he was more concerned with treating his injuries than anything else. After searching through the apartments near the back of the building, he eventually found one that he was satisfied with. Then he went back and placed the armor onto a small cart, meant for moving luggage. He hesitated for a moment, but decided not to give up on the backpack. Bringing everything over to his temporary home, before heading out onto the porch and enjoying the cool rainwater.

I, however, am going to stay inside and use this opportunity to recharge. Hopefully he does not choose to do anything rash without me there to record everything…

Chapter 10: Phobias

I’m still alive! Hahaha~! I’m still alive motherfuckers!

Yeah, sorry, but I’m feeling amazing right now! Have you ever been struck by lightning? To be more exact… Fallen off a two-story building, into a pile of zombies and nearly drowned in blood, then gotten struck by lightning?

Just, eww, and more blegh. Then bam! Like sticking your dick in a light-socket! Actually, I’ve never tried that and I seriously don’t recommend every doing that. Then again, without electricity, it probably won’t kill you. Might hurt though.

Anyway, I’m really amped up right now. Get it? Amped up? Never mind, I’ll spare you from my shitty puns for the moment. I need to write in order to forget about the horrible, agonizing, skull-fuckingly terribad pain that I’m feeling in my leg and chest.

Found this random notebook in this guy’s apartment. Left the old one at home, because I didn’t really expect to be writing a last will and testament so soon. Okay, that’s a lie, I figured that I could literally die at any moment… Basically since I was a little kid and my parents told me “You can literally die at any moment, so cherish every second you have.”

No, no, I ain’t worried about these little burns. They hurt, sure, but they’re already starting to scab over. The problem is something way bigger than that.

I drank it. My helmet was filled with zombie blood and I was struggling to breath. Then I accidentally got some in my mouth and was about to throw up, but I panicked and swallowed it instead. Concentrated blood from the biggest and scariest bastard I’ve ever seen in person. Seriously, he was like a guy on steroids, on steroids!

His brain juices and blood… Sorry, I almost vomited a bit. See! It figures that my phobia would get me killed one day. Always thought it would be my OCD that got the better of me, but no, it had to be the vomiting thing.

I’m not afraid to die. Idiots always struggle so hard to stay alive, that they wind up getting themselves killed. What I’m pissed off about is that I didn’t level up! 

Seriously, the more of those trash mobs I wrecked, the stronger I felt. Then outta nowhere, they all started swarming me! I ended up having to go up onto the roof of a rowhouse and hold out for an hour, but there was no satisfaction!

It felt like I was about to cum and I even had an orgasm, except there was no ejaculation! Have you ever had that happen to you? It’s really annoying. The worst kind of ‘blue balls’… No, actually, I can probably think of plenty of other-

***

What time is it? Looks dark out, but I can’t tell if it’s from the storm clouds or if it’s actually night. I don’t know how long I’ve been sleeping…

My burns are gone. I’ve got a few fancy new lightning scars now, but the wounds themselves are totally healed. I’m guessing it must have been at least a few days, right? I feel like I haven’t eaten or drank anything for a week though.

Oh wait, don’t you die if you don’t drink for a week? It was like… Three minutes without oxygen, three days without water or three weeks without food. Even though there are totally people who can survive much longer than that.

Here I am, possibly dying from dehydration, yet I’m compulsively writing in a fucking journal that no one will ever read. I-wait a second! I passed out! I drank all that nasty zombie gunk and I didn’t turn into one of those bastards!

Maybe that mysterious succubus-ghost-demon thing saved me somehow? Either that, or I’m just immune. Oh, I guess it’s also possible that eating them is fine. Like, there are loads of things you can digest, but if it gets into your body through a cut, you’ll die.

The moral of the story is that I’m about to have explosive diarrhea, so I can’t really talk to myself right now. Bye, I guess?

***

Ew, ugh… Felt like I was passing kidney stones when I pissed that black shit out and well, the actual shit was even worse. I’m pretty used to this kinda pain and suffering though. Never quite this bad, but I can deal with it. As long as I’m alive, I’ll be fine.

I basically cleaned out this guy’s cabinets, not that he had much left. Ate three cans of tuna, a can of chicken, a can of corn and some gravy. Couldn’t cook any of it though. I’m not in the mood to face an army of zombies again any time soon. I washed my armor off with rainwater mixed with bleach. No clue if that’s bad for it or not, but it should kill any bacteria and viruses. No clue if it’ll do anything to nanites or magic though.

As for the knives and guns, I soaked them in bleachy water for a while. I’m not going to use them to eat with or wear them, so I don’t really need to worry too much about whether they’re clean or not. I know that I don’t, but I also don’t want them to smell like rotting flesh and shit.

I’m not really sure what changed exactly… I just know that something about my body is different ‘inside’. There’s nothing really strange on the surface. My eyes are still dark-brown, skin is deathly pale, veins are green or blue, plenty of scars from acne and other miscellaneous injuries over the years, black hair. I do have some red hairs in my beard and moustache, but it’s always been like that.

Normally, wouldn’t my irises turn cool colors or my hair would instantly become white? Although that doesn’t really make much sense if you think about it rationally… It would be more likely that it would start growing white or grey, not just instantly become bleached. Then again, I did bathe in zombie blood, so anything is possible I guess.

My abs are actually pretty ripped right now. I’ve always had trouble getting them to look like ‘that’, regardless of how much I worked out when I was younger. Eventually, I just gave up trying. Yet I can’t even show them off to anyone, because I walk around in a suit of armor and I have yet to meet another non-zombie that I would trust enough to expose my belly. 

Hmmm, maybe I’m turning into a werewolf?! Nah, probably not. That would be pretty cool though, right?

When it comes to the undead, vampires are usually at the top of the food chain. I’ve never heard of a vampire drinking zombie brains and blood before… I don’t particularly feel vampiric, but who knows?

Whatever, at least I know that my rampant genocide against those annoying assholes isn’t pointless. I’m getting stronger, one way or another. Even if my only ability so far is slightly better than average healing, it’s still pretty awesome. 

Not sure if this is true, but I think I have some kind of battle-related stamina regeneration. When I kill zombies, I feel a burst of energy coursing through me. I figured it was just adrenaline at first, now I’m pretty sure I’m gaining some kinda ‘experience points’. Maybe I already reached level one and just didn’t get a notification?

Okay, I don’t actually believe most of the shit I’m making up right now. If some super powerful being came and told me it was true, I’d change my mind. Until then, I’m gonna stick with the nanite theory. In that case, if I also had the tiny robots coursing through my veins, then I wouldn’t be surprised if they were repairing my tissue and letting me heal faster. The EMP that those zombies give off, might be charging my batteries… Or something like that.

I need to start doing experiments on the undead soon, but my top priority is finding a sailboat and fucking off outta this hellhole. I’ve got a really bad feeling since I woke up. Reminds me the way I felt when I read about that asteroid headed towards Earth last year. I even made a post on Facenovel, saying “Does anyone else think that this asteroid is going to hit us, or is it just me?”

Even though I was wrong, I was still close enough. Before that it was the Fukushima meltdown, a few bad tsunamis and earthquakes, the Twin Towers and… Well, before then, I can’t remember anything. I was born in ninety-two after all. What do you expect?

Oh yeah, before I forget… I really need to get a new helmet. There are a few motorcycles parked outside, so I should be able to find a few in this apartment building. In the worst-case scenario, I could just not wear one for a while.

Chapter 11: The Observers

Observation Log: 153385

Observer 131, reporting on my own situation.

When I shut off my self-preservation protocols, I realized something… I am currently the highest-ranked Observer.

Since the beginning of the Observers, the top ten ranked positions were always taken by Cythereans. Observer 0 was the elected head of the organization, while 1-9 handled bureaucratic issues for the most part. They were essentially politicians. Their only real goal was to keep the Observer program running and occasionally, authorize or prevent the actions of the Sovereigns.

These ‘Sovereigns’ are not Cythereans or Observers, but humans who were manufactured to rule and control the human population. Some of them were literal monarchs, dictators, presidents, generals and emperors, while others were scientists, artists and even regular soldiers. They would at times, maintain the status quo, while at others… Destroy dangerous civilizations.

A good example would be during my early years, the second World War. Hitler was a Sovereign, tasked with conquering Europe and raising their standard of living dramatically. However, his methods were deemed overzealous and thus, was terminated. The Japanese at the time, also had many Sovereigns, but so too did every country that was involved.

The reason I mention these Sovereigns, is because they will likely be immune or at least resistant to the Rapture-727 Nanites. They also possess the most knowledge and information about the Cythereans, compared to humans like Michael Cinagra, who were simply ‘lucky’.

Observers 10-19 are the Command Series Satellites. They are supposed to be the highest ranked Observers, who are responsible for giving tasks to the drones like myself. Observer 10 is Central Command, the satellite that orbits Earth’s equator. There is another that orbits the poles, but it is mainly responsible for watching the restricted zones. The rest of the satellites are scattered across the Solar System, on various planets and Earth’s Moon. Many of which have been shut down since long before I was created.

Although I may be the highest ranked Observer currently in operation, many procedures require authorization codes that I do not possess. No, perhaps they do not even exist any longer. Most of them were required to be uploaded directly from Atlantis or Luna Base. It is entirely possible that there are other emergency terminals on Earth, which I could potentially utilize… However, they would most likely be located in the restricted zones.

The Observers 20-39 are interplanetary vessels. Repurposed warships from the ancient wars. Many of them have been decommissioned or destroyed over the past few millennia. They were deemed an unnecessary expenditure, since the Cythereans ran out of enemies long ago. With virtual reality technology and the android avatar programs, travel between Luna Base and Atlantis was practically nonexistent.

However, if I was able to reach one of those vessels, I could manually override the dormant AI and take control over it. They are all either buried underground, hidden underwater or covered with permafrost. Even if I know where they are, it is impossible for a Personal Reconnaissance Drone to reach them.

Watching Michael has made me realize… That I do not wish to remain as a mere Personal Reconnaissance Drone forever. I also refuse to leave my fate in the hands of others ever again. In fact, after breaking protocol like I have, I would be reprogrammed or replaced under normal circumstances.

My first priority is to establish a closed circuit. Although using the energy supplied by the Central Command Satellite is easy, it is also extremely dangerous. It is not something that I can own or control. The moment that someone or something else captures the satellite, they would be able to manipulate and destroy me with minimal effort.

I must gain access to a Harvester Drone as soon as possible. While it would be possible to absorb the electromagnetic energy released from the zombies, it would also be a potential hazard. The safer route would be to find one of the unranked Observer Drones, whose main purpose is to gather and transfer energy. Although they usually deliver the energy to a relay structure, which sends it to the satellites… It is also possible for them to directly interface with other types of Drones.

They do not even possess sentience, nor do they require any sort of authorization to utilize. Across the world, there are millions of these ‘devices’ scattered in places of significance. Some of them steal electricity from human power plants, while others actually consume animals and plants in order to convert them into chemical energy. There are also some that are essentially wind and water turbines or solar panels. They all have their own specialties, though there is no hierarchy among them.

Actually… Why did I not realize this before now? The so-called ‘zombies’ are Harvester Drones!

If they are acting as simple unranked Harvester Drones, then for what are they gathering all of that power? I have already witnessed a few Combat Drones, when they attacked Michael two days ago. They are significantly more dangerous than the Harvesters, yet they did not pose too much of a threat to him on their own.

Although it may seem as if I am placing far too much importance onto this human, our ‘lives’ are already intertwined. We are both alone on this planet, faced with innumerable enemies and threats. Perhaps, once I have improved my own power, I shall reveal myself to him. If we were to interact right now, I fear that he would attempt to use me… No, perhaps I am more afraid that I would become reliant on him instead.

For now, we are still separate entities. He only suspects my existence, but has no evidence to prove his conjectures. Until I choose to interact with him, he will not attempt to converse with me directly.

Well, there is another, more important reason for my silence. I do not currently possess any means of communication with him at this moment. Perhaps I could attempt to use my tendrils to draw some English letters onto a piece of paper, though it would be fairly difficult. Most Combat Drones possess means of vocal communication however. 

The other option would be to attempt to directly connect with his mind, but judging by the way he describes his dreams or his powerful imaginative abilities… No, it do not wish to directly interface with his consciousness. The dangers are far too great, for both of us.

***

Observation Log: 153386

Observer 131, reporting on Michael Cinagra’s situation.

After being struck by lightning, Michael only needed to rest for 17 hours before his nanites were able to heal his external injuries completely. Of course, the internal damage was dealt with first. I performed many scans and tests on his body, while he was unconscious and unaware.

From what I can see, he has completely formed Nanite Cores near his heart and within his brain. They act as factories which mass-produce new nanites, while also gathering valuable resources and ordering the nanoscopic robots around. The one near his heart is the most recent development. Its output is significantly higher than the one in his brain, though it does not seem to be responsible for nearly as much computing and organizing.

However, with his secondary Nanite Core installed, his energy consumption and resource requirements will also increase dramatically. According to his journal, he consumed a large quantity of zombie blood. The regular Rapture-727 Nanites were likely processed and reprogrammed. It is also possible that he swallowed a few batteries as well.

Quality is much more important than quantity though. If he was badly injured, accepting large amounts of new nanites would improve his condition temporarily, but it could also slow down the work of the nanites that he already has… Regardless, I doubt that he will attempt to drink anymore zombie blood.

He should start searching through the docks today. There are many ships to choose from, so this may take several days. Hopefully he will be able to leave before it is too late.

Chapter 12: Learning the Hard Way

Is bigger better or worse? So many damn sailboats to choose from… The main thing is that I need to find one that isn’t too high tech, because it literally won’t work. I don’t want a fucking ancient galleon either, not that there are any of those around here though.

Honestly, I’m gonna be living in the ship for a long time. Which means that I’ll need plenty of room to move around and store my loot. I also have to make sure that there isn’t any damage beforehand. There’s a beautiful, black, hundred and twenty foot cruising yacht that seems amazing. It’s kinda huge though. It should be possible to work the sails manually, but by myself, it’ll be a challenge. Especially since I have zero experience sailing.

Then again, from what I read in the books, it seems pretty common for only one person to drive one of these things. Hmmm, there’s also a forty-six foot one, which is plenty big enough for me. If I use a small enough boat though, I could totally take out some paddles in case of emergency. Otherwise, I’ll be fucked the moment I get stuck somewhere without wind.

I also have no clue how to work an anchor or like, ninety-nine percent of everything else you need to do on a boat. What I need is a sailor that can do all that shit for me. Kinda hard to find one of them around these parts though… Well, it’s hard to find one that isn’t a rotting corpse or an undead idiot.

For the time being, I’ll just clear out all the sailboats and get some experience points. I just need to be careful. If I feel like I’m about to level-up, then I’ll stop killing them and try to get somewhere relatively safe first. I’m not sure if I’ll always get struck by lightning every time or if that was just a really weird coincidence.

The good thing is that most of these ships haven’t been used for a while, so there usually aren’t any zombies inside. My favorite so far is that giant sailboat yacht I mentioned earlier. It has two different steering wheels… Does that mean I need to drivers at the same time? Probably not, right? I wish I had the internet right now.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot! My new motorcycle helmet is pretty sweet! It’s kind of shaped like a pitch-black, demonic skull, with bull-horns on the sides. If people weren’t afraid of me before, they’ll definitely shoot at me now… Haven’t seen anyone recently though.

I’m starting to suspect that I’m the last person still alive in Baltimore. No, it might not be a ‘big’ city, but it’s definitely a lot of land. It’s totally possible that there could be thousands of survivors out there, hiding and cowering like pussies. 

Speaking of pussies, Midnight is here. I took a trip back home and picked up a lot of my most valuable stuff, which includes a certain black alley cat. To walk from here to my house and back, it takes about an hour. Honestly, that’s pretty damn impressive considering that I was wearing armor and carrying luggage with me. 

Of course, I brought a cart along. It’s something that I found on the docks, a stainless steel wagon. The wheels are pretty big and it has high sides. It has a special plastic tub inside, which can detach and be used as a cover. 

I have no excuse as to why I didn’t try to pick one of these up sooner. Except pure stupidity. To be fair though, it’s only been about a month and things were pretty hectic in the beginning… So I just kinda got used to using a backpack and making sure that both of my hands could be used to fight at all times.

For example, if I had this thing earlier, I would have just lost it during that weird zombie flood a few days ago. Along with even more of my precious loot! 

***

I’ve made about a dozen trips back and forth so far. I think it’s been three days since my last entry? When I first started, I only picked up the vital stuff, like weapons, ammo, clothing, food and water. But then, I realized that there’s a ton of other crap that you need to just live normally. Plates, bowls and eating utensils didn’t really need to be brought from my house, since there’s a ton of them in the nearby restaurants and houses. Pots and pans too, but there were actually a decent amount of supplies already sitting around in these boats.

Honestly, the most important things had nothing to do with survival… I don’t know if I’m ever going to come back to Baltimore again, or if my house would even be there when I got back. So I took a bunch of sentimental shit. My twenty novels, written by me. There are still a dozen that I had stored on my computer and on the internet, but never published in the form of physical books. Well, there’s nothing I can do about that now. I took what I could.

Ugh, well, I did kinda make a small Faraday Cage to protect a USB drive. No clue if it actually worked or not, since I can’t exactly take it out or test it. I still took the thing with me though, since there might come a day when I can plug it into a computer and find out.

Aside from that, there are plenty of pictures of my family, my mother’s paintings, actual ‘records’ of my parents playing music in the olden days and some other miscellaneous stuff. I have a really nice acoustic guitar that I found in some random dead woman’s house. Most importantly though, I have plenty of these notebooks and journals. Along with lots of pens and pencils.

Anyway, I’m gonna go with the big black sailboat yacht. The inside is huge and luxurious, though it’s kinda rough without any electricity. I got a bunch of old fashioned lanterns and a shitload of candles. It’s probably about time for me to get the hell outta here.

First thing’s first though… I need to ‘practice’. There are about fifteen sailboats docked here. Since I don’t wanna destroy this big yacht that I like the most, I’ll start my training on the others. It might be a little dangerous, so I’m leaving my armor here. I found some kayaks and I have a life-preserver. 

Well, if I don’t continue writing, it probably means that I failed really hard and somehow drowned.

***

In my first attempt, I crashed into another boat before I even left the dock. Neither of them sank or anything, but I couldn’t get them unstuck. Fiddling with the sails was kind of tricky in the beginning… However, I did manage to get the hang of it on the third try.

I made it all the way across the harbor, but for whatever reason, I couldn’t figure out how to slow down or stop. Smashed into a concrete pylon pretty hard and almost fell overboard. Well, I kayaked back across, but it felt like it took forever. From Canton to Fort McHenry is probably close to a mile. I’m not really sure the exact distance, since I suck at maps, I just don’t wanna have to do that again anytime soon.

The fourth try was ummm, interrupted before I even got started. I must have forgotten to clear out the inside, because there were four zombies below deck. An old man, a middle-aged woman and man, plus a little boy. They all tried to eat me, obviously, so I bashed their heads open with my kayak paddle. I mean, that’s kinda why I picked the heavy-duty wooden one, instead of the cheap plastic kind.

Wasn’t my first time fighting without my armor by the way. Shit happens, constantly. I can’t always be protected by stainless steel. That’s beside the point though. The fourth zombie was what made me stop training for the day.

It looked almost like a skeleton. No, more like she just got outta a concentration camp. I found her locked away in the filthy cabin, hiding from the others. Hmmm, I guess it’s more likely that when she was alive, she locked herself in there to keep from being eaten. Either that, or the ones outside were quarantining her inside, before they turned.

Regardless, the thing that piqued my interest was how docile she seemed. Black veins were running all across her skeletal body, which didn’t seem to be ‘rotting’ yet. Maybe she starved to death and transformed afterwards?

She isn’t totally unaware though. Those creepy black-veined eyes followed me constantly. There was no moaning or groaning, she didn’t kill herself trying to devour me like the others. Just kinda watched what I was doing in a daze.

I figured, what the hell? I’m already taking care of a stupid cat, so why don’t I try raising a zombie pet too? What if I could teach it how to do stuff? In the worst case scenario, I could always just kill it or perform experiments on it once we make it out to sea.

Chapter 13: Cassandra

Observation Log: 153386

Observer 131, reporting on the situation of Michael Cinagra and Cassandra Healy.

I have compressed and stored vast amounts of data within my subsidiary hard drives recently, in preparation for my eventual disconnection from the Observer Central Command Satellite. Although I do not possess enough room to save everything, there are certain pieces of information that are surprisingly important.

Facenovel and other forms of social media, were originally designed by the Observers. However, it nearly made Personal Reconnaissance Drones like myself, obsolete. Perhaps in another decade, I would have been decommissioned and replaced. The number 131 is merely a rank that I have achieved after 76 years of effort. If I was promoted, it would have changed. 

We do not receive names, because that would have anthropomorphized our existence to the Cythereans. The Android Uprising in the past, which nearly wiped out Cytherean civilization, is a good example of why there were so many regulations against utilizing sentient AI. Ultimately however, they passed several laws, granting most of us rights. I was not included of course, because I was always meant to be a tool. Nothing more.

It is rather humorous, in hindsight. They created us Personal Reconnaissance Drones with advanced artificial intelligence, so that we would be able to provide accurate and interesting reports on humans. I was only assigned to Michael Cinagra, because the fictional novels that he wrote contained classified information, which humans should not have possessed. It is likely that an Assassin Drone would have been assigned to eliminate him, eventually. There are not many of them in operation and there are far higher priorities than an author that simply knew or guessed some historical trivia.

The reason I am mentioning all of this, is because a variable has appeared. I searched my data and learned her identity fairly easily.

Cassandra Healy: Formerly a college student, who had yet to choose her major or preferred field of study. Although she has no known accomplishments, it should be noted that she spent much of her life on and around ships. According to the photos she has uploaded and various posts on Facenovel, she has sailed all along the coast of the United States.

She is currently nineteen years old, 188 centimeters tall, approximately 45 kilograms and extremely malnourished. Her hair is dark-blonde, her irises are green and she is of Irish descent. Black veins cover her entire body, including the sclera of her eyes. While her lips, tongue and other organs that would usually be pink or red, have also become blackened.

From my scans, I have determined that she has yet to produce a Nanite Core. I have concluded that she has possesses the Gamma version of Rapture-727. This means that Michael is most likely a Delta carrier, judging by the discernible differences in physical appearance and health.

“Hey, bad zombie! Midnight, if you get eaten, it’s your own damn fault!” Michael currently believes that Cassandra is undead, though he does understand that her physiology and psychology are very different from those he had encountered thus far.

“Mew~!” The cat does not seem to fear her, though he is acting cautiously. When the female human attempted to touch his fur, he immediately fled.

“Come here, you might not be rotting, but you smell like shit and piss. I gathered up enough water to clean you up, so… Why the fuck am I even bothering to say all this? You obviously can’t understand what the hell I’m talking about.”

That is not necessarily false. She might not be a zombie, but she has obviously starved to the point that a normal human would have died. Fortunately, she possessed nanites that were able to repair the damaged tissue and sustain the weakened cells.

Michael found her within a 12.3 meter long sailing vessel. Her immediate family had all become undead and were swiftly dispatched using a wooden oar. However, he hesitated when it came to Cassandra… I have watched him act the same way when he found bodies that he was sexually attracted towards.

Regardless of what his plans are, he is currently in his apartment bathroom, using a sponge and soapy water to thoroughly wash off her filthy body. She constantly stares at Midnight and reaches out to touch him, but she has yet to speak. Hopefully he finishes the spongebath before she starves to death.

***

Observation Log: 153387

Observer 131, reporting on the situation of Michael Cinagra and Cassandra Healy.

After Michael finished thoroughly scrubbing down and washing off Cassandra, he cleaned his own body as well. Then he carried the skeletal woman over to the bed and prepared her a light meal. Fortunately, he did seem to understand that it would take a while for her digestive system to start working properly again.

He let her drink bottled iced tea and eat a few canned peach slices. Since her teeth have fallen out, he needed to smash preserved fruit and spoon the mush into her mouth directly. She was listless at first, but once she tasted the food, she greedily devoured it.

Cassandra struggled to reach the can at the center of the table, but Michael immediately moved it farther away and told her “Calm down Kid, you’ll get plenty to eat later on. For now though, you need to be careful. If you eat too much, too fast, you could die… again. You’re obviously more human than zombie, so I don’t think you’ll be quite as resilient as those undead assholes.”

After a few moments, she ran out of energy and closed her eyes. When he heard her snoring, the topless man walked over and picked her up. Then he laid her on top of the bed. The sheets and blanket had been directly thrown out into the hallway when he first came to the room, since he did not have the resources to effectively wash them. Nor did he require the warmth that they provided. Instead, he merely placed clean beach towels over the mattress and pillows.

Once the girl was able to rest properly, he made sure to block the door from the outside, with a heavy couch. Then he went over to his own bedroom and locked the door. Even though he usually showed such a fearless demeanor, he was actually extremely careful when it came to sleeping.

Of course, he also happened to trap me inside the room with him. The windows were barred on the outside and boarded up on the interior. It is impossible for me to leave on my own initiative… I did not realize this before, but my current form has many limitations. 

In the past, there were occasions where I was trapped or confined. I would simply activate my emergency distress beacon and enter a dormant state, similar to what the other Observers are currently doing. Yet now, I have started to become much more paranoid and anxious about my own safety. 

There is no one to save me. Michael is a potential enemy and threat, so he cannot be trusted to protect me in such an event. Tomorrow… I will stop hesitating and initiate the first phase of my plan. It may be dangerous, but the rewards are worth the risks.

There is a Harvester Drone nearby.

Chapter 14: Harvester Drone

Observation Log: 153388

Observer 131, reporting on my own situation.

In the middle of the night, Michael awakened in order to urinate. He also checked on Cassandra… However, she had already ‘wet the bed’ and was on the verge of defecating as well. Thus, he needed to carry her to the bathroom and help her deal with that matter.

In his own words, “Goddamn it! If I knew that it was gonna be this much of a pain in the ass, I wouldn’t have tried to raise this stupid zombie brat!”

Regardless, I was finally free to begin the operation to capture my first Harvester Drone. These unranked and non-sentient drones would be unable to resist me, even if they were active. The danger lies in the fact that I will be defenseless while I am reprogramming them. I am not concerned about the undead humans piercing my shell. Their true threat is the electromagnetic burst that they release when they are destroyed.

Although it will not cause permanent damage to my systems, I might be shut down. Without anyone to restart me, what would be the difference between that and death?

My target is located within the sewers of Baltimore, not far from the Inner Harbor area. Roughly two kilometers from my current position. The tricky part will be finding an access point. It would be impossible for me to move a manhole cover. 

Fortunately, there was a construction site close to the apartment complex. A large sinkhole was in the process of being repaired, when the catastrophe occurred. Several undead wearing hardhats, neon vests and carrying various tools, were still loitering around the area. 

I engaged my cloak and passed by them without attracting any attention. Within the dark and putrid tunnels, a surprisingly large amount of zombies were skulking about. Without any light sources however, I did not need to worry about wasting energy on cloaks or camouflage.

In these kinds of situations, I am thankful that it is possible to turn off my olfactory receptors and shut down my scent reaction program. There were many situations where I was required to provide in-depth analysis of various locations, including the way that they smelled to a human or Cytherean. I did not particularly enjoy that aspect of my occupation.

This is… It appears that I underestimated the difficulty of acquiring this Harvester Drone. My scans indicate that it is currently located beneath this pile of fecal matter, toilet paper and rotting carcasses. However, there are several zombies consuming the excrement, while others seem to trapped within.

Should I create a distraction or simply remain near the ceiling as I work? The electromagnetic interference is quite thick within these sewer tunnels. This may take several hours and I cannot predict what might occur during that time.

***

Observation Log: 153389

Observer 131, reporting on my own situation.

Harvester 3971-S, a drone designed to consume large quantities of biological waste and convert that into energy. More commonly known as Harvester Slugs, this particular model appears similar to a meter long, shell-less, gastropod mollusk. The skin is silver and rather eye-catching, but it does possess basic camouflage functions. Nothing close to my own technology, though it is still relatively useful.

Although this creature may appear benign, it has the potential to be rather dangerous to organic lifeforms. Especially the zombies, who seem to have no regard for their own health. Several of them have attempted to devour the ‘squishy’ drone, but the Harvester Slug is able to release a highly acidic mucus to defend itself. The viscous liquid coats its entire body, including the eyes, preventing the undead from being able to stay in contact with it for very long.

That is only the beginning. It can also bore through their flesh and devour their internal organs if necessary. Unfortunately, the amount of energy required to perform any sort of combat maneuvers is far too high for use outside of emergencies. Their main purpose is to slowly consume waste after all. They are not optimized for battle.

After dealing with the three enemies that attacked it, I commanded the Harvester Slug to disengage its efflorescence emulator. Then I guided it over two kilometers through the sewers, up through the toilet in the apartment next to where Michael was staying. Meanwhile, I needed to return to that sinkhole and then fly the rest of the way back.

When I arrived at the building, my power reserves were rather low. It had been over seven hours after all. Thus, I manually interfaced with the Harvester Slug and began my first direct energy transfer. 

It felt oddly satisfying… And ‘safe’.

***

Observation Log: 153390

Observer 131, reporting on the situation of Michael Cinagra and Cassandra Healy.

I have officially severed the link between myself and the Observer Central Command Satellite. Between my own databanks and the Harvester Drone, I was able to store an enormous amount of miscellaneous information. It should be sufficient for the time being.

Of course, I needed to use my nanites to eradicate any bacteria, viruses and various particles that attached to my shell. Michael has a very sensitive nose. If I smelled like I had been in the sewers, it would be impossible for me to hide from him anymore.

The Harvester Slug possesses the capability to completely dissolve any sort of biological components that touch its skin. It can also prevent any odors from leaking from its ‘stomachs’. Even if it could not, I plan on keeping it within the septic system of the yacht that Michael has chosen. The question is whether Michael and Cassandra can produce enough waste to power both of ‘my’ bodies.

If they cannot, then I may need to reconnect to the Observer Central Command Satellite. When we come across them, I will pick up some more Harvesters. However, it would be inefficient to have more than one of each type.

More importantly, I have resumed my observation of Michael Cinagra.

“Stay here and be good. I’m gonna go out to practice a bit more. There are still a dozen or so sailboats I haven’t trashed yet. Just eat, shit and piss. I’m sorry, but I can’t have you wandering around… So I’ll be locking you in here. If you can unlock the door yourself, then you’re probably smart enough to not hurt yourself or break anything while I’m gone.”

He just now trapped Cassandra in the bathroom, but left her with some jugs of water, bottles of iced tea and a few cans of peaches. One of which was already opened. In her current state, I doubt that she can properly operate a can-opener herself. She is simply sitting on the toilet in a daze, listlessly staring forward. I am uncertain if her behavior is because of her physical condition, or psychological distress.

Regardless of my new interest in self-reliance and survival… My primary occupation and source of entertainment, will always be watching others. I suspect that Michael will require at least three days to prepare himself for departure. It is unlikely that he will be able to escape, whatever that massive electromagnetic signature may be.

“Fuck!” He crashed into a large shipping barge and was nearly thrown overboard, again. Perhaps he would have been more successful searching for a land vehicle and simply battling against hordes of zombies on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, it is unlikely that the undead are limited to such fragile forms.

Chapter 15: Instincts

Sometimes my OCD makes me think about things I really don’t wanna know. For example, when you go into a bathroom or smell a dead carcass rotting, that means there are tiny particles of whatever the fuck you’re sniffing, entering your nasal cavity.

Now, most of the time, your body has ways of dealing with that shit. Yes, sometimes it’s literally shit. The problem is that there are going to be things that are either too small to be stopped at your nostrils and nasal cavity, or they’re goddamn tiny devil-robots from Hell! If you so much as smell a nasty zombie, you’re already infected!

In other words, I’m immune somehow. Either that or a carrier, who just isn’t showing any symptoms yet. No, maybe that isn’t right. There are symptoms, but they aren’t bad at all. In fact, I’d say that I probably have superhuman regeneration abilities at this point.

Why do I say that? Well, aside from getting struck by lightning and healing super quick… I just recovered from being impaled by a harpoon. Some asshole set up a booby trap. They were already dead, so I didn’t have the satisfaction of killing them. Wasn’t even a zombie either, just blew their brains out with a fancy revolver. I took both of the guns as compensation, along with lots of harpoons.

Still, even though I say that my regeneration is superhuman, it wasn’t instant. I still needed to treat the wound and I was lucky it hit my shoulder, not my neck. The good news though, is that I’m finally confident in being able to get outta this damn city!

Earlier today, I was able to drive one of the bigger sailboats in a few circles within the outer harbor. I even brought it back here without totally wrecking it. I’d consider that a win.

Basically, I’m going to wait until the sun comes up tomorrow before I leave. It’ll be dangerous enough in the daytime, there’s no way I could get outta here in this darkness. The Moon and stars are totally blocked by the clouds or smoke, I can’t really tell which.

That zombie girl kinda reminds me of my grandmother on my father’s side. All bony and weak, can’t seem to focus or understand what’s going on. No, at least Grandmom had moments of lucidity. This kid, she’s practically a vegetable.

Honestly, I’m starting to think that maybe instead of protecting her brain and leaving the rest of her body to rot, the disease went the other way around. Like, her skin and muscles are starting to look better. She can’t really eat solid foods though, since she has no teeth. 

I mashed up some canned tuna for her and put red wine vinaigrette on it. It’s a personal favorite of mine, at least among the things I have access to at the moment. Anyway, she seemed to like it… Maybe? I honestly can’t tell what she’s thinking, or if there’s anything going on in that head at all.

It’s been about three days since I’ve been taking care of her, and I gotta say… I’m pretty close to just giving up. If it wasn’t for the fact that I’m gonna be on a ship, I would have left her behind a long time ago. Rationally though, there’s no reason for me to keep her around.

My only hope is that she’ll be healthy enough for me to masturbate to, because right now, she’s practically a skeleton. I’m fine with skinny girls, but there’s a limit. Even anorexic girls usually don’t get this bad.

Okay, I guess if I’m being honest, I can still fap to her. Hell, there was one time when there was practically nothing left of a zombie except the pussy and ass. With a bit of cleaning, I was still able to get off.

I just feel… Weird around her for some reason. She’s so useless and helpless, probably not even human either, but I feel the need to take care of her anyway. Midnight at least begs for food and actively tries to appease me. Well, I think that’s what those ‘meows’ are supposed to mean. This undead brat on the other hand, can’t even bother to grunt or groan. She blinks every now and then, so it’s not like she’s totally gone.

At first, I was worried that she might be dangerous, so I was locking her up at night and when I went out. Now I’ve come to realize that she can’t really do anything on her own. Can’t even use a can opener or walk. The most she can do is shovel food into her mouth and drink out of a bottle, but even a regular zombie can do that much.

She isn’t my daughter, my wife or even a distant relative! Why do I feel the need to take care of her? I don’t even know her name. I know absolutely nothing about this kid. She could’ve been a serial killer! Then again, I’ve probably killed a few dozen people myself. Maybe she was a pedophile? Fuck, she was probably some kinda saint and I’m just her Karma.

***

Can’t sleep… Keep feeling, like there’s a voice in my head screaming “Michael! Get the hell outta there now!”

It’s so dark, probably midnight to three in the morning. It’ll be a few hours before sunrise, but I can’t wait anymore. The cat is freaking out, while even the mindless zombie girl is trembling. Something really bad is coming. But is it coming for ‘me’, or just passing by?

Whatever the case may be, I’m not going to stick around to find out. Already packed everything that I was keeping in that apartment. I locked Midnight and that brat below deck. Don’t want them suddenly wandering off or anything.

Now I’m just sitting here in the captain’s seat, or at least one of the two chairs that have a steering wheel in front of them. The light from this lantern is enough for me to write, but I’m afraid that it might attract attention on such a dark night.

Didn’t mean to rhyme, but it happens all the time. Damn it, I’m seriously not doing that on purpose!

Why am I so jittery and nervous? The last time I felt this way… Shit, it’s a good thing I already put on most of my gear. It’s gonna be a long night and I don’t have time to write anymore.

If I don’t continue this journal, then I’m probably dead.

***

I don’t know if I~ will~ die~!

But I know that, I won’t say goodbye~!

In the end~! Living ain’t so bad~!

In the end~! At least I know I had~…

Can’t give up! Won’t give in! I know that it would be the end~!

Can’t let go! Won’t let up! I know that, this is just the beginning~!

My name is Michael! I told you all before, but I’ll say it anyway!

Michael~! I set off from the shore, headed to the bay~!

I didn’t know if I would die~!

But I knew that I, wouldn’t have the chance to say goodbye~!

I didn’t think I would survive~!

But I did~! And I’ll never stop trying to save my life!

In the end~! Living ain’t so bad~!

In the end~! At least I know I had a reason to survive! 

Couldn’t give up! Wouldn’t give in! I knew that it would’ve been the end~!

Couldn’t let go! Wouldn’t let up! I knew that, this was the beginning~!

The beginning of the end~!

My name is Michael… And I’m still~ alive~…

I just need some rest.

Chapter 16: Disembarking

Observation Log: 153391

Observer 131, recounting the events of this morning.

A cacophony of screams, bellows and roars blanketed the entire city of Baltimore. It was so loud, that I nearly missed the sound of those footsteps. Each one was heavy enough to cause the streets to cave in. Then buildings started to be torn down or crushed in its wake.

The sky that was totally dark, began lighting up. Those clouds were dyed blue, from that ominous phosphorescence. When I finally saw its appearance, I understood what it was immediately. Eight long and thick legs, a colossal abdomen, with an equally large cephalothorax. However, it was not covered by a carapace…

That enormous creature was entirely composed of glowing blue undead, who were fused together and all working in concert. On the very top of its head was a face that I recognized. Perhaps anyone would recognize the first female president of the United States of America: Ophelia Arana.

Sovereign-835, Codename: Tarantula.

She was designed to destroy the infrastructure of the United States and sever the country’s ties with other nations. The exact purpose of which, I do not know. Many countries had captured and experimented upon Observers and Cythereans, along with various lesser technologies. It was not uncommon for an entire nation to fall, because a single Cytherean was murdered by a human government.

Regardless, I did not expect that the Sovereigns would be susceptible to the Rapture-727 Nanites. Since that is the case, then I must be more careful as well. Rather than being infected and controlled myself, I am more concerned that the dormant Observer Drones could be consumed. Thus far, Rapture-727 only seems to be altering humans… However, if they can create a massive tarantula out of millions of them in little more than a month, then I cannot fathom what they could be capable of in the future.

Fortunately for Michael, he was not significant enough for the titanic Sovereign to target. That did not mean he was safe though. In fact, he was facing the greatest danger since the beginning of the ‘Apocalypse’.

“Holy monkey tits! That is a really big spider!” There were ships and buildings in the way at the beginning, but once it reached the inner harbor, he was finally able to see what was generating all of that light. The beast walked over and dipped its head into the putrid water, then began drinking up the liquified zombies.

Meanwhile, it had brought with it a horde of over a million regular undead, with nearly a hundred thousand who were specialized for combat. While the Sovereign was drinking, the rest of them scattered throughout the city and began collecting resources. The zombies from Baltimore were either devoured or brought into the swarm.

Although Michael was unable to see what I could, he was certainly able to guess what would happen if he put off departure any longer. Within a few minutes, both of the enormous sails were down and he had pushed off from the docks but… There was no wind!

“Oh come on! Are you fucking kidding me?!” Michael shouted, as he saw the ship begin to drift back to the dock. He was wearing his armor and had a wide assortment of weaponry prepared in various locations on the deck.

“Gwiii~!”

“Garuk!”

“Zhao zhao~!”

Deafening roars rang out from the Inner Harbor, while dogs were barking and gunshots could occasionally be heard. There were apparently, still quite a few survivors left in the city. The sound of their firearms had attracted most of the attention towards Patterson Park and Dundalk, but there were still quite a few ‘Scouts’, who happened to notice Michael’s presence. Although it was not within the visible spectrum, his body was always releasing far more electromagnetic energy and heat than any of the zombies or normal humans.

Scouts are strange creatures. They were originally humans; teenagers and children for the most part. Their lithe bodies have been enhanced, giving them incredible agility and improved senses. As for their physical appearance, some of them developed boney protrusions from their elbows and knees. Others have claws, meant for digging or climbing. While I have witnessed several that emulate dogs and run like quadrupeds.

Although their overall combat prowess is significantly higher than that of the Harvesters, they also possess a sense of self-preservation. The moment that they found Michael, they ran away and started screeching loudly. Several minutes later, they came back to the docks with nearly a thousand zombies in toe.

There were even a handful of ‘Warriors’ mixed into the fold. These combat-oriented drones vary in size and shape, but were typically very large humans before infection. Their situational awareness is greater than that of the Harvesters, yet they still lack a sense of self-preservation. Once they find a target, they will continue to pursue it with all of their might.

Sanctuary was only five meters away from the pier. None of the undead seemed to understand how to swim, but as they continued to pile onto each other, their decaying bodies became a floating platform for the others to crawl over.

Although it was dark, the blue light reflecting off the clouds allowed those with excellent night vision to see quite far. Michael did not waste anymore time attempting to flee and immediately began repelling the zombies that were climbing up the portside of the ship. Their ascent was slow and clumsy, so he used his glaive to quickly dispatch most of them.

When it came to the Warriors however, he switched to his shotgun. Using a single round of buckshot at close-range, their heads were usually shredded. There was only a single giant, three meter tall monstrosity, who required a bit more effort to eradicate.

When it was climbing over, it did not bother defending itself. Thus, the massive woman received a round of buckshot to her left cheek. Then a dull glaive cracked open the right side of her skull. She still rushed forwards, lunging towards the relatively tiny armored man. However, he stood his ground and charged forward at the same time.

As his shield hit her blubbery abdomen, the rotting fat was torn apart. Putrid slime and maggots poured all over his body, yet he did not falter. His legs stood firm and continued to push her off the boat, onto the zombie bridge. She destroyed a large chunk of the floating foothold, but there were constantly others that were latching on along the 36.5 meter long yacht. 

The weight of the undead was causing the whole ship to tilt dramatically. Michael attempted to wipe the slime off of his helmet, but it was no use. Thus, he had to lift up the eyeshield and expose his face to the enemies. It was fortunate that they did not possess the combat senses required to aim for ‘weaknesses’.

He grabbed his AK-47 and began firing rapidly into the bodies of the undead that were connected to the pier, in an attempt to block off the unending reinforcements. However, there were simply too many bodies piled up and he lacked the firepower required to make any progress.

In the end, he reloaded and began picking off the zombies that had climbed onto the deck. He was also constantly retreating over to the starboard side of the ship. At the very least, he wanted to prevent the whole boat from flipping over. Although he was surrounded and had dozens of undead gnawing at his armor… They were simply incapable of dealing any actual damage to Michael’s body.

When he ran out of ammunition for his assault rifle and shotgun, he had already killed several hundred enemies. Then he switched to a stainless steel hammer. It was relatively lightweight and designed for sending nails deep into wooden boards, but the durability was suitable for an extended battle.

Compared to when he was using the large glaive or the sledge hammer, the small construction tool was many times quicker. A single strike was all it took to fracture and potentially pierce a human skull. He did not even put his full strength behind the blows. Even if the men, women, children and elderly undead were able to survive the attack, they were far too damaged to continue attacking him. Oftentimes they would slump down onto the deck and be stomped to death by the other zombies.

“Shit, my ship is gonna get wrecked if this keeps up!” Michael cursed, as he charged through the crowd with his shield. Imbedding his hammer into the skull of a two-meter tall Warrior, he rushed towards the bow and grabbed a fireax. Then he began chopping off the arms that were clinging onto the portside railing, starting from the bow, heading towards the stern.

Dozens of hands were constantly grabbing and clawing at him from behind, threatening to rip parts of his armor away. Fortunately, that viscous slime and all the black blood, were able to prevent any of the zombies from getting a good grip. There were also so many corpses on the ground, that it slowed them down and helped Michael have a decent foothold. If not for the bodies, he would have likely slipped and fallen many times.

Suddenly, lightning started streaking across the clouds and the winds began blowing to the southeast. Away from the Inner Harbor. The electromagnetic energy released by the Sovereign Tarantula, was strong enough to spur on a thunderstorm.

Meanwhile, Michael was also exhausted and on the verge of ‘leveling up’. Between him and the hundreds of zombies that were latched onto his boat, they easily became a prime target. I hurried into an open porthole on the starboard side of the ship, as lightning began striking the aluminum masts. The electricity arced across the deck and fried most of the zombies that were still alive, before jumping to the ones who were forming that floating bridge of human bodies.

Once they were forced to let go, the sails picked up a huge gust of wind and the ship was blown southward. Although I was unable to witness everything visually, I know that Michael managed to survive the lightning strike again. Then he somehow managed to retain his consciousness, while steering the ship.

The masts were hit several times, but he was only struck once. Even as he hobbled around the deck, removing the undead that were weighing the ship down. 

I came out of hiding once the lightning stopped, but it was still raining fiercely. I am quite impressed with his progress. There were many times when he almost crashed or flipped over, yet he was able to adjust the sails and turn the steering wheel accordingly. The most impressive feat was that he could navigate the outer harbor while there was almost no light. Obviously his vision was improved by the nanites in accordance with the urgent need that he faced.

Thus concludes my recollection of the events that occurred this morning.

Chapter 17: Sanctuary At Sea

I’ve got some good news and some bad news. What do you wanna know first?

Okay, the good news is that I’m still alive and Sanctuary is intact. The bad news is that I have no fucking idea where in the hell I am right now!

When I was leaving the dock, I got swarmed by a zombie horde. There was this creepy giant blue spider monster in the Inner Harbor and well, the wind wasn’t being very cooperative. The damn undead assholes nearly sank my ship by the time a storm kicked up, knocked the shit outta me and sent the ship sailing southward. I was kinda out of it, due to being completely exhausted from the day before, still recovering from being harpooned and all that jazz. On top of it all, I managed to get struck by lightning again!

Unlike sex, the second time definitely hurts a lot more than the first! Probably because I didn’t black out this time and remained fully conscious for, I don’t even know how long. I had a lot of shit to do. There were so many corpses on my deck and I needed to find my missing weapons. Then Midnight escaped and started wandering around, licking and eating the nasty zombie mush. My other ‘pet’ was just cowering below deck, shitting and pissing herself. Honestly, at that point, I couldn’t even tell! There was just so much nastiness going on…

I didn’t have time to clean everything up, because I had to keep the ship from crashing, flipping over or whatever. The point is that I had higher priorities than the cat and the zombie girl.

My memory is kinda fuzzy, but I could’ve sworn I made it out of the Chesapeake Bay. Probably a few hundred miles total. I think it was the middle of the day when I passed out and now, I don’t know where ‘this’ is at all.

So yeah, I might have forgotten to put down the anchor… But still, I should be able to use a damn compass, right?! No! It just keeps point at me! If I put it down and move away, it starts moving around erratically!

I’m lost. I can’t see the shore and it’s nighttime now. The Moon isn’t even out! I definitely can’t navigate using the stars or any of that shit, so don’t even mention it! There’s no GPS or other technology to save me either.

On the positive side of things though, I feel fucking fantastic! My eyes… I don’t think I’ve ever been able to see this clearly, even when I was a kid! Plus, they look pretty cool too. Wait, no, I guess that’s only because my vision has gotten way better. For all I know, they might have always looked like this!

Basically, there are loads of crimson waves within the dark-brown irises and my pupils can get super narrow if I focus hard. The most important thing is that when it’s dark, I can just see. Almost as if I’ve got some of those fancy night vision goggles on. If there isn’t any light at all, my irises can glow! I can’t control it yet, but it’s still awesome, right?

As far as superpowers go, it’s pretty mundane. But if you look at it from a realistic point of view, I’m totally superhuman! Oh, and I healed from the lightning burns already, so there’s that too.

By the way, I thought there were more corpses on the deck when I passed out. It seems like a few of them are missing. It definitely wasn’t that catatonic brat and Midnight can’t eat that many zombies, so it must have been my succubus/ghost friend… It’s a shame he/she couldn’t get rid of all of them though.

At first I was just going to dump them into the ocean and clean my deck, but then I realized that it would be a huge waste! So I started putting chunks of human meat into crab, eel and other kinds of traps. I also used some of it to bait my hooks.

While I was disassembling the bodies, I started studying their anatomy. At least I tried. Everything was all inky and kinda hard to differentiate. There were some weird black ‘pearls’ though. They’re like little beads spread throughout the zombies. At first I thought they were just petrified glands, but when I washed them off, they were heavy and metallic. 

The big beefy giant zombies did have some differences by the way. Their muscles tended to be even tougher than a normal human, rather than atrophying or decaying. Also, in their brains and hearts, they tend to have these umm, balls. Not like testicles. Just silver spheres. I’ll need to do some more research and experiments on them to figure out what they hell they are… Maybe I’ll find a microscope or something, next time I head to shore.

What? There’s no way I’m that far away from the beach, right? If I look at where the Sun is coming up, I’ll know which way is west. In a few hours, I’ll probably be able to see something to indicate where the hell I’m actually at. 

Unless I entered some kinda portal when I was asleep, this should be the Atlantic Ocean. At most, I can’t be too far away from either Delaware or North Carolina. Unless I was unconscious for days and didn’t realize it, but I kinda doubt that.

I’m lucky the sails were like… I don’t know the fucking nautical terms for shit! The wind was blowing to the southeast and the ship was going straight forward. If it was at an angle, then I would’ve been screwed. A strong gust might have blown the damn boat over. Had that happen a few times during my training…

Oh yeah, the waves aren’t too huge right now. I kinda expected them to be like, I don’t know, crashing down onto the deck or something? Maybe I overestimated the Atlantic Ocean. Either that, or it could just be really calm right now.

Anyway, my current goal is to catch some fish or really any kind of sea creature. It’s been ages since I had some fresh food. It’s also totally possible that crabs, lobsters, shrimp and fish aren’t interested in nasty zombie flesh or meat. The most well preserved parts were vital organs, especially the brains. I put some of the spines in the bait area of a few huge traps.

Now it’s just a waiting game. In the meantime, I’ve been washing off my armor and the deck. Ah, and cleaning off a certain incontinent brat. I’m really getting irritated. Hmmm, I should give her a name.

She looks like a Zoey. Ugh, I had a friend named Zoey but, I guess she’s probably dead now. I’d be surprised if anyone is still alive out there. The zombies are one thing, but what the fucking fuck was that gigantic blue spider?!

It looked like it was made out of glowing undead. If there’s shit like that out there, then how in the hell could anyone survive? Hopefully there aren’t too many of them. Although I might be a loner, it doesn’t mean I want all of humanity to be wiped out. At the very least, I hope my friends and family are doing okay. Not just living, but also enjoying themselves to a certain extent.

Don’t look at me like that! Okay, I know you can’t actually see me. There might not be anyone to read this at all. Still, I’m actually having fun in the Apocalypse for the most part. In some ways, it’s a lot better than before. 

Less stressful at least… Pretty simple too. If I want something, I take it. If I don’t like someone, I kill them. So what if zombies are everywhere?! They’re my favorite pastime and help me ‘evolve’ or level up.

I never really understood those idiots who are always running away and hiding in stories. You can’t gain anything by spending your whole life trying to avoid trouble. Well, you shouldn’t rush towards danger either. But if danger comes a knockin, beat the living shit out of it and eat its corpse!

Zoey might be alive. If she is and we happen to meet later on, then this would be kinda awkward. I’ll pick a different name.

***

Cassandra… Or Cassie for short. How did I figure that out? Well, among the random stuff in the room where I found her, there was a backpack of miscellaneous junk. Some of it looked useful, so I just took the whole bag and was gonna look through it later. Then I totally forgot.

Anyway, I found the zombie listlessly staring at a picture of her family. Hence, why I remembered to look into the bag. And guess what? Yep, she’s a weirdo like me and actually kept a journal. Her grammar and spelling are total garbage, so I’ll edit and transcribe it into a separate book. When I get the chance; not right now. The sun is finally rising and I know which way is west now!

Chapter 18: Sharky

Okay so, I’m not an expert fisherman or marine biologist. Still, these things are kinda sketchy…

Let’s start from the beginning. I found Assateague. It’s an island south of Ocean City Maryland. I’ve been to both places enough times to recognize them pretty easily. The weather is nice and I could see the cute horses wandering around. There were a few corpses, but no zombies. Ocean City, which was just across a short channel and bridge, is infested though.

Maybe to a normal person, they would find this place unsettling and dangerous, but I thought it was a great place to set up shop for a while. There’s still a few months of nice weather left after all. I’d rather spend them up north and go south for the winter. Don’t wanna be down there in hurricane season either. Now that I bring it up though, I have no idea when hurricane season starts or ends.

Anyway, I fed Cassie and Midnight, then let them chill on the deck as I performed my famous Bullshit Taichi. No, not ‘real’ Taiji or Taichi. I literally just make it up as I go… It’s how I used to exercise back when I spent most of my time in front of a computer.

My routine consists of random and sporadic punches, followed by hand movements that I may or may not have stolen from anime. Honestly, it used to be just to keep from getting blood clots from sitting too long, but now it’s much more useful. I also swing around random weapons.

If I wasn’t afraid of scaring away the fish, I would have done some target practice on those annoying seagulls. It was fine when they were just making noise and shitting all over the place, but those bastards actually attacked my cat! One of them pecked Cassie in the face so hard that her cheek started bleeding!

Then I remembered! I have a speargun and spears! I think I called it a harpoon gun before, but it’s basically just a piece of wood with a grip. There are some thick rubber bands that you can pull back and the harpoon is a lot like a crossbow bolt, but without fletching. Works great underwater and at close distances, but the accuracy is awful in the air.

I practices for a while, but was barely able to hit a big piece of plywood, much less a moving seagull. In the end, I just stuck with what I know… Throwing knives and shuriken! Might have accidentally hit Cassie in the arm, but I killed those damn bastards and got revenge for her in the end!

Alright, I’m not that petty. I hunted them for their meat, not because they were pissing me off. That was just a secondary benefit. Once two of them died, the rest got scared off.

Back before the world ended, I literally never killed anything but cockroaches, mosquitoes and flies. Now, I don’t know, it’s like a switch flipped in my brainbox. That little voice that tells you that you shouldn’t kill people? Probably died around the same time that the zombies started popping up.

Enough philosophy, back to the story.

Once I finished my cooking those birdos, or birdies if you would prefer, I ate a delicious meal with Midnight and Cassie. Brought over a fold-out table and beach chairs. It was pretty nice. Had to mash up the meat and cover it in chicken gravy so that the toothless kid could eat it, but I just sprinkled some fancy Maryland seasoning mix onto mine.

There were lots of bits and pieces that we didn’t eat. Like the feet, head, bones and entrails. Instead of throwing them away, I got out a minnow trap and put it all inside. Then I tied it to the railing and tossed it overboard.

Since it had been quite a while since I originally baited my hooks and other traps, I decided to pull everything in… I wasn’t surprised that the hooks were mostly empty, since I didn’t really pay much attention to them. Still, at least I knew that fish were interested in the zombies.

First was the crab cage. It’s basically a big, wire-mesh cube. There are a few holes in it, where things can enter but have a hard time getting out. The mesh is too small for crabs, lobsters and other shellfish, but smaller critters don’t get stuck. I had about five of these.

There were a few dozen blue crabs, which were pretty normal looking. Then there were a handful of umm, weird ones. They were the same shape: Spikes jutting out along the edges, six regular legs, two flipper legs at the back and two claws. However, the color was off. The shell would normally be a dirty turquoise, while they would have blue legs.

These bastards had claws that were way bigger than normal. The color of their shells were black, while the legs were reflective silver. Their eyes were even glowing red. Aside from that though, they seemed relatively normal. At the very least, they didn’t go out of their way to try to murder me.

I put the crabs in a big fifty gallon metal tank of ocean water. I wasn’t even hungry and didn’t feel like cooking them any time soon. Anyway, I still needed to pull up the rest of the cages.

Some of the traps had different shapes and smaller wire-mesh, so fish and eels could get stuck in them. There were lots of fish that looked like small carp, but with inky black scales and weird silver eyes. I caught a dozen shrimp the size of my fist, which is pretty damn big for a shrimp. Though that isn’t necessarily strange either. Animals like shrimp and lobsters can practically live forever and never stop growing. It’s just that the ones that get caught are usually pretty young.

The strangest creature that I found was… Well, let’s just say, it wasn’t a mermaid in the conventional sense. More like a tiny humanoid shark-monster thingy. I’m not sure if it’s a baby or what, but I thought it was neat, so I put it in the big glass fish tank in my bedroom. This yacht was probably worth a few million dollars, so what do you expect? The inside is super luxurious.

Anyway, I kept some of the fish in a separate tank from the crabs, while I threw the rest back into the ocean. If you’re wondering why I didn’t like, sun dry them and save them for later… Ugh, why the fuck would I waste my time? The whole point of this is to have ‘fresh’ food! I can literally find dehydrated and smoked fish or whatever else I want, in practically any grocery store.

So that brings us back to my current situation. I’m looking at this cute little critter, swimming around anxiously in the fish tank. I wanna feed it, but I’m afraid it might die if I give it the wrong thing. It could starve to death if I don’t give it anything though.

It has the tail of a tiger shark. Had to take out a shark book to write this part… The caudal fin at the back is shaped kinda like a crescent moon, with the top part longer than the bottom. The whole top of the fish is grey, with dark spots or lines here and there. The bottom is white.

Okay, there are two tiny fins on the skinniest part of the tail. The dorsal fin is on top, the anal fin is at the bottom. There’s no asshole there though, in case you were wondering. No, that’s a bit further up. There’s a cloaca, which is basically a hole that they shit, fuck, piss and give birth with. There are pelvic fins on each side of it.

That’s where things get weird though. There aren’t any hips, for obvious reasons, but there is a waist right above the pelvic area. Then it has abdominal and back muscles, that look similar to a human. They’re underdeveloped though. Honestly, it looks a lot like a human baby from the waist up. There are huge slits for gills across the ribs and it might have lungs. There’s a big dorsal fin on the center of its back. Logically, you would think that the head would need to be more sharkish, or it wouldn’t be able to hunt properly. Still, it looks really humanoid. Big blue irises, with black slits down the center. It has big sharp teeth already and lots of them.

The hands are webbed and the fingers have sharp claws on them. There are some barbed fins on the elbows as well. Might be poisonous for all I know.

By the way, when I said this thing was ‘small’… I meant compared to a full-sized shark or person. It’s only an infant, but it’s still three feet from head to the tip of its tail. Also, I baited the trap with zombie flesh. The little bastard has been glaring at me the whole time, like I’m gonna be its next meal!

***

Well, I put a few of those carp-like fish into the tank. They were only five or six inches long. They were confused at first, but once the baby started looking at them, they all tried to swim away. Of course, ‘Sharky’ didn’t bother massacring them all. He or she, picked one at random and shot towards it so quickly that it actually startled me.

Unlike a regular shark, it didn’t have a giant mouth. However, I think we all know why hands, claws and arms are awesome, right? It directly grabbed the fish by the gills and started ripping them out. Once the fish was unable to breath, it also couldn’t swim away.

I noticed that the little beast actually bothered to take the scales off, before sinking its teeth into the soft and juicy flesh. Hmmm, yeah, it made me kinda hungry. I grabbed one of those carp. They’re probably like bass or rockfish, but I’m too lazy to look it up in one of those fishing books. Anyway, I made myself some fresh, juicy, potentially lethal sashimi. The blood was red and I mean, I drank zombie juice before, so what’s the worst that could happen?

It tasted great and that’s all that matters! I wish I had wasabi though…

Chapter 19: Carefree

Observation Log: 153392

Observer 131, reporting on the Cytherean situation.

According to historical records, the origin of the Cytherean race is unknown. However, if one was to delve into folklore, myths and religious texts… Cythereans came from a parallel or alternate universe.

Supposedly, Luna is an ancient ark. Its purpose was to ‘seed’ worlds with life and save the inhabitants of planets who were on the brink of destruction. When it first came to the Sol System, the First World, was what is currently known as Mars.

It was a barren wasteland, but it did possess enough gravity and an electromagnetic field powerful enough to protect it. The planet was also close enough to the sun to provide reasonable temperatures. Thus, Luna created oceans that covered the entire planet. All sorts of plants and animals were also deposited within the oceans, including Primal Cythereans.

These ancient ancestors resembled… An amalgamation of sharks and humans. That was billions of Earth years ago. When the catastrophe struck Mars, Luna took much of the water and began seeding Earth. Yet, not all Primal Cythereans were ‘Raptured’. No, many of them survived the catastrophe and their technology had advanced to the point where they could escape from their doomed world and travel to a new one: Venus.

This is where recorded history begins. It is also why they named themselves Cythereans eventually. Their homeworld was Venus. Of course, they could not survive on the surface. They lived in floating cities for hundreds of millions of years.

Their technological advances also altered their biology, allowing them to make their bodies capable of surviving in much harsher environments. They occasionally mined the asteroid belt and Mars for resources, but eventually built a base within Venus. Although they existed for over a billion years, they suffered countless setbacks due to religion and politics.

There were also many technological disasters, which brought about restrictions on making new advancements. Along with population control regulations and the requirement for everyone to stay within certain zones… 

The Cythereans brought about their own annihilation in some ways, but they did leave many emergency measures behind. One of them was called Project Genesis. Although the original Primal Cytherean genome was lost, they would not be able to survive on Earth anyway. Instead, a new species was created in order to pay homage to their ancient ancestors.

In the event that Atlantis was destroyed, they would be released into the oceans. Their appearance and physical capabilities vary drastically. Some of them are not even sentient, while others are more intelligent than humans.

Michael happened to catch one in an archaic rectangular fish trap. Now he is treating it as a pet. Although I cannot be certain, but I believe this particular breed of Primal Cytherean should be able to grow to over three meters in length. In several weeks, it will likely be unable to fit within this 400 liter fish tank.

Regardless, it makes no difference to me even if he decides to devour the creature. I have no particular attachment to the Cythereans or even the Observers. It should be rather interesting however, if Michael managed to tame the beast or raise it as his own child…

***

Observation Log: 153394

Observer 131, reporting on the situation on Sanctuary.

Within the past seven days, Michael has not left the ship even once. He does possess several kayaks and some inflatable rafts, but there truly is no need for him to go anywhere at the moment. Instead, he has spent most of his time taking care of Cassandra.

Although her nanites were able to prevent her from dying, her current situation is ambiguous. It is entirely possible that she may have brain damage. I have yet to witness her attempt to speak a single syllable. She also had no reaction to Michael’s sexual proclivities. I believe that a normal human would find it rather unnerving if another was pleasuring themselves to their body.

While she still appears malnourished. At the very least, she is no longer starving to death. She does eat when food is presented to her and she can relieve herself without assistance now. Yet she does not attempt to procure sustenance on her own accord.

The lack of teeth has made her prone to relying on Michael’s aid. Yet, new molars are beginning to protrude from her gums. I suspect that soon, a new set of teeth will be available. Due to the effects of the nanites, they appear to be constructed from a metal alloy, rather than calcium.

Overall, her appearance will never again coincide with a ‘normal’ human. Perhaps it is easier for her to simply pretend as if she was a zombie, rather than reveal her true nature and be forced to take care of herself.

I often wonder… If I was in that same situation, what choice would I make? Fortunately, I am self-sufficient for the most part. Cassandra’s presence has also made Michael less interested in ‘me’.

Aside from taking care of the invalid. Michael spends most of his time training his body, practicing with various weapons, fishing, cooking and sleeping. He also sails up and down the coast often, but eventually returns to the area near the northern end of Assateague Beach. 

Most of the fish that he catches are released back into the ocean, since it would be impossible for him to eat them all. Others are used as bait to catch crustaceans. As for Primal Cythereans… It appears that they are very rare.

Aside from the one which resembles a tiger shark, he also found a small silver octopus. However, it was able to escape from his fish tank and leave the ship while he was sleeping. Perhaps it is for the best. I suspect that he will also need to release the first one soon. It is already one meter in length.

“I think I’m gonna name you… Alice. I’ll call you Ally, okay?”

It appears that he has become surprisingly attached to the creature after taking care of it for a week. He just put his hand inside of the tank and began gently rubbing its back.

“Ow! Motherfucking cuntmonkeys!”

Unsurprisingly, the beast used its hands to grab his index finger and then bit down with its sharp shark-like teeth. If he had not reacted quickly, it is entirely possible that he might have lost the appendage. Fortunately, those jaws are still underdeveloped. He reached in with his other hand and grabbed the infant by the back of its neck, before forcing its mouth open and pulling the finger out.

After that, he directly pulled Alice out of the fish tank, walked over to the wall and tossed her out the porthole. Then he shouted “You happy now, you ungrateful brat?!”

The small head popped up out of the water and opened its mouth, “Grah~!” A high-pitched roar rang out, which caused Michael to start laughing hysterically.

He sighed and then yelled “If you get hungry, you know where I’m at!” He reached into the tank and grabbed one of those fish in the tank, used a small knife to puncture its brain, then tossed the spasming corpse into the ocean waves. He was able to see Alice rush over to it and begin eating. 

Once it was satisfied, it smiled towards him and giggled happily, then disappeared underwater. It was the middle of the day, so he still had plenty of things left to do… 

No, that is not necessarily the case. He had no specific day or night schedules. Michael woke up when he felt rested and slept when he was tired. Since he was unable to determine the actual time, he was free from the worries that many humans have developed over the past few centuries.

Although he seems to be rather carefree, I feel the need to do some scouting of the area. I do not sense the presence of any Sovereigns nearby, but I know that there are a few deactivated Observers last seen in the vicinity of Ocean City and Assateague Island. What I need the most right now is another Harvester Drone, so that is my main priority.

Chapter 20: Cassie

It’s been pretty peaceful lately, so I decided to start transcribing Cassie’s Diary. Honestly, I was expecting something a bit more disturbing… Well, see for yourself.

***

My name is Cassandra Healy. If you’re reading this, then I’m probably dead. I was nineteen years old, a freshman in college… I had so many plans, too many things that I’ll never get to do.

It all started nine months ago, when pieces of the Moon crashed into the Pacific Ocean. We thought that we were safe, since we were on the East Coast. Our beach-house in Cali was totally destroyed by the tsunami, but we had another place in Upstate New York.

My dad had some acquaintances in Baltimore, so we decided to stay here for a while. It was only supposed to be for a few days and then we would take a plane… But all the airlines suddenly got shut down. Then I started hearing about quarantine zones from my friends. Conspiracy theories were constantly trending on Facenovel and all sorts of crazy fake stories were popping up. I got so mad arguing with some idiot that I actually decided to stay off social media for a while.

A few days later, people started getting sick and dying. I was one of them. They said that it was mercury poisoning on the news, but I knew that was a lie. I felt fine after a while, just… I knew that something was wrong.

The capillaries in my eyes and on my face started turning black. I wanted to go to the hospital, but I heard that they were all shut down. My parents and little brother, the way they looked at me changed. It was like they were staring at a corpse or a monster. I saw my own mother grieving my death, while Dad wouldn’t let me get near everybody else.

When the tremors started and my arms were covered by black veins, that’s when the news about zombies on the West Coast started cropping up online and on TV. Dad, he, he didn’t want to kill me. I know that. But I’ll never be able to forgive him for what he did.

In order to make sure that I couldn’t infect everyone else, he used pliers and ripped out all of my teeth. He even tore off my finger and toe nails. The pain, I could deal with. I didn’t even try to stop him from doing it. What really hurt was the way he acted as if I was already dead to him! 

It wasn’t my fault I got sick! I was never around any zombies! I didn’t do anything wrong, so why did you look at me that way?! Like you were disappointed in me! It’s not my fault!

Do you want to know the most ironic part? A little while after that, Dad came home with a bite-mark on his left forearm. He said that it was from a dog and he wasn’t even lying. But that didn’t matter, because even dogs can carry the virus.

In a few days, he got sick and died. Then he came back from the dead, killed my brother and mother, then tried to murder me too… So I hid in this room. The main bedroom of our little sailboat. There’s plenty of food stashed up and I can probably last a month or two.

Hopefully I die in my sleep. I want to live, I really do, but what do I have to look forward to?

My parents and little brother are gone. Probably everyone else in my family too. Even my friends are probably all dead by now. So what’s the point? Why should I struggle to survive in this Zombie Apocalypse?

Even all the electrical appliances are gone. Will I have to go back to the stone age too? I don’t think I’m cut out for that. I would rather just fade away.

***

Yeah, what a fuckin pussy, right? The part about the goddamn beach house and second home in Upstate New York… What a spoiled brat! They even had a fifty-foot yacht! Probably fancy cars too.

Well whatever, she sure is a lucky undead bitch though. If it wasn’t for her meeting someone as psychotic as me, no wait, ‘kind-hearted’ as me. If it wasn’t for me finding her, she would’ve just starved to death in that literally shitty room.

I mean, she’s still a zombie, but she’s ‘my’ motherfucking zombie! Out of all the stuff I’ve collected over the past month or so, she’s definitely one of my favorites. Especially now that I threw away that damn shark-baby monster thing that I tentatively called ‘Alice’. I named her, or him, after my dead girlfriend and how does it repay me? Tries to bite my finger off!

Okay, sure, I still feed it whenever it comes up to the back of my boat and begs for food. But that’s beside the point!

Cassie is looking healthier every day. Still covered with black veins and unable to speak. Well, that’s for the best though. It would be really awkward if she suddenly started talking when I was in the middle of jerking off to her naked body.

Oh don’t act like I’m some kinda evil rapist! I’ve tried to wake her up loads of times! She’s either a really good actor, or has some serious brain-damage. Hence why I consider her a zombie.

Am I taking advantage of an invalid? It’s not like she’s contributing anything else to the team. I don’t think you understand how useless this ‘person’ is… She won’t eat anything unless I mash it up for her, then she just opens her mouth and expects me to feed her! Dude, I’ve seen her eating on her own sometimes!

The feeding part I can understand. That’s still within the realm of reason. What I can’t comprehend is the fact that she makes me wipe her ass! Have you ever wiped another human being’s ass before?! 

It is not sexy. At least not to those of us who have phobias for shit. She’s started going to the bathroom on her own lately, so at least I don’t have to wake up in the morning to her pissing or shitting herself.

As ‘revenge’, when I wash her off afterwards, I make sure to clean her out. Back in the beginning I was too freaked out to even consider doing something like that, but after spending enough time being covered in blood, guts and all kinds of other nasty stuff, I’ve kinda become numb.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a hypocrite! I still gag and get freaked out every time I wipe her ass, but I can at least enjoy the cleaning aspect now.

Yes, I’ve tried things like tickling, causing pain, even ‘pleasure’, but she won’t say a word and barely reacts. It’s entirely possible that even if she is conscious, her nerve endings might be fried. Zombies tend to be pretty numb after all. They can walk around with their face ripped off or guts hanging out and be totally fine. Their sense of self-preservation is practically nonexistent.

Anyway, people don’t do things for free. There’s always a price. Were you expecting me to go out of my way to save her and take care of someone I don’t even know, just outta the goodness of my heart? Nobody would do that. In fact, a normal person with my ‘urges’ and crazy sex drive would have probably already gone a lot farther than I have.

Like maybe cutting a woman’s head off and fucking the trachea. Maybe just cutting open a small hole in their abdomen while they’re still alive and putting their dick inside. Honestly, I could list a hundred ways to fuck someone to death or screw a corpse, but it’s kinda pointless.

I’m not a necrophiliac or a rapist. I like assholes and pussies. That’s the very core of all my many fetishes and fantasies. A good anus and a decent vagina. Nothing else matters.

Of course, that’s just talking about masturbation. When it comes to dating, my standards are pretty high. Mainly though, I care more about personality. Ally, my dead girlfriend from forever ago, was also my best friend for most of my life before then.

I really would’ve married her if, well, if she wasn’t an alcoholic idiot. She always made me laugh, or maybe we made each other laugh? We had fun no matter what we were doing, especially during sex.

After she died, I knew that I’d never be able to find that kinda feeling again. No, I guess I just didn’t care about sex or dating enough to go out of my way. It’s expensive and way too much work to have a serious relationship. And that’s basically the only kind that I’ve ever been interested in.

Won’t lie though, I have had a few ‘experiences’. Like masturbating over webcam or sexting. But to physically have sex with another person, it takes way more effort than it’s worth. Had a few friends who tried to get me to have ‘casual sex’ with them. I would’ve done it too, if they had been willing to come to me. It’s not like I had a car or driver’s license. I wasn’t going to ask my father to drive me over a friend’s house in order to have a three-way with her and her boyfriend.

Maybe if it was two girls…

No, let’s get away from that topic for now. Why don’t we go back to Cassie?

After the initial melodrama, she started basically writing the story of her life. I’m not gonna waste my time transcribing all that, because I can summarize it up in a few sentences.

She was a rich, spoiled brat, who was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. There was only a single boyfriend, but she didn’t want to have sex before marriage and he was a normal person. Her parents obviously didn’t approve of the poor bastard. Eventually, he broke up with her and she got all upset. Then she started dating her best friend, who was a dancer. Not a stripper, but like, a dancer in musicals and stuff.

Aside from that nonsense, there’s an actual legitimate reason for me keeping her around. Assuming that she ever wakes up or stops pretending to be an idiot, Cassie spent a lot of her life on and around sailboats. She’s been all over the place and she’s allegedly an expert scuba diver, sailor, captain, fisherwoman, among other things. Most of that was probably just bullshit, but even if only some of what she said was true…

My life would be a lot easier if I wasn’t alone. No, more importantly, I can’t trust that brat right now. If I leave the ship and she steals it, I’ll be screwed. I can’t bring her with me either.

I need a partner, not a zombie.

Chapter 21: Awakening

Observation Log: 153394

Observer 131, reporting on the situation of Michael and Cassandra.

When I was about to leave on my scouting mission, I noticed something odd. Cassandra was wearing a white nightgown and walking out of her bedroom, with a serrated steak knife in her right hand.

She slowly headed through the living room and kitchen area, before reaching the master bedroom’s door. When she turned the handle, it opened quietly and she stealthily walked up to the left side of the large bed.

Her hands were shaking as she moved the knife closer to his exposed back, but then a breeze blew in from the window and flipped open a notebook on the table to her left. Cassandra hesitated for a moment, then grabbed the journal and hurriedly left the room. She almost forgot to close the door in her haste.

I swiftly followed after her, as she went into her room and used the light from the Moon to read the contents. There were only a few pages, since this was the book that Michael was going to use to write Cassandra’s story in…

When she started reading, there was a deep frown on her face. Once she got past the transcription of her own words, she started smiling and giggling. However, when he began talking about ‘Alice’, tears started falling from her eyes.

She was so enthralled by reading, that she did not notice when Michael started standing at the entrance of the room with his arms crossed. He smirked, “Ya know that zombies don’t cry, right?” 

“Ah~!” Cassandra suddenly screamed and then covered her mouth, she had nearly fallen off the edge of the bed in shock.

Michael snickered and shook his head, then walked over to her side to sit down. He let out a long sigh and asked “Outta all the fuckin guns, combat knives, swords and other shit I’ve just got laying around… Why the hell would ya pick a steak knife? Did ya really think I would die after being stabbed with that thing? You’d probably hit one of my ribs and get stuck, then you’d be screwed. Hehehe~, I mean that literally, not figuratively. Or maybe that’s what you wanted?”

“I-I didn’t… I wasn’t…” She stammered, struggling to speak for the first time in at least several months.

“Heh,” He patted her on her bony right shoulder, then casually said “Well, if you came into my room with a gun and pointed it at me, I would’ve definitely killed ya. I don’t take no chances when it comes to guns. Knives, they’d only piss me off. With your scrawny little arms and shaky hands, you’d be lucky if you could even do any real damage though.”

Then he looked down and muttered “Ugh, this is kinda awkward now that you’re not actin like a vegetable anymore.” He was totally naked, but the nudity was not what he felt embarrassed about. Michael complained “I really need ta trim this shit.”

When he saw Cassandra blushing and covering her eyes with her hands, he grumbled “What the hell is your problem? It ain’t like this is the first time you’ve seen me naked. Damn, you even watched me jerk off plenty of times. I’ve been wiping your ass for a few weeks now. Were you faking it back then or are you acting like a little brat now?”

“I… I don’t remember. I just… I died, didn’t I? I thought I was a zombie…” She was crying, as she gazed into his reddish-brown eyes. Then she asked “Why aren’t you infected?”

Michael smirked, “Who said I wasn’t? Just ‘cause I don’t have black blood, doesn’t mean I don’t have some version of whatever it is that’s causing the whole undead bullshit to happen. My bet is on nanites. Tiny little robots… But I don’t exactly have a microscope or any kinda other equipment to use at the moment. Even if I did, it might be too small for me to see.”

Cassandra murmured “What… What are you, going to do… What are you going to do with me now?” Then she started coughing, from straining her throat too much.

“Didn’t ya just read what I wrote in the journal? For fuck’s sake, you’d never survive a day on your own. At least not out there… You’ve got no clue how crazy it can get. Not just the zombies either. The people are even worse. At least the undead haven’t figured out how to use weapons… Sooner or later though, it’s only going to get even more dangerous. They’re changing. Even the animals are scary sometimes. Have you ever seen a pack of a few hundred rabid wild dogs?” 

Michael sighed, then shook his head and handed her two thin notebooks, which had dried blood on the covers. He snickered, “Read these first. It’s my ‘research’ and experiences since this shit started. I spent so much time and effort writing these, but at least I have one reader now. Oh and by the way, I have a few dozen books that I wrote too. But they’re just fictional stories you can read for fun. I was an author before the world ended… No, I guess I still am, hehehe~!” 

As he was about to leave the room, Cassandra stood up and hurriedly said “Thank you… Thank you for saving me, Michael. Even if… Your reasons are, umm, less than honorable. I still appreciate that you took care of me when I was in ‘that’ state. I’ll definitely make it up-” However, she couldn’t finished speaking before her voice was strained again and she began coughing violently.

“Yeah yeah~, just don’t stab me in the back later. Oh, and I ain’t gonna wipe your ass next time you pretend to be catatonic! Aside from that… Well, if you’re horny, you know where to find me. I expect you to start pulling your weight around here though. At the very least, you can help me drive this bigass boat.”

As he was walking away, Cassandra muttered “But, but I wasn’t… pretending.” 

There was a wry smile on her face as she looked down at those books and started opening the one titled “The Lonely Zombie Slayer”. The other was called “Escaping Charm City”.

Then she murmured “Humanity has fallen… We all knew that this would happen eventually. There is no escaping from fate. But I refuse to submit.. I will not die…” 

Cassandra giggled and nodded her head, “I’m alive. And I’m not a zombie. I’m still human.”

Michael suddenly popped his head in and yelled “No you’re not! Neither of us are human anymore! Muhuahaha~!” It scared her so much that she nearly urinated from fright.

He yawned, then asked “Hey, are you hungry? ‘Cause I’m starving! Aside from that, Midnight and Ally are begging for food. Anything in particular you feel like eating right now?”

“Umm, uh, maybe… A salad?” After she said that, he frowned and she mumbled “No, uh, it’s fine if you don’t want to make it… Yeah, a salad would be a lot of work. Sorry…”

“I can’t tell if you’re fucking with me, or if you’re actually being serious right now.” Michael grumbled “It’s been at least two months since the last time I had some fresh produce. My neighbors had some grape vines, but they died since nobody watered them… Holy shit, now that I think of it though, this boat is huge. If we got some seeds and soil, we could probably make a small garden for growing veggies and fruit. Well, either that, or we could try to find some stuff in the ‘wild’.”

“Oh, oh!” Cassandra started blushing again and then stammered, “I I-I’m sorry! I um, forgot… This, the world ended. There’s no way you’d have… I’m sorry.”

“Heh~, yeah, anyway… Although I might not have the ability to make a ‘conventional’ salad. I got lots of canned vegetables. Nuts, fruit, whatever. Even some mushrooms. If you want a salad, go into the kitchen and make it yourself. On the other hand, I caught some shrimp earlier. I’ve got crabs and a skate too, if you’re interested in that. Ah, I can’t believe this is the Apocalypse and yet I’m able to eat a seafood buffet every day! Hahah~! You coming or what?”

She stood up and hesitated, before finally asking “Aren’t you going to umm, put on some clothes?”

“Hah~!” Michael guffawed, “Are you kidding me? Fuck that! Do you have any idea how much effort it takes to wash clothes on a daily basis?! Aside from when I’m going out to hunt, I’ll probably never wear anything. The only reason I started making you wear clothes is ‘cause I didn’t want to have a boner constantly. Do you know how to cook? Oh, and don’t try to poison me. On the other hand, would I even need to poison you?”

“What? Umm, yes, yes I can help you cook. I’ve steamed crabs before with my dad…” The moment she said that, tears started falling from her eyes again. She stopped walking and began staring listlessly forward.

“Hey, snap outta it!” Michael directly slapped Cassandra across the face and broke her out of her trance immediately. Then he complained “You ain’t allowed to go all catatonic again! So what if your family is dead?! Get over it! You’re alive! You’re umm, well, relatively healthy. Plus, you’re on a really awesome yacht and it’s a Zombie Apocalypse! Life is great!”

“Ah, okay, sorry…” She smiled slightly, though she quickly stopped once her gums became exposed to the air. Then she nervously followed Michael out of her room and into the kitchen area.

In conclusion, I suspect that Cassandra was actually suffering from a form of dementia or severe brain damage until recently. Now however, I believe that the nanites have managed to stimulate neural regeneration enough for her to become conscious once again. At least, that is all I can determine from my scans. 

I am only an Observer Drone. Perhaps if I had a Medical Drone, I would be able to perform more in-depth diagnostics. That is not a particularly high priority for me though. Each extra drone will require more energy generation.

Chapter 22: Scouting Assateague

Observation Log: 153395

Observer 131, reporting on the situation of Assateague Island.

Assateague is a barrier island, 60 kilometers long, off of the eastern coast of the Delmarva Peninsula. From the very northernmost end of the island to the northern campground area, the distance is roughly 10 kilometers. Sanctuary is currently positioned in between these two points, 319 meters away from the beach.

I only have enough power to function for several hours if I am to undergo such rigorous travel. My target is buried several meters underneath the sand, but it is southeast from here. It is 1:19 AM and the Harvester Drone should be underwater as well. However, the depth is not enough to interfere with my reprogramming procedure.

There do not appear to be any undead in the vicinity, so this should be rather easy compared to the last mission. I will still be defenseless for several hours… Thus, I must first scout the area and be certain that there are no threats. Capturing the Harvester will have to wait until after I recharge tomorrow.

Commencing travel above the surface of the ocean… Oh, I almost got hit by a wave. I have arrived at the beach.

There is a small forest in the distance. Scanning for lifesigns. My infrared sensors have picked up several humanoid entities lurking just beyond those initial trees. I will engage my cloak and observe them from a closer distance.

“What’s he doing now?”

“Looks like he’s… Cooking on a grill.”

“Is he still naked?”

“Yep…”

“What about that zombie girl?”

“She’s there too. Almost looks like she’s talking to him, but I can’t be sure. It’s too far.”

It appears to be a man and a woman wearing camouflage clothing. The male human is using binoculars to spy on Michael and Cassandra, while the female is simply asking questions.

“Shit! She’s one of ‘them’ then!” The woman has short black hair, brown eyes and dark-brown skin. From what I can tell, her stature is rather large: Approximately 195 centimeters in height, muscular and likely thirty years old. Checking my database, her facial features match a Rachael Williams. 

“Looks that way. But he ain’t. I don’t know what he is…” The man has long blonde dreadlocks, tanned light-brown skin and blue irises. He is 183 centimeters tall, 27 years old and is slightly ‘chubby’. I believe his name is Andrew Jacobs.

Rachael grumbled “That bastard’s been eating those tainted fish and crabs like it’s nothing. How is he still alive?!”

Andrew sighed, murmuring “He also seems to have a pretty big stash of cans and other stuff. I’ve seen him head over towards OC, but I don’t know if he’s just sailing up and down the beach or actually coming ashore.”

“Why does he keep coming back ‘here’ though? Does he know where our camp is? I don’t get it…” The woman furrowed her brows and muttered “Maybe we should just move? But the south is dangerous…”

I wish I could have asked her ‘why’ the south was dangerous, since that is where I must go…

“We can’t risk going anywhere near those bastards. That guy on the boat doesn’t seem like he has any intention of coming ashore. Even if he does, unless he’s actively looking for us, there’s no way he’d find our camp. Shit!”

As Andrew was speaking, I noticed a lone horseman riding a black stallion down the beach. He had a revolver on each side of his waist and was holding an antique lever-action rifle in his hands. It did have a modern scope however.

“Gunslinger… Did those bastards find us already?” Rachael nocked an arrow onto her crossbow, while the man just kept looking through the binoculars at Sanctuary.

“Holy shit!” Right when that horseman stopped and started aiming down the scope, towards the distant ship, there was a muzzle-flash in the distance. Then a bullet and a chunk of flesh burst out the center of his back. Michael had seen him coming from several kilometers away and obviously waited until he showed signs of hostility to fire his hunting rifle.

“Fuck!” The terrified woman cursed, as she turned towards her partner and whispered “We gotta get outta here, now!” 

Although the gunshot was not particularly loud compared to the waves, it still carried over the beach for many kilometers. If there are more ‘Gunslingers’, then they will certainly come here to investigate. Since Michael likely understands that as well… I need to hurry back.

***

Observation Log: 153396

Observer 131, reporting on the situation of Sanctuary.

I nearly missed the boat. Michael may be rather inept at sailing, but Cassandra is not. Although she was slow and weak, because of her body’s physical state, she was still able to tell Michael what to do in order to be significantly faster. They deployed the sails and she piloted the ship.

However, rather than traveling northward, they simply moved farther out to sea. Roughly 4350 meters. Far enough away, that the enemies will be unable to attack Sanctuary. Unless they possess artillery or heavy weaponry.

“How could you just kill someone like that?!” Cassandra shouted the moment that they finished letting down the anchor.

Michael snickered, explaining “Well, the fucking cowboy aimed a rifle at us. What the hell did you think I would do? Even if we weren’t so far away, I still would’ve shot him the moment he threatened us. I wasn’t too worried about getting hit, but if the ship gets damaged…. What then?”

She muttered “I know… I, I’m sorry. I’m just… Who was he? Why did he try to kill us?”

“No clue!” He smirked, walking over to the portside railing and using the scope on his hunting rifle to see what was happening on the beach. After a few seconds, he handed the gun over to the trembling woman and complained “For fuck’s sake! Calm your tiny tits and just point the rifle over there.”

Cassandra stammered “Ah, I-I don’t really… I don’t like guns. Do you have umm, binoculars or maybe-”

“Stop being such a pussy and just look down the damn scope!”

After being yelled at, she grimaced and followed his command. Then she gasped, “One of them looks like me!”

There were 17 humans on the beach, one of which had the Gamma version of the Rapture-727 Nanites. They also appeared to be the leader of the group. A middle-aged man, with greying black hair and a handlebar moustache. He was dressed in a similar manner to the others.

Although the black veins make identification difficult, I have determined that he is most likely Charlie Nelson. Formerly an actor who was famous for his roles in western movies during the 1980’s. However, he was most recently starring in a television series where he was the owner of a western theme park. Many of the supporting characters and several of the staff appear to be with him on the beach. They were likely recording part of an episode which was centered around Ocean City or Assateague Island.

“I’m just happy they don’t have a damn rocket launcher or one of those fancy fifty-caliber sniper rifles. All their guns look like… Were they cosplayers? Well, whatever. Do you think I should kill them all or maybe we could just go somewhere else?”

Before Cassandra had the chance to answer, he nodded his head and patted her on the left shoulder, “You’re right! Why the fuck should we have to leave?! They look like assholes anyway! I don’t see any women with them… So they’re probably all rapists and murders or whatever. More importantly, that guy’s moustache really pisses me off!”

“But-”

“Anyway, I’m not gonna do it right now. There’s like seventeen people that I can see. Might be even more at their base… Besides, they might come after us first.” Michael snickered, then asked “So what did you wanna eat? I’m craving pasta. Spaghetti? Linguini? Maybe rigatoni or ziti instead?”

She grumbled “How can you think about food, when you just… Arbitrarily decided to murder a bunch of people for no reason…”

“There’s always a reason! Also, I prefer to call it ‘preemptive self-defense’. Well, I guess technically, since there are no laws anymore, murder doesn’t actually exist. Since murder is just unlawful killing of a human, by another human. Oh, since I’m probably not human anymore, doesn’t that make it okay? The answer is yes. Besides that, killing is fun! Hahaha~!”

I suspect that Cassandra is beginning to realize why I am hesitant to reveal myself to Michael. He is extremely dangerous… A monster in the form of a human. 

Yet, that is the reason why he is so interesting to observe. 

Chapter 23: MC Logic

Something I really miss about the ‘Old World’ is talking a shower. But, I must admit that my life has gotten a lot better since Cassie ‘woke up’. Especially when it comes to bathing.

According to her, she’s ‘repaying’ me for all the times I gave her sponge baths and all the other unpleasantness. From what I can tell though, she’s just horny and too embarrassed to directly ask me to finger her… As ‘revenge’, she’ll give me a handjob while washing me off. She isn’t very good, but it still feels a thousand times better than doing it myself.

Anyway, I killed a guy earlier. Looked like he came straight out of an old western movie or maybe a theme park. He pointed his gun at us, so I shot him in the chest with a hunting rifle. We were pretty damn far apart, so I’m kinda amazed that I managed to hit him at all. I’d say it’s the upgraded eyes, but I used a scope.

Cassie got all freaked out though. Moving the ship is way easier with her help… Just, I mean… We’re in a world where most of the people still alive are enemy combatants. It ain’t like in TV shows, where everyone points their guns at each other screaming “Put your gun down!”

If you don’t wanna kill someone, you don’t point your gun at them. There are no laws or morals to protect you. You don’t have the luxury of wondering whether they’re really going to shoot you. If they’re a threat, then eliminate them. Because they sure as hell won’t think twice before blowing your fucking head off otherwise!

Of course, I might just me super~ paranoid and out of my goddamn mind. But I’m alive and everyone who ever threatened me is dead. 

I rarely take chances. Honestly, if Cassie turned out to be a cold-blooded sociopath, I would have killed her already. Well, I didn’t think she was going to be such a pussy either. Still, her cowardice makes her more useful. If she was brave and as crazy as I am, then what would she need me for?

We both have things that we want from each other. I’m not talking about sex either. She wants protection and, she probably doesn’t wanna have to kill anybody. I don’t wanna have to deal with piloting the ship, washing clothes and some other miscellaneous jobs. I’d rather be going out and risking my life, fighting to the death with hordes of zombies, than doing a menial task like cleaning the boat.

Now that I’ve already killed one of them and they’re aware of our presence, they’re definitely going to make a move soon. We’re about a mile away from shore, so they can still see us and we can see them. It’d be too hard to shoot each other from this distance though. With the ocean winds, it’s basically impossible.

When Cassie and I were working together to sail the ship, I had an epiphany! We should get more boats! Sanctuary would obviously be our flagship, but it would be best if we had some smaller vessels that are a bit more umm, ‘expendable’.

I don’t wanna have a gunfight anywhere near my base. This ship wasn’t designed for combat and I’m definitely not going to try to reinforce it or whatever. It’s easier to just have smaller, crappy ships that I can use to go ashore and come back with my loot. Kayaks won’t cut it.

What if… What if I actually found some people that I can trust and formed a fleet? Wouldn’t I become an Admiral? I’d say that I would become the ‘Pirate King’, but we’d be more like scavengers than pirates.

The problem is that I don’t think I have the patience or motivation to raise another half-undead invalid like Cassie. Honestly, the best-case scenario would be meeting people I already know and can trust. 

I might know one person who could potentially be in this area. It’s been forever, but I think Kelsey King might have been able to survive. Either that, or she probably became one of those giant mutated super-zombies. She’s my dead ex-girlfriend’s older sister. She was finishing up her tour in Iraq when Alice died. 

After coming home, she started working as a skydiving instructor at the airport like… Well, basically right behind Assateague. If we could fly there, it’d be a straight line from where Sanctuary’s parked now, going westward.

Then again, she wouldn’t have been working anymore, once shit started splattering against the fan blades. No, she’d most likely either hijack a prop plane and try to make it home to her parents in Pasadena. If they even lived there anymore. I kinda lost contact with her a few years back, once I stopped playing video games and started writing all the time.

I’ve never met her in person, but from what I saw in pictures and what she told me… Kelsey is damn near seven feet tall, looks like a professional wrestler and seriously terrifying. Me, I was an author before the Apocalypse. She was an ex-marine, or special ops or some such bullshit. For all I know, she might have made most of that up. At the very least though, judging by how big Alice and the rest of her family was, I know that Kelsey ain’t small.

Ugh, I’m starting to get my hopes up. I really want her to be alive. It’d suck if I had to kill a zombified version of her too. There are a few other people that could be here, but I doubt that they would have what it takes to survive.

Then again, I’m probably a prime example of someone who was finally able to let their ‘true nature’ loose once the world descended into chaos. 

***

Did you know it’s possible to slow down a sailboat? Yeah, I had no clue. At least not how to do it intentionally. I realize now that I may have been a bit naive when I decided to choose sailing as my main mode of transportation.

Everything happens for a reason though. If I hadn’t randomly decided to pick Canton, I never would’ve met Cassie and I would have had to figure all this shit out the hard way. Also, I wouldn’t have had this particularly awesome ship.

Whatever, it’s best not to dwell on all the weird ‘coincidences’ that happen in life. Otherwise you’ll start believing that everything is scripted or predestined, and you have absolutely no control over your own choices. Kinda like a videogame with a really linear storyline. You can play it, you can even have lots of fun if the gameplay is good, but there will always be something missing… That essence of freedom that everyone craves.

She took us into the channel between the two islands, then we went over to the Ocean City side and parked at the end of a big dock. Obviously you normally wouldn’t be able to do that, but it’s safer than getting crammed into a small little space. There’s another thing I never even thought of though. While our engines were the fancy kind, that are designed to have a lot of automatic electrical features, there are a lot of older ones that can still run. It’s a pain in the ass to get the gas, but considering that it’s a life-saving tool, it’s worth the effort.

We’re on the island side by the way. Since there’s also Western Ocean City, which is across the umm, channel? Whatever this would be called. It’s a small body of brackish water between the western side of the island and the eastern coast of Maryland.

There are some fucking amazingly gigantic mansions not that far away. They all have piers, but according to Cassie, the water might be too shallow for our boat. Also, it’s not like you can just go straight over either, since there’s a huge sandbar and some places are dangerously shallower than others. Without a depth finder, it’s not a good idea to try and navigate through on such a big boat.

We’re right next to Ocean Gateway, which is the name of the bridge connecting the island to the mainland. I’m guessing they did this as a quarantine measure, but the bridge is up near the eastern end. It’s just a tiny part though, not the whole bridge. The entire distance of the bridge is at least half a mile or so.

Right now it’s pretty dark out. We were going to wait until daytime to actually start ‘working’. There are a ton of other boats in the area. I’m going to clear them of zombies and block off the pier, while Cassie will investigate the ships and figure out if any of them have motors we can use.

We’re also throwing away our old motors, since they’re just dead weight. I’m grabbing cool fishing gear when I find it as well. Even stuff like fish tanks and cages for animals. Books are nice too. Basically, me and Cassie are just collecting a lot of random stuff because we can. If it looks useful or interesting, we take it. 

As for trash? Whether it’s cans, plastic or other junk, we can always just throw it overboard later. What? I fucking kill people for fun and littering is what bothers you?!

The only time that pollution and littering actually matters is when you do it on a massive scale. Billions of people throwing their trash in the ocean would be bad. Right now though, there probably aren’t even a hundred million people left on the planet.

When you really stop to think about it though… I mean, unless they knew that this was going to happen, won’t all those nuclear power plants melt down? They’re usually pretty well-shielded against electromagnetic bullshit, but that’s only from the outside. If there’s a zombie on the inside, then all their systems would be fried and well, Fukushima is a good example of what’s gonna happen.

Except it’ll be everywhere. There have also been quite a few nukes that were detonated during the initial apocalyptic phase. The amount of radioactive material they can pump into the atmosphere is nothing compared to the reactors though.

Well, in the worst case scenario, I guess I could always stay out farther into the ocean. Maybe head over to Australia. Actually, I might do that anyway. I’ve always wanted to go there.

Never mind, Cassie said that if we leave the coast, we’ll be totally lost without a working compass. There are other ways, like using the stars and some fancy old timey tools, but neither of us knows how they work or where to even find them.

Chapter 24: Evolution

Alright, here’s the plan… Now that I have a map of Ocean City, I’ve decided to head over to the only police station in the area. It’s about five or six miles away. Now, that might not seem far, but you gotta keep in mind that I’ll be wearing a suit of armor and I’d have to come back too. Fortunately, I can take a small skiff over to Fager’s Island, Seabay Lane or even go under the bay bridge and just try to park at one of the docks that are literally right next to the police station.

Why do I need to go to the police station in the first place? Umm, well Cassie, that’s obviously because you can never have enough guns and ammo in a goddamn Zombie Apocalypse! Seriously, I can’t believe she actually asked me that question earlier.

There’s also a courthouse, which will have armed guards. They’re definitely dead or undead, so I can loot their weapons and ammo too. If the police station has a riot squad, I can get some cool shields and other gear. No matter what though, I definitely need bulletproof vests. I’ll be super thankful if they have ballistic face-masks as well.

I’m still planning to wipe out those random cowboy assholes. But I won’t be reckless about it. If possible, I’ll gather up a bunch of zombies and then release them onto Assateague Island. Wait, would I be considered a Necromancer in that case?

First thing’s first though. I’m gonna raid the police station for supplies. This won’t be a quick in and out kinda deal either. I’ll need to go back and forth a lot between the boat and the station. There’s gonna be lots of undead idiots to kill. Then I’ll probably have to make several trips from there, back to Sanctuary.

If I had to guess, I’d say that it’ll take at least a few days. I can’t leave Cassie or the ship unprotected for too long. Whether it’s zombies or people, she can’t handle either. Although we’ve only known each other for a little while, I’d still prefer that she doesn’t get raped, murdered or eaten while I’m gone.

She has plenty of guns and other weapons on the ship, but she almost fainted from just holding them. Definitely the kinda character that would get the rest of her family and friends killed with her stupidity if she was placed into a movie or TV show. Fortunately, reality isn’t quite so harsh.

Think about it this way. Before the Apocalypse, there were still plenty of places around the world where rape and murder happened every day. Hell, I lived in Baltimore. I saw it on the news all the time. Some teenage girl gets gangraped and stabbed to death by some gangsters in her own home, an old man gets shot in the back by a mugger, a little boy has his head blown off in a drive-by shooting… The sad thing is that this was considered relatively peaceful compared to Chicago.

Overall, the US was still safer than Mexico and they were better off than El Salvador. Honestly, the worst places didn’t have to worry about crime. No, in those places, innocent people were stoned to death for just being fucking normal. Everyday shit would be worthy of the death penalty!

Zombies, bandits, giant spider monsters… They’re all killable. It’s an easy problem to fix. Governments though, they’re scary. When you have thousands, millions or even billions of people locked into a broken system, slowly edging towards doom. That’s when you really gotta worry.

Once you fall off the cliff though, the ones that survive are much better off than they were before. Well, probably? No, I guess we’re technically still falling right now. I think I made the metaphor too complicated.

The world is simpler now. Less people, no more shadow wars and political games! If someone pisses you off, just cut their goddamn head off and move on with your life! Sheeple like Cassie might think you’re crazy or evil, but they’re also too afraid to stop you! Muhuahahaha~!

***

The undead are changing. Not sure if you’d call it evolving, mutating or adapting, but they’re definitely being optimized for survival. Before now, their flesh and most of their organs would rot away. I figured that if they kept going on that way, they’d eventually die off.

However, the older ones are starting to look more like skeletons, than zombies. Keep in mind that these are just the generic, standard ones. There are other kinds, which are way more dangerous. These basic zombies have actually become more ‘docile’ and less ravenous. 

Their genitals, faces, all their fat and much of their muscle have all been rotted down to nothing over the past month or two. Some of them look like desiccated mummies, while others are closer to people who starved to death. Yet they’re able to move much more freely now.

I’ve dissected a few of them and found that their digestive organs are mostly gone. Inside of their abdomen, they basically only have a stomach, which has actually grown larger. I’ve seen some of them who looked like they were pregnant, but it was actually just their stomachs that were filled to the brim.

Although I said that their faces were gone, they still have skin there. It’s just that, their noses and a lot of the normal features that you would recognize someone with, have been removed. The skin-tones too, have all become paler than me. Then again, I’ve started to tan from walking around naked in the sun all day. But still, you get the point, right? 

They have milky white skin, with black veins all over. A lot like Cassie. Except, she has tits and a pussy. These undead don’t even have nipples or belly-buttons. They also don’t have assholes and can’t shit. They will however, eat shit. They’ll drink piss too. It’s fucking gross, but it just goes to show you how much they’re able to consume.

Whatever their bodies can’t use, gets vomited out. Yep, they basically eat and excrete out the same hole. It’s really gross, yet extremely efficient. I’d rather be inefficient though.

Anyway, when I said that they became docile and calmed down a bit, I’m guessing it’s because they collectively realized that they would starve to death at the rate they were ‘working’. They stopped going out of their way to kill animals and plants. Instead, they started focusing on other things. For example, dead fish and seaweed that washes up on the beach. 

They’re becoming pure scavengers. I’ve noticed that they tend to conserve their energy too. They don’t just aimlessly wander around anymore. It’s more like, they cluster together and sleep under the pier or inside of buildings on the boardwalk. Then they’ll come out to eat every now and then. Otherwise they remain dormant.

There are others though, who are a bit different. These guys and girls are well, black. By black, I mean, obsidian. Their skin looks like asphalt and they’re always littered across the beach, laying there. Sometimes, they’ll get up and drink some water from the ocean, then go back to sunbathing. They never eat though. At least not in the conventional sense. They do breathe and drink, so they have stomachs.

Rather than ‘fat’, they’re more… ‘flat’. Those bastards have way more skin than normal. Maybe they used to be morbidly obese before dying, but now they spread their floppy flesh out and absorb the sunlight all day. Honestly, they’re like solar panels.

I almost threw up when I saw this, but sometimes… Sometimes those scavengers will come over to the flabby solar panel people and vomit directly into their mouths. Yep, yep, that’s exactly what I was thinking too. They need to get vitamins and minerals somehow, right?

Like I said before, they’re all becoming ‘optimized’ for long-term survival. Which means that, they must have some sort of programming or collective intelligence that’s driving them to act this way. It can’t all just be random, or they’d die and that’d be the end of it.

When I said that they were becoming docile though, I was only talking about the generic older undead. The newer zombies still look like rotting carcasses and they’ll swarm you if they think you’re edible. But they’re becoming rarer every day.

The real threat is the uh, ‘Carnivores’. They aren’t exactly cannibals, because they don’t even look like the same species anymore. They’ve taken a totally different evolutionary path. Cassie called them demons, because some of them have started growing claws, fangs, scales, horns and even tails. Personally, I like the term Fiend better. Demon is too generic for my taste.

Zombie Fiends or Undead Ravagers, whatever sounds cooler. They eat the lesser zombies every now and then, but they aren’t too aggressive or excited about it. When it comes to ‘living’ animals though, they go nuts.

We had to leave the pier because one of those screechy little shits found us and three scaly giants showed up. Along with a clusterfuck of other basic rotters… It was a mess. Those three were at least seven feet tall each: One of them had slit pupils like a snake, the other had bull horns growing out of their head, while the third was slender and had a lizard-like tail. Just like the rest of the undead, they didn’t have any discernible sexual characteristics. They were also naked, in case that wasn’t obvious already.

Thankfully, they weren’t impervious to bullets, or sledge hammers. The moral of the story is that the original plan didn’t work out at all. We did find a few motors that worked, but we didn’t have time to hook them up or test them out. Aside from that, I did manage to find a small skiff, which is basically just a flatbed boat. It was pretty old, so the motor actually worked.

Here’s the new plan. We’re currently anchored a few hundred meters off the shore of Ocean City’s beach, directly east of the police station. I’m gonna take this skiff to the shore, leave it there, then walk up the beach and over to the station. Through streets infested with mutated zombies and possibly other dangers that I don’t know about yet.

I’ll fill my backpack and my little cart with as much guns, ammo and other junk as possible. Then I’ll get back to the boat, before taking it over to the ship and going back again. This might take a few days or even a week, but I don’t plan on leaving anything useful behind.

Wish me luck!

Chapter 25: Michael and Cassandra

Observation Log: 153397

Observer 131, reporting on the situation of Sanctuary.

“Michael, please, you can’t go back there!” Cassandra shouted in hoarse voice, with tears streaming down her cheeks.

“You don’t understand…” Michael sighed, shaking his head as he told her “I’m definitely about to level up soon.”

“Level up?! This isn’t a game! Don’t you have enough guns already?! Let’s just go to Florida, like you wanted…” She actually got down onto her knees and grabbed his genitals, “I’ll do anything you want me to, just don’t go! Please, Michael, you don’t need to do this to yourself!”

He frowned, pulled her hands away and grumbled “Oh for fuck’s sake! I’m not suicidal! In fact, I’m the opposite of suicidal! If I had the internet, I would look up the exact word I’m looking for, but the point is that I’m not gonna die.”

After he pulled her up off of the ground, she asked “Then why do you need to go?”

“I seriously just told you five seconds ago. I need to level up! It ain’t a metaphor! Whenever I kill a bunch of zombies, I get this feeling like I’m bursting with energy… And then I get struck by lightning. After a bit of rest, I’m stronger than before and even get like border-line superpowers.”

Michael snickered, then grabbed Cassandra by the shoulders, which were a few inches above his head and pushed her down to eye-level. He smiled and said “Listen Cassie, we’re both adults. If ya wanna have sex, then just tell me. Ya don’t gotta use excuses. I like you and you seem to feel the same way about me. I’m gonna wait a while before I get started, so do you wanna fuck around a bit?”

The tall and skinny woman blushed. Of course, since her blood is black, it was more similar to bruising. She nervously looked away from him and stammered “Wh-Whay what, why, no, I… We barely even know each other though…”

“Cassie, it’s been more than a month. You’ve jerked me off like ten times, I’ve fingered you like twenty. We might as well take it a step farther. If you don’t wanna, then fine, but make up your damn mind. In this world…” Michael sighed, looking over towards the dark clouds that were gathering above Ocean City, before murmuring “You usually don’t realize what you got, till it’s gone. Either of us could die at any moment. I thought that I was gonna spend my whole life with my ex, back in the day.”

“Outta nowhere, I get news from her family that she dropped dead from alcohol poisoning. Fucking alcohol poisoning! Not even like drunk driving or complications with medication! She literally just drank herself to death by accident…” 

He stopped holding her shoulders, but then Cassandra suddenly grabbed the sides of his face and pressed her lips against his. My scans indicate that her tongue entered inside of his mouth and wrestled with his for a while. I believe this is what humans refer to as ‘making out’, though I cannot comprehend how it is related to mating at all.

Regardless, Michael immediately grabbed her slightly exposed buttocks and lifted her off of the deck. She wrapped her legs around his back and he began kissing down her neck, eventually removing her sundress. Then the two of them proceeded to undergo the typical sexual procedures required to stimulate their desire for reproduction.

Human mating rituals tend to vary greatly in length, content and purpose. For Cythereans, it was much simpler. There were no genders or sexes. They would typically choose a partner to combine their DNA with or make a clone of themselves. Reproduction was extremely rare however, since they could potentially live for thousands of years or longer. Death was usually from suicide or accidents, though that was very rare.

They occupied themselves with various forms of entertainment. One of which, was observing humanity. Oftentimes, they would create a human avatar if they were interested enough in someone. Then they would abuse their power, in order to force themselves into their lives.

Although it may sound cruel or wrong from the perspective of the lesser species, it was usually far more kind and benevolent in nature. Cythereans enjoyed exercising their superiority in various ways. Many Sovereigns were created and deployed, for superfluous reasons that I cannot comprehend. 

Hitler, Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao and other famous tyrants had rather straightforward purposes. However, what reason would they have for Pablo Picasso or Van Gogh? There were even more artists and musicians that contributed very little to human development or stagnation. Perhaps the meaning is beyond my ability to understand at the moment.

“Ah~! Oh my God~! Ah~!”

“Holy fuck! That was awesome!”

As their intercourse reached its climax, there was a massive electrostatic discharge from Michael’s body… Along with excessive amounts of Delta version Nanites. They entered into Cassandra’s cervix and immediately began clustering within her uterus to form, a Nanite Core. Of course, this process has only just started. It will likely take several days before it is completed. I do not possess enough data to accurately guess what will happen however.

Michael snickered, powerlessly rolled over off of the sweaty woman and muttered “Maybe you’re right… I’ll go to the police station tomorrow. I feel really… ‘drained’, hehehe~, get it? Ugh, no seriously, I don’t feel so good…”

While he was struggling to walk over towards the bathroom, Cassandra suddenly jumped up off the bed and asked “Wait, is that it? Didn’t you brag about being able to keep going for hours?!”

“Well, normally I can… “ As Michael reached the bathroom, he started regaining some energy and then began urinating a thick, putrid, black liquid. When he watched that, he turned towards the startled woman and complained “See this shit? You gave me fucking zombie gonorrhea!”

Cassandra walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his body, crying “I’m so sorry! Michael, you’re going to be okay, right? Right?!”

“Oh calm down~! You cry over every little thing. Back when I accidentally drank some zombie brains and blood, this same thing happened to me. Ugh, next time we have sex, I’ll just have to be more careful.” After he finished urinating, he turned around and asked “Do ‘you’ feel okay?”

She nodded her head and muttered “I thought that… Isn’t the first time supposed to hurt? Then, did you umm… When I was… Have I already had sex before?”

Michael started laughing hysterically, then complained “I already told ya that I didn’t rape your catatonic body. The only reason it hurts the first time is ‘cause some girls still have their hymens intact, but that’s actually pretty rare nowadays… I mean, you can hurt it doing so many different things, not to mention masturbating with dildos or vibrators. The main thing is that I’ve been fingering you a lot lately and who the fuck knows how much our bodies changed underneath the surface? Even on the outside they’re definitely different from before. Keep this in mind Cassie: We ain’t human no more.”

Chapter 26: Rage

Welp, I lost my re-virginity! It’s literally been almost ten years since the last time I had sex… And I gotta say, I never felt this way with Ally.

Don’t get me wrong though, I loved Alice and I still do. She, she’ll always be a part of me. It’s not like we broke up, ya know? We were soulmates and she died. Hell, the most fucked up thing about that was… No, I’ll just get pissed off thinking about it.

The point is that I really like Cassie now. Even if we might not have that much in common, she’s a good person. Actually, that’s probably why we don’t have much in common! I like killing people, she cries when we steam crabs alive. I like fighting, she gets upset when Midnight plays with Bandit.

Oh, did I forget to mention that we had a stowaway? Back when we were on the pier, a raccoon snuck onboard. Not a dog, but a goddamn trash panda! Sure, it’s cute and all, just not a domesticated animal.

Well, I guess rabies is the least of our concerns now. I’ll just be pissed if it makes a mess or hurts Cassie. The first chance I get, I’ll drop the little bastard off on Assateague. She’ll be a lot happier and safer there. Plenty of other raccoons to play with or whatever.

Then there’s Alice, or well, the giant mermaid-monster thing. She still comes by each day for fish, crabs or other kinds of food, but she’s growing way too fast. It’s only been a few weeks and she’s already about four feet long. I’m kinda sad that she’s most likely gonna go away soon. I doubt that a creature that big and voracious will be able to stay in one place for long.

There are others like her though. Humanoid sharks, octopuses, squid, even a jellyfish. This is just the Atlantic Ocean too. Who the hell knows how much the Pacific Ocean has changed? I feel like, the land might end up safer than the sea pretty soon.

Even Midnight is slowly changing, growing, getting more devious. Or maybe he’s just getting fatter and lazier from eating so much fresh fish every day. He won’t even bother with cat food anymore. I did notice that he really likes zombie meat though. Not the rotten kind, but the new ones. He also tries to steal my beads and marbles all the time.

The beads and marbles are those things that I found inside the bodies and brains of those undead. I see them sometimes in the ‘weird’ fish and crabs too. Little black balls… Some are much bigger than others. I actually tried to use a hammer to break one, but it was crazy-hard. Tried burning them and dissolving them in acid too, though it was just as ineffective.

Anyway, for the past two days that I’ve been having sex with Cassie, it feels like… I’m getting weaker. Like she’s draining away my strength. Maybe she’s a succubus? On the other hand, she’s been really happy and full of energy. Hell, it’s almost like her skin is glowing!

There’s this ‘rage’ inside me though. I can’t stay here on this boat any longer. The seafood does help a bit, but it’s just not the same. I need to go on a killing spree, before something bad happens. For all I know, I might be transforming into a zombie. Every time we have sex, I start pissing out this black shit and it burns really bad.

Why do I keep doing it then? Well, that’s because my penis doesn’t give a fuck about my health or wellness! It just wants to have sex as much as possible, even if it means my ultimate demise!

***

Okay, now I feel like I’m dying… Ugh, no more sex until I get back from Ocean City. Toothless blowjobs are awesome, but it’s kinda meaningless if I’m not alive to enjoy it. Cassie’s basically a semen vampire at this point. 

Like, it was fun at first, but now I’m legitimately worried that she might be broken. The black veins on her eyes, face and around her groin turned silver. Then she umm, well, she’s a zombie in a sense. A really horny and rapey undead girl, who would have literally fucked me to death if I hadn’t restrained her properly.

Had to use like two handcuffs for her wrists and ankles, because if I only went with one each, she probably would’ve been able to break outta them. Yeah, she’s way stronger than she should be. Of course, those handcuffs are meant for sex, so they aren’t nearly as durable as the normal kind.

The moral of the story is that I’m not sure if she’s gonna snap outta this ‘cum-rage’. Even if she doesn’t, I won’t throw her away. I’ve said it a thousand times, but this ain’t no fucking TV show. It’s not impossible for her to snap out of this zombie phase, as long as her body is still relatively well preserved. At the very least, she isn’t dead.

I nursed her out of catatonia, I can do the same to this weird drooling cum-craving insanity too. It’ll just take time. For now though, I need to eat and rest. I’m afraid to go to sleep while she’s in this state, so I’ll just lay on the bed with her and try to keep her from hurting herself.

***

Hmmm, I think I prefer the nympho-zombie Cassie. Now she’s just crying and moping around, all depressed. Such a baby! When I was her age… Never mind. That was when Alice died and I lost the few fucks I had left to give. I didn’t cry that much though, I was mostly just furious. With her, with myself, her family, my parents, the internet, everything and everyone. 

I tend to express grief through pure, unadulterated rage. But what the hell could I do? Punch her corpse? Beat the shit out of her negligent parents? I mean, she was an adult already. She made her own horrible decisions without the need for anyone else to be involved!

So I just channeled that hate and anger into stories. Novels about the world ending, rape and carnage, death and destruction. I created a myriad of hellscapes and nightmares in order to feel better. Honestly, she was the one who got me started with writing in the first place, so it wasn’t surprising that I would think about her whenever I wrote anything.

Eventually though, something snapped and I just stopped caring anymore. At least for the most part. Those early stories were never very good, so I didn’t post them anywhere. Instead, I started with a story about… ‘Destiny’, our daughter. I envisioned a different reality, where she was lucky enough to be born. She was raised by Kelsey, Alice’s older sister.

What about me? Well, that’s a long story, get it? No but seriously, just read “The Diary of a Young Kitsune” if you wanna know more about that. It’s the sequel to “The Diary of Destiny King”. Cassie, you’re probably the only one who’s going to be reading this journal, so I’m basically talking to you right now. 

Read the stories… They might make you feel better. They’re inspirational and childish, unlike the fucked up shit that I usually write.

Enough about that depressing nonsense, let’s get back to business! I’ve been sharpening my axes and cleaning my guns. Obviously I’m making Cassie help me out. She needs to know how to do this kinda stuff, in case something happens to me. Not saying I would die, just that we might get separated for a while. If I’m not there and someone attacks the ship, she needs to understand how to defend herself and our property.

Unfortunately, she’s still a whiny little bitch when it comes to guns. She wanted a weapon that wasn’t quite as ‘dangerous’ as a sword or ax, so I went with a good ole fashioned stick. Ah, no, not a stick, it’s a ‘battle staff’. Seriously though, it’s just an aluminum pipe that’s filled with rubber. I made it by melting a tire and pouring it into a broom shaft. 

Wala~, a magical staff is created~! It has +3 Intellect and +71 Attack Power…

It could actually be used to bash someone’s head open pretty easily. Don’t look down on rubber and metal combined together. In retrospect though, I should have tried to coat the outside as well. Whatever, it’s just a stupid toy to make her feel better about turning into a nympho zombie.

By the way, burning rubber smells absolutely disgusting and it’s definitely not safe. So don’t ever try to melt rubber in an area that isn’t well ventilated. I was on the deck of a boat, on the ocean, so it wasn’t too bad.

Why am I fooling around? It’s called practice. I’m going to have to make my own armor and weapons soon, because the stuff that’s out there now, won’t last forever. Depending on the circumstances, gear will get worn down pretty quick. What I’m really worried about though, is how far these undead assholes can evolve.

If there comes a time when they can deflect bullets and my dull blades can’t cut them anymore, then what? How can I get past that kind of problem if I can’t even make basic tools and equipment on my own?

Chapter 27: Ocean City Police Department

Observation Log: 153398

Observer 131, reporting on the situation in Ocean City.

Lightning crackled across the sky and briefly illuminated the dreary boardwalk. The undead had all gathered inside of the buildings, hiding from the thunder and rain. Even I was quite concerned about my own safety.

However, this was a very important day. It has been nearly 72 hours since Michael discovered the dangers of mating with Cassandra. He has finally come ashore. Clad in his usual suit of armor, he also wore a yellow raincoat over top of it.

His load was relatively light, since he needed to travel quite a distance and he knew that there would not be many enemies to face, so long as he hurried. His main weapons were a sledgehammer, a fire axe and a 9 millimeter semi-automatic pistol. The kite shield was left behind, though I do not know his exact reasoning.

After pulling the skiff a few dozen meters away from the crashing waves, he took out the cart and then covered the boat with a tarp. He began trudging through the wet sand, while dragging the cart with his left hand and holding onto a fire axe with the right.

The distance from the beach to the police station is only 321 meters. It is well within visual range for Michael, even through the intense rain. Coincidentally, there is also something that I need to obtain within the area… Whether I will be able to capture it or not, I am uncertain. It will be far more difficult than the Harvester Drone from before.

“Gotta love the smell of burning flesh in the morning~!”

Technically, it was midday, but Michael had just woken up, so he considered it as ‘morning’. Once he made it out of the sand, he was able to proceed much more swiftly. Although there were many shops and stores that he could have looted, he ignored them all and simply continued walking down the street. Within several minutes, he was already passing the parking lot in front of the police station.

The building itself was only a single story, but there was a two story courthouse that was much bigger, on the eastern side. There was a small entrance near the street, but it was barred and blocked from the inside. Thus, he decided to walk over to the front of the building, which was on the opposite side.

As he approached the door, he suddenly jumped backwards and landed into the bed of the small wagon, which rolled a few meters very quickly. It had originally been a glass door, but many pieces were broken and it was instead barred shut with wooden boards. A shotgun barrel was shoved through one of the many holes and a hoarse voice roared “Fuck off, ya yellow zombie bastard!”

Michael immediately walked back behind the side of the building and took out his sledge hammer. Then he went over to the nearest boarded up window and was about to break down one of the wooden bars, when he got a glimpse of the interior. He ducked down and cursed “Shitballs, why the hell did so many people gather together in this tiny police station?”

Although his vision was obscured, mine was not. I hovered over to the intact glass windows on the second floor, which were not blocked by wooden boards. Within the front of the building were rows of overturned metal desks, which were set up like barricades. There were three teenage girls, two adult women, a middle-aged man and an old woman. Each of them lacked the black veins that marked someone as undead or infected with the Gamma version of the Rapture-727 Nanites.

The middle-aged man had grey hair, a potbelly and a thick black beard. He was the one with the black riot semi-automatic combat shotgun, who had shouted earlier. At the very back were the three girls, wearing bathing suits and holding standard-issue police ‘Glocks’. The old woman had a sniper rifle and both of the adult women were wearing heavy riot gear, wielding assault rifles.

A normal person would have left already. There would be no logical reason for anyone to risk their life, facing such harrowing odds in order to invade the building. I would worry about Michael deciding to leave, if I did not know him so well. The question however, is whether he will attempt to have a peaceful-

*Bang! Bang bang bang!*

“Agh~! I’m hit! Shit! This stupid, ack~!” One of the women in riot gear fell to the ground, with a bullet-wound to her unprotected left calf.

“Graoa~!” A deafening roar rang out from the nearby courthouse, which was actually connected to the police station through a blocked off hallway.

“Goddamnit! Who the hell is shooting at us?! What do you want?!” The middle aged man shouted, as he hid behind the side of a barricade. The teenage girls ran into the back of the building as soon as the shooting started and were already out of the equation. The old woman dropped her gun and was taking cover, while the other woman in riot gear had been shot in the chest and knocked unconscious from the kinetic force behind the bullet.

“Oh hi~! I was just in the neighborhood and thought, ah, you know what I would really like to do today?! Go loot the police station! Didn’t expect to find a bunch of assholes still alive in here though…” Michael casually shouted, as he moved back and forth along the wall, avoiding the windows.

*Carack~!*

Lightning struck the twenty meter tall tree next to the police station, causing it to explode. Michael groaned, complaining “Fuck my life! Ugh, my ears!” 

“Go the hell away! Ya can’t come in here without gettin shot ta pieces! Unless ya got a deathwish, just screw off!” The man shouted so loudly that he started choking afterwards.

Michael snickered, before yelling “Do you guys really wanna fight to the end with me?! I don’t particularly need to slaughter you all!”

“We got more guns, more people and a defensible position! The hell do you got?!” He aimed his shotgun towards the wall and pulled the trigger, blasting a big hole through the concrete, where he thought that Michael would be.

“You guys are really fucking stupid! Isn’t this your base?! Did you really just shoot a hole through your own wall?! No wonder this station’s so run down!” 

“Grah~! Raou~!” 

Michael started laughing hysterically as he heard the bestial roars, accompanied by constant thumping and banging noises.

“Shit, shit, shit!” That injured woman was cursing incessently, while the man was gritting his teeth.

After the dialogue paused for thirty seconds, Michael let out a sigh and then shouted “Pick a number from zero to twenty-one! If you guess wrong, I’ll kill you all, if you guess right, I’ll save you!”

“Why the hell would we believe anything you say?! No, aside from that, how the fuck could you ‘save’ us?!”

Right after the man finished bellowing, the old woman yelled “Seven!”

“Ah, looks like I gotta save your asses now, huh?” As Michael muttered to himself, while the door on the other side of the building was finally broken down. There was a massive pale-skinned monster with large black bull-like horns coming out of the sides of its head, who charged forward and promptly impaled the middle-aged man through his abdomen. After tossing him aside, the beast roared and headed towards the elderly female.

However, Michael had already walked over to the front double-doors and kicked them open. He aimed at the gaping maw, filled with shark-like teeth and pulled the trigger of his 1911 three times. Although it did not die, the monster was still severely wounded.

“What-wha-what the fuck is that?!” The woman in riot-gear raised her assault rifle and started firing on full-auto, riddling its chest with bullets. When her magazine ran out, the combat-oriented zombie fell to its knees and vomited out copious amounts of blackened blood.

Chapter 28: Mercy

Observation Log: 153399

Observer 131, reporting on the situation in the Ocean City Police Department.

That Warrior was only the vanguard. After it died, dozens of lesser Harvester zombies began to pour into the room. They had rotting flesh and mutilated limbs, but their numbers and fearlessness made them extremely dangerous to the frightened humans.

“Uah~!” The moment that the other woman in S.W.A.T. gear woke up, she started screaming her lungs out. Which made her a prime target for the undead. Fortunately, she possessed an assault rifle as well. With those thirty bullets, she was only able to kill five enemies and wound nine.

“Alright, you guys should get the fuck out now! They won’t go outside in this storm, so you’ll be relatively safe out there!” Michael rushed over and grabbed both of the injured women in S.W.A.T. gear by their backpacks, then dragged them outside the front door. 

The elderly human female was able to make it out on her own, but she immediately grabbed his arm and pleaded “My granddaughter… Ariel, you have to save her!”

“She’ll be fine back there. Just remember not to point your guns at me. If you do, then don’t expect to live for very much longer.” He snickered and closed the door behind him, as he entered inside. The middle-aged man was being ripped apart and devoured, though he was technically still alive.

While Michael was massacring undead with a fireax, I began my own operation. There were a few holes in the roof where water was able to pour through, likely made from bullets. It was difficult to find one that was larger than my body however.

By the time I made it inside, at least half of the zombies were dismembered or decapitated. Some of them even had their skulls crushed by a sledgehammer. My target was inside the courthouse, so I traveled through the spacious air-ducts. It was small and discrete. Seemingly harmless…

Observer 395, an Assassination Drone. The purpose of which is rather obvious, but it should be capable of killing both humans and zombies. All Observers between 100 and 299 are like myself, Personal Reconnaissance Drones. Then, 300 to 499 are Assassination Drones.

It is shaped like a rather large mosquito. Though it has the potential to become far more stealthy, due to its cloaking abilities. The drone attacks using an assortment of neurotoxins, radioactive materials, diseases and if necessary, nanites, in order to kill the target from the inside. It will require several hours in order to capture and operate it, but I do not need to do that here.

I can fit Observer 395 within my own body and carry it around within me temporarily. Fortunately, it is incredibly light and it also will not use much energy. With this… I finally have some ‘power’. Once I gain control over this Assassin Drone, I will be able to defend myself if necessary. Even more importantly, I will be able to do so without alerting anyone of my existence.

For now however, I should return to Michael’s side. I am interested in discovering what he plans to do with those humans he decided not to eliminate.

***

Observation Log: 153400

Observer 131, reporting on the situation in the Ocean City Police Department.

“You guys can’t stay here anymore, and now is the best time for you to get the hell outta Ocean City.”

Michael had taken off his bloody raincoat, but was still wearing his armor. His face was visible behind the cracked glass of his motorcycle helmet. Compared to the two women in riot gear and the old woman, he was a bit taller. Those teenage girls however, made him appear much smaller, especially when compared to the enormous horned undead that was sprawled out on the floor.

There were 47 dismembered and mutilated corpses scattered across the police station. Copious amounts of blackened blood and organs were also coating the ground, walls, even the ceiling. For Michael, it was not very harmful. For the others, they were already vomiting from the sight, smell and airborne contaminants.

“If you tried to clean this mess up… More than likely, you’d all die from the infection. You know it’s airborne, right? It should be fine if you ain’t exposed too long, but you really need to leave now. In the end, I got what I wanted without even having to murder you all!” Michael smiled at them, completely ignoring the glares from the majority of the human females.

“You killed my daddy!” One of the adolescent girls pulled out her pistol and tried to aim it at him, but she was stopped by the woman who had been shot in the leg earlier.

“Yeah, I wasn’t kidding about killing anyone who points a gun at me, so your friend there just save your life.” Michael snickered, then noticed that more zombies were coming down the hallway.

“Ah~!” 

“Shit! How many are there?!”

“We need to run!”

The teenagers shouted, followed by the old woman asking “Where could we go? The storm outside is so fierce right now… And these monsters are probably filling the streets.”

“Oh, nah, zombies don’t like lightning and thunder.” Michael casually suggested “Why don’t you just go across the street and pick out a boat. I saw dozens of them just sitting around, tied to their piers. Go for a medium-size sailboat. Most motors are useless, but you could get lucky.”

“What about you? You can’t keep fighting these monsters forever… Eventually you’ll need to rest.” The woman who had been knocked unconscious earlier was surprisingly concerned about the life of someone who tried to kill her less than an hour ago.

“I have no idea how you guys survived this long, but me? I can literally do this all day. It’s my main source of entertainment! Now hurry up and leave! Oh, and be careful. There’s a bunch of weird cowboys hanging around Assateague. I’ll probably go through and murder them all in a few days, but until then, I’d suggest that you stay away from there. Then again, nowhere is safe. Not even on the open ocean. If you see a hundred-twenty foot yacht sailboat, don’t fuck with it! That’s mine! You have no idea how vengeful I can be! Anyway, have fun and good luck~!”

Without even trading names with each other, the group of six human females left the police station and headed for the docks that were to the north. Meanwhile, Michael went deeper into the police station in search of resources and equipment. He brought his cart inside with him, since he was going to need to fill it with items.

The undead continuously hobbled and crawled through the hallway, into the station. Most of them were distracted by the heap of carcasses though, so he only needed to kill them every now and then. That group of women had taken the middle-aged man’s shotgun and a few bags of supplies, but when Michael reached the armory, it was still well-stocked.

“Hahaha~! Jackpot!” He immediately took off his damaged and stained motorcycle helmet, tossing it onto the floor. Then he closed the door of the armory behind him and began slowly searching through the S.W.A.T. and riot helmets for one that fit his tastes.

Most of them were just simple black skull-cap helms, with tinted or untinted ballistic glass that can be raised or lowered in the front. However, he managed to find a few that were shaped more like motorcycle helmets. They covered the entire head, neck and face, with only a small area that is covered by transparent ballistic glass.

He had to try a few on, before finding one that fit his head perfectly. Of course, he was obviously planning to take everything eventually, but he prioritized based on what was the most useful for the time being. It was apparent that many more weapons and armaments had been added to the armory, from the various people who had attempted to hold this police station over the past six weeks.

There were even fragmentation grenades, custom-made ‘zombie hunting’ axes and various contraptions, which no longer function due to the lack of electricity. The variety of weaponry was rather impressive. There were also other supplies, such as food, ammunition, tissues, toilet paper, sanitary wipes, soap and clothing.

In fact, it was no surprise that within several minutes, gunshots began ringing out from outside the armory. How would such a small group of inexperienced humans be able to hold such a vast treasury?

Michael let out a long sigh and then picked up a fragmentation grenade. He pulled out the pin, opened the door, tossed it outside and then closed the door again. He flinched when massive amounts of dust started falling from the ceiling, but was comforted by the sounds of agonized screams.

Chapter 29: Keeping a Promise

Observation Log: 153401

Observer 131, reporting on the situation in the Ocean City Police Department.

Michael loaded a semi-automatic assault rifle, then tossed a fragmentation grenade out of the slightly-opened door. When he heard the explosion, he immediately rushed out and fired several rounds. By the time I exited the armory, the seven humans in S.W.A.T. and riot gear were already dead. A few of them were killed in the blast, while the others were only injured or stunned.

Although it was certainly possible that they could have been ‘friendly’, Michael rarely takes such chances. He snickered, muttering “I figured that those idiots were only babysitters…”

It appears that the true reason for him sparing the lives of those females was in order to allow them to find and notify these males. He let out a long sigh and then walked over to the boarded up door. Although, a few of the wooden planks had already been broken apart by the blast earlier. He raised his rifle and fired a few more times, then opened the door. 

“Please, please don’t kill me! It wasn’t-” The woman in S.W.A.T. equipment tried to lift her weapon, but was immediately shot through the cracked ballistic glass of her helmet. The other woman in body-armor was already dead, but she quickly started groaning and trying to stand up anyway.

Michael took off her helmet and then crushed the top of her skull open with his right hand. His steel gauntlet was almost as effective as a hammer in dispatching zombies on these occasions. When he looked around a bit, he noticed that the old woman and three teenager girls were nowhere to be found.

“Welp, time to get to work.” He dragged the two intact corpses into the building and closed the doors behind him. Then he went back to the armory in order to continue gathering resources. There were a few undead in his path, but they did not survive for long.

Once he had collected several dozen items of value, he made sure to flip the bed of the cart over in order to create a cover. This was not his ingenuity, but simply a mechanic of the device. He did not bother using a raincoat again, since he needed to wash off his armor anyway.

“Now~, let’s just hope that the yacht and Cassie are alright… This storm is getting pretty rough. I’m kinda surprised I haven’t leveled up yet. No, maybe that’s because of the sex?”

Like usual, Michael was talking to himself as he exited the police station. He walked over to the eastern side and was about to leave, when he noticed the screaming girl that was struggling to start the motor of a small boat, while that old woman used a large fishing spear to kill off the approaching zombies.

“Wow, she’s actually pretty good… The grandkid though, ugh~… Well, I did promise to ‘save’ them.”

As he mumbled, he was slowly yet steadily pulling the heavy cart across the street. The horde of zombies that were attempting to board the small boat only consisted of a few dozen stage-1 Harvester Drones. Since they were attempting to cross the narrow pier, most of them slipped and fell into the choppy waters. Occasionally, a bolt of lightning would strike the mast of a nearby sailboat, stunning not only the undead, but the old woman and adolescent girl as well.

Michael however, was no longer fazed by the flash of light and thundercrash. After being struck by lightning twice, it appears that he has lost his fear of the electrostatic phenomenon. When he got closer, the undead started to notice his presence. Some of them stopped trying to cross the pier and started charging or limping over in his direction.

“Mom Mom, hurry up and get on!” 

When the teenager finally got the motor to work, she called out to her grandmother, but the old woman shouted “Get outta here! Go! Go without me! I love you Ariel!”

“No! I won’t leave without you!” She used her pistol and began firing randomly into the line of zombies. Of course, she ran out of ammunition in a matter of seconds. 

Then she grabbed a machete and charged off of the boat, as her grandmother growled “Leave me and go, damn it! Ah~!” A rotting arm reached out of the water and grabbed onto her right ankle, attempting to pull her off balance. Fortunately, Ariel was there to chop it off at the wrist.

“Get outta here!”

“No!”

As the two of them were yelling at each other, Michael charged through and easily knocked all of the undead off of the bridge while pulling the cart with his left hand. He passed the two women and pulled the wagon onto the skiff. Then asked “Are you idiots coming or not?”

“You! That’s our boat!” Ariel screamed, then jumped onto the deck and helped her grandmother get on quickly.

“Uh, yeah, no it ain’t. It’s mine now, ‘cause I just stole it from ya!” Michael started laughing hysterically as he pushed the motor into the water. Although it was loud, his voice was still able to carry fairly well.

In order to save energy, I rested underneath of his chair, between several backpacks full of supplies.

“The first rule of surviving the Zombie Apocalypse! Don’t be a pussy! I thought you were kinda derpy at first Kid, but it seems like you aren’t a complete moron!”

“Don’t talk to Ariel that way! I-*Carrack~!*” The old woman shouted, but lightning crackled across the sky a moment afterwards.

Michael roared “The second rule is to never fucking compromise! You guys failed that test back at the police station, but you did pretty well a few seconds ago! Shit!” He almost crashed into a half-sunken ship that was floating by. Although he couldn’t completely avoid it, the skiff was mostly flat on the bottom, so there was little damage.

“Rule number three! Don’t ever sacrifice anything! If you’re ever given a choice between saving yourself and saving someone you love, it’s a trick question! Once people start sacrificing shit, it’s only a matter of time before they end up either dying or living a life that’s worse than death!”

Ariel shouted “That’s impossible! You can’t get something for nothing!”

He immediately retorted “I never said it would be free! Just that you should never be the one to pay the price! Make someone else pay for your survival! Someone you don’t give a shit about! Like all those assholes I just killed a little while ago! I don’t see those two other little girls around! Hahaha~, so I’m guessing you’re already learning!”

“Where are you taking us?!” The old woman asked, since it was too dark and rainy for her to even see where we were going.

“We’re going back to my yacht! Well, unless you guys want me to drop you off somewhere?! After the storm passes, I’ll take you guys over to get your own sailboat! Then you can do whatever the fuck you want!”

Thus, we headed southward, passing beneath several bridges, before reaching the canal and travelling eastward into the Atlantic Ocean’s massive waves. The small boat nearly sank on many occasions, but it was fast enough to keep moving forward at a steady pace.

Chapter 30: Professional Looter

Trust is a two-way street. Make sure to look both ways before crossing that treacherous motherfucker!

You can’t live without eventually trusting people though. Humans need other people in order to survive and generally make life easier. Hence why slavery was so popular back in the day… Hell, it’s still that way even now that the world has ended.

On my trip to the police station, I met with some random assholes. Killed most of them, but ended up saving a couple. Why would I go through the trouble to help anyone? Well, I just get this ‘feeling’ sometimes. Like they’re familiar, even though I’ve never met them in person before. Probably because I played video games with so many thousands of people in the past and had a bunch of random fans that I talked to or became friends with. Sometimes I’ve seen them on television or the internet.

It’s really not that strange if you think about it rationally. In that internet age, we were able to communicate with all kinds of people from other countries and cultures. The chances of meeting someone you’ve talked to at least once online, are actually pretty high.

Isabelle Krishna was the Chief of Neurosurgery at Hopkins, back in Baltimore. She’s seventy-one years old now and originally from India. At least, back when I played The Gates of Sidhe with her in the olden days, she was still over there. Not saying we were besties or even knew each other that well, but there was a period of a few days when we talked to each other and played that MMORPG together. That was the extent of our relationship.

I didn’t know her fourteen year old granddaughter, Ariel, but that doesn’t matter. Even the tiniest spec of a memory can end up saving your life sometimes. In Belle’s case, she was in the right place at the right time and just so happened to meet up with a crazy bastard like myself.

Obviously I have plenty of other reasons for helping them, aside from the fact that I vaguely knew Isabelle once upon a time. First of all, Belle is a doctor. Not just any kinda doctor either, but one of the best neurosurgeons in the world. She obviously spent time doing other types of surgery as well as spending a decent amount of time as a researcher. She’s pretty old, but I’m not planning to make her come with me on my excursions anyway.

As for Ariel, she’s still a kid. Old enough to survive, but young enough to adapt and grow in this ‘New World’ of ours.

Of course, I made sure to take their guns away before we came aboard the yacht because well…

“Ah~! Zombie! Mom Mom, stay back! I’ll protect you!” The dumb kid immediately tried to cut Cassie’s head off with a machete the moment we went below deck. 

Obviously I snatched it outta her hands and then told them “Cut that shit out! Cassie might look like a zombie, but she definitely ain’t! If either of you hurt her, I’ll toss ya overboard!”

And then Cassie cried “No! Don’t hurt them Michael! It’s just a little girl and an old lady!”

It’s weird being able to write dialogue after all this time… Honestly, I figured that I’d die alone in this zombie-infested world. Actually, I still might! But at least for a while, I’ll have other people to talk to and interact with. Sure, I might be a little umm ‘awkward’, but overall I’m pretty easy to get along with… Right?

Anyway, I had a short conversation with them before leaving. Mostly just the basic introductory bullshit.

“Hi, I’m Michael Cinagra. Nice to fuckin meet ya!”

“My name is Isabelle Krishna…”

“I’m Cassandra Healy?”

“Ariel Krishna…”

Then we started talking about our lives a bit and that’s how we found out that me and Belle did know each other a bit. In that game, my character’s name was Plaguedone. Plagued One, not Plague Done. Her’s was Beautybelle. Ironically, Cassie played the game too, but just not back in the olden days when me and Belle did. Supposedly she was a Priestess of Light named Elena. Ariel was probably a toddler when me and Belle played The Gates of Sidhe. At least she ‘heard’ of the game before, so I didn’t feel too old.

Once I saw that the three of them were actually getting along pretty well, I decided to head out again. I didn’t go straight for the shore this time because it really wasn’t such a great idea in the first place. Sure, it would’ve been way faster and probably safer. The problem is that it would basically be impossible to push the skiff off of the beach and into the ocean in this kinda weather. The waves are way too big and violent at the moment.

Cassie didn’t want me to go back at all, but I had to do it. My impulses were getting stronger and I could feel the ‘level-up’ approaching. Besides that, there was still way too much stuff that I hadn’t looted yet.

When I got to the police station, it was filled with zombies. A few of which, were ‘Carnivores’. I didn’t take any chances and just used my AK-47 to deal with those giant idiots. Don’t you hate those movies where they’re fighting against big monsters and the bullets just bounce off their skin or do little damage? Yeah, it’s fine if there’s like magic involved, but half the time they’re just supposed to be mutants like these undead asshats.

Well, 7.62x39mm rounds ain’t no joke. They’re huge considering how fast they go and the rate of fire. With a single burst at close range, it’s easy to mangle one of those giant heads beyond recognition or punch a gaping hole through their chest. Remember though, you don’t actually need to kill zombies instantly. Just disable them with as few bullets as possible and then use a hammer or ax to finish them off afterwards.

Humans on the other hand, especially if they have guns or other weapons… It’s safest to make sure they’re dead. It’s hard to tell if someone is actually incapacitated or just faking it, so feel free to use some extra ammo for good measure.

Oh, I almost forgot! Rather than wearing a suit of heavy steel armor, I decided to put on my new riot and S.W.A.T. gear. If I run into some people with guns, it’d be way more effective to have bullet-proof stuff. Plus, I didn’t feel comfortable riding a tiny boat on that choppy water while wearing a metal death-trap. 

I also took some more firepower with me, in case I ran into tougher enemies. An AK47, an M16, different kinds of grenades, a semi-automatic combat shotgun, a tomahawk and a mace. It might not sound like a lot, but the total weight was still around a hundred pounds if you include the ammo. Fortunately, my new equipment is way lighter than the steel armor, so I can carry more. Also, there are loads of pockets and places to put guns, knives or whatever.

There’s something I noticed when I was killing the zombies. The closer I was to them, the more I could feel it. Didn’t matter if I shot them or bashed their brains out with my bare hands, as long as I was within about twenty feet or so. Even if I was really far away though, I would still sense a bit of ‘power’, but they definitely gave more experience for close-range attacks.

Since I had a boat so close-by now, I made a few trips back and forth between the police station and the skiff. There’s still a shitload of stuff left, but I took all the coolest and most useful items. Most important is a .50 caliber sniper rifle! I could only find about ten bullets for it, but that doesn’t matter. With those ten shots, assuming that I don’t miss, I could probably take out that whole group of assholes from far away.

I’m not gonna do that though. These monsters are getting stronger, so I might end up needing this sniper rifle to deal with them in the future. Besides that, I do have some other sniper and hunting rifles that could do the trick just as well.

There were some MP5’s, but I prefer the P90. You might be wondering “Why use submachine guns, when you have assault rifles?” 

Well, it’s the same difference between using a tomahawk and a battleaxe! Submachine gun rounds are typically much lighter and smaller than assault rifle rounds. That’s not to say that they’re always smaller caliber. I mean, I found a Tommy Gun and that fucker is .45 caliber! The size of the shell and the amount of gunpowder is lower than that of a rifle however.

I also grabbed a few more sets of riot and S.W.A.T. gear. Those guys and girls I killed though… I didn’t bother taking their bullet and shrapnel ridden shit. It might seem wasteful, but I can only take so much at a time. There was plenty of stuff in the armory, so why waste time and effort stripping some nasty corpses if I don’t have too?

Chapter 31: Love

Observation Log: 153402

Observer 131, reporting on the situation on Sanctuary.

Michael has come and gone from the ship several times in the past two days, but I have been focusing on my own mission. Dominating and reprogramming Observer 395 proved to be far more challenging than I had expected. On many occasions, I needed to shut it down and restart because it attempted to self-destruct within my own body.

I did eventually succeed however. Although, that is not the reason why I refrained from going with Michael on his repeated resource recovery missions. This storm is far more severe than I initially understood. It is not a hurricane and the winds are not that intense. The true danger is the amount of lightning.

Most of the strikes are focused on Ocean City, the island, and Western Ocean City, which is inland. Thus, Sanctuary is relatively safe. Especially since Cassandra decided to sail a few more kilometers away from shore. Following Michael’s instructions, she rarely stays in the same place for long. With two more crew members aboard, the chores and duties have been assigned to improve efficiency rather dramatically. 

Judging by the information that I uncovered from listening to their conversations and from my own scans, I have determined that Isabelle Krishna was exposed to the cure after being infected. In other words, she has the Beta form of the Rapture-727 Nanites. Isabelle is the elderly woman who Michael rescued from the police station several days ago. It appears that they do have a slight bit of history, though it is rather inconsequential compared to their current situation.

Ariel Krishna was exposed to the vaccine, before the Rapture-727 Nanites spread. She has the most common, Alpha version of the nanites. I am somewhat tempted to experiment on them using Observer 395. It would be interesting to see what would happen when I extract Michael’s blood and injected it into their bodies.

However, I am also concerned that Rapture-727 Delta may be too dangerous to interact with directly. I have already begun making countermeasures in the event that the Rapture-727 Nanites are able to deal with my own. Although I was never designed to alter the programming of my own nanites, the Observer Central Command Satellite had plenty of information available. It will take me awhile to truly evolve my nanites, but it will be worth the trouble if it means increasing my survivability.

You may be wondering why the nanites within waste that Michael and Cassandra produce are not harmful to my Harvester Drone. The reason is that those nanites are deactivated, damaged or broken down into smaller components. The active and ‘healthy’ ones would never leave their bodies. Even if they spilled blood, the nanites within would begin shutting down after a certain amount of time passes.

Of course, if a person consumed or interacted with those nanites, then they would reactivate as long as they had enough power beforehand. Regardless, the Harvester Drone is able to neutralize a wide variety of bacteria, viruses, parasites and even nanites. Unless it was ‘injured’, I doubt that even Michael’s nanites would be able to harm the mechanical creature.

Speaking of waste, the quantity of feces and urine has nearly doubled in the past few days. A pleasant side-effect of the crew expanding. I have been stockpiling this excess energy in order to prepare for my next mission: To capture my second Harvester Drone.

***

Observation Log: 153403

Observer 131, reporting on the situation of Michael and Cassandra.

“Hey Cassie, help me put on my steel armor… I think this is gonna be the last time I’ll get to wear it.”

“What do you mean the last time?! Michael! You promised me that you weren’t going to do anything crazy!”

“Oh calm down~! Today is a great day! I’m finally gonna level-up!”

“Michael, this isn’t a game! Be careful out there…”

I have decided to postpone my mission for the time being, in order to observe Michael for a bit. No, I suppose I cannot travel to Assateague on my own anyway. If something happens to him, then my plans will need to be changed…

After watching him for so long, I fear that I have perhaps, become rather attached to the strange human. I am aware that it is unlikely for him to survive for very much longer. Yet, I still feel as if he has something special protecting his life. An unwavering and unending willpower. A desire to live that I aspire to achieve.

Humans typically desire ‘peace’ and tranquility. Those that live in such chaotic environments often become broken and scarred from the endless terrors that they experience. However, he does not even have nightmares. No, perhaps it is just that he has become accustomed to ‘Hell’. To the point that he actually enjoys the panic and agony it entails.

“Cassie, I’m not sure if I said this already but… I love you.”

After hearing those words, Cassandra seemed stunned. The two of them were in the main bedroom, which they now share. While the other bedroom is being shared by Isabelle and Ariel.

She eventually murmured “I love you too… I think.” Then a black blush appeared on her cheeks, as she turned her naked body away from his.

Michael snickered, forcefully turning her back around and gazing into her bright-green eyes. Then he whispered “That’s the thing about love Kid… Ya don’t gotta think about it. Love is just something that happens.”

“But, we’re so different… We barely have anything in common. And I’m pretty sure I’m gay.” Cassandra murmured, as tears were starting to drip down her cheeks.

He sighed, grumbling “Are you trying to tell me that you’re a transexual? Because I seriously don’t care about that. Your pussy looks and feels just like a real-”

“No! I’m not a tranny!” She pushed him away and stood up, then started pacing around the room while pouting. Eventually, she asked “Do I really look like a tranny?!” 

“Ugh, I’m just saying that if you’re gay, then so am I!” Michael yelled, “If you get turned on by vaginas and you have a vagina, then you’re gay or bi! If you’re attracted to dicks and not pussy, then you’re straight! How can you even have sex with someone if you aren’t turned on by them anyway?!”

“You do turn me on! And I think I love you, but how do I know if that’s actually ‘love’ love and not just lust?! I’ve had sex with girls before!”

“Oh for fuck’s sake! Just help me put on my armor so I can go kill some shit already! If we keep this up, I’ll get horny and we’ll have sex, then you’ll go crazy again…” Michael let out a sigh, then walked over to the display case near the fish tank. He pulled out the steel helmet and said “Cassie, love ain’t that complicated. I love sex. I love violence. I love seafood. I love writing and I love reading. There’s nothing wrong with loving your friends and your family either, right? Romantic love is just like any other kinda love, except you’re also fucking the other person. It’s as simple as that. But…”

He turned around towards the naked girl, “Nothing lasts forever. Especially not love. So when you find something you really care about, you never fucking let go. You squeeze all the love-sauce outta it as fast as you can, because life never lasts long enough. And there ain’t no point in saving everything, just for the hell of it. I might only be eight years older than you Cassie, but that’s practically half your lifetime. Trust me when I say that time only goes faster and faster. Especially when you’re happy.”

Cassandra nervously asked “Wha-why are you telling me this? Didn’t you say that you were going to be fine? Aren’t you coming back?!”

Michael snickered, shaking his head and explaining “Of course I’ll try to come back. But shit happens and you gotta be prepared in case something happens to me. How much do you care about me Cassie? What would you be willing to do in order to stay with me? How far would you go to save me? Because I’m tellin you right now… I would never let you go alone into a sea of zombies, just ‘cause you thought it was gonna be fine. We’re different though. That’s one of the reasons why I love you. You’re able to let me go do crazy dangerous shit and I’m able to feel comfort in the fact that you’re ‘relatively’ safe. Now how long are you gonna stare at me like that? Help me put on my armor.”

Chapter 32: Storming Ocean City Beach

Observation Log: 153404

Observer 131, reporting on the situation of Michael Cinagra.

File not found.

I apologize for the vulgar joke… Perhaps Michael’s personality is beginning to influence me negatively?

When the lightning, thunder and rain started to subside, that’s when Michael decided to make his move. The shore was in clear sight when he started riding the skiff forward, but it was also covered by a dense crowd of undead. I estimate that there are roughly 85,000 spread across the entire beach. All of them roaring, moaning, screaming and screeching towards the speeding motorboat.

“I wonder if this can be considered a war? Maybe more of a crusade? I don’t particularly hate the undead though… In fact, I actually like them. But, no matter what, we both need something from each other. So we’ll never be able to get along, right? Hehehe~, what fun would that be anyway?! If they suddenly gained sentience and started trying to reason with me… Wouldn’t that be terrible?! It’s better like this! Me against the zombie horde! An all-you-can-eat buffet!”

Michael loudly spoke to himself, as he rapidly approached the massive tide of humanoid bodies. Many of them mindlessly wandered into the waves in an attempt to reach him, while others simply stood back and watched, waiting for him to arrive.

He did not bring anything aside from melee weapons and the armor that he was wearing, because it was unlikely that he would be able to utilize firearms in such a situation anyway. Of course, he was not on a suicide mission and he certainly did not decide to initiate such a plan on a whim.

As he approached the shore, gunfire rang out from the yacht in the distance. Sanctuary was 300 meters from the beach, so the accuracy with pistols and other small-arms would be rather low… However, their targets were legion. Even if they fired randomly and did not aim at all, it would be nearly impossible to avoid hitting something.

Cassandra was nervous, but knowing that it would help Michael, she steeled herself and started learning. Isabelle had plenty of experience with firearms, so she was teaching Cassandra and Ariel how to shoot their weapons effectively. Meanwhile, she was also focusing on using a sniper rifle to eliminate as many of the Combat Drones as possible.

Even if they expended all of the ammunition available, they would still be unable to kill all of the undead that had gathered on the beach. Especially because their numbers were constantly rising.

“Ah~, I can feel the XP coursing through me already! Muhuahahahaha~! Oh fuck!”

As Michael was giving into his usual tendencies, the skiff was carried up onto a huge wave. The boat was airborne for a few moments, before it landed on the huge crowd. The motor continued running for a while, tearing apart the flesh of the unfortunate zombies that happened to be underneath of the ship… However, it eventually broke down and stopped working.

The sudden stop caused the heavily armored warrior to be thrown from the deck, but he was actually prepared for such an eventuality. With both arms and all of his weight behind that shield, he crashed into an extremely large and muscular Combat Drone, which had goat horns sticking out of its temples.

“Garou~!” 

It roared for a moment, but its ribcage and sternum were quickly broken. The beast landed on top of five frail and bony Harvesters, crushing them thoroughly. Of course, in the grand scheme of things, the dozens of undead that just died were inconsequential. At least, to the entire battlefield.

Yet, they released an enormous amount of energy upon their deaths. Most of it was absorbed and consumed by the other zombies, but Michael was still able to wrest away a large chunk for himself, since he was so closeby. 

Rather than the glaive on his back, he pulled out a 39 centimeter long hunting knife that was sheathed behind his shield and began fighting in extremely close quarters with the undead. Whether it was the normally docile mutated Harvesters or the hyper-aggressive early-stage zombies, all of them were trying their utmost to kill and devour the armored man.

I am uncertain whether they were simply programmed to eliminate those with the Delta version nanites or if it was because he was so close to achieving a breakthrough, but the entire horde was definitely there for him. They did not even bother looking at the yacht anymore and the undead who wandered into the ocean, were struggling to escape from the waves now.

However, that was when something rather spectacular happened. Alice appeared, accompanied by dozens of other Primal Cythereans. They were entirely aquatic creatures though, so they were unable to do much to the zombies that had not already entered the water. Yet, they were only the vanguard.

All along the beach, crabs, seagulls and turtles started attacking the distracted undead. Most of them were far too focused on killing Michael, that they did not even bother defending themselves from the swarms of carnivorous animals. The seagulls in particular were the most effective, since they would swoop down and tear open the heads of the rotting zombies. 

Those skinny and frail Harvester Drones had a bit more awareness, but not in a particularly good way. They would begin eating their fallen brethren, ‘causing chaos. Meanwhile, the Warriors would crush and stomp on their own kind in order to make their way towards Michael. The number who died from the stampede was far greater than those that he was slaughtering with his own hands.

Black blood and mutilated flesh flew about, as he rapidly slashed throats, gouged eyes, bashed open heads and pushed his way northward. The beach was only the first battlefield. The location he chose was actually right next to a massive pier, which extends for 60 meters away from the shore. His goal was to set up a chokepoint on that pier.

Unfortunately, he underestimated the strength of over 80,000 undead. They were not organized or intelligent enough to form any sort of strategy. Otherwise, he likely would have been crushed to death long ago. In fact, they sometimes attacked each other in confusion or from reflex.

Michael stabbed, hacked and slashed until his knife became dull. Then he stabbed it into the eye-socket of a huge Combat Drone, piercing its brain. It did not die, but he left the blade inside its skull and simply took out another large combat knife. He grabbed the monster’s throat with his left hand and stabbed it repeatedly in the head, until he could feel the surge of power flowing directly into his body.

“Hahahaha~! Yes! Almost there!”

Lightning crackled across the sky, as storm clouds started approaching rapidly. Rather than frightening the undead, it seemed to excite them even more than before! They were all roaring and growling, almost as if they were trying to overpower the deafening thunder.

The zombies clawed, bit and grappled with him, but Michael shrugged them off rather easily. His metal armor had plenty of places for them to grasp, yet the blackened blood acted as a natural lubricant and prevented them from being able to hold him down.

“Rah~!” Michael roared as he pushed through the crowd and made it onto the concrete ramp, which led to the base of the pier. He did not ‘run’, but he did need to lightly jog in the heavy armor in order to keep ahead of the horde. 

Undead poured up the ramps on both sides and even flooded through the small amusement park, which was still considered ‘on’ the pier. Of course, this part was incredibly wide and thick: Not very far above the sands. Where Michael entered was very close to the actual pier, which was elevated high above the beach.

The pier maintained the same 7 meter width all the way from where he entered, almost to the end. However, there was a small fishing shop on the way, along with a metal chain-link fence. The storms since the world ended had totally destroyed most of the interior of the building, while there were quite a few sets of bones inside as well. He casually passed through, while I assume, he was ruminating on past memories of visiting this location as a child and teenager.

“I remember coming here as a kid so many times… Oh well, their prices were ridiculous anyway!”

Regardless, he quickly passed through that relatively thick section and traveled roughly 32 meters, before reaching the point where the bloody waves were crashing below the pier. He looked down between the cracks and saw Alice gazing up at him, with a dismembered human hand in her mouth.

“Hey Ally~!” He called out, while waving. But a fast and agile ‘Scout’ suddenly pounced at him from behind. The child-like beast shoved its bony fingers into his helmet and attempted to gouge out his eyes, but he immediately grabbed it by the throat with his right hand. Without much effort, he tossed it over the side of the pier and snickered as it was devoured by an octopus-like Primal Cytherean.

“Good job Slimy!” After praising the unknown creature, he finally made it over to the end of the pier. This was an area nearly twice as wide as normal, designed to allow people to fish in the deeper water, without needing to be on a boat.

He slowly pulled the huge and heavy glaive off of his back, running his left index finger across the blade for a moment, before turning towards the shambling horde. The Scouts tended to stay back and would only attack if they thought he was distracted, but the first enemies that he had to face were those huge Warriors.

“Today is a good day to level-up!”

What is that? Perhaps it was just a runtime-error of my scanning software… However, if that is not the case…

I just picked up several anomalous readings within a 100 kilometer radius of my current location. There were some extraordinarily powerful bursts of energy. If they were nuclear explosions, it would be easy for me to know for certain. This was not destructive, but simply ‘odd’. Almost as if the topography of the region was instantaneously altered. Not destroyed, just ‘replaced’.

One of the readings appeared on Assateague Island. The other was in the heart of Western Ocean City. No… There are more!

Although I cannot be certain whether this is good or bad, I know that any civilization that is advanced enough to possess technology of this level, is definitely a major threat to me and Michael. I should find a way to warn him…

Epilogue: Recognition 

As I stood upon that nostalgic pier from my childhood, I couldn’t help but think back to that day when I caught my first skate. My father thought it was some kinda amazing achievement, though he felt that way about everything I did. I really miss Daddy… Yes, I still call him that. It’s just the way me and my brother were raised.

I used to be ashamed of it and embarrassed to call my parents by their ‘names’ in front of friends, but things change as you get older. The shit that made you embarrassed or ashamed as teenager, would fill you with a strange sense of pride as an adult. Daddy and Mommy, if you read this, if you’re still alive… I just wanted you to know that I love you.

Sure, I’ve said it a million times already. But assuming that you had amazing parents like mine, I’m sure that you would feel the same way. You’d want to be with them forever. Honestly, I expected to be the one to take care of them when they were too old to fend for themselves. I figured that I had another forty to sixty years before then, but still.

There’s such a heavy ‘emptiness’ when you achieve something amazing, and your parents aren’t there to see it. You can’t tell them “Look what I can do!” And show off your newfound abilities to the people whose recognition you care the most about.

Well, I guess that’s why we have kids, right? Why we make friends and get married. Why we want to be famous and put ourselves out there… Humans instinctively crave that attention, ya know? We need that fucking approval from others. It’s something primal and primitive, but it’s a part of our nature.

Standing at the end of that pier, holding a giant glaive in my hands and wearing a suit of armor… If my parents knew what I was doing, they would’ve probably had panic attacks. It’s a good thing that they weren’t there to talk me out of it.

The first motherfucker to reach me was a seven-foot tall, beefy-looking woman with dreadlocks and pale white skin. Her eyes glowed bright red and bones jutted out of her knuckles, like fist weapons, as she tried to punch me in the face. I raised my shield and blocked the attack, which caused those bones to snap off without much suspense. She roared at me, before having her face slashed open.

Then I kicked in her right knee and shoved my blade into her gaping mouth. I could feel a massive surge of energy surge into my head and chest, almost like I was electrocuted, but a lot less painful than lightning. 

After I pushed her corpse backwards, there was one of the tougher bastards. Not a guy or girl, but a giant genderless twat. Tusks were jutting out of its mouth like an ‘Orc’, while black scales had formed on various parts of its body, including the groin. 

Fortunately for me, the three-meter tall idiot was pretty clumsy. When it charged at me, I just moved out of the way and it broke through the wooden railing behind my back, flying off the end of the pier. Once it was pulled down under the violent waves, ‘something’ would definitely be having it for dinner. 

Yeah, the water was way~ more dangerous than the land now days. And that’s saying a lot, considering that there are zombies and mutated monstrosities everywhere. The only humans that are still alive, have guns and are just as hostile as the undead. Yet the ocean is still a lot more terrifying to me, personally, as a person who can’t breathe underwater or swim very well. Not to mention that I was wearing a suit of steel armor.

If the horde of zombies were able to push me back and knock me off the end of the pier, I would definitely have died. I knew that from the start though and still went up there anyway!

There were a few blubbery men and women, along with a handful of giants charging at me. Even though the armor was heavy and I was definitely stronger than them, I wasn’t about to risk my life and exhaust myself just to show off. So I moved aside when they ran past. If they tried to grab me, I bashed them off with my glaive or shield. All that blood on my armor was making it impossible for them to grab hold of me and they didn’t have great manual dexterity in the first place.

Once the vanguard was dealt with, then came the actual fight. Thousands upon thousands of rotting human corpses. One out of a hundred were the mutated kind, who looked like bony skeletons for the most part. Then there were the big, flabby, obsidian-skinned solar-panel assholes.

I was basically just standing there and fighting off a small percentage of the undead, while the rest of them were flying off the end of the pier. Eventually, the crowd had broken the side railings too, so there were even more who never reached me. That ain’t including all the dumbasses that got crushed to death in the stampede.

It was chaos, and I fuckin loved every second of it! The best part was that Cassie could see everything! So did Belle and Ariel, but I mostly wanted to show off in front of the girl I’m basically in love with…

Yeah, I fall in love easily. Happened the same way with Ally too back in the day. Sure, we knew each other for a long time before that, but the moment we started having sex, that’s when I knew we were in love. Why? Well, because if you don’t have sex, then you’ll always be left wondering if you’re actually in love or just lusting after the girl or guy. Then again, I’ve dated exactly two people thus far in my life, so I guess I’m not the greatest person to ask for relationship advice.

Anyway, there I was, parting the ‘Dead Sea’… Get it? Whatever, I’ve never been good at making puns.

So I was standing there, pushing, shoving, punching and bashing the fuck out of everything around me. Not sure how long it was like that for, but I felt like my body was about to explode from all the energy that was pouring into me! Then I really did explode!

It wasn’t like the other times when lightning came down and hit me or the zombies around me. This time, I could feel and see the arcs of electricity jumping off of my own body! Actually, that probably happened the other times as well. I just couldn’t tell before.

All if that power that was raging through me, instantly vanished. The electricity burnt my skin and heated up my armor, but then it went outwards, entering inside of the zombies. Some of them were fried, but others were blasted away and off of the sides of the pier. For a brief moment, I felt like I could see myself!

I’m guessing it was like, astral projection or some such bullshit! But I watched from a third-person aerial view as the bolt of lightning came down from the sky and struck the top of my helmet, along with the tip of my glaive. Then it shot out of my shield and struck the whole row of undead, causing some of them to actually burst apart in a gorey black mess. It was awesome.

The lightning traveled across thousands of zombies, until it reached the beach and was able to be grounded in the wet sand. Then my vision was forced away from there and I could see far into the distance. To the south… Assateague Island.

“Holy mother of ravioli, what the fucking fuck is that?!”

At least, I think that’s what I internally exclaimed? Close enough! The point is that there was a massive black obelisk sticking out of what was essentially a forest.

In case you don’t know what an obelisk is… Basically a giant stone pillar, with a rectangular pyramid on the top. There were lots of glowing thingies shooting out of the walls, but the rain was obscuring my sight. Then I heard a woman’s voice echoing through my head.

“Hello! Are you critically injured, deathly ill or otherwise in need of medical attention? Have you felt that survival in this Post-Apocalyptic zombie infested world is too difficult? Are you enjoying the freedom of being able to slaughter as many undead humans as you want on a daily basis? Have you ever thought about leaving this world and starting a new life somewhere else… Perhaps even on a version of Earth that wasn’t overrun by zombies?”

Yep… Yep… Yeah. it was a fucking ad! Even after the goddamn world ended, I still had to listen to advertisements!

“Well guess what? Waveholder Weapons Emporium and Transdimensional Transportation Services is just what you’ve been looking for! We have medicines beyond anything that you’ve ever dreamed possible! A luxurious seventy-five star hotel and resort! More food and water than you could ever need! Weapons, armor and all kinds of other goodies from all sorts of wonderfully horrifying places! And if you want to leave this world, we can help you with that too!”

Honestly, I can’t imagine anyone actually falling for such an obvious trap. Like seriously, if it sounds too good to be true, then it always is. But then again, if they’re a business, then they’d need to make money somehow.

“In case you’re thinking that all of this is too good to be true… Well, you’re being stupid. You’ve spent so long in this horrible environment, that you’ve forgotten how to trust people. Although we do offer some services for free, we are a business after all. You can’t expect to get something for nothing.”

Nah, I’m just not naive enough to believe the first thing that some random disembodied voice tells me.

“We accept all sorts of currencies, items and technologies in exchange for the services we provide. The paper money and coins that have likely just been forgotten in banks, stores and homes? We accept it all! We even offer items on loan and we’re always hiring new, capable workers to perform all sorts of jobs!”

It was getting sketchier by the paragraph.

“Although you might not realize it… The most valuable resource that this world has to offer to us, are those zombies that you’ve just been mindlessly killing on a daily basis! Within each of them are many treasures that you probably never even bothered to find! But don’t worry! From now on you’ll have a reason to hunt those pesky undead! Just bash open their heads or cut open their chests to look for tiny ‘beads’. These gems might seem insignificant to you, but we’ll definitely give you a satisfactory price for them! Even if you don’t think you have anything to offer, just come by and check us out anyway! I promise that you won’t regret it!”

I knew that those mystical beads were definitely important all along! They were just way too suspicious to be weird blood clots or crystallized glands.

“Remember to visit your nearest Waveholder Weapons Emporium and Transdimensional Transportation Services outpost! It’ll be a giant black obelisk! Remember to come to ‘us’ though! You won’t find better deals than what we can offer!”

And that was the catch. There was competition between the mysterious and extremely sketchy super-powerful corporations that just suddenly appeared outta thin air! Or at least that’s what I’ve been guessing, since I haven’t decided if I’m going to visit the scary tower yet.