CHAPTER 5 — RUN, RUN, SCREAM!

For about three minutes, the kitchen was so quiet you could hear the organic potato chips slowly crunching under Sera’s trembling knees.

Ethan was flat on his back, hyperventilating so hard he looked like an asthmatic bellows. His eyes were wide, staring at me as if I had suddenly grown three heads, all of which were currently singing opera.

"You... you turned into..." Ethan choked out, pointing a violently shaking finger at my face. "Your eyes were like... glowing cherries! And your nails! You had demon claws, Lena! Demon claws!"

"I think the technical term is Evolved Cellular Mutation, Ethan," I said, leaning casually on my crowbar while tossing a packet of beef jerky up and down in my palm. "But sure, 'demon claws' works if you're writing a middle-school fantasy journal."

Sera peeked out from behind the trash can, her pristine makeup now thoroughly ruined by mascara riverbeds running down her cheeks. "L-Lena? Are you... are you going to eat my brain?"

I paused, looking at her with genuine disgust. "Sera, be realistic. I need fiber and protein. Your brain is ninety percent gossip and ten percent designer handbag prices. It lacks nutritional value."

Ethan slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position, wiping sweat off his forehead. He looked at my totally normal, smooth, non-monstrous human skin, then at the half-open front door where seven zombies were currently standing in a polite, silent line like customers at a bank teller window.

None of them were moving. None of them were growling. They were staring at the floor, actively avoiding eye contact with me.

A sudden light bulb seemed to go off inside Ethan’s dense, glorious skull. His panicked expression smoothed out into that familiar, arrogant, middle-management smirk.

"Wait a second," Ethan breathed, standing up and dusting off his khakis. "It didn't work! The virus didn't turn you into a real monster! You just... had a weird skin reaction! Like an allergy! An allergic reaction to the apocalypse!"

I blinked. "An allergic reaction."

"Exactly!" Ethan chuckled, regaining his unearned posture as he stepped forward, pointing at me aggressively. "You got bit, your immune system freaked out, you had a brief hallucination, and now it's over! You’re totally normal! Which means... I am still in charge here!"

Sera gasped, her tear-stained face brightening instantly. "Oh thank god! Ethan, you’re so smart! I knew her demon claws were just a stress response!"

"I know, right?" Ethan preened, stepping up to me and reaching out to pat my shoulder. "Now, hand over that beef jerky, Lena. As commander of this safe house, I need to maintain my sodium levels—"

I let out a soft, low chuckle.

"Ethan," I whispered, my voice dropping an octave. "You really are the densest object in the known universe, aren't you?"

"Excuse me?" Ethan frowned.

I smiled—a wide, terrifying, unnaturally stretching grin that showed just a little too many teeth.

Shift: Evolved Zombie Form.

The air in the kitchen snapped frozen instantly. My human complexion vanished into moonlight pale marble. The dark, glowing purple veins crackled across my cheekbones, and my eyes flared into twin, blazing suns of crimson light. My obsidian talons erupted from my fingertips with a terrifying SNIKT.

Ethan’s hand froze two inches from my shoulder. His smirk shattered into a million tiny, pathetic pieces.

"WHAT ARE YOU?!" Ethan screamed, his voice dropping into a full-blown, soprano screech.

"You really don't recognize me, Ethan?" I laughed. The sound was a resonant, double-layered roar that rattled the light fixtures above us. "I'm your girlfriend! The one who high-stress-levels wouldn't survive the psychological impact!"

I took a heavy step forward. The floorboards cracked under my cold heel.

"RUN!" Ethan shrieked.

He didn't try to protect Sera. He didn't try to use his middle-school karate. Ethan grabbed Sera by her trench coat collar, yanked her in front of him as a human shield, and then shoved her hard into my chest as he bolted for the hallway door.

"ETHAN, YOU PIECE OF TRASH!" Sera screamed as she hit the kitchen floor, scrambling frantically on all fours like an overgrown crab.

"Run," I purred softly, walking slowly behind them, my talons clicking against the floor. "Run fast."

Ethan slammed into the corridor wall, lost his shoe, scrambled back up, and sprinted down the long hallway toward the emergency stairs. Sera was right behind him, kicking off her remaining two-inch high heel and sprinting in her socks, screaming at the top of her lungs.

"HE'S A CHEATER, LENA!" Sera shrieked back over her shoulder as she ran. "HE TOLD ME MY LIP GLOSS WAS PRETTY BEFORE WE PUSHED YOU!"

"I HEARD THAT, SERA!" Ethan yelled from ahead, gasping for air. "AND IT WAS AN OVERSTATEMENT!"

I didn't sprint. I didn't even jog. I just walked leisurely, enjoying the cool draft of my zombie form.

I reached out with my mind, tapping into the strange, pulsing signal in my brain that connected me to the mindless infected wandering the building.

System Command: Intercept.

Down at the end of the hallway, three heavy fire doors burst open. Dozens of grey-skinned, blood-stained zombies poured onto the landing, completely blocking the stairwell exit.

Ethan and Sera skidded to a dead halt, screaming in horror as a wall of rotting flesh and snapped teeth barred their path.

"S-S-Sera!" Ethan panicked, shoving her toward the front line. "Use your handbag! Hit them with the leather!"

"I'M NOT HITTING THEM WITH PRADA, ETHAN!" Sera wailed, cowering against the wall.

I stopped ten feet behind them, crossing my arms over my chest, my crimson eyes burning in the dim hallway light.

"Run faster," I purred.

"Lena! Please!" Ethan dropped to his knees, tears streaming down his face as he held his hands up in supplication. "We were confused! We were under intense atmospheric pressure! I still love you! We can be a polyamorous apocalypse team!"

"A polyamorous team?" I raised an eyebrow, my dark veins pulsing with deep amusement. "Ethan, I'd rather eat my own foot."

I raised my black-taloned hand and gave a sharp, downward flick.

The horde lunged forward.

What followed was ten minutes of absolute, noisy karma. The zombies didn't immediately tear them to pieces—my command kept them from consuming their flesh completely, focusing instead on tenderizing the two traitors. Ethan kicked, punched, and squealed like a stuck pig, while Sera used her Prada bag as a flail, screaming curses that would make a sailor blush.

When both of them were thoroughly bruised, exhausted, and bleeding out on the concrete, I walked forward through the parting sea of infected. The zombies bowed their heads as I passed, treating me like royalty.

I stood over Ethan. He looked up at me with swollen eyes, his breathing shallow.

"I told you," I whispered, kneeling beside him as my talons lengthened. "I'm mostly bone and spite."

With two swift, merciful strikes, I ended their miserable lives.

SYSTEM NOTIFICATION INITIATED.

[Two hostile targets eliminated.]

[Evolution Energy obtained: 100 Units.]

[Target Zombie Cores generated.]

From the chests of their lifeless bodies, two glowing, marble-sized red crystals floated upward into the air. I reached out, grabbed the two zombie cores, and swallowed them whole.

A warm, tingling sensation rushed down my throat, settling into my core. My spatial storage expanded instantly by another ten cubic meters, and my strength spiked noticeably.

"Not bad," I muttered, shifting back into my human form. "A little bitter, but great energy yield."

Before I could drag their bodies into the storage room to inspect them further—

WHIRRRRRRRRR.

The loud, heavy thrumming of a low-altitude aircraft engine vibrated through the building's roof.

Down in the parking lot below, a massive, matte-black armored vehicle smashed through the chain-link perimeter fence. Heavy steel plates covered its tires, and a dark emblem—a stylized, silver eagle holding a double helix—was painted on the passenger door.

Vanguard.

The heavy side doors of the vehicle hissed open. Six tall figures stepped out onto the asphalt. They weren't scruffy survivors or frantic civilians. They wore identical, high-tech tactical suits made of dark grey composite armor, equipped with full-face black visors and glowing red communications gear.

"Tactical Sweep Team 4," a cold, synthesized voice echoed up through the open hallway window. "Energy spike detected on the third floor. Secure the specimens."

I immediately ducked behind a concrete pillar, holding my breath as my human heart hammered against my ribs.

Two Vanguard operatives moved up the stairwell with terrifying, silent efficiency. They ignored the mindless zombies wandering the hall—in fact, when a zombie lunged at one of the operatives, the soldier simply raised a small, rod-like device, emitted a high-frequency shock, and neutralized the creature in under half a second.

They reached Ethan and Sera’s bodies.

The lead operative knelt down, pressed a glowing scanner against Ethan’s neck, and checked his handheld terminal.

"Subject 1 demonstrates high viral adaptability despite fatal trauma," the operative reported into his comms. "Cellular decay is delayed by thirty percent. Subject 2 displays identical genetic anomaly. The catalyst energy was present here."

"Bag them," the second operative ordered coldly. "Command wants them in Sector 4 immediately. If they can survive primary exposure to a high-tier mutation, Vanguard can weaponize them."

They efficiently slipped heavy, vacuum-sealed black bio-hazard bags over Ethan and Sera’s bodies, hooked them to motorized winch cables, and hoisted them out the window toward the roof transport.

Within two minutes, the operatives vanished, the heavy thrumming of the aircraft faded into the distance, and the armored vehicle roared out of the parking lot.

I slowly stepped out from behind the concrete pillar, looking at the empty, blood-stained hallway floor where my traitors had just been lying.

"Vanguard..." I whispered, staring out the shattered window into the purple sky. "They aren't just surviving the apocalypse. They're harvesting it."

A cold, sharp thrill ran down my spine. Ethan and Sera weren't dead. They were in the hands of a shadow organization that was about to turn them into living experiments.

"Good," I smiled, cracking my knuckles as my eyes flashed a brief, wicked crimson. "It means I get to kill them twice."