System Of The Undead

Chapter 289: [Untitled]

Things were looking up, humanity had a future that allowed them to somewhat fight back thanks to Jason’s interference.

It was looking bright but what were the evolved zombies that had attacked the community doing?

That was easy, they were expanding and absorbing all other human communities that they came across increasing their numbers.

The thing about zombies was that they were always strong in numbers but what happened when you gave these zombies purpose, a goal?

This was the ideal army but there was a problem, after a year there had been variations in these evolved zombies as the fragment in them had pushed them past their limitations.

This meant that they were not only stronger but had a form of individuality even though it still aligned with their primary goal.

They broke off from the default personality of Chronos and acted like variants, each having their unique traits but this evolution was only applicable to three zombies as the others remained the same.

It was unknown why this was the case but they served as commanders to the zombies as they could not only communicate with them but give orders that the zombies actually understood.

These commanders found it strange that Chronos was keeping his deal with a human and knew that they would have to eventually take the community to speed up the process.

The thing about the huge chunks of fragments being destroyed was that it was felt by every evolved zombies that had developed its self-awareness.

And they were aware of these locations but something was about to happen that wasn’t thought possible.

These variants were about to go against Chronos’ order and march right to the community because they needed a new place to plant a nest.

The question that loomed was, how did these big fragments exist without being noticed by others before the world fell?

They were cultivated by the zombies using the flesh of the living, a fragment was placed on the ground and grew with the more blood it consumed.

They humans were being fed to it and the fragment would not only suck the life out of them but grow in proportion to the amount of blood that was consumed.

This was happening all over the world, it wasn’t restricted to a single country and this was why the end of humanity was near as there was no telling if Jason was communicating with them as he was with Sam.

The commanders of the zombies had already amassed an army many times greater than the size of the one from a year ago but the tricky thing about this was that the zombies couldn’t discern where their command was coming from.

’Schneider’ was able to control them as the progenitor but these zombies might be variants of it but they were still Chronos as far as the less evolved zombies were concerned.

Just like the piece in Jason, these ones represented different aspects of Chronos.

Namely; Wrath, Envy, and Gluttony and there was nothing that could be done.

The countdown to the end of humanity had begun and there was nothing that could be done.

-

Bella spent the night in the cave attending to her wounds, she realized that despite the rock being able to affect the cave it didn’t try to attack her in her vulnerable state.

This told her that as long as she remained still that nothing was going to happen to her.

This was the only way to survive but she couldn’t stay here forever without hunger sets in.

She didn’t know how long she had left but she had to get out of here.

She stared at the fragment and felt that same sensation like it was drawing her in.

Bella didn’t have the willpower to resist, she was already exhausted and if this could provide the clue she would need to leave this place then she had no choice.

But once again, something interrupted her in the form of an explosion, it came in the direction of the debris that had collapsed the day before.

Bella knew that there was no way this could be the work of a zombie as she could hear faint voices coming from behind the wall with a persistent shuffling sound.

Bella got on guard, prepared for anything that was behind those walls but the relief that washed through her spoke volumes.

"Are you okay!?" The voice asked behind, Bella initially mistook the person as an undead but that was simply because he had covered himself with the guts of the dead.

This allowed him to move quietly but this explosion was sure to draw them to this location so they had a limited time to get out of here.

"Thank goodness!" Bella exclaimed before rushing to the entrance but the ground suddenly shot a few tendrils to hold her in place but Bella was faster.

She channeled her last ounce of strength to outrun the tendrils and this proved to be enough.

The tendrils stopped at the entrance of the cave but the zombies here were on another level.

There was no way in hell that they would survive if they came here.

"You look like shit..." The man commented prompting Bella to chuckle, she was exhausted but she also knew that they had to destroy this cave.

"This place. It is a nest, I don’t know how long it has been here but these monsters are like nothing we have seen!" The man warned her, Bella realized that this man was injured.

He was bleeding but as long as it wasn’t a bite, he should be fine but the look on his face told Bella otherwise.

"I have rigged this entire place with explosives, I am going to bring it down... You should go! We both cannot make it out of here, I will be the decoy," The man instructed.

Bella was surprised that he was about to give his life for her but that reason became apparent, he had been bitten.

A loud growl soon followed and the man had to push Bella to get her away from him.

"GO!" He screamed but Bella quickly rushed to the corpse on the ground and hastily applied his guts on her so she could camouflage herself and dashed towards the exit.

The man noticed the glow in the room she had just come from and decided to walk in but upon entering noticed that what it was.

"What is this..." He muttered, his eyes taking in the beauty that was before him as his entire body relaxed.

He had been bitten, he was in the middle of transforming so this allowed the meteorite have some sort of effect on him and with that, the zombie that had made noise earlier rushed towards him, ignoring Bella completely because this man proved an immediate danger.

The meteorite managed to get into his mind and knew his intentions weren’t good.

The zombie made it in time, plunging its fist right through his chest but this didn’t stop him from activating the explosives before the zombie could decapitate him.

A violent explosion rippled through the entire cave, consuming it in flames that not only killed anything within but collapsed the very cave.

Luckily for Bella, she had managed to escape the cave despite the shock wave throwing her a couple of feet away. She hit her head on the ground and lost consciousness.