Before he awoke, Thanatos had a vision of the past. He saw practically nothing but white light and several thin silhouettes standing around him, discussing various matters.
— Auntie, are you sure this is going to work? — A melodious female voice spoke.
Thanatos could not move, turn his head, or accurately see the speaker. He could only hear what they were saying, and he could distinguish the women's voices and figures.
— I don't know, Spica, but we have no other choice. We have tried all the options, and this is the most productive, the most efficient! — said a woman with a very deep and expressive voice.
Thanatos tried to move, but he was very weak. He could not even scream, he just existed, without any sense.
At that moment a girl with a low and very squeaky voice spoke, — Shall we use the technique of transferring consciousness into an artificially created body? This method is the safest and...
— Mebsuta, NO! — The cold cry of another woman silenced everyone. Thanatos experienced a gasp and awe at the power with which she suppressed any creature with just one menacing voice, — I don't want him to be disabled and lose the power of his pedigree. Especially since a *other* body would make my boy a weak link and a constant target for attacks by our countless enemies from the brazen sects.
— Sorry, you're right. Strong experiences drown out my mind, — said the girl, who was named Mebsuta.
At that moment, Thanatos felt a woman's warm hands take hold of him. He felt unspeakable feelings while he was in her arms. That brief moment was accompanied by the full feeling that any threat to the world could not harm him as long as he was in this woman's arms.
For a moment, Thanatos felt a very pleasant and warm kiss on his forehead, and then the woman passed him to her other hands with a menacing voice, saying, — Nemesis, you must keep him safe. Only you are capable of being there for him, only you are safe for him while he is vulnerable and weak.
— Yes, I understand you, Mom, — said a voice familiar to Thanatos. It was indeed Nemesis's.
...
POV Thanatos.
— Ah, damn it. My head is aching, — I mumbled to myself as I tried to rise from the cold asphalt. It wasn't hard to see that the sun was free again, brightly illuminating our Earth. But the sun was slowly setting into the sunset.
I vaguely remembered the dream I had had. It was something fabulous to me, but I definitely remembered the two names I heard there! They were Spica and Mebsuta. I've never heard those names before, so you have to be careful with that. If I hear a name like that somewhere, it's worth paying closer attention.
I also clearly remember Nemesis saying the word - Mom...
Unfortunately, my thoughts became confused after I heard a scary voice behind me, —Br-brains. Urrrr!
I turned sharply 180 degrees and saw a very dirty and wounded man moving toward me. He looked like...
— A living dead man! — I shouted, and then sharply covered my mouth.
Fuck, I'm an idiot. Why yell at the whole parking lot!
It was easy enough for me to accept the fact that there might be a zombie in front of me. Was that really what Nemesis was talking about? Was she preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse? Motherfucker.
I quickly glanced around my legs for any weapons, but there was nothing near me.
The zombie lunged at me with the intention of biting off a piece of flesh, so I had to quickly dodge his grip and then punch him in the head with my fist. I was scared, so I gave my best shot at the punch.
*Explosion*
His head shattered into pieces after I hit it with all my might.
What the fuck was that?
I inwardly screamed because I had killed a zombie with such ease.
— Wow, did I get some kind of superpowers? — I was talking to myself with a snide grin on my face. I felt a slight weakness after my punch, but I didn't pay any attention to it.
I felt like the main character in a zombie apocalypse for a second, until I turned around at the multiple screams of the monsters.
A mob of 15 hungry heads of the walking dead was approaching me.
I didn't dare fight them on the fists, so I rushed to my motorcycle. Fortunately, my vehicle had not been stolen while I was lying unconscious.
When I got to it, I saw my sword, which was half out of its sheath. Apparently someone had tried to get it, but didn't have time or was afraid of the dead.
I pulled my sword out fully and took a defensive stance: feet shoulder width apart, hands firmly grasping the hilt and the blade pointed toward my enemies.
As they slowly approached me, I decided to look around. There were about a hundred abandoned cars near the road, which created an endless traffic jam of cars all along the highway. I also saw that 6 miles (10 kilometers) south of me, there was a dense and black fog, of unknown origin. And just outside the supermarket, I saw another type of creature. They were low, skinny, and small green dwarfs who were jumping on a woman.
They were too far away, and I couldn't get a good look at the details.
— Ugh, okay! Let's see if Nemesis' brutal training had gone to waste! — I changed my stance and slowly headed toward the crowd of zombies that were on their way to the supermarket.
I needed to test myself and their strength, so I began to fight them.
The zombie opponents sucked, as I felt no gravity or resistance. The pattern of behavior of the living dead was simple: the zombie follows the source of smell, hearing or sight in a straight line to the target, and then it lunges toward the victim and starts tearing the flesh.
Each swing of the sword was accompanied by the ghastly wheezing sounds the zombies made as they died. I mercilessly chopped up 14 of the dead. The last of them stood still, as if studying me.
Even though he looked like the others, this zombie frightened me.
I backed up and asked, — Do you understand me?
The zombie tilted his head slowly for about 10 seconds, and then showed a nasty smile and extended his cold hands toward me.
I ran more than 30 feet (10 meters) away from him.
Holy fuck! A zombie smiled at me? That's not the behavior I expected from them at all! If they had a mind, then all of humanity was fucked!
I did a few calm breathing cycles, gathered my wits, and ran in his direction. If anything, I'd just hit him with my hand and rip his head off.
The zombie wasn't going to attack me first. He stood still and waited for my action.
I made a few false swings first, but he didn't cheat on them. So I tried to get behind him and deliver a lethal blow with my blade.
That was the perfect moment!
At the most opportune moment, I aimed for his neck and began to cleave the air to cut off the zombie's head. But this zombie put out his left hand and caught the blade.
The blade of my sword was very sharp, but even it had trouble slicing through him left palm. When the zombie realized it would lose one hand, it reached for my sword with its right limb with inhuman speed.
In just a few seconds, I lost my edged weapon.
I was forced to retreat a couple of meters and watch his actions.
The zombie held the sword with his right hand and tried to break it, but the blade was not even bent by his strength, but the asphalt underneath it began to crumble and break.
Fucking hell! Is this zombie as super strong as me? He needs to be killed now!
I had to concentrate the unknown power in my right fist to win safely, but I didn't know how to do it right. If I made a mistake, the strong zombie would have the advantage and could kill me!
Here I remembered one of the instructions Nemesis had given me during my training.
— Thanatos, you can't subdue a river by brute force. You have to enter it and submit to it, and command her flow.
— Command by showing submission? I don't get the meaning, — I replied skeptically to Nemesis' advice.
— Not everything has it, not always need it...
I opened my eyes with a precise understanding of how I would act. Now I am not capable of controlling the power I have gained, but rage... rage and anger are capable of controlling it!
I tried to accumulate all the anger and rage I was capable of. For 100 percent effect, I screamed as hard as I could, and with all my might, I sent a furious punch of my fist into the head of the zombie who was holding my sword.
The zombie saw me, heard my scream, and could have dodged me, but he stood still with a smile to his ears. He didn't see me as a threat, and that was his fatal mistake.
— DIE-E!
*Strike*
At the moment of my attack, a supersonic clap sounded that shattered the windows of nearby cars.
The force of my blow blew half the zombie's brain away, and his body crashed into the nearest pole.
I fell to my knees after the impact, as I was very tired. After catching my breath, I got up and walked over to the zombie to get my sword. But the creature was still alive.
— Die at last, please! — I started hitting its head countless times until its brains turned into a disgusting mush.
The smell was horrible, nauseating.
Luckily, I had no wounds, so I didn't have to worry about getting infected and turning into a zombie. I picked up the weapon my sister had given me and was about to leave, but I felt a wave of energy spreading from his cervical spine.
I gingerly slipped my hand into the open neck and dug around in the guts until I felt a round ball in my grip. I pulled my hand out, and my eyes went wide when I saw a blue sphere or core the size of a tennis ball.
— Unthinkable. What is it? Is it something useful or dangerous?
I didn't know the truth, but I couldn't throw away an unknown artifact. Now I was getting a little greedy.
I put the blue core in my pocket and headed for the supermarket, wondering how I had survived. The time must have been about five or six hours, maybe more!
I don't know how I wasn't killed right away. I guess the monsters thought I was dead. Or maybe I was dead for a while, so they didn't touch me? I have no idea, I can't figure out this phenomenon.
As I approached the entrance to the supermarket, I saw green dwarfs raping a dead woman. She was covered in green liquid, the source of which was their ugly little dicks.
Most likely the woman died in the process of rape from suffocation, because there were too many of them.
My footsteps did not go unnoticed.
I was surrounded by 8 green dwarves who resembled goblins. Only their clothes were a woolly tunic that covered their disgusting genitals.
— Are you going to kill me, you little beasts?
They looked at each other and shook their heads. They seemed to be in no hurry to attack me, as they were confident of victory because of their superior numbers.
— What? Do you really want to rape me? — I asked in disgust.
The more information I get, the more I will understand the pattern of their behavior.
They nodded in unison, pointing at my ass and mouth.
— Eww fuck! What disgusting monsters, — I swung my sword and clashed with them.
Surprisingly, they were even weaker than normal zombies! I killed all the goblins in 30 seconds.
— Hmm, so their strength is in their numbers? They're probably scary because they rape everyone indiscriminately. I wonder how zombies and goblins interact with each other. Do the former want to eat them, and the latter want to fuck them, or what? — I asked myself a lot of questions as I approached my motorcycle.
Only now I remembered that there are people whose safety is of paramount concern to me.
— AH! Nemesis, Evelina! — I shouted, quickly getting on my bike. I opened my phone and turned on geolocation to track both girls.
Nemesis' phone was in the Lower Manhattan area, practically downtown. There must be all kinds of hell going on in that place! Evelina's phone was in the same place, the Palmer mansion.
I called the two of them on the video link, but neither of them picked up. Also, the Internet was really glitchy.
I pulled onto the highway and started looking at both sides of the road. Nemesis on one side, and Evelina on the other. Which one was in more danger?
After thinking for a while, I decided that I would go to Evelina. Nemesis knew this would happen. She would never commit suicide! I believe in her. There's nothing else for me to do.
Just as I was about to drive toward Evelina, I turned back to look in the direction where Nemesis was in the distance. And that was my mistake.
As soon as I turned to the south, I saw a black fog that was only 500 yards away (450 meters). I swallowed the accumulated saliva and happened to notice a female silhouette standing at the edge of the fog, staring into my blue eyes.
— Oh, fuck. Sorry to bother you, but I'm going the other way, — I said, not counting on being heard.
But to my shock, I heard the laughter that came from a female figure. Then she raised her hands and gestured for me to come to her.
— Fuck you, — I pointed my middle finger at her, turned straight and started accelerating on the bike at full throttle.
I may be a curious guy, but a woman standing in a black fog calling me to her looks too suspicious. That's something to consider, especially when I realized that an ordinary zombie or monster could turn out to be a real powerhouse and a monster with great power.