He had always been a curious and adventurous soul, even after the apocalypse had turned everything upside down.
As he walked towards the direction of the crater, he marveled at how the city had become a ghost town, a silent witness to the end of civilization.
He saw dust, plants, and rubble covering the streets and buildings.
He saw cars, shops, and signs that were smashed or burned by the cataclysm.
He imagined how this place used to be bustling with people and activity before everything went wrong.
He felt a twinge of sadness and nostalgia for the past.
He whispered to himself, "Only twelve years to turn this place into a wasteland…"
He was stunned by the drastic change in the environment. He had not ventured outside for five years, and he had missed the gradual decay of the world.
He had seen enough disasters and phenomena in the first few years, but he never expected them to silence the city so completely.
There were no signs of life, no animals or insects, no sounds or movements. Only the occasional zombie shuffled through the streets, oblivious to their surroundings. The city was a tomb, a reminder of what had been lost.
Blaze halted his steps and gazed at a poster on a wall. It was old and ripped, but he could still make out the words on it.
"Save Yourself From Lightning!" the poster proclaimed in large letters.
He felt a surge of nostalgia as he recognized the poster. It was one of his early missions, before they had established the settlement. It was also the reason why he was given the name Blaze and the title of Protector from Lightning by the grateful survivors.
The poster explained how to build a makeshift portable lightning suppressor or PLS, a device that could shield them from the frequent lightning strikes that followed humans around.
It was a simple invention, but only a few survivors had the skills and resources to make it. And even if they did, they had to worry about the hordes of zombies that attacked them relentlessly.
He considered it a mission gone wrong. He had seen too many of his comrades and friends fall to the zombies. But the few who survived with the help of the PLS became the core members of the Sarion Settlement.
Blaze turned away from the poster, ready to move on, when a zombie stepped out of a dark alley on his right. He found himself face to face with the undead creature, with no warning or sound.
He fought back his fear as he slowly drew a pistol from his left side, one of the weapons he had taken from his backpack before he left.
The zombie was a man, dressed in a ragged suit and tie. His clothes and face were stained with blood, and his eyes were red and dead. A large bite wound on his neck showed how he had been infected, and his skin was pale and decaying. He looked like he had been a businessman or an office worker in his previous life.
He pointed the gun at the zombie's head, but he hesitated to shoot, because something was off about this situation.
Zombies were supposed to be mindless and aggressive, sprinting and attacking any human within their 50 meters range. They didn't care about obstacles or other zombies, they only wanted to feast on human flesh.
They also made a lot of noise, which would have alerted Blaze and given him time to prepare for their attack.
Some had suggested that they could use the zombies' abilities to detect humans and lightning to create a life sign detector, but the settlement's protectors had vetoed the idea of experimenting on zombie subjects.
But this zombie was unlike any other. It didn't move or attack. It just looked at him with its empty and dead eyes. It seemed to have no interest or hunger for him at all.
Blaze wondered if the zombie had really sensed him, or if it was somehow broken or defective.
He kept his gun aimed at the zombie as it walked past him and vanished into another dark alley.
He lowered his gun and muttered, "What the hell…" He was baffled and stunned by what he had just seen.
He even checked himself to make sure he was alive and not a ghost, almost slapping himself to wake up from a possible dream.
He had never encountered a zombie like that before. He had always believed that zombies were driven by their basic instincts to hunt and kill humans.
"Could it be because I was bitten before and survived?" He asked himself.
Blaze had recovered his normal complexion, no longer pale like the zombies. He was puzzled by the zombies' indifference, even if he was still somehow infected, it did not make any sense.
He recalled how the zombies never stopped biting until their prey turned into one of them. They were ruthless and savage in their pursuit of flesh and blood.
"Am I a zombie?" He voiced his doubt aloud.
'No way…' he internally argued that he didn't hunger for flesh, he had eaten breakfast as usual. He showed no signs of decay or infection, and he felt normal and healthy.
He couldn't figure out what had changed, maybe something had indeed happened to him that made him invisible to the zombies or maybe that one zombie was just blind and its human detector was faulty or something.
*BOOOM*
"Hiiik!!", Blaze jumped at the sudden explosion that was followed by thunder.
He turned around and saw smoke rising from afar. A cluster of dark clouds hovered above it and a barrage of lightning strikes kept hitting it.
"Is there someone there?" He wondered if there was a human who had met a cruel fate.
He didn't consider helping as it was too far away and the person was probably already dead, even if they somehow survived the lightning, zombies were surely on their way.
Blaze had no chance of rescuing anyone with just a single pistol. He had no other weapons or equipment with him, and he was not a hero or a fool. Besides, he only had one PLS.