"I'm afraid so…"
His father's voice came from the other end of the call hoarse, heavy, and exhausted.
Lucien felt dumbstruck.
Yes, there had always been theories.
The world would end someday.
The sun would explode.
Humanity would destroy itself.
But all of that was supposed to happen billions of years from now.
By then, Lucien would have turned to dust. His family long forgotten. Humanity erased by time itself.
Yet now
Now it was happening.
Right now.
Another terrifying question surfaced in his mind.
"Dad…" Lucien swallowed hard, his hand trembling around the phone.
"Is this just our state… or our country?"
There was a pause.
Then
"Son…" his father said quietly.
"It's the whole world."
Lucien's breath hitched.
"The whole… world?"
"Yes," his father replied.
"Everywhere. Every country. Every city."
Lucien felt his chest tighten.
Just moments ago, this had all felt unreal like a nightmare he would wake up from.
Those words shattered that illusion completely.
"This isn't a drill," his father continued.
"There's no help coming."
Lucien leaned weakly against the wall beside the shattered window.
"Just listen to my advice," his father said, his voice growing strained.
"Stay where you are. Be careful."
Lucien frowned.
"What about you?"
Silence followed.
Then
"As for me…"
"I don't think I'll survive."
Lucien's heart skipped violently.
"Dad!"
A loud crash echoed from the other end of the call.
Something heavy slammed into metal.
"Dad?!"
His father's breathing became uneven.
"They're breaking through…" he muttered.
"I can hear them."
Lucien's fingers tightened around the phone.
"Dad, get out of there!
Run!"
Another crash.
Then a distant scream.
Lucien's body went cold.
"…Your mother," his father said weakly.
"She's at the door."
Lucien's pupils shrank.
"No...no, Dad, please"
"I know we haven't been good parents," his father continued, voice trembling.
"We focused too much on your brother."
"We… left you alone."
Lucien's jaw tightened painfully.
"I'm sorry," his father whispered.
"Truly."
Something slammed violently against the door.
A growl followed low, inhuman, savage.
"Lucien," his father said urgently.
"You must survive."
Lucien's nails dug into his palm.
"And… find your brother," his father added.
"You two… should survive together."
At those words, Lucien subconsciously clenched the phone.
Crack.
Pain shot up his arm.
Even now…
Even at the end…
That name.
"Dad," Lucien forced out hoarsely.
"I.."
"I love you," his father said suddenly.
"Even if we never showed it properly."
A scream tore through the call sharp, agonizing, traumatizing.
The sound of tearing flesh followed.
Lucien froze.
"D....Dad?!"
Static crackled.
Then
Beep.
The call ended.
Lucien stared at the phone in silence.
"…Dad?"
No response.
His hands trembled as he tried to call back.
No signal.
Again.
Nothing.
He opened the browser.
[Error — No Connection]
Messages failed to send.
Calls failed to connect.
The internet was gone.
The world was silent.
Lucien slowly lowered the phone.
"…I'm alone."
The words left his mouth soundlessly.
He turned toward the shattered window.
Outside
The city burned.
Smoke rose endlessly into a blood-red sky.
Buildings lay in ruins.
Cars were abandoned, alarms wailing into nothingness.
And below
Creatures roamed the streets.
They moved slowly.
Clumsily.
But with terrifying hunger.
They tore into screaming people dragging them down, ripping them apart.
Lucien's stomach churned.
"…Zombies?" he muttered weakly.
He shook his head immediately.
"No… don't be stupid."
Zombies were fiction.
Things from games and movies.
Stories meant to scare people.
Yet
As a blood-soaked figure rose after being torn apart, Lucien's breath caught.
"…The world has really changed."
The phone slipped from his hand, clattering softly against the cracked floor.
Lucien stood alone in the ruined office, staring at the end of everything he had ever known.
No parents.
No family.
No society.
No future.
Only chaos.
Only death.
And himself.
BAM!
BAM!
BAM!!!
The silence didn't last long.
Loud knocks thundered against his office door.
Lucien froze, his expression changing rapidly.
Zombies?
Or… other humans?
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
The knocking continued.
Fear gripped his heart, his father's dying scream replaying endlessly in his mind.
No… no… no…
Lucien scanned the room.
Then he saw it
A broken iron bar from the window's frame.
Lucien gritted his teeth.
"If this world is like this," he muttered,
"then I refuse to die.
I will survive no matter what."
He walked toward the door.
His breathing slowed as he took a deep breath.
He clenched the iron bar.
Prepared.
Then
In one swift movement, he opened the door and swung down with all his strength.
Clack..!
A metallic sound echoed.
Lucien looked down.
He had expected blood.
A crushed skull.
Instead
Metal… meeting metal?
His eyes shrank in horror.
"Mai…?"
Yes.
His secretary.
Alive.
Lucien glanced to the side.
The iron bar was bent.
Bent.
That meant
"…You're not dead?" Lucien asked, stunned.
Mai smiled.
"Boss," she said lightly,
"glad to see you too. But I don't think welcoming someone with an iron bar is the best idea, don't you think?"
She laughed softly.
"And yes, I'm alive," she continued.
"I came back for you."
Lucien felt dizzy.
"What… what is happening?" he asked rapidly.
"If that bar hit you, you should be unconscious or dead. I thought you were a zombie. Am I dreaming? The world is ending how? What exactly happened?"
Mai nodded calmly.
"Relax, boss. I know you have a lot of questions," she said.
"I'll answer them one by one."
She glanced at the darkening sky outside.
"But it'll get dark soon. Follow me to the shelter."
Lucien swallowed.
Should he follow her?
Of course he should.
She was the only living human he had seen and she mentioned a shelter so a safe place ?
Everyone else was either dead or worse.
If he stayed behind and a zombie found him…
"Wait up," Lucien said quickly as he caught up to her.
"Mai… a shelter?" he asked urgently.
"Mai, I need to know everything."
"Yes," Mai replied.
"And it all started… right after I left your office."
Lucien listened carefully as they descended through the nearly collapsed shin high building.
"After I left, everything happened all at once," Mai said quietly.
"An earthquake… then a pulse of energy that swept through everything."
She took a slow breath.
"I fell and I wasn't the only one. Glass shattered everywhere. Most of the computers shut down instantly. Then… low growls echoed."
Her fingers trembled slightly.
"Boss, I saw a lot. Colleagues devoured each other. Limbs. Blood splattered everywhere. Almost ninety percent of us turned into those things. I had no choice but to run as fast as my legs could carry me."
Lucien listened in silence.
"I and the remaining humans ran downstairs," Mai continued.
"At least we thought there would be help."
She shook her head.
"There wasn't."
"Downstairs was worse. Cars crashing into one another. Screams filled with agony. People begging to die quickly because they were being eaten alive…"
Her voice cracked.
"It was… horrifying."
"That must have been terrifying, Mai," Lucien said softly.
Hearing it from his father was one thing.
But Mai had been there right where he was.
Her experience was far more traumatizing.
"It was," she nodded.
"But that was only the beginning."
"People around me started splitting up. No house or building was safe. Those creatures could be anywhere, so you had to keep moving."
She gave a weary smile.
"Zombies… damn. So they're real now, huh?" Lucien muttered.
"Oh, that's what they're called?" Mai said faintly.
"Seems those movies weren't lying after all."
She continued, "Boss, I ran until my legs gave out. It was quiet no humans in sight. My ankles were swollen. That's when one of them attacked me."
Lucien's jaw tightened.
"I thought I would die," Mai said calmly.
"I even prayed it would be quick."
She raised her arm slightly.
"But then… a miracle."
"When the zombie bit my arm, its teeth broke."
Lucien's eyes widened.
"I moved my arm and it flew away. I killed it."
Her gaze grew distant.
"I felt another pulse of energy. The same one from the earthquake. It spread through my body like every cell was being warmed, massaged."
She smiled faintly.
"My injuries healed. And suddenly…"
She clenched her fist.
"I was stronger."
Lucien stopped walking.
"T-that means…" his voice shook.
"You awakened?"
"Did you start killing zombies? Did you find others like you? Is this happening to everyone?"
Questions poured out of him.
They finally exited the building.
Outside, the scene was grotesque.
Corpses everywhere humans and zombies alike.
Thankfully, none were moving.
"Boss," Mai said calmly, "didn't you hear me earlier? I said I was the only one."
Lucien stiffened.
"Among the survivors, I mean. No one else was like me."
She chuckled lightly.
"And as for killing zombies…"
"How do you think I built a shelter? Or why there aren't any zombies around?"
Lucien gulped.
This was… too much.
Yet he knew one thing if he didn't understand this world quickly, he wouldn't survive.
"Test… as in?" Lucien asked.
Mai smiled.
"You wouldn't want to know."
Lucien stopped walking.
He stared at her back as she moved ahead.
She's… different now.
That thought struck him hard.
As for those 'tests'…
He had an idea of what she meant.
And it chilled him.
If I'm right…
She killed humans?
No…
How long had he been unconscious?
How much had the world changed?
What the hell had humanity become?
The rest of the journey passed quietly.
Mai explained how she found a suitable building, cleared the surroundings, created a shelter, and gathered survivors.
She established divisions of labor.
Armed some people.
Sent them out to search for food, water, and other survivors.
They brought everything back.
And she protected them.
Lucien finally understood.
He had been unconscious for nine solid hours.
"Boss," Mai said, stopping.
"We're here."
Lucien looked up.
A building stood before them still strong.
"Welcome to my base," Mai said proudly.
"The only shelter around here."
Lucien smiled faintly and entered.
Inside, two humans armed with a mace and a cutlass stood guard.
On the ground floor were groups of people nearly a hundred.
Their clothes were torn.
Their eyes hollow.
Still in shock.
Yet order existed.
Food was stored safely.
Supplies were organized.
People rested where they could.
Lucien swallowed.
Humans really did adapt quickly.
Nearby stood a dozen strong men armed with weapons.
Some even had guns.
They were Mai's soldiers.
The ones who kept order.
Finally, she led Lucien upstairs.
As he climbed, his mind raced.
The world had changed.
Awakeners existed.
Had Earth itself awakened?
Was reality becoming fiction?
Lucien's stomach churned.
Unlike Mai, who had grown used to this…
He was seeing mutilated corpses for the first time.
He clenched his stomach, forcing it down.
They stopped at a door.
Mai opened it.
Inside was a private room.
Food reserves.
Weapons.
Luxury items.
A bed.
"Boss," Mai said with a smile,
"welcome to my abode."
Lucien stepped inside, taking it all in.
He had seen far more luxurious things before.
But in the end times…
This was comfort.
Of course, he thought.
She's the leader.
The best things belong to her.
But then a question struck him.
"Mai… I'm sure some humans could kill a zombie," Lucien said, his mind racing.
"There are weapons down there. Don't you think they'll challenge us? We have to do something about it. Otherwise, when they wake up to reality, they won't listen to us again."
Mai smiled faintly.
"Oh, they might try," she said, "but they won't succeed. Humans have limits, stamina, endurance. And as for guns? Bullets aren't infinite. They run out. Zombies… they're naturally as strong as the elite among humans. Killing one isn't easy. Even if someone could, they'd max out at ten before collapsing. But me? I can handle them easily. Unless someone's an awakener, they'll rely on me."
Lucien's brows furrowed.
"Also… boss or should I call you Lucien, what do you mean by 'us'?" Mai asked, tilting her head.
Something felt wrong.
Snap.
She snapped her fingers. The door swung open, and two men carrying weapons stepped inside.
"Could you take this kind sir to where the workers are?" Mai instructed.
"He'll be responsible for cleaning the shelter and scavenging for food."
The men nodded and moved forward.
"Hey! Hey, Mai, what are you doing? I paid you! Increased your salary! I made you something! How could you do this to me?" Lucien yelled, gritting his teeth as the men easily grabbed him, his struggles futile.
Mai laughed softly.
"That was the past, Lucien. Be happy I even came and rescued you. Otherwise, you'd either starve or become a zombie's lunch. Be grateful and be a little worker. Take him away."
Lucien screamed, fury boiling over.
"Mai! You… bitch! How could you do this? My family treated you well, you dog!"
"And… beat him for me."
Just as the men began dragging him toward the door, Mai's voice cut sharply through the chaos.
Lucien felt a cold basin of water splash over him. His anger vanished instantly. Silently, he was dragged out.
Once he was gone, Mai leaned against the desk, a small, satisfied grin on her face.
"So… this is what power feels like," she murmured, almost to herself.