Chapter 2

I was stunned.

A dead hero? Was that why they left me here alone?

Evan, you were so cruel.

He left me to die just to help Sharon get the antidote without a hassle.

The zombies had me surrounded.

They were once my teammates, maybe people I saved. Now they were monsters driven by hunger.

Everything went dark. I could only lie in the rubble, gasping weakly.

My consciousness blurred as memories started flashing through my mind.

The apocalypse hit when I was nineteen.

I used to be an art student. After the apocalypse, I stopped painting and became a fighter.

Back then, Evan wasn't some wise and fearless captain. He was my boyfriend, hiding behind me, trembling.

To protect him, I fought my way through a zombie swarm.

I had a long scar on my waist from a piece of metal during a fight with zombies.

There was no medicine back then, so I wrapped it tightly with clothes and forced myself to endure the pain.

To survive, I developed a top-tier physical enhancement ability.

To secure my spot at the base and make Evan's life a bit easier, I kept going out on missions.

I went wherever the missions were the most dangerous. I showed up wherever the zombies were the hardest to kill.

I once waited through an entire night in a frozen wasteland to find something that could keep Evan warm. I once crawled through a toxic swamp to get him a promotion reward.

I became nothing but a killing machine.

I thought we were ride-or-die lovers and that we'd survive together no matter what. However, things changed after Sharon showed up.

She was the daughter of the base's top brass, and she had a rare water ability.

She was beautiful, soft, and quiet. She was totally different from me, who was always covered in blood and aggression.

More importantly, she was Evan's first love, whom he never had.

Evan started hanging around her all the time. He said Sharon was the last hope for humanity and that he had to look out for her. He also said I was too strong to need protecting anymore.

I was so stupid back then. I thought getting stronger was all about protecting him. I never expected it would become the reason he dumped me.

*****

A zombie lunged at me, its fangs teeth into my throat.

I should have fought back, but I was too weak to hold my dagger.

I stared up at the dim sky and felt nothing but sadness.

Evan, were you standing next to Sharon right now, soaking in the cheers from people at the base?

Sharon used the antidote and became the hero. And I, the one who risked everything to get it, was being eaten by zombies.

This was unfair. I couldn't accept it.

My heart started pounding like crazy.

The virus in my blood seemed to sense my intense emotions and began to run wild.

It stopped destroying things and started changing itself.

An unbearable pain spread through my body, forcing out a piercing scream.

I didn't die.

When the zombie tore into my skin, it suddenly froze, as if it had been struck by terror. It released me and backed away, shaking.

I opened my eyes. Everything looked different. The gray sky had turned a strange dark red.

The zombies' growls turned into something I could clearly understand.

They were afraid, and they were submitting.

I looked down at my hands.

The wound was gone. My skin looked pale and almost transparent. There was no scab. It was replaced by new hard tissue.

I stood up abruptly, and it felt strangely light, like I was floating.

I was still alive.

At the same time, I could feel something inside my brain. It was a core that only high-level zombies possessed.

I was still fully conscious.

I had both the power of an ability user and the regeneration and control of zombies.

I tried giving a command. "Kneel."

Dozens of zombies around me responded as if receiving an absolute command. They all knelt at once, their foreheads touching the cold ruins.

This sense of control felt way stronger than when I was an ability user.

I gazed toward the base. It was brightly lit, and inside it were the people I hated to my core.

Evan, you probably never expected this. You pushed me into hell, but I crawled back out.

And I became the ruler of it.

I ran my hand over my hollow stomach.

I didn't need flesh or blood to feed myself. I could feel energy in the air.

Polluted water and irradiated land were all my food.

Sharon wanted to purify all of this. And I was made of it.

"From now on, this is my territory," I howled into the wasteland.

In the distance, countless roars answered one after another. The zombie horde was gathering.

I didn't need a celebration. In front of me lay a path paved with bones.

*****

Six months later, the abandoned steel factory in the wasteland had become my territory. It was organized, and some dead plants were starting to come back to life under my care.

I sat on a throne made of scrap metal. A few intelligent high-level zombies stood respectfully on either side.

They called me "Mother".

Over the past month, I hadn't attacked any human base. Instead, I focused on organizing the zombies scattered across the wasteland.

I stopped them from gluttony and taught them to guard and build instead. I even used my ability to improve the seeds of mutated crops.

Zombies didn't need food, but these could be used as supplies.

I had been waiting all along until today.

"My Queen, humans are approaching," Teo, a fast-moving zombie scout, rushed in. It moved like a human killer.

"How many?" I opened my eyes, my dark red eyes narrowing slightly.

"A squad of twelve," Teo replied. "The leader carries a very strong aura."

I laughed.

Finally, they were here.

I stood up and put on a black cloak. "Let them in. Don't scare my old friends."