Chapter 4
I watched the surveillance screen as one of the soldiers took an explosive charge from his pack and started installing it on the steel door.
My heart was pounding so hard.
I knew they were dead serious.
The bunker was about to be breached.
My last hope was about to be crushed.
I lowered my head and looked at Leonard in my arms.
He looked up at me, his clear eyes filled with no fear, only trust... and a touch of sadness.
"Mommy, I'm sorry," Leonard whispered.
I froze.
"You silly kid, don't say that. It's Mommy who's useless. I couldn't protect you..."
Before I could finish, Leonard suddenly pushed me away.
He stood tall, his little body shielding me.
He raised his head, staring at the steel door.
Without any warning, those clear, innocent eyes of his turned utterly black.
It wasn't the darkness of anger or hatred.
It was a pure, abyssal black, something that belonged only to gods or demons.
An invisible, indescribable pressure radiated from him, instantly filling the entire bunker.
I felt my breath seize up, like every bit of air in the room had vanished.
Outside the bunker, the soldier installing the explosives suddenly froze, his face contorted in absolute terror.
The captain immediately noticed something was off.
"What's going on?"
The next instant, the truth hit.
"Roar!"
A roar, like it was ripped straight from the depths of hell, rumbled in from the distant darkness.
Then came a second roar, followed by a third, and so on.
Thousands, even millions of roars rose up from every direction, crashing together into a tsunami of sound that threatened to tear the world apart.
The ground started to shake.
On the surveillance screen, a black line appeared at the edge of the horizon.
That line was growing, thickening, faster and faster.
It was... a zombie horde!
An endless, unstoppable zombie horde!
They swarmed out from abandoned cities, dry riverbeds, and crumbling ruins.
They weren't coming for my bunker.
They were coming straight for the Dawn Squad.
The Dawn Squad members spotted it too.
They quickly got into a defensive formation, shock and disbelief written all over their faces.
"What the hell? Where did all these things come from all of a sudden?"
"Captain! There are way too many! There's at least a million of them!"
"They're after us!"
The captain's face, Abram Cooper, was grimmer than I'd ever seen.
He lifted his binoculars, fixed his eyes on the black tide, then suddenly whipped his gaze back to our fortress.
His lips quivered, like he'd just seen something straight out of a nightmare.
The zombie horde surged closer.
But then, something truly strange happened.
Instead of attacking in a frenzy, they halted a hundred meters from the Dawn Squad, moving with the discipline of a trained army.
They surrounded the elite human squad, sealing them in with no way out.
Every zombie, from the regular shamblers to the hulking mutants, all turned their rotting heads in the same direction toward my fortress.
Their eyes weren't wild with hunger and chaos anymore.
Now, they burned with awe, zeal, and absolute submission.
It was like they were worshipping their god.
The air was so heavy, it felt like death itself had settled over us.
The Dawn Squad members were so stunned, they forgot to breathe.
The weapons they once took pride in now seemed laughably insignificant against this endless black sea.
Abram lowered his binoculars, his hand shaking as he pointed toward the fortress. His voice was raspy, like he'd swallowed sandpaper.
"You... you..."
He wasn't pointing at me.
He was pointing at the small figure standing in front of me.
"You... you're the Zombie King!"
My mind went totally blank.
I'd had my suspicions for a while, but when humanity's strongest fighter screamed "Zombie King" with such clarity and despair, it was like my entire world shattered.
My son...
The treasure I gave everything to love and protect...
It turned out… he really was the enemy of all humanity.
He was the ultimate threat, the final boss they all said had to be destroyed.
What should I do?
Should I really hand him over, just to buy humanity a so-called "future"?
Or...
My gaze landed on Leonard's small back.
His little shoulders were shaking.
He was terrified.
He wasn't scared of the people outside, or the endless horde of zombies kneeling at his feet.
He was scared of me.
He was scared I'd turn my back on him, scared I'd see him as a monster.
In that instant, a mother's love overwhelmed everything. Reason, fear, all of it.
So what if he's the Zombie King?
He was my son, above all!