XII. A Monarch?

T City used to be one of the most prosperous cities in their country. If not because of the outbreak, a lot of things have probably changed in this place. Majestic buildings left and right, one taller than one another.

Even though tragedy has befallen in this place, these buildings still stood high. Albeit it already lost its former glory and brilliance, no one can deny that it was once the most beloved city by its people. 

Her mother and father used to bring her here back when her mother was still alive, especially during New Year and her birthdays. 

Farrah smiled, nostalgic and hopeful.

She knew that somewhere in this place, Dior was waiting for her rescue, just waiting for the time that she'd arrive.

Speaking of Dior, Farrah checked her call logs and saw lots of missed calls. She felt regretful, but then, she couldn't just blatantly answer her calls because she wasn't alone. 

She might be open-minded, but these people might not be.

Mom, please bless and protect me, alright? Let me rescue your son-in-law safely; your grandson needs him in his life. I need him in my life.

Farrah closed her eyes, and Megan finally couldn't reign the urge to ask, probably because it was her nature to constantly ask someone to get to know them better.

“What are you thinking?” 

Farrah jolted, not expecting someone to speak exactly at her ear. Looking at the smiling Megan, she gasped. “You scared me. What are you asking again?”

“I was asking what you were thinking so hard about. Is it about our mission? You don't have to think that hard... We just had to fight, protect ourselves by doing so, and loot—then, we can go home...”

Megan sounded hopeful, but by the end of her sentence, even she was a bit apprehensive and doubtful.

Could they go home that easily?

“If I were you, Megan, I would stop speaking now. Be vigilant of your surroundings since you are the key in this mission, remember?” Jerald warned, looking at Megan sharply. 

Megan nodded, pursing her lips and gripping her weapon as she began to use her perception ability.

Everyone looked at her, waiting for the results.

Fortunately, this little girl did not disappoint. “...I saw it.”

“You saw what?”

“Where we should enter. The main entrance was littered with zombies, all low-levels. If we used that entrance and killed these zombies, the zombies in the upper levels would immediately notice us. For now, I can't detect any zombies higher than level-2. Most of them are normal zombies.” 

“Then which way should we go?” This time, it was Farrah who asked. 

Megan looked at her as she replied. “Fire Exit. The number of zombies there is lower than that of the main entrance. We can go to any floor we want without disturbing other floors.”

Everyone nodded before turning to their captain, who tilted her chin in agreement.

“Follow her words.” 

There's no more argument as the group stealthily went for the Fire Exit. Gracea was the one in front, disposing of small numbers of zombies they would encounter. Some zombies saw them, yet some even fled. It was the opposite of what Farrah was expecting to see.

“It fled to call others. We better move. We might be able to deal with zombies lower than our levels but once we're surrounded, it'll be hard for us.”

Everyone agreed, no longer wasting time by talking to each other. They made their way towards the fire exit, with Gracea leading in front and Twilight guarding against behind. In order not to cause excess noise, Gracea uses her ability rather than her weapons.

Once they arrived at the third floor where the clothing section was located, everyone went separate ways. Farrah was with Jerald in the kid's section. 

“Will you be fine here? I'm searching for something...” Jerald asked. 

Farrah smiled in reply. “Of course. I can protect myself. Go.”

Jerald hesitated, but seeing Farrah's determined look, he no longer argued. He nodded and left after promising that he will be fast.

Farrah hastily took anything that she can take, putting them in her storage space in a fast manner. As she was about to put a large quilt on the space, she suddenly noticed something amiss.

The smile on Farrah's face disappeared, gearing up her guard as she noticed something around her.

“Huff... Huff... Grr...”

The moment Farrah was about to enter, she heard a growl coming from behind. She didn't hesitate to summon her sword, slashing mercilessly on the zombie that was creeping behind her.

It was a zombie, with a large hole in her stomach and lost one of her eyeballs. She was covered in blood that has already dried up on her decomposing skin.

The undead dodged as if expecting her attack. Farrah stepped back, pointing the end of the sword towards the female zombie.

“Grr...”

The zombie leaped towards Farrah once again, its hands extended towards the woman's face. This time, Farrah didn't hesitate to swing her sword to cut the zombie's head away from its neck.

The head flew away and rolled a few times over, while the zombie's body slowly kneeled, then its upper body directly flopped on the floor.

Farrah sighed, and as her sight swept against the surrounding, she caught a reflection of something not far away creeping behind her back.

Her eyes widened as adrenaline pumped through every part of her body, she dodged the incoming attack and didn't hesitate to swing her sword in an attempt to kill the monster behind her back

“Grrr!” The end of her sword grazed upon the zombie's neck, but because it managed to step back a few inches, she wasn't able to cut its whole neck.

Farrah and the zombie stared at each other. Farrah looked apprehensive, while the zombie looked starving and ready to slaughter Farrah.

Without waiting for the zombie to attack, Farrah quickly ran and swung her sword, killing the zombie without much effort.

As she was about to breathe a sigh of relief, she heard a loud sound of glass breaking coming from the direction where Patrick was located, followed by a familiar swear of the guy.

The sound immediately attracted the zombies from every direction, running towards their place.

“Regroup! Retreat!” Twilight decisively ordered, putting all the harvest on their large storage space.

The zombies from different directions swarmed towards them. Gracea didn't hesitate to take her gun and rain bullets on them.

The fierce fight started as they moved towards the exit, with Twilight and Gracea on the rear and Patrick in front.

Twilight's ability gradually weakened due to exhaustion so she finally used her guns that she doesn't want to use earlier on.

“How could they arrive so quickly?” Gracea huffed, glaring at the chasing zombies.

“Probably because they've been starving for so long. Did someone bring oil?”

Jerald raised his hands, “I did.”

Though Farrah wasn't sure what would oil do in this kind of situation, she didn't ask them and waited in silence only to see them pouring oil at the entrance of the fire exit.

“Quick! They're coming!” 

After checking whether the oil was enough, everyone immediately run away. As expected, low-level zombies fell on their trick as they began to crumble like dominos when someone stepped on the oil.

They laughed in unison, running towards their truck. But before they could enter the truck, Megan suddenly stopped. Her face was distorted as if enduring a fierce pain.

Farrah quickly felt concerned. “Megan? Are you okay? What's happening?”

Everyone looked at Megan, waiting for her answer.

“...It's bad, we need to leave here as soon as possible...” Megan's voice trembled, clearly in fear of what she had seen.

“Why? Can you tell us?” 

“I—”

ROARRRRRR!

Megan wasn't able to finish her words because the thing she saw using her ability did it for her. A roar filled with power rushed towards their eardrums.

Due to its fierce energy, everyone almost kneeled in pain, covering their ears trying to save their eardrums from damage too bad, the roar was powerful enough to even attack their inner core—their nuclei.

1... 2... 8 roars in total. Eight powerful roars filled with power.

In the eighth roar, Megan couldn't take the damage and directly fainted, while Ken coughed some blood. When it finally ended, everything went back to silence.

“...What the hell was that?” Gracea asked, expression grave.

Megan fainted and can't give them a definite answer, so they turned on Twilight.

“It's a... high-level zombie, probably a monarch zombie.” 

“Monarch? Are you kidding me? What are we doing here then? Let's f*cking go home, old hag!” Patrick screamed, wanting to enter the humvee.