1. A World Full of Zombies

The sound of cars echoed in the middle of the city that had been abandoned for many years ago. The car, which was almost entirely covered with a strong steel, drove fast on the deserted streets that cut through the previously urban city. A woman quietly plays orchestra music in her car. Her eyes surveyed the dead city with a bored look. It is only been five years since they entered an era where zombies are invading almost every place on earth. But cities around the world, all of them already turned into dead cities like the city where she went today.

Exactly five years ago, an unknown meteor suddenly fell to the earth and almost destroyed half of one continent on earth. The meteor approached the earth at an unreasonable speed, as if to tell the world that the end of the world had come at that time. No human being can prevent the meteor from falling to the earth. They have tried everything. But eventually, the humans remained helpless as they watched with faces full of terror as the meteor finally fell on one small part of the earth.

At that time, the fall of the meteor alone was enough to cause panic from people in all over the world. A drastically changing climate, natural disasters happening everywhere, are enough to kill a large part of the human population. But the dispersal of the black powder from the meteor fragment a few days later, seemed to have really taken the human panic to a whole new level.

Like natural selection, the black powder only has an effect on some humans who inhale the powder. Those who inhaled the powder began to cough violently until they finally bleed from their mouths, noses, and eyes. It does not stop, until the blood in their bodies runs out, and their skin slowly turns dull.

The effects of the black powder did not stop there. Those, who should have died from blood loss, started biting other humans to suck their blood out. But taking the blood of one human was not enough for them anymore. Those who have been sucked out of their blood will also not die just like that. Like the first victim, they will start looking for blood from any human near them. Those people started to suck more. So many, until new chaos began to spread all over the world.

Weapons alone were not enough to kill humans who should have been died like them. The ones who were still not infected had to crush their heads. More specifically the part of the brain, to stop the undead from continuing their way to search for a new prey.

Initially, humans called people who had been infected as vampires. But vampires are always described as a being that afraid of the sun and having a more lively appearance than those people. They would not keep moving like robots when their legs and arms have been cut off. Moreover, they did not turn out to be stupid like those people. Zombies, that is a new name for people who have been infected.

Within five years, zombies have succeeded in destroying the world order that has been created by the humans. Some people call the meteor crash event as the apocalypse. But the woman in the car prefers to call it a punishment, for all forms of arrogance that humans have shown towards their creator so far.

It has been almost three years since the government started to give up and decided to leave the helpless zones to move to a relatively safer zone. The small parts of the surviving human group began to unite. They once again formed a new civilization. Inside the high fence, which protects them from the terror of the zombies that still roam outside the fence.

The woman was part of that new civilization. After going through many life and death situations, betrayal and sacrifice, the woman finally made it to where she is right now. Walking alone in a dead city full of zombies is no longer scary for her. The woman occasionally mumbled to the music, as she searched for a safe place to enter the large mall that had been abandoned for a long time ago.

Lack of resources has always been a problem in a new civilization that is still as old as a corn. The fall of the great meteor has also changed the genetic chain of animals and plants, which has made it difficult for humans to find new resources. So far, they have found some plants and animals that can survive the mutation of the black dust. However, because the changed foodstuffs had become a rare ingredient, those who wanted to stay alive and were able to move had to still go outside the fence to feed the hungry stomachs of all humans who are still alive. They could pick up anything along the way. Canned food from the time before zombies attacked, mutated plants that grow in some special places, they all have to take everything for the survival of humans who can still alive today.

Therefore, once in a while the volunteers have to go outside the fence to look for various materials left by people in the past scattered in various places. They must collect the items, bring them back, and exchange them for various facilities in the safe place.

Volunteers usually get together and form a group to embark on a journey outside their safe zone. But the woman in the car was different. She would rather not be with anyone after she got into too much trouble every time she teamed up with someone else. The changing world seems to have changed the human nature itself, according to the woman. Once, she was nearly raped by the male volunteers. While at the other times, she was almost killed because she got more supply than the others.

Not to mention his identity as a researcher also enough to make people hate her all the time. Researchers are always associated with people who receive more resources in exchange for their new discoveries. Researchers are considered cruel and greedy, when the woman herself would rather be a regular volunteer than continue working in that terrible lab.

Now, the woman just feels that sometimes, humans can indeed act more dangerous than the existence of zombies itself. The woman was tired. From all the betrayal and greed of many humans. Now, she preferred to travel alone rather than join another group as people used to do.

In a Hummer that she had modified herself, the woman always traveled alone after that. After all, traveling alone was also more profitable for the woman too. She did not need to share her loot with anyone else. She is also great at dealing with zombies, which makes her the little master of the safe zone.

Staring at the deserted mall in front of her, the woman parked her car in a safe place before getting off with a semi-automatic weapon in her hand. All of her senses instantly sharpened as the woman slowly entered the large mall. Her brows furrowed slightly, as she realized something strange had happened recently.