BOOM!

Its swift departure was concealed by a great flash, its infinite potential for devastation released.

It traversed the distance at a tremendous rate, dead set on its target, splitting even the air in its path.

In less than a blink of an eye, before any reaction could even be made to the loudness of its release, it had already pierced its target, passing through her flesh and lodging itself deep within her.

A loud shriek escaped her mouth, filling the narrow alleyway in which she led him down, as her knees collapsed under her, causing her to fall onto the stairs of the black, metallic fire escape.

Out of reflex, her right hand grabbed hold of the affected area, instantaneously staining it with an intense crimson, her blood gushing out at an alarming pace.

A grimace instantly claimed command of her face as she, even though it would increase the pain far beyond her maximum threshold, applied ample pressure on the wound, almost making her scream a second time, only refusing to because it would attract more of the zombies.

With one deep breath, Olivia forced herself up from her knees as she continued her ascension, slowly yet steadily, up the fire escape, limping, as she gave her best to sustain the pressure.

Upon seeing her determination to continue, Alexander prepared to fire once again, but one of the five zombies she had released into the alleyway lunged towards him, its rotting jaws only mere centimeters away from his outstretched arm, its teeth at the ready to devour it.

She had released them from behind the confines of a locked gray steel door in hopes of buying herself time to escape.

After releasing them, she had made good use of her athletic capabilities by utilizing her momentum to embed all of her speed into the wall of an apartment building, launching herself upwards where she then grabbed a hold of the fire escape ladder which hung above her and pulled herself up.

Olivia, at that time, had been tempted to glance back, but, fearing the fate of Lot's wife, refused to and continued her ascension.

Alexander lurched backward, barely avoiding the flesh-craving monster in time. The five zombies were now too close for comfort, hindering the possibility of taking another shot at the ungrateful woman, whom, despite his heroic gesture of saving her life, decided to steal from him.

He was aware that his ammunition resided near the borders of none, forcing him to holster his gun on his side and evade the zombies once more.

He turned around, facing the entrance to the alleyway and his lurch transformed itself into a sprint, but halfway there, he was met with a terrible sight.

A cold shiver traveled down his spine as he came to an abrupt halt.

His heartbeat quickened causing sweat to accumulate around his face.

Deep within his soul, he could feel their endless craving for his flesh as his eyes met more than three handfuls of the walking dead, attracted to that very location as a result of the gunshot he had fired as a desperate attempt to stop Olivia.

Zombies, all that he had encountered anyways, had been slow and easily avoidable, but they were still a threat, having increased durability and an uncanny amount of physical strength despite their decomposing state.

Within groups, however, they became far more deadly than they already were.

Alexander almost panicked, but a soft calming voice gracefully brushed against the back of his ear.

It was a voice he had cherished with all his heart, a voice he hadn't heard in three months besides in the countless nightmares that taunted him every night since then.

It was hers, wrapped in the delicate cloth of serenity.

"Go get em Lexi!" something she'd always say to him in the times when nerves overwhelmed him.

He could hear himself now, his snarly "Don't call me that!" but now, as tears settled in his eyes, he would give anything, even move the earth itself, to hear that name once more.

He instantly discarded the dark, deadly cloak of hesitation and scanned his environment for anything he could use as a weapon against the original five that he was faced with.

If he could defeat them before the massive herd arrived, he could seal himself behind the gray door that they had been locked away by just moments ago.

After his expeditious scan, his eyes set their gaze upon a galvanized steel pipe, appearing to be broken off from a gutter pipe attached to a two-story building.

At once he shuffled over to it, his eyes glued to them as he did, and firmly clutched the steel pipe in his palm, ready to lay waste to the five zombies behind him.

The galvanized steel pipe whipped through the air at an incredible velocity, charged with all of Alex's strength, horizontally colliding with the skull of the zombie that had previously lunged at him.

The ruinous force of the impact drove the undead creature to the floor where Alex delivered a quick downward assault to the monster's brain, putting it to a swift and brutal end.

Next, with not a single second at his luxury, he slammed the steel pipe into the stomach of two more, throwing off their already staggering movement.

Alex utilized this to his advantage, using their stumble as an opening to attack, bashing their heads in with every ounce of strength in his muscle fibers.

With three of the initial five down, he used this opportunity to evade the pounce of the last remaining two and bolted towards the gray door.

After entering the building, Alex quickly latched the door behind him. He could hear them outside, slowly making their ways towards him, all in hopes of subsiding their relentless appetite. He was unsure if the building was plagued by zombies, but at the moment, anything was better than facing an entire horde of the savage beasts.

How long will the latch hold back that many?

His head turned about, his eyes searching for anything that could further barricade the door. He noticed a few stainless steel food prep work tables, in a kitchen area only a few feet away, and repositioned them in front of the door, increasing the strength of his barricade.

From there, with the galvanized steel pipe in hand, he began to walk around the building, searching for a way to reach the roof so that he could pursue Olivia, for she had taken something he valued more than his own life, the last reminder of her.

The knife.

He had already failed her once, how could he now just simply part ways with her favorite knife, the very knife he had given her the day she was accepted into West Point School of Culinary Arts, the school of her dreams, the school she...

Alexander reached a staircase after some time where he was met with the rotting corpses of several decapitated zombies.

Who did this? Why didn't they finish off those last five?

The putrid odor of the decaying corpses forced its way up his nose and overwhelmed his sense of smell immediately.

With his left arm, he tried to shield his nose from the intense odor, but its prevalence proved as opposition to his action.

He could feel it, disgust in liquid form, clawing its way up his throat, his stomach twisting and turning at the sight.

He was sure that they were dead, but his eyes still carefully inspected them as he made his way up the stairs, each floor littered with the remains.

His stomach felt as if it was being uprooted the further he climbed, more and more corpses piled up the higher he got.

After climbing around five floors, the horrifying sights of severed heads and dismembered limbs engraved deep within his mind, he reached the top floor, his eyes widening at the sight.

If not for the awful stench, his jaws would have dropped at the scene.

It was not the pile of more than 50 zombies, their guts spilling and heads unrecognizable due to being blended into mush, which caused this reaction.

No, it wasn't that sight which alone was already enough to send the weak crumbling to their knees. What he saw was far...far more terrifying.

It was humongous, bigger than any he had ever seen.

About three times the size of an extremely muscular man.

Its palm alone, large enough to hold the heads of around five adults at once and squish them like mere insects.

Its neck displayed signs of an attempt to hack away at it and its chest was filled with holes, large enough to be shots from a shotgun at close range.

A black sludge oozed from the enormous beast as it blocked the exit to the roof, seemingly dead.

His hands started to shake at the sight, the galvanized steel pipe wavering in his now tightening grip. He took a step back, almost tripping over one of the many littered corpses on the floor.

What the hell is that thing?! How am I going to get out of here?!

Just as that thought overtook his mind, its cold, dead eyes opened.

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