Beep. Beep. Beep.

The timer of the bomb beeps away, each short sound signifying a second lost, a second until death. My breaths come out in shaky puffs as I look over to Nicole and Jody, desperate and anxious.

"Okay, we can figure this out," Jody says, more to herself than to us. "There's a bomb here reading twenty-seven minutes and counting. There's a V-Type heading up the Thames toward us. We can't evacuate the House of Commons because the Last Riders are outside firin' Molotov cocktail arrows. There must be a tactical solution." She chews on her lip for a moment. "Janine would think of one. Maybe we can diffuse the bomb really quickly. Nicole-"

"I already told you. I can't with my bad hand, and-and this bomb is more intricately made than any of the simpler ones they had me disarm at the A.M.T.B. This would require an expert in explosives."

"Steve here, expert in explosives," Steve chimes in smoothly. "Jody, I'm afraid that's a negatory on disarming it quickly."

Of course.

"Cursory look at that explosive device tells me it doesn't come with an off switch. It has a remote detonator, too. Sam, have you seen anyone carrying a transmitter with a large aerial?"

"Oh, well, like the Rider on the bike with a demon painted on it and the big aerial sticking on the back?"

"Good spot, love. That's it. Okay, Jody, Five, Nicole, good news. Those remote detonators only have a range of about twenty yards. He can blow it up at any time, but if you keep the Rider away from the bomb-"

"Of the bomb away from the Rider!" Jody interrupts, her eyes lighting up.

"You catch my drift."

"If we do that, we've got-" She glances at the timer of the bomb, "oh, lovely! Twenty-five whole minutes to work out what to do with it. Five, you grab that handle and I'll grab this one. Nicole, you keep that pistol ready just in case any Riders come along. How many bullets do you have?"

"Nine," She replies, patting the pistol strapped to her hip while Jody and I lift the bomb. I let out a little grunt. I didn't expect it to be this heavy.

"Okay. We can work with that." We start moving, and she purses her lips together in discomfort. "We're runnin' with a bomb-which is always a good idea-towards the world's end."

"Literally," I joke, although it comes out forced.

"I do mean that literally. There's a bit of west London called World's End. It's away from both the V-Types and the House of Commons. We've got to get that bomb away from here right now."

I nod in agreement, picking up the pace. The bomb is heavy and uncomfortable. It only takes a few minutes for my fingers for begin to ache, but I just use my other hand to help carry it. We can't risk dropping it. I don't want to imagine what might happen if we did.

Nicole eyes it warily, the beeping seeming to get to her just as it gets to us. I know she feels bad that she can't help, but she's smart enough to know that she only has one good hand, and it's not extremely strong since it is her non-dominant hand.

Luckily, she's a good shot. It won't slow the V-Type down if it manages to catch us, but it will definitely stop any Riders we come across. I can't hear the V-Type, or see it, but it'll find us. Things just have a habit of working out that way. We never have to worry about the danger moving away from us.

I was hoping things would turn for the better, now that Sigrid is gone and she's no longer testing on babies or creating weird fly masses to spread a fungus that kills you in less than half an hour...

Paula said Selma's gonna need months of therapy in order to move past what happened.

Poor woman.

With Sigrid gone-dead-I'd hoped we'd be able to simply focus on creating more of the cure, send out broadcasts to other countries so they could do the same, focus on the V-Types. But no, the only countries we've managed to send the cure recipe to is America, because of Nicole's work with the A.M.T.B., and Canada because they're easiest to contact via Roufflenet. Everywhere else has no clue we have the solution to end this.

Well, end the first apocalypse. With the V-Types, and the last Riders, people in Abel talk about us being catapulted into a second one.

It isn't fair.

But we do what we must. We keep going. We keep fighting. We find ways to win.

I hope we can do the same this time.

"Okay," Sam says, sounding relieved. "The Last Riders didn't leave any guards on the tunnel, so you not being followed."

That eases the tension in my shoulders slightly. Only slightly, since I'm still carrying a massive bomb with the help of Runner Four.

"Ah, except that V-Type zombie on the embankment path has definitely got your scent," He adds. "So, yeah, correction: you are being followed, but by a zombie, not anarchists."

"How far away is the zom, Sam?" Jody asks, peering over her shoulder. "We can't see it."

"Uh, few hundred yards. Around the corner of the towpath."

"We have to slow down a bit then. Let it get our scent properly."

Nicole raises a brow, seeming a bit unsure. I suppose I can't blame her given our situation. "Do you... do you think that's what Janine would do?"

"I don't know!" Jody snaps, and Nicole furrows her brows at her. "Why don't we ask her and the other 300 leaders of Britain gathered together in one place to be blown up or eaten?"

She opens her mouth to give a snarky reply as we start moving again, but Sam speaks up, effectively stopping an argument we do not need right now.

"Yeah, actually, the business end of that should have started now."

"Finally," I murmur. "Patch us in?"

"Anything for you, darling," He replies with a smile in his voice, and there's a quick second of static before I hear Janine's clipped and professional tone.

"Abel Township votes against the motion to build a garden on Westminster bridge." There's a murmur in the crowd when she pauses. "We also want to bring to the house's attention a new type of zombie discovered off the south coast, deadly-"

"You southern settlements with your southern concerns," A representative, presumably a northern one, snaps. "We tried to warn you about the Last Riders for months, but would you listen? No!"

Loud shouts follow, angry voices trying to climb over top of each other. It becomes an indistinguishable garble, and I look over at Jody worriedly.

"Sage here, of Banktown," A man says, which quiets some of the voices. "I, for one, am interested in hearing what the Abel representative has to say."

"Oh, you all stick together!" The northern representative yells again, and my lips pinch together. He seems to be an instigator. Not a good thing to be during a peace meeting.

The crowd starts shouting again. Jody groans as Sam cuts the transmission, her free hand rubbing her face.

"Janine, you've got to be friendly with them! Facts won't do it; you've got to speak their language."

"Uh, yeah," Sam says. "Horse might have bolted on Janine and diplomacy."

"I wish she were here."

I open my mouth to comment the same, but I hear shuffling behind me. I look back, making a disgusted face when I see a walking corpse. It's decayed, but not the same way regular zoms decay. It looks more human that most do, even after all this time.

V-Type trait.

"I think he's seen us," I say as its eyes land on me.

Its pupils dilate.

"What the-"

It lets out a roar, and I flinch, eyes wide. The sound is deep and guttural. It sounds like an animal rather than a zombie. That's another thing that's different between them and regular zoms. They sound slightly different, their growls more animalistic than those that come from regulars. Regulars at least sound slightly human-dead human, yes, but human.

"Yep, definitely saw us. Seen us, has our scent, all that jazz." I pick up my feet, clenching and unclenching my fingers that are aching from my tight grip on the bomb.

"I have a plan," Jody states, green eyes determined, "but we have to keep movin' and keep that zom away from the peace conference. Run!"

"We're already doing that, but okay," I say, which earns me an unamused look. "What?"

She shakes her head but says nothing. Nicole keeps looking back at the zombie that's roaring behind us. It's loud and intimidating. There's something about the way it looks at us. I saw it when it looked at me. The eyes don't seem dead and hollow like regular zoms. It's not like the S-Types, either, which have some cognitive functions. No, this is different, somehow.

It almost seems... determined.

Either way, we pick up the pace. The bomb is still ticking down and while that V-Type isn't a fast zom, it isn't a shambler either. We need it to follow us to get it away from the House of Commons, but we also can't have it around when this bomb goes off. These zombies are unstoppable. I chopped one to bits, and that still wasn't enough to stop it.

I shudder. Nightmare fuel at its finest, I suppose.

We thought zombies were bad, but now we have ones that won't die when you bash its head in. It's like a bad dream that you think you've got figured out, but then it suddenly changes on you with no warning.

Because we had no warning with this.

Jody glances down at the bomb in hand as we leave the tunnels. Being in the open space doesn't make me feel as secure as I hoped it would, but I guess feeling secure isn't a luxury a runner can afford on missions like these.

"We've got nineteen minutes on the clock of this bomb. Steve, how much firepower do you reckon it has?"

"Um, well, looking at it, it could take down a smallish tower block," He replies. "Maybe eight floors?"

She looks back at the tunnels we just left. "So solid concrete walls are no problem for it?"

"Melt like butter in your mouth."

There's a beat of silence, and I watch her eyes look at the bomb and then the zombie behind us.

"Alright. Okay. This could work."

"Wait, you're not thinking of-" I start, but Sam cuts me off.

"No, you cannot blow up V-Types, Jodes!" He exclaims. "The-the bits go everywhere! And all the bits are alive, and infectious! The hands and stuff will like, crawl all over you and dig their sharp nails and mix their fluids with your fluids and then-and then you turn!"

A distasteful look passed over my face at the word 'fluids'.

"We don't know that for certain," She replies.

"Uh, yeah, we do, actually," I reply. "I've seen the body parts keep coming for us. It's terrifying, a-a-and the body parts could come after as from different angles rather than just one zombie. We can't blow it up."

She rolls her eyes, and I glare at her. "All we really know is that they're super infectious. More than normal."

"No, it's not! We really, really know that the body parts come for you! I distinctly remember in the caves a liver wiggling its way towards me and Maxine and Janine a-and Steve! Couldn't eat anything close to liver from any animal for six months!"

"There's been no word yet on a decisive way to kill the V-Types," Steve adds, and Sam sighs in thought.

"I mean, they can be killed. A.N.N.I.E. dissolved them in acid one time, remember? But that was in an enclosed space. You can set them on fire, and that works, if you make sure-if you make sure all the bits are on fire. But they will keep coming for you while they're burning, and they will still try to bite you."

"Flamethrower's not the solution," Steve says.

Not like we had one anyway.

"Uh, well, if you get them in an enclosed metal space, and like, if you were on a high gantry, and you're not going to catch on fire, or inhale the fumes-" Sam starts.

"Veronica... A.N.N.I.E.... hasn't got anything solid."

"Are we calling her A.N.N.I.E. now?" I ask, trying to tune out the beeping clock and the growling V-Type following steadily behind us.

"Uh, well." Sam lets out a noise to signify 'meh'. "No one knows what to call her. Them. But uh, no. The entity formerly known as Veronica and the bit of A.N.N.I.E. that wasn't super aggressive is working on it. We think. Veronica's been a bit strange since the erm, merging, I mean. Uh, we have a cure for the normal virus now, but-but we don't think-I mean, we don't know if it works on V-Types."

"It doesn't stop them after they've turned, we know that much," I say. "But we can't exactly test to see if it'll cure anyone without infecting them first, or capturing a V-Type to do tests on it. And since it can't be killed-"

"Yeah, makes things harder and a lot more dangerous."

"Yeah, yeah," Jody says impatiently. "But the people in the House of Commons are safe right now, okay, Sam? I mean, apart from the big rig. The zom is chasing us, but the Riders don't know we've moved the bomb."

"Spoke too soon," Sam sighs, and I hear a rumble of an engine followed by a loud pop as it revs up. "There was an outrider hiding behind that tree. He's radioed-oh, crap! The rig that was following you before-it must've left the tunnels after they lost you. It's still near the Thames path, just above ground and it's turning towards you. You have to make it to that bollardy bit where they'll have to follow you on foot. Run!"

•

"Oh, crap."

"The bikers have met the V-Type?" Nicole guesses.

"Yep," He squeaks. "One of the bikers is going for it with a baseball bat."

I hear a faint thwack behind us. I already know what's going to happen.

I don't feel sorry for them.

Sam lets out a noise of disgust. "Ugh. The head's sort of dangling to one side, and the body has smeared itself all over the biker in front. There are fluids."

"Please stop saying that word," I say, cringing. "It makes me feel even more grossed out than I already am."

I hesitantly look back against my better judgment. Some of the bikers are trying to follow us on their motorcycles, but the V-Type stops one with its leg. The Rider tries to swing a chain at it, but the zombie reaches forward and grabs the Rider's greasy black hair and-

Crack!

A choked noise leaves my mouth as skin rips, bones break and blood pours. The zombie chucks the Rider's severed head to the ground, the body falls limp to the ground with the bike. Blood gushes from the neck.

"Bloody hell, they're strong!" Jody gasps.

"Jody, that transmitter has a dead-man switch," Steve says in alarm. "If the biker holding onto it gets bitten and turns, and he's in range-"

"The bomb goes off. I've got you. Five, Nicole, we have to keep movin'. If we don't get this bomb a good, safe distance from the bikes, it will shower indestructible zombie parts over a mile radius. Run!"

I don't need to be told twice. The timer is bad enough. We can't afford it going off early. I swallow thickly at the thought of what would happen if the bomb went off. V-Types bring corpses back, so even if it went off and killed Jody and Nicole, it would bring them back as zoms. If it got me, I would turn since the zombie virus is apparently the only thing that could kill me.

And while everyone else would be a V-Type zombie, I would be a V-Type who not only can't be killed, but can also regenerate!

I cannot get infected.

But the bikers keep the V-Type occupied. I doubt it will stay occupied long, seeing how it ripped a man's head off with barely any effort! I only get that kind of strength when I get an adrenaline rush, and that's because of Van Ark's treatments! Zombies are dead, their bodies rotted! They shouldn't be strong.

But there's a lot of things about these Viking zombies that we don't know about. I mean, this zom is way more preserved than most. Zombies that turned on Day Zero are probably skeletons by now. I mean, an unembalmed person in a coffin takes eight to twelve years to completely decompose into a skeleton (Thank you Torrencers for telling me that when teaching me how to rid myself of a body I don't want to be found) and because these zombies aren't kept out of the elements, it should take them less time...

And yet, this V-Type is hundreds of years old and it's more preserved than some of the zombies that were turned last year.

It's another thing that makes this zombie so much more dangerous.

Even now with its head hanging off and its body smeared on some of the Last Riders, it's still more dangerous than a normal zom.

"We're headin' towards World's End," Jody announces. "We're a safe distance from the bikes for now."

"What's the score on the immovable object vs the irresistible force?" Nicole asks.

"Well, the people at the peace conference still don't believe Janine that there are indestructible zombies," Sam answers, and she rolls her eyes.

"Stupid people never change."

"What do you mean?"

"They didn't believe Abel when we tried to tell them about Sigrid and what she was doing to babies either, right? They don't learn. They don't listen. They put their pride above their safety and that's why so many people have died in this apocalypse."

"Oh. Right. I forget how blunt you can be."

"How? All I ever am is blunt."

"Well, right now, you need to worry about yourselves," Steve interjects.

Nicole squares her shoulders. "I'm guessing you mean to say something's happen with the bikers and the V-Type?"

"All but two of them are dead, all bitten. Even the headless corpse was bitten."

I sneer. "Lovely. Anyone turning?"

"Not yet."

Not yet. It only took a minute or two before the corpse rose in Battenbury. I've never seen someone bitten by a V-Type to tell how long it takes for them to turn. Could be minutes, could be hours.

"Where did this V-Type come from?" Jody asks. "Battenbury?"

"Can't be," Sam says with a frown in his voice. "The first thing Veronica did when she took over A.N.N.I.E. was to throw a concrete wall around that place twenty meters thick. They can't have come from there."

"Unless they..." Steve pauses, and I raise a curious brow. "Unless they tunneled under it, love."

I shake my head. "Zombies can't tunnel. The only ones that could possibly do that are S-Types or the fast zoms. Fast zoms are extinct and we haven't encountered an S-Type in almost a year, not since Sigrid destroyed that one building with the fungus."

"There are not V-Types who can tunnel." Jody's face pinches. "Do not make me think about V-Types tunnelin'."

"Well, I mean, it was coming up the river," Sam hums. "Could be one of the original ones we released under the White Fingers. It could have been crawling out of that rubble under the seas for years! It's been like, almost two since we went there, right?"

"Oh God! Their decayed, waterlogged limbs tirelessly prying one rock from another. It's horrible!"

Something roars behind me, and my shoulders tense. "What was that?"

"One of the Riders has turned. He's closest to you," Sam answers, and I mutter a curse.

"V-Type?"

"Hard to know for sure, but it's making the right noises."

Nicole grabs her pistol. "One way to find out."

She raises it, pulls the trigger.

The bullet goes right through its forehead...

It doesn't fall.

"Damn it!" She curses, and Jody pales.

"We're goin' to die."

"Where to now?" I ask.

"You have got to get out of there," Steve presses. "Dump the bomb. If it goes off, it goes off. Head to the tower blocks to the west. You can climb a wall, and we'll arrange a rescue."

"And who's to say these zombies can't climb? And we can't just dump the bomb!"

Jody nods in agreement. "And we have to get those V-Types away from here."

"It's not safe," Sam argues. "No, I like Steve's plan. Head to the tower blocks."

Nicole grits her teeth. "Like I said, stupid people never listen! What Four is trying to tell you is that we are near the neutral zone. Remember it? The big bit of London that's walled off and full of thousands of zombies? If this bomb goes off, the wall comes down, and those V-Types could go in there and start biting other zombies!"

"Do we know they'll turn into other V-Types?"

"No, but we've seen them biting corpses! We can't risk it. If it happens, everyone in the South of England is dead."

"Come on," Jody huffs, picking up the pace, steadying her grip on the bomb.

I keep my gaze ahead, beads of sweat running down my nose. "I suppose having only one thing to worry about is too much to ask for these days. Remember when being chased by normal zombies was our worst problem?"

Sam chuckles. "Those were the days. It's kind of funny, thinking about it. I mean, I know you still run from normal zoms sometimes, and they are scary, but like, with everything that's happened-"

"They're not super scary."

"Right! They're just... scary enough to make you watch out for them, but not scary enough to give you nightmares anymore about them biting you... unless you're me, who's actually been bitten, or you, who has also been bitten."

"I honestly have more nightmares of losing my wedding ring than I do of being bitten," I reply, and he laughs. It truly a beautiful sound. It helps distract me from the stress we're all currently under.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I get super worried that you'll be angry and that's what usually wakes me up."

"I thought you liked it when I get angry."

I fight down a blush, scolding myself because he means I think it's funny, which is only partially true.

"Yeah, but not when it's at me."

He laughs again.

"How's the peace conference goin', Sam?" Jody asks, and I send her an unamused look that she looks unapologetic for.

"What?" He clears his throat. "Oh, uh... oh. Not very peaceful."

He patches us in, and I'm met with the sound of shouts of the leaders.

"With all I know of her, I feel clear that Janine De Luca is not a liar," That Banktown man, Sage, says.

"Oh, yeah?" Someone else spits. "My mate told me that she told him there was weapons in a cache in a barn on top of Mount Snowdon, and there wasn't!"

More shouts follow, but I make out Janine's frustrated reply.

"That was a very unusual circumstance in which your 'mate' was clearly intoxicated with a home brewed cider of some ferocity!"

Jody huffs as he cuts the transmission. "Right then. Glad we might be about to give up our lives to save complete shower."

"Give up your lives? What are you doing?" He asks quickly.

"It'll probably be fine."

"Probably? Nicole, what does she mean by that?"

She shrugs. "I don't know. Singer and I are just as blind to this as you are." She looks at Jody with faux calmness. "Four, I ask this with all due respect-which in this case is just enough for me to be polite since you are good at tactics and planning-what the hell are you going to have us do that might end up killing us?"

"Like I said, it should be fine," She repeats. Her voice is a bit higher-pitched than normal. "Steve, you know the second Thames barrier?"

"Oh, yes. I certainly do." I can hear the smile in his voice.

"It's just comin' up ahead. If me, Five and Twenty-seven were to blow it up, the onrush of water would wash those V-Types miles and miles upstream and inland, wouldn't it?"

He laughs. "It would."

"And I mean, that wouldn't be a long-term solution, but it'd keep the V-Types away from the neutral zone, right?"

"You're a bloody tactical genius," Sam compliments, and she forces a half smile.

"Took me ages to work it out. Janine would have been faster. What do you reckon, Steve?"

"Place the bomb under the third pillar to the left of the green barrier."

Jody takes a second to find it. "We see it. And then what?"

"Then, looking at the structure of the barrier, safest location is likely to be... top of the blue pillar under the awning. I reckon you probably won't get swept away by the water up there."

"Probably?" Sam repeats incredulously.

"What do you say, girls?" She asks, looking at the timer. "Our half hour's almost up. Want to plant a bomb and maybe die like heroes?"

"I've nearly died in way worse ways, so why not?" I ask.

"Callista!" Sam shouts, and Nicole nods.

"Same. Let's do it."

"Oh... I was hopin' you'd say no so I could say me either and us do it anyway," Jody says awkwardly.

"Well, now you know not to ask us that," Nicole replies. "Now let's go!"

•

A loud boom sounds off into the air, and I keep my eyes closed, too afraid by the height of being on top of the pillar to watch the barrier collapse and water rush by.

Jody cheers as I tighten my grip on her arm. "My God! Wow! That is like the world's biggest water slide thunderin' past out heads!"

"You're not kidding," Sam says. "Wow, that is a lot of water."

I crack open one eye and watch the water hit the zombies and bikers with full force. They stand no chance against it.

"We're not going to see them for miles and miles," Nicole says, eyeing the floating arms and legs that pop up before being drug down under. "Also, it seems that a lot of West London is going to be underwater for awhile now."

"Good thing no one was living there, but yeah. Shame."

"Is the peace conference over? How'd it go?" I ask. I sit down and bring my knees into my chest. It gives my legs a rest. I'm not as afraid now since water is surrounding us on all sides.

He sighs. "Inconclusive. Splitting into factions. Janine failed to make friends with most of them."

"Shocker," Jody says sarcastically.

"Yeah. Yeah. She just basically got chatting to that bloke, Sage. Hey, Jody, did you ever think maybe you would have been better at the peace conference?"

"And she would have been better off running tactical here? Yeah, maybe."

Nicole facepalms.

"Still, there's plenty of tactics to go around," She continues. "The V-Types have got out. Not to mention a bunch of homicidal Last Riders that weren't followin' us on their bikes."

"Do you know why they call themselves that?" Steve questions.

"No. We have been wondering about that," Sam answers.

"I heard about them when I worked with Sigrid. They call themselves the Last Riders because they think this is it. The fall of humanity, the rout of mankind. Last Riders as in 'No one comes after us. We're all the last at whatever we're doing. Just... give up now.'"

"Yeah, but we'll figure out a way to stop them. And the V-Types. I mean, Veronica figured out a cure for the old zombie plague. We can sort this out." Sam's voice is hopeful, but doubt still gnaws at my insides.

"But it took us seven years to find a cure for regular zombies." I bite the inside of my cheek. "We can't wait that long, not with V-Types. I mean, you saw what that one did. It ripped a man's head off with a single tug. I want to believe we can fix this. We have to try! But..."

"We're the people who got through the last one. If Sigrid didn't stop us, and Van Ark didn't stop us, and Moonchild didn't stop us, then some weirdos on bikes are not going to stop us!"

"...And the V-Types?"

"We'll figure it out," He says, his voice assuring. "We will."

A/N: Here you go, guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please be sure to vote and comment! Thank you and have a blessed day!