“Come on, Alia!” Murdock grabbed her hand and directed her in front of him. He made her cross over the metallic pipeline first. When it was his time to cross over, his heart began beating through his chest erotically.

“I can do this. I can do this. All I have to do is walk straight ahead and don’t look down.” The path below was very far away, if he fell, that would be the end of his zombie-killing career.

“GRAAAAHH!” The hoard of zombies caught up with Murdock shortly after he started crossing over the metallic pipeline. At first, they intensified their thrust across the pipeline, but upon realizing that the crowded zombies were always falling off, they decided to tread across the narrow path one by one. One after the other, zombies began balancing across the pipeline in repetitious succession.

“Holy shit! What is that?” Looking back, Murdock discovered that the zombies were quickly gaining on him.

From the other side of the pathway, Alia shouted, “Mister, hurry! The monsters are right behind you!”

“I know that! This is harder than it looks you know.” Murdock became slightly discouraged when he saw just how well the zombies were balancing across the pipeline. “How are those brainless bastards so freaking good at this? Were they acrobats before getting infected?”

“Bang! Bang!”

Suddenly, many loud sounds of gunshots firing startled Murdock to a halt. Looking below him, he spotted a squadron of military personnel firing at the zombies that were chasing him across the metallic pipeline. They began falling in droves.

“Oh, I’m saved!” Murdock rejoiced too early. One of the zombies had escaped being blown to bits by the militia below. It lurched at Murdock’s back, causing him to almost fall off the metallic pipeline.

“No! Jovain!” Perceiving that her baby brother was in danger of falling to his doom, Alia ran back across the pipeline to where Murdock was barely hanging on. The zombie managed to bite a chunk out of his arm.

“Get off me, you bastard!”

An elite marksman placed a bullet between the zombie’s eyes.  It fell to its doom with a part of Murdock’s flesh still stuck in its mouth. It splattered all over the cracked asphalt.

“Mister, give me your hand.” Alia helped Murdock to his feet, moreover, she checked to see if her baby brother was injured.

“Hey, you up there!” One of the military personnel spoke to Murdock and Alia from below. “Hurry across! We’ll meet you on the side!”

“Ok!” Responded Murdock. “Thank goodness we’re saved.” He was no longer afraid to tread across the narrow pipeline. After reaching the other building, he along with Alia and her baby brother made their way to the street level where they were met by a group of soldiers.

“You guys ok?”

Murdock secretly covered his injured arm and responded, “Yeah, we’re fine.”

“Alright then, hop on in. We’re bringing you back to base.”

Murdock went inside the military vehicle with Alia and her baby brother. They met some other survivors in the back. “Who knew there were this many survivors scattered across the city. There are even some old ones among them.”

“Alright men, we’re pulling out!”

“Roger!”

“Bogeys dead ahead!”

“Step on it!”

The military vehicles directed their course back towards the town centre. Along the way, they came across a multitude of zombies who they shot down with their machine guns, moreover, ran over with their bulky tyres.

…… The Town Hall

This particular area was heavily fortified with government troops and a strategically placed barricade. It was one of the most secure barracks in the entire city of Monsterdam. The various missiles that barraged the city earlier came from the powerful Howitzers set up all around this facility. The zombies knew well to not venture carelessly towards this area.

The military vessel that was transporting the city survivors came to a gradual stop near the west entrance of the barricade. The persons in charge of opening the gates allowed them entry.

Looking outside of his window, Murdock discovered many military presences as well as medical practitioners. Several tents were set up around the grounds to host the infected individuals who hadn’t fully turned yet.

“We finally made it to a safe place that has a proper shelter, food and water. What do you think Alia?”

“Ahm…” Alia didn’t give an audible response, however, the glee in her eyes as she glanced outside the windows said it all.

As they exited the bus, Alia held tightly onto Murdock’s trousers while exuding a bit of fear. He told her, “Hey, you and your baby brother are going to be alright now. This place has food, vaccines and a safe place for you to stay.”

“But, I want to stay with you, Mister Murdock.”

Noticing the sincere concern in Alia’s eyes, Murdock told her, “Ok, let’s go together.”

Coming off the bus, every survivor was directed to a particular quarantine zone for safety checks.

“You 2, over here.” A soldier called over Murdock’s gang inside a secure tent for testing.

The doctors inside were very thorough, they made sure to check every nook and cranny of their patients. During his search, the male doctor discovered a fresh bite mark on Murdock’s left arm. “What is this?”

“It’s no big deal doc. I’ve already been vaccinated before the outbreak evolved this far.”

The doctor wasn’t so convinced by Murdock’s answer. “Well, we’ll inoculate you again just in case you’re lying. We can’t afford to have a crazy infected person wreaking havoc inside these secure walls.”

Finished inoculating Murdock with the flesh-eating pathogen vaccine, the doctor directed his gaze toward Alia. “You’re next little girl. Let me take a look at that baby too.”

“Ahm…” Alia was hesitant to hand her baby brother over to science, thus she looked at Murdock for advice.

“It’s ok, Alia. You can trust these people.”

“Alright.”

The female doctor took the baby from Alia’s grasp. While they were busy being looked after, Murdock sparked up a conversation with the male doctor.

“Hey, doc, quick question. You work for the government right, so you must have some intel about what caused this outbreak? Why have so many people worldwide transformed into disgusting zombies? Could we be experiencing another God pandemic?”

The doctor was reluctant to answer. “That’s classified information.”

“No shit. The government has yet to inform the public about what caused this major shit storm that we’re currently in. It’s been months now. Those bastards must be hiding something from us. Come on man, I need to know what’s going on with our world.”

“Hmm…” The doctors side-glanced each other for a brief period before speculating. “I heard that it was a worldwide terrorist attack. You know about that infamous Ice Mist group that has been the talk of the world for these past years?”

“How could I not? Everybody has heard of them.” Answered Murdock.

“My sources told me that this all started in the south of Destiny where they engineered a liquid-based pathogen to wipe all humans from the face of the planet. They poisoned the irrigation systems along with all the world’s major sources of freshwater supply.”

Murdock was startled hearing this. “How did they even manage to accomplish such a feat? They must have a lot of friends in high places, am I right?” He tried to squeeze out more information but the doctors weren’t that foolish.

“That’s all I know. I can’t tell you anything else. Now put these on and go.” The doctor gave them fresh clothes to wear, afterwards, he toss their old garments in a trash can.

While getting dressed inside, something clicked in Murdock’s head. “Wait, something still doesn’t add up. Those vaccines that you’re injecting into everyone, how did your people synthesize an effective batch so quickly? If I were those terrorists, I’d imagine they’d make it very virulent and complex to create a vaccine within only a matter of weeks after the outbreak.” Cold sweat began to form on the doctors’ cheeks as they listened to Murdock’s assumptions. “Very weird indeed. Either your technologies are really advanced or this was all an elaborate scheme from the…”

“Mister…” Alia came along and interrupted Murdock. “I’m all dressed now. Can we go get something to eat?”

“Ok, we’ll go right now. I’m also starving.”

“This way.” The doctors followed Murdock, Alia and her little brother outside the tent.

After they were far away, the male doctor called over a soldier who was stationed nearby and told him to keep a watchful on them, especially the big man.

Upon venturing further inside the secure compound, Alia and Murdock discovered that there were a lot more people there than they expected. After getting registered, they went straight ahead to the area that was serving food. While filling their tummies, they were completely unaware of the influential figure that was sitting 12 stories above them.

At the tallest peak of the heavily guarded building, inside a luxurious office, Mr Klint was pacing back and forth in front of numerous monitors which depicted a live stream of other worldwide leaders. His countenance was livid as he spoke:

“Prime Minister Noris, this is a catastrophe! Why the hell are the dead coming back to life?”

“Something must have gone wrong during the pathogen’s development. Maybe the research team overlook some important variables.”

“Well obviously dumbass!” Mr Klint’s angry saliva spewed all over the monitors. “As we speak, my team is doing their best to rescue survivors and keep this base secure. We’re waiting on a proper countermeasure to counteract this bloody apocalypse.”

Another world leader voiced their opinion. “Enough with your suggestions, Prime Minister Noris. We won’t be needing your assistance anymore. Your next advice might just doom us all.”

“We’re cutting you off, Prime Minister Noris.” Agreed another world leader.

“No, wait! Listen to what I have to say please!” Prime Minister Noris begged for a chance to speak. “I think we’ve found a way to neutralize the pathogen inside the infected who came back to life. It is liquid-based similar to that of the vaccine, but with the newly added component, it will become a deadly weapon against the infected. Right now this virus is in the early stages of development but given a bit more time it should be ready for deployment.”

Mr Klint considered Prime Minister Noris’s proposal. “How long do you need?”

“Just a few more days and I promise that all will be ready. Trust me.”

“Alright, then I will give my official authorization to the board of… huh?” Mr Klint became distracted by something that he spotted outside his window. The others who were watching from the monitors, saw when he moved out of frame.

“Mr Klint, is something wrong over there?”

“I’m not sure yet. What might that be?” As Mr Klint walked closer and closer to the window, his eyes started noticing a growing black swarm of humungous birds descending from the sky. “Are those… crows?”

Pouring out of the sky was indeed a very large flock of crows. The Emperor was among the centre of them, issuing his command. “My fellow crows! Commence, Operation Feast!”

“With great pleasure, Emperor!”

“I’ve been waiting a long time for this! Those damn humans are about to find out just who are the most powerful species on this planet.”

“Crows! Attack!”

 “What the heck is going on here?” Mr Klint was dumbstruck with cumbersome trepidation; so scared that he couldn’t move a muscle to evade the incoming crow rushing directly at him.

As soon as the window exploded to bits, Mr Klint found his head melting inside the stomach acid of a large crow.

“What the hell was that explosion? Mr President are you ok?”

The guards dashed into the room and were met with a grotesque imagery. They witnessed their president’s intestines being guzzled down by an oversize crow. So terrified they were that they pissed and shit themselves.

“AHHH WE’RE GOING TO DIE!” And indeed they did. 

The two security guards that came into the room were devoured so quickly that they didn’t even taste their own deaths.

Chaos ensued all over the barracks. In the presence of the raining storms of crows, myriads of humans were running around scared shitless. Only a handful of them was manly/womanly enough to fight back.

“Deploy the Howitzers! We can’t let these bastards, whatever they are overpower us!”

“The colonel is right. We have to fight back!”

“Everyone prepare for battle!”

The morale and battle spirits of the soldiers became extremely riled up. They were facing an unpredicted life and death situation, so it was expected of them to go all out and never hold back.

“We’re under attack by goddamn giant birds! Bring out the heavy artilleries!”

The humans weren’t going to just bend over and take defeat up the ass. They started fighting back against the raining barrage of crows with everything they had, even the zombies joined the fight after the barricade crumbled under the chaos. However, they mostly attack the humans who were on the ground and within reach.

“Ah hell, now we have to deal with these flesh-eating bastards too!”

“What of the president's situation? Has he been safely evacuated?”

“We don’t know. We’ve lost contact with the top floor a while ago. I hope the president has already evacuated to safety.”

“Now is not the time to be focusing on others. Try to save yourselves first!”

“Right! Eat lead you flying mother…”

The battle wasn’t going so well outside. With the crows sending aerial attacks from above coupled with the ground assault from the zombies, the humans were being drastically overwhelmed.

Within the inner region of the compound, Murdock was dodging falling ceiling debris as he tried his best to make it to safety with Alia and her baby brother. Suddenly, a crow burst through the ceiling and landed before Murdock; he clung tightly to the crying baby in his arms as he tried to wrap his head around what was currently taking place around him.

“Holy shit that’s a huge bird! Could the virus have caused them to mutate this big?”

“Mister, I’m scared.” Alia clung tightly to Murdock’s backside.

“Don’t worry Alia. We’re not going to die today.” Although he said this with much hubris, Murdock was about to shit his pants in fear, he even unwillingly farted in Alia’s face.

“Caw!” The crow identified a succulent human child crying away in Murdock’s arms. To remedy its salivating hunger, it pushed forth its pointy beak towards the baby, but its entire head got blown off before it could get there.

“Are you ok?” A soldier arrived just in time to rescue Murdock and the other survivors. Judging his muscularity, he said, “You look like a man who can handle a weapon. Take this.” He gave Murdock a massive gun and told him to defend himself against the crows and zombies.