Chapter 1: Prologue – Going back

[Lyon's POV]

My name is Lyon, and this is how the world we were birthed into fell into a form of anarchy that always had death as its neighbor. I was a ruin scavenger, a person meant to brave the dangers of going back inside the ruined cities just to bring back supplies we can sell or trade for.

 

While it is true that death became something common after the old world's death a few months ago, a certain beauty was carried alongside it as people banded together in an attempt to survive through this mess. I had one such group, a group that consisted of two people that I had met in college, people that I didn't expect would become pillars meant for one another's survival.

 

Ren Chiaki, a friend that I had met during our first year of college, the same year when all of this began. My second companion was Alyssa Kaede, one of the unlikeliest of people that pre-apocalypse Lyon would've expected to have grown closer to, let alone form a romantic relationship with. With the fall of civilization and loss of public order, various settlements began popping up, some of which formed with the core ideal of survival through any means, raiding included.

 

The Nexus is a well-known settlement that separates itself from the rest with the amount of trade happening in the city alone. The city stood at the center of the rural areas of Iwate to its south and the ruins of Yoime city to its north. The city well known for its bustling streets was nowhere to be found though as the atmosphere was replaced with that of a dying one.

 

The city was more than capable of defending itself from the raider gangs that popped up around the area, outcasts of an already dying race for who knows why. We were defending against another horde, the term we used for the mass arrivals of the infected around the walled settlement. We were more than capable of defending against it, and yet we had failed to do so on this occasion.

 

The Nexus was a trade hub so it should've had more than enough defenders protecting it. That was supposed to be the case but Shokuga, the wasteland capital located in Miyagi Prefecture, had "requested" for all major settlements north of it to provide 3/4ths of their militias to help defend against a bigger wave that came from the south.

 

With only a quarter of its defenders remaining in the settlement, it became the best opportunity for raiders to begin attacking the settlement. They led a horde of zombies, using themselves as bait for the zombies to give chase before being ultimately led to the city itself.

 

Ruin scavengers like us were expected to help defend the city by manning the walls that enclosed the city in cases of emergency, one of which was similar to this. It was just another horde, wiping it out even with only a quarter of our usual numbers should've been easy but the sudden sound of an explosion coming from the south was more than enough to bring my thoughts back to the present.

 

"Oh God, Ren I need to go back. Alyssa's still at the tent zone all alone." I tell Ren who nods back to me as he looks behind him, spotting one of the normal types running towards him. Ren, in turn, uses his bat and bashes the zombie away, its head rotating 180 degrees only to then rise back up to find its next meal.

 

"Understood, I'll stay behind and get the car ready for a quick evac, this city's fucked anyway. I'll see you at the car" Ren states while killing the zombie in front of him before running towards the parking zone. The monsters or "zombies" which is the term used in movies with situations like these were faster than what those damn movies depicted zombies as.

 

Proof of this was the fact that zombies that came from the destroyed southern wall had already reached deep inside the city itself. I reach my group's tent and find it empty, with clothes scattered all around the ground as I hear screams of pain from humans and agitated screech coming from zombies echo all around me.

 

'Alyssa... where are you? We need to go right fucking now.' I complain inwardly as I begin putting various supplies inside a duffel bag near me. A lone zombie walks into the same entrance I had used earlier to get in, it screeches loudly before rushing at me. I stand back up and unsheathed my machete, raising it above my head before bringing it down on the rushing zombie's head as soon as it was close enough.

 

Another zombie enters the tent, it opens its mouth in an attempt to screech out only to then have a blade pierce through the middle of its eye by the person standing behind it, Alyssa. She runs up to me and starts checking my body to see if I had any injuries. While she does so, I can't help but remember how this is the same girl that used to outright ignore everybody else as if no one else existed around her.

 

"Your okay, that's good" Alyssa stated with a tired tone. "Ye-Yeah I am okay, come on we need to leave, Ren's already at the car and I've packed enough provisions to last us the trip to get to Mashida" I reply in a quick manner while picking up the bag that I had been filling up with supplies earlier. I and Alyssa quickly run away from the tent site and move closer to the parking zone which was where Ren was probably waiting for us.

 

'We usually keep two gas canisters and another bag of gear and food inside the car so that should be enough for a few days at least.' I think to myself as I run away while looking at the burning city. By the time we reached the parking zone, cars owned by other people have already begun leaving towards the eastern gate.

 

We spot Ren waiting beside the car, warily looking around his surrounding for us with one hand still holding onto the baseball bat he told me he used back when he still played baseball when he was a kid, only now it's covered in blood and is used to bash zombie heads instead of hitting a ball.

 

He spots us as we run towards him while I was carrying the bag that contained what provisions I could get from our tent. "Get in we need to leave, we should go through the western gate as the eastern gate might be clogged up with all those cars that left before us" Ren told us as he opens the door to the car and unlocks the other doors from inside. I get inside the front passenger seat while Alyssa ops to seat on the second row of seats.

 

As for Ren, he gets in the driver's seat as he is actually the only one of us that had prior experience with driving cars in the past. 'As Ren mentioned earlier, the eastern gate is most likely already full of cars with people clogging up the roads as it is the nearest gate to the parking zone which was why the western gate which is farther from our current location might be the best bet for us.' I think to myself.

 

I turn my face to Alyssa and see her staring at me with worried eyes "Its going to be okay, we can get to Mashida with the supplies we managed to take with us" I tell her in a relaxed tone. While I may seem confident in our chances I still couldn't help but worry about our future and I know she can see through my act. "mhm we are going to be fine" she replies as if to convince me more instead of herself. "Oy mind keeping all that lovey-dovey stuff for later once we are out of here or what?" Ren questions us in an annoyed yet joking manner.

 

'Yeah he's right, we aren't out of the clear yet we need to leave through the western gate and get to Mashida to tell them of what happened.' I thought to myself, not even noticing how the car suddenly swerved to the right heading right into one of the houses beside the street.

 

I woke up disoriented with a headache as I forgot to wear my seatbelts. I start to feel around me only to feel a warm yet wet feeling in my hand as I put my hand over my head. I look beside me only to see Ren, a friend I trusted with my back dead as shards of glass left his face unrecognizable with blood dripping down from his face to his neck and then to the driver's seat.

 

I knew there was nothing I could do for him so I looked at the row of chairs behind me and see Alyssa who looked fine but was definitely out cold. As my senses came back to me I could hear screams of people and the snarls of the zombies that were near our crashed car.

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I look around through the destroyed window for somewhere I and Alyssa could hide to take shelter. I spot a door to one of the houses opposite to the house we had just crashed into left open. I hobble out of the car with my machete in hand as the zombies near the vicinity of the car see me get out.

 

'Two on the front and one on the right' I think to myself as they start running towards me as if I was a piece of A5 wagyu. I kick the zombie at the right side hard enough for it to stumble quite a distance away while slicing the head off of one of the zombies in front of me.

 

As for the other zombie in front of me, I use my machete to hit its head with a downwards strike right at the center of its head only for my machete to embed itself on its head. I look to the right and see the zombie I kicked back earlier rushing towards me, it pushes me back and pins me to one of the abandoned cars left on the road.

 

'This is bad, the growls of those zombies may have attracted more of them and with Alyssa still knocked out cold, the chances of us getting out of here is almost close to none.' I think to myself as I struggle against the zombie whose mouth was already close to biting my neck off. With only mere inches away from getting my neck bit off, a gunshot coming from the direction of the car rings out as I see Alyssa holding her father's M911 pistol. The zombie slumps down as it finally stays dead and I start turning my head towards her to say my thanks.

 

I nod in gratitude but start to see an arm outstretched from below the car reach for her legs. Before I could even scream out a warning towards her the zombie below the car grabs her foot causing her to fall down and drop her pistol as the zombie bites down her exposed ankles causing her to let out a pained grunt. I quickly run towards her and kick the zombie's head away and piggyback her towards the open door I saw before.

 

I pick up her pistol and start seeing more zombies running towards us in both opposite directions of the road. I managed to get us inside and lock the door behind us as the zombies continue to try to knock down our door, knowing that fresh meat is right inside this house. I place her down in front of the wall opposite to the door and check the ankle she was bitten on.

 

"Alyssa look at me your gonna be okay, the bite wasn't deep, ma-maybe we can just cut off that foot." I tell her out of desperation as memories of everything we have been through flash through my mind.

 

"Hey Lyon, don't be like that please, we both know there's nothing we can do" Alyssa replies with a pained grunt and a low tone with a sad smile plastered on her face.

 

"Don't say that Aly, come on your gonna be okay, everything's going to be okay." I unconvincingly tell her as I stare at her paling skin and dimming eyes yet I already knew that the moment she was bit, any action to try and save her would just fail.

 

"hehe that's the first time you called me that, mhh I quite like it. Hey, do you remember that crepe shop near our school campus, the one near the subway entrance, I never really did get to try their crepes. I heard it was quite good, I wish we could've tried it at least once." Alyssa tells me in the lowest voice I've ever heard from her.

 

"Then lets go there, you and me, I want to see what flavors we can try there, maybe we can even get different flavors and share them" I tell her as I hold her pale hand that has begun losing its usual warmth with my own shaky hands.

 

"Hey Lyon" She replies with that same weak tone. I look at her with tears already cascading down my eyes, soaking the floorboards with small drops of water. "I'm sorry but please don't let me become like them" she tells me with her eyelids already beginning to close. "I love you... my dear Lyon" and with those final words her mouth opens and closes for the last time.

 

...

 

All I could hear anymore were the same pounding noises the zombies outside made as they kept hitting the door. With shaky legs, I carry her body towards the couch and lay her down comfortably on it. I pick up the M911 I had dropped as I closed the door when we first went in.

 

I look at her pale face and kiss her forehead for the last time with tears still falling down my face. "I love you too.... my beloved Aly". I stand a few meters away and aim the same M911 she used to save me earlier. Only this time instead of using it to save her, I was going to use it to shoot her. With shaky hands, I aim it at her head while breathing heavily and pull the trigger...

 

I drop down to my knees beside the couch and hug her lifeless body as I kept on crying about the loss of everything left that I held dear to me.

 

Hours pass and the once slightly loud pounding on the door has grown stronger. I carry Alyssa's lifeless body to one of the empty bedrooms on the second floor of the house and lay her down quietly on the bed.

 

'It looks as if she's just sleeping' I think to myself before closing the door to the bedroom behind me gently as if I was worried she would wake up and go downstairs. I look towards the door and see cracks have begun to form with its imminent destruction being close to happening already.

 

I walk towards the house's kitchen and find one of those propane cans used on stoves and carry it with me. I drop down in front of the wall opposite the door with the pistol in hand and watch the door get broken down by the same monster that took away Alyssa from me.

 

As they run towards me I only have one final thought on my mind before my inevitable death 'Heh hey Alyssa, I think I want to go try out that crepe shop you told me about earlier with you tommorow' I think to myself before shooting the propane tank beside me

 

...

I woke up gasping for air, finding myself in the same bedroom of my parent's house a few months ago, long before Z-day even began. I look towards the stand mirror inside my room and see a much younger and somewhat scrawnier version of myself and think 'What the fu-'

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