A giant gray wolf was speeding through the snowy streets of SC12, so fast that only a gray blur could be seen. Now and then, a few level 2 zombies would try to ambush this gray blur, but all it did was slow down a bit, and use its huge jaws to bite and tear the level 2 zombies in half before continuing its non-stop run...
Riding on top of the wolf, a man and a woman were having a light argument.
"Why do you have to go so fast?" The frustrated woman asked.
"Lives are in danger, we can’t waste time..." The man replied in a serious tone.
"I’m almost falling on the curves..."
"I told you, just hold on to me."
"You’re a pervert, you’re doing this on purpose so that I’ll hold on to you..."
"But you didn’t mind touching me so many times during the experiments where I was just a helpless guinea pig..."
"That was for the sake of medical advances during a crisis... And before I found out you were a pervert..."
"You were the one who asked for strange samples from my body. I was just teaching you how to collect them..."
The woman blushed at the last sentence, and after being silent for a few seconds, she held on tightly to the man, still afraid of falling during one of the curves... With his back to her, the man just gave a mischievous smile, getting what he wanted...
Soon, the wolf stopped in front of a small police station, and two people got off its back. They were Rick and Maya. As soon as they got off, Maya started to fix her hair after riding the fast Fulmen, and the wolf also shook his fur like a wet dog, throwing snow everywhere.
Rick and Maya smiled as they watched the wolf the size of a box truck act like a regular dog... Rick stroked the fur on its head as he said:
"Good job, Fulmen, now get some rest..."
The giant wolf responded by lying down and trying to lick Rick in return for the affection, but Rick quickly dodged the huge tongue, not wanting to get wet.
Then he entered the police station with Maya... Inside, the sight was terrible; there were some improvised stretchers, with several men with internal bleeding, some who were missing their limbs, and others who had them, but their bones and muscles were completely crushed...
Rick quickly saw Fabian sitting on one of the stretchers. He was very pale, with dried blood on his nose and ears...
Rick approached him and signaled to Maya, who began to heal the Sergeant by placing her hands on his ears...
"I thought I had lost my hearing forever... Thank you for healing me, but prioritize my men first..."
While Maya began to heal the injured police officers, Rick finally asked for more details about the zombie...
"Tell me what he looked like, what abilities he used, his strength, speed, etc..."
"He was about eight feet tall, he was a man, bald, his body was full of muscles, and his skin was white as snow... He still had the same red eyes as the other zombies, and he was wearing torn military pants."
"Could he be a military man from the launch base?" Rick thought.
"He was strong enough to destroy concrete walls and throw cars that were in his way, his body was so resistant that even explosions and high-caliber bullets only left light bruises, and the explosions only stunned him for a short time... Another thing was that despite appearing to be big and heavy, he was fast, very fast..."
"Did he have any non-human parts? Something like an extra limb? A tail? Or a head larger than normal?"
"No, apart from the excessively white skin, he just looked like a human taller and more muscular than normal..."
"Did you notice any kind of weakness?"
"Hm... I don’t know if it’s a weakness, but he didn’t jump any of the times... You know? Even when he was going through the barricades we set up... As level 2 mutants, we can jump high, but it seemed like his weight limited that..."
"Okay, even though he’s dangerous, he’s not the type we need to worry about... Now, Sergeant, what do you need from me?"
"We lost our place that had already been reinforced, we lost some of our men, we lost the resources and wood we had accumulated in the police station to get through the long winter... We need help creating a new base. If you provide us with some resources and manpower, we can pay you back later when the worst part of the winter is over."
"Maybe there’s something you and your group can do for me. Let me explain..."
"If the white zombie isn’t the type we need to worry about, why did we come here?" Maya asked as she observed Rick’s serious face.
Rick walked around the demolished police station before speaking:
"It’s not him I’m worried about, but the fact that he simply exists less than 2 months after the apocalypse began..."
"But you always said that everything was different, that things were faster..."
"You don’t understand, there are few zombies that can evolve to level 3, but each one of them is a threat capable of destroying an entire city. Even though this city already has many level 3 mutant humans..."
"Did you ever find out how a level 2 zombie evolves? In the past, when I asked, you didn’t tell me because you said it was unlikely to see one so soon..."
Rick continued walking, leaving the rubble of the police station behind, and followed the trail of destruction to a partially demolished building. He also found a dead police officer, partially devoured, with his skull crushed along with the wall behind him.
After checking the police officer’s corpse, Rick turned to Maya, answering the curious doctor’s question.
"For a level 2 zombie to evolve, it needs to consume 30 level 2 human crystals. Or a single level 3 human crystal."
"Exactly, it’s almost impossible for a level 2 zombie to kill so many evolved humans... Normal humans and those below level 2 don’t count either, and crystals from other zombies and monsters don’t work either. A level 2 zombie killing a level 3 human? Something even more difficult... But if the zombie gets lucky, it can happen. That leaves zombies with only the natural way to evolve. And the time for that to happen would be 3 years in the apocalypse I lived through."
"So you think it would take at least 6 months or even 1 year this time?"
"Yes, almost that, using an average of how fast levels 0, 1, and 2 evolved."
At that moment, Rick’s gaze became serious.
"That’s why I suspect someone fed this zombie with a level 3 crystal, and I think this white zombie might not be the only level 3 walking around this area..."
"What do we do? Shouldn’t we just retreat everyone back to Pineview? Why build more bases? I found your proposal to Fabian strange... Right now, we already have 3 bases and barely enough personnel for all of them. What’s your goal in this? I feel like you’re hiding something from us..."
Rick smiled at Maya. It was normal for her not to understand the system’s motives, but he had experience with the apocalypse and could see the advantage of so many bases... He then tried to explain this to Maya while comforting her...
"More bases mean more human settlements, and more chances for other survivors to find us and increase our numbers. If we’re going to rebuild a civilization over the years, we need more people. Besides, I’m creating a perimeter using the Satellite Cities as a circular shield around Pineview Base. Imagine what would have happened if Fabian hadn’t been here today? When would we have known about this abomination in advance?"
"I see... Do you think he escaped from the collapsed building?"
"Maybe, I can’t dig the 3 underground floors of the police station to confirm, even if I wanted the level 3 crystal..."
"If someone fed this zombie with a crystal, do you think it was that android that attacked you?"
"Ethan’s analysis proves that the materials of the android’s arm are 100% compatible with those of the first drone he analyzed. And now with the possibility that someone is feeding level 2 zombies with level 3 crystals. I think it’s time to finally warn the people of Jyera about the truth behind this apocalypse..."
"Yes, that’s the right thing to do, the winter, the use of crystals and everything we know, we have to inform as many people as possible so they can survive." Maya reminded Rick with a determined look.
But Rick still had a complicated look on his face and said, "If we do that, I’m afraid we’ll put a target on our backs, so let’s go back to Pineview Base first, and see what the majority will decide..."
Two days later, in the wreckage of the SC12 police station, a strong white hand finally came out from within the rubble and used its powerful strength to finally return to the surface.
The white zombie now had several charred black spots on its body, and it no longer had its left forearm. And even one of its red eyes had been crushed with parts of an ear and skull. Dried black blood was in its ears, nose, and mouth.
But the monster’s resilience was too strong, and as soon as it emerged from the rubble, it began trying to track human targets again. Especially the level 3 that he managed to sniff out last time inside the police station... This one had a scent that was irresistible to him...
As soon as the white zombie resumed his hunt, he was surprised by a figure that walked out of a dark alley. She was the height of a normal human, but even in the dark, the white zombie could see that she had a huge head. But since he didn’t smell any human scent coming from her, he resumed his hunt, trying to sniff out his targets.
"Wait! Are you hurt?"
The voice hit the white zombie’s head like high-pitched vocal cords, causing several echoes that went straight into his brain. The white zombie staggered and turned around, answering a few seconds later: "Yes, I’m hurt! Can you help me?"
"Sure... Just follow me and everything will be fine..."
After this second line, the voice reached deep into the white zombie’s mind again, and he began to follow this mysterious figure that was still hiding inside the dark alley...
As soon as the figure moved and left the dark alley, it was possible to see its red eyes and a brain that was so large that parts of it were sticking out of several cracks in what was left of its skull...
As the level 3 zombie with its exposed brain moved, it whistled as if it was singing an old classic song, and every time a level 1 or level 2 zombie heard the whistle, they would start following it through the streets, just like the level 3 white zombie did without even realizing that they were all being controlled...