Zombie Apocalypse: Creation

As the sun began to fall from its peak, Xiaoyun was standing right on top of an office building.

He had been watching and examining the death zone for over an hour. Planning with Yiming and the Colonels for even longer.

Looking through the binoculars, he could see small groups of soldiers, all scattered throughout the entire city into groups of five.

Every street corner, every window, every doorway had someone with a rifle, aiming towards a long red line.

The red line wasn't just metaphorical. But a literal pile of blood-red meat that could be visibly seen pulsing and retracting.

From the roads on the street all the way up to the skyscrapers, the flesh almost felt like electric wiring that linked up various buildings.

What's worse was the dense fog that shrouded what's deeper into the city, preventing anyone from seeing the flesh's deeper connection.

"All units ready?"

Xiaoyun asked out loud as his hand held onto the walkie-talkie, with several soldiers in each corner of the building.

"Task force North Snake, ready!"

"Task force South Phoenix, ready!"

"Task force East Dragon, ready!"

"Task force West Tiger, ready!"

"Operation begins now. Over."

Within seconds, loud bangs could be heard before a closer explosion rang into everyone's ear as buildings in the distance began to fall.

Endless Shells were raining down from the sky, dropping right into the dense fog with sudden flashes appearing in the distance.

After ten minutes of nonstop bombardment, a loud, howling sound could be heard within the fog as if something was being hurt.

"Zombies are flooding out, sir!"

An officer reported, looking through his drone footage as he flew it past the red line to have a closer look.

"Good. Now we just have to wait."

Soon, gunshots could be heard in every direction. Zombies were already running past the red line, flooding straight onto the streets where soldiers stood.

"Yiming, get your soldiers ready," Xiaoyun asked, looking over his shoulder.

"They are as ready as they can be."

As the fighting in the streets continued, the number of zombies had already begun to subside rapidly.

It was just a cakewalk for the soldiers—no mutants that break their formation, no bullet sponges that require multiple bullets to kill.

Every shot was a kill. Everything was trending in the positive direction until something began to change.

"Commander! The red line is starting to move!"

"All units! Began Plan B."

The moment Xiaoyun sent out the transmission, waves upon waves of fresh soldiers started flooding out onto the street from nearby buildings.

Oddly enough, the new group had no rifle out. Instead, they all held their tactical shovel, running towards the red line with one goal in mind.

Slash! Slash! More slashing!

It was just endless cuts as their fellow soldiers with rifles protected them with gunfire, pushing the zombie further and further back.

"Sir! The red line has started to retreat!"

"Perfect!"

Xiaoyun's face was filled with excitement, while Yiming held up a poker face as more and more reports started flooding in.

Everything was going just as planned. Step by step, the flesh on the ground was being cut into pieces.

"Sir! Task Force North Snake is starting to run out of ammo!" A reporter yelled with a large transmitter on a small table.

"Tell them to begin Plan C."

After ten minutes of waiting, smoke began to appear in the distance as if something was being burned.

"Yiming, tell Task Force Delta to get ready."

"Already on it."

As Yiming went over to the other radio operator, Xiaoyun took out his binoculars to have a look further up north.

Although he couldn't see what was happening exactly, he could still see the smoke getting bigger and bigger as it traveled up into the sky.

"Sir! Task Force South Phoenix is running out of ammo as well!"

"Tell them Plan C... No, let me just do it."

Xiaoyun quickly took out his walkie-talkie, turning it on again before tuning to the public channel.

"All units began Plan C. I repeat, all units began Plan C effective immediately. Over."

As time continued to pass, the entire city was covered in smoke as everyone could feel the foul, rotten smell in the air.

Looking down at the closest army unit, the soldiers were all pouring gasoline straight onto the streets as they retreated.

Zombie corpses and the detached flesh further down the road were already being burnt, with the red line being almost indistinguishable through the massive fire.

"Xiaoyun, are you sure we are going to have enough fuel for this?"

Yiming raised his concern as the smoke began to travel up to the office building, causing some of the soldiers to cough.

"I'm sure of it... I took the entire fuel stockpile we had just for this. I know you tried burning it before, but this time it's going to work."

Xiaoyun's reassurance didn't really give the confident Yiming the confidence he needed, but he didn't speak up any further as he watched the situation unfold.

---

As nighttime arrived, the fighting continued.

Every single soldier had already rotated to the front line for the third time. The progress? The red line had noticeably retracted about 100 meters in diameter.

However, two new problems had arisen.

The first problem was the fact that the dense fog remained in place, no matter how far the red line was pushed back. It just refused to budge.

Soldiers were also beginning to experience nausea and even illusions when staying inside the red fog.

Several friendly fire cases forced Xiaoyun's army to retreat. Still, they remained right outside the fog to keep the red line from expanding any further.

Weirdly enough, zombies had also stopped coming out, with the red line no longer regenerating back to the fog limit.

The second problem, however, was the fact that the building that wasn't covered in dense fog was still covered in piles upon piles of red flesh.

A decision was right before Xiaoyun's eye. One that required a heavy workload and cost to either attempt to blow the building up or to burn it.

"Maybe we should just leave it alone... The cost is way too high for a single one."

Yiming suggested that after a field engineer reported the explosives needed would be in the tens of thousands in very specific spots, they still haven't found them.

"We need to destroy it. Or else the thing inside the death zone is going to absorb everything to gain back its energy."

Yiming didn't speak up again, waiting for Xiaoyun to make the decision, as everyone knew how stretched supplies were.

If they were to blow up the buildings, it was certain they would have to retreat afterward, losing all the progress they had made so far.

"Li Miao, Yan Lin, go direct your soldiers to begin entering the building... Try to set it on fire and see if that works."

"Yes, sir."

As the two Colonels walked off the HQ tent, Xiaoyun looked over to Li Qing, who looked a little zoned out.

"Hey Li Qing, how many supplies do we have left right now if we were to keep up the fighting?"

"Enough for two more days... Then fuel will run out, then ammo next."

"Xiaoyun, we really should think about conserving some of the supplies in case this offensive goes wrong," Yiming argued.

"We can't stop at this point. Remember what you said in the morning? That red line expanded one meter even when you left it alone.

Regardless of what we do, it's going to expand no matter what. We just have to keep pressing it until it runs out of energy."

Yiming wanted to speak up again, but his mouth ran out of words to say in the end, as he didn't have any alternative.

"Commander... How do we know when it's going to run out of energy?" Han Bang quietly questioned.

"I... I don't know. But if we chicken out first, we are going to lose all the progress we have made so far."

This time, no one in the tent spoke up again as everyone understood what decision Xiaoyun was going to take.

"Yiming, go take a nap. Your mind needs a little break... Everyone else, get ready to set up for night shift."

"Yes, sir!"

As all the other colonels left the tent, Yiming remained in place, his heavy eyes staring at the table, where a sandbox map of Shenzhen was located.

"Xiaoyun, are we really gambling with the soldier's life?" Yiming questioned.

"Do we have any other choice?"

Seeing Yiming still standing there in silence, Xiaoyun spoke up again.

"I hope you can understand... I don't want our next-door neighbor to end up like the capital... I can't afford to lose Shenzhen."

"What if it's just... inevitable?"

"Then we'll be forced to run. Flee far away from Guangdong. Just like a refugee from the north who had lost their home."

Xiaoyun paused for a second, then patted him on the shoulder.

"Yiming, you seriously need to go get some sleep. You're too tired right now."

"You're right..."

As Yiming finally walked out of the tent, Xiaoyun stood all alone. Looking down at the sandbox himself, right at the red dotted lines.

"Is it Inevitable?"