Zombie Apocalypse: Creation

A few miles from Shenzhen's military base...

Lingang was sitting in a tank, or more specifically, the Type 05 amphibious fighting vehicle.

It was one of the few light-tank units in his army from the modern day, as all other soldiers were sitting inside armored pick-up trucks.

"Sir, we're about to enter the dense fog now." The driver warned as they could see the fog in the distance.

"Everyone, get ready to leave... We're going to travel on foot."

None of the soldiers questioned back, quickly exiting the car as it came to a stop. But just as the car drove off into the distance, they were met with soldiers.

"Who are you guys? Identify yourself." A senior soldier questioned as eight other soldier raised their rifle.

"We're on a special mission. I'm Colonel Lingang. You all can ask through the walkie-talkie if you want to question it."

Seeing the soldiers still looking a little doubtful, Lingang showed them his AKM rifle.

"We all have the same gun. Isn't that enough for you to know we're friendly?"

After a few seconds of thought, the senior soldier quickly apologized before letting them go.

"Sorry, just out of precaution."

With the soldiers out of the way, Lingang finally turned back around to the main task at hand.

"Everyone, let's go."

---

As Lingang walked deeper and deeper into the fog, he was a little stunned by everything he had witnessed so far.

Every single one of the buildings was replaced. What was once concrete and rebar in its place was a bunch of flesh.

Even the sidewalk and the road had changed into flesh as their boots could feel a weird bounce with every step of the way.

Looking up in the sky, the clouds were all red, with the fog around them seemingly to have been applied a red filter.

Surprisingly, they could still see the sun from here, albeit it looked more like an endless bleeding hole in the sky.

"This hazmat suit is so damn hot..."

A soldier complained, feeling his entire body sweating like crazy, as the material had no breathability in mind.

"If you take it off, you're going to die here."

Lingang's warning instantly shuts the soldier's mouth as they continued walking down the sidewalk.

"How long do we have to walk for?" Lingang asked as he looked over to the person next to her.

"About five more minutes and we should be at the center of the death zone... At least based on the map."

Everyone fell back into silence, walking down the sidewalk as they examined their surroundings for anything unique.

However, everything in the fog looked almost the same. Just an endless amount of flesh replacing the original building material.

Not a single thing was alive, much to their surprise. No zombies or anything, if the flesh didn't count as a living thing.

"Anyone feel weird? No illusion or anything?"

Lingang asked, stopping to take a little break as he himself was sweating like crazy inside the hazmat suit.

"No, sir."

"All clear."

"Good. Let's continue."

As all ten of them continued walking down the road, they soon encountered something a little different.

It was a weirdly long red flesh, almost looking like a tentacle sticking up from the ground right next to a flesh building.

"The fuck is that?"

None of the soldier could answer Lingang's question as they all raised their rifle towards it, waiting for him to give the final order.

But in the end, he signalled everyone to lower their gun, opting to leave it alone as they continued walking towards the center.

"Commander, should we go inside one of the buildings? What if the thing we're looking for is inside it?" A soldier suggested.

"There are hundreds of thousands of buildings... If it's not out here, then we're just going to go back to the base first."

The soldier nodded, accepting Lingang's order as they continued walking down.

After what felt like a long, torturous path, they finally arrived at the center, where there was a small fountain in the middle.

"We're in the center of the death zone now, sir."

Looking around, there wasn't much difference from earlier, other than way more tentacle-like objects sticking from the ground.

"Everyone, groups of two. Try to look for anything different... Something that resembles patient zero or any sort of core."

Lingang gave his vague order as he himself didn't know what he was looking for. He had only a single clue from Xiaoyun.

As everyone quickly split into five groups, he quickly joined one of the groups and started looking around the park.

Walking around, his group couldn't find anything. Nothing was of interest as they returned to the middle.

"Nothing interesting?"

Seeing all of them shaking their head, Lingang let out a sigh as he turned back around towards where they came from.

"Let's all leave now. We had done enough here."

The soldiers didn't argue back, following Lingang as the only thing on their minds at this point was to take off the hazmat suit.

---

Just as everyone thought the trip was just going to be nothing eventful, one of the soldiers suddenly noticed something a little off.

"Commander, how long have we been walking back now?"

"Um... About ten minutes or so. What about it?"

"Don't you think we should at least approach the less corrupted building at this point? Why are all the buildings still fully covered in flesh?"

All nine soldier, including Lingang, quickly examined their surroundings, only to come to the same conclusion as him.

"Everyone, stay together... Do not separate, no matter what."

Lingang quickly took out his walkie-talkie, only to find it jammed. Even his phone was off as it refused to turn on.

"Anyone else's walkie-talkie working?"

Seeing everyone shaking their head, Lingang realized he might have fallen into a trap. One that he didn't even know where to begin.

"Crap... Ye Lin, fire the blue flare."

---

When Xiaoyun woke up again, it was already the afternoon as he could see the sun falling towards the horizon through the tent cover.

"Oh crap... How long was I asleep for?"

Taking out his phone, he saw it was four o'clock.

He quickly got up and exited his tent. Walking down the path, he could feel a tense atmosphere among the soldiers.

Arriving at the HQ tent, he sees Yiming and Han Bang standing in the tent, their faces looking just as tense.

"What's wrong?"

"Lingang hasn't sent a message back ever since they entered inside... Something bad might have happened to them." Yiming answered.

"Does everyone already know about it?"

Han Bang slowly nodded his head, making Xiaoyun's head instantly kick into overdrive as he imagined hundreds of scenarios.

Not a single one of them was a good outcome.

"Has there been any flare shots into the sky?" Xiaoyun questioned.

"None. Completely dead silent——"

"Commander! Someone had shot a blue flare into the sky!"

As a soldier rushed into the HQ tent and revealed the news, Xiaoyun's face was instantly filled with hope.

"Where was the flare? Was it near the park center?" Xiaoyun asked.

"I-I don't know, sir. A-A soldier near the northern fog entrance reported it through the walkie-talkie."

"North? Isn't that the opposite direction they went towards? Why did Lingang go over there?"

As the soldier awkwardly stood there, Xiaoyun quickly dismissed him before turning over to Yiming and Han Bang.

"I'm going to——"

"You're not going inside there. You're the commander in chief. You cannot risk your life in something like this."

Yiming instantly rejected Xiaoyun's offer, not letting him finish his sentence as he firmly stood his ground.

After a few seconds of standoff, Xiaoyun accepted Yiming's suggestion.

"Fine... But we're going to need some rescue team to go inside there... They shot the blue flare. They are trapped there."

"You can direct it... But remember, you're not going inside it."

"I know."

As Xiaoyun turned around and signalled Han Bang to follow him, Yiming let out a small sigh as he looked back at the sandbox table.

"How did it end up like this...?"

---

The moment Xiaoyun stepped outside the HQ tent, he ran straight into someone about to go inside.

"Hey! Watch where you're going... Xiaoyun?"

"Tianci? Why are you here?"

The two quickly took a few steps away from the tent, walking down the path together as Han Bang continued to follow.

"I found what's wrong with the fog... It's actually a bunch of small living particles that could chemically alter someone if they stay inside for too long."

"Living particles? Like viruses and bacteria?"

"Yeah, similar to that. But even more basic, down to like an atomic level... I don't know how to explain it, but someone in my lab happened to study this before."

"I see... Can this living particle go through a hazmat suit then?" Xiaoyun nervously asked.

"Hazmat suit? Why are you asking that?" Tianci curiously asked back.

"I... I might have sent a few people inside with a hazmat suit to check what's inside the death zone."

"You what!"