PROLOGUE
sometime in the future
Climate change has started to put a dent in natural resources. Even rich countries like the U.S. and Russia had started to beg for help. California had become inhabitable after all of the wildfires made the air too dangerous to breathe. The east coast was almost entirely underwater because of the melting ice caps and one hurricane season brought five, category six hurricanes.
Polar bears had become entirely extinct. Russia had become underwater after Siberian snow had all melted.
One day though, everything changed. Out of the blue, mutated horses appeared. Scientists called them mutatur equus, but the non-educated people just called them unicorns. I can’t blame them though, because they did look like unicorns. After a week the unicorns started to fertilize the land with some sort of magic power. Another week later, most of the air in California had become safe to breathe. Two days later, California had been entirely green and rich with life. For the entire time, there were no hurricanes even in hurricane season. Then, the polar bears came back.
Many people bend at the promise of money and power. The U.S. wanted to be the only country that had unicorns, and so did Russian, the U.K., and China. Though the U.S. and the U.K. were very good allies, they were the first to go against each other. Russia saw an opportunity. They attacked the U.K. and took over the government. Russia had power over the U.S.
The unicorns had started to understand the situation. They started to hate humans. The first assault was at a family household on Christmas eve. They used their power to explode the whole family. After that, the unicorns had taken over. Nowhere was safe from the unicorns. They would use many different types of magic to destroy people. They also stabbed people with their horns.
Still, the war went on. Two years into the war the unicorns had not done much. There were only six attacks so far. The next big threat that occurred was a virus. This is the thing that frickeded up the world. The virus wasn’t your normal thing like the coronavirus that happened many years ago. It was a virus that killed the person, and then made them come back to life with violent intentions. People called them zombies. The scientist called the virus the inmortui virus. One theory was that the unicorns started the virus, and that seems pretty possible because they were some of the first life forms to contract it.
Now, we have zombie humans and the more powerful, zombie unicorns. The zombies are fast. The disease makes them fast. They bleed from every opening they have in their bodies. The zombie unicorns are the same as the human zombies but they can control the human zombies. The zombie unicorns are like army generals.
The U.S. government was very submissive about it. It took them two months to evacuate the large cities, but most of the population had been infected or dead by then. Less than twenty-four hours after the cities were evacuated, the U.S. government collapsed. Twelve hours later, the Russian government collapsed. In a domino effect, all of the governments in the world collapsed.
CHAPTER 1
Goro woke up on a soft bed. The bed was comfortable. Maybe too comfortable. Goro lived in the U.S. and had a decent amount of money. The decent amount of money he had was not enough to get a bed this comfortable. He felt very off. He reached over to make sure his dog, Kuroshiro, was there. Sure enough, next to Goro, was his dog. He sat up. This was not his room. It was grey, modern, and fancy. There was a window next to his bed. He looked outside and saw the wind blowing snow all around. The ground was covered with it. Weird, he thought, the last time I was awake, it was summer.
He swung his body out of bed and went to the door. He reached for a knob but there wasn’t one. A millisecond later, the door made a click, and it opened automatically. Not my house, he thought. He gave himself a self-tour. He saw a kitchen, a gym, a swimming pool, and a computer room. Eventually, Kiroshiro woke up and found Goro. Goro had one last door to look in. He opened the door and saw a staircase That was lined with white led lights. He slowly descended the stairs and finally got to the bottom where there was another door. He opened it and saw that the room had lots of equipment. There was a wall full of jackets, sweaters, and coats. Next to that wall, was a wall full of guns. The third wall was covered in various tools. The fourth wall had different technological devices, like computers, phones, and other things that did random things.
Damn, that’s a lot of stuff, thought Goro. Whoever owns this house, they are rich as f***.
After looking around the room a little bit, Goro heard a sound. He looked toward the door and saw a figure coming down the stairs. He backed against the wall that had the guns and pulled one off the wall. He aimed the gun in the figure’s direction. The figure emerged from the darkness and Goro pulled the trigger. The gun clicked. He pulled it again. Another loud click.
“That’s not loaded Goro,” said the woman. She was wearing a black suit with a black tie and a white button-down shirt.
“How do you know my name?” asked Goro.
“I am Agent September November from the Zalira Corporation. We created this place to protect you from the outside world,” said Agent November.
“Why me?” asked Goro.
“I don’t know,” said Agent November. “That’s classified information so they didn’t tell me. Anyway, I am here to help you.”
“What is going on in the outside world?” asked Goro.
“Unicorns,” said Agent November.
“What?!” exclaimed Goro.
A beeping sound started coming from Agent November’s pocket.
“S***,” cursed Agent November.
“What?” said Goro, clearly confused.
“There’s been a breach,” said Agent November. “The unicorns are here. And they’ve brought their other zombie friends.”
“Well what do we do?” asked Goro.
Agent November grabbed two M4A1s from the wall.
“We arm ourselves,” she said as she tossed one to Goro. He tried to catch the gun, but instead, it hit him right in the head and he passed out onto the floor.
“Well that was anticlimactic,” stated Agent November.
Agent November took a trinket out of her pocket. It looked like a metal candy bar. She then jabbed it into Goro’s forehead, jolting him awake.
“Pick up the gun,” said Agent November. “We have to evacuate.”
Goro picked up the gun. Agent November pulled a coat off the wall and tossed it to Goro. He put it on. Agent November tapped a specific gun that was on the gun wall and it opened up into a passageway Agent November led Goro down the passageway. The thing about the passageway was that it was not dark. Instead, it was bright and inviting. Agent November started to run faster. Goro matched her pace and caught up.
Then a boom came from behind them. The sound of bricks falling to the ground filled the echoey passage. Goro looked behind him. Behind him, was a hoard of zombies. In front of them was a zombie unicorn. The unicorn had blood on it everywhere. Below the dirty and bloody fur, was rotting skin with the stench of a dead animal. The unicorn’s muzzle had an exposed part of the skull. It was drenched with blood. The rib cage was half exposed. All of the organs were missing. The organs probably fell out.
Oh s***, he thought.
He pulled the trigger on his gun. It sprayed multiple rounds. Goro fell back, surprised by the recoil. Goro was surprised by how much recoil was in a gun. He had only seen them in movies. The zombies were running at him fast. He took a few seconds to get up, then he started to run after Agent November down the hallway. Once he caught up to her again, she stood still and fired her M4 into the crowd of zombies. Her aim was extremely accurate and she hit every shot. The recoil was like nothing to her. Eliminated a few more zombies and then her gun clicked. It was out of ammo.
They continued running down the hallway as Agent November swiftly reloaded her gun. She turned around and started running backward as she fired into the zombies. Goro started to see the end of the tunnel. They got closer and closer until they made it. Agent November put her eye up to a scanner. After a few seconds, the door opened. They went through into the cold habitat. The door closed behind them and they heard a thud, as the zombies hit the door. They ran to another door, which opened immediately.
They went outside. The place out there was horrible. The trees were all dead and the grass was yellow and wilted. He looked back at the dome that was outside of the habitat. It was white.
“We used the whitest white paint To cover the dome. Since it is so white, it reflects the sunlight outside making it cold on the inside,” said Agent November.
Goro took off his jacket. He felt like he was burning. He threw the jacket on the ground and it was burning.
“We should leave,” said Agent November. “The sunlight is getting reflected making it hot here.”
Her hair was wet with sweat. Helicopter noises started to be heard. They were becoming louder and louder. Soon a helicopter came into view. It landed in front of them. On the side, it said Zalira Industries. Agent November got onto the helicopter and beckoned Goro to get on. He ducked in fear his head would get chopped off by the blades and got into the helicopter.
The helicopter took off. Goro looked at the gun he was holding.
Damn, that was kinda cool, Goro thought. He was thinking that to suppress how scared he was deeper into his thoughts. They flew over many cities that had been destroyed. They saw forests that were all on fire. They saw places that were flooded. After seeing all the destruction, they landed at Zalira Industries headquarters. It looked like a city. There were many separate grey concrete buildings.
“Why didn’t you just take me here?” asked Goro.
“I don’t know that either,” said Agent November.
They walked into a large grey concrete box that was on the top of the building next to the helipad. Inside the box was also grey, but there was also a few feet of space between the door and another sliding door. Agent November pressed one of the thousands of buttons that were on the button panel. Agent November and Goro stood waiting for the sliding door to open. As you can now tell, the sliding door was the door to an elevator. Finally, the elevator opened and they both walked in.
The elevator started to go down. It was a glass elevator so they could see everything. The elevator suddenly stopped. Then it started to move sideways.
“Why is the elevator moving sideways?” asked Goro.
“We developed sideways moving elevators. Zalira herself wanted it done because she was a big fan of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” replied Agent November.
The elevator went on. Eventually, the elevator went through an enclosed glass bridge where you could see everything in the Zalria industries headquarters. He was that there was a very tall wall enclosing the city-like headquarters. In the middle of the headquarters was a lush park filled with beautiful trees and flowers. In the park was a large lake where there were blooming lily pads.
Finally, the elevator came to a jolting stop. The door opened and they went out into a hall that looked like one from a hotel. Agent November led Goro down the hall. They stopped in front of a door marked A113.
“This is your room,” said Agent November.
“Thanks,” said Goro.
Agent November walked back down the hall, but then stopped.
“Call the number 917 402 5752 if you need anything!” called Agent November.
“Thank you!” Goro called back.
Goro opened the door and walked inside. It looked like a normal hotel room. It was grey and white, but a comforting grey and white. He went next to his bed and turned on his lamp. It was the kind of lamp that had a boxy shade and a rounded bottom. The light from the lamp was a warm color that contrasted nicely with the grey and white. He turned the lamp back off because he was going to go to bed. He pulled the sheets of the bed down and got on the bed. He pulled the sheets back up and shut his eyes.
I love zombie movies, he thought. I don’t care how scary this life is going to be, but not gonna lie I’m sort of excited.
Goro was a normal person, but he was brave. Not fearless, but brave.
CHAPTER 2
On the wall of the Zalira industries headquarters, Agent Henderson stood watching the horizon. He had a hangover from the night before and was tired. Somehow, he got around the guidelines and was able to go to work despite his hangover. He was nauseous and he was struggling not to slur his words. He crossed his arms and leaned on the railing of the wall. He made a loud burp. He then saw something on the horizon. It was a horde of zombies.
Usually, wall agents are supposed to sound the alarm when they see zombies, but Agent Henderson was hungover. Agent Henderson was the only guard on that side of the wall because all his other friends who are usually at that side of the wall were also out drinking the night before and could not hide their hangovers.
“Zombies!” slurred Agent Henderson.
Then he fell over the wall. He plummeted at a high pace. Wind gushed in his ears and his hair flew up. He landed on the ground with a thud. Blood soaked the dry cracked ground around him. A zombie approached Agent Henderson’s body. The zombie bent over and started to bite Agent Henderson’s body. Agent Henderson’s body started to decompose at a very fast pace. The discomposure gave him a slight green tint on his skin. Some of his skin was already gone. He stood up and shook off the zombie that was trying to eat him. He shrieked and started clawing at the wall. Soon a whole hoard of zombies was clawing at the wall. Finally, the leader of this hoard of zombies, which was a unicorn, had appeared. It sent a magical pulse from its horn and made a giant hole in the wall.
The hoard started to push their way through the hole. The zombies wanted to get in so bad, that they started biting pieces off of each other and swallowing them. Luckily for them, the unicorn stopped them by using their magic. The zombies fell into formation. They were in a sixteen zombie by sixteen zombie square formation. They started to go through the hole in the wall.
Suddenly the alarm had sounded. Someone from the city had seen that the zombies had broken through the wall and were heading straight for the city. Zalira industries fired a rocket into the zombies. It took out a lot of zombies, but more kept coming. The zombies fell out of formation and started to attack everyone in sight. Blood had stained the ground and more people had been infected.
Goro woke up to the sound of the alarms. His ears were ringing. He got out of bed and went into the hall. Red was flashing throughout the hall. He pulled out his zPhone 11 and called Agent November. Agent November answered the phone.
“Goro, I’m coming. Stay where you are,” said Agent November over the phone.
“Alright,” said Goro.
He did not stay where he was. He was way too curious. He went into the elevator and pressed a random button. The elevator went straight down until it landed at the bottom of the shaft with a soft thud. The door opened and inside, where thousands of unicorns shackled and working to make water and growing plants out of nothing.
“Holey s***,” mumbled Goro.
The door opened behind him. Goro turned around and someone took a step into the light.
“Who the f*** are you?” Goro said to the woman.
“I’m Zalira,” she said. “I have been watching you, Goro.”
“You are evil. You are keeping these unicorns shackled. This is inhumane,” said Goro.
“We have had these here since the first time the unicorns appeared,” said Zalira.
“Did you just change the subject?” said Goro. “We are talking about how inhumane you are, we don’t need you to tell us about your history of slavery.”
“They have helped us survive here through climate change. We need to keep them as slaves,” said Zalira.
“Couldn’t you have just let them do save the earth instead of growing plants for your benefit?” asked Goro.
“I guess, but where’s the fun in that?” said Zalria.
“You’re a maniac,” said Goro.
Suddenly the roof exploded and a hoard of zombies and zombie unicorns dropped down from the roof. They started to infect the unicorn slaves and broke them from their shackles.
“F***!” exclaimed Zalira.
She went into the elevator and the door closed behind her. Goro was left in the underground warehouse with hundreds of zombies. Whoopsies Zalira, looks like you dropped your AK-47 on the ground. Goro rushed over to the AK and picked it up. Luckily it was loaded. He started firing at the zombie. The bullets cut down the zombies and they pierced through the back of them. Blood splattered across the room.
Sadly about a minute later, Goro ran out of ammunition. Luckily Agent November walked through the elevator door.
“Goro come here!” she exclaimed.
Goro ran towards the elevator. He jumped in and the door closed. Agent November pressed another button and the elevator flew straight up. It reached the top floor and there was a helicopter.
“Zalira said she trapped you in there so I went to get you. She never told me Zalira Industries were keeping unicorns as slaves. She was part of the reason the unicorns attacked the humans,” said Agent November. “Get in the chopper.”
Goro got in the back seat and Agent November got in the front. Agent November fired up the propellers and they started to take off. A missile was fired from the Zalira Industries headquarters and was heading straight for the helicopter. Agent November tried to steer the helicopter away but it was too late. The missile had hit the tail of the helicopter and they were spinning out of control. They cascaded towards the ground.
“Jump!” exclaimed agent November. “There is a built-in parachute in your shirt!”
Goro jumped and after a few seconds, Agent November did too. Their parachutes automatically deployed. They landed on the ground safely, but little did they know, zombies were only a mile away.
They walked towards a dead tree. It was a weird tree because it was dead in a field of green grass. Goro was surprised to see that there were still green spots in the world outside of Zalira Industries headquarters. Agent November was picking up all the sticks she could find. When they got to the tree, she started to lay the sticks on the ground in a certain fashion. It looked like it was a mini campfire. The reason it looked like a mini campfire is that it was. Agent November pulled a lighter out of her pocket and lit up the campfire.
“This would be nice if we weren’t hiding from a powerful billionaire who basically controls the world and wants to murder us because we have a secret that can take them down,” said Agent November.
“Yeah,” said Goro. “It would.”
Agent November pulled a pack of hotdogs. They started to roast the hotdogs over the fire, but a disturbing sound started to surround them.
“What the f*** is that?” Goro said, almost drowned out by the sound.
He looked to the side of him and he saw an army of zombies limping up the hill. Their eyes were bloodshot and they were ripped and decaying. The green grass was soaked in the blood from the zombies.
“F***ing s***!” exclaimed Goro.
To be Continued…