Chapter 2

The back of my neck throbbed.

It felt like someone had driven a thick, rusty nail deep into my flesh, making the nerves connecting to the back of my head twitch with a blinding pain.

I snapped my eyes open to pitch blackness. Instinctively, I tried to reach back to touch the wound, only to find my arms bound behind my back. Cold metal handcuffs locked my wrists tight. The chain was extremely short, pinning my hands together so I couldn’t move an inch.

The metal floor beneath me was shuddering violently. The deafening roar of a heavy engine filled my ears.

It hit me instantly—I was lying in the back of a heavy transport truck barreling forward at full speed.

The cargo box was completely sealed. With no ventilation, it was hard to breathe.

"Is anyone else alive?" a trembling voice called out from somewhere not far to my left. It sounded like a teenage boy.

"Where are we... I want to go home..." a woman whimpered softly from the right corner.

Judging by the scattered whispers and faint breathing, I figured out there were at least a dozen other people locked in this pitch-dark container with me.

I leaned against the freezing iron wall, not moving, not answering. I knew perfectly well that these people, just like me, had their hands bound and were being shipped outside the city.

I already knew exactly where we were going.

Right before Serena knocked me out, I saw that spreadsheet: This Month's Biomass Quota Roster.

Now, I was just another name on that list.

Since I had stumbled upon the elites' secret of feeding live humans to zombies, Serena simply seized the opportunity to turn me into a consumable. As long as I was dumped outside the walls and eaten by the horde, their dirty little secret would stay safe.

The truck kept tearing down the road. I could hear the wind howling violently outside.

Suddenly, a strange noise pierced through the metal walls.

Thump!

Something heavy landed hard on the roof. Following that was a screeching sound of claws scraping against metal, accompanied by low, guttural growls squeezing out of dry throats.

"What is that out there? It sounds like someone is banging on the doors!" the boy yelled in panic.

It was the zombies.

The convoy had driven straight into infected territory. They smelled the fresh meat inside and were chasing the truck like madmen. The faster ones had already leaped onto the vehicle and were tearing at the iron box with their mutated hands.

According to the higher-ups' twisted rules, these zombies were here to "collect the goods."

Suddenly, the screech of slamming brakes pierced the air. The truck jerked to a violent halt, and the massive momentum threw everyone inside into a tangled heap.

Right after, a mechanical clack echoed from the front of the vehicle.

The cargo box of this heavy transport, just like a train car, could be detached and dropped independently. The driver didn't even need to step out.

Sitting safely inside the bulletproof cab, the driver hit the cargo release button and slammed his foot on the gas.

Through the metal walls, I heard the engine revving as the cab sped away. The roar grew fainter and fainter until it disappeared completely.

Out in the wasteland, only this iron box stuffed with living humans was left behind.

Inside the container, it was dead silent save for the heavy, panicked breathing of people huddled together. Outside, however, the real nightmare began.

Countless footsteps swarmed the container. A few seconds later, the zombies outside started dismantling the doors.

Bang! Clang! Massive force battered the exterior, denting the thick iron plates inward again and again.

Those doors wouldn't hold them back for long. In less than five minutes, they would break through completely.

"Help! Someone open the doors! Let me out!"

"They're breaking the door!"

"What's going on?! Who tied us up?!"

The people inside couldn't see what was happening out there, but primal terror drove them to their feet, trampling over each other to cram into the deepest corner of the box.

I was sitting in the corner closest to the doors, leaning back against the steel wall, my heart hammering against my ribs.

I couldn't die here. This was exactly how Maya had been stuffed into a box, dumped in the wasteland, and ripped apart by these monsters.

I had to survive. My one and only chance of escape was resting right against my chest.

Before leaving the lab, I had slipped that vial of serum into my inner pocket. As long as I drank it, I could survive the viral infection and retain my human sanity. Even if my body mutated, at least I wouldn't lose my memories. At least I wouldn't die out here in the wasteland.

But it wasn't going to be easy. My hands were chained tightly behind my back. My fingers couldn't even reach the edge of my jacket.

There was no time to find something to break the cuffs.

I bent forward, opened my mouth over the inner pocket on my chest, and clamped my teeth down hard on the fabric.

Biting down with all my might, I violently yanked my head back.

Like a starving dog, I frantically tore at my own clothes. The fabric ripped open, exposing the lighter-sized metal protective case.

I secured the case between my upper and lower teeth, jerked my head upward, and pulled it completely out of the pocket.

The case was held shut by a magnet. It wasn't hard to open. Prying it apart with my bite, the finger-thick glass vial slid out.

Right at that exact second, a deafening crash exploded through the air.

The iron doors finally gave way under the combined strength of dozens of ripping, pulling zombies. The hinges snapped, and the heavy metal plates slammed down onto the sandy ground.

Pale moonlight spilled in, illuminating the entire cargo box without obstruction.

Along with the light came a suffocating stench—the smell of rotting flesh.

Seven or eight zombies blocked the entrance.

Their eyes were milky and dull, staring directly at the living humans inside.

Behind those leading the pack, the sandy ground was packed with them. At a quick glance, there had to be at least a hundred of these creatures out there.

The zombie at the very front moved. It didn't walk on two legs like a human. It dropped to all fours, scurrying up the floor plate like a massive spider, and lunged straight toward the teenage boy closest to me.

"Ahhh—!"

The boy screamed and scrambled backward, but the zombie was too fast. It sank its teeth right into his shoulder. The rest of the horde surged in right behind it. Utter chaos erupted inside the container, filled with the horrific sounds of tearing flesh and bloodcurdling screams.

I felt teeth clamp down on my ankle a second later. Closing my eyes, I leaned back against the corner, bit down on the glass vial in my mouth, and crushed it.

Crack!

The crisp sound of shattering glass rang in my mouth.

Sharp glass fragments pierced my tongue and the inner lining of my cheeks.

I didn't spit them out. Tilting my head back, I swallowed the shards along with the blue liquid. I didn't care about the pain anymore.

The moment the serum hit my stomach, a violent reaction kicked in.

My heartbeat skyrocketed, pounding so loudly I could hear it over the screams. It beat faster and faster as the serum violently bound with the virus.

I slid down the metal wall, collapsing onto the floor. My entire body began to convulse uncontrollably.

The zombie chewing on my ankle stopped and glared directly at me.

I laid there, burning up like a furnace. My hands were still locked behind me. I didn't even have the strength to stand, let alone run. All I could do was watch helplessly as it closed in.

The zombie unhinged its jaw, aiming straight for my neck. Just a fraction of a second before it tore my throat out...

Back off!

I roared the words in my mind.

I didn't have the energy to vocalize it. Driven by the sheer desperation not to be killed, I screamed mentally, commanding it to stop, demanding it to back away.

Then, something impossible happened.

The monster that was an inch away from ripping my throat out suddenly froze.

It was as if someone had barked "Attention!" Its gaping, bloody maw hovered less than four inches from my face, its entire body locked rigidly in place.

I was stunned.

What just happened?

At first, I thought it smelled the change in me. I had completely fused with the virus. Maybe in its eyes, I was now one of them. Zombies don't eat their own kind. I assumed it just realized I wasn't food anymore.

But what happened next completely shattered my understanding of biology.

The zombie didn't just stop its attack. It slowly backed up two steps.

Then, it actually bowed its stiff, mutated spine and lowered its head. The gesture wasn't just non-aggressive; it looked exactly like an ordinary wolf bowing down to the alpha.

And it didn't end there.

All around the container, a dozen zombies stopped their tearing and chewing. They turned around in unison, fixing their dead, milky eyes on my corner.

Following that, as if backing away from something utterly terrifying, they retreated silently, pulling all the way back out of the box. The space that was just a crowded, bloody slaughterhouse was instantly emptied, leaving only the faint whimpers of a few half-dead survivors bleeding out on the floor.

I leaned dumbly against the iron plate, my brain buzzing.

I gasped for heavy breaths.

What the hell was going on?

My research had always focused on "preserving human consciousness." The serum had indeed worked—it kept me sane and stopped me from losing my mind. But I had never imagined that it would give me direct control over other zombies!

Get the hell away.

Again, I didn't say it out loud. But staring directly at the thickest cluster of the horde outside, I issued a simple mental command.

The very next second, as if receiving a synchronized broadcast, the horde turned around without a sliver of hesitation and sprinted off into the pitch-black wasteland.

Looking out at the now-empty dunes beyond the doors, my racing heart slowly returned to a normal rhythm... and then gradually faded, until it settled into absolute stillness.

I flexed my arms outward, testing the raw power surging through my limbs.

Clang!

Frighteningly easily, I snapped the solid steel handcuffs right off.

I brought my freed hands up in front of me. Looking at my perfectly intact skin, I realized the truth: I hadn't just retained my human mind—I had gained the unstoppable physical strength of a zombie.

At that moment, I noticed the three humans still alive in the far corner. Propping each other up, covered in blood, they huddled back. They were staring at me like I was a monster.

They had seen everything that just happened with their own eyes.

I stood up, rolling my shoulders to stretch my new body. Stepping over the corpses on the floor, I walked over to the broken doors, stopped, and looked back toward the distant silhouette of Eden City.

Serena must believe I had been eaten alive by now. She thought that by feeding the man who uncovered her secret to the horde, she could sleep soundly forever.

I turned my head to look at the survivors inside the box. I decided to tell them the truth.

"Every month, the Supreme Committee randomly selects fifty living people to hand over to the horde. You guys are their quota. They use you to feed the zombies on the wasteland to buy safety for the mining zones."

Hearing those words, the three of them froze.

"That's impossible..." the young boy shook his head, absolute disbelief plastered on his face. "The Guard Captain told us they built a new hydroponic farm in the outer ring. He said they needed labor... that we were just coming out here to work..."

"If you were going out to work, why would they handcuff you? Why would the driver ditch the cargo box and speed off without even checking the doors?"

I laid out exactly how the elites traded the flesh of ordinary people to secure their resources.

An older man among them turned beet red, grinding his teeth as he fiercely cursed the Committee.

A woman dropped to her knees, looking at the dead bodies of their companions on the floor, and wailed loudly. The boy's eyes reddened, tears mixing with the blood smeared across his face.

When they finally exhausted their tears, they looked up. They stared out into the pitch-black wasteland, then glanced back toward the distant location of Eden City.

Slumped on the iron floor like walking corpses, they didn't know what step to take next. They had nowhere left to go.

I watched them in silence.

If I abandoned them here, in their current state, they'd be eaten by roaming zombies before dawn. Doing that would make me no different from Serena and the rest of those elites. But if they got lucky, survived, and made it back to Eden City, they would undoubtedly be interrogated. And when that happened, they would spill the secret of how I commanded the horde.

I wasn't going to let either of those outcomes happen.

Since the elites treated regular people as disposables, I was going to establish a new set of rules.

My voice was calm, leaving no room for doubt. "If you don't want to sit here and wait to die, if you want to survive... then follow me."