As soon as the zombie exited subway station No. 27, its shrunken wings widened; they were the same dark blue as its skin and resembled the wings of a bat.

As the zombie flew and gained altitude in the sky, it seemed that the blizzard and strong winds completely ignored it, never harming its body. His clear blue eyes scanned the entire neighbourhood of the station and began searching for the next target to satiate his seemingly eternal hunger…

Soon, a commercial building came into his view. Although the first three floors were buried in snow, the upper floors were intact, and there wasn't even ice accumulating on the walls, proving that the entire building must be under an intense heating system. Furthermore, all the windows on the dozens of floors were blocked and barricaded.

Smiling, the zombie knew he had found a new target to satiate his hunger; he flew in that direction and was a few blocks from his target when suddenly, he noticed a group of luxury residential buildings. There was nothing special about these buildings; they were smaller compared to the commercial building, and the snow buried a good portion of them, making them seem even smaller. The windows and walls of the floors had a layer of crystals formed on them.

But there was one building that stood out from the rest. On the top two floors, there were barricades on the windows, and dark curtains blocked everything. But just like the commercial building, there was no ice crystal formation on the exterior walls, proving that this penthouse also had some kind of heating system.

The Zombie looked at the enormous commercial building that must have been full of people, but decided to invade the residential building first since it was closer…

***

Inside his apartment, Lucien had finished his daily missions and was sitting in his father's room, having dinner. He sat in a comfortable armchair on the opposite side of his father's bed and enjoyed the warm meal after a tiring day. When winter began, he developed this habit of having dinner in his father's room, so as not to feel so lonely and also to spend time with him… After all, he didn't know if his father could hear him or not… So he always narrated some of his difficulties during these meals.

When dinner was over, Lucien, still seated, looked fondly at the floor between his sofa and his father's bed. There lay Mr Mustache, the cat the size of a panther, sleeping soundly like his father, and no noise could wake him from his hibernation.

"BOOM!"

Suddenly, a deafening explosion reached Lucien, followed by several cracking sounds; he was knocked off his armchair by a massive blast, as if a crane or a giant bird had struck his apartment…

Lucien, who didn't have time to get up from the floor, saw the ground near Mr Mustache and the walls of the room and the apartment collapse. Snow and icy winds invaded everything at once, leaving his entire body rigid from the terrible cold that permeated the entire environment.

There were no system alerts, no time to properly understand what had happened, and even less time to retaliate or resist. A blue monster suddenly appeared, floating from within the rubble of the apartment. Lucien glanced at it briefly before seeing Mr Mustache's sleepy body plummet several stories and disappear into the dust and debris of the lower floors of the collapsed building. He also saw ice begin to cover his father's surroundings as, reflexively, he closed his eyes, and the darkness of death engulfed him.

Lucien had been frozen, becoming an immobile statue, and an easy target for the monster that invaded his home; he knew that without any help, he would be dead in seconds.

"NO, I can't die! If I die… My father and Mr Mustache will die too, I need… I need… to escape this ice!"

"System?"

No answer came.

"System?"

Silence again.

Lucien was terrified… His last trump card, his system, had failed!

Without receiving any response from the system, which was still down while repairing the communication tool for the Jyera System Carriers, Lucien finally lost consciousness a mere 7 seconds after the cold invaded his apartment…

***

The Zombie looked with satisfaction at the frozen teenager, the black feline that had fallen several floors below still unconscious, and the adult man lying in bed not far from the frozen boy.

All these creatures were very fragile; only the cold coming from outside could easily kill them. At this point, he was quite dissatisfied not to find anyone who could withstand the cold and fight back against him… In the end, all his prey were killed very easily, and only he could be the absolute master in this frozen world…

Satisfied, he retracted his wings and landed on one side of the apartment, where the ground was still intact and decided to devour the teenager first.

But then, as he took a step toward the boy, the zombie realized he could no longer move. His head moved, searching his surroundings for what was preventing him from moving, but he saw nothing physically blocking his body!

It was then that he saw something he hadn't noticed before!

The man lying in bed near the boy hadn't been frozen!

Ice had formed on his bed and pillows, on the edges of his clothes, and even on the tips of his hair, but it hadn't spread beyond that!

Then the adult man sat up in bed and opened his eyes, scanning the entire room first and fixing his gaze on him!

The man looked at him the same way he had looked at his first victims on the subway! It was a look full of contempt for their weakness!

"This human is dangerous… Run! I need to run!"

But no matter what the zombie did, he remained paralyzed in the same spot. His fear and dread were the same as Lucien's when he was frozen upon the zombie's arrival. The roles had reversed, and now he was the victim!

As for his predator, he calmly rose from the bed, lightly brushed off the ice fragments from his clothes, and after adjusting his hair, made a slight movement with his hand. The entire apartment seemed to respond to his gesture and began to change. When his gaze returned to the monster that had invaded his apartment and attacked his family, a powerful, bloodthirsty aura emanated from his body. This terrifying aura made the level 3 zombie tremble with fear, and it was so terrifying that it was easily felt by all the survivors and monsters of Kaelor Coastal City.

After 96 days of sleeping since the beginning of the apocalypse, Lorenzo Rivero, Lucien's father, had awakened…

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.