Chapter 24: Week Five: Friday

Jason suddenly found himself in an unfamiliar city, standing in the middle of the road. All around, he could see the signs of carnage and destruction. Buildings were mostly abandoned while some were flat out destroyed, cars were left on the side of the road broken beyond repair, patches of dried blood and bones of both humans and animals could be found everywhere. It was a scene out of Hell itself.

'Honestly looks pretty cool.' The whole deathly apocalyptic atmosphere and aesthetic was one of his favorites. Alongside Steampunk and Cyberpunk.

The one thing he knew, he wasn't in Kansas anymore. The writing on the signs and buildings was almost completely alien to him. However, there was something about it. Like he had seen it before, but couldn't exactly remember what language it was. It was one of those really annoying feelings when what you're looking for is on the tip of your tongue, but you just can't get at it and it slips away to the deepest parts of your mind. 

He tried to move, to look around and find out what was happening, but found himself locked inside 'his' body as a spectator as he walked fowards slowly.

No longer could he feel the explosive power in his muscles. Instead he felt, weak and slow. It was a miserable experience.

'Arachne Goddess, please don't let this be a permanent thing.' 

After a few minutes, his eyes turned towards an abandoned building. A noise had come from inside, the sound of glass shattering. His body moved against his control, breaking into a mad sprint with no regard for himself.

Entering inside the lobby of an office building, his eyes moved left and right before stopping on someone. A small Asian human child with a broken bottle by his foot. He was only around 8 years old. 

With no hesitation, he ran for the scared and petrified child. When just a few feet away, Jason found himself lunging straight for the kid and knocking him down into the floor. Instantly, his mouth aimed for the child's throat and bit into it. The young boy fought against his attacker with his tiny fists, but found them lacking in his time of need.

"Mommy! Help me!" The boy cried out with tears running down his face, frightened beyond belief. But his mother could not hear him, nor could she hear anything. For she had died yesterday, leaving this hungry child to fend for himself. 

A slight tug later, and the flesh was ripped out. A fountain of blood came from the child's throat, who tried his best to stop the bleeding but to no avail. Jason felt himself chew on the flesh, swallow, and go back in for seconds. It was... good. Not as delicious as the Juggernaut, but was something he wouldn't turn away if offered.

Jason was forced to watch as his hand dug into the child's stomach and ripped it open with his nails. He grabbed the intestines and began eating them with gusto. The other organs weren't spared either. Heart, lungs, liver. All of them were consumed like he couldn't get enough.

Of course, by this time, the boy was long past dead. Choked on his own blood as he suffered such a cruel fate filled with pure agony. His last thoughts, were on his mother. Where was she? Why had she abandoned him to the monsters? Was he a bad boy and this is what he deserved?

Only when the bones remained, did the feast conclude. 

The one in control then walked out and into the street once more. The next few minutes were extremely boring for Jason as he walked across the sidewalk at a snails pace. He even wished he could conjure up some popcorn.

'Holy hell...'

However, when Jason turned a corner he felt a small chill go down his spine. In front of him was a giant horde so massive, it made everything he dealt with seem like child's play. There must have been thousands of them.

Then he heard something, as did all the infected who turned their heads up at the origin. A massive plane was flying overhead, just above them. Jason witnessed as the plane seemed to drop something, a small little object in the sky that fell to the city down below.

Thinking for just a moment, Jason realized the object must be a bomb. Maybe even an atomic bomb. His eyes followed the tiny thing as it whistled through the air, and eventually fell to the ground far away from his position. Instantly, his vision was blinded and ears were deafened by the explosion. The last thing he felt before it all went black, was an intense burning sensation that made him feel like his flesh was melting off.

Jason didn't know how long he spent in that blank space, but eventually his vision returned. Instead of being back in that body, he seemed to be floating in a large dark cave. And just in front of him, was an egg.

His vision started to fly towards the giant egg and once closer, he was able to fully see it. It wasn't an egg, but instead a cocoon with black veins all across it's surface. The weird black and red cocoon would pulse like a heartbeat, as if alive. 

Out of nowhere, his vision sped up and was thrust inside the cocoon. Inside he could see a lightly armored figure in a fetal position with yellowish liquid all around them. He didn't know why, but the 'person' seemed very familiar to him.

As soon as he entered, the figure opened it's red eyes and looked his way. With a terrifying and booming roar, Jason felt instinctual threatened as he was blasted out of the cocoon.

Suddenly, Jason's eyes opened and he sat up with his fists clenched. Cold sweat dripped down his forehead when remembering the 'dream'.

"What in the fuck was that!" He shouted lightly, waking Killgore up who seemed confused at her meatbag and groggily growled at him.

"It's okay Killgore. Some freaky vision or something." Jason patted Killgore's fur who laid beside him on the makeshift bed he created for her last night. 

He had no idea what happened, but at the very least he wasn't stupid enough to pass it off as a mere dream. It was far too vivid and real, nothing like his lucid ones.

"That writing, I swear I know it. Come on brain, work you dumb bastard!" Jason grabbed his head and began tapping on it with his fingers in a random mysterious way in an attempt to boost his memory. Fortunately, it worked.

"Mandarin! That was some Chinese shit! So, was that Hong King Kong getting nuked? Am I psychic or something? And who was that piece of shit?!" Remembering the figure in the cocoon filled him with an unnatural and crazed rage, making him feel an extreme need to kill something. Which surprised him greatly.

Breathing in and out a few times to calm himself, he laid back down and tried to forget about that thing. But it stuck in his brain like gorilla glue. Ruffling his hair roughly, Jason groaned.

"I'm not getting anymore sleep tonight." Though, it's not like needed it. He was full of energy both mentally and physically.

Since he wasn't going back into dreamland anytime soon, he instead closed his eyes and tried to remember everything he could about the dream. Especially the ending.

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A few hours later at dawn, Jason opened his eyes to the sounds of birds trying to rip each other apart.

He got off his bed and looked out the window to see two bigger than average infected birds having a duel. He reckoned they were fighting for a mate.

"Come on, get his ass! I'm betting five hundred sheckles on the blue one!" Jason said excitedly, perhaps a little too loud. The two birds looked his way and hurridely flied away together, forgetting they tried killing each other just mere moments ago. It was as if they trying to escape from him.

"How could you leave you stupid shitheads? Without even finishing your battle? Despicable trash made me waste my sheckles. Those aren't easy to find you know." Jason, disgusted at the birds who stopped giving him entertainment, walked up to the giant skull hanging on his wall.

Before night had arrived, he quickly ran back and grabbed his trophy. Now, it was mounted on his wall to commemorate his first special infected kill.

"Morning partner. Gosh, it must suck being you. Stuck to the wall of the one who whooped your ass and made into some trophy. I'll probably even use you as a cup to drink from eventually. Thoughts?" He asked, not expecting an answer. But then, a growl came surprising him immensely.

"You're still alive?!" Taking a few steps back, he readied himself for battle. That's when another growl came, louder this time.

Jason turned around and saw Killgore looking at him with a tilted head. Feeling some embarrassment, he patted her on the head.

"It's not what it looks like. I'm just having some fun is all." But Killgore wasn't convinced. Returning to her bed, she laid down and looked at her meatbag with strange eyes as he left the room.

Making sure the door behind him was closed, Jason sat on the couch as he waited for Zach to join him for morning workouts. It had felt like a lifetime since the last time they worked out together. 

As he sat there in boredom, he thought about his meditation from a few hours ago.

"So, the one I was watching kill the child and whatnot must have been the one in the cocoon." It wasn't exactly a difficult deduction that needed Sherlock Holmes himself to solve the case.

"But what I felt from that asshole, was weird. An enemy. Kinda like how animals have beef over territory and try to assert dominance. Like... I was being challenged. Some real primal shit honestly." Although Jason considered Scarface to be his nemesis, this thing was his true enemy. 

"Haa. Whatever. This is making my head hurt. And where the fuck is that fat little shit?" Feeling annoyed, he got off his couch and opened his apartment door.

Just as he opened it, he saw Zach standing there with a fist up in a knocking position. His eyes were wide and clearly shocked.

"Uh, hi?" Zach said, nervously. He was still upset over what Jason had done, but decided that he shouldn't judge him too harshly for simply trying to survive. Though, the eating part still disgusted him.

"You're late, get in here and let's get started." Jason pulled him inside, careful not to use too much strength and break him.

For the two hours, the duo worked out with various exercises. However, it was mostly Zach working out since Jason didn't see a need to do it anymore for obvious reasons. Instead he took on a trainer role and guided Zach, pointing out his mistakes and such.

"Hm, you're getting pretty good. Fats coming off nicely, and your muscles are starting to show. But you still need a lot of work." Jason wasn't trying to make him feel better. Zach had truly made impressive progress in these last few weeks of working out. 

When he heard the praise, Zach's face lit up like a Christmas tree. But soon turned sour.

"Jason, are you okay? Yesterday you were pretty, violent." He asked hesitantly, afraid of being hit.

But Jason didn't hit him and replied calmy.

"I think it was because of the Juggernaut. After my little speech, I had cooled off a lot and the anger disappeared."

"So it was a side effect because of your power up?! What if you consumed the Night Hunter?! Or-" Zach went on and on about the subject. He was so excited talking about it because it was a scene out of a manga or an anime.

Jason stood there blankly, before smacking the side of his head and shutting him up.

"Shut up nerd. Come, I need to talk to you about something. I want your insight on it." Then, Jason sat on the couch and spoke about last night's vision.

After he finished talking, Zach pondered for a few moments about the subject.

"That's... something alright. Maybe the vision is your body's way of warning you of a new threat? Could be something that's similair to you and that's why you felt threatened?" 

"God, this makes no sense." Jason said, ruffling his hair.

Chuckling, Zach replied.

"Neither do zombies running around eating people and becoming mutated monsters." 

A few brief moments of silence later, Jason looked over and noticed Zach looking a little odd.

"What's wrong?" He said, making Zach jump a little.

"Huh? Oh. I wanted to ask for your opinion on something. About Lily." Then, Zach unloaded all his love life problems with the muscular woman. Jason listened silently, then spoke when Zach finished.

"Well, it sounds like she's just not interested in you. Especially the way she deflects things and changes subjects. Honestly, I'd say give up."

"Give up?" Zach said, astonished and shocked.

"Yeah, give up. The way you keep coming onto her so hard is kinda creepy and puts her off. She might even see it as a little pathetic. Just take a few steps back for now and see what happens later on down the line." 

Jason's words hurt Zach, but showed him he was doing things wrong.

"I guess you're right. So, um-" Desperate to talk about literally anything else, Zach looked towards the katana sitting on the kitchen table and made his thoughts known.

"Can I have my katana back?" 

Jason looked at him emotionlessly, scaring him, before smiling.

"Sure, if you beat me in a game."

"Game?" Zach's ears perked up at that. 

"Rock, paper, and scissors. Beat me and I'll give it back. Lose and I keep it forever. Lets do around say, ten rounds?" Jason said with a smirk. He was confident in his abilities and didn't think this little bastard had a chance.

But, reality proved otherwise and slapped him across the face with it's meaty cock.

"What in the fuck!" Jason stared at his own hands, wondering if they were broken today. After winning the first two, he then ruthlessly lost eight rounds in a row.

Zach looked at the slackjawed giant and gave a smug smile. Those two wins were just him getting a feel for Jason's playstyle and truthfully, he would've felt bad if he crushed him ten rounds in a row.

'A noob trying to play a grandmaster? Amateur.' Of course, he wouldn't say that. He didn't feel like dying today.

"Not to brag or anything, but I was a champion Rock, Paper, and Scissors player in high-school. Even won a tournament." Zach happily grabbed the katana to put away in his room. Then he would run to Kevin to brag about beating Jason.

"Wow. Fucking loser nerd. Uncreative and retarded game anyway." Jason crossed his arms and pouted like a child who got his toy taken away by his parents.

Upset at the loss of his trophy, he let Killgore know he was leaving and began making his way down to the second floor. It was time for him to thank the ones who risked their lives to save his.

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Michael tapped his foot on the floor unconsciously as he sat in his office. Ram hadn't returned yesterday and failed to radio in as well. The rooftop scouts also hadn't seen him before night arrived.

'Very troubling.'

Ram was very important to him, since he could walk among the common infected unseen. Michael did have two others similar to him but not only were they currently away working on his plan, Ram had more loyalty than them.

'Then there's Bosco and Timothy. Facing trouble before even getting to the docks. At least they should be fine for the common infected. But the specials are so hard to predict.' Biting his nails, Michael was finding it increasingly difficult to handle the special infected.

He wanted to capture one and find out what makes it tick, but he decided to wait until his current plan was finished before taking on something so dangerous.

"Sir, I have news." One of his walkie-talkie people knocked on the door and said aloud, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"Come in." 

A thin man entered with only his socks on and bowed his head in respect.

"Boss. One of the scouts managed to find Ram and his party. Half are missing and presumed dead."

"And Ram?" Michael already knew he must be gone. He always liked to think of the worst as it was more realistic that way. Besides, his luck had always been trashy.

"He's still alive sir. Should be here within ten minutes." 

Never before had he been so thankful for being wrong. As for the others? It was a loss to be sure, but their deaths were nothing in comparison to Ram's.

"Good. You may go. When he arrives, send him to my office immediately."

"Yes sir." With that, the thin man bowed his head once more and left.

Fourteen minutes later, another knock was at his door.

"It's Ram sir. May I come in?" 

"Yes, and make sure you take your shoes off."

Ram walked inside, completely fine and uninjured. Though, he was a little dirty which is to be expected. He stopped before Michael's desk and took a seat when offered.

"So, what happened?" Following Michael's question, came a sigh from Ram.

"Where to start. We went to the supermarket easily, almost too easy honestly. Found the bodies and were about to take them and leave when the man you warned us about arrived. He walked down the street talking to himself like a mental patient."

"How were his injuries?" 

"Injuries? What injuries?" Michael was stunned and didn't speak for a few seconds.

'Nothing? Did the scout see wrong? Was he never injured? Or did he somehow miraculously heal?' While thinking, Michael urged Ram to continue.

"What happened next? In full detail." He leaned forward with his elbows on the desk and hands together near his mouth.

Noting the seriousness within his boss, Ram straightened his back a little.

"As he was walking, an infected came out of nowhere and charged for him. Then, he threw this martial art type kick and killed the thing immediately. But the head broke open, and the body flew away like it was hit by a sledgehammer or something. I swear, that shit wasn't what a human could do. Oh, he was carrying some guns on his back and a beartrap in hand.

"Then... uh..." 

Michael noticed his hesitation to continue.

"Then what? Keep going."

Ram took a few more seconds before replying.

"So, I told some of my men to stay at the supermarket and watch over the bodies. While me and three others continued following him to see where he calls home. It was normal for a few minutes, until he came across a body. It was one of those Bruisers, though he called it Juggernaut."

"Hm, good name. Let's use that from now on. Continue." Ram looked at his boss a little weirdly, but didn't say anything about it.

"Right. So anyway, he squats down next to the thing and starts... eating it. And fucking hell, he must have loved this thing."

"What makes you say that?"

"It was like he couldn't get enough. Like he was possessed or something. Then, after eating it down to the bones, something starts happening. There were these black vein... things that popped up all over his body. Speaking of his body, it went through some kind of metamorphosis or something. Muscles got bigger, he got taller, bones shifted, the whole nine yards."

Michael was thoroughly shocked to his core, something that happened a lot every since the apocalypse started.

He highly doubted this was some joke played by Ram, as he knew Michael disapproved of them in a serious situation.

"I... see. Is that it?"

"No, we kept watching for a few minutes longer. He started doing all these tests. He's not human. Not anymore. I mean, he punch the asphalt and fucking cracked it and even ripped a car door off like it was nothing. After that, he talked to himself like a psycho for a bit more and walked into an apartment building. I think that might be where he lives, but I'm not too sure. We then left to grab the bodies and return back here."

'The puzzle is starting to come together. Maybe he was injured, but somehow managed to heal. Perhaps through eating the infected? Could Ram do the same? Become so strong and heal wounds? Unlikely, since this man was seen by the infected. No reason to risk it. Especially if it would affect his mental state in any capacity.' 

"So, why were you so late? And also fail to radio in?"

At that, Ram sighed and rubbed his forehead with one hand.

"That's... a bit of a long story."

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Ram and his group were walking together down the same path they took to get to the supermarket. If they continued on their current course for another hour, they would easily get back home. But they had to be extra cautious since they were carrying the bodies. 

With Ram leading the way, everything was going smoothly. Almost too smooth. In the back of his mind, Ram had the faintest feeling that something bad was going to happen. But he shrugged it off. He always had this feeling whenever something was going too well and it never went wrong before. So why should it now?

However, not five minutes later, they were ambushed by a massive group of infected that seemed to appear out of thin air. The number couldn't have been lower than 50 of them.

"Shit! Drop the bodies and scatter!" Ram shouted at his men who immediately followed his orders and ran into the nearby buildings or alleys to hide. He had the idea to use the bodies as bait to allow his men to escape.

But then he watched wide eyed, as they ignored the free food and chased after his men with focused intent.

"What?!" 

Suddenly, he found himself pushed to the ground as a few infected brushed into him and knocked him down with incredible strength. He struggled to get up as the infected stepped on his body, but eventually he was able to as all the infected had already rushed inside. 

"AHHH!" The screams of his team made him both angry and sad. He had known some of these guys since before the apocalypse and they were quite close.

Running into the nearest restaurant, he found multiple infected searching for something. Watching them sent a chill down his spine. It was how they were acting. The way they looked through all the places a person could hide was beyond creepy.

He joined in on the hunt and eventually found three of his guys hiding in the freezer. After barricading the door and telling them to stay put, he ran back out into the street to look for more of his team.

However, after the whole ordeal, only five of his men were found. The infected had mysteriously vanished, and so had the other four. The only evidence of what happened were the drops of fresh blood here and there. Another big problem arrived when Ram reached for his radio and found it in pieces.

"Shit! It was probably crushed when they stepped on me! Fuck!"

"Ram. Should we look for them?" One of his guys asked. 

"Absolutely! Let's go that way first!" Ram didn't even hesitate and immediately led them to search for the missing members. Although he didn't know it, the others were glad for this decision. They wanted to at least try and find their friends.

A few hours later, they sat huddled together in a room with all the entrances blocked and sullen looks to their faces. Night had fallen and they were stuck here until morning.

"Can't believe we didn't find even find a speck of them. Did they vanish into thin air?" Someone said.

"Who knows. Those infected were so weird. Showed up out of nowhere and didn't even touch those bastards. Kinda felt like, they were being ordered." The ones he was referring to were the three killed at the supermarket, who were also in the room with them and currently rotting in a corner.

"I wonder where they are. I hope they're still alive." Ram whispered to himself, but since everyone was so close they heard it too. Together, they prayed for their friends safety.

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"AHH! LET ME GO YOU SON OF A BITCH!" One of Ram's team members shouted with a broken bleeding nose as he was dragged by a strong infected. He tried struggling but found it useless. This one definitely ate his Wheaties.

He was the last to be caught after hiding in a closet. The reason he came out was because he stopped hearing noises and thought it was safe. But got unlucky when an infected just so happened to walk inside the room he was in. He tried fighting back, but got punched in the face and was knocked unconscious. A reenactment of his teenage years.

Soon, after a few more minutes of being dragged, he found himself inside a massive dark room. He had no idea what this place used to be before the end of the world. The lighting of the room was very little but still allowed him to see slightly.

The dark and eerie walls had countless people chained to them. They were all alive, naked, and were moaning in pain with their eyes blank and void of any emotion. Children, men, women, everyone was on the walls and didn't discriminate in the slightest. On the floor were dead bodies of people with their chests burst open. Almost like... something crawled out.

He could even swore, he saw something small crawling on the ceiling as it stared at him with it's creepy eyes. The whole place gave him chills. It was a hellish scene that scared him bad.

Then, the infected carrying him threw him roughly into the middle of the room. Once he landed, he managed to see three others of his team being pinned down by multiple infected. And soon enough, he too was pinned.

"The hell is going on!"

"Let me go you bitch!"

"I'll fucking kill you!"

They all clamored and struggled, but to no avail. These infected were a lot stronger than usual.

Suddenly, from one side, the crowd of infected surrounding them started parting. A giant naked 'lady' walked towards them slowly. Seeing her made them all quiet down and feel sheer terror. Although she lacked clothes, there was no arousal present within them.

She was very tall, being around 7ft. No muscles whatsoever could be found on her. If anything, she looked very soft to the touch. Her hips and thighs were very thick and seemingly very breedable, while her breasts were extremely large and even lactating. She looked just like a normal woman, if you ignored the dark blue skin and umbilical cords surrounding her.

She walked up to one of the men and stood just above him. Using her cords, she easily lifted the man up by wrapping his limbs until he was dangling in front of her. She stripped him naked and moved her cords closer to the man's mouth and anus. Guessing what was going to happen, the man started freaking out.

"Wait! Wait! Don't do this please! Please! We can talk about this!" But all that his begging earned him, was a cruel and mocking motherly smile from the lady.

She slowly pushed the umbilical cords both up his ass and down his throat simultaneously, making him gag and groan in pain. They kept going and going, until over a foot disappeared inside him. 

The other witnessed as the cords seemed to pulse slightly, like something was being poured into the man. After a minute or two, the lady put her newest victim down gently and motioned with her dainty hand for some infected to grab him. Then they carefully picked him up and carried him to the wall, chaining him up with the others. Eyes blank and moaning in pain.

The mystery lady went down the line, doing the same thing to all the men. Implanting within them... life.