Zane collapsed onto the apartment floor. The exhaustion was an overwhelming weight, but the adrenaline still kept him conscious.
Chloe was standing over him, her eyes bloodshot with terror. Her state wasn't calm, but hysterical shock.
"What happened out there, Zane? What was that? How did you know where we were? What's going on? What is that... that thing?" Chloe bombarded him with questions, her voice rising and falling. "We have to call the police! Emergency services! Someone has to come!"
Zane slowly got up, ignoring the throbbing pain in his exhausted muscles. He stood in front of her. He was covered in dirt and dark fluids; his machetes dripped onto the floor. Despite everything, he hugged her tightly.
Chloe tensed, but then broke. The tears she'd been holding back spilled over, soaking Zane's dirty T-shirt.
"Listen, listen closely," Zane whispered into her ear. "The Catastrophe has started. The end of the world is here, and no police are going to save us. What you saw... that's just the beginning."
Chloe pulled away from the hug, breathing raggedly. "No, no, tell me what we'll do! What's the plan? Do we stay here? Should we..."
"We have to get out of Chicago. This isn't going to stop; the cities will be completely destroyed. We need supplies, shelter, food. And fast."
"I agree!"
They both turned. Liam came out of the small bathroom. He was pale, and his left arm hung strangely by his side. He looked pained, but his voice was firm.
"Zane's right. But I can't do much," Liam said, wincing as he tried to move his arm. He leaned against the door frame. "I'm hurt. I... just leave me. You guys go on without me."
"Shut up, Liam!" Zane snapped, his voice hard. He ignored his exhaustion and moved toward his friend.
Zane quickly checked Liam with an expert's eyes. He saw the left arm clearly dislocated at the shoulder, plus multiple deep scrapes on his knees and side. There was no bite or broken nail wound indicating infection, which caused Zane to sigh in relief.
"What the hell happened, Liam? What did this to you?" Zane asked, looking at the injury.
Liam and Chloe looked at each other. Chloe spoke first, her voice still trembling.
"When you left, we thought you'd gone crazy. We watched Resident Evil XX, but nobody could focus, and you weren't answering your phone," Chloe explained. "We went to your house, but we didn't find you."
"That must have been when I was getting the weapons," Zane interrupted.
Liam nodded. "What did you buy? Why those things? As far as I remember, there's a gun shop nearby. Why didn't you get a gun?"
Zane stared at him, a cold expression that frightened his friends.
"Listen closely, because this is the number one rule of the zombie Catastrophe. Those... things aren't like in the movies, Liam. Normal bullets don't do anything. You'd need at least an assault rifle to have enough power, and even that's not a guarantee."
Zane paused for the information to sink in.
"They only die if you completely sever the head from the body. Bullets just buy them more time to reach you. That's why I bought the machetes."
"Besides," Zane thought coldly. "I'm used to using swords. I was a combat warrior, not a shooter."
Chloe sank onto a broken armchair. "It was all my fault. If only we had believed you..."
"Don't say that," Zane said, but Chloe ignored him.
"After not finding you at your house, we wandered around the area, not knowing what to do. We stayed in a park to discuss how to help you, and then... the chaos started." Chloe gripped her head. "The screams, the gunfire... We saw people starting to kill each other out of panic. That's when we remembered you said to flee here, to my apartment, and that you'd find us."
Liam let out a sigh as he continued the story. "We were running, but they surrounded us quickly. Those things are slow, but there are so many." Liam paused to catch his breath. "I was using a metal pipe I found lying around; I managed to kill a couple of them. But while fleeing down the main street, a car lost control. I pulled Chloe away to save her, but the impact hit my arm and sent me flying. That's why I'm like this."
Zane nodded. The story was perfectly logical for the start of the apocalypse. People killing each other out of panic, car accidents, and the zombies being just the catalyst. It was a miracle they had survived without weapons in a public place surrounded by zombies.
"Alright. Enough talking," Zane said, regaining his firmness. "Liam, I'm going to put that arm back in place right now, and it's going to hurt like hell. Chloe, I need all the drinking water and non-perishable food you have in this apartment, now. As for us, we need to take the officer's pistol I have and the machetes. We're leaving this city as soon as we can... even though it's much more dangerous at night, we have no option. If we wait for dawn, it's not certain we'll survive."
Zane's face tightened as he remembered what had happened the first time...
They had gone to see the movie and then to eat pizza at a nearby restaurant when everything started. The screams, the chaos, the dead... everything happened the same way this time. Back then, they didn't know what to do. They ran to Chloe's apartment and locked themselves in.
They soon ran out of food. The power went out due to overloads on the lines, plus the power plants no longer had anyone to run them, causing the entire electrical grid to collapse. Drinking water was the last to run out.
Then they made the decision to go out and look for food, but the city was completely dead and looted. They had too much difficulty obtaining anything.
No. That won't happen again. Zane didn't want to repeat his mistakes and had to get ahead of the situations.
The One-Man Army was back, and his orders were law.