Zack raised his eleagic whip. His tone icy cold. “A devil!? After everything that you have dohreatenio take over my tech, ung o my home. And you know the best what you have done here!”

  With a single, calcuted swing, he cut through the row of soldiers lined up against the wall. Their bodies fell in halves, their wounds charred and bloodless. “I curse—” Kshatti’s words were abruptly silenced. His body went numb as he felt a strange weightlessness. He saw his own neck slip from his shoulders, the world spinning wildly before his severed head hit the ground with a dull thud.

  At the same time, rge bases equipped with reaissaellites around the world were monit the battle at Caribbean base with growing arm. This wasn’t just a skirmish—it was the first human-versus-human war sihe apocalypse began. The Caribbean base, with all its resources and manpower, had been utterly annihited. Its soldiers and leaders were massacred, its defenses crushed. It was a one-sided sughter, leaving no room for retaliation.

  In the frozen wastend of Siberia, inside a shadowy, high-security base, a man draped in a heavy cloak stood silently. The only light in the room came from a rge s dispying the grim footage of the Guman battle. “Bck Hand, is this the man who attacked your unit?” a synthesized voice asked, cutting through the darkness. The voice was eerily ral, its tone impossible to pce as male or female.

  “Yes,” Bck Hand replied, his voice dripping with cold hatred.

  The voice paused briefly. “The headquarters will provide you with neons and teology. Do you require anything else?”

  “I want and of Team Moon Shadow,” Bck Hand said, his tone unwavering.

  Team Moon Shadow—a legendary three-person team. Its captain, Lillian, known by the ame Moonshadow, and the other two members, had all been spotted in NYC at some point. The burly fighter, “Bear,” and the deadly swordsman, “Samurai,” pleted the trio.

  “Granted,” the voice replied after a moment. “But remember, failure is not an option. If you disappoint the headquarters again, you know the sequences.”

  As soon as the words faded, Bck Hand doubled over, clutg the wall for support. His body trembled violently, wracked by an invisible pain so excruciating it left him gasping for breath. “Rest assured, I won’t fail this time,” Bck Hand rasped through gritted teeth, f the words out despite the torment.

  “See that you don’t,” the synthesized voice warned before vanishing.

  Left alone in the darkness, Bck Hand straightened slowly, his scarlet eyes glowih the shadow of his hood. They gleamed with the savage hunger of a beast poised to strike. “I will kill you,” he snarled, his voice a promise of vengeance.

  Meanwhile, Zack hovered high above the ruins of Caribbean base, the wings of his suit cutting a sharp silhouette against the smoky sky. Below, the se was a vision of hell—zombies swarming the base. “How many are left?” Zack asked, his toached.

  Ego, his AI panion, responded immediately. “Over ten thousand survivors remain, sir. The meical beasts were programmed to spare most of the capable young adults, but I ake sure have they ed human or not.”

  Zack observed the chaos below for another moment, calg his move. Despite his hate for what they did, he o bance survival and his own feeling—particurly with the big problem he have now the gender imba his territory.

  His eyes narrowed. “Bring them in.” The women would help bahe ratio of men to women. The men would provide mahis is the apocalypse, even with all the tech he have, he ot take care all of them. He ot create food and resource from nothing.

  “Sir, the Avalon ’t transport this many people,” Ego, his AI panion, reminded him with its usual calm tone.

  “Then we’ll take the river,” Zack replied without missing a beat. The Hudson River, the lifeblood of the New York City region, was the perfect solution. Flowing down to the Atntic, it offered a direct route to the Caribbean. A cargo ship could easily solve their logistical problem.

  “Uood. The robotic dogs are already seleg didates,” Ego responded..

  The massacre at the Caribbean base was nearly over. The meical beasts herded over 10,000 survivors onto the airport runway. Cries and shouts echoed through the air, a symphony of despair. Meanwhile, zombies swarmed what used to be the survivors’ living quarters, now reduced to a feeding ground. As the uried to verge on the runway, three Avalons cirg overhead dropped indiary bombs, creating a wall of fire that halted their advance.

  From nearby buildings, Zack’s spider drones acted as sentry guns, spitting fire to suppress the zombies. On the ground, meical dogs sed the panicked crowd , separating individuals based on physical health. When the s was plete, 1,100 womens and 800 men were isoted from the rest. They were marched and loaded onto an intact cargo ship.

  “Let the meical dogs board first,” Zack ordered as the st survivors were shoved onboard.

  With a loud, low whistle, the massive freighter pushed away from the dod began its journey down the Hudson River. Back at the base, Ached the chaos from the seat of her Tarantu. “Brother, what about the rest of them?” she asked hesitantly, her voice filled with unease.

  “You go back first. I’ll ha,” Zack replied, his voice devoid of emotion.

  “But, brother…”

  “Go,” Zack said firmly. Relutly, Annie climbed aboard the Avalon. One by ohe spider drones returo the aircraft at Zack’s and. The Avalon asded into the sky, carrying Annie away from the Caribbean base.

  Now only Zad his subordinate Ava remained, h above the runway. “You know why I kept you here, don’t you?” Zack asked, his tone icy.

  “Yes, I uand,” Ava replied, her face flicted.

  “Good. It’s your decision. Do what you want, but don’t report bae. Whatever happens, I won’t care.” Without waiting for a response, Zack activated his thrusters, ung himself into the sky and vanishing into the clouds.

  On the ground, thousands of survivors, left to their fate, erupted into chaos. Some screamed, others begged for mercy, and a few, driven mad by fear, turned on each unsh out as panic spread like wildfire. Unknown to them, the fire outside the perimeter had died down, and the zombies were closing in.

  “Do I really have to choose?” Ava murmured to herself, her hand h over the red button of a remote detonator. Memories of her fallen rades fshed through his mind: Antonny, Steve,—all of them sughtered by these very people. Their faces, their final moments, pyed out like a haunting slideshow. ‘It’s not like I have any option..’ Her hesitatioed away as rage and sorrow filled her chest. her hand smmed down oton. Even if she choose to spare them what await them is just hellish experiehey will turn on each other beihan human.

  Miles away, Zack hovered mid-air, watg the horizon. A bright, mushroom-shaped fireball rose from the Caribbean base, its shockushing away the clouds to reveal a pristine blue sky.