Chapter 10: MV-01 Power Armor
The last brother, Joey, struggled to rise, terror dawning on his face. "No, please—"
"Oh, I almost forgot you," Zack murmured with a cold smile before firing one final shot. Joey dropped, his pathetic wails silenced at last. With the three brothers dead, an eerie calm settled over the blood-soaked room, the metallic scent filling the air.
Zack picked up the shotgun the brothers had. To his disappointment, it was nothing more than a crudely made weapon, hand-polished and barely functional. He dropped it back onto the floor, unimpressed.
He reached into his backpack and pulled out a Molotov cocktail he had prepared earlier. With a flick of his lighter, he set it ablaze and tossed it onto the floor among the corpses. Flames quickly engulfed the Mansion, flickering against the blood-stained walls and spreading fast.
Without looking back, Zack left, his face calm as he walked away from the burning building. Despite this being his first time killing a human, he showed no signs of hesitation or remorse. He know he need to be decisive or dead is what await him. Only when he was some distance away did he glance back at the burning Mansion, a complicated look in his eyes.
A sudden, long howl pierced the night air, sending chills down his spine. Out of the darkness, four or five shadowy figures—fast, humanoid, and ghastly—emerged, rushing toward the Mansion in response to the flames.
Zack's heart skipped as he spotted the strange, shadowy figures in the distance. "What... are those?" he murmured, ducking behind an abandoned car for cover.
"Target is too far for a scan. Switching to satellite view," Ego reported. Within seconds, images from the LSI satellite appeared before Zack's eyes. Although the night view was dim, he could make out four or five humanoid shapes racing across the ground with inhuman speed. Under the moonlight, their unnaturally long limbs and pale, hairless bodies stood out starkly. They were anything but human.
"Sir, comparison analysis indicates these creatures are newly identified mutant zombies, commonly called Night Stalkers," Ego informed him. "Data shows Night Stalkers primarily emerge at night. During the day, they remain dormant in dark spaces like basements, entering a state similar to hibernation..."