Hello,
I believe there should be around 4 prologue chapters in total, so the last 2 of them should be coming within the next week. Because it's the novel's start, I'm going to place more effort on the amount and speed of the content coming out, but it should slow down once the prologues are done. However, I want to keep the amount of effort I place into them the same, so you don't have to expect a drop in quality, only a drop in how fast they come out. Plus, school is starting in 3 weeks, so that will be my main priority.
Besides that, I hope you enjoy the chapters!
Wayman
SFX: Earthquake rumbling followed by items falling to the floor and items breaking or crashing
I abruptly woke up to the harsh sound of items thrown around and the sound of objects being destroyed, followed by a mild headache assaulting my mind.
Alarmed and confused, I quickly looked at my clock; it was still only 3:30 in the morning. Aggravated by the blaring headache and annoyed by the time of day. I decided to just lay my head back on my bed and deal with it when I was in a healthier mind.
Of course, the second I put my head back onto the pillow and tried to relax on the bed, hoping to ignore the problem for now and go to sleep, I quickly realized I was fully awake, and my brain would not rest anymore.
Of course, even though I knew that, I still tried to close my eyes for a moment, trying to fool my brain into sleeping to deal with my problems another time; sadly, the headache kept me tied to the mortal plain away from my dreamland.
Moments after trying to relax, I suddenly started to sporadically change positions multiple times in strange and uncomfortable positions in bed. I was struggling to decide if I should deal with my problems now or continue the worthless struggle of trying to go back to sleep. But my proactive side of me won in the end.
Suddenly, I threw myself out of bed. The earthquake was already done, so the damage was already done. I looked around my room and saw all kinds of items on the ground and pieces of collectibles strewn across the floor.
Seeing the damage, I was left speechless at how messy my room was. Seeing the mess made me tired and think of how much-unwanted effort I would have to put into sorting and cleaning up my room just by itself and even to mention the rest of the house.
My hands unconsciously moved to cover my face and dramatically pulled my hair back. "Why the hell is such a strong earthquake happening in New Hemsworth, and why wasn't there some sort of warning beforehand?"
The dread of the situation quickly turned to irritation, remembering there should have been some warning that this would be happening.
Although I was irritated and annoyed while still afflicted by a headache, I knew nothing could be done. I decided to put my efforts into cleaning instead of just whining about it.
So, after putting on some slippers, I took the best part of 30 mins picking up or putting back items that were misplaced across my room.
Thankfully the headache had subsided by now, and the brain's fight or flight mode had stopped. So, fortunately, when I was done cleaning my room, I felt the oh-so-great fatigue of the mind again calling for me to drift off to sleep.
After looking around my room one more time, making sure it looked appropriate enough, I made sure I was done for now. "*sigh* I'll let the maids clean the rest of the house later, but for right now, I have a date with my bed I need to attend to."
After finishing my impromptu responsibilities, I was pooped and threw myself against my bed. The second my head hit the pillow, my body immediately relaxed.
As my body and mind were quickly being whisked away to dreamland and all was good in my world. Suddenly-
*RING* SFX: Ring tone for a communication device
"*sigh* FUCK!" As if the devil had pulled the cruelest joke on me, I was cock-blocked from sleeping again. Usually, I would ignore such a call at this time and with the type of mood I was in, but it was best to answer the call due to the circumstances.
Because, for one, a fucking earthquake happened not even an hour ago. Two, I was being called by my secretary and friend, and it could be vital information concerning me, or it could be a call about how my well-being was. Then finally, three, I'm not a dick that would ignore my friend's urgent call considering it was 4 am. It had to be urgent enough for him to find it imperative to call me now instead of calling me at a more reasonable time of day.
'Okay, let's get this morning over with.' So I accepted the call through Nerolink and immediately connected to the other person.
"Hey, how are you doing after that earthquake? Are you good? What's up?" I politely asked after I picked up the call, thinking it would be news related to the earthquake that had just happened.
"We don't have much time to talk; quickly head to the company building." Hearing his voice's seriousness and ambiguous message, I was immediately woken up. I quickly got up to sit on my bed, ready to move if needed.
"This sounds serious; what happened? Did one of our powerplants break, or is any other news that I'll need to prepare myself for?" After asking my question, I quickly moved to my closet, wearing my work clothing.
"No, it has nothing to do with the company itself. It's safer for you to head to the company so we can plan our next move." I was irritated when I heard his words because he still hadn't told me what was happening. 'Just tell me what is going on!'
"You still haven't answered my question. What is going on that's so important that isn't related to the company?" I quickly got to the point I was almost done getting my clothing on. I wanted to mentally prepare myself for what was happening before I left this house.
"*sigh* The fucking apocalypse has started! Zombies have appeared around the world, attacking people as we speak!"
'Shit...'
"I need the latest news of the incident right now." As I walked inside the company building, I was greeted by most of my executives on the first floor.
Surprisingly it wasn't hard to make it to the building, but it was a strange ride. The roads were strangely quiet, considering the world was presumingly ending. I was expecting an apocalyptic sight with buildings destroyed and cars riddled across the street, blocking traffic.
Fortunately, my assumption was wrong; although there was damage around the area, such as trees falling, signs crashing to the ground, and slight foundational damage to buildings, it was not horrible.
Under normal circumstances, everything would probably be fixed within a few months or weeks if this earthquake occurred. Unfortunately, it was followed up with what is seen as an apocalyptic event: zombies.
Even through the drive, I saw little evidence of any zombies. I saw no zombies through the transmute; the only strange thing was the low number of people outside and the slight damage due to the earthquake.
After my inquiry about the state of the situation, my secretary walked beside me. While I made my way to the meeting room to get more comfortable while talking about the logistics.
When he got shoulder to shoulder with me, he proceeded to show me a map of the world before starting to speak.
"Before I can explain what's shown on the map, I'll have to explain to you the current state of the world." After he said so, he began elaborating on what had happened in the past 4-6 hours.
At 22:34(Central World Time), sudden significant seismic activity occurred in the Converts and United States territory, with the magnitude of all three earthquakes ranging between 10 to a mind-boggling 12.
Unfortunately, that was not the end of reporting earthquakes. Like a wave moving west, the world started experiencing earthquakes spreading across the globe, affecting each country.
Each earthquake was unbelievably strong, although not as high as a 12; even the weakest one in east Korine was a magnitude 9.6. This was horrifying because the most vigorous earthquake the planet had experienced thus far was a magnitude of 9.5.
"Each red dot on the map pinpoints the earthquake's reported starting points, which we will name 'Null Zones.' The null zone with the skull above it is the magnitude 12 earthquake named 'Earth's fury' due to the sheer amount of damage that has been done to the surrounding areas." After explaining what the map signified, he then stated the situation of our current area.
"Thanks to our location being relatively away from null zones. Our damage was reduced to what you saw outside, relatively minor damage. The city government reported that we were impacted by a magnitude 5.7-6.1 earthquake."
We made it to the meeting room and began finding our seats as soon as he finished saying so. After sitting down, I immediately asked what I was most interested in; the zombies.
"You said there were zombies; tell me what you know about them and how they were made." After my second inquiry, he nodded at me and connected his tablet to the presenting board in the room.
The room's air stilled for a moment, and my secretary sighed while rubbing his forehead. "Well, we don't know much about the situation or have any concrete information on how the undead or otherwise named zombies came to be. All we have are vague guesses based on the conditions surrounding them."
I leaned back further in my chair with my eyebrows furrowed, not exactly pleased about the lack of information, but I didn't blame it on my employees. So I let him go along, "Well, tell me about the guesses about how it happened."
He nodded and switched the slide on the board, showing statistics and numbers. He turned back around and began to elaborate."After the earthquakes hit, the masses surrounding the areas next to the null zones and further beyond started to experience headaches. These headaches could range from minor and barely noticeable, or they could be brain-splitting migraines that could lead to fainting or even death." Hearing what he was saying, my furrowed brows deepened, I didn't understand how this was related to zombies, but I let him continue since I didn't want to make myself a fool.
"One thing that was reported was that the intensity and quantity of the headaches lowered the farther away a null zone is. It's currently suspected that a high-speed airborne virus or pathogen spreads from each null zone. The stronger the magnitude of the earthquake; was directly correlated to the strength of the headaches."
"It's been found to affect all life on earth; the pathogen has affected humans, animals, arthropods, and even plants. However, it does seem to affect humans the most. At least from what has been found in the past 6 hours since the first null zone appeared."
At this point, I think I understood what was probably going on, so I made my assumption heard. "So the zombies are appearing from the people that had died or fainted to the headaches. Spread out from the so-called null zones?" After I finished my sentence, I got a quick nod from him.
"Yes, people that have been dying or fainting from the headaches began to exhibit zombie-like behavior about 15 mins after their reported deaths. This, too, happens to animals, as has been documented by farmers worldwide."
After saying so, he turned around and began to look at the board and its stats. "What is shown on the board is the number of calls made to the authorities in the last 6 hours. As you can see, around 37.3 million calls have reached out to police and government buildings in this short time. We can calculate the number of zombies currently roaming the earth with these numbers. If we assume that 90% of the calls made are related to zombie-related incidents, then at the lowest, we can assume around 30 million zombies at the lowest amount."
'Holy fuck' My furrowed eyebrows quickly raised. "Unfortunately, due to the global problems with the world right now, most people are not relying on the government, assuming it will collapse on itself. So, I'm guessing about 25-30% of the zombies are not being reported to the authorities. So we are looking up words of an unprecedented 100 million zombies globally. Thankfully our area of the world is relatively far from any null zones, so we assume that relatively few zombies have made their way here. We calculated around 20 thousand, at the highest amount."
Hearing the end of the explanation, I relaxed a bit. The situation seems dire, but at least our area of the world is safe from the worst of it, at least for now anyways.
After looking up at the ceiling for a moment, I leaned forwards in the chair. "Alright, now that that's been covered, what should we do?"
After my inquiry, the board of directors looked at each other for a moment and then looked back at me moments later.
One of them stood up and exclaimed, "Actually, we do have an idea that we believe could be the safest option."
I smirked. "Alright, let us hear it."
Chapter Name: Null Zones
