The zombie jumped up on the upturned emergency vehicle, blood dripping from its snarling mouth, its clothes tattered, barely clinging to its torso. It had once been a man, most likely, its height and the breadth of its shoulders indicating such, though it was impossible to tell under all the blood and grime. It scented her, nostrils flaring, face snapping in her direction and with a twisting of its mouth, a gross approximation of a smile, it lunged in her direction. Sym backed up, stumbling over her feet, trying desperately to reload her shotgun, fumbling the shells with her one free hand, cursing under her breath as it came out in heavy pants.

‘Sym!’ Iseult called, running over to her from a too far distance, her own rifle slung over her back as she did her best to run away from a zombie of her own, tossing a smoke grenade behind her to try to delay its attack. Sym wished futility that she had the forethought to pick a semiautomatic as well, but it was too late now, she had to work with what she had. She felt the distinct clink of the shell rim passing the magazine catch and flipping the barrel back up, as quick as she could she held down the action release. She pumped the slide with all the force of her desperation, the stock grinding painfully against her shoulder, falling back and sliding against a car as she did so. Not fast enough. The zombie was almost on her now. She managed to get the barrel between her and it, pulling the trigger. The buckshot exploded out, ripping a gaping hole through the zombie’s chest, the force alone enough to bring down a man, but the zombie barely flinched, just kept coming, impaling itself on her gun to reach her, its jaw open wide, jagged teeth making contact with her throat before ripping it out.

Game over. The dripping bloody letters appeared in front of her, the zombie's jaws stilled in her neck, an annoyingly taunting melody overlaid. Sym ripped off the headset, exasperated. Iseult joined her shortly after, taking off her own headset with a sigh. ‘That level is impossible!’ Sym complained to her, flopping back on the bed, her long black hair spreading out behind her like a fan. ‘They’re just too fast and too strong.’ Iseult said, resigned. They were in Iseult’s room, posters for zombie movies decorating her walls, as well as an out of place poster for pop sensation Ira Faye, the rapidly rising darling of the entertainment industry hidden on the back of her door, which was currently closed to keep their shrieks from disturbing Iseult’s brother Mnomo as he worked on a project for their father. 

The two girls had finished their homework, Sym helping Iseult with chemistry, as that was her best subject, unsurprising given her mother’s vocation, and now they were indulging in one of their favorite pastimes, zombies. 

‘Did I tell you my theory about the catacombs?’ Iselt said, swinging to sit cross legged on the bed, pink eyes sparkling with excitement. Iseult was a bit of a conspiracy nut. Her interest in both conspiracies and architecture had perhaps predictably led to her investigating the rumored catacombs under the city via any books she could get her hands on, though she had made it clear she would jump at the opportunity to investigate in person if the opportunity arose. Legend held that once the city had been the site of a massive god-apocalypse, where a god-king had attempted to raise an army of demi-gods to wage a holy war on gods everywhere and bring them to heel. The process had drained its god seed, the keystone and catalyst of a god’s power, which had caused a rapid and complete collapse of the surrounding area, creating a huge underground reservoir of toxic waste and buried god-seed, upon which, allegedly, their city had been built. 

The god was known as the zombie king, so called because it was originally a god-tree that had parasitically taken over the body of a human corpse and animated it, granting itself mobility. Consistent with it’s zombie heritage, the demi-godhood it bequeathed its progeny with was disseminated via dandelion-like puffs of seed that spread with each breath of its stolen lungs, contaminating and germinating the plants in its vicinity, granting them the animation necessary to answer it’s call to life. This only heightened Iseult’s interest, her fever for zombies matched only by Sym’s own. 

‘Which conspiracy theory about the catacombs?’ Sym responded, trying to keep the sarcasm to a minimum out of respect for their joined interest. Iseult shover her shoulder in playful reproach. ‘I’m pretty sure I found a reference to a catacomb entrance!’ Sym scoffed, she had heard that before. 

‘No no! Hear me out! So, I found this book, it talks about city planning, and how often cities are built on top of older cities because the older cities provide increasingly firm foundations. Right?” Sym nodded. ‘So that makes sense, the zombie king’s corpse had to come from somewhere, it must have been a person that lived in the city that was here before ours!’ Sym cut in, ‘who's to say it wasn’t a traveler?’ Isuelt shook her head, ‘you know we get most of our travelers by sea, and back then, without hovercraft it would have been even harder to make it over the mountains.’ Iseult noticed that Sym appeared unimpressed and added, “Ugh. You’re just being difficult.’ 

Sym rolled her eyes before conceding, ‘Fine, let’s say I accept that our city was built on another city, and a person from that city spawned the zombie king, or whatever, and the zombie king’s apocalypse destroyed the city. Why are you so fixated on there being catacombs?’ Iseult heaved a sigh, clearly exacerbated with Sym’s lack of excitement. ‘Because if we can find the catacombs, we can find residual godseed and prove that the zombie king existed!’ 

Sym stared at her aghast, ‘Wait wait wait, you want to find godseed?! Isn’t that stuff like, super dangerous?!’ Iseult looked at her with impatience, ‘It’s not like we’re going to try to become gods or anything, just prove the zombie king is real. And anyway, that’s not the point. The book referenced the Grand theater just outside the city as a good example of a building built on top of the remains of older previous civilizations. It has a super deep basement and underground pathways for the entertainers to get in and out and for all the equipment to be stored. What if those corridors connect to deeper ones, ones that go all the way into the remnants of the city below?’ 

Sym remained unconvinced. ‘But wouldn’t the workers notice something like that?’ She countered. ‘That’s the thing, I cross referenced a book on the history of the theater, and it has a super high turnover rate for staff. Maybe some have noticed, and gotten lost beneath.’ Sym looked at her in disbelief. ‘And that made you want to investigate them. The location with a history of people disappearing.’ ‘But we would be prepared!’ Iseult said with excitement ‘unlike them we will know what we’re looking at and have like chalk or something so that we don’t get lost! Come on, I’m serious this time, this could be the catacombs for real!’ ‘Okay, okay, I believe you! But how would we get in to check?’ Iseult deflated a little. ‘I haven’t figured that part out yet. But I will.’ she amended, with resolve. 

A knock at the door interrupted their discussion. ‘Iseult, dinner’ Mnomo said, opening the door without waiting for a response. ‘Mnomo! Why do you even knock if you’re not going to wait for me to say open?’ Iseult complained. ‘Hi Sym, are you staying for dinner?’ He asked, ignoring his sister. ‘We’re having Veridia and her son over tonight.’ Sym made a face, ‘Hiru? I see enough of him at school, I don’t want to see his face outside of it too.’ Mnomo chuckled, ‘fair enough, he is a little obnoxious,’ he replied, ‘anyway, dinner in a half hour, Iseult, don’t be late, Father will be disappointed.’ ‘When is he not disappointed in me.’ Iseult returned. Mnomo sighed. ‘Still, I’ll have to hear about it, so I’d appreciate you keeping the disappointment to a minimum.’ Iseult feigned a laugh. 

‘I’ll see you tomorrow,’ Sym said, packing up her belongings, which had somehow gotten scattered around the room. Mysterious how that happened. ‘Have fun getting grilled by literally everyone at that table.’ She gave Iseult a quick kiss on the cheek and Mnomo a wave before seeing herself out.