"I bitch slapped a fish," said Andrea.

"What?" I uttered in bewilderment.

"Are you talking about the baby zombie who tried to attack you yesterday?" asked Amelia while rolling her eyes in amusement.

"Baby? That zombie ain't looking nothing like a baby. It's CLEARLY a fish zombie or at least a fish monster, alright? Don't confuse it with babies, that's an insult to their cuteness" haughtily replied Andrea.

I laughed "Babies are so not cute. Especially in this zombie apocalypse world, we're living in"

"They're loud, they can't do anything by themselves, they need taking care of, waist of resources and-"

"You can't say that! They're the future of mankind" interrupted an irritated Andrea.

"Without them, there won't be a next generation which is the END of the human race" she continued with a pointed glare aimed at me.

"Ok you two, stop the chitchat. We're here."

We glanced at each other and then hurriedly checked our weapons. 

"Ready everyone?" asked Amelia with an amused grin that is constantly on her face.

"Yup!"

"Ready"

"LET'S FUCKING GOOOO!"

With that, the modified battle van named 'Carnage' (courtesy of Bill) opened. 

We rushed out.

Today is one of the few tolerable sunny days in August. We have to take advantage of it or who knows when we're going to have another chance. 

Once we reached our destination, we stopped and Amelia moved to the side. 

"Andrea, Marcus, Lily, cover with me. The rest head in" Amelia ordered.

As our leader, she has to stay out until all of us got in.

"Yes Ma'am" we replied, tucked our heads, and went inside the tunnel.

This tunnel leads to one of the many battle arenas that give resources. 

Unlike other battle arenas in our area, this one gives the most generous offer. 

How generous? 

Defeating an ordinary slow walker gets you a whole-packaged biscuit. Other battle arenas give you 1 biscuit packet or worse just a piece of biscuit.

Unfortunately, it only opens from August to September. The problem is that August and September are prominent in interchanging between violent rainy weather or skin-burning sunny weather.

In an open-air battle arena like this one, you won't survive, much less win with that kind of heaven-disastrous condition.

Hence, we took advantage of this rare tolerable day to try our luck.

"Isabell"

I perked up at the mention of my name.

"You're up" vice-leader, Ferus gestured in front.

Me?

I gazed at him in surprise but then nodded and circled around the others to arrive in front. 

As I got closer to the exit, I saw huge feet.

Huge, green, and disgusting feet.

I sighed.

'They sure like to give me the big ones.'

Nevertheless, I smiled.

'Time to go big!'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HI HI! Bill here, your fourth wall breaker to give you the details of our world!

Unlike zombie movies where the characters have to fight rotting flesh, in our reality, we also have to fight rotting flesh.

Rotting flesh with superpowers. 

But zombies are not the only things we have to fight.

Evolved plants, evolved animals, evolved insects and even evolved weather are what we constantly have to fight. 

The zombie virus messed everything up causing everyone to evolve and adapt to the new changes. 

If you don't evolve, you die! As simple as that.

Now you must be wondering, 'What's a battle arena?'

Something that is yet again different from the usual zombie movies I watched.

Here, there are battle arenas or 'dungeons' in gamer terms. They appear out of nowhere but there are rumors that it's someone's ability that spawns these battle arenas.

What benefits does this give them? Don't know, but the most popular reason is that the ability user likes to watch battles and reward them based on performance.

An infamous battle mania is what they describe them.

Anyways! Your opponents in the battle arena are either, people, animals, plants, or zombies.

There are two ways on how to get into the arena and how to determine your opponent.

Find the two entrances in a battle arena and you have to battle the one that came from the other entrance.

or

You get teleported.

Scattered in the world are teleportation arrays that teleport you to a certain battle arena. No one can escape until you battle someone and win. Only then can you leave.

That's why we have to be careful where we walk. 

You can spot a teleportation array by identifying strange writing in the surroundings. Although most of the time, it's inconspicuous so you can only blame your luck if you get teleported. 

Once someone escapes, they usually report to their base the location of the teleportation array. Then the base informs the other bases which will then be recorded on the official map.

"Isabell"

Oh? 

We all turned our heads to the redhead with freckled skin.

Is the giant goddess going to fight? The opponent must be really big then.

"You're up"

Called it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zombies:

The zombies were a bunch of walking rotting flesh but then they evolved. They start to grow intelligence and superpowers. They eventually evolved to vaguely resemble humans with human-equivalent intelligence except with inhumane-like or unnatural characteristics (ex. Extra limbs, unnatural hair/skin/eyes/nail color, beast-like characteristics, becoming bigger/smaller, etc.)

They essentially became a species of their own.

If zombies encountered an ordinary person they would have an extreme urge to bite.

However, when they encounter ability users, they either kill them and eat or negotiate (only with intelligent zombies have there been successful negotiations).

They cannot reproduce, they can only continue to increase by relying on the high chance of ordinary humans turning to zombies once bitten.

How-e-ver

Perhaps, that won't be the only method soon.

*Stares at the scientist zombie conducting experiments to make zombies pregnant*

Not in a sexual way though, just pure experiment.

Additional Info:

Zombies grow stronger by eating humans and humans grow stronger by eating zombies' crystal nuclei. Meh, both are each other's prey and predator.

Evolved Plants:

The infected got buried in the ground, the land is contaminated with the virus, and plants grow on land sooo yeah. Infected!

Evolved animals and insects:

Animals and insects eat plants, plants are infected, animals and insects eat the other infected animals and insects sooo yeah. Evolve it is for them!

Evolved weather:

Plants, animals, and insects were burned. Smoke goes to the sky. Sky gets infected. Result: Crazy weather!

How to Win in a Battle Arena: Opponent forfeits or dies.

Additional Info:

Infected humans either turned into zombies or get abilities. Ability users will not have any side effects with exposure to the zombie virus so zombies eat all of them when they encounter them. Zombies kill them by eating them alive or dead (bashing their skulls/decapitating them/stabbing etc. Before eating them.)

Children of ability users have a high chance of being born with an ability.

There are still ordinary humans who are not exposed to the zombie virus so they did not evolve or turn into zombies.

Plants, animals, and insects that have not evolved are kept by humans for safe food.

(Ex. Insect: Bee = Honey)

Basically, the zombie virus was just there to force everyone to evolve (⁠•⁠ ⁠▽⁠ ⁠•⁠;⁠).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All images are found on Pinterest. These do not belong to me. They all belong to their respective owners.

Andrea:

Looks cute but she is foul-mouthed and likes to kick ass! She also has soft spots for babies and children under the age of 13.

The more opponent she defeats, the more excited, powerful, and pain-resistant she would be. She is classified as a 'berserker' by others.

Amelia:

This is actually someone's drawing of a Female Muzan from 'Demon Slayer' but I really imagine her like this except with brown hair, brown eyes, tan skin, and always having a big sister grin unless in a dire situation.

She becomes super serious which alerts everyone of the extreme danger when that happens. She's also really fit and plenty of guys and girls give her admiring (drooling) glances whenever she dresses in lighter clothing during hot seasons or weather.

Bill:

This is our fourth wall-breaker host who kindly gave us additional information about the story with his thoughts mixed in.

Marcus:

He can conceal his presence (can last forever as long as he wills it) and turn into a 'ghost' (pass through people, float, invisible, etc.) for a limited time period. He excels in information gathering, assassination, and being a front-line fighter.

He obeys his 'master' at all costs. The main reason he is with Isabell and the others is because of his master's order.

Lily:

She looks serious but she's a sweetheart and can be really gullible. Don't mess with her though. Her poison ability will make you wish you got an instant death.

So sad for her sometimes, she doesn't have many friends because they thought she was arrogant and cold when in reality she just looks like that because she has a 'resting bitch face'.

Thankfully, Amelia and most of her members saw through her kuudere tendencies and became her friend.

Isabell:

This is her but with freckles on her face and all over her body.

Isabell doesn't like children. She gets annoyed with them (one of the many reasons she's lesbian).

Although she dislikes them, she will save the children when they're in danger (but like in a begrudging way)

Her ability is to turn herself and objects (weapons, clothes) (limited) that she touches bigger.

Bill likes to refer to her as 'Giant Goddess' which others use to tease her.

Her giant 'assets' also contribute to this nickname.

Ferus:

Vice-leader of the group.

Tends to act cold and emotionless. In actuality, he's a big baby who's seen a lot of death so he tries to distance himself. He tries not to care so he won't get hurt when they die 🥺.

He used to be the reliable older brother type who smiles gently but ever since he saw his friends die, he has never been the same (⁠-̩̩̩⁠-̩̩̩⁠-̩̩̩⁠-̩̩̩⁠-̩̩̩⁠ _⁠_⁠_⁠-̩̩̩⁠-̩̩̩⁠-̩̩̩⁠-̩̩̩⁠-̩̩̩⁠).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wattpad:

Written: 06/13/23

Published: 06/16/23

 

Neobook:

Written: 06/13/23

Published: 06/16/23

 

ScribbleHub:

Written: 06/13/23

Published: 06/16/23

Edited: 07/13/23