10.000x Doomsday Survival

1. Betrayal at Death's Door

A putrid stench wafted through the tenth-floor corridor of the Horizon Apartments. Three days had passed since the Khamul Meteor struck Eldoria, and the world had literally become a living hell. Axel Edward sat slumped against the cold concrete wall. His stomach was tied in knots. It felt as if a knife were slowly slicing through his gut. He had not eaten a single thing since yesterday afternoon.

He held a slice of white bread speckled with green mold. Axel stared at it as if it were a solid bar of gold.

"Xel, I really can't take this anymore. I'm so dizzy," a frail voice murmured. It belonged to Cindy, Axel's girlfriend, who was sitting right beside him.

Axel turned to look at her. Cindy's face, usually beautiful and perfectly made up, was now deathly pale. Her lips were cracked and bone dry. A wave of pity washed over him. He remembered how she used to whine, begging him to buy her luxury handbags, yet now, all she wanted was a piece of rotten bread.

"Just hang on a little longer, Cin. I have some bread here. We can split it three ways with Rio," Axel said softly. His voice was horribly hoarse from severe dehydration.

Rio, who was sitting a short distance away gripping a steel pipe, shot to his feet. His muscular frame had visibly shrunk over the past few days, but his eyes were still wild and fierce. "Split it three ways? Are you kidding me, Xel? A piece of bread that small isn't even enough to line my stomach."

Axel looked up, staring at Rio with sheer exhaustion. "This is all we have left, Rio. If we don't share it, we are all going to starve to death before the zombies outside even break down that door."

Rio closed the distance between them. The heavy thud of his boots echoed against the quiet floor. "That is exactly the problem. If that bread goes to just one person, their chances of survival actually go up. You know that, right?"

Axel frowned. Something felt very wrong about Rio's tone. "What are you trying to say?"

"It is quite simple, Xel." Rio threw a sideways glance at Cindy. "I need the energy to fight off the zombies if they break in. Cindy needs the food so she doesn't pass out. But you? You are just a corporate desk jockey who can't even hold a steel pipe properly."

Axel gripped the bread tighter. "We have been friends for a long time, Rio. We have stuck together since the very beginning of this apocalypse. Are you seriously going to be selfish now?"

Rio let out a harsh laugh. The sound was abrasive, stripped of any remaining camaraderie. "Friends? In today's world, friends are nothing but a burden if they don't bring anything useful to the table. Cin, tell him our plan."

Axel snapped his head toward Cindy. He desperately hoped his girlfriend would defend him. Instead, she averted her gaze entirely. She did not even dare to look him in the eyes.

"Cin? You can't be serious, right?" Axel asked. His heart began to pound against his ribs.

Cindy took a deep breath and finally met Axel's gaze. Her eyes were completely devoid of warmth. "I am sorry, Xel. I just want to live. Rio promised he would protect me and take me to the refugee camp downtown. But he said our supplies won't be enough if you come along."

Axel felt his entire world crumble. "I was the one who found this food, Cin. I nearly died getting bitten by those things in the convenience store downstairs just to get this bread. How could you be so heartless?"

"Heartless or not, that is entirely beside the point." Rio suddenly lunged forward, grabbing Axel by the collar and hoisting him up. "Hand over the bread!"

"No. This belongs to me." Axel tried to fight back. He struck at Rio's arms, but his malnourished body had absolutely zero strength left.

Rio scoffed. He gave Cindy a subtle nod. Out of nowhere, Cindy pulled a small folding knife from her jacket pocket. She stepped right up to Axel.

"Don't blame me, Xel. Blame yourself for being so weak," Cindy whispered.

Squelch.

Axel's eyes widened in horror. A sharp, icy pain pierced his waist. Cindy had driven the blade in with trembling hands, yet it was deep enough to completely knock the wind out of him. Axel collapsed to the floor. Warm blood immediately began to pool, soaking through his filthy t-shirt.

Axel choked on a mouthful of blood. He stared up at Cindy in pure, unadulterated disbelief. "You really did this."

Cindy stumbled a step backward, dropping the bloody knife. She looked terrified for a fleeting second, but her features quickly hardened again. "I had no choice, Xel. I want to live."

Rio snatched the bread right out of Axel's limp hand. He took a greedy, ravenous bite right in front of Axel's fading eyes. "Not a bad piece of bread. Now, since you are bleeding out, you are going to draw the attention of every zombie in the hallway. That will give Cindy and me enough time to escape to the upper floors."

Rio grabbed Axel's body and dragged him straight toward the emergency fire doors. Axel tried to claw blindly at the concrete floor, fighting desperately to stay put, but Rio was simply too strong.

"Rio, don't. Do not open that door," Axel screamed with every last ounce of his fading strength.

Rio did not care in the slightest. He cracked the heavy emergency doors open. The guttural snarls of the undead instantly echoed through the gap. A putrid stench, ten times worse than before, violently flooded the room.

"Goodbye, old friend. I hope they enjoy their meal," Rio sneered, delivering a brutal kick squarely to Axel's chest.

Axel's body was launched out into the pitch-black corridor. Rio immediately slammed the fire doors shut, bolting them heavily from the inside. Axel could hear Rio's cruel laughter and the thud of their footsteps fading away as they hurried upstairs.

"Cindy. Rio. Damn you both," Axel gasped, lying paralyzed on the freezing corridor floor. Blood poured endlessly from his waist, pooling into a thick crimson puddle beneath his body.

The guttural snarls drew closer. Axel could make out their twitching silhouettes at the far end of the hallway. There were at least five or six of the horrifying creatures. Their skin was an ashen gray, their clothes were torn to bloody shreds, and their eyes were completely rolled back, milky and pupil-less.

The lead zombie finally noticed Axel lying there. It let out a low, terrifying growl and broke into a ragged sprint straight toward him.

Axel tried to force himself up, but he couldn't feel his legs at all. The agonizing pain in his abdomen was pushing him to the absolute brink of unconsciousness. "Am I really going to die right here? Am I really going to die as a pathetic loser, completely betrayed by my own girlfriend?"

The zombie lunged, crashing down onto him. Its jagged, yellowed teeth sank violently into Axel's shoulder.

"AAARGH!" Axel screamed at the top of his lungs. It felt as if his flesh was being forcefully ripped from the bone.

The rest of the undead horde descended upon him. They swarmed Axel like ravenous ants discovering a scrap of fresh meat. Axel felt freezing, rotting hands violently clawing and tearing at his legs, his stomach, and finally, his throat.

The agony was so unfathomably intense that his nerves overloaded, turning the pain into absolute numbness. Axel's vision began to blur. The dim, flickering lights of the corridor slowly faded into darkness.

"If I am ever given another chance," Axel whispered within his fading consciousness. "I swear I will make you both suffer a hell far worse than this."

Axel's head rolled lifelessly to the side. Through the small glass window of the emergency doors, he caught one final, fleeting glimpse of Cindy's silhouette sprinting up the stairs. And then, the world went entirely black.

Axel's breathing stopped. His heartbeat flatlined. In that suffocating, blood-soaked corridor, Axel Edward officially died. His body was completely torn to shreds by the ravenous monsters.

An eerie quiet settled over the hallway, broken only by the sickening sounds of tearing flesh and grinding teeth. The ruined world simply kept turning, completely indifferent to a single life extinguished by ruthless betrayal.

However, deep within the eternal void of Axel's death, a tiny spark of blue light suddenly materialized in the center of his fading consciousness. The light flickered rapidly, acting as if it were frantically searching for a host to bind itself to.

Absolute darkness swallowed everything. Axel no longer felt the agonizing pain. He no longer felt the biting cold. He felt nothing but perfect, absolute emptiness.