God Of War System : Apocalypse King

CHAPTER 2: THE DEATH CONVOY TO BENOA

“The key! Where’s the key, you bastard!” Satria yelled, swinging his iron pipe at the head of a zombie attendant trying to bite Abigail’s neck.

Crack!

The sound of breaking bone was crisp. The creature collapsed, but two more came from behind a large potted plant.

In front of the shiny black Pajero Sport, Andy was fumbling in his pants pocket with violently trembling hands. His face was pale, cold sweat dripping down like kernels of corn. He dropped the key twice onto the asphalt.

“Andy! Hurry!” Cindy shrieked.

Behind them, the hotel lobby door they had just breached was now spewing hundreds of undead. Their roars sounded like the angry buzzing of a giant swarm of bees. The pungent smell of rotting corpses began to fill the parking area, mixing with the metallic scent of fresh blood.

“Got it!” Andy finally managed to press the unlock button.

The car lights flashed twice. Andy immediately jumped into the driver’s seat and slammed the door shut, locking it from the inside reflexively.

Click.

Satria, Cindy, and Abigail, who had just reached the side of the car, stared wide-eyed.

“Open the door, you idiot!” Satria pounded the passenger window with his fist. “Open it!”

Andy inside the car looked at Satria with wild eyes. There was hesitation there. He saw the crowd of zombies only ten meters from Satria’s back. If he unlocked it, there would be a time lag… a lag that could allow the creatures to get in.

“Andy! Open the door or we all die here!” Abigail screamed hysterically, pounding the back window.

Andy flinched as if waking from a nightmare. He pressed the central unlock button with a trembling hand.

Click.

Satria immediately pulled the back door open, shoving Cindy and Abigail inside like lightning, then he himself leaped in just as a zombie in a security uniform lunged. The creature’s hand got caught in the door gap.

“Close it! Close it!” Andy shrieked.

Satria kicked the security zombie’s hand with all his might until its bones shattered, then slammed the car door shut.

Bam!

In an instant, the car windows were covered with ruined faces pressing, pounding, and scratching. Blood and mucus began to obscure the view.

“Drive! Hit them!” Satria ordered from the back seat. His breath was ragged, his chest aching as if it would explode. Cindy hugged his left arm tightly, crying silently.

Andy floored the gas pedal. The Pajero’s diesel engine roared. The tires squealed on the asphalt, running over the feet of the undead blocking the way.

CRUNCH!

SMASH!

THUD!

The large car sped forward like a mad bull, crashing into the crowd of zombies ahead. Rotting bodies were flung into the air, some crushed under the wheels, creating violent jolts inside the cabin.

“Where are we going? The airport must be packed! The hospital must be chaos!” Andy yelled frantically, turning the wheel to avoid a burning tourist bus wreck at the hotel exit.

“To Benoa! The harbor!” Satria answered firmly, trying to think clearly amidst the chaos. “The roads are totally jammed, look at that!”

Satria pointed to the Kuta highway. Cars were piled up, horns blaring non-stop, and people were running, chased by thousands of monsters. Black smoke billowed high from various points.

“Take the Bypass! We need to find a boat! We have to get off this island!” Satria continued.

Andy slammed the steering wheel to the left, drove up onto the sidewalk, hit an abandoned meatball cart, and then sped the car onto the Ngurah Rai Bypass road.

The wide road was now an arena of death. Luxury cars had collided, motorbikes were scattered. Andy drove aggressively, zigzagging through the narrow gaps between vehicle wrecks.

“Watch out! Ahead!” screamed Abigail, who was sitting next to Andy.

A group of runner zombies, who seemed freshly turned, were chasing a woman carrying a baby. The woman ran into the middle of the road, right into their car’s path.

“Don’t stop!” Satria yelled when he saw Andy’s foot starting to lift from the gas pedal.

“It’s a mother, Sat!”

“If you stop, the car behind us will hit us, and we’ll be surrounded! Hit her or avoid her, but don’t stop!” Satria shouted, his voice cold and merciless.

Andy closed his eyes for a moment and slammed the steering wheel to the right. The car shook violently as its left tires hit the road divider curb, narrowly missing the mother, but the car mirror struck the woman’s shoulder, sending her tumbling down.

“Oh God…” Abigail covered her face.

“Focus, Andy! Watch the road!” Satria snapped. He looked back. The mother and baby were already swallowed by the crowd of runner zombies. Satria felt a stab of guilt in his chest, but he swallowed it whole.

They sped along for ten minutes that felt like ten years. Until finally, near the intersection leading to the Bali Mandara toll road, disaster struck.

A Pertamina tanker truck had overturned, blocking the road. Andy, driving too fast, reacted too late.

“Brake! Brake!” Cindy shrieked.

Andy slammed on the brakes. The tires locked, skidding on the asphalt slick with spilled oil.

SCREEECH!

CRASH!

The nose of the Pajero slammed into the rear of an already wrecked sedan. Airbags deployed, hitting Andy and Abigail’s faces. The violent impact caused Satria’s head to hit the back of the front seat.

Silence for a moment. Only the sound of the broken radiator hissing and a car horn continuously blaring because it was pinned down by a corpse’s head in the car ahead.

“Is everyone okay?” Satria asked, holding his throbbing head. Blood was trickling from his temple.

“My nose… damn it…” Andy groaned, fresh blood gushing from his broken nose, hit by the airbag.

Satria tried to open the door. Jammed. He kicked it twice until it opened. The scorching Bali sun immediately hit his skin.

“Get out! This car is dead! We have to run!” Satria ordered. He pulled Cindy out. The girl looked shocked, but physically fine.

“Benoa Pier is only one kilometer away! We run!”

Andy crawled out of the driver’s side. He grabbed his backpack from the back seat, then looked at the road behind them.

The hundreds of zombies they had left behind due to the car’s speed were now visible again in the distance, shambling closer.

“One kilometer? Are you crazy? With this limp?” Andy complained, clutching his chest.

“Do you want to stay here waiting for them?” Satria pointed at the deadly horde. “Let’s go!”

They started running. The sun burned their skin. The road to the harbor was filled with fallen containers and corpses beginning to rot in the tropical heat.

Abigail ran the slowest. Her breathing was shallow; she had a history of mild asthma. “Wait… wait for me…”

Andy was in the lead, his steps fast despite his bloody nose. Fear gave him extra energy. He saw a gap between a stack of shipping containers that formed a natural barricade toward the pier area.

But the gap was narrow, and there was a rusty, half-closed iron gate.

Andy slipped through the gap in the fence. On the other side, he saw a pack of mutated stray dogs—their skin peeled off, red muscles clearly visible—running from the side toward the fence gap.

If he left the gate open to wait for Satria and the others, the dogs would get in with him.

Andy held the gate latch. He looked at Abigail, who was still ten meters behind, stumbling, supported by Satria and Cindy.

“Andy! Hold the door!” Satria yelled.

Andy shook his head slowly, his eyes full of fearful tears. “I’m sorry… they’re too close…”

Andy began pushing the heavy iron gate to close it.

“ANDY! DON’T!” Abigail shrieked, her eyes wide with disbelief. Her own boyfriend was about to lock her out with the monsters.

“Open it, you bastard!” Satria released his grip on Abigail and launched into a crazy sprint.

Satria leaped at the last second, slamming his shoulder into the nearly closed iron gate.

CLANG!

Satria’s shoulder hit the iron, resisting Andy’s push. With an angry roar, Satria kicked the gate wide open, sending Andy tumbling onto the dusty ground.

“Get in! Get in now!” Satria yelled at the girls.

Cindy and Abigail scrambled through the gap. Satria immediately slammed the gate shut again and locked it with a rusty chain hanging nearby.

The next second, three mutant dogs slammed into the gate from the outside. Their snouts full of sharp teeth poked through the bars, biting the empty air just inches from Satria’s face.

Satria turned, his breath coming in ragged gasps like a bull. He walked toward Andy, who was still sitting on the ground, shrinking back in fear.

“You…” Satria grabbed Andy’s collar, lifting the skinny body until his feet were dangling. “You were just about to kill your own girlfriend?”

“N-no! I… I panicked! Those dogs are so fast! I wanted to save us!” Andy stammered, his voice breaking. He didn't dare look into Abigail’s eyes.

Abigail just stood frozen, looking at Andy with an alien gaze. There was no love in those eyes, only deep, cold disappointment.

“One more time,” Satria whispered right in front of Andy’s face, his eyes blazing with anger no one had ever seen before. “One more time you try something like that, I will throw you to them myself. Understand?”

Satria threw Andy onto the ground. “Walk. The pier is at the end there.”

A silent, awkward atmosphere enveloped the small group. Their bond of friendship was shattered, held together only by the necessity of survival.

They walked past piles of fishing nets and the pungent, fishy smell of the sea. Benoa Pier was visible ahead. The scene there was chaotic. Large ferry boats had already pulled away, swarming with people clinging to the hulls until they fell into the sea.

However, at the small cruise ship dock, there was one luxurious white speedboat whose engine was still running.

“That one! That boat is empty!” Cindy pointed hopefully.

They quickened their pace. Hope swelled in their chests. With that boat, they could escape to any small island, far from this apocalypse.

But when they reached the end of the slippery wooden pier, their steps halted simultaneously.

Standing in front of the gangway leading to the speedboat was a figure.

It had once been human. An old man in a white lab coat, now tattered. But his body… his body was wrong. His right arm was swollen three times its normal size, with pulsating muscles and faint glowing neon green veins. His spine jutted out through his skin, forming sharp spikes.

The creature was holding the severed head of a soldier. Hearing Satria’s footsteps, the creature turned.

Its face was half-human, half-monster. Thick glasses still perched on its crooked nose. It smiled, but the smile was too wide, tearing its cheek.

“New… sample…” the creature hissed. Its voice wasn't a growl, but distorted human speech, as if two voices were speaking simultaneously.

An ID Card hung on its chest, still faintly legible: Prof. Budiarto - Virology Division.

Satria swallowed hard. This was no ordinary zombie. His primal instinct screamed danger.

“Andy, take the girls onto the boat via the side,” Satria whispered without taking his eyes off the Professor. His hand fumbled around, finding an iron crowbar left on top of a container.

“What are you doing?” Cindy asked anxiously.

“I’m going to distract him,” Satria said, gripping the crowbar so tightly his knuckles turned white. “This thing… he’s guarding our only way out.”

The Professor dropped the soldier’s head into the sea.

He raised his large, mutated right arm. The neon green veins glowed brighter.

“Eat… time to… eat…”

The Professor lunged forward with impossible speed for his size.