Return Before the Apocalypse: The Countdown Only I Remember

Chapter 3 - No Refuge for the Innocent

Axel wiped the blood from his face with a relieved smile.

“Oh… Thank God. Wait a second! Did you say tails?”

“Yes.”

Kil resumed walking without looking back. Axel scrambled to his feet, hurried after him, and asked in a panic,

“You're just imagining things, right, Kil? Zombies can't have tails, can they? You're not saying there are some kind of mutated zombies, are you?

“Tell me there's no way something like that exists.”

Kil walked on without answering. Axel caught up, keeping the wrench raised this time.

“Want to give this a try?”

Kil offered Axel the machete. He looked perfectly calm, his expression barely changing as several zombies moved toward them.

Axel accepted the machete, and the fighting began again!

***

Two hours and forty minutes later.

Kil and Axel walked calmly along a long, deserted highway. Tall trees lined both sides, much taller than before, and the grass had grown thicker as well.

It had once been the only highway leading to the hill, with a small forest around it. Now it looked like a tropical forest untouched by humans.

“How do you kill them in one hit, Kil?”

Axel broke the silence. Their footsteps seemed too loud on the empty road.

“Aim for their weakest point.”

“I do that, too!”

Axel raised the bloodied wrench as if offering evidence. Kil studied his grip.

“Hit that spot with everything you've got. Don't pull back at the last instant. Commit to it:

“That one blow has to kill the enemy.”

Axel tested his grip again. Advice was easy to give when the thing coming at you wasn't reaching for your throat.

Daylight finally filtered through the trees. Axel lifted his face toward its faint warmth.

“What we went through really was hell. Maybe this world has become hell for humanity.”

Kil shook his head. They emerged from the forest, and the familiar skyline came into view.

Below it lay a horrifying dead city.

Taking in the sight, Kil spoke.

“If you think this is hell…”

He watched the dawn spill bloodred light over the world, his expression growing calmer.

“Then all you'll be able to do is wail and die when you find out what's waiting for us.”

“This city looks horrible.”

Axel surveyed the wreckage. Little remained of the city he knew.

Damaged buildings lined the streets, and wrecked cars choked the roads. Nothing moved between them.

“Why is it so quiet? Where are the zombies, Kil?”

Kil kept walking.

“Hiding in dark buildings. Maybe some of them are asleep?

“One thing's certain: they can't walk in the sunlight like we can. Well… not yet, anyway.”

He spoke the last sentence so softly that only he could hear it.

“That makes me feel a little better.”

Axel moved farther into the sunlight, away from the dark doorways.

“So where are we going?” he added.

“To find somewhere safe.”

“Does a place like that even exist?”

“Of course not.”

Axel stared at him.

“We'll find somewhere fit to live. At least it can give us shelter for a while.”

Following Kil along the sidewalk, past the wrecked cars clogging the road, Axel began to feel uneasy.

“Which part of the city?”

“The city's upscale residential district, of course. It's the safest place available to us.”

“Huh? Aren't we breaking into someone's house? Is that okay? What if—”

“We should worry about our own lives before anything else, Axel.”

“Ugh…”

At those words, Axel turned pale.

Kil turned to his best friend, sighed, and asked,

“What's wrong?”

“I'm worried about my family.”

Kil searched his memory and came up blank. He turned to Axel.

“Aren't you an orphan?”

Axel stared at him, then swallowed whatever he had been about to say.

“Hey, the truth is… I'm the son of a wealthy businessman.”

Kil gave him a skeptical look. Axel's mouth twitched.

“What's with that look? I'm serious, Kil!”

“Sure you are.”

Kil looked calm and unconcerned, but he was quite surprised. He had once had access to plenty of information through his organization. According to its records, however, Axel was an orphan, just as Axel himself had previously claimed.

Kil searched Axel's face. Either his friend had fooled him, or someone had fooled the organization as well.

Neither possibility sat comfortably with him. The Nightfall Order was one of the best assassination organizations in the world.

“By the way, how did you adapt so quickly, Kil? And you're so strong…

“You look like a professional! Don't tell me you're actually a mercenary or a hitman hiding your identity. Ha ha!”

Axel laughed and waited for Kil to laugh with him.

“Actually, I am a hitman.”

“Huh?”

Axel stopped dead and stared at him.

“Seriously?” he asked.

“Yes.”

The truth might explain the killing. Kil let it stand between them, easier to offer than the years he remembered living after this night.

“Hey, Kil—”

“We're here.”

Kil stopped at the gate, cutting off the questions before Axel could reach the ones he would not answer.

They stopped before a luxurious three-story house built in the Westorian style. Its white paint had dulled, but high walls still enclosed the property, and a large garden covered the roof.

“Nice house! Or at least it used to be,” Axel said wryly. “Now it looks more like a haunted house.”

Kil ignored the joke.

“Do we really need a place this big, Kil?”

“It's spacious, with high, thick walls around it. Hard to attack, easy to defend, and there's only one way in.

“It's a perfect temporary base for us. Maybe even somewhere to build a group of our own.”

“You're right.” Axel nodded. “By the way, you're planning to form a group?”

“Yes, but not yet. After all, clearing out this world on my own isn't realistic.”

“Okay.”

Axel studied the walls, then looked back at the street they had crossed.

“Let's go in, then.”

They crossed the grounds and stopped at the large wooden doors. Both drew a breath, then pushed them open.

More than a dozen zombies greeted them on the first floor. Judging by their clothes, they had been workers who lived in the house.

“Let's make this quick.”

Kil stepped inside with his fire ax raised. Axel followed, and they began clearing the rooms.

Fifty minutes later.

“Kil!”

A scream rang out from one of the rooms on the second floor.

Kil jerked toward the sound. He had never heard Axel scream like that.

He hurried to the room and found Axel sitting in a corner, looking distraught. Then he glanced toward a crib.

A tiny zombie writhed in the crib, crying without pause.

“Why? Why did the world suddenly turn into this?”

Kil narrowed his eyes. The more the creature cried, the further Axel seemed to unravel.

“A mental attack?”

Kil drove his blade into the tiny zombie. His hand trembled before he withdrew it.