Apocalypse: King of Zombies

”Huh? And who the hell are you supposed to be?” Ethan narrowed his eyes, instantly sensing the shift—this wasn’t the same ’Ray’ from before.

”I…” the burning machine said, its voice steady despite the flames licking across its body, ”am the future ruler of this planet.”

Ethan blinked. Seriously? That tone, that line—it was so over-the-top he almost laughed. What kind of Saturday morning villain bullshit is this?

”Yeah, okay. Die.”

Without another word, Ethan swung his katana in a clean horizontal arc. The blade sliced through the flaming cyborg like it was paper, sending a shower of sparks into the snowy night—like fireworks exploding in the dark.

Ray’s body split apart and crashed to the ground with a heavy metallic thud. His skull-like head, still wreathed in fire, rolled to the side. The green glow in his eyes flickered… then faded.

But before Ethan could even lower his blade, another cyborg stepped forward—same build, same eerie glow in its eyes.

”You can’t kill me,” it said in the exact same voice. ”Submit now, and you might still have a future.”

Ethan sighed. ”Oh, for fuck’s sake…”

He didn’t even let it finish. With a swift upward slash, he cleaved the thing clean in two. Its body split apart, crashing to the ground in a heap of sparking limbs.

”Pathetic creature. You’re digging your own grave!” the same voice echoed again, this time from yet another cyborg stepping out of the smoke.

Ethan’s brow furrowed. This guy’s just hopping bodies like it’s a damn game of musical chairs.

”Where’s your real body?” he asked, eyes scanning the battlefield.

”You’ll never find me!” the voice snapped, now laced with fury. Even through the cold, metallic tone, Ethan could feel the rage boiling beneath it. ”I am everywhere!”

Great, Ethan thought. A megalomaniac with Wi-Fi.

Then the cyborg’s chest crystal began to glow—fast. Too fast.

”Shit—”

BOOM!

A deafening explosion rocked the mountaintop. A mushroom cloud of fire and debris shot into the sky, the shockwave flattening everything nearby.

And it didn’t stop there.

One by one, the remaining cyborgs lit up and detonated, each blast tearing through the snow and rock, sending zombie limbs and metal shards flying in every direction.

The enemy had realized they couldn’t win—and decided to go out with a bang.

But Ethan was ready.

He activated his Domain of the Dead, a swirling field of necrotic energy that absorbed the brunt of the explosions. The blasts slammed into the barrier, but Ethan didn’t even flinch. Not a single hair moved. His eyes, reflecting the inferno, were calm—like he was watching a fireworks show.

Eventually, the chaos died down. The last explosion faded into silence, leaving only the howling wind and the soft hiss of melting snow.

The mountaintop was a wreck—craters everywhere, twisted metal scattered across the ice, zombie remains frozen mid-sprawl.

The battle was over.

Lil’ Shroom trudged up beside him, looking thoroughly pissed. ”Boss… what the hell were those things? Since when do humans blow themselves up like that?”

Ethan stared at the wreckage, his voice low. ”Genesis Biotech isn’t what it used to be. It feels… alien now.”

He replayed the earlier conversation in his mind—that voice, that presence. It hadn’t felt like an AI. It had emotion. Anger. Arrogance.

But it wasn’t human either. No human would call zombies ”vile creatures” with that kind of disgust. The way it spoke… it was like it saw itself as something above both humans and zombies.

”Could it be… extraterrestrial?” Ethan muttered to himself.

The way they were hunting for the Star Map tablets, just like Nightbane had once gathered Radiant Crystals—it all pointed to something bigger. Something off-world.

Whatever that thing was, it wasn’t just another enemy.

It was a threat.

And it had to be destroyed.

Daisy 2.0—Petal—kicked a scorched metal limb, scowling. ”Boss, they really went full kamikaze. That’s just straight-up evil.”

Ethan shrugged, stepping forward through the wreckage. ”Nah. That’s just what desperation looks like when it’s dressed up in arrogance.”

The temporary camp was in ruins. Tents were torn, some flattened, others still standing but barely. It looked like a hurricane had ripped through.

But some of the tents were still intact.

Ethan’s eyes narrowed.

Time to dig for intel.

The Star Map was still priority number one—and he needed to know just how far Genesis Biotech had gotten.

Inside the largest tent, Ethan found what he was looking for—intel.

Stacks of documents were scattered across a long table, and pinned to the far wall was a large map of Canada. This was clearly Ray’s command tent, the place where he briefed his team.

The map was covered in markings.

Ethan scanned it quickly, and it didn’t take long to figure out what he was looking at—zones that had already been searched, high-priority target areas, and the movement paths of various squads.

But then he spotted something even more valuable.

A detailed breakdown of Genesis Biotech’s operational layout across Canada.

Because they were searching for something—presumably the Star Map—they’d spread themselves thin. This camp was just one of over a dozen temporary outposts, each assigned to sweep a specific region.

”Efficient little bastards…” Ethan muttered under his breath, grudgingly impressed. Their setup was tight, methodical. If they kept this up, it was only a matter of time before they found that Snowy Owl Zombie King.

Behind him, Laura’s eyes gleamed with bloodlust. ”Boss, should we keep going? Wipe out the rest of their camps one by one?”

But Ethan shook his head, surprising her.

”Not yet.”

He wasn’t in the mood for more slaughter—not right now.

Fighting those walking tin cans didn’t bring much reward. No blood, no flesh, no infection. Just explosions and scrap metal.

More importantly, something bigger was brewing.

Across Canada, zombie activity was spiking. Hordes were gathering—millions of them. The air was thick with tension, like the calm before a storm. If they weren’t careful, they could find themselves surrounded by a continent-wide Zombie Horde.

And Ethan wasn’t about to throw his people into that meat grinder without a damn good reason.

No—he’d wait.

He’d watch.

Like a predator in the tall grass, biding its time, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

...

Meanwhile, in another Genesis Biotech camp, a young man slowly opened his eyes.

His features were sharp, almost too perfect—handsome in a way that felt engineered. His gaze was cold, but behind it burned a flicker of anger.

He was Genesis Biotech’s fifth-generation Cyborg—codename: Alkaid. Named after the brightest star in the Big Dipper, a symbol of war and command in ancient lore.

”The American Zombie King has appeared,” he said flatly. ”And he’s wiped out one of our temporary camps.”

”What? I thought they were pinned down by another horde near the border,” someone nearby said, clearly caught off guard.

They’d been briefed before—there were massive zombie clusters along the U.S.-Canada border. No way the American undead could’ve crossed without being noticed.

And even if they did, it shouldn’t have been this quiet.

Alkaid shook his head. ”I don’t know how they got through. These zombies… they move like ghosts.”

”Should we mobilize?” another operative asked. ”Hit them hard, push them back?”

”No,” Alkaid said calmly. ”Don’t forget our real objective. The Star Map comes first. Wasting resources on a zombie skirmish is not the mission.”

The others exchanged uneasy glances. They didn’t like it—but they understood.

”So we just let it go? What if they hit another camp?”

Alkaid paused, thinking. Then a slow, calculating smile crept across his face.

”We don’t need to fight them directly. We’ll use the local zombies.”

He turned to his team.

”Leak the location of one of our camps. Make it look like there are humans there. If those monsters are as hungry as they seem, they’ll come running.”

The others lit up.

”Now that’s a plan…”

...