Raven walked out of the second ice cream shop, the cold, sticky sweetness still sticking to her tongue. The empty mall stretched ahead—half-lit corridors and abandoned storefronts empty. She paused for a moment, her senses scanning the still air, and then she spotted it: a lone zombie in the distance, a former ice cream shop worker. The man moved in a lazy circle, an empty ice cream cone gripped loosely in one hand, head laying to the side as if he couldn't quite remember what to do with it.
Raven tilted her head slightly, eyes narrowing. Then she glanced at Alara, the quiet, red-eyed blonde who trailed behind her an obedient little girlfriend. Their mental link connected faintly, and Raven focused on it, sending a subtle emotional message to her to move forward.
Go.
Alara blinked once, then walked ahead, obeying without hesitation. Her trust in Raven was absolute, as blind as any woman's wife would be. Raven watched her move, hand already resting on the Beretta she called out of her system space. Her finger moved near the trigger—ready to end anything that threatened her... her girlfriend. The thought still felt strange in her mind, but it was what it was. If she had a girlfriend now, even a zombie one, then Raven would protect her that is her duty.
The worker zombie didn't even notice Alara. It kept moving in circles, holding its empty cone like a lost child. Raven felt a twinge of satisfaction. Good. If the other zombies don't see Alara as a threat or a target, that was one less thing to worry about at least until they gain consciousness.
Raven stepped forward, steady and confident after finding this out, and raised her Beretta. A single shot to the head.
'Pew'
The ice cream worker collapsed instantly, the cone rolling from his loose hand.
She sent her gun back into System Space and summoned her combat knife. The blade reflected the light as she crouched down, flipping the corpse over to reach the neck. Then she expertly cut into the base of the skull. Her fingers found the small, pea sized zombie nucleus core, wet and sticky with blood. She wiped it on her pants, absent mindedly knowing the system would clean her clothes later.
Holding the core between her fingers, Raven studied it, her expression calm and collected.
"I don't need these anymore," she thought. "The system makes me stronger every day. But Alara needs them to level up."
Raven turned around toward towards Alara. Alara stood there, head tilted slightly, blood still smeared across her lips from the earlier bodies she had eaten in an act that almost resembled revenge. Raven stepped in front of her.
"Open your mouth," she said softly.
Alara obeyed without hesitation. Bits of human flesh still stuck in her teeth, but Raven ignored it. She placed the core on her pink tongue, then gave the command through their mental bond
"Swallow it."
Alara did. Then, a shiver ran through their link. Raven felt it a heat that m I ved through her body. The connection between them grew, stronger for a moment, before settling down. Alara's skin, torn and damaged, began to slowly knit together, the worst wounds beginning to heal.
Raven watched with satisfaction.
"My healing powers can't fix dead flesh," she thought. "But this... this can."
The system wasn't giving her all the answers, but she was learning. Piece by piece, she'd rebuild Alara until she was no different than a human. Until she became a legendary Zombie Queen a feared existence.
Sending her combat knife back into her system space, she recalled her Beretta, the Omni Silencer already in place. The grip felt cool and solid in her hand, the familiar weight of gun making her tension ease.. She looked down at Alara—silent, obedient, strange. There was no intelligence in her eyes, not yet, but there was something more now. A hunger to grow alongside her.
She looked at Alara for a long moment, then spoke, her voice steady.
"Let's go hunting."
Alara blinked, then began to follow, her footsteps soft on the cold mall floor as they moved on deeper into the mall.
Join my patreon today to read up to chapter in 127 in advance your support is my inspiration join for only to 3 to 5$
patreon.com/everstone