The elementary school playground was silent except for the methodical *clank* of metal on bone. The Cube moved through the crowd of child-sized zombies like a grim reaper in miniature, its blade severing tiny legs before delivering precise strikes to each skull. Student ID cards dangled from broken necks, smiling photos obscured by dried blood.
*Snick.*
Another small body collapsed. The Cube paused, sensors locking onto a figure shuffling backward—a child zombie with unnaturally quick reflexes.
"Enhanced variant," it muttered. Three bullets from its arm-mounted gun punched through the creature's forehead. "Evolution accelerating. Humans have two months, tops."
——
Meanwhile, the armored truck rumbled back to the resort, its bed piled high with rice sacks and medicine crates. Students lounged on the roof, savoring the breeze. "Home sweet home!" Fatty Wang grinned as the gates came into view.
Teacher He organized the unloading frenzy. "Medicals to Villa 3! Non-perishables to the clubhouse basement!"
Zhang Xiaowen locked away a cowardly guard's rifle near Dahei's kennel. The shepherd eyed the weapon, tail thumping once in approval.
——
By afternoon, the truck returned to town for a second haul. This time, they stripped houses bare—cast iron pots, quilts, even a rusted tractor. The electronics store's gutted carcass puzzled the team. "Aliens?" Gao Dong joked, kicking a hollow TV shell.
Zhang rode a scavenged motorcycle to retrieve the elderly farmer and his blunderbuss. The couple arrived on a tractor, clutching a chicken coop. "Kids these days…" the old man marveled, watching students lash a industrial stove to the truck.
——
As dusk fell, Zhang and the Cube set out again in a battered van. "Nuclear-powered bulldozers," the mech mused, cats purring in its lap. "Pearl-sized reactors. You humans would call it magic."
"Keep dreaming," Zhang snorted, swerving around a crater.
Ahead, the gas station's sign creaked in the wind. Shadows moved between pumps—taller, faster. The Cube's optics narrowed. "New strain. Radioactive readings detected."
Zhang chambered a round. "Of course. Because today wasn't complicated enough."
The cats hissed in unison as enhanced zombies turned toward the headlights.