Analyzing data...0003% remain.
Ulysses choked on his coffee. .0003% of the world’s population was left. The techno zombie problem had become significantly worse since he had last scanned. Something had to be done.
Ulysses worked at the LHC, the Last Hope Camp, a government-run heavily-guarded science center for testing on Techno Zombies and discovering a cure. It was half an hour out of Lour, which meant Ulysses had a long commute every day to return to his wife and child. He had begged the government to allow his family to live there, but they had denied his request, what with having to spend all their time and resources into developing a cure. So, Ulysses left his wife and child everyday to find a cure for this awful mutation, leaving them weapons to fight. He hated doing it, but he felt that if he could discover a cure, this would all be over, and they could go back to their normal lives.
The curtain shifted and in walked Doctor Markus, a hulking man with a missing arm, a result of being bitten by a techno zombie, and needing his arm cut off so he wouldn’t be infected. “The results are in. The test is 12% effective,” Markus said dejectedly.
Ulysses slammed the table angrily. They had been working on a cure that had seemed promising at the time, but the results had said otherwise. Now they had much more work to do.
“Where do we go from here?” Markus asked. He was a techno zombie survivor himself, having lost his parents to the zombies.
“I don’t know.” Ulysses sat down, defeated. This cure had been two years in the making. They had thought of everything. Was it possible these zombies were invincible? No. Ulysses brushed that thought out of his mind. Everything he did was for his wife and son, and he wasn’t going to let them down. There had to be a solution.
The techno zombie plague had been around for seventeen awful years, while the zombie plague had been around for twenty-six. All who lived behind the walls of LHC were safe, any beyond were left to fend for themselves. Only under six hundred of the twenty thousand remaining people lived in the LHC.
Every day more had succumbed to the zombies, some dying while fending them off, others tired of always running, and giving themselves up to the zombies. Ulysses wondered when they would get his family.
“Well, I have a family to look after. I have to return home,” Ulysses said. “So sorry about the results, I’ll look into it some more tomorrow.” He tried to hide his despair.
“Stay safe.”
Ulysses put on his jacket and walked outside of the tent. The sun was setting. The sky was red and pink, but broken buildings blocked the view.
o o o o o o
Ulysses jogged down an alley. He had discovered the safest way to return home, via many back roads. The government hadn’t supplied him with a car, as they were directing all their resources to working up a cure. Ulysses didn’t mind it, it was good exercise. This day, a large horde of techno zombies were blocking the path at the end of the alley. Three were normal people with small tech implants. Then there was a television set and a Tesla car techno zombie. Tesla zombies were very rare to see, and very deadly.
Ulysses cautiously reached down and grabbed his holstered rifle. He cocked it and aimed at the Tesla. These weren’t just ordinary rifles. They had special ammo that were meant to indefinitely deactivate techno zombies that were mostly tech. He fired. The bullet bounced off the Tesla and landed harmlessly on the ground.
“What the…?” Ulysses’ voice trailed off as the techno zombies turned their attention to him–and started mechanically clanking towards him. Ulysses turned and ran, but he knew he couldn’t outrun them for long. A fire escape ladder was to his right. He decided to climb it and get to the roof, the only place techno zombies couldn’t follow. He reached the top, gasping for air. Looking over the edge, he saw the Tesla and the other zombies slowly leaving the scene. He collapsed on the ground.
He realized if their guns no longer worked on the techno zombies, what would they do? The LHC would be overrun. The techno zombies would have one last feast before their victory. Ulysses pushed that out of his mind and headed for his home.
The story is continued in Techno Zombies: Survival of the Fittest