Prologue - Going back

[Lyon's POV]

What used to be a well known city called Nexus lied in empty and burning ruins. This city was a trade hub as it was located at the center of the more rural areas and the old ruins which made it a perfect place to trade or sell whatever items people could scavenge from the ruins of the old world but the Nexux itself now lay wasted as the what remains of the area are just the smoldering ruins brought about this city by what we thought to have just been another simple horde of the same monsters that now roam the ruins of the old world. The Nexus had braved through far larger hordes and survived yet what pushed the city to its current situation was a mix of political infighting and another external threat, that being an apparant sabotage staged possibly by one of the raider groups who have continues to pester would be travelers to the city or possibly a rival settlement. As Nexus was a trade hub, people would expect that it would be garrisoned by a large amount of combat ready troops which it usually is, a quarter of those units were sent to the wasteland capital Shokuga, as for the purpose? I don't know, after all information like that isn't accesible to ruin scavengers like me.

All of that doesn't matter anymore, the defense of Nexus failed as the southern wall fell while most of the Nexus militia were defending the northern wall as it was where the large horde was coming. In cases like this, ruin scavengers like me are expected to help man the walls which was why I was surprised when I heard a sudden explosion that came from the southern wall. I look around the floor and find a pair of binocular and use it to look at the situation at the southern wall. What I saw left me speechless as what was once the gate used to let people in is now a large gaping hole with smoke and fire billowing out of it.

"Damn it, Ren I need to go, I told Alyssa to stay behind at the tent site" I shout to Ren who is also flabbergasted with the situation we were currently in. Ren was a friend I met back in college before the virus deatroyed the world as we knew it, at first I thought that he had died early on but color me surprised when me and Alyssa ended up seeing him in one of the evacuation centers located outside of Yoime City. Ever since then we had formed a group as the two were the only people I was familiar with back then. As for Alyssa well she was the typical quiet and cold girl in our class that I wasn't really close with but when Z-day happened we ended up needing to rely on each other in order to survive, this led to us growing closer with our relationship being formed after relief washed over us once we reached the evacuation center.

"Understood, I'll stay behind and get the car ready for a quick evac, this city's fucked anyways. I'll see you at the car" Ren states while running towards the parking zone. The monsters or "zombies" which is the term used in movies with situations like these were faster than what those damn movies depicted zombies as. This was shown as by the time I got to the tent we were staying at the screams of both running and dying people and snarls of the zombies could already be heard. I ran inside the tent we were staying at only to find it empty with our clothes being scattered around.

'Alyssa is nowhere to be seen and while I know I should look for her I should still take whatever essentials I can as we would need it for the journey ahead' I think to myself. As I was placing whatever I thought we would need into one of the hiking bags we had a lone zombie walks into the same the tent. It screams with a loud snarl and lunges at me only to end up dead by my feet with its head rolling around the floor after getting decapitated by the machete I kept with me at all times. Another zombie enters the tent and I prepare myself to kill it only to be surprised as a sword from behind it decapitates the zombie only for it to fall down on its knees and reveal Alyssa standing behind it. She runs up to me and starts checking my body to see if I had any injuries. While she does so, I can't help but remember how this is the same girl that used to outright ignore everybody else as if no one else existed around her.

"Your okay, thats good" Alyssa stated with a tired tone. "Ye-Yeah I am okay, come on we need to leave, Ren's already at the car and I've packed enough provisions to last us the trip to get to Shokusa" I reply in a quick manner while getting the bag I've prepared. Me and Alyssa quickly run away from the tent site towards the parking zone to meet up with Ren in order to get out of here. 'We usually keep two gas canisters and another bag of gear and food inside the car so that should be enough for any unforeseen incidents to occur' I think to myself as I run away while looking at the burning city. By the time we reached the parking zone cars owned by other people have alredy begun leaving towards the eastern gate.

We spot Ren waiting beside the car looking around at the entrance for us with one hand still holding the baseball bat he told me he used back when he still played baseball when he was a kid, only now its covered in blood and is used to bash zombies heads instead of hitting a ball. He spots us as we run towards him while I was carrying the bag with what provisions I could get from our tent. "Get in we need to leave, we should go through the western gate as the eastern gate might be clogged up with all those cars that have already left" Ren tell us as he opens the door to the car and unlocks the other doors from inside. I get inside the front passenger seat as Alyssa gets inside the backseat. As for Ren he gets in the driver seat as he is actually the only one of us that had prior experience with driving cars in the past. As Ren mentioned earlier, the eastern gate is most likely already full of cars with people clogging up the roads as it is the nearest gate to the parking zone which was why the western gate which is farther from our current location might be the best bet for us.

I look towards the backseat where Alyssa is seating at only to see her staring at me with worried eyes "Its going to be okay, we can get to Shokusa with the supplies we managed to take with us" I tell her in a relaxed tone. While I may seem confident in our chances I still couldn't help but worry about our future and I know she can see through my act. "mhm We are going to be fine" she replies as if to convince me more instead of herself. "Oy mind keeping all that lovey dovey stuff for later once we are out of here or what?" Ren questions us with an annoyed yet joking manner.

'Yeah he's right, we aren't out of the clear yet we need to leave through the western gate and get to Shokusa to tell them of what happened' I thought to myself, not even noticing how the car suddenly swerved right heading right into one of the houses beside the street.

I woke up disoriented with a headache as I forgot to wear my seatbelts. I feel around me only to feel a warm yet wet feeling in my hand as I felt my hand move around. I look beside me only to see Ren, a friend I trusted my back with dead as shards of glass left his face unrecognizable with blood dripping down from his face to his neck then the driver seat. I knew there was nothing I could do for him so I looked towards the backseats and see Alyssa who looked fine but was out cold. As my senses came back to me I could hear screams of people and snarls of the zombies that were near our crashed car. I look around through the destroyed window for somewhere me and Alyssa could hide for now, I spot a door to one of the houses opposite of the house we crashed in left open. I hobble out of the car machete in hand as the zombies around the car see me get out.

'Two front and one right' I think to myself as they start running towards me as if I was a piece of A5 wagyu. I kick the zombie at the right side hard enough for it to stumble quite a distance away while slicing the head off of one of the zombies in front of me. As for the other zombie in front of me, I use my machete to hit its head with a downwards strike right at the center of its head only for my machete to embed itself on its head. I look to the right and see the zombie rushing me, I was only able to hold it back by pushing it away.

'This is bad, the growls of those zombies may have attracted more of them and with Alyssa still knocked out cold, the chances of us getting out of here is almost close to none.' Ren thinks to himself as he struggles against the zombie whose mouth was already to biting my neck off. With only mere inches away from getting my neck bit off, a gunshot coming from the direction of the car rings out as I see Alyssa holding her father's M911 pistol. The zombie slumps down as it finally stays dead and I start turning my head towards her to say my thanks.

Yet as I look at her I start to see an arm outstretched from below the car reach for her legs. Before I could even scream out a warning towards her the zombie below the car grabs her foot causing her to fall down and drop her pistol as the zombie bites down her exposed ankles as she lets out a pained grunt. I quickly run towards her and kick the zombie's head away and piggyback her towards the open door I saw before. I pick up her pistol and start seeing more zombies running towards us in both opposite directions of the road. I managed to get us inside and lock the door behind us as the zombies continue to try to knock down our door, knowing that fresh meat is right inside this house. I place her down in front of the wall opposite to the door and check the ankle she was bit on.

"Alyssa look at me your gonna be okay, the bite wasn't deep, ma-maybe we can just cut off that foot" I tell her out of desperation as memories of everything we have been through flash through my mind.

"Hey Lyon, don't be like that please, we both know theres nothing we can do" Alyssa replies with a pained grunt and a low tone.

"Don't say that Aly come on your gonna be okay, everythings going to be okay" I tell her as I stare at her paling skin and dimming eyes yet I already knew it that the moment she was bit, any action to try and save her would just fail.

"hehehehe that's the first time you called me that, mhh I quite like it. Hey do you remember that crepe shop near our school campus, the one near the subway entrance, I never really did get to try their crepes. I heard it was quite good, I wish we couldv'e tried it at least once" Aly tells me in the lowest voice I've ever heard from her.

"Then lets go there you and me, I want to see what flavors we can try there, maybe we can even get different flavors and share them" I tell her as I hold her pale hand that have begun losing its usual warmth with my own shaky hands.

"Hey Lyon" She replies with that same weak tone. I look at her with tears already cascading down my eyes, soaking the floorboards with small drops of water. "I'm sorry but please don't let me become like them" she tells me with her eyelids already beginning to close. "I love you, my dear Lyon" and with those final words her mouth opens and closes for the last time.

...

All I could hear anymore were the same pounding noises the zombies outside made as they kept hitting the door. With shaky legs I carry her body towards the couch and lay her down comfortably on it. I pick up the M911 I had dropped as I closed the door when we first went in. I look at her pale face and kiss her forehead for the last time with tears still falling down my face. "I love you too.... my beloved Aly". I stand a few meters away and aim the same M91q she used to save me earlier. Only this time instead of using it to save her, I was going to use it to shoot her. With shaky hands I aim it at her head with shaky hands and pull the trigger...

I drop down on my knees beside the couch and hug her lifeless body as I kept on crying to the loss of everything left that I held dear to me.

Hours pass and the once slightly lout pounding on the door has grown stronger. I carry Alyssa's lifeless body to one of the empty bedrooms on the second floor of the house and lay her down quietly to on the bed. 'It looks as if she's just sleeping' I think to myself before closing the door to the bedroom behind me and going downstairs. I look towards the door and see cracks have begun to form with its near destruction being obvious to me already. I walk towards the house's kitchen and find one of those propane cans used on stoves and carry it with me. I drop down in front of the wall opposite to the door and watch it get broken down by the same monster that took away Alyssa from me. As they run towards me I only have one final thought on my mind befote my inevitable death 'Heh hey Alyssa, I think I want to go try out that crepe shop with you tommorow' I think to myself before shooting the propane tank beside me

...

I woke up gasping for air, finding myself in the same bedroom of my parent's house two years ago, long before Z-day began. I look towards the mirror and see a much younger and scrawny version of myself and think 'What the Fu-'

Author's note - Hey guys so that its for my prologue. Again this is my first time writing a story and I don't know the ins and outs yet for writing. Heck I don't even know if I am allowed to use curse words here hehehehe. Anywayssss any constructive criticism is welcome and I will probably only update the story on Mondays, maybe even fridays too if a lot of people end up liking the story. Anywayssss I will see you on the next chapter.