A STEP FORWARD AND BACK
Adam attempts to soothe Megan as she maintains a threatening stance with a knife, expressing his own confusion about the situation but emphasizing his humanity. Megan insists that Adam reveal his arms, to which he complies, revealing normal arms. Megan, bewildered, recalls seeing a bite wound on Adam's arm. Kiren intervenes, explaining that Adam possesses a slow healing ability and is unaffected by zombie bites. Leona bursts into tears, prompting Megan to lower her knife. Megan approaches Kiren, picking up Leona to comfort her.
Adam then inquires about Sam's whereabouts. Megan speculates that Sam might have gone to his cabin, but it would be a full day's journey. Adam invites Megan to join them so she can guide him to Sam. Duke interjects, stating that they can accompany them only if Adam ensures their protection. Adam affectionately ruffles Duke's hair and makes a promise, but inwardly notices Duke's resemblance to Sam, but he controls his anger.
Shortly after, Kiren fills the car with the gas they found, while Adam discovers some milk and offers it to Megan for Leona's nourishment. Kiren then asks Adam if they can stop by his place before heading to the cabin. Adam nods in agreement. A while later, Kiren drives them to his house, arriving at midnight. Adam asks Kiren if he's prepared to face what awaits him. Kiren takes a deep breath and hesitantly affirms his readiness.
They enter the house, opening the door to Kiren's parents' room, only to find his mother bound to the bed and his father handcuffed to the heater, both having turned into zombies. Overwhelmed, Kiren drops to his knees and notices a bloodstained letter on the floor. He picks it up and reads his father's message, apologizing for failing to protect his mother and expressing his wishes for Kiren's survival, heroic achievements, and lastly tells him to fly high. Kiren weeps uncontrollably as he finishes reading the letter.
Struggling, Kiren retrieves his knife and attempts to strike his mother. With great difficulty, he places the knife on top of her head but lacks the strength to push it further. Adam places his hand over Kiren's and assists him in gradually driving the knife into his mother's head, mercifully ending her suffering. Kiren wipes away his tears and proceeds to lay his father to rest with his knife. Adam holds Kiren tenderly in his arms, comforting him with soothing gestures.
The next morning, the group reaches a dilapidated gas station. Adam steps out of the vehicle and dispatches a few wandering zombies in the vicinity. Kiren opens the front doors of the store, and Adam follows him inside. Kiren affirms his familiarity with the individuals associated with this establishment. They thoroughly search the shop but find it mostly looted, yielding limited useful resources. In one room, Adam enters and ascends a ladder, discovering a man sleeping beside a crate of food. Startled by a trip wire, the man wakes up and reaches for his crowbar, noticing Adam's glowing magical eyes. Curious, Adam inquires if the man has any spare food. Surprised, the man looks at his crate and remarks that Adam can speak, similar to his brother. Puzzled, Adam asks the man to elaborate, and he introduces himself as Frank(26). Frank explains that his brother is just like Adam, having transformed into a super zombie. He clarifies that his brother, upon being bitten and turning into a zombie, developed radiant, luminous eyes like Adam's. Additionally, Frank reveals that super zombies possess enhanced powers and magic while retaining a fragment of their humanity. Adam recalls encountering a super zombie with a frog-like appearance and shares his experience. Frank then inquires of Adam whether he is the sole individual present. Adam proceeds to question Frank about the reason behind the inquiry.
As Kiren enters the basement while scanning the shop, his attention is drawn to a man seated in the corner. The man turns his head, demanding that Kiren departs. Recognizing the man as Jazz(24), Kiren expresses surprise and reveals his own identity. Taking a few steps forward, Kiren's progress halts when he notices a lifeless body lying nearby on the floor. Startled, Kiren instinctively retreats, informing Jazz that the deceased individual is Jazz's uncle. In response, Jazz whirls around, shouting to be left alone. Suddenly, Jazz's arm transforms into a massive drill, extending and launching an attack towards Kiren. Subsequently, Kiren stumbles and closes his eyes, blood splattering on his face.
Upon reopening his eyes, Kiren finds Adam grasping the drill, preventing it from causing further harm. Jazz persistently demands to be left alone, while Adam and Jazz share an intense gaze. Within their eye contact, a magical beam begins to form, immobilizing them both. Their eyes emit a radiant magical glow, and Adam's consciousness enters a mystical realm. In this realm, Adam witnesses Frank's past memories, wherein Jazz, Frank, and their uncle valiantly defend the store against hordes of zombies. Frank and his uncle wield crossbars, striking the zombies on the head near the front doors. Jazz takes a few steps backward, gripped by panic. Frank implores Jazz to assist them, but Jazz, filled with fear, shrieks for them to leave him alone. Jazz pushes Frank and his uncle aside, running into the crowd of zombies, where they proceed to bite him. Looking skyward, Jazz pleads with the zombies to leave him alone. Overwhelmed by the advancing horde, Frank emotionally cries out for Jazz. Jazz's uncle quickly shuts and barricades the doors, while Frank watches in disbelief.
To Frank's astonishment, a fountain of blood erupts into the air. Zombie bodies are torn apart by Jazz's drill arms. With eyes ablaze with magic, Jazz continues decimating the zombies surrounding the store, using his formidable drill arms. After the intense battle subsides, Jazz smashes through the front doors and walks past Frank and his uncle, reiterating his plea to be left alone. Jazz then proceeds into the basement.
Jazz's uncle proceeds downstairs into the basement, determined to confront Jazz. Frank pleads with him not to approach Jazz. The uncle insists that Jazz is a zombie who needs to be dealt with. Drawing nearer to Jazz, the uncle launches an attack, but Jazz swiftly drills a hole into the uncle's chest. The uncle collapses lifeless onto the floor. Jazz curls up in a corner of the basement, fixated on the wall. Adam snaps back to reality, expressing remorse to Jazz and assuring him that they will leave him alone. Together, they exit the basement. A little while later, they all leave the store carrying a crate of food. Frank and Kiren catch up with each other. Curious, Kiren asks Frank if Jazz and Adam are actually the same. Frank shakes his head, explaining that Adam appears to have better control over himself than his brother. Kiren inquires if Frank will miss the store. Glancing at the dilapidated establishment, Frank acknowledges the need to move on and not linger, emphasizing that it's best to leave his brother alone. Kiren reassures him that he will be safer with Adam.
Later that afternoon, they embark on a drive up a mountain road leading to a residential area nestled on the mountainside. Upon entering the neighborhood, they are met with a desolate and dilapidated scene.
Curious about the absence of vehicles, Kiren, who is behind the wheel, asks where all the cars have gone. Frank speculates that everyone must have managed to escape in their vehicles before the apocalypse began.
Adam, seated in the front, turns around to see Leona peacefully sleeping in Megan's arms. Mesmerized by her serene beauty, he wonders why his wife would abandon such a precious child. Suddenly, Adam's attention is diverted by loud footsteps in the distance, prompting him to scan his surroundings cautiously.
As they drive through the neighborhood, which borders the mountain's edge, Adam catches glimpses of a zombie dressed in football gear sprinting towards them. Losing sight of the zombie, Adam hurriedly opens the door, prompting Kiren to stop the car. Adam steps out and begins searching for the football zombie.
Abruptly, the zombie bursts through a house and tackles Adam with tremendous speed. Caught off guard, Adam tries to brace himself while getting tackle but finds his feet slipping on the concrete. In a panic, Kiren urges everyone to hold on tight while Frank, Megan, and Duke shield Leona. With great urgency, Kiren presses down on the pedal, and they speed off.
Meanwhile, the football zombie redirects its attention to the car, while Adam remains entangled with the zombie, its decaying flesh adhering to his own body. Struggling to free himself, Adam resorts to biting the zombie, causing it to stumble and fall. Frank glances back and exclaims that Adam has finally defeated the zombie.
Amidst the chaos, Kiren, relief and driving, notices another football-clad zombie approaching from the side, which collides with their car, sending it hurtling off the mountain's edge. The vehicle plummets through the air, barely caught by the branches of numerous trees in the forest below. Frantically, Kiren checks on everyone's well-being, while Leona cries inconsolably.
Acting swiftly, Adam races over and forcefully kicks the football zombie away. Suddenly, he hears the thunderous sound of countless footsteps and turns to witness a horde of over 50 zombies, all wearing football gear, rushing towards him.
Overwhelmed, Adam is forcefully tackled by the mob, propelling him off the mountainside. He tumbles through the air, crashing through tree branches as he descends. Meanwhile, Kiren and the others witness Adam's perilous fall and subsequently snapping the tree branch supporting their car. Their screams mingle with the descending vehicle.
Adam lands with a thud, his back hitting the ground, just as the car hurtles downward and slams onto him, flipping over. Knocked unconscious, Adam lies motionless beside the wreckage, while Kiren, still in shock, Frank urges the him to move. Despite their minor injuries, they manage to escape the car.
Megan notices Adam's unconscious state near the wreckage, and Leona's cries persist. Duke observes the abundance of cars scattered among the tree branches and the forest floor near by. The sight of the numerous vehicles surprises them all. Suddenly, a horde of zombies comes charging toward them. Kiren takes out his gun and knife, preparing to confront the approaching onslaught of zombies.
Megan's attention is drawn to blood dripping onto Leona's face, and she realizes that the blood is coming from her own head. Frank goes to the back of the car and opens the trunk, causing the food crate and bags to fall onto the ground. He rummages through the bags, searching for a first aid kit, and proceeds to bandage Megan's bleeding head. Megan hands Leona over to Duke to hold.
Noticing Adam's body slowly healing, Megan turns to see Kiren trembling in fear as the horde of zombies approaches them. Overwhelmed, Kiren begins to cry and expresses how terrifying it is to witness the zombies' relentless determination to kill. Frank urges everyone to leave.
Megan walks over to Kiren and places a comforting hand on his shaking shoulder, telling him to calm down. However, in that moment, as Megan touches the gun, her eyes take on a focused gaze. Kiren is confused as Megan takes his gun and knife, seemingly transformed. She climbs on top of a ruined car and starts shooting the heads of the zombies rushing towards her. Jumping from one ruined car to another, Megan distracts the zombies, mesmerizing Kiren with her skills.
Frank approaches Kiren, grabbing the magazine from him and tossing it to Megan. Megan runs out of bullets, removes the magazine, catches the one Frank threw, and reloads the gun, continuing to eliminate the zombies in front of her. She notices the horde of zombies colliding with a tree barely holding onto numerous cars. Megan jumps onto different ruined cars where the horde is just below her.
Megan spots a zombie climbing onto the top of a nearby ruined car. The zombie lunges at her, but Megan slides on the top of the car, dodging the attack. She falls onto the windshield and keeps shooting at zombies attempting to grab her feet. Megan jumps again, kicking the unbalanced tree, causing the cars to fall from the branches and crush the zombies around her. However, some surviving zombies continue their pursuit of Megan over the fallen cars.
Megan notices a car hanging from a tree branch, leaking oil. She shoots her last bullet into the car's oil leakage, igniting an explosion. The explosion triggers the other cars on the forest branches to fall, crushing the majority of the zombie horde. Megan jumps down and dispatches a few remaining zombies with her knife. Her eyes remain focused, as if possessed.
Kiren turns to see Frank striking the heads of a couple zombies with his weapon. A zombie jumps onto Frank, but he defends himself by pressing his crowbar against the zombie's neck. Kiren grabs a small branch from the ground and hits the zombie away from Frank. The zombie then jumps onto Kiren, and they both fall. In fear, Kiren closes his eyes but realizes that he accidentally killed the zombie as its head is impaled by his broken tree branch. Shaking, Kiren pushes the zombie off, exclaiming that he finally did it.
As Megan continues to fight off the remaining zombies, she grows weary. She drops her knife and gun, losing her will to continue the battle. Confused by how she was suddenly able to fight with such prowess, Leona's crying as Adam wakes up. Adam rises and finishes off the nearby zombies, his face filled with anger. Megan tells him that they need to leave, but Adam insists on getting his revenge. He jumps back up onto the mountain neighborhood, taking a stance as he confronts the horde of football zombies.