Casually Causing Chaos

The party of four were driving the jeep at high speed as they headed back to H base. It had been a long few months as they were constantly on the road with barely any rest.

There were zombies everywhere and clearing out a place for them to be able to get a bit of rest was just as tiring as sleeping upright in the jeep. But they took what they got, and sleep was something that was more of a luxury than a necessity right now.

While Lukas had been able to keep up the shift in his aura through his sleep, the same couldn't be said for both Liam and Karen, and Natalie was practically bait for live zombies at this point.

Since none of them were accustomed to the long travelling periods besides Lukas, they were having a tough time, but they finally managed to adjust after a period of trial and error. In the earlier days, they had all been as cranky as hell, which didn't make the journey as smooth as it should have been.

Now though, they could be proud of themselves for having come so far. Even Natalie, who had spent life as a cooped-up researcher had adjusted remarkably well.

The rest of the party still didn't quite treat her with friendliness, but Natalie already thought that was more than she deserved. They were less closed off that before, and they did reply when she talked to them.

But even if she did think she deserved to be treated this way – or even worse – that didn't mean it didn't ache when he thought too much about it or thought too deeply.

She had nightmares. Every time she went to sleep, but when she woke up gasping, there was always a warm body pressed up against her, and it was more than she knew she needed after feeling the cold, dead fingers clawing at her in her dreams.

Seeing the world… the perfectly bright and shining world that she knew previously devolve into this state in a short few months gave her a great shock, and she didn't think that she would ever be able to forget about it.

The sights she saw constantly haunted her nightmares. Every day, her nightmares only got more detailed as more and more things were added to them.

If it wasn't for the party sharing with her that at least some of humanity managed to stay relatively safe in the base, Natalie was sure that she would have become suicidal before long.

As it stood, she had days where she wondered if it was worth it living like this.

It was high noon, and the sun was shining down with startling intensity. Besides dawn, this was the time when the zombies were the most lethargic as the sunlight hit their bodies.

Beside her, Lukas' hand on the steering wheel twitched abruptly, garnering their attention.

"What's wrong?"

Lukas peered upwards, a serious look on his face.

It was more serious than any of them had ever seen him, and they had been in a few risky situations. First and second stage zombies were popping up at a normal rate, which the three of them other than Lukas had to struggle to face.

Then, it hit them.

The pressure that was exerted on them was no joke, and Natalie couldn't breathe the moment it descended upon them. She directly passed out, but the rest of the party wasn't able to do anything about that for now.

By now, all three of them were looking upwards with serious faces.

From beyond the clouds, they could see a dark, looming shadow that was only getting bigger as time passed.

Teetering between flight or fight, Lukas' eyes firmed in determination as he stepped hard on the pedal, causing the jeep to fly forward as they tried to outrun whatever thing was beyond the clouds.

"Shit," Karen swore quietly. "What is that?!"

"Damn. Bro, drive faster!"

Lukas didn't say anything, but they could silently hear his retort when he looked at them with a deadpan expression. His foot was already pressing the pedal directly down to the bottom. This was as about as fast as it got.

It wasn't every day where Lukas' flight reaction kicked in. But they were currently too weak to fight against whatever was up there coming for them.

Even back in his previous life, he wouldn't have been able to handle it on his own. Had he been in a party, maybe, but Liam and Karen both weren't able to match him properly yet, and the researcher was only a normal human.

"See, I told you we should have taken the Ferrari!"

"Uh, no. You said, quote, 'Damn, that Ferrari looks sick! Can I take it for a spin?'. Besides, those are only damn two-seaters!"

"Yeah," Karen snarked. "Perfect fit. Lukas and myself."

The danger that was almost upon them was making them crack jokes like this and banter since they weren't able to do anything else.

There was a faint smile on Lukas' face when he listened to them even as he silently urged the jeep to go faster.

By now, the shadow had descended from the clouds, and it was rapidly approaching them.

Lukas had originally thought that the thing that was chasing them had been the King of the Skies, Galestorm, which was a mutated eagle that had grown exceedingly large.

The speed of the eagle was able to cross the entire world with a quarter of a day's time, so you could imagine just what a headache it was to the humans who were bound to the land.

Basically, all of those in charge of the bases had given up fighting it, instead hiding whenever the King of the Skies was caught heading in their direction, but this was even bigger than crowned King of the Skies.

Lukas swore quietly, which startled both Liam and Karen.

Damn, this was bad, wasn't it? If Lukas of all people was swearing, wasn't it a direr situation than they thought?

The pressure was only getting stronger rather than lighter.

The shadow now had a form. From what they could see in the distance, it was a whale. A flying whale in the skies.

Lukas, though still pressing hard on the accelerator, was just as stunned as the rest of his party.

While there were many mutations in the animals that still survived and weren't turned into zombies, rarely were there ever any animals that diverted from their original species.

Aquatic creatures remained in the water, while those that ran remained on land. Those that were able to fly usually developed things that made them even quicker, but a whale was flying in the sky???

Not like a flying fish either, who was only in the air for a few seconds. This whale was legitimately flying above the atmosphere. How was it keeping moisture to itself? Magic?

A magic flying whale??

This defied all his accumulated knowledge of the apocalypse so far.

In fact, he was so far in doubt that he even wondered whether his regression was truly regression. Had he perhaps just somehow dreamed it up instead?

Then he snapped out of it. Of course not. However, just him coming back had already created the butterfly effect and many ripples just by existing, so it shouldn't be news that his knowledge would eventually be rendered useless.

It was just that he hadn't expected it to happen so quickly.

The whale was gaining on them at a frightening speed. Lukas clenched the steering wheel with a steel grip. They weren't going to be able to outrun the creature, so someone was going to have to be the decoy.

"Liam, take over!" he barked, immediately jumping out of the jeep.

The whale was so close that he could already reach it with just a jump.

"Hey!" Liam shouted at him furiously, lurching sideways to grab the steering wheel, but Lukas had already jumped out of the driving seat, launching himself at the whale.

Just as his punch was about to descend on the flying whale, he was caught by the gust of wind that came from the whale.

Not good! Lukas' expression immediately changed. This was the worst possible outcome. He'd been hoping that having to keep itself afloat would take up most of its magic focus, allowing Lukas to at least attract attention, but it wasn't to be.

Then, from the top of the whale, a figure in black jumped down, colliding against Lukas' form.

The two plummeted towards the ground at a frightening speed, shocking both Lukas' party.