Extinguished Within Flames

There are five people in total, and from their clothes and wears, they appear to be colleagues, working together at the same company. They probably had been holding up in some corporate building nearby, and that place is no longer safe due to whatever reason.

Since this is only the second day, it is still a good time to find a well-defended location and stay there until the Life Zone finally collapses due to one thing or another, but that is only possible if they have not attracted unwanted attention to themselves.

And from the look of it, they have inadvertently attracted attention to themselves, and they are paying for it with their lives. Or about to anyway.

"Oh God. Oh God. This is not happening. This cannot be happening!" One of those five pants and pants and pants, trying to keep pace with the other. Being the only female in the group, she is having a very difficult time. "What are those things!?"

"They are Zombies. Zombies, I tell you! Zombies!" One of the men calls out in extreme alarm. "Didn't you see what had happened to Josh when he got caught? He just turns into one of them, and now the bastard wants to do the same thing to us!"

Zombies? Nah, that is not possible since this is the Ruler of Life, but there are plenty of monsters under her command that can zombify people. Like Brain Slugs for example.

That is the most tamed example, as the Rule of Life has some twisted sense of humor. All of them do.

"No. It has to be some sort of bioweapon. It just has to be. Where is everyone? The cops? The army? Shit! Shit! Shit!" Another man calls out as his legs constantly keeping him on the move despite all the sweats running down his face and damping his clothes. He eventually trips and crashes onto the earth before desperately pulling himself up and continue to run. "Wait for me, assholes!"

And soon, I get to see what is chasing the group. A shit load of drooling people with ominously wiggling tendrils coming out every orifice of their body. Their mouth, their nose, their eyes, their ears, and yes, down below too.

I cringe at the sight, as I certainly do not want to become infected by that sort of parasitic organism. I am sure the hosts are dead due to that kind of intrusion.

Even if they are alive, they wish that they are dead. I certainly would just from the mutilation alone.

One of the survivors fall behind due to exhaustion, indicating that she has been running for a very long time. She and her colleagues cannot outrun these things, as the monsters are utterly relentless. More so than some of the undead from my memory.

"No… no!" She screams while the monsters rapidly close the distance then a flash of light followed by intense heat. She covers her eyes as someone pulls her away from the surging inferno.

Some of her clothes actually caught fire, forcing her to remove them as quickly as possible.

"What…? Up there!" Someone calls out as I lob another incendiary bomb at the horde of monsters in delight. It is quite effective, at least at turning those controlled corpses into a pile of ash.

"Ah! It burns. It burns! Help! Ah!" Screams come from the inferno, making me frown. Woops. It seems like not all the hosts are dead. Some are still alive, and once the parasites vacate their bodies to escape the flames, they regain their senses before burning to death. "Help me! Oh God! Help! Me!"