Chapter 11

The sun was almost at its peak and the siblings had skipped breakfast, they were starving after everything settled down. Having absorbed an exceptionally large amount of black mist at the densest location, their bodies demanded an extraordinary amount of energy. They needed to hunt for more jellies or mutated beasts to keep up their nutrition. They decided to clear out the streets surrounding the mall and then will head into the mountains for more games.

Leo came to terms with having a 9-foot amazon following them around. Within his mind, a thin connection could be felt between Zomi and himself. Leo had been considering the nature of this link; he could determine her proximity, feel her mood and sense her state of health through the link, but did not wish to pry further into the strange connection, for now. Instead, he agreed to let Zomi tag along for the time being as they strolled onto the open streets.

Unfortunately, not a living or dead soul was to be seen outside of the Great Mall. Only countless corpses littered throughout the street. The ominous presence from Zomi had scared away or wiped out all the zombies in the vicinity. They continued to venture deeper into the city in search of prey, only to realize that every single existence in the city would flee from Zomi in fear. Her mere presence brought out the once lost emotion from these mindless zombies.

Zombies are very sensitive to their own kind due to their primal instinct; hence, they were alarmed by the overwhelming difference in power from Zomi instead of the two siblings. This was made worse by the fact that Zomi was completely oblivious to hiding her own presence and showed herself on everyone's radar.

They needed to fill their stomach one way or another before heading home. Leo groaned at the circumstance and Zomi seemed to understand right away what her master wanted. She let out a loud yell that startled Leo and Sarah; soon, the figures of several mutated zombies appeared before the trio. The giantess quickly killed all the zombies with her bare hands and offered the crimson jellies to her master. Meanwhile, she sucked the corpses dry through her hands as light snacks. The siblings were amazed at what just happened.

Yet, the crimson jellies were not enough to satiate their hunger in their current state. Having no more luck on their hunt in the city, the siblings faced a temporary food shortage. They had no choice but to head to the mountain to hunt for more game.

Sarah notified their mother they will be back home before dinner time today, through the satellite phone. Afterwards, the trio began their march into the woods of the vast mountains surrounding the city. The siblings hoped to encounter some wild beasts as they traveled through the mountain road detour, as they made their way home.

"Zomi, you are scaring all the food away. Can you do something about that… aura of yours?"

Surprisingly, Zomi nodded her head and her aura began to fade. She was able to understand Leo through the link shared between them. The link will later serve as the central piece of their relationship.

"How was she able to understand you and not me?" Sarah asked indignantly.

"Uhm… I don't know if I can explain how it works. Simply speaking, we can exchange simple thoughts in our minds, I just found out a few moments ago."

"That is so cool! Is this your ability then? Can you use it on me?"

"No, I think Zomi is the one with such ability instead."

Sarah and Leo both looked at the expressionless Zomi. It was at this moment, a deafening growl rumbled from the giantess's stomach. They looked back at each other and burst out laughing in response.

"Let's go find lunch first," Sarah was almost in tears.

"yeah"

"..."

Thus, the hunt began and a moment of prayers to the poor souls that encountered the trio.

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At a certain laboratory.

August 24th, 2042.

"It had been forty-seven hours since the appearance of the black mist. Only five of us were left alive in this facility. The security guard Maxwell died when we tried to secure food supply from the cafeteria. I will never forget the resentment seen in his eyes as we left him to be eaten alive. It will haunt me at night, I know it will."

August 25th, 2042.

"Me and my two colleagues had been conducting simple research on these zombie corpses. The results were incredible. A sample of blood cells taken from the corpse were able to stay alive under numerous stress tests from the environment. The cells carried more nutrients but did not carry oxygen like normal human blood cells. And even more valuable information had been extracted from the dissected corpse. The brain of the zombies was hallowed inside, the structure mildly resembled a nest. The zombie's central nervous system grew and expanded from the brain. Their path of growth seemed to override the peripheral nervous system that used to control the body. No wonder the zombies walk and move so slowly; but once the nervous system is fully grown, it will be questionable if humans can even outrun zombies."

August 29th, 2042.

"We had been informed by the military through the radio that a rescue team will arrive today by noon. I was the priority for the rescue. I was then updated later today that the team rescued was attacked by a swarm of crows at the mountains. Their helicopter crashed and no one survived on the ground. The only good news was that grandpa was still alive. He told me to rest assured and wait for another rescue."

Sep 1st, 2042.

"It had been two days since grandpa last contacted me. Power and water are still running, but our food supply has been running low. We made another trip to the cafeteria and fortunately everyone survived. The janitor, Sam, was especially brave today. I think he had set his eye on me and would peek at my leg whenever he had a chance. Unfortunately for him, I don't really like men and I am not in the mood for a relationship at this moment."

Sep 5th, 2042.

"The rescue team arrived today by foot, they parked their vehicle a few miles away from the facility. The soldiers cleared all the zombies from the facilities campus and all of us went out to receive the soldiers coming to the rescue. We were shortly ambushed by an unknown creature. It was too fast for me to see what it looked like; we could only watch as we all got killed one by one. We tried to run back to the facility and I was the only one that made it inside alive. The creature almost broke through the metal gate at the vault I was hiding in. I cried; it was the first time I cried since my parent's death."

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"Sis, I don't think we can make it back home by tonight. Make sure to call mom and let her know," a voice was heard from on top of a tree. Leo was scouting the perimeter from a vantage point. He observed giant dark ominous clouds in the sky approaching their direction. "It seems like there will be a thunderstorm soon, I don't think it's a good idea to tread the mountain roads in the storm. Let's look for a shelter."

"I guess the summer hurricane came a bit late this season. Do you see any place where we can stay for the night? There should be a couple service areas" inquired Sarah.

She was cooking meat from a mutated beast on a simple bonfire. The amount was not nearly enough for the three, but it will do justice for now. Zomi could not absorb mutated beasts like she absorbed zombies with just her hands. Sarah was also watching Zomi to keep her from eating the food raw.

"I see a bunch of large buildings to our right. They have a symbol of leaf on the buildings"

"Ah, that's the research facility I visited on a school trip. I think it was called Detrick National Laboratory. Hope that place has running water, I need a hot shower right now," then Sarah took a look at the big girl playing with butterflies, with blood of beasts all over her body. "So does Zomi."

After their short break, the trio extinguished the fire and marched towards the facility. During the short fifteen minute walk, Sarah was ambushed by a panther from behind. She easily dealt with the ambush and the panther, no, the oversized mutated house cat was now crispy fried on the ground from electrical currents.

"Should have thought of this sooner! We could have saved the hassle of making a fire."

Sarah shook her head at Leo's remark and rebuked, "Only if it is edible, I can't control my power well enough to cook. I guess we will find out soon."

The trio quickly dissected the electrocuted corpse and enjoyed a variety of burnt, cooked, partially cooked and raw parts of meat in a single serving. In the end, the majority went into Zomi's stomach, along with the bones.

At the entrance of the facility campus, the trio decided to split up. Sarah took Zomi to find a place for shower, while Leo would look around the campus to find anything interesting.