The Apocalypse Took Everything, This Time I Hoard It All First
Chapter 33: Someone Alive

Chapter 33: Chapter 33: Someone Alive

The once stylish and pristine villa district was now desolate. Several villas had been destroyed by meteorites, leaving behind ruined walls and rubble. Charred traces from burned trees were everywhere.

Rhonda Dawson leaned against the car window and spoke slowly. "This is exactly like a scene from a zombie movie."

Evan Olson gently patted her back. Just as he was about to comfort her, his gaze was captured by a nearby courtyard.

"Look over there."

Everyone followed his finger. In the courtyard, a Class C RV had smashed into the villa’s main gate at an angle and was now engulfed in flames.

Billowing black smoke enveloped the entire courtyard like a giant net. The acrid, choking smell of burning drifted over on the wind, impossible to ignore.

Stranger still, over ten cars were parked haphazardly in the yard, and a dozen or so zombies were wandering around inside.

Through the ground-floor windows, numerous silhouettes could be seen faintly shambling about.

Kevin Keane turned the steering wheel, approaching the courtyard gate.

Just then, a dark figure suddenly darted out from behind the courtyard wall, slamming onto the car window with a THUD.

"Ghhh—"

"Ghhh—"

It was a mangled zombie, both of its arms long gone.

The creature wore an off-white down jacket stained with dark red blood and blackish-brown grime. The collar of the wool sweater underneath was completely torn, revealing horrific wounds on its neck and at its severed shoulders.

Its entire neck had been bitten clean through, exposing the severed windpipe and blood vessels. Its lower jaw and lips had been completely ripped off, leaving its stark white upper gum line exposed, the gaps between the teeth caked with dried blood and shredded flesh.

A blackened tongue hung limply from its mouth, then began to thrash wildly in excitement upon seeing the living. A thick, hoarse roar rumbled from its throat.

Its cloudy, white, bloodshot eyes stared intently at the people in the car. Its upper teeth scraped against the driver’s side window, making a grating SCREECH.

Kevin Keane lowered the window and stabbed out with his knife. The zombie, which hadn’t yet had time to form a Crystal Core, toppled under the car.

Unsure if they heard the commotion or smelled fresh humans, several zombies inside the villa lunged madly toward the windows, their bloody claws scrabbling at the glass.

If one ignored the gory streaks of blood on the glass, from a distance they almost looked like a group of overly enthusiastic neighbors popping over to say hello.

In a small room on the side of the third floor, Drew Dunn stood on his tiptoes, straining to see the main gate, craning his neck so far it felt like it might snap.

"I see it, I see it! There’s a car!" His eyes suddenly lit up, and he yelled at the top of his lungs, "Someone’s here!"

The others in the room instantly erupted, immediately crowding around him.

Agatha Palmer, the shortest of the group, squeezed her way to the front. She peered over the windowsill for a long moment before saying, completely baffled, "There’s nothing there! Drew, are you sure you saw it right?"

"I’m sure of it! I can still see the exhaust!" Drew quickly explained.

Shane Shaw pushed through the crowd from behind, calmly saying, "Let me take a look."

When Agatha Palmer turned her head, her eyes met Shane Shaw’s. Her face instantly flushed red, and her voice softened. "Oh... okay."

When Terry Thorne saw this, his face instantly darkened, and he let out a snort.

They were all from the same university. On the night of the meteor shower, none of them had taken the national warning seriously. They saw it as a once-in-a-lifetime event. So, a group of more than twenty of them got together for a party at a classmate’s house.

The classmate was from a single-parent family, and his dad had another house in the neighboring Aurelia Villa District, so they had the run of the place.

With no one to hold them back, the group of young people went absolutely wild.

Shortly after midnight, the moment the unprecedented, massive meteor shower lit up the night sky, everyone went ecstatic. They rushed into the yard with their drinks, shouting, screaming, and raising their glasses in celebration.

"So worth it!"

"A once-in-a-lifetime spectacle!"

But their celebration didn’t last more than a few minutes before their friends began to collapse, one after another.

The scene instantly sobered up their muddled, alcohol-fueled minds. They scrambled to carry the unconscious people back into the house.

Shane Shaw was there to pick up his younger sister, Nancy Sullivan.

Nancy had said she was just hanging out at a classmate’s house in the villa district, a drive of less than ten minutes, which was the only reason he’d reluctantly agreed to let her go out.

He had just parked his car in the villa’s courtyard when the meteor shower started.

Shane leaned against his car door, watching Nancy jump around the yard, laughing happily. But before a smile could even form on his lips, he saw more than half the partygoers suddenly collapse to the ground.

At first, he thought they had just drunk too much and went to help carry people inside. But not even ten minutes after they got everyone indoors, the party on the ground floor had devolved into a hellscape of zombie carnage.

"Nancy, go!"

Shane grabbed a terrified Nancy and was about to throw open the door to make a run for it when he spotted several mutated zombies rushing toward the yard.

He slammed the villa’s main door locked, grabbed Nancy, and ran for their lives up to the third floor.

Seeing this, the quicker-witted ones followed them.

With Shane in the lead, a few of the guys frantically dragged wardrobes and sofas to barricade the stairwell, managing to block the dozen or so zombies from the first and second floors and keep them from charging up.

Then came the emergency broadcast alerts. Calls for help were met with nothing but busy signals. Then the internet went out. The power and water were cut...

Only then did it truly sink in: it was the end of the world.

Now, only seven people remained on the third floor: four guys and three girls.

The owner of the villa had long since turned. They had been surviving for days on the snacks from the third-floor gaming room.

Over the past few days, tensions had been running high. Everyone’s nerves were frayed to the breaking point. Who could have imagined that a beautiful meteor shower would turn the world into this hellscape?

They spent their days watching the outside world, wondering when rescuers would arrive.

But they hadn’t seen a single living soul. The outside was just filled with wandering zombies. And just this morning, someone had crashed an RV into their villa’s front gate!

Not long after, the person inside had turned, joining the ranks of the wandering zombies. This had plunged them even deeper into despair...

Thankfully, they had now, finally, spotted another living person!

Shane Shaw leaned out to look toward the main gate. Agatha Palmer rested her right hand on the wall beside the windowsill, also trying to get a better look.

"Agatha! What do you think you’re doing?!"

Terry Thorne finally couldn’t take it anymore. He bellowed at her, his tone incredibly harsh.

Agatha Palmer waved a hand impatiently, answering dismissively, "Stop your bitching. Someone’s really here. It could be a rescue team!"

"Rescue, rescue. Is that all you can think about? That, and Shane?" Terry, seething with anger, lunged forward and grabbed her wrist with frightening force. "How many times have I told you? Keep your distance from other guys! Are you deaf?!"

"Terry, are you insane?" Agatha wrenched her hand free, her own tone becoming sharp. "If it wasn’t for Shane, we’d all be zombie chow by now! I’m just trying to see if it’s the rescue team, what the hell is wrong with your head?"

"What am I thinking?" Terry was practically hopping with rage. "Shane, Shane, that’s all I ever hear from you! Can’t you show a little restraint? Who’s your actual boyfriend here?!"

Listening to them, Shane felt a headache coming on. He shuffled sideways with a look of utter helplessness, wishing he could be a hundred feet away from the two of them. Out of sight, out of mind.

Nancy tugged on her brother’s sleeve and whispered, "Brother, I saw the exhaust fumes, too."

Shane gently patted her hand, his voice growing serious. "I saw it, too. But we don’t know who it is. Let’s not do anything rash. We need to be careful."

"AHHH!!!"

The two had barely exchanged a few words when a shrill scream suddenly pierced the air. It was Jasmine’s voice.

She and Dexter Wallace were in the opposite room, and had a direct view of Kevin Keane raising his machete. In one swift motion, he lopped the head clean off a zombie by the wall. Blackish-red blood sprayed everywhere, a horribly jarring sight.

The group outside the wall also heard the scream. They froze for a second. Kevin Keane raised his head, his cold gaze locking onto the third-floor window.

’There are people alive up there.’