The entity struck at 3 AM.
Forty-seven of my zombies—the farthest scouts, positioned in the mountains—went dark simultaneously. Not destroyed. Not claimed by something else. Simply... erased. Their connections snapped clean, like threads cut by scissors.
I bolted upright from where I'd been sitting, processing the first Zombie King's memories.
It's testing us, his voice whispered. Probing our perimeter. Learning our network's range.
Through my remaining connections, I felt it—a presence moving through the corrupted zone, vast and patient, systematically eliminating every undead scout I'd positioned near the facility.
Mine, I commanded, trying to shield them.
The presence laughed.
Not with sound. With pure malice, rippling through the psychic connection between us.
YOU CANNOT PROTECT THEM ALL, it said. EVERY SOUL YOU CLAIM, I WILL TAKE FROM YOU. EVERY WALL YOU BUILD, I WILL TEAR DOWN.
Then it withdrew, leaving fifty-three dead scouts in its wake.
A message.
A promise.
------------------------------
Day 13.
I didn't wait for dawn.
By sunrise, my army had grown to twelve thousand—I'd spent the night claiming aggressively, replacing what the entity had destroyed and adding more. If it wanted to play a war of attrition, I would outpace it.
------------------------------
The expansion was systematic.
Vanguard led teams into the northern districts, sweeping through abandoned neighborhoods and claiming every zombie they encountered. Ursa took the south—his massive form clearing entire blocks with brutal efficiency, his enhanced intelligence coordinating the mutants under his command.
I stayed at the center of the web, my consciousness spread across thousands of minds simultaneously.
More, the first Zombie King's instincts whispered. Always more. The entity's true form is vast beyond comprehension. We need everything we can gather.
I'd been hesitant to claim in such large numbers before. Worried about control. About losing myself in the network.
Now I understood that had been foolish.
The more I claimed, the stronger I became. The more perspectives I held, the clearer my vision. The dead weren't drowning me—they were amplifying me.
By noon, I controlled fourteen thousand.
By sunset, fifteen thousand.
And still it wasn't enough.
------------------------------
Ghost found me on the compound roof as the stars emerged.
She'd grown since our bonding. Sleeker. Faster. Her gray-streaked fur had darkened to match the night, and her single torn ear stood proud like a battle flag.
Alpha tired, she sent, leaping onto my shoulder. Alpha not sleeping. Alpha not eating. Not good.
"I don't need those things anymore."
Need them for being Wei. Not for being Alpha. Her consciousness brushed against mine with gentle insistence. Don't forget which came first.
I reached up to scratch behind her ear.
"When did you get so wise?"
Always wise. Alpha just learning to listen.
I smiled.
It felt strange on my face—an expression that belonged to someone more human than I'd been feeling lately. But Ghost had a way of pulling me back. Of reminding me what I was fighting for.
"The entity is almost ready," I said quietly. "Three more days, maybe less. And when it manifests..."
Fight. Win. Come home. Ghost's thoughts were simple. Absolute. Pack waits. Alpha must return.
"And if I don't?"
Then Ghost will bite the monster's face off. Her mental voice held no humor. Alpha returns. End of discussion.
I laughed—a real laugh, rough and unexpected.
"I'll do my best."
------------------------------
Maya came to me that night.
Her silver eyes were troubled, flickering with visions I couldn't see.
"The timeline is shifting," she said. "The entity knows what we're planning. It can't see details—my abilities and yours create too much interference—but it senses our preparation. It's... responding."
"How?"
"Accelerating. The manifestation was supposed to take five days from when it started. Now it's happening faster." She hugged herself, small and fragile despite her power. "We might have two days. Maybe less."
My blood—cold as it was—went colder.
"That's not enough time."
"No." She looked up at me. "But there's something else. A new thread. Something I've never seen before."
"What kind of thread?"
"A choice. At the moment of confrontation, you'll face a decision that changes everything. I can't see what it is. I can't see the outcomes. But I know this: the choice only exists because you regained your memories. The other versions of you—the first Zombie King's earlier iterations—they never had this option."
"What does that mean?"
Maya shook her head slowly.
"I don't know. But it feels important. It feels like... hope."
------------------------------
Day 14.
The entity's influence spread faster now.
The corrupted zone around the mountains expanded by miles overnight. Trees that had been normal at sunset twisted into nightmarish shapes by dawn. Animals fled the region in massive waves—deer and wolves and bears and birds, all running from something their instincts couldn't name but desperately feared.
And the sky above the facility...
It cracked.
Not like broken glass. Like reality itself was splitting. Veins of darkness spread across the blue, pulsing with an otherworldly light that hurt to look at directly.
"It's beautiful," Drake said, standing beside me on the compound walls. "In a horrible, world-ending kind of way."
"It's the entity's true dimension bleeding through. The membrane between our reality and wherever it comes from is thinning."
"Can we stop it?"
I thought about the anchor. About the plan. About the single moment of vulnerability that might—might—give us a chance.
"We're about to find out."
------------------------------
The compound became a war camp.
Morgan's people arrived from the facility—the ones who had survived the entity's attack, carrying weapons and data and decades of research that might prove useful. They integrated with our forces, their military discipline meshing with our desperate determination.
Fifteen thousand zombies surrounded Seattle in concentric rings.
Two hundred survivors prepared for a battle that would determine humanity's future.
And at the center of it all, I stood with my inner circle, reviewing the plan one final time.
"Three strike teams," Rachel said, pointing at the tactical display Morgan's people had established. "Team Alpha—that's our heavy hitters, Drake and the other awakened—hits the entity's outer defenses. Their job is to be loud. Obvious. Draw as much attention as possible."
"Team Beta," Morgan continued, "consists of my facility personnel and the compound's armed survivors. We secure the perimeter, prevent the entity's servants from flanking, and provide extraction if needed."
"And Team Omega," I finished, "is me. Alone. While Alpha and Beta create chaos, I slip through to the anchor point and destroy it."
"You make it sound simple," Max said.
"It won't be. The entity will sense me coming. It will throw everything it has at stopping me. And if I fail..." I met each of their eyes in turn. "If I fail, Min-Tong ends me before I become its new vessel."
Min-Tong stood at the back of the room, silent, her face pale but resolute.
"I understand," she said. Her voice didn't waver. "I hope I don't have to."
"So do I."
------------------------------
The emergency came at midnight.
Harold burst into the War Room, his weathered face drawn with fear.
"Something's happening. The sky over the mountains—it's not just cracking anymore. It's opening."
We ran to the walls.
And stopped.
The entity's realm was visible now. A vast expanse of writhing darkness beyond the cracks in reality, filled with shapes that defied description. Eyes the size of buildings. Tentacles that stretched for miles. Things that moved without bodies and whispered without sound.
And at the center of it all—
The entity.
Its full form.
I'd seen glimpses in my inherited memories. Fragments of confrontations across ten thousand years. But none of them had prepared me for this.
It was vast. Infinite. A presence that existed in dimensions beyond human comprehension, pressing against the barrier between worlds with inevitable patience.
I GROW TIRED OF WAITING, its voice boomed across reality itself. YOU HAVE GATHERED YOUR FORCES. YOU HAVE MADE YOUR PLANS. BUT YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU FACE.
The cracks widened.
I AM OLDER THAN YOUR STARS. I HAVE CONSUMED WORLDS BEYOND COUNTING. I HAVE WAITED TEN THOUSAND YEARS FOR THIS MOMENT.
Something massive pressed through one of the cracks—a tendril larger than any building in Seattle, reaching toward the earth with terrible patience.
AND I WILL NOT BE DENIED.
------------------------------
"It's accelerating again," Maya gasped, grabbing my arm. "The manifestation—it's happening now. Not in two days. Now."
I looked at my army. My allies. My people.
We weren't ready.
We had planned for two more days of preparation. Two more days of expansion. Two more days of training and coordination and—
THERE IS NO MORE TIME, the first Zombie King's voice roared in my head. THERE NEVER WAS. THE ENTITY ALWAYS CHOSE THE MOMENT. WE SIMPLY RESPOND.
He was right.
I'd known this was coming. Known that no amount of preparation would ever feel like enough. Known that the battle would begin when the entity decided it would begin.
And now it had.
"Everyone!" My voice cut through the chaos. "The plan moves now. Alpha team—fifteen minutes to reach the facility perimeter. Beta team—establish defensive lines. Omega team..."
I looked at Min-Tong one last time.
Tears streamed down her face. Silent. Her healing glow flickered with suppressed emotion.
"I love you," I said.
"Come back to me."
"I'll try."
Then I turned toward the mountains, where reality was tearing itself apart, where something older than humanity was forcing its way into our world.
And I ran.