Volume 43 - The Apocalypse of the Undead

== Chapter 505 - Wartorn Red Desert ==
Lasers flew every which way, burning anything they touched save for the armor of the Olympian Hoplites. Yet the rockets that followed destroyed them all the same.
The zombies didn't lumber, they fought with the tactics of a true army, and a unity of mind that was unprecedented. They used weapons, utilized the environment, the same as any human or otherwise, hiding behind walls and vehicles, using the only effective weapons against the Hoplites, and having strike groups take civilians on the side.
There were simply too many to keep at bay, and they were encroaching further and further into Olympus Mons.
Suddenly, grenades fell to the Hoplites' side of the battlefield, and detonated! EMP, smoke, flashbang, conventional, nuclear and chemical.
The battlefield was ravaged within moments, as the remaining zombies advanced forward, passing the twisted scrap metal and armor plating that used to be this Hoplite Squadron. The city was soon being scoured, all civilians, man woman and child, were being taken for conversion.
This city was a step to the true unification of the galaxy, and nothing was going to stop that from happening. No matter how many needed to die for it to happen.
== Chapter 506 - Dire Than Ever ==
"What do you mean the squadron was destroyed?" Reuben demands.
"Th-they used guns and bombs, sir!" The private on the other side of the comm-link explained.
"...Arthur did train them..." Reuben remarks. "...Send another squadron, EMP-resistant and backed up by war vehicles."
"Y-yes Sir!" The private replies, before the communication breaks, Reuben sighing afterwards as he places two fingers on his temple.
"...This is bad..." He mutters. "...No central government...trained zombies...anarchy and distrust...we can't go extinct, no matter what."
He then looks at the control panel, specifically the Announcement Button.
== Chapter 507 - Evacuation ==
"Citizens of Olympus Mons." Reuben says. "We are facing an unprecedented crisis that...we are not certain we can repel. Please, be on standby, and be ready to evacuate at any moment."
"Evacuate?!" One civilian shouts. "What crisis?!"
"...We have been keeping this a secret from you to mitigate panic, but you need to know now to know the gravity of the situation." Reuben then says, almost as if he were responding to the civilian. "...King Rosenstock...and his Royal Guard...are dead."
Immediately, the civilians are shocked, confused, terrified, despaired.
"Humanity will only survive if we evacuate." Reuben finishes.
== Chapter 508 - Encroaching Unity ==
Jack, Andromeda, Candice, Kasper and Shunsuke had all been sitting at a restaurant when they saw the news of Reuben's announcement. They had just gotten out of the hospital, in a city not infected, and now they saw this.
"...Why are we even trying anymore...?" Jack mutters, almost whimpering. "...We lost...over...and over...Rosenstock's dead, Mars is falling...this is hopeless..."
"Don't say that!" Candice shouts. "There's always hope! We haven't lost yet, there's still time to beat the--"
"WE CAN'T BEAT THEM!" Jack screams, as everyone else flinched back. "WE FOUGHT KARIM, THREE TIMES IN A ROW! AND HE KICKED OUR ASSES! THREE, TIMES, IN A ROW! WE CAN'T DO ANYTHING TO EVEN ONE OF THEM, AND ARTHUR HAS A WHOLE ARMY!"
"...Jack..." Andromeda breathes.
"Please don't say another platitude..." Jack whimpers. "...we can't even beat Karim, how are we supposed to beat a whole army? When...when even Rosenstock and his Guard couldn't..."
"We beat a whole army back at my mansion." Kasper replies. "It was scary, and I am still sad about the destruction of my home, but looking back it wasn't particularly difficult compared to anything else we've done."
Jack didn't respond.
"You've become way too fixated on beating Karim." Shunsuke says. "He's been that much of a threat to us since way before the zombies."
"Karim...is the one who's been spreading the disease..." Jack breathes. "If we had beaten him even onc--"
"No." Andromeda retorts, cutting Jack off. "No. I'm not going to watch you lose all hope when you have always stood tall even through the worst of things. I am not going to watch the man who saved me from drowning, who helped me walk the right path, who taught me the good in humanity, become a nervous wreck! I am NOT going to watch you just give up after EVERYTHING we've been through together!"
"...Anne..." Jack replied weakly, before tearing up and hugging her tightly, starting to cry. Andromeda closed her eyes, and hugged him back.
"I'm sorry if I came off the wrong way, but..." Andromeda says, tearing up herself. "...I don't want the man I love to give in to the same despair I once did."
"Well, that's all good to hear." Falqo says, as they turn to see him, Kiyomasu, and Dione standing at the entrance. "Because we actually think we might know how to stop all this."
== Chapter 509 - Plans for the Dead ==
"Uncle Falqo!" Candice shouts, hugging Falqo, who chuckled weakly.
"Nice to see all you guys again." He replies.
"What kind of plan do you have?" Andromeda asks.
"That cure formula you bought at Straykua." Kiyomasu replies. "It was to stop some sort of epidemic in the Twenty-First Century."
"Epidemic?" Shunsuke asks.
"Yes...to a zombie plague." Kiyomasu answers.
"...What...?" Kasper demands.
"Genetically engineered Rabies, throw a couple of other viruses and bacteria in and you've got an effective zombie virus." Falqo replies. "The old governments had it covered up but Arthur seems to have gotten a hold of it, and a hold of the Socqreath Virus, plus that ancestral virus that can apparently be found in the genes of all living things in the galaxy."
"This cure won't do all the work by itself, but Demetrius' research is valuable." Kiyomasu explains. "We intend to create a new cure from all the research we have, though unfortunately, we don't have a laboratory."
"I do." Saparbek replies, as everyone, shocked, turns to see him now standing at the entrance.
"You!" Falqo almost growls, walking up to Saparbek and grabbing him by his collar. "You're the one who did all this, right?!"
"And now I'm trying to stop it." Saparbek retorts. "They've served their purpose, and now they need to go. This is getting out of hand, and Atlas doesn't like those like Arthur."
"...You sure are good with that silver tongue of yours." Falqo says, letting Saparbek go. "How do we know you don't plan to betray us?"
"Because both my plan and Atlas' are destroyed if Arthur wins." Saparbek explains. "In case you forgot, neither of us want everyone to become zombies, especially right now."
"...Where exactly are ya even gonna take us?" Falqo demands. "What kind of lab do you even have?"
"...You know absolutely nothing about me, do you?" Saparbek retorts, before smiling a bit and pointing behind himself. "I own a hotel business, there's a hotel here where I have an underground laboratory."
"Are any of you gonna order?" The server asks.
== Chapter 510 - Return to the Hotel ==
Seeing those eyes again was surreal after all this time. The robot bellhop stood ready to speak with them, as they walk into an elevator, Saparbek letting a machine inside scan his eyes before the elevator dropped down to the lowest level.
They walked out, and saw dozens of vats, filled with a clear, colorless liquid, suspended inside of which were people who were half human or otherwise and have machine. Screens were everywhere, tinting the room in that familiar magenta light, and everything was made of black metal, plated with gold. The hypnosis screen sat in front of the type of chair Jack had once been in, everything reminded him of that fateful day.
"...You know we're gonna take you down after this, right?" Jack says.
"I know you'll try." Saparbek replies, before placing the cure formula in a scanner. "I intercepted Demetrius' message, and brought all his research over to my computers. The algorithm I wrote will analyze that research, the formula, and a drop of Arthur's blood that I placed in the scanner prior. It will create the perfect cure to this disease, I just don't know the timeframe."
"Once we do this, we should transmit the cure in every way possible." Kasper adds.
"Then we just sit back and wait, right?" Falqo asks.
"No." Saparbek retorts. "Karim remains a threat even without the virus, and Arthur is unlikely to be fully cured by it even if directly hit. All this cure will do is let you not become their next hosts if you do manage to kill them."
"...Wait..." Jack breathes. "...Would it be possible to create a cure to the superhuman enhancements Karim has?"
"Maybe." Saparbek replies. "But genetic engineering isn't my field and you need to just grow up and accept you can't beat someone with centuries of experience over you."
"No, I'm not going to give up." Jack retorts. "Rosenstock gave us the mission of stopping him. By fulfilling that mission, we honor Rosenstock's memory. Besides, if I'm superhuman and he isn't, it might level the playing field."
"Jack." Saparbek slightly groans. "What you really want is to prove yourself, it's borderline suicidal."
"...Yeah...I do." Jack replies. "I want to prove I'm not just everyone's punching bag."
"If I believed in a God, I would swear their name." Saparbek fully groans. "This anime character bullshit isn't worth anything, just let it go. We'll nuke him or something once he's cured."
"Let him." Kiyomasu interjects.
"What?" Saparbek demands.
"Let him fight Karim." Kiyomasu demands. "Atlas wants to win a battle of pride, to prove himself worthy, correct? How is this any different?"
"...Fine, I'll whip something up." Saparbek says. "Do you have genetic material from Karim?"
Dione, reluctantly, walks forward and holds up her fist, which was covered in Karim's dried blood from her punches.
== Chapter 511 - Reminiscence ==
Karim stood atop a tower in Farfair, looking down at the infected city below, its once red, blue and yellow lights now all shades of purple, as the wind blew his hair and the coattails of his trench coat.
His expression was one of indifference, yet interest. Joy, yet despair. As he took the nametag of the flight attendant he had met so long ago out of a pocket and examined it.
He had never forgotten the day he met her, where his adventures on New Earth had began, and they began on an island not far away from here at all. She had the honor of being the one to start that journey.
Eridani.
He tossed the nametag into the wind, watching it blow away, wondering if it would ever had eyes laid on it again. He looked down at the city once more, and closed his eyes, reopening them at the setting sun.
== Chapter 512 - Decay of Intent ==
Arthur stood at the capital of the city, half his body now completely mutated into the shape of a monster, the other half having lost all its color as veins pulsated throughout and across it.
He looked up at the statue of Rosenstock, and slashed it down, smiling for a moment, before the grin becomes a grimace. Why was he doing this, again...? Right, to make everyone equal and immortal. That was it. He was Arthur Grant, and he would make everyone equal.
He was Arthur Grant, and he would make everyone equal.
He was Arthur grant, and he would make everyone equal.
He was...was Arthur...Grant...and all...would become one.
== Chapter 513 - Algorithm ==
Folding...folding...fusing...fusing...DNA destroyed...new threat...threat pacified...67%...83%...99%...
== Chapter 514 - Preparations Completed ==
"One Hundred Percent." Saparbek remarks. "The cure has completed. Both for the plague, and for the superhuman genome."
"Thanks..." Jack replies.
"You're all going to be taking these syringes to get the vaccine for the cure." Saparbek explains. "And no, there's no microchips in there, I have thousands of other surveillance methods and quite frankly it'd probably be better for you to ingest the chip through a meal."
"What about everyone else?" Kasper asks.
"I'm going to aerosolize the cure, put it in the water supply, the works." Saparbek answers. "Primarily because I know he's doing that with the virus."
"...Guess it's a good thing we didn't order anything." Candice remarks.
Suddenly, they hear banging on the elevator door!
== Chapter 515 - The Infection Grows ==
"Dammit!" Saparbek shouts, taking out his screen pad to have all the turrets in the room aim at the door. "Whatever you do, don't get bitten! There's vaccines on the side of the machine!"
"Don't have to tell me twice!" Falqo retorts, as they run to the side of the machine, zombies bursting through the door with claws and blades as the turrets begin firing bullets and lasers at them.
Saparbek himself takes out his laser pistol to fire into the zombies' necks, running to get a syringe for himself, as Kiyomasu was firing down zombies with his cane, which currently took the form of the same kind of weapon Kasper had used before.
As everyone quickly injected the cure into their bodies, the number of zombies at the entrance grew. Saparbek pressed a button on his screen pad that caused the vats to empty of liquid and open up, releasing the cyborgs upon the zombies, before a door opened up to reveal an aircraft.
"In case you're wondering, that's how I got away the first time!" He shouts, as they all get inside the crammed aircraft, which proceeds to fly through the tunnel until it reaches the surface, the city crawling with the undead as vein-covered tendrils of the biomass began to ensnare everything in a dim purple glow.
"They can infect machines, now...?" Saparbek breathes, as the aircraft flies into space at a high enough velocity to burn off any biomass that had accumulated on it.
== Chapter 516 - Weapons Gathered ==
Far out in the desert, where little life was present to be infected, was where a weapons shop luckily was, as everyone was gearing up for what was likely to be their final battle.
"Shotgun, check. Grenades, check. Chainsaw, check." Falqo remarks, as Candice was helping him find the weapons, and Kasper was helping both of them, right as Kiyomasu walked towards him.
"Huh?" Kasper asks, as Kiyomasu hands him a familiar-looking keypad.
"This was Kooji's." Kiyomasu says. "I was able to salvage it, and I've saved everything he and you ever used." Kasper looked on at the keypad in awe, accepting it from Kiyomasu.
"Thank you..." He replies.
"Of course." Kiyomasu responds. "It's about time."
Jack and Andromeda were sitting outside, looking on at the desert at night. Save for the wind it was quiet, peaceful, so far removed from the apocalypse. Possibly, ironically, a last bastion for any life at all.
"...Jack..." Andromeda says. "...if...we don't make it out...I want you to know...just how grateful I am...for all you've done."
She kissed him, tears rolling down her cheeks, as he kissed her back, hugging her gently.
They both knew how likely it was that they would die, since they knew almost none of what they were up against, but that what they knew, would possibly already be insurmountable.
This was, possibly, the end.