The Z Gene - Chapter 1：Awakening in a post-apocaliptyc world

A young man with dark hair and green eyes who was wearing nothing but rags woke up suddenly in a cold sweat, his body was covered by sand and dust while large bruises and needle wounds could be found on his arms legs and the back of his neck. He grabbed whatever was around him but all he could grab was a handful of sand, nothing around him existed besides sand and more sand.

He coughed as blood appeared on the corner of his mouth and he wiped it away with his hand, he looked at his blood then at himself realizing the state he was in. He clutched his forehead as an intense pain assaulted him making him unable to recall anything else besides his current situation.

His memories were long gone, taken away by some unknown perpetrators, he started to trudge the dessert as he left footprints in the sand dunes. The heat was excruciating to him at first as the temperature was actually above one hundred degrees celsius but as he continued walking his body started to adapt to the heat making it less uncomfortable to the point he didn’t even feel it anymore.

Surprisingly the young man’s stomach never peeped out any sound it was like he didn’t know what hunger or thirst was, he just walked along like a zombie would, seemingly like he had no thoughts about himself anymore.

The young man was practically on autopilot as he walked in the desert never stopping nor knowing fatigue, or it so seemed if someone observed him thoroughly you would see that sometimes he would stop and sleep on his legs like a horse for a few hours before continuing to move, while it also looked like his body had no need of food or water this was also wrong.

His body was adapting to the current environment so he wouldn’t die but the moment he found anything edible he rushed at it and ate it in big mouthfuls, this included some strange horned lizards which he ate raw and drank their blood to quench his thirst along with some extremely big vultures.

At first, he couldn’t kill the vultures as they could fly and harass him from the sky but when he saw some rocks on the ground he picked them and accurately hit a vulture in the head killing him directly

it seemed that the young man’s strength was nothing to scoff at.

As he trudged through the desert at a slow pace somewhere else in a bunker way below the planet’s surface some people wearing expensive clothes were watching him and applauding at his actions, some of them even chuckled at themselves then started to comment on some actions stating things that he could have done better.

A cane hitting the ground suddenly resounded in the bunker as a man with a full brown mustache who wore a top hat and monocle with a handsome face and athletic body got up from an armchair and said while tapping a wine glass with a spoon:

“Attention gentlemen attention, our newest addition to the entertainment section is a huge success! I would like to toast to the people who made this possible.” He pointed towards a reclused group of people who wore doctor gowns, it seemed they didn’t want to be here as they still had important things to do but the man just continued ignoring their disgruntled faces:

“Master Litoa and his subordinates did a very good work on the Z Gene as they dubbed it, as you can see on the monitor test subject one can adapt to his environment extremely well while his power speed reflexes and regeneration speed are way above normal humans, it is all due to the awakened Z Gene, of course, we had to temper with his memories or else we would have a big problem on our hands, the same could be said about test subject number two, please observe.”

The images on the monitor changed a blonde-haired young man with a handsome face and blue eyes his face was seemingly chiseled out of marble but his beauty was overshadowed by his gruesome smile and blood-spattered face, he was currently consuming what seemed like the remains of a human female as he dug deep into her skull and enjoyed every bit of her brain, then he licked his blood-covered fingers with an insane expression on his face seemingly enjoying every moment that passed.

The monitor’s image immediately changed back towards the other young man as the man with the monocle coughed out loud then said:

“As you see based on the principles of yin and yang we created these test subjects to restrain and reinforce each other, Of course, whoever will consume the other will gain an increased power boost and the combined force of the Z Genes we wouldn’t want a boring show now would we?”

Many people started clapping and cheering at the man’s words while the doctors were peppered with questions:

“Master Litoa what are the characteristics of the Z Gene?” Master Litoa took off his mask and revealed his disfigured face countless scars and missing teeth were present on it but his voice wasn’t any different from a normal man:

“Well this is my masterpiece and currently just like Mr. Baboto said it gives the user increased strength durability speed reaction time regeneration and adaptability but he forgot to tell you something, I had to heavily suppress some of the gene’s fatal flaws in subject number one. Just like you saw with number two, these flaws are increased appetite in human flesh consumption and a chance of infecting the target if it isn’t killed, of course, if the target isn’t compatible with the Z Gene the target would just die immediately, these two are pretty special out of the millions of people I experimented on they were the only ones who could take a full dosage of the awakening serum.”

All of the aristocrats started to nod their head to Master Litoa’s words seemingly trying to act like they understood everything the man said, Master Litoa scoffed inside, these rich simpletons who could escape the calamity that hit the surface were only here because of their resources, with the previous money they had they bought tons of resources in bulk and they could get in the bunker to save their hide from the catastrophe that befell Earth.

Of course, there were other people in the bunker that got in due to their skills like him but they were fewer, they still had resources which he needed but couldn’t take from them, while the Z Gene was inserted in the two young men he didn’t want to lose his memory either or becoming a man-eating monstrosity without any empathy for his fellow kin, of course, he wasn’t a good man as he experimented on millions of persons but the horrors that he saw during the experiments left him mentally scarred for life, sometimes due to his experiments his ‘patients’ would wake up and attack him giving him his current face. Of course, the patients were later disposed of by the thugs of the master who created the bunker.

The master was extremely mysterious and even he who had a high position in the bunker could rarely see him face to face.

Back with the dark-haired young man, he was starting to approach a village, he had no emotions on his face as he entered the deserted village.

No one could be seen around all houses were closed but not in bad conditions, out of nowhere came a blonde-haired young man with blue eyes who suddenly bit his back.

The young man’s eyes then narrowed then a wolfish smile appeared on his face:

“Ah it’s you, friend it seems you are one of us the superior ones, I welcome you to this paltry village that I arrived myself to some days ago.”

The dark-haired man shook his head as he felt no pain from the bite then his eyes widened as he took a close look towards the blonde man’s face:

The blonde-haired man’s face suddenly scrunched up and he ran away then the dark-haired man grabbed his head as intense pain started to assault him, he remembered something! he remembered that man who bit his back was his friend, but he didn’t have any other memories besides that feeling that it was his friend.

As he wandered aimlessly he entered an abandoned house which looked like it wasn’t used in a long while before then he cleaned himself inside and got some new clothes, he now wore beige shorts with a red sleeveless shirt black sneakers and white socks. These were the best clothes he could find in the house, they looked quite old but he could do with them.

As he followed the exit of the village he was suddenly startled by some crying, as he came closer and closer to the crying he could see that a funerary was being held in the cemetery that was near the village.

The blonde-haired young man was in the crowd that was observing the funeral, it seemed like no one could see him as he suddenly thrust his hand in a man’s torso and grabbed his heart then threw it at the dark-haired young man who grabbed it out of reflex but immediately started to gag and then threw it down.

The blonde-haired man smile started to falter then it transformed into a frown and he said:

“I know that your name is Daniel but… why don’t you act like me? we are the same.” It seemed like the man’s death wasn’t seen by anyone as the funeral continued but knocks could be heard from the coffin that was getting lowered in the grave.

A hand suddenly sprang out from the same coffin, a smile appeared on the priest’s face as he shouted loudly:

“God has graced us with one more revival!” The old man who was in the coffin suddenly smiled as his face and body started to morph and turned younger, the other old people that were attending started to laugh as their bodies started to get younger as well.

Daniel started to clean his eyes seemingly thinking that he was hallucinating but Costil started to laugh then said:

“I have graced you with the power of God, as you can see the ones who can’t accept the grace will be eaten!” He pointed to the man who was now heartless and unmoving on the ground.

The crowd of people started to cheer and applaud at Costil’s words but some people were gloomy and scared, there were some people who didn’t get younger or change at all, at quick speeds Daniel approached them then told them to leave while Costil’s smile suddenly stiffened and he growled at Daniel.

“Damn you this is our food supply from now on, how dare you tell them to run!” Daniel grabbed some people’s hands then tried to run away with them but with his unknown strength, he actually took their arms!

Horrified at the realization Daniel looked at his own hands as he threw the arm away, the crowd of people immediately swarmed to the arm and ate it in seconds while the woman who he tried to save was dying in a pool of her own blood as she hemorrhaged intensely due to her arm being literally ripped out of its socket.

Daniel immediately fled the scene while Costil let him be as he started to kill and feast on the people who couldn’t awaken the Z Gene.

Daniel ran out of the village into the wilderness he ran and ran till his lungs actually gave out for a few seconds then they got back to normal quickly due to the Z Gene.

No Villages could be seen in thousands of kilometers anymore.

A shadowed silhouette was petting a white cat in the bunker as he watched a monitor that showed everything that happened to the two young men a toothy smile could be seen on his face as he said:

“Very interesting, subject number two is already spreading the Z Gene, this is very good.”

The cat let out of a cough then started talking:

“Eh, man chill it’s all going according to your plan anyways you don’t have to say that.”

The man scoffed at the cat then he said:

“Shut up Ropego it’s not your time to enter the fray yet, I also can say whatever the hell I want when I’m alone.”

The cat shook its head then said:

“Well, you are not technically alone, man could you shut up for a few seconds I’m trying to sleep here.” The cat then started to lick itself and clean itself with its paws afterward he curled up on his lap and tried to sleep.

The silhouette just stopped talking and continued watching the monitor seemingly very interested in what was going to happen with the two young men.