It is 10 years into the Eschalogical era. I am the last one alive on this devastated planet. The rest of the 7 billion? Not exactly alive, not exactly dead, but somewhere in between. Very little have been sent to space to survive.  I am sitting on top of a bus, advancing my Eschalogical resistance. It is a type of power that can advance your power to almost unlimited, and also resistance against the virus that started this whole mess that turned the world into a living nightmare.

My name is Riku Eito Kobayashi. I have been left here by the human race to fight off the monsters left here. Let me tell you the story of how this all happened.

One day, ten years ago, on Christmas, a meteor shower was presented to the earth. This meteor shower contained a virus that mutated how humans thought and acted. The virus was called Virus-X. This turned happy, living people, into furious, man-eating monsters. I was the only one left to fight these people off. I now take out 2 batons with blades attached to them. I see a zombie climbing the bus. “Did I allow you to come up?” I yell. I kick it off the bus. I jump down, my adrenaline pumping. I am now ready to fight off all of these raging zombies until my sight goes blurry for no reason. I am suddenly pulled into inky blackness, not sleep, not death, but somewhere in between…

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I wake up, my face on a desk. A school desk. I feel weaker and younger. I hear a teacher yelling at me. “Riku! Wake up!” he says. I open my eyes. “You can stand for the rest of the class. I don’t care if you sleep, but don’t distract others!” he says. It is my least favorite teacher from ten years ago. I lazily stand up. Then, I jolt up straight. Many questions run through my head. Where am I? When am I? Aren’t I supposed to be epicly fighting off zombies for the good of the human race? Then I hear a voice in my head. It is a deep, warm, kind voice. “I am God.” It says. “I do not want you to have regrets. Now I will give you a second chance. This is the day the Eschalogical era starts. I have faith in you, Riku.” In my name, it fades away. I remember that it starts at around 2:00 pm. I look at the clock. It is 8:00 in the morning. I have time to prepare.  I remember. I had regrets. My best friend had died due to a mutated student on a bus that we tried to escape in. He had hidden his wound from being bitten by one of the first infected. He mutated, and the bus crashed. My friend died of blood loss. His name was, or now is, Itsuki Nara. After class, I start to remember more. I went to a year-round school. I see Christmas posters everywhere. I tell Itsuki to buy as much canned food and bottled water as he can, then meet me at an abandoned shack we use as our hideout. I go in and find my weapons. The batons, the small swords, and my crowbar. This was my first weapon. I called it the X-terminator. It served me well. Itsuki comes back, his bag chock-full of beans, meat, Mexican and American food, and he is carrying a brand new bag with lots and lots of water. He throws a third to me. It is filled with medical supplies and weapons. “Here’s everything you asked for and more.” He says, “Why did you even ask me to buy all of this?” “You’ll see,” I reply. Now it is 1:30. Soon, death itself will rise to Earth, and only a few people can stop it. I toss him an extra ax I find. I also toss him a pistol I found, abandoned. “These are for you to defend yourself. Don’t hesitate, and you’ll be alright.” I say. “What are we defending against anyway?” He asks. “Why do we need all of these?” I ignore his questions. I look out the window and see slight streaks of orange.

It is starting.

2:00 hits, and with it, the meteors. Everyone will fall into a 1-hour coma. Some will resist the virus, and others won’t. I made sure our base was insulated to resist the virus.

1 hour later, screaming is paired with dog-like barking and howling from the infected. Many people run and fall. “What the hell??” Itsuki screams. The door slams open. A man comes limping in. It is my least favorite teacher. Itsuki seems to calm down. “Hey, Mr. Takahashi! You’re alright!” The teacher groans in reply. I leap from my position and slice him to bits. Itsuki screams. “W-what did you just do?” He says, stuttering. “Cardinal rule #1 of the Eschalogical era: Never hesitate when meeting a zombie,” I reply. He looks out the window and his eyes seem to pop out of his head. “H-holy crap! Real zombies!” He says. That is when I realize my advantage over anyone on this now devastated planet: a 10-year advancement. I know what to do and the consequences of messing up. One wrong move and you are dead. I know what is going to happen and when it is going to happen. “This is why you told me to buy all that stuff!” He says. “Is that just now arriving at your incredibly small brain?” I reply. “Anyhow, this is now our home base. The school will serve as our supply place. We may also find survivors. If we do, only take in the physically fit ones. No point in wasting good food. Fortify this place as much as you can, okay?” Now, it is time to attempt to gain Eschalogical resistance.

I sit down and use a developed breathing technique that I invented during the tenth year. It cost me a lot to get it. It works by making the virus gather at your palms. Over time, it will lead to Eschalogical resistance. The palm marks start to form. I get up, noticing my strength, nerve and reaction have improved by at least 30%. I pick up the X-Terminator. It feels a lot lighter. I now start to explain the whole thing to Itsuki. “There are evolutionary phases and types for these zombies,” I say. “ All of these are now phase 1, the weakest. Phase 2 are stronger, bigger and overall more deadly. Phase 3 is at the top of the food chain. They require Eschalogical resistance to kill. There are 3 types. There are normal. The majority of zombies are these. Runners are about as strong as normal, but run. Claw type are as strong as phase 2 normal but have giant claws.

“Finally, kill type. These are the kind that wipe out anything that lives, humans, zombies, and many more. They are gigantic and can kill humans with a single scratch. They have poisoned blood on their fingers. They are considered phase three.” Itsuki looks terrified. He looks outside. He picks up his ax and gun. “Which should I use the most?” he asks. “The ax,” I reply. “Try to conserve ammo as much as possible. Only use it in real emergencies.” I tell him that I am going outside. He seems worried, but I need to test how my Eschalogical resistance is going along. I see a giant mob. Their mouths are fizzing like crazy. They come at me as soon as they smell me. “Go to hell, morons!” I yell. I start slicing them into pieces. 1 hour later, only one is left. It is phase one. I really want to just lie down and close my eyes. I control myself and take a swing at the thing. It catches the X-Terminator in its mouth. “Stupid maggot-bag!” I say through gritted teeth. “Not even in phase 2, wanting to eat me!” I remove the crowbar and insert the sharp end deep into its skull. It stops fizzing. I remove the X-Terminator and climb onto a nearby double-decker bus and sit down, starting the breathing technique. I feel the virus gathering more in my palms. I remember that the marks will turn into streaks as soon as resistance is achieved. I feel the marks are extending. They are nearly streaks. Water and air transmission is 70%, but transmission through transmission is 100%. However, once resistance is possessed, all transmissions are 0.01%. Your body will have known the DNA of the virus, and send out proteins to destroy the DNA. There is always the chance that the virus will make it past your immune system, allowing the virus to take over. Me being me, I like to stay on the safe side and only allow 1 bite a week. I go back to the base. I find Itsuki safe and sound. “I got bored and went searching. I found these people and a lot of food and water!” He gestures to a large pile of bread, sandwiches and a couple of people. They look very promising. “Welcome to the Eschalogical era,” I say. “As you have noticed, the world has changed. We will rely on each other for support.” They look tired, cold and hungry. I give them a generous portion of the rations. I also teach everyone the breathing technique,  including Itsuki. I find out their names are Hara and Himari. They immediately caught on, but Itsuki had trouble learning. I immediately see their palm prints. I sense an evil presence around us. I have gained perceptivity. “What’s wrong?” Itsuki asks. “You seem to be in a trance.” After all this time, Itsuki can read me like a book. “There is a power that you can gain by controlling Eschatological resistance.” I say. “It is called Ultimate Perception. It allows you to sense and see zombies around us.” Hara and Himari are gratefully munching on a bag of party size Cheetos, but are still listening. For a long time, they have been extremely loyal and trusting. Suddenly, they let out an ear piercing scream. They point behind me. “Z-z-zombie!!!” Himari yells. I turn around and find myself face to face with a phase 2. “Geez, they evolve so quickly!” I mutter. I put 3 bullets in its skull. The butt end of the bullets are sticking out. I knew a normal handgun wouldn’t kill a phase 2, but it would create an opening. I slam the X-Terminator down on the bullets, shoving them past his skull and his undead brain, killing him. This whole transaction takes under 30 seconds. He falls to the floor. Panting heavily, I check the whole base for more zombies. I don’t see or perceive any. I go to check the door. I see that my barricade was broken and the door was open. I close it and take a random metal bar, proceeding to shove it between the handles. “I found a Mercedes G-Class!” Yells Itsuki. We all run toward his voice. He is standing next to a beautiful off-road van. “It’s filled and the keys are on the rearview. We can escape!” He says. I remember learning how to steal cars in my last life, and this was one of the easiest. I unlock it and start it. “Get in,” I say promptly. They don’t argue. I get out, open the garage, get in, and rev the engine. All the zombies look when I rev the engine. I perceive and count approximately 10 zombies. The engine is howling now. I let go of the brakes and the car responds amazingly. We plow through the undead. “Go thataway!” Says Itsuki. “My dad owns a garage, maybe we can upgrade this beast!” I consider the option, then choose it. Following Itsuki’s directions, we roar towards his dad’s garage. When we get there, we immediately start making the beast a monster. We found a front part of a gigantic chassis, and put it on the hood. We attach many tools that could be considered dangerous, making protection and allowing it to stab zombies at the same time. “Now,” I say, “Nobody can stop us.” I look out a window and immediately see a zombie’s face slam against the door. I shoot its brains out. The horrid smell of dried blood and rotten flesh fills the garage due to the broken window. “Sorry, I’ll fix that.” I say to Itsuki. I take out some duct tape and fix the window.  The banging of zombies hitting the door increases in response to the shot. Hara, I realize, is much younger than Himari. And much less pretty, I think. Then I mentally slap myself. It was the zombie apocalypse! I wasn’t supposed to be in love! Then Itsuki speaks. “What now? We just came here to upgrade the beast right?” He says. “Well, what do you guys have here?” I reply. “We have food and water, and multiple times when I’m visiting the garage, we go to that store right over there to get parts and food. It’s called ‘The Automobile Expert’s Shop’.” He says. Suddenly, I hear a clunk out of nowhere. We immediately are all put on our guard. A little hamster comes scurrying out of a drawer. “Aki, what are you doing here?” Says Itsuki. We all let out a sigh, except for Itsuki. He’s rubbing the little thing down. He seems relieved. “This was my little pet.” He says. “I thought he was dead.” On that note, he gives the hamster a piece of lettuce. It seems to like that. Himari and Hara get to work on making this an efficient base, and Itsuki works on upgrading the car further. He comes back toting an ugly engine. “Can you help me carry this?” He asks me. “I took it out of the car.” I take it from him, open a door and chuck it out. I come back, and I see him putting in a beautiful engine. It’s a Flat 12 engine. Once Itsuki sees me staring at the engine, he asks me for help. I go next to him and we get to work. “It has amazing fuel efficiency and power.” He says. “Next I plan on putting more protection on and a new transmission for a better top speed.” I consider it and the time cost. “Ok then, let’s get to it.” I reply. “Where’d you get the engine though?” “I remember working on a car that had a bad transmission, but an amazing engine. We took out the engine and put in a transmission.” He says. “The owner wanted a new engine, so we took this and gave him a V8. There was another guy who was basically vice versa. He didn’t like his engine but had a beautiful transmission. He wanted a new transmission, so we took his and gave him a new one.”   “So it’s just a matter of finding the things?” I ask. “Yep,” He says. Then we continue working and working. About an hour later, we found the transmission and some new off-road tires. We also found the rest of that giant chassis and attached it for more protection, like a roll cage. We also attached an AK-47 on top so that in the chance that zombies would chase us when we were in the car we could shoot them. The car and base were geared up like never before. “So what next?” Says Himari. I was a little taken back by that. She doesn’t usually speak much. “I was thinking that we should make our way to the store that Itsuki was talking about earlier.” I reply. So we open up the garage door and drive.

As soon as we leave the garage, a giant horde of infected are waiting for us. Hara is smiling in excitement. Himari is simply scared half to death. I grit my teeth and slam the pedal to the metal. The car roars and Itsuki starts giving me directions. “Turn right here!” He shouts. “Left here! On the right! ON THE RIGHT!!!” I look to my right and see a shop. We lock the car tight and go in. We see the body of someone and a black rock with red stripes stuck in his chest. I gasp. He was moving. But that wasn’t why I was surprised. The rock was a piece of the meteor. In my last life, a meteor would fetch an enormous price. “H-help me…” He croaks. “I’m going to di-” He is momentarily cut off by a huge fit of coughing. “Die.” He finishes. “Don’t worry friend, your spirit will be saved in the heavens.” I say. “Thank god.” He replies. Then, his eyes go dark. He roars, gets up and runs at us. I promptly slice his head off. I give his dead body a sad look. Nobody deserved this fate. I take out the meteorite and shove it into my backpack. We go outside and go into the car. We immediately go back to the garage. While in the garage, an idea springs into my head. A very risky but tempting idea. I tell Itsuki my idea. We both agree that it is worth the risk. After we are done, the car no longer needs fuel. We put the meteorite into the car. We drain the fuel in case the meteorite causes it to explode, and we try to drive. It works. We celebrate shortly, but then agree that we must protect the car now. We go to a hydropower station, and hear a clang. We turn around and see a large group. “Don’t move or I’ll shoot!” Says the man in the lead. “I-if you try and munch on any of us, we will not hesitate!” When he finishes off, anyone could tell he was scared. “We are human, don’t shoot!” I yell back. “We got here first! We get the loot!” He says. We realize that he’s just standing at the entrance. He was lying, we got here first. “Oh really? Who’s the one closest to the entrance?” I reply without hesitation. He realized he had slipped up. There was a fleeting hesitation. “W-we were just putting the loot in our car!” He says.  “What car?” I, once again, reply without hesitation. “Fine!” He yells back. He is obviously frustrated. “Take the loot, but we also get some!” “No,” I say, “No, I don’t think so. ‘We got here first, we get the loot.’” I say, mocking him heavily. He starts to breathe heavily. He really is pissed now. He suddenly puts a smile on his face. A fake one. “I’m Daisuke Watanabi. Nice to meet you!” He holds out his hand. I take it. I feel him trying to crush my hand, but I resist. After a while of training, I can resist more than a bodybuilder crushing my hand. He flexes hard. I can see that he is sweating. His shirt rips to shreds. I see large muscles. “Aiyo, nice muscles.” I say. He crushes harder. I start to squeeze back. About 5 seconds in, he starts screaming. I smile at him. We go into the hydropower station, and see an infected military person with a baton and body armor. I take off the top half of his head, and take off the body armor. I put on the body armor and give the baton to Himari. Then, we venture farther in. We find many guns, ammo, and other supplies. We also find a supply drop. We are receiving help from other, less devastated countries. In fact, we are one of the first countries to receive help. I find some submachine guns and a sniper. I give the sniper to Itsuki and 2 of the submachine guns to Himari and Hara. I also take 2 of the SMGs. We see a little girl about 12 years old. I aim a gun at her in case she’s a zombie. She shakes. “D-don’t eat me please!!!” She screams. “Hey there, calm down, we’re human!” I say. “H-Human?” She stutters. “Take me with you! I beg you!” She has obviously been through a tough time. “Ok, what’s your name?” I ask her. “Ichika Saki,” She replies. We hear her stomach rumble. “Do you have food?” she asks. “Yes, and plenty for you.” I reply. I ask Hara to give me her gun. She doesn’t know how to use it anyway. I give the baton to her instead. I give the gun to Ichika. “Do you know how to use this?” I ask her. “Yes, my dad let me play with guns since I was 10.” she said. “Keep your safety on.” I say. She nods acceptingly. We walk out. Daisuke’s group gasps. “The good loot!” Yells Daisuke accusingly. “You took it!” “Well, yes, wasn’t that what we are all here to do?” I reply. “And plus, we found a supply drop and left some things for you.” That was half the truth. We left one bullet of ammo in the supply drop box. We had planned to prank them with it. They sigh in relief and run off, looking for the supply drop. They come back holding the single bullet that we left for them. “What is this? How is it supposed to help- Ugh!” Daisuke is cut off once I grab the front of his collar. “You should be glad that we left you anything at all! You know that a single bullet can save a life?!?!” I yell at him. It is all part of an act that we made. I would normally never act this way. He is a different matter altogether. He seems genuinely scared. “O-ok! I’ll t-take it!! Let go of me already!!!!” He says with a shaky voice. We are all holding back our laughter. I let go of him. He takes out a small bullet holder and shoves the bullet in. He and his group run away and we hear a car rev up. We see them driving away in a small sedan. We all look at each other and start laughing like crazy. “D-did you see his face?” Says Itsuki through heaving breaths. He mocks Daisuke’s terrified face. “ ‘O-ok! I’ll t-take it!!’” says Itsuki. Then we hear a roar. There is a giant zombie, with something like armor on its skin. “Dangit, a lone walker!” I say. “You never told us about this type!” Says Itsuki accusingly. “It’s extremely rare, I didn’t think we’d see one.” I reply. We take a quick poll. We decide to use our best weapon: our car. We run to it, and the lone walker stands there, confused. The rest of the group slams the doors as I slam the pedal to the metal. Itsuki pokes his head through the sunroof and starts to shoot the zombie. I slam into him at full force. Blood goes everywhere. I turn on the windshield wipers and see the thing lying there, dead. A green thing that resembles a frog jumps out of the mess, and I curse at it. “A parasite?!? Geez, too many rare creatures today!” I say. A parasite is a phase 2 zombie and strengthens the zombies that it hooks onto. The parasite itself is extremely weak and rare, but on other zombies it is a nightmare to fight. I grab its head and it squeals. I’m not very scared since parasites can’t bite, but it still needs to be taken care of. I squish it and we hear a sickening crunch. It goes limp. I toss it to the side. “Why? Why so many rare types today?” Asks Itsuki. I think for a minute. “I think that someone in the warehouse captured these zombies and releases them at anyone who comes close.” I reply. “Then you are correct,” says a voice from inside the warehouse. A man strides out. “Hello, my name is Daijin Fujikage, and we need to have a little chat about my property that you just destroyed.” He says.