Zombie Life

Chapter 2

It's been a month after the apocalypse had first begun to break out. Since then, a lot of things had changed, and the group came up with a whole new routine to spend the summer. If not, the rest of their lives.

Gacha scouts for supplies, and sometimes will lead a small fraction of the group with him to the city and zoo to collect what's left. Ianessa on the other hand, was voted as the official leader of the group. With her ambidextrous skill set and quick thinking skills, everyone voted she would be the most trustworthy of them all.

Carmilla was picked out as the group's lovely nurse/doctor. Decided by Ianessa, she's the one who's been tending to the father of the two boys, whose names happen to be Magenta and Illumin. The father himself, Exxe.

After Exxe's recovery, he apologized for his behavior and asked for a role in the group. They assigned him as the house's external head of security. His kids aren't given much to do, except for organization of supplies and being safe.

Zakariyya is the group's second in command. He steps up when Ianessa isn't present to give orders. He is also the group's prime planner and adviser. Serenity, the twin without the mask, is the weapons handler. Since she knows the most about certain weaponry and how to use them, she's been given the task of handling them.

Atlas is the group's animal handler. He mainly helps out with Gacha's scouting, and leads in hunting for the group. He's in charge of handling the dogs and making sure they're in good shape.

Respectively, everyone in the group had been given a purposeful role of their own since the past few weeks. And not much had changed since then either, since it was almost like any other day. Before blood drew.

Atlas and Gacha had driven right outside of the city where the abandoned zoo was. As soon as they had exited the car, Atlas released Snowball and Rain from the back of Gacha's now worn-down red truck.

The two dogs got to work and started to sniff the ground relentlessly, leading down a path in the zoo towards God knows what. Atlas and Gacha followed them, not far behind with weapons at hand. Gacha held a thick socket wrench, and Atlas held a metal-spiked bat.

Although they were highly defensive, they still couldn't help but look around at the environment's changes since the outbreak. "Damn, it's been a long month huh?" Gacha asked, watching as a city tower from Miles away began to crumble down.

"Yeah, shit's all corroded to hell." Atlas responded. "Honestly man, I can't tell if I should be scared or grateful." Gacha added. "What do you mean?" Atlas looked at Gacha for a hot minute. "The apocalypse stopped killed our taxes... but it also killed millions. So there's that." Gacha half-joked.

In the zoo's low and thin misty atmosphere, Atlas did his best to hold back an ugly laugh, only letting out low bursts of chuckling from then to there. "Damn your humor is fucked." Atlas smiled. "Like yours is any better." Gacha pushed his shoulder playfully.

"Fair fair-" Atlas responded, interrupted by the barking of his two dogs around one of the exhibits. Usually it meant they'd found something, either good or bad. In a hurry, Gacha and Atlas ran towards the barking.

Atlas leaned down to console them and looked back up at the direction they were barking at. What Gacha and Atlas were both staring at right then and there... was a tiger. A white tiger that was protecting a cub, whose neck was choking on a wire. It was warning them to stay away.

"Holy shit.. I thought all the animals escaped already." Gacha marveled in horror. "Sure doesn't look like it..." Atlas responded, not paying much attention to him. Instead, Atlas began to casually walk towards the Tiger and her cub.

Gacha grabbed him by the arm with a firm grip. "Dude, what the fuck are you doing?! You trying to get yourself killed?!" Gacha attempted to stop him. "Let go." Atlas ordered. "I can't do that bro, it's suicide." Gacha said, highly concerned.

Atlas laid a gentle hand on Gacha's arm. "Trust me." Atlas said, eye to eye. After a minute of staggering thoughts, Gacha slowly loosened his grip on Atlas. In bold confidence, Atlas continued to walk towards the trapped tiger cub.

The tiger stood in the way with a stressed out roar. Atlas didn't move an inch. He continued to stare down the tiger until she had no choice but to move aside. It was clear to him she didn't care about dominance, she was running out of options regardless. Therefore putting her trust in Atlas for her cub's safety.

Atlas leaned down towards the struggling cub, tending to the wire's knotted area with black gloved hands. In a determined state of mind, Atlas spent the next two minutes saving the poor feline's life. Just in the nick of time...

He did it.

With one final pull on the wire, the cub was set free with a gasping cough for air. The tiger immediately began to lick at her cubs wounds and picked it up with her mouth. With one final look at Atlas, the tiger softly nudged against his chest out of pure gratitude.

With a genuine chuckle of joy and gratefulness, Atlas accepted the nudge with kind. After that moment had been shared, the mother tiger turned away and started running the opposite direction. Atlas stared as she ran off into the mist.

Once he got up, he turned around to see Gacha staring at the entire phenomenon with a dropped jaw. He couldn't believe what he just saw. "ARE YOU FUCKING TARZAN MY NIGGA?!" Gacha exclaimed. Atlas shushed him aggressively.

"Keep it down..! Zombies remember!" Atlas yelled in a low tone of voice. "Right right sorry... but you bet your ass I'm telling the others about this as soon as we get back home." Gacha voiced. Atlas rolled his eyes as they continued to venture throughout the zoo for supplies.