Even though Type Two Radions were simple people before they turned, the very fact that Kevon applied to this was surreal to me. And yet, there he was… happily playing basketball with a child. As for me, I was back to my human self again—cargo pants, coat, bald head, long, scruffy beard, and a sheathed knife in my back pocket.

  Loads of questions were crammed into my brain, but they were answered just as quickly as I thought of them. I didn’t know who or what was answering them, though the gist of it was understood as I watched the two on the bleachers.

  Kevon was a father like me, and the boy trying his best to get the ball back was his son—Jaxon. Raising a child in a world like this was the hardest thing anyone could do, but the blonde haired man wouldn't let that stop him. It didn’t matter how many zombies or bad guys were in the world ‘cause that boy’s happiness mattered more.

  No training or study in survival—just playing and hoping for a safer, better world. Kevon gave the kid dreams of a future in sports, and his son was all ears. Finding good basketballs these days was hell, so I guess he wanted to make the journey across states feel worth it. The dad’s fellow survivors in the local high school campus assured him that was a horrible idea.

  Kevon ignored it. The more he ignored them, the less they cared.

  The plan obviously worked for a while—Jaxon was seven, after all—but that wouldn’t last forever.

  He became sick, and the cause of it was the Sunvirus…

  Jaxon would surely die if a cure for him wasn’t found. The only problem was that the virus was contagious. Many people were beginning to get it, and there wasn’t a cure in sight. Kevon waited anyway.

  When the symptoms started to get worse, that’s when the man started to travel, leaving Jaxon in the care of the other survivors. If no one else could help his son, then he would.

  However, weeks passed without a miracle in sight, and Kevon had no choice but to come back empty handed. The sight of his son’s disappointed face would surely haunt him forever. Not being with the boy in his time of need sounded even worse.

  Life had other plans.

  The Sunvirus had spread rampantly during Kevon’s absence, and the campus had only his son to blame. According to the survivors, the child was the first to be infected. He had to be dealt with to protect those who were still uninfected, leaving his father the lone protector he’d always been.

  Unfortunately, you could only do so much when an entire group was against you, and they handled Kevon swiftly and painfully. Despite that, the man still fought. When his arms grew tired of throwing weak punches, he used his legs instead. When their weakness was also exposed, he ran.

  After all, he wasn’t just there to fight—Jaxon needed him. And when he saw the kid, Kevon realized just how true that sentiment was.

  “Hey… Jaxon!” Kevon shouted, approaching his son’s bed.

  The sight of him made the man’s skin crawl, a wave of horrible futures drowning his mind. Jaxon’s skin was wrinkly, and was the color of moss mixed with dirt. Caressing his hands was like touching bone, the toxic smell raiding his nostrils.

  Slowly, his son’s eyes opened. “Dad… you came back.”

  Tears welled up in Kevon’s eyes. “Yeah, I did. And don’t worry. I’m going to get you out of here, ok?”

  “I’m sorry,” Jaxon muttered. “I lost your basketball.”

  “That’s ok. It wasn’t my ball. It was yours. And once we get out of here, I’m going to get you a new one.” Carefully, he picked his son up and began to run out. “We’re going to get your skills up, and you will be the greatest player in the world.”

  “Even better than Jordan?”

  “Way better than Jordan. Heck, Jordan will be asking you for autographs.”

  Deep down, Kevon knew his son didn’t have long, so feeding him promises of a better future, reducing his pain with dreams was the best cure he could think of.

  But that’s all they were—dreams. Fragments of an infinitely expanding imagination that would never come true. The survivors rushing towards them in the hallway proved that.

  I knew their reasons and growing fear were totally justified, and yet the father in me still wanted to help. My hand extended, but I couldn’t go any further. It was as if an invisible wall separated the two of us, preventing me from interfering with the world of the past.

  With no one left to help Kevon, the group ripped Jaxon out of his hand, one of the men readying a gun. The dad thrashed with all his might, though he was one human against many more. They held him by his arms as the man aimed the rifle at the dying boy’s head.

  “I’m sorry, man,” he said. “We just can’t risk it.”

  Kevon’s desperate screams were loud. The gunshot was even louder.

  The silence right after was like a knife to the heart. The sound of them walking away, the “sorrys”—none of it was louder than the countless thoughts within Kevon. He gritted his teeth, clawing at the blood spilling from the child’s head. His eyes gazed at Jaxon for a second before turning away.

  “Jaxon… I’m sorry,” he said, his heart beating out his chest. “I should have…” Kevon’s sad expression turned into anger. “No! No, no, no! None of this was my fault. Humans… It was those fucking humans who killed you. The Sunvirus came from them. They killed you. Humans—every single one of those monsters have to-”

  “Kevon!”

  That voice didn’t come from anyone in his past. It was me, and for the first time since waking up here, Kevon acknowledged my presence.

  “I truly am sorry for what happened to you,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “But there’s something I don’t quite understand. You know what it’s like to be a father and to want to protect your kid, so why… why the hell would you ever want to kill my own kid!?”

  “194 times…”

  I paused at that response.

  The man stood up, his knees shaking. “That’s how many times that stupid song was killing my ears. ‘To keep our sun shining.’ Do you think I want to hear that nonsense while my son is dying?”

  “How do you know about that?”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “It’s all being crammed into my noggin right now, and I’ve learned some damning things about you and that human girl you call your offspring.” He clenched his hands, brows furrowing. “Sunshine started everything! She was the first one to have the virus. She began to infect the world, and my son became a victim. And you’re the reason she still lives!”

  Part of me knew he was right. The other part knew there was another way. “You don’t care about any of the other lives the Sunvirus has taken. You just want revenge for your son, and I get that. But I’m not gonna let you take my daughter from me.”

  Kevon raised his fists, his eyes red with fury. “You’ll never be one of us, Jerome.”

  I did the same. “I never wanted to.”

  He swung first. I grabbed his arm mid swing, and threw him to the window behind me. Just when I was about to connect my fist with his nose, he ducked. The glass shattered, ripping up my knuckles in the process.

  Although, instead of the red liquid I expected to see, ooze leaked out. Distracted by the sight, I was unable to dodge the chair that slammed into the back of my head. I fell, and Kevon took the chance to pummel me with his new weapon.

  “Once I beat you, I’m going to personally turn your daughter into a tasty meat burger,” he shouted. “And then you’ll watch me eat her just like I had to watch my son die in front of me!”

  “You’re not killing anyone!” I roared, kicking his knee. Kevon collapsed to the floor, and I followed it up with a strike to his jaw.

  Regaining my bearings, something on the man’s face caught my eye. The same green liquid was coming out of where I struck, the rainbow colored exterior of his zombie form revealing itself. Upon wiping the ooze from my hand, I noticed my true form was beneath my skin as well.

  There wasn’t time to worry about that as Kevon charged at me, seething like a wild animal. My body remained still, ready to take him on. He pushed. I rotated immediately, accidentally sending us both crashing out the window, descending into the school gym.

  Our backs hit the hard wood, and both of us let out a pained shout.

  I groaned, struggling to stand up. “Your dead son is up there, but you wanna be busy fighting someone who never killed him.”

  “Shut up!” he spat, ooze leaking from the cuts on his face. “The day your wife birthed that she-devil was the day my son’s fate was set.”

  I threw a nearby basketball at Kevon, though he blocked it with his arm. “Sunshine didn’t kill him. The world did. You think Jaxon’s the only victim? My daughter has the same disease, and she was gonna be killed for the same damn reason.”

  “Your kid is still alive! Mine is dead!” Kevon argued back. “But in the world I’m about to create, there will be no human with the power to cause that ever again. My zombie family is going to do what we want, kill who we want, and eat who we want. And your kid will be next!”

  Enraged, I pulled out of my knife and sprinted towards Kevon. Basketballs were thrown at me, but I still closed the distance. With each slash or stab to his body, more of the man’s rainbow scales came into view. Eventually, calling him a man didn’t seem right.

  Especially when the last of his humanity was peeling off.

  “Now this is more like it,” the zombie exclaimed, admiring his body. “Jerome, get rid of that embarrassing look already. I want to tame you properly.”

  I attacked his neck, but the metal broke upon contact. Kevon cackled as he pushed me to the ground.

  “Just because we’re in this world—whatever it is—doesn’t mean I lost the strength that meal gave me.” He approached me and placed his foot on my chest. “Speaking of this world, you seem to know a lot more about it than me. Do your king a favor and explain.”

  I spat on his foot. “Screw you!”

  Clearly Kevon didn’t like my answer as he immediately increased the pressure on my body. “You would be wise to do what the king says.”

  The truth was I didn’t know much more than he did. It started ‘cause my teeth sank into him, so maybe this was all from me absorbing him. Then again, I’ve done this before in the Underground City, and yet that zombie’s past wasn’t shown to me.

  Was this something that only happened between Type Two Radions? If so, then it was possible he’d lose any moment now. I just needed to stall until then.

  “Do I look like the type to take orders, prick?”

  “You already have in your past, and you’re still doing it now. You let that forcefield wielding human take advantage of you for years. You let your daughter control your every move.”

  “My daughter?”

  “That’s right. I’m sure if it wasn’t for her, you would've already rebelled against that black haired man. You let her manipulate you into thinking she should live despite all the lives she’s taken. That girl practically forced you to come here, and now Explosion City’s being blown to smithereens because of her. What would be the difference if you lived under my rule?”

  I gritted my teeth, grabbing his leg. “The difference would be that I’d be with someone I don’t fucking like.” My attempts to pull him off failed.

  The Type Two shook his head in disappointment. “Even if you refuse my future kingdom, you’ll be serving under me whether you like it or not. Zombies can be controlled through certain means. Your human mind is clashing with your zombie instincts, making it easier to manipulate you. Face it, Jerome. You lose. Now tell me how to leave this world or I’ll-”

  At that moment, Kevon’s body began to disappear. However, the visible confusion from him suggested this wasn’t his invisibility.

  “What’s happening to me!?” he asked in desperation.

  “Trust the process. You’ll find out soon enough.”

  Bit by bit, the image of Kevon was erased until the only thing above me was the ceiling. Assuming my body had absorbed him, I should’ve been back to normal any second now.

  That never happened.

  My heart began to race as I ran through the building, hoping to find an exit, anything to get me out of this place.

  Did I fuck up? Was absorbing him not what was supposed to be done? Unlike my other questions, these ones weren’t answered by whoever or whatever governed this reality. There was no way I was gonna be stuck in here forever, right? I needed to see if Sunshine was ok, help her find a cure, take down any bastard who wanted to kill her.

  By the time I reached the roof, three hours had passed. The universe could tell me that, but not how to leave…

  “Screw this shit,” I murmured, staring down at the campus. “What am I supposed to do now?”

  A sharp pressure—then pain—slammed through my lower back and punched out through my stomach, lifting me clean off the ground. My breath caught mid-curse, eyes bulging as the ceiling shrank below me. I was nothing more but meat on a hook. My limbs flailed for something to grab, but there was only air.

  “You run surprisingly fast in boots, Jerome.”

  That familiar voice filled me with dread. No wonder I was still stuck here. That prick was still around.

  Kevon turned me towards him while my zombie essence spilled from my mouth.

  “Are you wondering where I got the tail from? It’s not a new addition—I always had this. Hiding a single part of my body with my power isn’t difficult, and I’ve kept it like this for a while. A good magician never reveals his tricks until the very end.”

  “Fuck the tail!” I snarled. “Why are you still here!? I saw you disappear.”

  He laughed. “I was disappearing at first, but I have told you this before. If you cannot see me, you cannot touch me. All I did was slowly turn invisible until you thought I was gone for good.”

  Damn it! His Radius Ability was too annoying for me to counter. It didn’t matter if my brain knew he or any of his limbs were there—my eyes mattered more here.

  And yet, the pain was still there. I was still being held up. That feeling couldn’t come from anything else but the tail impaling me, and it was through that association I finally felt his body.

  I figured it out.

  “I’d rather not have to kill you here, but I don’t know any other way to leave this place,” said Kevon. “Don’t worry. You’ll probably still be alive in the actual world.”

  I closed my hands and raised my arms. “Yeah? Well, you won’t.”

  I brought them down, and miraculously, the zombie’s tail broke in two. He screamed in agony as I fell back down to the roof. My hands at this point were fully zombified, giving me the strength I once had.

  “H-How did you touch me!?” Kevon shrieked. His body flickered in and out of sight like someone was slapping a light switch on and off.

  The severed tail went back to normal, and I picked it up. “A good magician never reveals his tricks.” I then chucked the tail at the zombie using all of the power my hands granted me. Despite his invisibility, the loud thump meant it worked.

  Using that chance, I rushed in, fists ready. Every time I missed an attack, the Type Two landed one on me. However, that was exactly what I needed to detect exactly where he was and sock him in the face. Kevon continued to fight through his frantic questioning, and my counters kept on coming. Slowly, my skin began to shed, unveiling my true body.

  “All these weak humans are holding you back, Jerome!” Kevon growled as we traded more blows. “Your love for them makes you weak, and holds you back from your true power. They blind you from seeing who your true family is. They made you think I was the enemy. They killed my son! If I have to turn you into a dog to make you see that, then so be it!”

  “You know, I think I finally get what your problem is,” I told him, taking another hit to the gut. Grasping his foot, I threw the zombie to the edge of the roof. I started to walk to him and said, “You don’t hate humans. You just hate yourself.”

  “Keep your mouth sh-” The zombie stopped abruptly, realizing that his body was completely visible. “Wh-What the hell? Why isn’t it worki-”

  My foot crashed into the monster’s face before he could finish. “You were too weak to protect your son while you were still human, and you hate yourself for that.” Then, I began to punch over and over again. “You see the families that are still together in this broken world, and you take that away ‘cause you’re jealous.”

  Kevon blocked his face. “Stop! Stop!”

  “Whatever happened to becoming a famous basketball player, huh!? I don’t think being a zombie king is required for that. I know Jaxon would agree.”

  “Fuck you!” he cried. “You don’t have the right to say his name!”

  “I do!” I wrapped my hand around his neck and picked the zombie up, his body dangling just above certain death. “Kevon, I could’ve been you. Part of me knew that as I looked into your past, while another part wanted to think that was BS. Not anymore though. I now accept that you’re just some sick, twisted version of me in some possible future, and that’s why I need to kill you.”

  “No…”

  “Even if you revive somehow, I’ll come find you wherever you are, and kill you again,” I said calmly. “Change your name or appearance—I will still kill you.

  “No!”

  Your death needs to serve as a constant reminder, so that if something on the level of what you experienced happens to me, I’ll know the inevitable fate that will come my way. I am not just a zombie like you, nor am I just a human like my daughter. I am simply… Jerome Hunter.”

  “Get away from me!”

  The second he screamed those words, a bright flash blinded me. My grip loosened, and a strong pressure sent me backwards. Regaining my bearings, I immediately noticed two things: there was a hole in my left chest and Kevon had jumped off.

  Without hesitation, I leaped off as well, preparing to end this for good. I didn’t know how he was able to use his invisibility again, but I couldn’t let him use that light attack again. Maybe my speed wasn’t on its level, but I could still prepare for it.

  My arms extended downwards, hands spread out. If Kevon was gonna blast me, he’d do it head on.

  “God’s Light!”

  In an instant, energy surged through my body, my body glowing like it never had before. Once everything was absorbed, I cupped my hands and brought them back. The energy was there, though it had no weight to it—a stark contrast to the last time I charged up this move. Whether it could hurt an invisible creature was what mattered the most.

  “Fatherly Light Beam!”

  I didn’t see the blast hit anything. Not Kevon or the air around me.

  It wasn’t until the sound of destruction boomed through the sky that I realized the ground had already detonated with light, slicing through the campus like a hot knife. Buildings split. Trees disintegrated. Concrete buckled and lifted into the air like it was weightless.

  The force gave me the same treatment, launching me further up while Kevon screamed his last scream.

  Everything became white.