Raven and Alara passed through the overgrown entrance into the Central Park Zoo. Blood stained the pavement and ran along broken fences. Empty enclosures broken open like the cages were torn apart from the inside. They heard no animal growls, no bird calls only eerie silence. Raven took it all in with a glance. She could tell at once that many of the animals had either escaped, mutated, or are dead.
“It’s worse than I thought,” she admitted to herself.
Still, she wasn’t deterred. If no living animals remained, she had contingencie plans. All she needs is DNA. The zoo has a genetic lab with frozen samples for the animals health monitoring. Even if the power has failed and the samples weren’t perfectly preserved, she trusted the Apocalypse Ascendancy System to recover enough usable material from the samples.
Raven and Alara continued moving cautiously through the quiet grounds. Human remains were laying on the walkways, partially eaten and stripped to the bone of their meat. The bones were gnawed through. Trails of blood led from the ticket booths toward the primate and feline enclosures. Raven tightened her grip on her rifle.
In her past life, places like this were overlooked—zoos, aquariums, and shelters. No one realized how fast mutations could overtake confined animal populations. It was already starting. She didn’t need to see the creatures yet to know the signs: blood trails, claw marks, and a familiar quiet in the air that warned of predators.
She raised a hand and summoned Metal Mouse from the system space, giving him a mental command to shadow Alara and protect her. The massive mouse materialized beside them, silent and alert. Alara looked up at him as he began to pace beside her, guarding her like a big brother.
Next, Raven reached into the system space and retrieved her Zastava M19 MSG putting her AK-47 away. This custom marksman rifle has been modified for both full and semi-auto gun fire, its omni silencer already put on it's barrel. She didn’t load standard ammunition. No, this is a special occasion which needs special ammo.
She popped open a box of fluid rounds—one of her deadliest inventions from her previous life. These 6.5mm Grendel bullets were tipped with a concentrated poison cocktail—deadly nightshade, mandrake root, hemlock, and other toxins harvested and enhanced with her plant manipulation powers.
Most were home grown from plants from her earlier raid on NYU’s pharmaceutical department. These rounds were originally developed to kill awakened humans and mutated sea creatures as well as mutated animals.
As Raven loaded her magazine, she glanced toward Alara and Metal Mouse. Mutated animals won't usually attack the undead until they have reached more advanced levels. Mutated animals capable of seeking out zombie cores.
They moved past the entrance gate. The wind howled through remains of the zoo’s archways.
Ahead, six deer stood in formation along the trail. At first glance, they looked like survivors like animals that simply survived the chaos.
But then she saw their eyes blood red, unfocused but full of hunger.
Their mouths hung slightly open, exposing rows of jagged, overgrown razor sharp teeth.
Their antlers have turned the color of white bone smooth, sharp, and drenched in dried blood and guts that hung like ribbons from them.
Raven raised her rifle.
Her two flying drones adjusted position in the air, covering her blind spots.
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