Chapter Fourteen

Zelos

I loved watching Kouvr live and couldn’t really hide it anymore. The further we got into the city, the more she crouched. She had been trying to lay low amongst the chaos and observe.

Zombies were everywhere, running wild with blood covering their bodies. Their teeth are trying to find more meat. This apocalypse had just started, making everyone fresh to the news. The military in this world had created a brain infection to later control their own army to fight. Instead, they made an indestructible army. One that just wouldn’t die. A brain infection, one that kept them alive and hungry for humans.

As military characters, we had guns, but Kouvr had yet to draw hers. I wasn’t sure what her plan was, but I knew she had one.

Humans had begun their self-destructive phase. Cars swerving and killing people before the zombies could. Our real Earth fell apart slower than this; theirs was about to crumple in a few minutes. It was kind of fun to do a simulation and see how humans would act during this time.

Many of the characters in the storyline either join you or turn against you based on your choices of how to react to things. A selfish player will get a selfish outcome. The first test would come up soon, and Kouvr would have to decide like we all did.

Kouvr motioned for us to follow across the road, and like little puppies, we did. My eyes glanced up at the small drones. I wondered if they weren’t here would Kouvr have given in more to our flirting.

Well, Cyrus’s and Theons’s... and Kyree’s. I wanted to speak to her, talk to her more, but my throat closed when I tried. She was drop-dead gorgeous, and I fell harder with each passing moment.

My eyes peeked at her face when she flipped her blonde curls from her face. I wanted to be the one pushing her hair behind her ears. It was simple, yet the thought of doing it made my chest swell.

I felt like a little kid, hopelessly in love. My eyes couldn’t stay off her. My body ached to be close to her and to touch her, even in this world that wasn’t reality. Her skin was flawless, and I’d even peeked at her videos on her skincare routine, though it’d been a while since her last. Now, I paid attention to our cameras in her bathroom.

I even wrote down each and every product she used so that when she came over, I could “run to the store” for her and bring her one.

My jaw clenched, thinking about how little she knew me. She’d already slept with Cyrus and Theon, but my goal wasn’t that. I wanted to talk to her and enjoy her company. I knew the others did, too, but their sexual desires had gotten out of hand.

They were more… feral than I was, D especially. I wanted her… but I wanted all of her first. I wanted her mind. I wanted to speak to her, tell her what I liked, and show her.

I felt stupid. What was wrong with me? D talked all about fucking her, pinning her down, and… I wanted to lay in a fucking garden with her. Once. And I could die happy.

I felt… unmasculine compared to D, though he didn’t do much to make me feel that way.

My spine straightened as Kouvr moved from one alleyway to the next. Glancing back, I saw his shadow, large and always bruting. I knew D had been following us, felt his presence for a while. He was a fucking liar. Was he fucking with the game? Or… was he trying to fuck with Kouvr and her vlog?

If I was Cyrus, I would have rubbed it in his fucking face that I had Kouvr first. I knew he was pissed, even if he didn't show it. D was the oldest out of all of us, expecting everything to go his fucking way.

It won’t .

Out of spite, I stuck up my middle finger in his direction, moving on with the others. While moving to the next ally way, I tripped, almost falling flat on my face.

I guess that was my karma.

He deserved it, and no one on this Earth or the next could tell me any different.

Kyree snickered at me, making me punch his shoulder. He’d been pretty calm these last few days. Weeks with him were a bit tiring and draining. His anger could be too much sometimes. Kouvr genuinely calmed him down, hearing her voice no matter what the fuck she was saying. Once, he got distracted enough for D to sock him in the face.

Kyree deserved that sometimes.

Kouvr motioned and then began crossing the large road. She was still lying low, which was a good choice. Kyree had once gone guns blazing, creating a small horde that ate him. Different choices had different outcomes in our games, and I liked that.

Mid-street, she stopped, eyes landing on a woman trying to stop a zombie from eating her and her kid. Without hesitation, Kouvr rushed over and jumped high, kicking out both legs on the zombie.

I laughed with Kyree as the zombie flew away from the mother and her kid.

Kouvr landed on her knees, hair flipping over her face almost magically. She stood, wiping the corner of her lip.

“Thank you,” the woman sobbed, hands shaking as she touched Kouvr’s shoulder. “Ms…”

“Kouvr, and you’re welcome,” Kouvr said with a smile, nodding at them.

“Kouvr,” the red-haired lady muttered, remembering it.

“Go on.”

They listened, though she could have interacted more with them. But Kouvr’s eyes were locked on the zombie, struggling to get up.

Kyree raised his gun, about to shoot at the zombie, but I raised my hand in front of the barrel and pulled it toward me. I’d take a real bullet for her.

Kouvr bent over, picking up a steel pole. My eyes ran over her round ass, wishing to lay kisses along it. She stood, my eyes traveling up her back like my lips would. She flipped her perfect curls, retching the pole over her head.

Then came down. The thing twitched and growled, still trying to recover and get up from her dropkick.

She beat and beat it until its brain was destroyed, and it stopped moving. It was obvious that she had some anger that she enjoyed getting out.

She’s played zombie simulation games before, always doing this to the first zombie she saw.

I guess, unlike us, she could hold back and not actually kill people in real life. Whatever she did to stay sane was just as valid as us. Plus, the people we killed deserved it, mainly stalkers who harassed her. She would forever wonder where her stalkers went, and that made me happy.

She looked back at us, smiling. Some blood was on her face and out of all things in the world, that turned me on. My dick grew hard, growing uncomfortable in my cargo pants. My chest heaved, and I ached to have a release. Right on her face with the blood still there.

Kyree looked at me, mouth parting. He was just as turned on as I was. Though his blood kink was more… sadistic.

“Grocery store?” she asked, motioning to the store behind her. “I want something.”

Cyrus let out a chuckle, slapping a palm over his face.

Kyree nodded. He loved that he could find someone as much of a food lover as him. He even learned how to fucking cook and bake for her, and he was fucking good at it.

He was the first of us to move to get the door for her. She skipped towards the door, almost too giddy for snacks. Maybe her real body was in a snacky mood…

Kyree opened the door but held out his arm to stop Kouvr from entering. A guy on fire ran by, making Kouvr cover her nose.

The smell of the burning flesh of a man and his pained screams filled the air.

Kyree motioned for her to go in now, and she listened, drones following. He almost tried to close the door on me, but I ignored him, slipping in.

I was on a fucking mission to learn all her favorite snacks, and I’ll be damned if he ruins this chance.

Kouvr looked down at her tablet once she got to the snack aisle. The drones were scooping out the store, flying through the air. “Only Kouvr would be the one thinking about snacks in a zombie apocalypse,” she muttered to herself.

I smiled.

“What would be the first thing you guys would do during a zombie apocalypse?” she asked, eyes moving to me first. My heart stood still, the beating slowing down. She flashed a smile, and all I could think was, “She’s so beautiful.”

“Steal a fast car,” Kyree started, eyes filled with desire.

Shaking my head, I moved forward as a zombie peeked from one of the aisles. It let out a raspy growl and started walking to us as fast as it could. It looked like a fresher zombie, one who was just in the store, shopping when the zombie apocalypse began.

At the endcap, my hands wrapped around a rogue broomstick. I flipped it in my hands before whacking the zombie in the head. He hit the ground with a thud but kept moving and reaching for me. Spinning the pole around, I stabbed the zombie in the eyeball. Anger melted from my shoulders, unhinging my jaw.

I was pissed over what? D? Kyree? Pissed I couldn’t get Kouvr’s attention like Cyrus and Theon did?

Turning, I saw Kouvr was staring at me. Her eyes darted to her tablet, looking away. My shoulders sagged in relief. I am doing nothing, and she still gives me her attention. I did my best to be unnoticed, even walking away quietly.

And she still noticed.

Kouvr looked up at the snack aisle.

Kyree was gone, too, and I wondered if she noticed. In a flash, he was back with a bag. “If I were in a zombie apocalypse, I think I would worry about snacks, too,” he confessed.

“I believe that,” I muttered. Kouvr glanced at me, smiling. She’s listening to me too?

Our eyes met and my heart skipped a beat. I leaned against one of the shelves.

Turning away with a smile, her hand reached for the snacks in front of her. “What do you guys like?” Kouvr asked, picking up some beef jerky.

I knew that she liked that. There were a few times she ate jerky on stream. Kyree then learned how to make jerky, and it turned out amazing.

I glanced at the price of a small bag and realized the prices weren’t that far off in real life. Closer to fifty bucks for a small bag. Groceries and food forever rose to ridiculous amounts, making me and the guys realize we could make stuff at home for cheaper.

Like jerky or fruit.

She grabbed Skittles, the candy she tried in ParaDise’s lobby. Glancing at the shelf, I realized there were a lot of older brands of candy. Kouvr’s favorite. The newer ones all tasted the same and didn’t have many varieties. People stopped making different types of candy. It got too expensive for small business owners. So, the older candies were better.

Kyree grabbed his favorite chocolate bars and chips and put them in the bag.

“Good choice. We might have to trade for a chocolate bar,” Kouvr offered.

“I think I have a few things I want in mind,” he said.

Her eyes darted to him, understanding his tone. But he moved away for the effect. Her lips parted, and her eyes moved back to the shelf. It took her a second for her brain to compute, and then she shoved more stuff in her bag. And I made a note of every single one, prepared to stock her house with every single one. I didn’t care how much it would cost.

I shared a look with Kyree who was eating it up. The viewers, I assumed, would like them the best. I think Kouvr’s first video in a while would come out today, and it was of No Way Out.

Kyree put the bag on, and I made a mental note that if he died, I was going to take the bag from him. Players didn’t come back to this game until the end of each chapter. I wondered if Kouvr knew.

We weren’t going to let her die anyway.

“Ready to continue?” Cyrus asked as Kouvr came to a halt at the front of the store. Zombies were still running around, yet none paid attention to us.

The virus, as soon as it entered the body, ate away at the eyes, leaving the zombies blinded and drawn to noise. But they had been unable to hear us over the chewing of flesh of other zombies and the loud noises of car alarms and people screaming.

She thought for a moment before nodding and deciding for us.