The drones hovered overhead, silent and deadly, their rotors flying through Sanctuary's calm air. Raven stood beneath them, arms crossed, the soft purr of perfectly tuned machinery echoing through her open Technomancer Workshop. Her design had worked.
Two medium-sized drones. Compact, white polymer bodies shaped for aerodynamics and easy concealment. Foldable limbs tucked into narrow grooves when docked. Each carried an infrared camera, a directional mic, and a belt-fed micro-machine gun mounted under their bellies. Raven packed 100 rounds of standard ammunition into each housing chamber enough to take down most threats with her deadly accuracy guiding them.
Both of them are deployable from a hard-shelled white backpack now resting beside her workbench.
She raised a hand. The drones responded instantly, rotating in air, one sweeping left, the other right. She linked her vision to theirs. Night vision activated. Audio synced.
"Perfect," she muttered. "Now let's feed them some zombies."
Raven turned and reached for her phone, checking the time.
12:32 PM. January 10th.
Her expression sharpened.
Outside this pocket dimension, the world was tearing itself apart. Right now, somewhere in Times Square, someone was falling over. Screaming. Convulsing. Then biting each other. No one knew what triggered it. There was no patient zero. It came out of thin air as if a mysterious force invaded the world, and with its arrival, the end of the current world followed. With its arrival, a new world order arrived.
And then the screams she could hear them in her mind the suffering was just starting she could already imagine it.
This brought to Ravens' mind a big problem her drones and other creations will burn through a lot of ammo and missiles, and she did not want to use her father's ammo for this.
High-quality rounds from her father's stash were for personal use. Armor-piercing, incendiary, match grade. She wouldn't waste those on suppressive fire or scouting drones.
She needed bulk ammo for her drones and a massive amount of it.
There was only one place worth raiding.
Seneca Army Depot.
Raven turned, walked into her villa, and climbed the stairs to the master bedroom. She changed into a loose set of sensual underwear, laid the drone backpack near the foot of the bed, and curled under the covers of her bed as she fell asleep.
Morning would bring new opportunities. Tonight, she would rest and let the world burn hopefully William Salvatore and her family would enjoy their gift of no supplies or aid from the Red Blood Raiders.
The world ended without her.
When Raven opened her eyes again, her phone read January 11th, 6:03 AM.
Raven rose in silence, dressed, and moved to the front hall. With a system command, the world faded around her.
She stepped out onto the frozen ground.
Where once stood Rose Manor, now there was only dead grass and brittle soil. The air stank of frost and ash. Birds no longer chirped. This new quiet wasn't peace. Everything had simply died during the night.
Raven summoned the Ironhowl. The SUV appeared in front of her, tires crunching dead weeds. She threw her drone backpack onto the side passenger seat, then climbed into the driver's seat, ready to get to work.
The road into the city was no longer clean. Black smoke streaked across the skyline. Fires burned in half the buildings she passed. Cars sat crushed into guardrails or abandoned mid-turn. Screams echoed in the distance.
She saw her first zombie very quickly.
A woman in a shredded coat, mouth hanging open, face twisted, sprinting on all fours like a feral dog towards her SUV.
Raven didn't slow down.
The Ironhowl's grill hit her squarely in the head. A thump, a crunch, and a red mist of blood sprayed across her windshield. The wipers came on automatically.
More came.
But it wasn't just the dead.
Up ahead, a man dashed into the road. His arms waving frantically.
"Please! Please stop! Help me!"
Behind him, three zombies snarling with their teeth full of human flesh hanging in them chaed the man.
He reached the center of the lane just as Raven made her decision of what to do.
She didn't touch the brake.
Boom.
The Ironhowl crushed him first. The zombies second.
She didn't blink.
What you don't actually expect her to help that guy right Ravens is not that selfless.
Two more followed. She drove straight through them.
'Crunch'
'Crunch'
'Bang'
"No worries," Raven said. "That'll wash out."
She never took her hands off the wheel.
Seneca depo awaited.
And her machines were hungry for ammo and zombie heads.
Join my patreon today to read up to chapter 107 in advance your support is my inspiration join for only 3 to 5$
patreon.com/everstone