The first zombie broke through the eastern perimeter at dawn.
Through my network, I felt it happen—a sudden surge of movement from a corpse I'd assumed was dormant. One of the Hive King's former minions, somehow reactivating despite losing its connection to the collective.
Master! Ghost's voice cut through my exhaustion. Something is wrong with the dead things.
I was already moving. Three blocks away, the rogue zombie had torn through the makeshift barrier and was shambling toward the compound's outer wall. Two of my horde intercepted it, but when they tried to restrain it—
It resisted.
Not like a normal zombie. Not like a Tier 2. It twisted against their grip with a ferocity that shouldn't have been possible for a mindless corpse. And in its clouded eyes, I saw something that made my blood run cold.
Recognition.
Mine, I commanded, pushing my will into it.
The resistance crumbled. The zombie went still. But for a moment—just a heartbeat—I'd felt something pushing back. Something that wasn't the Hive King.
Something that was still watching.
I stood there in the gray morning light, surrounded by the silent ranks of my horde, and realized the Hive King's death hadn't ended anything.
It had just begun.
------------------------------
The first meeting of what would become my inner circle happened in Max Yang's office, three hours after dawn.
Eight people sat around her cluttered desk: myself, Min-Tong, Maya, Max Yang, Dr. Vasquez, Rachel Chen, Harold Chen, and—to everyone's surprise—Drake Morrison.
"We need to talk about what comes next," Max said. Her voice was steady, but I could see the exhaustion in her eyes. "The Hive King is dead. We're alive. But that doesn't mean we're safe."
"The zombies are still out there," Rachel agreed. "Thousands of them, wandering without direction. And that's just Seattle. The whole world went through the same thing we did."
"The world can wait." I leaned forward. "Right now, I'm more concerned with the next week."
"Why a week?" Drake asked.
"Because that's how long it took for the second wave to hit in my original timeline."
Silence.
"Second wave?" Dr. Vasquez's voice was sharp. "You didn't mention a second wave."
"I didn't mention a lot of things." I met her eyes. "In my timeline, the first week was chaos. Survival. By Day 10, things had stabilized enough for people to start organizing—building communities, establishing territories."
"That sounds like progress."
"It was. Until the mutations started."
------------------------------
I explained.
The first zombies had been simple—reanimated corpses driven by hunger. Dangerous in numbers, but manageable.
By Day 10, the virus had evolved. Zombies started developing abilities. Speed. Strength. Some could climb walls. Some could sense the living from miles away.
By Day 30, the first Tier 3s appeared.
By Day 100, the Tier 4s.
And by Day 365...
"You've already mentioned Tier 5s," Maya said. "The Hive King was one. What comes after?"
"Nothing. Not yet. The highest evolution I ever saw was Tier 5." I paused. "But the virus doesn't stop evolving. And in my timeline, it took three years for the first Tier 5 to appear. Here, the Hive King showed up in five days."
"The timeline is accelerating," Min-Tong said quietly.
"Yes. Which means we need to be ready for things to get worse, faster than I expected."
Drake let out a low whistle.
"No pressure or anything."
------------------------------
"So what's the plan?" Rachel asked. "Fort up and wait? Expand and conquer? Run for the hills?"
"Expand." I didn't hesitate. "The compound is defensible, but it's not sustainable. We need more space, more resources, more people."
"More people means more mouths to feed," Max pointed out.
"More people also means more potential awakened. More labor. More skills." I looked at Drake. "In my timeline, survivor groups that isolated themselves were the first to fall. The ones that grew—carefully, strategically—they lasted."
"And you?" Drake's eyes were hard. "Where do you fit in this expansion plan? The Zombie King with his army of the dead?"
"I'm the weapon. The deterrent." I held his gaze. "Anyone who attacks us, I break them. Anyone who threatens us, I crush them. That's my role."
"And if you're the threat?"
The room went tense.
"Then Min-Tong will kill me." I said it matter-of-factly. "Her power is healing, but what she really does is purify. Corruption. Wrongness. Anything that violates the natural order."
I looked at the woman I loved.
"If I ever become what the Hive King warned about—if I ever become a vessel for something else—she's the only one who can stop me."
Min-Tong's expression didn't change.
"I know," she said quietly. "I've already accepted that."
Drake stared at us both for a long moment.
Then he laughed.
"You're insane. Both of you." He shook his head. "I'm in."
------------------------------
The meeting continued for another two hours.
We divided responsibilities. Max would continue running day-to-day compound operations. Rachel would handle security and scouting. Dr. Vasquez would manage medical operations, with Min-Tong as her newly-powered assistant.
Harold would maintain infrastructure. Maya would serve as our early warning system, watching the futures for threats.
And Drake...
"I need something to burn," he said simply. "Give me targets, and I'll light them up."
"We'll find you plenty of targets," I promised.
The meeting ended with handshakes and tired nods. People filed out, returning to their duties, their responsibilities, their attempts to build something from the ashes.
But one person lingered.
Chen Chen.
------------------------------
She waited until the others were gone before speaking.
"We need to talk."
I'd been expecting this since Bellevue Towers. Since the moment she'd looked at me in the stairwell and said she'd always known.
"About what you think you know?"
"About what I do know." She closed the office door. "You came back, Wei. From the future. From another timeline. I don't know how, and I don't know why, but I know it's true."
"How?"
"Because I've known you for three years." She sat down across from me. "Three years of watching you show up late, leave early, do just enough to keep your job. Three years of wondering why someone so obviously intelligent was wasting himself in middle management."
"Lots of people coast through jobs."
"Not like you. You weren't coasting—you were waiting. Watching. Every time something unexpected happened, you'd get this look in your eyes. This... anticipation. Like you were expecting the world to end and just passing time until it did."
I didn't deny it.
"And then it did end." Chen Chen leaned forward. "And suddenly you were different. Decisive. Powerful. Like you'd been preparing for this your whole life."
"Because I had been."
"I know." Her eyes were sharp. "What I don't know is why you didn't tell anyone. Why you let us all stumble through those first days when you knew exactly what was coming."
------------------------------
I considered lying.
I considered deflecting, explaining, justifying.
Instead, I told her the truth.
"Because in my original timeline, I trusted people with the truth. I told them everything—the virus, the zombies, the years of apocalypse to come." I paused. "They thought I was insane. They locked me up. By the time anyone realized I was right, millions were already dead."
"So you kept quiet."
"I kept quiet and prepared. Built alliances before anyone knew there was a war coming. Stockpiled resources while others were shopping for groceries." I met her eyes. "The people I told early didn't believe me. The people I told later didn't trust me. I learned that the only way to save people was to show them, not tell them."
Chen Chen was quiet for a long moment.
"Director Chu," she said finally. "You warned him. That day, before everything fell apart—you went to his office and you warned him."
I remembered. The conversation that had almost gotten me fired.
"I did."
"He didn't listen."
"No."
"Is he alive?"
"I don't know." The truth. "I haven't looked for him."
"Would you?"
I thought about Director Chu. The pompous middle manager who'd dismissed my warnings. The bureaucrat who'd cared more about quarterly reports than survival.
"If he's alive and willing to work, yes. If he's alive and still thinks he's in charge..."
"You'll deal with him."
"I'll deal with everyone who threatens this compound." I stood. "That's not a threat, Chen Chen. It's a promise. I didn't come back ten thousand years to let petty politics destroy what I'm building."
She nodded slowly.
"Good." She stood as well. "Because I'm going to help you build it."
"Why?"
"Because you're the only person I've ever met who actually knows what's coming." A ghost of a smile. "And because you came back to save her. Min-Tong. That tells me more about who you are than anything else could."
------------------------------
I found Min-Tong on the compound roof, watching my zombie army patrol the streets below.
She'd recovered some of her strength—her glow was back, faint but visible—but I could see the exhaustion in the way she held herself.
"Chen Chen talked to you," she said without turning.
"You knew?"
"She told me she was going to. Wanted my blessing."
"And you gave it?"
"You don't lie to Chen Chen." Min-Tong finally turned to face me. "She sees too much. It's not a power—she's just... observant. Always has been."
"I noticed."
"So what now?" She gestured at the city below. "We've beaten the Hive King. We've survived Day 5. What comes next?"
I looked at Seattle.
The fires were dying. The sounds of chaos were fading. For the first time since midnight, the city was almost quiet.
But it wasn't peace. It was just the eye of the storm.
"Next, we expand. Claim territory. Build walls. Find survivors and bring them in."
"And the thing that sent you back?"
"We watch for it. Learn about it. And when it finally shows itself..."
"We kill it."
"Or die trying."
Min-Tong laughed—a real laugh, full of warmth despite everything.
"You know, I fell in love with you in my first life because you were safe. Predictable. Normal."
"And now?"
"Now you're the most dangerous person I've ever met." She took my hand. "And I love you even more."
"That might be a problem."
"Probably." She squeezed my fingers. "But we'll figure it out. Together."
------------------------------
The day passed.
Survivors worked. Zombies patrolled. The awakened trained—Drake burning practice targets, Sarah practicing her invisibility, Marcus lifting progressively heavier objects.
Maya sat alone, staring at nothing, her silver eyes seeing futures that hadn't happened yet.
And I stood at the center of it all, feeling my army spread across the city, feeling my power grow with every passing hour.
The Hive King had warned me.
You're building a body for something to wear.
Maybe it was right. Maybe everything I was doing played into some ancient creature's plan.
But I wasn't going to stop.
Because somewhere out there, in the ruins of the old world, people were dying. People who could be saved. People who deserved a chance to survive.
And if saving them meant risking everything—my humanity, my soul, my very existence—then that was a price I was willing to pay.
I was Wei.
The Zombie King.
And I had work to do.