The Zombie World
When the light faded and the disorientation of dimensional travel passed, the ID members found themselves in a very different place.
They were still on their building's rooftop. The structure of their headquarters was intact. But the world around them had changed completely.
Gone was the bright Jakarta skyline, the bustling city, the tropical sun. Instead, they stood under a gray, overcast sky. In every direction, as far as they could see, stretched a ruined cityscape. Buildings crumbled and overgrown with strange vegetation. Vehicles abandoned and rusted. And shambling through the streets below, visible even from their height, were thousands upon thousands of zombies.
"Where are we?" Zeta whispered.
"We're in the dimension the portal was connecting to," Moona said, breathing heavily from the exertion of the teleportation. She stumbled slightly, and Risu caught her.
"You okay?" Risu asked.
"Just tired. That took a lot of power."
Anya had reverted to her mostly-human form, though her hands still bore a metallic sheen. "Are the portals closed?"
Kaela checked her backup terminal, which had miraculously survived the chaos. "Yes. All dimensional tears are sealed. Nothing else is coming through."
"Small blessings," Reine said, dismissing her light constructs to conserve energy.
"But we're trapped here," Zeta observed grimly. "With an entire city of zombies."
"Not trapped," Moona corrected. "We can return. I can open a portal back to our Earth once I've recovered my strength. But..."
"But we can't open a portal while surrounded by zombies," Risu finished. "They'd come through with us."
"Exactly."
Iofi called up from a lower level—the rooftop access door had been left open, and the entire ID crew was making their way up to assess the situation. Iofi's alien heritage gave her a unique perspective on dimensional travel, and she'd felt the shift immediately.
"Everyone okay?" she called out.
"Define 'okay,'" Zeta muttered.
Ollie burst through the door, somehow already looking excited despite the dire circumstances. As a zombie herself—albeit a much more sentient and friendly one than those shambling around below—she had a unique lack of concern about the situation.
"Did we just teleport to another dimension?" she asked excitedly. "That's so cool! Wait, why are there so many zombies down there? Are they friends? Can we invite them up?"
"NO!" everyone shouted simultaneously.
Kobo emerged next, looking around with wide eyes. "The sky is all wrong here. I can't feel the ocean."
"That's because we're in a different dimension," Kaela explained. "Possibly one where Earth underwent a zombie apocalypse."
The rest of the ID members filtered up to the roof: Iofi, already scanning the horizon with interest; and the newer members who looked appropriately concerned about their situation.
"Okay," Reine said, taking charge. "Situation assessment. We're stuck in a zombie dimension. We have our entire building with us. Kaela, what's our resource status?"
Kaela pulled up inventories on her terminal. "Good news: we have plenty of supplies. Food, water, power—the building's fusion reactor is intact and functional. Weapons and ammunition are well-stocked since we were preparing those orders for other agencies."
"Bad news?" Zeta prompted.
"We were supposed to deliver those orders. So while we can defend ourselves, we're using up resources that technically belong to our clients."
"I think they'll understand, given the circumstances," Moona said dryly.
"Our priority is clearing the area around the building," Anya said logically. "We can't return home with hostile forces nearby."
"Right," Risu agreed. She looked down at the streets below. The zombies had noticed the sudden appearance of the building and were beginning to converge on it. "How many do you think there are?"
Iofi had pulled out some kind of scanning device. "Based on heat signatures and movement patterns... in the immediate area? Maybe ten thousand."
"That's not so bad," Ollie said cheerfully.
"In the city as a whole?" Iofi continued. "Several million."
"Oh."
"But they're not all heading here at once," Iofi clarified. "Just the ones who noticed us arrive."
"Still, ten thousand zombies is a lot," Risu said.
Kaela was already moving toward a control panel built into the rooftop structure. "Good thing this building is designed for literally everything."
"What do you mean?" Kobo asked.
Kaela pressed a button, and panels all across the rooftop began to slide open. "I mean that when the EN branch kept calling us for help with their various disasters, I started building in contingency measures. Aggressive contingency measures."
From the opened panels rose weapons platforms. Missile launchers, artillery guns, energy cannons, and what appeared to be some kind of railgun system.
"Holy shit," Zeta breathed. "When did you install all this?"
"After the water buffalo incident," Kaela replied. "I decided if I was going to keep rebuilding things, I might as well build them to withstand everything up to and including alien invasion."
"Are zombies worse than alien invasion?" Reine asked.
"Different challenges," Kaela said. "Now, Anya, pull that lever over there."
Anya moved to where Kaela indicated and found a hidden lever built into the rooftop railing. She pulled it.
Immediately, a shimmering barrier flickered into existence around the building—not the temporary one Moona and Risu had created, but a permanent defensive shield built into the structure itself.
"Energy shields?" Risu asked incredulously.
"Energy shields," Kaela confirmed. "Powered by the fusion reactor. Should hold against anything short of sustained nuclear bombardment."
"You're terrifying," Zeta said with genuine admiration. "I love it."
"Reine," Kaela continued, "activate the automated defense systems."
Reine moved to another control panel and began entering commands. Throughout the building, systems came online. Turrets emerged from hidden positions on every floor. Drones launched from concealed hangar bays. And in the underground levels, something much larger was powering up.
"We have mechas?" Iofi asked, reading the system display.
"Five hundred combat mechas, yes," Kaela said. "Various sizes and weapon loadouts. I built them as a test project for a potential client, but they never finalized the order."
"And the drones?" Moona asked, watching through the shield as swarms of black disc-shaped objects took to the air.
"Fifty million autonomous defense drones," Kaela reported. "Armed with energy weapons and programmed with advanced combat AI."
"FIFTY MILLION?" several voices chorused.
"I may have overcompensated after the EN branch called us for the fourteenth time in one month," Kaela admitted.
From the underground hangar—because of course there was an underground hangar—thirty massive shapes began to emerge. They rose up on anti-gravity platforms, sleek and deadly looking.
"Are those warships?" Zeta asked faintly.
"Destroyer-class spacecraft," Kaela corrected. "Capable of atmospheric and space combat. I was designing them for a contract with..." she trailed off. "Actually, I don't remember who ordered these. But we have them."
Reine was laughing helplessly. "Kaela, you beautiful, paranoid genius. You've turned our idol agency headquarters into a flying fortress."
"We can't fly," Kaela pointed out. "We don't have the thruster systems installed yet."
"YET?!"
"I was getting to it," Kaela said defensively. "It was on the schedule for next month."
Ollie was practically bouncing with excitement. "So what you're saying is, we can fight back?"
"We can definitely fight back," Kaela confirmed. She pressed a button, and all the weapons systems activated at once.
The effect was immediate and overwhelming.
Missiles launched in waves, streaking down toward the approaching zombie hordes. Explosions blossomed throughout the streets as the projectiles found their targets. The energy cannons opened fire, purple beams lancing out to vaporize clusters of undead. The railguns thrummed with power before releasing hypervelocity projectiles that punched through multiple zombies at once.
The drones swarmed outward in coordinated patterns, their energy weapons creating a deadly web of crossfire. The mechas—massive humanoid machines ranging from twenty to fifty feet tall—waded into the zombie hordes, their various weapons systems cutting down the undead by the hundreds.
The destroyer spacecraft took up position in the air around the building, their weapons platforms adding their firepower to the symphony of destruction.
And through it all, the energy shield held firm, preventing any zombies from reaching the building itself.
Reine raised her hands, and her light constructs returned, but now she was directing them from a position of relative safety. Massive golems of light materialized, each one standing thirty feet tall, and marched out to join the mechas in close combat.
From the rooftop, the ID members watched their automated defenses tear through the zombie horde.
"This is incredible," Iofi said, her eyes wide as she recorded the battle on her phone. "Our defense systems are working perfectly!"
"I told you I triple-checked the calculations," Kaela said with satisfaction.
The battle was intense but efficient. The automated systems worked in perfect coordination, each unit supporting the others. When a group of zombies tried to flank around one side, drones swooped in to eliminate them. When a particularly large cluster of undead appeared, the destroyers would focus fire on that location.
Ollie, watching from the edge of the shield, was practically vibrating with excitement. "Can I go out there? Please? I want to fight too!"
"Absolutely not," Risu said immediately.
"Oh come on! I'm a zombie! I'm immune to their bites!"
"You're also our friend, and we're not risking you," Moona said firmly.
Ollie pouted but didn't argue further. Instead, she watched enviously as the mechas got to have all the fun.
The initial wave of zombies was decimated within an hour. The weapons systems were just too overwhelming, too coordinated. The undead had numbers, but they had no tactics, no intelligence, just mindless hunger driving them forward.
But then the second wave came. And the third. And the fourth.
The problem became apparent after the third hour of continuous fighting.
"They're not stopping," Anya observed. "Every time we clear an area, more arrive."
Iofi checked her scanners. "The destruction is attracting more from throughout the city. The explosions, the energy signatures—every zombie in range is converging on our position."
"How many?" Reine asked.
"Current estimates... approximately five hundred thousand in the immediate vicinity. With more on the way."
"That's a lot of zombies," Kobo said quietly.
"We have ammunition and power reserves," Kaela said, checking her systems. "But at this rate of consumption..." she did quick mental math. "We'll run through seventy-five percent of our supplies before we clear them all."
"Seventy-five percent?" Zeta repeated. "That doesn't sound too bad."
"Seventy-five percent of supplies that were meant for client orders," Kaela reminded her. "That represents hundreds of contracts, millions of dollars in revenue, and our reputation as a reliable supplier."
"Ah," Zeta said. "That is bad."
"Plus," Moona added, "we don't know how long we'll be here. We should conserve resources when possible."
"Then what do we do?" Risu asked. "We can't stop fighting. If we shut down the defenses, we'll be overrun."
Anya was watching the battlefield carefully. Her ancient warrior instincts were noticing patterns. "They're not all the same," she said slowly.
"What do you mean?" Reine asked.
"The zombies. They're mutating. Look there—" she pointed to a section of the street where several zombies were moving faster than the others, "—those ones are quicker. And there—" she indicated another group, "—those ones are larger, more durable."
Zeta pulled out binoculars and confirmed Anya's observation. "She's right. I'm seeing at least three distinct variants. Standard shamblers, fast runners, and big tanks."
"This dimension has evolved zombie strains," Iofi mused. "Probably from years or decades of the outbreak. Natural selection among undead."
"That's fascinating and terrifying," Moona said.
"Flying types!"
Everyone turned to look at Zeta, who was pointing at the sky with alarm.
"Why the fuck are there flying types?!" Reine shouted as several airborne zombies—probably former birds or bats infected with the zombie virus—swooped toward the building.
The drones intercepted most of them, but a few got through the gaps in the defense net.
"Apparently this world has mutated a lot to have flying types!" Zeta called out, frantically updating the defense protocols. "Oh hey, there's even an explosive type on Ollie's side!"
One of the larger zombies on the ground level suddenly swelled up and detonated, taking out several mechas in the blast.
"FUCK! Lost my arm!" Ollie shouted from where she'd finally convinced everyone to let her join the fight. She was outside the shield now, engaging in melee combat. "Got my arm back! Give me more weapons here!"
She'd lost and quickly pick up her arm in the same sentence, thanks to her zombie resilience. Sometimes Ollie's undead nature had distinct advantages.
Kaela remotely deployed another weapons container, which landed near Ollie with a heavy thud. The zombie idol grabbed a plasma rifle and let out a war cry before diving back into combat.
"Ollie, please be careful!" Risu called out, though she knew it was pointless. Ollie in combat was like Bae in any situation—pure chaos.
"Reine! Six o'clock!" Kaela shouted from her control station.
Reine spun around just in time to see a flying zombie diving straight at her. She raised her hand to fire a light spell, but the creature was fast—too fast.
Its teeth sank into her arm.
"Ah! I'm bitten! I just got bit! I'm gonna turn into a zombie! No! I am too young to—OW!"
A needle stabbed into her other arm. Kobo had appeared seemingly from nowhere, holding a medical injector.
"Antidote administered!" the water child announced cheerfully.
Reine blinked, touching her bitten arm. The wound was already healing, the infection purged before it could take hold. "Why does Kaela have zombie antidotes?"
"I don't know, but I'm holding them!" Kobo said, hefting a large case full of similar injectors. "She has millions!"
Indeed, Kaela had somehow predicted this exact scenario and stockpiled an absurd amount of zombie antidote. Because of course she had.
"Kaela, you are the most prepared person I've ever met," Zeta said with genuine awe.
"Preparation is the key to efficiency," Kaela replied, her fingers never stopping their work on the control systems.
The battle continued. What had started as a one-sided slaughter was becoming a prolonged siege. The ID members rotated positions, taking turns at the control stations and in direct combat. Moona and Risu worked together to maintain defensive barriers and provide magical support. Anya moved through the battlefield like a whirlwind of blades, her sentient weapon nature making her nearly impossible to infect or harm.
Reine's light constructs grew more sophisticated as she learned the enemy's patterns, creating specialized golems designed to counter specific zombie variants. The flying types were met with archer constructs. The explosive types were engaged at range by lance-wielder constructs. The fast types were countered by guardian constructs with shield walls.
Iofi used her alien technology to coordinate the automated defenses, fine-tuning the AI responses and maximizing efficiency. She'd essentially turned herself into a tactical coordinator, directing the flow of battle from multiple screens and displays.
Zeta, with her secret agent training, identified priority targets and weak points in the zombie formations. She'd call out coordinates, and the destroyer spacecraft would focus fire on those positions, creating gaps in the undead ranks that the ground forces could exploit.
Kobo had become their dedicated medic, zipping around the battlefield with her water powers, delivering antidotes to anyone who got bitten. She'd also discovered she could use her water manipulation to knock back groups of zombies, buying time for the defenses to reposition.
And Ollie... Ollie was having the time of her undead life. She'd somehow acquired six different weapons and was dual-wielding them while laughing maniacally. The other zombies seemed confused by her—she smelled like one of them but was actively destroying them. Their simple minds couldn't reconcile this, which Ollie used to her advantage.
Two hours turned into three. Three turned into four.
"Supply check," Reine called out during a brief lull in the fighting.
Kaela consulted her screens. "We're at seventy-four percent of original ammunition and energy reserves."
"That's better than expected," Moona said, allowing herself a moment of hope.
"But we're dealing with hundreds of client orders," Kaela reminded everyone. "Nijisanji ordered three hundred custom microphones. Vshojo has a standing order for specialized streaming equipment. We've got independent VTubers from around the world waiting on various items."
"We're literally using our clients' orders as zombie ammunition," Zeta said, shaking her head.
"We must return back to our Earth before our resources and our clients' requested items are completely used for this fight," Kaela stated firmly.
"But how?!" Kobo asked, her usually cheerful demeanor showing cracks of concern. "We can't keep this up indefinitely!"
"We need to call in reinforcements," Kaela decided. "We need the heavy hitters."
"Heavy hitters?" Anya looked confused. "We ARE the heavy hitters. ID branch is known for handling construction emergencies and combat situations."
"We need EN Branch," Kaela clarified. "We can still make contact from different universes."
There was a moment of silence as everyone processed this.
"Since when can we call across dimensions?" Risu asked.
Kaela pulled out a phone—but this wasn't any ordinary phone. It glowed with a soft blue light, and its screen showed coordinates instead of apps. "I have a phone that can connect to different universes."
"SINCE WHEN?!" multiple voices shouted.
"Contingencies," Kaela said simply, as if having interdimensional communication devices was perfectly normal.
"What are you, Batman?" Ollie called out from the battlefield, having somehow heard the conversation despite being fifty feet away and surrounded by zombies.
"A penguin," Kaela corrected. "Now can someone call them before we get killed by these freaks?" She paused, glancing at Ollie. "That doesn't include you, Ollie. I meant the aggressive ones."
"Don't worry!" Ollie shouted back, firing a rocket launcher one-handed while somehow reloading an assault rifle with the other hand. "I know I'm your favorite zombie!"
Risu took the interdimensional phone from Kaela. "Okay, so I just... call them? Like a regular phone call?"
"It's calibrated to connect to the EN headquarters specifically," Kaela explained. "I set it up after the Devil Trigger incident. After we had to rebuild their entire building in two and a half days, I realized that cross-branch emergencies could happen anywhere—and if we were separated by dimensional barriers, we'd need a way to communicate. Plus, I was experimenting with portal technology myself, so having emergency communications seemed prudent."
"Or they'd need ours," Reine muttered. "Which is more often the case."
"Either way, it works both directions," Kaela said. "Make the call."
Risu looked down at the strange device, then up at the zombie hordes still pressing against their defenses, then back at the phone. She took a deep breath.
This was going to be an interesting conversation.
She dialed.