She was bored. Half the population of the city they'd just invaded was fleeing to the next, crowding the sea port in desperate attempts to escape by ship.
The giant zombie she'd named Chuck stood stoically beside her.
"Well, well, well, shall we invade the sea port?"
"As you wish, Your Highness," he grunted.
Rexan walked through a field of hundreds of lifeless bodies. The hunger burned deep inside her, a bottomless void she couldn't resist.
Channeling her energy to her arms and legs, she launched forward.
Her speed rivaled the sound barrier, each step resonating with power. She had never felt so alive.
But it wasn't enough.
The hunger clawed at her insides, consuming what little humanity she had left.
Suddenly, a faint cry reached her ears. She stopped, turning toward the sound, and slipped into a shadowed alley.
There, she saw a child crying, her small body covered in bruises.
A zombie crawled toward her, its grotesque form dragging across the ground.
In the corner of the alley, the child's mother lay bleeding out, her chest heaving with shallow breaths.
Then, to Rexan's horror, the mother's bones snapped unnaturally. Her head twisted at an impossible angle, her limbs contorting as she crawled like an insect toward her own daughter.
The child, who had been sobbing, still saw her mother.
Rexan gritted her teeth, the scene unsettling even to her. The hunger in the undead mother's eyes mirrored her own.
As the two zombies closed in on the child with maddening hunger, Rexan acted.
In a flash, she was behind them. Her hands clamped down on their necks, crushing bone and sinew with a sickening crunch before tearing their heads clean off.
The little girl screamed, her terror echoing through the alley.
She stared at Rexan, shaking, tears streaming down her face.
"You killed my mother!" the child cried, her voice filled with rage and heartbreak.
Rexan tilted her head.
"I'm gonna kill you!" the girl screamed again, her small body trembling with fury.
Her determination gave Rexan goosebumps.
For a child no older than ten, the hatred burning in her eyes was palpable. Rexan knelt before her, brushing a hand through her long, messy hair.
"Yes, fine. If I am to die, it should be by your hand," she said softly.
The girl reached for a shard of broken glass near the trash, gripping it tightly.
With a swift motion, Rexan caught her wrist before the glass could touch her neck, throwing the shard away effortlessly.
"Such determination," Rexan murmured, watching the child's terrified, defiant face. "What is your name, little one?"
"Roxanna," she whimpered, the sound barely audible through her sobs.
Rexan stood to her full height, towering over the child. She didn't remember ever being this tall, but her unnatural growth was yet another consequence of the humans she had consumed.
She extended a blood-stained hand to the girl.
"Come with me, Roxanna. Together, we will create an army of men and zombies under our command."
The girl hesitated, trembling as she stared at the monstrous woman before her. But then, slowly, she placed her small hand in Rexan's.
She wasn't sure why she did it.
Maybe it was the fear.
Maybe it was the promise of power.
But deep down, she knew one thing:
She would kill this woman.
Rexan smiled reading the girl's thoughts, she didn't know when mind reading became one of her abilities but now she could hear thoughts .
Her powers were growing and it excited her.
"You can surely try, little one."