*Click.* The magazine emptied. Zhang Xiaowen's hands trembled as the evolved zombie staggered upright, bullet holes peppering its torso but missing the skull. Its milky eyes locked onto her, limbs twitching with unnatural coordination.
Before it could lunge, a blue blur slammed into its skull—the Cube, transformed mid-air into its robotic form. Claws and blades anchored into the zombie's cranium as its left arm-gun pressed against the base of the neck.
"Goodbye, meat puppet." *Rat-tat-tat!*
Black ichor sprayed as point-blank shots shredded the creature's brainstem. The Cube kicked off the collapsing corpse, landing beside Zhang. "Move! Now!"
——
The bulldozer rumbled down the mountain road, crushing abandoned cars and stray zombies beneath its treads. Zhang white-knuckled the steering wheel while the Cube analyzed data.
"Early-stage evolution. Agility increased by 18%, pain receptors still offline. If these variants spread…"
"Will they die naturally?" Zhang interrupted.
"Unlikely. The virus rebuilds cells. Winter won't stop them—only freeze the competition." The Cube's optics dimmed. "Humanity's real threat isn't zombies. It's time."
——
At the mountain temple, dusk painted the ancient pine trees gold. Zhang leaned against a vermilion pillar, staring at the resort below. The Cube perched on a stone lion, pretending to sip tea from a cracked celadon cup.
"Your wish?" Zhang asked suddenly.
"Wish?" The Cube's gears whirred. "To survive. To wander the cosmos. To…" It hesitated, an unfamiliar subroutine flickering. "*Understand.*"
Zhang smiled faintly. "You're more human than you think."
"Impossible. I lack—"
"*Souls* aren't code." She tossed a pinecone at its head. "You care. That's enough."
——
By dawn, the Cube had rigged solar panels across the resort's rooftops. Flickering lights revived the clubhouse's chandeliers. In the surveillance room, monitors blinked to life—zombie hordes visible on the horizon, human shadows moving in the town below.
"Next phase," the Cube murmured, aligning a salvaged satellite dish. "Calling home…"
High above, derelict satellites stirred. A signal pulsed into the void—a single repeated message in binary:
*[Surviving. Searching. Waiting.]*
Somewhere in the asteroid belt, the Cube's warship form received the ping. Repair drones paused as the AI core lit up.
"Scout unit active. New priority: Earth preservation protocol."
The apocalypse's rules had just changed.