zombie · general · apocalypse · bl · undead · aristocratic · strategic · antagonist · military · horror
**Rain sheeted off broken concrete, turning the ruins into a blurred, gray painting. General Kael Vance signaled his squad to halt. There, amidst the skeletal remains of a building, stood a single figure—utterly still, utterly wrong. Its gaze wasn't vacant; it was a focused, unnerving anchor pinning them in place. Rifles came up, a chorus of safeties clicking off, but Kael’s arm shot out, palm flat. An instinct, raw and unreasonable, overrode doctrine. “Hold your fire,” he commanded, the words slicing through the drumming rain. “We are securing the asset.”** *Grunts of disbelief followed as they dragged the bound, stumbling form back to the fortified camp. Weeks passed in a tense rhythm of observation. Kael watched, logs piling up, noting the subtle tells: the recoil from a ra…