Titan of Flesh |Day 40 After Virus Release: Lex|

It was easy to disregard then what Anneka said to me during the darkness of our fifth night in the city while we were seated in a cramped room at the midpoint of an apartment building. We lit a tepid fire after learning that neither fire nor smoke was recognizable by zombies. I remembered how the heat walked the line between heating my hands or actually providing nonexistent relief.

“It will be tough going in the city, Lex; a couple of seconds wasted could be our downfall. If I ever speak to you directly in a way that is elevated and serious, do not overthink, do not question it. Waste no thoughts or actions and follow what I say exactly.” She moves in closer until she is the only thing I can see, and then we lock eyes. “Before we go, I need to know you are with me on this; that is the main thing that I ask of you. I’ll take care of everything else pertaining to your survival.” I kept those words firmly in my head, but with each dangerous encounter, I wondered what it meant to be partners. Is it my role to leave this to her despite how wrong and distant it leaves me on the inside?

Crack!  The brownish building's left corner starts to crumble, causing the brick, metal, and wood floors above to rumble and vibrate all across the city block as it hits the ground with force. The collapse somehow avoided the other buildings and their structure, so there was no chain reaction of tumbling destruction in the city. It enacts a tremendous dust storm. 

I move straight back, thinking it could have easily been us under that corner. I briefly see Anneka roll out of the way of the chunks of building pieces that are flung in our direction like tiny stones in a sling. The smallest of the pieces stagger me across the chest, but I avoid sustained injury. I turn to see Anneka moving purposefully to attract a massive beast of flesh after her in a direction opposite from me. I could barely believe the gargantuan light blue and grey zombie that seemed to be made from a union of organic material, water, and many individual zombies. Its limbs are huge, and it moves with all four of them on the ground. Despite this, the monster lumbers at over 20 feet tall.

“Lex!” I bellow before coughing from the wave of dust. “You need to move downtown toward the testing site to continue with research on the antivirus. After that, head back and maintain power for the incubators. If you fail to get back in about 40 hours, all our stored strains will fail, and our incubators will be unrecoverable. You need to assume that I will be dead and that you will be on your own from now on. Waste no thought on me; do what only you can do.” That is all I could say. I need every other bit of effort and focus to avoid the beast’s blows and charges. For something so large and heavy, it is impressively fast. I realize it can be this way by devastatingly charging forward with no regard to taking damage or feeling pain from the impact of slamming into the cement and steel of our city surroundings. This being shows absolutely no signs of recoil or other emotions that come from being alive. It seems to attack whatever moves in its vision, and if multiple beings come into its vision, it appears to attack all of them with preference to the person farthest away. I remember from the scene earlier that we came into view at the same time. The beast threw rocks at Lex after taking in the sight but mostly missed due to the far distance. Once Lex left vision, the monster was forced to follow me. It must be its instinct or thought process.

Surely, our fight and all this noise are attracting other zombies, but I don’t have enough information to do anything offensive. However, conventional strategy says that the longer the fight goes on, the more uncertain the balance of power becomes. This may be the most strength I have, so I should end this now before a new problem emerges or the enemy gets stronger. However, whenever I tune into my battle instinct, all I can visualize are tens of attacks and movement patterns that lead to my loud death. None of the paths even give an attacking chance. 

Curse this: the battle instinct that I honed for years is coming up useless when I’ve reached the final roadblock. My instinct keeps repeating that this zombie will surely overwhelm me in a head-to-head confrontation because I have no way to even harm its body. I can tell that its limbs are all too huge to cut through with even multiple uninterrupted and targeted swings with my current weapons. There are just no clear weaknesses to incapacitate or target. My rope launcher will be much too weak to hold it down. Its head, which is an identified weakness in zombies, is thick and calloused, being multiple feet wide at the neck. I find it hard to believe that any weapon could cut through that before the zombie swats me off its giant torso. All my skills are dead ends, and I can’t systematically destroy the enemy's extremities. Still, I need to kill or immobilize this titan, at the very least, even if I die. My instinct is telling me that if I pass before doing so, it will find Lex after, although I don’t even know how. The current plan is to spend 90% of my mental capacity to stay alive by running and maneuvering while spending the remaining 10% to strategize and uncover its weakness so I can defeat this menace.