The Feast!

... The Town Hall

This particular area was heavily fortified with government troops and a strategically placed barricade. It was one of the most secure barracks in the entire city of Monsterdam. The various missiles that barraged the city earlier came from the powerful Howitzers set up all around this facility. The zombies knew well to not venture carelessly towards this area.

The military vessel that was transporting the city survivors came to a gradual stop near the west entrance of the barricade. The persons in charge of opening the gates allowed them entry.

Looking outside of his window, Murdock discovered many military presences as well as medical practitioners. Several tents were set up around the grounds to host the infected individuals who hadn't fully turned yet.

"We finally made it to a safe place that has a proper shelter, food and water. What do you think Alia?"

"Ahm…" Alia didn't give an audible response, however, the glee in her eyes as she glanced outside the windows said it all.

As they exited the bus, Alia held tightly onto Murdock's trousers while exuding a bit of fear. He told her, "Hey, you and your baby brother are going to be alright now. This place has food, vaccines and a safe place for you to stay."

"But, I want to stay with you, Mister Murdock."

Noticing the sincere concern in Alia's eyes, Murdock told her, "Ok, let's go together."

Coming off the bus, every survivor was directed to a particular quarantine zone for safety checks.

"You 2, over here." A soldier called over Murdock's gang inside a secure tent for testing.

The doctors inside were very thorough, they made sure to check every nook and cranny of their patients. During his search, the male doctor discovered a fresh bite mark on Murdock's left arm. "What is this?"

"It's no big deal doc. I've already been vaccinated before the outbreak evolved this far."

The doctor wasn't so convinced by Murdock's answer. "Well, we'll inoculate you again just in case you're lying. We can't afford to have a crazy infected person wreaking havoc inside these secure walls."

Finished inoculating Murdock with the flesh-eating pathogen vaccine, the doctor directed his gaze toward Alia. "You're next little girl. Let me take a look at that baby too."

"Ahm…" Alia was hesitant to hand her baby brother over to science, thus she looked at Murdock for advice.

"It's ok, Alia. You can trust these people."

"Alright."

The female doctor took the baby from Alia's grasp. While they were busy being looked after, Murdock sparked up a conversation with the male doctor.

"Hey, doc, quick question. You work for the government right, so you must have some intel about what caused this outbreak? Why have so many people worldwide transformed into disgusting zombies? Could we be experiencing another God pandemic?"

The doctor was reluctant to answer. "That's classified information."

"No shit. The government has yet to inform the public about what caused this major shit storm that we're currently in. It's been months now. Those bastards must be hiding something from us. Come on man, I need to know what's going on with our world."

"Hmm…" The doctors side-glanced each other for a brief period before speculating. "I heard that it was a worldwide terrorist attack. You know about that infamous Ice Mist group that has been the talk of the world for these past years?"

"How could I not? Everybody has heard of them." Answered Murdock.

"My sources told me that this all started in the south of Destiny where they engineered a liquid-based pathogen to wipe all humans from the face of the planet. They poisoned the irrigation systems along with all the world's major sources of freshwater supply."

Murdock was startled hearing this. "How did they even manage to accomplish such a feat? They must have a lot of friends in high places, am I right?" He tried to squeeze out more information but the doctors weren't that foolish.

"That's all I know. I can't tell you anything else. Now put these on and go." The doctor gave them fresh clothes to wear, afterwards, he toss their old garments in a trash can.

While getting dressed inside, something clicked in Murdock's head. "Wait, something still doesn't add up. Those vaccines that you're injecting into everyone, how did your people synthesize an effective batch so quickly? If I were those terrorists, I'd imagine they'd make it very virulent and complex to create a vaccine within only a matter of weeks after the outbreak." Cold sweat began to form on the doctors' cheeks as they listened to Murdock's assumptions. "Very weird indeed. Either your technologies are really advanced or this was all an elaborate scheme from the…"

"Mister…" Alia came along and interrupted Murdock. "I'm all dressed now. Can we go get something to eat?"

"Ok, we'll go right now. I'm also starving."

"This way." The doctors followed Murdock, Alia and her little brother outside the tent.

After they were far away, the male doctor called over a soldier who was stationed nearby and told him to keep a watchful on them, especially the big man.

Upon venturing further inside the secure compound, Alia and Murdock discovered that there were a lot more people there than they expected. After getting registered, they went straight ahead to the area that was serving food. While filling their tummies, they were completely unaware of the influential figure that was sitting 12 stories above them.

At the tallest peak of the heavily guarded building, inside a luxurious office, Mr Klint was pacing back and forth in front of numerous monitors which depicted a live stream of other worldwide leaders. His countenance was livid as he spoke:

"Prime Minister Noris, this is a catastrophe! Why the hell are the dead coming back to life?"

"Something must have gone wrong during the pathogen's development. Maybe the research team overlook some important variables."

"Well obviously dumbass!" Mr Klint's angry saliva spewed all over the monitors. "As we speak, my team is doing their best to rescue survivors and keep this base secure. We're waiting on a proper countermeasure to counteract this bloody apocalypse."

Another world leader voiced their opinion. "Enough with your suggestions, Prime Minister Noris. We won't be needing your assistance anymore. Your next advice might just doom us all."

"We're cutting you off, Prime Minister Noris." Agreed another world leader.

"No, wait! Listen to what I have to say please!" Prime Minister Noris begged for a chance to speak. "I think we've found a way to neutralize the pathogen inside the infected who came back to life. It is liquid-based similar to that of the vaccine, but with the newly added component, it will become a deadly weapon against the infected. Right now this virus is in the early stages of development but given a bit more time it should be ready for deployment."

Mr Klint considered Prime Minister Noris's proposal. "How long do you need?"

"Just a few more days and I promise that all will be ready. Trust me."

"Alright, then I will give my official authorization to the board of… huh?" Mr Klint became distracted by something that he spotted outside his window. The others who were watching from the monitors, saw when he moved out of frame.

"Mr Klint, is something wrong over there?"

"I'm not sure yet. What might that be?" As Mr Klint walked closer and closer to the window, his eyes started noticing a growing black swarm of humungous birds descending from the sky. "Are those… crows?"

Pouring out of the sky was indeed a very large flock of crows. The Emperor was among the centre of them, issuing his command. "My fellow crows! Commence, Operation Feast!"

"With great pleasure, Emperor!"

"I've been waiting a long time for this! Those damn humans are about to find out just who are the most powerful species on this planet."

"Crows! Attack!"

"What the heck is going on here?" Mr Klint was dumbstruck with cumbersome trepidation; so scared that he couldn't move a muscle to evade the incoming crow rushing directly at him.

As soon as the window exploded to bits, Mr Klint found his head melting inside the stomach acid of a large crow.

"What the hell was that explosion? Mr President are you ok?"

The guards dashed into the room and were met with a grotesque imagery. They witnessed their president's intestines being guzzled down by an oversize crow. So terrified they were that they pissed and shit themselves.

"AHHH WE'RE GOING TO DIE!" And indeed they did.

The two security guards that came into the room were devoured so quickly that they didn't even taste their own deaths.

Chaos ensued all over the barracks. In the presence of the raining storms of crows, myriads of humans were running around scared shitless. Only a handful of them was manly/womanly enough to fight back.

"Deploy the Howitzers! We can't let these bastards, whatever they are overpower us!"

"The colonel is right. We have to fight back!"

"Everyone prepare for battle!"

The morale and battle spirits of the soldiers became extremely riled up. They were facing an unpredicted life and death situation, so it was expected of them to go all out and never hold back.

"We're under attack by goddamn giant birds! Bring out the heavy artilleries!"

The humans weren't going to just bend over and take defeat up the ass. They started fighting back against the raining barrage of crows with everything they had, even the zombies joined the fight after the barricade crumbled under the chaos. However, they mostly attack the humans who were on the ground and within reach.

"Ah hell, now we have to deal with these flesh-eating bastards too!"

"What of the president's situation? Has he been safely evacuated?"

"We don't know. We've lost contact with the top floor a while ago. I hope the president has already evacuated to safety."

"Now is not the time to be focusing on others. Try to save yourselves first!"

"Right! Eat lead you flying mother…"

The battle wasn't going so well outside. With the crows sending aerial attacks from above coupled with the ground assault from the zombies, the humans were being drastically overwhelmed.

Within the inner region of the compound, Murdock was dodging falling ceiling debris as he tried his best to make it to safety with Alia and her baby brother. Suddenly, a crow burst through the ceiling and landed before Murdock; he clung tightly to the crying baby in his arms as he tried to wrap his head around what was currently taking place around him.

"Holy shit that's a huge bird! Could the virus have caused them to mutate this big?"

"Mister, I'm scared." Alia clung tightly to Murdock's backside.

"Don't worry Alia. We're not going to die today." Although he said this with much hubris, Murdock was about to shit his pants in fear, he even unwillingly farted in Alia's face.

"Caw!" The crow identified a succulent human child crying away in Murdock's arms. To remedy its salivating hunger, it pushed forth its pointy beak towards the baby, but its entire head got blown off before it could get there.

"Are you ok?" A soldier arrived just in time to rescue Murdock and the other survivors. Judging his muscularity, he said, "You look like a man who can handle a weapon. Take this." He gave Murdock a massive gun and told him to defend himself against the crows and zombies.

"Alia hold him." To better handle the big gun he was handed, Murdock gave the baby over to Alia then told her to stay close. "We're getting the hell out of here! This place is infested with hostile presence."

Leading the way for Alia and some other survivors, Murdock shot through all the ground obstacles that presented themselves in his path. He didn't bother trying to hit any of the crows that were out of his reach, instead, he focused mainly on the zombies, trying to clear a path so he and the others could get to a suitable vehicle nearby.

"There is no end to these bastards! It's as if they were waiting close by for this specific chance to gain entry inside the stronghold." Murdock struggled to get to a suitable vehicle. The ones that he ran passed so far amid the chaos were either trampled or on fire.

The soldiers weren't making victory easy for the legion of crows. Using every powerful weapon they had in their arsenal, they executed a barraged of explosive attacks against their feathery oppressors.

One of the crows on the front line became pissed that his comrades were falling from the skies in deadly droves. "KAAAW! Those damn bombers are killing our flock. Uri, take care of their weapon."

"Just leave it to me! Caw! Caw!" Receiving the go-ahead from her commander, Uri, the feminine crow descended towards the military barracks.

"I'll get rid of those filthy weapons." Uri spread her wings mightily across the battlefield. Soon, she detached her feathers and sent them into the ethers. What the soldiers started witnessing next was a shocking occurrence.

"What the hell is happening now? Our weapons? They are…?"

The soldiers felt the grip of their weapons slipping away from their grasp, moreover, witnessed the metallic presence in the vicinity getting sucked into the sky; even some zombies who had some form of metal strapped around them and lead stuck inside their bodies were getting sucked up.

"Magnetic Pull!" Uri increased the attractive intensity of her gathering feathers. Her feathery sorcery was indeed potent. Heavy armoured tankers, Howitzers, knives, guns, cans, computers, buses along with an array of other metallic bodies were getting pulled into the huge sphere of crushed metals forming in the sky.

"That feathery thing in the sky is sucking up all of our weapons. What do we do now?"

"There is only one thing to do… RUN!"

Numerous soldiers began rushing to safety after witnessing the supernatural capabilities being exuded by the crow army. Murdock tried holding onto his gun but he eventually had to let it go. Some of the soldiers realized that it was too late for them to escape and attempted a suicide attack.

"I'm not going to die with my tail between my legs. Suck on this you bird bitches!" Before a metallic container filled with explosives could be sucked into the sky, this soldier removed the pin from a grenade and placed it into the ammo crate. Seconds later, he along with the crate was getting sucked into the magnetic focal point present in the sky. Immediately after making contact, a huge explosion formed that decimated the entire sphere along with several dozens of crows.

"Huh!" Looking above him as he made his way towards the collapsed barricade exit, Murdock saw countless birds on fire falling from the sky as well as deadly metallic debris.

"Everyone! Look out for those projectiles!" Murdock grabbed Alia's hand and increased his dashing pace. By a slim brush of death, he missed getting impaled by burning metal.

"I didn't crawl out of my mother's vagina to experience this shit." Successfully making it outside the barricade, Murdock ran towards a military tanker that fell out of the sky not too long ago. Surprisingly enough, it was in good shape and operational. He and the other handful of survivors dashed inside and drove as far away as they possibly could from the town centre. As they were leaving, an army of dead presences was on their way towards the town centre. I guess they were attracted by the explosive noises coupled with burning flesh.

... Elsewhere in the eastern continents.

A couple of guards barged into Mr Chin's private office while he was having a discussion with the world leaders via satellite feed and shouted, "Mr President! We're under attack!"

"What do you mean?" Mr Chin was startled to hear this. "We're under attack? Has the infected broken through our impenetrable fortress?"

"No, Mister President. They aren't the ones who are attacking us."

"Then what is?" The moment Mr Chin asked this question, a violent crow crashed through the sidewall. Its malefic presence caused Mr Chin to burp and fart simultaneously due to his heightened fear.

"Mr Present, follow me!" The security guards open fire at the crow that crashed into the office. Afterwards, they dragged their president to safety. "Sir, let's get you to the bunker!"

"Yes! Yes! Hurry!" The now scared Mr Chin looked through the side windows of the so-called impenetrable facility as he was on his way to the bunker. What his eyes beheld was a catastrophic anomaly that he never would have expected in a million years. "Where did all those large birds come from?"

On the grassy lawn within the borders of the protected facility, the greenery was hardly recognized anymore; only an increasing dye of blood stained the land in rich red. The crows were viciously slaughtering the human resistance; eating their heads off, moreover, sucking their entrails out. Yet, they still weren't satisfied.

"I need more meat!" A crow was unrelentingly chewing on the viscera of a dead human with such zeal that it didn't notice the many snipers aimed at its head from 200-metres away atop a roof, or did it?

Milliseconds after the snipers fired their rounds at the greedy crow, they witnessed something spectacular. The crow vanished into thin air only to reappear instantly behind the small squadron of snipers.

"Will you satisfy me? Caw!" The greedy crow acquired the attention of the snipers; they were very surprised by its presence behind them.

With their enemy now being so close to them, the snipers switched to their handguns and began firing countless shots. However, they found it difficult to land a single bullet on its swift feathers.

"This one is super-fast! We can't lock on to it at all!"

"Where the hell did these bird freaks come from?"

"We can't get a clean shot!"

"Caw!" Getting tired of playing around with the elite snipers, the greedy crow made a bold swing with its wings and lopped all 6 of their heads off simultaneous. Without waiting for them to hit the ground, the crow hurriedly swallowed them. "Gulp!"

... Elsewhere in the central continents

"AHHHH!" Prime Minister Noris was screaming for his life as he along with a small group of scientists and military personnel rushed inside a secure room just in time to avoid being spotted by the squadron of crows. "This entire country has gone to shit! The entire atmosphere outside is blanketed with vicious birds!"

"What would you have us do, Prime Minister Noris?"

"Ready the goddamn warheads! Prepared to fire on all selected locations." Prime Minister Noris marked a couple of spots on the huge monitor inside the control room.

One of his allies wasn't so please with one of the areas that he selected because he had family members residing in that area. "Prime Minister there are still a lot of uninfected people living in those areas."

"I don't give a flying shit!" Prime Minister Noris had lost his dignified countenance as well as his rational mind. It seems as if he had drastically aged by a decade or two.

"Do as I say; prepare the warheads for launch! Originally, we were going to use them as currier for our latest antigen to wipe out the infected zones, but I guess we'll just have to use it on these damn birds instead. Now fire!"

"Yes sir!" The persons around the control panel pushed the activation buttons. A beeping sound was heard briefly. "The warheads are now deploying."

Across the entire country, many underground compartments began opening up. They sent out myriads of deadly warheads towards the areas that Prime Minister Noris marked on the monitor. As if in sync, many other world leaders who had nuclear capabilities released their warheads almost at the same time. From an outer world perspective, the dark corners of the earth became illuminated with thousands of deadly weaponry.

The nuclear warheads reached the height of their ascended course, now they were turning to go downwards to impact their designated targets.

Back at the collapsed Monsterdam city where Murdock and the hand full of survivors were fleeing, Alia noticed a strange occurrence outside and informed the others. "What are those things coming from the sky?"

"You mean the birds?"

"No, look further up there."

"Huh." Murdock stopped the vehicle on a vacant roadway; he and the others got outside to get a better look at what was blindingly illuminating the evening sky. "I have a bad feeling about those shooting stars."

"What do you think they might be, mister?"

"If I had to guess, I'd say those shooting stars are nuclear missiles."

"Nuclear missiles! Then we better escape then!"

An elderly lady among them who managed to escape a near-death experience during the bombing of her hometown knew just how deadly one of those nukes could be. "It's no use. We can't outrun them. Only God can help us all now."

"Caw! Caw! Caw!" During their coordinated raid on the human settlements, the crows noticed multiple falling presences from the sky that was way more potent than they could ever be. They tried to flee the blast radius but there was nowhere left in the sky for them to seek shelter. Many of them sought advice from their respective leaders.

"Emperor! Those humans have released their world-ending atomic bombs all over the globe! We're all dead meat when those things detonate! Emperor can you hear me! Emperor, please answer me!"

Within his chain of thought, the Emperor knew that the current situation of nukes bombarding the planet was also a part of the long-ago prophecy, one that had been kept hidden from the majority of the younger crows. There was nothing he could do about it with his limited powers, thus he transmitted this message to all the surrounding crows, "Trust in All-Mother."

"All-mother!"

"All-mother!"

"All-mother!"

"All-mother!"

Being in sync, every crow around the world calmed the flapping of their wings and put all their fate in the renowned All-mother. Billions of their collective consciousness exuded a formidable strength of manifestation which paved the way for the one and only true All-Mother to act.

Zooming in on the frosty environment of the North Pole and the South Pole of planet earth, a multidimensional crow was present simultaneously in both regions. Its almighty presence measured over 20 metres in height. She was darker than the presence of night aside from her beak and eyes that radiated energies brighter than the sun. This was All-Mother, the primordial essence that all known crows worshipped. The first embodied Prokeral God Crow!

All-Mother was aware of the current predicament that her daughter, Gaia was facing currently. Earth was set for annihilation in only a matter of seconds, yet, this realization did nothing to dampen her serene and calm disposition. Deciding to take action, she began spreading her glorious wings.

All-Mother's wings were vastly widespread, moreover, very intimidating. Millions of her feathers started to separate and multiplied rapidly until they canvased 90% of the earth's atmosphere. These special multidimensional feathers were seen only by her godly sight. Seconds after deployment, time seemed to have stopped in the entire galaxy. For a split instant, the sun's radiance dimmed to a darkened state and rekindled with more explosive brilliance!

With the entire galaxy's time/space in the plume of her feathers, All-Mother roused her powerful throat chakra and uttered, "Narak-Hak, Narak-Shak, Narak-Tak, Narak-Narak, Akmi-Toga!"

A most powerful frequency was unleashed across the entire globe. Time in the earthly perspective restarted. Every living creature was impacted by what All-Mother had released.

Murdock and the others fell to their knees. "This sensation… what is this presence that I'm feeling?"

"I can't breathe."

"I'm paralyzed? What in God's name is happening to us?"

While the humans were baffled, only the crows were aware of what was going on. "There is no mistaking it. This presence is the All-Mother of Crows!"

"The All-Mother! Do you mean she's here? But why can't we see her?"

"Emperor, do you have any idea why this is?"

The Emperor said the first thing that came to his mind, "The All-Mother is everywhere and everything." Shortly after saying this, the many nukes that were frozen in mid-air suddenly vanished into thin air followed by a strange anomaly that even the crows weren't expecting.

A dark energy source began shooting upwards out of the mouths of the surviving humans as well as the infected zombies. Every living creature on the planet was experiencing this phenomenon; the dogs, cats, ants, mice, birds, butterflies, etc.

The dark energies were being sucked into a multidimensional portal. This phenomenon lasted only for a brief 30 seconds. Afterwards, everything seemed to have returned to normal, however, the crows could feel the inevitable change permeating the atmosphere.

"All-Mother, she's done it! My fellow crows, a new era has begun!"

"Caw! Caw! Caw!" All around the globe, the crows were celebrating in unity; basking in their victory. The era of human dominion over mother earth has shifted into the new paradigm of empowered crows.