Pause System: Harem In The Apocalypse

*Pant* *Pant*

Heavy pants echoed across the long dark subway. With all the rails closed off and with them being underground, there was nothing but silence around them.

Aurora was sat beside Violet, she would occasionally peek around the corner at the rail tracks.

They were being chased and as a result had gone quite a far way inside.

They thought it was far enough, but they were far from it.

*Step* *Step*

The sound of footsteps resounded in the distance, a single figure was approaching them.

It's crimson crystal red and blue eyes shined in the dark, showing it staring in their direction.

The few zombies which were in the tunnels groaned as they charged at the cause of the footsteps. But whenever they'd reach it, the groans would fade, leaving behind not even a trace of sound.

Violet tugged at Aurora gesturing her that they had to move. They needed to be extra careful whilst avoiding any Zombies which may be hiding or blending in with the dark with how especiallyt dark the place was.

Aurora reluctantly agreed, following after Violet as they began to run even further down the tracks in the darkness.

Even in the darkness, Violet could see Aurora's cold eyes, ever since Violet broke the secret out to her, she stopped talking to her.

Violet didn't put any pressure on her either, it was obvious why and right now, it was the least of their worries.

*Pant* *Pant*

The two were drained, they exhausted all of their energy trying to get away from the black hole that the most they could manage was a half-hearted jog.

They were covered in bruises, the chances of them getting away from what was chasing them was low.

So low that the chaser was even playing around with them, giving them to opportunity to try and hide.

Aurora glared at herself as she recalled what even got them in this situation on the first place.

-Memory

*Swoosh!!!*

[Telekinesis: Flight!]

[Full throttle!]

Their bodies were coated in a faint purple aura. Violet was doing her absolute best to get them away from the black hole's vacuum.

Although they had been making progress in getting away from it earlier, the pull was gradually getting stronger.

They who had been moving a few meters forward every second, were now moving back a few centimetres whilst the black hole continued to expand towards them.

"..."

In this situation of life and death not a single word was exchanged between the two.

Violet had just revealed that she had done it with Gray, and to neither of their surprise, things ended up the way they did.

Aurora could feel the vacuum from the black hole slowly dragging in her feet, the purple aura's effect over them was limited.

Violet was clearly out of juice based on the dark circles beneath her eyes, there was really nothing they could do.

They could only accept their fate.

But if things were going to end this way.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have kept it from you... But you two both said there was nothing going on and..."

Violet was interrupted by Aurora who simply responded. "It's fine."

Since she was carrying Aurora from above, she couldn't tell what sort of expression she was making, but based on her cold tone, it was obvious it wasn't a happy one.

"..."

"...Please don't hate me... I know It was wrong of me, but I really liked-"

"It wasn't wrong of you!" Aurora retorted. "I know you liked Gray! It was obvious..."

"And there's nothing for you to apologise-"

Aurora was interrupted her voice was instantly dragged away by the black hole's vacuum. She was speaking but both her and Violet could hear nothing.

This only aggravated Aurora even more, right after finding out she had been left out of the equation for so long.

She hated it.

She wasn't mad at Violet for sleeping with Gray. She was happy for her.

What she was mad about was the fact that neither of them told her.

'Sure, it was none of my business... But still...'

She looked towards a nearby building in the far distance and stretched her arm towards it.

Their legs slowly became more and more bruised up, their skin was burning. But none of that stopped her.

She had never attempted this before, so she wasn't sure it was going to work. If it failed then it would just be a waste of energy and they'd die. If she didn't do anything they'd die either way.

This was the only thing she could rely on.

[Ice Manipulation...]

A ring of ice manifested around the two's waist,

[Ice Grappling Hook.]

A hook of ice, extended out from the ice ring towards the building in the far distance.

The two placed their hope on the hook, praying for it to reach it.

*Crash!*

Their eyes widened as it crashed through the shattered windows of one of the buildings.

Without a single waste of another second, the hook instantly began reeling them in towards the building.

They were slowly but surely finally moving forward. Violet began to pour more in every ounce of energy she had into it, the faint light which coated them grew brighter before eventually-

[Pause]

[Pause]

[Pause]

The black hole behind them suddenly froze in place, the lighting and sound waves returned, now able to flow freely and the vacuum which was pulling them back vanished.

This was a good thing, at first glance.

But to suddenly remove that force from the two which had been acting against the vacuum in an opposite direction with an overwhelming force of their own then...

*SWOOSH!*

There'd be nothing holding them back, but everything else pushing them forward.

"AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!" The two screamed as they burst off at untraceable speeds towards the building.

There was so much wind pressure brushing against their face and teary eyes that their expressions were going all over the place.

They couldn't stop, the only one who could stop them right now was only Violet herself.

'F-FOCUS!! IF I DON'T STOP US NOW WE'LL-'

*CRASH!*

Violet was interrupted as they passed the entrance and crashed right inside of the underground subway.

*WHAM!*

The impact not only attracted Zombies towards the area from the noise but also caused the entire entrance to crack up.

*Pant* *Pant*

Heavy pants escaped Violet from within a cloud of smoke created at the bottom of the staircase. Aurora was standing beside her, panting alongside her as well as she let out viewable cold puffs of air.

Behind them was a wall of cracked ice just ahead a stone wall which too had cracks running all the way through it.

The two had blood dripping down from their heads but were still standing.

It was all thanks to them having cooperated in the last second. Aurora had created a soft ice wall to ease the impact, while Violet used her [Telekinesis] to cancel out their momentum.

It all worked out well at first but...

*Growl*

*Groan*

Now they had bigger things to worry about.

*GARRRGH!*

Zombies rushed down the staircase, lunging at them with open jaws and insatiable hunger.

Violet and Aurora who were completely out of juice, ran with all the little remaining energy they had in an attempt to get away.

They had a head start but the zombies were somehow quickly gaining on them.

They were evolving non-stop. There was no telling how much stronger and faster they would get if left alone.

Violet and Aurora both wanted to deal with them, but it wasn't the right time.

They prioritised getting away and focused everything they had into getting to safety.

After taking a few turns underground, they managed to reduce the numbers and eventually get free of the chase.

After confirming things were free, whilst inside of the tunnels, they decided to take a small break to catch their breath.

"..."

"That was crazy... Huh...? *Pant* We... We almost died..." Pointed out Violet.

Aurora nodded.

They were exhausted and dying for something to drink. Unfortunately they were too preocupied on saving their lives and weren't able to break and steal from any of the vending machines.

Most of the vending machines that they had seen had already been broken down anyways.

It was obvious it was due to other survivors.

"Something is strange..." Aurora muttered. "I wasn't expecting the population to be anything grand, but isn't it weird that we haven't found not even a single person or corpse other than the zombies?"

"It's almost as if they've just went and disappeared."

Violet nodded, she was slightly happy that Aurora was speaking to her again, even if it was only a little.

"I also found it strange. I can't help but get bad vibes coming from-"

*Step* *Step*

Violet was interrupted by the sound of footsteps in the distance.

And that was their first encounter with it.

-Memory End

"The subway runs in all boroughs of the city... It's one of the world's largest underground lines... If we keep moving we should be able to find a way out of that thing's reach."

They had yet to see it's form, but there was one thing they knew for certain.

Getting near it was something they had to avoid no matter what. Every one of the zombies which had, experienced a fate even they couldn't imagine, based on what they could hear.