The iron lion proceeded to massacre the inmates in the remaining cells, after that it ate the corpses of the inmates in the 5 cells closest to the entrance and left, bloated. As the sound of its footsteps left the building, Jade got up from under an unsliced corpse; it was the corpse of Iroko.

Jade remembered the events that happened some minutes ago. As the iron lion got closer to the back of the room, his life didn't flash before his eyes, all that came to mind was a documentary about lions, to be exact, the laziness of male lions. From the corner of his eye he spotted the remains of one of the lackeys unharmed by the lion; the iron lion didn't bother to attack what it felt was dead.

So he stayed under the closest corpse he could find, while holding his breath, the dismembered remains of the inmates fell on him hiding him better. The hardest part though, was staying still as the maggots from the corpse squirmed on his body and the stench of the corpse filled his senses.

As he got up he thought 'Those documentaries finally paid off… I guess', he quickly cleaned the maggots on his body.

His face turned towards the ruined bars of the cell, thinking 'What the hell is going on?, What was that lion?, What the hell is up with this situation?, A lion with metal fur walks into a prison and kills everyone, no military intervention, no evacuation order, no animal control...', he shook his head as he cleared his thoughts 'the answers come later, for now, I gotta go, I don't want to be here when the lion comes back for his leftovers'.

He immediately left the cell and headed towards the weapons storage of the prison. When he saw the weapons available, he sighed 'gunpowder weapons, as expected, no wonder the soldiers stood no chance, a proper prison should have new gen weapons, but with all the corruption, they probably can't afford it. Regardless, there should be at least few new gen weapons, this is a military prison'.

While he was ruminating on where to check, his eyes caught on a box at the back of the room under the pile of weapons, it was the case of a new gen weapon judging by what was written on the box [Stinger 4509], he smiled and upon opening it found out it was a sniper. His smile grew wider as he almost burst into a fit of laughter, 'As expected, the administrators must have bought just a few new gen weapon in an effort to deceive their superiors and keep the rest of the money' Jade let out a muffled laugh, ‘I bet most soldiers at this prison didn't even know how to use a complex weapon like this and just left it to rot' he thought as he checked the condition of the sniper finding it optimal.

The kind of crimes he committed required him to always have top tier combat capabilities, so he wasn't averse on how to use the sniper which was probably bought for its sophisticated look. 'It's above average when it comes to quality but not the best of the best; still it's the best I could ask for'.

New gen weapons were mostly electronic weapons based on lasers, plasma, electromagnetism, force fields, etc technology that out perform their predecessors, gun powder and cold weapons, in performance and efficiency, but the best new gen weapons required knowledge and practice to be used properly, without injuring one’s self, as they are more complex to maneuver than gun powder weapons and that knowledge wasn’t free or cheap.

A good example was the weapon Jade had the Stinger 4509; it was part of the Stinger series which is a family of plasma rifles, the weapon didn’t have a trigger just a touch screen display, which was within fingers reach from the handle, and a switch where the trigger should be.

The switch was for turning the weapon on and the screen was for setting the charge time, the shot type, shot range and finger print security for the trigger, the trigger itself as an icon on the screen. It didn’t have a scope; it used an AR (augmented reality) eye patch, cameras various parts of the gun in conjunction with a weapon assist and aim correction AI (artificial intelligence) to aim the shots.

It also didn’t have bullets; it used batteries and had pressurized gas tanks to store its ammo. It was a multipurpose sniper with silent shots that were far faster than bullets, even more deadly and accurate, as it had no recoil.

As Jade finished setting up the weapon he heard the sound of approaching footsteps, from multiple sources but from the same direction; the prison entrance. He hung a loaded and silenced assault rifle over his shoulders and armed a pistol cocked with a silencer as he approached the door of the store room slowly, keeping his body beside the wall out of sight.

‘It must be people who heard the commotion and avoided it, they must have come in after the lion left the vicinity. I’m surprised the lion left so many alive’ he thought as he peeked into the hallway leading away from the store toward the entrance.

What he saw made him doubt his eyes as he retracted his head but since he had seen an iron lion he peeked again and verified his previous observation.

He saw soldiers, traders, students, office workers and various people, they sported various facial expression; pain, disgust, tired, happy, scared, solemn, angry, etc, they were all sluggish and looked lean, he couldn’t verify their numbers but they filled the place, they all had one thing in common; fatal wounds covered in grey sludge, most of them weren’t missing limbs and if they did it was one limb at most.

Jade retracted his head again ‘The Undead?! No they don’t all have dead pan expressions, mini Titans maybe? Na that would be to messed up, I don’t have 3D maneuvering gear, The Black walkers?’ he thought jokingly ‘It’s hard to come up with an original name for the living dead, besides, what if people use a different name than the one I make, then everything will be mess up, there’ll be misunderstandings, debates, factions, wars,… I’m not ready for that, although I do prefer the wounded, the recovering, Grey-sludge-saved-my-life, or the broken (bran the broken)… *sigh* let’s just call them the undead, it’s bland but it’s easy to understand. I wonder what the world is turning to’.

He peeked again and noted their behavior; ‘most are heading towards the cells, probably to eat corpses, others were heading to different rooms probably searching for… snacks? About 15 seem to be heading here’ he held the pistol ready noting the amount of ammo in the clip ‘24’, he pointed it to the empty space just past the entrance, the gun raise to the height of a human head, his hand, gun and body behind the wall beside the entrance, he turned off the safety.