Inside the dark, reeking dining hall of the Maximum Security inmate canteen, Rodrigo "Rigo" Corpuz sat atop a throne of stacked wooden food crates.
"Clack-clack!"
Rigo racked the slide of a stolen 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, a cruel, arrogant smirk spreading across his scarred face.
Before the apocalypse struck, Rigo was serving a life sentence for armed robbery and double homicide inside Bilibid's Maximum compound.
He was the ruthless leader of Block A's most violent prison gang, feared by inmates and guards alike.
When the crimson meteor rain fell on Day 1 and turned inmates began tearing out the throats of guards in the courtyard, Rigo didn't panic.
He grabbed a heavy iron dining bench, smashing a turned inmate's skull to splinters before ambushing a panicked BuCor guard and stealing his sidearm.
Rigo rallied twenty-two of the most ruthless inmates in Block A, taking over the Maximum Security canteen complex.
The canteen was a strategic goldmine—a massive commercial kitchen with reinforced steel security doors, private water tanks, and months of hoarded rice and canned meat stockpiles.
On Day 2, four retreating BuCor guards sought refuge at the canteen doors, begging for entry.
Instead of helping them, Rigo ordered his lieutenants, Gordo and Tito, to open fire through the security grates.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The four guards were executed on the threshold, their shotguns, revolvers, and Kevlar body armor stripped by Rigo's gang.
Trapped inside the canteen kitchen were eight civilian staff members, including twenty-nine-year-old kitchen supervisor Elena and staff wives who had been preparing morning meals when the outbreak started.
For seven agonizing days, the canteen became a living hell for the trapped civilians.
Rigo's gang hoarded all the food, forcing the elderly male bakers and civilian cooks to work as brutalized slaves under constant beatings.
The female staff members endured relentless harassment, physical assault, and violent abuse from the rogue inmates.
When Elena's coworker Clara fought back against a gang member on Day 4, Rigo executed her in front of everyone, dumping her body out the back loading bay into the waiting jaws of turned inmates!
"Sob...!"
In the dark back corner of the kitchen, Elena and the surviving female workers wept silently behind locked food racks, praying every night for a miracle that never came.
They lived in constant terror, listening to Rigo's men laughing, drinking stolen cooking alcohol, and boasting about their cruel power.
Rigo believed he was invincible inside his canteen fortress.
Then came the Second Crimson Rain on Day 7.
As airborne red mist seeped through the ceiling vents, Rigo collapsed onto the floor, clutching his chest as his veins burned like liquid fire!
He lay in a feverish coma for hours while Gordo and Tito panicked.
When Rigo opened his eyes, a terrifying transformation had taken place.
Thick, dark orange-and-black tiger stripes covered his arms and torso!
Razor-sharp bone claws sprouted from his fingertips, while his physical strength surged to three times that of a normal human!
Rigo had awakened as a Level 1 Tiger Beast Awakener.
Flexing his superhuman tiger muscles and slicing a heavy wooden dining table cleanly in half with his claws, Rigo's god complex exploded.
"I am the king of Bilibid!" Rigo roared to his terrified gang.
"No zombie or guard can ever touch me now!"
***
On the morning of Day 8, the peaceful isolation of the canteen was shattered by a sound that made every inmate's blood run cold.
"Rumble... Rumble...!"
Heavy diesel engine rumbles echoed across the concrete courtyard outside!
"Rat-tat-tat-tat!"
"BOOM!"
Deafening automatic rifle fire and heavy explosive blasts rattled the thick concrete walls of the mess hall!
"Boss Rigo! Boss Rigo!" Gordo stammered in terror, sprinting into the dining hall with a stolen revolver.
"The shooting is right outside Gate 1! There's an army out there!"
"An army?" Rigo sneered, stepping down from his crate throne as his tiger claws glinted in the dim light.
"Probably some leftover guards trying to reclaim the compound," Rigo scoffed arrogantly.
"We have twenty-three guns, heavy doors, and my tiger power! If any soldiers try to break in here, I'll rip their throats out!"
Outside, the gunfire grew louder and louder with terrifying speed.
"Rat-tat-tat-tat!"
"BOOM! BOOM!"
Heavy .50 Cal machine gun fire tore through turned inmates in the surface yard outside, the mechanical roar of SIMBA APCs echoing closer!
In the back kitchen, Elena and the six surviving civilian workers pressed their ears against the door, their hearts pounding wildly!
"Is it... rescue?" Elena whispered, tears streaming down her bruised face.
"Don't get your hopes up," an older male cook wept softly. "If those gunmen breach, Rigo will use us as human shields."
"Shut up back there!" Tito yelled, kicking the kitchen door.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The automatic gunfire outside suddenly stopped, replaced by the heavy, rhythmic march of combat boots approaching the canteen entrance!
"Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!"
Rigo's smirk faltered for a fraction of a second as an overwhelming, suffocating aura pressed against the steel canteen doors from outside.
"Barricade the doors! Aim all weapons at the entrance!" Rigo roared, his orange tiger stripes glowing with aggressive energy!
Twenty-two rogue inmates raised their stolen shotguns, revolvers, and rifles, pointing them directly at the entrance.
Suddenly, the heavy reinforced steel doors shivered violently as a colossal kinetic impact struck from the outside!
"Boom...!"
Rigo gripped his shotgun tight, his tiger fangs bared as the steel doors began to buckle!