The gut-wrenching scream resonated. It was the sound of absolute terror, a sound Zane knew better than his own voice.
The police officer, gun drawn and brow furrowed, turned toward the source of the noise. The neighbors, previously curious, were now frozen.
Zane didn't waste half a second. He took off his backpack, threw it to the ground, and pulled out the two hunting machetes he had secured inside. The cold metal felt heavy and familiar in his hands, as if it were a natural extension of his arms.
Damn it, a helmet. I should have bought a helmet.
The officer, hearing the sound of metal, turned back to Zane. His eyes widened at the sight of the man covered in makeshift steel plates and two bladed weapons.
"Get on the ground! Drop those weapons or I'll fire!" the officer yelled, pointing his service pistol. His voice was trembling with adrenaline, but his aim was steady.
The people around were murmuring, nerves on edge.
"That's a damn movie!" yelled a young guy with piercings.
"Where are the cameras? Are we going to be extras?!" asked a woman, her tone hysterical.
At that moment, the confusion completely broke. At the end of the street, a figure moved spasmodically, bent over another. It was a man with grayish skin and an open mouth, wildly biting the neck of a weakly struggling woman. Blood gushed from the victim's neck like a spring.
People screamed, but there was still disbelief. "Wow, great effects!"
Zane didn't wait. The time for warning was over.
"Idiots!" he thought, and he bolted.
Ignoring the cop, Zane sprinted toward the two figures. The speed and agility of a trained warrior immediately manifested, despite this student body not being in its best shape.
The grayish man raised his head, showing the face of horror. His eyes were empty sockets, and his lower jaw, dislocated, dripped the woman's blood.
Zane gave him no time to react.
With terrifying power, he swung the two machetes in a fluid, cross-cut movement. Swish! The two blades sliced through the air and the bone. The heads of the attacker and the woman already infected and about to transform flew off in a bloody arc before falling onto the pavement.
The grayish body collapsed like a puppet whose strings have been cut.
A heavy, bloody silence fell over the street. The people who were just murmuring about cameras were now screaming. Shock and horror took hold of them.
The police officer stared at the scene, eyes glazed over, pointing his gun uselessly at Zane.
"Damn it! You, madness doesn't give you the right to murder...!" the officer began to scream, his voice thick with panic.
But his lecture stopped dead. Behind him, with slow, clumsy steps, another one of "those things" appeared. A zombie, with one arm dangling. It lunged at the officer without a sound, beyond a guttural growl.
Crunch!
The zombie sank its teeth into the cop's arm.
The officer's scream was sharp and prolonged. He dropped his weapon and fell to his knees, clutching his bitten arm with a shaking hand.
Panic spiked. The people nearby, seeing the blood, the real zombie, and the brutality, started running, stumbling and shouting. It was no longer a movie; it was the Catastrophe C.
Zane didn't hesitate. He dropped one machete, picked up the semi-automatic pistol from the ground, and stored it in his backpack without checking the clip. Then he retrieved the machete he had dropped, positioning it in his free hand.
At that instant, amidst the chaos, the cold, electronic voice that had dominated his life in the future resonated directly in his mind.
[New Main Quest Unlocked: Survival at Level ZERO.]
[Objective: Survive 12 hours against the first invasion of the Corpse Horde.]
Zane felt the adrenaline rush, but also a feeling of excitement—like a veteran returning to war.
He wiped the blood from his machetes onto the bitten officer's clothing, while three more zombies rounded the corner.
He pulled out his smartwatch and dialed Chloe's number. No answer. He tried Liam. Nothing.
"Shit," Zane muttered. "Don't worry. I'll come for you, no matter the cost."
He put away his phone. His house was thirty minutes from the theater, but Chloe's apartment was only ten minutes away at a dead sprint.
"I hope they listened to me and went to her apartment."
Zane took off. His speed was incredible, but now he had a purpose and a plan.
The street had become a death trap.
The zombies, moving with the clumsiness of the newly infected, were multiplying exponentially. They were no longer just a few; they were dozens, pouring out of alleys, stores, and stalled buses.
The roar of an engine turned into a deafening crash. Zane had to jump aside when a black car, whose driver had been pulled out through the window, slammed into a utility pole. The resulting explosion engulfed several oncoming zombies in flames. The air filled with the smell of burning flesh.
Zane used the chaos as cover. He dodged a screaming mother and ran head-on into a small pack of five infected. He didn't think, he acted.
A zombie raised its arms. Zane delivered a side-kick so powerful it cracked the already rotting ribs. As the zombie fell, Zane used the left machete to decapitate it.
The right machete was used to cleave the head of a groaning woman in two. The blade got stuck in the bone for a second. Zane pulled hard, freeing it just in time to spin and stab another zombie in the eye.
"Damn it! The bone breaks differently now!" Zane yelled, his arms burning from the effort. His student body was weak, but his muscle memory was that of a veteran warrior who had been through 1,000 battles.
The sound of police and ambulance sirens began to blare quickly. Bullets rang out, but the zombies didn't even flinch when hit. It was already useless. The army of the dead was gaining ground.
"The damn zombies can only die by decapitation, you need longer weapons to tear their heads off... these bastards aren't like Resident Evil...!!"
Zane ran close to the buildings, using alleys and the remains of burned cars as barriers. On the horizon, a gigantic column of smoke rose over the city center: a sign that the Catastrophe had arrived in force.
He only had five minutes left to run.
Zane felt the need to unleash his power, like a combat warrior, as he did in the future, but the System hadn't given him any active abilities yet; only the mission to survive.
He had to use the machetes two more times, slicing arms and legs, until he saw the familiar gleam of Chloe's apartment building. It was a beacon amidst the rising chaos.
"Just one more block...!"
Zane gritted his teeth, feeling the cold tears of rage and exertion. He couldn't fail them again. Not Liam. And never Chloe.