Untitled Zombie Story - Chapter 1

What do you want to be?

A warrior

A mage

A scout

A healer

Nothing (Quit)

Such a choice suddenly appeared in my vision one day without explanation. It was simply those options. What did I want to be? If I had a choice, I’d want to be someone who fought for what I wanted. I was no quitter, so I picked warrior.

“Okay…” I muttered, trying to reach out and touch it, half in a daze.

The text disappeared as quickly as it came.

A nearby clock suddenly went off, a blaring morning alarm. It was… Saturday, right? Who set an alarm on the weekends? I rose up, glancing around the room while rubbing my throbbing head. The blaring alarm wasn’t helping. I was a bit disorientated, and I was trying to recall if the text I had seen had just been a fragment of my dream, or something real.

I finally found the source of the beeping, and I slapped my hand on it to turn it off. I probably should have been gentler. This wasn’t my alarm clock. In fact, it wasn’t my room at all. I looked down to see pink sheets wrapped around my naked body. A girl? I timidly looked around to find that the room was empty.

I could tell it was a dorm room at the local university. I had delivered enough pizzas to the dorms to recognize it on sight. I closed my eyes, trying to remember the night before through my pulsing headache. My friends had dragged me out to a house party. It was just off campus, so lots of college kids that were my age were there. I met a girl. She was really cute. Of course, she was too good for a guy like me, but I was on fire that night and was able to keep her laughing.

Then… things kind of got blurry, and I ended up walking her home. I could not remember much after that. Did we have sex? If we did, I hoped it was good for her. I didn’t see any condom wrappers in the trash bin. That could be a good thing, or a very bad thing.

I sat on the bed, trying to figure out my next move. I was in a girl’s dorm, and worse, the girl wasn’t there. That wasn’t a good situation to be in. A guy could get in a lot of trouble if he got caught in a girl’s dorm. They had rules about these kinds of things. All it would take is one scream, and I could end up spending the night in a jail cell. In fact, if this girl regretted anything, at a word, I could have my life destroyed. A black guy seen wandering around a woman’s dorm at 7 in the morning? Jail would be one of the better consequences.

As I was thinking about how I would escape this predicament, I heard a woman scream. I jerked upright, causing the pain in my head to spike and for me to stumble slightly. I realized that the scream was coming from outside. It wasn’t someone who had seen me and overreacted.

“What the hell?” I stumbled over to the window to see what was going on.

Of course, I peeked out carefully. If someone saw me in the window, it’d definitely cause problems. I saw a girl running across the courtyard in front of the dorm room. Behind her were three other people. They were also women. Was this some kind of cat fight? Seemed a bit odd right near the university. They took violence very seriously on campus. Those three managed to catch up with her and then they pulled her to the ground. She let out another scream.

I was just about to open the window and shout something to scare them off, my own safety be damned, but then I began to see blood. They weren’t just attacking her. They were tearing her apart. Her screams of horror were cut short as they ripped her limb from limb. My mouth opened but nothing came out, I started stepping away from the window. I had to have imagined all of that, right? There was no way that happened.

Beep! Beep! I jumped to the side, my shoulder slamming into the loft holding up the roommate’s bed. That stupid alarm clock had been put on sleep rather than turned off, so the alarm had ended up going off again. This time, I picked it up and slammed it on the floor to kill it. I knew that was disrespectful to the girl whose room this was, but after seeing what I just saw, that was the last thing I wanted to worry about.

Boom! This time, I managed to keep myself from jumping like a goat. The thud came from the front door. It was immediately followed by another thud, and another. Someone was trying to get into the dorm room.

“Phone.”

As the idea jumped into my mind, my hands began to frantically search through my pockets. My eyes dropped on the bed I had been lying on where my phone had fallen out of my pocket. I picked it up and checked. Just 3% life left. I immediately made a call.

“Gavin, dude, where are you?” A guy picked up and immediately demanded.

“I’m on campus.” I responded. “What the hell is going on?”

“Campus? Fuck! What are you doing there?” I rolled my eyes, but another thud and the sound of wood splintering caused me to focus on the door. “What was that?”

“I don’t know! Someone is trying to get into the dorm room.”

“Dorm room? Whatever, don’t let them in! In fact, keep everyone out.”

Another bang, and more splintering. This time, I could see some of the cracking wood.

“That might not be possible, bro.”

“Fuck nuggets! Jacob and I will try to get to a car and head that way, but I promise nothing. If you can get to that grocery store just off campus, we’ll try to meet you there. You need to be really careful though.”

“Damn it, Dave. What’s going on?”

“You remember when we always joked about what we’d do if there was a zombie apocalypse?”

“Y-yeah?”

“That…”

“Holy shit…”

“Yeah…”

“What happens if you get bit?”

“I mean, I don’t know, but I’d lean on not.”

Another thud, and more cracking. “Fuck, Dave. I got to go.”

“Stay alive! Don’t let them bite you!”

“Thanks, Einstein!” I tossed the phone to the side.

I didn’t hang up. If I was about to die in the next few seconds, at least I could have someone bear witness to my demise. It was a dreary thought, but my mind only had seconds to work. I barely had a moment to glance around the room for some kind of weapon when the door burst open. Had I not called Dave prior, seeing a half-naked woman with pale eyes would probably have stunned me. I definitely wouldn’t have been prepared for the lunge.

I grabbed the closest thing I could find, which was the desk chair, and threw it at the woman. Thankfully, she wasn’t too bright and she lunged right into it. The legs caught her feet and she stumbled and fell. As she fell down, I dived to the side, jumping onto the bed. She hit the ground hard, and I could hear the cracking of a bone. I didn’t think that would be enough though. My eyes looked around desperately for a weapon.

However, there was no bats, tasers, or anything else. The woman let out a screech, trying to get up. Once she got up, I was afraid she’d be too much to handle. With a cry, I jumped forward, slamming into her as she was trying to get to her feet. She was knocked forward, her head slamming into the edge of the desk. Looking around frantically, my eyes landed on a laptop next to her head.

With a scream, I picked it up and bashed the edge against her head. She let out a screech. My heart pumping and fear coursing through my veins, I started hitting again and again. The laptop was breaking apart, but so was her skull. Blood was flying everywhere. I could hear a sickening crunch after each time I slammed down. I only stopped when my next strike struck the wood. I had bashed the top of her head to mush and she was no longer moving. I finally let go of the bloody electronics chunks in my hand and stumbled back. The body collapsed to the ground with a flop.

Congratulations! You have made it to level 1.

You have earned 5 points to spend on your stats.

Name: Gavin Willis

Class: Warrior

Level: 1

Health: Good

Strength: 10

Constitution: 10

Dexterity: 10

Intelligence: 10

Perception: 10

You were one of the first one thousand to level up. For this accomplishment, you will be granted one skill. You have acquired the skill Identify. Complete more feats to gain more skills.

I didn’t waste too much time looking at that. As soon as I recovered from my brief daze, I raced to the door and closed it. This time, I moved the dressers and anything else I could find against the door. No sooner had I put the second dresser in place when I heard another thud. There were other zombies in this dorm. I wasn’t out of danger yet.