Beth, Maverick, Anna May, and Goose, aka Joseph, walked back toward their collective target. At the trader, Maverick had invited them all into team Top Gun, and the group accepted an errand to clear a school east of them, away from their base.

“So, Mav tells me that you’re stuck here and that Lord Fuckwad is hiring us to keep you alive.” Goose grinned and rolled the toothpick around in his mouth.

Beth laughed. “I call him Tiny Johnson instead of TJ.” Not to his face, of course, Beth had learned the hard way that people didn’t like to be called unflattering nicknames.

For a moment she was transported back to high school. Ninth grade. Living with her mama’s boyfriend, Bucky. He was a giant of a man with dark hair that he used to comb over the bald spot at the back of his head. Beth only called him Bucky Baldy once, and he’d slapped her so hard that she’d had to miss school for two days until the swelling went down. She covered-up the bruising with makeup.

Fracking Bucky Baldy. The man could kiss her ass.

They stepped over the broken chain-link fence and onto the school grounds. It felt too real. The layout was too close to Century High, where she’d attended high school.

“This is eerie AF,” Joseph said.

“Seriously,” Anna May whispered.

Maverick stepped on the button beneath the yellow arrow and took the lead, walking up to the steel doors. The music changed, getting lower and adding the creepy drawl of the violins. The windows were shattered, but still inserted the top half of the door, and a board had been secured over it from the inside.

“How creepy would it be to be stuck inside the school, securing the doors when you realize you’re trapping the zombies in with you?” Beth suppressed a shudder.

Anna May stepped closer, looping their arms together. Beth pulled away and glared.

“Equip your weapons.” Maverick shot Anna May an annoyed look.

Beth grabbed her battle ax out of her inventory and looked at the durability: 56%. “If we find any repair kits in here, I need one for my ax.”

“Your ass looks fine to me,” Anna May quipped.

Beth rolled her eyes. “Thanks.” She ignored his stare and used said battle ax to cut a hole in the boards and rip out the window remnants on the front door. The men stood back and let her work, covering her back.

Zombies moaned inside the building, and a dog howled somewhere to their right.

As soon as the hole in the wood was big enough, zombies grappled for position, trying to climb out. Using her ax, Beth cleaved their heads. Cleaved was such a weird word, but it felt right; they split open like watermelons.

“Incoming,” Joseph said.

Beth kept her attention on the zombies in front of her, but the sounds of fighting raged behind her.

“It’s a shambling whore,” Anna May shouted, along with some ridiculous “hi-yah!” that Beth never would’ve done in a million years.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“It’s horde,” Joseph said. “Shambling horde.”

“Whatever.”

The last of the zombies just inside the building dropped to the ground, and Beth turned to see about a dozen dead zombies on the ground in a semi-circle around her team.

Maverick pulled out a bottle of water and drank it. “We should keep an eye out for cola and coffee. Caffeine regenerates your stamina faster.”

Beth checked her stamina, she was low as well. She pulled out a bottle of water and chugged the contents. “I’m low on water.”

“Yeah. We need to just start filling up on supplies.”

It wasn’t like Beth hadn’t been looting everything she found, but she also hadn’t made it a point to go out and collect supplies. Someone had to build the base. Then again, she was a fighter, Mav was the builder. Now that he was back, hopefully she could pass that task to him.

One by one, they crawled through the opening into the school.

“This just seems like a bad idea,” Anna May said. “What if they ambush us?”

“I don’t think they’re that smart.” Joseph stepped forward into the school.

The entry had high ceilings, which looked to be cracked. The white and maroon linoleum floors didn’t appear to have any damage, which Beth made a point in checking for so she didn’t fall into another zombie pit.

On the left was the front office, broken windows lining the entire thing.

“Should we split up?” Anna May suggested.

Maverick’s lips formed a hard line. “Teams of two. Stay together. Shout if you find anything.”

Anna May grabbed Beth’s elbow. “I’ll stay with Nyx.”

Beth took a deep breath and rocked her head from side to side, trying to ease the tension building there. “Okay. We’ll head North, you guys head South, when we’re done, meet back here.”

Mav nodded, and he and Goose disappeared down the south hallway.

“Have you played this game before?” Beth asked Anna May as they broke down the office door.

A zombie sprung up from the ground behind the counter and rushed toward them. Beth decapitated it with a single swing from her ax. Nice.

Anna May leapt over the counter and began rifling through papers and filing cabinets. “No, I’ve played one similar, but it was a PC game. This is the first VR I’ve done, and I love it.”

Beth realized the music was still low and creepy. “Watch out for zombies, I don’t think we’re alone.” She glanced out the office door and up and down the hallway, immediately spotting the problem.

A zombie in an electric wheelchair careened down the hallway toward them. She was maybe in her early teens, and was missing her legs, which were boney and bloody stumps. Bile rose in Beth's throat and she pulled out her Glock.

Was it a bad idea to shoot a zombie and attract more? Probably. She stepped back into the office and equipped her ax while she waited for the buzz of the electric chair to get closer.

Timing it just right, Beth stepped out and chopped the zombie in the stomach. The top half of the zombie flew toward her, landing on top of her. Blood splatters covered her vision and pain tore up her shoulder.

“Shit!” Anna May was to Beth in a second, bashing the zombie and dealing the killing blow.

Beth checked her health and realized she was only down 35 points, but below that was the small biohazard symbol. “I’m infected.”

Infected with Pithovirus.

15% infected.

Get an antibiotic before you reach 50% infected.

“I don’t have an antibiotic. Isn’t the baseline 4%?” Anna May helped Beth to her feet.

Beth seemed to remember being infected at 4% the first time she’d gotten it. But now, for some reason, it was higher. “15%.”

Anna May’s brows furrowed. “Are you sure?”

Beth double-checked. “Yes.”