Ray

The car revved up as it gathered speed. Contrary to what he had heard about the ancient gas-guzzling vehicles, electric vehicles were mostly silent. Innovations in the last fifty years had led them from being a mildly inconveniencing and expensive mode of travel to the absolute norm. And the power they had available mirrored those developments.

The little car rocketed forward, hitting sixty miles an hour in less than six seconds. Two seconds after that Ray entered the overpass tunnel and plowed into his first zombie.

All hell broke loose.

“Ah shit!” he screamed, struggling to hold the vehicle straight as numerous undead bounced off the hood of the car. He blinked as one particular zombie somehow become attached to the windshield wiper. Even as the car slowed due to the dense pressing of bodies, he had the foresight to turn the windshield wipers on.

As the plastic pieces scraped back and forth, they hit the slavering undead’s face repeatedly. It silently clacked its teeth at him from the other side of the glass shield, as if asking him if that was really necessary. Deciding it was Ray jammed on the accelerator, pushing it all the way to the floor and cranking the wipers up to full speed. The fleshy slapping noise increased in tempo as the wipers couldn’t quite get to the other side of the windshield.

After almost forty full seconds inside the tunnel, and feeling like it was forty hours, Ray and his car burst out the other side and into the daylight. Trailing bodies, parts, and various bits of viscera, he was most surprised by the fact that the zombie still attached to his windshield ignited into a flaming creature out of hell itself.

The screeching that it made as it slowly burned to ash would haunt his darkest nightmares. These things may be undead or some approximation thereof, but they most assuredly still felt pain. The thing eventually stopped moving and crumbled completely into dust and bone fragments, sliding off the car. The entire escapade and crossing had taken less than two full minutes, yet would stay with Ray for life. Experiences were often like that. Over in moments, yet the consequences of choices being made were eternal.

Breathing hard, he stopped the car. Putting his forehead on the steering wheel he began to chuckle. That chuckle rapidly devolved into maniacal laughter as he struggled to control himself. The last hour and a half had just been fucking insane.

“Just fucking insane,” he repeated aloud. “Like some character in a novel being written by an asshole who has nothing better to do than make every character he comes across suffer. Fuck you. You’re a bitch,” he grumbled.

Collecting himself, he saw the access road leading to the bridge. Driving along it, he noticed that there were more abandoned vehicles that he had to avoid here than he had encountered on the side streets so far in other places. Perhaps others had had the same idea as him. Perhaps some of them were even still alive? Who knew at this point? He could very well be the last person alive on Earth.

At long last, he came to the bridge on the other side of the industrial complex. However, it wasn’t what he was expecting.

Blocking the front of the bridge were fortified emplacements made of exocrete, a very strong concrete-like substance that was used by the military. The doors on the front of the structure had been knocked aside as if a large truck had struck it head-on. However, there was no sign of such a vehicle. Ray suddenly had a thought about those large, hulking shapes that he had seen during the parade of undead the previous night. Shuddering, he edged the car through the busted gates and onto the bridge. Then he encountered his second surprise.

It wasn’t a walking bridge or even a driving bridge. No, it was an old historical rail bridge. When trains were still widespread and used to transport goods across the nation, these bridges were built in thousands of locations across the nation. However with the advent of sub-orbital cargo ships trains had rapidly dwindled in use, eventually being relegated to the history books altogether.

Ray parked the car just on the other side of the gates, as the bridge itself was obstructed with large, concrete blocks that prevented vehicles from accessing the bridge itself.

“Stupidest design ever,” he grumbled, “Hey people! Here’s an escape route, but you have to fucking walk. Good luck!”

Getting out of the car he crossed through the barriers and began his trek across the bridge. The sun was directly above him at this point, signifying he had, at best, five to seven hours of daylight left. If he didn’t find a safe place before then he was fucked. Well … with this so call Nemesis Skinwalker after his hide he may be fucked anyway.

Just thinking about that disgusting creature made him grind his teeth. He would get vengeance for Josephine. He had made an oath, an oath that this System wouldn’t let him forget apparently. He just wondered if there were any penalties for failing. Like any of the old RPG games, he used to play.

QUEST PARAMETERS CAN BE ACCESSED AT ANY NODE

He laughed at that, “I’m sure they can. And all I have to do is place the one I have right?” he said aloud with an eye roll, not expecting an answer.

But an answer is exactly what he got:

YES

That one word caused him to stumble. The fucking thing had responded to him. Actively. That meant that it wasn’t just some benign system waiting for exterior input to react to. Either it was sentient … or someone somewhere was controlling it.

“Hello? Can you hear me?” he said aloud, recovering his pace and continuing to trek across the bridge. He didn’t get a response. That was both worrying and expected he supposed. After all, he had no idea what it took to directly respond. Maybe this was like one of those LITRPG novels or a video game-like concept. Every action had a cost, or perhaps an equal and opposite reaction or something. Maybe the being controlling the system was just a dick. That was certainly a possibility as well.

Who knew, in reality, there was no way for him to find out. After all, it wasn’t like this System was available before the apocalypse had gone into full swing. If it was, then it had been a tightly held secret. Although he could see all the rich and powerful hoarding such knowledge to ensure their superiority and status.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Shaking his head in exasperation, Ray noticed that he had been so deep in thought he had crossed nearly three-quarters of the bridge without realizing it. Unfortunately, the sun was already a quarter of the way past the zenith. He didn’t have an enormous amount of time left.

Worried, he picked up the pace and got to the other side of the river in just a few minutes. This was not a leisurely walk in the park, and he needed to stop treating it as such. Regardless of how peaceful it was. That peace would last when the things in the shadows came out to play. Or when his skinwalker friend decided to show up again.

Going to a full jog, Ray came down off the bridge and through another checkpoint. Skeletal remains and blood stains were all that remained of the defenders. Moving in between the cement blockades, he rapidly traversed the exit point and onto a well-made walking trail that wound through a marshy area. It ran parallel to the highway next to it. He had two, perhaps three more miles to go. He didn’t think he would make it as he still had to find a place to hide for the night.

Looking around at his surroundings, he saw some large white chemical tanks in the distance. They couldn’t be more than a half mile away. If he could get to the top of one and secure the entrance, it would make an excellent overnight spot.

Making his choice he moved at a quick pace in that direction. Ray had never been hugely into bodybuilding, but he had to remain fit enough to captain the yacht and any other small orbital craft that he was required to oversee. Some of those cockpits were small, so he maintained his fitness which included regular five-mile jogs. This much was nothing to him.

He jogged down the road, moving between cars and debris. More than once he saw movement in a vehicle, telling him that the occupant was long dead and long trapped inside. He had no desire to check for any survivors here. That could come later.

Reaching the primary highway, Ray jumped the jersey barrier and jogged across the six-lane road. Hopping over the other side, he found himself in front of a long chain link fence. His goal, the white chemical tanks, were on the other side. Now he just had to find a way through. Looking up and down the fence line, he saw a van that had crashed through his side and rolled several times before coming to a rest a dozen feet past where it had struck.

Perfect.

Moving down towards that spot he climbed over the debris and was now on the correct side of the fence. Amazed that it had worked out that way, Ray moved quickly to the massive white cylinders. True to form, there was a ladder with a locked grate running up the side of the nearest one. Those grates were great for keeping out children or deterring the unmotivated, however keeping someone out who was determined to survive something looking to eat him like a Sunday snack was another thing entirely.

Grabbing the bottom rung of the ladder, Ray swung himself back and forth until he could reach the bars on the side of the grate. Grabbing them, he hauled himself up and over the security grate, bypassing it entirely. Stopping to catch his breath, he looked up and saw that the sun was just touching the horizon. Filled with an immediate, and very valid, fear Ray climbed the ladder to the top of the chemical tower as quickly as he could. Just as the sunlight began to fade into red twilight, he reached the top.

Just as the howl of the awakening undead spiraled out through the air, encompassing the world with their hunger.

Sliding over the lip and laying on the top of the chemical storage building, Ray caught his breath. It was within that brief moment that Ray nearly lost his life.

He had only been laying there for a moment when the pounding of feet came towards him from across the roof. Alarmed he sat up, only to catch a full-bodied attack from an undead that had been on the roof. Bracing one arm across the creature's neck as slavering jaws sought his flesh, Ray ended the fight quickly by kicking upwards and pitching the monstrosity over the edge of the tower. It hissed and clacked its teeth on the way down, up until it hit the paved ground that is. That victory was heralded by the immediate sound of silence from below.

A silence that was broken by a massive roar from several buildings down. The roar was so massive in fact that the metal sheeting that made up the roof vibrated as it swept over Ray. Slowly the echo of the feral sound faded and he heard the heavy footsteps of whatever it was making its way toward where he had just tossed his neighbor off the roof. He certainly didn’t want to meet whatever was big enough to make noises like that.

Panicking, he looked around for a place to hide. The only place he could see, however, was a single hatch that possibly led into the interior of the silo. If he was lucky, there would be some ladder there, Running across the roof, forsaking stealth for speed with his clanging footsteps, he grabbed the handle and jerked up … only to be met with resistance from the hatch.

The creature below roared again, but this time it was accompanied by the tearing of metal. Either it had torn its way inside the silo below him, or it had just ripped off the security grate on the ladder. The shuddering grew closer to him however so he rapidly surmised the thing was making its way up the side of the silo.

Crouching down, he felt around for a latch, lever, or release that would allow him to open the hatch. He struggled to find anything that would open the damn thing and began to panic. Looking over his should he saw one massive, meaty hand the size of a suitcase come up over the edge. Squeaking, he redoubled his efforts and smashed his knuckles into a release located on the side of the hatch.

Swinging it up he looked back one more time to see a massive, mutated head rise above the edge. Its beady eyes looking for a meal and, since he was the only living thing up there, looking for him in particular.

Ray swallowed his panic and didn’t hesitate in the slightest, knowing that if he did so he was very dead. He grabbed the edge of the hatch and leaped into the darkness beneath him. The last bit of light that he could make out as he plunged into the pitch-black hole was blocked out as the secure cover slammed shut behind him. As he dropped, his hand slipped off the handle on the inside of the latch.

Then Ray dropped into the darkness that was the silo.

***

RAYMOND ‘RAY’ FINNEGAN

RACE

HUMAN

CLASS

NONE

NEX

CALCULATING

LEVEL

1

PHYSICAL STATE

HEALTHY

MENTAL STATE

TERRIFIED

ATTRIBUTE

BASE

CURRENT

NEX TO INCREASE

STRENGTH

5

6

50

AGILITY

3

3

30

POWER

0

0

100

WISDOM

4

5

40

LUCK

2

2

400