The teen in the Run the Jewels t-shirt turned to run but one of the zombies caught the back of his hoodie and yanked him into the trio of undead bastards. A pair of jaws opened and bit into the kid, right where his neck met his shoulder. Arterial blood squirted out and the zombie pulled its mouth away, tearing and stretching the skin. The teen screamed in horror, his legs flailing. His eyes pleaded at Walt for help.
Walt couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Zombies were a thing of stories. They were in the type of cheesy horror movie he would watch with his sister late at night on Halloween while eating too many Reese’s Pieces. They weren’t supposed to be real.
Joy eyed the Starter Deck the teen still clutched in his hands. She looked to Walt and at the gun in his hand. Walt could see she was torn between her fear and her ambition.
“Fucking do something!” Joy said.
Walt shot one of the zombies pulling the kid down to the floor. The gun jumped in his hand, but this time he expected it. The bullet hit the zombie in the chest. Its skin puckered and there was a spray of blood. But it seemed unfazed.
Walt repeatedly fired the handgun into the zombies, nearly emptying the clip. They shuddered from the hits but it didn’t stop them from feeding. They tore apart the teen, one mouthful at a time.
His screams had turned into pitiful cries. Walt never wanted to hear a human make that sound again. Without thinking, he fired again. The teen’s cries stopped.
He had shot the teenager in the head. Ending his misery. The zombies continued to feed. The blood-spattered Starter Deck slip out of the teen’s limp hands. Walt reached down and grabbed it.
When he bent back up, Walt saw Joy looking at him. Her lips were trembling. There was fear and shock in her eyes. Then she saw the Starter Deck in his hand. She turned around and ran.
“Joy!” Walt said.
But she kept on running.
Then one of the zombies noticed Walt. It looked up, blood staining its face, a hunger in its yellow eyes. It began to stand.
Click.
Walt had tried to shoot it. But he was out of bullets.
Walt turned, holding the Starter Deck in his hands like he had just pulled Excalibur out of the stone, and he ran. He ran as fast as he could, going into a sprint. He dared a glance over his shoulder and he saw the zombies pursuing. But he had put some distance between them.
There was no exit up ahead, just doors to other condo units. Until he saw a door labeled ‘Utility’. He opened the door and slammed it shut behind him, locking it.
The zombies snarled and moaned. The alarm was still going off like a klaxon. The door shuddered. The zombies were trying to get in, scraping at the door.
But then it stopped.
“Hrrggh!” a zombie said. Then it sounded like they shuffled back. He put his back to the door and prayed that they would get distracted by someone else.
After a moment, he could hear the zombies moan expectantly. There was an urgency in the tone and after a moment their sounds faded away.
They must be pursuing someone else.
Walt looked around and discovered he was in some sort of supply closet the janitors and utility men used. There were shelves of cleaning supplies. A bucket and mop. A vaccuum.
Walt exhaled and held the Starter Deck close to his chest. Then he held it before him and studied the package.
The words and logo glittered on the surface. The style and font evoked mystery and fantasy. He turned it from side to side and the graphics seemed to blur and move, a hologram effect.
Slaystone
Starter Deck
The best way to learn to play!
Aside from the stylized design that was evocative of Slaystone, there were also symbols that came to light as he turned the box from side to side. They were in different colors. Blue, red, green and purple.
He flipped the deck over and there was descriptive text on the back.
Slaystone ™ is the first in the Deck Lord series of collectible digi-card games from the Slaynami Corporation. Featuring over 10,000 different cards, this is a deadly game of fantastic proportions. Some digi-cards are common, some rare and some epic. There are even a few that are Legendary. And of these Legendary, there are some that are even Heroic. Every player can craft their own personal deck! Challenge every opponent and climb the ladder to achieve the rank of Psycho Slinger! There is always more power for you to discover in Slaystone. And remember…your opponent is never defeated until they either yield or their heart is no longer beating!
Get out there and seize your destiny! There’s fame and riches to be earned for you and your friends and families!
Walt shook his head in both wonderment and dismay. “How is this even real life right now?”
He badly wanted the recent turn of events to be a bad dream. One of those terrible dreams he would have after a night of too much weed and too much beer. A paranoid fever dream that was a window into terror.
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But then he remembered he almost just died several times to different things. Monster dogs, zombies and a desperate human beings willing to kill to survive.
“Alright, Walt,” he said to himself. “Get it together. The announcer said the best way to survive against all this is to get a hold of a Starter Deck. Well, we have one now. Stop being a bitch and open it.”
He closed his eyes for a moment, clearing his head.
Then he opened the Starter Deck. Blue light streamed out of the package, hitting him full in the face. There was a rush of wind and he felt his hair blowing in it. It was like staring into a wind tunnel.
His fingers started to tingle. The hair on the back of his arm started to rise. The pressure changed in the atmosphere around his hand and arm. There was a burst of light that momentarily blinded him. It was like a beam of direct sunlight straight into his retinas. Instinct made him close his eyes.
When Walt opened them, he was taken aback. His left arm was encased in some kind of translucent and glowing energy gauntlet. It was in a blue hue. He held his arm up in wonder. As he stared at, within the surface, he could see circuits of flowing energy and some type of machine design glittering within.
The top panel had grooves.
There was activity happening on his system interface.
Initiating handshake.
Link established with Slaynami Gauntlet.
Gauntlet Awakened
Status - Trial
Trial: Walter Frank Harmon
Class: Choose....
Psycho Points: 0
Wins to Duelist: 3
“Okay, okay,” Walt said. “Hurry…how do I see my cards?”
The Starter Deck package had disappeared. Now in its place was this crazy gauntlet made out of light.
A display panel came to life on his card gauntlet, catching his attention. He looked at the information.
Deck: 22 cards
Draw Pile: 22
Discard Pile: 0
Turn: 2
Opponent: Ricky ‘The Z Fucker’ Armada
W/L Record: NA
[Please Choose Your Class]
“Okay, that’s fine and well,” Walt said. “But I really need to see what’s in the deck.” He found the option on the interface. [View Deck] had been staring at him from the top corner of the screen the whole time.
He mentally clicked on it and light streamed out of the gauntlet, displaying a holographic screen before him. It broadcast all twenty-two cards of the Starter Deck.
I need to see if there’s any synergy with the cards so I can know how to best play the deck.
Outside in the hallway, he could hear the zombies snarling and growling in the distance.
There won’t be any synergy if we end up as zombie chow.
A blinking message flashed across his vision
[Please Choose Your Class]
"Hold on, goddammit," Walt said. "Let me study the cards for a minute before I look at the classes. I want to choose an optimal class for this deck."
He focused and examined the cards.
It looked like there were mostly common and rare cards, with one epic. The common had gray icons and frames. The rares were blue. And the epic was purple. He studied the epic. It was a picture of a person in a painful pose. They were surrounded in red and there was a rictus of pain on their face with blood shooting out of their skin.
Life Leech.
Spell. Set: Darkened Soul Arts. Rarity: Epic. Harness a forbidden power and turn your opponent into a husk of skin! Drains 20 points of health from your opponent and restores your own health. For each Blood Mirror card you have on the board, drain 5 points of health from your opponent and transfer to your own health pool.
Cost: 8 Vigor Stones.
He looked at the Blood Mirror cards. There were four of them. There was an illustration of a red mirror on each card.
Blood Mirror. Object. Set: Darkened Soul Arts. Rarity: Rare. When placed on the board, drains 1 health from opponent and reflects into your own health pool once every turn.
Health 3/3.
Cost: 2 Vigor Stones
"Alright, this is a card combo," Walt said to himself. "Now, what else, what else? Any minions? I need to deal with these zombies and gnoluxes."
He had two copies of a card called Soul Armor.
Soul Armor. Spell. Set: Darkened Soul Arts. Rarity: Common. Protect your body from any damage that comes your way by transmuting part of your soul into magical armor. Adds 10 Armor.
Cost: 1 Vigor Stone
"Okay, very useful," Walt said. "I need me some of that."
He wondered if it really would use a part of his soul.
He found some common minions. Grave Grunt. Blood Imps. Soul Furies. And some uncommon ones. There was something called a Void Fucker.
Void Fucker. Minion. Set: Darkened Soul Arts. Rarity: Rare. A knot of tortured souls summoned from beyond the pale to do your bidding.
Black Claw Attack: 5 damage. Inflicts 3 wound disease of soul rot per turn.
Health: 5
Cost: 5 Vigor Stones
"So, there's definitely a themee to this deck," Walt said. "Let's take a look at the classes now."
He mentally clicked on the Choose Your Class icon.
[Choose Your Class]
There was a list.
Bloodhound
Silentblade
Steelclad
Voidlock
Necromancer
Thaumuturgist
Cardcleric
Hellpriest
Greenmage
Songslinger
"There's too many to study them all right now," Walt said. To accentuate his point, he heard a chorus of screams come from somewhere above. In the distance, there was a rumbling and an explosion that shook the building. What the hell was happening outside?
He quickly browsed one that might match with his Darkened Soul themed deck. He selected Necromancer.
Class: Necromancer.
As master of the undead, you'll have the power to summon an undead army to overwhelm and consume your opponent. Hero Ability: Raise Skeleton. Summon a Skeleton Minion. Cost: 1 Vigor Stone.
"That's cool, but seems slightly off," Walt said. "What's Voidlock?"
Class: Voidlock.
A Darkened Artist who uses the power of souls to tap into unbelievable power. Hero Ability: Soultap. Trade 10 Health Points for 1 Vigor Point. Cost: 10 Health Points.
"Bingo," Walt said. "This is it!"
He clicked on Voidlock.
[Class: Voidlock]
[Confirm: Y/N?]
He selected "Yes" and the energy gauntlet on his arm rippled with purple light. The gauntlet turned black and purple, signifying the colors of the Voidlock Class. But it didn't stop there.
The light spread up the flesh of his upper arm and spread across his chest. His skin tingled with heat. It extended up and down his torso. Through his legs and feet. And up his neck and flushing his face.
The heat intensified and he fell to his knees, grunting. He noticed the veins underneath the skin on his other arm were turning black and purple. He gasped as the heat intensified. Then suddenly, the light and pain were gone.
The gauntlet remained. But it was glowing purple and black now. And his veins were still black.
He looked into a hand mirror on the shelf and drew in his breath at his reflection. There was a white streak through his hair and his face was pale. He could see traces of purple veins under his skin.
And his pupils were emitting a black and purple glow. They were ringed gold.
He had become a Voidlock.