Chapter 2

Shades looked at the timer.

‘Guess it’s time to face the music.’ He thought as he walked over to the door. He would have liked to look through some things some more but he needed to know what was happening.

The moment he opened the door, the noise hit him first. People were running past him, trying to escape something he couldn’t see. The swarm of bodies rushing past obstructed his view.

Then the smell came. Like meat that had become rotten, but so much worse. Through the press of bodies, some even running into the bathroom to hide, he could finally see what the cause of all this was.

‘Dogs.’ He thought for a moment. ‘Dead…dogs.’ It sounded like it could come from a movie, “The Hounds of Hell”. They looked more like wolves with no fur, decomposing flesh hanging off their bodies, bones visible and, for some reason, blood still leaking from veins that shouldn’t be pumping blood anymore. Dark, red letters appeared above their heads.

Corpse hound

LVL 7

They were fast. Dead muscles seemed to move them just fine and they were quickly picking off and dragging students back. The screams and chomping sounds indicated quite accurately what was happening. Shades glanced back at the bathroom, thinking he could maybe just wait there until the coast was clear, but noticed at least four students cowering in the back. Not one to sit well with others, he abandoned that idea.

He had to think quickly. Go with the general throng of people and try not to get stomped underfoot or dragged back? Not too appealing. Classes? Ledges! Most classes had about half-a-metre wide ledge below their windows. Some students would sometimes sit on them during lunch times. He could maybe climb down them? Or find a drain nailed to one of walls outside and slide down one of those. It seemed a lot better than following everyone else and dying like them. Who knew what else awaited them in the lower floors? Much better to just get down from the outside.

He nodded, mind made up, and went down the nearest side of the hallway, trying to avoid getting shoved over and trampled. The classes weren’t spaced very far apart and just before he reached the stairs everyone else was taking, he ducked into an empty room. Closing the door behind him and locking it, he managed to catch a breath. Not for very long though, he needed to get to someplace safe and figure things out.

Running over to the wide window, he was about to shove it open, when he saw the city outside. Buildings were on fire. Sirens and alarms blared everywhere. People were running around like ants. Gun shots were heard, along with screams, shouts and cries, like some kind of sick symphony of agony. Roars and howls could be heard, coming from things that definitely weren’t dogs. Creatures were flying around, much bigger that any bird he’d ever seen.

Shades decided just to find a safe place for now, he could freak out later.

He opened the window and climbed out onto the ledge. Heights, luckily, never bothered him. He could see the top of the building he lived in from here, if he could just reach it… there was bound to be something in there he could use. Even if it was just a familiar place to lay low and figure out this system thing he was supposed to use.

To his left was just more ledge. To his right was a gap, followed by the ledge of the next class.

He went to see what ledge number one held. It was just barely wide enough that he didn’t need to shuffle along. Hurrying over to the corner of the building, he saw another one on the floor below on the side of the building. If he had a rope and more courage than he could currently hold in both hands, he’d break the window next to him, tie the rope to something, make like Indiana Jones and swing around to drop on the lower ledge.

Unfortunately, at least one of those requirements were unavailable at this time. Try again later.

He banged his fist against the window he was leaning against in frustration, and nearly pissed on the students running around below him when something banged back. As it was, he barely managed not to fall over the edge. Looking through the window, he could see someone looking back. Not someone, he corrected himself after a moment. Something.

‘The dead students become zombies?!’ It was the only conclusion he could come to as he stared at the half-eaten face. The only remaining milky-white orb stared back, slowly banging against the window, pressing its face against the glass, as if it could smell him. Shades imagined if its vocal cords weren’t eaten, it would be moaning at him.

Corpse

lvl 1

‘Of course! The zombie dogs make zombie people!!’ He thought angrily. As if it couldn’t get any worse, a mini-apocalypse was starting at his school. Shades almost chuckled. In what world was a zombie apocalypse considered mini? The one wherever the bastards who started this came from, apparently. ‘Those Corpse Hounds that did this was only level seven? Or maybe it was a rule now that when you die, you’d come back as a walking corpse.’ Shade really hoped it was the latter. If it was the other case, he didn’t want to think about what a level twenty or thirty monster could do.

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Since ledge number one was a bust, he hurried over to ledge number two. He had to jump over a few gaps before he reached the other side of the school. Luckily there wasn’t a class on this side that didn’t have a ledge under their wide windows. He wondered briefly why no one else thought of this, but thanked his lucky stars they didn’t.

There was an apartment building a few metres away from him. He doubted jumping from where he was, over through one of the windows was a very good idea. Chances were, he’d cut himself to pieces on shards of glass. Or he’d miss the jump, crash into the wall and join the corpses down below. Turning around, he had to think of something else.

Just then, a nearby scream was heard and a window behind him shattered as a body went tumbling out, screaming all the way, until it crashed into the ground. Shades’ eyes were torn away from the scene as he heard the crunching of broken glass.

Zombies came tumbling out, some over the edge, others managed to fall onto the ledge, before slowly picking themselves up and shuffling towards him. There was gap between them but it was slowly closing. Shades glanced behind him. The building wasn’t that far. Milky-white eyes, stared unblinkingly at him, jaws opening and closing, seeking a meal that’d just fall out of some of their stomachs anyway.

He’d always wondered what it’d be like, living in a zombie apocalypse. He didn’t think it would be that bad, especially if the zombies were as slow as these ones. No rules? Just doing whatever you wanted, wrecking zombies like a boss…

But watching your death slowly approaching, the nauseating stench of blood, sweat, vomit and faeces practically burning your nose hairs. The deafening noise of hundreds of screams. Watching the flesh slowly peeling off their faces. Faces of people you knew.

Reality was an altogether different beast. And the aroma of this beast was not particularly pleasant.

“Fuck this.”

Before he could change his mind, he turned around, got an extra few running steps, and sprinted to the edge. He lined up the window and jumped just as he reached the brink. Bracing himself with his jacket-covered arms.

The crashing of glass and the tearing of curtains announced his success.

Followed by curses as he picked out small glass shards from his arms and legs. He felt like he sprained his left hand. Luckily he wasn’t a lefty. The adrenaline was coursing through his veins, numbing the pain, but he knew it wouldn’t last long. He needed a place to rest before it ran its course and the pain made itself known. He had to keep moving, this place was too close to the school.

“No rest for the wicked.” He got up and searched the place for anything he could use. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like anyone lived here. The rooms were all bare. He cursed again. He could really use a knife or at least something sharp.

‘Should’ve checked in the classroom for something. Dammit!’  There was bound to be something in one the students’ bags. Too late for that now though. These apartments had a normal turning lock on the inside so he didn’t need a key. Opening it slowly, he cautiously checked the hall, trying and failing to keep his breathing under control. The sounds outside were slightly muted and his breathing sounded loud in the quiet hallway. It didn’t look like anyone lived in this place, or else everyone was out or at work.

So far it didn’t look like the monsters roamed too far from the places they started, he didn’t notice any of the hounds leaving the school grounds, nor any monsters in the streets, just the sounds they made.

Going to the back of the apartment building, he found the fire escape. Climbing down to the ground below, not noticing any monsters in the immediate area, he took his first breath of air. It felt like hours but this entire thing probably only started about twenty minutes ago. As his adrenaline started leaving his system, his wounds started hurting more and more. Picking up the pace, he jogged over to a side-ally, wincing every second step as his sprained wrist shook and the wounds on his legs just became worse.

The alley opened up into an open street, no cars were moving but it was full of people running around, as he had seen from the school. The chaos seemed much worse now. He saw some zombies here and there but most of them originated and started spreading out from the school. Soon this place would be overrun with them as people blocked the very roads and streets they were trying to get out of. He saw less and less zombies as he moved further away from the school… right up until one almost chewed his face off.

Letting out a manly shriek in surprise, he just barely managed to push it onto the person next to him.

‘Every man for himself buddy!’ He thought as he tried to ignore the guy’s yell of pain when the thing took out a chunk of its shoulder, which wasn’t very hard as the shouts and cries of everyone else drowned it out pretty quickly.

‘Wait… zombies don’t move that fast!’ He looked around and only then noticed another point of origin for the walking corpses. Ahead and off to the side was a large thirty story building with a company name on it in giant letters. The undead were falling out of the windows and pouring out of the big front door, shattered glass lay everywhere. Again, he didn’t see what caused the zombies, but they didn’t leave the building. Only the zombies did.

‘There’s a pattern here.’ He thought. At least it didn’t seem like the hounds were responsible for creating the zombies, further evidence for his theory that you’d turn undead when you died. Something else to ask the book when he found some time for himself. Running, half-limping now, in the opposite direction of the building, he found another side-alley that exited near his apartment.

Coming out onto the still-bustling street, he stared at his building for a moment. After a minute of nothing coming out, he figured it was safe enough. Dashing across the road, he ran up the stairs, ignoring shouts and questions about what was going on, and barged into his room, locking the door behind him. He closed his eyes, leaning against the door while breathing heavily, trying to calm his racing heart.

He was safe. For the moment at least.