Standing behind the safety of the bolted door, Antoinette wasn't sure how she should feel. Part of her felt like she should have stared down those zombies and gave them some old-fashioned justice with her Colt, but down deep she was afraid. The initial excitement of her situation was wearing off, and the realization that her actions would have immediate impact on her well-being was a heavy weight to bear.

At home when she was playing, most games you could trick to get out of a bad spot. Even one of her favorite games, Darkest Dungeon, you could power down the console immediately after losing a key character. Then when you were done being mad that your Houndmaster missed on a key attack, you could fire it back up and it would take you to the start of the battle. Given enough tries, you could win the batter in earnest, or at least finish the fight with minimal casualties.

She wasn't sure about the rules here. What happened if the zombies grabbed her? Which version of zombies was she dealing with? What about game progression, what other kind of monsters was she going to run into? Was there some amped up zombie leader like in I Am Legend?

Antoinette shook her head to clear her thoughts. Pieces of zombie splatter flew from her hair; she fought to control her gag reflex. Seconds later she turned her back to the door to see what kind of place she was in. The room was dimly lit, but she could see she was in a backroom. Boxes were stacked at various locations without any semblance of rhyme or reason. Normally where there were boxes there was loot. Time for her first score!

Looking around, she quickly found a light switch next to the steel door. The zombies continued to pound away, but her fear faded quickly and she flicked the switch. The glare of several fluorescent lights filled the room, and she blinked away the spots. The light provided no additional explanation for the layout of the small 20' x 20' room. Opposite the steel door that exited to the alleyway, was the only other exit to the room; a wooden windowless door. She pulled the Colt from her shorts and seconds later had a full chamber of ammo. Cautiously she made her way to the wooden door and checked the lock. It was secured, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

Now that she knew she had a bit of time, she put the Colt back in her waistband and started searching the boxes. After 30 minutes of opening boxes, there was nothing of worth. Each one contained a form of packing material, but that was it. The material wasn't protecting anything; it was just in the box like it was waiting for something. Frustrated, she walked to the wooden door and listened.

After several seconds of hearing nothing, but the beating of the zombies on the steel door, she unlocked the wooden door and pulled it open. The door opened to a short hallway, about 15' away was a wooden door similar to the one she just opened. On either side of the hallway, an open doorway was set halfway down the corridor on the left. She walked into the hallway and the lights came alive.

Slowly she crept down the hallway and seconds later she arrived at the doorway and knelt, listening for threats. She didn't hear anything so slid to the opposite wall and turned to point her Colt into the doorway. The room was softly lit, and it looked like an office. She stood up and walked into the room.

Once she stepped into the small office, lights came on and she took in her surroundings. A large wooden desk with a tall-backed leather chair dominated the room. Behind the desk was a four-drawer gunmetal gray filing cabinet, a coat rack and an umbrella stand. Several paintings dotted the walls, but nothing dangerous. She walked to the filing cabinet and set her weapon on the top. She tried the first drawer. It slid open smoothly.

The top drawer was empty, as was the second and third drawers. When she opened the last drawer, she was excited that it contained something, in fact, there were two somethings. The first was a small circular disk with the image of a needle and thread on it. She flipped it over and the same image greeted her. The other something was a keycard with the image of a bar of soap. She couldn't imagine what the disk and keycard were for, but she slipped them into one of her pockets and moved to the desk.

Antoinette pulled the chair back so she could sit. The chair was too big for her, but sitting in the chair made her feel important. Too bad this wasn't a side quest where she could make some important business decisions, because this would be the spot for it. She started pulling drawers out, but all were empty. She leaned back in the chair and looked at the room again. The painting directly across from her was of dogs playing poker. She laughed at the site. Antoinette wasn't sure why people loved that painting, but here it was again.

That was the only one that drew her interest, so she stood up from the chair and walked over. She stood close to the painting and inspected it, looking at it from all sides. She squinted her eyes to try and reveal a possible hidden message, but there was none. Finally she grabbed it, ready to take it to the desk and when she pulled it off the wall she saw the safe. The painting dropped from her hands and she moved closer. It was a simple safe door, with a single dial and a handle.

After several minutes of spinning the dial and trying to turn the handle, she gave up. She was going to need more than luck to open the safe to discover what treasures might be hidden inside. A bit frustrated, she pulled the other paintings off the wall, but there was nothing else to discover. Finally she walked and retrieved her Colt, then swung past the umbrella stand. As she approached, she saw there was something inside. Excitedly, she reached inside and pulled out a white aluminum bat. On the barrel of the bat was written 'Cat X'. The words didn't mean anything to her, but the bat felt good in her hands.

"Harley Quinn, eat your fucking heart out." She said.

She wondered about the Bloodshed skill, and this must be the answer. She was going to have to get her hands dirty. Happy with the bat added to her small arsenal of weapons, she exited the room and headed for the closed door. When she got there she found the door didn't have a handle. There was a keycard pad on the wall, and she waved her new trinkets over it hoping they might trigger the mechanism. No luck. That meant she would have to exit the way she came.

Antoinette walked back to the storeroom, back to the sound of the zombies still pounding on the door. Adrenaline surged through her body. She weighed the decision of gun or bat over in her head. She wasn't sure which was right. She was a novice in Bloodshed, but also a novice in Accuracy. She wasn't going to be able to open the door and give her space to squeeze off several rounds before they were on her. With the bat at least she knew her swings wouldn't sail over their heads; or maybe they would.

No matter how hard she tried to talk herself out of using the bat, she was going to have to channel her inner Frank Thomas. She secured the gun in her waistband and gripped the bat with two hands. She gave the weapon several test swings, feeling the weight in her hands. After a minute of preparation, she was ready. Her heart was pounding in her chest while she reached for the bracing bar. Seconds later the bar was free and the door swung open. Sunlight flooded into the room and she jabbed the bat into the face of the first zombie.

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The thick end of the barrel smashed into the zombie's face, just below its eye and she heard bone break. She pulled the bat back and jammed it into the creature's face again and the end bounced off the zombie's forehead. The two zombies were clawing their way into the room and she took several steps back into the center of the room. Several empty boxes were near her feet and she kicked them towards the approaching monsters.

The one in front tripped on a box and fell, but the second one made it past and closed in on her position. She waited until the last moment and then took a knee and swung the Cat X, slamming the bat into the zombie's knee. The creature wailed louder, but fell to the ground. She recovered her swing and spun her body. The bat followed in a large arching motion and she brought the bat down on the back of its head. Bone and brain and gore exploded from where the bat crushed its skull. She pulled the bat back and turned in time to see the first zombie gain its footing and was almost upon her.

Antoinette sidestepped the zombie, using the advantage of its smashed eye socket to move so she could swing and hit it in the back. The force of her swing over balanced the zombie and it tripped over his buddy. There was no time to wait, she pounced and swung the bat, smashing its skull with several swings. She continued to swing, trading strikes between the two zombies, until she realized they were no longer 'alive'. Her XP increased to 30/300.

Her breathing was heavy from the effort, but she felt good; she felt alive. She suffered no cuts or bites or any real damage other than getting sprayed with more zombie brains. Part of her wanted to scream while swinging the bat, but the fear of getting some zombie funk in her mouth was more important. Even the thought of the taste of death brought on the very real threat of barfing.

It didn't take Antoinette long to run back to the safe house. She didn't see any other zombies on her brief run, but she had tunnel vision just to get back to safety. When she stepped out of the revolving door something rose from the floor. She was still a bit jumpy from the zombie fight, and she had the bat ready to swing before she realized that she was looking at something that resembled a small podium.

A woman's voice filled the space.

No weapons in the Safe House

It was the same voice from before, but it was still a bit out of the ordinary. She lowered the Cat-X and walked to the podium. When she arrived, she realized that the only thing on the small lectern was a slot similar to a vending machine. She touched various places on the cool black metal of the podium, looking for a button or switch to activate it, but she couldn't find any.

Please insert the coin in the slot

Antoinette looked up for the source of the sound, but she couldn't even see any speakers mounted on the walls or ceiling. The voice sounded like the voices sci-fi movies used for the AI on the ship. The use of a woman's voice was supposed to be calming when the shit hit the fan. There were other reasons, all the same ones most GPS devices used a woman's voice as the default.

She reached into her pocket and retrieved the disk and keycard. There was no way the keycard was going to fit, but the disk was just the right proportion. She flipped the coin over and looked at the engraving again. She had no idea what it meant, but she excitedly put the edge of the disk into the slot and let gravity pull it down. The podium hummed for several seconds before lowering into the floor. There were no lights or music or any other indication that anything happened. The podium was gone and she was left standing in emptiness. Fuck.

Feeling a bit defeated, she walked to the elevator carrying her bat. Minutes later she exited the elevator car on the 16th floor and walked down the hallway towards her room. The metal door was closed, but when she touched it with her palm, it slid into the floor to let her in. She crossed the threshold and walked to the terminal. As she approached it came to life and she noticed some small changes to two of her stats:

Bloodshed

Novice - Lvl 1+

Accuracy

Novice - Lvl 1+

She smiled at the computer screen, seeing some progress to her skills. Antoinette wasn’t sure if the count went to 10 or 20 or 100 before she leveled up, so she was going to have to keep beating zombie ass until things changed. There really should be some kind of manual to what was going on.

Antoinette took a deep breath and pulled the keycard from her pocket and slid it in the slot next to the terminal. The screen flicked and a new message appeared:

Bathroom now available

A bathroom! Hell yeah! She let the bat drop from her hand where it clanked on the shiny floor. She turned the corner to her bedroom and saw that there was now a door on the wall next to her bed. She raced to the simple wooden door and turned the handle.

Antoinette wasn't sure what she was expecting, but the door opened to a small bathroom you would find in a low rent apartment. There was a toilet and a sink and a shower stall. The shower stall made it feel like she won the lottery. She walked to the stall and turned on the spigots. After several seconds she was happy with the temperature and she started to strip.

She wasn't wearing a lot of clothes, so after she set the Colt in the sink, she worked on her boots first. Within a minute she was in the shower and the warm water was surrounding her with a comforting feeling. Antoinette didn't remember too many games where you took a shower, but she was happy that there was one in her apartment. The water washed the grime of the zombies off her body. There was even a small bottle of generic looking shampoo/conditioner on a small shelf in the stall. That put her in a conundrum. Was that the only product that was available? Did she have to ration it? In the end she didn't care, she poured a small amount in the palm of her hands and lathered up.

She started with her hair and worked the substance through, moving her hands to her face and neck. As the suds flowed down her body she rubbed it over chest, feeling the size and shape of her breasts. In real life her breasts were larger, but with only a 12 Charisma, she was happy that she had some curves. She washed her stomach and lower until her hands slid between her legs. This might be a game, but she had all the working parts of being human. She wasn’t surprised that she was clean shaven; a man must be behind what was happening.

The feeling of clean was rejuvenating. Once she was finished, she turned off the water and opened the glass door. Steam filled the small bathroom and she fumbled around for a towel. Several seconds later, she realized there was no towel; she was going to have to employ the drip-dry method. Just to be sure, she waited for a bit, hoping that one would appear, but nothing happened. She exited the bathroom, intent on using her bedsheet, but when she looked at the bed she saw a white towel folded neatly by her pillow.

Happily she grabbed the towel and worked the soft material over her hair and body. When she was done she walked back in the bathroom and looked at the mirror over the sink. It was still foggy from the steam, so she smeared the towel over the glass to clear the reflection. She was shocked by her reflection.

Antoinette looked at her long sandy brown hair. Even wet, it had some natural curl to it. Her eyes were light brown, the color of coffee with too much cream. Next she looked at her body. It looked like she was an athlete of some sort. Her breasts were somewhere between an A and B cup with small light brown nipples centered on each breast. She followed the flat line of her abdomen down to her legs. They were long and strong, like that of someone used to running. Not the strength you get from long distance running, but from short bursts like soccer. She turned her body and looked over her shoulder and gave her ass a look and smiled. She had a pretty sexy ass. Not that anyone was going to see it, but knowing she had a nice ass gave her walk a swagger.

Happy with her appearance, she wondered about her charisma score. She was pretty fucking sexy, but she only had a 12. Did that mean that she was just socially awkward that drove her score down? Hopefully it wasn't something weird like uncontrollable flatulence. She contemplated the scoring system while picking up her clothes and washing them the best she could in the shower. She was going to have to sit on her bed naked until they were dry.

Maybe she could find something to amuse herself while she waited.