“Fucking, you and your loud mouth Billy!” Clark screams at his friend as they both scramble to climb over the top of my barricade.

“Me! How is this my fault!?” Billy asks.

“Because you fucking screamed at the top of your lungs you dipshit!” I yell at him as I grab Clark and pull him over the top.

So much for staying away from other people. I'm not heartless enough to leave them for dead, but if that thing is as strong as I think it is…… the door buckles again, something gives way and a hulking mass tumbles through into the barricade. Billy yelps as the force of the impact sends him reeling, causing him to tumble off straight into Clark, sending both of them to the floor.

I manage to barely avoid getting tangled up in the mess as I hear whatever the hell broke through the door let out a weird sounding groan. I hear its soft footsteps as it walks away a little, before it thunders forward and crashes into the barricade again. The ragged collection of cabinets, chairs, and whatever else I could find shudders for a tenth of a moment, before giving way and blasting everywhere as the thundering mass blows through it. Clark and Billy scream and I throw my hands up to cover my head as debris flies all around us, but the zombie somehow misses us. Instead it rushes past, the floor shaking with every stomp, and crashes through the wall, continuing through a few more before finally stopping somewhere across the floor. In the middle of all that a half a table flying through the air smashed into me, knocking me over and covering me in debris. Thankfully I’m tough enough that it didn't actually do any damage, just put me on my ass in surprise. But judging by the screaming, one of the other two wasn't so lucky.

I shove the remains of the table off me and look over at the other two. The sight that greets me isn't pretty, Clark is holding his left leg and screaming, the silhouette of the leg being bent in an unnatural direction at the knee. Billy however isn't moving, his head pinned under what I think is a mangled filing cabinet. I reach over and grab the LED flashlight, which Clark dropped when everything went flying. I shine the light over the other two and it's worse than I feared. Billy has a lot of blood pooling around his head, and his eyes are wide open and glazed over. Clarks leg is definitely broken at the knee, and his screaming is definitely going to attract even more attention.

Speaking of attention, I swing the light around and turn my attention to the hole in the wall where that thing crashed through when it overshot. Lots of dust and debris obscures my vision, but I can make out the faint form of something giant slowly trying to turn around back this way. Of course this thing couldn't have impaled itself on a pipe and died or something. The behemoth finishes turning around and the dust gets blown away as it lets out a massive puff of air, giving me a perfect view of the monstrosity as I shine the light on it. It's definitely a zombie, but a heavily mutated one at that. The jellyfish is double in size to its regular zombie counterparts, and has burrowed into the skull of the victim so deep it's either replaced or fused with the brain. The extra tentacles that were originally for holding on now flail around freely and excitedly in the air, while the shattered skull has left the face competently broken and twisted. That or charging through doors and walls did that. The rest of the body isn't much better off. The upper torso and upper arms have swollen so much that the skin is an angry red and even splitting in some places, while the lower torso looks so emaciated it's a wonder it hasn't snapped in half. The legs are just as bad as the upper torso, being swollen and bulging so much the skin is stretching to its limit and barely accommodating.

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The monstrosity sucks in a huge volume of air, then lets out a loud roaring scream before thundering straight back out the hole and at me. I jump to the side, barely getting out of the way as it rushes past, and straight at Clark. Originally it was going to miss him, but his continued screaming seems to have drawn its attention. So when it missed me, it altered its course slightly for the next best thing. Clark’s screams didn't change, they just stopped altogether as the sounds of flesh being pulverized, bones shattering, and metal being rent took over for a split second before a loud crash, then silence. I shine the flashlight over where the two originally laid, only to find a blood and gore pudding that has me almost losing my non-existent dinner again.

And I thought the original mess on the street was bad. I force myself up, knowing damn well that if I hang around any longer I’ll be next on the pudding list. I stumble my way towards the door, only for a giant figure next to the door frame to give me pause. Shit, I thought it crashed farther away! It was slowly turning to reorient itself for another pass at me. Emphasis on the slow, this thing is a menace in a straight line but apparently can't turn for shit. If I can get to the stairwell I can probably lose it going up or down with little problems. I could also try to bait it into another hard wall then go for the jelly, but I don't think that's a good idea. For one I don't know how tough the jelly is now, the main body seems to have significant reinforcement to not be falling apart after charging through so many solid objects and into walls. I also don't want to find out if those mutated arms can hit worth a damn or with any speed.

The mutant finished turning around, flared its nostrils, and thundered forward again. This time I was ready, and easily slipped to the side as it blazed past me and crashed through the walls where I was standing moments ago. I didn't wait, I ran forward past the carnage and into the stairwell. Unfortunately, my options were limited, below I could hear the excessive clattering and screeching of more zombies trying to make their way up. I didn't shine the flashlight down the stairwell for fear of pissing them off even more. Instead I opted to start bolting up the stairs as fast as I could, careless about the noise I was making, the zombies were making way more anyways. Quickly the floors passed by me as I sped over landing after landing, looking for I don't know what, a safe place to hide in. Suddenly a number caught my eye, and I grabbed the railing to jerk myself to a halt on the landing in front of the door. Twelfth floor, where Clark said his group was hiding before he got killed.

I ran up to the door and tried the latch, which thankfully wasn't locked or jammed shut. Carefully I opened the door just enough to slip inside, the mana regen crystal somewhat loudly ‘clinking’ off the wall as it slipped in behind me. I quickly grabbed it and shoved it in my barely empty enough pocket before closing the door as carefully behind me as I could so the latch won't even click. Not going to lie to myself, I kinda forgot the regen crystal crystal existed for a while. Good thing this thing follows me. I leaned against the door and tried to catch my breath, super human or not. The whole ordeal left my heart thundering so hard it sounded like a bass drum in my ear and my breathing so heavy I might as well have been an industrial fan. Still, I’m alive. Unfortunately others are not, I couldn't save them, and that has me feeling conflicted. It’s one thing to watch someone die, it's a whole different thing to have talked to them five seconds before. I can’t help but wonder if it had gone differently if they would have lived. If I had agreed to join them would they have stayed inside a little longer and the zombie passed by, or tried to leave out moments before and had more time to get to cover before it came barreling through. One thing is for sure, the sight of what was left of Clark is definitely going to haunt me.

I cut the thoughts off with a shake of my head and push myself upright. That's when I finally notice the soft sound of footsteps moving across the carpet, which I missed until now because I was lost in thought. I stand up straight and turn to face the sound, only to come face to face with a double barrel shotgun with an extra mean looking shark bite on the end a mere foot away from my face.

“Don’t move.”