Date: April 17th, 2027
Place: New York City – Lower East Side – Elias' Apartment Building
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The building was alive with screams.
From behind every door came shouts, cries, banging fists. Some begged for help. Some begged for mercy. Others… were cut off too fast, replaced by gurgles and the sound of tearing flesh.
I gripped the hammer tighter, my palms slick with sweat and blood. My breath came in shallow gasps, each one rasping in my chest.
I told myself I'd move slowly, carefully. But when the first door on the left burst open, there was no time for thought.
A man staggered out, shirt drenched crimson, his head jerking unnaturally. His jaw opened, teeth slick with blood, eyes pale and lifeless. His body was still fresh, the transformation incomplete, but the hunger in his gaze was unmistakable.
He lunged.
I swung.
The hammer connected with his cheekbone, snapping his head sideways with a crack. He stumbled, one arm reaching even as his jaw snapped open for my throat.
My arms screamed from the impact, but I didn't let go. I wrenched the hammer free and drove it into his temple again. This time the bone gave way, the head crumpling like rotten wood.
He dropped, lifeless.
The HUD flared across my vision.
[You have slain a Tier 1 Zombie.]
[+10 Essence absorbed.]
I barely had time to process before another door opened.
This one wasn't a single figure. It was two.
A young couple—I recognized them from seeing them in the stairwell once or twice. Their faces were ruined now, lips shredded from gnashing, skin stretched pale across their bones. They came at me together, a grotesque parody of unity.
My chest tightened.
"God damn it—!"
The first slammed into me, fingers clawing for my face. I shoved him back with my shoulder, but the second closed in, her nails raking across my arm. Pain lanced sharp and hot across my skin. I swung the hammer upward, catching her jaw. Bone shattered, teeth flying as her head snapped back.
The man came again. His weight crashed into me, pinning me against the wall. His teeth snapped inches from my throat, spittle spraying across my cheek.
The HUD flashed.
[Warning: HP -8]
[Current HP: 112 / 120]
He was strong. Too strong. I could smell the rot on his breath, feel the press of his weight.
My vision blurred red. My body screamed. I shoved with everything I had, twisting free, and brought the hammer up in a brutal arc. It connected with his skull. The sound was wet, final. He dropped instantly, twitching once before lying still.
The woman screeched, her jaw hanging loose, tongue flopping unnaturally. She lurched again, but I was already moving. I swung sideways, the hammer cracking across her head, snapping her neck like a twig. She spun sideways into the wall, her skull caving in on impact.
Silence followed. For a moment.
Then more doors slammed open.
My gut dropped.
They poured out into the hallway—three, four, five of them. Pale eyes glowing in the emergency lights. Some still in pajamas, others in work clothes. Neighbors I had passed every day. Now reduced to husks of hunger.
"Shit."
I backed up, hammer raised, my breath catching in my throat. My hands trembled, but not from fear this time. From exertion. From the fatigue already creeping in.
The HUD flickered again.
[SP: 67 / 100]
[Warning: Stamina reduced.]
My arms were heavy. My chest ached. But there was no time. They rushed me together.
The first—a teenager in a bloody hoodie—lunged low, teeth bared. I stepped forward and brought the hammer down on the top of his skull. The bone crumpled, his body collapsing instantly.
But the others didn't stop.
A heavyset man crashed into me from the side, sending me stumbling into the wall. His nails raked across my ribs, tearing cloth and skin. I gasped, shoving him off with a desperate grunt.
Another grabbed my shoulder, teeth sinking into the fabric of my shirt. The cloth tore, but I wrenched free, driving my elbow into its jaw. Bone cracked, but it kept coming, snapping blindly.
My hammer was heavy. Too heavy. My swings slowed, each one dragging on my muscles.
The HUD pulsed again.
[SP: 40 / 100]
[Warning: Stamina low.]
Panic clawed at me. If I slowed too much, if I dropped the hammer for even a second, I was dead.
I roared, swinging with everything I had left. The hammer arced wide, smashing through one skull, then carrying through into another. The impact rattled my arms, nearly tore the weapon from my grip, but both bodies fell at once.
Two left.
The heavyset man came again, his weight crashing into me. We slammed into the floor, his teeth snapping for my throat. I shoved my forearm into his mouth, pain tearing through me as his teeth sank shallow into flesh. Not deep. Not fatal. But it burned like fire.
I screamed, rage flooding my veins, and brought the hammer down point-blank. Once. Twice. His skull shattered beneath the blows, fragments scattering across the floor.
The last one lunged from behind. I twisted, swinging wildly. The hammer connected with its neck, snapping it sideways with a sickening crunch. The body crumpled, twitching, before going still.
Silence fell.
My chest heaved. Sweat drenched my skin. My hands shook so hard I nearly dropped the hammer. Blood—black, red, sticky—coated my arms, splattered across the walls, smeared on the floor.
The HUD burned again.
[You have slain a Tier 1 Zombie x5.]
[+50 Essence absorbed.]
[Level Up!]
[Distribute 5 Attribute Points.]
I staggered back against the wall, my lungs dragging in air like a drowning man. My vision swam, the glowing text searing itself into my mind.
Level up. Attribute points. Power.
And yet…
I looked at the bodies around me. Neighbors. People I had nodded to in the hall, passed on the stairs.
Now nothing but corpses at my feet.
My hand tightened on the hammer. My breath shook. My eyes burned, but no tears came.
The world had ended.
And survival had a price.
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The hallway stank of death.
Blood seeped into the carpet, dark stains spreading in irregular shapes. Limbs twisted at impossible angles, jaws snapped open in frozen snarls. My hammer hung limply in my hand, my arms trembling from the weight of it, from the carnage I'd carved.
The HUD still burned in my vision.
[You have slain a Tier 1 Zombie x5.]
[+50 Essence absorbed.]
[Level Up!]
[Distribute 5 Attribute Points.]
My chest rose and fell in harsh gasps. My lungs burned. My heart pounded so loud it drowned out the faint groans echoing from other floors.
The System waited, patient. Its letters didn't fade.
I slid down the wall, my knees giving out, until I was sitting among the bodies. The hammer rested across my lap, slick with gore. My hands shook violently, blood dripping from my forearm where the teeth had grazed me. The wound wasn't deep, but it was real, raw, burning.
The text pulsed again.
[Distribute 5 Attribute Points.]
Permanent. Irreversible.
I closed my eyes. The memory of the fight still screamed inside me—the weight of their bodies, the pressure of their teeth against my arm, the stench of blood. I had only survived because of those first points I'd placed. If I hadn't…
If I hadn't, I'd be dead already.
My jaw tightened. I wasn't ready. I didn't understand this System. But hesitation was death.
"Fine," I whispered hoarsely. My voice sounded broken, a rasp barely louder than the hum of emergency lights. "Strength. Endurance."
The HUD shimmered.
[+3 STR allocated.]
[+2 END allocated.]
Strength: 13 → 16
Endurance: 12 → 14
The change hit instantly.
It was like fire rushing through my veins. My arms felt lighter, steadier. My chest expanded as if new air had been forced into my lungs. The pain in my muscles dulled, though not entirely. I could still feel the exhaustion—but beneath it, raw energy thrummed.
I flexed my grip on the hammer. It felt different now, not like dead weight but like something made for my hands.
And that terrified me.
Because it worked.
And if it worked, it meant the System wasn't just some cruel trick. It was real. It was changing me.
I staggered back to my feet, my boots slipping in the blood. I forced myself forward, past the broken bodies of neighbors, toward the stairwell.
The building was alive with chaos. From below came the crash of glass, the echo of screams, the pounding of feet—some fleeing, some hunting. From above, the thuds of doors slamming, voices crying for help, then silence. Always silence.
I pushed the stairwell door open with my shoulder.
The stairwell was dim, the single light flickering weakly overhead. Blood streaked the walls, handprints smeared in desperate scrambles. A body lay crumpled on the landing—a man in his twenties, jeans and a tank top soaked through with blood. His head lolled at an unnatural angle, eyes pale and lifeless.
And then his fingers twitched.
My gut clenched.
The body jerked violently, rising with a crack of bone as the neck snapped back into place. His eyes rolled until they were pure white. He let out a guttural hiss, jerking toward me in a stagger.
I raised the hammer.
He rushed me. Faster than the others.
My swing came instinctively, the hammer arcing upward in a brutal strike. It smashed into his jaw, shattering bone. His head snapped sideways, but he didn't stop. His hands clawed for me, nails raking across my arm.
[HP -5]
[Current HP: 107 / 120]
I roared, shoving him back into the railing. The metal creaked under his weight. His jaws snapped, teeth clashing inches from my face. I drove my knee up into his gut, the impact doubling him over.
Before he could recover, I brought the hammer down into the top of his skull. The bone cracked, fragments flying, but still he moved, twitching like a broken puppet.
"Stay down!" I shouted, my voice raw, as I slammed the hammer down again.
The third strike split his head wide, black fluid spraying across the steps. His body convulsed once, then collapsed into stillness.
The HUD flared.
[You have slain a Tier 1 Zombie.]
[+10 Essence absorbed.]
My chest heaved. Sweat stung my eyes. My arms ached, my grip trembling around the hammer's handle.
I looked down at the corpse, my breath ragged.
Neighbors. Strangers. Friends. It didn't matter. They weren't human anymore.
But I still saw their faces.
The sound of footsteps above snapped my head up. Heavy. Uneven. Too many.
Shadows moved against the flickering light, shapes jerking unnaturally as they descended.
My gut turned to ice.
Another wave.
I tightened my grip on the hammer, forcing my stance steady even as my legs trembled. My breath came harsh, sweat dripping down my jaw.
The groans grew louder.
Figures emerged on the landing above—four of them, maybe five. Pale eyes glowing in the dim. Jaws opening in inhuman shrieks.
My heartbeat thundered in my ears. My arms screamed from fatigue.
But my legs shifted into stance, and my jaw set.
If this building was going to be my tomb, I'd fill it with bodies before I went down.
"Come on," I whispered, raising the hammer. My voice was low, steady despite the tremor in my chest. "Come and get me."
The horde descended.
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