"Holy Spaghetti Monster above," I muttered softly as I read and then reread the latest notification. Once again, my mind spun with the information divulged from the message, as even more questions sprouted in my head regarding this so-called greater universe entity. For the moment, though nothing confused, worried, and excited me more than the words Advancement of life force tier. If I were going off of current sci-fi and fantasy books and media, this meant an overall increase to me as a person. I was about to become a sort of superior Human. Or at least I prayed it was an advanced Human, as even the mere thought of elevating into some other creature scared the crap out of me. Except maybe elves, the thought of turning into a sort of immortal being that were known in all forms of fantasy of creatures of lithe beauty excited me. Especially when I looked down at my slightly bulging stomach covered by my bloodstained jacket.
Shaking the visions of me, with flowing golden hair and a swimmer's body filled with defined muscles, walking down the beach turning heads everywhere I passed, I re-read the message one more time before dismissing it from my view. The feeling of the all-over body itchiness from before was now gone, thankfully, and I began to make my way downstairs again. Despite the fact that I was now on a timer before I would apparently become unconscious and apparently defenseless in an unfamiliar city filled with dangerous cannibals and God knows what else, I still took the stairs at a normal pace. Feeling more mentally exhausted than physically at the moment, I knew this was actually the most dangerous state to be in when in a city rife with danger around every corner. Just like driving a car, one tired misstep or slow thought could lead me to a quick death. So, I took my time.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs, I headed straight for the exit door, where Beetle had happily exited, accompanied by the sounds of me choking to death, and slowly stuck my head into the connecting room. Behind the door was a sort of lobby area that was more of a large hall. Mailboxes were on both sides of the wall leading to the building's former entrance. Some were half-open, with liberal amounts of dried and old blood sprayed across the walls. The hallway was dimly lit except for a flickering emergency exit light at one end, giving the dingy hall an ominous vibe. To the right was a set of elevators that were clearly not in use, and across from me was what appeared to be a similar door to the one I was leaning out of that led to another set of stairs.
I calmed my breathing as it sounded as loud as thunder to my ears in the quiet, dimly lit hall and tried my best to listen for any noise. After several seconds of silence and a sigh of relief, I pushed the door open a fraction more and slipped sideways through the opening, doing my level best to make as little sound as possible. Now in the hall, I saw only chewed bones, ripped clothes, and thrown luggage. At least nothing living. With soft strides, I passed the hall of mailboxes and went to the set of sliding glass doors that marked the entrance. Though the building seemed to pulse with power, the doors remained shut as I approached. This wasn't a problem though as the literal carpet of glass in front of the doors, showed that they had been smashed in and I could simply step over the frame and out, into the dark streets of this zombie metropolis I had found myself in.
Now that I was at the entrance and about to leave the building filled with nightmare-inducing ghouls, I hesitated. From what I saw of the city earlier from one of the windows above, I could guess that the rest of the city if not all was in a similar start the apartment building I had found myself in and in some ways the city could be and most likely would hold more dangerous entities than the zombies I have fought so far. Going by the fact that I had already witnessed a mutant zombie, which didn't resemble its undead but still human brethren, I guessed that this city might hold creatures of all kinds.
Still looking back at the strobe-lighted hall and blood-coated walls, I firmed up my original thought of heading out to the wider city instead of being trapped in a narrow, unfamiliar building I know is filled with zombies. Checking my countdown timer, I saw I had already wasted a couple of minutes and decided that although I wouldn't rush in a panic to find somewhere safe right this moment; I did need to get a move on. Stepping over the empty frame of the doorway, my presence on the dark moonlit street was accompanied by the sound of my boots crushing glass. Looking to my left and right, I could make out vague stumbling shapes amidst the rusted and smashed up cars lining the road and the piles of scattered possessions but not much in greater detail.
Now in the street, I did my best to remember the layout I had seen from the apartment window and the direction I needed to take to head towards the barricaded carpark complex that was my original target. Even though I couldn't see much in the night's dark, the close to full moon in the clear sky let me see enough that I could just make out the top of the car park complex about a mile to my right. Wedged between what appeared to be a multi-store and another apartment building, this one looked to be about half the size of the one I had just left and was built like some of the nicer apartments found in my home city, all made of nice solid brick with large balconies. Its architecture also gave me a gothic feel. On further thought, looking around at the surrounding buildings, even though they were modern-looking and similar to the many buildings found at home, they all held a sort of gothic vibe to them. With sloped tiled roofs, pointed arches, and colored stained glass windows. 'I guess I shouldn't be too surprised; if it weren't for the human-looking zombies, this place could have been made by telepathic octopuses for all I know.'
As I was plotting my route towards the car park complex, and doing my best to see any potential threats in the dark, a metal trash can came hurtling out of nowhere and slammed right into the car on my left, which was only a few meters away from where I was standing. The trash can impacted with such force that its mangled form pierced through the car door, becoming wedged and crumpling the door in at least half a foot. The already broken windows shattered from the force, sending waves of broken glass in all directions. My first thought was to take off running with all my might, but I quickly stifled that stupid plan and instead crouched down low, hiding behind the driver's side door of an SUV that was left wide open. The severed hand still clutching the steering wheel showed that something had ripped the car owner from the car as they attempted to flee. I gave the severed, decomposed hand only a glance before the monstrosity being illuminated by the moon captured all my attention.
Coming from the alley next to the apartment building I just left, was a set of three people, two men and one girl, all in various states of distress, the woman even looked to be wearing only one shoe while the two men had leather jackets on and ripped jeans that were liberally coated in filth. As they were currently facing away from me, I could read the big letter patches on the back of their jackets, 'Gypsy Jokers', under which was a skull on fire wearing a jester hat.
I knew who the guys were straight away, although not personally, after seeing the logo. Actually, after seeing the logo, I knew with whom the two young men wearing leather jackets were affiliated. A local biker gang that dwelt in the area where I worked. Unlike Beetle, whose group of friends, including himself, always looked like nothing more than baggy jeans wearing try hard gangsters, these men were the real deal. With shaved heads, tattoo-covered skin and faces set in permanent "don't mess with me" scowls. They ran a good deal of shady stuff from their clubhouse, one of the main ones being prostitution. As I usually worked the night shift, I saw many men of all different ages and sizes entering their clubhouse, and in most cases they were met at the doorway buy scantly clad women.
Although I always did my best to keep a low profile among the rougher sorts of the Bayswater factory area, I had a couple of run-ins with different members of the gang while walking to work. A couple of times they had questioned my reason for being in the area. Even though I was terrified when confronted by several large burly men, wielding steel pipes or cracking tattooed knuckles the size of my chubby face, I had always answered their questions in the calmest and nonchalant tone I could muster. Either they appreciated my calm in the face of their threatening presence and questions or they truly believed that I did work in the area and wasn't spying on them for the local police; after a few times, they stopped bothering me. Afterwards, a couple of the members even gave simple nods in greeting when I walked past their clubhouse.
Regardless, that these men were also transported here like me, gave more evidence to an idea I had earlier when I had seen Beetle but for the moment I couldn't confirm anything and instead I focused on hiding behind the SUV door and not moving a muscle. Peeking through the car window, I was able to get a decent view of what was going on. Even though the sight of other familiar humans made me happy in one way, I still didn't announce my presence. For two reasons. One, I had just been burned by Beetle, and my old weariness of other humans had returned with full force, especially as I knew these men belonged to a fairly renown gang known for their ruthlessness. The second reason was that the men were currently fighting against what could only be described as a zombie hulk, and they also looked to be losing. 'No point in betting on a lame horse, right?'
The culprit who had thrown the metal trash can earlier with such incredible force had been found, and much to my relief I realised the monster had obviously not been aiming at me. Hence, my first thought of hiding was the correct one; luckily, I didn't go running down the car-covered road in a panic, making god knew how much noise. The two gang members appeared to be used to fighting together. While one distracted the ten foot tall muscle bound zombie, the other darted in to inflict an insignificant wound on its rock hard looking skin. Even though the large zombie was slow in its movements as it swung its cannonball-sized fists at the two humans, the sound of its fist meeting the concrete sounded like an actual cannonball hitting the hard earth. I could even vaguely make out concrete chips flying through the air from the impact, along with small spiderweb cracks covering the grimy pavement, hinting at its incredible strength.
I could make a healthy guess that the current injured state of the men, was not due to the musclebound zombie, mainly because I could tell that if even one of those punches landed on either of them, their bodies would be nothing, but a skin suit filled with crushed bones. Instead, it appeared to be from previous battles. Unlike myself, neither man seemed to have a regeneration talent, although the fact that they appeared to still be in fighting form at least told me they had healing supplies of some sort. Thankfully, besides having to use a zombie skin as an impromtu bandage, my Epic talent had already saved me many times in the short couple of hours that I had been in this twisted city.
The girl who was with the two gangsters had run ahead of the men as they did their best to fend off this new zombie at the mouth of the alley. As if watching a movie, I was in suspense when I originally thought the woman, who was dressed in a pair of denim short shorts and a white crop top with a similar cropped black jacket, was going to leave the men behind, but she actually turned around after several meters and appeared to retrieve something from within her jacket pocket. Due to the fact that her back was now directly facing me, and I was several cars down, I couldn't make out what she had in her hand, but considering she wasn't in any kind of shooting stance I guessed it wasn't a gun.
Instead, the sound of the flickering of a lighter rang out several times, as the woman, who looked to be around my age in her late teens, also cursed several times in a soft but flustered voice. After several tense seconds, the woman screamed, "Yes!!" so loudly it almost made me fall backwards in sudden surprise. The woman's previous makeup - smeared face and short spiky hair that was cast in shadow were abruptly lit up in an orange glow, which caught my attention away from the two men fighting the zombie hulk. Like a moth to a flame, I had eyes only for the woman at that moment and the mysterious thing lighting up her face, until I realised it actually was a flame. She had lit something on fire, and the sudden bright light in the dark night had even caused the zombie hulk's roaring haymakers to pause for a moment as its milky orbs for eyes focused on the fire in the woman's hands.
The woman yelled, "Get out of the way, you meatheads!" as she took a throwing position, revealing the lit rag stuffed into the top of what must be some alcohol-filled bottle to me. Without hesitation, the two bikers took off running towards the road, diving over a car's hood almost simultaneously. The woman with the flaming Molotov cocktail had barely waited for the two men to get clear after she yelled her warning and tossed the bottle straight after. The muscle-bound zombie roared towards the woman as if upset she had distracted him and almost as if to help the woman he stepped in her direction, his large six-foot-wide frame that was already an easy target to hit became even easier with the shortened distance. As if unaware of the impending danger, the zombie didn't even attempt to dodge or swat at the flaming bottle and let it slam right onto its large pictorial chest.
The liquid in the bottle spread all across the zombie's upper torso and head, which was quickly set ablaze by the burning rag. Once fire engulfed its frame, lighting up half the darkened street, the zombie's previously sure but slow-footed steps paused. The young woman's smirking face glowed under the zombie bonfire as she stuck a finger at the burning musclebound behemoth and struck a sort of victory pose. Both gang members also got up from their positions, crouched behind the cover of the cars on the road and laughed in weary happiness at the sight of the burning zombie. The three met in the middle of the road and stood only a few feet from the zombie, all watching its skin melt off in globs and hit the pavement with a gross hiss.
The smell of burning, rotting flesh reached my position behind the door as well and caused me to cover my mouth to stop myself from gagging. The three now talked to each other in apparent leisure, as if they were sitting around a campfire, a sight that made me shake my head as I stared between the biker trio and the eight-foot-tall cooking zombie. "Good job, Zed. I didn't think the bastard would follow us all the way from the apartment and didn't bother barricading the back door." One of the men, who was wielding an iron pipe, said to the woman. His face held a subservient, even fearful, look when he addressed the woman standing in the middle of the trio. "I didn't think it would either. Frick knows how it got through those tiny doors on the stairs." The other man said as he rubbed his shaved head with shaking fingers. The woman appeared to puff up after hearing the first man's words but didn't reply as she just watched the flames with a sort of odd look. As if she were mesmerized by the sight.
'Probably a firebug. It wouldn't surprise me; only nutcases or the hopeless join gangs these days.' I shook my head once again at the trio as I looked at the woman's enraptured but young face. Taking my eyes off the three, I looked back at the zombie still standing in place, while its skin and muscle slowly burned in the ever-shrinking fire. A puddle of melted and charred goo began to pool at the hulking figure's feet, the sight of which made my stomach do a flip. The current frozen state of the large zombie reminded of the way the Snatcher zombie had frozen after I cut off its tongue. Thinking this, I tried my best to focus on the beast to see if I could pull up its information. I hadn't tried to use the system-identify skill on anything that was further than a few feet away before, but something in my gut told me it was possible.
I stared unblinking at the smoldering behemoth and did my best to will the creature's information to me like I had done for the looted items previously. I felt as if someone had glued me to a chair and I was reaching for a remote that sat just at my fingertips, and with every stretch of my mind, I moved a little closer to touching it. It was somewhat painful, though, feeling as if I was pulling a muscle in my head that didn't like being pulled, causing my vision to turn blurry and for an all too familiar headache to rise. Luckily, every time my mind began to pound or my eyes began to sting, the pain was washed away. I supposed the self-damage I was doing to myself was being healed by my Epic-level talent every time it happened. After several more seconds of straining, and with one last mental push that made me even more dizzy than before, a panel of information appeared on the right side of my view, the sight of which brought a small smile to my face. There also appeared to be some barrier that I had inadvertently pushed through as well, as a soft chime rang in my ears alongside the feeling of burning in my eyes clearing away. With a mental click at the new box of text floating in my vision, the mechanical voice of the system sounded in my ears.
[Zombie Brute – Tier 1 - Level 5 – Hostile – Dazed]
[Congratulations, Lifeform, you have independently unlocked the Talent: Analyze – Level 1.]
The happiness of unlocking another talent was completely suffocated by the fact that the zombie was a Tier 1 lifeform and was only in a dazed state. It definitely wasn't dead. The lack of sound and movement was just a side effect, and although the molotov cocktail had obviously injured it, I could see that the Zombie Brute was ultimately fine. Looking back at the three bikies, who were now only a few feet from the blackened brute and staring at the dying flames with a clear greedy look upon their tattooed and piercings-filled brows. 'Obviously excited about the possible loot drop a zombie of this caliber will drop.' I thought to myself upon seeing their fervent and almost drooling expressions.
A moment of indecision took hold of me in that moment, as I didn't know if getting up from my hiding position to warn them of the Zombie Brute's level and current dazed state would actually lead to more trouble. From all the movies and books I've consumed, not including my own first hand experience, I knew humans were almost always the worst companions during a sudden disaster. Yes, there had been many stories of people or entire communities rallying together to help a person in need or the like but I knew these bikies were not the type to accept a helping hand when down. They would more than likely grab your helping hand and pull you into the muck alongside them. 'Still, they don't seem too bad, not all people will be like that bastard Bug from before.' Many thoughts raced through my mind at that moment, but the eventual choice of exposing myself was somewhat taken away from me by the woman in the trio's next actions.
While I was gripped by indecision behind the car door, the three bikies had watched the last of the flames upon the now semi-melted zombie in great anticipation. They, however, were not completely without caution. Growing up in their own dog-eat-dog world, they held a certain amount of caution in regard to most situations. The woman, seeing the last of the flames finally snuffing out, and the hulking zombie still standing in the same spot not moving an inch, decided to pick up a loose bit of gravel near her feet the size of a baseball. And without hesitation, she wound her arm back to throw it at the zombie.
Seeing the woman's action of throwing the stone, my heart dropped at that moment, and I leapt from my hiding place shouting, "No, don't! It's only dazed!" But I was a fraction too late. The piece of gravel had left the woman's hand and was headed straight for the Zombie Brute's dazed form. The bikie trio did not follow the thrown rock and instead had all turned in my direction, weapons raised in vigilance and a small amount of confusion at seeing me pop out from seemingly nowhere to them. On my en,d I was not paying the trio any further attention, as along with a wide-eyed stare I watched the gravel hit the brute in the head, chipping away a flake of charred skin on its cheek and revealing the greeny brown but ultimately unharmed skin beneath.
"We're in trouble now." I muttered and, turning back to the trio who were still warily staring at me, I tried to yell, "Run" at them but was rudely interrupted by an absolutely teeth-rattling roar from the Zombie Brute. It was clearly not happy about its recent treatment and was apparently ready to inform the offending parties right away. The trio of bikies finally took their eyes off me after the roar and looked over to the now moving Zombie Brute. I was also looking in shock at the originally slow-moving Zombie Brute. Whether it was a skill, or because it was enraged, or even because the fire had helped it shed some heavy pounds from its bulky form, the Zombie behemoth now ran at the trio of bikers like a runaway freight train.
The woman of the trio, lived up to her previous decisive behavior and upon snapping out of her shock state first and seeing the now sprinting Zombie Brute she put both hands on the backs of her two companions and shoved them in front of her with all her might. She even used the leverage of the push to put a little more distance between her and the raging zombie. Even though both men were significantly heavier than the skinny woman, the unexpected push still caused them both to stumble forward a few steps. Although it was only a jumping distance between each other, it still made all the difference. The woman leapt to the right side right after she pushed her companions forward, disappearing behind a car and away from my shocked view.
The two tattooed men quickly caught themselves after the push, but before their pale faces could even turn around to scold the women, they were both swept off their feet by the charging zombie brute. One of the men was sent flying into a car with such force that he dented the side door and became half ensnared in the twisted metal. Replicating the trash can from before. I could swear I even heard some of his bones crack upon impact with the zombie's muscular frame and then crack again when he hit the car. Most of his limbs dangled languidly by his side as if jelly formed them, while his half-crushed skull hung bloodily against his deformed chest. Either the other bikie man was very lucky or unlucky because the zombie brute did not send him flying but instead, the monster's thick thigh-sized arms swept him up in a bear-like hug.
After grabbing the biker with the steel pipe, the Brute's momentum came to an abrupt halt, its thick feet leaving a skin-dragging mark across the asphalt in its wake, as it held up its caught prey in both hands. The man screamed in absolute terror as the brute lifted him above its head in a weightlifting position, his body horizontal, feet and arms swinging wildly in the air. The zombie's square-shaped face looked up at its flailing prey and, with a savage grin, filled with sharklike teeth, it gripped the man by one shoulder and one leg and pulled to either side with muscle-bulging force.
In a truly horrified state of fear, sympathy and amazement, I watched as the brute literally ripped a human being in two at the pelvis. The man's guts and blood were like a waterfall, streaming down into the zombie brute's waiting mouth with gusto. It was soon awash in a vibrant dark red that almost covered its previous blackened state, as it shook the torso of the man above its face as if looking for loose change. Instead of change, however, more blood, bone and broken organs came cascading out of the torso and into what must have been a bottomless pit of a stomach. I almost let out a whimper in fear at the sight, but I quickly covered my mouth with a hand to stop myself and crouched back down behind the door so as not to bring a similar calamity upon myself.
My previous calming nerves had once again been set on the fritz again, as I was forced to listen to the awful sound of crunching bones and gut-chewing noises ring out only a few meters from me for several long, long seconds. Thankfully, the zombie appeared to only enjoy the innards of humans, as after cleaning out the bikie's entrails, it unceremoniously dropped both halves of the once single body onto the pavement in sickening squelching heaps. The zombie brute then lumbered towards where the other man was half buried in the car door and with one soccer ball-sized hand it ripped the man's already broken body towards itself. Not planning to further watch the bloody display, I instead peeked my head above the car door to the window and scoured the surrounding area for the remaining person of the trio, the woman.
It didn't take me long to spot her, however, as she appeared to be also looking for me too. Her half-short spiky hair could be seen peering over a car only a couple of meters from the now-gorging zombie brute and staring right at my hiding place. Our eyes made eye contact for a moment, and in that moment I saw her eyes narrow in what I could only describe as a very insidious way. 'What does this woman plan to do? Why is she looking at me as if I'm the enemy? There is no way she could get to me without alerting our undead hulk friend. Jesus woman, if looks could kill...' I pondered the odd woman's sudden hostility, as I matched heavy gazes with the woman. Even though I had watched the woman basically force sacrifice her two companions to a zombie, I didn't think I warranted such a venomous gaze as the one she was giving me at that moment.
Feeling a rising anger at the woman's malicious gaze, I raised one hand in view of the car window and stuck my finger at the woman. The sight didn't appear to anger the woman at all. Which actually scared me a little. She also didn't reply with her own rude gesture and instead gave me a very cold-looking smirk, devoid of any real emotion. Before disappearing behind the car she was crouching behind.
The disappearance of the clearly willing to kill a fellow human woman made my heart race. 'Time to get out of dodge Grubbs.' I decided immediately, as the feeling of terror began to rise every second the woman was missing from my view. The zombie brute had so far not noticed my or the woman's presence and was instead focused entirely on the other biker's body. It had ripped the other man in two as well and was now using one of its hands to scoop out the biker's guts and feed them into its face-splitting mouth with much enthusiasm. It let out little roars of either satisfaction or excitement after every mouthful. Knowing this was my best chance to get away from the Zombie Brute as it was focused on its meal, I took one last look for the venomous woman before moving. Actually, I was surprised to see the woman again, thinking she had also taken the chance to leave the area or was looking for a way to circle around to me.
Instead, the woman was now staring at me again, and upon seeing my eyes rise above the car windowsill, her frowning face took on an absolutely evil shit-eating grin. To my now sky-high rising horror, the woman lifted her hand behind her head and, in a soft but smooth throwing gesture, she threw a piece of stone right in my direction. With wide eyes, I watched as the rock flew high in the air, over the gorging Zombie Brute's crouched form and hit the bonnet of the car I was using as cover with a loud echoing bang. In the stillness of the night, the sound was like a thunderclap. The Zombie Brute, who was dangling a half-chewed intestine above its head, paused at the sound and, as if it were a robot with a rusty nec,k it turned slowly in my direction before coming eye to milky eye with my half-crouched form.
'Move, dipshit!' I roared at myself before leaping up and sprinting down the road towards the parking garage. The zombie Brute also roared in return at my fleeing figure and, after chucking the torso of the biker at me, it gave chase, once again starting at a fast walk before accelerating. Its heavy frame crashed onto the ground with such weight that it made the floor shudder, as if a T-Rex was approaching. In my mad dash around the several abandoned cars on the road and a hurried skin scrapping dodge of the bikies flying torso, I didn't forget to roar out in impotent rage, "You feral bitch! Just you wait!"
I wasn't sure if the woman had heard my threat, but bellowing out my rage at that moment made the suffocating feeling on my chest ease slightly. It didn't last long though, as the pounding of the Zombie Brute's encroaching footsteps made me feel smothered again, especially the sound of it effortlessly slamming the cars out of its way and not losing its momentum even slightly. Taking a second to look over my shoulder as I slid over the bonnet of what looked like a sedan, an action I thought would have looked pretty cool if I wasn't wide-eyed with fear and covered in half-dried corpse guts, I saw the Zombie brute was only about four meters from me and slowly gaining ground.
"Shit, shit, shit!" I squealed between large gasps of air. Knowing my only chance was to get to the parking garage and find cover, I tucked my head in and did my best to summon as much of the little energy I currently had to run as fast as I could towards the garage. There were several other apartments and what looked like stores I could have gone into along the way, but the thought of being stuck in such an enclosed space with a roided-out zombie made me not hesitate to choose the multi-story parking lot. After only a couple of minutes of solid sprinting and feeling as if it was the grim reaper himself breathing down my neck, I made it to the garage and started up the ramp heading towards the top floor. If I thought there were a lot of cars cluttering the road before, then the ramp to the second floor of the parking lot was a sea of vehicles. The ramp had a flipped-over bus covering three-quarters of the entranceway, leading to a multitude of blocked cars leading all the way up to the second floor, all in a semi-squashed state, as if they had all run into each other and had now become an ocean of cars.
Knowing I didn't have a chance of trying to slowly squeeze my way through the small gaps between cars, I instead leapt onto the first car's hood and then began jumping from one to the next in large strides. The Zombie Brute was obviously also not one for squeezing itself between small spaces and instead stayed with its tried-and-true method of slamming into the cars and forcefully making a path through the car ocean. Like a rotting, steroid-filled Moses parting the ocean, the Zombie Brute almost effortlessly made its way through and up the ramp after me.
Even though it didn't appear to run into much trouble because of the cars, the Zombie Brute's momentum had still decreased due to the sheer number of cars it was colliding with. Leaping off the last car's hood, I landed on the second floor and took a chance to look at my pursuer's progress. Even though its milky eyes held no pupils, I could still tell they were relentlessly fixed on me. Letting out a tired groan at the sight, I took off running again, crossing the covered second floor. Originally, I had hoped there would be a heap of cars inside the multi-floor parking lot, so that I could possibly use them to hide from the zombie Brute. Instead, what I saw was an absolutely barren parking lot with only a smattering of lonely cars by themselves. Going by the fact that there were several large gaps in the concrete walls ringing the floor, I guessed some desperate people even drove their cars off the sides once the ramp down was blocked. "Oh, shit on me." I said at the depressing sight before me and after hearing another glass shattering, metal grinding, car being flung out of the way of my new best friend in reply behind me, I took off sprinting towards the next ramp leading up.
Running up the ramp, I felt my lungs burning and the feeling of bile rise up my throat after every step, but I gritted my teeth and kept going. The zombie Brute had also cleared the last of the ocean of cars and was making its way towards me again, reaching the bottom of the next ramp right after I got to the top of it. Its original speed has also slowed down considerably, and after thanking the god or system above, I could also see it looked like it wasn't increasing either. "I guess it's not just me who isn't built for long-distance running." I mumbled at the sight and then began looking at my new surroundings to see if I had any options in my current state.
I had now found myself on the rooftop of the parking lot, and once again it was sparse of cars, making me chest tighten so hard that I felt as if I was truly drowning until I saw what looked like a delivery van with its nose pointing towards the crumbling walled edge of the roof and its back doors facing me. The sight of the van made an idea come to my head, a rather mad idea. Spurred on by the heavy clomping steps of the Zombie Brute behind me, I sprinted toward the van after only a second of hesitation.
Reaching the van's back doors, I attempted to open them but found them locked. "Off damn course!" cursing for a moment I ran to the driver's side door and not wasting a second I took my handgun from the back of my pants and shot the window, turning the glass into a semi-shattered state before I slammed my hand through sending glass everywhere inside and shredding my hand. Luckily, my zombie-skin forearm vambrace and my talent-infused healing prevented serious injury, and I quickly clicked the unlock button on the side of the door with a fumble and then swung the door wide. Reaching in, I pulled off the handbrake and tried to force the car into neutral before giving up and running back to the back doors of the van. I flung them both open wide and jumped in the back.
I didn't close the doors, however, as I was never planning on using the van as cover. Going by the ridiculous strength of the zombie Brute, it would turn the thin metal of the van into scrap within seconds. Instead, I stood a step inside the van, which looked to be filled with flowers, and faced the Zombie Brute, who had also finished climbing the ramp and reached the rooftop. Its pace was now no faster than a fast walk, a sight which made me frown. "That won't do. You need to pick up the pace, old boy." Raising the pistol, I aimed with both hands and took a shot at the lumbering bear of a zombie.
"Damn it." I cursed as I watched the first bullet fly wide by a margin. I then closed my eyes and did my best to take several deep calming breaths, as sweat soaked every part of my being. My shaking hands finally settled somewhat after a moment, and then, seeing the Zombie Brute only had close to three car lengths before it reached me, I went hell for leather. Doing my best to aim at its head, I shot my gun with barely a pause, hitting the zombie Brute in its enormous square head four times before emptying the clip. One of which hit its eyes, sending the now roaring irate zombie stumbling back a step. Overall, the bullets appeared to do nothing more than annoy the heavily muscled monster. I wasn't dismayed at the sight, though, as I never imagined my small-caliber pistol would take down what amounted to a tank on feet. After being shot in the face, the zombie's cooling temper from the run had heated up again. Just to add icing on the cake of the monster's swelling temper, I did my best to give the beast my best shit-eating smile as my eyes narrowed in concentration. "Can't rush, need to time it just right or I'm screwed." I spoke to myself to calm my racing heart, as I took several more steps further into the van.
The zombie brute was now thoroughly enraged. Apparently being injured by what it saw as its yummy snack angered it to no end, and even though it had smashed every vehicle in its way seemingly effortlessly, it apparently didn't come away completely unscathed. Considering most of the vehicles on the road and the first ramp were in states of damage, with twisted metal and broken glass, it wasn't surprising that its semi-charred flesh was filled with scrapes and cuts of all sizes from its chase after me.
The brute stopped over twenty feet away from me and let out a bestial roar in my direction. Its blood-stained mouth sent a stream of saliva flying towards me, which almost touched the edge of the van. It also acted like an enraged gorilla and began pounding its meaty fists into the ground, cracking the hard concrete and leaving basketball-sized dents in the ground that made me swallow my spit at the sight of. After throwing its little tantrum, the Zombie Brute started walking, then jogging, then running before it started to sprint at me like a red-eyed bull. Eating up the distance within seconds.
Seeing the zombie's now unstoppable momentum, I stepped all the way to the front of the van and attempted to open the sliding door on the side of the van from the inside, but to my rising despair it didn't budge. The feeling of the door handle not giving an inch almost caused my heart to stop. My eyes that were locked onto the charging meat tank, finally shifted as I looked down at the unmoving handle. "No." In a rush, I attempted with all my strength to open the sliding door, but after several unsuccessful tugs, the handle finally moved, but it didn't unlock; instead, it snapped off. Looking at the broken handle in my hand, I entered my own short, dazed state, as I now knew I was up shit creek without a paddle. Gazing back at the charging zombie, I was terrified to see its approaching form quickly cutting off any chance I had for escape through the back doors. Before I knew it or had planned for it, the Zombie brute was at the back of the van and lunging at me. Its shoulders deformed the already wide van's walls to either side, as it just barely fit its muscular frame in the large vehicle. "Shit on me!" In a high-pitched scream, I did the same as the Zombie Brute and leaped towards it. I, however, aimed above its lunging form, only just managing to jump over its extended hands and onto its back.
I hooked both arms around its neck and wound up lying on its back, like a human cape, as its huge form continued its lunge into the dividing wall of the van from the cab in front. The inertia of jumping one way and then suddenly being pulled another felt as if my arms were being torn from their sockets, but I held on for dear life as the meat missile slammed face-first into the back of the van. The collision of the zombie Brute's square head into the van wall sent the whole van leaping forwards with such force that its wheels even left the ground as if the van was trying to jump off the roof, and jump it did. Its short bonnet and front wheels had made it over the hip-high wall, soon to be followed by the rest of the van, as the weight of the zombie was too great.
If I hadn't retrieved my dagger from my belt and slammed it into the back of the Zombie Brute for extra purchase, I would have been thrown off by the collision with it against the van wall. Even then, it took all my not-so-significant grip strength to hold on, as well as getting slammed quite brutally into the roof of the van in passing. The hulk-like zombie filled up the majority of the van's space, especially after its crumpled form and flailing limbs slammed everywhere it could in a rage-filled fit, further sending the now brakeless van careening forward. It did its best to reach behind itself and grab me, but its muscular frame wasn't one for being limber; instead, it did its best to slam my body into the sides of the van and the dividing wall of the van.
Because of the brief space, it couldn't move around too much, but it had enough strength in each slam to make me feel as if my back was turning into mush under the hammering. I knew that I had a couple of ribs broken at the least, as blood began to spurt up my throat and onto the already liberally coated zombie's back. Even through the searing pain, I still didn't let go of my hold on the knife wedged into the zombie's back, as I knew once it got a hold of me, there would soon be two Grubbs in this messed-up world. Feeling the teetering of the van, I knew it was only a matter of time and summoned all my willpower to hold out. Finally, after one especially brutal bash against the dividing wall, that had me coughing up blood and even losing the feeling in one of my arms, leaving only my left hand holding onto the handle with a white knuckled grip, I felt the van finally tipping forwards.
With the Zombie brute on all fours in the back of the van, its weight quickly slid down, with its head leading to the dividing wall and giving the teetering van the final push over the edge. Before either of us could do anything, we were both suddenly vertical to the ground. The van is now nose-diving forty feet towards the hard-packed ground, accompanied by the sound of metal scraping across concrete. The zombie Brute's body was now plastered to the dividing wall, following the laws of gravity as it plummeted to the ground stomach first. I did my level best to curl up on the brute's back, hoping it would soften my fall at least somewhat. Because of the beating I had just received, over what felt like hours but couldn't have been longer than a couple of minutes, the majority of which was of my head slamming against the metal walls of the van, the thin shred of willpower keeping me awake finally let go, as all the tension in my body left me. Besides the roaring of the Brute being the backdrop of our descent, a woman's emotionless voice also rose in my ears.
[Lifeform.856 323 210 238 231 32 – Your Life Ascension has begun. During this time only, the System @#$%&* will assist you in elevating your life force Tier. Time until Ascensión is complete. 239minutes remaining.]
That was the last thing I heard before everything went dark.