It had been two days since Gerald tossed her that sword and told her to "make it back in one piece."
Thalia hadn't stopped moving since.
She had hotwired some junker she found abandoned in a lot out by West 41st and had been driving west ever since. She didn't know how else to get to California without being flagged, after all, to the rest of the world, she was supposed to be dead, and she wanted to keep It that way for now.
Getting on a plane wasn't an option. She didn't need airport security or facial recognition blowing her cover before she even figured out what she was.
The car, if you could even call it that, was a '97 Honda Civic that sounded like it smoked two packs a day. It rattled every time she hit 50, and the engine gave out a little prayer each time she climbed a hill. No air conditioning, of course. The windows were all the way down and even that barely helped.
The Mojave Desert stretched for miles on either side, flat, golden and empty. The air coming through the windows wasn't a breeze, it was a furnace blast, hot and dry enough to make her eyeballs itch, forcing her to remove her jacket and hoodie. Now just in a cropped vest she'd worn underneath.
The cracked leather seats clung to her like a second skin, seatbelt searing a line into her collarbone. The stereo wheezed some half-tuned radio station, something like '80s rock bleeding through static.
On the seat next to her, the sword Gerald had given her glinted faintly in the sun, wrapped in its strange ancient sheath. She stared at it, sweat dripping down her temple.
"I don't even know how to use this thing. Isn't just giving someone a weapon and saying 'don't die' a little harsh?" She sighed. "Dammit, crazy old man."
With one hand still on the wheel, she swiped the air like gesturing to an invisible smartphone. The system screen shimmered into existence, floating in front of her like a digital ghost.
> TIME REMAINING:
0 Days, 0 Hours, 0 Minutes, 30 Seconds…
Her eyes widened.
"I'm not gonna make it," she muttered, voice sharp with panic. "I don't even know where the attack is going to happen..."
Then, right on cue, another window blinked into existence:
SYSTEM ALERT
YOU WILL NOW BE TRANSPORTED TO GROUND ZERO.
YOUR OBJECTIVE WILL BEGIN ONCE YOU ARRIVE.
"Wait, wha—"
Gone.
She vanished in an instant, leaving the junky Civic barreling down the desert highway without a driver. The car swerved, swayed, and disappeared off the road and not the desert sand
---
The next thing she knew, she was somewhere dim, the buzzing flicker of overhead fluorescent lights casting shadows that danced across grimy tiled floors.
A public bathroom.
The smell of bleach and mildew clung to the walls like decay. One of the lights above sparked, dimmed, and came back again like it was struggling to hold on.
"No way…" she whispered.
She fumbled for her phone, pulling up the map app. Her stomach dropped.
She was in California.
"You're joking…"
She had driven across the entire country, two sleepless days of back pain, gas station hot dogs, and crusty motel bathrooms, only to find out she didn't even need to leave New York.
"So you're telling me I would've been brought here anyway?! Who the fuck is running this operation??? Maybe some insight next time would be nice!" she shouted up toward the flickering light, hoping the system or God or someone was listening.
Then came the scream.
Harrowing. Raw. Female. It tore through the air like a blade.
Thalia didn't hesitate. She kicked the bathroom door open and bolted into the hall beyond. It was dark, but not pitch black. She could make out the sterile blue carpet underfoot, the blinking EXIT signs, and a directional sign nailed to the wall.
MEETING ROOM 3 →
She ran, heart thumping.
When she turned the corner, she saw them.
A woman lay motionless on the floor.
A man crouched, hunched over her, twitching, digging at something. It was hard to see what he was doing, his back blocked her view.
"Hey! What're you doing to her?" Thalia shouted.
The man stopped.
Slowly, too slowly, he stood upright and turned.
Then he began to walk toward her.
"Uh… sir? I'm gonna need you to stop right there."
No answer. Just that slow shuffle-step. Left foot forward, right foot drag. Closer.
It was hard to make out his features due to the lack of light, but it was clear he was an office worker. Thalia could just about see her was wearing a suit with his tie hanging loosely around his collar.
He got closer, and closer.
The glow of a floating screen lit up next to her, revealing the man's features in grainy blue light.
His jaw hung open at an unnatural angle. Patches of flesh had rotted off his face, revealing bone underneath. His skin was a sickly grey-green, sagging like it didn't quite belong to him anymore. Cataract-filled eyes stared at her, milky and dead. Blood caked his mouth and fingers, he had just been eating someone. His groans were guttural, low, hungry.
Thalia's blood ran cold.
"What the shit.."
She reached the sword,
Nothing.
She patted her hip again.
"Wait, no… no no no no no…"
She'd left it on the passenger seat.
The man lunged.
Thalia jumped back, narrowly missing the grasping fingers that clawed through the air at her.
Another window appeared:
INFO
TYPE: ZOMBIE
WEAKNESS: FIRE
DIFFICULTY: EASY
MOBS: 7
And then—TICK—the counter flicked up to 8.
Then 9.
The horde was growing.
Somewhere deeper in the building, another scream rang out, cut short by a wet tearing sound.
"No way," she whispered, "Zombies?? I guess this is really happening, isn't it…"
She'd seen enough movies to know how to kill a zombie, head or heart. Anything less would mean her funeral.
Thalia yanked a fire extinguisher off the wall, its weight heavier than she expected, and with a desperate grunt, she swung it like a bat.
THUNK.
The extinguisher smashed against the zombie's skull with a sickening metal clang, knocking it clean off its feet. Its neck twisted with the impact, spine crackling as the head spun unnaturally, now facing entirely the wrong direction.
Thalia blinked. "Well… that wasn't so bad."
But before she could even think of exhaling relief.
It groaned deeply
Its fingers twitched, then its body jerked upright as it stood back up, staggering forward with its head still facing the wrong way, but it's body now facing her.
"What the fuuuuu—"
Another groan echoed down the corridor.
The woman who'd been lying limp on the floor just moments earlier… now stood tall. Or, at least, tried to.
She was clearly an office worker, pencil skirt, a once-crisp button-down blouse now soaked red, brown hair tangled around a pale, bloodied face. But that wasn't what made Thalia freeze.
The woman had a gaping hole in her midsection, right where her stomach used to be. Ribs cracked open like dry branches, entrails half-hanging and slapping wetly against her thighs with every step forward. Her heels clicked unevenly against the floor, like a sound from a nightmare.
She groaned, deep and guttural, as blood and guts spilled onto the floor beneath her with every trudging step.