Level up Zombie

A man’s footsteps slowly crept across the wooden floor. Each time he placed his foot down, he prayed to the gods, if any, to not let the floor creak. Covered in ragged clothes, the man had a crowbar in his hands, and with his hunched stance, his body was on full alert.

He continued to walk down the hallway of the house, looking left-right and paying attention to every detail. Still, slowly, his movements came to a halt.

‘There seem to be signs of struggle. Damn it, has this place already been raided?’

The man had already come too far not to check the place out. Turning down the hallway would be the kitchen, which would give him the answers he needed and, hopefully, the supplies as well.

‘Depending on what I see, I will decide what to do next.’

Turning around the corner, the man stood upright, and his eyes widened as he found the blood-stained kitchen. It was smeared across the wall, and he could still see the pool of blood dripping from the edges of the countertop.

-drip!

-drip!_.

‘Sh*t!’

Before he could react, a head slowly rose from the other side of the kitchen counter, and now in full view, the man could see how disfigured it was. Its teeth were rotten and barely hanging into its gums, an eyeball had popped out of its head and was dangling halfway down its face, its skin was rotting, and there were deep flesh wounds.

‘Come here, you b*tch!’

Grabbing his belt, the man yanked an object off and threw it straight towards the head. The next moment, a thunk sound came out of the kitchen as a small blade pierced through its skull, right between its eyebrows.

The strange figure began to fall backwards and collapsed onto the ground.

“Phew that was a close one. That would have been really troublesome if it had cried and alerted the others.”

“Will you get off that game already, Zain?!” A deep voice suddenly echoed in his ears, pulling his attention from the scene in front of him.

Inside one of the many university dorm rooms, a red-haired student was sitting at his desk playing one of his favourite types of games, a zombie-survival game. He was a true Gamer in and out, and almost every moment he could spare, he would be playing one game or the other.

Although, Zain didn’t look like one would expect. He finally exited the game and stood up from his seat. He was well built with muscle and was around 6 foot 2 inches tall. Some would even say he was handsome if it weren’t for his boring flat hairstyle.

In fact, due to his muscular body and athletic capabilities, many of his friends advised him to try out for a few of the university sports teams, but then when would he have time for his precious games?

“I said that I would join you guys when I died,” Zain replied, staring at his screen, not even making eye contact with the other two in the room.

Zain’s obsession with survival games was due to his father, who loved watching zombie movies growing up. Perhaps Zain watched things a little too old for his age, but his father’s passion had become his own.

As the thought entered his head, he couldn’t help but think, for another time, how would he fare if the world had suddenly come against a zombie apocalypse? How long could he survive?

Because of these questions Zain had, he trained his body as if a zombie apocalypse would happen one day. It had then become a habit for him to train. That’s when survival games finally came out, which was the closest Zain could experience to a real-life zombie apocalypse.

“Looking at that game reminds me of something,” Skittle, one of the other two in the room, said as he sniffled a little.

Skittle was one of Zain’s best friends. They had known each other since school. He was small in size and body frame, and for some reason, he always had a red nose. Along with his tiny round specs, these things made him quite an easy target to be picked on in school until Zain stepped into the picture.

As for why Zain had helped Skittle back then, it was a secret that he hadn’t told the latter even now. He knew Skittle was smart, and if there was ever a zombie attack, he would be the one that knew how to survive and manage basic necessities like power and food.

“I was searching on the dark web, and there are multiple videos and forums posted about attacks happening in other countries.” Skittle gulped before saying the next part. “All of the attacks, they look like there being bitten and as if by eaten alive..by-“

“By zombies!” Zain jumped up from his seat, his eyes shining as he interrupted Skittle before the latter could finish.

“Don’t be so stupid, both of you.” The deep voice from earlier echoed once again, and leaning up against the bunk bed in the room, with his arms crossed, was Buke.

If people thought Zain was well built, Buke was another thing altogether. It was similar to comparing a tank and a horse. Buke had naturally been strong with a large upper body and was nearly 7 feet tall.

However, it seemed like he was unlucky in one department…his hair. He was completely bald.

“If something like this did happen, then it would be all over the news, and we would all get an alert on our phones,” Buke argued. “Not on some fake Dark web sh*t.”

“But it’s coming from multiple sources and in different places!” Skittle argued back. “The Dark web is more reliable than the news you see anywhere else. Do you think the news channels and websites are independent? No, they are all controlled by the rich and the powerful, while the dark web is from individual users like you and me!”

“Damn it!” Buke shouted and pushed the bed with the side of his arm, shaking the whole thing and leading it to creak a bit. “You sound like those damned conspiracy theorists! Of course, if something were happening, we would see it outside, but look, everything is fine…go on, if zombies are here, then go out there and show me one right now! Don’t just bring some edited video or fake posts claiming they’re real.”

Stepping forward, Zain stood between the two, but honestly, he was a little concerned. He placed his hand at the two of them but felt like Buke could hit him any second. It wouldn’t be the first time something like this happened either.

“Look, why don’t we just calm down a little? As you said, Buke, we don’t know what’s true or not unless we see it with our own eyes. The only thing we can do if anything happens is to be ready for it. There’s no harm in that, is there?” Zain smiled.

It was clear Buke found the other two quite delusional, and although Buke was calm most of the time, if things got a little too far, Zain would always step in and take the hit for Skittle.

If Skittle were on the receiving end of Buke’s fist, Zain would worry for them both. One of his friends could quite possibly end up dead while the other would be sent to prison, and although he enjoyed playing games, his life was already lonely enough.

*DING *DING

“Oh, that’s the alarm! The class is about to start. Let’s go; we better hurry!” Skittle said, already picking up his things and getting ready to leave the room.

Buke also took his stuff and was about to leave until he noticed Zain standing on the spot.

“Hey? Aren’t you coming to class?” He asked.

“Nah, not today. I’m planning to skip it. There’s a new game coming out, and I want to pick it up and take the whole day to play it. So you guys go ahead without me.” Zain said.

Buke shrugged and headed for the door. It wasn’t the first time Zain was skipping the class.

Just then, a thought flashed in his mind, and he couldn’t help but chuckle while turning around and then saying to Zain.

“Hey, if there ever was a zombie apocalypse, at least I know who to count on. You would probably be the one to survive the longest, right?”

“I hope so….”