Rise of the Desperate: Donald Carter's Zombie Survival Guide

Chapter 1: First Day on the Job

"So, you're the new employee," the man said as he studied Donald up and down.

"Yes, sir," Donald said as he saluted the man.

The man waved him off. "This isn't the military kid. There's no need for that."

Donald lowered his arm. "Sorry, I'm just really excited to be here."

"Yeah, yeah," the man said as he nodded his head and continued to wave at him. "Follow me."

Eagerly following the man, Donald observed his surroundings with wide eyes. It took him several long years to get to this point, but he had finally gotten his dream job at his dream company. He secretly pumped a fist behind the supervisor's back as he thought about all the naysayers telling him that it was impossible for him to get here. Well, look at where he was now.

Suddenly, the man turned around, and Donald quickly acted like nothing happened as the man asked, "So, you do know what you're supposed to do, kid?"

Sheepishly, Donald shook his head and said, "No."

His answer caused the man to scowl, and he muttered to himself, "Of course they didn't. Whoever was in charge of your training dropped the ball. When I find out who it is, I'm going to chew them out."

At the dark look on the man's face, Donald wisely kept quiet so as not to draw attention to himself. This wasn't the impression he wanted to make on his supervisor. He couldn't have him thinking he was lazy or an idiot. Donald could already imagine what his coworkers would think of him if he didn't quickly change the man's impression.

The man finally calmed down and said, "In that case, I'll have to show you the ropes, so listen carefully as I'm only going to say this once. Understood?"

Donald nodded his head eagerly as he stared at the man. As the man opened his mouth to start what was probably a speech, he stopped when they heard a scream. Everyone on the floor turned in the direction of the noise. From where they were, Donald couldn't see what was happening, but it couldn't be good news, especially as people were running in their direction.

People pushed and shoved others out of the way without stopping. Donald could hear several people asking what was going on, but no one appeared to be in the right mind to say anything. Then he saw exactly what had the people panicking. One of them, who would have been his future coworkers, suddenly lunged at another, biting down on her throat.

He couldn't take his eyes off the thing ripping the woman apart. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought it was a zombie, but it was ridiculous. Zombies weren't real, and it had happened too suddenly. Didn't you have to be infected before turning into a zombie? The man had just been standing there before he decided to take a chunk out of the woman's throat.

"What the hell are you spacing out for?" the man roared.

His words were enough to snap Donald out of it, and he quickly followed the man. They didn't get very far as the man in front of him was tackled to the ground. The man struggled against the zombie as Donald stood there like a deer in headlights. He obviously needed help, but before he could do anything, the zombie bit down on the man.

Seeing this happen, Donald ran for it. If it was really a zombie, then there was nothing he could do for the man. He didn't even know the man's name. Laughing hysterically, he scanned for a way to escape the increasing number of zombies. The elevators were obviously not an option, and he could see how the stairs were being blocked by the huge number of people.

Jumping out of the window was out of the question given how many floors up they were. They were practically on the seventh floor. He was just as likely to die from the impact after jumping out as he was to die from the zombies that were everywhere. Donald would rather take the chance of looking for another way out before resorting to such a method.

Recalling the layout of the building, he rushed towards the fire escape. Apparently, he was the only one to think of it, as he didn't bump into anyone heading in the same direction as him. Grabbing the fire extinguisher, he used it to break the glass and retrieved the fire ax to use as a weapon. He couldn't retrieve it fast enough as a zombie charged at him.

Swinging the ax, he cringed as he felt it hit its mark. Blood and gore splattered everywhere as the ax dug into the zombie's head. Fortunately, it only landed on his clothes and not his face. However, the sight nearly made him hurl. In fact, he did after he pulled the ax free. Luckily, none of the other zombies were making their way towards him, but he needed to get out there before they changed their minds.

Wiping his mouth with his sleeve, he rushed towards the fire escape and bypassed the tools that had been laid out on the floor. He wasn't sure why they were all spread out, but it made his escape so much harder as he had to maneuver around them. Then a zombie popped out of nowhere, and he swerved into the water dispenser. He cursed as it fell to the ground and spilled water everywhere.

Unfortunately, he had no time to worry about the water as the zombie was still coming after him. He swung his ax, but he missed, as the zombie had just been out. Backing away to give himself more breathing space, he didn't see the water reach a damaged and sparking cable. Suddenly, a surge of current rushed through him, and his body spasmed.

The zombie that had been chasing him also started convulsing before the two collapsed to the ground. While the zombie completely stopped moving, Donald's body twitched for several more minutes before becoming still. His chest rose and fell, signaling he was still alive and just unconscious, but there was no one to help him. Fortunately, no more zombies approached him.

Zombies passed by him as if he wasn't there and headed for those on the move. Soon there were no more zombies on that floor, leaving Donald completely alone. Even then, he still didn't wake up. More time passed before something finally happened. Electricity started to spark around Donald's unconscious body, zapping everything nearby.

[Error. Anomaly detected. Patching through to the administrator.]

[Connecting...]

[Greetings, new user. How may I help you?]

[...]

[The user is determined to be unconscious and unable to respond.]

[The system will go into hibernation until the user wakes up.]

[While in hibernation, the system will d******d the necessary packs.]

[Beginning the d******d...]