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

Chapter 6: Stuck

Teaming up with another person had been the right idea because, as soon as they got close to the third floor, they could hear a lot of movement ahead. Immediately, the duo stopped and covered their mouths to keep themselves from being heard. Hesitantly, they tiptoed to get a closer look and froze when they saw zombies everywhere. It was a literal death trap.

The duo instantly rushed back up the stairs while keeping quiet. Since nothing came chasing after them, they must have escaped detection. However, this posed a huge problem for them. There was no way they could even attempt going through the third floor unless they had a death wish. From what they saw, there had to be at least over thirty zombies, and that was only what they could see.

"What do we do?" Amanda whispered in case the zombies might hear them.

"What's your power?" Donald asked back.

At her confused look, he realized that she didn't know what he was talking about. That meant she didn't have any powers. Why? He got his power when he electrocuted himself. As soon as he thought that, he saw what the issue was. She likely hadn't gone through a deadly situation like he had if she had been hiding from the zombies.

No, that still didn't make sense. If that was the requirement for getting a power, then the chances of anyone becoming an awakened were near impossible. He vaguely recalled the system mentioning something about how someone became an awakened, but he couldn't remember it that well. His attention had been focused on his survival.

[She has not fulfilled the necessary requirement to awaken.]

"What's the condition?" he asked as she stared at him.

[In order to awaken, she must survive the first wave. Afterwards, it's up to chance whether she gets a power.]

Donald wanted to point out that he awakened, but he clearly was the exception after everything he'd seen and experienced. This meant that they could only rely on his power to take on the zombies. He wasn't confident facing off against so many zombies with his electricity, especially now that he had to worry about Amanda. They might have to wait until the first wave is over.

"When does the first wave end?" Donald asked.

[The wave will end in an hour.]

They just had to survive an hour. Unfortunately, this didn't automatically mean she would have a power after the hour was up. The system did say it was random. He had to consider finding another way out of the building or waiting for the situation to change. There was the fire escape he was originally aiming for. It was an option, even with his fear of heights.

For the latter, it was trickier. There was no guarantee that help would arrive or in time. They had limited supplies unless they were willing to go up and explore other floors to find them. Also, the people that show up might not be the friendly kind. No, they were on their own. Maybe if they got lucky, the zombies would move to the lower floors and leave the building too.

He doubted that would happen, though. It was more likely they would hang around until something caught their attention. As he tried to figure out how to get out of that mess using his knowledge of all the media he consumed, Amanda had been getting more anxious with every passing minute. Finally, she couldn't take it any longer.

"What's going on? Who are you talking to?" she demanded.

Donald slapped a hand over her mouth as he quickly looked back at the stairs to see if they had drawn the attention of the zombies. After several tense moments, nothing happened, and he removed his hand from her mouth. The look on her face clearly said she didn't appreciate what he did, but she should have known better than to get loud.

"Well?" she hissed.

"This is going to be hard to believe, but I have a system," he said, as he didn't see a point in keeping it from her.

Amanda stared blankly. "A what?"

"A system like in video games and stuff. It tells me things about what's happening, so I was asking it questions," Donald said as he glanced back at the stairs while encouraging her to distance herself away just in case.

Her eyes narrowed. "How come you get help?"

Giving her the deadliest stare, he said, "I got electrocuted."

That promptly shut her up. He knew very well that he would have acted the same in her place, but he wasn't in the mood to talk about it. While he tried to act calm about the fact, he was shaken by what happened. It was just that everything else distracted him from the memories. He was certain that he would have a breakdown later, when they were currently worried about zombies coming after them.

"Sorry," she whispered.

Waving her off, he said, "The system says that if we survive the first wave of zombies, we can gain powers to fight them."

She looked like she wanted to protest how ridiculous it sounded, but she kept her mouth shut, which was a relief. He didn't want it to devolve into an argument about whether what he was saying was true or not. Amanda would get her own system in the future, if they were lucky. For now, he needed to get her back on track with their current situation.

"Can the system help us now?" she asked.

He shook his head. "No. We just have to survive one hour."

Amanda grimaced as she took in that news. "One hour. Sure, we can do that."

With how shaky her voice was, she didn't really seem certain about her own words, but what she felt didn't matter. What mattered was at least surviving the first hour and going from there. He really hoped that she might get a power without having to do anything. Otherwise, they would really have to rely on Donald to do most of the fighting. He kept his fingers crossed.