THE APOCALYPTIC RISE OF ADAM

Chp 2 - Fight To Win

Thwack!

Not wasting his time thinking of the betrayal of those he had thought were his closest in a city far from his home, Adam didn’t think twice before he struck hard at the zombie when it reached for him again.

Well-built with the right amount of muscle on his strapping frame, Adam had been the quarterback on his college football team before he came to Joville in search of work and a better life.

His body strength had been the major reason why he had not collapsed from all the vigorous work they had started giving him in the company since he got demoted to the position of a messenger.

So he was confident that he would get the upper hand on the zombie, who used to be a lanky man before he turned.

To his surprise, though, the punch only sent the zombie back a few inches before he advanced on Adam again, more angry and resilient this time. Adam jumped on the bed while wielding the goose feather pillow he had snatched in his panic.

He managed to get to the other side of the bed while the zombie ambled around the bed. It was still blocking Adam’s way to the door, though, and he knew there was no way he could get to the door before it would reach him.

If there was one thing he had learnt from the zombie games he had once played with Jean, it was to never turn your back on a zombie. Adam was not about to ignore that warning in a  real-life situation and get himself killed. There was only one thing to do.

Fight to win. He must get to that door!

His eyes caught on the ornate, heavy-handled mirror of Anastasia, and he quickly picked it up and smacked it hard against the zombie’s head, using the momentum to push the zombie out of his way.

The zombie slumped hard towards the bed, hitting his head against the frame as it went down.

Adam didn’t bother to see the outcome of his work as he ran for the door.

Thankfully, Jean had only closed it.

Adam pulled it open and ran into the hallway.

He ran back as he remembered that he still had his key in his pocket.

He slotted it into the doorjamb as he heard the grunting sounds of the zombie from the other end and locked the door firmly before running out of the units.

He vaguely thought of warning his neighbours, but soon he realized there was no need to do so, because those who were still alive were already running for their life.

He was out in the street in under one minute.

He ducked back to the side of the building as chaos reigned in his street. The street he had passed moments ago was littered with writhing bodies in the hands of zombies still devouring them.

Some were currently changing, and he could see the way their bodies contorted and extended in the most inhumane way as they turned and looked around for new prey to devour.

Adam pressed tightly against the side of the building where a kiosk blocked him from their direct view.

His stomach roiled in sickness as he heard the screams of people right before those screams turned to snarls as the sickness took them.

“I need to get out of here fast,” he thought in desperation, as he knew that he would soon become one of those creatures if care was not taken.

Thanking his stars for the little facts he knew about zombies from the games he had played, he knew that they were mostly attracted by loud noise.

He knew that if he didn’t make noise and kept away from their direct view, he could at least survive this.

“I need to keep moving,” he thought to himself as he almost cried out when an executive lady dressed in peach-coloured suit pants rose directly from the floor in a distorted form, with her teeth gnashing and her dead, veined eyes looking in his direction.

He froze as he thought that she had seen him, but then she looked away as she ambled towards one of the buildings down the street.

Adam heaved a sigh of relief and started moving slowly with his body firmly against the wall and his eyes glued to the street.

He had not taken two steps when his vision greyed and he almost tumbled as nausea rose in him again.

“What is happening to me?” he thought in panic as he laid his head against the wall.

He started breathing heavily, and it looked like he was about to pass out.

He couldn’t remember the last time he had fallen sick, and he thought this was the worst timing in the world.

That was when he saw it.

Adam’s eyes widened in horror as he stared at his shaking hands and saw that there was a gash on one of them! The hand he had struck the zombie with!

“Fuck! Fuck! I am going to die! I am going to be a zombie!”

He thought in panic as he stared at the shaking hand in horror.

Willing the gash to go away.

Willing the shakes to stop.

Wishing that he was not feeling so sick at the moment.

Yet all he could remember was the fact that he had felt a sting in his fist when he struck the zombie.

Then he remembered the zombie's wide mouth as he jumped at him!

Damn it.

He was done for now!

What would he do?

What would his parents do?

His sisters would never know that he was a monster now!

God damn it!

Then, as if by pure will, the sickness in his gut reduced, and then his hands stopped shaking so badly, but the gash in his hand heated up, and he was feeling a tingling sensation in his body.

Just as he looked for something around to kill himself before he could turn into a monster, a 3 cubic meter space compartment materialised out of thin air!

Adam nearly forgot his intention to keep quiet, and he almost yelled in panic as he retrieved his outstretched hands.

The cubic space disappeared again, and the tingling sensation in his body was gone along with the gash in his hand.

The wound had sealed up just as if he had never had it.

Adam was shocked beyond words, and he was just marvelling at what happened when he heard movement to his right and saw that although he had tried his best not to make a sound, his subtle noise had attracted one zombie, who was still close by on the now deserted street.

“Oh shit! Oh shit!” he mumbled under his breath as he wished that he had something to fight off the zombie that was fast bearing down on him at that moment.

This one seemed faster than the one he had fought in the apartment, and he was a burly man too.

Adam knew that he was dead for sure this time if he couldn’t do something fast.

He was out in the open with no weapon around.

The only thing close to him was the wooden kiosk, but even his strength was not enough to lift it.

Still, he ran back towards it, hoping he had something in his hand that he could kill the zombie with.

A jolt went through his body, and a spatial orb suddenly appeared in his vision.

He paused for a while as he quickly reached for one of the wicked-looking swords with his mind.

Immediately, the ornate, claymore-style sword appeared in his hand, and the orb disappeared again.

Not waiting to test the unfamiliar weight in his hand, Adam swung back to face the zombie that had almost caught up with him.

He held the sword tightly with his two hands and swung it towards the zombie.

Due to his lack of finesse and skill, the blade only glanced off the zombie’s arm.

The ash-coloured, veined eyes widened with pain as it looked at the blood pouring out of its arm, and then it bared its teeth at Adam again.

Fear held Adam’s body in its grip, but he knew that he had to finish the zombie off or be killed.

He swung again, but the zombie knocked the blade out of his hand.

In desperation, Adam recalled the little martial training he once had in his hometown, and he gave the zombie a roundhouse kick.

He dived for the blade again, and just as the zombie grabbed his leg, Adam swung hard at the zombie’s head, decapitating it!

Not sure if that was enough to keep the zombie dead, Adam continued to swing desperately at the head until it shattered.

He finally got a hold of himself.

Breathing heavily, he moved back from the zombie but stopped when a crystal core rolled out of the shattered zombie’s head.

Before Adam could look at it well enough, the core shimmered and disappeared.

Simultaneously, Adam saw the spatial storage he had seen earlier shimmer and expand by another 1 cubic metres in his mind’s eyes. Making the space 4 cubic metres wide.

He did not think much of what happened as another horrible thought appeared in his mind.

His family!

What if they had all been killed or turned into these horrible creatures?

He patted his pocket and almost wept with relief when he saw that his cell phone was still in the pocket of his tight-fitting jeans.

With unimaginable fear in his heart, he called his parents.