Leo stood frozen. His breathing was a rapid panic. I couldn’t believe it either, a zombie. Isabella was a zombie. She kept slowly shuffling toward us, the outside light reaching her body.

Her skin was grey and full of bite marks. A ruined shirt barely covered her torso revealing more wounds and bones. Her head was slumped over, looking at us with glazed eyes that somehow seem to see us. I almost puked. Leo however, did.

I raised my gun at her and was about to shoot when Leo pushed my arm out of the way making my bullet fly into the wall. “No! You can’t kill my sister!”

Isabella ran at us both saliva dripping from her mouth as she made a sound that was a mix of a growl and a yell. I tried to dodge but one of her hands reached out and scratched my arm. When she did numbers floated in my vision

Isabella dealt 10 Slashing Damage to You.

I grabbed my arm and backed into an open room. Isabella had her eyes trained on me, I lifted my gun up again and aimed at her firing. This time I did not miss.

You hit Isabella for 1 damage. Your weapon is not approved by The System.

I yelled in frustration pulling the trigger three more times.

You hit Isabella for 1 damage. Your weapon is not approved by The System.

You hit Isabella for 1 damage. Your weapon is not approved by The System.

You hit Isabella for 2 damage. Critical! Your weapon is not approved by The System.

From back in the hallway Leo yelled out “Mat stop it! You can’t kill her!”

Isabella however, could kill me still. Whether it was still her or not, she kept walking toward me. When she was halfway into the room she ran at me again. I was able to dodge this time luckily. I turned back and put the gun away in favor of the knife.

“Guns are useless Leo, it dealt no damage, but her scratch dealt 10 damage to me apparently.” I walked backwards next to Leo while Isabella watched me. She looked at Leo now also since he was next to me.

“Mat, listen, maybe we can fix her? We have magic and stuff now right? We can just trap her till then.” Leo pleaded with me.

He had a point, Magic was real now. But neither of us knew how to use it, let alone if we can cure her. Is the chance we can save her worth the risk of our lives to just trap her?

“Leo, I don’t know. What if such magic is impossible for either of us?”

“I don’t care, I will learn it or make it if I have to. For Isabella I will do anything. She is all the family I have left Mat.” Leo put his hands up to show he means no harm to Isabella. “It’s your big brother, Bell. Come on, I know you are in there please listen to me. We can take care of you till we get a cure.”

I tightened my grip on the knife. I just had a bad feeling this would not end well at all. Yet, can we kill her? If we can’t use guns would kitchen knives even work?

Isabella walked toward Leo and struck out at him. I could see the attack was solid as the numbers of her attack floated up.

Isabella dealt 14 Slashing Damage to Leo.

Leo winced as he stumbled backwards pleaing, “Bell please! Don’t...don’t make me fight back and accidentally hurt you.” Leo held a hand to his chest where she scratched him. Blood was already staining his shirt.

“Leo, I’m sorry.” I used the opportunity to strike the knife forward and landed a solid hit on her back.

You dealt 12 Slashing Damage to Isabella.

“Mat stop! Don’t kill her! Help me get her on the ground and tie her up.” Leo looked around for something to tie her, finding a Guitar nearby. He took the strap off and held it ready to tie her up.

Worry filled my head. Are we going to both die? If she lands a few more solid hits on us, it’s game over. Isabella swung around landing another attack on me.

Isabella dealt 9 Slashing Damage to You.

“Leo now!” I reached out and pulled her to the ground with me, grabbing both her wrists letting the knife fall to the ground.

Leo rushed over and tried to pull her arms behind her. However Isabella had other ideas and over powered Leo. She started to scratch at me.

Isabella dealt 12 Slashing Damage to You.

Isabella dealt 15 Slashing Damage to You.

Isabella dealt 11 Slashing Damage to You.

Isabella dealt 14 Slashing Damage to You.

Alarms went off in my head as I feared for my life. Reaching around for something to attack back, I felt the knife I dropped. Yelling out in a panic and stabbed the knife up at her head.

You dealt 39 Piercing Damage to Isabella. Critical! Weak Spot!

Isabella’s body fell limp on top of me. I quickly pushed her off of me, almost crying from the overwhelming of emotions. Leo stood there looking down at her still body. “Leo I’m sorry! I just panicked! She was scratching me and it hurt and-”

Leo just stood there looking at her body. His grip on the Guitar strap tightened and rage built up in his eyes.

“AGH!” He threw the straps to the side and pulled out his shotgun. “Fuck this place!”

He shot out six shots into the floor yelling the entire time. Once it was empty he fell to the floor crying. “Bell, I'm sorry. I couldn’t save you” Leo started to talk in Spanish as a few blue boxes appeared in front of my eyes.

Combat Summary:

Experience gained: 45

New Skill: Knives | Novice 1

Skill: Knives | Novice 1

Your ability to wield small bladed weapons has improved through combat. 1% increase to damage with these weapons.

I closed the boxes and sat up, “Leo, hey, you okay?” I was slightly worried he would go off on me any moment and try to kill me.

Leo sniffed, “Mat, no I am not. However, I don’t blame you. I just need a minute. Can you leave me alone for a little while please?”

I stood up and winced at the pain from my wounds. Heading into the hallway I went room to room looking for something to stop the bleeding. That’s when my phone made a bunch of weird noises.

A live video of the Oval Office from the White House was forced onto my phone. Standing was President Bari. He looked horrible, and took a deep breath before speaking.

“My fellow Americans, and other humans of Earth. Right now against the advice of my advisors I am speaking to you not as the President, but as a man who has no answers. If you are watching this, it means you are a Survivor. Whatever this System is that did this, know myself and my people are working on getting answers. Answers to not only continue surviving but to kick your fucking ass. My wife is dead because of you, and many others as you claimed. 25% of the people on Earth are dead, and many more by the second.

For those of you who are killing, looting, destroying, and adding to the chaos I am asking you to stop. This isn’t the time. If you choose to continue your evil ways, I hope you die a painful death. We have a new foe, it isn’t man or nature. It is whatever those portals are and The System that claims to save us. Currently every military base has orders to open its gates to survivors. We wish to set up safe zones for people and to hopefully figure out what is going on.

I wish you all Godspeed People of Earth. Remember your achievement, we are survivors. To die is to let those who die be forgotten. I am enacting Martial Law, and may God have mercy on us all.”

The video ended with a link to a map and showed all base locations. I zoomed to find our closest one. Appears to be a small reservist base, but the second closest one would be over two hours drive, and that’s without zombies roaming the world. It was then I realized something.

My chest was hurting less. I looked down and saw I was no longer bleeding. However the wounds still looked horrible. Was this another function of the new world? Increased healing?

I opened my Menu and looked at my Health.

Health: 50/115

Every few moments my current health would tick up by 1. I really wish there was a guide on how all of this stuff worked. Maybe if any nerdy kids are still alive I can ask them? Surely this is similar to something they have played enough to get us by.

Leo came out of the room. He was no longer crying, but his eyes were red and puffy. “Let’s go. I don’t want to be here anymore. Did you see the video?”

I nodded and stood up and started to walk with him toward the window. I felt really bad at the moment, but the pain from my wounds was worse. For now.

“Mat, have you contacted your parents yet? We can pick them up on the way to the base. Hopefully someone there can answer some damn questions.”

I froze for a moment remembering the last thing my Dad said to me. The sound of the gunshot and phone hitting the floor. “They’re….they’re dead Leo.” I looked over to him, holding back some ugly tears.

“Then let’s get out of here. I have a first aid kit in my truck, we can patch up there.” Leo looked down at his hand, which was holding a necklace. He put it on around his neck and started to leave. I followed behind him.

Outside the crowd thinned out a lot. The young girl from before was sitting there by the truck watching the blue portal. She saw us walk over and stood up, “Did you find my mom?”

I looked over to Leo, no clue how to answer but I did anyway, “No, nobody was there other than someone who is now in a better place.”

She looked down at the ground sad. “You think my mom will come back?”

Leo walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder, “I have no clue, but you can’t stay here. What’s your name?”

“Madison. I have to wait for my mom, I can take care of myself. I took self defense classes!” She looked up with a small bit of determination covering the fear in her eyes.

Leo looked over to me with a face of pleading. “Madison, I don’t think your mother would want you out in the dark alone tonight. How about you come with us? We are going to City Hall to rest up tonight and we can come back in the morning to check for her. How does that sound?”

Leo had a fair point, there is no reason to leave her alone out here. I just hope we don’t look like creeps. Two men in their late 20’s and a young 16 year old girl. I opened the side door and sat down with a grunt of pain.

She looked back to the portal and after a moment replied, “I guess. But if you two think you can take advantage of me don’t try. I am a dashed green belt.” She walked over and climbed into the backseat of Leo’s truck.

Leo climbed into the driver seat and started driving back toward City Hall. The drive was quiet. This new world would take some getting used to.

Once we got there, several people were standing outside yelling for the Mayor or someone to have answers. Leo drove us around back and parked in the employee parking lot.

I turned and looked back to Madison “When we go inside, stay behind us. No clue what’s inside. If trouble starts, just run and hide.”

She nodded, “Why are we here anyways?”

“Answers, supplies, and hopefully a safe place to rest for the night. Tomorrow we are going to the reservist base nearby. With the military and others there, we will be much safer than out on our own.” I opened my door and got out.

Leo loaded a few shells into his gun, “Hopefully Lucky is an exception to the rules of ‘no guns allowed’.”

Madison raised an eyebrow at that, “What do you mean?”

“Guns don’t work anymore, when Mat used it, he got a warning saying The System dude doesn't approve of them.”

“That’s weird, so why keep that old shotgun?” Madison started to follow behind us.

“Because Lucky and I go way back. I wouldn’t abandon her even if I ran out of bullets and lost both my arms.” Leo gave his gun a quick kiss to show how much he loved it. “Mat, you still have the key?”

I answered by pulling out my keys. I gave the fob a quick push confirming my car was near by still when I heard it beep in response. Unlocking the back door and entering the hallway showed it to be empty, the lights still on. Once we were all in, I closed and locked the door behind us.

We walked over to our office area and found the door still opened, lights off. Just like when I was forced to leave. I reached in and turned the lights on revealing everything to be the exact way I left it.

Leo went to his desk and grabbed a set of keys. “Alrighty, I am going to search around for others. Mat, raid our snack drawer for food. Also, in my desk is a bottle of Tequila. I think we both need a couple shots tonight.” With that Leo left the room, leaving us alone.

I sat down in my chair behind my desk. Looking over to Madison. “The fridge has most of our snacks and some drinks. Help yourself.”

She opened the door and started to rummage for something she liked. While she did that I opened the drawer where we kept files of previous court cases. I looked at all my past achievements. Most of them were victorious wins, a few were loses but were best case scenarios. All of this is gone now, our new world of surviving.

I sighed and closed the drawer muttering to myself, “My profession of paperwork is now behind me. Good news however, is no more late nights coaching clients. Now it’s just late nights worrying if Zombies will eat my face.”

Madison stuck her head out, “So what were you some Judge?”

“No, Lawyer. Specifically a Divorce Lawyer. Leo used to work for Child Protection Services as a consultant, but decided to move to my department when he got tired of bad parents winning their children.”

I looked over to a photo on the wall, where a picture of myself and Leo were shaking hands posing. That was when he officially joined my office. Was a good day. Sucks those days are behind us.

It was then Leo walked back in, with a face I wish I didn’t have to see, Judge Jerry. “Hey Mat, I found us a new partner in this crazy world. Judge Jerry, that’s Madison. She is joining us on our travels tomorrow.”

Jerry walked in and actually looked calm and confident. “I suppose that’s honorable of you to take in a helpless girl.”

Madison walked over to Judge Jerry “Not helpless, want me to punch you and find out?” She had a mischievous look right now, one that I hope would go away. We all need to get along for a little bit till we get to the base.

Jerry looked down at the girl, “Now now, no need to show off. I am sure you are very strong.”

He went over and sat down in a chair pulling out his phone, “Now, luckily for you all, I know someone who can help escort us to the larger base. Too many people are going for the Reservist base. Tomorrow we leave here in style and safety.”

I raised my eyebrow at that, “What do you mean? Why not go to the closer base? We have no clue what is out there.”

“Ahh even as a Lawyer you forget the most important aspect of life. Money.” Jerry sent a message from his phone. “I know a few people at the Air Force Base. I can ensure we get put deep into a bunker. Safe from this horrible new world till the end of time.”

I looked over to Leo who just shrugged. “Should we help other people though? We could learn how this System magic works. It could be like the movies.”

Leo nodded in agreement but said nothing. Jerry did have a counter for that, “And risk our lives? We have money Mat. I knew you always been a weird Lawyer, preferring to live a normal life, but for once use it for yourself. What good can you do if you are dead?”

Jerry’s phone dinged in reply. “Good he will be here in the morning, I can cover for the girl, but you two will have to pay for yourselves. Luckily he does bundle deals. Be 10 thousand dollars. Each.”

I almost winced at the amount, but I had more than enough. Why is it so expensive to get taken somewhere? Who are these people Jerry knows?

“Hey Mat, I never finished the other side where the Mayor normally is at. Want to come and join me?” Leo obviously wanted to talk about this alone with me.

“Sure. Madison, stay here with Jerry. Neither of you leave okay?” I walked out with Leo leaving those two behind. I just hope they get along for the time we are gone.