Eric looked around and realized that it was just a dream. He was still inside his home. He looked down and saw his frightened sister. On the ground was a sandwich. She had brought it over to him, but his abrupt shout startled her. Eric apologized, “Sorry, Emilia. I had a nightmare.”
“I-it’s okay,” His sister said, still flustered.
He picked up the dropped sandwich and asked her with a smile, “Is this for me?”
“Yes. Everyone already ate.”
He looked at his phone and saw that a few hours had passed. It was now late afternoon. Now even hungrier, he prepared to take a bite of the sandwich. Just before he could, a screen appeared over the food.
Roast Beef Sandwich
Durability: 5/5
Restores 10 stamina.
“Oh?!” His eyes lit up. He discovered another change brought by the system. This one was a pleasant surprise. Now he could eat food when in a pinch to restore stamina. After waving away the screen, he quickly devoured the sandwich. When he was done, his sister was gone. He entered the kitchen and found his grandmother, mother, and sister doing a puzzle. He asked them, “Where’s Michael?”
“He’s in the front yard,” His mother said without looking up.
Eric jumped over the kitchen table blocking the front door and found Michael standing on the road leading to the gate. As soon as he laid eyes on him, he noticed that Michael’s hand was on fire. Just as he was about to cry out in shock, Michael waved his hand, sending the flame through the air. It landed on the dirt 15 feet in front of him.
Realizing that his best friend wasn’t on fire, he ran up to him and exclaimed, “Wow! Was that magic?!”
“Yeah.” Michael shivered as he recalled the feeling of mana flowing through him. It was like someone poured a cool liquid into his veins. He could feel the mana travel through his body to his hand. With a single thought, the mana transformed into fire. Bizarrely, the fire didn’t harm him. Awhile ago, he lit a patch of grass on fire and put his hand in the fire, only to shrink back in pain. He understood that once the fire left his hand, it was no longer friendly towards him. This was just one of many tests he performed in the past few hours.
Michael suddenly felt a wave of dizziness wash over him. He staggered backwards before finding his balance. Confused, he looked at his mana only to discover that he was nearly out. Yet another thing to watch out for. If he ran low on mana during a fight, he would easily lose his footing, and perhaps his life.
“Should we head back now?” Eric asked.
“Yeah, I already talked to your family about it. They agreed that the school is safer,” Michael said as he fought back the nauseous feeling.
“What about your dad?” Eric asked with worry.
“Him? He should be downtown. I never got the chance to call him,” Michael said without the slightest concern. His dad was a lawyer and had an office in middle of the city. The relationship between them… wasn’t the best. That was putting it nicely.
“I hope he’s okay,” Eric said, not noticing Michael’s lack of emotion. He recalled the sandwich he just ate and continued, “Did you see screen that appeared?”
Michael smiled slightly, “For the food you mean? Yeah, I did. Amazing, isn’t it? That just means we need to prioritize food even more than before. The more stamina you have, the faster you can level up, right?”
“That’s exactly why I went the route I did!” Eric laughed happily.
“Your family already packed everything into my car, we can leave now if you want.”
“Ah… sorry,” Eric apologized guiltily. He fell asleep and left all the work to others.
Michael gave him a strange look, “You’re our best fighter, it only makes sense to keep you in peak shape, right?”
Eric thought it over and felt it made sense. He nodded proudly, “I suppose. Let’s go!”
Eric quickly made his way to his room to pack some of his things before they left. After grabbing some clothes, they group entered Michael’s car and headed back towards the school. They made it back without any incidents. When they entered Michael’s territory, their vision opened up. Eric’s face fell as he saw something unexpected. Zombies!
There were over ten zombies wandering through the parking lot. They had no destination. Eric looked to the front entrance of the school. The blood drained from his face as he exclaimed, “The front entrance doors are missing!”
That only meant one thing. Zombies made their way inside since they left!
Chapter 12
Eric visage was intense. He looked at Michael with bloodshot eyes, “I’ll clear out the zombies in the parking lot. Protect my family for a moment!”
Before Michael could respond, Eric jumped out of the car, slamming the door behind him. Jane held the pistol firmly as she said anxiously, “Should I go help him?”
Michael shook his head and said calmly, “No, he’ll be fine. One thing though, can you hide the pistol from the others?”
“Huh, why?” Jane didn’t expect this question.
Michael’s thoughts turned quickly as he said, “This is an apocalypse, Jane.
We don’t know who our allies or enemies are.”
Jane was doubtful, “Are you sure?”
Michael gave her a firm look, “I would bet my life on it. It’s better to have a hidden weapon. Plus, won’t it cause a panic amongst the students?”
“Well...” Jane considered it for a moment before nodding, “I understand.”
It was at this time that Eric killed off the last zombie in the parking lot. His strength was completely different compared to his first encounter with a zombie. He mustered all of his strength to kill each zombie in a single hit. He let out a breath as he charged towards the school entrance. His anxiety ate away at him. He couldn’t help but think how many students died since he left. Hopefully the number was low.
When he made his way inside the main entrance, the first thing he saw were puddles of red blood. He looked up and saw a familiar figure. Eric called out, “Mr. Drew!”
Mr. Drew held a metal bat in his hand as he stood near the main entrance. The puddles of blood surrounded him, but he was unharmed. Mr. Drew’s eyes lit up when he saw who entered. He laughed loudly as he walked up to Eric, “Eric, my boy. What took you so long?”
“Never mind that. Did the zombies make their way inside? What happened?” Eric wasn’t in the mood for small talk. He still didn’t know if the blood was from zombies or the students.
Mr. Drew patted Erics shoulder as he explained, “It was just a few zombies. Nothing I couldn’t handle myself! Hahaha.”
Eric let out a deep sigh of relief. The situation was much better than he imagined. Michael’s voice rang out from behind him, “Who would have thought Mr. Drew would stand guard. How noble.”
Mr. Drew let out an embarrassed cough. He had been unsettled when they argued earlier due to the zombies. He knew he had a problem with controlling his anger at times. He was clearly at fault, but he still didn’t want to admit it.
Michael stood next to Eric, followed by Eric’s family. They held suitcases full of clothes and food. They took all of the food that was stored in their kitchen, leaving nothing behind. Now that Eric was relaxed, he looked past Mr. Drew and frowned. He noticed that most of the students were now sitting on the ground. When he left, that was impossible. There was no room for people to sit. But now, when he looked around, there were clearly fewer students than before.
He asked Mr. Drew, “Where did some of the students go?”
“Haah,” Mr. Drew let out a long sigh, “after you left, the students were on the verge of rioting. They saw you leave and wanted to leave themselves. In the end, we couldn’t hold back the people who owned cars.”
Eric just now realized that the parking lot was empty. When he saw the zombies, he tuned everything else out. He wished for the safety of the students who left, but knew he couldn’t do anything else. After some small talk with Mr. Drew, his family settled down in a corner.
Just when Eric
was about to sit down, a freshman walked up to him, an anxious look on her face. She called out, “Uhm, excuse me…”
Eric turned around and gave her a friendly smile, “Yes?”
“Uhm… you can kill zombies right?” The girl looked up at him. Her eyes were filled with hope.
Eric nodded, “Yeah, I’ve killed a bit over a hundred.”
“Wow…” The girl fell silent. She clutched her shirt tightly, hesitant about speaking further.
“What’s wrong?” Eric asked with concern.
The girl noticed Eric’s sincerity and said, “Uhm, you see… my little brother is at the elementary school a mile from here…”
It was like fireworks went off in Eric’s head. The worst case scenario played out in his mind, filling him with despair. Eric clasped the girl’s shoulder as he said, “I understand. You want me to go get him, right?”
“That…” The girl’s voice trailed off, but she gave a slight nod. She was ashamed of herself for begging someone else to risk their life for her sake, but this was all she could do. She was too afraid to leave the school.
Eric looked over at Michael. Michael heard everything, and after a moment of thought gave a nod, “Let’s go.”
Eric knelt down and spoke to his family, “Mom… I have to go…”
“I understand,” Jane was filled with concern, but she couldn’t just tell him to stay here.
“You’ll be fine with the… you know,” Eric gave her a knowing look.
His mother nodded at the unspoken words. Eric stood up and followed Michael. After briefly explaining the situation to Mr. Drew, they left the school once again. As they rode to the elementary school, Eric couldn’t help but shake his leg. As they got closer, his anxiety grew. After ten minutes, they arrived in the parking lot of the school campus. Both Eric and Michael went to this school when they were younger, so they were familiar with the layout.
Eric got out of the car and frowned. The fog was surrounding the school, so he couldn’t see anything. He could only hear the moaning of zombies. Eric and Michael approached the school slowly. They took out any zombie they came across and made their way to the entrance of the school. Eric’s face fell when he laid sight upon the school. There were no doors!
“Shit,” Eric spat under his breath. This wasn’t looking good.
Just as they were about to enter the entrance, Eric laid sight upon a small figure in the fog. His eyes lit up as he ran over to them. When he laid eyes on the figure, the blood drained from his face. Before him… was a level 1 zombie. It was a child. The child’s chest was ripped apart, and the skin on his face had been eaten away. Eric wanted to raise his bat, but found no strength to do so.
When he saw the child zombie, the zombie saw him. It slowly approached him, moaning along the way. When Michael saw that Eric was motionless, he frowned and stepped forward. With a swing, the zombie was knocked backwards. It fell to the ground. Michael wasn’t strong enough to kill it in one hit, so he swung once more.
Eric clenched his teeth, shaken at what was happening. Why did the world turn to shit so quickly? What did children so young do to deserve this? He couldn’t figure it out. He dropped to the ground. Feelings of hopelessness welled up inside him. Tears fell as he cursed, “The world is fucked man…”
Michael looked down at Eric and said, “You still have your family. If you give up, who will protect them?”
Eric glared at Michael, “I haven’t given up!”
Eric heard moaning around them. He looked over and found more figures in the fog. Almost all of them were small, no higher than his stomach.
Michael spoke to Eric without turning his head, “Should we check if there are survivors?”
“Of course!” Eric said through clenched teeth..
A few hours later, Eric and Michael arrived back at their high school. Nobody else came with them. When the girl saw Eric, she ran towards him, but when she saw his crestfallen appearance, she paused. Eric couldn’t bear to look at her for long, and the only thing he could do was shake his head before heading over to his family. The girl collapsed to her knees. She covered her mouth with her hands and cried.
Eric hugged his sister and fell asleep. He reached level 6, but that left him no joy. The events that happened at that elementary school would haunt Eric for the rest of his life.
Chapter 13
Mr. Drew and Michael discussed who would stand watch during the night. They decided that rotating between the three of them would be best. First on watch duty was Michael, then Eric, and then Mr. Drew. A few zombies wandered towards the school during the night, but they were swiftly taken care of. Mr. Drew was now somewhat familiar with killing zombies.
In the morning, Eric slowly opened his eyes. He looked around the cafeteria and found that mostly everyone was awake. The cafeteria was quiet. Everybody spoke in hushed tones. Eric looked down at his clothes and found them drenched in sweat. Another nightmare. Feeling hungry, he entered the cafeteria and grabbed something to eat. He frowned in displeasure at the food. Frankly, every student agreed that school food was shit. But with things how they were, he couldn’t complain.
An hour went by as the cafeteria slowly came to life. Eric was discussing things with his family and entertaining his sister. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Michael wave him over. Next to Michael was some of the faculty, including the principal. Eric stood up and walked over. The principal sighed, “I made a mistake. When I said we had food for 1 week, that was assuming everyone only ate breakfast and lunch. I forgot that we now have to eat dinner as well.”
Eric frowned at the sudden revelation, “How long will we last?”
“4 days at this rate, and that includes rationing our food.”
Michael folded his arms as he fell into thought. He looked over at Eric before saying, “Ready to make a trip to Safeway?”
“So soon? Don’t we have a few days?”
The principal shook her head, “Who knows how long the food will be there? Others will surely loot as well.”
“Right…” Eric belatedly realized that they weren’t alone. There were probably tens of thousands of survivors thinking the same thing as them.
Michael looked over at the principal, “My car won’t fit much food.”
“My truck could fit a lot of food… if it still works,” The principal glared at the sleeping Mr. Drew.
“Even just one car won’t be enough, unless we take multiple trips. Who else is willing to come with us?” Michael looked around at the faculty.
The faculty shivered when Michael looked over them. None of them were willing to go outside the school. They felt safe here, so why should they risk their lives? The principal knew how they felt, so she clenched her teeth and said, “I’ll go.”
After the principal spoke up, some of the faculty felt ashamed. They mustered up their courage and said, “I’ll do it.”
“Me too.”
“I’ll… i’ll go.”
Michael nodded slightly, “That should be enough. Let’s head out right now.”
Eric looked over at the sleeping Mr. Drew. Mr. Drew was the last person on guard duty, so he needed to sleep. If so, who would stand guard? There were 2 left over bats that could be put to use, but who would use them?
Michael guessed what Eric was thinking about, so he patted Eric’s shoulder and said, “Courtney will stand guard.”
Eric was startled, “She’s okay now?”
“Not completely, but she said that fighting a zombie or two should be fine.”
Mr. Lane was given the last remaining bat. He was the most fit out of the faculty that was going on the trip, although that wasn’t saying much. Eric and Michael escorted the faculty to their cars before heading to their own. With Michael driving in front, the rest followed behind him. Eric chuckled as they drove, “I can’t believe going to safeway is so stressful now.”
“Haha, right?” Michael laughed at the strangeness of it all.
In 20 minutes, they arrived in safeway�
�s parking lot. It was completely empty, save for a few cars.
“Wait a second, something off,” Michael said as he squinted his eyes.
“Hm?” Eric looked around the parking lot, but couldn’t find anything strange.
“There is no fog!”
It was then that a notification appeared in front of them.
You are entering someone's territory.
The only building in the area was safeway. That meant one thing. Someone cleared safeway of zombies and acquired it as a territory.
“What should we do?” Eric grew worried.
ZOMBIE SLAYER!!: A LitRPG Apocalypse Page 7
