Looking over the old and now ash covered apartment, I thought to myself that I should probably check all the rooms for anything valuable. Going off video game logic once again, I imagined there might be other things to loot that weren't just off the corpses of slain opponents. First, I checked the remaining furniture in the living room, which was basically one set of draws below where the tv stood. After the drawers basically turned to dust when I tugged on them, I came up empty, sifting through the debris. I then headed towards the kitchen near where the second zombie had busted through and gently checked all the cupboards and even the old fridge.
I didn't manage to find anything besides some empty old cans and some rusted utensils. I did, however, manage to kick up another mouthful of dust that sent me into a coughing fit, which I tried my best to smother. Entering the living room again, I pulled out the bottle of water I luckily still had in my jacket pocket from before I was teleported to some weird dystopian nightmare fueled gaming world. Taking only a couple of small sips and spitting out some dust that was in my mouth. I now headed towards the small hall opposite the front door. The first door was to a bathroom that gave me nothing, the next was to a bedroom.
The bedroom looked much like the living room, with the bed being nothing but a half-rotted mattress on the floor and scraps of cloth lying here and there. There was a tipped-over dresser near the door. I had to half leap over. It was placed as if someone had attempted to barricade the door with it, but it ultimately came up short. Using my foot to move the pieces around, I saw nothing of value amongst the debris. Gazing around the room again, I was immediately drawn to the bedroom window. This one was boarded up like the other one in the living room. However, one of the boards near the middle wasn't appropriately nailed on one side and was hanging down loosely.
Rushing over to the window, I wiped the dust off the glass with my sleeve and peered out. The sight from the window made my breath catch as I muttered to myself, "Dorothy, you're not in Kansas anymore." Even though it was nighttime outside, the full moon shone brightly in the sky with not a cloud in sight. In fact, the moon looked a little odd when I focused on it, it took me a moment to figure out why but then I realized why it looked odd in my eyes, it was far to close and if I wasn't imagining things it was definitely twice the size of my own planet's moon.
Shaking my head, I ignored the giant moon that was basically a night time sun and focused on the city surroundings I had found myself in. Going by the surrounding buildings, it appeared this city had clearly been abandoned, at least by the living, for a long time. With a lot of the roads having tufts of grass growing through them. It also appeared the city had suffered more than just a zombie outbreak, as it looked like it had suffered from some serious orbital bombardments, with several areas being nothing but smashed up ruins of large buildings.
Even though it appeared I was at least ten floors from the ground, with the help of the spotlight bright moon above, I could make out several figures of shambling zombies mulling about along the streets. It looked like a couple places still had electricity or it at least some form of light, going by the fact that in several areas I could see a lot of natural light. What really caught my attention though was down near the end of the street I was currently on, there was a multi-floored car park. The interesting thing about the place, though, was the fact that it looked like the on-ramp to enter was blocked by a wall made of cars. They were stacked on top of each other, at least three high. There also appeared to be light coming from within, meaning their very well might be survivors of this devastated city. Whether they were good or not was up to the luck gods. At least it appeared I might be able to find some people who could hopefully answer where in the hell he was.
After gazing out the window for several more second and seeing nothing else in the direct area that piqued my interest, I turned back to the living room and then went to the last place in the room there could-be possible loot. A sliding door cabinet was embedded in the wall across from the window. With a carelessness I was quick to regret, I walked over and slid open the door and, to my horror, came face to face with a zombie. My entire body locked up in fear at the sight. The zombie appeared to be in some kind of hibernation, standing upright but with its chin resting against its chest as if in sleep.
I stood there not breathing for several seconds, as I cursed at myself for not getting my baton from the floor after the zombie its head had been embedded in's body turned to ash. 'Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!' I berated myself internally. Suddenly, as if someone had slapped the back of my head to clear my thoughts, I remembered the weapon I had tucked in my belt. Commanding my frozen body to give me back control, I shakily moved my right arm towards my back at a snail's pace. The whole time I had been standing there, I had been holding my breath, but the moment my hand gripped the pistol, I involuntarily let out a breath of relief, which in the dead silence of the bedroom sounded like a bomb had gone off.
The zombie's head snapped up, with far smoother mobility than the previous two had, and its milky orbs stared right into my soul. Almost in slow motion, I watched as the zombie opened its mouth far wider than was natural for a human, like its bottom jaw was extra-long, like a snake. Its jagged and broken teeth also looked closer to fangs than a human's square shape. It lunged towards my neck, mouth first, not even bothering with its hands. In response, I leaned back while pulling my hand back from behind me. I jammed my forearm in the way of the jagged teeth to protect my neck and luckily that I did, because before I could even get my gun in the right position to blow the monster's head off, it had latched onto my arm. The pain shot like a fire up my arm, while its body crashed on top of me, sending me onto my back, with the wind being knocked out of me.
"Get off, you maggoty bastard!" I roared as I shook the zombie left to right like it was some rabid dog. It was to no avail, though, as the sucker's fanged teeth had a firm grip upon my forearm, I could even vaguely feel as if the zombie's teeth were scraping along my bone. The pain was unlike anything I had experienced before and brought tears to my eyes, while my consciousness was even on the verge of signing off. If not for the fact that my body was sending waves of adrenaline through my body, I very well may have passed out.
Giving up on shaking the monster off my arm, and also because each time I tried it shot my nerves with even more fiery pain, I instead pointed the pistol I thankfully didn't drop in my fall and pressed the barrel right up against the zombie's temple. I pressed the trigger while gritting my teeth but heard nothing but an empty click sound and no bang, which made my heart almost sink in complete despair that the gun may be faulty. Looking at the pistol with wild eyes, I saw that I had the safety still on and while screaming at my own brainlessness, and flicked the safety off with a finger and then pressed the trigger again. This time there was a bang and a bang it was. It sent my ears ringing so badly I forgot about the pain in my arm for a moment, but only a moment.
The Zombies head held no resistance to the bullet and in a splatter of brains and bone, a cup sized hole appeared on one side of its head, with even a couple of the bone chips ripping through my own jacket and into my skin from the force. The zombie's whole body went stiff and fell on top of me, squeezing out the little air I had managed to recover from the fall, leaving me gasping. "Shit on a stick, get off of me!" I roared as I tried to push the heavy corpse of what must have been a grown adult male. My strength and awkward position didn't help, though, not to mention that the zombie's teeth were still clamped on my forearm.
I stopped squirming at that moment, as it was just causing me more pain and instead took several deep breaths to calm myself, as tears ran down the sides of my face. 'Think, you moron, just for once use your brain!' I berated myself for a moment and then, as if a light bulb flashed above my head, I looked at the corpse and commanded "Loot" and quickly accepted the following loot option. In a flash, the zombie on top of me finally disappeared, covering me in ash. That luckily didn't get in my face, as I had turned away from it. Now free, I ignored the loot that had dropped and the internal sound of a notification to be read in my mind. I instead scooted back from the pile of ash and leaned against the bedroom wall across from the now open closet.
Cradling my bleeding arm against my chest, I dropped the gun next to me and wrapped my hand around where there were several jagged puncture marks, doing my best to slow the flow of blood. My adrenaline had finally settled back down and the close brush with death I just experienced finally settled in. Sending my thoughts spiraling in a panic. With the discovery of the gameplay mechanics earlier, I had started to treat my current situation with far too much leisure, either due to my own naivety and immaturity or a subconscious self-defense mechanism, the realism that I was in real deathly danger settled back in like a heavy cloak. Hunching my shoulders, I basked in the self-pity and pain I was currently feeling, as tears not of pain began to run like a river down my face. Hanging my head down, I couldn't help but choke out, "Dad. I really wish you were here; I could really use some of your lame jokes right about now."