- Something New

Alex groaned and shook for some time until his eyes opened, still bloodshot. With the same appearance he had. Bloated and pale and bleeding dark red blood. He tried to move but he couldn't. He was trapped in a box. "Damn It! What's the hell happened while I was knocked out?!" Alex thought. He clawed the box but to no avail. He tried kicking it but dirt started coming inside. "I'm in a coffin! Zamn it!" Alex thought. He didn't even acknowledge his appearance or fluency. He kicked the coffin but nothing happened. "Come on zamn it! Give me something good!" Alex yelled.

[Z3ll0 us3r]

"What The Zell Iz Thiz?" Alex thought. Soon the golden text had disappeared and went to a status screen. Only glitched and messy. The UI was as if someone threw up on it. The text all had numbers replacing some letters and the letter S was replaced with Z. "This izn't important right now! I need to get out of zere!" Alex shouted. While he was shouting multiple sounds could be heard from above. "I need zomething to get out of the zamn coffin!" Alex shouted

[Maby3 y0u w1ll l1k3 th1z?]

[Z-C1awz]

He could make sense of the text clearly as it said "Z-claws". Alex didn't know how to respond but it sounded like a way out. He tried tapping the text and his bloated, blood covered hands started to grow claws but they looked like they were infected with disease. Alex clawed the coffin and it gave in immediately. The wood fell on his face as he was being suffocated with dirt.

...…

Over in a graveyard with a thunderstorm there were many tombstone. "Kyle Abbot", "Jack Marsh", "Harry "Ceelo" Davis", and "Alex Watts". Alex's grave had one thing written on it. "Murderer". On top of Alex's grave there is only nothing compared to the dozens of things everyone else got. Until right as lighting struck, a hand arose from his grave and out came Alex, the living human corpse. Alex was covered in dirt from head to toe and looked around at the graveyard around him. "What the Zell zappened to me?" Alex thought until a sharp pain hit his ears. He remembered everything. His friends deaths, his "family's" Deaths, his own death, and his suffering. He didn't cry but he had a face of hatred. He wanted to end the man who did it in a instant. His thoughts were only of hatred. Far after, he looked at his body and was taken aback. He looked like a Zombie. Then he really thought about it. He died and then came back. He was now a Zombie and Alex understood it well. He was told before he passed out even.

[Z-C1awz haz w0rn 0ff]

His infected claws retracted into his fingers with a sharp, painful thrust. Alex howled in pain and fell down but got up. Now that he was a zombie he had all the time in the world. He was gonna use it wisely. At the moment he was breathing heavily after the yell he did as if it took energy from him. He was confused about what the text in front of him was meant for. What was he supposed to do about flying dark Arden and golden text that indicated things? "That hurt! What was that voice and the text anyway?" Alex thought.

[Y0ur Zombie Zyztem]

[Zay "M3nu" f0r acc3zz t0 th3 Zyztem]

He could translate it all due to how easy it was but he couldn't believe it. Even when being a Zombie there's stuff you can't believe in. "Menu" Alex thought. What came next was all glitchy but Alex could translate some of it.

[Alex Watts]

[LV. 1]

[HP: 10/10]

[Zombie Regeneration: 2.5/ 3 minutes]

[EXP: 0/10]

That was all he could translate. The text were just blurs of text, numbers, and nothing. He got to walking but as he did he slipped every now and then so he limped out of the graveyard. "I guess a zombie doesn't need to study anymore." Alex thought. He was at this point, homeless. He could live on the streets and be killed once more, but at the same time, living six feet under didn't seem too bad compared to being 6 feet over, in the middle of a street. Alex felt a sort of link to his grave. Even while being in there, trying to break out, he felt safe. He didn't want to stay in his own grave but what other choice did he have? He turned around but right as he did he smelled something delicious. He smelled it everywhere in the graveyard but he didn't know where it came from. Where he was standing was where it was strongest. Under a grave.

Alex didn't know what drew him to it but he was drooling at the smell. He felt every instinct in his body was trying to get him to eat as if it was trying to compensate for something his body lost. "What is that smell? It's amazing!" Alex thought. He clawed his way into the grave with his bare hands, paying no glance to the grave itself. He dug and dug for what he was looking for and after what felt like an eternity for Alex, had made it to the casket. He opened it and he stopped. It was someone he knew. It was the the foster home caretaker's body, burnt to perfection. "No. No. No. No. No. No. NO!" Alex cried out. He tried to close the casket but he couldn't. His body wouldn't let him. He reached his arm for the caretaker but his other hand stopped it. He fought with himself to eat or not to eat her. "Zyztem! Zelp Me!" Alex cried once more but to no avail as the system did nothing to help him.

Meanwhile, Alex's hand that was trying to feed Alex the corpse that was in front of him, dislocated itself and grabbed the head of the corpse towards Alex. His bloodshot eyes were fierce and finally, Alex succumbed to the hunger, dislocating even more body parts to eat half of the caretaker's skull. Alex ate the half, bones and all, and went straight for the brain eating chunks of it. Alex felt a euphoric sensation while eating and felt energized. He felt like he could keep eating it over and over again. At the same time, Alex was crying tears of pain. He had never wanted to do this to anyone. Yet here he was, eating someone's brain. He ate the whole body after half an hour of feeding himself flesh, organs, and bone marrow. Alex was still crying after what he did. He wasn't just crying about what he did though. It was because he still felt hungry after eating and still smelled the other bodies in the ground. After he finished crying he ate the last bit of the body. Her heart. He ate it in a single bite. What was left in the casket was a puddle of blood.

[C0ngradul4ti0nz! Y0u at3 A hum4n c0rpze!]

[Du3 t0 start1ng l1k3 th1z s0 3arly, 3XP r3duct10n haz 1n1t1at3d]

[+4 3XP]

Alex saw the text and knew it was a EXP reduction due to starting so early with the system but he didn't care at the moment. He climbed out of the grave and looked at the clouds that were raining. He blamed him. He blamed the man who killed him for what he had just done. He blamed having to feed on human flesh on this man. He wanted him dead. He wanted him gone. Considering his circumstances, he could do that. All he needed was a few more brains. He limped back to his grave, with his tears now blood. He continued to look at the clouds as they rained. He dug out the hole to his casket and barely fixed it. Before jumping into his casket, he yelled. "Zey man in the white fedora or whoever you are! I'm going to find you. When I do I'M GONNA EAT YOUR BRAINZ!!!" Alex yelled. In that moment, lightning struck twice.

It could have been a coincidence or his yell shook the skies themselves, showcasing what seemed to be a species with boundless potential. He jumped inside his grave, with it not having as much dirt and fell asleep. For the next day, he was raising hell on earth. While he was sleeping, you couldn't hear this from the rain but if you had good hearing, you could hear and see a hand that seemed to be made out of blood come out of a open hole with a casket.