Episode 2: Do what I can
It's been 12 hours since the outbreak, as the news channels tells and I'm still stuck in my condominium. Checking the internet, yes, there many netizens and zombie apocalypse strategists came out. The most curious thing though, the military was paralyzed. Why was that? No explanation was given. Even in the other countries. The same thing happened.
It was absolute chaos!
No military? What? Everyone! What the hell happened!?
I closed my computer. Since the outside has been too dangerous as of now… although I can survive… better be safe than sorry. So, I started doing my regular exercises and do some martial art practice. Judo, Taekwondo, Karate, Jiu-jitsu, and sword fighting. As always, my sensei told me to be prepare in any encounter. And right now, it's that.
Now… I looked at my "Status" window, as gamers term it to be. Do I need to level up? Yes, other people are already doing it. Killing zombies. There are even reports where we can even gain experience points by killing other people. But that's quite immoral? As a realist, I understand, levels, power. It's what any human wants to attain, who wouldn't? Even I would love to have power.
Should I kill zombies? Philippines right now is too chaotic. Even Mindanao has zombies, I wonder how NPAs fought them. I do want to save people but as time goes on, more and more zombies have been sighted below out building. I'm at the 8th floor so I'm quite safe but I wonder what other apartments in my floor were doing?
Let me check then?
And so, I prepared my gear, the gloves, the thick jacket, my headgear (MMA headgear), pants, boots then, the katana.
I slowly opened my door, it's all quiet. I'm used to it but in this situation, it's quite scary. Zombies might be jumping all over me if I'm not careful. I didn't shout to avoid noises, as per movies, zombies are sensitive to noises, that's what I knew, no study right now saying noises attracts a real zombie in the forums.
I slowly stepped outside and carefully closed the door. Just like a cat… or a movie ninja, I made my steps as quiet as possible. After a 1 minute, I took a knee down and got my ears closer to Annie's door. I want to check if I can hear inside. Is she alright? I tried to whisper her name.
"Annie… Annie" as low as possible, I whispered her name. No one answered so I knocked softly.
Still no reaction. I waited for 1 minute. No hope. So, I tried the same for the next doors in my floor. At last, I got reactions from some doors, they were inside. Thankfully no zombies went up to our floor for now.
"Hey… Why are you outside!" A man whispered while his door slightly opened. A few inches open. "I'm checking out floor if there's wrong or if all of us are safe… Don't worry, I'll fully check and see if I can lock up the fire exit doors." I told him.
"Okay! Get back here when its all safe! Careful!" He whispered and closed the door as fast.
Sigh. The zombie apocalypse happened. People are too scared now. I understand though. It's different in the movies when you experience it real time. Now… let me check every nook and cranny of our floor.
Took me a full 40 minutes to safely check every door in our floor. Then I now found the exit doors. I slightly opened it, and I can already hear the zombie noises. I guess, they are already getting up now? What happened to the other floors? Were they stupid to open up their doors and let zombies in? What the hell?
Anyways! I'm so sorry but I got priorities right now! I closed the exit door and grabbed that fire extinguisher and used it to lock the doors. I also grabbed a metal hook to secure the door from any forces behind it.
It should be safe for now.
I checked other possible ways for the zombies to get to our floors, but only the elevators left. There are two elevators, side to side, I don't thing zombies has brains to operate elevators right? Nah… If they did, they could've been here already. But… I need to make sure. So, I need some things to use to block the doors. That way, if in any case zombies accidentally used the elevator, no one can enter our floor still. And can just send them down.
I got back to my apartment. I tried to look within to see if I can use something to be a blocker… beds, cabinets, yes, there are plenty but quite large and heavy. I need help. So, I knocked on each door and told them what I did, everyone went out and sighed. Annie has been there as well. Good God, she's okay.
I explained my plans to them and they all agreed. There are 10 women and 5 men, including me in this floor. Appears that the other rooms were empty. Probably, we can use them too, but hard to do it as they were all metal doors. Could we enter them through the balcony?
One of the men agreed with me to enter them via balcony. We checked the distance between each apartment and it's quite near but the way to get there was dangerous. We need to balance ourselves between the cavities of the walls and a very small steps to get to those balconies. Since I am a martial artist. I volunteered. So, we have some plans and got all the large cabinets and unused beds move towards the elevator doors. We put them vertically and make sure all spaces were blocked.
Now, we can be assured that no zombies will get to our floors.
Toward the second plan, I tied my self with the bed sheets and have the other men watch me to support. I slowly took step in those small cavities until I got on to the other side. Success! I took a look below and damn, no more humans. All zombies. Less than a day passed and it's already taken over by the zombie army. Sigh.
I stopped looking and continued with the mission, gain access to all the apartments in our floor, and I did all of them.
Success! Now, for our survival part, food and necessities. We checked every apartment and collected everything we possibly need. Food, water, first aid Kits, and useable weapons. We also talked about the level thing. We all had the same announcement. However, all of them were not used to fighting. I was the only one who is trained to fight, even kill.
Since we've gathered enough food for at least a month, I quickly asked them to learn the basics of combat. How to dodge, how to attack, and when to run if they think its not to their advantage. We also checked the internet, since it hasn't died yet. Could be sooner though so we maximized everything and learned what needed to be learned.
A week has passed and we can already see the zombies trying to open the doors in the fire exit. At first, the women and some of the men were scared. I saw some were shivering from fear when saw the disgusting look of those zombies. Yeah, just like the movies, thankfully, they can't run like those in "Z" movie.
To test the water, I broke the glass windows and have my katana stab these zombies one by one through it. And the report was confirmed. Zombies die when their head were either smashed or damaged. Best would be at the brain section.
After killing those zombies though, I got a notification ring within my mind.
[DING!]
[50 EXP GAINED!]
[50 EXP GAINED!]
[50 EXP GAINED!]
[50 EXP GAINED!]
[LEVEL UP!]
[50 EXP GAINED!]
[50 EXP GAINED!]
I killed 6 zombies out of that window and gained experience! I leveled up! Let's see…
Status Window:
[Level: 1]
[Class: -]
[Exp: 110/250]
[HP: 150/150]
[MP: 50/50
[Attributes:
Strength: 5
Agility: 5
Vitality: 5
Stamina: 5
Intelligence: 5]
[Free Attributes: 10]
[Skills:]
I see now. Right now, I need strength and vitality! So, I put 5 on each.
[Level: 1]
[Class: -]
[Exp: 110/250]
[HP: 400/400]
[MP: 70/70
[Attributes:
Strength: 10
Agility: 5
Vitality: 10
Stamina: 5
Intelligence: 5]
[Free Attributes: 0]
[Skills:]
After adding them, I can already feel the strength in body increased. It's not miniscule at all! As for the effect of vitality, I haven't felt them yet, probably I needed to get damages in order to experience its effects.
Anyways, I won't let that happen! I could be affected by zombie virus so I should not gamble on that!
After looking into my status window, I looked at the people behind me, they looked so stiff and just waiting for me to give them something, like… what I felt after I killed those zombies?
I did let them know though and have one of the men do the same thing, I told him it's safe and no need to worry. He did stab one, and due to the other zombie's movement, after stabbing one, he went on his butt cause of fear and forgot to pull out the long steel bar out of that zombie's head. It got stuck in that door's hole.
I pulled it and handed it over back to him. I patted his shoulder and called the other one. I have them all do the same thing and asked them each what do they feel and did they get the notification.
They all said the same thing happened and they got 50 experience points. Now, I can confirm, the world has changed. I wonder what went wrong. But this is the world now. We just need to adapt. Adapting is equal to survival.
There are still thousands of zombies below. We got a month. And these zombies can get us stronger. The killing has begun.