Chapter 6: My First Kill

The creature charged straight at me, and I froze, because one second it had been an ordinary hotel guest and the next its mouth had stretched unnaturally wide to reveal rows of bloodstained teeth.

“JOHN, MOVE!”

Adrian slammed into me and knocked us both aside, and the creature crashed into the reception desk so hard that the wood shattered. People screamed and rushed toward the exits, trampling over one another, while the hotel security guards tried to stop it, but the first guard barely got close before the creature tore into his shoulder and blood splashed across the floor.

My stomach turned, because this was happening a whole day earlier than it should have.

[SYSTEM ALERT!]

[FIRST COMBAT MISSION ACTIVATED.]

[OBJECTIVE: KILL THE MUTATED HUMAN.]

[REWARD: 10 SYSTEM POINTS AND BASIC COMBAT SKILL.]

[FAILURE: SEVERE INJURY OR DEATH.]

Kill it, I thought, but with what, my bare hands?

“There’s a fire extinguisher!” Adrian shouted.

I spotted one beside the wall, but before I could reach it the creature lifted its head and sniffed the air, and its red eyes found me again.

“It’s following me!” I yelled.

“Your mark is attracting it!”

“Then do something!”

Adrian pulled a knife from inside his jacket and rushed toward the creature, moving fast enough to strike its arm and jump back, but the creature barely reacted and swung its enormous hand, sending Adrian crashing into a pillar.

“Adrian!”

He struggled to stand while the creature turned toward him, and I knew I could not let it kill him, not because I trusted him, but because he was the only person who seemed to know what was happening.

I grabbed the fire extinguisher and ran forward. “HEY!”

The creature turned, and I swung with everything I had, and the metal cylinder smashed against its head, but it only staggered and did not fall while pain shot through my arms.

“Are you kidding me?” I gasped.

The creature roared and lunged, and I ducked just in time, though its claws still scraped my shoulder and tore my shirt, leaving three burning lines across my skin, and I stumbled until my back hit the reception desk and the creature approached with saliva dripping from its mouth.

For one terrible moment I saw Samuel standing over me again, holding the knife that had ended my first life, and I remembered his smile and Michael watching without helping, and I remembered dying while the two people I loved most betrayed me, and something inside me snapped.

“You already killed me once,” I whispered. “I’m not dying again.”

I seized a broken piece of wood from the floor and drove it into the creature’s eye, and it screamed while I pushed harder, until it collapsed and twitched violently before finally becoming still.

Silence fell over the lobby, and then the system spoke.

[MISSION COMPLETE.]

[REWARD: 10 SYSTEM POINTS.]

[SKILL UNLOCKED: BASIC COMBAT.]

[HOST HAS ACHIEVED FIRST KILL.]

I dropped the wooden stake with my hands shaking, because I had killed someone, and even if that thing was no longer human, the reality of it made me feel sick.

Adrian walked toward me, holding his injured side. “You did well.”

“Don’t congratulate me, I nearly died.”

“But you didn’t.” He glanced at my shoulder. “We need to treat that wound.”

Before he could touch me, a notification appeared.

[WARNING: FOREIGN BIOLOGICAL MATERIAL DETECTED ON HOST’S SKIN.]

[INFECTION RISK: UNKNOWN.]

My blood ran cold. “Adrian…”

He saw the message reflected in my eyes. “What is it?”

I showed him the wound, and his expression changed immediately. “Don’t move.”

He pulled a small medical kit from his bag and examined the scratches without touching them directly. “It’s not deep, but we can’t take chances.”

“Am I going to turn into one of those things?”

“I don’t know.”

It was the first answer from Adrian that I truly believed, but a loud crash came from the entrance before I could say so, and we both turned to see several infected people forcing their way through the glass doors while more figures stumbled across the street behind them.

The apocalypse was not waiting for its scheduled arrival anymore, and it had begun.

[SYSTEM ALERT: NEW OBJECTIVE.]

[REACH A SAFE LOCATION WITHIN 30 MINUTES.]

[BONUS REWARD: UNKNOWN.]

Adrian grabbed my wrist. “Come with me, now.”

I followed him toward the emergency exit, but I stopped when I noticed a familiar face outside the shattered entrance, because Samuel stood there beside Michael, completely unharmed, and he was not looking at the infected at all but at me.

Then he raised his phone and smiled, and my own phone vibrated with a message.

Samuel: I know you’re alive, John. And this time, I’m going to make sure you don’t survive.

I stared at the screen, and then another message arrived.

Samuel: By the way, your wound looks interesting.

My blood turned to ice, because he had seen everything, and somehow he knew about my injury.

[SYSTEM ALERT: HOSTILE PLAYER HAS DISCOVERED YOUR LOCATION.]

[WARNING: YOUR TWIN BROTHER’S STATUS HAS CHANGED.]

[SAMUEL SMITH: AWAKENED.]