Zombie Rebirth

“I ordered you to guard the anchors.”

“And I destroyed them instead, fatass.”

The Necromancer looked down at himself. I gave him a good look for the first time. He was a bit older than me, maybe in his late twenties. He wore a billowing black cloak over a fancy costume that looked straight out of Castlevania. What was really telling, though, was how round his gut was. He was carrying an entire extra person’s worth of fat. A telling and stark contrast to his minions, who all looked emaciated.

“Dude, are you fucking serious with that outfit?”

The Necromancer stuttered, mouth agape at my words. “How- how dare you! You are one of my minions! Now, get back to defending the remaining anchor!”

I felt his words like a literal force against my mind. However, they failed to gain any purchase. I controlled my face, going to a slack, neutral expression, then started a stilted walk toward the anchor.

“Good grief. How am I going to make this invasion work now? There’s still…”

I resisted the urge to look up at him. But I had the ridiculous image of him rolling back his dumb sleeve to reveal one of those old calculator watches. He just seemed the type. I snorted a laugh and knew the ruse was blown. Luckily, I was standing right next to the lead zombie. I snaked an arm out, grabbed his face and slammed him back in to the other leaning hostile. They went down in a tangle of badly broken limbs. I looked up to see the Necromancer once again staring agape.

And yes, he had a stupid calculator watch on. What the hell?

“How?”

I ignored his question and leaped in for the kill. I slammed both feet down on the half-zombie crawler, crushing his skull.

Level 2 zombie killed. 10 xp awarded.

I jumped from the gory remains and kicked the fourth zombie in the remaining leg. She folded in half. That only lasted for a moment as her hip joint gave way and flesh tore loose. She landed on her leg, smashing her face on her now disembodied knee. The first two were just managing to untangle themselves when I kicked her head from her neck and into their faces.

Level 2 zombie killed. 10 xp awarded.

Level 3 zombie killed. 20 xp awarded.

The rotten skull smashed like an old jack-o-lantern across both, caving in the upper zombie’s head. I raised both hands in celebration.

“Gooaaaaaaaalll!”

The Necromancer sputtered and gibbered above me as I jumped up, dropping with a leading elbow. I shouted as I fell.

“From the high corner, he goes in for the killllll!”

Level 3 zombie killed. 20 xp awarded.

I mimicked the sound of a roaring crowd as I got to my feet. I brushed bits of skull and gray matter from my filthy clothing and looked up at the Necromancer.

“Hey buddy, why don’t you come down here, we’ll fight head-to-head!”

My health was dangerously low, my stamina was all but depleted, and I was talking out of my ass. It was a bluff.

And dammit.

It worked.

He fled, flying off back toward the center of the maze. I heard Basil break into raucous laughter as I sagged in relief.

“From the high corner!” He shouted, thick British accent making it so much better. I laughed wearily, sitting with my back to the final anchor. The time sat insistently in the corner of my vision. It was simple, yet so, so ominous.

Time remaining: 2:04

“Damn, can’t get a break around here. This is a lot of work.” I slowly stood and looked over at Basil for my next comment. “I would love it if you got off your ass and did some work.”

“Oh, that’s how it is? Just woke up and chose violence today?”

I waved at my blood-and-gore encrusted clothing, then waved a hand at him in dismissal. I sighed and got back to it. I had just under two minutes to finish this quest. Five hits later, the anchor crumbled away. The timer stopped.

Time remaining: 1:12

I wiped a dirty hand across my brow to clear away non-existent sweat. Seemed I didn’t do that anymore as a zombie. Only a minute to spare. Though, it wasn’t like I was given a ton of time to start with. I walked over to Basil and sat next to him.

“You look a bit peaked, mate.”

I nodded, hands on knees, head against my chest. I felt like I couldn’t draw a full breath. I checked my stamina, noting it was at 18 and climbing. It felt like it took ages to get a single point back. I made a note to find some way to improve my agility. All my stats, really, needed to be improved. I crunched a few numbers, and realized it would take nearly a half hour to fully refill my stamina. That was abysmal. I couldn’t keep up constant fighting with down-time like that. And so far, it was constant fighting. Well, constant with several minutes between fights, but not enough for a significant amount of regeneration.

“Basil,” I gasped out. “Is there a way to improve my regen?”

“Of course. Didn’t they teach you this in your training, or tutorial?”

“Tutorial? What? No, this is my first day as a zombie. I was turned like forty minutes ago.”

He hissed out between his teeth. “Oookay. That is insane. Yeah, just sit upright, then cross your legs… yeah, like that.”

He guided me into a standard meditation pose, then told me to relax, close my eyes, and breathe steadily. I followed his instructions and immediately felt better. Five minutes later, I opened my eyes and checked my stats, with a mental note to ignore the other stuff for the moment.

Name: Alabaster Blackwood

Race: Zombie Human

Faction: None

Age: 20

Level: 1

XP: 96/105

HP: 158/280

HP regen per second: 0.12

MP: 0/20

MP regen per second: 0.00

Stamina: 114/140

Stamina regen: 0.08

Strength: 17*

Agility: 8

Constitution: 14*

Wisdom: 1

Intelligence: 1

Charisma: 1

Luck: 12*

“Huh, finally a tangible benefit to meditation.”

Basil shook his head at me. I checked on the quest for the anchors, and realized it had been flashing for my attention for some time.

Alert: quest updated.

You have destroyed all four anchors holding a portal open. The invading army has been halted. Close the portal, defeat the Necromancer and maybe save your world. Or, you can find him and join the Undead to rule over your own bit of paradise.

Rewards: 150xp, 1000 recognition, undiscovered rewards based on choices.

I itched for that xp reward. I didn’t know what recognition was or what it did, nor did I care at the moment. I was a little curious what the ‘undiscovered rewards’ could be, but again, I just wanted the xp. It was enough to not only tip me over my next level, but if I was right, it would push me up to level 3 immediately. Fourteen more stat points assigned, and two free points to put toward something. I rubbed my hands, grabbed Basil’s rope and slung him over my shoulder.

“Let’s kill us a Necromancer!”