Zombie Rebirth

The house- no, the mansion was a horror show.

“How did so many get past me and into the house?!”

I swung wildly, Basil shouting in surprise from my back. The improvised bat, actually a table leg, cracked across the feral zombie’s face. It was a level 0, weak against my higher stats, but because it was freshly turned, it was surprisingly resilient. I kept mentally distancing myself from the monster in front of me. It had been human, and recently. But the intelligent zombies had shown no restraint when they fed on the poor… victim. White bone showed through rent flesh across the face and chest, and even on a few spots on the arms. I kicked it in the chest, sending it back into a crowd of four other ferals.

Feral Zombie

Level: 0

HP: 100

HP regen per second: 0.05

Mana: 0

Stamina: 140

Stamina regen per second: 0.07

Faction: Feral

Still, I had five zombies in front of me, and who knows how many more in the thirty room mansion. They were weak, but numerous, and a serious danger. Even worse, they would provide next to no xp.

“Basil, what’s the situation?”

“The castle is overrun with feral zombies.”

I shot a glance at him near the entrance to the room.

“I really need to get you some limbs.”

“That would be nice,” he shouted back.

“What can you tell me aside from the obvious?”

I kicked out at a slavering zombie, forcing it back. “Is there any way to undo the feral transformation?”

“No,” he said sadly. “These ferals are drawn to life and movement. They are unintelligent thralls only intent on spreading the disease.”

“Why are they so dumb?”

I tossed one into another group, stumbling them all. There were at least ten in the foyer with us now.

“The process creates intelligent zombies. This is just a virus spread by undead in general, to boost the population quickly.”

“What good is it if they attack undead too?”

I was running out of non-lethal options. I didn’t want to kill my former friends.

“You’re not a feral, the controlling Necromancer is dead, and there are no other high-level Undead to take control. They are truly feral. Alabaster, I could use a hand over here.”

I growled in frustration, gripped the arms of the zombie that had a hold on me, and kicked hard. His arms ripped free at the shoulder, and I tossed them toward Basil. They struck a feral in the back of the head, stumbling him into the wall. Basil flopped over, trying to escape being gnawed on. The zombie I had just de-armed came back, chomping at me. I kicked his knee backward, then stomped on his head. The first of the ferals had fallen, and that got their attention. I was swarmed.

“Keep it up, lad!” Basil’s voice sounded strained, like he was trying to do something. I was puzzled, even as the ferals dogpiled on me.

I screamed in frustratin and rage. I had so many level 0 zombies piled on me, I couldn’t even move anymore.

“What can I even do?!”

“You need some abilities!”

“How do I get those?”

Basil paused, taking his time to answer. I heard him grunting with strain, then he went quiet. Finally, he said “You get an ability every five levels, and rarely you’ll get an ability core as a loot drop.”

“What the hell are you doing over there?”

I struggled to free an arm. A leg. Anything. I felt low-level zombies biting me all over, and my health was plummeting quickly. I didn’t even want to check my stats, fearing what I would see. Instead, a shadow was cast over me. I looked up to find a sinister presence. A massive zombie, as large as–

“BASIL?!”

“I’ve got you, lad.”

He grunted as he bent over, like he was a late-middle-aged man getting up from his recliner. He reached one arm out and it was… backwards. The thumb was pointed downwards. So was the other one. The sight made my head light, like I was falling. It made me nauseous.

He gripped my shoulders, then leaned back and grunted with effort. The grunt turned into a rumble, then a roar. I felt my body shift, then slide a few inches. I cheered him on. He pulled even harder, and I heard skin tearing. One of his arms was separating at the elbow and shoulder. It looked… feminine. And upside down. I thought I was going to lose my lunch. Then I popped free, slammed into Basil, and we went down in a tangle of elbows and knees.

“Basil, how the hell do you have arms? And why are they upside-down?”

He chuckled, out of breath. “When you threw those arms, one hit my shoulder at just the right angle. Instead of falling off, it reconnected. Unfortunately, you threw the left arm and it connected to the right shoulder. That’s why it’s backward. I reattached the other arm, then ‘found’ some legs.”

We stood, and I looked at the feral pile. They were all squirming around, biting each other. They were so stupid, none of them had even realized I was pulled free.

“You have two backwards arms, one of which is a woman’s, and it’s nearly done. You have two mismatched legs. You’re like Frankenstein’s Creation. Only smarter.”

“I don’t know what that means, but I’ll take it as a compliment. Shall we?”

“Oh,” I said with a smile. “We shall. Then we’re going limb shopping for you. If I had known zombie limbs counted as prosthetics for you, we would have done this an hour ago.”

I extended a fist toward Basil, who looked at it in consternation.

“Touch my fist with yours.”

He extended an upside-down fist and bumped mine. I laughed, then jumped at the pile of zombies.

Level 0 Feral Zombie killed. 1 xp awarded.

Level 0 Feral Zombie killed. 1 xp awarded.

Level 0 Feral Zombie killed. 1 xp awarded.

Level 0 Feral Zombie killed. 1 xp awarded.

Level 0 Feral Zombie killed. 1 xp awarded.

I muted the notifications. The pile had grown while Basil was working on himself and I had been trapped at the bottom. I stomped on heads and chests, careful to preserve the limbs as best I could. Some were already well beyond useful, though. I did notice one of the zombies was tougher, not that it mattered for my xp gains. When the room fell silent, I looked at myself. I was covered in blood and gore again. My clothes were ruined. I’m sure I stank to high heaven.

“Well, let’s get to categorizing. What are the odds that more show up?”

He shook his head. “No telling. They should remain in the mansion for the time being, but we shouldn’t take too long. If you want to prevent the spread of ferals through the region, you need to put every single one down.”

Just like that, a quest pop-up sprang into my view.

New quest!

Feral Annihilation

The feral zombies are a threat to your region. As a Count, it is your responsibility to keep it safe. Find and kill all feral zombies.

Rewards: 200xp, 10 silver

Progress: 15/75

A moment later, the final line changed.

Progress: 15/76

“We’re losing ground. When we have a moment, can you explain how currency works now?”

Basil nodded, focused on picking out limbs he liked. Most were from the larger zombies, whom I suspected had been on the University football team.

“Oh yeah,” I said and turned on the notifications. They had condensed into a few lines, sparing me from massive repetition.

9 level 0 Feral Zombies killed. 9 xp awarded.

Level 1 Feral Zombie killed. 1 xp awarded.

“Ten xp for all that work. Hardly seems worth it.”

“The quest should make up for that.”

I nodded. Nearly two full levels from completing it, on top of the xp earned from killing the blighters.

“Your English accent is rubbing off on me.”

“I am doing no such thing,” he said, clearly affronted.

“No, buddy,” I said with a laugh. “I’m using words that aren’t common to America.”

He stared at me, then shrugged. “Whatever. Help me out?”

I looked at him. He was holding two matching arms. They were burly, and even had some arm hair still. I nodded and walked over.

“How do we do this?”

Basil grimaced. “You’re going to have to remove the current arms, then attach the new ones. We’ll do the same for the legs after.”

“I dunno, I kinda like this lop-sided look you’ve got going.”

Basil shook his head, then leaned down and presented his shoulder. His arm was out at an angle to give me the ideal angle. “Just get it done.”

I took his arm and pulled it out hard enough to strain the shoulder joint, then slammed a bladed hand into the weak flesh between the bones. It split with a wet sucking sound, and I was once again holding a lifeless arm. I gathered up the replacement, then gave him a devious look.

“You know, as weird as it was, I think the upside-down arm thing was pretty cool.”

“Please, no.”

I sighed, then attached the left arm on his left side.

“You’re no fun.”

“You try holding things with upside-down hands. It took a full minute just to figure out why things were going the wrong direction.”

I quickly severed his other arm and attached the new one. He stood up and flexed his new hands. “This is so much better. Thanks, mate.”

“Yeah. Let’s just get the legs done. At least you’re wearing pants.”

“Why?”

“Because– you know what? Never mind. It probably doesn’t matter with the undead.”

“Are you a prude?”

I stopped and stared at him. “Me? A prude? No, I just don’t want to see your wedding tackle. If you even still have it, or your original set.”

“Fair enough. Not everybody likes that.”

“Dude, you’re undead. From what you’ve said, you’ve been undead for a really, really long time.”

He nodded, picking out a pair of legs. “These look good. And yeah, over a hundred years.”

He laid on the ground, and I tried to figure out how best to do the separating. In the end, I took his ankle, lifted the leg straight up, then kicked right below the hip. The first strike broke his femur, the second started the skin and muscle tearing.

“How did this heal on so quick?”

“I don’t know. Normally, you can’t even do this.”

I kicked once more, tearing the limb free. I fitted the new leg in place. It was far more toned than the arms, but I could feel just how dense the muscle was. I guessed either swimmer or runner. We repeated the process on the other side, then I applied some undead unguent to each of his limbs to speed the healing and adoption process. We sat and waited for his health to tick back up. I took the time to check my own stats.

Name: Alabaster Blackwood

Race: Zombie Human

Faction: None

Age: 20

Level: 3

XP: 46/115

HP: 277/440

HP regen per second: 0.18

MP: 0/40

MP regen per second: 0.00

Stamina: 155/220

Stamina regen: 0.10

Strength: 25*

Agility: 11

Constitution: 22*

Wisdom: 2

Intelligence: 2

Charisma: 2

Luck: 12*

Titles: Primordial Undead, Prime Undead, Star-born: Dragon, Lord, Royalty

Skills: Unarmed Combat

Abilities: None

Spells: None

Notes: English, Zombie Common

Based on my stats, I had nearly died. I had completely depleted my stamina as well. I judged it to be roughly twenty-five minutes since the fight had ended. That meant I had regained right about 270 health. Very close to death.

“Hey, what happens if my HP reaches zero?”

Basil shrugged. We were both in meditation poses to take advantage of the increased regeneration. His health had to be significantly lower, just based on the damage I had inflicted to replace his limbs.

“Zero HP generally indicates catastrophic damage. Unless you get an ability to stop death at zero, you, well, you die. And there’s no coming back again.”

I nodded. “Don’t hit zero.”

“Exactly.”

We rested for a few more minutes. Once my health reached maximum, I stood and started to loot the dead ferals. Their bodies deflated after being looted, like weird balloons going flat. Then they simply faded into nothing. Before long, the pile had disappeared.

“What did you get?”

I checked the log.

Looted!

+150 copper, +12 undead unguent, +14 bandage, +1 ability sphere.

I pulled the ability sphere out and inspected it closer.

Ability sphere:

Use to gain a new ability dependent on unlocked pathways.

“What are pathways?”

“I think here you call it Chakras.”

“How do you know what Chakras are, but you don’t know who Frankenstein is?”

“One is the way energy moves through the body. That’s universal, even if the exact methods aren’t. The other is pop-culture. That is far from universal.”

“Makes sense, I guess. How can I tell what Chakras I have unlocked?”

“Open your status page, and look at your Chakras.” He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. At this point, I suppose it was.