Zombie Rebirth

My head was reeling. He hit me one time, and my health bar dropped by forty percent. The first hit had been brutal. It felt like my insides were the consistency of a smoothie. What made it worse was striking the far wall with the same amount of force.

“Damn you… physics!”

I coughed up blood. Cool, another thing that I can apparently still do, even as a zombie. A little icon showed up in the corner of my vision, which changed to a short line of text when I focused on it.

Condition: internal bleeding.

“Oh, that’s why I sound like a bong rip in action.” It was true, too. My lungs were bubbling fiercely. I wasn’t sure I needed to breathe, but it was an automatic action. Autonomous. Autonomic, even. I think I took a hard hit to the head. As if to confirm my suspicion, another icon swam into view. Either my mind made up the system, or the system had a sense of humor, because the icon was a little stick-figure man with a bandage on his head, and he literally swam into my vision. Then he wavered in place next to the internal bleeding icon, which made me think more of gastrointestinal distress than internal bleeding.

Condition: concussion.

“Focus,” I grunted through my teeth. I stood slowly, clutching my side. Even though my sense of touch wasn’t even one percent of what I had in life, I could feel the pain radiating from my side and back. I could really only take two, maybe three more hits like that, and I would die. And there would be no reviving. That was locked out, as the system was so kind to inform me earlier in the day.

The sound of crumbling rock grated against my ears. I turned to look at the Berzerker and nearly lost my balance. I had to put a hand against the wall to keep from tipping. The brute was working his way out of the wall. The fact he hadn’t gone through, or pulped his head against the stone concerned me. It meant he was in a very narrow window, there. Not literally, his head was planted in brick, but figuratively. His head broke through, but the rest of him didn’t. The zombie corpses trapped between him and the wall must have slowed him enough to keep from going straight through.

I took a hesitant step forward, nearly losing my balance again. That was a really, really nasty knock to the head. I couldn’t have been unconscious for more than a few seconds, but even a little bit was worrying. He got his hands up next to his head and pulled. More brick crumbled free, and I saw his back straining. The door frame finally gave up the ghost and splintered apart. When he finally broke free, I knew I was in deep, deep trouble. He stood to his full height and roared. I swear I saw the windows flex like the hallway around Neo.

“Easy, boy.” I held a hand out and talked like I was trying to convince a dog I was friendly. “Want to join me? Want to be part of Blackwood Company?”

The feral giant shook his head, then lurched into a loping gate that ate hallway like a fat kid in a candy store. I turned, heedless of my condition, and took off.

Well, that’s what I intended to do. The quick turn put me off balance, and I went down like a feather. Or bowling ball. Either way, I fell; damn gravity. The giant was slow to react. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or bad. He kicked me square in the gut, but that cause him to trip. He slammed headfirst into the wall, this time at a run. The inside wall was wood and plaster, like normal. It shattered under his immense bulk, but I was too busy trying to figure out if I still had a diaphragm. Again, I have no idea if I need to breathe.

His health bar had dropped again. I looked at it, and it seemed to be laughing at me. Curving into a big Cheshire grin.

Feral Berzerker

HP: 264/600

Dumb giant has done more damage to himself trying to get at me than I have to him. I heard the railing crack and a meaty thump a moment later. I slowly stood, remembering what lay beyond the doorway. Out there was the staircase leading into the foyer, and Basil.

The railing was completely gone. I stood shakily at the top of the stairs and looked at the destruction below. The giant wasn’t moving, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t start stirring any moment. Standing ten feet from the prone zombie was Basil, looking startled and confused.

“Hold on,” I grunted. Then I launched out and dropped straight at the monster’s head. I felt my arm fold in half against his stone-like skull, but I did some real damage to him. Unfortunately, I did damage to myself as well. My health was now flashing and a light red. His health bar was still in the yellow. I could understand that. Mine was lower. It certainly felt like it. I had a broken arm, shattered hand, powdered ribs, and who knew how many rupture organs and torn ligaments. It certainly felt like I was dying. I lay half on his head and shoulder, half on the ground. “Give us a hand?”

Basil walked over, giving the still unmoving giant a good amount of side-eye as he moved. “Making new friends?”

“Only the best,” I grunted. He helped pull me to my feet. I winced, feeling a dull heat all throughout my body. It felt like I needed to pee. I was fairly certain I no longer did that as a zombie. I looked down, and found, to my surprise, my pants were so coated in blood and gore that I couldn’t tell if I was wetting them.

“How’s it looking up there?”

“Trashed, just like me. By the way–”

He chose that moment to wake up and thrash. The giant roared, face embedded in tile, and frantically slammed his whole body against the floor.

I only had a moment, but it was enough time. I summoned an undead unguent from my inventory, lifted my shirt, and slathered the whole thing on my belly. I immediately started to feel better. My health jumped ten percent of the max, putting it back in the yellow.

Basil looked at me, then back at the spasmodic monster. “Should we do something about that?”

“Nah,” I said with a hand wave. “Let him tucker himself out. He’ll be ready for a nap any moment now.”

Instead of listening to me, the Berzerker wrenched his face free and shook himself. When he caught sight of me, he roared again.

“Doesn’t this guy ever get tired of doing that?”

I didn’t wait for an answer. I ran in and did another double drop kick into the giant’s face. I hit the ground and rolled away. I wasn’t fast enough. The brute swung down and caught me with a back-hand that sent me sprawling. The blow clipped me, but it didn’t matter when my health was already so low. I was in very real danger of dying to this monster.

Basil surprised me then, slamming shoulder-first into the giant’s face. He was a large man, but his strength was so low, it made little difference to the brute. He bounced off. The giant idly swatted at him, and connected with a soft blow. Even taking a soft hit from the Berzerker took more than half his health bar.

“Hey,” I shouted. I felt bones grind in my chest and clutched at it as I rose. “Your fight is with me, you ugly lump. Did they run out of ugly when they made you?”

“Are you saying he’s so ugly he comes out the other side as handsome?”

I stopped and stared at Basil. “What? No. I’m saying he’s so ugly, they had to use even uglier to finish making him.”

“Then why didn’t you say that?”

The giant turned and lunged at me, but I was ready. I dropped to a knee and let him soar over me.

“Now really isn’t the time, Basil!”

The Berzerker hit the ground and rolled, coming to a stop facing away but on his feet. I ran after, ignoring all the pain telling my body to stop moving. I echoed Basil’s move as the giant turned to face me, slamming shoulder-first into his already pancaked mug. He rocked back and sat down, blinking furiously. His nose was smashed so flat it didn’t even appear to be a distinct feature anymore. I wavered in place, exhausted. I had zero stamina, couldn’t activate Earthen Bulwark, and generally felt like I was dead again. I did the only thing I could summon the strength to do. I slapped the zombie in the face.

His eyes rolled back, and so did mine.

I was unconscious before I hit the floor.

Level 5 Feral Berzerker killed. Mini-boss status confirmed. Extra xp awarded! +50 xp.

Level up!

+3 strength, +1 agility, +3 constitution, +1 free stat point.