Bitten?

New chapter is live.

Settle in, take your time, and let's see what waits in the dark 🖤

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Within seconds, the walkers closed in.

Even the ones that had been tearing into the horse began turning toward the tank.

Evan and Rick pressed close, back to back. Rick fired ahead to clear a path while Evan watched their rear, ready to bring the entrenching tool down on anything that got too close.

It was only a dozen yards.

It felt like it took a month.

"Too many. We need to move!" Rick shouted.

Then his voice sharpened.

"Ward!"

Evan heard him, but before he could turn, something tugged at the armor near his lower back.

Instinct hit before thought.

He swung the entrenching tool behind him.

Thunk.

A walker that had stuck its head through a car window was knocked back inside.

Then Evan turned and met Rick's stare.

The look on Rick's face stopped him cold.

"What?"

Following Rick's gaze, Evan reached behind his back. His fingers found torn fabric first. Then exposed skin.

His stomach dropped.

Pain flared a heartbeat later, sharp and hot, and when he pulled his hand back, fresh blood stained his fingertips.

His face went white.

His pupils shrank.

"I... I got bitten?"

For a second, his mind went blank.

'This isn't how it was supposed to go.'

He was not ready to accept it. He had barely arrived. He should not die here.

Evan lifted his head, bloodless and shaking, fear hitting so hard it nearly hollowed him out.

No wonder Rick had looked at him that way.

Was he going to become one of them?

'No. No, this isn't right.'

A ringing filled his ears, the same deafening hum that had followed Rick's gunshot inside the tank.

"Hey! Hey, Ward!" Rick grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him hard. "Can you hear me? We have to get out of here first!"

Evan's eyes slowly cleared.

He saw the walker behind Rick and yanked the deputy aside, swinging the entrenching tool one-handed. The blow knocked the walker off balance and sent it collapsing beside the road, still clawing at the pavement as it tried to crawl closer.

"Rick." Evan sucked in a breath. "I can't go with you. You need to leave."

His chest heaved.

The fear had climbed as high as it could go.

Then, just as fast, it burned into rage.

A dead job market. Waking up in the apocalypse. Getting bitten on the first day.

'Why the hell does every rotten thing have to happen to me?'

"Ward..." Rick stared at him, frozen.

They had known each other for less than fifteen minutes, but in this ruined world, Evan was the first person Rick had met since waking whom he was already being forced to leave behind.

"Go!"

Evan shoved the grenade into Rick's hand. His breathing quickened as a vicious heat rose beneath his skin.

It was not that he did not want to run.

A bite near the waist meant leaving would only buy him enough time to put a bullet in his own head.

If that was the ending, he might as well spend what little he had left.

Rick looked at him one last time.

Then he turned and ran for the alley.

Gunshots rang out, sharp and hollow, then faded into the distance.

Evan faced the walkers.

"All right," he said, baring his teeth. "Time to give you rotting dead bastards the welcome you deserve."

"Maybe I even get to go back after I die."

The walkers in front of him blurred.

For one strange second, they were not walkers at all. They were cattle, pigs, lambs, meat on the line. Blood and bone and moving targets.

Compared to the fear that had gripped him a minute ago, the bite had flipped a switch somewhere deep inside.

No fear of teeth. No fear of infection. No reason left to hold back.

Only rage.

The entrenching tool came up sideways, its sharpened edge carving across a walker's face.

The skull gave way under the blow. The walker lost balance and hit the ground.

Evan stepped forward and brought his boot down until the head collapsed beneath it.

Another walker lurched at him.

He smashed it aside.

He grabbed the next one by its long hair and yanked it backward, throwing it onto the pavement.

The difference was brutal.

A moment ago, he had been cautious and afraid.

Now he moved like a man with nothing left to lose.

"Come on!"

He roared and swung again.

The walker staggered and fell. The entrenching tool bent slightly in his hands.

It was not built for repeated blows against bone. Repeated impacts against skulls were already warping the head.

Evan was breathing harder now, but the anger in his chest only grew hotter.

"I was doing just fine butchering hogs..." He slammed the tool down. "Then you dead pieces of shit had to ruin it..." Another hit. "You want to eat me?" The edge tore through rotten flesh. "I'll carve you up first!"

His shouting drew more of them.

The entrenching tool's edge curled. The head had bent nearly in half.

Evan drove the ruined blade into a walker's neck with everything he had left.

Black-red blood spilled as the head tilted, crawling down the handle in a thick, cold smear.

The slick chill of it coated his palm.

Then he froze.

Shock and joy flashed across his face at the same time.

Several lines of gold and red text had appeared in front of his eyes.

[System Notification]

[Walker Kills: 10/10]

[Level Up: Lv. 1 -> Lv. 2]

[Experience required for each new level: previous level's requirement x 1.02]

[Skill Points Acquired: 3 (First-time bonus)]

[Infection detected. Take antibiotics as soon as possible.]

[Antibiotics remove Infection and restore Health.]

For an instant, golden light flashed across his vision.

Something inside him changed.

In the lower-left corner of his sight, four colored bars appeared.

Food.

Water.

Stamina.

Health.

Food, water, and stamina had already dropped below half. Health kept ticking down.

Above the bars, a capsule icon blinked with urgent warning.

"This is... Seven Days to Die?"

Relief hit him so hard he almost laughed.

The blind old bastard had not lied after all.

When every road looked closed, one last path had opened.

Ward off death.

Ward off the dead.

But even with the system, the situation was still bad.

Evan looked around.

The horde seemed to stretch without end. It felt as though half of dead Atlanta was closing in.

His eye twitched.

For the first time, he regretted telling Rick to leave.

There was no time to think.

He took two quick steps back until his shoulders hit the wall beside the road.

'Spend points.'

The world flickered.

A simple gray-white panel opened in front of him.

Skills on the left.

Descriptions on the right.

Just like the game.

Almost.

When the skill panel opened, only two of the five attribute trees were available: Perception and Strength.

Fortitude, Agility, and Intellect were still locked.

"Doesn't matter," Evan said, eyes fixed on the panel. "Three points are all I need right now."

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