Mike didn’t say anything he just stood there, nonchalantly leaning against the railing, his bloody bat resting against his shoulder.

A timid feminine voice asked through the crack in the door, “who are you? Are you some kind of monster?”

He recognized her instantly as Yun-ah Kim, half of the “dynamic duo”.

She was generally considered inseparable from the “duo’s” other half Sara Cross. They were famous campus idols, the quiet Korean beauty and the enthusiastic athletic blonde.

It didn’t hurt that they were both nines, possibly tens, on the Schwinger scale.

“I’m not a monster. We have that art appreciation class together remember? Back row, far corner? That’s me.” Mike said. He didn’t bother trying to explain bloodlines or the [System] to her. If she didn’t know already she wouldn’t believe him.

He kept his voice pitched quiet, soothing, not letting any impatience show. He could easily have forced his way past the chained door. But what would he gain? A terrified coed who might attack him, thinking she had no choice?

A moment’s hesitation passed before he heard the chain rattle. The door opened a few more inches and Yunah stepped backwards motioning him urgently into the room.

Mike smirked at her trust. They really didn’t know each other very well. From her perspective letting him into the room was a huge risk. He mentally increased his opinion of her. Trusting strangers after the zombie apocalypse took guts.

She wasn’t stupid about it either. In her off hand she held a knife that looked like it was weighted for throwing. In a special sheath, strapped to her left thigh, were four sisters to the knife in her hand.

Mike didn’t know where she found them. He did know that if she knew how to use them they were arguably better weapons than his own. Especially against people who hadn’t turned like him.

The apartment looked basically the same as his own. The same carpet. The same couch. Even the same entertainment system setup.

It clearly wasn’t Yunah and Sara’s apartment.

The living room had a man’s touch. A discarded T-shirt, an ashtray with a couple cigarette butts, and a poster of lame science fiction movie from the nineties.

The decor wasn’t the only reason he knew it wasn’t their apartment. The apartments were one big rectangle broken in three with a west and east side consisting of a lobby, an atrium, and six floors of rooms spaced around a square. The middle block being split into the east wall of the west square and the west wall of the east square respectively.

The west side was typically male student housing, while the east was female. There were exceptions to the rule. A couple of guys housed in the east side or girls on the west. But mostly the division was set in stone.

If two such high profile hotties had been living on the guy’s side, Mike would have known. Especially if they’d been on his floor.

As if she had been reading his thoughts Yunah began telling him her story as she ushered him into the room. She shut the door tight behind them.

Sara and her and been heading to their morning classes when whatever happened, happened. Another girl in the elevator with them had turned just as the lift stopped on the fourth floor. They hadn’t needed an invitation to run.

In the heat of the moment they’d ran to the guys side where there were already several other zombie individuals.

A fight broke out in which Sara had actually been wounded by a student carelessly swinging his hockey stick around. Yunah didn’t know what happened to that guy but with the help of another student she’d managed to get Sara into an open room and lock it up tight.

She led him back to one of the bedrooms where Sara lay on the bed being tended to by a tall thin black guy with a wild afro hairstyle.

His name was Troy. He lived also lived on the fourth floor. Mike didn’t know his exact room number but they were at least head-nod level acquaintances.

At first Mike wondered why Troy was the one taking care of Sara when Yunah should have been the more concerned party. But the mystery solved itself as he got a better angle on what Troy was doing.

His hands were glowing with a faint red light. Like a martial artist in a movie, it looked like he was attempting to treat Sara with his new ability. Troy obviously knew about the [System].

Not wanting to disturb his concentration Mike watched in silence until Troy, sweating all over, eventually gave up.

“I guess my magic just isn’t for healing,” he said apologetically to Yunah.

Acknowledging Mike, and his appearance, with a smirk he added, “I guess you killed one of them too? You picked up one of those white crystals?”

Mike nodded back. “I’ve killed six so far,” he said, not trying to brag, but to establish his reputation early.

In games he was a solo player nine times out of ten. Since this wasn’t a game but real life there was a good chance he would need to work with a team if he wanted to survive. Assuming that was the case then he might as well be in charge of it when the time came.

The Mike of the day before would have been appalled by the very idea of leading anything. That Mike was already dead. He’d died moments after killing zombie Jeff.

Practicality out weighed his comfort zone in his new reality. He’d rather lead a group than listen to someone clueless give him stupid orders.

If someone better or smarter did come along he could take a back seat. As long as they helped him protect Emma and his mother anyway.

“Six?!” Yunah squeaked behind him and Troy did a double take. Whatever he saw seemed to make him believe Mike was telling the truth. He just shook his head and whistled. “Glad to have you on our side then man.”

Mike smiled back but didnt say anything. He had a lot of questions but he couldn’t decide which ones to ask. Troy had obviously encountered the [System] information but was it the same? Or was it different every time? Did he know anything Mike didn’t?

Troy beat him to the first question.

“So I can see you’re not the sane guy you were yesterday,” he said gesturing unapologetically at Mike’s gut, “but what exactly happened?”

“After the white crystal did its thing I received a random reward. The [system] called it a bloodline. I accepted it and after a lot of pain… Well you see the result. I guess I’m part monster now I don’t know.”

“My status still lists me as human though.” He threw in after seeing the look on Yunah’s face, at his lack of certainty.

She gave him an awkward smile like she believed him. He didn’t know if she really did or not but he was glad she was at least pretending. He didn’t even know how he felt about possibly being a monster yet. It was too early to worry about how it might effect his relationships going forward.

Troy gave him a random thumbs up like everything was cool. He took a seat in the desk chair next to Sara’s bed. Looking back at her he sighed before he said, “I got the whole random reward thing too, except mine was a skill. [Magic Affinity: Fire] it was called. It’s basically useless. I can make my hands glow red. If I touch something and think hard enough it might burn or melt. I can also dial it back to a barely warm light, but so far I can’t seem to do anything really useful with it.”

Realizing he was talking about Sara, Mike took it as an opening to ask if they knew what exactly was wrong with her. Neither of them did. But they had both seen what caused it.

The jackass with the hockey stick who’d been all happy about the zombie apocalypse had accidentally hit Sara in the head with his full force back swing. There was a fairly decent chance that guy had already leveled once or twice too. Despite her situation she was actually lucky she was still alive.

It only took a few moments of silence for Mike to come up with a tenstive plan. Clearing his throat he looked from Yunah to Troy and said simply, “First we need Yunah to join the system. Then we need to find a safe zone. I’m betting there is probably something like a health potion or recovery spell we can buy from the store to heal Sara.”

Troy was nodding even before Mike was finished talking. “Makes sense to me,” he said, then cocking his head to the side he asked, “but how do you want to level Yunah up exactly?”

“I figured I would kill another zombie and she could pick up the crystal. I don’t think I can save them for her though, so far they dissolve in my hand the moment I touch them. So she has to go out with me.”

“Do you want me to come too?” Troy asked, trying not to be obvious about looking at Sara.

Mike didn’t known if Troy was scared of going back out or just worried something might happen if they all left. Maybe he even had personal feelings in the mix. Mike didn’t care. Troy obviously wanted to stay behind and that worked for him.

He said so as politically as he could. There was no sense in hinting anyone was a coward without proof. Especially not when they were volunteering for a duty that needed doing.

“I guess that leaves us to get it done,” he said turning his attention to Yunah, “do you have any other weapons you could bring. Maybe some sports padding for armor or something like that?”

Yunah smiled awkwardly and shrugged.

“We already searched this place once. I found these knives in a sock drawer and thought they were better than nothing. I could probably use the shower curtain rod for a few whacks before it broke,” she offered making Mike laugh.

“Just stick with knives for now I guess. I don’t really want you fighting if you don’t absolutely have to anyway. But you might not be able to absorb the crystal if you don’t kill the zombie yourself or some nonsense like that so here,” Mike said, taking his carving knife and handing it over to her grip first.

She thanked him politely. He considered telling her to lighten up. But then he didn’t know what was keeping her together. Surely not everyone could face zombies and just be okay. If she needed to mind her manners and talk quietly he could deal with it. It was far better than having her fall to pieces on him.

“I guess we might as well head out. You ready?” He asked Yunah. She nodded. Turning back to Troy he stuck out his hand, “guess we’ll be seeing you then. See us out the door?”

Troy smiled taking his hand shake with gusto. He stood and followed them to the front door.

They stood there for several seconds, in a knot, waiting, till Mike realized neither of them wanted to be the one to open the door.

With a grunt he stepped up and keeping his bat ready he checked the peep hole. There was nothing directly outside so he swung the door open and headed out with Yunah right behind him.

Before he’d even stepped over the corpse of the fallen zombie Troy had the door shut and the lock clicked back in place.