David leered at his nephew.

“End of the road for you.”

He walked over to Captain Vaughn and held out his hand. Captain Vaughn frowned as if struggling to focus, but handed over his Glock.

Gary focussed on his options. He still had the same problem. Three armed men and no way of taking them all out before they could shoot him. With precious seconds left before the inevitable end at the hands of his psychotic uncle, he scanned through his character sheet.

Name: Gary

Class: Human Undead

Type: Heavy Zombie – Level Up! New class type available. Click here to see options available!

Level: 3

Experience: 3009/6000

Titles: Level Up! Choose one more title. Click here to see options available.

Current Titles:

Traitor to Your Own Kind – gain 13% XP for killing the undead

Grave Digger – gain 10XP for every grave dug

Speed: 12 Strength: 15 Constitution: 17 Intelligence: 12

Perception: 13 Stealth: 10 Willpower: 14 Charisma: 11

Hit Points: 55/55

Recovery: 2 HP/10 minutes

Wounds: None

Mana Points: 0

Attacks:

Claw +25% 2-6 Infectious chance +35%

Bite +35% 4-8 Infectious chance +75%

Special Weapon:

Shovel +30% 11-15 damage, Critical Hit 30, 35% chance to stun

Unlocked: Nightblades (not equipped)

Defence:

Damage Resistance: All damage reduced by 2 points except for critical hits.

Immune to poison. Immune to drowning. Immune to radiation. Immune to Diseases. Immunity to infection.

Evolution Paths: Level Up! Add one point to any of the paths below. Click on paths to see upgrades.

Common: Tank: 1 Common: Glutton: 0 Uncommon: Terror: 0

Uncommon: Infection: 0 Rare: Commander: 0 Rare: Necromancer: 0

Rare: Base Builder (locked until level 5): 0

Special:

Regeneration.

Regain 4-8 HP for eating the living.

Regain 3-6 HP for eating the recently deceased.

Skills:

Landscape Gardening (Int) +30%

Languages:

English (British): 85%

French: 5%

Multiversal Common: 85%

Goal:

Defend yourself. Eat the Living. Level up.

Gary noted that he’d been awarded an automatic 10 additional hit points and improved combat ability. Looking at the sheet, he noted that his speed, strength and constitution were also now higher than he recalled from the brief sight he’d had of his character sheet when he’d been classified as human.

He checked was the new class type available, which at Level 3 was Ghoul. At higher levels there were other options such as vampire, banshee, grim reaper and lich, each with their own benefits and unique evolution paths, but for now his only type switch was to ghoul.

Ghouls are faster and more cunning than their zombie brethren and have bonuses in speed and stealth, as well as additional attack bonuses and benefits from consuming the living, the recently deceased and the long since deceased. Ghouls are fast and this includes additional attacks, as well as tails which can be used as vicious weapons. Ghouls tend to hunt in packs and are drawn to each other, with the most powerful ghoul in any pack being the automatic leader. Their tough, rubbery exterior gives additional resistance to damage, and working together, they often use guile to surround and trap their victims. Ghouls are hated by their undead brethren, however, and even lower level undead will respond to defend themselves, or outright attack them. Ghouls at level five and above will make cemeteries their homes and build underground lairs where they can feast on their victims in peace.

There was nothing here of any use to him. He might get a little more damage resistant and a bit faster, but he doubted that would be enough to overcome his three opponents in one go.

Gary checked his title options and saw that nothing had changed. He still had the options of Shovel Master, which would give him additional fighting benefits with Simon, Candidate for the Eternal Night, which may or may not give him one extra evolution point, Denier of Your True Nature! Which gave him some kind of bonus when attempting to resist the urge to eat living flesh.

Again, nothing useful.

His uncle was talking again, waffling on, dragging out the inevitable end. Now he was talking about all the people he’d murdered over the years, how easy it had been to evade detection and capture, how stupid others that were like him were for getting caught.

Gary noted that yet again, Simon had upgraded and was now more powerful, although he could see nothing anywhere on the sheet that told him anything about the shovel’s upgrades. Sentient or not, it seemed that Simon was on his – it’s – own evolution path?

There was no time to think about it, except to note that the shovel he now held in his hands was more powerful than before.

Gary skipped to the Evolution paths available.

The Tank path, common, already had one point assigned to it, from his level 2 upgrade. This had given him increased hit points, and increased combat abilities. Another point there would award him a further 10 hit points and +5% on his attacks, and an extra point of damage resistance, as well as some minor stat increases in Speed, Strength and Constitution.

Again, Gary couldn’t see how that would help. No matter how tough he was, there were still two soldiers with automatic rifles and his insane, magic-wielding uncle.

The Glutton path, also common, added improved regeneration from eating the living and the recently deceased. When the path was pursued, it would give Gary the ability to drain the life force out of his victims just by touch. It would also allow him to temporarily raise his hit points above his normal total. All it would do at this stage was let him regain increased hit points. The glutton path also increased his constitution and hit points.

Fucksake, Gary thought, there has to be something I can use here!

The uncommon paths Terror and Infection had their own benefits. The Terror path would allow him to cause fear in the living as he approached, debilitating them and reducing their actions by 10% per Fear Point he imposed on them. With only one evolution point, that would mean anyone in his vicinity would receive two fear points, with a three uses per day limit. Potentially useful, but Gary didn’t think a 20% debuff was going to be of much help here. At later levels, the Fear path could cause hallucinations in the target, turning them on their allies. The Infection path offered nothing unexpected. All that would happen if he chose that would be that his attacks became even more infectious to the living.

Come on, come on, give me something…

All that was left were the three rare paths. As Gary understood it, the evolution of the undead was randomly determined, so he supposed that these evolution paths were the least common to be applied. Gary, however, had been given the power to choose. Of the three, the base-builder path was locked until level 5, after which it would give Gary the option to build a crypt or a tower using residual mana.

The Commander path, if chosen, would allow Gary to control, with one point applied, a number of undead equal to his level, no higher than his own level. These undead would be entirely under Gary’s control and could be used to fight in his place. He would also gain a percentage of any experience the undead gained from killing the living. All well and good, but there were no undead around for him to command. A side benefit was an increase in willpower, which Gary presumed would be hidden from view on the character sheet until the undead gained a certain level of sapience.

Finally, there was the necromancer path. Predictably, this would allow Gary to bring dead back as undead at level one, with a once per day use. At higher levels, he could do it more often, and not be restricted to the dead that were buried. There was a minor intelligence and perception bonus applied.

Gary read through all of this, desperately seeking anything that could be of use. He was still stuck with the same problem. Three opponents, two of them with weapons that could cut him to pieces, and his uncle. Even with the bonuses afforded if he chose the tank path, he doubted the odds would be even close to in his favour. Glutton wouldn’t help, terror might, but it seemed weak. The Infection and Commander path were of no use and even if he could build a crypt, what good would that do him right now?

His uncle grinned as he pointed the Glock at Gary.

“No last words?”

Gary ignored him, his mind racing. He closed his eyes.

There was only one choice available to him in this situation.

He claimed the Shovel Master title, figuring that if he was going to get out of this mess, he was going to need all the combat advantage that he could get.

Then he applied his one evolution point to the only path that had a hope of helping him out.

It was a desperate gamble, but Gary was getting used to taking those by now.

“Come on, Gary,” his uncle goaded, “You must have something to say.”

“Yeah,” he replied, his eyes still closed, “Yeah, I’ve got something to say, uncle.”

He paused.

“Rise from Your Graves.”

“Eh?” his uncle replied, disconcerted.

For agonizing seconds, nothing happened.

Gary, for the first time in his life, prayed.

Then, all around him, the ground started to move.