“Hey!” I called out. “Hey, dude, over here!”

If the guy heard me at all, he didn’t acknowledge it. His head was still lowered, swinging from side to side as he staggered forward in an oddly asymmetrical gait. Either he had some headphones in or he was pretending to ignore me. Under normal circumstances, I would’ve been happy to just let him be, but right now I really needed someone who could tell me where I was and maybe let me borrow a phone to call somebody to come pick me up.

As I got closer, I tried again to get his attention. “Hey, man, sorry for calling you out like this, but I was hoping you could, uh... oh, god...”

I cut myself off as I clasped a hand over my nose, trying not to gag. What the fuck was this smell? An old memory jumped to the surface of my mind—the time back in middle school when I’d stumbled on a dead dog on the side of the road while I was walking home. The thing must’ve been baking in the sun for days, and more flies than I could count had made it their home. I’d nearly vomited all over myself, and I’d had to cross the road just to keep the nausea from overwhelming my stomach. The stench had been so strong, so appalling, it had still lingered in my nostrils for days afterward.

This was worse. And it wasn’t getting any better as I got closer to the guy. It didn’t take a genius to put two and two together, and I had a hard time convincing myself it was just a really bad case of body odor.

I stopped my feet, starting to feel wary now. “Hey, um, are you alright, dude?” My voice came out shaky. He didn’t respond. Now that I got a closer look, I realized his clothes were torn in places and... what were those dark stains? I glanced at his leg, just now noticing it was slightly twisted at an odd angle. He wasn’t just walking strangely, he was actually limping. I could hear him now, grunting with each step, but his movement was steady as he came closer and closer to me.

I glanced around, suddenly feeling quite uneasy about this. There was still no sign of anyone else within eyeshot. Just the two of us alone on this empty street, the distance between us getting smaller, smaller, smaller...

I took a step back on instinct. It was too late. The next second, an inhuman shriek pierced my ears, chilling me to the bone. The man’s hood flew back as he leapt toward me. I only had a fraction of a second to take in the horrific sight, straight out of a vivid nightmare. His face was twisted and blanched with splotches of dried blood and purple bruises, flesh littered with gashes and lacerations large enough to expose the pale bone underneath. His eyes were bloodshot, and his lipless mouth showed off a set of vomit-colored teeth as his jaw opened wide to enclose on me.

My mind was petrified, but my body reacted on reflex. My arm rose to shield my neck from the incoming bite, and I screamed as those ghastly teeth dug into my flesh. I tried to pull away, but the guy’s—creature’s—cold hands had locked themselves to my sides and the bite refused to release my wrist. Desperate, I kicked between the thing’s legs. It didn’t even react. I tried again, found no success, then kicked it in the knee.

That finally put it off balance, and the struggle sent the both of us tumbling to the pavement. Somehow, I managed to shift my weight so I’d land on top. A sickening crack sounded as the back of the creature’s head smashed into the asphalt underneath. Any ordinary human would’ve lost their consciousness, possibly even their life, from the impact, but this thing only bit down harder, growling and grunting as its vigorous tongue lapped at the blood pouring into its mouth.

Instinct told me to pull my arm out to safety, but I quickly realized that would be a mistake. Instead, I leaned my weight forward into it, keeping the creature’s head pinned to the ground. Whatever the fuck this thing was, it didn’t seem capable of damaging me further as long as its mouth was occupied. Its arms and legs flailed uselessly as it struggled, but I wasn’t about to let this thing get back up to its feet ever again.

My free hand went to my pocket, pulling out the only potential weapon I had on me—my phone. With a savage scream, I raised it high and slammed the corner down on the creature’s forehead, putting as much force behind the blow as I could. It struggled violently in response, but I shifted my weight, keeping it locked against the ground. I screamed again, raised my phone again, smashed it down again. Over and over hitting the exact same spot on its forehead until my hands were aching and the skull finally cracked open like an egg, exposing the red and gray matter lurking inside. I plunged my phone into the open crevice, wedging it as deep as it would go into the creature’s skull, tearing into its brain.

The creature lurched twice; the final throes before death took it entirely. My lungs were heaving and my eyes were teary. The grip of the jaw on my wrist loosened, and I pushed myself off the creature’s corpse, closing my eyes and collapsing into the pavement beside it.

“Holy fuck,” I gasped, struggling to breathe and struggling even more to put together coherent thoughts. What the fuck was that?

I couldn’t linger on that thought much longer as the adrenaline began wearing off and the agonizing pain in my arm unmasked itself. Carefully, I worked my way back up to a sitting position and checked my surroundings, something I probably should’ve done as soon as I’d killed the damn thing. Thankfully, I didn’t see any signs that there were any more of the creatures nearby. For that matter, there weren’t any people, either. No one had come out during our struggle, neither to help, nor even just to spectate.

The place really was abandoned.

I turned my attention back to the corpse and nearly fell back down again when I saw what was happening to it. It was disintegrating. Starting from one side, its body was turning into particles of dust, which themselves drifted off into nothingness. In a matter of seconds, the whole body had vanished. Not only that, but the vomit-inducing stench that had come with it was gone as well. Save for the wounds on my body, all traces of the creature ever having existed vanished from the world.

My phone, which had been imbedded in its head, clacked to the ground. I stared at it blankly. Somehow, the thing was still intact. I’d expected it to be broken to pieces considering how hard I’d bashed it into the creature’s skull, but on picking it up, I realized there wasn’t so much as a scratch on it. Instead, the clear screen flashed open, revealing a new message.

Zombie (Creeper) slain: +2 XP Daily Quest I progress: +20% (1/5)

What the fuck.