Day 6, Year of the Catastrophe – Thursday, 5th of May, 2020.

4:01 pm – The Kings House – basement –

Daniel had finally managed to free himself from the bunker. It had taken two long days of carefully clearing out the undead in his house. The missing front door was more troublesome than he initially thought. They kept breaking smaller defenses that he had set up and most furniture was just pushed out of the way sooner or later. It had been especially troublesome, because every time he wanted to set up defenses, they came and interrupted it, before a good barricade could even be finished. He only succeeded because he triggered the car alarm on another car down the street with a large stone and the ruckus gave him the necessary time to completely block the front door entry.

Aside from that hassle, he also had to carefully kill over thirty zombies, which had turned out to be a lot harder when they were not just falling down the stairs in front of you. The other, very interesting thing he discovered was that his food binge had not been without results. His main body was now very close to his old self. Quickly he got himself a scale to see just how much weight he had gained. 122kg. Huh. He finally realized just how much more convenient it was to not be overweight. The speed at which he grew tired and the fact that everything seemed so very bothersome... It was quite irritating.

But he had kind of anticipated this. The mark on his arm had changed him somehow, when he had absorbed that first crystal and he already had a hunch where this was going. Immense hunger, high confidence and enough awareness to control two bodies with ease… Daniel was quite sure that he was slowly turning into a hive mind. One that produced asexually, apparently. He was sure that as soon as he got enough of those crystals to absorb and had enough calories to feed on, he would split again.

The crystals he had gathered with his second body by burning some undead corpses were now his main focus. His quite fat main body wobbled over to the kitchen table and sat down. He picked up the large red crystal the Red Claw had left behind and brought it closer to his mark. Unlike the smaller crystal he had absorbed before, this one reacted entirely different. A sharp red electrical bolt struck from the red crystal and made both his bodies gasp in pain. He immediately let go of it and as it rolled back on the table, his mark stung like someone poked it with a thousand needles.

A feeling as if his hand fell asleep crawled up his arm and into his shoulder. Pain made him close his eyes unwillingly. From the viewpoint of his second body however, he was able to see exactly what was happening. The sensation apparently did not affect his other self as much. Small black lines slowly crept up his arm right afterwards, and his body temperature grew quickly. Immediately Daniel ran with his second body and got some cold water from the tab, just to empty it over his pained self. The cool sensation helped a bit, especially on the inflicted hand. Repeating this multiple times over the next couple of minutes, Daniel slowly managed to get a grip on it. His eyes showed dark circles, he was exhausted and fell from his chair. With his consciousness fading completely, this was the first time he was alone in one body again. It felt… lonely, empty and disturbing. He did not want to be alone. Not anymore. He was more than just one human now.

Concerned he continued to watch his body. The black lines kept on pulsating and Daniel wondered if he had tried for too much. The Red Claw crystal was apparently stronger than the others and maybe it made him mutate too? What if he came back as some sort of version of the red claw? Concerned, Daniel went to grab the axe and kept watch over his knocked out body. If he was a zombie now too, then he would just end his life right here. The large red crystal however still lied there. Innocent. Calm.

A few hours passed and the black lines seemed to recede slowly. Maybe the sleep would help after all. Sadly this night, Daniel did not have to luxury of relaxation. Another, smaller swarm of zombies tried to break through his front door barricade. He was unsure what exactly had attracted them this time. Maybe they felt the crystals? Maybe he had been too loud with getting the water constantly? Daniel eyed his main body. It was much, much larger now than himself and he was unsure if he could even get it upstairs. Much less to the roof. Downstairs into the bunker was an option, sure. But he also doubted that it was a smart idea to move the body in the first place. What if that caused even more strain and was the final straw that he would turn into a zombie himself?

And he was also not sure, if his second body would even survive such a thing. All things considered, defending might be the best option for now. The handy wooden curtain rail he had taken from the neighboring house before, came in hand here. Sharpened like a long spear, it was much easier to use for defense than a large axe. He stepped to narrow openings and tried to penetrate the skulls of the coming undead. For half an hour everything went rather smoothly. He baited them towards stronger spots in his defense and struck whenever a skull was close to tiny openings He was unsure how many he had killed in that timeframe, but his arm grew more and more heavy the longer it continued.

Not that he stopped to give up. Daniel was determined to survive here. His arms grew weaker and weaker and the barricade slowly started crumbling more and more. As midnight rapidly approached, the situation became more and more clear to him. He was going to lose. The barricade would eventually crumble enough for them to pass by, while his strength was slowly fading away. The thought to abandon the barricade and try to move his body downstairs to the bunker crossed his mind more than once. But then he would just be stuck again at the same point as he had been days ago. Trapped in a small room, without any options but to wait. He was tired of this.

Angrily he kept thrusting his self-made spear into the undead bodies, trying to pierce their heads while his muscles burned like never before. Was this how soldiers felt in the middle ages? Fighting on no matter how tired you were, because giving up meant giving up on living? Soon the barricade had collapsed enough to make the axe more efficient. Daniel was barely able to lift it, much less over his head, but he forced himself to do it anyway. The cold and dead faces and their continuous biting motions made for a good motivator. He did not want to get eaten alive, much less turn into one of those things. The silver-blue moonlight outside made it possible to see just how many undead there were pushing towards his little fortification. Not hundreds. Not thousands.

Only sixteen. Daniel continued to hack away at them with more vigor, the thought of victory and peace on his mind like nothing else. His swings were more motivated, his muscles reached for new strength and his aim was true. Hit after hit cleaved a head in. The last two zombies barely made it past the barricade before Daniel knocked them to the floor with a sweeping strike to their legs and shattered their heads soon after.

Tired, he rose from his last kill. The axe in his hands was shaking and the harsh burning sensation returned. He was drenched in sweat, like he had never been before and his breathing was going rough. He felt like he was about to pass out at any moment. He let the axe go with his left and wiped the sweat from his forehead, barely clinging to the axe with his right.

Then it happened. Another small group of zombies walked in a quick pace down the street. Then they turned towards his house. Five. Ten. Twenty. When he counted thirty, his axe fell to the floor. It was impossible. He would also be too slow to save his main body. Tears stood in his eyes. It felt so unfair.

Just before they reached the porch, a sharp shriek resounded throughout the night. Daniel had to think about the Red Claw immediately. Was there another one? The undead immediately stopped walking and turned towards the sound. Then the shriek happened again. Louder this time, followed by a loud crashing sound. The undead hurried away and the only thing Daniel was able to hear shortly afterwards was gunfire in the distance. He was not sure how far away it really way, but he was glad that somebody attracted this attention.

He immediately rebuilt the barricade afterwards. He really had to push himself one last time, and after he was done and felt like the defense was sufficient, he did not even have the time to lie down.

Daniel collapsed onto his knees and his body keeled forward into a soft carpet in the living room. The burning sensation in his arms vanished quickly as his mind faded to darkness.