Leo at this point was over six doors ahead of Mathew. He ignored looking into any other room in favor of getting to his sister's room faster. Mathew took no such risk, and after looking into any room, he closed the door if it was open.

“Leo slow down! There could be more of those things!” Mathew said almost at a shout.

He either didn’t hear Mathew or didn’t care. Mathew was closing a door when he heard Leo shout, “Bell!”

“Okay good he found her, now let’s get out of here!” Mathew thought to himself. However, as he looked down the hall to Leo he realized it wasn’t a shout of joy. It was one of fear.

Leo had his gun pointed into a room, his entire body was shaking. “Leo? What's wrong?” Mathew asked as he worked his way to his friend.

Once he was close enough he stopped right outside of view from inside the room. He looked at Leo, who didn’t even acknowledge Mathew. He was still holding his gun pointed into the room.

“Leo, what is it? Another of those zombie things?” Mathew asked.

He didn’t get a response. At this point Mathew had to risk looking into the room. He peeked in, and what he saw also caused him to freeze up for a moment. Standing in the room was another of the zombie creatures, however it looked similar to Isabella.

Both Leo and her were locked eye to eye. Neither blinking, or moving. Mathew cursed to himself silently. This was a worst case scenario, beyond what he expected. He felt bad for Leo, he really did.

Mathew couldn’t fathom the emotions he was feeling, and had to take a minute to figure out a solution to this problem. He could try to convince Leo, and himself, that it wasn’t the real Isabella, but then he would want to search the entire building for her. That would waste time and they would all miss the convoy.

Second option was to talk him through it. Say killing her is for the best. A sick dog, someone he has to put out of their misery for the better. The problem would be convincing Leo it was the best choice, then either getting permission to do it, or getting Leo to do it himself.

Another solution was to just leave her here. Maybe if zombies were real, so was a way to make her not a zombie anymore. Then Leo would want to bring her with them. A safety hazard Mathew couldn’t risk either.

No, she had to die. Mathew would want the same thing for himself. If he wasn’t himself, he would want someone to put a bullet between his eyes. Stage 4 cancer, a disease with no cure, something that had no hope to be stopped. Rather than suffer, he would want it to end then and there.

“Leo, hey buddy listen to me for a second. You don’t need to look at me or respond, but just listen to me.” Mathew saw no response, but kept talking.

“You and Isabell are good siblings. I kind of envied what you two had.” Mathew chuckled. “I wish I had something like that with my brothers. Right now, you need to be a strong big brother for her. You would do anything for your sister ya? Do things right for her?”

Mathew saw Leo nod his head ever so reluctantly. “I’m here for you man. I’ve been with you for over three years now as partners and friends. I know you would do the right thing, or let someone you trust do it for you. Take your time, but know we don’t have an infinite amount. Isabell wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself for her.”

Leo had tears starting to show up in his eyes. Mathew could hear Zombie Bella make a few sounds. He could only hope he got through Leo quickly, since he heard her walking forward.

“There is nothing we can do for her here. Let’s do it right and end her suffering. You wouldn’t want little Isabell to suffer anymore than she has to right? Be the big brother and help your sister here and now Leo.”

Mathew peeked into the room and Isabell was shuffling forward, in just a few steps she would be able to attack Leo.

“Leo!” Mathew shouted, bringing up his rifle ready to shoot and protect him.

Leo still didn’t move. Mathew closed his eyes for a second thinking fast. He had no choice. He shot a single bullet aimed right at Isabella’s head.

She fell backwards. The bullet seemed to snap Leo out of his own head and he screamed watching his sister fall to the ground. “Nooooo!”

Mathew had a feeling she wasn’t dead, but silently hoped she was. They needed to leave, and fast. “Leo, she isn’t there anymore. If that was still Isabell that bullet would have taken her out.”

Zombie Isabell started to move and stand up. “We have to stab her in the heart.” Which reminded Mathew of vampires, but he didn’t question it. He unsheathed his knife and handed it to Leo.

“I’ll give you the chance to end her suffering, but if you won’t I will.” Mathew held out the metaphorical olive branch. Hoping Leo wouldn’t hate him to the point of abandoning him here.

Leo glanced between the knife and his sister standing up and grabbed it. “Isabell, it’s Leo. Come on, if you are in there somehow give me a sign, I don’t want to kill you.” He held the knife to his side. Mathew waited and watched.

Isabell took a step forward and Leo shook his head. He started to cry and plead at his sister in spanish. Mathew didn’t understand but a few words, but he knew Leo was begging for her to try and stop.

He sniffed and looked at Matthew. “There has to be a way to save her, isn't there? Magic is real now or something right? This is like a video game? Please tell me we can save her, Mat. I don’t think I can do this.”

Mathew was afraid of this. “Leo, if we don’t end her, someone else will, or worse she hurts someone. Isabell wouldn't hurt a fly, you think she would want you to let her hurt someone?”

Leo clenched his teeth trying to think of another solution to counter Mathew. He was a lawyer, it was his job to find loopholes. However, Mathew was better at it than him. He didn’t let emotions get in the way of the logical solution. Mathew worded everything to convince Leo, as if he was a Judge overseeing one of his cases.

He wasn’t heartless. If he was, he would have killed Isabell and been done with it. He didn’t want bad blood between him and Leo. He hated to admit it to himself, but Leo was a friend. A useful friend, but one nonetheless.

Mathew watched as Isabell lurched forward aiming to bite at Leo’s neck while he was turned to face him. It was like it happened in slow motion. Mathew was too slow to raise his gun to shoot her, and Leo just fell to the floor as Isabell fell on top of him.

“Stop! Isabell please stop!” Leo shouted as he struggled on the ground against his sister. He was too afraid of hurting her so he didn’t fight back. He did just enough to hold her back so she didn’t hurt him.

Mathew started to stab Isabell in the back. Doing so caused her to let out a screech in pain. She stopped clawing at Leo and turned to Mathew.

Mathew hesitated, not expecting her to not still be alive, he was sure he stabbed her where the heart would be. “Leo!” He screamed, in hopes he could...would help.

Isabell jumped and knocked Mathew on the ground, this time much more ferocious than with Leo. She saw him as a real threat. One that had to die for her own safety.

Mathew was getting scratches from her nails and blood started to cover him from a mix of both his own and hers. “Leo!” He yelled once more, continuing to fight back for his life.

His arms were suddenly pinned down by Zombie Isabell. He couldn’t shake her off and looked up with only terror. She opened her mouth wide to go for the bite. Mathew suddenly saw the black steel that belonged to the barrel of a gun make contact with the side of Isabells head for only a second before a loud bang from Leo’s shotgun went off.

Mathew winced from the flash and sound, causing him to lose hearing in his right ear temporarily. Blood and other bits covered him, as Isabells head exploded. “Fuck!” Mathew yelled in both pain and disgust.

He scooted back away from her body, till his back touched a wall. He didn’t get up, only looking up at Leo as tears ran down his face. Mathew didn’t say anything, just tried to slow his breathing.

Leo got on the ground on his knees and held his sister's body, silently crying and muttering in Spanish. Mathew was in shock from what he thought was going to be his death. It took him a few moments to remember he was covered in blood on his face, and started to wipe it off.

Once he did, and his breathing relaxed when a blue screen appeared in his face. It was the first one since he was at his house, and it made him flinch.

Combat Summary

Undead Minions Slain: 2

Universal Currency acquired: 100

Skill Gained: Knives | Novice 1

Your ability to wield small bladed weapons has improved through combat.

Mathew was trying to understand the meaning of the screen outside the obvious. Had the System been watching the fight and given him a summary as if it was a game? Mathew really didn’t like it. It was one thing to take over the world, but now it seemed to look at his near death experience as a simple battle.

Something that could be boiled down to a few numbers. Leo had to kill his sister, and she was only labeled as ‘Undead Minion’. Mathew glanced up at Leo and saw he was staring at a blue screen hovering in front of him as well, his face red with anger.

Mathew shook his head and after a couple of attempts figured out how to make the screen go away. He needed a minute to understand what was going on. It was too real, too fast. He never planned for this.

“Mathew, go ahead and go to the truck, I am going to finish here.” Leo said, starting to pick up his sister's body.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’m fine staying with you.” Mathew didn't want Leo to try and kill himself, or get caught out by more zombies when he was alone.

Leo only shook his head. “If there were more, they would be here by now. Go.” Was all he said as he walked back to his sister's apartment.

Mathew wasn’t going to argue anymore and started to head down the fire escape. There were still people in a daze, but he did see the teenager in the truck. When she saw him, she turned slightly green and had to get out of the truck before she puked.

Mathew looked down and saw himself covered with blood. “That can’t be healthy for me.” He went to the bed of the truck and started to change his shirt. Sadly he only had one bullet proof vest, and did his best to clean it off. Hopefully the convoy had spares he could swap out.

After rubbing his eyes to get rid of a soft light in his vision he got back into the truck.

When she was done throwing up, the girl got back in the truck. She didn't waste any time asking Mathew questions. “Did you find my Brother and Mom? What about the other guy with you? Is he okay? What -”

She stopped when Mathew held up her hand. “Easy kiddo. Leo is fine, we didn’t find anyone else there. It’s probably for the best, it wasn’t good in there.”

The girl slumped down and had a blank stare on her face. “They are both dead aren't they?”

Mathew sighed. “I honestly don’t know. But we didn’t see any bodies that looked like it could be them.”

She didn’t say anything back but Mathew could see she had internally accepted they were gone. “Everyone is losing people left and right. It hasn’t even been half a day and it’s this bad. What will tomorrow bring? A week? A year?”

Mathew shook off the destructive thought train and looked around the area to be sure nothing dangerous was around. Once he was sure it was safe, he sat in the truck while he waited for Leo.

A moment later his phone made a sound it never had before. Pulling it out a banner appeared ‘Please stand by for an announcement from the President of the United States.’

“Oh that can not be good.” Mathew muttered. If a country wide emergency broadcast is being done for the first time in history like this, then all the preparations he has done were not in vain.

A live video of the Oval Office from the White House was forced onto his phone. Standing was President Bari. He looked horrible, and took a deep breath before speaking.

“My fellow Americans, and other humans of Earth. Right now against the advice of my advisors I am speaking to you not as the President, but as a man who has no answers. If you are watching this, it means you are a Survivor. Whatever this System is that did this, I know myself and my people are working on getting answers. Answers to not only continue surviving but to kick your fucking ass. My wife is dead because of you, and many others as you claimed. 25% of the people on Earth are dead, and many more by the second.

For those of you who are killing, looting, destroying, and adding to the chaos I am asking you to stop. This isn’t the time. If you choose to continue your evil ways, I hope you die a painful death. We have a new foe, it isn’t man or nature. It is whatever those portals are and The System that claims to save us. Currently every military base has orders to open its gates to survivors. We wish to set up safe zones for people and to hopefully figure out what is going on.

I wish you all Godspeed People of Earth. Remember your achievement, we are survivors. To die is to let those who die be forgotten. I am enacting Martial Law, and may God have mercy on us all.”