May 31. 2025; The rain poured off the awning as the two figures made their way up to them. As they got closer, Clay could see one was a woman with light brown hair and freckles carrying a leather bag that looked like it belonged in another century. The man had the appearance of a squirrel and looked to have been badly beaten. Blood trickled out of his nose and lip as they entered the shelter of the awning, the woman trying to physically support the man.

  "Hey, they won't let you all in? Well, you're not fucking missing much. It's so chaotic in there it's like a bunch of idiots." Said the woman trying to wipe the water off her face with a soaked coat sleeve. Or at least get it out of her intelligent grey-blue eyes.

  "Don't worry about it, Dawn. I'm sorry I got bit by the damn squirrel. I just wanted to sit down and eat something." The man said. Clay could see now that the man was closer he was rather well-built. He could also see the distinct imprint from a rifle butt now evident on his face. That would definitely put a man on his ass no matter how well-built you were Clay thought.

  "Fuck them, Luke, if they are willing to throw a doctor out of their shelter so casually then they aren't worth our time." Dawn said. The two of them were on the other side of the awning a little away from them but still pretty close. So the man's name was Luke.

  "They would have let you stay though! You should have just stayed quiet. At least then I'd know you were safe!" Luke said, his voice growing a little heated.

  "Bahh, I'm not leaving you behind. Asshole." She said the last and gave him a smirk. That's when they noticed Clay's group looking at them. The rain had started to let up a little bit and was no longer driving down. "Hello! Do you need any help, Sir? I'm a doctor, let me take a look if she's hurt?"

  Clay nodded as the woman, Dawn approached. She examined her as best she could in Clay's arms but soon said, "I'm sorry I need to examine your friend further but I can't do it out here. Is there somewhere close we can go to for shelter and rest?"

  Clay looked at them both, then to Tonya who looked scared shitless, then down to Jill. "Alright, but let's hurry. I don't like this rain, it ain't natural." He said gruffly as he turned and started towards his apartment. He needed to grab the supplies he had. Though he probably couldn't carry it all.

  They hurried along, and within forty-five minutes they were walking down the hallway in his apartment their wet soles squeaking as they made their way to his door. Jill was still out. She had mumbled something but Clay couldn't hear exactly what it was. She had buried her face into his chest though, hand still clasped tight in his shirt. She felt nice in his arms.

  The door opened and just as everyone settled in Clay flipped on the news. Dawn was examining Jill on Clay's couch. The news was bleak. Several governments had fallen already around the world. Animals had gone crazy, biting humans and fleeing. The victims of these attacks suffer a painful mutation that turns them into a monstrous humanoid that looks vaguely like the animal that bit them, shortly after developing a very high fever. The experts were calling this mutation linked to our genome the "Beastmen Mutation". These people develop higher Strength or Dexterity scores.

  The news was still going in the background, the lakes and levees were inundated and the flooding was getting worse. He packed everything he could, and not wanting to waste it, he took all the steaks out of the freezer and started cooking them, some mashed potatoes and brown gravy and a couple of cans of green beans. A decent dinner, and he had enough for everyone too. He could at least feed the two of them and put them up for the night in exchange for Dawn looking after Jill. He couldn't keep the frozen food anyway, and he was sure the power wasn't going to last much longer.

  The night went by, and Clay fell into a deep sleep as his exhaustion finally caught up with him. He had been pushing himself hard for the last few days and now that he was in his apartment he crashed hard. He didn't dream about anything though. Just blissful oblivion.

  He woke to something roaring over the apartment. His brain instantly linked it to a large plane flying very low and then before he could even roll out of bed to figure out what the fuck was happening he heard a loud explosion as the plane impacted into a building in the next block over from his apartment. The explosion blew his bedroom window in, showering him with glass but luckily he only suffered a few minor cuts. He quickly threw his boots on, and shirt, and tucked the gun into his waistband as he ran out of his room into the living area.

  Everyone was recovering from the large window being blown in from the explosion. He could see Dawn helping Tonya as she had a deep cut on her green cheek. Luke was standing, looking out the window and down at the street. He was praying and had ahold of a necklace as he did so.

  "What is it?" Clay asked. He could see he wasn't looking at the plane crash. He rushed up to the window where rain blew in as the wind whipped it around the tall buildings. Hundreds of figures moved through the city below and the first thing Clay noticed was the condition of the people. They looked like walking dead people with pale skin and red glowing eyes shining with malis.

  "Zombies." Luke whispered, his voice horse.

  "Why fucking not. I mean we might as well throw the walking dead in with everything else!" Clay growled as he moved to gather what he needed. "Get your shit together. Jill, are you good, hun?" She nodded she was. "Good, here take this rucksack, Tonya keep the duffel bag for now. If it's too much for you then say something. Hurry up people we don't have much time!"

  They hurried and gathered everything they could, Dawn and Luke took the excess water and some nonperishable food Clay couldn't pack anywhere else and within fifteen minutes they were standing at the door leading to the underground garage attached to his building. His motorcycle was fucking gone and he was a little bummed out about it but figured he couldn't take both Jill and Tonya without a sidecar anyways. They hadn't had any luck finding a vehicle or keys when Jill stopped them claiming she could smell blood.

  They followed her sense of smell, and sure enough, there was a dead man. He had been killed by a knife and his wallet was empty, lying on his chest. But he had a key fob clipped to his belt loop and when Jill took it off and pushed the button they saw lights flashing on a gunmetal grey Chevy crew cab.

  They quickly piled into the cab of the truck, Jill hopping into the driver's seat and starting it. As she reversed out of the parking spot they saw a wave of zombies heading towards them. Jill dropped the truck into drive and smashed the gas pedal.

  Bodies of walking dead were run over or knocked out of the way as the truck barreled through. In less than a minute they were screeching up the exit ramp onto the street.

  The abandoned cars made it difficult to get through and Jill could only drive so fast as she wove the truck through the crowded street littered with stranded vehicles here and there. Jill mercilessly plowed through anything dead and still moving that ran in front of the truck.

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  They made it three blocks before the truck started to sputter, and then it slowed drastically. "I don't know what happened!" Cried Jill.

  The engine clunked a few times as it finally seized up, steam billowing out of the hood. "Everyone out, grab our shit and stay together!" Clay yelled as he kicked open the door violently smashing an incoming zombie's face on the window. He swung the axe as he stepped out, clipping another in the temple, shattering the thing's forward momentum and sending it face-first into the asphalt off to the side.

  Everyone exited the vehicle and rushed together. He saw Jill pick up a piece of rebar lying on the ground that still had a chunk of concrete attached and swung it with enough force to smash the zombie's head near her.

  "Holy shit I just leveled up!" Jill exclaimed as they made their way through the much thinner crowd of zombies. They were still heading south and pretty soon managed to fight their way into a tire shop. Inside they caught their breath and Luke took the handle of a floor jack as a hefty weapon with more reach than the knife he tucked away.

  Time passed quickly and before long they filed back out, hurrying along the edge of the street as close to the building's shadows as they could get, and moving as quietly as they could. They made it two more miles, well into suburbia hell with entire blocks of identical houses, all painted the same, same trim color, same doors and windows. Even the same damn mailboxes. The zombies seemed to lessen quite a bit as they made it far enough Clay felt comfortable resting and allowing everyone to eat and sleep. It was nearly 3:00 in the morning though and Clay just ate a protein bar and a jerky stick and drank a coke. He savored it, he didn't have many left.

  He didn't sleep well, they had just helped themselves to someone's abandoned house and he just couldn't rest. Everyone else did though, however, when he woke up Clay noticed nobody else was awake. He looked around and realized they were still safe. He would have to fix that. As far as he was concerned they had been lucky.

  He looked at the clock on the wall ticking away and it read 7:32 A.M., he could see and hear it was still raining. "Damn, is it ever going to stop?" He muttered. Luckily the family had a coffee pot and some Folgers coffee and he put a pot on as he woke up the others. They had a cold breakfast, and a couple of cups of coffee before they gathered their belongings and started off again.

  It was easier to avoid the zombies in the daylight though and they managed to make it most of the day before their luck ran out.

  Around four in the afternoon a loud "BANG!" sounded not one street over from where they were currently sneaking through a yard. Then more, "BANG! BANG! BANG!" Everyone froze.

  They could hear multiple low growling sounds coming down the street in the direction of the gunshots. "Against the wall! Hurry!" Clay said just as the first zombies came running through. He figured there were a couple hundred of them running towards those gunshots.

  "BANG! BANG! BANG!" The gunshots sounded again. The stream of zombies running by slowed drastically as they heard a scream and another "BANG!" Then it went quiet. Soon the zombies still in the area went back to their slow, meandering wandering they were doing before the gunshots.

  "Okay let's go." Clay said stepping around the corner ready to pick an easy route through the zombie-infested fucking suburbs. He had to get out of here!

  He made it two steps and stopped.

  In front of him stood a zombie well over 9 feet tall. It had elongated limbs and an oversized mouth filled with sharp teeth. In his hand, he held a fucking spear, and it was already drawn back to throw!

  Tonya let out a squeal as she ducked behind the corner of the house.

  Jill tried to dodge too but was way too surprised and luckily slipped on the wet grass in the yard.

  Clay saw the zombie's arm snap forward and he knew he had to be fast. He would probably only get one chance with something like this. Its blue eyes bored into him and as the spear left its hand he twisted his body out of the way. He heard the fucking spear sail past his head, the tip spinning fast enough to cut the air as it flew.

  The giant zombie was only ten feet from him so he lunged forward as fast as he could, and swung the axe in a mighty one-handed, overhead chop aimed at the now-charging giant.

  It let out a roar.

  He felt the zombie's humongous fist slam into his left side as his axe cut deep into the giant's face. Black icor that smelled like roadkill splattered the front of Clay as he was violently hurled into the wall of the house.

  "DING! Congratulations! Level 3 obtained. 4 unassigned Ability Points gained. New Passive Ability Acquired: Eyes of Insight. Grants the host the ability to see another creature's stats. This does not show the target creature's abilities or skills." Kris said in his head as he tried to stand up.

  The zombie's roar had drawn other zombies attention and he could see Jill swinging her makeshift mace as Tonya helped him up. He could barely breathe the zombie had hit him so hard. The zombie was on the ground though, a pool of black bile pooling under its head.

  He quickly regained his bearings and he could see Dawn swinging the spear the zombie had thrown, doing her best to hold the damn undead back long enough for Luke to pop them in the head ending their threat one after another. He swung his axe catching a zombie in the side of its head and dropping it as its head popped like an overripe melon. "We need to move, come on!" He called as Tonya helped him along. She seemed to easily manage the duffel bag and was supporting his left side. He still couldn't breathe right.

  "What the hell was that thing?" Jill asked as she dropped another zombie. She wasn't far behind him, he wasn't able to move very fast even with Tonya's assistance.

  "I don't know but one hit ragdolled me. I don't want to run into another one!" Clay said, swinging his axe at another zombie as they rounded another house. After two more blocks of fighting, the zombies finally thinned out again to where they could make their way around them, instead of having to fight all of them. There were still a few but by dark they had finally made it out of the sprawling suburbia hell surrounding Chicago and took shelter in a two-story house that was empty along the highway.

  They were soaked, and cold. The temperature had dropped low enough over the last few days they could see their breath outside. They managed to warm up and even took turns showering as the house had a separate generator and central air. They had noticed the street lights in people's yards were flashing as the power stations started to be either flooded or overloaded.

  Dawn looked at his ribs. The area around where he had gotten hit was a sickly yellowish-green. She said something about being too strong for his own good under her breath and wrapped him up non to gently. He got the distinct feeling she respected him, but didn't like him.

  He was okay with that. A doctor was going to be handy to have around. Thinking about that he decided to use his new ability. He looked at Dawn as she put her medical supplies away and focused on using his skill. His vision flashed.

  Dawn Grimmor, Human Female, Age 36

  Level: 1

  Class: Master Healer

  Health Points: 160

  Mystical Points: 36

  Strength: 9

  Dexterity: 12

  Intelligence: 14

  Wisdom: 14

  "You're lucky you didn't puncture a lung. Try to take it easy for a couple of days." She raised her hands. "I know, I know." She gestured outside. "Just try."

  He grunted as he tried to put his shirt back on. Surprisingly Tonya helped him with it. He made sure to tell her thanks which made the woman blush for some reason and rush off. Jill looked at her funny, eyes mere slits as she stirred a bubbling saucepan with something that smelled great, her eyes didn't leave the doorway Tonya had disappeared through for quite a while.

  "What's in the pan?" Clay asked, his mouth watering from the smell.

  "Beef stew with some extra stuff I found in the refrigerator that was still good." She waved a wooden spoon as she dished him a bowl full. He thanked her and made his way into the dining room to eat. Luke and Dawn were talking in the living room and Tonya had taken her turn in the shower as Jill sat down beside him with a bowl of stew herself.

  "I want to thank you Clay. You saved me and I want you to know how much that means to me." She said softly.

  He reached out and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "You owed me dinner, Hun." He winked at her as she looked up at him. "Now let's enjoy it." He took a spoon full and he had to admit it tasted as good as it smelled.

  "This doesn't count!" She exclaimed. "I wanted to fix you a special dinner. I can cook a hell of a meatloaf."

  He chuckled and continued to eat. They enjoyed each other's company while they ate and soon enough Clay was sitting on the couch watching the news as Jill slept snuggled up against him under a blanket. Tonya on the other side of him had thrown her leg over his and he could swear she wasn't wearing a bra by the look of her rock-hard nipples as she slept on the other side of him.

  Luke and Dawn had the next two watches and then it would be his turn. He sighed as he focused on the small gold orb at the edge of his vision. Soon his status screen popped up.

  Clay Benton, Human Male, Age 40

  Level: 3

  Class: Sovereign

  Health Points: 250

  Mystical Points: 24

  Strength: 20

  Dexterity: 12

  Intelligence: 12

  Wisdom: 12

  Passive Abilities - Adaptable Conversion; Eyes of Insight

  Skills - Vicious Strike

  Remaining ability points to be allocated: 4

  "Let's go with 2 in Dexterity and Intelligence." He thought, focusing on the abilities. He saw them change. He thought for a moment and then looked at Jill using his Eyes of Insight.

  Jill Fairbanks, Beastmen Female, Age 39

  Level: 2

  Class: Mystical Warrior

  Health Points: 180

  Mystical Points: 30

  Strength: 14

  Dexterity: 14

  Intelligence: 12

  Wisdom: 10

  Hmm, not bad he thought, then looked at Tonya and focused on his ability again.

  Tonya Lovinngal, Orc Female, Age 33

  Level: 2

  Class: Enchantress

  Health Points: 140

  Mystical Points: 40

  Strength: 8

  Dexterity: 14

  Intelligence: 14

  Wisdom: 16

  Now that's nice! He had no idea she had advanced that much. He wondered if he had missed something because he hadn't seen her fight once since they had been traveling with each other. That just left Luke. He turned his head but couldn't see the man and decided he'd take a look at his stats in the morning. He was beat, and if Jill didn't feel good pressed up against him like she was he'd of preferred to lay down but soon was fast asleep.