4 Awoken

Nova headed home and set his alarm to 2 AM, he didn't know the exact time that the apocalypse but he knew that it was before 5 AM, it should be in the news pretty soon. He soon fell asleep and was awoken by his alarm even though it felt like he had been sleeping for seconds. Nova got up and dressed. If he could have afforded it he would have gotten some better clothes, but for now, he would have to make do with some jeans and a leather jacket.

Nova picked up his backpack and headed downstairs and turned on the TV. It flicked on with static before it tuned in on a news story, inside the TV a man and a woman sat facing each other. The subtitles said that the man was the researcher and that the woman was the reporter. There was a short silence before the woman began talking.

"Doctor Smith, we have received news that recently a dangerous batch of chemicals got released from your laboratory, could you elaborate?"

The man sat up straight and began talking.

"Due to a mechanical malfunction QY-13 has been released into the air, I am not at liberty to expose much info, however, I warn you"

The doctor turned and faced the camera "Do not breathe the air or you will become no more than a lifeless husk with nothing more than instincts powering you"

Gasps could be heard from the crew and the reporter looked shocked, "You mean we would become zom..." The Docter looked ash white and slowly nodded. "You won't technically die but... the symptoms are the same. I suggest you leave as soon as possible before QY-13 begins to expand in the air and spreads out."

As the doctor finished his speech sirens suddenly sang out and an explosion that shook the ground happened. It seemed that the problem had already started.

The stairs creaked and Nova jumped up and pulled out his knife.

"Nova, is that you? What was that noise?" Nova let out a sigh and put away his knife. Nova thought about how he was supposed to explain this, he began to grumble.

"Poison gas is in the air, scientists made a mistake handling a deadly chemical so now we die without a gas mask".

Nova's mum cupped her mouth with her hands. "Mum... what are you doing?" She talked through her hands so her words came out as oddly but Nova understood. "Air... Bad... No...Breathe"

Nova went into his backpack and pulled out a gas mask "Take this, don't ask".

Mum put on her gas mask and her breathing became loud and rugged, Nova also put his on and stretched. "We should get going now anyway" "Where?". Nova started heading towards the door "You'll see".

To the left were methods of movement such as rockets, wheels, train tracks, and locomotives and in the middle was internal objects like laboratories and stronger walls/defenses be reaching here judging by where that explosion was. People would also have to go through all the symptoms first before they transformed so, for now, the town should be safe but not for long.

Nova finally reached the fields and on the tracks, a train stood. Unlike before it was shiny and polished as well as sleek as if it had come from the future. Nova walked over and pulled open the door, inside a dog woke up and pounced on top of Nova.

"Calm down boy, we have to get out this train moving before we celebrate". The inside of the train was plain and nothing interesting was there other than a few rooms in each cart. One was a bathroom another was a kitchen, another was a bedroom etc. Nova walked out of the train and headed towards the driver's compartment. He pulled open the door and a simple room showed itself, buttons were placed everywhere that you could see and in the middle, a single chair was placed on the floor.

Nova fell back into the chair and opened up his 'Menu', he clicked on upgrades and looked at what there was. The first upgrade on the far right was a turret. It had to be controlled manually and it required 5 zombies to be killed for it to be unlocked.

To the left were methods of movement such as rockets, wheels, train tracks, and locomotives and in the middle was internal objects like laboratories and stronger walls/defenses. If Nova were to unlock all of them he would be practically unbeatable and it would take every zombie in the world to beat him however that was far off.

For now, Nova looked at the travel menu. It was a map of the country however the only places he could see was around his current location. Above his town, on the map, it said 'Secure' which Nova guessed meant that it was ruled by humans still. This could also mean that liberations meant securing non-secure places?.

A lot of the higher level upgrades required a certain amount of liberations to unlock. So they were basically a higher level of requirements then zombies?. Nova was getting a headache thinking about and so he selected a random location that he could pick and confirmed it. In an awesome display of power, the train shuddered and creaked before roaring as if a beast had just been awoken.

Slowly the train began to move causing everyone to be slightly thrown back including Nova, the train let out a loud horn as if it were alerting everyone of the iron beast they would face if they came close.