Chapter 8: A new life

A few hours earlier, while Adam was selecting his Class, a zombie appeared with several of his siblings in an empty apartment. The sudden self-awareness confused and panicked him, but it didn't take long for his rudimentary mind to accept its existence and begin to function normally.

After a while, the zombie sensed a new presence in the apartment. At first he ignored it, but as the minutes passed, he became more and more attracted to it. Especially since he knew, somehow, that it wasn't one of his siblings.

The zombie noticed that several of his siblings were already starting to move, so without much thought he followed them. The group soon found their target, a fat man who panicked as soon as he saw them.

A horrible hunger seized the zombies and, before they knew it, they fell on the man. He managed to kill one of them with an axe before falling victim to the others.

The zombie managed to land the last blow, so before he could satiate his hunger, he heard a system message:

[Congratulations on killing all the hostiles in the small apartment. You achieved the final hit, so you will receive possession of it and evolve to a higher form in 10 minutes].

However, the zombie didn't understand any of it. The only thing he cared about was to satiate his terrible hunger. It fought against its brethren for food until it emerged as the victor.

In just a few minutes he devoured the man in a grotesque spectacle. When he finished, he felt satisfied for the first time in his life. However, his hunger soon returned and his instinct prompted him to seek out more prey.

At that instant, its evolution began. The zombie fell to the ground, feeling terrible pain. For a moment, its body became an amorphous mass that took on a new form in a few seconds.

[You have become a zombie Windwalker].

The newborn Windwalker got up from the ground, ignoring the message again. To his momentary surprise, a pair of wings had grown on his shoulders. They were covered in shiny black plumage and curved over his back. His new instincts soon got the better of him and he reflexively tried to open the wings, only to slam them against the walls.

Annoyed, he decided to look for a more spacious place. The living room of the apartment was the ideal place to spread his new wings. However, he still felt... trapped.

He looked around carefully. Then he noticed the windows, which he had ignored before. Behind them there seemed to be a larger space. He approached one and tried to open it, but did not understand how.

At that moment he was interrupted by a sound from outside. Something was fighting out there. Before he could wonder about it, he sensed the presence of several humans on the other side of the wall. All resembling the man he had killed.

He forgot everything else and tried to get out. He noticed that there was a part of the wall that was much weaker than the others. Not understanding what a door was, he started banging on it until he managed to open it.

On his way out, the Windwalker surprised a group of humans fighting in the hallway. The zombie jumped on the nearest one. His strong hands didn't meet much resistance. The woman it hit went flying and fell unconscious. The other humans panicked and fled, but more and more zombies chased them.

One of the humans lunged at the Windwalker, holding a dagger. The zombie backed up a few steps and blocked the blow with the feathering of its wings. The weapon slipped through the feathers, which seemed to be made of a light but strong metallic material. The man lost his balance and fell to the ground, a moment that the Windwalker took advantage of to stomp him to death.

When the fight was over, about six humans, along with a couple of zombies, were dead. The Windwalker looked at his surviving brethren, one of whom had evolved.

[Zombie Brawler].

The rest of the zombies were Stalkers and although they seemed to want to pounce on the food, they didn't want to get into trouble with the two superiors.

The Windwalker approached one of the corpses and tried to pick it up, but his brother roared, threatening. The former continued to approach the body, ignoring the threats. The Brawler threw himself on top of it.

The Windwalker retreated a few steps, dodged the attack and lashed his brother with a wing. The sharp plumage left a trail of wounds on the Brawler's skin. The Brawler became angry and caught the Windwalker by surprise with a swift blow to the chest.

The Windwalker tried to dodge, but failed. He was hit in the shoulder and lost his balance. The Brawler took advantage of this moment to grab his arm and repeat the blow to the chest.

The Windwalker tried to resist, but he was not as strong as his brother. He whipped his wings at the Brawler, but this superficial damage didn't do much good. It needed something else. For the first time, he found himself desperate enough to look for a solution other than brute force.

He found the answer in his instincts. He realized that he could wield some of the energy within him to make it act according to his will. The result was a weak wind spell that impacted against the Brawler and pushed it back.

He felt he was not using it well, but continued to attack in desperation. The Brawler was caught by surprise by the gust of wind. He let go of his brother's arm and fell to the ground after tripping over one of the corpses they were fighting over.

Once freed, the Windwalker looked for something that would give him an advantage. This time his instincts didn't do him much good. He felt that something important was missing and that without it he could not fight properly.

He tried to retreat, but fell to the ground as a powerful pain flooded his chest. As he tried to stand, his arm ran into a spear that had belonged to one of the humans.

The weapon was split in half, but it was still sharp. He knew at once that it was just what he needed and managed to calm himself.

The Brawler had already managed to get up and ran back to him, so the Windwalker stayed on the ground and concentrated on circulating his energy. The wind spell he had been using seemed at first glance useless, but with the weapon in his hand he understood its usefulness much better.

He channeled the spell into the piece of spear and then threw it. The spell activated and propelled the weapon straight towards the Brawler, who was so close that he couldn't dodge it.

The spear slice slammed into his chest and knocked him to the ground again. However, the attack had been far less effective than the Windwalker had expected. He searched the ground for another weapon and threw down a sword and a dagger. At last, the Brawler fell dead.

Victorious, the Windwalker devoured the corpses under the watchful eyes of the Stalkers. However, he kept one intact, for he knew it would be useful in obtaining what he knew he lacked.

[You are ready for your next evolution. It will begin in 10 minutes].

The message seemed familiar, but he ignored it again. He went back to his house, ignoring all his siblings as well, and dragged the corpse into the kitchen. He laid it on the floor and concentrated on channeling his energy to perform a ritual engraved in fire in his mind.

Using his energy, he engraved on the floor a series of symbols whose precise meaning escaped him, he just knew it would work. When he was ready, he waited impatiently until the corpse was fully illuminated before disappearing. It left in its place a white bone javelin that the Windwalker found beautiful.

The zombie grabbed it carefully and threw it with some curiosity. The weapon went through a pantry and dropped a number of strange objects on the floor. The Windwalker reached over to retrieve his new weapon, but as soon as he thought about it, the javelin appeared in his hands again.

Surprised, he looked at the javelin with satisfaction. But moments later, he remembered why the earlier system message had seemed so familiar. A horrible pain that he recognized immediately made him fall to the ground. Minutes later he got up feeling much stronger.