Infection

Fifteen zombies, twelve bullets. That meant that he would have to kill three zombies quietly and then not miss any bullets. He just hoped that they were like all other zombies in media, and you needed to destroy their brains.

Isaac decided to try and kill them with the bow and arrow considering the fact that he had never lassoed a thing in his entire life. Well, to be fair, he had never shot a bow either, but he assumed it was infinitely easier.

He nocked an arrow and raised the bow to his cheek. In that moment, his training from the military took over. All of his muscles uninvolved with the shot loosened themselves. His extraneous about the real world and the game world alike faded away.

To Isaac, it was now just him and the zombies. Quests were irrelevant. Money was irrelevant. His friends were irrelevant. His bills were irrelevant. Everything came to a standstill, and he let go of the bowstring, sending the arrow forward.

A quiet cracking resounded in the air as the arrow broke into the brittle skull of the zombie. The blood started oozing out of their head as the zombie stumbled and fell to the floor, behind the rest of the horde.

Fourteen.

Isaac nocked another arrow and glided his aim towards the new farthest zombie. His mind was still in its Zen state as he released his second arrow. The result was the same as the first and the zombie fell to the ground without any giving Isaac any tribulations.

Thirteen.

Isaac nocked his third arrow and took aim. His heart was calm as he contracted his back muscles and pulled the string. He took aim at the next zombie when some of the window glass shattered as the zombies clawed at the house. Isaac didn't flinch as he began to let go of the string.

The quest giver however, had different plans as he squealed his wife's name and jumped forward, knocking Isaac off balance ever so slightly. At the same time, Isaac had let go of the string. Both of them felt their hearts stop as they watched the arrow fly through the sky.

To the two of them, it travelled slowly, as if God themselves decided they should see their downfall. The arrow flew into the horde of zombie's, past the intended target, not even so much as grazing them. For the next zombie it encountered, the arrow dug slightly into their cheek before flying back out.

It continued past them all until it reached the farthest zombie. With enough momentum, it managed to still pierce the zombie. Unfortunately, due to Isaac getting bumped and the arrow grazing the zombie's cheek, it was thrown off course. Instead of piercing the brain, it struck the zombie in the chest and shot through, pinning them to the log wall.

There was a brief lull in the zombies' movements. They no longer tried to break into the house. Instead, they watched their companion struggle to removed itself from the wall it was pinned to. Then, they decided to find out the source of their comrade's pain.

Their jaws snapped and their teeth clattered as they oddly tilted their heads and turned. They quickly found the two responsible and their eyes shook within their skulls. A zombie let out a loud screech into the air and they all began running forward.

Isaac instantly dropped the bow, and his arm went to his side. He lifted his revolver and took aim. Remembering what DefiantTomato had told him earlier, he activated Deadeye. Much like when he was in his Zen state, time came to a crawl.

He pulled the gun's hammer back and took aim at the closest zombie.

To the quest giver, it seemed like Isaac had drawn his weapon incredibly fast, but what baffled him was what came after. With shocking accuracy and speed, the six closest zombies fell. It was as if Isaac wasn't affected by the revolver's recoil or the cocking of the hammer.

Isaac then left out of dead eye and felt a wave of sluggishness wash over him. He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the feeling. While doing so, he turned and scrambled towards one of the trees at the tree line. Seeing this, the quest giver followed.

The zombies were extremely quick and were hot on their heels as the started climbing the branches. As Isaac reached a safe place he turned to see if the zombies could climb the trees, only to see the quest giver struggle to climb up.

They had both jumped into the same tree, so Isaac reached down and extended his hand. The man grabbed it and as Isaac lifted him, the man's leg fell to the side.

The zombies instantly gripped it and started tugging and biting. The man cried out in horrifying pain and involuntarily let go of Isaac's grip in shock. His eyes that were closed due to the agony shot open as he felt himself in a free fall. Isaac tried to grab him, but the man fell to the ground.

The zombies pounced onto him and started clawing and biting him. In a sobbing voice he cried out, "Tell her I tried! I tried so hard to make things the way they were. Tell her I'm sorry…" His voice got weaker and weaker until it was silenced, the only sounds were the squishes his body produced as the zombies dug into him and ate him.

Isaac leaned back in the tree and let out a curse. He reloaded his gun as quickly as he could, the empty shells falling onto the zombies and the remains of the man.

There were six zombies left, plus the one who was still pinned to the wall at the house. Isaac lowered his gun a moment later and with a head throbbing in pain, slowly took aim at the zombies. He picked them off one by one as they decided their meal was more important than saving their lives.

As the last bullet Isaac had fired out into the horde, the forest fell into an eerie silence. There were no birds chirping happily in the air, no rustling in the trees as the wind passed by. Simply nothing.

Isaac let out an exhausted sigh and put the revolver back into its holster. He looked at the carnage below and saw only blood and viscera. He leaned back and opened his menu. He needed to see the fatigue usage for Deadeye, but he was dead tired.

[Fatigue 41/100]

"This is just forty?!" He yelled out loud in shock before cursing multiple times.

'If that's forty, how the hell do some people make it to 70 or even 100?! Monsters…'

Well, now that the quest giver was gone, Isaac held no hopes for continuing it. But, on the off chance he could, he still checked the quest tab. Sure enough, it was still there, it tasked him with saving Elizabeth. He debated giving up and heading back to town, after all he had no ammo, but the man said it was urgent.

Seeing how the zombies almost got in, there was still a chance more could come later, and he would fail if he left now. So, Isaac hopped down the tree and landed in the blood and guts. He covered his nose with his elbow to hide the stench as he began walking to the house.

As he got closer, he picked up the bow and put it over his shoulder, then he drew his knife. He made it to the house and the pinned zombie was almost out of the arrow. It had struggled the entire time as it had to walk backwards.

'So, they can run fast but they can't do anything complex or requiring decent thought and balance. Good to know.' He came to that conclusion as he walked behind the zombie.

The zombie turned its head as much as it could and started snapping their jaw open and close, trying to bite Isaac's face.

To try to eat his flesh and satiate the strange hunger in its chest that instincts told them would only go away when eating others. It never did go away, but the zombie was too far gone to recognize that.

Isaac aimed the knife for a moment before driving it forward and slamming it back into the zombie's head, killing it instantly. It slumped forward, placing its entire weight on the arrow, snapping it like a twig.

Isaac kicked the body a bit to make sure it was actually dead before deciding to head into the house. He bit his lip in nervousness as he opened the front door. Much like the forest, the house was as quiet as a church mouse. The motionless air sent chills into Isaac's spine and due to the house's secluded location. It didn't help his nerves that it was incredibly dark in the building.

There were some oil lanterns on the wall, but Isaac had no idea how to light them. It was surprising how something as simple as that made things much harder for him. He decided he should start researching common mechanisms used in the west during this time when he got back home.

He slowly made his way through the house. Isaac made sure to keep his eyes peeled for any movement. While doing so, he noticed a small picture framed and hung on the wall. Taking one last look for any zombies, he made his way over to it and took it off the wall to get a better look.

In the picture were three people. A woman, presumably Elizabeth; the quest giver had said she was his wife. To her right was the quest giver himself. Finally, between the two was a young little boy.

As he inspected the picture, he suddenly heard a sob. It cut through the quiet building like a hot knife through butter. Isaac immediately dropped the picture, shattering it against the floor and headed towards the sound, his knife at the ready to cut down any threats.

He reached a shut door which the sobs were coming from. Instead of opening the door, he pressed his ear against it to make sure it wasn't a trap. That's when in between the sobs he heard a hurt mumble and a squishing noise.

"T-Timothy. P-please…"

Isaac had enough with the situation, he kicked open the door to reveal two figures. A woman on the wooden floor quietly sobbing and caressing the small zombie hovering over her body as they ate her.

Isaac froze seeing this because this zombie was unlike the others. The others looked relatively human except their veins appeared blue against their pale skin. They also bled from their orifices.

This zombie however seemed more like the zombie's you'd see in gorier films. Its body was falling apart and but suprisingly there was no blood falling from it.

Isaac gathered his courage and plunged his knife into the back of the zombie's skull, killing it. That's when he got a better view of the woman the zombie had been eating. Nearly her entire stomach had been ripped apart.

Upon seeing the zombie collapse to the floor, the woman got extremely mad as her face contorted. Tears streamed down face with incredible speed as she jumped and attacked Isaac. He quickly drove his knife into the side of her skull, and she stopped.

He brought the knife out and the woman slumped onto the floor. Isaac leaned back against the wall, looking towards her body and thought to himself, 'There goes Elizabeth… Shit!'

He felt a pain in his arm, so he inspected it. On the bottom of his arm, opposite of where his bicep was, was a small bite. His mind instantly thought back to when Roscoe said his character died of disease.

"Shit!" He gripped the wound and instantly opened his menu.

[You've been infected by: The Penultimate Plague]

[Untreatable by normal means. The penultimate symptom is death. What happens after doesn't matter, at least not to you. -1 Health Point every 5 seconds.]

He looked at his health.

[99/100]

Then, in a final act of desperation, he looked at his quest.

[Everything's going to be okay]

[Objective updated! Find the cure in the house.]

"A cure…" He muttered.

Isaac's eyes shot up and he began searching the room quickly. He couldn't understand his own emotions. It was just a game, why did he care so much? If he died all he would do was start over and lose everything. But it was also the game's beginning, so he didn't have anything.

Finding the room to be empty, he quickly left to the rest of the house. That's when he saw the family photo on the ground. When he had dropped it, it fell on the picture side revealing its back to the world. Isaac quickly spotted something on the back and picked it up.

'I'm sorry for failing you, Timothy. 1876-1880. Rest in Peace.'

Isaac's eyes turned to the room when he realized who he had killed. But they also died a year ago since it was 1881. Isaac's brows furrowed in confusion, then he remembered the words from the quest giver.

"Tell her I tried! I tried so hard to make things the way they were. Tell her I'm sorry…"

'I tried so hard to make things the way they were.' Isaac repeated in his head.

Isaac's eyes went back to the photo.

'Was the quest giver responsible for this?' Isaac thought as sweat began forming on his head.

He heard a scuffle to his left and he looked up to see an eaten man standing at the doorway, defying death itself. They snarled as they saw Isaac.

"Just the man I was looking for." Isaac said as he pointed his knife at the zombified quest giver.