Staring at the flat-screen TV mounted on the wall, Amelia felt the breath completely leave her lungs while her father's face flashed across the bright screen.
Since she was a child, she had always known her father was deeply eccentric, a quiet man of bizarre midnight errands and securely locked basement doors, but to see him paraded in heavy iron handcuffs as the world's most prolific serial killer was a shattered reality she simply couldn't process.
Before her brain could even begin to digest the sheer horror of her cursed lineage, the emergency broadcast siren shrieked violently through the television speakers, immediately followed by the deafening, concussive sound of a massive explosion echoing from the city center.
The entire apartment building violently shook, sending heavy bookshelves and decorative potted plants crashing to the hardwood floor as the city's power grid abruptly died, plunging the cozy living room into an oppressive darkness.
Yet, Amelia wasn't entirely left in the dark.
Hovering just inches from her face, a translucent, blood-red holographic interface cast an eerie, crimson glow across her pale, terrified features.
[Host matched: Amelia Vance.]
[Bloodline verified...]
[Welcome, Host. The Apocalypse has officially begun. Survival requires ultimate sacrifice.]
"What kind of sick, twisted joke is this?" she whispered to the empty room, swatting her trembling hand through the projection.
"Amy!" The voice of her roommate, Chloe, pierced through the sharp ringing in her ears.
Bursting out of her bedroom hallway while wildly swinging an aluminum baseball bat, Chloe looked like she had just seen a ghost.
"Amy, what the hell was that explosion? Look out the window right now, people are literally eating each other down there! I swear to God, Mr. Abernathy from down the hall just bit the mailman's throat out!"
Rushing frantically to the large bay window, Amelia peered through the tangled plastic blinds, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird desperately trying to escape a cage.
Down on the rain-slicked street, the mundane world she had known just five minutes ago was entirely gone, rapidly replaced by a chaotic, blood-soaked nightmare of fleeing pedestrians, crashing vehicles, and grotesque, snarling figures that moved with an unnatural, jerky aggression.
"It's... it's like a bad horror movie," Amelia stammered, gripping the wooden windowsill so tightly her knuckles turned entirely white. "They're actually zombies, Chloe. Actual, flesh-eating zombies. But what does this have to do with..."
She trailed off abruptly, glancing nervously back at the glowing red screen that only she seemed able to perceive.
"With what? Amy, you're really scaring me!" Chloe cried out, dropping the heavy metal bat to clutch her own head in sheer panic.
"My phone has absolutely no signal, and the internet is completely down! Are the aliens attacking us? I just awakened some kind of crazy floating blue box that says 'Healer System' and gave me five glowing points! Am I going completely crazy?!"
"You see a screen too?" Amelia asked, turning around sharply, a spark of immense relief washing over her.
Chloe nodded frantically, hot tears spilling down her flushed cheeks as she gestured wildly to the empty air hovering directly in front of her face.
"Yes! It clearly says I have minor healing abilities, and it wants me to accept a beginner quest to heal a minor flesh wound! Though I have absolutely no idea how to even use it or where it came from, it feels terrifyingly real. What does yours say? Do you have one too? Please tell me you got something cool to protect us, like a fire mage or a warrior system!"
Amelia swallowed hard, the inside of her mouth suddenly feeling completely dry as she processed her friend's words.
She looked deeply at Chloe's hopeful, tear-streaked face, and then looked back at the ominous red text continuously floating in her own vision.
[Starter Quest: Blood Honors the Father.]
[Objective: Terminate your first victim to prove your worth. Target can be human, infected, or otherworldly.]
[Reward: 100 System Points.]
[Failure Penalty: Immediate Cardiac Arrest.]
Despite this horrifying, lethal ultimatum glaring right at her retinas, Amelia swallowed her rising bile and forced a tight, incredibly unconvincing smile.
"Yeah," she lied smoothly, the dark deception sliding off her tongue far easier than she would have ever liked to admit. "I got a... survivalist system. It mostly helps with scavenging supplies and finding safe routes."
"Oh, thank God," Chloe breathed a massive sigh of relief, clearly too panicked by the ongoing apocalypse to notice the slight, nervous tremor hiding in Amelia's voice.
"Okay, okay. We can definitely work with this. I heal people, you scavenge for our food. We'll survive this whole mess, Amy. We just have to board up the front door right now and wait for the military to save us."
At the moment, dragging the heavy sofa to board up the front door sounded like a phenomenal, life-saving idea, but the heavy thudding suddenly echoing from the apartment hallway heavily suggested they wouldn't have the luxury of spare time.
"Chloe, did you remember to lock the front door when you came in from grocery shopping?" Amelia asked, her voice instantly dropping to a harsh, commanding whisper.
Chloe froze like a deer in headlights, the remaining color draining entirely from her face.
"I... I think so? I was carrying heavy bags, and then the breaking news came on about your dad being arrested, and I dropped my keys on the mat..."
Eventually, the rhythmic pounding on the heavy oak door shifted from a persistent knock to a violent, splintering crash that shook the walls.
The treated wood groaned and cracked under immense, unnatural pressure, rapidly giving way as the metal hinges loudly snapped. Bursting violently through the ruined, splintered doorway, their usually grumpy landlord, Mr. Henderson, stumbled heavily into the apartment, however, he was clearly no longer the annoying older man who constantly complained about their loud music.
Half of his face was a mangled, dripping bloody mess, and his once-kind brown eyes had completely glazed over into a milky, dead white.
"Mr. Henderson?" Chloe squeaked pathetically, stepping backward in terror and immediately tripping over the decorative Persian rug.
Releasing a guttural, wet, terrifying hiss, the infected landlord lunged forward with surprising speed, his ruined jaw snapping wildly as he dove straight toward Chloe's exposed ankle.
"Chloe, move away!" Amelia screamed at the top of her lungs, diving recklessly across the glass coffee table and snatching the discarded baseball bat from the floor in one fluid, desperate motion.
Swinging the heavy aluminum weapon with every ounce of her remaining strength, she brought it crashing down mercilessly onto Mr. Henderson's collarbone.
The brutal impact shuddered violently up her arms, stinging her palms, but the relentless zombie barely even flinched, merely turning its rotting, furious face toward this annoying new source of interference.
[Blunt force trauma is highly ineffective against Level 1 Infected. Sharp force trauma directly to the brain stem is highly recommended. Time remaining for Starter Quest: 3 Minutes.]
"Are you kidding me right now?!" Amelia yelled aggressively at the floating red screen, desperately sidestepping as the furious zombie swiped a bloody, dirt-caked hand directly at her exposed stomach.
"Who are you talking to?!" Chloe sobbed hysterically from the floor, scrambling backward against the drywall until she had nowhere left to hide.
"Nobody! Just stay back and stay quiet!" Amelia commanded, her eyes darting around the room for an advantage.
Keeping the snapping creature at bay was proving far more physically exhausting than she had ever anticipated. The baseball bat was utterly useless for inflicting lethal damage, acting merely as a temporary physical buffer between her soft flesh and his gnashing, bloody teeth.
She absolutely needed a sharp blade. She needed to complete this twisted quest right now, or her own heart would literally stop beating in less than three minutes!
Glancing frantically around the open-concept living room and kitchen area, her desperate eyes locked onto the heavy stainless-steel knife block sitting innocently on the marble kitchen island.
Shoving Mr. Henderson backward with a desperate, two-handed thrust of the metal bat, Amelia bolted instantly for the kitchen.
The confused zombie stumbled awkwardly over the shattered coffee table, crashing loudly into the television stand and sending her father's frozen, smiling face shattering down onto the hardwood floor.
Grabbing the largest, sharpest chef's knife from the wooden block, she spun around just as the infected landlord cleared the debris, lunging straight for her vulnerable throat with outstretched claws.
There was absolutely no time to think, no time to ethically debate the profound morality of what she was about to do to a man who used to fix her leaky faucets.
With this said, the dark, primal survival instinct buried deep within her DNA took over completely, chilling her emotions to absolute zero.
Ducking smoothly under his wildly flailing, bloody arms, Amelia stepped confidently right into his guard, driving the eight-inch steel blade violently upward into the soft, vulnerable underside of his jaw, pushing it forcefully until she felt the tip pierce the brain pan.
The zombie let out a final gurgling breath, its arms dropping limply to its sides before the lifeless body slumped forward heavily onto her shoulder.
Gasping for much-needed air, Amelia shoved the disgusting dead weight off of her body, pulling the kitchen knife free with a sickening, wet squelch.
Dark, coagulated blood splattered heavily across her face and white shirt, feeling horribly hot and metallic against her skin. She stared silently at her trembling, blood-soaked hands, expecting a profound sense of horror and guilt to wash over her.
She had just killed someone. Even if he was technically already dead, the physical, visceral act of driving a blade into a human skull felt entirely too natural to her.
The red screen chimed merrily in her mind, completely interrupting her rising existential dread.
[Starter Quest Completed: Blood Honors the Father.]
[Target effectively eliminated with a bladed weapon. Bonus system points awarded for a highly stylistic, efficient approach.]
[Rewards distributed: 150 System Point]
Suddenly, without warning, the frantic, terrified pounding of her heart slowed down. The overwhelming panic that had been heavily clouding her mind simply vanished.
"Amy..." Chloe whispered softly from the corner of the room, staring up at her best friend with wide, utterly terrified eyes. "You... you killed him so fast. It was like you knew exactly what to do. Are you okay?"
Amelia slowly turned her head to look down at Chloe.
As the newly unlocked system trait firmly settled into her mind, completely washing away her fragile human fear, a cold, almost unnoticeable smile tugged gently at the corner of Amelia's lips... a terrifying smile that looked exactly like the one her monstrous father wore on the news broadcast.
"I'm perfectly fine, Chloe," Amelia said, her voice now incredibly smooth and entirely devoid of any previous panic or exhaustion.
With a faint shimmering light, a gleaming, silver surgical scalpel materialized seemingly out of thin air, resting perfectly balanced in her left hand.
"In fact, I think I'm really starting to get the hang of my new system."
[New System Quest Available: A Witness is a Dangerous Liability...]
[Objective: Ensure your secret remains hidden. By any means necessary.]
Amelia's cold eyes flicked briefly to the newly generated red text, and then back down to her trembling best friend, the dark, chilling smile on her face widening just a fraction.