Chapter 9: CHAPTER 8

Ray

He Was positive he was dead. For the half second that Ray fell through the pitch-black interior of the chemical tower, to the moment he impacted the walkway under the hatch, he was sure he was done for. His entire new life flashed before his eyes, thankfully he didn’t have long to think about it as the fall was rather short.

He slammed into what felt like chain-link fencing, the breath leaving his body with a not-so-quiet wheezing sound. Laying on his back on the catwalk, his chest heaved with its effort to get oxygen to his brain. Oddly enough the structure he was in didn’t smell like much of anything, so breathing was much easier than he had planned on it being. The chemicals being stored here must have leaked out or evaporated long ago.

He was musing on his good luck when he remembered the giant thing on the roof. Holding his breath he listened for any sounds above him. Sure enough, he could hear the feet pounding back and forth across the top of the roof. That monster was probably looking for him. Ray wasn’t quite sure how they tracked their prey yet, but he was sure that they were damn good at finding whatever they were looking for.

After a few moments of what seemed to be purely rage-fueled movements, the feet pounded off to the side of the curved wall. With a loud, long roar that vibrated the very structure under him, the footsteps stopped briefly … only to be followed by a loud impact at the bottom of the building.

The fucking thing had jumped off.

Shaking his head in disbelief, Ray got to his feet. Contrary to everything that had just happened to him he was still alive. Somehow.

Groaning he sat up, taking a look into the pitch black that surrounded him. Yup. Definitely couldn’t see anything. Ray was still completely in the dark about any threats that may be locked inside here with him.

Taking his multi-tool out from his inventory, he gripped the handle to begin looking for the selector button to change its form only to be surprised as it lit up. The light was just bright enough for Ray to see several feet in every direction, just bright enough for him to realize he was in a caged-off safety section of the catwalk.

“Great, Ray under glass,” he grumbled as he tested the door to see if he could force it open. Going with the day's theme, he was surprised yet again when it swung open easily on silent hinges. Apparently whoever built these things built them to last.

As he stepped out, the illuminating glow of the multitool projecting out in front of him, he followed the catwalk to its terminating point at the wall.

“Well … this isn’t getting me anywhere,” he grumbled again, turning around.

Unfortunately, the other side of the cage was locked, preventing him from traveling in the other direction on the catwalk. Examining the padlock on the steel barred door, he jumped backward as the slavering maw of an undead came screaming out of the darkness, slamming into the steel bars that separated them.

You are reading story HEX – A Zombie Survival LITRPG at novel35.com

Taking a few quick steps back, Ray’s heart was pounding as he watched the thing snapping its teeth in his direction, trying to get through the door and eat him. The door in question, however, didn’t even budge. Once Ray realized that the creature wasn’t going to get any closer to him, he took the opportunity to really examine this one up close.

Contrary to his earlier thoughts, upon close inspection, the previously normal human being wasn’t rotting away. This surprised Ray, as every fiber of his being said if it was dead then it would decay. But this was certainly not the case.

While he could clearly see bone jutting out or outright visible on the undead body, each spot was growing almost what looked to be a fungus that covered it up. Moving up from the legs to the torso, even as the thing stuck its one arm through the grate and clacked at him, Ray noticed a hole torn clean through the body. The illumination from the multi-tool gave him just enough light to clearly see that it was a hole.

The insides were crusty with dried gore, but also contained large amounts of fungal growth as well. Stepping back slightly he took a good long look at the face of the creature. The clacking teeth, the missing eye, and the veins bulging out in its face.

There was definitely something more going on here than initially seemed. Ray thought about it a bit. Even if a zombie apocalypse seemed impossible, it had happened. At least, something so similar had happened that even those alien chuckle fucks in orbit couldn’t differentiate between what was and anything else that it could possibly be.

Getting as close as he dared, with the nasty thing snapping its maw at him, he looked closely at the empty eye socket. Something was … yes, yes there was definitely something moving inside of it.

Stepping back, Ray turned the multi-tool into its long spiked form. Drawing back, and taking a deep breath to line up his attack, he snapped forward and sunk the weapon neatly into the eye socket. The undead dropped to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut. As it fell, Ray withdrew the weapon.

The thing was fully dead now, but on the end of his tool, there was a long strand of wiggling mass. Honestly, it looked a lot like a plants root to him. Looking at it closely, but not so closely it could touch him, it wiggled fiercely. As if it wanted nothing more than to reach out and sink its tendrils into him. As he watched, however, it slowed down before eventually falling limp. Then it dissolved into ash.

“God above us,” he mumbled staring at the ashen remains of whatever the fuck that had just been. “Its almost like this root was living in that things brain.”

FIRST TRUTH DISCOVERED

WIS +1

NEX CALCULATING – DEPLOY NODE FOR NEX ACCRUAL

You can find story with these keywords: HEX – A Zombie Survival LITRPG, Read HEX – A Zombie Survival LITRPG, HEX – A Zombie Survival LITRPG novel, HEX – A Zombie Survival LITRPG book, HEX – A Zombie Survival LITRPG story, HEX – A Zombie Survival LITRPG full, HEX – A Zombie Survival LITRPG Latest Chapter