At the SC12 City Hall, chaos reigned just minutes before the apocalypse began. The mayor had left the place with his security guards after hearing about the bomb in his house, and the few remaining employees were trying to assist the people and other public employees of the city who came to the city hall seeking help for the problems of the lack of employees they were facing this morning.
During all the chaos, a firefighter walked freely through the halls without being stopped, he looked at his cell phone, which had many messages from his acquaintances and family. Earlier today, he sent an alert only to his closest friends and family to stay home. But when it was 1 hour before everything started, he sent messages to all his contacts warning them about contact with sick people and to avoid being bitten by animals.
Now he has had to silence his cell phone due to the flood of calls and messages he received in return. Among the many messages were two in particular that Rick made sure to read while wearing a sinister smile...
Maggie: {You haven’t come to class all week, I missed you... Why did you send messages about a disease to everyone but me?}
Travis: {Hey Rick, congratulations on becoming a firefighter, our entire class skipped classes today, and only Maggie and I came... Why didn’t you tell us about the disease?}
"That hateful woman and that traitor... I hope they die on campus..." Rick muttered as he finally reached the mayor’s office.
Not even his secretary was here now, Rick quickly stormed into the room and followed the direction his new bracelet guided him, finding the mayor’s Prototype Space Bracelet. When his hand touched the item, the same silver light enveloped him, until it was fully absorbed by his system.
[Space Bracelet Prototype absorbed by the system]
[Inventory space has been expanded]
After checking his inventory, which had now doubled in size, there were also many new items that the Mayor himself kept. Rick took a special access card from there and went down to the basement of the City Hall. Inside the basement, he finally saw the final target of his mission.
On top of a metal support full of access and wires, there was a square grid with a ball of energy floating in the center. The ball was the size of a basketball and shone with a silver energy that dazzled the eyes of anyone who looked at it for too long.
[Secondary Mission Completed!]
[Obtained a small space energy core.]
[Obtained the skill: Crystal Extraction]
All the skills I gained from completing these missions were great, digging crystals from mutant corpses was really exhausting and unsanitary, this skill will really save me a lot of time, the store didn’t have many items at the moment, and it had several levels locked, but I saw something interesting inside, the ability to upgrade melee weapons, and buy basic protection items against bites.
The firefighter outfit I had at the time already had fire protection and held off bites well, but it wouldn’t be as effective for long. When I left the basement, I saw the streets darken and the sky start to turn red. I wasted no time and quickly left the place in my modified truck. When the clock reached noon, it was as if the city had become quieter.
[The Apocalypse has begun!]
It was just a message from the system, but for me it weighed heavily. And soon, the silence caused by the end of all technology was replaced by the screams of people and the roars of monsters.
I kept driving while dodging the vehicles stopped in the middle of the streets and the pedestrians who still hadn’t understood what was happening. I would go home first to pick up Joe, and then I would leave this city to go get my mother and sister.
Several people asked me to stop the car, but I couldn’t do it. The words said to me before my death still echoed in my mind: (You are too correct and too good...) Trying to save random people on my first day almost got me killed, and made Joe, one of the first victims. I took too long to go to my mother and sister, and that caused the death of one of them, too.
But being so cold all of a sudden wasn’t easy, it was a process that needed time, and I felt bad every time someone asked me to stop my vehicle...
As I was turning a corner, and I was less than 10 minutes away from arriving at my apartment, I saw two zombies chasing a woman with a little girl in her arms, she was crying out for help in tears... It was instinctive, and I stopped the truck immediately. I gritted my teeth in anger, it seemed that stopping being a good man and becoming colder was something I wasn’t ready for yet. After all, I wouldn’t have become a firefighter if I didn’t want to be a hero, right?