All Chapters of THE GHOUL RISING: Chapter 1
- Chapter 10
68 chapters
CHAPTER 1 — MY GRAVE MISTAKE
My lungs burn. Each breath tears through my chest like broken glass as I'm pushing through the open field that is surrounded by dark forest. The trees blur into shadows around me. My hand presses hard against my abdomen, fingers slick and warm. I can't look down, because if I do, I might collapse from the sight of it. That's one thing I can't afford to do. 'Where is the exit?' I thought. My foot catches on something I don't know that makes my face kiss the ground. My palms slam against wet earth, and the impact sends white-hot pain radiating through my middle. I bite down so hard I taste blood. The sounds are getting closer. That wet, gurgling noise echoes between the trees in multiple voices. My heart hammers against my ribs as I think it might tear through them. The darkness makes them sound like they're everywhere, converging, closing in. 'This is it.' I thought 'I'm going to die here.' The thought of my little sister, Sommy, crosses my mind. Her fac
CHAPTER 2 — THE CARRIER'S BURDEN.
My legs pump beneath me, each stride pushing me farther from the shambling mass of infects behind me. Sweat streaks down my temples, stinging my eyes. The trees blur past the hollow skulls of a world that no longer exists. Then I hear a shrieking sound. It starts low that gradually build into a louder that seems to split the air itself. My spine turns to ice. Every hair on my body stands rigid. Something is coming. I don't need to see it to know what it means. Whatever makes that sound will definitely tear through me like paper. My eyes sweep the landscape seeing nothing but sparse ruins, fallen trees that are cover with moss, cracked grounds that are overgrown with weeds. Nowhere to hide. Nowhere to run. The forest that's surrounding this vicinity leaves me shudder. More kept coming slowly with different varieties of walking bone with skin like wet leather, their movements twitchy and disjointed. Some of their mouths hang open, revealing tongues blackened and swoll
CHAPTER 3 — MY NEW SELF
INITIALIZING..... PLACING EVERYTHING IN ORDER...... COMPLETED..... It goes off. Leaving me in the dark again. Maybe this is my own afterlife. Even though I won't be able to see Sommy and Brixen again, the thought of getting past that torture spread like a blanket on me. That is, until something bit me right at my wrist, zapping me back to reality. My eyes snaps open as I quickly rise from the floor, dirt coating my tongue. “Oh!” I jolt upright, rubbing at the sting. An ant scurries away across my palm. My heart pounds against my ribs. Dead people don’t feel ant bites. Something catches my attention. A translucent blue screen materializes in front of my face, hovering in the air like it’s the most natural thing in the world. Like I'm supposed to understand what it means. WELCOME, HOST. EMERGENCY INTEGRATION INITIATED. TO COMPLETE FULL INTEGRATION, THREE CRITERIA MUST BE MET. ONE. CONSUME FOOD TO FULLY RESTORE HP. TWO. COMPLETE THE ENDURANCE TASK.
CHAPTER 4 — THE FIRST QUEST.
Brixen and Sommy rush onto the balcony beside me, staring down at the chaos below. "That's impossible," Brixen breathes. "The walls was reconstructed only recently." But something did. And it brought catastrophe with it. The streets have transformed into a nightmare. People pour from buildings like water from a broken dam, crashing into each other, trampling anyone who falls. The infected move through them like sharks through a school of fish. One grabs a man, sinking its teeth into his neck. His shriek cuts off into a wet gurgle. Blood sprays across the pavement in an arc that catches the light. More infected pour from the alley beside the building. They don't run. They never run. But that shambling, relentless pace devours the distance as surely as sprinting. Another person trips on the curb. She scrambles backward on her hands, screaming until one drops onto her. Her scream becomes something inhuman. "We have to go." Brixen's voice cuts through the horror. "Righ
CHAPTER 5 — THE IN-BETWEEN
I jolt awake. My eyes snap open to nothing. A void so complete it feels like my eyes aren't working. I blink, hard, trying to adjust, but there's nothing to adjust to. It was pitch black. Total darkness. My breath comes fast and shallow. I reach for my forehead where the gun was pressed. Smooth skin. No wound. No blood. "What—" My voice sounds wrong here. Muffled. Like I'm speaking underwater. "What is going on?" The last thing I remember is the protector's finger on the sword. The countdown hitting zero. The deafening crack of the gunshot. I should be dead. This time. Is there anything am yet to understand? How I trigger such thing? The screen materializes in front of me, its blue glow the only source of light in this emptiness. DEATH DETECTED. QUESTS FAILED. DEFEAT THE INFESTS: UNSUCCESSFUL. COMPLETE ENDURANCE TASK: UNSUCCESSFUL. INITIATING PENALTY PROTOCOL. My stomach drops. "Penalty?" FAILURE TO COMPLETE INTEGRATION TASKS RESULTS IN TERMINATION. PENALTY TA
CHAPTER 6 — INTEGRATION COMPLETE
I hit concrete hard. The impact jolts through my spine, but my lungs are already screaming, dragging in air that tastes like copper and sand.I roll onto my side, coughing. Sand pours out from my mouth, my nose, even my ears. It's everywhere, caked in my clothes, grinding against my skin with every movement.My throat feels thick, coated. I gag and retch, bile and more sand splattering the pavement.My arms shake as I push up to my hands and knees. The coughing finally stops, leaving me hollow and trembling on the ground.Then it hits me.I freeze, staring at the same ground I was stabbed. The memory slams back with brutal clarity when it replays what went down till that last moment. I force myself to look around, dreading what I might see. The street is still chaos. Buildings on fire. Overturned cars. Blood everywhere. And the infected? They're still here. Dozens of them, shambling through the wreckage to hunt for prey.But they're not attacking me.I'm sitting in the open, covered
CHAPTER 7 — BEHIND THE KEY
The raid group gathers at dusk. Brixen talks to his hired muscle. The same bikers from earlier. When they see me approaching, they all take a step back. Several look at the ground.Brixen glances between us, confused. "What's going on?"The bald guy I punched earlier shakes his head rapidly when I make eye contact. The others follow suit."Nothing," I say innocently. "Just establishing an understanding."We move through the checkpoints, showing passes to guards who barely glance at us. Then we're outside the walls again, picking our way through streets still littered with infected. It takes special skills and experiences to know how to maneuver them. That's the gift raiders know how to do best. They still have to fight through them, but the infected's eyes slide right past me like I'm not there.We move carefully. Keeping formation, until we're clear of the immediate danger zone. That's when I slow down, letting the group pull ahead. One by one, they disappear around a corner until
CHAPTER 08 — IT'S WORTH IT
I kneel beside the nearest human corpse, rolling it over with my boot. The infected's chest is torn open from where I killed it, ribs splayed like broken fingers. I reach inside, searching for that telltale red glow.Nothing.I try another. Then another. Five bodies. Ten. Twenty. All the same. No gems. Only rotting flesh and congealed blood."Why?" I mutter, pulling my hand back from another empty corpse. "The animals all had them. Why don't the humans?"The system doesn't answer. It never does when I actually want information.Maybe it depends on location?The more I think about it, the more it makes absolute no sense to me. "You know. You never told me why you chose me." I look, hoping that the screen pops up. Nothing. "I need answers. A sign. Anything."Still silence. I sigh. It's no use. It will only pop up whenever it wants to. That's when the system pops up, showing new tasks. NEW TASKS UPDATE. TO GAIN THE MASTER-SHEPHERD SKILL, YOU NEED TO VISIT THESE PLACESONE. THE SE
CHAPTER 9 — OVERCOMING LIMITS
"Do you know any protectors willing to work with us?" I ask Brixen as we walk away from the Internal Reserves building. He opens his mouth to answer when his phone buzzes. He glances at the screen and his entire body goes rigid. The color drains from his face. "Brixen?" "It's my father." His voice is tight. I know that look. Brixen isn't in the best relationship with his father. Many accused him of siding with a poor orphan while some talked about how different their personalities are from each other. Brixen is more of a warm buddy, that knows his onions on anything while his father is a cold person that dictates how things are supposed to go his way. The only reason they still talk to each other is simply because of their own personal greed. Brixen needs his father's influence to grow his quiet side hustle while his father needs his brain to grow the company. Brixen is a successful businessman, so he will know how to navigate his path without his father's influence but w
CHAPTER 10 — THE SARON VILLAGE QUEST
This doesn't look like a village at all. It's not even close to it. There are no buildings. Not a single sign of civilization. Everything is covered in swamps and vegetation like I'm inside a whole new different world. “What kind of place is this?” That's the first line of thought that hits me as I step deeper into Seron. The trees stand like hollow brown skulls, vines hanging loosely on their branches. There are little green puddles scattered around with insects hovering around it. Little shrubs are scattered on every foot path, splitting the ground into jagged fragments. But it's not the eerie sights that disturbs me. It's the feeling it gives. Like whatever it is, made this place it's home. It's hive. The hive structures cling to everything. Massive gluey mass that pulse with sickly green bioluminescence, stretching between trees like grotesque spider webs. They're made of something that looks like flesh but moves like it's breathing. Veins run through them, thick as my arm