Apocalypse System: The Disabled Doctor

Chapter 1. Level Up System

​"Lick that floor clean, Zac. You are not paid to daydream."

​Bryan's baritone voice echoed loudly against the ceramic walls of the Force City Central Hospital morgue. His white silk surgical coat hung perfectly without a single speck of dirt. His crocodile leather loafers gleamed, reflecting the pale neon light from the ceiling.

​Zac pressed down on the mop handle using his right hand. His left arm hung stiffly at his side. The motor nerves in that arm were completely dead due to a raging fire three years ago. His left fingers curled inward, resembling a broken bird's claw. The thick scent of formaldehyde mixed with carbolic acid stung his nostrils.

​"I have cleaned this block three times since this morning, Dr. Bryan." Zac straightened his back, glaring directly into the eyes of his former best friend.

​"This floor is still crawling with germs." Bryan scoffed condescendingly. He reached into his trousers pocket and tossed a silver coin.

​The metal spun through the air, bounced off the tiles, and landed right in the middle of a puddle of dirty, brownish mop water.

​"Pick that coin up slowly." Bryan smirked, flashing a row of perfectly white teeth. "Consider it a bonus for your crippled hand. Your family's debt installment to my father's bank is due tomorrow morning."

​"My cardiac bypass surgical exam is scheduled for this afternoon." Zac replied coldly, ignoring the coin beneath his shoes. "Professor Liam has already promised me a residency position. My first paycheck will be enough to cover this month's interest. I will bring my mother and sister back from your family's captivity."

​Bryan's laughter erupted loudly, filling the chilly sixty-degree room. The two female nurses behind him covered their mouths, holding back their amusement.

​"You truly are the most naive creature in all of Force City, Zac." Bryan stepped forward, closing the distance. The tip of his shoe pressed into the puddle of dirty water. "Professor Liam already accepted his early retirement severance this morning. My father arranged his flight ticket out of the country."

​Zac's breath caught in his throat. The world he had worked so hard to build felt as though it was crumbling to pieces.

​"Your exam schedule has been unilaterally canceled." Bryan pointed to the gold emblem of the department head on his left chest. "I lead the surgical department now. No sane person would ever entrust a patient's life to the hands of a cripple like you."

​"My anatomical knowledge and the control in my right hand far exceed your abilities." Zac clenched his right fist tightly. His fingernails dug sharply into his palm.

​"Academic ability is useless in the face of the Scorpion mafia clan's absolute power." Bryan patted Zac's cheek gently, driving the man's dignity into the ground. "You are nothing but garbage left over from that fire. Your mother and your little sister have already been burned to ashes. Accept your fate as a lifelong janitor."

​"Your family is holding them hostage." Zac's voice hissed with thick, concentrated hatred. "I will find them, dead or alive."

​"Go ahead and prove your accusations if you still have the money to hire a private investigator." Bryan turned around, preparing to leave. "Now pick up that coin. Otherwise, I will have my guards break your knees."

​Zac stood frozen, deadening his emotions. The veins in his neck bulged tightly. His instincts demanded he fight back, to punch that arrogant face in front of him. His logic, however, held his body firmly in place. He desperately needed this dirty job to pay for black-market information regarding his sister's whereabouts.

​He slowly lowered his body, dropping his right knee to the floor. His right palm plunged into the foul-smelling water to touch the silver coin.

​"Such a good, obedient dog." Bryan laughed in satisfaction upon seeing Zac slumped beneath his feet. "We will be taking our leave now. Have fun with these frozen corpses."

​The hospital's emergency siren suddenly shrieked, splitting their eardrums. The high-frequency wail rattled the glass of the morgue's refrigeration units. The white neon lights instantly went out, replaced by the blood-red glow of the alarm lights in the hallway outside.

​"What is happening out there?" One of the intern nurses screamed in panic, covering her ears.

​The sound of shattering glass, followed by human screams, echoed from the direction of the main lobby. Those screams were not the groans of sick patients. They were the pure, terrifying howls of people being torn apart alive.

​The double steel doors of the morgue were violently slammed from the outside. The iron hinges creaked, bowing inward as they struggled against a massive weight.

​"Step back from that door." Zac stood up, gripping his mop handle tightly. His survival instincts completely took over.

​The steel doors finally burst open. Three men in the signature black suits of mafia guards were thrown into the room. Fresh blood sprayed from their necks, soaking the white tiled floor. Three nurses in torn uniforms pinned their bodies down, tearing into their raw flesh.

​The eyes of the three nurses were completely white, void of any irises. The blood vessels on their faces bulged in a deep, dark purple. They opened their jaws impossibly wide, ripping out the guards' throats with their bare teeth. The sickening sound of flesh being chewed echoed loudly, filling the soundproof room.

​"What kind of monsters are those?" Bryan stumbled backward in terror. His arrogant face turned deathly pale. His expensive white coat was splattered with fresh blood from the doorway.

​"They are infected with a modified pathogen." Zac stared intently at the three walking corpses. His brain processed a rapid diagnosis. "Their frontal cortexes are destroyed. This is not an ordinary rabies infection. The virus has hijacked their basic motor nervous systems. We need to get out of here right now."

​Zac tossed his mop handle aside and grabbed an autopsy scalpel from the nearest surgical table.

​One of the walking corpses turned to stare at Bryan. The monster dropped a chunk of flesh from its mouth and lunged wildly at the surgeon.

​"Keep that filthy thing away from me." Bryan shrieked hysterically. He grabbed the intern nurse beside him, shoving the woman forward as a human shield.

​The monster sank its teeth directly into the intern's face. A heartbreaking scream tore through the air as the skin of the woman's face was violently peeled away. The poor woman thrashed violently before her neck was snapped with a single, brutal twist.

​Bryan used that golden opportunity to flee, sprinting toward the half-destroyed steel doors.

​Zac moved forward, trying to catch up to Bryan's pace. "Wait for me. Do not lock that door from the outside."

​Bryan stopped in the doorway. He looked back, staring fixedly at Zac. A sly smirk re-formed on his pale, terrified face. He drew a solid telescopic steel baton from the waist of one of his dead guards on the floor.

​"Patient protection laws no longer apply tonight, Zac." Bryan gripped the steel baton tightly. "Welcome to the world of natural selection."

​"What are you doing?" Zac froze, reading the murderous intent in his former friend's eyes.

​"Sorry, friend." Bryan swung the steel baton with all his might directly at Zac's legs.

​Zac tried to dodge by throwing his body to the side. However, his paralyzed left arm fatally ruined his center of gravity. The heavy steel swing landed a devastating blow on the outer edge of Zac's right knee without a shred of mercy.

​The cartilage cracked, shattering into pieces with a deafening crunch.

​Pain exploded, instantly blinding Zac's vision. His patellar tendon tore, completely severing his ability to support his own body weight. Zac collapsed hard onto the ceramic floor, which was slick with thick puddles of blood.

​"You are an insane monster, Bryan." Zac groaned, enduring the excruciating pain. His right hand clutched his dislocated knee, which was already swelling and turning a violent red.

​"You make a perfectly fine decoy to buy me time, Zac." Bryan stood safely outside the room, holding the handle of the steel door. "Have fun in your new hell."

​Bryan pulled the heavy steel doors tightly shut. The sound of the deadbolt locking from the outside clicked twice in rapid succession.

​Zac was trapped with no way out. This morgue had just become his freezing coffin.

​The two remaining monsters stood up from the pools of blood. They stared intently at Zac, who lay sprawled and helpless. Six completely blank, white eyes glared at him, filled with savage hunger. Low growls, resembling those of rabid dogs, rumbled from their throats. The metallic stench of fresh blood stung Zac's nose, overpowering the scent of embalming fluids.

​The two monsters lunged forward simultaneously.

​Zac raised his autopsy scalpel into the air, trying to fight back. His right hand swung the silver blade, slashing the first monster's face with surgical precision. The sharp blade tore open the monster's cheek, spewing thick black blood into the air. That lethal strike did absolutely nothing to slow the monster's momentum. The creature felt no physical pain whatsoever.

​The second monster leaped and pounced onto Zac's left shoulder, pinning his body against the cold ceramic floor. The creature's heavy body weight crushed Zac's lungs, cutting off his oxygen supply.

​"Get off me." Zac screamed furiously, thrashing about using his rapidly depleting strength.

​The first monster's jaws opened impossibly wide before clamping down violently right onto Zac's neck. Those blunt teeth pierced his skin, greedily tearing through his neck muscle tissues. Hot blood sprayed profusely, soaking Zac's own face.

​An agonizing pain that pushed beyond the limits of human sanity shattered his brain's nervous system. Zac vomited clumps of thick, dark red blood from his mouth.

​Zac's vision began to blur, turning pitch black at the edges of his eyes. Death felt incredibly real, caressing his entire body. His muscles went completely limp, surrendering as he lost all will to fight. The sounds of chewing flesh and savage growling grew fainter in his ears, as though he were sinking to the very bottom of the deep ocean.

​In the final seconds of his life, Zac's right hand groped his chest in absolute desperation. His fingers gripped tightly onto a dull silver pendant shaped like a cylindrical capsule. That pendant was the only memento his mother had left him before the fire incident three years ago. His mother's final message echoed with crystal clarity in his ears, playing on a loop like a broken cassette tape.

​"Swallow its contents if this world falls apart, Zac." His mother's gentle voice guided his blood-soaked right hand.

​Zac yanked the pendant's chain with all his might until it snapped into pieces. He used his thumb to press the end of the metal capsule. The capsule popped open, revealing a pitch-black prototype chip the size of an uncooked grain of rice. The strange little object emitted a dim blue glow amidst the darkness of the morgue.

​Without a single ounce of hesitation, Zac tossed the chip into his mouth and swallowed it whole, washing it down with his own blood. The solid metal object slid smoothly down his throat, silently breaching the gastric valve.

​The pulse in his wrist weakened drastically. His heart beat one last time in an incredibly slow rhythm, before coming to a complete and utter stop. The very last breath of air slipped through Zac's parted lips, carrying his life away with it. An imaginary heart monitor screen in his brain displayed a flatline without a single fluctuation. Zac was officially dead, torn apart by feral monsters.

​Absolute silence draped over his freezing body for three full seconds.

​The very next second, a remarkably strange, freezing sensation exploded from the pit of his stomach. The sensation spread at lightning speed, crawling up toward his dead spine. Millions of volts of electricity violently jolted his central nervous system. His dead blood cells churned and boiled, resurrecting his severed nerve cells.

​A digital, mechanical voice buzzed with an icy tone. It echoed directly inside his skull, piercing right through the boundary of death.

​[Emergency Medical Protocol detected. DNA genetic key match confirmed. Initiating first-level forced resurrection sequence.]