Apocalypse System: The Disabled Doctor

Chapter 5. The Executioner's Declaration of War

​"Rot in hell, you crippled freak!"

​The deafening crack of a gunshot exploded through the ruined ground-floor hallway. A bright muzzle flash erupted from the barrel of a nine-millimeter pistol. Hot lead tore through the air, aimed squarely at the center of Zac's forehead. The firing distance was less than five meters, making the projectile virtually impossible for a normal human to dodge.

​[Critical danger warning. High-velocity projectile detected. Activating level-five maximum neural reflex compensation mode.]

​The system's mechanical voice buzzed just a fraction of a second before the bullet arrived. Time immediately surrounding Zac seemed to slow down drastically. The dusty air in the hallway appeared to freeze in place. Zac could clearly see the spiraling grooves of the bullet spinning rapidly toward his face.

​Zac tilted his head slightly to the left. The hot projectile whizzed past his right ear, singeing a few strands of his hair, before burying itself deep into the concrete wall behind him, sending debris flying.

​"Your aim is way off, friend." Zac stepped forward, closing the distance in the blink of an eye. His silver scalpel swung upward with lightning speed.

​The thin, silver-plated blade sliced through the fabric of the guard's black suit, pierced his skin, and severed his bicep tendon with absolute precision. Fresh blood spurted out, soaking the reception desk. The pistol slipped from the guard's grasp, clattering loudly as it hit the shattered ceramic tiles.

​"My arm is ruined!" The elite mafia guard shrieked hysterically, clutching his right arm, which now hung completely paralyzed from the severed peripheral nerve.

​"It hurts quite a bit, doesn't it?" Zac kicked the back of the guard's knee using his fully regenerated right leg.

​The burly guard collapsed instantly, falling to his knees directly onto the shattered window glass scattered across the floor. The sharp shards pierced deeply into the skin of his knees, drawing out a second, far more shrill and pathetic scream.

​"This is absolutely nothing compared to the pain from the swing of your steel baton." Zac pressed the heavy sole of his rubber boot directly onto the back of the guard's left hand, which was currently propped against the floor.

​"Sir, please have mercy on me!" The guard sobbed uncontrollably. The cruel expression he had worn when shattering Zac's knee just minutes ago had completely evaporated, replaced by pure, absolute terror. "I was only following Dr. Bryan's orders. I had absolutely no other choice tonight."

​"You always have choices in life." Zac pressed the tip of his boot down harder, completely crushing the joints in the man's pinky finger. The sound of snapping bones echoed crisply down the deserted hallway. "You chose to laugh in satisfaction as you watched me crawling in agony on the filthy floor of the morgue."

​The guard howled as loud as he could, clawing at the ceramic floor with whatever strength he had left. A foul-smelling liquid streamed profusely down his trousers, pooling onto the floor. Pure terror had simultaneously shattered his bladder and the last remaining shreds of his sanity. The man who had been trained to kill without an ounce of mercy was now pissing his pants like a terrified toddler.

​[Target's sphincter muscle has experienced functional failure due to extreme mental terror. Target's emotional fluctuations have breached the limits of absolute fear. Pure fear energy extraction can be accumulated as a bonus for additional Protocol Points.]

​"You are defiling the floor of this hospital with your foul stench." Zac shook his head, feigning deep disappointment. "As the former janitor of this very floor, I feel incredibly insulted seeing my hard work ruined."

​Zac shifted his heavy boot onto the man's ring finger. He pressed his heel down without a single ounce of hesitation, crushing the finger joint completely flat against the tiled floor.

​"Stop it! Please stop this torture!" The guard gasped desperately for air, spitting up fresh blood from his tightly bitten lip. "The Scorpion family will pay you a massive ransom. I can help you find the location of your mother and sister. I know exactly where the secret laboratory is located."

​Zac's eyes narrowed sharply at the cheap offer. The muscles in his jaw clenched tight.

​"Your family's money cannot return the time you have all stolen from me." Zac leaned down, bringing his face level with his tear-soaked enemy. "You never offered a single ounce of mercy to my family when you burned our house to the ground. Why should I grant you any mercy tonight?"

​Zac snapped the man's middle finger next, twisting it under the heel of his boot until stark white bone pierced through the skin.

​The guard's screams began to turn hoarse as his vocal cords gave out. He could only whimper and thrash about like a hunted animal caught in a steel trap. There was not a shred of dignity left within him. The man fully realized his death was staring him right in the face.

​"Look at this. Even the machine inside my head is thoroughly enjoying your suffering." Zac whispered, his voice ice-cold. His left hand nimbly twirled the silver scalpel, preparing to deliver the final incision and end his target's miserable existence.

​Zac's dark eyes caught the faint glow of a small red light from the upper corner of the east hallway. An active CCTV surveillance camera was still running, slowly panning as it recorded every single detail unfolding in the blood-soaked corridor. The camera's feed was wired directly to the Scorpion clan's underground backup servers. Zac knew exactly who was sitting safely behind that monitor right now.

​Zac grabbed the collar of the guard's suit with a rough jerk. He forced the sobbing man to kneel upright, facing squarely toward the lens of the CCTV camera.

​"Take a very good look at this camera, Bryan!" Zac spoke with a loud, absolutely commanding tone. His eyes glared fiercely straight into the lens, piercing through dozens of miles to lock onto his former best friend's gaze in that underground bunker. "I know you are sitting there, watching this entire show from your throne."

​The CCTV camera buzzed softly. Its focus lens rotated to adjust the image, zooming in directly on Zac's blood-splattered face. The operator on the other end was clearly listening to the challenge.

​"You called me a crippled insect that deserved to be crushed." Zac slid the silver blade right under the trembling guard's chin. The razor-sharp tip pressed firmly against the skin over the guard's jugular. "You unilaterally revoked my medical license. You ruthlessly destroyed what was left of my family without an ounce of mercy. You truly thought you could play God and bring about the apocalypse in this new world."

​The guard struggled weakly, begging for mercy through his severely swollen eyes. His tears mixed with his own blood, dripping onto the edge of Zac's shirt.

​"This apocalypse has indeed nullified every single law of human civilization," Zac continued his declaration without breaking eye contact with the surveillance lens for even a second. "However, this apocalypse has also completely nullified the boundaries of my morality. The game has just begun, Bryan. I am coming for you. I will slaughter every single guard dog you send my way. I will dissect alive every last member of the Scorpion clan who dares to stand in my path."

​"Mr. Zac, I am begging you, please let me live...." The guard choked out his final words from his strangled throat.

​"Give my regards to your god of death." Zac flicked his left wrist without a single second of hesitation.

​The silver scalpel blade moved with absolute surgical precision, slicing open the jugular vein on the guard's neck from left to right. The clinical cut was not deep enough to sever the cervical bone, but it was absolutely perfect to completely sever the main arterial blood path in a single breath.

​Thick red blood spurted violently from the guard's neck. The spray of warm liquid shot upward, splashing directly onto the lens of the CCTV camera. The blood covered the vast majority of the camera's view, creating a deeply terrifying, horrific visual for Bryan, who was watching from the other side.

​Zac released his iron grip on the man's collar. The guard's body dropped with a heavy thud onto the floor, his life slipping away as he lay in a puddle of his own blood and urine.

​[Fatal execution successfully completed with absolute perfection. Target deceased due to massive hemorrhage. Transferring ten additional Protocol Points as a reward for the high-level psychological torture effect.]

​Zac paid absolutely no attention to the green system notification blinking on his retinas. He kept his gaze locked on the CCTV screen, which was now half-covered by a thick smear of blood.

​"Hide in your deepest rat hole, Bryan." Zac grinned widely, baring a row of teeth that resembled those of a starving predator. "Because when I finally find you, I will make absolutely sure you beg for a death thousands of times more pathetic than this lackey of yours."

​Zac turned on his heel and strolled casually away from the ruined reception desk. He wiped the remaining blood off his scalpel blade onto the sleeve of his own coat. He needed to evacuate this hospital corridor immediately. The heavy stench of massive amounts of fresh blood would undoubtedly attract dozens of starving monsters from outside the building within minutes.

​The deafening roar of helicopter blades suddenly shattered the dead silence of the night sky. The sheer vibration of the turbine engines was so incredibly powerful that it cracked the remaining glass windows all along the ground-floor hallway of the building. A miniature tornado blew in through the blown-out front doors, sweeping up clouds of dust and cement powder.

​[Absolute critical danger warning. The system detects the arrival of an aerial combat vehicle within a five-hundred-meter radius. Thermal signatures indicate five human entities equipped with heavy military weaponry are rapidly approaching.]

​Zac stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes narrowed sharply as he stared up at the concrete ceiling of the hospital, which had begun to vibrate violently.

​"The Scorpion mafia clan is moving incredibly fast tonight." Zac clicked his tongue, feeling somewhat impressed by his enemy's rapid defensive response. "They immediately dispatched an elite cleanup squad just to take care of one crippled janitor."

​Thick steel cables dropped rapidly from the sky, shattering the glass roof of the main hospital atrium with a devastating explosion. Shards of glass rained down, hitting the floor like a deadly crystal storm. Five men clad in tactical, bulletproof tactical gear slid down from the helicopter, breaching the hollow space of the building with highly trained, synchronized movements.

​The barrels of their automatic assault rifles swept across the entire ground-floor lobby area, actively searching for any anomalous movement. Five bright red laser sights pierced through the darkness and dust, hunting for the living target that had to be eliminated immediately per their master's absolute orders.

​One of those red laser dots zipped rapidly past a concrete pillar and stopped, locking dead center on Zac's forehead.