Rise of the Desperate: Billy Wood's Save and Restart System

Chapter 6: It’s a Zombie

This time, Billy was ready for the thing that lunged at him. Before it could tear into his face, he stabbed it right between the eyes with his knife. He grimaced as he felt blood splatter across his face. It was only a tiny amount, but it wasn't a pleasant feeling. Raising a hand to wipe some of the drops from his face, he calmly ripped his knife out of the thing in front of him.

It dropped to the ground, and he finally noticed the screaming behind him. Looking back, he saw that everyone had gathered and was looking fearfully at him. They had never expected him to kill someone. That was if they could call the thing that attacked him a person. The way it was acting made him think of a zombie.

Billy would have normally thought that the idea was ridiculous, but he had died and woken up in the past. He would believe anything at this point. However, this wasn't the time to be idle. Dropping down to his knees, he searched the body for any clues to what was going on. A zombie couldn't just appear out of nowhere. There had to be something on the body.

"What are you doing?" he heard someone demand, which he ignored.

Suddenly, he felt someone pull on his shoulder. Billy immediately retaliated by holding up his knife, ready to stab someone. His wife's lover's arms shot up in surrender as he backed away. The man was dumber than he thought. No one in their right mind would approach and make demands of someone with a weapon.

His wife rushed over to the man's side as she pleaded, "Wait. Don't hurt us."

Seeing the look on her face made his heart waver. Despite how she betrayed him, he still held affection for her. They had been together for six years. It wasn't that easy to throw those feelings away. He lowered his knife, but he wasn't dumb enough to discard it. They could be attacked again any minute now.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he said as he returned to check the body. "Take a good look around before you decide I'm the enemy."

With his back towards them, he had no clue what kind of expression they were making. Instead, he chose to devote his energies to checking on the body. This time, he was able to find something in the pocket of the body's jacket. Pulling it out, he saw it was a wallet and looked inside. There was an ID, several cards, and some cash inside.

This told him that this zombie used to be an actual person before something turned them into a zombie. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything else he could decipher from this. The ID gave him information that wasn't going to help him in the long run. What was the point of knowing the name and age of a dead person? At least he had money.

He pocketed the cash, feeling slightly guilty. However, it was only slightly. The dead man wasn't going to need it anymore. It seemed like a waste to leave it behind. Someone else would have taken it if he hadn't. Returning the wallet back into its place, he stood up and glanced back at everyone else.

Seeing his stare, his wife's father finally gained the courage to demand, "Get out, you murderer. I should have never let my daughter marry a monster like you."

"Leave," his wife's mother added as she clung to her husband.

Billy glanced towards his wife, who was hiding behind her lover. The man looked uneasy about the whole thing, but Billy didn't care about that. Instead, he hurriedly closed the door. Just as the door shut close, he spotted several figures in the distance rushing towards them. He cursed as he hurried and locked the door. He should have done it sooner.

In the background, he could hear his wife's family screaming like bashees now that he had locked the door instead of getting out like they demanded. There was no way he was going to listen to them. He wasn't going to throw his life away just because they said so, but he wasn't even sure they understood their current situation. Well, they were about to find out.

He had barely gone a few steps before a couple of guards rushed to block his path. "You can't go past this point."

Glancing between the guards and the others in the room, he grimaced as he realized he needed to deal with this issue fast. "I suggest you stay out of the way unless you want to die."

The guards stared uneasily at the knife pointed at them before glancing at each other. They seemed to be trying to decide who would handle him. Seeing how uncertain they were, Billy could honestly say he wasn't surprised. This was the first time he had done something like this.

Since he had wanted to be a good husband for his wife, he made sure to clean up his act and act like a gentleman. That meant he couldn't attack anyone he didn't like or say anything that would make her look bad. Now he no longer had to behave for her.

"I said move," he said as he motioned with his knife for them to get out of the way.

"What are you doing?" his wife's father demanded. "Get him."

It seemed that they either feared his wife's father or cared too much about the money to go against him. They lunged at Billy, who had resigned himself to defend himself. The first guard swung his fist straight at Billy's face. He sidestepped the blow before grabbing the guard by the arm.

The second guard came up from behind, also throwing a punch. Billy almost scoffed at the thoughtless move as he used the first guard as a shield. The second guard punched the first guard in the face with a crunch. Letting go of the first guard, Billy hurried to tackle the second guard, who was distracted. They landed on the ground and grappled with each other.

Billy managed to put the guard into a chokehold as the first guard recovered from the punch. The man was absolutely fuming as he rushed towards them. As Billy was thinking about his next move, there was a loud bang at the door that caused everyone to stop and stare.