Apocalypse Healer - B1 Chapter 1

David opened his eyes to the first rays of sunlight shining through the panoramic window, illuminating his room faintly. He stared blankly at the ceiling and sighed heavily. A soft moan rang out from his left, but David’s gaze didn’t falter. His eyes remained glued to the galaxy’s mural painted on the ceiling.

Waking up to the galaxy’s beauty was the best on a regular morning. Yet, after taking in the galaxy’s beauty for a few minutes, David was again assaulted by boredom.

Not even the naked beauty next to him excited him anymore. Her warm body pressed against his firm body, connecting the young pair after a hot night, but it did nothing to him. There was no joy, no excitement.

Even the one-night stand won’t do it anymore. What’s wrong with me these days?

It was not usual for him to have a hard time falling asleep, but something had been on his mind for the last few days. Something that made it even harder for him to fall asleep or enjoy what he used to like. Some things were still interesting, but they didn’t give him the same excitement as they used to be.

However, the most confusing part was that he didn’t even know what was on his mind. It didn’t make any sense, which made everything worse.

His bed started shaking all of a sudden, and David turned to his partner of the night, but she was still asleep. The mural of the galaxy seemed to move as well, trembling alongside the bed. 

What the?

David rubbed his eyes, only to notice that the mural stopped moving. The bed wasn’t shaking anymore, either.

That was weird.

He shrugged inwardly and let it be. This wasn’t worth his attention.

What should I do today? Maybe William and Basti are up for a race. Or I meet up with Felix, but I don’t feel like clubbing today. That bastard will disappear with someone in less than ten minutes after entering the club either way. 

Unfortunately, it was the weekend, and he had no work piled up either. Diving into piles of work didn’t solve his boredom, but it would distract him. 

The money is great, but that’s about it.

His phone vibrated, its screen lighting up the room. David’s body turned stiff as cardboard, his eyes flickering like a lost deer. A few seconds of utter silence passed. David held his breath. He didn’t move, yet the screen lit up a second time. 

David had received another message. He cursed softly and turned to grasp his phone.

There were two messages from his mother.

[Mother: Hello, son. I know you have been doing great, so I won’t waste our precious time. You have to do a few things in the next two weeks. We received the reports about your workload and achievements and assessed that you should be promoted soon. Once you are the deputy manager, you will have more responsibilities within the company, but your father also wants you to pick up golf and boxing again. 

The third son of a renowned intelligence officer joined your father’s subsidiary boxing club. You have to socialize again. As for boxing, the second daughter of Siex’s Ceo has been asking about you. We need you to stop meeting these scoundrels you call friends. If you won’t do it, and I know when you’re trying to hide something from me, you will have to face the consequences of your actions!]

[Mother: I know you can do better. Make sure you don’t disappoint us any longer. Love you.]

David clutched his phone tightly until only the white of his knuckles was visible. The phone screen cracked.

He was the most likely candidate to receive the next promotion, but David knew how little his sales mattered. It was all part of his parents’ scheme. Everything had been laid out before him, his path cleared until there was nothing more for him to do. There had never been a proper challenge for him to complete, except for one thing.

His greatest challenge.

To escape his parents’ control. 

They were everywhere and knew everything. It was impossible to escape their clutches.

David gave up on the impossible challenge. He knew it was to no avail, but that made it even worse. He gritted his teeth until they hurt.

At some point, David searched for new challenges. Approaching women had been considered a challenge, but the women around him were shallow and easy to impress. However, that didn’t matter to David at that time. It made him feel more desirable. It provided him with the feeling that he had some control over his life.

But months of success transformed a somewhat exciting hunt into a boring task. It was merely a means to nurture his ego. There was no value behind the hunt…or anything.

He got the job his parents had prepared him for since he could walk, and he was climbing the social ladder according to their meticulously prepared plan. 

But was that really what he wanted?

The mural shook again, but this time it was not only the ceiling. It was everywhere, and more intense than before.

David sat up straight, ignoring the groans to his left. His heartbeat accelerated as the tremors continued for several seconds. He was about to jump out of bed when a hand shot out of the bed. Soft fingers coiled around his arm, and a resonant voice rang out from underneath the blanket.

“Where are you going, honey~?” 

She was still sleepy but held dearly onto him.

Your survival instincts are close to zero, aren’t they?!
  David grumbled inwardly. Earthquakes weren’t normal in this region, but it shouldn’t be too hard to recognize one when it erupted. The floor trembled, the panoramic window vibrated loudly, and the bed shook violently.

He was about to escape her grasp and move away from the bed when the tremors intensified. A resounding crack rang throughout the building, leaving no time to jump up and escape. David turned to the woman, his heart beating wildly like it hadn’t for years as he dove in her direction.

A moment later, the building collapsed. David heard some screams as inertia pulled them to the ground. The world around David turned dark as it turned upside down.

…

He grunted as he regained consciousness. His eyes shot open, and he was about to jump up when a pang of pain struck him square in the chest. His head pulsed painfully, and his legs felt like they had shattered in several spots, but he was alive. The pain all over his body made that much fairly clear.

Blood poured down his face in streams, and a simple check was enough to tell that something had fallen on his head. It was bad, his vision blurred, and David lost control of his body multiple times. But no matter how fuggy his mind was, David was certain the mattress underneath wasn’t soaked in his blood. At least, most of it shouldn’t have been his.

I might have a concussion, and several ribs are probably broken. Maybe all of them. Even my legs feel like shit, but I don’t think they’re broken. Or maybe they are…I don’t know. That doesn’t explain all the blood, though. How long have I been unconscious in the first place?

David guessed that he had only been unconscious for a few seconds. He looked around and noticed that while he hadn’t been buried alive, his position wasn’t the greatest. The early morning sun cast aside the darkness of the night, yet remnants of walls and rubbles blocked David’s view to the left and the front.

However, his position had changed drastically from the highest floor of the apartment complex to the ground. To say it was a miracle that he was still alive was an understatement.

The scene around him was straight out of a Hollywood movie. A disaster struck the city, destroying everything in its wake. The building had collapsed, leaving nothing behind. Everything around him had been destroyed. The building complex was nothing more than rubble at this point.

He shuddered, his hair standing up to its end as he imagined what would have happened if he lived on the first floor or below. Did someone else survive the earthquake? How did he survive in the first place? Did the mattress soften the fall? 

Even if it did, David could hardly move. His head hurt like there was no tomorrow, and the rest of his body didn’t fare any better.

Finally, David recalled the young woman he had been with.

He groaned and cursed in pain as he turned to the girl, “Are you fi–...”

David didn’t manage to finish his question as his eyes landed on a rebar that had pierced the young woman’s chest. It penetrated her heart in one go, killing her on the spot. She hadn’t been as fortunate as David.

So that’s where all the blood comes from. That’s bad.
  David realized, his eyes glued to the pool of blood forming around her. 

Her death was bad. Of course. In the first place, everything that had just happened was bad. Their apartment complex wasn’t the only one that had collapsed. It was merely one of many. 

This is a disaster! How did nobody realize an earthquake of this size would hit us?!

He hurled at the sight unfolding before him, but no vomit came out. David didn’t know how he managed to control his body like that, but his stomach settled within seconds, and his mind adjusted to the injuries tormenting his body. 

Was all of this the adrenaline’s doing?

As if the earthquake wasn’t enough trouble, claiming the lives of hundreds, maybe even thousands of poor souls, David felt like it was merely the beginning as a rectangular holographic screen appeared before his eyes.

[Congratulations! You survived the integration!]

[The Earthen Union(Planet SD531IOP5) entered the Pantheon. Primary Integration package has been engraved on the planetary system.]

David’s eyes widened. More screens appeared before him, but his sight blurted. Muffled screams rang out underneath the rubble all around him, and David was certain to see several lifeless bodies or parts of bodies around the collapsed building complex. 

David should have been scared to death, screaming at the top of his lungs, wailing in fear, yet his mind was oddly calm. It was eerie, even to him.

He considered checking the other notifications but decided to check on the young woman first. She was dead, but something about her was…odd. Her fingers twitched. Was he just imagining that, or was this a reaction of her body? Like a final twitch in death.

Is she still alive? She shouldn’t be. Her heart was pierced by a metal bar. Nobody survives something like that.

David reminded himself, only to inch closer. He was still hurt from falling, but other than some cracked bones, a damaged rib cage, and a severely bleeding head wound, David was fine.

As David inched closer, he noticed that the woman was indeed twitching.

“Are you okay, Rebecca?” He cursed himself as his eyes landed on the rebar, “Of course, you aren’t fine. But don’t worry. Help will arrive soon. Do not move and stay as calm as possible.”

David tried reassuring her, but Rebecca ignored his well-meant advice. She moved, blood gushing out of her chest as Rebecca lifted her body.

David was too stunned to speak and too slow to react when Rebecca’s body shot upward. A sickening crunch rang through his ears as Rebecca ignored the rebar to sit up straight. His eyes widened at the amount of blood gushing out of her chest, but Rebecca didn’t seem impressed. She looked at David, her dark eyes bloodshot with a tinge of sickly yellow glimmering in them.

However, that wasn’t the first thing David noticed. The first thing he realized was that her eyes weren’t as vibrant as they used to be. They were dull and lifeless.

Rebecca was not alive anymore. She was dead.

A hoarse groan escaped her lips as her mouth parted. One moment, David recognized the woman he’d met the night before, and the next moment, she shot forward to bite David.

He responded a moment too late. His mind was foggy, his body crushed. 

Rebecca’s teeth dug mercilessly into David’s shoulder. They dug deep and with far more strength than he would have given Rebecca. She was small and weak. Or was she supposed to be like that?

[You have been infected.]

David’s mind told him to push Rebecca away and to run, but his body’s instinctive reaction was different. His hands pulled to the side, searching for something. Moving was painful. It was so painful that even the adrenaline shooting through his body wasn’t enough to cover it all. Still, David moved until he found something. The right hand coiled around a fist-sized stone and shut tightly.

David held it in an iron-tight grasp and did something he never expected from himself.

His hand shot forward, smashing Rebecca’s head with the stone. 

David didn’t hold back. He smashed her as hard as he could. Not once, not twice, but six times in a row, until the horrifying strength of her slim body subsided.

David breathed heavily, his attention lingering on Rebecca’s crushed skull as he pushed her away.

His chest heaved up and down heavily, his hands trembled, and his mind was having trouble comprehending what had just happened.

The rectangular interfaces popping up before him didn’t help David to clear his mind either.

[You have defeated an Infected(Common). The requirement to unlock the Class System has been met.]

[You have been infected.]

[Infection(Stage One) has entered your bloodstream.]

[Infection’s level increased to stage two.]