Kyle took a couple of steps towards the client, but the client suddenly froze and fell.

- What's going on there Kyle? - asked Laura, who was clearly nervous from the screams outside and did not even pay attention to the client who had fallen to the floor.

- Some kind of crap is happening Laura. - Kyle stopped and once again looked at the message in front of his eyes. 30 seconds left.

- Human - said Kyle.

Instead of a message, a countdown appeared.

25 seconds before status activation.

- Human what? You mean that interface we see? - Laura asked.

Kyle ignored the question and ran up to the client and looked into his face. There were almost no external changes, but a slight trembling shook the body. Touching his hand, it seemed to him that something was happening under the client’s skin, as if there was something under the skin. Pulling his hand back, he opened the client’s eyes. The irises of the eyes turned white. Kyle had a horrible feeling while looking in those eyes. He recoiled.

- Oh shit! - Kyle cursed.

- What's happening? - Laura asked coming closer.

- Don't come closer! - Kyle shouted and drew attention to the timer, 10 seconds.

He couldn’t have had any trace of a firearm; who would allow an ordinary security guard from a store to walk around with such a weapon. But there was a police stick and a stun gun, which he began to quickly take out. A baton in the right hand, a stun gun in the left. Kyle began to slowly retreat away from the client.

"The utility room, also known as the back exit..." Kyle thought to himself about the only way to escape, but time was up.

Status.

Name - Kyle.

Race - Human.

Level - 0

Strength 11

Agility 9

Stamina 10

Toughness 10

Inventory (locked)

Auction (locked)

One question per day (locked)

Store (locked)

Mind (locked)

Kyle looked at the client and saw the note.

Primal Zombie

This same zombie was their client recently. He began to rise, emitting incomprehensible wheezing.

- Laura run to the back room. - Kyle said and moved to the side, covering the path to Laura and the utility room.

"Maybe this is all nonsense, any moment this client will come to his senses and everything will be fine." Kyle thought to himself without taking his eyes off the zombie.

However, the client clearly did not come to his senses, he stood up and turned his gaze towards Kyle, after which he bared his teeth, roared and rushed to attack. Moreover, he didn’t even look like a zombie, he looked like an ordinary person, only crazy and his eyes were white and empty.

- God damn it. 

Anyway it was just a zombie, I should be able to deal with it.

Contrary to Kyle's expectations, the zombie pushed off and rushed forward with great speed. Only because Kyle was ready was he able to react in time and manage to deliver a sweeping blow with his club. But the zombie stretched out his hand and grabbed the club with his palm, and with the other hand he grabbed Kyle by the jacket and pulled it towards himself, opening his mouth in an attempt to bite into his face.

By some miracle, Kyle still managed to activate the stun gun, taking electrical charge the zombie shook and fell to the floor. However, the discharge clearly did not neutralize it completely.

- Oh shit! - Kyle was taken aback by what happened.

- Kyle! Here! - Laura shouted standing at the entrance to the utility room.

Without hesitation, Kyle ran to Laura, as soon as he ran in, she closed the doors and turned the lock.

How can zombies intercept attacks? This reaction and strength are clearly not human like. Then he remembered the description of the system.

An increase in all basic parameters by three times those of the average person. No pain. To kill, the brain must be destroyed. Enhanced self-preservation instinct and muscle memory. Increased life expectancy, cure for all diseases and disabilities, provided limbs are present. Other zombies will not show aggression towards you until your sanity is restored.

Damn it! They actually gave this zombie an armor. This bitch knew and planned everything in advance and that’s why he came to this shop. Kirill cursed this bastard, but immediately jumped in fright when he heard a knock on the door. Then the zombie clearly grabbed the door handle on the other side and tried to open the doors and then pull out the handle along with the doors. Laura hid behind Kyle and quietly squealed in fear.

The door was wooden, but fortunately it was strong enough for zombies, at least for now.

- Let's cover the doors with something we have in the back room?

-Can we just go away? - Laura asked.

- No, he’s clearly not the only zombie, there are definitely others outside, if we don’t sit out, we should at least equip ourselves while we still have the opportunity. I’ll hold the doors for now and you carry what you can so that you have something to reinforce the door at least temporarily.

While Laura was dragging various equipment to the door, the zombie stopped trying to get inside and there was silence. When the door was propped up and littered with random things, Kyle and Laura quietly retreated to the back room and only there allowed themselves to talk quietly.

- Let's dress up in full, armor, helmet, pads. Choose for us the best we have here. - said Kirill.

- Fine. So is all this message nonsense really working out? Zombie, status and all that? - Laura asked, but had already begun to look for suitable equipment.

“It turns out that it’s true...” Kyle answered gloomily

This man... It would be one thing if he thought that it was all a joke and was not aware of what was happening, but he knew, or at least guessed, that it was all true. It’s not for nothing that he came here to dress up in protective equipment so that his head wouldn’t be blown off while he was eating someone’s brains being a zombie. What kind of a complete bastard do you have to be to deliberately do something like that? Or maybe he was even happy and was looking forward to it? This bastard had a relaxed smile while planning all of that?... What kind of person he is? There will always be fucking psychos who don't give a damn about anyone but themselves. Kyle clenched his fists with anger and indignation.

Mobile phone rang. Laura, in a panic, began to take the phone out of her pocket and answered the call. Her eight-year-old son called. Having learned that everything was fine with him, Laura burst into tears. On the one hand, because she was glad that everything was okay with him, and on the other hand, because she should be the one calling her son first, although in fact she never had such an opportunity before. She strictly forbade him to leave the apartment and open the doors to anyone, and promised that she would return home as soon as she could.

Kyle began to put on his equipment and at the same time thought about his family. Fortunately, he did not have time to have children, so he was more worried about his friends and parents, but his parents lived far away and he was unlikely to be able to help them with anything. But it might be worth contacting friends. Dealing with these zombies alone will clearly not be easy. But still, he decided to hold off on this for now, in case his friends were also hiding somewhere and were afraid to make too much noise.

He and Laura just worked in this store for the last couple of months and were more like acquaintances.

They were almost done with Laura's outfit when she finally asked.

- What will we do next?

Laura was divorced, so now she didn’t have a man she could rely on. Kyle understood that she wanted to ask him to take her home, she just decided to come from afar. He wasn't going to refuse her, maybe they hadn't known each other for that long, but he wasn't going to leave her for his own safety. At the same time, he was silently glad that Lena was not throwing hysterics and was trying to control herself; if Kyle had been her husband, it was quite possible that she would have already lose her calmness.

- We need to leave this place and as soon as possible. I don’t know what’s going on there now, but if it really is a zombie, as the system mentions, then we can assume that every person in the area could potentially become infected and also become a zombie. The longer we wait, the more difficult it will be to get out later. We need to quickly get to the car and leave, we’ll go to your house first and we’ll sort it out there. - Kyle concluded.

Laura's eyes lit up.

- Thank you Kyle, thank you.

- There is nothing to be grateful for yet. Are you ready?

Laura armed herself with a shocker and a police portable shield; the shocker had already proven its effectiveness, even if its effect only lasted for a couple of seconds. The shield weighed 4 kg, a rather heavy burden for an untrained person, but there was no choice.

Kyle himself armed himself with a rubber police baton and the same lightweight shield. He doubted that he could break the head of a zombie with a baton, but there was no baseball bat or heavier weapon in the utility room. He wanted to take at least a set of protective equipment along, but carrying it was an unaffordable luxury right now, so he limited himself to a couple of spare stun guns.