A few hours earlier… at the university of Oakland, several students were hard at work in the library studying for the upcoming finals.
One of them, Lucas's Best Friend was anxiously looking at his phone, checking the time every now and then.
"Will, you don't look too well. Worried much?" one of the students near Will said.
"Emm. Not really Carter, just waiting for a phone call…" Will said.
He didn't really intend on telling him that the end of days was probably going to happen very soon. At least, a part of will still hoped that all of this was a badly scripted joke. But with all the status windows he spent two weeks getting used to, thanks to his incessant questioning of Lucas, he now is one hundred percent sure that today was the day that most USA states were going to be hit.
Thankfully, as Lucas said, Michigan will be hit, but Oakland will be spared, for at least a month's time.
Yet, for some reason, this didn't sit well with Will, because the mere fact that the world was going to end was probably reason enough for a lot of bad shit to happen.
With the absence of law, anarchy prevails, looting, killing, murder, and worse will happen on a daily basis as Lucas explained.
Thankfully for Will, Lucas was a good man, and already managed to get Will's parents to 'temporarily' change where they lived. Under the pretext of having won an apartment in downtown. Which was pretty close to the main Dilbert company building. It was a small apartment, but it was far more secure than their suburb house.
His family went to visit the building this morning, and Lucas promised him that they'll be 'stuck' there for a while.
Stuck as in, safe and sound from all the shit that will happen worldwide.
The timer continued ticking, and Will took a deep breath after it hit two minutes past twelve PM.
"Thank god, I don't think it's happening today," Will mumbled. It was loud enough for Carter to hear him.
"You're acting like you're paranoid."
"I told you I was waiting for an email at twelve sharp. Seems like I was wrong, it's five minutes past twelve so nothing's happening," Will said smiling.
Carter frowned, "No it's not," it's still a minute left till twelve. Your clock is delayed." Carter said as he showed him his own phone.
Will was about to argue, but as he was looking at Carter's time, it switched to become twelve sharp.
And immediately, the whole building started shaking.
"Earthquake!" one of the students shouted, "Get under the desks!"
Almost immediately, most students hid under the library desks and Will's face began turning paler.
"Bro, what the fuck! That's some fucking timing," Carter called.
Will couldn't help but have an anxious look on his face. It seems that it was happening, especially since the internet died on him. He couldn't check what was going on around the world.
Soon the earthquake stopped, and a notification appeared in front of him.
[Full System Activation Process has been complete.]
[Massive Intelligent System of Aid and Assistance is now fully operational.]
[The world. {Earth} has now entered the first phase of the Integration. All world's natural resources have been updated.]
[Commencing the Distribution of Massive System Window of Aid…]
[Error, the civilization of the current world {Earth} is still too high. Commencing first phase.]
[System Updated]
[System allocation has been changed to only be allowed for those who obtain enough contribution. With the exception of the select few who already knew of the existence of such all must now work in order to obtain their own system]
[Minimum Requirement for enabling the system window is 100 points]
[Processing world environment…]
[Process complete. Areas that have been deemed capable of sustaining the first impact have been allocated and chosen]
[Commencing first Impact.]
[Appointing first World Quest, Survive]
"Shit, shit! SHIT!" Will cursed and stood up from under the desk.
The students across the library were all panicking no one understood what was going on.
Soon, explosions, collisions, and massive fires broke out, it didn't even take a few minutes for the entirety of the city to lit up in flames and chaos, all the while everyone was desperately trying to contact their families.
The University administration spoke, "To all students! Proceed to evacuate immediately, this is not a drill!" but before the line could even finish up, it was abruptly cut as static noise was the only thing that came out of the university speakers.
Students began evacuating, but before any of them could even leave the library, a loud crash echoed near the library.
Looking from the window, a car had broken through the main university gate, and a few men, that looked too bloodied to be alive began pulling someone from the car, only to manage and pull his arm.
The scene was too graphic that many female students fainted, and a few male ones threw up.
"What the fuck is going on!" Carter shouted.
Not long after, several other bloodied people came into the gate and began walking towards the main university building.
"Everyone! Listen up!" Will shouted, but not many paid him attention.
"EVERYONE LISTEN THE FUCK UP! IF YOU WANT TO LIVE!" Will called once again this time with a voice akin to a lion's roar.
This made a lot of people listen.
"Listen, and listen well. I know all you watched some Zombie movie at least once, so listen the fuck up. We need to block the building's entrance, anyone here who has a fucking ounce of courage come help me," Will said.
No one dared move.
"If you don't help, then I'll leave, and you can all die for all I fucking care!" he said
This was enough for Carter to speak up, "I'll help, what do you need?" Carter asked.
"Chairs, tables, anything you can pick up and move, we need to close the main building, hurry up!" he said.
Will then pulled the first couple of chairs he had on hand and hurried towards the main gate. He placed a chair there and turned to see several students had followed him, most out of fear, and the rest out of obligation to help, but the main reason was that he took the lead.
They then began by placing chairs and tables against the main door after locking it.
A few teachers came to stop them from ruining the school's property, but the mere sight of the undead coming towards the gate was more than reason enough for the teachers to bring chairs of their own and help lock the door down.
Then, came the sound of glass breaking.
"Fuck, the amphitheaters are too low, the fuckers can come from the doorways," Will said.
"Close the amphitheaters and lock them in!" A teacher said.
"There are still students there!" Carter spoke.
"Let's get them out then," the teacher replied, yet before they could even finish their words, loud screams and shouts echoed from all over the university.
As it seems, the undead had managed to jump into the low amphitheater rooms and started a massacre.
"What's going on?!" a teacher that came from the upper floor asked.
"Undead, Zombie shit! Get back to the top of the building now!" Carter replied.
Before the new teacher could argue, one of the amphitheater doors at the far end of the hall broke open, a couple of students walked out and one of them shouted "BLOCK IT!" the other ran straight to the nearest closet and pulled a broom, and came to block the gate with it.
The two students then rushed to group up with the rest of the students standing at the stairs leading to the top floors.
"What happened in there?" asked a teacher.
"They… They started killing each other! Everyone!" a panic-stricken student spoke.
"Fuck… if we let any more of them out, we'll be in danger, close all the amphitheaters." A teacher said.
"But there could still be other students there!" Will replied.
"If its like zombie movies, letting them out will kill us all!"
Will couldn't argue back, because as Lucas had told him many times. Don't let your emotions take the better of you, the first integration is the survival of the fittest, unless you know for certain you can save someone, don't risk your life trying to do so. Death is permanent and you don't get redoes.
Clenching a tight fist Will cursed.
"Everyone, let's head upstairs, we need to block all access to the upper floors, let's use tables and chairs to block the stairways, we'll need to wait for help," Will said.
This wasn't completely his idea, as Lucas had already told him, when the rats invaded the university, it was the best course of action to do, get to the upper floors and block the entrances to them.
The students that were with them in the library had already begun making it to the top floor. And just as the two students that escaped from the amphitheater were about to climb alongside them, Will pulled one aside and then slammed his head into the nearest wall, killing him instantly.
Will's strength was unbelievably supernatural.
And that caused everyone around him to scream in panic and step away from Will.
"JEOFRYYYY!!!!" the guy who had barely made it out of the amphitheater couldn't believe what just happened nor did the teachers.
"What the fuck is wrong with you!" a teacher said, and as he was about to grab Will by the neck, he realized that a man with such superhuman strength was not someone to mess around with.
"Why did you do that! What the fuck?!"
"He was bitten! Look at his arm, and don't fucking start shitting me about cure and shit, he was going to turn, in our midst and probably cause even more casualties," Will said adamantly.
The words didn't register however in the eyes of the dead Jeoffrey's friend. As he was about to jump Will, Will stopped him with ease and said, "Look."
Suddenly, the man with a cracked skull began shuddering, and began moving, death? It was nothing to one with the curse of undeath. Unless decapitated, they'll still move and still hunt the living.
"Do you want that shit to happen to you?" Will asked.
"He's still alive, we can take him to the hospital!"
"Get your fucking shit together! He is fucking dead! And if you stay here he'll fucking kill you. Everyone, get up the stairs," Will said as he stepped on the newly born undead's neck, stopping him from moving.
But too many were too frozen in fear, of both Will, coldly killing someone in front of them, and of the undead in the middle of the hall.
"GET UP!"
Will shouted, powerfully so that many amphitheaters' doors rattled as the undead inside them heard his voice.
That was terror enough for the students to rush past Will and the undead and go upstairs.
Once Will knew that there was no one remaining on the bottom floor, he pressed hard with his foot and snapped the neck of the undead.
'Think of them as rats, monsters in a game, not as humans, this way you'll feel less guilty about killing people you used to know.'
That's what Lucas told him, and he was about to make sure to keep that in mind.
Now, they needed to survive, by any means necessary, because Lucas promised Will, that once shit hits the fan, he'll be there.
Will climbed up the stairs and saw many students rushing over with dozens of chairs and tables that they placed against the stairs, to block entry.
They then began dragging even heavier desks and even objects like fridges and vending machines to reinforce the entrances to the top buildings. This way they can be safe for a while at least.
All that is left to do, is stay grouped, stay strong, and wait for help.