Arthur stood still at the window in bewilderment as he took in the view of the outside world that was nothing more than pure chaos.
The window of his room faced a busy street in the neighborhood of Marylebone.
There were residential buildings all around with parks, parking lots, and stores on the streets, but now the place didn't look the same as it was yesterday.
Instead of the usual blue, the sky had adopted an eerie shade of violet, casting an otherwordly hue to the world.
The once-familiar streets had turned into a picture of chaotic destruction with cars and buses being crashed into each other in various positions making fire burn everywhere.
The trees and the roads were rooted out from the ground, showing the deep holes underground with dirty water flowing about.
Most of the buildings out there looked broken as if an earthquake had gone by, and most importantly there was no human present anywhere no matter how much he looked for one.
"Bloody hell...am I still in my nightmares?"
Arthur scratched his head in confusion witnessing the scene that he had seen plenty of time in his dreams.
The only difference was that now he could feel his own body and control himself.
"But why does it feel so real?"
As his mind raced in confusion, he arrived at a horrible thought that made him hold his breath in fear.
"N-No way that's possible right?", he stuttered glancing at the destruction of the city that he had dreamt of but refused to acknowledge it happened in real life.
Quickly, he pulled the curtains and closed the window before sitting on his bed while rubbing his head.
"Holy fuck! I must be still dreaming but why do I feel like that's not the case and everything that's happening is real?"
Arthur clenched his hands feeling frustrated with the situation when suddenly there was a sound from the door of his apartment.
"Who is that?"
He stood up alert and slowly moved out from the room toward the hall and made his way to the door.
There was a low banging noise coming from outside the door.
Arthur knit his eyebrows and raised his hand toward the knob to open the door.
He all of a sudden stopped his hand as a thought went inside his head making him break into cold sweat.
His hand trembled holding the knob and he slowly let go of it while gulping hard.
'What if.....'
Arthur took a deep breath and retreated backward hitting his leg against a chair which fell down with a loud thud.
'SHIT!'
It seemed that he had made a terrible mistake as the banging noise outside the room stopped for a second and started getting wilder.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!", the door seemed on the brink of getting destroyed with the strong banging.
Arthur panicked as his expression turned pale, he looked around the hall and saw the table and many other furniture.
"Quick quick!"
He swiftly ran around the hall and gathered the many things before putting them all together in front of the door. Tables, stools, chairs, etc were stuffed closely building a makeshift defense.
Arthur glanced hopefully around and went to the kitchen from where he took a long knife and held it tightly in his hands.
He came to the hall and saw that the door was hanging on just one screw which also broke the moment he arrived.
The door got pushed open from outside and the things that Arthur had kept beforehand blocked it from getting totally thrown inside.
"Grrr.....grrr....."
Low growls that were not of a human being echoed inside the room and two bloody arms came from the gaps in the makeshift defense.
Taking a deep breath, Arthur gripped the knife with both his hands and glanced at the being that was slowly making its way into the room.
'It's fucking real....'
Slowly, the creature crawled into the hall with its limbs and head poked inside the furniture.
"Grrrrrr?"
'It really is a zombie.'
Arthur's eyes looked at the monster which looked like a corpse with blood present on several parts of its wounded body.
Staring at the stuck zombie that was slowly pushing itself into the room, he felt it was a nice chance to take its life.
'It's now or never...'
He moved forward toward the zombie holding the knife. The zombie started to get restless when it felt a human getting near to it as it growled aggressively.
"GRRR...GRRR."
Taking a deep gulp, Arthur reached beside the zombie who was stretching its arms toward him.
Staring at it closely, he didn't feel as much fear as he had felt earlier. The zombie was bent in a weird position making him an easy target.
So, Arthur did not hesitate and did what he had done in his dream many times.
He raised the knife above him and brought it downwards, slashing it at the zombie's neck.
"Fuck you bloody shit! How dare you break my door!"
The zombie struggled with its red eyes glaring at Arthur but he didn't give it any hope of escaping and slashed at its neck again, almost breaking the neck off its body.
When he saw that the zombie was dead with no more movements, Arthus sat on the ground leaning against the wall.
His experiences in the nightmare had made him used to situations like these, so he didn't feel scared or grossed by the dirty blood that fell on his body and floor.
"What the fuck's going to happen now?"
The previous adrenaline had cooled down and he was back in a state of confusion.
"Is this happening to the whole world like I saw in my nightmare or is it just the beginning?"
Giving the zombie a brief glance, he remembered something from his dreams and moved toward it.
He pulled the zombie out from the mix of furniture and lay it on the ground on its back.
Holding the knife with both hands, he started to dig it into the zombie's chest with a disgusted expression on his face as it still felt disturbing to handle a dirty and smelly corpse.
Arthur made a hole in the zombie's chest with the knife until he found it clinking against a metal inside the corpse.
Making the hole bigger, he put his hand inside the corpse's chest and took out a white crystal from there.
"Is this it? The mana stone that should be present inside the monsters."
Staring at the strange white crystal in his hand intently, his eyes turned resolute as he decided to do the same from his dream.
"That's the only option!"
He got up and cleaned the mana stone with a towel before directly throwing it inside his mouth and chewing hard at it.
"Crack~"
The crystal cracked and the material seeped inside his body making him feel hot all of a sudden.
Arthur's face contorted in pain and discomfort as the mana stone he had eaten made his body go through several shocks.
He hurriedly sat down in a lotus position and took deep breaths feeling the changes that were going inside his body.
His muscles and bones started to thicken in small proportions and his skin looked healthy from the previous pale nature.
After a few minutes, Arthur opened his eyes which glowed in a strong blue glow, and went back to normal.
Exhaling a deep breath of mist, he stood up and focused on his body which had slightly grown better than his old body which was devoid of any muscles.
"It's true! The mana stones work exactly like it did in the dream.", Arthur smiled excitedly as this would mean that he could get a lot stronger than he was to survive in the apocalypse that had hit the world.
While he was checking out his new muscles, he heard more growls from outside his room which had no door now.
Arthur quickly turned alert and went to get the knife on the floor.
Holding the knife in both hands, he slowly poked out only his head as there were still things thrown near the door.
'One, two, and three, so there's a total of three zombies in the corridor....'
He had already recognized that the zombie he had killed and the ones he had decided to kill were his neighbors whom he used to greet now and then.
But now that they had turned into corpses with no brains, he had no hesitations to take their life.
Staring carefully at the zombies, Arthur thought of making a plan to deal with them one by one as even though he had gotten slightly stronger, fighting against three at once was still very risky.
Don't forget, even though they were the weakest of the monsters, their virus was like a curse that had no cure as far he knows.
His eyes gleamed strangely as he eyed the three zombies and concluded on a plan.
"That's a good idea..."