In the pitch dark stairways, Dean looked out the glass wall showing Pleasantville but it was forced into the night cycle. Pleasantville itself was shrouded in darkness with some lights still on but there's no signs of activity.
The once bustling social center of the academy is quiet....eerily quiet.
Dean continued to stare outside for a few moments until he started to look away but something caught his eyes. A being was walking around but the few remaining lights only highlighted their shape revealing it to be humanoid in nature.
But, the way it was moving around was a far cry from a civilized humanoid as it was dragging what seems to be a corpse. Sadly the limited vision prevented Dean and Kat from figuring out what it was, only that it was hostile...if the horrid screams were not enough to suggest otherwise.
Dean turned around and walk down the stairs, luckily there wasn't any bloodstains to make the steps slippery.
Arriving on the 14th floor, Dean hesitated between exploring the floor or continuing downstairs. The 14th floor was bigger than the 15th as it houses the 11-50 of the 4th year rankers. There could be survivors or there could be more of those creatures. Regardless, eventually he was going to fight those creatures so maybe the earlier the better.
Kat cleared her throat or at least imitated the sound as she spoke up to erase Dean's hesitation.
[You know....Melanie is most likely still on this floor]
Intrigued, Dean asked, "And why is that?", Kat smugly answered.
[Because she visited your hometown, Blue Breeze, the past week. The reason I know it was because I was hanging out with Jen, Melanie's paxian companion need I remind you, while we were staying at your hometown. Though she never interacted with you and even kept hidden. Anyway she should still be in her apartment as she never went to the party and just crashed for the night.]
Kat sighed remembering the stubborn prideful girl and thought, 'If only her ego wasn't the size of her family's territory then maybe she could have real friends and....maybe a better lover than that fuckboy who dumped her for her *friends*.' As she said that last part, Kat looked at Dean with a stupid look on his face.
"So she visited my hometown to sightsee, I understand, the location has a beautiful beach.....
To summarize the long description Dean was giving of his hometown. It has a population of 2,500 residents with abundant of tourists visiting due to the beautiful location, it is located on the coast of what is known as California in the northern area.
Formerly the state was under a country long gone as the aftermath of World War 3 left the government fractured and the people miserable, ripe for the newly formed United Human Alliance to take over. Now the former country is ruled by one of the Dukes of UHA with the state of California being under a Marquess and Dean's hometown ruled by a benevolent Baron. The ruling class are only limited to government administration with their earnings based on how 'happy' their citizens are and of course, taxes. The 'happy' funds were for personal use while the taxes were for administration use only. So if any government official had any 'bright' ideas of embezzling, the Royal Internal Affairs nicknamed the Royal Inquisition will have a problem.
.....so the ice cream that they served is certified the best in the state", said Dean as he unnecessarily pushed his thick glasses up, "and I understand why Melanie avoided me since her ex-fiancé proposed to his six girlfriends last month so it's understandable she needed some peace and quiet. I'm glad she chose my hometown as it started getting warmer this time of year and the sightseeing is to die for."
[...]
Kat facepalm while wondering if this dork was either dense or avoiding reality to the fact that THE Cruel Princess of House Asato-Romanoff visited Dean's hometown because a certain someone recently lost their grandmother.
At a lost, Kat gritted her digital perfect teeth and asked, [Hey are you going to stand there or open the door?]
After deciding, Dean opened the automatic door and turned to his left revealing a near pitch black hallway. The hallway itself is wide enough for 10 people to walk side by side and was illuminated by several opened dorm rooms on either side suggesting they were left opened...or were forced open.
As Dean took a few steps forward, he pulled out his sword and activated the energy crystal causing the outer edges of the sword to be illuminated by the blue hardlight sharpening the blade.
He proceeded to the nearest opened door to his right passing by other closed doors with numbers marking '50' descending to '44' where the opened door was.
Looking inside the room where the ranked 44 student...or more accurately former ranked 44 student lived since there was blood splatters everywhere, but Dean didn't notice any of it as there stood a humanoid creature wearing ragged clothes different from the academy maroon uniforms suggesting a casual attire.
The creature turned around revealing its bottom jaw missing and tongue hanging out, the top jaw showed deformed blacken sharp teeth. Its eyes red and black with the black being where the white was while the red overtook the irises. Also its right arm up to its shoulder was transformed into a blade made of bones with parts of the flesh hardened.
Looking at Dean, it sprinted towards him with a C-grade agility while producing low growls and raised its arm sword preparing to slash at him.
Acting quickly, Dean parried the sword.
Crack
His sword left a chip on the bone sword as Kat screamed out, [IT'S A ZOMBIE, GO FOR THE HEAD!], and that's what he did as Dean stabbed into the head-
Swish
-then kicked it away.
[Oh that was easy, not sure why the academy went dark because of these guys]
However, Kat spoke too soon as the creature rose back up undeterred by the stab mark on its face.
[Oh pixels]
It charged at Dean again, but he narrowly dodged the blade and-
Swoosh
-went for the decapitation from behind.
Dean stepped back to the center of the living room to see the fruit of his labor but alas, the creature was still standing.
Confused, Dean warily held his sword ready as he spotted something peculiar in the kitchen specifically the refrigerator.
On the fridge was a message written in blood saying,
[CUT OFF THEIR LIMBS]
Adhering to the message, Dean used his telekinesis to lift a chair and-
Bang
-threw it to stagger the creature as he chopped off both arms in quick succession. When it was still standing-
Swoosh
-Dean chopped both legs off with one powerful swoop.
Luckily most of the blood was drained from its body as it seemed to have moved around a lot before encountering Dean. Nevertheless, there were still some blood splatter on his uniform and part of his handsome face...at least his glasses came with an auto-wiper.
[So not zombies but good job Dean on your first kill (?). Though I gotta say, the way to dispose of these 'things' remind me of an ancient video game I played a while back.]
"Yeah-"
As Dean was about to speak, someone appear at the front door.
Sadly it was far from friendly as-
"HEY BOYS, WE GOT A LIVE ONE HERE HAHAHAHAHAHA."
-its demeanor suggested it wanted to have fun in its own twisted way.
[At least we know where the creepy laughter came from.]
**********
A/N: Make Us Whole.
Get it? Anyway the enemy types are inspired by both a horror game and a film franchise because I wanted to see more of those archetypes used. If it's not spooky enough then let me know and I'll try to improve in later chapters. If my action scenes need more finesse then let me know.
P.S.
Sorry for the info dump on intro to United Human Alliance government system as it'll provide some context for later characters.