### **Chapter One: Awakening in the Dark**

Max's eyes fluttered open, the heavy weight of confusion pressing down on him. His head throbbed, a sharp, insistent pain that made it hard to focus. Slowly, he raised his hand to his forehead, feeling the coolness of his skin against his palm. Everything felt wrong, disjointed, as if his body was foreign to him. The world around him was vague, as though he had just stepped out of a dream.

He was lying on something hard, a rough surface that scraped against his back as he shifted. His breath quickened as his eyes scanned the room—dimly lit, cold, and entirely unfamiliar. Max pushed himself into a sitting position, a sense of disorientation flooding his mind. *Where am I?*

The soft, unsteady flicker of lights overhead illuminated the room. The harsh hum of electricity filled the silence, and for a moment, Max couldn't make sense of what he was seeing. Concrete walls, rusted metal, and scattered debris on the floor surrounded him. A subway station. But nothing about it made sense. *Wasn't I... wasn't I just in a car accident?*

Max shook his head, trying to clear the haze in his mind. There was something... something wrong. He tried to stand but faltered, his legs weak beneath him. The ache in his head intensified, but he forced himself upright, determined to figure out what was going on.

The subway station was eerily quiet. Not a single train in sight, no voices, no sounds of movement. Just silence—thick and suffocating. His breath was too loud in his own ears. He steadied himself and stepped forward, noticing the litter scattered across the ground. A discarded bottle, a torn backpack, a few newspapers scattered on the floor.

As he walked further into the station, his eyes were drawn to a nearby bench where a crumpled, aged newspaper lay open. Max walked toward it, his boots scraping along the cracked floor. He bent down, reaching for the paper, and his stomach churned when he read the headline:

"**GLOBAL PANIC: SURVIVORS STILL STRUGGLING TO COPE WITH OUTBREAK**"

Max's gaze quickly moved down to the photo below it—gruesome images of people in terror, of streets filled with chaos. But it wasn't just the panic in their eyes that struck him. It was the sheer horror, the images of bloodied, broken people. In one photo, a man with wild eyes and torn clothing was tearing into someone's neck, his teeth sunk deep into the flesh.

His heart skipped a beat. *What is this?*

Before he could process the gravity of what he was reading, the sound reached him—distant but unmistakable. A soft, dragging shuffle. His eyes widened, and his instincts flared. He wasn't alone.

Max turned, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end, and there, emerging from the shadows, was the first of them.

A walker.

It was a woman, pale and bloated from decay, her clothes in tatters. The stench was foul, even from a distance, and Max could see the telltale signs of rot—her face pale and bloated, her eyes hollow and vacant. She moved slowly, jerking forward with unnatural, disjointed steps, as though she was more puppet than person. She let out a low, guttural moan, the sound sending chills down Max's spine.

Her gaze snapped to him, and in that moment, everything clicked. *The outbreak. It's real. It's happening.*

Panic threatened to take hold, but Max fought it down. He wasn't sure how he knew, but something told him this was just the beginning. The woman—no longer a woman, really—was shuffling closer, drawn by the faintest sound of his movement. Max's pulse quickened, his thoughts scrambling to process what he had to do. Fight? Run? Was this... was this really happening?

A flash of movement. The woman was closer now, reaching toward him with her rotting hands. Max's mind raced, and instinct took over. He turned, his gaze darting around the station, searching for anything—anything—that could be used as a weapon.

His eyes fell on a metal pipe, discarded on the ground near a set of stairs. Without thinking, Max sprinted toward it, his hands shaking as he picked it up. The cold metal felt foreign in his grip, but it was the only thing that could protect him.

The walker was getting closer, groaning, its face twisted in a grotesque expression of hunger. Max's heart raced, his breath coming in short bursts. He gripped the pipe tightly, steadying himself. This was it. He had to act. The walker lunged at him with surprising speed, its hands grasping, its teeth bared.

Max swung the pipe, the metal connecting with the walker's skull with a sickening thud. The force of the blow sent the creature stumbling back, but it didn't fall. It was still coming, still moving toward him, its eyes empty and lifeless.

Max gritted his teeth. He couldn't hesitate. He raised the pipe again and struck, harder this time. The metal crunched against the skull, the sound reverberating through the station, echoing off the walls. The walker staggered and collapsed, its body crumpling to the floor with a dull thud.

Max stood there for a moment, his breath ragged as he processed what had just happened. His hands were trembling, covered in a cold sweat. His mind was reeling. He had just killed something—no, someone—but it wasn't just a person anymore. The world had changed.

The reality of it all hit him like a punch to the gut. The panic he had been holding back threatened to take over, but Max knew that wouldn't help. This was his new reality. And if he was going to survive, he couldn't afford to break down now.

He took another breath, steadying himself. There was no turning back.

---

Max stood over the body, trying to calm his racing heart. His mind flickered back to the newspaper and the horrifying images it had shown. Whatever had happened, it wasn't over. And he needed to figure out what to do next.

The subway station was dark and abandoned, save for the occasional flicker of the light above him. It was a cold, desolate place, but it was also safe—at least for now. He couldn't stay here forever.

The system panel flashed in his mind, a reminder of the new world he was a part of now. Max didn't know what it all meant yet, but he knew one thing: the world outside had already fallen apart. And he had no choice but to learn how to survive it.

---

**Quest Unlocked: First Kill**

*Objective:* Defeat your first walker using a melee weapon.

*Reward:* +1 Strength, +1 Agility, +10 XP.

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Max's grip tightened on the metal pipe. The system wasn't lying. He'd just survived his first encounter. But now, he needed to find out more. What happened to the world? Where were the survivors? And, most importantly, what would he do next?