For a moment they simply stood there, staring at the huge zombie, while the zombie, with its lifeless eyes, stared back. Then it roared and started stampeding towards them.

  Stu had promised Lucky that he would help him find and kill this creature. Well, they had found it. But how the hell were they going to kill it? Stu didn't even know how he might go about fighting it -- the zombie was huge, standing at least nine feet tall and weighing at least five hundred pounds. And what's more, it was a zombie, a disgusting, monstrous thing that felt no pain.

  He had managed to kill a couple of zombies by pinning them down and sawing their heads off, but he didn't think that same tactic would work with a creature this big. It would be like trying to hold down a rhinoceros.

  The only thing he could think to do, as the zombie came barrelling towards them, was to get out of the way. Lucky had the same idea -- he dove to the right, taking cover behind one of the so-called dynamo engines, while Stu dove to the left. The zombie elected to pursue Stu, possibly because he was still holding the flashlight.

  Swearing under his breath, Stu ran through the room, weaving his way around the dynamo engines, power banks, and electrical cabinets, trying to shake the monster off for just a second. He still had the duffel bag slung over his shoulder, and it was getting in his way, so he pulled the rusty knife out of it -- his only weapon -- and tossed the bag aside.

  The zombie was surprisingly fast for its size, but it was also rather clumsy; it was constantly crashing into things. Stu, thinking he might be able to trip it up somehow, started waving the flashlight around as he ran, looking for some kind of tool or tactic that might help him.

  But it was hard to formulate any kind of plan, with the Brute chasing after him; it was all he could do to stay ahead of it.

  He finally emerged from the maze of shelves and electrical cabinets and into a wide-open space. The subway workers must have been using this part of the room as a kind of rest area, because there was a large table here, along with a fridge and a couple of broken-down vending machines. The table was in Stu's way, and there wasn't time to go around it, so he slid underneath it. The Brute, unable to slow itself down, simply crashed into the table, tossing aside chairs and roaring like an enraged demon. But in this chaos, Stu was able to roll out from under the table, get back on his feet, and double back, and it took several seconds for the monster to notice that he had slipped past him. Running back into the darkness, he nearly collided with Lucky, who was fiddling with his malfunctioning railgun.

  "It's jammed," he complained. "But I think...got it!" He snapped something back into place and raised the weapon at the Brute, who had just spotted them. He pulled the trigger, aiming for its head, and fired off severak rounds.

  The Brute must have had some sense of self-preservation, however, because it knew to protect itself from this barrage -- it raised its arms, covering its face. The thick, rubbery fat dangling off the creature's arms stopped the projectiles.

  Lucky's gun jammed again. Cursing, he banged at it with his palm, and Stu was forced to grab him by the collar and drag him out of the Brute's path, as the monster-zombie came stampeding after them again. Silver-streaked blood was now dripping out of the thing's bullet-riddled arms, but this was only a minor inconvenience to a zombie.

  They made it back to the open area where the Brute had smashed through the table. Stu wanted to keep running -- there might be another exit on the other side of the room -- but Lucky, still trying to fix his gun, wriggled out of Stu's grip and started running to his left, splitting them up again. "Just give me a second to clear this!" he shouted at Stu.

  Gritting his teeth, Stu had no choice but to keep running, dodging, and ducking. How the hell were they going to get out of this? The Brute may have been a little clumsy, but it was huge, relentless. The "jumbo" designation the ICON system had given it was certainly apt.

  Stu stopped suddenly. Was there any way the ICON system could help him here? He only had one skill so far -- Night Vision -- but he did have those two skill points saved up. Were there any skills he could buy that might allow him to kill this thing?

  He opened up the menu, but he didn't have time to study it -- the Brute was still chasing after him. Fortunately, a second later, Lucky managed to clear the jam in his gun. He started firing at the Brute again, distracting it.

  Stu darted behind a big electrical cabinet, flipped to the skills section of the menu, and started scrolling through them. Unfortunately there weren't very many skills he could buy with just two skill points: there was "Shadow King", which would allow him to disappear into shadows; "Strong Arm", which would enhance his strength and resiliency; and "Firewalker", which would give him the ability to withstand intense heat and flames. "Speed Freak", "Silence", and "Artful Dodger" were still available, too, but he didn't see how any of these might help in this situation. Most of these skills were not combat-related.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  One skill finally caught his eye, however: "Dead Aim", which would allow him to throw an object with perfect accuracy. Like Night Vision and many of the other skills, it would only work once a day, although it could be leveled up with more skill points, so that he could use it multiple times in a day.

  He decided to go for it. He tapped on the skill icon and confirmed his purchase.

  That was all he had time to do; the Brute was bearing down on him again. He jumped out of cover and ran from it, while Lucky continued firing his railgun. One good shot to the head would probably bring it down, but the room was dark, and the Brute was running around; Lucky was obviously having trouble lining it up. So he started spraying and praying instead, the railgun's projectiles thwipping through the room and ricocheting off of every metallic surface. One of them buzzed Stu's ear.

  Annoyed, the Brute gave up on Stu and turned its attention to Lucky. The kid held his ground for a moment, firing one final burst of ammunition, but the bullets merely thunked into the Brute's thick arms again -- it had gone back to protecting its face. With the zombie closing in on him, Lucky feinted to his left and started running to his right, but tripped over a coiled-up extension cord and fell to the floor. The Brute stomped towards him.

  Stu saw the terror in Lucky's eyes as the monster drew closer. It would be on him in a second; the kid didn't have time to get to his feet.

  "Hey!" Stu shouted desperately. "Over here!"

  The Brute stopped and turned...and that was the moment Stu used Dead Aim. Unlike Night Vision, this wasn't a skill he had to activate from the menu -- it was more intuitive than that. Suddenly, and inexplicably, he simply knew that he could hit anything -- that if he threw the knife, it would go exactly where he wanted it to. He narrowed his eyes, flipped the knife so that he was holding the blade, and launched it at the Brute's right eye, as though he had been doing this sort of thing his whole life.

  Stu threw the knife with such perfect speed and precision that the Brute didn't even have time to raise its fatty, bleeding arms. The knife stuck in its eye, and it stuck deep, buried almost to the hilt.

  The huge zombie swayed on its feet for a moment, opened its mouth to make a sort of defiant growl, and crumpled to the floor.

  Stu sighed with relief. They had killed two of these zombies now, by stabbing them in the eye; it seemed like a pretty effective technique.

  Lucky wasn't convinced it was dead, however. Scrambling to his feet, he used the hatchet he had found earlier to smash the monster's skull in, until there was nothing left of it but a mashed-up sludge of black blood and brains. And he continued smashing it even after that, spattering his own face with the Brute's blood.

  "Hey, hey!" Stu said, finally pulling him away. "It's dead, okay? It's dead."

  The kid stopped and looked at him. It was only then that Stu realized there were tears in his eyes, and that his lower lip was trembling. "It killed Jacen," he muttered. "He was...he was..."

  "I'm sorry," Stu said, not knowing what else to say.

  Lucky had to take a moment to collect himself. Meanwhile a screen suddenly popped up in Stu's face.

  Level 10 Jumbo defeated!

  Quest "Justice for Jacen" completed!

  Level Up! 3-7

  Gained 4 SP!

  Access Menu?

  At the same moment, a strange sensation washed over him -- he suddenly felt refreshed, as though he had just woken up from a long nap. His vision seemed sharper; his mind felt less foggy. He was still hungry and thirsty and a little nauseous as well -- the Brute's hideous, bloody body was a sickening sight -- but he felt better, overall.

  He checked his stats. By killing the Brute and completing the quest, he had gained four levels, and his HP and other stats had gone up quite a bit -- his HP had risen from 35 to 75, and his strength had gone from 9 to 17. Was he finally beginning to feel the effects of these rising stats? Was that what that strange sensation had been?

  It was all very interesting, but he wasn't in the mood for this stuff now -- he had more pressing concerns -- so he closed down the menus. "We got the Brute," he told Lucky. "Now we've got to get out of here."

  "Yeah," he said. "Let's do that. Let's get back to the Harbor." He gave Stu a sideways glance. "Thanks. If you hadn't thrown that knife..."

  "Don't mention it."

  "How did you do that, anyway? I've never seen anything like that in my life."

  "Just got lucky, Lucky."

  The kid snorted. "Hilarious."

  * * *

  There was another exit on the other side of the room, through the break area. The doors opened up into the subway tunnel that the zombies had chased them through earlier, but this section of the tunnel was separated from that one by a partial collapse; part of the tunnel had caved in here. Still, they moved cautiously, doing their best to make as little noise as possible. The last thing they needed was another attack -- Lucky was out of ammunition, and though he felt better after leveling up, Stu didn't feel up to fighting off any more zombies right now. The last few hours had been nothing but horror, gore, and confusion, and he was thoroughly worn out.

  They proceeded down the tunnel, and to Stu's relief, they finally arrived at another platform. Lucky scouted out the area, and returned a moment later, saying, "I know where we are. This is the Bleeder's Street entrance. The Harbor's not far from here." But then he frowned. "It's night, though. I don't want to walk around Bleeder's Street at night."

  "We'll wait until morning, then," Stu said. "In the meantime..."

  "Yes?"

  "I helped you kill the Brute. Now it's your turn to help me." He looked at the kid squarely. "I want you to tell me everything you know about zombies."