Generation Zombie

Chapter 1: Into The Game -Ruby.

The heavy beating of rain on her glass windows distracted and comforted her at the same time. The world outside her rigorously organized room experienced strong winds and flashes of lightning, followed by thunder. It was almost like a heavenly cleansing. The trees swayed in an uncoordinated dance, clusters of leaves detaching from their branches, and flying across the water-stained road of Wellerman Street.

Ruby Bancroft concluded that the rain was less of a distraction and more of a comforting experience. She had a lot weighing on her mind, the foremost of which being the ‘B’ grade she got in Chemistry. A ‘B’ grade in Chemistry? It felt like the world was ending. Like a part of her brain had been tainted by something utterly stupid.

There was no way her Chemistry grade could be a ‘B’. But the report sheet mailed to her this morning, discarded on her perfectly made bed said something entirely different.

Frustrated, Ruby smacked the pencil she was using to scribble and derive equations into the center of her Physics textbook and slammed the bulky hardcover shut. With a sigh, she pushed back the chair and got to her feet. How am I going to explain my grade to dad? She miserably thought to herself. She had gotten over the disappointment of the less-than-perfect grade, but her dad was a whole different story.

She groaned and moved to rest her head on the cold surface of her window. She could slide up the glass pane and escape into the rain, run to the nearest train station and buy a ticket to a place where her academic responsibilities and bad grades won’t reach her.

The idea sounded very rebellious and very stupid.

A figure running in the rain caught her attention and brought her mind back to reality. Ruby watched as Arthur Halifax sprinted through the wet street with a skateboard tucked under his arm and a soaked grocery bag in the other. He almost slipped, but caught himself in time and continued tearing down the street, only coming to a halt in front of his house, which was opposite of Ruby’s. Arthur shook out the water from his black hair like a puppy, and unlocked the front door of his house, disappearing inside.

“He couldn’t wait out the rain? What an i***t…” Ruby muttered to herself and moved away from the window, glancing at her report sheet and remembering her current dilemma.

Her morning had been unproductive, and the lack of productivity dragged her on to the late afternoon, so she was still in her cow-print pajamas and a messy bun. Sundays were supposed to be the beginning of her week; the day she puts in the most effort to start off the coming week on a productive note.

But this Sunday was fruitless.

Sighing for what felt like the seventieth time in the last hour, Ruby exited her room and made her way through the cramped hallway of their humble bungalow. Discarded toys littered the path, and she skillfully avoided stepping on the Lego blocks, already used to the destructive habits of her baby sister. There were four bedrooms in total in the Bancroft home. The one furthest in the hall was hers; the one facing it was occupied by her younger brother Ian, and the one just before the sitting room belonged to her dad. It was also where Lila; her baby sister, had her crib and kiddies’ stuff bunked in.

The last bedroom was kept empty, ever since their mother passed away two years ago. Using the room felt like they were moving on, and none of the Bancrofts were ready for that.

Ruby’s bare feet pitter-pattered on the floorboards of the quiet sitting room as she made her way to the connecting kitchen; swinging open the fridge in hopes of finding something to snack on. With glee, she retrieved a bowl of frozen yoghurt.

If Ian comes back and finds out that she got her hands on his frozen yoghurt, it would mean war. “We’ll discard the evidence after the deed is done…” She said to herself and settled on the couch, happily digging into the cold treat.

The doorbell rang, and the bowl almost fell out of Ruby’s hands.

Her dad, Ian and Lila weren’t supposed to be back form the dentist’s appointment until at least six o’clock, and the clock had just struck five. Plus she didn’t hear the car pull into the garage. And if it was her family returning, they wouldn’t be ringing the doorbell.

Ruby carefully placed the bowl on the small center table in front of her before getting up and stalking to the door. When she peeped through the looking hole, there was no one on the doorstep, but a small, sealed package was left on the doormat.

She swung open the door and quickly retrieved the package.

Once back inside and safe from the splashes of rain, Ruby curiously examined the little package. It was a delivery for Ian Bancroft, from iFlux Games.

“He’s such a geek…” She whispered to herself as she ripped the package open. She was already in trouble with her younger brother from taking his frozen yoghurt, so she might as well add opening his package to the list.

The small box contained a CD plate of a game called Gene-Z. Something in the cover plate appealed to Ruby, even though she was the farthest thing from a gamer, and had never held a game console her whole life. Maybe it was the zombies on the cover, or the exhilarating and rebellious thought of trying something new that prompted Ruby to carry her bowl of frozen yoghurt and the CD straight to Ian’s room, where she plugged in his X-box.

And unknown to her, in that exact moment, she had made a decision that will change her life forever.

The game took a while to load, and Ruby waited impatiently. When the instructions appeared on the screen, she eagerly pressed the skip button in hopes of just getting to the main game.

“All who venture into the world of Gene-Z must abandon their humanity. One cure for all, one generation of the undead…” She read the writing that popped up on the screen loudly, squinting at the cursive letters and the blinking cursor where she was instructed to enter her name.

Ruby mentally scrolled through a list of possible cool nicknames to use. But before she could choose and type in anything, the cursor moved on its own accord and boldly inputted ‘Ruby Bancroft’ in the empty space. She blinked at the screen; confused, before beginning to feel frightened. Was there an auto-fill feature in place? But she had never played her brother’s X-box.

How did the game know her name? And why did it fill it in?

However, that soon became the least of Ruby’s worries because the moment her fingers pressed the ‘start’ button, time and space wrapped into itself, and she was yanked into the game itself, through the television set.