WebNovels

Chapter 3 - Chapter 3

"So let me get this straight," I said, pacing the bunker floor like a man who accidentally deleted his thesis.

"You're telling me I started the zombie apocalypse… because I microwaved a cursed pizza?"

"Yes," Tito Edgar replied without hesitation, crossing his arms like a tinfoil-armored prophet. "The box was designed to self-destruct if heated above 38°C. You turned it into a bio-grenade."

The Boy Scout nodded solemnly like this was the most reasonable thing in the world. "Should've read the label."

"IT DIDN'T HAVE A LABEL! IT HAD A COUPON FOR FREE GARLIC BREAD!"

I collapsed into a beanbag chair shaped like a panda and stared at the ceiling, hoping it would fall on me.

"So what now?" I muttered. "Do I get arrested by zombie Interpol? Do I sue the crust?"

Edgar didn't laugh. Of course he didn't. Men who build bunkers under convenience stores don't do punchlines.

He pulled out a whiteboard, already filled with conspiracy scribbles. Circles. Arrows. One corner was labeled "WAS MARIAH CAREY INVOLVED?"

He pointed at a scribbled timeline. "You're Patient Zero."

I blinked. "Can I… get a cooler name?"

"You're the catalyst. The virus doesn't affect you like it does everyone else. It reacts to you."

I raised an eyebrow. "Reacts how?"

"By activating."

---

At that exact moment, the fluorescent lights in the bunker flickered.

The room temperature dropped two degrees.

And from upstairs, we heard a sound.

A deep, echoing growl. Like a dying boar gargling gravel.

Followed by a slam.

Then another.

Then a *very* disturbing, drawn-out moan.

**"UUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGHHHHH."**

The three of us froze.

The Boy Scout whispered, "Did one of you leave the door open?"

Edgar whipped around to a wall panel and checked a screen. "Someone tripped the outer sensor. Something's in the stairwell."

I bolted upright. "Do you have weapons? Guns? Grenades? A really angry cat?"

"I've got this," Edgar said, pulling a… water gun?

"Seriously?"

"It's filled with vinegar and dish soap. It blinds them."

I stared.

The Boy Scout added, "It also ruins your skin if you're not undead. Ask my kuya."

Edgar flipped a switch and the back wall rotated like a villain's lair, revealing a supply closet that would make Batman cry.

Slingshots. Kitchen knives. A slingshot *with* knives. And… a fishing net?

"What is this, 'Home Alone: Apocalypse Edition'?"

"You grab the net," Edgar commanded. "I'll take the vinegar cannon. Boy Scout, lockdown protocol. Now."

The kid saluted and ran to the corner where a tablet-controlled switchboard sat.

Meanwhile, the growls upstairs were getting closer.

**Thump. Thump. THUMP.**

---

We crept to the stairwell entrance. Edgar raised the spray gun like a soldier in a shampoo commercial. I had the fishing net draped over my shoulder like a confused mermaid.

Suddenly, the door **SLAMMED OPEN**—

And the zombie **stumbled through**.

But this one wasn't normal.

It wore a red vest.

Name tag: *"Gerald - Security"*

Face: *half-eaten*.

Eyes: *bright glowing blue*.

But most importantly, in his left hand—

Was **my missing shoe.**

"IS THAT MY SHOE?!"

Zombie Gerald roared in reply and hurled the shoe at my head. Direct hit. Size 9 to the forehead. Critical damage.

I staggered back. "HE REMEMBERS ME!"

Edgar blasted him with the vinegar gun. The zombie screeched, stumbled, and smacked into the wall, knocking over a stack of emergency beans.

The Boy Scout shouted from the corner, "Trap activated!"

Suddenly, the floor under Gerald gave way like a cartoon prank, and the zombie fell straight into a hole filled with *rubber chickens and glue traps*.

We all stared.

Then I whispered, "What the hell is your family?"

---

We locked the hatch, rolled a mini-fridge over it, and sealed it with duct tape.

Zombie Gerald thrashed beneath us, groaning like someone who stepped on a Lego in hell.

I wiped my face. "Okay. This is all officially insane."

Edgar just muttered, "That wasn't normal. That zombie… remembered you."

"I told you! He had my shoe! He threw it with *aim!*"

He pulled out a folder and handed me a Polaroid.

It was a surveillance image.

Of me.

Delivering the pizza.

Timestamp: **Three days before the outbreak officially began.**

"I thought today was Day One," I said.

Edgar shook his head. "That's what they want you to think."

I squinted. "Who's 'they'?"

He flipped to another photo. It showed a group of men in lab coats, standing in front of a glowing green chamber. In the corner of the image: **Mr. Lee.**

I choked. "My Values teacher?!"

"He's not just a teacher," Edgar said. "He used to work for the Department of Paranormal Research and Urban Threats."

"…DPRUT?"

"Yep. Government branch so secret it doesn't even show up on Google."

The Boy Scout added, "They used to work out of a Starbucks in Quezon City."

"Stop lying to the traumatized man," I snapped.

---

We all sat in silence for a while. Even Zombie Gerald got tired and stopped trying to chew through duct tape.

My head was spinning.

I wasn't special. I was just a guy who delivered pizza and forgot to pay his phone bill.

Now I was Patient Zero?

Connected to a looped apocalypse?

Linked to a secret agency run by my high school teacher?

And worst of all… **I never got paid for that delivery.**

---

Finally, I said, "What happens now?"

Edgar looked me in the eyes. "Now? You eat something. Then you get some rest. Because after that…"

He turned and opened a drawer.

Inside was a glowing bracelet. It hummed with weird energy. A sticker on it said *"Property of Project Eden."*

"…we're going to test your powers."

I blinked. "My *what now*?"

He smiled for the first time.

"You survived contact with the virus. You didn't turn. That means it bonded with you. Changed you."

I stared at the bracelet.

Then back at him.

Then back at the bracelet.

"Wait, wait, wait. Are we seriously doing the 'you have powers now' thing? Is that real?"

Edgar held up a remote and pointed it at me.

"Let's find out."

He pressed the button.

The bracelet snapped onto my wrist like a crab in a bad mood.

And suddenly—

Everything around me slowed.

Literally.

Like time hit a pothole.

The Boy Scout's blinking slowed to half-speed. I saw every eyelash mid-blink. The leaking faucet froze mid-drip. The canned beans trembled as if they were scared.

I looked at my hands.

They were glowing slightly. Just a shimmer. But real.

I stood there, blinking in awe.

Then the bracelet **beeped**—

—and time snapped back to normal.

I immediately fell over.

"OW! What the hell?!"

Edgar leaned over me, grinning like a mad uncle at Christmas.

"Welcome to Level 1, Darren."

More Chapters