original

AI in the Apocalypse

Chapter 1: 2 Months

The concrete beneath my feet was wet with blood. I walked through an old industrial building in the dark of night, the moonlight being my only guide. My eyes scanning from side to side. A sword at my hip and a hand rested firmly upon it. I was ready for what was to come.

From out of the dark a shadow appeared. It leapt out at me and in an instant, I knew what it was. Its face was torn apart, body covered in rags, blood dripping from its sharpened teeth. This was a zombie, one of the living dead. The dead let out a blood-curdling scream as it flew towards me.

Without a second thought, my blade was unleashed. A strike of steel flashed through the air and blood splattered. It was finished in an instant. The zombies head was split in two. "That can't be good," I say to myself as I hear the terrifying screams outside.

That corpse had alerted the others. Now it would only be a matter of time before they found me. The dead have extremely sensitive hearing, but terrible vision. Even the slightest sound meant death for most. I had come here in search of a place to rest, but I was foolish to expect it would be that easy. Now I would have to fight my way out.

I opened a nearby door. Currently, I was on the second level of this factory-like building. The second floor had an overhanging ledge that looked down into the factory work area. From there I could see the doors flooding with dead. It was now or never, life or death. I ran for the stairs and jumped over the guard rail. In front of me stood 3 undead. They heard me land in front of them and so they charged. Within that same second, I lashed out and cleanly cut off one of their heads. The second and third ran at me. But for them, it was no use. I splattered their rotting skulls against the wall.

I could see the side exit, but in front of it were more dead. A lot more dead. I considered my options once again, but this was the only way. I rushed towards the door killing everything in my path. I wasn't invincible, however. The dead had the upper hand. I hacked and slashed through the dead until I reached the exit, ripping open the door with the strength I had left.

I scuffled and fell out from the exit, slamming the door shut behind me. I was lucky this time. Next time I might not be. For now, it was time to find a new place to sleep.

...

I am crow, a 19 year old student studying biomechanical implants and ai. I was accepted into a renowned Chinese school for my excellence. I considered myself an exceptional student with perfect top grades in all classes. I would have gone on to do great things in life, then this happened. The Apocalypse. An unknown virus was released in Russia which quickly spread to the corners of the earth. At first, the virus acted as a common cold, but soon it evolved. People started going crazy, they ate each other. Brother turned against brother, mother against child. It was a time of great death. People learnt to fight, but those who were weak or refused to change died. Nevertheless, armies of the fallen countries fought against the dead. That leads to now.

It has now been 2 months since the beginning and nothing has changed. People still die every day, the dead roam every part of the world and the resistance armies are still fighting a useless war against the dead.

...

I walked through the back alleys, moving in the darkness of night. The moans of the dead would send shivers down anyone's spine. As I walked through this dark alleyway I checked each door to see if it was unlocked.

"Finally an unlocked door," I thought to myself as the handle which my hand grasped turned.

It wasn't like I couldn't just kick down a door, but rather it was a matter of being quiet. If the dead heard me I could die.

As I opened the door, my eyes quickly scanned the room. The room was the bottom floor of a motorbike mechanic. Countless parts and tools lay around the room. Immediately something stole my attention, a gun. This was a good thing. Although I couldn't use it in most situations, a gun could still come in useful.

Nothing seemed to be a threat and so I moved forward, gently closing the door behind me. I inched closer to the gun which sat upon a workbench, all while keeping my eyes peeled for movement. My hand reached out to grab the gun and as it did a man walked into the room.

Quickly I dropped to the ground behind a workbench ensuring he didn't see me.

The man was fat but muscular. The man was American and had a rough face. He dressed in police body armour which didn't fit his large size. As the man moved through the room, he began talking. "We move out in the morning. Boss Leo was expecting us back a day ago" the man stated.

In reply, a second voice came from the room the man had just come from. "Well if Jackson hadn't had to go back to that shop for the girl-" the man was cut off before he could finish his words. The sound of him getting punched echoed through the building.

"Talk again and you'll lose a finger," said a tall and dominating man as he walked into the room. Blood dripped from his fist. The man was muscular and gave off a terrifying feeling.

I had to escape. By the sounds of it, these Americans were bad. They would surely kill me if they had the chance. Even though I was a strong fighter, I wouldn't be a match against three men with guns. I browsed the many ideas in my head, each one ending with my own death. What felt like a year only lasted a few moments. That was when I got it. With a plan formulated in my head, I picked up a bolt from under the bench. I threw it at the big guy who seemed to be in charge. It hit him in the side of the head.

The leader turned to face the fat guy and began walking over to him at a fast pace. The fat guy turned to face him but it was too late. The leader's fist connected with his face which caused him to be thrown across the room.

Seeing my plan had gone correctly I stood up and grabbed the shotgun. In the same second aimed and squeezed the trigger. My hand was thrown backwards as the shotgun blast turned the leaders head into red mist and chunks of brain matter. The man fell to the ground headless. I squeezed the trigger once again and a second shot was fired into the back of the fat man's head.

With that, I ran towards the door into the other room. As I went through a gunshot rang in my ear, the bullet missing by mere millimetres. By instinct, I swung my body and began shooting until there were no more shells. Luckily I had turned the last man into a bloody pulp.

All three were now dead, but with those shots came the dead. I didn't have time to collect myself and quickly began searching the dead bodies. Adrenaline pumped through my veins causing me to move unusually quickly. On the last man which I killed were a handgun and a pocket full of bullets. I took my backpack off my back and put them inside. Next was the leader who I took the leather jacket from along with a new knife and map. Finally was the fat guy. I removed the body armour which he wore and put it on myself covering it with the leather jacket. Along with this, I found 12 shotgun shells.

"Now to escape," I thought to myself as I reloaded the shotgun. If I didn't escape now, I would be surrounded and then inevitably die to a hoard. Thus I moved toward the door.

Kicking open the door I was met with countless undead. Far too many to fight even with the shotgun. My only option was to retreat into the mechanic shop and fight them as they entered. And so I went back in.

When entering the building again I pushed down some shelving full of tools. This made the area which the dead could get in a lot smaller. I had just made a bottleneck. I put the shotgun over my shoulder and pulled out a knife as it wouldn't be smart to waste the ammunition.

When the first of the corpses peaked its rotting head through the door, it was met with a knife. Just like this, I killed over 20 of them before the gap became small enough for just one dead to enter at a time. Using my new advantage I began killing the dead non-stop. The room quickly filled with corpses.

Although it was far easier, it was also much slower. One by one the dead came in and were stabbed in the skull or crushed under my foot. It was a brutal scene, but not something which I hadn't seen before. Hundreds of the hoard were killed and eventually, I began to become exhausted.

After an hour of killing, the flow of dead didn't slow down. At this point, I was standing on dead bodies. The floor could no longer be seen. But that wasn't the bad part. The garage door on the other side of the room was beginning to give way to the undead. They had been pushing up against it for a while now. At first, I wasn't worried, but now it was beginning to become worrisome.

I needed a new plan, one that was adjusted for this scenario. I thought of possible solutions until the door gave way.

"Fuck thats too soon" I screamed out with terror. With this, I ran into the next room and slammed the door closed behind me. The dead poured into the building like a wave.

Countless hands smashed against the walls of the room. I needed a plan quickly however nothing came to me. If I let them break in there would be no chance for me. Once again it came down to only one solution. I needed to fight with everything I had. I pulled the shotgun off my back and placed the handgun in my pocket. Right then I spotted something I hadn't noticed when in the room before. It was a large metal case that had the word 'explosive' written in bold red letters. I walked up to the case and opened it. Inside I was met with a new plan. I would blow them all up. It was an RPG.

I finalised the remainder of my plan and then with one swift motion, pulled open the door and shot a rocket into the corner of the shop. The dead were decimated. Now was my time. That rocket had been aimed at a supporting beam and part of the roof had collapsed in. I ran out into the main room and climbed through the new exit. In front of me was the rest of the hoard. Loading the RPG with another rocket I unleashed hell into the countless dead.

Jumping down from the building I ran through the now cleared path. Four rockets remained. In the distance was a subway entrance. The path didn't stay clear for long. As the hoard filled in on both sides I had to use my knife to take them out. There were countless corpses left behind me as I carved a path through the ocean of death.

I shot one more rocket into the hoard and cleared an opening again. I swung the RPG over my shoulder and pulled out the handgun.

Making my way down the stairs into the subway a few dead fell over the fence. They were met with my foot in their skull. I continued down the stairs. At the bottom, a few dozen moans could be heard but were silenced quickly as I shot them in the head one by one.

Now was only a matter of how long I could run for. I jumped onto the tracks and began running like hell.

...

It had been almost an hour since my narrow escape. The tunnel was pitch black and I could barely see my own feet. Only a fool would be dumb enough to stop running, however. The dead could sometimes run extremely fast and wouldn't stop until they reached me or lost interest in me. The latter being very uncommon. Undoubtedly in a hoard so large, there would definitely be some after me.

But I couldn't help it, my body was shutting down. My legs gave up and my muscles began contracting and twitching. This was extremely painful. With time it only got worse until I could only scream. Even though I knew I shouldn't, I had to.

For hours I endured the pain. It was torture to the worst degree. Every moment I felt like my body was being pulled apart and put back together, only for it to happen again. Until I eventually lost conscience.

...

When I woke up I looked at my surroundings. Everything was white. The polar opposite of the dark tunnel. All of a sudden as I was getting used to the white surroundings, a voice began to speak.

The voice sounded like a beautiful woman. "Hello Crow, I am an Echo. You may be surprised right now but-" the voice was interrupted.

"I remember. You're the ai I built. So you've finally finished pairing with my brain?" I asked surprised.

This was the ai I had spent over a year working on. It had been designed to better both the human mind and body. The ai could increase intelligence, control emotions, calm the mind, increase reaction time and more. As well as this the ai which I had built needed to have a special type of blood. This blood wasn't any normal blood. It consisted of billions of nanobots that used an engineered black liquid. These nanobots could act as artificial muscle, repair wounds and fight diseases. The ai could control these nanobots.

"Yes, you are correct Crow. I have finished connecting us together. Would you like a refresher on my capabilities and uses?" The ai asked with her sweet voice.

I remembered everything about the ai. I had created it after all. "No echo I don't need that. Just return my consciousness."

"Understood" the ai replied quickly before sending me back to my body.

As I came back, I realised my body was still sore, but quickly recovering. I thought about my situation for a moment. "I programmed the AI and my own brain to be as one. If I simply will something to happen it should. let's test this theory."

As I thought about the ability to see in the darkness the AI instantly adapted to be able to process dark environments. Next was creating muscle mass. With this, every muscle on my body began increasing in size. My already good physique turned from good to perfect. Every muscle was defined.

I decided to test the new strength. "If I am correct, I should have at least 10 times the strength I had before." With that thought, I punched the ground.

*smash!*

the ground was impacted greatly leaving a massive crater in the concrete.

I noticed my arm had been completely reshaped by the impact. It had been broken in at least 7 places, however, the Ai was suppressing the pain.

"I probably should have reinforced my skeletal structure haha," I thought as my arm quickly healed.

Noticing how fast my arm healed I realised I should probably keep all of this a secret from anyone I encounter from this point on.

Now that I had been fully healed I began walking along the tracks. After another 5 minutes of walking, I could see the rising sun at the end of the tunnel.

At the end of the tunnel was a small group of survivors seemingly asleep.