Stu was determined not to panic. He quickly got out of sight, making his way back down into the subway and flicking the flashlight back on so that he could see where he was going. There were almost certainly more zombies down here, and maybe even worse things, and of course the utter darkness was terrifying on its own. But the streets above were absolutely crawling with zombies, and they were sure to see him if he emerged from hiding. Under the circumstances, he figured he was better off back in the subway.

  He took stock of himself. He still had Wayman's flashlight, and the clothes on his back, but that was about it. He wished he had his phone, but he had left it sitting on the counter back at Phil's.

  He wished he had a weapon, too. But then he remembered Virge's gun, which had gone spinning off into the darkness during his fight with the mutate. Using the flashlight, he started looking around for it. After a few minutes he discovered it under a bench.

  He reached underneath the bench and picked it up. Stu wasn't a gun guy, but Phil had taken him out to the range a few times and he had seen a few videos on YouTube, so he had a pretty good idea of how to use it. Unfortunately there were no bullets left in the magazine, and only one in the chamber.

  Great. Just great.

  Although it made him uncomfortable, he checked Virge's body, searching through the man's pockets, looking for more magazines or, perhaps, for some clue as to what was going on. The only thing he found, however, was a crumpled-up dollar bill. He sighed.

  But then he stopped, frowning. What kind of dollar bill was this? There was a picture of a unfamiliar bearded man in the center, and in place of "The United States of America", it read "Union of Astria." Blinking in surprise, he flipped the bill over and smoothed it out. The back of the bill was decorated with a building he had never seen before, and the legend beneath it read, "Newton Memorial."

  Union of Astria? Where was that? Somewhere in Europe?

  He didn't have time to think about it. He stuffed the bill in his pocket and tried to decide what to do next.

  He spotted a bathroom on the other side of the platform. He thought the bathroom might be a good place to hide -- he was sure he wasn't alone down here; he could hear the occasional moan and groan in the distance -- so he walked over to the entrance and entered it, cautiously, shining the flashlight into the deep darkness.

  The bathroom was as filthy as the rest of the platform; there was garbage (from an overturned wastebasket) all over the floor, and blood on one of the walls.

  He was extremely thirsty from all the walking and sweating he had been doing, so he immediately checked the sink, to see if the water was still working. It wasn't, which wasn't surprising, but which was disappointing.

  He looked at himself in the broken mirror. He looked terrible -- his face was pale and drenched with sweat, and his dark hair was hanging limply over his face. It was pretty long; he had been meaning to get a haircut.

  And then he noticed his eyes. Stu's eyes had been a deep, dark brown before, but now...now they were a pale blue.

  He gasped and stepped away from the mirror, and it took him a moment to gather his courage and examine the change more closely. There was no doubt about it -- his eyes had turned blue somehow, and an unusual shade of blue, besides. The color reminded him of...

  He stopped. Virge's eyes had been the same striking color.

  He touched the spot on his forehead where Virge had touched him. What had happened in that moment? Stu had seen a flash of light, and had felt dizzy for a second, but...what was going on here? What had Virge done to him?

  He was studying his strange new eye color in the mirror, and wondering what it all meant, when he suddenly heard a sound -- a kind of gurgling noise -- coming out of the bathroom stall behind him. Startled, he spun around, tightening his grip on Virge's gun.

  He heard the sound again -- an unmistakable gurgle, like someone gargling water. Slowly, his heart beating furiously in his chest, he took a step forward, reaching out with his free hand to push open up the door to the stall.

  Before he had even touched it, however, the door exploded open on its own and a rotting zombie, its head practically lolling off it neck, burst through it, arms extended, reaching for him. Panicking, Stu opened fire, striking it in the center of its chest. It staggered back a step.

  And that was when Stu noticed something very, very strange -- the words "Level 1 Zombie" were hanging above the zombie's head. It was like something out of a video game. The words were glowing brightly, and they followed the zombie's movements, moving with the zombie as it staggered around.

  This was so strange and absurd that in spite of the danger, Stu actually did a double-take. Was he seeing things? Was he going insane?

  But there was little time to think about it, because the zombie was still coming; that blast to the chest had only stopped it for a moment. Anxious to avoid being bitten, Stu dropped the gun and tried to slam the door to the stall shut, but the zombie was ferocious, and too strong for Stu to contain. It clawed its way out and reached for Stu again, grabbing for him, trying to bite him. Stu found himself grappling with the thing, trying desperately to keep it at arm's length, trying desperately to keep it from leaning in close and biting him. The zombie was absolutely nasty -- it smelled like sewage, and its face was a rotted horror. Its head had been cut off halfway; Stu could see its ripped-out throat and severed arteries, which were oozing blood.

  The zombie pushed him up against the sink, its loose head flapping around almost comically. The words "Level 1 Zombie" were still floating, quite unaccountably, over its head.

  Stu somehow managed to wrestle the zombie back into the center of the room, and for several seconds they struggled there, both of them trying to find purchase on the slippery wet floor. Stu finally slipped, falling to one knee, but this put the zombie off balance, and it started to fall on top of him, all the while making that horrible gurgling sound. Rather than allow himself to be pinned under the zombie, Stu grabbed its legs just below the waist and, with a tremendous effort, heaved up on it, lifting it off its feet and flipping it over his back. The zombie landed on the bathroom floor, splayed out, one of its eyeballs now jangling out of its socket.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Stu surged to his feet, ripped the broken bathroom mirror off the wall, and before the zombie could get back up, used the jagged shard of glass still attached to the frame like a guillotine, pressing down with it, using it to slice through the remainder of the zombie's neck. He had to spend a few horrible seconds sawing it back and forth, but the technique proved effective; the zombie soon went still.

  Stu dropped the mirror, nauseated by what he had just done.

  The words that had been hanging above the zombie's head vanished. But then, to his further surprise, a whole screen opened up right in front of his eyes. It read:

  Level 1 Zombie defeated!

  Level Up! 1-2

  Gained 1 SP!

  Access Menu?

  And there were buttons for "Yes" and "No" underneath the words "Acess Menu?"

  Stu, tired from the fight and wondering if he had gone completely insane, spent several seconds just staring at the screen without touching it. It seemed to be floating in the air, just in front of his face, but it was insubstantial; his fingers passed through the edge of the screen as though it wasn't there.

  What was this? Some sort of augmented reality system? It couldn't be real...could it?

  Had he become trapped in some sort of video game? Had everything that had happened to him over the last few hours been some kind of simulation? Was his body strapped to some kind of chair in the real world, while his mind was stuck in this hellish, virtual-reality zombie fantasy?

  It was a lot to take in. Unnerved, he took a step back, away from the screen...but it followed him, maintaining the same distance from his face.

  He started to hear some groaning cries in the distance -- more zombies. Quickly, he ducked inside one of the bathroom stalls and closed the door shut. The screen followed him in, still hanging there, waiting for a response.

  He sat down on the toilet. With great trepidation, he reached out and touched the "Yes" button on the screen.

  Immediately, a whole series of displays flashed open around him. Their sudden appearance startled him -- he was still on edge, after that zombie attack -- but he was able to maintain his composure. Curious, he began studying the screens.

  One screen, at the very top, read, "ICON System V. 1.0." Hadn't Virge mentioned something about an ICON system? He tried tapping the words, hoping for some kind of explanation, but nothing happened. What the hell was an ICON system?

  He studied the other screens. The main one, which was hovering directly in front of him, read:

  Stuart Brakely

  Level 2 "Noob"

  HP: 25

  And this was followed by a set of statistics denoting his strength, defense, speed, stamina, and intelligence. All of the stats, except for intelligence, were embarrassingly low, in the single digits.

  Stu played a lot of video games, so none of this stuff was unfamiliar territory; however, seeing it applied in real life was very, very strange. He felt like he was dreaming. And "Noob"? What did that mean?

  Another screen was labeled "Skills." Curious, he tapped the screen to investigate it further. As soon as he touched the button, a message popped up: "Gained 1 SP! Allocate?" He tapped the "Yes" button beneath it.

  This brought up a gigantic screen full of little circular icons -- pictures of crossed swords, guns, wings, and other shapes and suggestions; these, evidently, were the available skills. There were hundreds of them, and each one had a little legend beneath it, explaining what the skill was and how it worked. He scrolled through the list, which seemed to go on forever. There were skills called "Boulder Smasher", "Guns Blazing", "Turtle", "Nice Landing", and "Chainsaw Ballet", all of which sounded intriguing, but these required dozens of "SP" to purchase, and he only had a single point. He moved back up to the top of the list, looking for a skill he could actually afford.

  There were only three: "Night Vision", "Artful Dodge", and "Silence", all of which cost only a single point. He looked at the descriptions.

  "Night Vision" would allow him to see in the dark, for a maximum duration of thirty minutes. It could only be used once a day. "Artful Dodge" would enable him to slip through a crowd of zombies; it could be used twice a day. And "Silence" would allow him to move in perfect silence; this was another skill that could only be used for thirty minutes each day. According to the descriptions, the usage counter for these skills would reset at midnight.

  Would these "skills" really work? How would he go about activating them? The whole thing seemed like a fantasy.

  He finally settled on Night Vision, which he thought would be useful in these dark subway tunnels. Artful Dodge might come in handy, too, but he had no desire to get close to a crowd of zombies, and he didn't think he needed Silence; he was already capable of moving pretty quietly.

  He hesitated for a moment, his finger hovering over the Night Vision icon. Finally, figuring he had nothing to lose, he went ahead and pressed it, allocating his single skill point.

  A message popped up that read, "Night Vision Acquired! Activate from Skill List." And with that, the "Skills" screen disappeared.

  He spent a few more minutes sorting through the menus, but didn't really find anything else that looked useful. He started closing them down, one by one, until only the main menu, showing his name and basic stats, remained. Then he closed that one, too.

  He frowned. How was he supposed to go about activating the Night Vision skill? For that matter, how was he supposed to open up these menus again, if he needed them? He reached out with his hand, touching the air where the screen had been...

  And suddenly a small screen, much smaller than any of the others, popped up in his field of vision. It showed his name, his current HP, and two buttons: "Menu" and "Skill List." He had no idea how he had summoned this screen, but he touched the Skill List button, anyway, to see what would happen.

  Unsurprisingly, the only listed skill was Night Vision. He tapped it.

  The whole world brightened instantly. He could see everything in the bathroom stall with perfect clarity now.

  Well, it worked. That was something. He closed the little screen, and then, experimentally, he reached out again, trying to bring it back. It reappeared, but there was a little timer at the top of it now, which was counting down from thirty minutes. This, he supposed, was the amount of the time he had left until the Night Vision skill ran out.

  He played around with the screens and menus for several more minutes, trying to figure out how they all worked. He found that he could summon the small screen simply by thinking about it, and reaching out with his hand. There was something strangely intuitive about it.

  Why had he suddenly started seeing these menus, though? What had happened to him? It must have been Virge, he decided; the man must have done something to him, given him access to this strange "ICON" system somehow. It had probably happened when the dying man had touched his forehead.

  It was interesting, certainly. But having no idea how it all worked, or why Virge had given him this power, it frightened him, too. He had been thrown in the deep end. He didn't know what the ICON system was; he didn't know how these zombies and monsters had come about; he didn't even know where he was. Had he entered another reality, when he had stepped through that portal? Another world? A world where things like the ICON system were commonplace? Such a thing was scarcely conceivable, but...

  He took the crumpled-up dollar bill out of his pocket and looked at it again; he could see it much better now with the Night Vision skill activated. The Astrian Union...was that where he was?

  Virge had told him that this Dr. Snowe had the ability to send him home. He had told him to go a city called Lon Halos. Would he find the answers to his questions there?

  He sighed. Dr. Snowe and Lon Halos would have to wait -- he was tired, thirsty, confused, not a little terrified, and currently hiding in a bathroom stall in a city full of zombies. He was surrounded on all sides. His first priority was survival.

  He put the dollar bill back in his pocket, took a deep breath, and considered his next move.