Biological Attack

"What's your name?"

"Xiao Fan."

"You have three sets of IV fluids here - one is an anti-inflammatory, one provides nutrition, and the third has painkillers added."

"Okay, thanks Nurse."

"The medicine may irritate your veins a bit, so let it drip slowly. Remember to press the call button when you need the IV changed."

After giving instructions to Xiao Fan, the Nurse left the hospital room.

This room used to isolate infectious disease patients, so many new patients didn't want to stay here. As a result, Xiao Fan was the only one inside, making it fairly quiet.

He looked at his leg in a plaster cast, gazing out the window at the sky that looked like it may rain soon, and thought to himself - I can't wait to be discharged.

"The cast should come off tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be back to normal by then."

"Speaking of which, I've really been unlucky lately. After graduating college, my startup failed and I was left with a pile of debt. My girlfriend broke up with me too."

"During the day, I do computer programming work for clients. At night, I was planning to deliver some packages to make extra cash. I didn't expect to get into a car accident and fracture my leg bone."

The treatment costs for this weren't small either. Thinking about my debt gave Xiao Fan a bit of a headache.

"Oh well, no point dwelling on these worries. I'll play some games to unwind instead."

He reached over and grabbed his laptop from beside the hospital bed. Since he didn't set up the WiFi, he could only play offline games.

He launched a game called Red Alert.

This was an old war game from many years ago. The graphics weren't anything special - just ordinary 2D visuals. But the playability was still pretty good.

The player controls a base vehicle. After deploying it, you can construct various buildings and produce troops of different types. The final goal is to lead your army to conquer the world.

First, Xiao Fan chose his country - China.

Each country in this game had unique advantages and special unit types.

China had the world's most formidable infantry soldiers, with extremely high firing speeds for their weapons.

As the game loaded, Xiao Fan decided to take on the highest difficulty level and face off against seven ruthless enemies across a massive map.

He had never won a match on this difficulty level before. But today, to help him destress, he decided to give it a try.

The game soon commenced and Xiao Fan quickly found himself at a disadvantage. Enemy planes, tanks, and infantry swarmed towards him. It looked like he was about to lose his foothold when the game flashed a warning - the enemy's superweapon, the "Lightning Storm", was incoming!

"What a shame this game doesn't have more complete unit types. It was made over 100 years ago after all. If only I could import all the modern military hardware I have stored on my hard drive into the game. Maybe I'd stand a chance then."

Just as his base was about to be overrun, Xiao Fan decided to exit the game. But at that exact moment, a bolt of lightning suddenly tore through the night sky right outside his window!

An intense brightness lit up just outside, dangerously close to Xiao Fan!

Sparks flew from his computer and his hand gripped the mouse tightly as his body was paralyzed by an electric shock!

"I'm being electrocuted!" That was Xiao Fan's last thought before losing consciousness.

At the same time he blacked out, instead of showing the game over screen, a beam of blue light emerged from the mouse cord and disappeared directly into Xiao Fan's body.

**************

Xiao Fan awoke feeling hungry.

When he came to, the room was dark.

As he opened his eyes and gazed out the gloomy window, it took him a few seconds to realize what had happened.

"I got electrocuted and passed out from the shock."

His stomach growled loudly. As he sat up, he sensed that he had been unconscious for no small amount of time.

"I wonder how long I was out for? Why am I so starving?"

Xiao Fan's hand felt sore. Glancing down, he discovered a huge swollen lump where the IV needle had apparently fallen out at some point.

"What's going on here? Why didn't any Nurses come help remove my IV?"

Xiao Fan felt very uncomfortable. He pressed the call button by the bed with some effort.

The red light flashed to indicate a successful call, but no one came even after a long time.

Having no choice, Xiao Fan took out his phone to check and was stunned to see that it had powered off.

He grabbed his charger to switch his phone back on. When it loaded, he froze in disbelief.

"9 PM on July 22nd!"

"I was passed out for 3 whole days and nights!"

Xiao Fan sensed something was very off here. He wanted to yell for the Nurses but felt that wouldn't be appropriate.

He checked his ankle and felt a tingling sensation - his fracture seemed mostly recovered.

Shifting his plaster-wrapped leg with difficulty, Xiao Fan got out of bed and came up to the room's door.

He was in Shenhai People's Hospital, the ward of a second-tier city hospital that usually had many inpatients. But the hallway outside was exceptionally quiet now.

An eerie, deathly silence!

Xiao Fan slowly gripped the door handle, though his heart rate couldn't help accelerating rapidly.

"Something is definitely wrong here. I need to be cautious."

Rather than opening the door fully, he nudged it slightly ajar to reveal only a slim gap. Peering out with one eye, he didn't even get a chance to take in the scene before being hit with an intense bloody stench!

The smell was so strong he almost vomited.

What came into view next was the darkened bloodstains on the floor and unrecognizable flesh fragments!

Xiao Fan bit his lip tightly to prevent himself from screaming out loud, though the sight before him was incredibly horrifying. After all, he was a grown man in his twenties with a strong mental constitution.

He tried his best to stay calm and poked his head further out into the hall.

Soon he noticed a few people.

At the far end of the corridor, several figures dressed in white coats seemed clustered together, crouching as they stuffed something into their mouths.

Their once pristine coats were now splattered with bloodstains.

"What...what is this madness? Like something out of a Resident Evil biohazard outbreak?"

Before Xiao Fan could investigate further, a sudden roar came from the nurse's station not far behind him!

Glancing back, he saw the nurse who had changed his IVs earlier. Her eyes were now a fiendish red and her face contorted savagely into an expression no longer resembling the cute girl from before.

Upon spotting Xiao Fan, she let out a beastial howl. Blood dripping from her jaws, she stretched out a pair of ebony claws towards Xiao Fan and stumbled towards him with an awkward gait.

Scared witless, Xiao Fan hastily retreated and slammed the door shut, making sure to lock it.

Soon after, banging sounds came against the door as the zombified nurse tried breaking in. Xiao Fan didn't even think - he pushed over a hospital bed to barricade the entrance.

He didn't know how long this would hold, but he realized this room was certainly no longer safe.

Suddenly feeling a stab of pain in his leg, Xiao Fan glanced down to discover that his cast had cracked off at some point.

Sharp twinges shot through his still healing limb. It seemed his fracture wasn't fully mended after all.

"Crap, with my limited mobility it'll be tough to escape on an injured leg."

He was on the 4th floor. Jumping was nearly impossible for Xiao Fan. At the moment, he lay flat atop a hospital bed to make it harder for the creatures outside to break in. Racking his mind urgently, he flipped open his phone hoping to understand what was happening.

But there was no network signal!

The banging against the door intensified. Clearly the nurse zombie's ruckus had drawn more of the undead things wanting to break in!

"What should I do? I'm hurt without supplies, weapons, or food. I'm stranded on the 4th floor while it's the zombie apocalypse outside. Am I doomed to die waiting in here?"

While thinking desperately, Xiao Fan still attempted dialing emergency services to no avail.

As the barricade trembled under the increasingly forceful slams, just as he contemplated ripping off a bedpost leg to battle the zombie hordes, a prompt suddenly echoed in his mind.

"Host's intense will to fight and survive detected. Activating Red Alert protocol!"