by R K Billiau
“Arnold! Chief!” I shouted. The tribe looked up as we drew to a halt, smiling faces replaced with fearful worry.
“What is it now?” someone said.
“Tim is coming! We have to get everyone safe!” I said. Arnold came out of the cave. “Chief! We think Tim is on the way. Cora spawned and ran off, and by now he has to know we’ve screwed up his death trap.”
“Have you gotten everyone attuned?” he said.
“We waited as long as we could at the spawn points, after no one came out for a while we left, so you’ll have to check your list to see.”
His eyes went blank. “We’ve done it!” he shouted. “Every tribe member is attuned. Come into the cave everyone!” He ran inside and we all followed, the food forgotten.
Inside, the old fire pit had another smaller fire going. Arnold sidled up to it and clapped his hands. “Everyone! If I can have your attention please!” He waited, and when the whole tribe was silent and surrounding him, he continued. “My tribe mates, this journey has been difficult. We have faced terrible adversity at every corner since we came here through the tutorial zone. Some have died so many times the System offered them a way out and they chose it. I don’t fault them, who would choose to live the way we have had to live these last few weeks? But I have great news.”
He held up his hands for dramatic effect. “We all have cores, and thus everyone is attuned now, so no longer will the game itself try to hurt us. No longer will our corpses raise into zombies, and no longer will we spawn in the wilderness! Now we can create a Tribal spawn point!”
Everyone’s face lit up. Chatter broke out as hope embraced the group like a warm blanket. “Hang on, hang on. I know it’s exciting, but we have a decision to make. I have thought long about this,” Arnold said. “I believe we should choose this cave as our spawn point. It’s been a good home for us and offered much protection. We can fortify it and turn it into a stronghold for our tribe. Does anyone object to this?”
I certainly had no objections. I knew nothing about what lay beyond the valley, anyway. We all had to start somewhere. Looking around it seemed no one else did either. “Okay then, I’m not sure what will happen when I do this, but here we go!” His eyes lost focus again and a System message popped up.
Congratulations! Your tribe has advanced from: Primitive to Basic!
Your tribe now has a new spawn point!
Your tribe now has access to: Class Paths - what path will your class take?
Continue to grow your tribe to unlock the next tier and choose a Tribal Path!
The Tribal buff faded and reappeared, I hovered over it to see the regeneration rate increased from 10% to 12% and the attribute buff now gave a small buff for collection skills. I was curious about the new Class Paths and Tribal Path so took a peek at my character sheet but found nothing new there. Perhaps it didn’t apply to me since I had a Unique class.
Someone gave a great ‘whoop!’ breaking us out of our character sheet reverie. We all joined in cheering. This was a huge first step after what felt like falling backwards since the tribe had been formed. We had all been here for different lengths of time, but no one had had a minute to breathe.
Arnold let us celebrate, then raised his hands again. “I know, I know, we have a lot to be excited about. But we have one more piece of business to take care of. Tim is coming, again, and this time I think he intends to wipe us out.” He told everyone about Cora and her plans to obliterate the tribe so she could have a chance at becoming the Chief. That got a lot of hard looks and stony faces at the thought of her in charge of anything.
“Like hell would we ever let that happen. She loved to sweet talk us while we were in Tim’s camp, then would laugh when we did something wrong and Tim had us killed by his zombies again,” one of the Gatherers said. “What do we need to do?”
Arnold nodded at her. “We are going to end this once and for all. I don’t know how much time we’ve got, but anyone who can gather, we need long sticks we can turn into spears. Crafters, we need you to make those spears, and any armor that you can from the hides we’ve collected so far. This may be a tribe, but it’s not a tribe of nudists.” He waved his hand over the many of us wearing only the System provided underwear. “Hunters, I need you to learn any skills that can help us defend ourselves. I also need some volunteers to be lookouts so we can get as much warning as possible to their arrival.”
He clapped his hands. “Let’s end this!”
Chapter 31
Almost a full day went by before we saw Tim, and when we did, my heart sunk a little. We were still a tribe running around in our underwear. We had made plenty of crude spears even if they were terrible weapons. Steve and I were patrolling outside the cave when it happened.
“Oh, daaaamn,” Steve said when he saw them coming out of the forest and down the hill in our direction. He was right. Coming toward us was the largest horde of zombies we had ever seen. It was a river of zombies, and we up it with no paddle. I had no idea where he had even gotten them all. “How are there so many, man? We’re like, dead, man. Dead!” he said, his voice quivering and coloring draining from his face.
“Keep it together Steve,” I said, my own voice shaky. “Let’s get back to the camp and let them know it’s game time.” I had flashbacks of the last time we tried to defend the cave against zombies. It had not gone well then. We were more prepared now, with many of us having fought against the zombies already. We had levels, we had some weapons, and this time, we had morale. I was hopeful. Perhaps it was a misplaced hope, but I wasn’t about to give up. We owed Tim and Cora some serious payback.
We rushed back into the cave and before I could even say anything Steve shouted. “We’re gonna die! He’s got like, a thousand of them!” Way to go, Steve. That broke the camp. There was a general panic and I watched as Arnold made a gesture with his hands. A buff appeared in my buff screen;
Tribal Peace - Reduce chance of panic.
That was sure handy. The tribe calmed down and Arnold filled the silence. “Keep calm! We don’t even know what they saw yet!” He looked at Steve and me. “What did you see, and how long have we got?”
Steve opened his mouth, and I covered it with my hand. “They’re close, maybe 20 minutes? Maybe longer, the zombies are slow. There is a ridiculous amount. Maybe close to a hundred. I have no idea where they all came from.”
Arnold swore like I had never heard him swear before. Then he took a deep breath. “Alright everybody, it’s showtime! Hunters up front, spears ready. Throwers behind and casters behind that. Kai you’re our defense if they break through, Madison you’re on healing duty, save your Boost for dire moments. Sarah and you Shaman who can, give us a crowd control rotation. I want clear communication with all of you about when your Spirit Shock is recharging. Hudson, you keep your map up and be our eyes out there. Throw rocks as often as you can get a clear shot. Everyone got it? Remember, the spawn point is behind us, so there’s no way you’ll get caught in the death trap again. If you die, spawn as fast as you can and get back in the fight. You’ll be less effective with the debuff but at least you’ll be a body to help. Don’t worry about XP loss, after this is all over, we can get out there and grind it back up!”
Everyone took their places as Madison formed a party and set up a squad formation. I went to Arnold. “Should we send someone out to talk to him? Maybe he can be reasoned with?”
Arnold shook his head. “If he could be reasoned with he wouldn’t be here with an army. Besides, he might just be under Cora’s control and we know what she wants.”
“Still, I think maybe we should give it a chance, wouldn’t it be better than a losing battle? We’re outnumbered a dozen to one. What would be better for the tribe?”
He gave it some thought. “How fond of your XP are you?” he asked.
“What do you mean?” I had a sinking feeling he was volunteering me.
“If you think he can be stopped by talking, I’ll let you have the conversation.” Damnit, I was ri
ght. Ugh.
“Why me? You’re the Chief, shouldn’t you talk to him?”
“A couple reasons. He really doesn’t like me. Also, what if he has Cora with him? I’ve already shown that I am susceptible to her power. You either aren’t or your dislike of her is so strong that it overrides her power, so you are a better choice. And not to put too fine a point on it, but it’s not like we would miss you for the battle. Sure, having your map tell us what’s going on would be helpful but other than that you are kind of expendable.”
“Ah, I see. This must be that whole ‘Leader making hard decisions for the good of the group’ thing I’ve heard about.”
“Yes, except it wasn’t that hard.”
“Gee thanks.”
He laughed. “Come on, I’m just playing. You know you have been invaluable to this tribe. And when he kills you, thanks to everything you’ve done, you’ll spawn safe and sound right behind us.” I was surprised at how nonchalant Arnold was about this. Maybe he was nervous about seeing Cora.
He continued. “This whole thing is scary, but let’s keep some perspective, the worst that can happen is we all die horribly and have to restart as a Primitive class possibly ruled over by a Narcissistic sociopath who sleeps her way to power and her pet Necromancer for a hundred years.”
“Wow man, you have a really dark perspective.”
“Yeah, well, I haven’t been played for a fool like that in a long time.” He raised his eyebrow at me. “Seriously, if you think you can talk him down go for it, I’ll be here waiting for your spawn.”
I nodded. “I think I will. I’d like to give everything a chance. It’s not like we have much to lose by trying.”
He clapped me on the shoulder. “Unless he decides to capture you instead of killing you.” He smiled, looking a little unstable. “Good luck, I hope you can do it, but we’ll be ready if you can’t.”
I left him then and walked to Madison. “Uh oh. You have that look,” she said as I approached.
“What look?” I asked. I honestly had no idea what she was talking about.
“That look that says, ‘I’m going to do something stupid that will probably kill me but end up weirdly successful.’ If you try to kiss me again, I’ll punch you.” She raised a fist and I couldn’t tell if she was joking or not. “What are you planning?”
“It’s not stupid, not like the last time, anyway. I’m just going to talk to Tim. If we can avoid a huge battle and just live in peace, wouldn’t that be better for everyone?”
“Sounds the same level of stupid to me.” She winked. “What do you think the chances of that are? Even if he will talk, what about Cora?”
“That’s the same thing Arnold said.”
“Well he’s right. What’s the chance that I could get you to stay behind?”
“Pretty low. I mean, I’m sure there is a way you could convince me, but you just threatened to punch me for it sooooo….”
She gave me that huge smile of hers and gently popped her fist into my chest while rolling her eyes. “Oh stop it!”
I grabbed her hand and held on to it looking her in the eyes, allowing a serious moment to come through. “I’m just sick of all this, this misery everyone has gone through. This should be a game world, a place we can enjoy, and people like Cora and Tim have been ruining it for everyone for so long. Maybe I can convince them. Tell them everything I’ve seen and learned and turn them around.”
She looked at her hand in mine and pulled it back. I let go. She stood on her tip toes to bring her face closer to mine, her smile fading into a severe look.
“I understand, I want the same thing. We should all be working together to make the best life we can.” She turned her head away looking to the side, then looked back up at me. Her eyes glowed in the firelight with wetness. “You kissed me last time you ran off to help everyone… I told you I wasn’t ready for anything like that yet…”
My heart bottomed out leaving me feeling like I needed to gasp for air. “I know… I’m sorry, I just…”
“Shh let me talk. I told you I wasn’t ready, and I meant it. I’m not ready…” I felt like if my heart dropped any more I would end up tripping over it. She leaned in, her lips so close to my ear I could feel her breath. “But I liked it,” she whispered and lightly kissed my cheek. She pulled back to study my shocked face, a grin of pure joy overcoming my features. She laughed and punched me harder in the bicep. “Go out there and do something stupid.” She turned and went back to the formation to help ready the tribe.
Congratulations! You have increased your Emotion attribute!
I watched her go because, yeah, I really liked her. As I turned, I caught Kai’s eye. He gave me a smirk and raised an eyebrow. I shrugged and walked toward the entrance. “I’ll let you know when they get closer,” I told my fellow tribe members and I walked out into the sun.
It actually wasn’t sunny. It was drizzling and overcast, like a January day in Seattle. That seemed fitting for what was coming. I walked towards where the horde was hoping I would get to see Tim and Cora before I was eaten. Again. They were now in a haphazard line, long enough to fade behind the hill they were crossing. At the head was a trio of zombies with Tim behind them. I waved.
He pushed the zombies on faster, I had never seen zombies run before but the little group of three he was with did. The rest of the horde still shambled, but would correct their course to never lose sight of Tim. I stood my ground. I was dead no matter what if that was what they wanted, so there was no point in running. I wished I had changed my title back to Vassal of the Adjudicator so I could use my Character Scan on Tim. Who knows what level he had gotten to. I didn’t know if the zombies gave XP when he hunted with them, but I knew he was higher than me, having not, you know, died over and over and over. And over. I wished I had a white flag. Wasn’t that what you were supposed to use?
He got to me and stopped, his zombies following suit. I sized him up, either for show or for confidence or both, I’m not sure. Truthfully, there wasn’t much ‘sizing up’ to do. The man was short. In fact, nothing about him screamed ‘maniacal villain’ to me. He was empty handed with a boring haircut, soft features on his face, dull eyes. “Where’s Cora?” I asked.
His face turned sour and his dull eyes sharpened. Whew, now he was starting to look more the part. “What is this, a joke?” he asked. I had half a mind to wipe the spit that flew from his mouth off my arm, but I didn’t want to risk any sudden movements.
I was confused. “Uh no…? I came out here to talk to the two of you to see if there is any way we could avoid a conflict. We are all sick of dying and want to find a way for there to just be peace.”
He didn’t look like he believed me. “Well that’s just too bad now isn’t it? I tried being nice. I let anyone who agreed not to fight me, a chance to live. All they had to do was help me as my servants and they wouldn’t be used as zombie resurrection fodder. But you all betrayed me and killed my Cora. Now you’ve gotten her again somehow. I’m going to slaughter you all, and keep you trapped in death for as long as I need zombies. Which, between you and me, will probably be a really long time.”
I was getting nervous. “What do you mean ‘we’ve got her’? We don’t have Cora, the last time we saw her she was running away from us towards you on the plains.”
“Don’t LIE!” He screamed, his face turning red with anger, beads of sweat popping out along his hairline. I don’t think he was all there, he just felt off somehow. “You will all be my unwilling, undead servants! Where IS she!?”
“You still don’t know? We don’t raise as zombies when we die anymore, we figured out how to stop that.” Had Cora hidden this information from him? I didn’t get what was going on here.
“I don’t believe you!” he spat. “Even if it was true, I would still keep you all trapped in my death trap and manually raise you with my magic for what you’ve done. GIVE. ME. CORA. BACK!”
The rest of the zombie horde had caught up to us by this time and I got a go
od look at them. There were a few of the villagers mixed in with the rest of the zombies who all looked like Cora. I looked closer, realizing that they were corpses of Cora brought to life, dozens of them. Hundreds of them. I finally understood what was going on.
“Uhm… you’ve got lots of Cora’s right there…” I gestured toward the horde.
He actually threw his head back and laughed like one of those crazy comic book villains. “That’s the army we raised to slaughter you all! She thought it would be fitting to have her replenish our ranks.”
“Can I make a guess what happened next?” I said. He paused, looking at me, the insanity in his eyes giving way to something much more sinister.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“You used her to raise all these undead, but after you got this many,” I waved my hands toward his zombie pets, “she stopped spawning?”
“Yes! So you admit you know! What have you done with her!?” The amount of spittle flying out of his mouth was gross, especially considering I had no clothes on. I chanced it and wiped off my chest.
“Yeah, I know. She stopped spawning because she reincarnated. When someone dies over a hundred times, they are given the option of reincarnating and can choose somewhere different. She left dude, she took her ball and went home.” The look on his face showed utter incomprehension. He truly didn’t know. “That’s what all those ‘reincarnated’ world event messages are about.”
“No! I don’t believe you! She wouldn’t leave me like that!”
“Yeah, she would. She’s kind of psycho, you must have noticed.” Poking bears is fun.
“No! She would never! Kill him!” That last bit he shouted at his three zombies closest to him who launched themselves at me and proceeded to kill me. Painfully. I mean, I had kind of thought that would happen.
“Will you be rushing off again?” the Adjudicator asked. This time it was a pasty white male with freckles and bright red hair. “I am curious how your tribe will handle this situation.”
“I shouldn’t stay too long, but can I ask you a question?”