Then one of the claws knocked the gun from his hand and sent it sliding across the ground. The other claw slammed into Boothe’s nose.
Boothe takes 2 DAMAGE.
Boothe HP - 4/6
His vision went blurry, blackness creeping in from the sides. More blows rained down on him as he struggled to reach for his pistol. Another landed solidly with his face.
Boothe takes 2 DAMAGE.
Boothe HP - 2/6
A claw came down around his throat. Pincers began closing, squeezing, cutting into his skin.
Then a red laser shot through the mutant’s skull from the side, piercing through bone and brain. A tiny wisp of smoke rose from the mutant’s burnt skin before all its muscles went slack and it collapsed on top of Boothe.
He pushed the corpse to the side and said “Thanks,” to his drone, floating nearby. Had he even ordered the drone to attack the mutant, or had it done that on its own? Everything had happened so fast, he wasn’t sure.
He didn’t have time to think about that now. Gunfire rang out from all around him. A fire burned in the house across the street, quickly consuming the dry wood and filling the area with black smoke.
“I need some help guys!” Cthulwho said. “They have me trapped up in this watchtower.”
“I’m on my way,” Scarlett said.
Boothe took a moment to use a medkit his wounds, then grabbed his rifle and cautiously rounded the corner towards the watchtower.
Medkit used (+4 HP)
Boothe HP - 6/6
Scarlett ran out of the open doorway just in front of Boothe. Her face was blood-spattered and a gunshot wound in her thigh made her walk with a limp.
“You’re injured,” Boothe said. “Use your medkit.”
“I’m fine. Got to help Cthulwho.”
“I’ll deal with him. You heal.”
Boothe ran past her as she stopped and leaned against the wall.
“Be careful,” she said, pulling her medkit out and getting to work on the wound.
Boothe crossed the street and made his way towards Cthulwho. Fire from the burning house sent waves of heat across his face, then he saw the base of the watchtower. Four bandits fired up through the floorboards of the tower. Cthulwho couldn’t get a shot to fire back, and instead scrambled to try to stay out of the line of fire. With all the bandits clumped together like this, unaware of Boothe’s presence, it should be easy to land a few shots. Boothe flipped a switch on his rifle, changing it to Full Auto, then took aim and squeezed the trigger.
Unlike with the three-round burst, which kept the rifle fairly steady and the shots close together, the full auto made the rifle kick back hard, each shot knocking his aim off target a bit. Many shots went wide, but two bandits fell dead. The other two turned towards Boothe, took cover behind the watchtower’s posts, and opened fire.
Boothe ducked behind the wall and the bullets flew uselessly past him. They kept firing though, leaving Boothe no chance to pop out and retaliate.
“Stay in cover until I give the signal,” Cthulwho said.
Boothe heard a whoosh, like an 18-wheeler passing in the opposite lane on the highway. He felt a tickling in his head, as if something were trying to dig into his brain. Then the two bandits began screaming.
“Now!” Cthulwho said.
Boothe rounded the corner and saw the bandits standing in place, motionless, their guns hanging down to their side, their hands up to their heads as if their skulls were about to burst open. He quickly aimed and fired. The bullets ripped into them, killing them both and knocking them backwards to the ground.
With the enemies dead, Boothe leaned against the wall of the nearest house, catching his breath. Cthulwho made his way down the ladder and limped towards him. He was wounded as well, bloody bullet holes in his legs. When he was ten yards away, his eyes grew wide and he pointed.
“Boothe, watch out!”
Boothe spun to see another lobster-clawed mutant closing in on him. It ran down the clearing between the two rows of houses, charging in great leaps. The glow of the nearby fires illuminated its skin, making it appear almost neon and translucent.
Boothe raised his weapon, but he wouldn’t be fast enough. The mutant would be on him before he could get a shot off.
Then, with the rev of an engine, the Falcon slammed into the mutant from the side, sending its body flying. It landed nearly fifty yards away in a mangled mess of broken bones.
Scarlett slowed the Falcon to a stop next to Boothe and Cthulwho.
“Thought I’d bring the car around,” she said. “So we could get all the loot.”
“Thanks,” Boothe said with a smile.
He sent his drone to search the place for more enemies, but found the area empty. They spent the next half-hour looting the bodies and the houses around the camp that the fire hadn’t consumed. While looting, Boothe got a look at the carnage inside the house that Scarlett had cleared on her own. He couldn’t even tell how many bodies there were, they were so torn and scattered. After all was said and done, they came out with quite a bit of armor and weapons to sell back at New Wichita, some medkits to replace the ones they had been forced to use, a few grenades, and each of them found something useful to keep for themselves.
Scarlett claimed a pair of boots that would make her run faster and jump higher, Cthulwho found an overcoat that obscured his appearance, making it more difficult for enemies to hit him, and Boothe found a Grapple Glove.
“What the hell is a Grapple Glove?” Cthulwho asked.
ITEM OBTAINED
Grapple Glove - Hand Slot - Light Armor
Durability 85% - Value $470
Armor + 1
This glove contains a small grappling hook and 100 feet of thin ultra-strong cable. When the button on the palm and forefinger are pressed simultaneously, the propulsion system inside the capsule on the back of the hand will launch the grappling hook. When the buttons are pressed again, the powerful winch inside will pull the cable back in, or pull the wearer to where the hook is anchored.
Boothe slipped it onto his right hand. It looked like a normal black leather glove, but was quite a bit heavier, as the back of the hand was thickened and had what looked almost like a wide gun barrel going from his wrist to his knuckles.
Boothe pointed towards the roof of one of the houses and made a fist. He pressed the buttons on his palm and his forefinger simultaneously, and the grappling hook shot out, a line of black cable behind it. The hook landed on the roof, bounced a couple times, then caught.
“That’s pretty freaking cool,” Cthulwho said.
“Yeah?” Boothe said. “How about this?”
He smiled and pressed the buttons again. Immediately, his arm jerked forward, yanking him off the ground and pulling him through the air towards the roof of the house. He screamed as he slammed into the wall with a crunch. The glove twisted his arm and continued pulling him backwards onto the roof until he lay on his back on the shingles there and the grappling hook retracted back into the glove.
Boothe takes 2 DAMAGE.
Boothe HP - 4/6
“Ow,” Boothe said.
“Very impressive,” Scarlett said, laughing. “I can’t wait to see how you get down.”
4
Back at the Eagle’s Nest, Boothe, Scarlett, and Cthulwho walked into Victor’s office across the hallway from the conference room. Victor sat behind a large desk with a computer monitor in the middle. A shelf filled with leather-bound books stood behind him, and a green metal filing cabinet was shoved into the corner. Two highbacked chairs sat across the desk from him. The room was sparse and classy, looking more like a school principal’s office than some rebellion leader trying to reverse the Apocalypse.
“Back so soon?” Victor asked. “And all still alive. Very good.”
“We destroyed the Emporia camp,” Cthulwho said. “All the bandits are dead and the buildings are burned.”
Victor nodded. “Thorough. I like that.” He reached into the drawer of his desk a
nd took out an envelope with Atomic Massacre printed in large lettering on the front.
“Your reward,” he said, handing the envelope to Cthulwho. “We’ll contact you again soon with your next mission.”
MISSION COMPLETE: Emporia Bandit Camp
REWARD: $900
Boothe gains 1000XP!
They left Victor’s office and split the money from the envelope, giving them $300 each. Boothe added the bills to his quickly bulging pockets.
“We still have all that stuff in the car,” Scarlett said. “We should sell that too.”
“Can you guys do that without me?” Cthulwho asked. “I kind of need to log off.”
“It’s only eight o’clock,” Boothe said.
“I know. I need to log off though. Sorry guys.”
Boothe could hear other voices talking in the background on Paul’s side. Then laughing.
“Okay Paul,” Scarlett said. “See you tomorrow.”
“Cool. Bye guys,” Cthulwho said, then he disappeared entirely and his name went dark on Boothe’s Friends list.
“Well that leaves just us,” Scarlett said.
“Just us,” Boothe agreed.
“I’m nearly to level seven. You want to go hunting north of the city? We can stay close to the walls so that the guards can help if we run into anything too tough.”
“Sure,” Boothe said. “Should we sell the junk in the car first?”
“Yes, let’s go shopping.”
They took the elevator up and walked through the bar, then down the streets of New Wichita together. Boothe’s mind wandered. What was Paul doing anyways? Who were those guys laughing in the background? Was Paul hanging out with other people now? It hurt, because only a few months ago they had been best friends and Paul wouldn’t have chosen anybody else over hanging out with him. If Paul wasn’t his friend anymore, did he even have any friends?
Scarlett was as close as it came, and he didn’t even know her real name.
“You alright?” she asked. “You’re being quiet.”
“I’m okay,” Boothe replied.
They walked back to the car, took all their gear out of the trunk, and hauled it down the street towards the trade shop that they had visited before. There, they waited in line until they could dump it all into the bins at the front. The man in the metal hockey mask pressed buttons on his computer. The buy amount popped up onto the LED screen above the bin: $600. Boothe quickly nodded in agreement, and the man began counting out their money. Split three ways, that gave Boothe another $200 dollars – not bad for a bunch of junk.
They looked along the walls of the shop, but the things that were for sell there were all junk. The same kind of stuff that they had just sold: worn armor and weapons, no better than what they were wearing.
“I wonder if there’s some kind of specialist around here who sells better equipment?” Scarlett asked.
“You’re looking for Andre,” a robot who waited in the line said. “He’s across the street and north a bit.”
“Thanks!” Scarlett said. “Let’s go check it out.”
Boothe walked with her in the direction the robot had indicated, and they soon found Andre’s Forge, a small shop with very little shelf space and no line. When Boothe saw the prices on things, he understood why.
“I don’t buy,” a deep voice said. “Only sell.”
Andre held a red-hot blade against the surface of an anvil with a pair of huge tongs and brought a hammer crashing down onto it, sending out a shower of sparks. He looked so much like a man that it took Boothe a moment to realize that he was a mutant. He had no tentacles or claws, but his muscles were abnormally large, like a balloon inflated until it was about to burst. His head sat in the middle of his shoulders, looking tiny between those enormous muscles. The bottom of his face was covered by a bushy gray beard and the top by a pair of welding goggles.
“Wow…” Scarlett said under her breath. She reached up to take a beautiful silver axe from the wall.
“Don’t touch unless you have the money,” Andre said, bringing his hammer down again.
The price tag above the axe read $250.
“I have the money,” Scarlett said, and took the axe into her hands. She ran a finger down the blade and whistled under her breath.
“Oh you do?” Andre asked, finally putting the hammer down. He lifted his goggles to his forehead, revealing a pair of solid blue eyes. No whites, no pupils, just blue. “Well you’ve picked a nice weapon there, miss.”
“I want it,” she said. She pulled the money out of her wallet and handed it over, no questions asked.
“Ha!” Andre laughed. “I like a woman who knows what she wants. You come back any time.”
He put the money away into a metal box near his anvil, then he turned to Boothe. “And what about you? Do you know what you want?”
The weapons on the wall were all melee - medieval stuff like swords, axes, and spears, along with baseball bats, machetes, and a particularly wicked looking chainsaw. There were some sets of armor as well - armor made from leather, thick plastic, chain links, and even some made of large steel plates. Who could even wear that stuff? Boothe liked the leather armor he was wearing - it was comfortable and offered a bit of protection. He felt like he needed the mobility. In a fight, he saw himself in more of a support role, directing others with his superior vision, and offering help where he could. He needed to be able to move easily to fulfill that role.
“I don’t think I need any of this right now,” Boothe said.
“Suit yourself,” Andre replied, sitting back down behind his anvil. “Have a nice day.”
Scarlett handed him her old hatchet, “I don’t really need it anymore. Maybe you can use the materials?”
“Sure, miss” Andre said with a big smile. His teeth were tiny and pointed, like a piranha’s. “Thank you.”
With that, they left the shop.
“I’d like to head down to Caden’s again sometime,” Boothe said. “Unless there’s some kind of tech shop around here. I don’t think I need weapons or armor right now, but upgrading the drone might be good. Give it a little armor or something, in case it gets shot again.”
“Probably a good idea,” Scarlett said. “Need to protect Marty.”
The drone hovering over his shoulder seemed to bob in agreement.
“Marty?” Boothe asked.
“Oh, that’s what I call your drone. Did you have a name for it?”
“No,” Boothe said. “It’s just a tool. Do you have a name for your shotgun?”
“Yep,” she said. “MasterBlaster.”
Boothe laughed. “Okay. Marty works for me.”
They made their way to the northern gate and waited while the guards opened it to let them pass. Then they walked through together into the danger zone of northern New Wichita.
“So what are we hunting?” Boothe asked.
“I don’t know,” Scarlett said. “I put a point into Survival last skill upgrade, and it said that I could skin animals for their hides to make and repair armor.”
“That seems useful.”
“Why don’t you send Marty to check out the area?”
He sent the drone into the air and searched for targets. At first nothing came up, then the drone highlighted two forms moving in a clearing nearby.
“Mutstags,” Boothe said, pointing. “Over there.”
“What’s a mutstag?” Scarlett asked.
“No idea. Let’s go see.”
They crept around the side of a broken, hollow building towards the clearing. Boothe got a good view of the mutstags then. They looked like deer, but had a mass of tentacles bursting from their spines and flailing wildly in the air. Instead of antlers, a spiny mass of bones fanned out from their heads, connecting with each other in a pattern that reminded Boothe of the strings of a dreamcatcher.
Weird,” Scarlett whispered. “Think we can take them?”
“They’re deer,” Boothe replied. “I feel bad about opening up on them wi
th an assault rifle.”
“You’ll feel better once we level up to seven.”
“Maybe,” Boothe smiled. “Okay, I’m convinced.”
He aimed his rifle at one of the mutstags. They did not seem to notice Boothe and Scarlett at all, instead, standing with their heads lowered, eating something from the ground.
Scarlett gave him a nod, then Boothe squeezed the trigger. Two shots tore through the mutstag, ripping great holes in its neck and head. It collapsed to the ground, dead. The other one lifted its head and looked directly at Boothe. Its mouth was stained red and dripping with blood. Instead of fleeing, like Boothe would have expected a deer to do, it roared like some horrible mixture of lion and elephant, then it lunged towards him. The spiny antlers above its head suddenly burst to life, electricity shooting between them in bolts, crackling with energy. The flailing tentacles on its back whipped into a frenzy; the tips of each of them peeled back like a banana, revealing a twisted barb inside.
“Down!” Scarlett yelled, pushing Boothe to the side. She aimed her shotgun and fired, blasting a hole in the monster’s chest. Despite the damage, it kept charging and plowed into her with its electric antlers. She fell backwards and the thing was on top of her, stabbing at her with its barbed tentacles. One pierced through the leather armor she wore and sunk into her shoulder. She cursed in pain.
Then Boothe pulled himself out of his panic and unfroze. He flipped the switch on the rifle over to single-shot, aimed precisely as to not hit Scarlett, and fired a shot into beast’s bony chest. The mutstag fell to its side, and the lightning shooting between its antlers fizzled out.
Scarlett lay motionless, one of the tentacles still jabbed into her shoulder and the leather armor on her chest burned from the electricity.
LEVEL UP!
Boothe reaches Level 7!
Ability point gained. Skill point gained.
Assign available points.
Apocalypse 2020: A Wasteland LitRPG Page 15