by David Payne
____________
“Man, this place looks like my apartment”, said Ted.
We were checking out the supermarket which had long been stripped down. It was something I had never seen before, a supermarket stripped to its bare bones. I had never thought of a supermarket as being empty. It was where you went when you needed stuff, supermarkets were never empty, until the zombie apocalypse I guess.
We were looking for anything that might add to our mana, as well as clues as to where any stockpile of antidotes could be. The aisle was strewn with wrappers and other refuse. I spotted one tin can, open and with a picture of dog on the side.
Item: Dog food. +1 to your mana.
I wasn’t too keen on eating dog food, but I tucked it away in my pocket none the less. Never knock an addition to mana in the mouth.
Sara was walking behind us Ted and I strode up the aisle.
“So were you really in Vietnam?”
Ted smiled at me.
“You think I’m one of those useless jerk-offs that walks the streets wearing camouflage gear and reads ‘Guns and ammo’ magazine?”
“Maybe.”
“Truth be told kid, I’m not a hundred miles from those guys. Last time I was any goddamn use in this world was in the Nam’. Now I’m just an old bum who drowns his sorrows in a bar, telling anybody who’ll listen about the time I took out twenty viet-cong single handed.”
“So what are you doing here then?”
“Because I need the money. I heard about this underground gaming thing, and while I know fuck all about video games, they said that anybody with military experience might have a shot at this thing.”
“Why do you need the money?”
At this question Ted bit his lip and looked away, as if he wasn’t so keen to talk any longer. It was probably best not to press.
“So what about you kid?” He said.
“I want to win, and I want the money.”
“Let me guess, you’re one of those guys who spends all days in his bedroom with his dick in one hand and his controller in the other?”
“Controller? I thought you knew nothing about gaming.”
“I have a s…” Ted stopped again.
“Guys”, said Sara. “I think we’ve pretty much coved the whole supermarket now. Rotten vegetables and dog food are about all we’re going to find.”
“Yeah”, Ted said, “I guess you’re right, and we need to be…”
We halted as we turned the corner into the next aisle. A group of five men and one woman were standing there. I immediately clocked them for what they were. A survivor group struggling to survive, with malnourished bodies, their clothes nothing more than rags, and their eyes looking unusually bright in their blackened faces.
Survivor group: Group stats
Level 6
Mana: 50
Strength: 25
Endurance: 29
Speed: 15
Agility: 12
Willpower: 8
Intelligence: 12
I didn’t need to see the stats to know that we were the at the superior level here.
“Who are you?” Said the woman. She was a short women with long blonde hair, no doubt she would have once caught the eye of many a man. Her voice was shaking slightly as she spoke.
“Who are you?” Ted replied.
“We live here”, replied the woman. “We always have done and always will. This is our town, we’ve been waiting for you.”
“Waiting for us?” I said.
“Yes. God told us he would send help to get rid of the dead ones.”
I rolled my eyes inwardly. I got the impression Ted and Sara did the same. Well, at least we all had that in common. Just what we needed. Jesus freaks. No doubt they would quote all that crap about how the dead had risen because there was no more room in hell, and our day of reckoning was at hand.
Ted slowly lowered his weapon.
“Get rid of the dead ones?” I said. “You mean the three we killed in the city centre? Surely you could have killed them yourself. It’s not too difficult to kill each one individually.”
“There are others,” said the woman. “We need food and we know where it is, but there are too many dead.”
As she was talking I could feel myself sweating. I checked my mana to see it was down to eleven. I needed that cure.
“Antidotes”, I blurted out, “do you know where?”
They all shook their heads.
“You are infected?” Said the woman. We all nodded our heads.
“The Lord works in mysterious ways, to send help that was infected, but who are we to question…”
“Goddamn cure lady”, Said Ted. “Do you know where or not?”
“We know where there might be”, she replied. “But you must help us. I will tell you if you help us.”
We all looked at each other, thinking the same thing. We didn’t know if we could trust them, but our options were limited.
“Ok, we’ll help you”, said Ted.
The woman held her hand to her heart and bowed her head.
“Thank you. Come with me, I will show you what is to be done.”
____________
“So you need this cleared huh? Well, we’re gonna need a little extra firepower if we don’t want to risk losing our lives.”
I nodded my head as Ted spoke.
The woman, whose name was Sharon, had told us on the way that she knew where an underground bunker was. Apparently one of those survivalist types who was always convinced nuclear war or terrorism was just around the corner, had built a bunker with a huge supply of food and water to last for months.
But the thing was, this guy didn’t have his bunker under his house or in the woods like any other person. No, this guy had somehow built his bunker under his place of work through years of secretive preparation. He figured that an attack would most likely occur when he was at work and there might not me the means to travel back home. This man was a headmaster and his work was the local school.
From outside the window we could see the eerie site of zombies clawing at the windows. What had once been young, innocent faces were now the faces of child undead, a pain of glass standing between us and their vicious little jaws.
“They locked themselves in here at the outbreak, they thought they might be safe. They were not. We have the doors bolted from the outside to be sure none can escape.”
Sharon had told us on the way they didn’t believe in violence, because it was the Lord’s will that they never do harm to another, whether they be living or dead. But it seemed the Lord was pretty lenient when it came to the idea of others using violence on their behalf.
“So what you’re saying is”, said Ted, “you want us to clear this building for you. Then we can take the food and water we want, and you’ll tell us where to get the vaccines.”
They all nodded their heads. I looked at Sara and she shrugged her shoulders. We were doing it. And I felt that mixture of fear and excitement I had felt when the zombie horde had been approaching. Here was another chance to kick some zombie ass and add to my kill count. I looked back at that creepy sight of the child zombies in the window, battering their small rotting hands against the glass. It was almost as if they wanted to come out and play…with our intestines of course.
Child zombie walker Child zombie runner
Level 2 Level 3
Mana: N/A Mana: N/A
Speed: 6 Speed: 9
Agility: 7 Agility: 9
Strength: 2 Strength: 3
Endurance: Infinite Endurance: Infinite
Willpower: Infinite Willpower: Infinite
Intelligence: 2 Intelligence: 3
A lower level as I suspected, but that agility and speed could cause us some trouble in close quarters combat. I pointed this out to Ted and Sara.
“You know what I love about this country?” Said Ted. “The second amendment means you should be able to find a gun in most houses when the zombie apocalypse is on. Let’s go exploring
kids!”
As I had thought when we had seen the lion, I wasn’t sure if this was the USA or no, but either way, I wanted that extra firepower.
_______________
“Goddamn commies and democrats”, cursed Ted. “Those fuckers think the cops will save them if somebody breaks into their home. I got news for them, it called THE LAW OF FUCKING PHYSICS PEOPLE. By the time it takes the cops to get there…fuck! One fucking gun!”
Glock pistol
Class 5 item
Weight: 1kg
Ammo: 1 clip, 20 rounds
“Well“, said Sara, “speaking on behalf of all us who live to destroy everything America stands for, I for one would not feel any safer if one hundred percent of the populace were armed, but yeah, we could have done with finding more guns.”
“You think we could debate gun control another time guys?” I said. “Time is of the essence here, we need to move.”
“Which one of you is taking the pistol? Either of you have ability with firearms?”
We had both only shot at screens before, but that did not count for firearm ability in this game.
“Give it to Sara”, I said. I wasn’t sure why I said it. Before Sara could argue, Ted strode up to her.
“Here, safety off and on like this, just point and pull the trigger, it really is that simple. Ok let’s move.”
I wrapped the nail to my hand again.
“We will take you to where it is best to enter. May the lord be with you”, said Sharon.
Side quest: Clear the school of Zombies
Reward: Food and water to replenish mana, get information on where antidotes are.
“If we split up we could maybe get this done quicker”, I said, “our mana is not going to last forever.”
“Agreed”, said Ted, “but we can’t risk losing another life.”
“Maybe it’s six and half a dozen” said Sara, “I can only say my gut says stay together.”
“It’s a smart lady who listens to her gut. Look like you’re outvoted son.”
I nodded my head reluctantly.
There were double doors in front of us, with the words, “DO NOT OPEN-DEVILS INSIDE.” Everyone had their own word for zombies in this world. Some more imaginative than others it would seem.
Ted hauled out the large bough that was serving as a bolt from the two handles on the door, and I pulled then open. Sara had her gun at the ready but no zombies appeared. We stepped inside.
We closed the door behind us. We had to make sure this building was completely cleared and no zombies got outside.
Now inside, It briefly brought back memories of all the times at high school I had walked the corridors alone, after I had grown more distant from my RPG friends.
But there were no cool kids, loners or jocks in this school. What was in this school, and right in front of us, was half a skeleton in a pool of long dried blood. A pen knife was by the skeleton’s side, along with what looked like a school text book. They must have made for a rather inadequate sword and shield.
“Will we make some noise and bring them to us?” Said Sara.
“Not yet”, said Ted, “we don’t want them coming at as from both sides of the corridor. We want somewhere where they can only come at us from one direction and there’s an escape route if things get too hot to handle.”
We strode down the corridor. The door on the first classroom to our right was open. We all turned our heads to see a skeleton that could have been no more than three foot long lying by the teachers desk, the legs separated from the rib cage.
“Fuck this game”, said Sara.
Eventually we found what we were looking for. A classroom door at the end of a corridor. Were we to be overwhelmed, we could back into the classroom, smash the windows and escape. But that was not what we intended to do. We were here to clear house. We all began to shout at the top of our lungs.
“Come get your dinner! Dinner’s here! Come and get it!”
We went on like this for about a minute, and then stopped to listen to see if our noise had had the desired effect. They did. The moans crept along the corridor.
“I think I hear the pitter patter of tiny feet”, said Ted. “Ok, if these fuckers are agile, and their numbers are thirty, I say it’s worth using up our ammo. I’ve got about twenty rounds left in here and there’s twenty in the pistol. I’ll take out as much as I can as they appear. Sara, you’re not such a good shot yet, so you hand me the pistol when I run out of ammo for the AK. If they get through, you know what to do. Stab, stab, stab.”
I knew Ted’s plan was the right thing to do, but I couldn’t help feel a little resentment inside me. I was the gamer. I was the one who kicked zombie ass. I hated the idea of standing on the side-lines and letting somebody else do the killing. But we needed food and the antidotes. Fuck, I wish I had rolled higher and got firearms ability. And then they appeared.
Three to four foot tall, savage, snapping, red eyed little monsters with blood caked on their clothes. There were two well dressed adults among them, one a woman in red dress, the other a man in a shirt and tie. They were coming, and they were running.
There was no teacher to stop these little ones running in the corridor, the teachers were joining them. It looked like most of them were runners. All of a sudden, this didn’t look good.
Ted calmly got down to one knee, placed his rifle butt against his shoulder and aimed.
Bang!
A black hole appeared right between the eyes of the child zombie in the front middle, his green circle of life turning to red as he collapsed to the ground, swiftly disappearing from sight as the others ran over him. Chalk one up to Ted. But we had a problem, and Ted could see it. Were they walkers, he would have been able to pick them off almost at leisure. They were only about fifteen feet from us.
He picked off two more, he was an excellent shot. Two more black holes in foreheads, two more green to red.
“Goddamn fast little fuckers aren’t you? Ok prepare yourselves.”
We stood three abreast across the corridor. I thrust my nail hard through the face of my first attacker, piercing his brain and silencing his snarls. Ted and Sara performed the same action, but before I could pull the nail back out, one of the adult zombies had leapt upon me. Fuck, we had really miscalculated hear.
I fell to the floor with the zombie on top of me determined to eat my face off, his fetid stench up this close enough to make me sick. I grabbed hold of his hair, pulling his head back so I could have stabbed him, but my arm was trapped under my back, and I was pulling his hair out.
I needed the AI god to be with me.
“GM test my luck.”
Luck: 8
Random number generator: 6
His hair held, as I was able to get my arm out from under me and ram the nail into his eye, the filthy splatter falling down into my eyes and open mouth, although it really didn’t matter now since I was infected anyway. I shifted out from under him as he collapsed on top of me. Fuck, dead bodies were heavy.
“Feel free to help us when you’re done fucking about kid”, shouted Ted.
I got to my feet to see they were close to being overwhelmed, two of the little girl zombies had somehow gotten around us, blocking the door. Sara was standing trying to combat the two girls, while Ted was taking on all comers down the corridor. Whom to help?
Ted was in a stabbing frenzy, shoving his boot into the chest of the tiny undead, sending them somersaulting down the corridor. Goddamn he was a warrior.
I went to help Sara first. One of the little zombies had a hold of her by the arm with her teeth, teeth that were not strong enough to bite through that magazine though, that makeshift armour again proving its effectiveness.
She had the other one by her throat, trying to fend him off. I pulled the one on her arm off, several of her teeth coming out, stuck so firmly into the glossy pages were they. I brought my nail into her skull and into her brain, allowing Sara to jam her pistol into her attacker’s mouth and decorate th
e wall with zombie brains.
She nodded her thanks and as we both turned.
“Look out!” yelled Ted. A small form came hurtling through the air, right for Sara. I froze as the tiny teeth sank into her jugular, red spray immediately spurting forth from her neck as she fell to the ground, the little beast chomping into her ravenously.
Sara opened her mouth to say something, but could not get the words out, holding her hand out toward me.
“Goddamn it kid, I need a hand! She’s dead now, you don’t have infinite lives do you?”
I brought my nail down through the back of the skull of the zombie, bringing a swift end to his feeding frenzy, as Sara’s lifeless eyes looked up at me.
____________
Tinned food it may have been, but the stuff tasted just as good as any meal I’d ever had in the real world, washed down with water to slake my parched throat. Funny how water was so tasteless compared to soft drinks, but when you were thirsty it tasted like nectar of the gods.
My mana was restored to fourteen. Even though I could still feel the fever of infection slowly eating at me I definitely felt a little stronger. We had all bought ourselves some time.
Ted and Sara were restoring their mana as well, the three of us having a seat as the survivors put the tinned food into bags, in order to carry it back to wherever it was they were living at the moment. I wasn’t sure if they were actually living in that supermarket or not.
“We thank you”, said Sharon, “from the bottom of our hearts. We knew the Lord would not fail us, we knew he would send somebody to do his work.”
“Yeah”, said Ted, “sending bullets into the brains of a kid Z. That’s real godly work right there.” He was drinking beer, probably not the best idea, but his mana was restored and his eyes had lit up when he had discovered that six pack.