“Anything useful,” Alvin replied. “Pretty sure paper money is going to be a bust from here on. So, any hard currency, like this gold ring. Might still be worth something.” Alvin told her as he yanked the wedding band off Marcus’s finger. He also took the man’s silver money clip and a gold Rolex watch. “These might be worth barter once people start to group up.” The secretary edged towards another door while he looted the corpse, her face showing how appalled she was at his actions. Alvin let her go, but kept an eye on her, “Out of curiosity do you have a name? Or should I call you Secretary?”
She paused, “Why?”
“Just like to know who I saved from being raped and strangled to death,” Alvin replied calmly as he stood, items in hand.
“Claudia Jenkins,” she replied. She opened the door she had moved to, and Alvin caught a glimpse of a bathroom. “Excuse me for a moment, please.” Claudia ducked into the bathroom and closed the door behind her.
Alvin checked the rest of the room, adding a gold pen to his loot. He placed each item into his fanny pack, then stowed the items among his pockets. He was examining the small bar built into a wall when Claudia came out of the bathroom. “All done?”
“No,” she replied simply, moving to the bar and picking up a bottle. She took it and headed straight back to the bathroom, grabbing a small clutch purse as well. The door shut firmly behind her.
Alvin sniffed a couple of decanters before he found the whiskey. He poured himself a shot and knocked it back. He was on his second shot when the door opened and Claudia came out looking much cleaner. Her clothes were still bloodstained and damp, but the effort showed. The damp clothing accented the fact she had a pretty decent body. Her blouse had gone translucent, and the lacy black bra cupping her c-cup breasts was easy to make out.
“All done now?” he asked, not even trying to hide the fact that he was checking her out. He thought her tasteful skirt suit was quite fetching. He already knew she was a natural blonde as she hadn’t had panties on when he had rescued her.
Claudia’s eyes narrowed as she caught him looking her over, “Yes.”
Alvin downed the shot and dropped the glass onto the carpet, “Well then, let’s go. I’ll take point, but I want to check the other offices to see if there’s anything else worth my time.”
“The only office that would have anything is finance,” Claudia told him. “Marvin used to keep a few rare coins on display.”
“Finance it is, then,” Alvin replied, starting down the hall to finance. He heard a few groans coming from human resources, “Seems the natives are becoming restless. Must have been the gunshots.”
Claudia looked very uneasy but stuck with him when he went into the finance office. Alvin spotted the locked coin displays on the wall, shrugging he holstered the gun and pulled out his bat from his fanny pack. He broke the glass on the display, returning his bat to the fanny pack before carefully gathering the coins from the now open case. Each coin was placed in his fanny pack, then moved to a pocket. He turned back to find Claudia blinking at him with wide eyes.
“You okay?”
“How does a bat fit into that?” She pointed at his bag, clearly shocked.
“Magic bag. It lets me store any one item that can fit into the top of the bag.”
Claudia frowned, “Don’t fucking lie to me.”
Alvin snorted, “I told you the truth. It isn’t my fault you don’t like the answer. There are zombies eating people, but you balk over a magic bag?”
Taking a step back, Claudia looked away from him, “This day is insane. Maybe I’m losing my mind.”
“The whole world is, Dia,” he paused as he heard a door break close by. “Fuck. Looks like HR wants to stage a revolt. Stay behind me.” He drew the gun and went to the door to look into the open space towards HR.
Five zombies shambled into view. Four of them sported fatal wounds, but the fifth one looked unharmed beyond a few scratches on its face as it shuffled out of the office behind the others. Alvin stepped into the hall and took careful aim, and missed. Cussing, he took aim again as the five zombies turned to him. His next shot hit the nearest zombie square in the head, blowing brains and thick blood all over the remaining four.
Alvin felt the gore factor slide off of him, he seemed to have become completely inured to zombie deaths. He killed the next two with his next three shots then ejected the magazine, sticking it into his empty back pocket. He grabbed a fresh one from the other back pocket. Once he had seated the magazine he made sure the gun chambered a round, then fired twice more to kill the last two zombies that had closed to within a dozen feet of him.
“All clear,” he called out, frowning as his voice sounded off.
Claudia came out holding her hands over her ears, “We can go now?”
Claudia’s voice sounded muffled and Alvin realized he must have damaged his hearing during the brief gun play. “Follow me,” he told her, stepping around the zombies as he led her to the stairs. He got her to the ground floor and had to kill another three zombies that were milling around the lobby before he got her outside. “Which way is your car?”
Claudia pointed in the opposite direction from the way Bill’s truck had been. He took the lead while she directed him. They ended up in a cluster of high end cars. Claudia tried to use her fob to unlock the doors. It didn’t work, so she keyed open the door instead and slipped into the vehicle. When she turned the key, the engine didn’t turn over. “What is going on?” Claudia asked as she tried a few more times with no success.
“Odd. A patient had no issue getting his truck running,” Alvin muttered.
“Why won’t my car work?” Claudia asked, climbing out of the car.
“No idea. Try calling triple A and see if they know anything,” Alvin half-joked.
Claudia fumed as she pulled her cell phone from her purse. She looked at it oddly for a moment, prodding at several buttons, “It’s dead. It was fully charged this morning. Fucking Nokea, they said it would always work.” Her hand curled around it tightly, as if she wanted to throw it.
“Okay, so cell phones don’t work and your new car doesn’t work, but an older truck does,” Alvin muttered as he tried to figure it out. “Maybe it has to do with the electronics?”
“That doesn’t help me any,” Claudia complained. “I don’t think walking in the city is going to be safe.”
“I would think not,” Alvin muttered. “Let’s go see if there are older cars are around. Maybe we can get one of them to run.”
“How can we do that without keys?” Claudia groused.
“I can hotwire a car,” Alvin said as he started back towards the patient lot.
“You’re a criminal?” Claudia asked, hurrying to stay with him. Her heels clacked on the pavement.
“Used to be,” Alvin told her. “I did my time, then got a job working for a security firm. I tested out physical security systems for our clients to make sure they worked.”
She didn’t say anything while he canvassed the parking lot, eventually finding a VW Bug. Chuckling, he broke the passenger side window open and unlocked the door. He leaned across to unlock the driver door then went around the car. He popped the hood to see what was in the storage space. There was a small tool box, he opened it with a smile and pulled out a large flathead screwdriver. Going back to the driver’s side he slid in, rolling the window down, before he slammed the screwdriver into the ignition.
He cranked the screwdriver over and the engine came to life. Laughing, he got out of the car. He waved Claudia into the driver’s seat as he closed the hood. “All yours, Dia,” Alvin told her as he shut the door behind her. He leaned on the window, “Your best bet is to leave the city. Get out into the country, find some people and team up with them. Find a small place you can defend and hold the fort. Maybe civilization will start up again.”
“You’re not coming with?” Claudia asked, puzzled.
“Can’t, it’s not my time yet,” Alvin told her. He crouched down so he was at eye
level with her. “I have a little under an hour left here, then I’ll be moving on to help others. Maybe we’ll see each other again, maybe we won’t. Just do your best to survive.”
“Why aren’t you coming with me?” Claudia asked a little more intensely, not understanding. “I’ll… I’m sure we can work something out.” Her eye twitched as she said the words, as if she had to force them out.
Shaking his head, Alvin grinned, “I wouldn’t turn you down either, Dia. However, I won’t even be on this Earth when my time comes up. I can’t explain it. Just trust me when I say this, if I could come with you, I would and gladly. Find a guy who can protect you. I’m sure a lot of guys will jump at the chance to be that guy. Now get going, just drive carefully. If you wreck this thing you probably won’t be getting another one.”
“But…” Claudia began as Alvin stood up and backed away from the car. She frowned, before coming to a decision and drove away.
Alvin watched her go, silently cursing the fact that she was gone. He would have been more than happy to go with her. She had a very nice body from what he had seen of her, and she hadn’t completely lost her shit after seeing her boss’s corpse or the zombies. “Fucking Scott and his company,” Alvin muttered as he went around the parking lot. He killed the last bit of his time at the hospital just wandering the lot and killing the odd zombie that crossed his path. When the timer was up he had expended half of his ammo, leaving him with fourteen rounds in the two full magazines and two empty magazines.
The light flared and he was back in his room. He turned out his pockets, laughing when he had everything that he’d looted on him. “Well that works. Might be a bug though?”
Chapter Eight
“No, it is considered an acceptable use of game mechanics,” Scott replied. “You should just about have enough experience to be able to buy the next storage item. That might make things interesting.”
“Let’s see what the mission netted us first,” Alvin replied, pulling up the summary.
Mission Summary: Story Mission Successfully Completed.
Total Experience Earned: 2,000 XP
Breakdown: Mission XP 500, Take no damage bonus 100 XP, Shamblers killed 500 XP, Survivors bonus 800 XP, Humans killed -100 XP, Loot bonus 200 XP.
Alvin pulled up his total XP with a smile. 3,150 XP. “Now this I can work with.” Alvin chuckled as he took a quick look over what he could afford. He saw ammo for the gun, starting at 5 XP per round. “Kind of pricey for ammo.”
“But it makes killing zombies easier, lets you stay out of their reach and is much less effort to employ,” Scott remarked.
“True enough,” Alvin muttered, sitting down on his bed. “You get to watch me while I do the Missions?”
“Of course, how else would I know what you get up to? Are you going to spend your XP?”
“Not yet. Going to look over all my options first.”
“You should study your gun carefully,” Scott said.
Alvin pulled the gun and looked at it. A pop-up appeared next to the gun.
S&W 1911 (Common)
Damage: 8
Durability: 216/250
Ammo type: .45 ACP
Upgradable: 0/2
His jaw sagging open Alvin, just stared at the gun for a few minutes before he set it down and pulled out the bat.
Worn Wooden Bat (Trash)
Damage: 1+3 (modified by Brawn 3)
Durabilit:y 28/50
Non-Upgradable
“What the fuck, Scott?” Alvin finally managed to say. “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me about weapons being upgradable?”
“You didn’t have one that could be,” Scott replied. “We are not allowed to tell the players about weapons upgrades until they have a weapon that can be upgraded.”
“Is there armor as well?”
Scott remained silent for a long beat before replying. His voice was mechanical when he spoke. “That information is not available at this time.”
“Motherfuckers,” Alvin bitched. “Not being told about that kind of thing might be why more people fail.”
“I actually agree with you. Players should get some information sooner.”
“Hmm, let’s see about upgrades for the gun then,” Alvin pulled open the store menu again. A new tab was blinking at him, the gear upgrade tab. His gun and fanny pack were both listed. “Scott, the bag is also upgradable.”
“When did they do that?” Scott grumbled. “I’ll be a minute.”
Alvin studied his choices. The bag could be upgraded to hold four items for 1,000 XP, or he could change the look of it which had varying costs depending on what he wanted to change it to. The gun had several options beyond being able to customize the look of it in a number of minor ways. Alvin focused on the options for the gun.
Unlimited Ammo (rank 1): Every magazine put into this gun will be a full clip, even if it was previously empty (nice cheat code huh?). Cost: 500 XP.
Unlimited Ammo (rank 2): Requires rank 1. This gun will never have to be reloaded (just keep firing asshole). Cost: 5,000 XP.
Durability (rank 1): Increase durability by a multiple of five (much harder to break, isn’t it?). Cost: 250 XP.
Durability (rank 2): Requires rank 1. Increase durability by a multiple of twenty (you must really like this gun). Cost: 5,000 XP.
Durability (rank 3): Requires rank 2. Increase durability by a multiple of one hundred (abuse it like a five-dollar hooker and it just keeps on working). Cost: 30,000 XP.
Ammunition (rank 1a): Gun fires hollow point rounds as standard, increasing damage by 50% if armor value is under 10 (more bang for your buck). Cost: 1,000 XP.
Ammunition (rank 1b): Gun fires jacketed rounds as standard, reducing target armor by half (still more bang for your buck). Cost: 1,000 XP.
Ammunition (rank 2a): Requires rank 1a or rank 1b. Gun fires silver ammunition as standard (silver? Really?). Cost: 10,000 XP.
Ammunition (rank 2b): Requires rank 1a or rank 1b. Gun fires ammunition blessed by a higher power as standard (seriously? Holy bullets? Why?). Cost: 15,000 XP.
Recoil (rank 1): Reduces the kick of the weapon by half (that will help keep your wrists in shape for other activities). Cost: 500 XP.
Recoil (rank2): Recoil reduced further, allowing you to regain the target faster (just want to keep shooting do you?). Cost: 3,000 XP.
“Well fuck. This is going to be tough,” Alvin muttered as he looked over his choices. “Well, one is obvious.” He spent 500 XP for the first rank of Unlimited Ammo. “Scott, you there?”
“Can I help?” Scott’s voice seemed a bit odd.
“How does durability work for guns?”
“Each clip that expends at least one bullet reduces the durability by one. It only takes one point, even if you fire the entire clip.” Scott’s voice was oddly distant, as though he were distracted.
“You okay there, Scott?”
“Just looking over the patch notes that not all of us got,” Scott’s voice was now tinged with disdain. “This would have been useful to know beforehand. Nothing I can really share with you right now, though.”
“So, still not helpful then,” Alvin muttered as he considered his last two choices for upgrades. “How much health does a zombie even have?”
“Two health to each part of the body to damage, four to destroy. Four to the head will destroy the brain. You have just been able to meet that requirement.”
“It’s not like I need to upgrade the damage of the gun then,” Alvin mused. He picked up the first rank of Durability, which would make the gun last so much longer. He checked the stats again now that he had spent 750 XP on it.
S&W 1911 (Common)
Damage: 8
Durability: 1,216/1,250
Ammo type: .45 ACP
Upgradable: 2/2
He pulled the magazine from the gun and slapped the empty mag into it. As the empty magazine clicked into place he felt the weight of the gun shift. Ejecting the magazine, he saw it was full. With a chuckle, he f
illed the other magazine and left it in the gun. “Okay, then. Still got a little over two grand. What to spend it on?”
“Look over the store carefully. You have options in most categories,” Scott told him.
“Thinking of upgrading my fanny pack first,” Alvin replied.
“That is your choice. But the store could prove to be very useful,” Scott replied. His voice carried a subtle vibe.
Alvin wavered for all of a second before he opened up the store and started looking through each section in detail. He found different ammo types for his gun sold by the bullet. The cost started at 5 XP for a normal round, going up to 200 XP for a single silver hollow point. The description indicated it was powdered silver encased in a polymer stuck into the hollow. Alvin wondered why silver bullets kept coming up, but set the thought aside and kept going through the store. When he got to storage items, his fanny pack was there plus a new listing for a backpack costing 3,000 XP that had a base of six slots.
Rapture (Apocalypse Gates Author's Cut Book 1) Page 8