“This Settlement, which is known as Wild Bill’s Holdout, is owned by me, but it is technically his home. He should have some say in how things work. Now, we already entered into an agreement where I will have access to change everything. As such I’ll be able to grow the settlement, but it also means we can run into conflict over what I think is the way to do things and the way Bill wants to do things.”
“This is because of that table?” Bill grunted.
“To an extent, but it’s more because of what’s happening in the world. Everything is different than it used to be for you. Your guns that I haven’t modified will probably be under the same rules as the ones that are modified, which means they’ll break completely after a set number of rounds are run through them. Same goes with clothing that takes damage, it will help protect you from damage for a time then it will just break and become useless.”
“Why does this remind me of something?” Susan muttered.
“There was a popular set of video games similar to what’s going on. Except that was a nuclear war that covered the globe as opposed to God deciding to say fuck you all and take off. The best set of those games came out after this year, though.” Alvin told her as they walked to the rig.
“Nuclear Winter or something like that,” Susan nodded. “It came out four years ago and the sequel came out two years ago. Something about dwellers in bunkers, and the government running crazy experiments in them.”
Alvin glanced at her then nodded, knowing the company that had set up this game probably didn’t want to be sued for copyright infringement so they’d changed things up some. “Close enough,” Alvin said as he put the cooler behind the passenger seat of the truck. “Guess I’ll take shotgun.”
“Works,” Bill agreed as he got into the truck after giving his daughter a hug. “We’ll be home tonight Sues, so keep dinner warm for us.”
“Just come back in one piece,” Susan replied with a tight smile. She opened the gate as Bill fired the truck up. He pulled out of the compound, looking back to see Susan quickly locking back up behind them.
“She is a special person,” Alvin commented.
“She is, and you just keep your hands off her,” Bill replied keeping his eyes focused on the road.
“I am not looking to cause a rift Bill. I need this to work out, it’s the only way I stand a chance of doing anything here. So, with that said, I will not go after your daughter. Just don’t blame me if she comes to me. I know I’m a sexy man and all…”
Bill snorted, “Ugly as sin is what you mean, son. You also don’t talk to people very well and I can’t shake the feeling that there is something wrong with you.”
“There is something wrong with me,” Alvin agreed. “My Personability stat is awful, below average, which is why you feel that way towards me. It costs a fuck ton of XP to raise it though, another reason I want this Settlement to work. I’m hoping I can get bonus XP from it.”
“Personability stat?” Bill asked.
“Yeah, there are several stats in this game. They determine how good you are at things, how much you can do and stuff like that. Focus on the idea of a character sheet, a bio of your height, weight and stuff. See if it will come up for you.”
Bill frowned but let out a surprised sound just a second later. “Huh. This is getting really weird. What does all this mean?” He slowed the truck as he now had a partial obstruction before his eyes.
“Each of those stats affect you as a person, tap each one to get a description of them. You have to spend XP to raise the stats or to get new Powers. It all comes down to a balancing act of how you manage the XP you get, which is why me spending my XP to upgrade the guns is such a big deal to me.”
Bill stayed silent for the few miles to town as he drove slowly down the dirt road. “This is going to take some getting used to.”
“I don’t doubt that in the least,” Alvin chuckled. “It was a bit of a shock to me, too. Well, we’re here. My plan is to go house to house. Search and pick up anything useful as we go. If we find people, we try to talk to them. Have to be careful, some of them might have snapped. We kill all the zombies we see and if possible, we can clear part of the main street later to make travel towards Denver or Salt Lake easier.”
“Is that why Susan gave me trash bags?”
“She did?” Alvin asked back, a little surprised. “She really is going to be key in helping the Settlement flourish, it seems.”
“She’s always been able to think ahead,” Bill said, bringing the truck to a stop just past the first few houses. “We doing this in tandem?”
“Two man firing team,” Alvin replied as he got out of the truck. He pulled the 1911 and waited for Bill to come around to him. “We’ll walk back to the last house then work back this way. If you see a zombie kill it, just give it a second to say something so we don’t shoot people.”
“What are we looking to take from the houses?” Bill asked as he pocketed a roll of black trash bags.
“Gold and silver items mostly, paper money is trash at this point. Any guns would be a go as well, just use your judgment. Oh, and all the non-perishable food.” Alvin said as they walked back to the first house just as a zombie came out the front door. “Oh, by the way, as soon as we start firing we’ll probably start to pull them in from all over. We should kill this one and then wait to see how many turn up before we start to loot.”
Bill chambered the Tommy gun, “You get this one, then.”
Alvin took a few steps forward before planting his feet and leaning into the shot. He had learned over the last few days how to help mitigate the recoil to a degree. He took a breath then caressed the trigger. The gun kicked and the zombie lost its mind, literally. “One down,” Alvin said, looking back at Bill. Bill was scanning the street, his Tommy gun at the ready. About a minute later the street began to fill as zombies appeared out of various houses. “Light them up. Head shots are the only killing shot, though they can be slowed or damaged in other spots.”
“Night of the Living Dead,” Bill laughed as he aimed at the closest group and fired a burst into them. One head exploded and another zombie staggered as a hole was punched through its chest. “Hmm, been awhile since I used Ol’ Tom. I’ll get the hang of him again in a moment.”
“I’ll watch your back, take your time,” Alvin replied as he waited two steps behind Bill and to the left, ready to provide support if needed.
He wasn’t needed though, as Bill did as he said and soon got the feel for his gun. He was soon mowing down the zombies up to a hundred feet away with ease. After some time, the street was empty except for a couple of zombies that were dragging themselves forward since their legs had been blown off. Alvin chuckled as he stepped forward while Bill was reloading and put a round through each of the crawling zombie’s heads.
“Well that’s street one down,” Alvin said, pausing to listen to the groans coming towards them. “Seems street two is on the way. You good for staying here while I go loot?”
“Do your thing, Tom’s got your back,” Bill said, patting the butt of his gun with a grin. “It is nice to be able to use him without worrying about ammo. The thirty-round box is the best thing, it makes clearing jams easy and still holds a decent amount.”
“I was wondering why it didn’t have a drum,” Alvin replied before he turned to the house. “Yell if you need me.”
Alvin didn’t dawdle as he sacked the house, taking jewelry as well as anything that he thought might be worth barter later on, like the unopened bottle of Jack. As he was finishing up and headed for the door he heard gun fire and came out to watch Bill mow down a collection of zombies he had let close to fifty feet.
Bill laughed wildly as all of the zombies flopped dead before him, ejecting and reloading the magazine before he aimed at the next bunch. Alvin felt a small chill travel up his spine at the wild laughter, Bill was surely at least slightly insane. He called out as he came up, “All done with the first house.”
“Go ahead and hit the next on
e, I got this for now,” Bill called back before he mowed down another group of three zombies. “Like fish in a barrel. It hardly seems fair.”
Alvin shook his head and went off to the next house. When he came back out, Bill was leaning on the truck staring into town with a bored expression on his face. “All done for now?” Alvin asked as he came over.
“Nothing coming closer right now,” Bill said with a shrug. “I got all amped up for a bit, but now that I think about it I’m killing my dead neighbors in a way.”
“I don’t think zombies qualify as neighbors, not even in the middle of the projects.”
A snort of laughter came from Bill, “Hmm, not sure about that. Zombies are smarter than some people I’ve had to deal with in my time. There was this LT back in ‘Nam, he was the only one who could get two plus two equals four and a bit. He was a very special kind of stupid, such a shame when he got tagged by the Cong. We could get away with anything when he was in charge of us.”
“Well, you can basically get away with anything now as well,” Alvin said as he thought about it for a moment. “Society is gone and the government has more than likely collapsed. It’s not like the police or anyone is going to be out enforcing laws that no longer apply. Not like you can be held accountable for murder, they’re already dead.”
“True enough, but laws are what hold people together, so there will have to be some even if they’re just plain common sense. For instance, at the moment you’re looting. Out here, that’s fine, but inside the walls that would be theft and as such some form of punishment should be required.”
“True enough. Since there aren’t any more zombies coming this way right now, you should grab a bag and go hit a house so we can get through this faster.”
Bill nodded as he took a bag off the roll and walked after Alvin, “I’ll take house number three.”
For the next half hour, they looted the houses along the street, then moved over to the next street and started in on that one. No zombies showed up on the second street, but one of the houses was locked. Alvin knocked heavily on the door and called out, waiting to see if an answer was forthcoming. After a moment of nothing, he could hear movement inside the front door. Alvin stepped back, placing his hand on his pistol just in case. The door rattled a second later as something hit it from the inside.
“Bill, I got at least one zombie over here,” Alvin called out to the vet. “Keep an eye out for a second, please.” Bill gave him a nod, so Alvin pulled the gun and fired a shot through the door at his head height. He waited to see if the zombie was still moving and the door rattled again. Alvin walked the bullets down the door from a foot above his head, down six inches at a time until he emptied the clip. He reloaded and waited, but no more sounds came from inside.
Alvin looked at the locked door and pulled a set of small screwdrivers from a pocket, using them to pick the lock. The door swung open about a foot before it stopped. Alvin looked in around the door to see a little old lady with her brains blown out blocking the door from opening further.
He leaned on the door to push it open further. Almost immediately he stumbled back with a curse as a one-year old came toddling at him. “Fuck,” he yelled as he fell backward down the single step and landed hard on his ass.
Bill jerked the gun up, looking for the zombie. He frowned when nothing came through the door. “What is it?”
Alvin backed up another foot as he pulled his pistol, aiming for the mostly open door and waited. A few seconds ticked by before the zombie crawled out of the house. Alvin put three rounds into the small zombie in rapid succession. “Baby zombie,” Alvin replied as he holstered the gun again. “Scared the fuck out of me.” He glanced back to see Bill had gone pale, staring at what remained of the dead child with glassy eyes. “Bill?”
Bill’s eyes drifted from the dead baby to Alvin and he swallowed hard, “Not something I thought I’d have to see again.”
Alvin got back to his feet, “You going to be okay?”
“I’ll just stay out here for a few minutes,” Bill replied, his gaze distant as he looked away from the bodies.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” Alvin said, collecting his tools and going into the house.
He didn’t find much he thought would be of value except for an older rifle in a carry bag. He briefly wished he could identify items outside of his room. He stuck the rifle into his backpack, knowing he would need to get it identified. He exited the house to find Bill hunched in a sitting position on the ground, the Tommy gun resting across his knees.
“Bill, you okay?”
Bill looked up, his face still pale, “I’ll be fine in a bit. Just dealing with some memories.”
Alvin looked around to make sure they hadn’t attracted more zombies. “Okay. I’ll get along with the job. Just make sure you don’t get eaten by zombies, I don’t want to explain that to Susan.”
Bill nodded once, but didn’t move otherwise. Alvin wondered if Bill was going to be okay, but he went on to the next house leaving the vet alone. After Alvin finished the houses on the small street he came back to the truck and put the loot away. “You good to go?”
Bill climbed to his feet wordlessly and got in on the passenger side. Alvin considered going back to the bunker, but opted against it. He got the truck running and moved closer to the heart of the small town. Alvin turned onto the next street to find a two-car accident taking up the middle of the road. He could either run over a mail box, or try to push one of the vehicles out of the way. The mailbox made a satisfying crunch as the truck ran it over.
He parked in the middle of the road and got out, looking around warily for any signs of movement. Bill climbed out a minute later, his gaze still distant until a gunshot rang out from the far end of the street. The Tommy gun came up smoothly and Bill’s expression went from dazed to sharp in a fraction of a second. Alvin spun towards the sound, his hand going to his pistol as he watched an ambulance smash into a parked car and come to a halt. Both men ran towards the vehicle, guns up and ready to shoot as they closed the few hundred feet to the wreck.
Chapter Thirteen
The back of the ambulance opened to disgorge a bald man with a pistol aiming back the way the ambulance had come. The man fired another seven shots before the gun ran dry. He dropped the gun and reached back for something in the ambulance. As Bill and Alvin were closing the distance, most of their view was obscured by a six-foot wood fence but Alvin could make out the sound of many feet and lots of groaning. They’d covered half the distance as the man pulled a fire axe from the back before he slammed the door shut.
“Stay inside,” the man yelled as he turned back towards the oncoming zombies.
“Fire through the fence,” Alvin told Bill as he went around Bill to clear the line of fire.
Bill slid to a stop a hundred feet short and went full auto as he emptied the clip. Alvin blinked, surprised that the Tommy gun had been modified to be a full auto weapon. Alvin closed the distance to thirty feet to the ambulance, which was stopped dead. He could hear someone trying to crank the engine. He got a look on the other side of the fence thanks to his angle and he hesitated as he saw at least two hundred zombies coming his way.
Alvin stopped where he was and pulled his gun up, opening fire. As he and Bill put shot after shot into the mass of zombies, the man who had gotten out of the ambulance was swinging the axe for all he was worth to kill the ones close to him. Alvin didn’t risk a shot into the melee and Bill was busy reloading and emptying mags through the fence, which was rapidly disintegrating under the sheer volume of fire.
Alvin was starting to feel good about their chances when the axe wielder screamed and was pulled down by five zombies that all got to him at the same time. Knowing that guy was done, Alvin reloaded his next clip and fired into the scrum. His clip killed three of the five, then his next clip killed the last two, plus he ventilated the head of the guy who had been protecting the ambulance. Alvin went back to focusing on the zombies, mowing them down as fast as he
could. Several minutes later they finally ran out of zombies to kill.
Bill let his arms droop as he walked to Alvin and the two of them walked to the ambulance side by side. The back door opened, revealing a brunette nurse who cautiously got out to check on the dead man. She knew at a glance that the man was dead, thanks to the bullet wound to his head. She looked at the mass of dead zombies, then looked over at Alvin and Bill as they walked toward her.
“We don’t want any trouble,” her voice broke as she held up her hands in a non-threatening manner.
“We just want to help,” Bill told her.
“You shot Leon,” another feminine voice said from inside the ambulance, before she poked her head out the door.
Alvin realized who they were as he got a good look at both of them. “He was dead and I wasn’t about to let him get back up. Is the doctor still with you?”
Both nurses paused as they looked at him for a long moment before their eyes got big. “It’s you,” one of them said with a touch of fear to her voice.
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