Climb up, I thought at him. Find something to fill your belly.
I wasn’t sure if it sunk in, but at least he turned and looked up the hill I was about to climb. Once I started up the side of it, he did too.
I was more than a little jealous of the fact that he still had both his hands, especially when he used them with an efficiency I didn’t have myself. In a minute or two he had well and truly pulled away from me, and when I was only halfway to the next level of staggered hillside he had already disappeared from view over the top.
Oh well. There was no point in trying to call him back. Whatever chaos he ended up causing would hopefully drag their attention away from me.
Once I finally made it to the next level of mansions, I dragged myself to my feet and studied my surroundings. Below me, I could see headlights and hear the occasional gunshot. Either they were jumping at shadows or they’d found one of my minions, but I didn’t know which. The nearest mansion was far more modern tan the rest, made up almost entirely of crazy angled walls and sweeping, curved architecture. Whoever lived here thought pretty damn highly of themselves, but that common theme of big plate glass windows facing the ocean carried over.
I thought I’d come up alongside a road like before, but it looked like I was in their backyard. As if to prove to myself that I’d learned my lesson from before, the very first thing I did was scan for dogs.
No, I told myself. If you’d really learned your lesson, you’d look for dogs before you got to your feet and made yourself a target…
Even though I'd overlooked the possibility of some type of canine patrol, I didn't see one. It didn't exactly make me feel safe, since I hadn't seen the last one either, at least not before it was too late. But this mansion looked abandoned. At least, there was nobody currently running around inside, kicking down doors and splashing light around in a mad search for a Zombie intruder. The angle of the house let me see that there were no cars or trucks parked in the long driveway, either.
Everything was dark and quiet, and I could hear the activity of the searching Survivors far below me on the night air.
I didn’t like the thought of being trapped in a building if the Survivors did make their way up here anytime soon, so I gave the residence a wide berth and kept moving. I circled around to the south, only to find that the other side of the property was a lot like the side I’d already climbed up. It fell away in a steep, shrub-choked hill that looked like I’d end up battered and broken at the bottom of a ravine, if I wasn’t careful with my footing.
Great. Since I didn’t trust the descent it meant that I’d have to either double back to the crazy angled mansion or cross the length of the property and make my way across the road, wherever it was.
Unless… Maybe I could use the terrain to my advantage. As carefully as I could, I looked down into the valley that stretched out in front of me. My Low Light Vision barely pierced the veil of darkness, and if I had to guess there were some shadowy nooks and crannies down there that never saw sunlight. I had no intention of hiding yet, but it was good to know that if I had to this spot might be available as a fallback measure.
"There’s one!"
That voice was like a rifle, and it took me by complete surprise. I fought the urge to flee or to fall to the ground to try and hide. It was pitch black, and any movement I made would only help them spot me against the backdrop of the night. I counted to three as slowly as I could and then let myself slowly turn my head in the direction of the voice.
There were three Survivors in a tight little group, and all of them appeared to be carrying high-powered weapons. The big guy in front looked like he had on even bulkier body armor than the Survivor I’d made into a Zombie a little while ago, but thankfully they weren’t quite headed in my direction.
They were running after the Zombie that I’d ordered to make the climb with me. He’d somehow managed to get himself tangled in a low fence at the far end of the property, and even from here I could see that he wasn't going to be able to free himself. In fact, from here it looked like he was actually reaching through it, and whatever he had a hold of he sure as hell wasn’t letting go. Stubborn as he was, he was trapped in a device of his own devising.
The Survivors saw it too. They gave each other a little fist bump, and then the thin one in the back calmly took a knee, lined up her shot, and put a round through his head.
They were laughing about it. I didn’t bother to mourn the Zombie, since he’d been one of them in the first place. Instead, I waited until I was sure the Survivors were looking in the other direction and then dropped soundlessly into a crouch.
They either didn’t realize that the Zombie had been on their side less than an hour ago, or they didn’t care. Whichever it was, the fact that they were ignoring this vital piece of information made me even more certain that they deserved the fate I had in store for them. They weren’t cunning. They hadn’t had to claw and bite their way up the levels the same way I had.
They’d bought their way to whatever glory they were going to achieve, and now that the shit was about to hit the proverbial fan they were too ignorant to see that they’d just shot proof that there was something big about to engulf them.
Hopefully…
Just as I was beginning to feel a bit more confident, their attention swung in my direction. The woman was still looking down the scope of her rifle, and I did the only thing I was certain that would hide me.
I threw myself down the first few feet of the slippery slope. I was confident in my ability to slow my fall by grabbing on to the chaparral, but I’d forgotten once again that I only had one hand at my disposal. I reached out with it and, due to a disturbing lack of appendage, didn’t have any way of holding on.
The shrub I grabbed with my other hand held, but I yanked the plant out by the roots and took a tumble down deeper into the ravine.
Shit.
For a few seconds I was just a passenger on this wild ride, at least until I managed to catch myself hallway down. Even though I managed to stop my descent, dry earth and shifting boulders rattled against each other all the way to the bottom of the valley.
There was no way the Survivors that had taken out my poor minion hadn’t heard that…
There was no way I’d made it down here without taking some damage along the way, but I had to hurry up and crawl deeper into the shadows before I worried about that. When I risked a look back up to the ridge I’d been standing on a moment before I saw that the moon was exposed. It was illuminating the long plume of dust that I’d just kicked up.
I may as well have shouted “Geronimo!” as I fell, since that would have been equally stealthy. Whatever chance I had of an ambush was completely gone. Those Survivors would be down here in a flash.
Sure enough, even as I watched I saw their heads peer over. They weren’t looking directly at me, though they were near enough for me to hear them. They were so self-assured that they didn’t for an instant think that there might be a chance that a Zombie could possibly understand what they were saying to each other.
The big, bulky guy in body armor was obviously their leader. "Do either one of you see anything?"
He was flanked by the woman with the scoped rifle and the other guy. That one looked to be skinny and not at all confident. It looked to me like he’d been reminded of his place at the bottom of the pecking order often enough that he didn’t bother to question it anymore.
She shook her head and squinted in my direction. For a moment, I was certain that I’d somehow been spotted, but then she swept her careful gaze over to my right and away from me. I had to be careful with that one. Whatever skills she had, they were obviously centered around tracking. "Not yet. Something made that noise though, and I doubt it was random rockfall…"
The quiet guy’s darting eyes told me that he wanted to be anywhere other than here. He was in way over his head and only just realizing that he didn't have the stomach for it. Even though he had a gun on his hip,
I'd be willing to bet that he’d never shot it. Whatever purpose he served, it wasn’t a fighting one.
The big guy spoke again. "If something’s down there, I want to know about it. Brigg’s going to ask if I checked it out, and I don’t want him on my ass about it if shit goes down and it was our fault."
She shrugged. “I don’t see anything, but it’s so dark in the shadows that the games giving me a bunch of messages about limitations. I’ve got an eighty-six percent chance to Spot Hidden from here. I think that’s as good as it’s going to get…"
The third guy piped up now, clearly eager to be gone from here. "It was just rocks. They’re always slipping. I’ve been on patrol up here a lot. Take my word for it. Maybe the game’s bugged or something, but they fall all the time over here."
Their leader seemed to perk up, and my heart sunk. “Do they, now?”
“Yeah. It’s like the game’s trying to drag our attention over here, or something.”
“Like a side quest?”
The guy who should have kept his mouth shut nodded slowly. “I guess…”
I had been about to be thankful that the skinny guy was so nervous that he was trying to lead them away, but I was near enough to them to see their leader’s eyes light up. I didn’t know if there really was a side quest or an environmental coding bug over here, but now that the possibility had been tossed out there he wasn’t about to let it go.
I'd met a bunch of guys like him before; min-maxers who didn’t give a damn about anything other than playing the “best” character with the “best” items. If a flamethrower did the most damage, then by god they wouldn’t be happy until they had one strapped to their back. If jumping meant that you travelled faster than walking, then they were hopping around like demented rabbits the entire time. The only way they could enjoy the game was if they were the top tier, and that meant abusing whatever rule system they were given.
The big guy reached over and grabbed the other guy’s think shoulder. “A side quest would be just what we needed, right about now. Let me know if you find one." With that, his fist closed around the nape of the man’s neck as he chucked him down the side of the hill in one powerful motion.
The thin one came crashing down in my direction, limbs flailing. Something snapped and he started to scream, but after a couple of heavy impacts the noises became nothing more than strained whimpers.
The woman with the rifle didn't look like she liked it, but she either didn't have the guts or the gumption to say anything. Instead, she swore under her breath and stepped away from the edge, out of my line of sight.
Their leader was laughing, shaking his head at his own cruel joke as he watched his victim slide to a tangled halt not twenty feet below me. “Good luck with that, Mickmack. Let me know if you find anything, huh?”
With that he chuckled down at the broken man one last time and then turned away, no doubt looking for someone else to intimidate.
I suppose behavior like that was inevitable, but it didn’t mean that I had to like it. Survivors were more likely to be used to getting their way, and if someone didn’t bow down to them quickly or often enough it was obvious that some of their members were more than happy to force the matter. Was I really surprised that some of them were self-righteous, arrogant bastards who were perfectly happy to waste someone else's playtime regardless of the fact that they’d paid just as much money to be in the game as the asshole had?
I grit my teeth. It was hard to watch someone get treated like that, but I had to keep reminding myself that anything that split the Survivors up worked in my direction. If they were splintered, if their infighting became as prevalent as that, it could only bode well for me.
Every mistake they make is an opportunity for me.
I waited for a minute or two to make sure the Survivors weren’t joking about abandoning him. His cries of pain didn’t get any quieter, but his supposed allies didn’t return, either. Finally, I accepted that they really had ditched him, which meant I could focus my attention on the poor soul below me in the ravine.
The Survivor was still there, obviously. He was hurt worse than I’d thought, and even better for me was the fact that he was clearly not aware of my presence. By the look of his legs it would be a while before he was able to climb back out here, and that was only if the Survivors possessed some way of regenerating their own hit points…
If he couldn’t, he was stuck down here with me until he either logged out or simply let his avatar perish.
I felt bad for him. Even with all his money he still hadn't been able to buy friends that wouldn’t treat him like dirt.
Time to make a move. It was hard to be silent on the scrambly hillside, but the injured Mickmack wasn’t in a state where he was listening very attentively, either. He was obviously convinced that he was right about how often these rocks sounded like they moved against one another, and whatever noise I made he probably considered part of the game.
As I crept closer to him I saw that he wasn’t ready to give up the ghost just yet. His back was to me and he was hunched over something. As my shadow fell across him I saw that he was furiously trying to bandage the worst of his wounds.
Usually, that would have been completely useless, but Headshot wasn’t real life. He was already bleeding less, and right before my eyes his shattered leg untwisted and looked… Well, not great, but not that bad, either.
It made sense. After all, my hit points replenished when I ate the meat, not when my body actually metabolized or digested it or whatever went on in the ruins of my virtual stomach.
And Mickmack sure had a lot of bandages. He was quick with them and, if I had to guess, he’d used them before. In another few minutes it looked like he’d be healed up enough to climb out of here.
I couldn’t let that happen. If he returned to the Survivors I’d gain nothing, but if I kept him here, the big guy would be back…
I knew he would. I’d gamed with people like that my entire life. Even now, I was certain that the one who’d tossed him down there was wondering what was happening. It would be gnawing at him. Had Mickmack been right, after all? Was there really a side quest down here? And, if there was, was he keeping the rewards all to himself?
No, the one in the body armor would be back. He'd be too green with envy to not want a piece of the action, and he'd come eventually head back and come down the hill to see what the holdup was.
I saw a way to set a trap. It was as close to vengeance as I could give the guy they’d abused. As I took a step closer he heard me and said, without turning around, "Just give me a minute, Slander. It’s bad enough that you threw me down here, isn’t it? Do you really have to try and sneak up behind me, too?"
I didn’t leap on him. Not yet. The more hit points I let him regain, the more he’d have when I made him mine.
Chapter 41
It was easy to tell myself that I was being merciful. This guy wasn’t ready for the horror I was going to bring to this once safe little enclave they’d set up for themselves. He didn’t have any allies, and he didn’t have any second chance. He deserved vengeance for the way they’d treated him, and at least this way he’d be able to make some of the Survivors feel something akin to the fear they’d used against him, most likely, since the moment he’d first logged in.
I slunk a little closer. Mickmack was still wrapping his wounds, his trembling hands well away from the gun at his hip. He was secure in the knowledge that I was on his side, and when he finally worked out that I was far too close to him for far too long to have not responded to him, he shifted his weight and craned his neck up to look at me.
In the blink of an eye I watched his face run through a series of emotions, beginning with annoyance and moving through confusion and then fear and then finally…
Was that understanding? If not it was something close to it, at least. He came to terms with what was going to happen just before I leaned in and causally took my first bite from him. After that he kep
t staring up at me as I held him down, trying to do as little damage to his body as I could because I knew that soon he’d be working for me. His next life was mine, and I didn’t see the point in damaging the merchandise.
He didn’t even struggle. Once his eyes glazed over I waited a couple more seconds, just in case there was a lag between the Survivor getting booted and the AI taking control of the new shell.
While I was waiting for something to arrive inside that I could boss around, I took the opportunity to roll him over on to his back. I'd been careful when I bit him, getting them high on the rear of his shoulder. Now, I positioned so that the wound was hidden, then used my good hand and my bad stump to pick up and carefully place a few heavy rocks strategically around him. He wasn’t trapped, but he sure looked like he was. That was all that mattered. I kept going, angling a few more rocks across his knees. Once he shifted his weight he’d be free, but until then he’d appear to be trapped.
I was worried that he’d look too Zombie-ish even in the darkness, so I stacked some smaller rocks and then packed in a little dirt around his face. This guy was my weapon now, and if he could lure either of those Survivors down here to try and free him then he’d have done his job.
Speaking of which… I focused my mind and thought Stay here. Bite the ones that try and free you. Wait until the last possible moment at him.
I had to hope that the message had gotten through. I went through his pockets before I got back up to my feet, but he didn’t have anything of value to me.
I'd been hoping for something that would have unlocked something more of the game, possibly even aiding me to get to Sasha and Silicon Valley before the servers came down, but whatever that mythical object was, it wasn’t here.
If I was lucky, the Zombie would stay here. So far at least, he was doing as he was told. I checked to make sure that I hadn’t ruined the illusion that he was trapped, and turned and climbed back in the direction of the ridge I’d been standing on when I’d thrown myself down here in the first place. Careful as I could, I picked my way gingerly across the rocks and crawled higher, almost to the tip of the chaparral covered ravine. There was still several layers of thick smoke in the sky. The moon was obscured once more, so I crouched low and scanned off to my right, trying to work out where to go next.
Headshot: One in the Gut (Book 1 of a Zombie litRPG Trilogy) Page 22