Project Alpha

by R. A. Mejia

  I rush forward, smashing the branch in my hands over the head of one of the zombies. I see a red two floats away from the zombie. The Zombie turns towards me, and I see it's rotting visage glare at me. The flesh on its face has chunks missing as if they have fallen off and one of its eyeballs hangs from its eye socket. The creature shuffles forward and takes a swipe at me with its jagged, broken yellow nails. I move out of range of its clawed hands and avoid the attack. The undead creature continues to stumble forward, arms outstretched. I take a couple of swings at the creature, and while I do damage, it seems to shrug off the hits as it continues to move forward.

  I hear a shout behind me and turn around to see Nancy, Frank, and Joe charging into the fight. The trio rushed past me and worked as a team to draw away the other zombie attacking the woman with the knife.

  The few seconds it takes me to notice this almost costs me dearly as the zombie finally catches up to me and tackles me to the ground. The weight of his body presses down on me as we crash to the ground. I'm able to shove the branch against the creature's neck preventing it from tearing out my throat with its jaws. However, its sharp fingernails slash at me, causing red threes and fours to float away from me. The creature’s putrid breath is almost a weapon on its own, and I almost gag at the smell of decay. It takes me a minute to get my feet under the zombie's body and kick out, sending it flying away from me. Getting back to my feet, I see the zombie on the floor struggling to get up. Taking advantage of the creature’s position, I repeatedly hit the zombie with the branch in my hands, until the branch breaks. With no weapon, I improvise and stomp on the creature until it stops moving.

  You’ve defeated a Zombie Shambler, level 5. You receive 25 XP.

  I ignore the notification and look around to make sure the other zombies are taken care of. Nancy and her brothers have already taken care of their zombie and are helping the woman with a knife deal with the last one. With one last crack of the bat, Frank finishes off the zombie, and it falls to the ground dead. Well, dead again.

  The immediate threat gone, I take a moment to catch my breath and check out my health. I'm down to 120/150. Ouch. If one zombie can do that much damage, I can only imagine what a group of them will do. I need a better weapon. Maybe something ranged. Thoughts of wielding a crossbow like Daryl pass through my mind. I can be the badass crossbowmen of the group. Well, except that I don't know how to use a crossbow, and I don't think I can pull off the biker look.

  While I pull my mind from thoughts of becoming a zombie-killing badass, Nancy is treating the wounds of the two people. The man on the floor has his left arm wrapped in gauze, and the blond woman sits next to him, holding his right hand. While everyone is distracted, I use Absorb on the zombie next to me.

  Absorb has failed to capture the essence of the defeated foe. Please try again.

  Drat. I bet these zombies have some cool abilities too. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll have plenty of opportunities to try again.

  While the two new people are distracted, I use inspect on them.

  Suzie - NPC

  Health 24/30

  Suzie is a southern bell that is protective of her family and is a valuable member of the survivor group. Wife to Thomas.

  Thomas - NPC

  Health 19/30

  Thomas was an IT consultant before the Zombie Apocalypse. Now he’s struggling to make sense of the brutal place the world has become. Husband to Suzie.

  Oh, so they're NPCs not Users. Also, they have health bars, which means that they could be killed. No Bueno if these are the people we’re supposed to escort. Even though I already know their names, it’s only polite to introduce yourself.

  I walk up to the sitting couple and kneel down to speak to them. “Hi, I'm Anthony. What's your name?”

  The blonde woman looks up and answers in a southern accent, “Hi, I'm Suzie, and this is my husband, Thomas. Thank you for saving us.”

  Nancy, finished bandaging up their wounds, says, “You two out by yourselves in the woods seems dangerous. What are you doing out here?

  Suzie looks slightly embarrassed but answers, “Yes, it was a little foolish of us to be out here alone, but we didn't have much choice. The group we were with was running out of food quickly. We left to try and find help or more supplies. Will you come and help us?”

  Save the Survivors - Part 1

  Escort Suzie and Thomas back to the group of survivors they left. Once there, speak to the leader of the group.

  Conditions: Both Suzie and Thomas must make it back to survivor group alive.

  Reward: 100 XP

  Do you accept?

  Nancy nods as if expecting this response. “Can you give us a moment to talk about it as a group?”

  I start the conversation off. “Is it just me, or are these NPCs pretty well spoken? The last NPC I talked to had a script he kept repeating.”

  Little Joe laughs and answers, “Don't you know that people can get better brains for their characters?”

  Frank ruffles his brother's hair and clarifies, “What doofus here means is that dungeon owners can invest in better personalities for the NPCs they use.”

  “You must have only been in some low-level dungeon. Higher level dungeons and ones that have been around longer have more complex creatures. If a dungeon is an old or just high level, the monsters can be super smart and dangerous.” Nancy adds with a know-it-all attitude.

  That does make sense. The monsters I fought in that bad Zelda clone dungeon got progressively smarter and harder to fight. It makes sense that the non-player characters would get smarter over time too.

  “Okay, that makes sense. Now, what about this Quest? Could it be a trap? I've seen way too many episodes of The Walking Dead to trust some random people.”

  Nancy shakes her head. “No, I don't think so anyway. Usually you have to sign up for a trickier zombie experience like that. Some people use them to train their truth-telling skills or deception skills. But we all signed up for group training. I think it's legit.”

  I shrug, not having been to a place like this before. I accept their quest. Let's see where this takes us.

  The two lead us through the forest to a small encampment in a clearing in the woods.

  As soon as the couple steps into the boundary of the camp, a small blue screen pops up.

  You’ve completed the quest - Save the Survivors - Part 1

  You receive 100 XP.

  Dismissing the notification, I examine the group of people we’re going to be dealing with. The camp has about four tents and ten people. Everyone is a little on the thin side but seem to be healthy otherwise. While their clothes are dirty and worn, they've kept themselves relatively clean.

  A tall Hispanic man with shaggy black hair that curls at the ends greets us. He's wearing jeans, a plaid long-sleeve shirt, and black hiking boots. Suzie and her husband introduce the man as Juan.

  Juan is genial but also wary of newcomers. He questions the four of us about how we survived up until now. Oddly, it's Frank who makes up our back story. He tells Juan that Nancy and I are school friends and that we saved him and his brother when things went south in the world. The four of us have been scavenging from homes and markets and making our way killing zombies.

  I'm surprised that Frank is such a good storyteller, and I try to play my part and back up his tail. Juan seems suspicious, but accepts our story. I guess this NPC’s brain doesn't let him get too far off mission. He explains that the group is heading towards a Safe Haven and that we're welcome to come along as long as we are going to help protect everyone from zombies along the way.

  Save the Survivors - Part 2

  Escort the group of survivors led by Juan to Safe Haven.

  Conditions: 8 of the 12 survivors must make it to Safe Haven alive.

  Reward: 1000 XP

  Do you accept?

  Nancy was right; the Quest starts here. I accept the quest and thank Juan for his trust in us. Another survivor from his group runs up and asks for him, and he lea
ves to deal with whatever issue has come up.

  Turning to Nancy and her brothers, I say, “Well, at least we don’t have to keep everyone alive, just...” I do the math in my head and finish, “two-thirds of them.”

  At the same time Little Joe says, “…66.667% of them.”

  I look down at the happy kid, and he says, “I have my mental math skill to level 7. What’s yours at?”

  I can’t help by smile back at the grinning kid. He’s so proud of himself. Instead of answering him, though, I address the rest of the group. “So, we have to arrive at Safe Haven with at least 66.667% of the survivors. I don’t know about the rest of you, but it seems unlikely to me that we can protect this whole group with a baseball bat and purse.”

  Nancy nods. “I agree. Our priority should be for us to find or make better weapons.” Her stomach grumbles and she clutches it embarrassed.

  Frank points and laughs at his sister until his stomach grumbles.

  “So, I think we should put eating in a priority position,” I say, remembering that the last time I ate was this morning.

  The four of us split up to scavenge for food and weapons. Little Joe is the best at finding food and comes back to camp with mushrooms, dandelions, and cattails. I’m able to find a ball-peen hammer, and Frank finds a rusty kitchen knife. Nancy does the best of everyone by only asking the other survivors for help. She gets us four cans of food and a .22 caliber rifle. Nancy says it’s a Marlin Model 795 and has a magazine that holds ten rounds. She has a half-empty box of ammunition but thinks we shouldn’t have too big of a problem finding more rounds in any decently sized town. I’ll have to take her word for it, having never used a gun myself.

  That evening we’re introduced to all the other survivors. It’s obvious which has been around the longest in the dungeon after meeting all of them. Some of the members of the group seem almost human in their ability to express themselves. Other NPCs do little more than repeat the same lines again and again. I’m sure there’s some unique dungeon master ability that lets someone invest this type of intelligence on some creatures, but I don’t know what it is.

  After eating, the four members of my group head to bed. With the time dilation between the dungeon and the real world, we should have six days in the dungeon.

  Chapter 24

  On the first day of our escort mission, everyone in the camp gets packed up, and we all head towards the highway. We’re supposed to follow it for a few days, pass through a few towns to scavenge, and then take move off the road to where ever Safe Haven is.

  The first couple days guarding the survivors on their trip to Safe Haven are a bit boring. We’re attacked by a total of six zombies as we walk along the highway toward a small town called Blumkin. No one dies in the attacks, but they give me an idea of what to expect from the survivors. Juan, the leader of the group, is quick to respond to the threats and quickly dispatches zombies with a large bowie knife. Suzie, the blonde woman we rescued, doesn’t actively attack the zombies but takes defensive action when they attack. She guards her husband Thomas like he’s made of diamonds. Most of the other survivors huddle together in fear, and only one runs away into the woods. He comes back after the attack, but I mark him as a liability in my mind.

  Nancy, Frank, and Joe are professionals. Even though they’re just kids to me, they take each attack seriously and work as a team to fight off the zombies. Nancy shoots the zombies that are still shambling over to the group. The noise of the rifle though attracts the zombies towards her. Thankfully, Frank uses his baseball bat to push back or disable the zombies with strikes to their knees. Joe, wielding the kitchen knife, helps finish off the zombies that Frank has knocked to the ground.

  I work alone. I take on a few zombies, and I finally get a chance to Inspect one.

  Zombie Shambler

  Level 5

  Health 50/50

  TP 5/5

  The simplest and most common of zombies. The Shambler moves at a walk until it senses a meal. Then they will attack in mass to overwhelm an opponent.

  Abilities: Bite, Iron Grip

  Weakness: Fire, Attacks to the Head

  From the description, these are the classic zombie model. Slow moving but strong and tenacious if they get a hold of you. I fight them one at a time, darting in for a strike to a decaying skull and then darting out before they can attack back. I take out two Shamblers this way, earning me 50 experience points.

  The fight just about over, I’m kneeling down and using Absorb on the second zombie I killed, and I notice that one of the kids has gotten separated from the group of survivors. I’m filled with a sense of foreboding, as every single zombie film I’ve ever seen has taught me that such a situation is ripe for tragedy. And sure enough, a zombie someone thought they’d already killed starts to crawl towards the little girl. Either the girl doesn’t have the intelligence to recognize the danger or just hasn’t been around long enough, but either way, the zombie’s only a few feet from making a snack of her. Even if I run, I know that I won’t make it in time and no one else has seemed to notice what’s happening. The zombie’s reaching out for the girl when I do the only thing I can think of and throw the hammer in my hand. I’m not sure how it happened, either because of the many hours I’ve spent practicing the move or just because of stupid luck, but as the hammer leaves my hand, I activate Hammer Time. The ability seems to struggle with the ball peen hammer for a moment, then it kicks in, and I see the object arc through the air and land with bone-crushing force on the skull of the zombie. I see a single red six float away from the zombie, and the last of its health leaves it.

  Only after the fight is over does the little girl notice the undead zombie. Then she starts to cry, and one of the huddling survivors runs from the group to pick her up and take her back to the group.

  I can only be relieved that I was able to save the little girl. I mean, part of me knows that she’s not real and is only a construct of the dungeon. But another part of me remembers Marie at that age and how she got hurt all the time just being a curious kid, and I can’t help but feel some empathy towards these survivors, real or not.

  I wince at how gross rotten brains look and smell as I retrieve my hammer from the zombie’s skull and dismiss the notification about the experience points for the kill.

  As I wipe the brains off my hammer on the grass by the road, I hear someone say, “Wow. That was a pretty lucky throw.”

  I turn and see Nancy. She has her rifle in her hands. “I saw the zombie moving towards that little girl, but I couldn’t shoot because I might have hit the girl. Then your hammer comes out of nowhere and kills it. That kind of throw is amazing.”

  I shrug, not sure if I should tell her about Absorb and how I got the ability to throw like that from a monster in another dungeon. I suspect it’s something I should keep to myself. After all, who knows who Nancy would tell.

  “Thanks. It’s just luck that the hammer hit like that.” I shrug and look away from her. “I’m honestly not sure what I was thinking. I threw away my only weapon. If there were any more zombies around, I’d have been in trouble.”

  Nancy nods in agreement. “Yeah, you’re right. We should all have backup weapons in case something happens to our primary ones. I’ll make sure Frank and Joe keep an eye out for anything we can use.” She smiles at me and adds, “Though, I’ll tell them that you get first dibs on any hammers.”

  We reach the outskirts of Blumkin on the third day. Most of the survivors opt not to travel through the town for fear of zombie attack. Instead, they plan to travel around the town and continue towards Safe Haven. However, Frank and I want to search through some of the buildings to scavenge for food and weapons. Nancy isn’t pleased with the idea but understands that we need supplies. Little Joe wants to go with his older brother, but Nancy refuses to let him go. He walks off sulking.

  Frank and I enter Blumkin, passing a sign that tells us the population of the town is 3,000. The two of us creep from building to building, avoiding th
e groups of Shamblers that wander the town. We enter a hardware store through an open window at the back of a building. We find lots of construction materials as well as all the tools you could ever ask for. Frank goes to the cash register at the front of the store and finds a loaded shotgun under the counter. There are only a handful of shells, but he’s glad to have gotten another weapon and dropped the baseball bat into his inventory.

  I realize I’m missing out on a golden opportunity in the hardware store. Last night, I left camp and tested out all the abilities I absorbed from the last dungeon. Roll, Flying Kick, Smash, Stab all work, but Fireball doesn’t since it’s the one ability I have that uses mana and not TP. Still, that means that I have lots of options for weapons now.

  I grab everything I think will make useful weapons—Hammers, knives, picks, axes, sledgehammers, and shovels. I also grab everything else I believe that we may need—Duct tape, nails, wire, saw blades, rope, anything else that stacked in my inventory.

  Once Frank and I clean out the hardware store, we leave the way we came in and head to the grocery store. It’s a little touch and go, and we have to wait under a metal dumpster while a large group of Shamblers goes by. The extra disturbing thing about the Shamblers, is that they seem to be led by a tall purple zombie with a mutated face. It had no hair and resembles a stretched-out human with limbs out of proportion. I’m able to Inspect the new zombie by poking my head out from under that trash dumpster.