Downtime and Death (Apocalypse Gates Author's Cut Book 5)

by Daniel Schinhofen

  Alvin headed downstairs, slowing when he reached the taproom. The room was filled with all the children from the settlement, and Terry was leading them through a class on mathematics.

  “Alvin, can I use you for a moment?” Terry asked with a smile.

  “Only because it’s you, Gran. What can I do to help?”

  “Bobby was asking why he needs to know math. Can you give him an example of why that matters, please?”

  “Bobby?” Alvin said, looking at the kids and saw a six-year-old stand up. “If you’re using a gun, it has limited ammo before it needs to reload. Knowing when the gun is reloading lets you know when you need to move and when you can shoot. My Type 56 has a thirty-round magazine. If I’m killing zombies and it takes me three shots for two zombies, how many can I kill before I have to reload?”

  Bobby paused as all eyes focused on him. “Uhm…”

  “There were fifty zombies, Bobby. The ones that aren’t dead are still coming for you— quick, how many are left?” Alvin said urgently. “How many more can you kill before you have to reload again, and how many rounds to kill the stragglers?”

  Eyes widening, Bobby glanced at the door fearfully, scared that zombies were coming for him. “I don’t know…”

  “That’s why math is important,” Alvin said, looking at the entire class. “Besides that example, XP needs math. You want to make sure you know how much XP you have, and you need to be able to know how much more you need to get something from the store. Simple math is always useful, and so is basic algebra. Math was important before the apocalypse, but now, it’s even more important.”

  “Thank you, Alvin,” Terry said, comforting an embarrassed looking Bobby.

  “Bobby, it’s never bad to admit that you don’t know something when you’re with friends. Gran is here to teach you what you need to survive. Listen to her, because if you don’t, no one will cry when you pay for it later.”

  “Thank you, Alvin. You can go,” Terry said pointedly, starting to regret asking Alvin now that Bobby was crying into her shirt.

  “Sorry, Gran,” Alvin said as he left the inn.

  Walking to the auto shop, Alvin called out to Justin. He was in the middle of showing a teenaged girl how to do a general check on the engine. “How goes the teaching?”

  “Different,” Justin grinned. “Amie here has been soaking it all in.”

  “It’s weird... it’s like I’ve always known how to do this. It feels like I’m remembering it,” Amie said. “Well, the very basic stuff, anyway. He tried telling me about catalytic converters and that was all gibberish to me.”

  “Because they’re junk,” Alvin snorted. “Hell, most of the vehicles we have don’t even use them, anyway.”

  “Pretty much, but some vehicles do have them,” Justin said. “James’ car here has one. I don’t think the system even cares about it, though, since nothing I know says they’re useful in any way with our current setup.”

  “Removing it an option?” Alvin asked.

  “Yeah, but it doesn’t net anything,” Justin shrugged. “No bonuses or negatives. It’s just blank on that front.”

  “Must be too small a thing for them to worry about yet,” Alvin shrugged. “Any idea how the others are doing with this change?”

  “No. Amie and I have been here for the last two hours,” Justin said, his eyes going past Alvin.

  Alvin looked behind him and smirked as Becky waved at him. “Trouble incarnate.”

  “Why is Meg with them?” Justin asked. “She was at your place last night before dinner too, wasn’t she?”

  “They did some training in the simulation room, then got cleaned up for dinner,” Alvin replied, turning back to the mechanic. “I think they’re doing more training again today. Why?”

  “No reason,” Justin sighed. “Come on, Amie, we have more work to do. I’ll see you later, Alvin.”

  “Sure…” Alvin said, watching the man turn back to the auto shop.

  Walking away, Alvin wondered if Justin was the man Megumin was interested in. Justin had been so disappointed when she went off with Becky.

  Alvin spotted James coming out of the bunker when he got close to the building. “How’s it going?”

  “Mostly good, just had to remind people that Susan is in charge. Roy was making noise about Susan learning to craft glyphs instead of letting someone else have it. I’d thought he was part of Randy’s crowd, but he stayed here when they left so I wasn’t sure. Now I’m thinking maybe he was.”

  “Want to take him for a walk?” Alvin asked. “Once we’re out of sight of the settlement, we can ask him anything you want.”

  James shook his head, “That doesn’t work for us, Al.”

  “You mean your morals stop you from applying pressure to get the truth,” Alvin replied. “It’s your call, but I’ll be here for a few more days if you change your mind. Susan in her office?”

  “Yeah,” James said. “She just started teaching her apprentice glyphing.”

  “Maybe I should let her work, then. She probably doesn’t get a lot of free time, and the little she had probably just got eaten up.”

  “Mmhmm,” James agreed. “Why don’t you come over to the range? I’m going to see what I can do to upgrade it, and could use your input on what you think might work better.”

  “Sure.”

  Chapter Nine

  Stepping back from the newly modified range, James sighed. “It’ll never be what you have, but it’s better than it was. I really hope they stop this fucking yo-yoing bullshit.”

  “That’s supposed to have stopped,” Alvin chuckled. “This is a lot like what Beatty has for their range. It’s going to help the people who need it most.”

  “We should probably give it a run,” James mused as his M14 appeared in his hands.

  “You want to put a friendly wager on it?” Alvin asked with a grin.

  “No,” James said, moving toward the new range, now in an enclosed building.

  “James! What the hell have you done to my course?” Bill asked, striding over to them.

  “He made it better,” Alvin told him. “We’re about to have a go at it. Want to have the honors of the first run?”

  Bill glowered at them for a long moment, then smiled, “I know you wouldn’t have changed it unless it was worth it. How much did it cost?”

  “Not as much as I thought it would,” James said. “I’m well under the cap Susan gave me for it. Now that I think about it... that was odd. She didn’t question me as much as she normally would.”

  “Maybe she was hoping it’d help others after seeing my training room,” Alvin said, keeping his face straight.

  “Let me grab a couple of other folks,” Bill said, heading away. “I want a good test of skill across the whole spectrum.”

  Bill returned shortly with half a dozen people, including Justin and Amie. “Okay, we’re each going to run this new course.” Bill said, then turned to James to ask, “Is it still three gun?”

  “It can be adapted. Right now, it’s set for urban combat, so anything goes outside of a fifty.”

  “Okay, so use the weapon you’re most comfortable with,” Bill told the others. “I’ll be going first. After I finish, we’ll send you all through.” Pausing again, he turned to James, “Is it one by one, or can a squad run it?”

  “Adaptable,” James replied. “It’s set for single at the moment, but it can run a group of ten if I set it that way. The control board is right by the entrance; it locks the parameters when someone is inside to make sure no accidents happen.”

  “And that was in the budget?”

  “Yeah. Once you see what we have, you’ll be really surprised,” James grinned.

  “Umm, why are we running it?” Amie asked, looking very uncertain.

  “We want you to get a taste of what combat is like. The static targets don’t do that,” Alvin said.

  “But I don’t want to go outside,” Amie said.

  “You still need to know how to defen
d the settlement,” James said kindly. “This will help you become more comfortable with that. It’s going to be part of the training that everyone does. You’ll be able to help Klein when he goes in the first time.”

  Amie blushed, looking away from everyone. “Okay. I’ll manage.”

  “Al,” Justin asked, “is this like your training room?”

  “No, this is a much more simplified version. The things in here won’t be attacking you back. It’s currently set for target recognition and reaction time.”

  Justin nodded, “Meg is using the one in your base right now, isn’t she?”

  Alvin shrugged, “I think Gothy said she was going to give her hands-on training today. Megumin seemed interested in improving herself.”

  “I’ll run after Bill,” Justin said.

  “Okay. Line up, everyone,” Bill said, walking up to the entrance. “I take it the green and red lights say if it’s safe to enter or not?” Bill asked for the people behind him.

  “I went with the light instead of a door just in case we have an emergency and need to go in after someone,” James replied. “Green means it’s free to enter, and red means someone is running the course.”

  Bill did not say anything else. His Tommy gun appeared in his hand and he stepped into the tunnel. His movements quick and sure, Bill was focused on the challenge ahead of him. The others watched him disappear into the darkness, and the light above the doorway went red. The muffled sounds of gunfire started coming from inside the structure.

  Alvin looked at the single-story building and shook his head. It’s not as big as the hill Beatty used for theirs, but I would swear that what James purchased should have made this building three times its current size. As he pondered that, the light above the door went green.

  “Justin, you’re up,” James said.

  Pistol in hand, Justin nodded and took a deep breath before he went in. Watching Justin go, Alvin walked away from the group and headed around the side of the building. Bill was looking at a screen on the wall with a frown.

  “Don’t like your numbers?”

  “I didn’t think I missed that many shots,” Bill grunted.

  Alvin looked at the breakdown of Bill’s run and nodded. “You didn’t miss; you just didn’t get kill shots. You only missed a target twice. Those other shots might have been the required amount to kill the target. Not everything is a single shot kill, definitely not anymore.”

  Bill nodded, “Yeah, okay. I wonder if we can get it to show the stats differently.”

  Alvin went over to the terminal by the exit and played with it for a moment. The screen outside changed, showing different numbers. Walking over with a single sheet of paper, Alvin handed it to Bill. “Here you go; a hard copy of all stats for your run.”

  A chime caught their attention. Justin came sprinting out of the doorway, panting hard. His gun vanished from his hand as Justin bent over, obviously winded.

  “You okay?” Bill asked the mechanic.

  “Be… fine… in… a… minute,” Justin gasped.

  Alvin looked at Justin’s numbers and winced. “Bill,” Alvin said, motioning to the screen.

  Bill looked up, his concern growing when he saw his numbers. “Justin, how did the course feel to you?”

  “I don’t think I did well,” Justin admitted. “I wasn’t expecting innocent bystanders at all to start with, and after I shot the first one, I kept hesitating.”

  “You killed four innocents,” Bill grunted. “Your kill rate for the monsters wasn’t good, either. This new course is going to become something we’re going to have to get people used to. The idea that mobs or allies can be around any corner is something we need to drill into everyone.”

  Justin sighed, obviously disheartened by what Bill was saying. “This is why I stay in the base and fix things. I’d be fucking useless outside.”

  “It can be fixed,” Alvin said bluntly. “Are you willing to do so is the only question. None of us started off amazing; we all had to work at improving.”

  Justin stood up as he caught his breath, “I’ll try.”

  “I’ll leave you two to talk. I need to go get in line,” Alvin said.

  “See you later,” Bill told Alvin, turning back to Justin.

  When he got back around to the front, Alvin noticed Amie was missing. “She inside?”

  “Yeah. How did Justin do?” James asked.

  Alvin shook his head, “He’s not cut out to be a hunter, that’s for sure. He needs work or he’ll be a liability if he needs to defend this place. Maybe set up a settlement defense scenario and run the crafters through it?”

  “That’s a good idea, and I think I can add that option. How do you think this really works? I know that building isn’t big enough for what I bought.”

  “Game world, so probably a temporary instance? We can play with some more after this run-through. I know I’ve got time— do you?”

  “I have until dinner,” James grinned. “We can test out a lot of stuff. I still have some budget left too, so I might upgrade it some more.”

  “Just don’t go over,” Alvin chuckled. “Don’t make the pregnant wife angry. I think that would be very bad.”

  “Wife aggro going over nine-thousand,” James snickered.

  Alvin ran into the tunnel on his turn, his Type 56 up and ready to fire. Stepping over the threshold made Alvin slow for a second as a puff of cold air washed over him. Ignoring it, he continued on; the hall led to a two-story room, with two dozen windows looking down on it and another hallway across the way. The soft hiss of pneumatic air made Alvin turn around, and a cut-out of a screaming woman popped up in a window.

  Another hiss to his left was a cut-out bloody zombie, which he promptly double tapped in the head. Just like the one in Beatty, but with better lighting, Alvin thought, double-tapping the next two zombie pop-ups. The next one was a little girl, but it had a zombie behind it. Alvin shot right over the child, killing the zombie and moving on with a smirk. Okay, better than the one in Beatty. Hostage targets are fun.

  Exiting the building at a dead sprint, Alvin laughed when he saw the expressions on everyone’s faces. “How’d I do?”

  “I’d say you’re Special Forces level,” Bill grunted. “Those numbers are stupid.”

  “Well, I’ve been in the fire a lot,” Alvin chuckled. “James, want to see about tweaking it for settlement defense now?”

  “Yeah, sure,” James said, finally pulling himself away from the monitor. “I think I need to upgrade it a bit more first. Did you feel that cold wave when you went in?”

  “Yeah, and I shouldn’t have with my gear,” Alvin said. “I’m certain that’s the instanced area at work. Maybe you guys can get a training room like mine if you upgrade it enough. Mine took over a hundred grand, though, so…”

  James shook his head, “Yeah, we don’t have that kind of XP to spend right now to make it like yours. Once we finish the deal with Queen Night, maybe, but I’m sure most of that will be earmarked for other things. Susan spent a chunk of XP to make it possible to send things from one settlement to another. The deal with Queen Night is the only reason that’s going to pay off right now.”

  “Have you talked with Shawn in Beatty about specializing in things and trading with each other?”

  “Susan is handling that,” James said. “They’re taking all the iron and steel sheet metal we can give them. I understand why, with that Fey Gate open in Death Valley. Thanks for saving my nieces and nephews out there, by the way.”

  “Any idea where they are with that?” Alvin asked, waving off the thanks.

  “I’d have to ask dad or Susan,” James said, going around to the front of the building with the others behind them. “I know that they were working on it, but the Gates are huge, if the dimensions they gave us are accurate.”

  “They are big,” Alvin said. “Now, what do we need to make a good settlement defense scenario?”

  ~*~*~

  Justin and Amie came out of the building an ho
ur later, both of them pale. James went to them instantly, “Are you two okay?”

  “We failed,” Justin swallowed hard. “That was… intense.”

  “I didn’t expect them to be real,” Amie added, shaking a little. “The wyvern at the end…”

  Alvin blinked, “James?”