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

by Daniel Schinhofen

  Alvin slowed his pace, looking at Kuro. Guess she does fit in with me and Gothy, Alvin thought, watching her scan for threats as he moved toward the teenaged bodies that had been cut down by the machine gun. Looting them, he walked to the next building. Becky was waiting for him by the door.

  “Keep up the good work, Mousie,” Alvin said over the radio, taking up position behind Becky. “You ready, Gothy?”

  “I will, Hero,” Kuro replied, not looking toward them, but Alvin thought she was smiling.

  “She’s ruthless,” Becky giggled, reaching out to try the door, then rocking back at him when she felt the latch give.

  “Fits, doesn’t she?” Alvin grinned, rocking her forward and following her into the next building.

  ~*~*~

  After clearing the entire compound and finding no more hostiles, they went back to the first battle site and looted the bodies that were still there. The sun was well past midday, the edge of it dropping toward the mountains to the west.

  “Well, this ended up taking longer than I’d planned,” Alvin sighed. “Might as well do a thorough check through the buildings for anything valuable. Once we’re finished, we’ll head past Bedrock and onto the trails before returning to base for the night.”

  “Sounds like a plan, Hero,” Becky agreed.

  “We are taking anything worth a few hundred XP or more, right?”

  “Correct, Mousie. Load it up, drop it off in the Humvee, and repeat until we can’t take any more. Even little bits of XP add up when we sell them. Make sure to set aside anything of rare or better quality so we can check it.”

  “Understood, Hero.”

  Returning to the empty compound, they split up and started to loot the place. During their search, Alvin discovered the settlement’s kiosk. Placing his hands on it brought up the screen to add it to his network, but it had an additional option this time.

  Would you like to add this kiosk to your network?

  Due to the death of all the people attached to this settlement, you may opt to destroy it. Would you like to destroy this kiosk?

  “What would I get out of destroying it?” Alvin muttered, tapping on the small question button icon on the screen. Reading over the new information, Alvin snorted. “Okay, if people get this kind of XP for destroying a kiosk, things are going to be rough for small settlements.”

  He tapped the destroy kiosk button, frowning when the kiosk melted away into thin air. “Flashy, guys. But I still got twenty thousand XP for it. You might want to reconsider that amount, unless you want people to become raiders like they did in Nuclear Winter.”

  Alvin went back to looting the main building, finding the small stockpile of runes the place had, as well as their backup weapons and a few pieces of badly damaged armor.

  The sun was setting by the time they were back in the Humvee and driving down the road.

  “I wonder what the quest will be tomorrow?” Alvin commented idly as they passed Bedrock.

  “Hopefully not an add a settlement quest,” Becky snickered.

  “Or a quest to destroy a settlement,” Kuro added. “Do you think your people will fall into banditry just to gain the XP?”

  “Yes,” Alvin said. “If nothing else, the zombies will. They need life force to live, so raiding a settlement makes sense, since they’d get that and XP.”

  “Good point,” Becky said. “Are we sure they still need life force, though? It was like that before we reached Beatty. It might be different now.”

  “If we happen to find a lone zombie, we can ask it,” Alvin chuckled, “but I don’t think that’s likely.”

  “Fair enough, Hero.”

  When Alvin turned them off the main road, the deep reds of sunset seemed to cover the world in blood, with darkness following swiftly. “I really hope that isn’t an omen,” Alvin muttered.

  “If it is, it’s not our blood that will be shed, Hero,” Becky said.

  “Gothy is right, Hero.”

  “Far be it from me to disagree with the two baddest women left on the planet,” Alvin replied with a grin. “Should we head home and figure out what we’re keeping and selling?”

  “And clean up,” Becky purred.

  “And eat,” Kuro whispered in Alvin’s ear, sending shivers down his spine. “Gothy and I both know what we want, Hero.”

  “Done,” Alvin smiled as he toggled the base icon, summoning the portal to take them home.

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Getting out of the Humvee, Alvin stretched. “Well, we didn’t get as far as I wanted today, but we got XP and loot.”

  “A lot of loot. Besides, they might have lived if they hadn’t shot at us first,” Becky shrugged.

  “Why don’t you two drop off your gear and get repairs going on it?” Alvin told them. “I’ll start unloading the Turtle.”

  “We’ll be right back,” Kuro replied.

  “Yeah, the Tommy needs a lot of love,” Becky agreed.

  Alvin watched them leave the garage before he opened up the back of the Humvee. “Need to see about upgrading the gunnery so the guns can be repaired faster,” Alvin muttered as he pulled stuff out of the vehicle.

  Alvin had over half the loot out of the vehicle before Becky and Kuro returned. “We’ll cart this to the kiosk,” Becky told him, picking up an armful of the loot. “We already dropped off everything else.”

  “Gothy was thinking we should pool XP to upgrade the gunnery,” Kuro said.

  “Great minds,” Alvin chuckled. “I had been thinking that already. Fifty points isn’t much when the Tommy goes through a hundred in a drum. I’ll see what we can do after we get all this taken care of.”

  “Jarvis also said dinner would be ready in ten minutes,” Kuro added.

  “Let’s not dawdle, then,” Alvin said.

  They finished carrying everything into the kiosk room by the time Jarvis called them for dinner. Leaving the loot where it was, the three of them went to the main room.

  “Welcome home,” Jarvis greeted them as he set a pot on the table. “I cooked stroganoff with a bit of a twist tonight.”

  “What’s the twist?” Becky asked.

  “Please try some,” Jarvis replied, returning to the kitchen to retrieve drinks for them.

  Alvin ladled the sauce covered noodles into his bowl. The aroma made his mouth water, though there was some element that he was unable to identify. “Smells damned good, Jarvis.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  Handing the serving spoon off to Becky, Alvin did not wait, picking up a noodle and sliver of meat on his fork. He chewed slowly, grinning. The flaze almost melted in his mouth, the flavor enhanced by the garlic and pepper in the dish. The noodles were standard egg noodles, but the flavor of the meat permeated it.

  “Tastes even better, buddy.”

  “Thank you, sir. I thought you’d approve,” Jarvis smiled as he took the serving spoon from Kuro.

  “He does love the flavor of flaze,” Becky added. “It is very tasty, Jarvis. Thank you.”

  “I’m glad you approve, miss.”

  “This is a dish I don’t know beyond the flaze, but it is quite delicious.”

  “A unanimous approval. I shall make sure to keep this recipe.”

  The three of them focused on enjoying the meal and conversation was minimal while they ate. Alvin went back for a full second helping, while Becky and Kuro took smaller servings. Jarvis smiled broadly when they indulged in more.

  “Well, now that I’m full, I should get back to the loot,” Alvin said, sitting back and patting his belly. His bowl was completely empty, save for a couple of streaks of sauce along the bottom.

  “We’ll get back to it,” Becky sighed as she got to her feet. “All the common stuff is getting shoved into the kiosk. What did you want to do with the uncommon and the few rare things?”

  “You can put that stuff in the cabinets in the kiosk room, but please put the M2 in the garage,” Alvin said, following her. “I’m going to see if I can get it added t
o the Humvee, especially since it already has decent runes on it. I’m thankful they waited for runes, or found it after runes became a thing. With the SLAP rounds and extended belt on it, the armor penetration is stupid high, which is why the Turtle got so fucked up.”

  “Oooh, upgrade for the Turtle? Nice,” Becky grinned. “I got gunner tomorrow. What are we going to do with the M240B?”

  “We could turn it into a portable gun. I’m all for sending it to Bill if he’ll pay for it. In fact, let me have the Ma Deuce. I’ll get it added over before we deal with the rest of it.”

  “Hero, may I take the Kevlar vest so I can have something similar to what you both have?”

  “Sure thing, Mousie. It’s going to need a lot of work, though.”

  “I’ll go start it repairing.”

  “Here’s the fifty,” Becky said, handing over the machine gun with its large drum. “I’ll pare down some of the rest of this.”

  “Be back in a minute,” Alvin said, surprised again at how easily he was able to carry the M2. Giving the gun a long look to check the stats, Alvin grinned. “Guess having a Brawn of six makes it pretty easy to handle. The guy carrying it must have had a six or better himself, even with the two Recoil runes on it.”

  Armament: M2 (Rare)

  Damage: 16

  Durability: 25,197/40,000

  Ammo type: .50 BMG SLAP-T (20-1) (500 round belt feed)

  SLAP: Armor piercing round adds 100% Armor Buster

  Tracer: High visibility rounds loaded as every 20th shot

  Runes: 6/6

  Reload: 5 seconds, Armor Buster: 100%, Durability: 50% x2, Recoil: 40% x2

  Setting the gun down on the workbench in the garage, Alvin summoned a pad. A few taps and the M2 vanished, replaced by the M240B. Patting the old gun, Alvin smiled at it. “Thank you for your service, buddy. We’ll get you a good home.” Putting the M240B into his bag, he headed back to the kiosk room.

  “Hero, there isn’t a lot here that we want,” Becky said when he came back into the room. “Our gear is comparable or better, so I’d say throw most of this up on the auction house. The only things I’m thinking we should keep are the two rare pistols; they reload on time, not magazine reinsertion, which would make them better for Mousie. We can put the old pistols up for auction, too, or hold them back as extras.”

  “I agree with Gothy, Hero. It’s been an ongoing problem with the pistols.”

  “What are they?”

  “A Smith and Wesson .45, and a Glock .45,” Kuro replied, presenting both to him. “They have additions that make them better than standard, as well.”

  Alvin checked both guns before handing them back. “If that’s what you want. Put the other two guns into the cabinets for now.”

  Kuro quickly got the new guns strapped to her hips and stored away the older pistols. “Thank you, Hero. This will make it easier for me to transition between them during combat.”

  “The pieces of armor and stuff aren’t as good?”

  “Not especially,” Becky shrugged. “Though I do want to modify some of Mousie’s armor with some of the runes, specifically her belt and gloves.”

  “Go for it. Let me sell the junk off and send messages to Shawn and Bill about the M240B to see if either of them wants it. After that, I’ll set up the auctions for the rest of it, and then we can see about upgrading the gunnery.”

  “Is it possible to get a second kiosk terminal?” Becky asked. “An addition for sending messages, at least.”

  “Why don’t you check while I deal with this?” Alvin offered, tapping through the interface to sell off the items they had loaded into the kiosk.

  Pad appearing in her hand, Becky nodded, “I’ll also check the upgrades for the gunnery.”

  “Gothy, since you’re both busy, maybe I should go get things ready?”

  “Oh, good call, Mousie,” Becky said, giving her a kiss.

  “What things?” Alvin asked, looking back at them while he composed the message to Bill.

  “Our surprise,” Becky winked.

  “Gonna be the death of me,” Alvin chuckled.

  “Oh no, but we might bring you to the edge of death repeatedly,” Becky giggled. “Go on, Mousie.”

  He sent the letter to Bill and was getting auctions set up when Becky handed him a pad. “Accept this, Hero.”

  Alvin tapped the accept button, blinking when the pad was pulled away. “What did I just accept?”

  “This new car,” Becky said in a fake game show host voice.

  “No, seriously, what did I just…?” Alvin trailed off and watched the kiosk expand to add a second screen. “Oh, got it.”

  “With the double screen, we can both do things at the same time,” Becky told him. “I paid for it, but you had to accept the change to the base since it’s yours.”

  “Got it,” Alvin replied. “Okay, back to these auctions.”

  “That’s fine. I’m going through the possible upgrades to the various rooms we have. It looks like you can open up additional options if you let them specialize, but they get barred from some other upgrades because of it.”

  “Not surprised,” Alvin said as he started placing auctions. “What do we lose if you specialize for repairs?”

  “Being able to use the room to make things.”

  “That’s fine. None of us have that skill anyway, and we know two gunsmiths we can hire to make stuff for us.”

  “I think we’ll lose more options later if we go down that path far enough, but since the fucking devs haven’t let us see the entire upgrade paths, we don’t know for certain.”

  “Cost of taking the first specialization?”

  “Two hundred grand,” Becky said.

  “What does that do for the room?”

  “Changes it from points per day to a flat percentage per hour.”

  “What percentage for the first upgrade?”

  “That’s a downside— it’s point five percent per hour.”

  “Not that big a downside,” Alvin said. “In eight hours, that would repair thirty durability to Kuro’s new pistol, or one hundred and eighty points to the Thompson. Considering that the room only does fifty points spread across ten items right now, it’s a substantial upgrade.”

  “Hmm, that’s a good point, and we should be able to upgrade that further. We’ll want to do that for the composite armory and the smithy when we can, too.”

  “Between the XP from what we sold, what we got for killing all the idiots, and from people buying stuff at the settlements, I can upgrade two rooms. Gunnery and composite armory?”

  “Yes. We don’t damage our melee weapons a lot.”

  “Pad me,” Alvin said as he continued to put things up for auction.

  Becky added the two upgrades for the rooms and held the pad out to him. “I’ll check the next upgrades available once you buy these.”

  Alvin tapped the button and winced when four hundred thousand XP vanished from his total, leaving him at five hundred and twelve XP. “Ouch, that hurt... but it means our gear will be better off.”

  “What piece of armor did you want repaired?” Becky asked as she put her arms around him.

  “I would like you and Kuro to take the slots tonight,” Alvin chuckled. “Most of my gear is still good right now. What did the next upgrades look like?”

  “We can raise the rate to one percent, or increase the number of items the room can handle at once to fifteen. Either takes another hundred thousand XP. Neither of those choices locks anything else out for now.”

  “Good to know.”

  “Since we’re done with that, I’ll send my message to David and then go join Mousie. Don’t keep us waiting long, Hero.”

  “I’ll go as fast as I can,” Alvin replied.

  “Good,” Becky said, moving back next to him and typing out her message. When she finished, she leaned into his side, her lips right next to his ear, “We’ll be in the shower.”

  The image of the two naked beauties waiting for him got his at
tention. “I’m going as fast as I can, but if you keep making my blood leave my brain, it’ll take me longer, brat.”

  “Which two guns do you want to repair? I’ll drop them off on my way,” Becky purred at him.