I, of course, run into more problems.
Half-way to my destination, I come across a sizable cluster of monsters. They’re spread out over the countryside, most of them idling, some chasing each other’s tails. The majority of them are gathered around a cluster of buildings, ripping into corpses if the body parts hurtling through the air are anything to go by.
A battle must’ve taken place here not long ago, and the human defenders lost.
I pause and think about my next move carefully. Giving these guys a wide berth would be the safest thing to do, but it would also be very time consuming when every second possibly counts. Sneaking through the middle of them would be faster, but much more dangerous.
In the end I settle for the second option and I start making a plan around it. I go into my inventory to check out a few of the items and see what I've got to work with.
Item: Box of damp firecrackers.
Description: This box contains a collection of small firecrackers, each designed to create a loud bang and a flash of light when ignited. The box shows signs of wear, and the firecrackers might be less reliable due to exposure to moisture. Handle with care.
Ammo: 50/50.
Damage: 1.
Effects: attracts nearby monsters.
Item: Box of fireworks.
Description: This box is filled with an assortment of fireworks, each one designed to make a colorful explosion of sparks. Due to their age and poor storage conditions, their performance might be erratic.
Ammo: 10/10.
Damage: 1.
Effects: attracts monsters in a wide area.
I pull the box of firecrackers into my hands and check on the contents. The inventory lumped them together, but I get individual descriptions as well. Same with the fireworks. Each individual item tells me what they’ll do, and they all carry that warning about dampness. Unfortunately, I’m not told which ones are duds.
I put them all back and sneak closer, keeping to a ditch by the side of the road. It takes me all the way up to the cluster of buildings, and I get there unnoticed. I wait a bit for the monsters to wander away, and when I spot an opening, I dash out of the ditch and behind a van.
This is where the risky part of my plan comes into play. I need to distract the monsters, to pull them away so I can sneak by them. That’s what the firecrackers and fireworks are for. I pull out a couple of firecrackers and start doing a few tests. After I pick a spot to throw one at, I light one up. The striker strip on the side of the box is also damp, so it takes a few attempts.
As soon as the firecracker is lit, I get a timer of five seconds. I quickly try to pull it into inventory like that, but the system won’t let me.
Warning: Active or ignited items cannot be stored in inventory.
While that would’ve been nice, I didn’t expect it to work. I toss the firecracker out into the field next to me, but those couple of seconds wasted on the test means it pops in mid-air. It still attracts the monsters all the same, causing a bunch of them to rush over and check out the sound.
I keep glued to the side of the van and sneak further. The buildings — a handful of houses and some kind of grain silos — are arranged on either side of the road, giving me a clear line of sight to the other side. I dart from cover to cover, keeping by cars, doorways, and other obstacles.
Everywhere I look, I see carnage. Human and monster corpses torn to shreds, leaving behind piles of gore and puddles of fast drying blood. The buildings themselves are damaged, filled with bullet holes, claw marks, and surprisingly enough, fire damage in places.
The aftermath of skills? Maybe.
I try to use the firecrackers sparingly, only bringing them out when I need to ease my advance. None of the monsters spot me, and half-way in, I get a notification.
General skill acquired: Sneaking - Level 1.
It nearly makes me jump out of my skin and give my position away. I’m tempted to check it out right here and now, but I know I can’t afford the distraction. The notification gets relegated to the folder, and I keep going.
I make it almost all the way when something finally spots me. I’m kneeling behind a car, trying to decide where to throw my next firecracker, and some kind of mutated rat comes at me just as I ignite the cracker. I hear it before I see it, and my reaction leaves plenty to be desired.
A few things happen in quick succession. The rat lunges and bites into my thigh. I let out a startled yelp and drop the lit firecracker. It pops at my feet as I try to pummel the rat to death with my bare hands, and a chorus of howls fill the air.
“Fuck.”
I jump to my feet, ignoring the rat that gnaws at my leg as I whip my head back and forth. Monsters are coming in from every direction, piling up at both ends of the street. Some even try to pass through the houses, tearing through doors and windows.
I only have a few seconds, and I’m on the move before I know what I’m doing. I gun it towards the nearest house, shoulder tackling the front door. The latch breaks and the door swings open, spilling me inside. A corridor greets me, with a living room to the right, a kitchen by the end, and stairs to the upper floor on the left. I see a few monsters up ahead, trying to break into the kitchen through the back door and windows. They snarl and yelp as shards of glass cut into them, but they don’t retreat.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
I take to the stairs, with growls and heavy footfalls behind me. The monsters assault the house, filling the ground floor as I clear the stairs. I don’t have anything to block them from following, nothing to even slow them down.
Nothing, except for a couple canisters of gasoline and a suicidal idea.
I pull one of them out, along with a knife. As the monsters clamber over each other to get to the stairs, I take off the cap and spray gasoline all over them. After the monsters and the stairs are doused, I use the knife to punch a few holes into the canister and toss it down into the horde.
I don’t have a lighter and a catchphrase ready, so I simply light up a firecracker and throw it. All that does is make me look like a jackass as the firecracker lands in a puddle of gasoline and goes out before popping.
“God fucking damn it,” I let out as I turn tail and bolt away from the stairs.
This just isn’t my day. Night. Hour. Whatever.
The upper floor is another long corridor lined with rooms, with a window by the end. I figure it’s a few bedrooms, a bathroom, maybe a storage closet, but I don’t go into any to check. What I’m looking for is the attic access, and I find it just as the first monster makes it up the stairs. I pull down the hatch in the ceiling to reveal a ladder that I quickly climb, but the monster, a mutated boar, barrels into it as I’m half-way up.
It rips the ladder away and keeps going, breaking through the window at the end of the corridor and falling out. I manage to grab onto the sides of the hole in time, and I pull myself up the rest of the way as the other monsters flood the floor below me.
“Good thing that gasoline didn’t go off after all,” I say to the monsters.
They just growl up at me, angry that I got away. A few try to leap up, but I close the access hatch in their faces.
----------------------------------------
I spend the next few minutes tearing a hole into the roof, and I squeeze myself out. The street below the house is teeming with monsters, my stunt having attracted all of them in the area.
They don’t wait long before they start tearing into the house itself, as if knowing they’ll bring it down and reach me that way. I watch them for a bit, analyzing types and levels. While I don’t see anything over level 3, the sheer number of them is more than enough.
“Welp, back to it.”
While I can’t go back down through this house now, I might still be able to leap to another roof and escape that way. Emphasis on might, seeing as I’m separated from the closest roof by a generous ten foot gap. I couldn’t pull off a leap like that even under ideal conditions, with a good run-up on solid ground, let alone with slanted shingles under my feet.
But then again, I might not need to make it all the way to the other roof. I can certainly survive the fall, and broken bones aren’t a long term worry anymore. But if I break one or both of my legs, even if it would only take minutes to heal, they’d still stop me from running away.
Lucky for me, the other house has an upper floor window. I take a deep breath, run up to the edge of the roof, and I leap. Regret fills me in mid-air, but I make it. I crash through the window and into a bedroom, getting tangled in the drapes as glass shards cut me up all over.
A healthy dose of swearing later, I’m free and moving about as I bleed all over the place. I check the room for anything useful, hoping for some guns, but I come away empty handed once more.
“Where the fuck are all the God damned guns?!”
On their owners, my brain reminds me. On the people that went out there to fight and died. I sigh and keep searching. Despite the lack of firearms, I find a few Relics. Some snow globes depicting famous landmarks like the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower, a handful of old looking books, a bible and a cross in a nightstand drawer. I take them all.
I do also find something a little more useful: a pack of cigarettes, a lighter, and a roll of duct tape. I take those as well.
The monsters haven’t yet realized that I left the next house over, so I keep away from any windows as I explore more of the house. But just because they don’t know I’m here doesn’t mean I can make a clean escape, they’re still everywhere outside.
“Think, think…”
I can’t just barge out there and pray. There are too many monsters to fight my way through them, and I can’t outrun them either. I need all of them to go somewhere else, even if only for a minute.
“Time for one of those fireworks.”
Now that I can actually light them, they might just do the trick. I find a window that overlooks the surrounding fields and open it just a crack. Then, I get another stupid idea. The gasoline is still in that house, just begging for a spark. There are a ton of monsters in there as well, and I could really use the experience.
“Just one attempt,” I tell myself as I look for another window.
I find one overlooking the street up front, but I can’t get a clear line of sight to that house’s front door. Still, I give it a shot. I pick one of the bigger fireworks, one that will spread colorful sparks everywhere, and I take aim. I light it up and it takes off with a hiss, showering my hands with exhaust and causing light burns.
It lands on the porch, hitting a monster and falling out of sight. I still hear it hissing, though, and a moment later, a monster lifts it up in its mouth as it shakes its head.
I cross my fingers and pray it’ll go off before the monster tears it to pieces. It doesn’t look like it will, but a heartbeat later, I’m treated to a loud bang that’s like music to my ears. Blue, red, and white sparks fly everywhere, engulfing the porch and entryway. One of them gets where it needs to be, and the gasoline ignites with a whoosh and a fireball that blows out all of the windows on that house.
My notification folder pulses like a Christmas tree with kill notifications. A bunch of monsters die all at once, and a lot more catch on fire, taking off as they yelp in pain. I take advantage of the confusion and run downstairs, getting out through the back door.
None of the monsters pay attention to me as I leave. The ones close to ground zero are running around like headless chicken, setting fire to the other buildings. The rest are running towards the blaze, drawn to the commotion. It’s all a deafening cacophony of howls, but there’s something else as well. A sound that’s hard to make out, dancing at the edges of my hearing.
Some kind of…squeals or whimpers.
I get far enough away from the cluster of buildings to rejoin the road, and I stop briefly to look back at my handiwork. Most of the structures are on fire, billowing thick, black smoke high into the air. Monsters are still dropping dead left and right, feeding me a steady trickle of experience.
But something is off. One of the monsters is in the middle of the road, staying clear of the fires as it stares into the flames. It stands up on its back legs, which easily makes it six feet tall and gives it a creepy, humanoid appearance. As all other sounds slowly die down, I realize that monster is the source of the squeals.
I focus on it to see what it is.
Marrower - Level 3 Wave Boss.
“Fuck.”
That’s one of the three wave bosses we have to bring down in order to end the siege. It’s also the first monster I’ve seen that doesn’t have the mutated tag, which only makes the pit in my stomach grow. This one’s done mutating, and I have no idea what abilities it might’ve gained.
Its level is bad news, too. Most of the monsters I’ve seen so far were level 1, with only the occasional level 2 and the very rare level 3. While the Marrower’s level isn’t a huge surprise, that level 3 ought to mean more on a boss than on a normal monster.
I get ready to turn and leave, but as I do, the Marrower looks over its shoulder. The distance between us is too large to tell for certain, but I can feel its eyes on me, freezing the blood in my veins.
I’m scared it’ll give chase, but it doesn’t. Instead, it turns back to the fire, letting out more squeals and whimpers. I decide not to look this particular horse in the mouth and leave while I still can.