If you squinted at it from the right angle, it almost looked cute. The mandibles were key. If you imagined them to be bent into a little smile or pulled together like puckered lips, slightly quivering with fear, then, together with its beady little eyes, it could look like an innocent little bug baby.
Of course, the centipede wasn’t any of those things. None of the animals they’d seen so far were innocent or cute. They were all evil, filled with the kind of blind rage she’d only ever seen in the worst addicts, when they were denied their medicine. Even the rabbits, normally some of the cutest animals, were just so disturbingly wrong. Tasha shuddered as she recalled the misshapen head of the Murder-Rabbit that had rushed for her, frothing with rage as it snapped at the air with oversized teeth.
She looked up at another shout from the group that were standing on the other side of the firepit. The group had been arguing for a while, but she wasn’t sure what about. She caught Dericka glancing at her, but didn’t know what to make of her facial expression.
Turning back to the centipede, she pulled out her pocket knife and wedged it behind one of the pincers. With a few firm taps, she got it in position to lever it out of its socket. Then, getting into a crouching position and pushing down on its head with her foot, she pulled until the pincer released with a crunch. She inspected the thing and the hole it left behind, then sighed. There was no poison sac as far as she could tell. That might have come in handy for.. various purposes. The pincer would be useful though, easily the length of her hand, feeling sharp and durable.
She tucked it away and went to check on Dmitriy, who was lying beside a bush-tree on a bed of packed-together branches and leaves.
“Ah Natasia, no need to worry about me. Just need a little nap and I’ll be back to slaying rabbits.” The muscled man’s voice somehow still sounded confident and strong, but his face was pale.
She could see spots of sweat on his forehead and her worries grew when she noticed his arm, skin looking bright red around the bite wounds. After putting a hand on his forehead to check his temperature, she decided he was breaking out in a fever. She hadn’t seen any sign of poison on the centipede. It might just be a normal infection then, but either way, this was bad. They didn’t have any antibiotics.
“A nap is a great idea. You should get some rest.” She agreed, deciding not to share her concerns with him. There wasn’t anything he could do about it anyway.
Tasha knew that she’d been looking like that just a few days ago. Feeling like it, too. The worst was behind her by now. This wasn’t the first time she’d gone through withdrawal. Soon, all the symptoms would be gone and then she’d be back to a normal experience. Healthy. Unfiltered. Raw. A shiver went down her spine. She might actually prefer to have her face eaten off by a Murder-Rabbit.
She spotted Dericka walking towards her and got up to meet her halfway, so as not to disturb Dmitriy’s rest.
“Hey. How is he?” The dark-haired woman asked with a kind smile, her eyes carrying the usual intensity, despite the dark bags underneath. Dericka always looked like that somehow, eternally patient and genuinely kind. Tasha felt like she could confess to murder and still that expression wouldn’t change. She glanced at the firepit as she replied, the uninterrupted eye contact making her uncomfortable.
“I’m no doctor, but the wound looks infected to me. His temperature is raised. He’ll probably break out into a fever soon.”
Dericka nodded, glancing over at Dmitriy, concern clear on her face. Her eyes paused on the centipede corpse for a few counts, then she looked back at Tasha.
“Yeah, that’s what I feared. Robert’s already down with a fever. He’s not doing too well. Nobody’s got any antibiotics, of course, and we know that the Fixer Upper is way out of our price range, but I’ll keep searching the store for any cheaper medicine.” Dericka said, somehow managing to sound optimistic, despite the seemingly hopeless situation.
There was a short pause as they both thought it through, but neither of them had any better ideas. Dericka then continued in a serious tone.
“Things are generally not good at the moment. Some people are talking about striking out into a different zone. I think it’s too dangerous.” She sighed, shaking her head.
“Anyway, at the very least we need to work on improving our shelters and finding new food sources. So I was thinking, if that wheat Kobe spotted yesterday is edible, we might be able to kill two birds with one stone, using the stalks for shelter and boiling the tops. Sato’s group is set on heading to the forest again, so I’ll stay here to watch over Dmitriy and the rest of the group. Would you be willing to go out there with Kobe? See what you can harvest?”
“Sure, I can do that.” Tasha said easily. She was rewarded with a radiant smile from Dericka.
“Thank you.” Dericka said, meeting Tasha’s eyes with that deep gaze, like it was an open channel straight into her soul. She put her hand on the shorter woman’s shoulder and continued with a slightly more serious expression.
“Don’t do anything too risky. Getting you back in one piece is more important than anything else.”
Tasha had to look away again, but she smiled as she nodded. “Sure thing, boss.”
Dericka gave an easy laugh. “Oh I’m nobody’s boss. Just a concerned friend.”
Having found Kobe, the both of them left shortly after that, heading west over the familiar rolling hills. They were watching their surroundings carefully, sticks held tightly, knowing that Murder-Rabbits could come rushing out of holes or bushes at any moment. As usual, Kobe was first to break the silence.
“Sato does make good points about investing our Value. I don’t know about rushing into a random forest, but I’d feel a lot safer with higher Stats or some Abilities up my sleeve. What do you make of it?”
“Um.. I haven’t really been listening to the discussions, to be honest. But I do trust Dericka, and having a map before moving anywhere makes sense to me. I don’t really get why we’d need to move out so quickly.” Tasha said after giving it some thought.
“It’s mostly people needing to find their families that want to move out quickly. I also don’t think it’s a good idea, though. But have you given any thought to what Abilities you’d want to get?”
“I haven’t even unlocked my PE node yet.” She said with a sigh. “I haven’t managed to make myself useful at all, come to think of it..”
Tasha got an uncomfortable feeling as she said that. There was a pit in her stomach and a tension in her shoulders. It wasn’t a feeling that she was used to. It wasn’t exactly shame, nor frustration, but some combination of the two, perhaps. Her hand instinctively went to her pack of cigarettes, but then she brought it back down, knowing she was down to her last two already.
“That’s not true,” Kobe said after a short pause. “You’re great at investigating things, noticing details the rest of us miss. Plus, you’ll find some nice medicinal herbs to heal us sooner or later. How were the ones you, ah, tested yesterday, by the way?”
“Terrible. You didn’t hear me coughing at night? Thought I was going to lose a lung.”
"Oh, that was you? I thought it was one of the old folks.” Kobe said, trying and failing to hold back his laughter.
“Yeah. Anyway. When that weird lady explained everything during the Tutorial, I felt drawn to radiant energy more than the others. Something about being able to feel or somehow perceive things we normally can’t seems wild to me. I mean, what would infrared light actually look or feel like?” Tasha said, a bit of excitement entering her usually stoic voice.
“That does sound cool. Not immediately useful for combat, but it could be useful for a bunch of other stuff, right? I think I saw things like being able to blind enemies or blur out your allies?”
“Yeah, exactly. That might be more up my alley. Poking things with a sharp stick is not really for me. What else is there to spend the Value on, actually? I haven’t been able to browse the store yet.”
“There’s loads of stuff. You could browse for days and not see the end of it. Food, water, camping gear, medicine. They even have a selection of clothes, but they’re not listed by brand or size or anything. All the normal stuff would be pretty cheap too, if we could get it through a MAFT.”
“What’s that again?” Tasha asked.
“Matter Allocation Focus Totem. The large, stationary things that we want to find, remember? Basically like a big teleportation pole. Makes everything cheaper. When we find one, we could get a mattress for just 8 Value. Can you imagine? Sleeping on a real mattress again? I’ll slaughter a whole nest of rabbits for that with my bare hands, no questions asked.”
“Wait, do they sell cigarettes?” Tasha asked, speaking faster.
“I haven’t checked but yeah, probably. They’d be cheap, too, if they have them. If you get them from the Totem, that is. Only the Sci-Fi stuff is really expensive.”
Tasha’s heart was beating faster now, her chest filling with swirls of excitement and hope. If they had cigarettes, they might sell other consumables too. She could stop foraging for medicinal herbs. But then she registered the implications of what Kobe had just said, and gasped.
“Space drugs..” She whispered, staring wide-eyed into the distance, mouth slightly agape.
“What was that? Are you okay?” Kobe asked, looking over at Tasha with concern, then ahead as if to find what she was staring at.
“Oh, it’s nothing. Never mind.” The young woman shook her head and tucked her pixie-cut blonde hair behind her ears, walking on with a spring in her step and a slight smile on her face. Kobe matched her pace, giving her side-eye glances as they went up another hill.
They were interrupted by a murder-rabbit that crawled out of a hole to the side. It spotted them, then moved directly towards them in the typical rage-fueled sprint. Tasha froze as Kobe moved to intercept. Using his trusted kick and spear combo, he killed it without any trouble. They moved on in silence after that.
After a while, when they crested a slightly taller hill, they could finally make out the wheat field. The green hills flattened out before stopping abruptly, giving way to the tall, flaxen stalks of wheat, their hairy tops swaying slightly in the breeze. It stretched out as far as they could see, areas of gold and green neatly divided by an invisible line. As they got closer, they could see the stalks moving more briskly here and there, likely being pushed aside by some animal, hidden underneath the cover.
“We’ll have to go about this carefully, working as quickly and quietly as we can. There might be dangerous things hiding there.” Kobe said to Tasha in a quiet voice, his expression serious, dark eyes looking focused. She nodded in understanding, then looked out at the field in front of them. They were crouching on a short hill, a small stretch of grass in front of them, perhaps 40 yards or so to where the tightly packed wheat stalks were.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
They crept slowly over the grassy field, carefully scanning their surroundings, looking for any movement in the reeds. Not spotting any signs of danger, they got to work. Kobe managed to pull one of the stalks out of the ground, but it took a lot of effort and resulted in a clump of dirt covered roots that they’d have to drag across the ground. He then tried to break one off at the bottom, but the fibrous stem was too tough and flexible to break.
Tasha quietly handed him her knife, then showed him the pincer as he gave her a questioning look. It took Kobe a good twenty seconds to saw through the stalk, Tasha needing closer to a full minute. Each having a stalk in hand, they backed away and headed over to their hill to give the things a closer look.
Tasha plucked some kernels off the head of the stalk and rolled them between her fingers, then bringing them to her nose.
“Looks and smells like wheat to me.”
She then put a bit in her mouth, giving it a short taste test before spitting it out again.
“Doesn’t taste off either. If we don’t see any irritation or start to feel funny by the time we get back, I’d say we’re good to cook up a batch of these for a proper test.”
Kobe grinned at her, showing a neat row of white teeth. “Music to my ears.They’re also light to carry, but still tough and flexible. Should be useful for improving our shelters.”
Tasha nodded, smiling back. “Let’s go get some more.”
The two got back to work, methodically sawing through the stems and placing the stalks into a neat pile next to them. Working quickly, they’d managed to collect a good pile, when Tasha gestured for Kobe to stop, having heard something. The rustling sound of something moving through the stalks grew closer, and looking through the first few rows, they could see movement. They picked up their sticks and backed away, keeping their eyes on the wheat field.
Something stepped up to the edge of the field, gaze fixed on them. It took another few steps closer, then making a loud hissing sound as it came to a stop.
“What in the hell is that supposed to be?” Kobe said in a whisper.
The creature was mostly visible now, sticking low to the ground in a squat shape. It had the build of a Dachshund, with an oblong torso and short feet, but its skin was scaled and shiny like a lizard's. Its face looked snake-like, but it was scrunched up between thick folds of scaly skin, pushing right up against its torso, seeming to lack a neck. Its golden brown scales made it blend in well with the wheat stalks, but it was clearly visible against the grass.
“It looks more dangerous than the Murder-Rabbits, that’s for sure. Why isn’t it coming for us?” Tasha whispered back.
“No idea. It’s just… Staring at us." The both of them were tense, gripping their weapons tightly as they stood there, staring back.
“I’m thinking I should try to kill it. It’s not that big, and it looks slow.” Kobe said after a while, giving up on whispering, but still speaking quietly.
“I don’t know, Kobe. That seems really risky. Something’s off about it. It looks like a serpent, so it could be venomous. I can’t imagine this is not a higher threat than light green.” Tasha said, worry clear in her voice.
“Fair point, it does look like a snake. But it also looks like a Pug. How fast could it be, with those stubby little feet?”
Tasha remained silent, thinking. He made good points, but this still felt reckless. Dericka had said not to do anything too dangerous, but she didn’t think she could convince him otherwise, and didn’t have any ideas on how to do this in a safer way.
“I can’t go back empty handed. The sooner we get enough Value for a map, the sooner we can find that damn Totem. A mattress, a change of clothes. Maybe even a shower? I’m ready to kill that damn thing for a shower. We need that Value.” Kobe continued, sounding more determined than before.
“I’ll approach it carefully, see if it does anything. You stay behind me and keep a lookout, make sure nothing else creeps up on us.” Kobe said, then, not waiting for an answer, started slowly walking forward, makeshift spear pointed towards the creature.
Tasha cursed quietly and shuffled on behind him at a short distance, scanning the surroundings for anything that could help.
It got more agitated as Kobe got closer, taking a step towards him, but then letting out an angry hiss and taking two steps back again. He’d stopped when it moved, and Tasha thought she could see his spear shaking slightly as Kobe stood there, beads of sweat rolling down his temple into the short black stubble on his cheeks, jaw clenched tightly, the muscles of his dark forearm rippling as he adjusted his grip on the spear. The young man took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, then began moving forward again.
“Wait.” Tasha said, prompting Kobe to stop moving forward, but he didn’t turn towards her.
“There are some rocks over there. We can throw them at it from a distance, see if it does something? At the very least I could use it to distract it before you make your move.”
“Alright. Not a bad idea.” Kobe agreed after a short pause. They went to gather some of the stones, then stood a few paces apart, facing the creature again.
“This feels stupid.” Kobe said with a boyish grin. Tasha shrugged in response, then Kobe took aim and let loose with an aggressive swing. He missed by a wide margin. The next throw came up short, bouncing across the ground and coming to a stop in front of the creature, which didn’t react at all. Tasha gave it a shot too, but also missed.
“We actually don’t have that many stones.” Kobe said. “Let me get a bit closer.”
He took a few steps closer, threw again, and this time managed to hit the creature in the side with a dull thud. It hissed angrily, moved forward, then shook its head briefly before moving back again.
Tasha and Kobe looked at each other and shrugged, Kobe taking aim again. After another throw to its side with the same results, he took another step closer and took his time to aim and wind up properly. Lunging forward and swinging through the hips, he let loose his best throw yet and managed to hit the thing straight in the face. With a hiss that sounded more like a growl, it took a step forward, seemed to dig its small claws into the ground, then snapped at him.
As she was looking at it from an angle, Tasha could clearly see what happened. With a strange clicking sound, its head shot out like a bullet, the thick rolls of its neck unfolding until they were fully stretched out. The result looked more like a giraffe than a pug, with a snake’s body sticking out of the oblong torso, the snake part being at least twice as long. The main body looked a lot thinner now, the scaly, yellowish skin hanging loosely from its shoulders and spine.
The movement had been so fast and violent that they’d both instinctively flinched back and fallen down. Tasha looked over at Kobe, feeling a wave of panic, pulse pounding in her ears. He was scrambling back on his hands and feet, but there were still a few feet in between him and the snake’s head, which was hissing angrily at him, forked tongue flicking out from vicious looking teeth. She heard him say “Holy shit.” in between panicked breaths.
Kobe made it back over to her and they stared with disgust and fascination as the serpentine body rolled back up into the main torso, like the electric cable of a vacuum cleaner.
“Talk about a curveball.” Kobe said when he’d gotten his breathing under control.
“How is that even possible?” Tasha said, voice shaking slightly.
“No idea.” Kobe answered, breathing out heavily. “But we know its trick now. The weakness is obvious. It took, what, at least five seconds before it managed to roll itself up again?”
Tasha was shocked for a moment that he wanted to continue, fear still gripping her. Her hand was already in her pocket, gripping the pack of cigarettes, but she gritted her teeth and pulled it back out. This was not the time. Taking a minute to calm down, she realized that it would actually be safer now that they’d seen its range. One person could distract it, standing in the exact same spot, so that the other would be able to rush at it while it was vulnerable.
“So.. I’ll.. trigger it? You come at it from the side?” She said, trying but failing to keep her voice steady.
Kobe looked her over for a few seconds, nodding slowly. “Are you sure you’re up for that?”
“Yeah. It’s the obvious way to do it. I don’t want to just stand by and do nothing.”
Kobe got up, clicking his tongue unhappily as he wiped some grass off his pants, then reached out a hand and pulled Tasha up. They looked each other in the eyes for a moment, then nodded at each other and set to gathering a few more rocks. The Pug-snake stayed in exactly the same position, following their movements, so Tasha went to stand exactly where Kobe had been standing before, armed with a few rocks.
Her hands were shaking, and she missed her first two throws by a wide margin. The damn creature wasn’t even looking at her, pointed towards Kobe instead, evidently seeing him as the real threat. She then closed her eyes, taking a few slow breaths.
“Just like at the fair.” She mumbled softly to herself.
She hit the creature twice with her next throws, not hard enough to trigger an attack, but it did shift its attention over to her. Then, throwing harder, she overshot with her next three throws, but she got closer with each one, adjusting her aim. She was on her final two rocks when she finally clocked it right in the face, and its attack came immediately. Despite trying to prepare for it, she froze up completely and nearly fell back again, involuntarily squeezing her eyes shut. She managed to stay standing, staring at the angry snake that was now lying a few feet in front of her, already coiling back to its main body. Kobe was coming at it from the side in a sprint, teeth bared as he lunged at it with his spear.
As Kobe rammed into its side, Tasha felt a flash of fear as she watched how the spear point, coming in at an angle, slid off the creature’s scales instead of pushing through and skewering it. Due to the momentum, the Pug-snake’s main body was pushed onto its side as the spear slid past and stuck firmly into the ground. Having expected more resistance, Kobe stumbled forward and half fell over the torso, bending over and touching his palms to the ground so as to avoid spilling over entirely, even as its neck kept slithering back, bringing its head ever closer.
With a curse, Tasha shook herself out of her stupor and ran over, pulling her knife out of her pants pocket, heading straight for the snake’s head. But to her surprise, Kobe was even faster, immediately abandoning his spear, pushing himself back up and, without hesitation, leaping onto the snake’s neck from behind, grabbing onto its head and pushing it into the ground, knees clenched around its long neck.
“No you fucking don’t!” He growled.
Tasha hesitated, slowing down slightly, while Kobe kept the snake’s head pressed down into the ground with his left hand, patting the ground in search for one of the rocks with his other. By the time Tasha reached him, he’d already found a rock and was bashing the snake’s head in with wide, powerful movements, grunting with anger and exertion as he kept bringing the rock down with a meaty thud. She hadn't seen him like this before, his teeth bared and face contorted into a vicious snarl, hate-filled eyes focusing only on the snake as he kept pummeling it. It went on much longer than Tasha thought necessary and she just stood there for a while, awkwardly listening to the disturbing melody of a grunt, followed by a thud, then a short pause as he brought his arm up again, panting all the while.
Tasha just stared at him, mouth agape as his chest and shoulders moved in time with his heavy gasps for breath. She thought he might continue until he passed out, but then he looked up at her with a bright smile, finally content only when the pug-snake’s head was mashed firmly into the soil. There were splatters of blood across his face, but they didn’t seem to bother him, his expression full of joy and pride despite the exhaustion, like an athlete who’d just won a race.
“We did it!” The words came out in a quick rush, barely fitting in between two gulps of air. “Twenty Value!” Another pause for breath. “Twenty! For one kill!”
Noticing that Tasha’s wasn’t celebrating, but rather regarding him with some shock, he looked down again and finally seemed to notice the blood on his hands and t-shirt.
“Nooo! Not the Boss shirt!”
***
They got back to the campsite without any further attacks, though they were drenched with sweat from the trek back. Tasha had insisted that they take the pug-snake’s corpse back, which was surprisingly heavy. Kobe had flung it over his shoulders, carrying it on his back, while Tasha dragged a bundle of wheat stalks back, tied together with a bit of rope they’d brought. They’d had to take a lot of breaks, and the sun was far to the west by the time they made it back. Kobe had remained in great spirits after managing to kill the pug-snake, whistling as they hiked back, while Tasha had been more somber.
Unexpectedly, there was a lot of noise coming from the camp, the people seeming to be excitedly discussing something. Dericka strode up to them, expression turning from a bright smile to a look of confusion, eyes slightly narrowed, as she spotted the pug-snake corpse.
“What is.. No. First, are you okay?” She looked them over urgently, then insisted they tell her what happened when it was clear they were unhurt. As they told her of the fight with the pug-snake, Dericka sharply sucked air through her teeth.
“You took a big risk. That could have gone a lot worse." She paused as she looked them over again.
"Well, you’re both adults, so I won’t lecture you. I’m just glad you made it back safely.”
She was elated to hear about the Value reward though. It put Kobe at 42 Value, ahead of the pack and well on the way to the 100 they needed for the map.
“We might be in need of a lot more though. Robert and Dmitriy have gotten worse throughout the day. If the fever doesn’t break soon.” She paused, shaking her head. “We need to find some way to help them.”
Tasha and Kobe both looked downcast at hearing that, knowing that a Fixer Upper would require over 200 Value without the Totem discount. There was no way of getting that much in a short time without taking huge risks.
“Then why does everyone look so damn cheerful?” Kobe asked crudely.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you about the good news! Marie made a fantastic discovery!” Dericka said cheerily, her eyes shining with that familiar intensity.
Tasha had to spend a moment trying to recall who Marie was. She thought it was one of the elderly ladies. Dericka went on to explain how the old lady had used some sewing gear she’d had on her, to create some kind of shin guard. The idea was that it would help protect people from Murder-Rabbit bites. Apparently, she’d been working on drying out some of the rabbit pelts already in the past days, and, having seen Tasha fiddling with the centipede corpse, got the idea to dismantle pieces of chitin from its body and attach them to the rabbit pelt.
Dericka had encouraged her, and it needed a few iterations, but when she finally finished a sturdy looking shin guard, she’d gotten a notification that had nearly given her a heart attack. As she was one of the first people on the planet to craft a viable piece of armor, she’d been awarded with a PE node unlock, in addition to 35 Value.
This information was as shocking as it was valuable. Tasha’s mind was awash with possibilities upon hearing the story. If crafting was a viable way to earn Value, she wouldn’t have to be stabbing small animals every day.
The news also raised a lot of questions. What was the cut-off of what counted as crafting? Other people had made other things, like sharpening pieces of wood into the spears they were using, or fashioning some rudimentary rope by weaving plant stems together, but they hadn’t gotten any awards. Did it have to be armor, or were there other, hidden requirements? There was also a more disturbing question that came to her mind: if crafting things was a recognized way to gather Value, why weren’t they told about it during the Tutorial?
Still, Tasha felt excited and hopeful as she thought through the implications. She was brimming with ideas and wanted to get to work straight away, calling Kobe over to help drag the pug-snake’s corpse to a more isolated spot after checking in with Dmitriy. His condition hadn’t improved, which only gave her a stronger sense of urgency. They needed to collect a lot of Value, fast.
As she turned her focus to dissecting the creature, the excited chatter slowly died down as people settled in by the firepit and the sun began to set.
Tasha was too focused to notice that the conversations changed, turning to concern as evening turned to night, and Sato’s group had still not returned.