Kobe reflected that perhaps the old folks weren’t so useless after all. Some of them, at least. He wrapped his knuckles against the black shin guards, tied snugly around his legs. They felt good. Sturdy and reliable. The dark surface reflecting the warm, flickering light of his torch contrasted starkly with his white sneakers below.
Another one of the elderly had come up with the torch, while Marie had fashioned the shin guards. Apparently, the bushtrees had sap inside of them which could be easily extracted once you cut a path through the prickly branches to the central trunk. They’d soaked some fabric in it, then tied it around one end of a stick, resulting in a torch that would burn for hours. The old man hadn’t gotten any Value rewards like Marie did. They’d have to do a lot more testing to figure out what the pattern was.
He grabbed his spear, got up from where he was sitting and walked quietly along the area between the camp and the river. It wouldn’t do to let one of the centipedes through while he was on watch. He had to set an example.
Kobe sighed as he heard faint sobs coming from the sleeping area. Too many people had fallen into helplessness. They’d been here for over a week now, but they would just sit by the firepit, too scared to venture out, then cry themselves to sleep at night. How would that improve the situation? What would it teach the children? It was just pathetic.
He’d often thought that discipline was a dividing line between people. Some lacked it completely and would just spend entire days lying on the couch. Others had just enough to get by, and they would move through life like water flowed down to the sea, always following the path of least resistance. Then, there were the rare few who wouldn’t be satisfied without improving themselves and the world around them.
He wasn’t sure which category he belonged to. Dericka, however, was clearly in the latter group. While everyone was reeling from what had happened, she seemed to have just barreled through the existential crisis and kept on going. She’d pulled them all together, set clear short term goals, got them focused on the immediate future. Got them functioning again. Made sure everyone was alright. The woman somehow always seemed to be brimming with positive energy, despite their dire circumstances.
There was a rustle in the grass and he swung around, holding his torch out to the side so as not to blind himself. He thought he could make out a black shape in the darkness, slithering towards him. As it got closer, he heard the faint clicking of the centipede’s many limbs. He tossed the torch down in its path, gripping his spear with both hands, then stabbed down as it moved around the flame. The wooden spear slid off its plated body and the centipede promptly moved the front of its body up, striking at him like a snake.
It scratched and bit at his right leg, but it couldn’t get through the shin guard. Before it had a chance to move around, he stepped on its body with his left foot, then pulled his right leg back to get the centipede off. As it fell to the ground he quickly stepped on it, pinning its head to the ground. It was more powerful than he’d expected, squirming underneath his feet, but he had it locked down. Its carapace was already starting to crack under his weight. Kobe then started stabbing down next to his right foot again, knowing that he needed to crush its head to kill it. It took about a dozen thrusts before he got the notification and he stepped back, breathing heavy as he looked it over.
Nice Kill!
Threat level: Tier 1
Subject VT level: Tier 1
Value awarded: 3 (3 Base, no Multipliers)
He was sitting at 47 Value now, and for what felt like the hundredth time today, he went to browse through the System Store.
The cheapest Abilities started at 120 Value, so those were still out of reach for now. He’d had to read through them multiple times, but he was finally getting a sense of the possibilities there. The categories were quite theoretical and the Ability descriptions often technical, but he’d had enough physics classes to understand the basics. He reckoned that Radiant and Mechanical Energy would be better for defensive uses, with offensive capabilities being possible but less practical. For Electrical Energy on the other hand, it was hard to imagine defensive uses. Perhaps a magnetic field could be used to block bullets, but it seemed very unlikely that they’d be fighting against guns. The offensive use would still be tricky since electrical currents could be hard to predict, but there were a few Abilities that had piqued his interest.
But that was for later. A better strategy would be to invest in Stats in the short term, then taking down higher Tier monsters to collect enough Value for Abilities. It would cost only 5 Value per Stat point to bring them up to 10, after which the cost would double. Spending the Value to bring at least their Speed, Strength and Durability to 10 seemed like a no-brainer to him.
Except for the fact that they needed a map, which was 100 Value. Actually, what they now really needed was a Fixer Upper to heal Dmitriy and Robert, but with a cost of over 200 Value, he thought they wouldn’t be able to get it in time. As a back-up solution, after scouring the System Store, Dericka had found a shot of penicillin. By itself, it cost only 20 Value, but there was an added transport cost of 30 Value since they didn’t have a Matter Allocation Focus Totem. It would set them back, but it might be necessary to buy it anyway if the two men’s fever didn’t break soon. Robert, in particular, had been looking in bad shape.
Saving lives took precedence over other priorities, of course. The map would benefit the entire group and allow them to start moving towards a stationary MAFT, which would solve many of their problems. It would be the right choice. The moral choice. That much was obvious.
So why did he spend most of his time looking over the mundane items? Again, he’d opened the System Store tab, fantasizing about how nice it would be to have a proper mattress, instead of that collection of branches and leaves. Or a change of clothes, finally. There was even a high tech cleaning unit, which was 20 Value in addition to the transportation cost. Once connected to a water source, it would allow everyone to take regular showers. Most people didn’t dare approach the river anymore after the centipede attack, so they’d start looking and smelling even worse.
The truth was, he was miserable. They had been here for nine days. In all that time, he hadn’t once gotten a decent night’s sleep. They didn’t even have a pot to boil water in, so he’d barely eaten anything but unseasoned roasted rabbit. Luckily the water from the river was drinkable, or they would have probably all been dead by now. His clothes were starting to smell despite regular washing in the river, though not yet as bad as some of the others.
It’d be a lot easier to deal with this crappy new world if he at least had some basic comfort. He’d fantasized about just getting the shower unit and pitching it as a great addition that everyone would benefit from, but no matter how he twisted his imagination, people would always react poorly. The mattress would be even worse. The only realistic option would be to head out by himself, find an isolated location, hunt rabbits and buy the stuff he wanted. People might say that's insane, but was it, really? When faced with the apocalypse, trying to ride it out in a nice, remote mountain cabin seemed perfectly reasonable to him.
He closed the interface as he heard someone jogging up to him. It was Elza, one of the two mothers in the group. She was on first guard duty as well. Her dirty blonde hair had gotten greasy enough that it had darkened slightly, but in terms of body odor she was in the top twenty five percent. That was just good enough that he didn’t have to move away to keep speaking with her.
“Hey! I heard some noise from over here. Was it a centipede?” As she spotted the corpse beneath his feet, she took a step back and her face scrunched up in disgust.
“Are you okay?” She asked.
“Yeah, not a scratch. These shin guards are great. Just call me over if you see anything, it’ll be a lot safer.”
She nodded slowly, still keeping her eyes on the dead centipede, as if it might suddenly come back to life and lunge at her.
There was a silent pause as she stood there, but just when it was about to turn awkward, they heard a commotion from the other side of the camp. More and more people seemed to be waking up and joining in, so they decided to head over.
They found that Jim had returned, without the others. He didn’t look in good shape, covered in mud, leaves and grass sticking to him, with dried blood on the side of his face. His clothes were shredded in places, deep scratches visible here and there through the ribbons. He was trying to catch his breath as people crowded around him, asking questions. Dericka ran up, calling out for people to give him space and let him catch his breath.
“Please take a moment, Jim, we’ll listen whenever you’re ready.” She said calmly.
“The other guys, they... I don’t know if they... Oh, God.” Jim was still panting as the words came out and he closed his eyes tightly, rubbing his hand over his head.
Kobe noticed that the top of Jim’s head was bald, now. He hadn’t been bald before, he was sure of it. His hair had stayed remarkably clean, and only now he realized that Jim must have been wearing a toupet, which was gone now.
“Take it easy. From the start. You all went into the forest?” Dericka put her hand on his shoulder, her expression full of sympathy and understanding.
“The forest, yeah. It’s… It’s not safe.” He was staring at the ground still, but then he seemed to come to himself, looking up and taking a deep breath.
“We went in.” He nodded, took another deep breath.
“We wanted to get a good measure of the place this time. So we had to go in deeper. But we were careful, moved real slow. Eyes in all directions, watchin’ each other’s backs. At first, there were just some bugs. Normal sized ones. Didn’t attack us or anything. Then, there was a squirrel.” Jim started coughing, and one of the people offered up one of the few plastic bottles they had.
Jim drank greedily from the water, as if he’d only now realized how thirsty he was. Dericka directed him to sit down on a log by the fire, the rest huddling around. Kobe was happy to take a spot in the back, not too close to the rest of the crowd. He smiled as he spotted Tasha on the other side of the fire, entirely focused on taking that snake-like creature apart. It looked like she was finally getting through its tough skin. She’d taken to it with a passion after they got back. He wasn’t sure she’d even noticed the commotion.
“As I was saying, there was a squirrel, though it wouldn’t be wrong to call it a Gremlin either. ‘Bout the size of a small cat, but nastier. All claws and teeth. Soon as it spotted us, it went straight for us, same like the rabbits. We saw it come flyin’ from the tree and Sato knocked it clean out of the air. We all went for it with the spears. William got the kill, said it was 8 Value, four times two.”
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
“So it’s a Mid Green zone then?” Someone called out.
“That’s what we thought.” Jim said with a sigh. “We were about to head back when we noticed a steep hill ahead. We agreed to head up, see if we could get a better view of the surroundings. Turns out it was more like a plateau than a hill. But when we got up, there was another… Thing. Animal, I guess. A walking shell of some sort. I thought it was some kind of mutated turtle, but the shell was all rock like. No feet or head visible, just a large, dark shell, moving slowly. Come to think of it, it looked more like an oyster than a turtle. A really big one, about the size of a hula hoop.” Jim paused and gestured with his hands to indicate how large it was.
“You didn’t decide to retreat?” Dericka prompted after a moment, Jim seeming lost in thought.
“We should have. But no, we didn’t. We were curious, and the thing was slow. We poked it with our spears a couple times, but nothing happened. Its shell was tough as rock. We kicked at it, still nothing. Finally, William decided to try and flip it over. Then, as soon as he touched it, he spasmed and fell down, like he’d been tasered or somethin’.”
Jim had started speaking faster, his voice shaking slightly. There were gasps of surprise, people looking shocked or confused. Kobe wondered at the threat level of that thing. They’d been told that certain creatures may develop special abilities, not unlike what their PE Nodes were capable of doing, but he’d assumed that would only happen at higher levels. He also remembered that a zone’s threat level was not necessarily the same as each of the creatures in it. An area that was filled with a variety of dangerous Mid to Dark Green level monsters, might altogether be ranked as Yellow. Could that be the case in this forest? Again, the only way to be certain would be from a map.
“Of course, we held the thing back and quickly dragged him off, but then… There were these plants. I think they’d started growing around us, or maybe we just hadn’t noticed them before. But they had these beautiful red flowers, sprouting from the ground or hanging from vines. They were giving off some kind of pollen. These clouds of yellow dust were growing and they covered some of the way we’d come. Sato called out to get away, not to breathe the dust. William got back to his feet and we made to go round the, ah, oyster thing. But then there were more of those damn squirrels and it.. There was just chaos.” Jim shook his head, grimacing. Everyone was looking at him, expressions tense and horrified. The two little girls had woken up and wandered over at some point, but Elza was guiding them back to their sleeping spots.
“The oyster was slowly approaching from our left flank, we had the pollen behind us and then the squirrels were comin’ in from above. I jumped back. Two landed between us, one of ‘em running straight at me. Another might have landed on Sato, I think. Damn squirrel kept coming at me, and I kept backing away as I kicked and poked at it. I heard Sato shout to run and the others took off. I realized too late I’d gone all the way to the cloud of pollen, and when I looked back the squirrel jumped on me and scratched me up. I tried to get it off, stumbled back, right into the pollen, then moved faster, just tryin’ to get out. I didn’t see the hill, stumbled over a rock and went rolling down.” Jim was shaking as he told this part, struggling to hold back tears.
“The squirrel had let go as we fell, but as soon as I got up it went after me again, so I just..” He broke down into a sob then, holding his head in his hands. Dericka went over to squeeze his shoulder.
“I ran. Oh God. I left them behind.” The words came out in between heaving sobs, his voice laden with sadness and regret. Dericka started reassuring and comforting him, and a few others joined in as well, saying it was not his fault and that he did the right thing.
Kobe kept his distance, not wanting to get drawn into the emotional turmoil. It was obvious from the start that this would not be good news, but still his desperation grew as the story progressed. Sato, William and Andy were probably dead, which reinforced the harsh reality of their situation. They had nowhere to go. Again, it all came back to the same conclusion. They urgently needed more Value. That idle fantasy, of simply walking off, to hide somewhere and just sleep for days on a decent mattress, was looking ever more attractive.
He wandered towards the river, lost in thought, then decided to check in on Dmitriy and Robert, conscious that everyone was distracted. Jim had resumed his story and Kobe could still make out what the man was saying. After Jim’s tumble down the hill, he’d had to sprint out of the forest to stop squirrels from chasing after him. He’d then basically collapsed on the grass, feeling lethargic, barely able to move. This was presumably the effect from the spores that the plants had released. It had taken him a few hours to recover, which explained why he’d returned so late.
A few people had started to cry along with Jim, though he wasn’t sure whether it was for the men who might have lost their lives, or because of their desperate situation. Though only a few had said it out loud, he knew many had hoped that this expedition would finally turn things around. It was clear that they needed better shelter and other sources of food. They needed better and faster ways to gain Value. Perhaps most of all, they needed hope. Any reason at all, flimsy though it may be, to believe that things would get better soon.
He approached quietly and squatted down next to Dmitriy, looking the burly man over. His skin was looking less pale, his breathing was steady. Kobe thought he was sweating less as well. It actually looked like the fever had mostly broken and he might be pulling through on his own. Kobe smiled. They could all do with a bit of good news.
He got up and shuffled over to Robert who was lying a few yards to the left. Despite the older man being further away from the light of the fire, already during his approach Kobe could tell he was not looking good. As he again squatted down and looked him over, a feeling of nervous alarm came over him. Kobe desperately looked for a sign that he was wrong, eyes darting across the man’s body, from his eyes to his chest and back to his mouth. But Robert’s face remained completely colorless, his entire body rigid and unmoving.
The man was dead. The feeling of alarm grew and Kobe had to look away as he forced himself again to think that thought. To admit the truth. Robert was dead. The man had passed away. He was sitting next to a corpse, now.
He got up and turned away, started to pace nervously back and forth with his hands on his hips as he tried to settle his thoughts and emotions. There was a range of different emotions , none of them pleasant, woven together into a vexing, anxious feeling.
There was just a hint of sadness. He hadn’t known the man very well after all, but still along with that came a load of guilt, a sense that he should be thinking of the man himself instead of the consequences of his death. But still, his focus kept turning to how this would impact the group, to how to deal with the body, even. Then came a wave of frustration as he thought of how most people would react, with sadness and grief, helplessness and desperation. Those were all understandable, of course, appropriate even, but that wasn’t what they needed, which was the burning urgency to act, which he was starting to feel now, because clearly, they hadn’t done enough.
Again, a wave of guilt and frustration as he landed on that reflection. They hadn’t done enough. They should have done more. They had to do more, now, or they’d keep losing people like this. Something had to change.
He took a few deep breaths, settling himself, then bent down, pulling the large scarf that Robert had been using as a blanket up to cover his head.
As he turned back to the group by the fire, he could already hear raised voices.
“I told you, it’s the apocalypse. Judgment day. The demons are gonna pick us off, one by one.” One of the older men. Actually, the only older man that was left, now that Robert was dead.
“What are we going to do?” The words were drawn out in an anguished cry that came from one of the women, sat down on the ground, crying with her head in her hands.
“Do you think they’re dead? Is there any chance they could survive in that hellish forest?” Elza was asking Jim, the insensitive question again causing him to break down in tears.
“We should have gone north with Agatha, I told you. I told you all a hundred times.” He thought that was Marie, who’d made the shin guards, but it was hard to make out in the rising clamor.
“Why didn’t you go with her then, you stubborn old goat?” The old man grumbled at a lower volume. Kobe could only hear because he was coming right up behind the man.
Dericka was trying to get everyone to calm down, with no success, and Kobe caught her eyes flickering from face to face as she wrung her hands. It was the first time he’d seen her nervous. He caught her eye as he walked up and she gave him a surprised look. She must have caught something from his expression.
“Should we go after them?” Elza again, voice shaking with anxiety.
“People, listen up.” Kobe tried to cut through the hubbub, then once again, raising his hands “Everyone, please.”
He gritted his teeth when that also didn’t work, and finally shouted “Guys!”.
Everyone broke off and looked at him then, most looking startled at the anger in his voice.
He kept his eyes on Dericka as he spoke.
“It’s Robert. He’s… Passed away.”
A few counts of silence, followed by shocked reactions. He could see the emotions flitting across Dericka’s face and wondered how she went through them so quickly. Eyes first widening with shock and realization, her face then softening, eyebrows drooping to the side with sadness, followed by closing her eyes in acceptance and finally her jaw setting as she opened them again.
A few people went over to Robert’s body. One of the women was crying again. Jim just sat, staying out in front of him with a hollow look in his eyes.
“I should head out tomorrow with some other volunteers, to hunt the snake dogs. Two others would probably be best.”
He swallowed as he felt fear welling up at the memory of the last fight. He’d come so close to death. If he’d just been a few feet closer, or if one of those things had been waiting in the wheat field and struck at him, or if he hadn’t leapt on its head in the nick of time… He balled his fists to suppress a shudder.
Dericka looked him over and he noticed her eyes flicking to his hands for just a moment. “You’re right to be upset. But let’s not make rash decisions.”
“The time for exploring is over. We need to be focusing all our efforts on gathering Value now, Dericka.” His voice was firm but tense, the words coming out faster than usual.
“I agree.” Dericka spoke slowly and deliberately, leaving long pauses as if carefully considering her words. Her face was relaxed, but she didn’t carry her usual, patient smile. Her eyes gave him a feeling of reluctant acceptance, perhaps. She felt more like a soldier now, resigned to a long march.
“Hunting the snakes is high risk, high reward. Very high risk, if we’re being honest.”
“We could make some kind of shield, and-” Kobe interrupted, but Dericka held up her hand to show that she hadn’t finished.
“There are other avenues we might take. Fashioning the shin guards is without risk, and it can still yield a good deal of Value. If we found a way to lure out the rabbits, or even the centipedes, it would still be significantly safer. Perhaps if we put a butchered rabbit by the bank of the river and let you take all the kills? Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, let’s be smart about it. Let’s put all ideas together and decide on the best way forward.”
Kobe deflated a bit as he listened, his shoulders lowering and fists unclenching. He felt relieved at the realization that she’d been thinking about this as well.
“It’s been a rough day. Tonight, let’s just mourn Robert, and tomorrow we decide on a plan.” Dericka gave him a reassuring squeeze to his arm as she stepped by, moving to join some of the others that were crowding around Robert’s corpse.
Kobe felt slightly confused as she walked off. He’d gone into this fully convinced that they should be taking whatever risk was needed to reach at least 80 Value tomorrow. Somehow, she’d taken the fire right out of him and now he was left feeling like he’d been unreasonable. He couldn’t fault her logic, though. It would be better to make the decision in the morning.
He looked over to Tasha, still sitting next to the pug-snake’s corpse. It looked like she'd managed to remove the head and neck from the body. He knew how she could shut off the outside world when she was focused on a task, so he walked up to her to bring her the latest news.
There was a moment of confusion as he saw her holding out her hand, palm facing upward, looking horrified up at the sky. Then, he let out a long, defeated groan as he felt it too. A few innocent little drops quickly turned into steady rainfall.
The weather was finally turning on them.