As the day was starting to wane, Jake trudged through the overgrown streets. The once bustling city lay in ruins, and its towering skyscrapers were flayed open, exposing their steel bones to the elements. Others were nothing more than decaying skeletons against the gray, overcast sky. The eerie silence was broken only by the occasional creaking of a rusted sign or the howl of the wind.
His boots crunched on the carpet of rubble and glass, the sounds unnaturally loud in the absence of life’s usual cacophony. He’d been wandering through the desolate city for about an hour now, but he still couldn’t get used to the sight of absolute desolation around him. He felt like a character in a post-apocalyptic movie. Everywhere he looked, he saw nature reclaiming the city as its own. Vines cascaded from the sides of buildings, their leaves rustling in the never-ceasing wind.
Weeds and grass snaked their way through the cracks in the asphalt, sometimes reaching as high as his knees. As Jake carefully picked his way through the tangled mass of vegetation, his eyes constantly scanned the skeletal frames of cars and shattered storefronts around him for any sign of danger, which could be lurking anywhere. The memories of his very first encounter with an ex-human mutant in the building where he’d woken up were still fresh in his head. He knew there were more mutants in the city—every now and then, his ears picked up distant cries of unknown creatures. So far, he hadn’t encountered any more monsters, but sooner or later, it would change, that was for sure.
His footsteps echoed in the stillness of the street as he made his way to one of the destroyed stores that lined each side of the street. He paused at the shattered storefront, his eyes scanning the interior for anything of use. Amid the debris, he spotted a metal can and a bottle of water. Adjusting his rucksack, which had become more a part of him than an accessory, he stepped into the store. The shards of glass crunched underfoot as he made his way through the interior of the room.
He stashed the can and the water bottle in his backpack where some more tin cans and plastic bottles were already stowed away. On his way through the devastated city, Jake had occasionally stumbled upon canned food and bottled water. He collected all of them, knowing very well that any find, no matter how small, could mean the difference between survival and starvation. He didn’t know where all the food and water came from. He figured it must have been the System itself that put the sustenance in various convenient places for people to find. So far, he hadn’t met any other survivors, though.
Continuing on, he made his way through the desolate streets, his head on a swivel for any potential threats. Every now and then, he could hear the distant cry of some creature, making his skin crawl. His very first encounter with the mutant in the one-story house where he’d awakened had almost cost him his life. He’d been extremely lucky that the mutant had gotten stuck in the window frame. In retrospect, his high-level Luck attribute had probably contributed to the fluke. However, even though he was now armed, he still wasn’t eager to meet any more mutants.
Weaving through the labyrinth of streets, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched, that unseen eyes were tracking his every move. It was probably just his imagination, but he quickened his pace nevertheless, hoping to find a shelter somewhere and get out of the streets for a little while. Being out in the open made him feel vulnerable.
A sudden gust of wind whipped through the street, creating a ghostly wail as it rushed through the broken windows and twisted metal of empty building carcasses. Jake’s heart skipped a beat, a feral instinct to seek cover almost overpowering him. Even though there were no monsters, mutants, or any other predatory creatures anywhere to be seen right now, he still wanted nothing more than to find a place to take shelter and rest for a while to calm his nerves. He looked around and spotted a two-story building sandwiched between two skyscrapers.
He began to move in that direction when a distant sound caused him to freeze—the faint, almost imperceptible echo of something not quite dead. His heart racing, he looked down the street in the direction the sound seemed to have come from. He scanned the surrounding buildings while his instincts were screaming at him to flee. At first, he didn’t spot anything suspicious, but then he saw a human figure walking down the street toward him. It was too far away from him, so he couldn’t discern any details yet. Was it another survivor? Or an ex-human mutant?
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“Fuck it,” he muttered and ran toward the two-story house he’d noticed a moment prior.
He burst into the building, pausing briefly at the entrance to take in the interior. Noticing a flight of stairs on the other side of the room, he dashed toward it. He raced up the steps, and after reaching the half-landing, looked back. Whoever—whatever—he’d seen in the street hadn’t reached the building yet. He climbed the rest of the steps to the second floor and found himself before a closed door. It wasn’t locked, and he burst through it into a spacious room. He came to a sudden stop when he realized a huge hole gaped in the middle of the floor.
What the hell happened here?
Hugging the right-hand wall, he circled the ragged hole and reached one of the windows facing the street. He peered cautiously around the edge of the window frame, keeping his body as concealed as possible. Carefully scanning the area outside, he searched for any signs of movement. The street below was eerily quiet, the only movement coming from the swaying of the vines cascading down the buildings on the other side of the street. He strained his ears, listening for any out-of-place noises that might indicate he was being chased.
For several minutes, nothing happened. When he was just starting to relax, a figure came into view. As soon as he glanced at it, Jake saw that it was no survivor. The creature walking down the street looked very similar to the mutant he’d encountered earlier—its face had a huge maw filled with razor-sharp teeth, and its hands ended in long curved claws. Jake ducked below the windowsill, hoping as hell that the mutant hadn’t noticed him.
A full minute passed. No sound reached his ears from the street. If the mutant had noticed him and burst into the building, he would surely have heard it or seen it get into the house through the gap in the floor. Carefully, he got to his feet and peered over the edge of the window frame. The mutant was still shuffling down the street, moving slowly and quietly, paying no attention at all to the small building Jake hid in.
Taking out his PDA, he pointed the camera at the mutant to scan it. When he pressed the button, a piece of info about the creature popped up on the screen. It was called an ex-human walker, it was an ordinary mutant, and its level was 1. Below the mutant’s stats was a tip saying he needed to upgrade his PDA to see more useful information about mutants, items, and whatnot.
How do I upgrade my PDA, though?
The mutant passed the building and eventually disappeared into the distance. Jake sat on the floor, leaning against the wall behind him. He checked the map on his device. He still had quite a lot of distance to cover to reach his mission’s location. Only he wasn’t all that keen on getting there. The mere thought of facing a single ex-human walker had filled him with terror, prompting him to take refuge in this house. The idea of confronting fifteen of these creatures, along with a mutant known as a shambler, was absolutely unthinkable. He believed that the shambler was most likely even more dangerous than the walkers, making the prospect of encountering them a resounding “No!” in his mind.
He decided to stay in the house for a little bit to calm his nerves. Still, he knew he couldn’t hide forever. In order to survive in this new dangerous world, he would have to overcome his fear and learn to fight for his life. After a few minutes, he stood up. Hugging the wall, he walked around the hole in the floor. He took the stairs to the first floor, but before leaving the building, he decided to look around for anything of use.
The only thing that he found was some kind of autoinjector. He scanned it with his PDA and learned that it was called a stimpak. It contained a mixture of various healing agents and stimulants, allowing the user to boost their body’s natural regenerative functions. The stimpak Jake had found was of common rarity, so it could heal some minor injuries as well as kill infections of damaged tissue. He stashed the autoinjector in his backpack and headed toward the exit of the building.
He stopped at the entrance to take a look around. When he turned his head to look in the direction the mutant had gone, he was surprised to see that the mutant hadn’t gotten all that far. The walker stood glued to a spot about a hundred yards farther down the street, its body half-turned to him. It just stood there, staring at one of the skyscrapers for some reason.
“What the hell?” Jake muttered, wondering what had attracted the mutant’s attention.
The walker must have spotted him from the corner of its eye because it suddenly turned to face him. The mutant let go with a screeching scream before breaking into a run toward him.
Shit, shit, shit.
At first, Jake thought to get back into the house behind him but decided not to, because trapping himself in a confined space probably wasn’t such a good idea. So he stepped out into the open instead, pulling his handgun from its holster. Heart hammering, he pointed the weapon at the quickly approaching mutant and squeezed the trigger.