CHAPTER 25_HEX - A Zombie Survival LITRPG

Ray

It had taken Ray and the new recruits four days to clear the outbuildings around the new Outpost. During that time they had been hit seven times by hordes that had seemingly appeared out of thin air. To top that particular problem off, after the first two huge groups, they had begun to include specialized undead. The most recent horde had even had an Advanced monstrosity that cost the lives of nearly a dozen of his men.

And there was still no information from the System. No events, no System notification, no warning. It was beginning to piss him off, but he suspected that if it wasn’t a System driven series of events that there had to be an explanation of some kind.

However, with each horde, Ray and his team narrowed down the possible locations they could be coming from. After the fourth grouping of undead that had come their way, the scouts they had put in place discovered they always came from the northeast portion of the island. This verified that they were not System generated undead and enabled them to set a series of scouts and warning measures to prevent as much damage as possible.

Each fight, however, wore down his troops, caused injuries and deaths, and essentially made them weaker. They had to stem the flow of these fuckers, and quickly, or there wouldn’t be enough of them left to clear the remaining two-thirds of the island.

This brought Ray to the next problem that was on his mind. The shop inside of the Outpost refused to let him purchase any additional manpower to replace what he had lost. There was no explanation or reason as to why it would levy such restrictions on him. Even Gale was perplexed, not having any way to advise on what was happening.

These events, coupled with the fact they had essentially iron-age technology, left them on a defensive footing. Ray needed an equalizer of some kind. Weapons, armor, vehicles, and some kind of tool that would enable him to rapidly clear the island and set the core up inside Fort Jay. But something … something in the back of his mind said that it wouldn’t be easy. That there would be hell to pay once they actually reached that point.

Before they could assault and clear the fort, however, they needed to retake the middle third of the island. The northwest side was primarily grass and hills, interspersed with roadways, parks, and gazebos. The island had very much been a tourist hub in its past.

The southeastern portion of the island, however, was riddled with dorms, warehouses, several small docks, and large naval administrative buildings. It was going to be a nightmare of building to building fighting in order to clear out that entire section. Ray had no idea what was hiding there, but he hoped that there were no more surprises like they had run into with the Death Slugs.

Not to mention he still didn’t know where his Nemesis had wandered off to. He figured being decapitated and left out to burn would be enough. But apparently not. The fact that it hadn’t shown up yet, which it was supposed to be forced to do by the System according to Gale, was both perplexing and concerning.

Ray sighed and turned his attention from his inner thoughts and back to the task at hand. With Derrick's help, he had designed a wall, several small outbuildings, and defensive emplacements for the Outpost. This essentially segmented the bottom third of the island off from the rest of it, providing enough space to begin growing food and setting up a small manufacturing center. God only knew that he was hemorrhaging NEX trying to feed everyone.

So many issues, so many problems, and not enough time or people. Just to ensure he had a reminder, he opened the World Integration timer:

WORLD INTEGRATION TIMER

759:26:04

He winced. A little more than thirty-one days left. Not a huge amount of time, but it's not like the integration would roll around tomorrow either. A sudden voice next to him brought him out of his thoughts entirely, and back into reality.

“I think that does it on the designs. An inverse sloped wall, three outer gates, two inner gates, dedicated workshop building, dedicated warehouse, and small dormitory,” Derrick rattled off. “I think that’s pretty good. We aren’t going to pack much more into this small area at least, not if you want a farm.”

“Ugh, farming. Fuck, I didn’t even think about getting someone who could farm,” Ray said, dragging his hand down over his face in exasperation. “We only have enough NEX to feed everyone for … forty-ish days through the System? Food is fucking expensive.”

“Indeed,” added Gale as she walked up to the pair. They were all in the officer's quarters on the second floor of the Outpost, troubleshooting various issues. “Food is expensive and rare within the System markets. Very few organizations are capable of growing food in amounts that are sellable. Those that do sell at exorbitant prices,” she elaborated.

“That’s dumb. You need food for people to live and thrive. How does anyone justify that?” Derrick said, both outraged and curious.

“Thou are not asking the correct question,” Gale pointed out, gaining the entirety of Ray's attention. “Thy should be asking how these disparate groups to control a populace that has an excess?”

Ray’s eyes went wide, “Oh shit. Whoever runs the show makes sure food is scarce to control the population. Probably population growth as well,” he breathed as Gale nodded in surprise. “Fuck. Fuck. We could be in a lot of trouble if we aren’t careful.”

“How so?” questioned the engineer.

Ray pulled out a dried noodle pack from his inventory. His supply had dwindled, but he had enough for a demonstration. He was getting puckish anyway.

“Imagine this,” he started, unwrapping the pack. “You have enough food for no one to starve. No one starves, and no one dies. No one dies, the population naturally grows,” he explained, taking a bite of the noodles. All too soon the pack was gone. “Now imagine you grow only enough food to ensure the populace is borderline starving. There are some deaths, but people worry too much about food to rebel. It is, essentially, a currency in and of itself.”

Derrick pounded a fist into his palm, “This controls people, prevents rebellion, and stems overpopulation. While an extreme control, I understand what you’re saying. What I don’t get is how it applies here?”

“We retake the planet and begin growing enough food to rebuild our population. But we will eventually hit the same bottleneck we did before. Remember what got us into this mess?” Ray said, pointing out that humanity had killed itself off trying to grow more food. Derrick made an agreeing grunt, so he continued. “If we get there again, one of two things is going to happen. We fail and find ourselves back where we started. Or we succeed, and everyone who uses the System, and probably others outside of it, pay attention to us and our ability to grow huge quantities of food.”

The engineer was startled at that revelation. Thinking about it, he nodded slowly. “Oh. Fuck,” he mumbled.

“Yeah, fuck is right. We mess this up and we could get wiped out before we even begin,” Ray pointed out. “If this integration does anything like what Gale expects, we will essentially be a fucking garden world waiting to be exploited by anyone and everyone stronger than us.”

“Anonymity is going to be thy race's greatest tool for a long time to come,” Gale said, piping in. “In most things, not just thine efforts at generating food. Thy planet is … unique in that it mostly contains water. Many worlds contain far less, making this a great boon to whoever controls it.”

Ray shuddered at the thought of being invaded, enslaved, or even outright wiped from the face of the world. “Right. So no System selling for anything until we are absolutely ready to deter any adverse attention we may garner,” he said tiredly.

“Indeed,” Gale agreed.

“Well let's turn to some more relevant problems then,” Derrick said enthusiastically. “The materials for the wall don’t exist here. We are going to need to send a crew on the barge back across the river to our old stomping grounds to salvage. With that issue, the other major concern is where the hell those things are coming from. We keep turning back the waves from the northeastern part of the island, but we can't stop them forever.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Ray sighed. He didn’t want to commit his forces to fighting something that may wipe them out. It was rapidly looking, however, like he would have no choice but to fully commit. Either that or move again. Something that would take much more time and many more resources than he had currently.

“On the other hand, I think I have a solution for our immediate food problems,” Derrick chuckled, getting both Gale's and Ray’s attention. “Do you like seafood?”

The two stared at each other, then returned their attention to the now outright laughing engineer. “What has thou so mirthful?” wondered Gale.

“Well, you see … have you ever seen a Goblin fish?” he responded, still laughing. “It’s the funniest thing you’ve ever seen. Turns out the world has done a lot to repopulate the oceans in the last couple of decades since mankind has more or less stopped fishing it to death.”

“Right, what does that have to do with Goblins though?” Ray asked. Even Gale looked interested about what he had to say regarding the normally chaotic little minions.

Derrick nodded sagely, “Turns out Goblins are native to a jungle world with lots of rivers, lakes, and oceans. This made them fairly adept seafarers and fishermen,” he explained. Ray looked doubtful, but he waved down the one-armed man and continued. “Like I said. Fairly adept. They are still crazy little bastards, don’t get me wrong. But they’ve already been catching enough fish to feed themselves. I say we get them some boats and let them have at the rivers and inlets around here.”

“I … don’t see a problem with that if they can deliver,” Ray said slowly. “I just can't spare a lot of them from combat duties. We are short on personnel as it is. The System isn’t allowing me to purchase or revive anyone right now, so we are in a bit of a hard spot.”

Derrick was thoughtful for a moment. Then, looking back at Ray he said, “Give me five of them. That’s all I ask. Those five should generate enough food to feed the Goblins by themselves. Now, that being said, I also have a solution to the farming issue.”

He was about to continue when the door burst open and Remus ran in. Just before he spoke, however, an explosion rocked the building.

“What the fuck is going on out there?” Ray yelled, rising to his feet and taking out his blade from his inventory. Strapping it onto his waist, he moved towards the door. “Explain as we move!” he told the Thymian mage.

“Ah yeah, we’re under attack by a boatload of them weird undead with abilities. I think one of the scouting groups may have led them back by accident, but we are having a hell of a time dealing with them,” explained Remus as they moved down the stairs and out through the double doors into the darkness.

Ray froze for a second.

“Why the fuck is it dark out? Isn’t it like … noon or something?” he asked, wondering just what the hell was going on.

Remus just pointed. Across the field, where the Goblins and Orkin had engaged the undead with support from the Aelvin, was a giant snail that was pumping out black smoke into the air, obscuring the sunlight.

“Where the fuck do these things keep coming from?” yelled Ray as he drew his blade and moved into the fight. “This is getting seriously fucking ridiculous!”

EVENT – KILL THE SMOG SNAIL

YOU HAVE RECENTLY BEEN ATTACKED BY LARGE HORDES OF ENEMIES, AND NOW THIS THING HAS DRAWN A SMOG SNAIL TO YOU. KILL THE SLUG WITH A SHELL, DEFEAT THE HORDE, AND FIGURE OUT WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON BECAUSE THIS IS GETTING A TAD ABSURD!

“You’re telling me System!” Ray yelled back, confusing some of the others with him. “Gale, take Remus, find Grok, and kill the shit out of the snail!” he ordered. “Once that things pounded into mush the undead should burn in the sunlight!”

They split off to do as he asked, even as more of the thick, black smoke was pumped into the air. Ray noticed that it had vent-like incisions on the top of its shell. How it was able to produce so much smoke he wasn’t sure, but it was really fucking annoying. The black acrid clouds not only rolled through the sky but also clung to the ground. It was foul-smelling and probably horrible to breathe in as well.

Then Ray finally took note of the undead.

There were … there were thousands. Thousands, and thousands. There were so many packed into the area that Ray couldn’t see the ground in front of him. They had pressed the group all the way back to nearly the main doors of the building.

“Fuck! Fuck!” he yelled, unable to even get to the front of the lines. He turned and saw a Draemon loitering just inside the doors. “You, get Jalla!” it rolled its eyes at him. “Get fucking Jalla or I’m throwing you into the middle of the fucking undead!” he screamed. That got it moving.

The male Draemon ran inside with wide eyes. It returned quickly with Jalla in tow. “You called?” he said slowly, as if bored with the situation.

“I need you and yours to help. If you don’t, we are all dead,” Ray ordered.

Jalla stared at him, then said, “No. Die. Then we will be free to-“

Ray cut his head from his shoulders, even as the emerging Draemon looked on in fascination. Not the reaction he was looking for, he turned to the next male and lifted his blade. “Help or so help me I will kill you next. I know you have the ability to clear this up and give us breathing room. Your System information told me as much. Now fucking help!” he roared.

The last thing he expected was for Jalla to spin him around, head fully attached.

“You … you cut my head off,” he said simply, staring at Ray who could only nod. “That was funny. You are a funny little man. We must speak later, but for now, we will help.”

Without any preamble, Jalla picked Ray up and threw him into the building. Stepping forward, the other five took up positions around him and raised their arms. A large circle of blazing runes burned into the ground and began propagating an ever-expansive, and horribly complex series of lines and symbols around them.

The Goblins and Orkin were being pushed back, ever closer to the front doors where Ray sat on the ground stunned. Right up until the lines connected, and the bright red design turned a purple so dark it was nearly black. With this last change, Jalla spoke a single word.

And hell descended from the skies.

***

RAYMOND ‘RAY’ FINNEGAN

RACE

HUMAN

CLASS

NONE

NEX

CALCULATING

LEVEL

PHYSICAL STATE

GOOD

MENTAL STATE

ANNOYED

ATTRIBUTE

BASE

CURRENT

NEX TO INCREASE

STRENGTH

AGILITY

POWER

100

WISDOM

LUCK

400

JOSEPHINE SANCHEZ