Ray
A slight tapping noise brought Ray back into the conscious world.
For a moment, he didn’t know where he was or what had happened. The nearly serene sense of confusion that filled him momentarily was drowned out by the rapid and sudden rushing return of memories from the last day. It truly had been a ride. And not a good one either.
It's not every day you learn that you have been resurrected from death, sent on a mission to return your species to prominence, try to survive a zombie apocalypse, and find out that those regular rumors of humanity having met others between the stars are true. And said aliens are the ones that essentially pimped you out to save your species. On their behalf.
Joy.
Ray was about to turn to sit up and see what the banging noise was when a hand slapped over his mouth and a sharp implement was pressed into his neck. “Make a noise and we both die,” hissed a voice so quiet he could have imagined it.
NEW ALLY ENCOUNTERED
Turning his head slightly, even as the blade adjusted so that it didn’t cut him, he looked the woman from the alien spacecraft directly in the eyes. He had no doubt now that this system was anything but inaccurate.
Meeting his eyes, she nodded and removed both her hand and the knife from his throat. She must have seen the notification as well, otherwise, he had no doubt he would be just another corpse right now.
Gesturing for him to look, he quietly dropped into a crouch and moved slowly over to the window he had covered with blankets. The rhythmic thumping noise on the front door continued incessantly as he moved.
Lifting one corner so that just a hair of the yard was visible under the moonlight, Ray's blood went ice cold at what he saw.
There were hundreds, if not thousands of decaying bodies walking, crawling, and moving about the streets. Around fences, over lawns, and between houses, the dead wandered as if they were searching for something. Unfortunately, he had a good idea on what they were looking for.
Dropping the blanket back into place carefully, so as not to cause anything to shake or move, he duck walked silently back to the couch where the woman was sitting.
He pointed to the couch for him to sit. He did so, and the minute his rear end met the sofa she tossed a very heavy blanket over the two of them.
“This is to muffle the noise,” she said quietly. “Short sentences. No loud words,” she cautioned.
Ray could only nod in agreement as they stared at one another. The rhythmic thumping in the background continued to be a constant reminder that a fairly flimsy door was all that was between them and a rather gruesome death.
“Who are you? What happened when you came down?” he asked in the same hushed whisper she had employed earlier.
The woman was silent for a moment, almost as if hesitant to respond. Then, shrugging slightly, she whispered, “My name is Josephine. When they tossed us out into the … void? Yes, the void. When they tossed us into the void and landed, we had somehow been split up from one another. The other man and I were together, but you were nowhere to be seen. We were unsure why.”
“What happened to the other guy?” wondered Ray quietly.
Josephine only shook her head in the negative. When no answer was forthcoming from the woman after several minutes, Ray gave up getting one from her at all.
“Fine,” he muttered, “What's going on outside? Why are there suddenly zombies everywhere?”
Again she shrugged wordlessly. He was positive she would stay silent like before but just when he was ready to ask something else she said, “They're nocturnal. A few that we saw wouldn’t come out into direct sunlight. We saw … some other things too, but they avoided direct sunlight as well.”
Ray nodded, “Yeah I thought I killed one here,” he said quietly, gesturing to the gore-stained floor. The woman's eyes widened. “It apparently didn’t stay dead. When I came back out from clearing the house, the door was open and it was gone.”
“A different type of zombie and it ran? That denotes some level of intelligence,” muttered Josephine to herself. Turning back to him she said, “Have you placed the node yet?”
Ray shook his head, “No. I'm taking what those creepy space chickens said to heart. I am only going to put it down where I know it can easily be defended. This isn’t a good spot at all,” he explained.
Josephine nodded, “Makes sense. Probably a good plan. Do you have any ideas where?” she wondered quietly.
He nodded, “Actually yeah. We seem to be in a suburb somewhere in North America, just based on the building style and layout. So there should be a public works building, industrial area, or a decently sized commercial area nearby. Any of those buildings would make an ideal location to fortify and set up in. What are your thoughts?”
The quiet woman examined him for a moment in surprise. She had figured he would have chosen some remote location in the woods or mountains, away from as much of the danger as possible. But it sounded like he was planning on fighting, or at the very least reclaiming as much of an area as he could.
“Why not a rural area?” she asked, wondering what his response would be.
Ray nodded, “Yeah, logically speaking it's not a horrible idea to get away from the large numbers of … zombies,” he explained quietly. “While those super rural areas may have fewer zombies, they have far fewer resources. No cars, trucks, shops to loot, building materials … you get the idea. Far harder to survive really, even if the actual danger may be less than an urban environment.”
“Soundly thought out,” agreed Josephine. Suddenly she cocked her head to one side, “Listen.”
Ray listened to their surroundings intently, but couldn’t hear anything. Even the banging at the door had stopped. “That’s … either good or very, very bad,” he muttered. “When is dawn?”
Bringing up her wrist, Josephine check a watch that he had missed previously. “Six minutes, so I think they may be returning to their secure locations.”
Ray shook his head in disbelief, “How the hell did you get through all of those things to even get here? I'm blown away that you even knew I was in here,” he said in amazement.
She shrugged, “Tony, the other guy I landed with, led the groups away. As I was running I saw that this was the only house with covered windows. You seemed fairly smart when we were on the ship in orbit, so if this was the only house that was blocked out from the inside … yeah. So I ducked inside through a window in the back. Saw you sleeping on the couch and waited,” she explained directly.
Taking the blanket off of them she walked over to the window and peeked outside. “They are all going back inside the houses,” she muttered. “The sun must really fuck them up.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Right. Nighttime is a no go unless we are trying to thin them. Got to have an exfil as well if we ever attempt that,” said Ray.
“Exfil?” asked Josephine curiously.
“A plan of ordered retreat. A way to escape if necessary,” explained Ray. “At least that’s how I’m using it. It was a military term I think.”
“No more military now, so you can use it however you want I guess,” shrugged Josephine, still standing at the window. “Speaking of, the coast is clear. Did you want to try and find that building you mentioned?”
Ray nodded. He grabbed his multi-tool and stood up with a stretch. “Yeah, let's get going. Something tells me that even if we find a building like that we may have to clear it. And that won't be fun or safe. Particularly if there are more of those flesh things running around.”
The two of them opened the door and stepped out into the sunny morning. Ray had slept longer than he had thought it was already this bright out. Looking off into the distance he could see some grey clouds on the horizon. Nothing thick enough to give excessive cloud cover, however.
Shrugging, he began walking down the street, Josephine staying close behind him. The echo of their footprints on the pavement bounced on the houses and abandoned cars on the street. After several minutes of walking, they came to a large intersection where a housing development sign signified the end of the suburban area.
Across the street was a small shopping center, a gas station, and what looked like a vehicle parts shop.
“Man, not a whole lot changed. There’s no way it could have been more than a few years since we, uh, died,” said Ray.
Josephine nodded, “That gas station should have some magazines or something. I doubt those were looted. That should give us the approximate date of the last print. Hopefully, it doesn’t have too many zombies inside.”
Ray paused. He hadn’t considered there would be undead inside of the building. He really had to adjust his mindset here. Refocusing, he nodded. “We can get some supplies too. Did you manage to scavenge anything?”
Josephine shook her head, “No. James led that horde off while I ran to the house here.”
Ray blinked, “I thought his name was Tony?” he asked with suspicion.
The woman shrugged, “I watched him get torn to pieces. He never told me his name. Even if he did … he looked at me with undisguised lust. He was a creeper.”
“Right. Fine. Just don’t kill me or something. If you do I swear I will come back and haunt your ass,” Ray said as he moved across the street toward the gas station.
As they approached the small building, he could clearly see two vehicles parked next to the charging stations. Pointing to them he said, “I wonder if we can get one of those working? They are plugged into the charging pads so they are probably fully powered. We would just need to find the keys.”
Josephine nodded her agreement but didn’t say anything as the pair sidled up to the window. Sure enough, she had been right. As they peeked inside Ray saw no less than a dozen stationary bodies standing in the gloom.
“I do not think we can kill that many,” Josephine said hesitatingly. “They would swarm us.”
Ray didn’t nod or respond. Turning to him, Josephine could see he had an intense look on his face as he contemplated something. After a few minutes he turned back to her and said, “They avoid sunlight right?” he asked as she nodded. “So I used to be a bit of a gamer before I died. There was this popular one with zombies where you would build a base and survive waves of undead.”
“This is hardly a game Ray,” said Josephine bluntly.”
He waved her down, “Agreed. But … a large part of those games were utilizing unorthodox tactics in the face of overwhelming enemy numbers. I think one of those tactics would work well here,” he explained. “Let's jam the door open a crack then stab them in the face as they try to eat us. One at a time. Bottleneck them in one spot.”
Josephine blinked at him in surprise as the idea ran through her mind. “I see no issue with this. Let us try.”
Turning around she grabbed one of the charging cables attached to the pad. With a swift slicing motion, her bladed multi-tool cut through it with ease. Bringing the long cord back over, she wrapped one end to the door handle and tied it off. The other end she wrapped around a protruding metal bar meant for a bicycle. Giving the door a slight push it only opened half a foot.
The response from the zombies, however, was immediate. Unlike the crawling evil Ray had dispatched prior, these all looked up at the door simultaneously. Then dozens of undead made a shambling run toward them.
Yelling in surprise, Josephine stabbed the first one through the eye. It went down as if its strings had been cut. Ray theorized that she had destroyed something vital in the brain region. With the unspoken agreement, she killed a few more before stepping back and letting him take her place. With his modified spike tool he killed several as well before swapping places. In this manner, they killed dozens of the dead without risking themselves.
After nearly a half hour of swapping places, Ray stabbed the last one. Watching it drop to the floor, he wiped his forehead. He was exhausted, his arms felt like lead, and they had only cleared one small gas station. He couldn’t imagine what it would take to clear a much larger complex like he wanted to previously.
Suddenly a screen popped up in front of him:
LOCATION CLEARED – SAFE LOCATION AVAILABLE
DEPLOY NODE TO ENABLE HEX DEVELOPMENT
NEX CALCULATING – DEPLOY NODE FOR NEX ACCRUAL
NATURAL GROWTH DETECTED – STRENGTH +1
“What the shit?” he wondered as he felt a surge of strength. Suddenly he wasn’t so tired, had a little more energy, and felt like he could kill a few more undead. “What the fuck was that?” he wondered aloud.
Josephine shook her head, “Apparently we need a location to use NEX, but we can also grow naturally through the system. This is good to know. Come, let's search the building and get what we can. Daylight is wasting.”
It didn’t take them long to clear the building of the dead bodies. Ray discovered that every door and nearly every window had shade link coverings that could be pulled down over them. The Shade link was similar to the standard chain link security curtains but was mirrored on the outside allowing for one-way vision. They also prevent vandalism or break-ins using laser cutters.
After dropping the last decomposing body into a nearby alleyway, Ray stopped to take a break on a nearby bench. Taking out some water, he drank it greedily. Tossing the empty bottle at a nearby bin, and missing, he examined the empty street around him.
Where they had come from was definitely some kind of suburban housing development. It opened up into a large, four-lane road that ran North to South. Further up the northern end, he could see the beginnings of a business park and industrial center. To the south, he could see the road join an on-ramp going to the main highway. Off into the distance, towering above everything else, were the multi-hundred-story atmospheric skyscrapers. He shuddered thinking how many undead could be packed into such structures.
Or what kind.
Hearing a soft shuffling noise, Ray whipped his head around and saw a zombie shambling in his direction. It stuck to the shaded areas near the sides of the buildings. It was tall, lanky, and had a snake like unhinged jaw and wide pot belly. It was the oddest zombie he had seen since the fleshling he had fought the prior night in the house.
Shrugging, Ray grabbed his multi-tool off his belt and put it into the spiked configuration. He walked towards the thing, aiming to put it out of its misery.
That’s when it looked up at him and, mouth unhinging into an inhumanly wide chasm spat a massive glob of green goo at him.
***
RAYMOND ‘RAY’ FINNEGAN
RACE
HUMAN
CLASS
NONE
NEX
CALCULATING
LEVEL
1
PHYSICAL STATE
FATIGUED
MENTAL STATE
TERRIFIED
ATTRIBUTE
BASE
CURRENT
NEX TO INCREASE
STRENGTH
5
6
50
AGILITY
3
3
30
POWER
0
0
100
WISDOM
4
4
40
LUCK
2
2
400