CHAPTER 33_HEX - A Zombie Survival LITRPG

Ray

The group, led by Derrick, headed up to the main floor.

“This is the main floor of the fortress. It has most of the offices and meeting rooms, cafeteria, and the armory. The central courtyard is split into four squares that make up the combat training grounds. One square for drill, one square for training, one square for sparring, and one square for storage,” he explained. “The materials warehouse, shop, and granary are all located on the first floor, but on the inside of the fortress. The second floor has meeting rooms, the barracks, the officer's quarters, and some small storage spaces.”

He turned back to the four people following him, “And that’s basically the full tour. You saw the core vault. Outside of that, there is the third floor that we are planning that will have a landing pad for one of those air dirigibles you talked about Gale.”

“Fantastic. What about that curtain wall outside? That seems to be coming along well, but it's far from finished,” observed Ray. “We definitely want that to be up and patrolled before the integration happens.”

Derrick nodded, “Yeah, that’s a bit of a problem. This island is fantastically easy to build on and defend. But we lack a ton of the raw resources to finish building everything out. We are going to need to send out foraging parties to gather materials. Grok and I have been chatting about this, and we came up with an idea.”

The engineer led them across the combat training grounds and into the other side of the fort. As they traveled, Derrick explained their ideas for expansion, and island fortification, and promised that more information would be available once they reached their destination.

After traversing a few hallways, the group ended up in a large meeting room. The tables were covered in documents and schematics, with a dozen human engineers and Grok reviewing various plans. There were even a few heated discussions on the best way to go about various tasks to accomplish their end goal. Ray was frankly amazed at the level of organization and work that was taking place here.

“Welcome to design central,” said Derrick proudly. Heading over to Grok, the two high-fived. Even though the huge Orkin had to angle his high-five downward. “As I was saying, all the ideas are here. Along with the answers to most of your questions.”

Grok grabbed a rolled-up piece of blue paper. Unfurling it, the group was surprised to see a well-drafted set of plans for the barge they had been using. It had been made longer and wider, with a strange engine schematic that Ray couldn’t make heads or tails of. But what he did recognize was that towards the control tower for the water vessel was a large square grinder looking machine installed on the deck.

“Is that the materials converter?” he asked, tapping the schematic. “Cause that looks like the materials converter.”

Derrick nodded, “Yeah, it is. Instead of making multiple trips back here with scrap and scavenged materials, Grok and I thought it would be more prudent to convert everything on the barge itself. This would allow us to bring back a ship full of materials we can use rather than having to carry everything multiple times back and forth. With time being a premium, this was the best thing we could think of,” he explained.

“I mean, when you put it that way, it does make a lot of sense,” Ray admitted. “Having the converter on the barge itself would mean a much shorter turn around time. And we have … twenty-seven days to go. A bit more actually. Should be plenty of time for us to send out scavenging parties. My only concern is that we lack people, and we can't get any more right now. That prick Kevin locked us out of the shop.”

Grok waved his hand in the air getting everyone’s attention. “Den we jus gotta hitz da placez near da shorez boss. We won't getz too far off. Them Goblin gitz are good at runnin away too. Weze can send em off onta da shore ta grab everytin.”

Ray blinked at that, trying to decipher Groks horrible accent. Derrick put his fist into his palm immediately though. “That’s right! The Goblins are fast, can carry a ton when you use more than a half dozen of them and can be used to both scout and scavenge!” he turned to Ray, “Give me the barge, a half dozen Orkin, and all the Goblins. I can solve our resource problems in five days.”

“Yeah … sure. Just … sure. Do that,” Ray said, still somewhat confused. He turned to Gale and Jalla. “What about the little issue of that land bridge connection? The one to the tunnels? I think we should address that with everyone who is left. All at once.”

Gale nodded. “Indeed. That will be a problem, as the sheer numbers of undead that may disgorge from the tunnels will have the capability to overwhelm us.”

“Actually, I've got a solution for that too … I think,” Derrick interjected. “I was uh … looking for ways to build an engine that worked with the System. And … well I may have accidentally made a bomb?”

The group stared at the flustered engineer, speechless. Even Grok was a bit skeptical, crossing his arms. “Why you not tell me dat? Grok loves bombz,” he grunted. Grok response to the situation broke the silence and got a well deserved chuckle from the group.

“Explain in more detail, please. How, pray tell, did you go from designing an engine to creating a bomb?” Jalla asked eloquently. “While there are many inventions that come as a result of pursuing revelations that come up during the creative process, I have rarely heard of such results that have differed in purpose so greatly.”

Derrick rubbed the back of his head. “Well, for most engines you need a fuel source. Something to get energy from in order to cause motion to happen within the device right?” The others nodded while Grok just stood there patiently. “Well, I was messing around with the idea of a fuel cell using some of the ones that we recovered while we were at the old base. The one on the mainland. It turns out that if you supercharge them they … well they explode. Violently.”

“How violently are we talking here?” questioned Ray, “Like grenade violently or ten sticks of TNT violently?”

The engineer looked insulted. Placing a hand on his chest he said, “I am one of the leading engineers of my generation! Grenade? Sticks? Try a ton. One ton of TNT.”

“Holy shit. How many of those cells do you have?” Ray asked after a short whistle of surprise.

“Forty. We have forty of the bastards,” Derrick replied, grinning ferally. “Based on the calculations from myself and a few of the guys who specialize in structural engineering, we need to place eight to blow that land bridge to hell. But … would you be willing to entertain a different idea?”

Ray cocked his head slightly to one side, “Sure. I mean, I need to be a bit better about listening to everyone. And if Gale and Jalla back up what you say then sure, I would be more than willing to just entertain new ideas,” he said, sneaking a glance at the surprised Jalla.

Up to this point, while Jalla and his group have contributed, he has been more or less left on the outside of things. Ray had realized that the Draemon was much more than what he initially seemed, and bringing him into the fold on his side as an advisor was the right thing to do.

With a sly smile, Jalla nodded his agreement at Ray’s implication that he would weigh in.

“So what's this idea?” he asked with a relieved sigh.

Derrick nodded, “Right. So … this Kevin character. This god, he said to blow the hell out of the bridge right?” he started with, getting a nod from Ray. “Well, that land bridge leads to a tunnel chock-full of undead. That means it's chock-full of NEX and resources. What if, and bear with me here it's only an idea, instead of blowing that bridge and tunnel to kingdom come, we seal up the tower and build a drawbridge from the shore to the tower? We could farm the tunnels below and, hopefully, after the integration, it would still be in place.”

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Most of the group nodded at that assessment. Turning a threat into a potential asset, much less an ongoing return on investment, was a great tactic. Although there were usually great rewards with great risks, there were many unknowns about how the world would look when the Integration was complete. Ray wasn’t sure if he was ready to make a gamble like that as of yet.

“Seal it,” Jalla said into the contemplative silence, startling everyone. The group turned to him with questions dancing in their eyes. “This world is odd. Everything here is odd. Nothing works as it is supposed to. Even the System itself seems … lacking in so many ways. Do not take a risk that the Integration will turn this opportunity into a threat you cannot contain. Seal the tunnel to the surface and level the land bridge. There will be other ways to make NEX and gather materials through future opportunities,” the horned man explained.

“Got it,” Ray said with finality. Turning to Derrick he apologized. “Sorry man, but Jalla is right. We just can't be sure of what a future threat like that would look like, or if we could even contain it. We need to reduce as many variables as we can right now.”

The engineer shrugged with a grin, “That’s fine. It was just a thought on my part I wanted to run by the group. Regardless, I took the liberty of running the calculations to collapse the tunnel and bridge. You only need seven of them.”

Gale made a small noise as she examined the map. “This is what thy markings are for in these locations?” she asked.

The map had four black x-marks on the land bridge and three around the circumference of the ventilation tower leading to the surface above the water.

Derrick tapped each x in order. “Yup, simple as simple can be. Go in. Kill the undead. Place and arm the converted fuel cells. Get the ever loving heck out of there.”

Ray frowned. Looking over the map he saw that each mark had a number next to it. Number one was at the center, on the back side of the tower. Looking up at Derrick he asked, “So … we have to place these in order? Starting with the far side of the tower? Don’t you have some kind of remote or something you can detonate it with?”

Derrick snorted at that. “Heck no. I’m an engineer, not a magician. These things are set on timers, remotes won't work with the way the fuel cell is set up. Without getting too deep into the details, you need to manually set up each one to detonate. I’ve taken the liberty of rigging an easy to use switch. Drop it, flick the switch, latch the cover, and run for the next one.”

“This sounds too easy, what’s the catch?” he asked, eyeballing the now somewhat nervous engineer. “You aren’t explaining everything. That makes me as nervous as you look right now.”

The man rubbed the back of his head, “Look Ray … you are all going to need to be in position at the same time before the first bomb is set up. Based off of what we know and can see, the second you set foot on that bridge you are going to be fighting. Not one or two of those nasty things … hundreds. We haven’t seen any of those weird variants either, but that’s not to say they aren’t present.”

“So we fight all the way in, then conduct a fighting retreat? That sounds … nasty,” Ray said slowly.

Grok grunted, “Boss ain’t goin,” the large green man said simply.

“The fuck I’m not,” Ray said pointing a finger at Grok. “I’m kind of leading this whole thing. That means I need to be there to ensure that everything goes off without a hitch. This isn’t going to be a stroll through a warehouse, it's going to be far more complex than that.”

Grok nodded, “You gotz one arm boss. No keepin a line of da boyz in orda if youz can't stay in line,” he replied back.

“Ray, what thy companion is trying to say is that your handicap, while having been worked around up to this point, would place others in danger,” Gale said softly.

“Indeed. The task is not difficult, only the journey. You are needed here. After all, if you die then not only does your goal of restoring your world remain out of your grasp, then the rest of our … group would be free to disperse as they see fit. While freedom for my Burst would not be unwelcome, being trapped on this world would be. Very Much so,” elaborated Jalla.

Josephine stared daggers at the Draemon while she placed a hand on her blade. The red man simply smiled back, his tinkling laughter seeming to enrage the woman even more.

Ray stepped between the two quickly. “Hey, knock it off. We are all on the same team.” He looked at Grok and Gale, “I get where you’re coming from. I hate that I only have one arm, although Gale tells me there’s a fix in the System Shop for that. If going places you all in danger, or reduces the overall effectiveness of the team … the fine. I fucking hate it, but I will stay here,” he begrudgingly conceded.

“But,” he jumped back in before Grok and Gale could celebrate the small victory, “I want everyone who needs to go, to go. I also want everyone outfitted with everything that we have. There is no reason we need to suffer losses to achieve the results we are looking for. Gear up, get organized, and … gather whatever spells you need. Or however that works,” Ray ordered, brooking no tone for disagreement. Jalla laughed at that, his tinkling voice dancing across the room. He walked away, leaving the others to stare at his retreating back.

“Well, with that being said I guess I better go prep those fuel cells,” said Derrick. “Grok, I need you to help me. Heavy lifting and what-not.” The merry duo walked off as well, retreating to wherever the crazy engineer had stored his makeshift bombs.

“Mine own preparations must be completed as well. If this is to be a battle such as Derrick has described, I must be ready for any contingencies.” With that simple explanation, Gale strode away, her wings tucked tightly into her back.

Josephine watched her intently. “I still want to know where she gets that big sword from. She hasn’t admitted she has an inventory, but I can't help but feel that isn’t quite it,” she muttered.

Ray laughed. “I think we have enough mysteries for now. Let's set that one aside and focus on taking that land bridge and the tunnel entrance. Once that’s done with we can figure out which pocket she puts that big butter knife of hers in.”

Josephine shrugged. It wasn’t the answer she was looking for, but it was one she could accept for now.

***

RAYMOND ‘RAY’ FINNEGAN

RACE

HUMAN

CLASS

NONE

NEX

CALCULATING

LEVEL

PHYSICAL STATE

NORMAL

MENTAL STATE

AMUSED

ATTRIBUTE

BASE

CURRENT

NEX TO INCREASE

STRENGTH

AGILITY

POWER

100

WISDOM

LUCK

400

JOSEPHINE SANCHEZ