CHAPTER 37_HEX - A Zombie Survival LITRPG

Ray

Things around the fortress rapidly fell into a daily groove for the next week in preparation for their search for the surviving people in the city. During this time the Goblins scavenged more raw materials, feeding them into the converter they had on the ship day and night. Occasionally they would come across something rare to feed into the advanced converter, getting high-quality mixed alloys in return. Everything added to their stockpile and ability to complete the defensive curtain wall around the fort.

The enterprising little guys also heavily contributed to their food production. Working in tandem with the human engineers and Orkin, they built a couple of large ballista-like machines. These would snatch the long fish-like creatures out of the water and drag them onto shore to be butchered. Each catch was well in excess of what they would need for several days, and a stockpile was quickly built.

Tepi and her spider companion also made themselves at home, claiming a series of upper rooms and mostly keeping to themselves. Occasionally Ray would see a Goblin riding the giant tarantula around, giving him horrible premonitions of spider cavalry. A combination like that would be terrifying.

Derricks's second in command, a small mousey man by the name of Charles, was an electrical engineer by trade. He was quick to build a small water-powered generator and hook it to the cafeterias storehouse. This kept the room far cooler than normal, enabling them to store large amounts of food, fish, and what greens they could scavenge.

Eventually, however, the day came when Ray was ready to depart to explore the large city looming behind them. The expedition would consist of himself, Gale, Jalla, and his Draemon, Josephine, the Aelvin Ranger squad, the sixteen remaining Orcin, and ten Goblins.

Remaining at the base would be the human engineering, the remaining Goblins, the Thymians, and a very grumpy Remus to oversee Tepi and her companion.

“All right,” Ray said, getting everyone’s attention. They were sitting at the cafeteria tables discussing the plan as it stood. “We have just under twenty days to explore. I plan on taking fifteen and then returning with anyone we can find. That will leave us five days to prepare for the Integration and get the last few things we need done around here completed.” He checked the timer just to be sure.

WORLD INTEGRATION TIMER

474:06:00

Nodding, he turned to Remus, “You need to use your team, the Goblins, and the engineering team to gather as much as you can. Food, resources, materials, anything, and everything. Play river pirate and raid everything you can get your grubby hands on.”

“Aye aye, Captain. Argh,” growled Remus, getting a group chuckle. “We will grab all the booty we can,” he said with a lecherous wink, receiving a kick from one of the female Thymians. “I mean, we can grab everything and anything we can get our hands on. I got a plan.”

Shaking his head Ray replied, “Right. Good luck with that.” Remus stared at him in confusion, but the lady behind him nodded in agreement. He unrolled a map of Manhattan Island that they had found. It was a tourist map, so the resolution wasn’t the greatest. But it would get the point across for his needs.

Moving his finger north of the island, to the southern tip of the city he explained, “There are docks here. Docks with ships. I want you to take a contingent of the Goblins and engineers and see if you can snag a few smaller ones. Or even a bigger one if we can tow it with the barge.”

He then moved up and tapped a small ferry terminal on the eastern side of the island. “This is our destination. It’s a ferry terminal just south of Williamsburg Bridge. It has a narrow walkway, a decent structure, and choke points inside. At least according to the map. This is one of the best places we can land and fortify the crap out of before moving into the interior of the city. Once we land, you take the barge back, meet up with the folks we dropped off at the ships, and get back to the island.”

“What if there aren’t any ships?” asked Charles. “Do you want some of the team to come with you?”

Ray shook his head, “No. If we don’t see anything worth scavenging vessel wise you all head back to the island. We need to spend our time gathering resources and building. As much as possible. It's going to be the only way we can get everything done in the time we have left.”

The small man nodded and pushed his glasses back up to the bridge of his nose. Resurrecting took care of most small ailments, so he didn’t really need glasses. But habits were hard to break. And if they helped the man, well then, who was Ray to complain?

“When we hit day thirteen, I want you guys to load the barge back up and come back to us. If we have been overrun or forced out but are still alive, then we will leave a white flag draped over where we unloaded,” Ray explained. “If you see the flag then head to the southern tip of the city. Gale and I have decided we will remain mobile to avoid as many of the undead and any other surprises that we encounter.”

Everyone nodded at that. “If by chance you don’t see us or the flag, then we probably got pushed out quickly or we are all dead. Either way, head to the southern tip of the city. If you see us on a pier, great. If not, wait for a day. If we don’t show up then leave. We are all probably dead at that point anyway,” he said grimly.

Another solemn nod from the group.

“With that, let's get this show on the road. I have enough fish in my inventory for a solid ten days. We can scavenge as we are there as well,” he ordered as everyone started moving.

When discussing how to carry rations, Ray had mentioned his inventory system to Gale. He had assumed that such an ability was normal within the System, but it turns out it was a rather rare ability. Gale’s sword, which he assumed was stored in her inventory, was actually tied to her class ability of Advisor. She was able to summon it at will.

Upon further experimentation, it turned out he was limited not only by the number of items per stack but also by the total weight of his items. He couldn’t exceed more than his weight times his strength in pounds. While still considerable, it did limit his ability to, say, scavenge an entire ship or building.

That would have just been ridiculous.

He was, however, able to store enough food and potable water for roughly ten days. He had no doubt that they would be able to scavenge or find more food along the way. If anything they could just do some more light fishing. Well, the Goblins could at least.

The group made their way down to the barge. Ray marveled at the changes that had been made to the nasty garbage barge. The deck had been cleaned, the wheelhouse improved and fixed up, and the engine had been replaced by something that Derrick had built called an ambient energy generator. Something to do with the System that Ray didn’t understand. But it gave a small but infinitely steady amount of energy to drive the propellers on the ship.

The embedded converter in the center of the deck, as well as the newly installed material containers, made the entire vessel an incredibly valuable asset. Traveling was now far easier, and safer than it had been. Granted, they had to contend with the occasional fish spine attack, but hanging out inside the materials crates solved that problem. The spines were dangerous but hardly strong enough to punch through corrugated steel.

They loaded everything they would need outside of the food Ray carried, chatting as they did so. The Goblins seemed in high spirits, playing pranks on the Orkin and engineers as they worked. Even the Aelvin seemed a tad less grumpy than usual, even though they kept their eyes on the distant gleaming towers of steel and glass.

All too soon the barge departed, swiftly making its way down the river. The good mood fell quickly as they passed ruined warehouses, burnt-out docks and factories, and the ruins of a civilization that stretched out around them in the morning sun. Survival was a powerful motivator, but fear could be equally as powerful. The group tensed up several times when massive shapes moved in the shadows of the rubble, and Ray couldn’t help but be extremely nervous about this foray.

The trip didn’t take them long, less than an hour to cruise under power to the south end of the city. The Goblins shut up and stared in awe at the numerous two-hundred-story buildings that loomed over them. Jalla rolled his eyes as Verrick stared, either in disgust or awe Ray wasn’t sure. Josephine and Gale were quiet, as usual, but the Drakling had a twinkle in her eye as if the massive buildings amused her.

“These remind me of my visit to Ankar,” the winged woman said softly. “A planetary Ecumenopolis of massive proportions. A city that covered the world.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“That must have been amazing,” Ray replied, staring at the shoreline. Squinting, he could have sworn something was watching them. “I couldn’t imagine a planet-wide city. Earth had … nearly ten billion people on it when the undead swept through. Probably more, if the Systems count was right.”

Gale sighed, “An Ecumenopolis makes that number seem trivial, Ray. Thy world is beautiful, true, its natural state beyond what most are capable of. But a true planetary city has trillions of inhabitants.”

Ray froze at that. Slightly recoiling he turned to his advisor incredulously. “Impossible. How can a world support that many people?”

“Often times it cannot,” she admitted. “Such a place requires a support structure that is neigh impossible to imagine. The scope and complexity of it is staggering to wrap their mind around.”

Josephine shook her head, “I can't imagine a million people in one place, must be less than a trillion. That’s a hard thing to put into perspective.”

The Drakling nodded in agreement, and they continued floating down the river in companionable silence. That was until Charles called out.

“I see the docks you mentioned!” he said loudly, gathering everyone toward the front of the barge. “But I don’t see any ships. I don’t even see any boats. They may have all been taken or sunk. I suppose there could be a few more around, but as for the big ones we are probably out of luck.”

Ray nodded, annoyed that they couldn’t get another vessel like the barge. They didn’t have the people to man two of them right now, but that wouldn’t always be the case. Once the Integration happened he could start bringing people back in droves. Along with buying more Orkin and Goblins, Gale’s clan, and finding survivors, he expected their population to skyrocket.

“It can't be helped then. Let's move on to the ferry terminal and secure it,” he said, more than a bit disappointed.

They continued their travel downriver. As they came around the curve of the city, they could see the small terminal in the distance. It was much rougher than Ray had imagined. But it was still perfect for their needs.

As they got closer he could see that the gangway to the terminal itself had fully collapsed into the water. Part of the building was charred black as well. But the hearty concrete structure had survived more or less intact. That meant that, hopefully, there weren’t too many undead loitering inside. A quick clear and some long planks across the holes in the bridge and they would have an excellent base of operations for their explorations.

“Flip the barge and dock up against those windows. We can enter that way. Once we are in, we clear the building and break out the back portion of the wall so that you can access it a bit more easily,” he said. “Then you guys can get going back up to the island.”

Charles nodded and headed to the wheelhouse to relay those instructions. The damage to the building prevented them from pulling into the primary structure like the ferry normally would. They were also much shorter and broader, Ray doubted they would fit. So this was the next best solution that he could think of. Although, this did bring his mind back to the zeppelin idea they had kicked around early on. Buying a few was still well within his means. Once the store came back up that was.

The barge did a quick one-eighty in the river, compliments of its energy generator. They aligned to the side of the building where the Goblins manning the barge tied it off. These Goblins had been a part of the ship's crew for some time, making them extremely adept in operating it. Ray couldn’t help but marvel again at how adaptable the little guys were. He looked forward to exploring the possibilities with them.

Tossing a rope and hook up and through a broken window, Verrick tugged to make sure it was secure. Turning to Ray he said, “Master, we will proceed first. Covert infiltration is one of the cornerstones of being a Ranger. Once the building is clear we will signal the rest of you to come up.”

Ray couldn’t think of a counterargument, so he nodded his agreement. Verrick and his Rangers were up the rope nearly faster than he could blink. The moment the last one disappeared over the edge of the window seal sounds of fighting broke out from inside. Within a minute the sounds had stopped, silence flowing out from the window.

With little to no warning, Verrick stuck his head out the top, scaring the ever-loving shit out of Ray and prompting several choice curse words from Josephine. “It is clear. You may come up,” he said with the ghost of a smile before withdrawing back into the building.

“Did we just get punked by Verrick? I think we did. I didn’t know he had a sense of humor,” Ray griped. He grabbed the rope, the as his stump passed through the air he remembered he only had one arm. “Ah … right. Hey, you,” he said pointing to a large Orkin. “Throw me.”

“Ah, youze shur bozz?” the massive Orkin slurred.

Ray nodded. So the big guy trundled over and, with no fanfare, picked Ray up. Eyeballing the distance, he wound up and hurled him like a javelin, directly through the center of the window.

Ray landed in front of Verrick, skidding to a stop some feet into the structure. He slowly got up and turned to see most of the Rangers pointing arrows at him. “What?” he grinned, “Did I surprise you?”

Muttering about how stupid his master was, Verrick and the Rangers spread out to secure the area. It wouldn’t be long before the rest of the team was up the rope as well, along with their equipment. The Orkin would make short work of that job. Then it would be time to explore. Time to find survivors and get them back to the island in one piece.

Ray only hoped that this foray didn’t get the all killed. Really the best-case scenario was that most of them returned alive with as many survivors as they could find.

In the worst-case scenario, he lost most everyone else and rescued nobody. Well, that or he died too.

Optimism was short. Much like everyone’s life expectancy at this point.

***

RAYMOND ‘RAY’ FINNEGAN

RACE

HUMAN

CLASS

NONE

NEX

CALCULATING

LEVEL

PHYSICAL STATE

SORE

MENTAL STATE

WORRIED

ATTRIBUTE

BASE

CURRENT

NEX TO INCREASE

STRENGTH

AGILITY

POWER

100

WISDOM

LUCK

400

JOSEPHINE SANCHEZ