Ray
“Oh this is just too good to be true,” he muttered as he reached into the safe and removed the handgun. Dropping the magazine out, he cleared the chamber to ensure that it was unloaded before sliding it back into the firearm. “Ranged firepower here we come,” he grunted.
EVENT: FIRST RARE WEAPON ACQUIRED
X1 .45 Caliber Handgun
X75 .45 caliber Rounds
NEX CALCULATING – DEPLOY NODE FOR NEX ACCRUAL
Mankind had spread to the stars, created technological wonders, and even had begun terraforming alien worlds. But a chemically propelled piece of lead was still the best and cheapest way to kill something. Sure, the military may have energy weapons. Sure, spacecraft may have missiles and plasma cannons. But a good, reliable handgun could never be beaten in terms of concealment and self-protection.
Ray reached into the safe and retrieved two fifty-round boxes of ammo. Noticing one had been opened already, he cracked the tab open to look inside. Roughly half the rounds were still there. It wasn’t an armory by any means, but he had a solid seventy-five shots to stop anything that may come his way. Although at this point it may be more useful for stopping any hostile survivors than it would be for stopping a horde of the undead.
He placed the gun and ammo into his inventory and was about to turn away when he saw something else in the back corner of the safe. Peeking in, he saw a key with an attached paper circle on it lying in the corner. Reaching in, he grabbed it and pulled it out to more closely inspect it. The key was unadorned while the paper tag had, ‘Box 4’, written on it.
“Must be for a storage unit or something. Might come in handy later,” he said to himself. Tossing the key and tag into his inventory, he made a final check of the safe and then moved on. He looked through the rest of the backroom but didn’t find anything else of extraordinary value. He did find several cases of water and a ton of canned and dried food that was used to stock the store out front.
Taking a moment to organize it, he nodded in satisfaction and headed back out to the front of the electro station. As he came out front he saw Josephine standing at the counter with maps spread all over the top. She had obviously failed to fall asleep. Stress can be a nasty thing. She looked up at him briefly, she nodded and returned her attention to the documents in front of her.
Walking over, Ray saw that there were more than just maps there. There were tourism documents all over the table as well. Based on those, he could see that they were currently in the City of Elizabeth. Not too far from Old New York and Staten Island.
Touching the map, Josephine redirected her attention to him, watching what he was doing intently. Ray traced a path through the city and down to the massive docks for ocean-bound vessels. There were massive facilities there for receiving the super-transports that came from overseas. Storage, warehouses, and offloading facilities for tourist ships were present as well. It was also centrally located in the area and was just across the sound from the air and spaceport.
“I think this may be one of the better locations to set up,” he said, tapping the port facility. “It is centrally located, near everything, and gives us access to air, sea, and land. We may not find a better spot than that within the area.”
Josephine nodded and replied, “You make good points. It will be a hard battle if we have to clear the entire area, however. There may be many, many, undead there. If this is the case we may not survive.”
Ray hesitated, as she had brought up his biggest fear. Turning to her he said, “I agree. It won't be easy and we will need to be cautious. However, we can't put this node down just anywhere. According to our not-so-benevolent alien friends it can't be moved once it is placed. That makes the location immensely important, even if there is some risk of getting to the location in question. Besides, a port facility will have far fewer people than a place with major civilian traffic, like an airport.”
Josephine nodded slowly. “Very well. I am with you on this. We must get the core placed and activated. Not only am I curious, but the messages that we are getting hint at many more functions to the core than we can currently guess at. Perhaps one of those functions can help us. Or even save us entirely.”
“Great. We have a goal. Now we need to figure out how the hell to get there,” complained Ray. “I saw those two cars outside. That one didn’t look too badly damaged. Maybe we can piece them together and get one running? It's sunny out, so they should have at least a small charge. It would be far easier than walking through undead-infested streets without the ability to get away quickly.”
Josephine nodded. “I will take a look at them. I know a few things about vehicles and their repair. You should check the batteries on the roof of the electro station to see if the solar panels there have given them any charge. If they have, and the vehicle is operational, we can fill the batteries before we leave.”
“Game. Set. Match. Let's get going then,” Ray said with a grin. “We don’t have much time before dark and I don’t think either of us wants to be out and about when the sun goes down.”
Josephine gave a small shudder at that and headed out into the late afternoon light. Ray guessed they had somewhere in the neighborhood of two hours left. “Better get started then,” he grumbled.
Opening the shade links and walking outside, he double-checked the shadows before walking around the edge of the electro station. Looking for a ladder, he finally found it at the rear of the building next to the large icebox. As he approached it he froze. He swore that he saw the icebox lid move. Moving slowly backward and around the corner, he paused and watched the lid intently.
Once again the lid moved slightly, confirming his suspicions that there was someone or something inside. Based on his experiences so far, it was probably something that would take great pleasure in attempting to eat his face. If zombies felt pleasure that is.
Picking up a nearby rock, he bounced it off the lid of the trashcan. And sure enough, he got a reaction.
A maw filled with teeth popped out and snatched the rock up before it hit the ground. Grinding its teeth together, it spat it out before slamming the lid shut again.
“Holy fuck, was that even a zombie?” he asked aloud.
“I do not know what that was,” said Josephine from behind him. Ray nearly shit himself.
Turning around slowly he looked her in the eye, “With zombies wandering everywhere and odd things that we can't explain or fully understand, do you think it’s a good idea to scare the living hell out of me?” he asked in a deadpan tone.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Yes,” she said simply. “Being aware is important. You were not aware. I help you. Your welcome,” she replied walking forward while Ray sputtered at her back.
Stopping several meters away from the icebox, Josephine picked up another small rock and bounced it off the lid. True to form the maw burst out of the box, snapped up the pebble, then spat it out with a gagging noise. It retreated back to its home and slammed the door shut behind it.
Tossing several more rocks, and a can she found, from her location to the ladder didn’t prompt any reaction from the icebox creature.
“It seems that it only reacts when directly touched. Don’t touch it, you should be fine,” she said, turning to him. “The car out front works, but has less than four percent of a charge. If the panels on the roof work we can charge it up.”
With that, leaving Ray to sputter at her back, Josephine walked back around the corner of the store. Grumbling to himself, and keeping an eye on the icebox creature, Ray grabbed the bottom rung and swung himself up onto the ladder. Within a few short seconds, courtesy of his familiarity with emergency hatches on spacecraft, he was on the roof far quickly than someone who was unfamiliar would be. He quickly found the solar panels and batteries. And, for the first time on this wild ride of survival, got some good news.
The entire electrical system had, for whatever reason, been heavily reinforced. The battery banks were sealed and the solar panels were covered with thick materials. The charging bank screen showed a thirty percent charge in the batteries, more than enough to fully charge a vehicle.
Working quickly, Ray uncovered the panels themselves. Leaving them open would charge the batteries in case they needed to come back here for a recharge. Nodding to himself, he flipped the breaker for the charging stations on the ground. Now that they were connected to the batteries it would be easy to simply plug the car into it and let it charge for a few minutes.
Ah, the conveniences of modern life. In a zombie apocalypse.
Grumbling, Ray double-checked the connectors before clambering back down the ladder. Checking the areas at the bottom, and making sure the icebox was closed, he hopped to the ground and headed around the corner of the electro station.
To his surprise, Josephine already had the four-door sedan rolled up to the station and plugged in. Normally it took about five minutes to go from nearly zero charge to full, so as she charged the vehicle and checked its other components he stood watch. He couldn’t quite trust the daylight as a safety blanket, even if those undead did hate the bright golden rays that were falling from above.
Soon enough though, the light began to dim as dusk took hold of this side of the world.
“The car is charged, we should go inside. Quickly,” said Josephine nervously as she unplugged the car and looked around.
Ray nodded in agreement, “Yeah let's go.”
The entrance to the electro station was no more than thirty feet away. However, they were no longer alone. Sitting in the shade in front of the door, missing one eye, was the skinned creature that Ray had thought he had killed.
Stopping as it looked up from where it had been sniffing around the door, its lone blood-red eye squinted in rage as it hissed at him. Its massive, skinless muscles were bunched up as if it had been preparing to jump on anything that came out of the door.
Ray could have sworn that it had gotten bigger.
“Oh fuck, that’s the thing that was in the house with me. How the hell did it find me?” he wondered. He took out his multi-tool and chose the pry bar configuration. He would bust that fucking thing's skull open this time and call it a day.
Josephine opted for her needle-like weapon, taking a fighting stance next to him.
Ray began to shuffle forward when a slight sound from his other side caused him to turn his head slightly.
“There are two more,” grunted Josephine. “Smaller. But just as disgusting.”
Making a choice, Ray didn’t hesitate. “Hold off the other two. I'm going to kill the big one,” he said. Then he ran at it.
The skinless monstrosity let out a massive roar, spittle, and blood flying in Ray's direction. The loud noise startled him with its ferocity. Then the thing sprang at him.
Stunned, Ray barely had enough range of motion to leap out of the way, the monster landing right where he had been. Slamming into the concrete shoulder first, he heard something in his shoulder pop. But it was no time to worry about injuries. Scrambling to his feet, Ray took an impromptu swing at the thing crawling towards him slowly on all fours.
The horror reared up, hissing and batting his weak attack away. Grunting in frustration Ray took a batter's stance. A squeal from the side caused both of them to look over. Josephine had just skewered one of the creatures through the head, killing it. The second one continued to stalk her from the side.
Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, Ray jumped forward and brought his prybar tool down in a two-handed swing. The attack caught the much larger horror square in the center of the head.
Roaring, the thing spun and struck Ray in the chest with a kick from its rear legs sending him flying backward. As he landed heavily, he noticed that the sun was almost completely down. He had been so focused on the fight that he had neglected his environment.
“Shit, Josephine! The Sun!” he cried out, getting back to his feet only to be bowled over again as the flayed monstrosity landed on him.
The lips curled back from the teeth, showing Ray dozens in multi-inch pointed protrusions that snapped inches from his face. Wanting nothing better than to take a bite out of him, Ray shoved the pry bar against its throat and held it off.
As the two struggled, a warbling cry from down the street caused them both to freeze once more. A shuffling noise, similar to the one he had heard when the horde had gone by could be heard … but from all around them. Ray couldn’t see any undead yet but he was sure they were coming now.
He used the edges of the bar to hit the nasty thing repeatedly in the head using short, oar-like movements to ensure the thing couldn’t clamp down on him with its dagger-like teeth. He got four or five strikes in before the creature reached down, with surprising elegance, and simply batted the tool away. It reared up, the glare of victory apparent in its remaining eye. It almost seemed as if it was pausing to gloat about its victory.
The monster on top of him was suddenly smashed aside as Josephine hit it with her multi-tool, now in the form of a large hammer. Skidding across the ground the creature bounced off the car they had parked to charge. Ray marveled at her strength. The woman grabbed him roughly by the cuff and hauled him up as the horror bounded to its feet as well. Taking one look at them and roaring out in fury, it bounded off into the darkness on all fours like some demonic, skinless dog.
“We are surrounded, get inside quickly!” Josephine said just loud enough to be heard over the sound of shuffling feet. She shoved him to his feet as they began to move towards the relative safety of the electro station. As he moved, Ray briefly wondered how many bodies had to move to drown out a voice.
He didn’t have to wait long to find out.
***
RAYMOND ‘RAY’ FINNEGAN
RACE
HUMAN
CLASS
NONE
NEX
CALCULATING
LEVEL
1
PHYSICAL STATE
BRUISED
MENTAL STATE
WORRIED
ATTRIBUTE
BASE
CURRENT
NEX TO INCREASE
STRENGTH
5
6
50
AGILITY
3
3
30
POWER
0
0
100
WISDOM
4
5
40
LUCK
2
2
400