Chapter 35
Pods
“Wow. I didn't know you were rich,” Leo said, looking over the two brand-new state-of-the-art, coffin-sized, gaming pods.
“We're not,” Jason said. “My brother brought them home as part of his work. He's doing a study or something. He said he'd kill me if I so much as looked in their direction.”
“I see,” Leo said.
“But he's on a trip, and this is more important. These gaming pods are the latest in gaming technology, so if anything can prepare us for the real thing, it's these.”
“How do they work?” Leo asked.
“Get inside. They're supposed to do the rest.”
Leo slid into one of the pods. A gel-like substance conformed to his body. He felt a little panic when the lid slid shut, trapping him inside, but he had no problem breathing. A minute later he was back in the game where they'd left off last time, with the still-burning wreckage of the helicopter behind them. They'd crashed in the forest, middle of nowhere. He and Gavin were the only survivors.
“Wow,” Leo said. He could hear the wind rustling through the trees and feel the uneven ground beneath his feet. He could even smell the fresh forest air combined with smoke from the burning wreckage and feel the wind on his face. Leo laughed. “This is amazing.” He felt the bark on a nearby tree. It didn't quite feel like the real thing, but it was close.
“This is better than I thought.” Jason/Gunslinger Gavin jumped up and down and walked around in circles getting used to the new system. “Okay, the helicopter crashed in the middle of nowhere and we're the only survivors, so now we have to fight our way through the monster-infested wilderness to safety. Online gamers were cursing this section. The Hills Have Teeth is supposed to be even harder than The Infected Base, the section we just got through.”
“That last section was hard? Bunch of losers.” Leo/GI Joseph studied the terrain. “I think we should head down that ridge. There are fewer trees and it'll be harder for Infected to sneak up on us.” In his previous life, there were fewer Afflicted in the wilderness, but the few that were there were sneakier and meaner.
***
Hours of gaming later, Leo pulled up his game stat sheet.
Name: GI Joseph
Level 9
Hit Points: 20
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Strength: Okay
Agility: Decent
Intelligence: Satisfactory
Social Standing: Still a Loser
Skills and Abilities:
Expert in video and VR gaming.
Can chug a liter bottle of Mountain Dew.
Sleeping in class.
Walking long distances.
Special Skills:
Ultra Blademaster. Level 4
Passive skill. Superior skill with a knife and other edged weapons.
Augmented Armor. Level 2
Passive skill. Augments any existing armor, making it more effective, reducing all damage from attacks.
Maximum Surge.
The symbiotic alien parasite living inside your brain has made you stronger and faster than you would have been without it. It also gives you the ability to boost your speed for thirty seconds. The world will appear to move more slowly during this time. Maximum Surge is a stronger version of Surge.
Super Surge.
A weaker but longer-lasting version of Maximum Surge.
Prolonged Surge.
A weak, long-lasting, version of Super Surge and Maximum Surge. Useful for longer-term projects.
Inventory
One dirty banged-up AK 47
12 pistols in poor condition
80 bullets
4 med kits.
10 packs of Dr. Bubbles. A safe, nonaddictive, derivative of crystal meth. Speeds up thought processes and increases the effectiveness of thought-related skills. Beware of the completely safe side effects: sleeplessness, paranoia, and loss of teeth.
Two large combat knives (kukri) in good condition, razor-sharp edges. The reward for defeating the boss known as Cyclops in single combat.
16 knives poor condition with dull edges
5 dirty meat cleavers. Recommend washing before use.
10 pairs of dirty torn combat fatigues
2 bags of jerky. Pork?
2 sandwiches. Pork?
5 jars of salted Pork?
One pair of dirty combat boots in good condition.
17 watches fair condition
81 candy wrappers
6 dirty individual combat boots fair condition
3 devil drop candies. Aliens love it.
5 bottles of moonshine
1 six-pack of cheap beer
6 pieces of beef jerky.
2 cans Pepsi
1 2 liter bottle of Mountain Dew
50 band-aids.
The list went on and on.
Good grief, Leo thought. No wonder he was suffering from decreased mobility. He couldn't figure out how to make the game's search feature more selective, and it wasn't like he could sort through his inventory while fighting Infected. He poked the devil drop candy and activated consume, eating the candy. His special skills flashed but didn't change this time. The candy didn't taste like much, but it resembled Demon Tears in that eating them made the alien symbiont stronger, increasing Leo/Joseph's strength and speed and boosting his special skills.
Each level he gained gave him a point for his stats. He put 5 points into agility because speed was important, and divided the other 4 between strength and intelligence.
As he'd leveled up through the game, he'd focused on the game's time—dilation feature. It had been the most useful skill in real life, so he saw no reason to change. He'd picked up the augmented armor special skill when he reached level 5, thanks to all the close melee combat he was doing while Jason/Gavin hung back as the sniper. Jason/Gavin was getting quite deadly with his powerful, upgraded pistols.
Leo/Joseph went through the rest of his inventory, discarding everything that wasn't keeping him alive, creating a huge pile of junk almost as tall as he was.
Ahhh. Much better.
Leo focused on the cut scene where Jason/Gavin was arguing with a government official.