Moving through the empty hallways of the abandoned hospital left me with a faint sensation of dread. Not in the sense that something was following me, not in the same way I sometimes felt people glaring at me from a distance, but instead in the same way one may experience a certain empty sensation in their chest as they go about their day.

Observing the decaying architecture was comforting in a way. I was familiar with it, even if my experience came from dad’s point of view on things and my romanticised memories of what once was. But experiencing it…

Now that was another thing entirely.

As I walked with caution in my step, I could hear the faint humming of the respirator doing its work, keeping my lungs from collapsing under the sheer toxicity of the air. How did it help with my eyes or ears despite not covering them? I had no idea, by any means, it seemed to go by video-game logic so I didn’t question it.

Instead I kept moving.

I checked my PAD again for the direction of the signal. It seemed to be in the middle of the courtyard, only three floors down and a few dozen metres to the centre of the small park where radiated vegetation had taken over the concrete paths and the wooden benches.

“Doesn’t look like he’s alive though…”

From my vantage point I peeked down at the location that was marked on the device. Indeed, it was a body sitting down against a dead tree that remained standing at the very centre of the small park, what looked like a backpack was held tightly in his hands, and some sort of beeping device in his pocket? It was barely visible from that distance though, barely peeking over the edge of his pocket.

I tried to focus my sight a little more, then my vision blurred a little and my perspective zoomed in on the corpse.

[ You have obtained (Sharp Eyes Lv. 1) ]

Huh. So despite being a survival horror it did have some RPG elements after all. At least the use of this particular skill was pretty good, from three floors away I could even spot how many cuts were present on his exposed arms. Those were claw marks, and some bites around his ankles.

His mask was broken. A shame, really, a good mask was the first thing I would like to secure. Though what I saw next really did entice me to hurry on my little walk.

It was a detector. I wasn’t sure what model, or if they were even the same as the past game, but it was a detector nonetheless. And the fact that it was still beeping….The thing was still functional and had battery power. Not an ultra-rare loot for sure, but something that would help tremendously if it didn’t need any repairing.

I moved a little faster, still checking my corners and drawing my PM as I heard the creaking of broken glass.

Thankfully it was just a bird that had landed on one of the many broken windows so I didn’t waste my time checking that side again and just went down as soon as I reached the stairs.

Finally I exited the building and found myself standing in the courtyard. The beeping was a little louder, and from this angle I could spot the echo detector more easily. As well as a PAD with a cracked display and some sort of bulge on the corpses’ chest pocket.

Maybe more ammo? I closed in with my pistol in hand, making sure to check for any dogs or cats that may ambush me while I looted.

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There was not a single sound, and once I reached the man I made sure to check that he wasn’t zombified. How? I just poked him in the head and waited for a moment. There was no reaction so it was safe. I immediately opened the backpack and rummaged through whatever was left inside.

A pack of bolts. A matchbox, half-used. Another canteen, this time filled with what I smelled to absolutely be some kind of alcohol. At least I had something to rid myself of radiation for a bit. A medium-sized lead container, empty.

I checked his armour for any identification, and noticed the familiar Loner patch. Must’ve gotten rushed by Cats or something while trying to get an artefact huh? I made sure to close his eyes before I put on the backpack and shortened the straps a little to adapt to my smaller stature. Next, I grabbed the PAD and the Echo Detector.

The detector was beeping once every half second, which meant whatever artefact he was looking for was extremely close. Before going on to finish his search though, I checked the PAD. There laid his name and rank, judging by the symbols drawn on the side of it, he was a Rookie just like me. There was an active task on his PAD though, one I checked through.

[ Task (A): “Bring Anomalous Bread to Nikolai in….” ]

“He…He died while looking for bread of all things?” I couldn’t hold back my contempt.

An actual artefact hunter had died while trying to collect a piece of anomalous bread. It was kind of sad, but this was a tutorial mission, so I decided to just open the detector and go get that bread.

[ Task (A): “Let’s get that bread!” started. ]

Was I so much of a smooth-brain individual that the game had predicted my line of thought or did I accurately predict the game’s sense of humour? I went over that question a few times as I moved through the first floor of the abandoned hospital, eventually ending up at the entrance door to a cafeteria, where I found a weird looking loaf of bread. Still as fresh as the day it was put on a supermarket shelf.

I picked it up and just in case put it inside the lead container, making sure to seal it shut. Once I did so, the quest updated and I checked my PAD to see in which direction would I need to go to deliver the quest. And just as I did so, I heard some glass breaking. This time it wasn’t a bird, it was bigger than that, heavier.

I acted as if I’d heard nothing and slowly made my way towards the stairs, until a Cat’s violent shriek alerted me of their attack.

I rushed upstairs and bounced back from the wall at the turn, leaving the cat to slam its face against the concrete and recoil from the pain for half a second. Enough time for me to draw the pistol from its holster and fire! Except I had forgotten to take out the safety, so the trigger didn’t act and I was left standing half a step away from the Cat.

In desperation, as the mutant lounged at me again, I tried to punch it with all my might.

And it actually worked, somewhat. I got some scratches on my arm, but the Cat got a nasty hit to the nose that left it disoriented for a moment again. I could swear I saw a small icon on top of it as I actually made sure to turn off the safety on the makarov before firing three times.

The first shot went wide, grazing its back, the second slammed into the throat, and the third just under the left eye, jamming against the back of its skull and dropping it dead right there and then.

“...Shit. Don’t need bandages, please don’t….” I checked my arm for a moment, there was no bleeding animation or overlay, or sensation. I had gotten away from that without needing to scavenge medical supplies.

Even if I was inside a hospital, I’d rather not run through each room searching for bandages while I slowly bleed to death you know? In any case, I checked everything I had on me again. No knife. I couldn’t loot the damn Cat, and it had eaten three of my bullets the fucking thing.

I sighed and just made sure to check through the second floor for any supplies since I did manage to get a glance at the location I’d need to go, and it was more than just a few blocks away. Which meant I’d need to scavenge what I could from this hospital and then get going before night time comes and some Bloodsuckers start to hunt me down.

Or whatever this game’s equivalent of them were, really.

It was just then that I remembered. Don’t Cats usually spawn in pairs or packs? Weird that there was only on-

And before I could finish that line of thought, I felt some claws carve through my calf before I could react. The mate had showed up, pretty damn angry at me killing its friend apparently. The Cat ran past me and I took the chance to get my PM ready, it was moving pretty damn fast, but it was a narrow corridor.

Four rounds later, the thing was dead. Seven bullets gone. One left in the magazine, I’d better just reload the thing before I get ambushed again. Sitting down on the corridor, mainly so I couldn’t corner myself inside a room in case something else appeared, I took seven bullets from my pocket and unloaded the magazine from the pistol, slowly but surely slotting each bullet into it before loading again.

“Alright. Bandages. Medkit if possible. Anything food related and then I gotta do some cardio to reach there before evening hits.” I went over my list of necessities and nodded at myself as I kept a hold on the PM, not trusting my quick-draw skills to cowboy my way out of another ambush.

With that, I explored through the halls of the hospital. Not finding much, as expected, only one bandage and half a medkit. I’d recon the medkit had only one use of it left, so I would need to be very careful with any engagements. Nine bullets left, a loaf of bread on my backpack, and some bolts in my pocket.

Yeah, the basics were pretty much covered with that. Now I only needed to run. How hard could that possibly be?