Horde Wave Complete
The notification screen popped up in front of Farrah’s eyes, masking her view of the fields under the fortified keep walls. The sun must have risen, although nothing but the floating message told her so, as the horizon was obstructed by fog, and the fields around the keep were still thick with smoke from the pyres that’d been set to illuminate the incoming waves of undead.
“Ah, finally,” one of the keepers sighed in relief, somewhere to Farrah’s left. His voice was soon followed by the sound of a clip being taken out of an SMG.
Farrah snapped her fingers in his direction, her free hand firmly wrapped around the barrel grip of her Steyr AUG, before ordering:
“Focus.”
“Yeah, there’s still like 20 of them down there,” A voice came from further down the barricade. It was followed by a few burst rounds, then another exclamation, “At 2 o’clock. Or like, 11 for you Devs.”
“Don’t call me Devs,” Farrah replied.
Scan
- Directional
- Targeted
Cost: Free
A projected map appeared in the corner of her vision. She fired five shots, and five dots vanished off the map.
“Don’t have line of sight on the rest.” She called out to Matthew.
“Yeah, me neither Devs.” He yelled from his position.
Farrah rolled her eyes and did not waste her breath replying.
“Where do you guys even see them?” The boy next to Farrah asked.
“He’s a sniper, and I’ve got – more incoming,” Farrah moved her aim to the right, firing several shorts. “Five walkers and a heavy.”
The dimming light of the fires reflected off the ivory-white plates covering the large creature leading the group. It was a fresh one – freshly turned that is. The bone shields growing over its skin had not yet been worn by bullets or tarnished by Human blood. It treaded towards the keep with an uncontested confidence.
Somewhere to Farrah’s right, a girl shrieked. Must have been a keeper seeing her first heavy, Farrah thought.
The kid to her right emptied a magazine into the creature. A few bullets hit, sending shards of bone into the ash-covered ground.
The walkers that followed it quickly fell, their heads pierced by Farrah’s fire.
“I don’t understand, the wave is over,” an exclamation came from way further down the wall. Farrah could barely make out Steph’s voice among the gunfire, and whatever commotion was happening to her right.
“Yeah, means no more new freaks are spawning.” Matthew, whom must have run out of ammo considering how talking and how little shooting he did, yelled over the ruckus. “They don’t just magically vanish!”
“I wish they did…” The kid next to Farrah muttered, emptying another magazine into the heavy one.
“Stop wasting ammo,” Farrah ordered.
They’d been at it all night, and she was running low on MP. But that was better than running low on bullets.
Caliber Change
Modified the bullet diameter without modifying the ammunition of a firearm. *Requires individual attunement to each new weapon*
Trained >>> Expert
Cost: 1P per 5 mm of bore diameter increase. No maximum.
Domain benefit
- Two additional levels of mastery.
Cartridge change
Modified the bullet diameter without modifying the ammunition of a firearm. *Requires individual attunement to each new weapon*
Trained >>> Expert
Cost: 1P for cartridge body change. 1P for bullet head change. 2P for propellant type change. 2P for primer change. 1P for rim change.
Domain benefit
Two additional levels of mastery.
Scan
- Directional
- Radius
Cost: 1P per 500m radius from focal point.
“There’s six winged, two kilometres North-North-West. Three shamblers North-East, about 400 meters, in the undergrowth.” Farrah yelled, informing the rest of the guards, before taking aim at the bone-covered corpse that’d made its way past the pyres, and dangerously close to the wall.
Spikes of bone were beginning to grow out of its back and ribs, wrapping around it in a secondary shield, as it readied itself to ram into the metal and brick base of the fortification.
Farrah couldn’t spare the Power for assistance with aim, but at this distance, she didn’t need to. She steadied her rifle and fired.
The monster blew up, sending shards of bone and chunks of flesh almost high enough to reach the woman.
“Fuck!” The kid next to her exclaimed, with way more excitement than was called for. “Was that a fucking rocket?”
“No.” Farrah dryly replied. She didn’t have enough Power for a rocket.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“Ask her how much Power she just wasted!” Matthew didn’t miss the chance for an annoying interjection. “Devs, tell the kid!”
“Focus for five more minutes, Jesus fucking Christ,” Farrah swore.
“You can’t see me, so I’m telling you: I’m rolling my eyes, Deveraux.” The man replied. Yet, he did as he was told, firing several shots into the sky.
Farrah squinted, watching several winged creatures fall from the sky. Their dark, rotting, silhouettes contrasted against the ever-brighter pinks and yellows of the morning sky.
Gunshots were coming from Farrah’s right too. The last of the bigger monsters were being dealt with, so she scanned the area one last time and helped finish off the remaining walkers.
It was about twenty minutes after the bip that’d falsely notified them of the end of the wave that Farrah finally allowed herself a deep sigh, as she swung her trusted automatic over her shoulder. She looked to her left, where the keeper kid was squinting at the fields, trying to spot any remaining enemies. Further down the wall, right before it curved around the city it protected, Matthew was cleaning his rifle, more so out of a nervous habit. To her right, on the other end of the heavy gates, a medic was helping a keeper girl down. It was hard to tell what exactly she’d been hit by. Farrah hoped that it’s been friendly fire, as improbable as it was in this configuration. There’d been a lot of explosives used on that side of the gate, and if a shard of bone or flesh had hit the girl, she didn’t have long before turning.
“Are we good to go?” A voice called out from below.
A group of keepers were standing by, ready to go outside and re-lit the pyres, this time to burn the corpses. They had bags and carts, ready to loot the walkers.
“Yeah, go ahead!” Stephanie walked up to Farrah’s edge of the wall, before replying.
“Hey Steph,” Farrah nodded at her, getting up, and stretching her legs. “How’s it going?”
“All good.” The woman smiled.
She looked tired. Blond locks had fallen out of her bun and had stuck to the sides of her face. Her outfit – a tailored dress hidden under a bulletproof vest, that stopped at her her ankles, where her hiking boots started, was dirty with rust, gunpowder, and unidentifiable stains. Farrah assumed she, herself, was in a similar state of sweaty and tired disarray. Minus the vest, and the dress, which in her case were replaced by denim trousers and a tank top. She’d worn her leather jacket for good measure, but having done the quest to gain immunity very early on, she didn’t really fear any organic debris. And the sandbags and metal plating were there to protect her from the rest.
“So, I can do the transfer with you, and then you and Matthew can split it?” She asked.
“Not a chance,” The sniper hobbled to join them. Either his leg had fallen asleep, or he’d once again stolen a pair of boots that wasn’t his size. But other than that, he was in much better shape than the women. Farrah held no doubts about him wasting Power on returning his black fatigues to their original ‘off-the-museum-display’ state. And there wasn’t really much that could happen to his neatly trimmed thick beard or fine dreadlocks. “Her and I don’t run like that,” he added as he joined the duo.
“Huh?” Steph gave them a tired and confused look.
“Something something, not even if he was the last man on Earth,” Farrah replied with an amused smile. Then, noticing that Steph wasn’t getting their bit, explained. “We’re not a team, or a group. Whatever you and Fabio call your band.”
“We were like, thick as thieves before the Fall,” Matthew continued. “Fought together in the war, shared a girlfriend and a house…”
Stephany didn’t bother with a reply or a reaction. She took Farrah’s hand and began reading over a screen only visible to her.
“What are you on about…” Farrah shook her head, pressing her lips in a tight line.
“Are you saying you don’t have any notes to share with me, Devs?” The man asked.
His expression was neutral enough, so Farrah left him a few seconds to reconsider his use of the made-up nickname, before replying:
“You can have my notes, but it’s been three months, I’m not sure how much of it will still be useful.”
“Hmm, maybe some.” He shrugged. “I am still stuck on the Warren Expert quest. As for your thing-”
“All done.” Stephany interrupted. “I owe you two magazines of 39mm and 40 of the local coin.”
“You can keep the coin. Give me 5 extra bullets instead.” Farrah replied.
“Don’t be like that, the coin is a good initiative,” A man appeared on the ladder. It was impossible to tell if Fabio had perfect timing, or if the ginger had been waiting there to do his ‘join my guild’ spiel.
“I don’t need it where I’m going.”
“Yeah, you can keep mine too,” Matthew added. “It’s not much use for us Collectors.”
“Well, it will be once it becomes more widespread. You come to Heavens monthly, if not more often. With coin it’s easier to trade.”
“I’ll give you both the bullets.” Steph interrupted. It was hard to tell if she was too tired to try and convince them, or to listen to her partner’s speech. “But he’s right, you know. You can’t roam the wastelands forever. The supplies are gone, the zombies aren’t.”
She took Matthew’s hand and began doing the same calculations she’d done for Farrah.
“And yet you’ve chosen to join the profession.” The sniper replied. “At a time when it’s more dangerous than ever.”
“We look out for each other,” Fabio grinned from the ladder. “Look,” he tapped an embroidered patch on his chest. It was the letter C at the centre of an infinity sign. “We even have a logo now, and a name. The Collector’s Collective.”
Farrah coughed, trying not to laugh, and Matthew chuckled. Before Farrah could say the quiet part about how there were only 5 of them, and that they weren’t much of a collective because grinding quests was much more inefficient in a group due to kill registration, Steph spoke:
“You only get a mag of 9mm. I don’t understand how you managed to complete 7 quests during the night.”
Fabio whistled, impressed.
Farrah sighed in disapproval.
“Well, what can I say, I don’t discriminate, between the sinners and the-”
“If you start singing, I will shoot you!” Steph snapped.
“And this is the other reason why you won’t be a Collective,” Farrah concluded a speech she’d solely held in her head.
“We’re all tired, let’s leave it at that,” Fabio said with an apologetic smile.
“Fine with me,” Matthew shrugged, before extending a hand to Farrah.
Under Stephany’s confused gaze, Farrah took it.
Information Shared
Offer: Entirety of additional notes created by Matthew W. Page.
Gift: Entirety of additional notes created by Farrah Deveraux.
Accept
Yes
No
“Sure,” Farrah voiced her answer. “But did you find anything about my thing? Just so I know where to look tomorrow when I sort through all of this.”
Matthew shook his head.
Farrah nodded. He was clearly getting the better end of the deal here, but it didn’t bother her. Sometimes that’s just how things worked at the end of the world.
“Damn, I wish I had friends like this,” Fabio spoke.
“You would if you weren’t running a Collector pyramid scheme,” Farrah joked.
“Say what you want, but it’s thanks to us that this Heaven is safe,” The man shrugged.
“And us, and like what, twenty of their people?” Matthew interjected. “But I appreciate our arrangement too.”
Farrah nodded.
“Then where will you two go next?” Fabio asked. “There can’t be that many more domain quests – that’s what you’re doing, right, left to complete?”
Farrah pointed at Matthew before saying:
“He is. I’m doing a personal quest.”
“Just the one?” Steph asked, surprised. There were other Collectors she needed to go talk to settle their dues, but it was obvious from how she kept glancing at the space between Matthew and Farrah that she was still expecting an explanation of what they’d done.
“I finished all the relevant domain ones, did a few rare skill ones. Grinded some mastery with my ‘bestie’ here,” Farrah gave Matthew a friendly elbow punch, “and at some point quests just stopped spawning for me.”
More so on reflex than to prove a point, as no one but her could see the System window, Farrah made hers appear.
Stats
Skills
Goals
Other
Goals
· Find the OBELISK
Give Up
“She’s cursed,” Matthew whispered. The joke did not land, which at this point was no surprise. He yawned, and continued, “I’ll head west to Hampton-on-Seje. Then maybe South, to where that town with all the outlet stores was.”
Fabio nodded.
“That’s a solid plan. I don’t know how cold this winter will be. We might stop there too, see if we can find something for the keepers.”
“Fixing up a truck might be your best bet,” Farrah spoke. She pulled out a small rectangular tin from her pocket and took a cigarette out of it. “I’ll head to the capital, see if I can find more of these,” She showed the trio the cig.
“Dangerous game you’re playing there Devs.”
“Yeah,” Fabio nodded. “I met this guy with a permanent effect. He was a pothead even before all this, and, well ... things got stressful. But he’s burning a Luck point a day now, just trying to keep up with everything.”
“He’s not managing very well,” Steph added. “We invited him. He was a good Collector.”
“He’s a keeper now,” Fabio concluded the story before anyone could assume the worst about this guy.
Farrah yawned. Not in response to the rather sad and all-too-relevant story, but because she’d been awake all night, and the adrenaline of the shoot-out was starting to wear off.
“I’ll see you around,” she patted Matthew on the shoulder. He did the same to her, with a curt nod. “And good luck with your guild,” she nodded towards Fabio.
“Thanks. It’s a collective.” He smiled in turn, before sliding down the ladder to let her pass. “If you want to join, just say the word.”
“Actually, I’d like to join,” the keeper boy who’d shared a shooting position with Farrah spoke up.
She couldn’t see him from the ladder, but she recognized his voice.
“Jesus, how long were you here for?” Matthew exclaimed.
“The entire time?” Stephany asked in turn. Then, she began explaining something about the logistics of joining their group and sharing skills. At that point, Farrah stopped eavesdropping.
“Hey,” Fabio called out once she reached the ground.
They shook hands, before pulling each other into a hug. It was a platonic, almost familial embrace. They’d only met a few months after everything began and spent a handful of days together, but they were like siblings – stuck together in the same shit household.
“Take care,” Fabio said.
“You too,” Farrah nodded.
She didn’t know if they’d meet again. Neither of them had a way of knowing. She tried not to think about that, as she walked back to the inn, lighting her daily cigarette.