Hector and I do another once over of the building we were already in, seems a bit dilapidated but overall it isn’t that bad. Deciding on going for something on the higher end of the building, we start combing through the lower floors, gathering food and tossing trash out windows. After doing pretty much all we could we grabbed a bad and tossed it in beside one of the others in the apartment since neither I nor Hector wanted to sleep together but we still both wanted a bed while still keeping some amount of safety.
With that piece of business taken care of I looked at Hector, “traps and alarms? Or would you prefer to cook?” He stills for a moment in thought, “you should probably get the traps man, you were always a bit better at that than I was. “All right, but make sure you cook everything that has more weight to it, don’t wanna have to carry heavy shit down the road while we fight the mutts.”
Walking downstairs I rummage through a few apartments, doing my best to ignore all the pictures containing families and small children, avoiding some rooms all-together. On the side of the hallway I see a kite, not really a rare sight since it’s windy all year ‘round here. I lean down, snapping the string closest to the kite. Ignoring the toonish cars that indicated this kite would have most likely belonged to a kid.
Starting at the first floor I decided against traps that made excess noise, a swarm would be worse than we could handle. I’d leave the sound alerting traps to the one directly below room us in the apartment building. For the first floor I found couches, fridges, hell, I even used a bathtub for one. Using a drill I found in a garage on the first floor I used wood screws or self tapping screws on anything made of wood. I wasn’t sure how the porcelain would react. I used to drill to help attach sharpened broomsticks and other sharp implements to the large objects. With that done I used rope or chain, as available, to secure it to the ceiling, looping through a metal walkway so if tension was released it’d fly through the doorway, hopefully kicking some ass on it’s way down. Using the kite string I found I used that as the tripwire, connecting it to the slipknot in a way that if the string was hit or walked through it was untie the slipknot, releasing the payload and boom.
Repeating this for the lower floors until I ran out of rope I started using the rest of the string for noise alarms using empty cans, hoping our enhanced senses would pick them up. I didn’t want to use bottles for this because of they made too much noise it would attract more mutts. The ones on the lower floors would hopefully stay up, as long as the rope didn’t snap all that would happen is a dull thud and the heavy objects in the traps would just sit there.
Finishing the last of the traps I go upstairs to buckle down for the night, it feels like it’s been a long day, the emotions and adrenaline making every second last for minutes, even more so in fights. Finally settling down felt so good, the fridges and bathtubs were light compared to before the gains but they were still unwieldy and tiring.
“What’s cookin Hector?”
“Powers out so I went looking around, found a chemistry set with a gas powered hot plate. So we’re stuck with anything makeable in a pot or pan. I figured pancakes were a good start.”
Feeling quite a bit of excitement at good food I smiled and walked into the kitchen. “We got any syrup?”
“Hell yeah, the apartment across from us even had strawberry and blueberry syrup.”
My mouth started salivating at that. Just as I was going to ask when it’d be done Hector looked up. “Grab a couple plates and forks we’ll need ‘em in a second”
Rooting through a few of the cabinets I find 2 plates and put them on the table with the forks.
“So who had a chem set? It’s not a kids one since it’s got a hot plate”
Grinning at me Hector talks around a mouthful of pancakes “It was the high school science teacher, Mr. Bradford”
Smiling, I remembered him, he always played Bill Nye videos in the classroom. With a grimace I looked across at Hector, “Hey, did he?” Not able to quite get the words out, Hector, understanding the question, smirked. Reaching into a cargo pocket he pulled out a journal and slid it my way.
Picking up the worn leather-bound journal I unclasped the front and opened it up and opened it up to the most recent entries, starting from when the mutts started raising havoc. “Mutations have become common, watching from the 7th floor with my telescope I noticed people an animals both reacting weirdly shortly after the blue notification panels informed me of “The Culling.” It seems nearly everyone is mutating and morphing, I got lucky and seem to have kept my mind intact.”
Skimming forward through his personal thoughts and musings on who might survive I stop when I reach a particular passage. “I’ve notice that the creatures are starting to congregate near transformers, generators, with some of the smaller ones digging into the ground directly in front of cars, pulling something out of the ground and eating it. The curiosity is killing me to know what they are so interested in, there is an old transformer in the private fencing area parking lot that I intend to look at to see if I can find anything of note.”
Sitting in thought for a moment I close the book and slide it across the coffee table. Looking towards the door of the apartment, “There was a mutt near the entrance, he may have gotten blocked from coming back after checking out the transformer.” Hector shrugged, “or eaten.” I feel slightly dejected as he adds his comment before agreeing, “or eaten.”
We got settled for the night and grabbed some sleep, taking 4 hour shifts to let each other sleep. The night was oddly uneventful, watching outside I was only able to see a few interesting things to watch to keep me from getting too bored. Mutants that clearly used to be dogs, a few that faintly resembled raccoons rummaging through debri. Nudging Hector after the 4 hours were up he sat up quickly and stretched, “feels like I slept a full night, was that really only 4 hours?” I shrugged and laid down, “you usually only sleep for a few hours anyways so how would you even know?” With a chuckle he goes to the counter and hops up, sitting on it rather than the chair on the balcony.
~~~~
Waking up to a buzzing, “turn off the alarm Belle.” A low “affirmative” reaches my ears. Looking at my phone it’s got 38% left on the battery, it usually lasts a week and its less than half in 2 days and I haven’t even been using it. With a sigh I sit up, Hector is still sitting by the window cleaning underneath his fingernails with a knife.
Getting up and heading to the table I grab an empty 3 liter bottle that’s sitting by the trash can. “What’s that for?” Hector asks as he follows from behind. I unscrew the cap and grab a funnel along with the pancake mix. “Ahh, cardboard isn’t the best for traveling.” Nodding I pour all the pancake mix into the bags, “plus this stuff will stay good for more than long enough for us to eat it.” Hector starts to head towards the cabinets, “while you repackage the good stuff I’ll start grabbing some of the canned food.” I keep filling up the 3 liter container, not bothering to look up, “remember to grab more than just the canned fruit.” Hearing the blatant pause in movement I smirk a bit. Laying out everything we were planning to take.
I mumble to myself while going over everything, “shelter, food, water, tools to cover each.” Meticulously going over each item we may need I try to include copies in each of our packs just in case we lost it or got separated. Hector walks back in with a few more cans and sets them on the kitchen table. “Got everything that wasn’t close to expiring. You know if you kept food in your house we wouldn’t have had to scavenge from some randoms house.” Shaking my head, pizza is easier and faster than cooking for myself and as a software developer I make” I paused, correcting myself, “.... made enough to eat out every day if I wanted.”
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
I briefly felt a sense of loss, all the time and patience, all the years I spent learning my trade, all of it was wasted.
~Aieeeeeeeee!!~
My thoughts were instantly derailed with a high pitched screams coming from what sounded less than two or three houses away. Hector and I jump up at the same time, seeing the question on his face I nod my head. “You saw the number of people left, if we don’t start looking out for each other we’ll all end up goners.”
~Awooooooooo~
The howl split through the area as if in answer to the screaming. Wasting no more time we bolt through the door, taking just enough time to grab the packs and our weapons. Hector hefting his axe into a more comfortable position in the makeshift sling. Not bothering to take the time I keep mine in hand as we head out the door and rush down the stairs.
~Aieeeeeee!!~
The same scream resounds through the previously quite streets as we, making a beeline for the noise we cut through the oddly empty streets. Hector speaks quietly, “sounds like its coming from the east and coming towards us.” My blood freezes, the air suddenly seeming dryer, “Is the horde already here?” He shakes his head, “not sure, it might be the fastest of them considering it sounded like a howl.” Suppressing the shiver we rounded the building.
Running through cars we see a group of six, “four women and two men.” I say quickly, only to see the two slowest get caught by the group of mutts chasing them. “Scratch that, three girls and a guy. Along with six mutts chasing from behind.” Choking back the bile as I see them being chomped down on. Increasing our already fast pace into a higher gear. Still nearly 30 meters away a mutt is coming closer to one of the women. I push everything I have into sprinting, hoping that since they are already running towards us that it can shave off the just another fraction of a second.
The mutt, shaped like a grotesque bobcat with scaled feet lunges. “Duck!” I yell at the woman. Luckily she listens as she dives to the ground followed. Thrusting my spear where she used to be it almost cuts through the edges of her red hair before it pierces through the collarbone of sporadic green scales and brown fur. The weight of the thing pushing me a good 2 meters back. Luckily the 150lbs of the cat is much easier to hold back and push around after the strength enhancements or it would have bowled me over.
Freeing my weapon and glancing down at the redhead who is staring up at me, mouth agape, I try not to laugh at the situation. I give her a wink, briefly wondering who she was, as my left eye opens back up I’m started to see and window.
User ???
Lvl 1
Skill Gained - Observe
There's a slight overlay to everything I see through my left eye. I look to the other mutts. Nothing at first but when I feel like I want to know more about them the overlay comes up again.
Scaled Cat 11%
Lvl 1
Scaled Cat 14%
Lvl 1
Scaled Cat 12%
Lvl 1
Scaled Cat 17%
Lvl 1
Scaled Cat Leader 29%
Lvl 1
Not having any time to ponder what the new information means I look to Hector, he’s advancing towards the closest Scaled Cat. Seems the leader is sitting at the back watching us struggle. Following suit I sprint up to Hectors left just as another cat jumps in from the left. I swing the glaive on instinct and bat the cat away, the blade catching on its midsection cutting deep into its stomach. The transparent notification above its head changing.
Scaled Cat 12%
Dead
Surprised at the convenience of knowing if an enemy is dead or not I turn to the rest of cats. There's three left, including the leader, but it looks like he knows we’ll end up winning if this keeps up. It circles us while the other two make passes at us, their reckless abandon from before is clearly gone. The easy kills we got before were only from them being completely oblivious to the fact that we could counterattack to deadly effect. The new wariness shows they have the ability to learn and adapt which worries me.
The cats continue to circle us, the three-pronged assault is making it incredibly difficult to counterattack without leaving ourselves open. The four survivors are weaponless and what was support was quickly giving way to despair, the guy and one of the girls turn to run and leave us. Seeing the movement I’m instantly pissed off, we came to save them and they immediately abandon us when things start to look bad.
One of the cats veers off from the attack, like a magnet he was drawn to the quick sporadic movements of the fleeing survivors. Running straight past the other two unmoving women it jumps, the guy, sensing impending doom shoves the woman who was with him into its way. She gets taken down by the 150 pound cat in an instant. The asshole keeps running and gets around the corner, oblivious to the screams of his sacrificial lamb.
Hector takes the chance to commit to an attack on the closest cat. The leader slides in without a sound, aiming for his exposed midsection. With barely a chance to react I thrust at the space between Hectors raised arm and the leader. Hector and I both hit our targets at the same time, ending both. We smile as we free our weapons and are about to high five when another scream interrupts us. The cat is making its way towards the two immobile women.
“Fuck!” I yell, Hefting the Glaive into a javelin throw stance, I push off the ground with the ball of my foot, swinging my arm in a blue blur. Barely registering the added color, the glaive leaves my hand like a bolt of greased lightning. The blue bolt tears through the air, arriving at the cat as if by teleportation. The cat and glaive both continue in the direction of the throw, pinning the body to the wall of a nearby building.
Stopping to catch my breath for a second.
~Awoooooooo~
It’s louder this time. “The hell, I thought it was the things we just fought making that noise.” I say to nobody in particular. The redhead I saved pipes up. “We need to leave now, the wolves are almost twice the size of the cats.” The panic in her voice puts us on edge. “Follow us,” I say to them, grabbing the stones from the disintegrating cat corpses. Though I find a blue pyramid shaped crystal on the leader.
Mental Strength + 1
Mental Control + 1
With a mental fist pump I find myself even happier as the notifications come in.
First Leader Killed
Leveling System Unlocked for all survivors
Classification System Unlocked for all survivors
Skill Gained through usage - Imbue mana
Skill Gained through usage - Force Push
Skill Gained through usage - Mana Manipulation
With a smile on my face I free my glaive from the wall and start running southwest, within seconds it becomes apparent that our new charges have basically no stats put into the physical side. Handing the backpack to the redhead, “put this on and I’ll carry you.” Looking over to the brunette, I motion to Hector, “you should do the same.” Luckily the redhead is smart and doesn’t waste any time. The brunette however starts to disagree by standing still for a second. Before she can voice a complaint though.
~Awooooooo~
“It’s only a couple blocks away, we need to get away from here, the smell of blood is probably going to be like a magnet for them.” No longer delaying she snatches the backpack and climbs onto Hectors back. The redhead does the same, Hector and I sprint southwest, hoping the wolves are satisfied with the three bodies we had to leave behind. Better yet I hope they catch the scent of the asshole that ran away.
Seconds ticked by and turned to minutes, the pace we had in the beginning was an even 20 mph. It’s now tapered down to around 15 mph, better than even my best sprint free of weight before the shit hit the fan. I’m still having trouble believing how easy this feels to me. Legs pumping back and forth like a well-oiled machine with barely a sign of fatigue even after ten to fifteen minutes of running.
Rounding a bend we come to the river on the south side of the city, separating the suburban areas and petering off into the rural. “Shit, bad news Allen, looks like the bridge is out.” Squinting I can barely make out a dark spot in the bridge. The angle is bad so I can’t really tell but Hector has always had better sight than most.
“Do you know where the next closest bridge is?”
“The closest one is a mile to the east, there’s another near Sir Pita to the west about 3 miles from here”
“East is too close to the howls from earlier and we don’t know when the hoard will get here, I vote west”
“Ditto”
Glancing over I nearly trip, the brunettes face is flushed red. Arms over his shoulders, hands gripped together over his chest. Seeing her wink in my direction I’m confused for a second until I feel the redhead tense up, looks like the wink wasn’t for me. Taking a glance over my shoulder to see red cheeks I play dumb, “you okay? You tensed up a bit, let me know if I’m squeezing too tight.” Bringing attention to my hands under her thighs, looking back just long enough to see the red spread a bit further. With a smile I pick up the pace a bit. Hoping to get to the bridge just a little sooner.
I was ready to get out of this damned town plus I needed to share the info about the hud with Hector. Then, finally, we can introduce ourselves to the two girls and figure out where to go from there.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
User Hector
Level 1
Profession none
HP 5200
Mana 900
Body Strength 31 +
Body Control 24 +
Mental Strength 9 +
Mental Control 13 +
Stat Points available 0
User Allen
Level 1
Profession none
HP 2800
Mana 3312/3400
Body Strength 19 +
Body Control 31 +
Mental Strength 22 +
Mental Control 22 +
Stat Points available 0