Turning the key of the SUV, it springs to life as the car shakes a bit, starting completely fine. It’s quieter than I had anticipated and placing my hands on the wheel I felt an odd sense of excitement. From what we could tell the cars were automatic except for the campervan, and moving the stick to a strange symbol that we confirmed to be drive, I slowly let my foot off the brake as the car started to move forward.
Moving through the car lot, I park up near the exit and turn the car off. Getting out, I watched as the others drove their respective cars towards the exit before parking them up. Winter drove the campervan, Sheep the minivan and Ghost the sedan. Aerith and Lemon weren’t idling either. Lemon is in the minivan while Aerith is in the SUV, those two carried a glock each and were responsible for taking care of any Husks. We knew we could be swarmed so we each carried a glock since Winter had managed to make enough so we each hand one. The bullets were sparse, but they would at least give us the ability to take care of any danger.
Currently no Husks had come running from the sound of the cars, in fact they were fairly quiet, not much noise being made from them. The amount of Husks appearing in town had started to increase too, so having the luxury of quieter cars really helped us in the long run. What is worrying is the amount of Crawlers had also increased and we had even seen a few Heavy Husks wandering around as well, meaning the level of difficulty in the town had increased.
While hoping that the situation outside of the town would be a bit safer, I turn to the others as they exit their vehicles and walk over.
“Well, it’s time. Leaving the town has turned into the best decision at the moment considering the increase of Husks appearing. Sheep, did you throw that tarp in?”
“Got it in earlier. If your theory turns out correct it’ll be amazing.”
“I hope it’s the case, it’ll help us out a lot. We have a few routes mapped out, be careful with how you drive and avoid hitting anything. We can’t just speed up and drive away from a swarm so let's just take it slow and steady. Any questions?”
Turning to Aerith who had raised her hand, I smiled and before I said anything she beat me to it. “Not a teacher, got it. When should I select Builder?”
“When we’re absolutely sure of a location. We don’t have any building machinery yet either, so hold off for now.” We had gone through all of the Jobs one again and Builder had been the best option as it said it provides knowledge on certain buildings. We knew building a base would be extremely demanding work, but we were prepared.
No one else had questions and after a bit of chatter, we once again got into our respective vehicles and started driving out of the car lot. Aerith and I remained quiet, with her sitting in the back looking around while I carefully drove. Cars were stacked on the road, some crashed while others just parked up, and driving around them either up the curb or carefully in between them, we slowly made progress on the route we had chosen.
“Midnight, Husks to the right. Five of them, stumbling around not looking towards us.”
“Got it.” Turning my right indicator on for a few seconds, I looked at the rear view mirror to see the campervan behind me do the same. This would indicate where Husks were and warn the others behind us, without radio communication this is the next best option for us.
“They’ve seen us, incoming.” Slowing down to a stop, I pulled out my gun and aimed at the group coming towards us. They weren’t stumbling anymore, they were nearly sprinting, taking me by surprise for a second before I shot. Dozens of shots rang out in those few seconds as the Husks died under the gunfire.
You have killed an Empowered Husk: Runner!
+5 Class Points.
This is your first kill on an enemy of this type!
+10 Class Points.
“Runner?” Raising an eyebrow, I looked at the Husks we had just mowed down. They’re indistinguishable from any other Husks, the only correlation I could think of is that they had indeed started to run, but to give the same amount of Class Points as Heavies meant they were very dangerous. Cold sweat ran down my back as I put the glock away and once again started driving the car.
The further away we drove from the centre of the town the less Husks appeared. After gunning down another three packs of them, with two packs having Crawlers or Runners while one had both, we finally came across a roadblock, a fallen tree. Sheep and Lemon both got out and with me keeping watch, they moved the tree enough to drive past it. It had been easier than we thought, though credit could only go to our nearly found strength.
Getting back into my car, I heard Aerith speak. “Heavy, far but wandering towards us.” Looking for myself, I saw the giant hulking Husk slowly stumble in our direction. Starting the car, Aerith kept an eye out for the Heavy and thankfully it didn’t come close, but for one to be this far out of the centre of the city only reaffirmed our decision. A new type appearing also meant Husks were becoming stronger, and it’s likely going to keep going.
Looking at my Class Point count, a part of me wanted to stay and get the last twenty three points till one hundred points to see what would happen. Though I knew it wasn’t time right now, we needed to focus on one thing at a time. As we continued on, we finally reached the edge of the town around noon, the road continuing on without cars in our way. Grassland stretched out before us, trees sprinkling the field. It’s an odd feeling seeing such a sight after being surrounded by houses for so long, that sense of security no longer there.
Driving a bit out of the town, Aerith kept a look out but we couldn’t see any Husks. Pulling over as the others stopped behind me, we got out while Sheep and I met up with the others spreading out to keep watch.
“No Husks outside of town? I don’t like that, it’ll be too easy.” Sheep spoke first.
“I agree. There wouldn’t be anything holding them into the town, right? Or is it because there are far more dangerous things outside?”
“I doubt that, we’d have seen something that keeps the Husks in check by now. Then again, at this point the town should’ve been flooded with Husks with the amount that come out at night, so perhaps night time is more dangerous out here?”
Both of us fall into thought for a few minutes before looking towards the town we had just left. We couldn’t see much, just a few buildings, but we were sure of one thing.
“If we stay it’s going to get far more dangerous, a new type has appeared and Heavies are wandering further out. Not to mention Crawlers are becoming more frequent, if we stay we’d have an extremely difficult time. Building our own base is the best bet, even if it takes a while.” I say this as I turn to Sheep once again seeing him nod slowly.
“Building a base will be very difficult, let's hope young Aerith performs well, we’re going to be depending on her to either guide us or in the worst case build a base by herself.”
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This is a huge risk for all of us, potentially leaving us stranded. We didn’t have unlimited fuel and could only depend on what we had. Parting ways with Sheep, we started to move, following the maps we had, our first destination to one of the few locations close by. Without the need to watch as much, Aerith climbed into the front seat and sat next to me, map in her lap while we talked about random topics from our world.
Unlike us, Aerith had never really played games competitively but instead played them more for the story and lore. When I asked her why she invested in Apocalyptic World, a game focused purely on Player versus Player, she blushed slightly making the reason rather easy to guess.
“So Blane full dived?”
“N-no, I don’t think so, but he planned to later so I full dived first so I could experience the game, a common talking point you know? Plus it’s the first ever full dive game, I wanted to experience it!” Saying the last part a bit loudly, Aerith looked away as I stopped myself from laughing.
We continued to make small talk while driving and once we were about two hours from town Aerith looked up and said “Left up ahead.”
Nodding and flicking my indicator, I made the left hand turn onto the road that would lead us to our first destination. We weren’t sure what’s out there but only that we had labelled it as a potentially important area, so we were set on checking it out. The next spot would be a bit of a drive away from here so we’d be camping the night out here. After an hour of driving, we soon arrived at what seemed to be a small site, a few buildings scattered around.
Getting out of the car, I stretched as Aerith got out and did the same. Glancing to the others, who were also stretching, I turned my attention to the buildings and felt curious as to what they were. The others gathered and we started to talk about what we should do.
“It must’ve been labelled on the map for a reason, right? We should clear each building and assess what this place is meant to be.” Agreeing with Sheep, we moved towards the buildings before clearing each one. They were small, rectangular buildings with a single room and as we explored each one we found a lack of anything at all. No Husks, no scattered items except for tables and chairs and no signs that others had been here.
“A whole lot of disappointment, but I suppose it’s a good place to stay the night.” As I say this, we unpack a generator and connect it to the campervan to use the oven to make rice and the water purifier. The others handle the cooking while Aerith and I worked on the maps, pulling them out of a bag and comparing them.
“So this symbol represents this site, right?” The symbol is a strange S, like it had been italicised, with a dot in each bend and one above it. “Do we have any more locations with it?”
“Yes, two. One far from this location, about six points of interest away and another that would’ve been our next stop. Should we remove it?”
“I want to say yes but I am worried that it might be multi-meaning. We should check out the next location and if it’s just like this then we’ll scrap the other, we can’t really afford to skip it if there is indeed another meaning.”
“Okay. If this happens with another symbol and the next place is indeed not worth it, should we just scrap it ahead of time?”
“Let’s go with yes, depending on what that symbol location gives us. If there is anything of value we’d want to mark it. The next spot we want to go is…here, the water drop. Pretty universal to mean water, right?”
“It gives that impression, it’s quite far from here. From town it took us about six hours to drive here, meaning that place is about twelve hours from here. We can either stop at the next spot that shares the same symbol as here which is about four hours or we skip it and head there instead.”
Following Aerith’s words, I saw the distance and knew we’d have to make a decision before leaving tomorrow. I couldn’t figure out what this site should be, nothing here really indicated what it’s purpose is, but at the same time if we skipped it and it turns out to have really good stuff it’ll be bad.
“There is always the option of backtracking once we do find a suitable location. We will need to scout other locations for supplies if the towns continue to get more dangerous. A new type appearing, Heavies starting to spread out further and more Husks showing up during the day, it hasn’t been long since the Nexus event either.”
“If only the maps were more detailed.” Aerith sighed and I agreed with her. While there were roads and symbols, it didn’t have much else.
“We were going to go to the water drop first before we changed plans to head here and thankfully we did, the distance is further than we thought. I think it’s best to head there and hit skip on the S symbol, we can always backtrack if needed.” After a moment of silence I tapped the water drop and spoke while glancing at Aerith. “What do you think?”
“We have to worry about fuel. We have enough to get there and back based on what we’ve used and have left, but if we find nothing there then it means we’ll be empty handed and have to return to the town to refill.” Aerith had gotten used to me asking for her opinion. She had asked why and I had been truthful, that her way of thinking differed from ours, allowing another perspective.
“So we have to risk it by checking that place out. What do you think about dropping two cars and using their remaining fuel for the others?”
“The campervan and minivan are useful because they are large and we can store more, while the sedan and SUV are faster and better to travel quickly if the need arrives. If trailers exist in this world, and judging from the bullbars on the sedan and SUV, then we could get more storage for both…”
Sitting there in silence for a moment, I sighed lightly and rolled up my map, Aerith mimicking me. “For now, let’s go to the water drop first. It’s a risk we have to take, a water source simply offers us far too much. If we need to return to the town to resupply on fuel then we will.”
Filling everyone else in on the plan, they all agreed and after sorting out the night watch, with the boys sleeping in the minivan and us girls in the campervan, we made it so one person per group would stay on watch, with all of us up for the first three hours then rotating with me starting. The purpose of all of us staying up later is to ensure that if anything happens or if the situation looks bad we can all respond.
However as night came, the three of us noticed an unsettling silence. No sounds, nothing from the outside. We had already covered all the windows and turned off all the lights, yet no sounds could be heard from the outside. We were used to the time the Husks would rise from the ground or appear in swarms, and there being no sound whatsoever made it unsettling.
An hour passes quickly before I risk a look outside. What entered my sights was clear surroundings, no Husks, nothing moved except for a few shrubs in the wind, there was nothing at all. I couldn’t trust it, there had always been Husks and a waxing moon was out. No, even on nights with no moon there had been Husks coming out, so why is there nothing coming out tonight? Is it only tonight, or is it because we weren’t in the town?
Continuing as we had planned, the others went to bed after another two hours while I stayed on watch, keeping an eye on our surroundings and after switching I slept through to morning. Aerith, who had been last on watch, said there had been nothing. Perplexed, I decided to take it in stride for now and after we met up for breakfast, I had Ghost quickly scout out the surroundings, looking for signs of anything.
“Not so much as a footstep. Nothing has been disturbed and the ground itself is perfectly fine.” Hearing Ghost’s report as we started to prepare to continue our driving, a bad feeling crept into my stomach. More mysteries, we couldn’t be complacent or rely on the fact Husks didn’t come out, perhaps it happened everywhere.
“At our next stop, get out first and scout as much as you can. I want to know if there is a single footprint somewhere.” Ghost nods as he heads to the sedan. Jumping into the SUV, I once again took lead with Aerith next to me as we continued our drive.
A few hours pass by very slowly, after all driving itself isn’t exactly enjoyable. Suddenly, I heard Aerith mutter. “Strange dark clouds on the horizon.”
Nothing like what she said is directly in front of me so I turn to look where she meant. True to her word, the horizon to my right is dark, but what I saw freaked me out. Indicating quickly to pull over, I did so with a bit of haste as I quickly got out of the car to have a better look.
My vision had vastly improved over the others. In the town this hadn’t been as apparent since buildings broke line of sight over long distances often, but now I started to wish I didn’t have enhanced sight.
“Is there something wrong, Midnight?” Hearing the others approach, I turned to them in horror as I pointed towards the horizon.
“Can anyone else see what that cloud is?” The others all turned and shook their heads before giving me a questioning glance.
Looking at the horizon once more, I told them exactly what I saw. Thousands upon thousands of Husks, all moving together, heading in a random direction slightly away from us, a swarm so large that the others could only see it as a dark mass.
“Holy fuck.” Sheep muttered as he looked at the horizon, a shiver running up his spine. I had a similar reaction as it started to make sense why nothing appeared at night. This swarm existed, constantly moving. If it came towards us, is there anything we could even do? A shiver ran down my own spine as a thought came to my mind…this wouldn’t be the only swarm of Husks.