Chapter 1: Mike

Mike look quietly at the ruins of a city from the old era thinking how unlucky he is to encounter a herd of crawlers.

Five days ago, he accepted a mission to go outside the wall out of desperation since he is already running out of credit points to spend in the base.

Since Mike is not a professional worker nor he doesn’t have any other useful skills so he only has two options in order to survive in this place. The first, is to go outside the bunker and scavenge some resources that he could surrender to the city in exchange for credit points, or second option, is to work inside a mine where almost everyone who goes there dies due to lots of unknown reason.

Of course, Mike has already cross out the second option on his list as he doesn’t want to risk his life mining inside of a dark and damp place. Mike also realize that the first option isn’t good either as nearby places have already been search over by other scavengers and all the useful stuff has long been taken over by them. If Mike decided to choose the first option he would need to go out far from this place as the further you go the more resources would become available for him but it would also become more dangerous.

Even though Mike is already desperate to earn some credit points he is still undecided to accept either of this two options as their compensations aren’t even enough for the hard work he must do if he chose to accept any of this two. So Mike felt like he doesn’t have a choice either.

But then, like a miracle given by the god if he ever exist, Michael finally found a chance to earn big time as the committee council have suddenly released a new mission for everyone in exchange for 500 credit points.

A huge amount of credit points like this is more than enough for him to survive inside the wall for a long time without doing any dangerous work.

Mike was tempted to accept this offer but he also know that such a huge reward doesn’t come easily. Although it might sound like an easy job to do but everyone knows the danger it comes with, especially this mission which is located in one of the main source of Klein particles.

But he only has a remaining 0.2 credit points left on his account, an amount that is only enough for him to last for 2 days as an ordinary paste meal would cost 0.1 of credits and each of this paste meal is already enough to last him a day.

Although it literally taste like eating a paste Mike doesn’t care, as long as he can survive and this is also the cheapest meal that he is willing to buy. It might sound terrible but this paste meal is rich in nutrients so even though he only consume this meal everyday Mike still looks healthy despite of his poor diet.

Compared to other people Mike’s condition can already be seen as good because he doesn’t go hungry, he was in a safe place and the most important thing of all is he doesn’t need to be concern of any monster attacking him from the dark. Unlike if Mike lives outside the wall where he needs to be wary of his surroundings every single time.

Although it is also true that some people have a better diet than him they aren’t necessarily in a good situation either because in order for them to eat something they must first work hard to have it. Either buy hunting or foraging outside the walls which Mikes considers as a dangerous activity or either buying it in the committee market with hard earn credit points.

Mike originally have a safe job in the city he was a technician for the Klein particle communication equipment of the based but 6 months ago the committee council have decided that they no longer need to maintain this equipment on their city as it was already outdated and only a few city based are still using it so Mike lost his job and he only managed to survive to this day thanks to his savings that he persistently saved for several years.

Originally Mikes credit points is enough for him to last for 3 years if he maintain his current lifestyle long enough for him to find a new job but it seems like god is playing a joke on him because he suddenly got sick a month ago consuming huge portion of his savings.

“Why is that medicine so expensive? 3 injections of antibiotic and 24 capsules of medicine have already cost me 90 credits damn!” Mike wallowed in despair.

“If it isn’t because of that then I don’t have to accept this job.” Mike said once again.

And since Mike lost his job he decided to give up his small apartment and took his small belongings with him sleeping besides the roads or in front of a building because Mike doesn’t really care about having his own home in the city as long as he is inside the walls he knows that he would remain safe from any mutants or crawlers so he can sleep anywhere in this city but in order to survive in this place he must first have the money to buy his own meals.

But it seems like his body that doesn’t get sick for several years have suddenly failed as it was suddenly inflicted by a severe cases of Pneumonia forcing him to consult a doctor and spend all of his hard earn credits leaving him with a meager amount to survive.

So when Mike found out the 500 credit rewards for this mission he was truly tempted to take it even though a lot of people have decided to ignore it despite the huge rewards. And in the last day of admission Mike suddenly showed up completing the team line up.

And so now, he felt like he is in hell, Mike just wish that he doesn’t accept this mission, if he just knew that it would be this dangerous.

The grounds outside are currently full of crawlers and most of his companions for this mission have already died during the first wave of attack while others manage to escape using the vehicle but he was left behind. Alone in this place without anyone to talk to.

Mike is currently surrounded by man-eating monster.

He decided to take a sneak peek on the broken window to check the situation on the ground and found out that crawlers are still having a fest on the carcass of dead remains of humans and based on their actions it seems like they don’t have any plans to leave this place for the mean time. Thankfully, Mike was located in the 20thfloor of an old leaning building.

His group was supposed to setup an antenna equipment at the top of this old building for the communication device of their team since their current equipment is not enough to cover the entire city of Klein field. I was also the same antenna equipment that he managed when he has still his job so Mike knows everything regarding this piece of shit.

At first, everything was going well as they haven’t encountered any large groups of mutants on their way here but as soon as they enter the perimeter of the city their coms have started malfunctioning and only static noises can be heard on their radio.

In fact, they can’t even have a clear line of communication on the radio with other vehicle which is only a few meters away on their back and without a solid line of communication their mission would definitely fail.

But the failure of their coms was already within their expectation and their team have already anticipated this happening. That’s why they have already prepared an equipment that can boost their frequency.

Their original plan is to set up a temporary communication equipment at the top of this building since the huge amount of Klein particles in this area would interfere with their old electronic equipment.

But in order to do this a team of powerful mercenary was sent in advance to clear this specific building and that happens only a month ago.

The mercenary team was able to clear the building from any dangerous creature including a dozens of crawlers and they were also able to make a temporary barricade in the upper floor of the building preventing any creatures of taking it over once again.

In fact, even before Mike climb this building he already have a bad feeling about this mission.

Even though his teammates have already verified that the upper floor area was clear, because Mike have already seen the dried remnants of blood on the ground floor of the building and his teammates have called him paranoid for saying that this is not done by the mercenary team.

Mike was adamant that all the dried blood on the floor of this building is not the mercenary’s doing he insist that it was a large group of monsters that make this mess and this place was their feeding ground but nobody want to listen to him.

And now, from the original group of twelve people that was assign to climb and assemble the equipment on the top of this building Mike was the only one left that managed to survive.

He was able to keep himself alive thanks to the paranoid instincts he had against this place.

His paranoia was rooted to his traumatic experience when he was still a young kid.

It was all due to his traumatic memory when he was young.

His arm were bitten by a crawler and it also dragged him to their feeding ground but thankfully he was saved by the army before he was eaten by it. Although their task is to obliterate the crawlers on the city and saving him is not even on their original agenda during that time but he was still thankful to them.

Although ten years have passed since that event his dreams were still haunted by it every night. That’s also the reason why he still haven’t forgotten that memory till to this day as he almost died that time.

This is also the reason why Mike insist that this place is a feeding ground for crawlers because he have already seen this kind of scene on his dream countless times but he can’t also deny that he was not 100% sure about this because the building also contains the marks of the mercenary team. A strong proof that they have already clear this building.

The only thing reminding him of that event and a proof that it really happen is the ugly scar on his right arm as it was the part where the crawler have bit him.

It was also the only proof that he can show to others when he told them about his story. Although not all the people who listen to him believe on it because the scar on his right arm is too big and too ugly you can’t even recognize which part of his arm is bitten by it, thanks to the part where the crawler have dragged him away it left a huge gash of scar on his skin erasing every trace of its bite marks.

That’s the reason why Mike has manage to survive in this building as the crawlers failed to find a trace of him as he already cover his self with their own feces masking his own scent this is also the first thing that Mike have looked for upon entering the building because the fresh feces/poop of crawlers is a strong poof of their presence in this place.

Mike was adamant to prove his self to them but everything was already too late because when Mike found the fresh feces it was also the time where gunfire resonated in the place disturbing them from their task. All of his teammates have immediately fled off towards the ground but Mike knows that it was a wrong decision because it would take them several minutes to reach the ground. The time that is not available for them.

So now Mike is alone and stuck in this building together with man-eating monsters.

“I shouldn’t have accepted this damn mission, then I don’t have to come into this place.” Mike uttered once again while tearfully looking for a place to hide.

“I rather work in a coal mine than get stuck in this place at least my chances of survival is greater than here.” Mike regretfully said while carefully controlling the noise he makes while walking inside the building looking for a possible place to hide.

“I think this is the perfect place for me to hide.” Mike said while staring at the ceiling, especially at the rusty air vent.