They arrived at the apartment complex with no contact from either other people or monsters. Something which set Nathan further on edge. The others were glad that they hadn’t run into any monsters and ignored Nathan’s tenseness.
The boys led them to their apartment and opened the door. Candlelight gave off a soft glow in the living room and kitchen. The boys called out for their mom. She appeared in the hallway and came into the living room. She was nice looking, somewhere in her mid 30s. Her clothes weren’t as nice as her kids' clothes. Clearly they got the attention when it came to money. She was startled at seeing two strange men with guns in her place.
“Oh, who are you? What do you want? We don’t have any money.” She shot a look at Nicholas wondering why he had let two armed men into her home.
“It’s ok ma’am. We don’t mean you or your kids any harm. My friend Brian and I ran into them at the store. I don’t know if you know, but it’s not safe out there. There are monsters out there.”
“Mon-monsters. What do you mean there are monsters out there. Does this have anything to do with the power being out and the weird blue box?”
“Yes ma’am. My name is Nathan Carmichael, and this is Brian Jones. I was in the Marines, and we are hoping to get some friends of mine together and establish a place where people can be safe.”
“What about the military or the police?” The woman moved forward and put her arms around her boys. Both tried to squirm away, but she held fast.
“We hope the military and/or the police will be able to establish peace and order, but with power out it will be difficult. So for now we are doing what we can to help people.”
“And what will we have to pay? We don’t have much.”
“No, it's free. We aren’t going to charge anything. Tell your neighbors. Lock and barricade your doors. Block your windows, keep as quiet as you can and hopefully in a few days we will be able to come and take you somewhere safe. C’mon Brian it’s time for us to go.” Nathan and Brian waved goodbye and left the apartment.
“Nate, it's getting pretty late. It's still like 5 miles to Downtown, and then however long to your friends place, should we stop somewhere for the night? My place would be on the way. We could get a good night’s sleep and head out fresh in the morning. Or do you want to try and get there tonight?”
“We got a couple of hours at least. I say we double time it and we should be fine.” Nate looked at Brian daring him to object to speeding up the pace significantly.
“No worries. It might have been different before the fibro got fixed and the body upgrade, but I feel fresh as a daisy.
“Then lets -” Nate stopped suddenly as he noticed a trio of ladies emerging from one of the apartments. He didn’t hesitate and started walking towards them.
Brian looked quizzically at Nate before turning and noticing the girls. He chuckled, “Some things never change.”
Nate didn’t dignify that with a response, just continued walking towards the women.
“Ladies, how are you doing this fine day? My name is Nathan Carmichael and this is my friend Brian Jones.”
The girls looked Nathan and Brian over, and despite the fact that Nathan was over 6’ tall and decent-looking, and Brian was over 6’ and ok-looking, they weren’t impressed.
One quipped, “Even in the apocalypse we are getting hit on.” She was a blonde who stood about 5’ 4”, and looked good for end of the world conditions. She had gone light makeup and was dressed stylishly but warmly with a designer hoodie and jeans.
The other two were looking more prepared for this new world. No makeup, hair in a simple ponytail, one had practical clothes for the weather, the other was in camo. The camo was obviously worn. It was not the first time she had worn them. The one in camo also had a compound bow in her hands and a quiver of arrows on her back. Both were brunettes.
“There’s no need to be like that. We are just being friendly. There are monsters roaming out there and one bow isn’t going to cut it. Maybe we can insure you get to where you are going.”
Of course this is important enough to delay our mission. Not making sure we get a good night’s sleep, but a few beautiful ladies “in need of rescue”. Typical.
“Thanks for the offer, but our friend Jessica is more than capable of taking care of us.” The blonde seemed to think she was the spokesperson for the group. The one in camo, Jessica, said nothing, but nodded and kept her eyes searching the area for trouble.
“Not to argue with you, but me and Brian were attacked earlier by more than 50 monsters. If it wasn’t for our abilities we likely wouldn’t have made it out of there. And that was with two of us and guns. Unless you have some abilities, even hiding can be tricky against them.”
The other brunette looked around nervously, “I don’t know, maybe we should accept their help. I mean I trust you Jessica, but he’s right if we get attacked by a large group we could be in serious trouble.”
The girls shared a look and walked away from the guys to have a private conversation.
“You going to say anything?” Once upon a time he had tried to help Brian with girls, but he had never had any success.
“What would be the point? You can handle a simple conversation. Besides I thought we needed to get to your friend tonight. Now you’re offering to escort these ladies.”
“It’s the right thing to do, we don’t want them getting hurt. Plus we can invite them to join our group and look after them.”
“Right. Just admit you want to sleep with them, and be done with it.”
“Of course I want to sleep with them. They are beautiful ladies. Don’t you want to sleep with them?”
“I don’t know, maybe, but I would want to get to know them first.”
“I don’t want to marry them. Just have some fun. You should try it. Stop playing games with yourself and start playing a different game with ladies like that.”
“Whatever. They’re coming back.”
The blonde spokeswoman spoke, “We appreciate your offer, but we are going to respectfully decline.”
Nathan hid his disappointment well. “We understand. We are getting a group of former soldiers together to capture some of those zones the tutorial was talking about, and turn them into some kind of safe haven for people. You could let us know where you are going so we could invite you in when we get it set up.”
Jessica perked up at the capture of a zone. That was something that definitely interested her. “Do they have to be soldiers or can anyone join in capturing a zone?”
“They have to have training, military or law enforcement.”
Jessica countered “What about him? I bet he doesn’t have any training?”
“Hey-”
“Quiet Brian. He won’t be going. Today is a special case.” Left unsaid was Brian had failed to prove his worth out here.
Brian now knew Nate wasn’t going to let him out anymore after this. But something burned deep in Brian that he had to be a part of this … this adventure? This craziness. It didn’t matter how scared he was in the grocery store, how close to death he came against the orc-like monsters. Brian wasn’t done being a part of fighting back.
“Besides the bow, what abilities do you have?”
Nathan shot an annoyed look at Brian. He couldn’t just let it go.
Jessica was quite happy to tell Brian her abilities, “I have Penetrating Shot it lets my arrows go deeper and do more damage. I haven’t tried it yet, but it should work great. By the way do either of you know what cooldown means?”
“Cooldown is the time it takes before you can use the ability again.”
“I see, then I can do it almost all the time.”
“You will want to be careful about overusing it, there is a cost to using abilities and if you overspend it makes you very weak for a while. We found that out the hard way.”
“Do you know how much is overusing it?”
“No. I think every ability is different. And the cost isn’t stated. Nor is how much of the energy we have to utilize. My recommendation would be to try the ability several times in a safe environment, and not in actual combat.”
“Smart. My other two abilities are Landstrider I make no sound and leave no scent when active. And finally Now You Can’t See Me which is invisibility.”
“Wow you will make an amazing scout once you get a handle on how long you can keep those abilities active. Isn’t that right Nate? Even the best trained soldier in the world can’t beat invisibility.”
Brian might have to form a group of his own without Nate and this girl was definitely someone he wanted on that team.
There was no winning in this moment for Nathan so he wisely said nothing.
Jessica seemed to be struggling with something, before she stated, “We are headed to my dad’s place outside of Forest Grove. He has a big place and we will be safe there, but I would love to take on a zone with you. So if you are willing, swing by and let me know.”
Brian jumped in before Nathan could comment, “We will absolutely do that. Where can we find the place?”
“It’s a couple of miles outside of Forest Grove off highway 8. There is a dirt road to the left with a little sign that says “Whiskey Springs Road”. You head down that road for a little over a mile and we are the big house. You can’t miss it.”
“All right. It will probably be at least a few days, what with the cars not working and having to walk everywhere. Speaking of you aren’t going to make it to Forest Grove before dark, and I wouldn’t want to be camping out at night. Who knows what kind of nocturnal monsters there are? You might want to sleep somewhere inside tonight and head out in the morning.”
The blonde spokeswoman piped up, “That’s what I said. I have a nice apartment here with a big bed. It would be so much better than sleeping on the ground.”
Jessica gave in. This was clearly a battle she was tired of having. “Fine. We’ll stay here tonight. Happy?”
The blonde hopped in victory, “Yay. You won’t regret this. This is going to be super fun, even with the power out.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Nathan, seeing he wasn’t going to get what he wanted, at least not this time, spoke, “Well ladies, if you are staying here tonight. We will be on our way. And hopefully when we get ourselves set up we will come visit you, and maybe you’ll want to stay with us.” Nathan gave the ladies a charming smile and turned to Brian, “Let’s go.”
Brian gave the ladies a wave and shared a look with Jessica that he would definitely be seeing her soon. He then turned and followed after Nathan. Met a tank and a rogue type definitely need a healer. Probably another DPS since Nate isn’t going to be going with us. Knowing him he will probably try and stop us. Tanks need armor, although if the monsters use anything like our guns, armor is going to be mostly useless. Maybe see if we can find some type of body armor rated for bullets and blades. Also how does healing work now? Is it more like a game and you heal so much at an instant or is it more like channeling and the body heals super fast as long as the energy is going? If that’s the case mana burn is going to be a real problem. That and tanking is going to be a lot trickier. Well no use worrying about it now. I have too little info to make any kind of informed decision.
Nate had let them walk in silence long enough, “So, Jessica seems nice.”
“Yeah. She was. Did you notice she was wearing camo? Combine that with her familiarity with the bow, and I wonder if she hunts with her dad.”
“That’s what you were thinking about. What is wrong with you?”
“Nothing’s wrong with me. I just don’t think about girls 24/7.”
“Hopeless.”
“Whatever man. Let’s just go find your friend.”
“Speaking of, don’t embarrass me ok. Just keep your nerdy stuff quiet. And definitely don’t act like this is a game.”
“Fine whatever.” There might be positives to splitting from Nate. At least I won’t have to hear anymore about me comparing this to a game.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Not that either of them really knew it, but it was a little after 5 pm when our heroes arrived at the on-ramp for highway 26 on Sylvan Hill, 26 being the major connection between Portland and the suburbs to the west.
They hadn’t run into any more roving groups of monsters. They still occasionally spotted monstrous animals, but they were either easily avoided or dispatched with their rifles. They had seen people here and there. But one look at two tall men with guns, one in camo and body armor, caused most people to at minimum cross the street to avoid them.
Brian and Nathan had walked in silence since leaving the ladies behind. They clearly weren’t going to just go back to being friends like when they were kids. But unless Brian was going to strike out on his own, which he was reluctant to do. They were going to have to at least be cordial to each other. “Is your friend in downtown or on the other side of the river?”
“He was downtown, but he moved to Southeast after the riots. Didn’t want to go to jail for defending himself from some crazy person.”
“Makes sense.” The two lapsed into silence again.
“You guys were both infantry right?”
“Yeah. You know it’s better to be silent right? That way you don’t alert anyone to the fact that you’re coming.”
“Right. Makes sense. I’ll shut up.” He mimed zipping his lips shut.
Nathan didn’t say anything, but was grateful for small favors.
Being that the highway was the main way into Portland for anything to the west it was weird for it not to be crammed full of cars in the early evening. There was an occasional abandoned car, but the highway was mostly empty. It made sense though as the blue box appeared and killed all power very early in the morning.
A little while after their failed attempt at conversation the hairs on the back of their heads started prickling. Something was watching them.
Woods dominate the landscape with the freeway being the only sign of civilization. Guns went from being across chests to the stocks nestled strong on their right shoulder. Both scanned the trees hoping to spot whatever it was that was out there. They moved at an angle going forward but also to the left towards the concrete barrier that separated the two sides of traffic. Off to their right they heard a rustling in the bushes. Both turned and raised their rifles toward the noise.
The tiger hiding in the bushes would have been smart to run away. It wasn’t used to hunting having been captured and put in a zoo at a young age and therefore had never been required to use its’ innate instincts before. Food was always delivered, no effort required. Thus it didn’t know not to swish its tail back and forth as it stalked its prey. But now the prey was onto it, and it was afraid that the prey would run. It didn’t know what the stick-like things the prey had in their hands were, likely they were similar to the ones used by the zoo personnel. That means it would need to be quick so as not to get snared. It barreled out of the underbrush.
Unfortunately for the tiger it had to leap a concrete barrier to get onto the highway. That impediment prevented its charge from being a smooth one in which it could have been on its prey in only a few bounds. The barrier broke up its momentum and gave the humans an extra second with which to react.
Nathan reacted first and started firing his AR. Unfortunately the 5.56 x 45 NATO round, while effective against smaller game, was not up to the task of taking down one of the premier land predators in the world. The bullets wounded the tiger, but didn’t stop it, only enraging it. Luckily for the two Brian was using a bigger cartridge capable of taking down up to a black bear. The pros and cons of the two rifles calibers used in the Vietnam War are not relevant at the moment, but in this instance Brian’s gun was the superior one to have.
Brian didn’t freeze this time, he didn’t know it but he was quickly hardening into a warrior. His reaction time still needed work, but by the time the tiger had cleared the barrier he was firing. In his haste and fear he jerked the trigger causing the bullet to go from center mass at the jawline to down and to the left hitting the lower portion of the body. The .308 Winchester round still did considerable damage and knocked the big cat down. A small flame appeared on the tiger. Before Brian could adjust his aim the cat was back on its feet, but now its only concern was escape. It whirled to the right and started to flee, but once again the concrete barrier proved disastrous. Brian was able to sight in the tiger as it jumped and hit the tiger in the spine. The tiger spasmed and landed awkwardly. It tried to get up, but was unable. Brian had never been hunting before, but he knew a very important rule. Put the animal out of its misery. He aimed at the head and pulled the trigger. It was all over. The tiger would never threaten any living creature again.
The two looked at each other. Brian scanned their surroundings. “That came from the zoo. How do you think it got out? And more importantly do you think there are any other predators roaming about.
“I don’t know, but keep your head on a swivel. All we need is to be stalked by a pride of lions or something.”
“Or trampled by elephants, or gored by a rhino. This just got a lot more dangerous. That’s what we needed. Oh man, what if they grow massively in size like some of the other animals we’ve seen. 15 feet lions and tigers and bears.”
“Oh my. Stay frosty. Don’t go inventing trouble.”
“You might want to think about getting a bigger caliber gun. That 5.56 isn’t going to cut it if things keep getting bigger.”
Nathan grunted. He wasn’t going to listen to Brian when it came to firearms. 5.56 was an intermediate cartridge, it worked for people, but was only capable of taking out varmints when it came to animals. He hadn’t exactly been expecting to be fighting tigers. For now he would just have to make do.
“How many spare magazines have you got? I have an ability to make bullets do additional fire damage. Might keep your AR in the game longer.”
Nathan swapped out his half empty magazine. “I have 5 left. How long will it take to convert them? We don’t have a lot of time.”
“Should only take a minute. Each one only takes a few seconds. And as long as I don’t suffer mana burn we should be fine.”
“Ok. Do three. If we need more we’ll figure it out.” Nathan handed over three magazines. Brian grabbed them and one by one quickly converted the bullets to fire bullets.
“That glow is kind of cool. All right break’s over lets go.”
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
The duo didn’t have any encounters with any of the new threats in this changed world. They approached the tunnel that separated Portland from everything to the West. Neither said it, but both were apprehensive. Portland was not a large city. Really it was a city separated by a river. On this side of the Columbia Rivera was downtown the heartbeat of the area. Over one million people lived in the Portland metroplex and the busier side was on this side of the river. The suburbs had already devolved, and downtown was likely to be a lot worse. Portland had recently experienced months of riots, and that was with both local and federal police able to respond to a threat quickly. Now with the power out and the only way to communicate face-to-face how much worse could it be? Add in the monsters that were likely in the area and Portland might be the most dangerous place in the State. There was likely going to be fighting ahead. And potentially against fellow human beings.
“Stay frosty Brian. Don’t engage unless you have to, at least not against other people. Monsters are different, but better to avoid fights right now. We can’t afford to get into a lengthy battle.”
Brian didn’t trust his voice so he only nodded. They crossed the tunnel and continued for a short walk along the highway before they got to the city. It wasn’t a city completely lost to anarchy, but in the struggle between law and order and lawlessness, lawlessness was clearly winning. Fires raged with no one to fight them, vandalism and looting were prevalent and those on the street were looking to cause trouble. Brian turned and started walking backwards covering Nathan’s back. They couldn’t afford someone getting the drop on them and attacking from behind.
They moved as quickly as they could with one of them walking backward. This was the most in sync the two had been on their journey. People were running around causing problems, but no one wanted to mess with the two gunmen. Here and there there was evidence of fighting between monster and human. Bodies of both littered the streets, for the moment humans still controlled the city. But how long would that last against a large enough force like the one they had fought earlier?
The journey through Portland is not an exciting one to tell. People dominated their route not monsters, and nobody attacked them for fear of their guns, not when they were easier targets. Our two heroes were tense and ready for an attack the whole way, but nothing really happened.
The sun had set and evening was close to giving into night by the time they made it to 39th and Powell where Nathan’s friend rented an apartment. Nathan knocked on the door. He waited for several moments before calling out, “Hey Ben, it’s me Nate.”
A man about average height with black hair answered the door. He wasn’t handsome, but was far from ugly. His lean muscular body was obvious under his T-shirt. His Glock was pointed at the ground, but ready to use if necessary. This was Ben Atwood. He and Nathan greeted each other with a bro hug.
Ben lifted his head towards Brian, “Who’s he?” He could tell Brian was a civilian, and was curious why he was accompanying Nathan.
Brian let Nathan answer, “This is Brian. A friend from when I was a kid. He didn’t know what to do with all of this so he went to my stepfather’s place to ask for advice. Then tagged along when I mentioned getting you and some friends together.”
Ben nodded and moved aside to let Nathan and Brian in, “Here come in and you can tell me all about it.”
It was a typical bachelor pad inside. A large screen tv dominated one wall with a couch and a couple of chairs on the other. Everything was utilitarian and served a purpose. There was no trace of a woman’s touch. Nathan and Ben took the couch and left Brian to his own devices. This was a conversation for soldiers and Brian didn’t belong.
“It’s craziness out there. Portland is falling to anarchy. With no power the cops and National Guard can’t really mobilize and restore order. We were hoping to get together guys from the military and create a safe haven for people until the military can come in and reestablish law and order.”
Brian wanted to say something about capturing zones, the monsters they had faced, and his belief that it wouldn’t be so simple for the military to reestablish peace, but he remembered what Nate had asked him and kept quiet.
Ben nodded. The grocery store just down the street had been hit hard by looters, and no one was doing a thing about it.
Nate continued, “Have you seen any monsters?”
Ben was taken aback, “What do you mean monsters, like werewolves and vampires?”
“I don’t know about that, but we’ve seen animals grown to humongous size. That and we were attacked by a 50 plus patrol of some kind of alien. If it wasn’t for these new abilities we have we would’ve been toast.”
“Yeah, what’d you get? I got I’m Better it says passive whatever that means “User has increased physical attributes. No cooldown” again whatever that means.”
Nate shot Brian a look to keep him from explaining. Ben continued, “Eyes Like An Eagle ‘User gains the visual acuity of a bird of prey, including cone of vision from owl and night vision. Cooldown two minutes.’ That one was trippy. I could see things out the side of my head even some behind me. And the detail I was able to see things a mile away like they were only a few feet in front of me. But after a while I got weak and got this thing called Mana Drain that was no fun.”
“Yeah I got that. If you use the abilities too long it happens.”
“My final one is Tumble “Instead of continuing its flight once inside of the target the bullet insteads spends its momentum moving throughout the body causing grievous internal wounds. Cooldown five seconds.”
“Nice, I got All the Bullets an extra bullet is fired parallel to my bullet with a chance for a third bullet to appear. Never Miss my bullets fly towards vital spots on a body. And Frag Out I can make up to three grenades of various types.”
“Cool. Monsters huh? That changes things. Who are you planning on recruiting?”
“Anyone I can that was in the military. Danny, Jimmy, anyone they know. Anyone you know, anyone we run across. I plan to take some of those zones the tutorial talked about outside of Forest Grove. Set up there and protect anyone who needs it.”
“Just soldiers or anyone that can use a gun?”
“Just soldiers. Civilians are likely to be a danger to themselves as well as us. If they know how to use a gun, maybe they can be guards or something.”
“Sounds good. I know a couple of people that’d be right up your alley. I will go talk to them in the morning. You go talk to your friends and we will meet up at your place in two days' time.”
The men clasped forearms. “Sleep here tonight. The couch and the floor are yours.”