“Hey, are you hungry at all? I have-” before I could finish speaking her eyes blazed with longing. “I’ll take that as a yes then.” I felt scared to hold it out or I might lose a limb. She had the same reaction to the awful stuff as I did eating the whole thing still.
“That filled me up more than I thought it would. I don’t ever want to eat something like that again.” She cringed shuddering from just thinking about it.
“Well, Bunny I agree. When I had my first one I almost coughed it out.”
It was another hour's walk till they found something of interest. The reason for the slow descent was a combo of going up a slight incline and oceans of water trying its best to push them down. A car was crashed into a tree. As I got closer to look I found that it was totalled. The front of the car was smashed in. The tree had fallen on top of the car, squishing it. What caught my attention was a skeleton in the driver's seat. I would like to say I wasn’t fazed by the sight. That I didn’t almost puke. I’d be lying. I choked as I walked backward away from the scene. “What is wrong? Are you ok?” Bunny asked, walking up.
“I don’t recommend looking in there.” I choked out.
She did anyway, ”Oh my.” Was her only response.
I cleared my mind and calmed myself. “We shouldn’t just leave things though. I’m going to loot it.”
“It just sounds so morbid.” She paused for a moment,” I agree though.
The car doors were rusted shut. I easily broke the door windows and pried open the trunk with help from Bunny. The extra length for leverage helped a lot. In total, we found barely anything. There were rain boots that Bunny took. And a backpack with two bottles and two more bars. The bottles were empty but we easily filled it up with the rainwater. The best find was the 2 pairs of rain jackets both turned blue upon putting them on. My plan of trying to hide my team color vanished after that. It felt odd that there was the perfect amount for both of us. I didn’t care though and took it. I wasn’t thirsty since I could just open my mouth but not having the rain plaster my skin anymore was amazing.
Bunny looked cute in it. The outfit just fitting her vibe. “Wow, our luck with this find is amazing. I don’t want to say it but you have to be thinking the same thing. It is a bit suspicious. We get exactly what- aaaaaa” She screamed as we were just about to head out.
I spun around to see the skeleton that was previously in the vehicle was now grasping onto Bunny’s shoulder and rearing to swing. I wasn’t able to react fast enough before a bony hand slammed into Bunny sending her reeling. She stumbled on the wet earth and fell on her back bringing the skeleton with her. I extended my reach and took an overhead swing on the back of the thing. It just made clattering noises and looked off balance but nothing more. A bone pierced Bunnies skin on her side from the blow. She screamed from pain again. “Sorry, I'll get it off you,” I yelled in panic.
The skeleton was pulling back for another swing at Bunny. Before it could I swung hard in a horizontal strike aiming for the head. The head came clean off and sailed into the distance. I ran over to the skeleton and Bunny, the first not moving anymore. “Are you ok?” I asked as I pulled the bones off. I didn’t need to as the now pile just scattered whatever holding it together gone.
“Am I ok?” She half screamed, half cried. Tears joined the rain and blood as she clutched her side. “It doesn’t hurt as much as I thought it would.” She sniffed out a bit later. I just held her as we sat in the trunk. It was drier than anywhere else. And the cover felt nicer. I didn’t know what I was doing as I tore fabric from the car and wrapped it around her wound. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For helping me. We don’t know each other well. You could have easily just run away. I think I would have.”
“Don’t think that way, you would have helped me. Anyway, I don’t think I would need help. That skelly was nothing.” I put on false bravado and a warm smile. “Now let's get moving and perhaps stay clear of skeletons.” She nodded, wincing as she got up. Something I noticed was that the cut on my palm was gone and hoping her wound would do the same we moved on.
On our trip, we talked a bit. She told me that she had only 3 options. A similar scarf to mine. The pill she took. And a dagger that could turn invisible. All seemed good. It was odd that I got 5 compared to her 3. Also, duplicates were a possibility. I was going to look out for another rod user. I got a weird feeling that my rod could be upgraded somehow but I didn’t know how and another one was a start.
Another 2ish hours of walking later they were both getting tired. Her wound had pretty much healed, a small mark was all that was left. The rain was somehow getting worse. The droplets actually starting to sting as they hit our skin. Both me and Bunny huddled close trying to keep the increasing winds at bay. That was until we found a few buildings. The few buildings turned into more. Which turned into a whole town. They found others walking in the same direction all wearing sortments of blue clothing. Each carrying different items. None entered the town and all stayed back. A loud booming voice tried to carry in the rain. It got louder as we approached. “Hello hello, welcome newcomers. Welcome to our humble abode. Come, come inside. Avoid the main city.”
Most were gathering at a large-looking building. It read ‘Pal’s Grocers’. Inside were many teens of varying ages of 16-20. Someone who looked to be 20. A tall lanky young adult was on a few toppled over shelves and was coordinating others to move shelves and piled up food. Some other kids were sorting through the piles. I walked up to the lanky kid, ”Hey you seem to be in charge here? Do you know what's going on?” I asked looking up at the kid.
She was a tall and skinny chocolate-skinned girl with long and curly hair. “Oh, new faces.” She said turning around, “No, I frankly have no idea. I’m Mason and I really only organize things since most of these crybabies rather sit around and well cry... or wait for someone to help ‘em. I reckon you won’t have the same problem?” She said the last part with a stare as if she'd rather fight than use words to convince us. “We need help getting this place set up for more folks.” She focused her attention on a kid walking past, “I said over there in that corner.” Then to another with a can of something. “No, you can’t just start eating. We need to get everything written down first.”
I waited patiently, “I have another question if you don’t mind. Did you just know your name?” I asked imploringly.
“Heavens no. I sure wish though. Don’t remember anything before waking up in that white room. I got my name from a mason jar filled with honey. You got a name yet? Lot of folks don’t have one or chose something dumb like tree or leaf. -Move it more to the left. We want to make sure we cover up the broken windows.”
“Yeah I’m Rod and this is Bunny,” I answered.
“Finally some decent names. Well, welcome Rod and Bunny any help you can give will be appreciated. We are going to hold up here before the next event starts. Spring darlin come over here. Oak, why don’t you help with organizing food you aren’t as strong as you reckon you are.”
“About that what item did you choose?”
“I didn’t have a choice like other folks. I was just given one called team captain. Reckon that's why I'm here yelling my voice away. Now pardon my manners but I got lots of shit to do and really can’t stand here blabbing away to every new kid. Here is Spring my tour guide, he will show you around and help find you something to do. Yes, Rain you can take a 10. No Sky you can not take one too.” As I left I could hear mutters of disapproval under Mason's voice.
Spring was a large boy. It was rude to think of but he definitely ate too much growing up. “Hello. Spring I assume. How’d you get your name if I may ask?” Didn’t know why I wanted to know but I did, the idea of getting people's names and stories interesting.
He seemed a bit shy and reticent to answer but did,” It's the item I chose.” He said this pointing down at his shoes. Similar to myself he wore mostly just the jumpsuit we woke up in. Except he had cool and weird-looking shoes. He bent his knees slightly and did a light hop. The shoes bottom sprang out giving him a much higher jump than should have been possible with the force. And the shoes seemed to absorb the landing causing nothing but a brush of air. Such a heavy kid shouldn’t have made no noise or vibration.
“Damn those are cool. You know how high you can jump in those?” I asked excitedly.
“I was able to jump up to the roof of this building. I haven’t tried anything higher though. I’m afraid if I don’t land on my feet it will hurt.” At first, he too sounded excited but getting to the part where he could be injured he quieted again.
“Fair enough. I have this rod that grows. And Bunny here turns inanimate animals to life. Did you have a choice?”
“That's cool too. And yes I had this and a jacket called jacket with way too many pockets. It had a lot of pockets and each could store 10 times the amount the pocket usually could with no weight at all. I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t pay attention to time and the voice chose for me when I woke up here.” He replied sheepishly.
“Both items seem really cool so I don’t think it matters,” I told him reassuringly. But truth be told I might have taken the jacket instead. Being able to store a ton of things with no weight sounded way too good to pass up.
“Well, the jacket isn’t rare apparently. We have 3 people come in with it already.” And my interest in the item dropped considerably. “They are going to act like pack mules for when we move out.”
“Move out? Why would we do that.” I asked, confused.
Spring just stated flatly, “Our flag is still further into the town.” I had noticed that but we didn't feel distance so it was hard to tell.
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“Why don’t we just go to it now then?” The answer not solving anything.
“Because the boss has an ability to know more things than we do. She knows that an attack is coming right when the 24-hour counter ends. Doesn’t rightly know what is attacking but knows it is happening. Along with that, there are a bunch of skeletons and other undead creatures in the town. A few people who went in never came back. Boss has closed it off to new people and decided waiting here is a better idea. There are also supplies like food here. Mostly canned stuff,” Spring stated as if it was rehearsed.
I thought that information was useful. “What you got for us? Mason said you’d point us somewhere.”
“Yeah, Bunny there are some toy animals over there if you want to check that out and help move the smaller stuff. But you Rod I’ll have you help keep the undead off us if you don’t mind. I assume your staff is a weapon. We have barely anyone who wants to fight and fewer that actually took weapons or were given one. Also, you have a rain jacket so the rain won’t bother you as much. Heard it's getting real bad out there.” A yell from Mason who had moved over to a corner pulled Spring away from us. “Sorry, duty calls.” Another group just like us two walked in probably asking similar questions to us.
I didn't get to ask my last question. There are more undead?
Bunny broke me from my thoughts. “Want me to go with you Rod?” She clearly didn’t want to go but seemed like she would if I had asked.
“No, you go try to find something you can actually use. That rabbit literally can’t do anything.” I left her and went outside. She looked more scared to leave me than the rain outside. She didn’t argue. The rain was more like hail at this point. The droplets felt as if they would dig into my exposed skin. I had seen people huddling in a building closer inward and decided to first check there.
“Hey, does anyone mind telling me where this defensive line is?” I asked some kids huddling under the cover of a roof.
Someone who looked to be 19 and did not skip out on workouts answered,” Yeah, and you here to help? We don’t need more small fries who can’t handle themselves. If all you have is that small stick. Just go then." I let my ‘small stick’ do the talking as I let it slam into the wall next to him. I did miss terribly and it was 2 feet away instead of right beside his head but decided it was the better option. The man just smiled a toothy grin barely fazed. “Well then. Welcome, what's your name friend? I’m Fist. For obvious reasons.” With Fist fully looking towards me I could see that he was bald with ear piercings and for some reason tore off his sleeves. I was confused about why some people had things like glasses and piercings but decided to not bother with that line of thinking.
I wasn’t about to dispute that it wasn’t that obvious if he meant he was strong or that he punched things but let it slide. “I’m Rod. For obvious reasons.” I said with a bit of snark while retracting the rod to normal size.
“Well, this is Angel.” He said pointing to someone with a halo of gold hovering over her head. “She emits a small healing and protection buff around her. However, she isn’t allowed to harm anything living. We also think it harms the undead around her.”
“Next up is Ratchet. He has a ratchet. And he doesn’t speak so we have no idea what it does if anything. But it sure does some damage.” Ratchet was a small young-looking kid. He had a baseball cap on and shoulder-length hair hiding most of his face.
“Last two are Dirt and Mud. ” He leaned in closely but didn’t actually whisper. "We tried to convince them to change their names but they just laughed at us. Personally, I think they are insane.” His voice carried, “Both have similar things. Dirt can put up a force field and Mud has a shield that he can command to stop in place. Like he set it up to float there mid-air and Spring jumped on it and nothing. That effect does have a cooldown of an hour from what we could tell. But naturally blunts knockback."
Mud and Dirt looked pretty close to each other. Could be brothers. Both wore average height and build for their age. Both had messy and wet blonde hair. And both looked at each other as if they were waiting for the other to randomly punch them.
“What is yours if I may ask?” I questioned looking back to Fist.
“I already said. I’m Fist. I punch shit.” He replied bluntly.
“Ok ok.” I paused waiting. “So have many of them attacked? I hit the head off one a while back.”
“Good, you know what we are up against then. And no most seem to just stick to a set area and don't leave unless we get close to them. Others are just lying on the ground and pounce if you don’t notice them. Mason is saying that an attack of sorts is going to happen and doesn’t want to be in the middle of those things while the attack happens. I think the attack is going to be a swarm of them from the town. But I’m not in charge. Personally, I’ve defeated 10 of the things. The skellys are easy but the fleshy ones reek something fierce and can take a real beating.”
“If Angel can’t fight and both Dirt and Mud have defensive items, are you and Ratchet the only ones dealing with them? Also if we are all huddled in here then who is making sure they don’t just get past another direction?”
“No, they too have weapons. Mostly just stuff we found lying about like metal pipes. And Angel can harm undead just not living things. We have scouts of sorts in buildings and will bang on metal bits to create racket and we just go where the noise is coming from. Like I said most people either are too weak to fight or don't have real weapons. There is another team but they are resting.”
“You guys set up fast.”
“Yeah, Mason is really good at getting people to do what she wants.” I wondered if it had anything to do with her leader stuff or if she was just naturally charismatic.
He took a moment to think as if he didn’t know if he should say something or not. Deciding too anyway he went on with a shrug. “Mason doesn’t want people to know but someone died. Their body just evaporated and their gear just fell to the ground. The poor dude had only gloves that let him stick to things. Was bleeding on the ground when a scout found him and couldn't do a thing to help. The undead do the same thing after a bit, sometimes they leave behind these odd small coins,” He said, taking one out. I had a few from the bag I was wearing and some in the car.” Weirdly if you were to take a bone or something that doesn’t disappear. Think it's 10 seconds before it does so. Don’t know why you would though. Now enough questions just sit back and wait for something to happen.” He did as he preached and laid back against a wall looking out a window.
I found it concerning that there were no bodies to be found if someone were to die. Could someone just kill a teammate for their stuff? If this was true then it would be easy since the evidence would disappear. I couldn’t be thinking about that. It was way too morbid. I also had a thought it wouldn’t be that easy, at least I hoped.
In the down time before anything attacked I decided to finally practice with the grow rod. The thing was odd since the weight didn't increase at the same rate as the growth. It was like lag time before it would feel heavy due to the extra length. I also learned that the force wasn't as much as I first thought it was. The walls here were more sturdy and could take more of a beating before a hole could be made. But my accuracy did increase so as long as I was precise then it shouldn't matter.
It was a while until the banging of what sounded like two pots alerted them to a disturbance. Fist was the first to jump out the window in the direction of the racket. The hail was getting so bad that it started to form bruises on anyone who wasn’t protected. The sound of rain was loud enough to hide most normal noises. I couldn’t hear my feet splash in the water and barely the yells from my companions. Mud and Dirt both had their different shields blocking the rain. Dirt was protecting Angel. Fist didn’t seem like it bothered him as he quickly outpaced the group.
There was way more than I thought there would be. Fighting one was daunting. But 14 of varying kinds were in a group. Most banging on a door to a house where a girl with two pots was loudly banging on the second-story window. “Help me.” The girl yelled down to us. It was a guess, with the rain and the groans of the undead. Fist just waved at the pot girl and straight up punched the head off of one as he did a mid-air attack. It wasn’t even a skeleton but a rotting corpse. The head hitting another getting its attention.
This brought the attention of all the others. As if their moans and chattering were a form of communication. Fist took another jab slamming his hand into a skeleton and tearing the right arm off. But a lucky blow from another scored Fist. He pushed back as we arrived. I held on to my staff with both hands as I let it grow to max length, the end caving in the chest of a zombie. Why did I know what a zombie is after seeing one, but not when people were telling me about them? I pushed that idea to the sidelines as I reeled it back in. Fist went back in now that he had backup and a flurry of blows landed on an undead and its flesh tore.
I had to hold a gag as I fully joined in. I spun around and lengthened the staff to an absurd distance. The staff destroyed 3 skeletons as it broke their spines. I was amazed by such a feat and didn’t notice that taking out the spines didn’t remove it from the fight. As I looked for my next foe I was yanked from my feet. I fell down into the mud and water. 2 of the 3 were on me immediately. One bit down on my leg and the other climbed on top of me, the weight of it surprisingly heavy. It raised its arm up to slam down on my head. I was still dazed from the fall and was too slow to raise up my arms in protection. I needn’t worry for the blow never came. It slammed into nothing that I could see, stopped inches from my face.
Ratchet slapped the skelly on me the tool caving in the skull of the weak bone, as Dirt hand outstretched helped me up. I assumed it was him that saved my face from being beaten in. “Thanks, Dirt.” I thanked him for the help and looked back. Fist was taking heavy blows and scratches. Blood was pouring from his sides and face. His hands though didn’t even look bruised as he pounded them against flesh and bone alike. Just Angel’s mere presence seemed to confuse the shambling undead and give them pause in going close to her. The one that I had already hit in half was lifeless on the ground, whatever keeping it alive faded.
I decided to join back in after a breather. A quick jab with the staff sent the head spiraling. A hard hit similar to my opening attack broke bone of another. As it went limp Ratchet came in and bashed in the head. The heavy tool just crushing its skull. Fist finished off the last one, his fist breaking the clavicle, the neck-snapping off. Fist looked around a wild spark in his eyes and a smile on his bloodied face. “Any more of those creeps.” Seeing that none were coming he slumped over a bit. “Angel get closer. I think I need a small amount of healing.” Angel just sighed and did as requested.
“Is this how most battles go? Seems like a lot. I think if there was any more we would be in trouble.” I said sitting down in the nearby building.
Fist quickly replied tired sounding but still fierce, “I could have handled them. This blasted rain though is getting in the way. The creeps don’t seem too affected by it.”
“I see.” I wasn’t about to say that I helped take out 5 of them but who was counting? Fist seemed like the person to count though.
The rain grew ever more angry with time. The building we were in was starting to flood. To make things worse the rain droplets were getting bigger and felt like someone throwing a snowball at you. A snowball with rocks in it. Our shift was over in a few hours' time. The other team took over. They seemed to have more weapons. 2 people with different swords. 1 with a sling. And another that had the same ability as Dirt. They didn’t have a healer but we all figured out by now that natural healing was at least 10 times faster than normal, again only something we just knew but didn't know why. As long as no one took a killing blow they would be able to survive.
Our team went back to the base to rest up. Moth-eaten beds were taken early on from the house and laid in a corner. The store looked different than when I had seen it last. I was amazed by the transformation. All windows were completely blocked with shelves and other objects. As well as barricades outside that blocked both things and water. Good thing since the entire place would be flooded by now if not.
It took mere moments for me to pass out.