Chapter 6

Rally

A block from Tim’s Mom’s house

Timothy

1:32 a.m.

“No. No. No. No. No. Why is this happening!?”

Timothy muttered this to himself as he ducked again to hide from the weird elderly zombie that was following that weirder little elf girl, who was currently skipping around another female zombie. This was the third time he had run into the odd trio since he had quickly packed and left his home. A large duffle bag and two shoulder packs with supplies were hanging from his shoulders. Armor and weapons took up most of the available space of the duffle and part of one of the shoulder packs. A couple of larger pieces are tied on the outside of both packs. The weight was incredible, but he didn’t know if he would be able to return for this precious treasure. Already regretted having to leave the majority of his stash behind with only a deadbolt to keep others away.

Timothy had even had hope he would find survivors to help and gear up with but the longer he spent outside of his home the longer he became less sure. He had thought that he and Mr. Wilkson had done a good amount of damage between them, but it was nothing compared to what he had walked out to after he had packed some food, water, and of course, he couldn’t forget his energy drinks, his mom had gotten him several cases of each of the three flavors.

Mom.

With a sigh Timothy knew he was wasting time; he had done this once earlier and he was sure it was what had led him to this trio.

Wasn’t there a fourth smaller one this last time he had encountered them? Timothy shook his head at the errant thought and began to move back away from the strange little girl and her Zombie pair. Mom was waiting.

You can do this! Lil Tim for the win. Time to get out there and level up!

He had thought those exact words as he procrastinated leaving his home just a short time ago. The world seemed much more real than it had before. Forgetting about the trio for the moment, as he moved to the backyard he had emerged from moments before, lost in remembering what could only have been hours before. Even though it felt like weeks since he had last thought that phrase to himself, it had such a different meaning to him at the time.

You can do this! Lil Tim for the win. Time to get out there and level up!

Touching one of the pouches on his belt he patted it, softly, a heavy sigh escaping his lips as his other hand brushed the doorknob. He began to physic himself up. Cheering himself up and on in his head.

As he began to turn the knob an ear-piercing screech emitted from beyond.

My status screen!

Timothy’s hand shot up pointing at the ceiling. The rapid raising of his shaking the various bits of armor hanging from the overstuffed packs slung over each of his shoulders. The hand-raised the one previously on the doorknob.

T-That’s right! I needed to check that out! How do I do that? Unless? “Status” To his great surprise and relief it worked! Words appeared in front of him.

Name: Timothy Dutchman Race: Human Age: 37

Class: High Commander

HP:42 /42 MP:38/38 SP:40/40

STR:

12 DEX: 9 AGL: 8 END: 7 VIT: 12

CHA: 13 WIS 9 INT: 8 SPT: 4 LUCK: 15

Traits: Brave Coward

Skills: 4

Abilities: 1

Huh

Timothy found himself both extremely confused and highly disappointed. Maybe just a little let down as well. That was a pretty lame Character sheet as far as he had seen, and he had seen a lot in his line of work. What was with that trait? Brave coward?!

Did you not see me with Mr. Wilkson? I came running to mom’s aid! What does that even mean? I wonder if I can get a description of it.

Thinking angrily to himself Timothy tried to say the trait aloud, feeling very foolish after he realized he had been standing there holding the door handle and whispering Brave Coward several different ways, repeatedly. Feeling his face growing very hot Timothy instead tried to focus on the words, which to his credit worked.

Trait: Brave Coward

Coward! Not always! Even a coward can be brave if the need is great. The need was great. You have shown that even a coward can sometimes be the hero, sort of. You will sometimes gain a boost in confidence to save yourself from your knee-shaking cowardice. There is much depth that remains in this trait.

This trait could be extremely useful and could come in very handy, it, unfortunately, left him with far more questions than it had answered. How had he gotten this trait? Was he giving it automatically or did he somehow earn it? Was there a guide somewhere? Ugh! He will just need to find more survivors and hope they have answers. Focusing on the skills part of his Status screen, the screen changed to show the four skills Timothy had.

Skills: 4

Rally: 1

Games: 3

Leadership: 1

Improvised weapons: 1

Huh, I wonder why games have a three but everything else has a one? For that matter, where did they even come from?

Grumbling in his head, Timothy couldn’t figure out where these so-called skills had come from. Games made sense because of his job and lifestyle, only a three though? Come on, be serious. It should be way higher than that! Leadership and Rally though, am I a support class? Focusing on the skills brought up more information. While he was thinking about it, he tried to see if he could see all the skills information at once so he wouldn’t have to try to focus on each, one by one.

Rally (1): To ME! To ME! With a cry you can boost yourself and your allies, allowing you to overcome fear and push on in the direst of circumstances. Once per day you and all allies who hear this gain a 5% confidence boost and overcome fear effects. (Ability)

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Games (3): You love the thrill of the challenge! Air, land, or sea, at a table, or between some knees, you have a .3% increase in your luck.

Leadership (1): Ho and be merry! You have a natural way with people when you are giving orders or in a leadership role. People are 1% more likely to follow your suggestions or orders.

Improvised weapons (1): A chair leg, forgotten drumstick or even a blender can be used as a weapon in the hands of someone capable enough to utilize their potential. Gain a .1% boost to damage with improvised weaponry.

Wow. Timothy was slightly surprised by the skills, they were just like a game! it was perfect, seemed low on the increases but he could see people flying through certain skills and gaining insane boots fast. If they could stay focused on one or two skills to level, depending on how they level they could potentially grow to be incredibly strong. Without-

A shriek from outside pulls Timothy from his internal wonderings. It sounded much farther away than before, but it still left Timothy shaking.

How am I going to go out there with those things out there? Mr. Wilkson was bad enough!

Suddenly finding himself very sweaty under all his gear, Timothy licked his lips glad he had opted to leave his helmet off for now. Not wanting to go into his bag he made his way back to the refrigerator and grabbed one of the Stamina! he had known would be inside. There goes Mom again looking out for him and he had no clue where she was, or how she was doing. Looking down at the mutilated corpse, not two feet from him and the room splattered with the remains of Mr. Wilkson, Timothy knew he had to get a move on, and soon his mom would be at the school soon. Or so he hoped.

Cracking open the can of Stamina! Timothy chugged it quickly expecting and enjoying the cool and minty burn as it ran down his throat leaving him refreshed and giving him a burst of energy. What he was not expecting were the words that popped up in front of him once more.

Congrats on consuming your first potion! As such the effects will be doubled and will last for twice as long as normal!

Ok? I have been drinking these since they came out last year, this is the first time I have ever seen this. Timothy couldn’t help but wonder about the drink, he had easily drunk over ten thousand of the three different flavors since they appeared on shelves almost a year ago. This Stamina! had the same cool fresh taste but not once had the drink ever given him a slight electrical feel after it had passed through his body once more. He noticed something else, his body was no longer drenched in sweat, the damp cloth and leather the only places he felt wetness

After he felt the shock in his body Timothy couldn’t help but wonder if these were Items maybe? He would never admit it to anyone but as he was putting his gear together, he kept imagining what kind of stats they would have if they had some, but unfortunately try as he might no magic words appeared. Hoping he had finally found an Item Timothy began to intently study the empty can, finding nothing different about it, nor from any of the other cans he tried, he knew it was time to go.

He was still terrified.

As he made his way slowly back to the door having to sidestep a large pool of Mr. Wilkson, Timothy found himself staring intently at the door once more, this time hand firmly grasping the door. Again, just as he was starting to turn it Timothy found he could not turn his hand, trying to grasp the handle harder it seemed like it was impossible as it started to slip from the knob, the metal surface seeming to suddenly feel like butter as the knob jiggled in his grasp. Pulling his hand back, looking at the knob he saw it was weirdly damp, looking down at his hand Timothy could see that he was sweating through the leather that covered the palm of his hand making the metal mail on top gleam. Quickly wiping his shaking hand on his pack leaving a great wet streak along with the heavy cloth, he began to try to give himself another pep talk.

Come on Lil Tim you can do it! Don’t you dare wuss out now! What are you some low-level noob trying to figure out his first day? No! You’re the great Lil Tim. The High Commander! I just need some way to be brave like the high commander should be.

Coming to a quick realization Timothy pulls back up his skills, in particular the rally skill. No, the Rally ability. Focusing on the ability function it comes up with the exact same description as the skill, but it is exactly what Timothy needed. Courage!

Rally (1): To ME! To ME! With a cry you can boost yourself and your allies, allowing you to overcome fear and push on in the direst of circumstances. Once per day you and all allies who hear this gain a 5% confidence boost and increased chance of overcoming fear effects. (Ability)

After rereading the ability Timothy knew what he had to do. He just needed to figure out how to activate his ability, the way the words are phrased he was sure it was a shout. If timothy shouted now, he was worried that any noise would attract anything or anyone that could be outside. Including what could be making that screeching noise. Without the shout, though Timothy KNEW he would not be able to face outside, his basement was much nicer not to mention safer. With a heavy sigh and a final look at the door to his Sanctuary timothy faced forward, breathing in deeply he ripped the door open with a mighty Cry.

“RALLY!!!!!”

Timothy’s shout echoed back at him from the empty street, the houses across from his dark and foreboding. The longer he looked the more carnage and destruction Timothy could make out, the entire street was littered with debris and bodies. Bodies. Bodies everywhere.

He saw his neighbor from across the street's most prize possession a sky-blue ZAP bike, where it lay discarded in the middle of the street. The same neighbor was sprawled over the bent front tire, face down, the back of his head was concaved in, gray brain matter oozed from the shattered parts of his skull. Timothy had almost run back into his house right there but instead decided it might be safer and smarter to go through the backyards and stay off the street.

Hurrying behind the neighbor’s house, hoping it would be empty with him lying in the middle of the street. Timothy made it behind the house with no issues. Most of the houses around here did not have a fence as this side of the street all was connected to the school ground and the chain fence they utilized did well enough.

Timothy quickly made his way past several houses, a few of which had zombies that began to slap on windows causing Timothy to move faster until he needed to stop and catch his breath. As he was leaning over breathing heavily, he heard a high-pitched laugh come from the direction of the street. At first, he thought he was imagining it but then it happened again. This prompted Timothy to immediately take off running, passing several houses, before cautiously making his way to the front of the house to peek down the street where he got his first glimpse of the strange trio that he was even now trying to make his way away from.

A small elf girl in a pale pink ball grown and, gloves and tiara to match was dancing around a tall skinny female elf zombie, a large bit on the side of her face and lips told the unfortunate tale of attempted defense and neglecting of the teeth that had caused many of Timothy’s deaths in games. Beside them stood an elderly zombie her beehive-shaped hair standing tall and proud despite the sickly green eyes and gore-covered face. Her eyes were alert as they appeared to scan the streets and the buildings equally. Never had-

*Uhm Hmfm*

A sound like that of someone clearing their throat, pulled his mind back to the present as he made his way away from the strange trio. It sounded like his voice in the morning after an all-night binge, enjoying far more ale than needed and hardly any water. Only this sounded far worse.

Timothy turned to find a female dwarf with long black hair standing less than five feet from him. She was clearly a zombie as she had the same sickly yellow-green as Mr. Wilkson and the two zombies with the little girl. It was also clear by the gaping hole that used to be her throat. As she made the noise again, which caused several strands of flesh to flutter and a slight spurt of dark blood to fall out, thick and congealing it slowly rolled rather than slid down her neck. Timothy only had one thought as he focused on that rolling glob. Not noticing the yell that erupted out of his own throat.

There were four.

Susie Lu Kesrel

On the street

Susie let out a giggle as she heard the high-pitched yep come from the back of the house as she continued to skip around Mommy. That green drink she had found when they had discovered Goldie-locks sure was tasty and it gave her so much energy she had been skipping ever since. The only time she had paused was when she had spotted the man who lived down the street.

Susie’s mom was not one for confrontation in public, this included disciplining Susie but one time when they had seen the big man on their way home Susie had called him a fatty, and her mother had pulled her to the side and made her apologize to the man.

Even though she tried to explain that Sara Tullins had used it when she was talking about their gym teacher Coach Grigglo. Her mom didn’t want to hear it and marched her over to the man. Susie didn’t think he knew why she was apologizing as he looked very confused, but her mom was happy with it, so Susie was happy with it.

As she continued to skip around mommy and Mrs. Potts kept an eye out for anyone they waited for the return of Goldie-locks, she began to hum.

*Hmmm Hmm, Hmm Hmmmmm. Hmmm Hmm Hm Hmmm, Hmmm. Hmmm Hmmm Hmmmmm Hmmm hmmm hm Hm hm.

Timothy

As he was led by this strange zombie, that instead of trying to attack him had politely gestured for him to follow and did so until he complied. Sees no reason not to and many reasons to do so, the foremost of which being he didn’t want to be eaten. As they came around the side of the house, that he had just come from he saw the little girl, still skipping around a tall female elf zombie, and in-between Timothy and the dwarf zombie stood an elderly zombie, whose hair was coiled so high it added an extra foot to her height, and whose hair spray skills had to be beyond subpar for not a single strand of hair was out of place even in her zombie state. Even with all this that lay before him, the strangest thing that stuck out to Timothy. Was what the girl was humming.

Is that the opening to Zombie Slayer?