Chapter 13

I pressed the broadcast button again.

It was easy to second guess myself. Multiple times today, I found myself asking why I was the gang leader when Coot had a higher level and better knowledge of what we were up against.

Then there were moments like now, where multiple times in that same day I had to risk getting killed just to save the old codger.

Horse was happy to get picked up before I told him what was going on.

"So what if he dies?" Horse asked. "He's gonna spawn in an hour anyway. We could be picking flowers in the Heartland. Wild carrots grow out there. I love wild carrots."

I jumped on and took off in the direction of Coot's marker on the map.

"We are going to save him because we would want him to save us," I spoke like I was talking to my children. Slow and clipped, thinking I sound like I'm making each root itself in his brain. That wasn't the case, and the response was similar to what I would have gotten fifty or so years ago.

"Whatever," he huffed.

Red was flashing in several directions on my map, but my plan wasn't to defend the raid, not at least until I had my gang together.

The bit about the manual about Raids was bookmarked, but I hadn't read it yet. Seeing how often they've been happening to me, that was a huge oversight.

Riding through a new town was an adventure all its own. Everytime I took a turn to head in Coot's direction, I found a new obstacle. There were a ton of back alleys in Aberdine, and I ended up taking a lot of those, which meant that Horse got to show me how quickly he could jump over close together obstacles.

The back alley was also where I ran into the first bunch of attackers for the raid.

3 guys on foot were running directly at me and Horse from the other end.

"Screw it," I said out loud hoping that Horse knew what that meant. I wrapped the reins around the horn on his saddle and brought my shotgun up. Then I spurred Horse again.

I could see them trying to get their sights on me, but I could also see them panicking. One shot hit me, brushing my leg, and two more shots went wide, before I brought up the shotgun and fired.

The two on the sides scattered as the middle one launched backwards. I didn't see any XP notifications until Horse ran him over.

We burst out of the end of the alley and into an area behind what I think was the Sheriff's office. None of the map icons were popping up on my minimap with the raid going on, so until I knew Aberdine better, I would be guessing where I was.

The area behind the jail was wide open except for a few stacked crates. I could see the courthouse across the road and directly in front of where we came out. To the left and up a hill from there was a road that led to two houses and what I could see of an iron gate.

Like a cemetery.

My map showed red all over that hill and several teardrop shapes were running down the hill and at us.

I drew my pistol and kept riding, letting Horse guide us the right way while I aimed and fired. Five people were coming down the hill. I clipped two of them but they, and us, were just moving too fast.

I pulled the dynamite from my bag and it lit with a thought. I hadn't expected that. The players saw what I was doing and stopped running to try and focus their fire. A bullet found its way into my stomach, and another one quickly followed it. My health bar was almost entirely gone.

I threw the dynamite at the biggest group of them to scatter them and then grabbed a can of peaches from my bag. It pulled open too easily, and I slurped them down quicker than Popeye with a can of spinach.

My health started crawling up and I didn't have the attention span to watch if it went all the way back up.

I hunched forward so that the bullets would have a smaller target.

"Get between them and the raiders," I said in Horse's ear. "Be ready to run."

The ground flattened out at the top of the hill and at the front of the houses. We went past them and turned left, where the iron fence was. Horse yanked hard to the left and jumped the fence.

Huddled on the back porch, which was only a little more than a set of stairs with a roof over it, were Coot and his mountain man.

They were firing constantly, only taking breaks to eat food.

To the right of us were the attackers that had them pinned down. I didn't even try counting them. There were more than ten, and likely even more than that.

The stick of explosive landed right in the middle of them. Coot's head exploded as a bullet hit him. Horse and I hadn't been fast enough.

"Get on," I shouted at the mountain man as Coot's body was still falling. Horse had pulled right up to the steps and was getting hit pretty regularly. I glanced at his health and saw it was still yellow from his cleaning. They must have fed him well. Yellow or not, we weren't going to last long if we didn't move.

The mountain man didn't hesitate. He was on my horse and we were moving quicker than I had expected. I felt the heat of the explosion and ignored the notifications that scrolled past. I had killed a few, but that's not what this was about.

Horse jumped the other side of the fence, and I pulled his reins to turn us left and flush with the house. I spurred Horse again and we went racing down the hill and back toward the town.

An arm covered in leathers came up next to my head, pointing at a building. "There's a ladder there," the mountain man said. "Get us to that building. We might survive this if we can get on the roof."

I looked up and saw several other players on a couple of the rooftops as well. That seemed to be the survival strategy and right now it was better than what I didn't have.

I leaned forward again to give Horse orders.

"Get us to the ladder and get the hell out of here. I'll buy you another bath when this is over."

Horse let out a grunt of pain and I glanced at his health bar again. He was just above half health. He could take maybe two more shots before he went down. I didn't know what happened when he went down and was kicking myself for not reading that part of the manual.

"You'll owe me more than that," Horse hissed. "And your crazy friend owes me sweets."

Horse got us to the ladder and we jumped down. The mountain man was the first up the ladder while I shot at people racing toward us. There were enough people defending against the raid that the numbers against us were trickling down just enough for me to take my time and shoot.

These weren't NPC's, though. Real NPC's, like from an original video game, you could pick off as their artificial intelligence directed them down the best, yet predictable, paths. These raiders were ducking and using better weapons than I had available.

I had to eat two more cans of I-don't-even-know-what just to survive long enough for my turn up the ladder.

"I'm up," the mountain man yelled from the roof. I killed one more player, a woman decked out like she was some sort of bayou voodoo shaman from a Disney movie, and then jumped on the ladder.

A bullet hit me in the ass, but otherwise I made it all the way up.

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I collapsed onto the roof and just laid there. After my breath finally caught back up with me, I slammed my fist down on the rooftop in a mild tantrum.

I wanted to save Easter? I want to be the person who makes it so that Easter is a place for new folks to live? I can't even keep my own gang alive.

"Reload and eat whatever you have," the mountain man was saying. "If you've got any potions, pound them."

I rolled onto my side and stayed low to reload my guns. While I did so, I examined my newest ally.

Panda_Bear_Polka

Level 10

Profession: Mountain Man

"Panda bear?" I asked him. "I'm not going to call you Panda bear."

He let out a chuckle and drank something. "You can call me Bear," he said.

"Bear," I sat up and looked across the rooftops at our allies-for-now. They might be defending Aberdine, but they were other players, and other players were best avoided. "Bear," I said again, "want to join our gang?"

"That's it?" He drew a knife and threw it past me. I spun and watched as some guy at the top of the ladder grabbed at the knife in his chest before falling backward. "All you needed was to meet me? I knew I was that charming."

I shook my head and crawled to the ledge, aiming my pistol at the nearest red teardrops on the map.

"No," I answered. "I didn't know it until I met you, but all I needed was for Coot to say you could be trusted."

Then I sent him the invitation to the gang.

Panda_Bear_Polka has joined your The Pink Flamingos.

"Let's get this," I said. I stood into a crouch. It was too late to worry about if I was invisible or not, but I still needed the cover that the ledge provided.

"What gang started the raid?" I demanded, for some reason I figured that it had to be the Colossals.

"One second," Bear said. He was checking something on his HUD. I would need to figure out how to see that kind of thing in the menu.

To my surprise, it wasn't the Colossals.

"The Gladiat0rz."

I let out a laugh.

If there was a chance, it would be fun to meet up with Ed and his crew. That being said, I was acting like it had been days since I had seen them, but we had defended Easter just earlier today. These battles were getting to be nonstop and I could see this kind of life tiring me out quickly. I was going to need to look into trying out my camp soon before I got too burned out.

That didn’t even account for how quickly I was using and replacing, and then using again, my resources. At this rate, I wouldn’t get much of a chance to read the rest of the manual.

I finished reloading and took aim down the back of the building. I fired twice, but didn’t hit anyone.

I sent Jem a message.

Sammy#0421: Which one of you assholes killed Coot, lol?

JemmyCloister: I think that was Ken. I wasn’t sure I read the name right. You’re defending then?

Sammy#0421: Us and a few others. Just picked up a third for our gang. If you ever want to switch sides, let me know.

JemmyCloister: Keep chatting. I almost have my sights on you…

I thought she was joking right before a bullet slammed into the bit of wall that I was hanging over. I pulled back and fell flat, but not before I saw where she was hiding.

From the building I was on, I could clearly see everything up to the house where Coot had died. Just to the left of the house was a big tree with a lot of shade under it.

And a Jem.

Unfortunately, neither my pistol or my shotgun would reach that far.

“Hey, new guy,” I called over my shoulder. “Do you see that cowgirl out there trying to snipe us?”

Bear had built his avatar wider than the average person did, aiming for a bulky look underneath the leathers and furs. So, when he came clomping over to me, I had to scoot to the side to give him room behind the same cover I was using.

“Behind the tree?” He pulled binoculars from his bag and then nodded, “Yes, I see her.”

“Do you have anything that can hit her?”

Bear smiled. “That’s what my rifle is for.”

He pulled a rifle off of his back that I hadn’t noticed, which was surprising because of how long it was. It was a bolt action rifle similar to the one that Ed had, but it was longer with a larger magazine. This one also had a much longer scope on it than Ed’s had.

“This my long rifle, a Carcano,” Bear explained. “I use this when I feel someone needs me to reach out and say hello.”

“Oh,” I smiled. “That’s good. I know her. Let me know when you’ve got her in your sights and don’t fire until I say so.”

“Alright,” Bear raised an eyebrow, “but keep an eye on the ladder, too.”

I nodded and drew my shotgun before rolling onto my back and aiming it directly at the ladder.

“She’s in my sights,” Bear had already rested the rifle on the ledge and taken aim.

Sammy#0421: By the way, my newest gang member wants to say hello.

“Fire,” I shouted.

JemmyCloister: Huh?”

Bear pulled the trigger. “Got her.”

I laughed way more than I probably should have because right then was when someone made it up the ladder and I was in no way as prepared for their arrival as I had said I would be.

A yelp of surprise came out of my throat as I finally noticed feet touching down on the roof in front of me.

“Shit,” I shouted and tried to swing my shotgun up. The man who had come up the stairs was dressed like Val Kilmer from Tombstone. He drew a pistol and fired twice into my stomach right before he was tackled by Bear.

Bear wrestled with the attacker for a minute but I lost focus. My vision blurred and someone else came up the ladder. I tried to grab at my shotgun again, but it was no use. A quick glance at my HUD showed that my health bar was almost entirely empty. I was either bleeding out or about to die. Either way, it was game over for me.

Whatever happened with Kilmer, Bear was in front of me again. This time, he backhanded the new guy, shoved a knife into his stomach, and then pushed him off the roof.

That was about when I experienced something new.

Bear crouched over me and pulled something from his bag and waved it under my nose.

It smelled like every horrible thing that I had ever smelled before. My sight came back into focus as memories of baby vomit, burned rubber, and a particularly bad fart Tyler had made while we tried workout videos during the 2020’s all flooded my sinuses.

I was on my feet without remembering getting up.

“What the fuck was that?” I demanded. It wasn’t just the smell that woke me up. My body felt alive with electric fire and my health bar had gone up about 20%.”

Bear shrugged. “It’s whatever animation they tie to me reviving you.”

“Reviving? You can revive me?” The entire idea made no sense. If I could be revived, why wasn’t anyone else trying to revive anyone?

“Sometimes, but it depends on how close your allies are and how bad your wounds were. I think if your health falls under 5% and an ally is nearby, you can be revived in the next 15 seconds. Otherwise, you just die.” Bear’s explanation was appreciated, and I was happy to not be dead yet, but this was entirely new news and I would need some time to process it.

Now was not that time.

I picked my shotgun off the ground and crouched, taking the time to eat another can of something that tasted like beans but didn’t look like beans. I needed to get my hands on those tonics or potions or whatever that I had heard about. Or at least a bag of almonds.

No sooner had the can hit the rooftop then I heard steps behind me. I spun and brought up my shotgun.

“Get out of here and we won’t have any issues,” Ed said. His rifle was raised and he was grinning like the cat who had cornered the canary.

I returned his smile. “I don’t think that I can let that happen.” I shrugged. “Plus, that’s the fun of it, isn’t it? When friends meet on the battlefield?”

“Are we friends, then?” he asked. He was still smiling or I would have been hurt by the implication.

“Of course, we are.” I waved my hands around. “I’ve never started a raid before, only defended. When this is over, I’m going to need you to give me the tutorial.”

He rolled his eyes. “Have you still not read the manual?”

“Everytime I pick that damned book up, somebody starts a raid and I’ve got to run and save Coot.”

He nodded, completely understanding.

“Last chance,” Ed said. “I’ll tell everyone to leave you alone if you lower-”

Auto-aim tugged to center mass, I tugged up, and pulled the trigger.

Ed’s head exploded and I ran over and squatted next to his body with the biggest grin I could manage. I had to move quickly. The death photo gets taken really fast and I wanted him to see me next to him before he woke up in an hour.

+25 XP

Bear let out a slow whistle. “To be completely honest with you, Sam, I expected you to take his offer.”

I shrugged and dropped back down to a crouch. “I’ve been murdered so many times at this point by people who just wanted to ruin my day that I sure as hell wasn’t going to pass up the chance to play with some actual friends.” There was something different about killing and possibly getting killed in something that felt way more like a game than the egregious acts of violence that had been put against me without my say so. Ed would understand.

“Are you going to loot him, or can I?”

I looked at Bear. “Loot him?” Anger at my own continued ignorance rose from my gut. “I can loot the dead?”

Bear shrugged. “You didn’t know that?”

Somewhere, far away, I could hear Ed laughing at me.