Apocalypse game, p.10
Apocalypse Game, page 10
Grissom City
Threat Level: 6
Status: Infested
Wonder what happens if we clear the area of monsters? Could we take the city back?
I was surprised to see it standing mostly intact. Hundreds if not thousands of broken windows in the gray skyscrapers dotted around, and the mass of abandoned vehicles only grew with each step we took, but there wasn’t any catastrophic damage.
A few demolished storefronts and burned-out gas stations, but nothing beyond that. It was mostly like walking through a city at night. There weren’t any people around, but if I squinted my eyes and glossed over the damage, I could almost pretend there wasn’t an apocalypse going on.
“It’s a lot more intact than I was thinking it would be,” I said, turning to Adeline as we walked.
“Yeah, well, most of the people evacuated pretty quickly when it was apparent something was going down. From what the military told us, the east coast got hit first. Callisto’s pets ran right over New York and Boston like it was nothing. Less than ten percent survived from what the soldiers said.”
“What about the west coast?”
“Nothing like the east, but they still took a beating. I don’t know much more than that.”
“So you think they’d be swarming with monsters?” I asked as we rounded a corner next to a former deli, which had its roof caved in like something massive had fallen on it.
“That’d be a safe bet.”
I nodded. “Well, Callisto told me to start leveling up. And without more to go on, I’d say that’s what we should both focus on in the short term. We can grab some gear from the military base and head somewhere with lots of monsters. Start grinding some levels.”
Adeline shrugged. “Not a bad plan. Better than anything I can think of right now.”
Grissom City wasn’t as densely congested as some big cities, but as we got closer to the heart of downtown, we passed the shopping district, which converged on the giant shopping mall.
I figured it would be a good place to gather supplies. But I clearly wasn’t the only one who had that idea.
As we got close to it, the building screamed danger. Most of the windows were boarded up, and Adeline noticed several men on the roof patrolling. Once we knew it was occupied, we gave it an extensive berth, skirting along the highway and into the heart of the city.
The highway we were on led straight out of town, and if we wanted to get to the military base, we would need to cross through downtown to do so.
We saw very little monster activity the entire trip. A few in the distance that were too far away to make out, or a few Carnival Beasts along the rooftops, but they never came close to us.
It was rather strange, but a part of me was relieved that they kept their distance.
Once we stepped off the highway, it was another fifteen-minute hike into downtown itself.
This part of the city was older and boasted the most character. The newer parts of the city spread out from the center, but downtown was where the heart and soul of Grissom resided.
Which is why it hurt so much to see it in various states of ruin.
Clearly, a few large-scale fights had broken out here, and most of the older buildings couldn’t stand up to the abuse brought against them. Old worn bricks and shards of glass littered the streets along with too many empty bullet casings. Pockmarks in the cement spoke of explosions that had blasted the nearby buildings to dust.
We trudged along through the mess for a while until the bark of an automatic rifle echoed sharply around us.
We swiftly headed into one of the alleyways as soon as the gunfire started. It was close, but I had no way of telling if they were shooting at us or not. The echoes of the gunshots rebounded off the empty buildings and made pinpointing the sound difficult.
“Two or three streets ahead. A single shooter,” Adeline said, letting go of me and creeping down the alley.
“Where are you going!” I hissed at her.
“To find out what’s going on,” Adeline said, looking back at me. “A single shooter means they’re fighting monsters. Didn’t we just say the goal is to level up?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t think that meant rushing into danger without a plan!”
“Buck up, baby boy. This is where it gets fun!” Adeline shouted in excitement and took off, leaving me alone in the alley.
Right, let’s do the smart thing and run straight for danger without any discussion first.
That’s when I realized I was standing around and ran to catch up with her.
And I’m just following her, so who’s the bigger idiot here?
I sighed.
It’s probably me.
Chapter 8- Fire and Fury
The gunfire kept up as we approached, but each burst came in slower than the last. By the time we’d crossed the few streets in between the gunman and us, their shots had all but dwindled to nothing.
Sounds like they’re almost out. We need to hurry.
The two of us rounded a building and crossed the road, heading to a nearly obliterated street. Crumbling stores barely stood, clothing and merchandise spilled from the shattered storefront windows.
And smack dab in the middle of the street was a massacre.
Yellow monster blood splattered across the concrete along with the gore and internal organs of over a dozen creatures. All which lay strewn over the street amid wanton destruction. The bodies of several smaller Carnival Beasts covered the road, as well as larger, bulbous masses of flesh straight from my worst nightmares.
Things my imagination couldn’t have conjured in my wildest dreams.
Callisto’s pets weren’t the only casualties on the broken street. Seven or eight soldiers lay torn to shreds as well, bright red blood mixed in abstract chaos around the monsters.
Only a single soldier remained, clad in mottled gray and green fatigues and tan Kevlar. He wielded a large rifle and fired in short bursts as five monsters surrounded him.
They were the twisted amalgamation of an anaconda and a king crab fused into some demented abomination. Eight-foot-long snake tails flowed and rose into a humanoid crab, with a massive red-shelled torso and two long arms that ended in pincers.
Their backs were to me. All of them had broad, hard-shell carapaces riddled with points that looked sharp enough to skewer me.
Well, that’s disturbing and completely unhinged. A half-smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. Fits Callisto to a T.
“What the fuck?” Adeline said as she gasped at the monsters.
So, she hasn’t seen them either, lovely.
Let’s find out what they’re called.
Inspect.
Monster (Low-Tier): Charade Beast
Health: 300/300
Exp: 98
AC: 25
“Fuck me, those things are creepy,” Adeline shouted, and opened fire with her shotgun.
She ran and knelt by a late model Toyota, propping her shotgun on the rust eaten hood, and continued shooting.
With Inspect active, each time they lost health, tiny red numbers jumped out from the beast. With each shell from her shotgun, they dropped a few points, but not near enough to account for the ammo she burned through. By the time she’d gone through four shells, they hadn’t taken off more than a few slivers of health.
Health: 267/300
If we went about it like this, we’d waste all of our ammo before we took even one down, and we had five to deal with.
Their backs seem the most armored. We’ll never get through them, not at this range and without armor-piercing rounds.
The soldier threw down his gun and drew his pistol. He ran and jumped onto the hood of a small minivan and fired four rounds into what must’ve been the head of the closest Charade Beast.
Blood splashed from the top of the beast, bits of flesh and vileness sprayed outward, coating the soldier in viscera. The head was obviously the weak point as those four rounds turned it into crab paste, and the monster teetered over and dripped its twisted blood onto the pavement.
“Go for the head!” I shouted at Adeline and sprinted across the street to a Jeep Cherokee that had been flipped over on its side.
“Yeah, no shit!” she shouted back.
With my rifle in hand, I knelt and lined up a shot. The adrenaline of battle flowed through me, and my hands shook. When I fought the Carnival Beasts, I relied on pure reflex, and we had them outnumbered. Here it was reversed, we were outnumbered, and I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.
The Charade Beasts finally caught on that we were there, and three of them turned and slithered their way towards us. They were hulking monstrosities, but their powerful tails allowed them to move quicker than I expected.
Its beady, black eyes stared unblinking and dead as it raised its jagged pincer.
I fired.
My shot went wide, glancing off its chest and nicking only a couple of ticks of damage off its three hundred points of health.
Shit!
I couldn’t line up another shot in time and threw myself to the ground as the claw struck the fender of the Jeep, crumpling the metal around its massive red claw.
I sprawled on the concrete as the coarse material ripped into my palms, and my rifle skidded away from me. Rust and salt slid between my teeth as I bit my tongue and scrambled for my gun.
The beast shook its claw free with a jerk. The hood clung to its arm as it ripped free from the Jeep. With a glance, the Charade Beast grabbed the hunk of metal with its other hand and flung it at me.
My fingers closed around the barrel of my gun as it launched the hood at me, and I rolled out of the way, bringing the rifle to my chest. I got up from the ground and knelt as I hip fired a string of bullets.
Six of them struck against its carapace, but the recoil knocked the rest of the rounds up into its squishy mouth and brain.
Red letters flashed above its head, showing the word ‘Critical’ before an arc of yellow washed it away.
I’d taken down one of them, but I couldn’t celebrate, not when four more still lived. I jumped to my feet and went to help Adeline, who fought off two of them.
One of them swung at her, but at the last second, she turned her body, and the jagged pincer missed her by an inch.
“How about some fried crab, you ugly bastard?” she yelled a second before her hand shimmered and crimson fire erupted from her palm.
With a flick of her wrist, the radiant blaze shot out and stuck like napalm to the beast. Two seconds later and its entire body was ablaze, engulfed in a raging inferno.
We stood mere feet from the roaring red blaze, but no heat rose from it.
The Charade Beast screamed as its flesh blackened and cracked as it burned alive. It died with one final croak of pain, falling to the ground and crumbling to ash.
I choked as the wind swept up the remains in a gruesome flurry, and they drifted over my sweat-stained skin, sticking to my arms and face. “Holy hell, that was…”
“Badass, right?” she said, gloating over her kill.
Flesh scraped across metal, and I turned as the third Charade Beast towered over Adeline. It raised its claw, poised to take her head.
“Adeline, move!”
She threw herself into a side lunge and slid over the hood of the Toyota and out of the way of the beast’s claw.
It gouged a chunk of metal from the beat-up car, but it got stuck on the front wheel well. Adeline dropped her shotgun when she dove and went for her sidearm as I reached the monster.
With a thought, I activated Demon Claws, and the familiar energy drain flowed into my hands. As my fingers elongated, I dropped my rifle and went in for close combat.
I had no idea if my claws could even damage the beast, but I had to try. The creature struggled to free itself from the wreck of the car but couldn’t work out how, so it was just tugging, rendering small gashes across its red flesh from the rusted metal edges.
I brought my claws down on its arm, expecting to meet resistance, but there was nothing but a little tug as my black talons glided through its rough carapace and flesh as I severed its arm from its body.
A large red one-hundred-fifty appeared embossed in bold letters next to the equally large critical over its head.
I smiled as the words faded.
Take that, fugly.
It raged at me, but it could scream and rail all it wanted. I knew I could kill it easily now.
I pushed off the car and jammed both my hands into where I thought its heart would be. The Charade Beast’s health plummeted another seventy-five points but didn’t deal the death blow as I thought. I tugged at my hands, but they’d snagged on something, and by the time I pulled one free, I’d lost focus and left myself open to attack.
The beast flailed with its remaining claw and sideswiped me.
It was a glancing blow, but its claws were strong enough to rip chunks in metal cars. A world of pain hit me, and I flew back. I slammed against the ruined Toyota a half-second later, denting the driver’s side door.
My arm cracked on impact, and even more pain rolled through me.
My health bar appeared in the corner of my vision—a small red line trailing from bright red to black and reading.
Health: 287/330
Dammit, that hurt. I picked myself up and moved my arm. But it’s not as bad as I think it should be, though. My hand was numb, and my entire arm throbbed with pain, but I could still flex my fingers and move my wrist. I think that should’ve broken my arm, and even if I hadn’t, I have taken hits a third as strong as that that’ve hurt more.
Is it my stats? Does one of them affect pain tolerance?
I hoped so because even if it should’ve hurt more, it still hurt plenty and was enough of a distraction that I almost missed the whoosh of air being displaced rapidly. I turned and ducked right as another swing would have taken my head from my shoulders.
My thick hair ruffled as the Charade Beast’s claw sailed just overhead.
Its health is low, just one more good shot.
My claws extended, I charged the monster. I sunk my right hand deep into its chest once more and used my grip on its insides to haul myself closer to its hideous face. For a second, I held all my weight with my right hand before my feet found purchase along the rough carapace, and my left arm was within reach.
It attacked me with its remaining claw, but I sliced my talons at its bicep and bit through its hardened skin like paper, shearing its arm from its torso. As it reared back, letting out an unholy screech of pain, I whipped my claws towards its face.
I punctured through its black eyes and dug my fingers into what passed for its brain. I clenched my fist tight and crushed its bulbous face in my grip.
More than a bit of blood and gore poured out and ran down my hand. But the beast was dead.
It turned in its death throes and toppled over, falling back towards the Toyota. We landed with a jarring crunch as the aged metal hood bent and groaned in protest of the monster’s carcass, but it held.
Damn, that’s one tough car.
As blood began pouring around the car, I received a notification.
Combat Results!
2 Killed (Charade Beasts): 196 Exp!
Experience Boost (5%): 10 Exp!
Total Gain: 206 Exp!
AC Earned: 50!
Level Up!
I closed it, stepped off the beast, and went to check on Adeline.
She leaned on a car further up the street, arm propped on the hood as carefree as she could be, with her shotgun nestled in the crook of her left hand.
Adeline grinned madly at me. “Wasn’t half bad, might make something of yourself after all.”
“Maybe,” I said, rolling my injured shoulder back and forth. “But next time, I won’t be so careless.”
“Just give it an hour or two, should be healed by then,” Adeline said, pointing at my arm.
“Is rapid regeneration a thing now?”
She shrugged, standing up and shouldering her gun. “Sort of. When your health bar starts to refill, it heals all the damage you’ve taken.”
“That’s a neat trick, especially since hospitals and doctors are probably in very short supply these days,” I said, walking over and climbing on the trunk of the car to catch my breath.
I thumbed over to the soldier who’d taken down the last of the Charade Beasts. “How’d he do?”
“Not bad. Got lucky, though. Pistol ran dry as the last one died.”
“Well, we’d have backed him up, regardless.”
She laughed, her stern expression fading for a moment. “What’s this ‘we’ business? You were fingers deep in a Lovecraftian abomination when it went down.”
“Fine, you’d have backed him up.”
“Better,” she said and started walking.
The man stood over his fallen comrades. I thought it best to give him some time alone and pay his respects. I was about to tell Adeline to hold up when he started going through their pockets and looting their stuff.
“What the hell are you doing?” I shouted down the street.
“Waste not,” he replied with a laugh before his voice fell. “As disrespectful as it is, I’d expect them to do the same if it were me.”
He took his time taking as much ammo and gear as he could carry and walked over to us with his rifle propped up against his shoulder and a large camo bag across his back.
A ballistic helmet concealed his face, reflecting light off the visor as he walked, his stance oozing swagger. The soldier sauntered through the blood of his allies and the monster corpses like he was taking a stroll through the park, and I half expected him to start whistling.
The man stopped just shy of us and dropped his bag on one of the few non-gore-soaked stretches of concrete and leaned against a streetlamp. His rifle was in his arms, but the barrel pointed down and away from us.
“Much obliged for the assist,” he said with a nod. “Another minute, and the fat lady would’ve sung.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but Adeline butted in and interrupted. “You’re welcome, though our help comes with a price.”
The man chuckled in response. “Mercenaries? I can respect that. Take what you want from my dead friends over there. There’s still a ton of supplies, and no way can I carry it all. Adequate enough for you?”
