Apocalypse game, p.22
Apocalypse Game, page 22
Stamina was still sitting at zero. It was my weakest stat, but I could fix that with the stat points I had. I needed more skills in my arsenal that weren’t mana-based.
With my decision made, I chose Rend.
Rend (Rank 1)
Damage: 100-150 (Abyssal)
Cost: 50 Stamina
Cooldown: 5 Seconds
Strength: 25 (25% Damage Boost)
Progress to Rank 2: 0/50
Twenty-five percent is something else, and it will only go up in my Demon Form. That’s pretty powerful.
I waved away the screen and went back to dealing with my stats.
It was risky to dump so much into Endurance at once, but I needed the boost, so I added fifteen to it, lamenting the loss of Charisma this level.
Stat Page
Strength: 35
Constitution: 25
Perception: 20
Endurance: 15
Agility: 25
Wisdom: 30
Charisma: 25
I hit accept, and a new bar appeared just under my mana bar. It read,
Stamina: 350/350
So, I can use Rend seven times before my stamina depletes. Nine with Demon Form. Seven times in an hour seems like a lot, but as we just found out during our jaunt into the city, that isn’t really anything if we’re outnumbered.
Thoughts kept running through my head, and as I leaned back, I sighed.
“What a week.”
As I glanced around, I smirked as I realized this was the first bit of actual downtime I’d had since this whole mess started, and I had absolutely no idea what to do with myself or my free time now.
I laid back in bed, trying to figure out how to kill time in the apocalypse, when the air shifted as Death appeared. She made no noise, but her presence distorted the feel of the room. I sat up and looked at her.
She knelt at the foot of the bed, wearing the same black dress she always did, and leaned against the wall with a smile that faded as she looked around the room and sniffed.
“Callisto’s been here,” she said.
“He left a few minutes ago.”
She folded her arms under her chest and pursed her lips. “This game of his has made him incredibly bold. I told him to leave you be. He wasn’t to interfere with you.”
I frowned. “And why would you do that?”
“Because he has plans for you, Killian. And they run much deeper than you’d expect. He is not a benevolent god. You know that, right? But he lost much of his power over you when he saved your life. You are mine, and I won’t let him interfere with you any further.”
Death crawled towards me, but the look in my eyes stopped her.
I scowled, crossing my arms as I bit my lip to try and rein in my anger. “Let’s get one thing straight.” I shook my head. “I do not belong to you. I am my own man, a flesh and blood human. You and Callisto are so caught up in these games you’re playing that I don’t even know if you see me as a real person.
“I’m not a doll whose life you can play with however you see fit.”
“Of course you’re not a doll. I know that.” She looked up at me. There was a flash of hurt in her eyes, but she nodded. “You’re the first human to ever bear my sigil. The first real thing I’ve had in a very long time. I know that doesn’t mean much to you, but those are the truest words I’ve spoken. And I can’t bear it to have you caught up in Callisto’s schemes.”
I threw my hands up. “I’m the Demon Lord. I’m already caught up in it, and I have a job to do. I’m going to need his help if I’m to do it.”
Her silver eyes clouded, and she shook her head. “And the more you play, the more you are caught in his web. This goes so much deeper than you can even comprehend, and you are just a pawn in his war.”
“I’m well aware of that. But I chose to play his game.” I stared at her. “I never signed up to play yours.”
She paused, a flash of hurt crossing her eyes. “Killian.”
I sighed. “It’s been a long damn day.”
Death nodded, catching my hint. “I’ll go,” she said, her voice dripping melancholy.
With a rustle of wind, she was gone, and I laid back in bed. The excuse I used on Death was the truth, and before a minute passed, my eyelids grew heavy.
Seconds after I’d fallen asleep, I bolted up in bed. Light was pouring in from my open door, and I looked in to see Adeline standing next to the bed, her arm on my shoulder, shaking me.
“Jesus, Ade, what’s with the rude wake-up?”
She laughed. “Looks like we overslept. It’s almost seven.”
“In the morning?” I asked.
Adeline nodded. “We slept hard.” She shrugged. “Not like we didn’t need it, though.”
“Yeah. I guess you’re right.”
Finn suddenly peeked his head around the doorframe. “Bagels, Hermano!”
He tossed me one, and I caught it, getting cream cheese and chives all over my hands.
“Thanks.” I took a bite and chewed slowly, savoring the small slices of normalcy this world doled out. “Any chance you have some coffee with you?”
“Nope. But I can make some.” He barged past Adeline and set the tray of bagels on the counter before he started working on making coffee.
I sighed and rubbed my face. “Any reason for the sudden wake-up call?”
Adeline shrugged, snagging a bagel that looked to have cream cheese and lox on it. “Figured we’d all slept long enough.” She smirked. “And that even after spending the last few days covered in monster blood, you’d still want to take more quests.”
Callisto’s words yesterday came back to me.
He’s right. We need to keep pushing, keep growing stronger. If we’re going to face New York, we need more levels under our belt.
“You’re right.” I scarfed down the rest of the bagel and snagged the fresh cup of coffee Finn handed me. “Let’s finish eating and go talk to Reynolds, see what other jobs he has for us.”
After we stuffed ourselves with bagels and coffee, the three of us got dressed and then headed down into the bunker to see Captain Reynolds.
He was in his office, asleep at his desk, a mound of papers acting as his pillow as a tendril of drool snaked from his mouth to drip onto a slowly soaking piece of paper.
As we entered, I shut the door with more force than I needed, and as it slammed shut, Reynolds jolted awake.
He blinked his eyes several times and then focused on us before glancing around him. “Fell asleep at my desk again.” He cleared his nose and spat a thick gob of phlegm into the trash next to him, and shook his head before glancing at us. “Cleared the nests out already?”
I nodded. “We did.”
“Hot damn. You were confident the other day, but I still figured it’d take you a lot longer.” He shook his head, whistling. “If only half the men I had were like you three.” He paused and snickered. “Let me guess. You want more quests?”
“That’d be great.”
Reynolds smiled. “A hungry one, aren’t you? Well, these are all the ones I have.” He grabbed a stack of papers and pushed them our way.
It was more of the same monster nests or extermination quests throughout the city.
And as we’d discovered, they paid decently, but one look at the rest of the jobs, and I knew it would be incredibly slow going. They were all spread out through the city, and none of them lined up like the ones before. If we tried to take them all, it would take weeks, at best.
And that was incredibly inefficient.
We needed to pick up the pace.
“Is there anything better?” I asked, dropping the papers back on the desk.
“Better?”
I shrugged. “Better paying, better experience. Just better?”
Reynolds shook his head. “No. Sorry, this is─” He paused, glancing at the three of us and then out the window. “I…” He sighed. “Maybe.” Reynolds tapped his lip. “I wanted to keep this an internal matter, but that might not be such a good idea. I need people with experience on this, and with your track record, you three certainly qualify.” He narrowed his eyes, laying his hands flat on the desk. “But more than that, I need your discretion. This needs to be handled quietly. Understand?”
“Before we agree blindly, tell us about the job first.”
He nodded. “Okay, but not a word past your lips, even if you decline.”
“Agreed.”
Reynolds sighed. “Got a group of former soldiers making trouble in a nearby machine shop. They were some of the first to leave when all this started. They wanted out, and I let them. I didn’t much care about what they did after leaving the service, but that’s changed.”
He paused as someone knocked on the door. First Sergeant Wise came in with a clipboard and a pen in his hands before handing them to Reynolds.
He scribbled something and handed it back as he continued speaking.
“They’re breaking down cars and other hunks of metal and making fortifications, turning the garage into a makeshift fortress. But they’ve been growing bolder, stealing supplies from military designated zones, and there have been reports they’ve had contact with Salvatore and his men.”
“Who’s this Salvatore?” I asked.
“Gang leader. Ruthless. He and his men set up shop in the Grissom Mall and have been a real thorn in my side. I made the mistake of letting them be, since they stayed to their side of the city and left us alone. But now, they’ve started making moves against us.
“But he isn’t your problem now. The deserters are. I don’t want them joining up with Salvatore, so stop them by any means necessary. But I’ll reward you extra if you can convince them to join back up with us.”
Wise coughed into his hand and looked from us to Reynolds. “Are you sure that’s a good idea, Captain? Jeremy and his men racked up enough infractions even before the apocalypse.”
Annoyance flashed in his eyes as he glanced at the First Sergeant. “I’m sure that with Holt’s squad KIA, we need all the men we can get.”
I held my hands up, not wanting to get in the middle of whatever they were arguing about. “Can we just get the quest?”
Reynolds glanced up. “Oh, right.”
A quest notification flashed in front of me.
Side Quest: Chop the Chop Shop!
Deal with the group located in Wilson’s Auto Shop
Difficulty: Medium
Reward: 724 Exp
300 AC
“We’ll get it done.”
“Excellent,” Reynolds said. “Then get going. It’s a bit of a hike.”
The three of us sighed as we exited and headed back out of the fort.
For the second time in as many days, we found ourselves on the other side of the gated compound, and I sighed.
“Alright, Wilson’s Auto is what, like three miles away?”
“Something like that, I think. My dad used to go there whenever he needed work done on his mustang,” Adeline said.
“Where is he, anyway?” Finn asked.
“Dead,” she replied tersely. “Hopefully, rotting in hell.”
At that, Finn and I looked at each other and wisely dropped the subject.
“Well, let’s get going.”
Chapter 16- Depths of Depravity
Fort Alexander was on the edge of the city, but the garage we were heading to was practically out of the city itself. There was nothing but the countryside past the garage and a couple of gas stations. It was all familiar because Omar, Sarah, and I used to come out this way to stay at Omar’s cabin on weekends to get away when we needed a break from school, which was often.
We never did more than stay inside and game, but it was well stocked with food and gear, which might be worth a look. Wonder if anyone’s there?
I shook my head.
I doubt it.
Since we stayed out of the city itself, we encountered almost no signs of life. There were a few stray dogs and cats and a couple of scavengers, but they took off running into the woods as soon as they saw us coming. I wasn’t worried about the humans so much, but it had been a while since we’d seen any sign of Callisto’s pets, which bothered me.
“I don’t know what worries me more. Running across dozens of Callisto’s pets, or not seeing a single sign of them.”
“Might not have to deal with any,” Adeline said as we passed a pair of knocked-over garbage cans and two dogs growling, trying to fight over the scraps. “There probably ain’t a lot of people out this way.”
“I don’t know,” Finn said. “In the city, at least you knew you were bound to run across at least a few of them, but out here. There could be hundreds or none at all.”
“Yeah, Schrodinger is a real asshole sometimes,” I said.
“Well, we’ve killed enough of the Carnival Beasts that we’ve seen all their tricks. But the Charade Beasts, and those Midnight Beasts?” Adeline said.
I shook my head. “Seems there’s a lot of weird going around, and I don’t want it creeping up on us.”
“Shame about all the animals, though,” Finn said, motioning toward the dogs.
“Yeah. But I’m more worried about us than them.”
He shook his head. “Not an animal lover, Kill?”
I shrugged. “Oh, I love animals. But right now, they’re not even in my top hundred concerns.” I glanced at him. “I’m guessing you like them?”
Finn nodded. “Wanted to be a vet. Joined the military to pay for college.” He sighed. “Looks like that dream is well and truly gone now.”
“If it makes you feel better, I think I got the worst career change out of all of us.”
Finn and Adeline laughed.
“Yeah, guess you got the short end of that stick, didn’t you?” he said.
We all laughed before the conversation slowly faded as we focused on watching out for anything sneaking up on us. It was nerve-wracking, but it beat getting a chunk bitten out of my ass because we let our guard down.
After an hour and a half of careful walking, we reached the road that would take us to the garage. We stopped and got off the main road, looping around to the tree line so we wouldn’t immediately be noticed as we approached.
I got a good look at the garage when it came into view.
The red brick building was on the larger side for a single story, with a raised roof. Two large garage doors were closed so we couldn’t see inside, but around the perimeter of the shop were scrap heaps and makeshift barricades made from car parts and a ton of other barely recognizable junk that formed a nearly walled-off compound.
Finn whistled softly and motioned us to stay low and follow him. We crept through a bush, and Finn pulled out a set of binoculars and called out to us what he saw.
“Two men stationed on the roof, both have rifles, look like cheap AR-15s. Iron sights, so they likely can’t hit us from here, that’s a good sign, but if we don’t take them out, they’ll light us up the moment they see us.”
“Should we talk to them, see if we can’t negotiate?” I asked.
He shook his head. “The way they’re holding their guns. They're far more liable to open fire or call for reinforcements before we’d get a word out. Either way, we’d be outgunned and at their mercy. The way I see it, it’s better to take out a few and see if we can’t get the drop on the others. That’s probably our best chance to convince them to come back with us.”
“Alright,” I said, deferring to Finn this time. “What’s the plan?”
“With our weapons, none of us are optimized for distance shooting. And even with our suppressors, unless they’re doing machining inside, they’ll hear us. We need to get closer to them, but all that open ground is a gamble. If we try to cross and they see us, we’re dead.”
“Got it,” I said as I took in the terrain. An idea formed in the back of my head. It wasn’t a good one, and it was risky as hell, but it was the only thing I could think of that even remotely mitigated the chance of us dying. “I have a plan. Watch my back if things kickoff.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, I was moving, not bothering to wait for a response. I activated my Demon Form and took off at a dead sprint, hoping I wasn’t about to become my least favorite cheese.
With Demon Form and my increased Agility, I practically glided across the grass.
My timing or luck was true, and I made it to the first barricade without being spotted. Half of a rusted-out Chevelle tipped on its side gave me plenty of cover as I waited for the guards to turn away. A minute later and they disappeared. I hopped over the side of the car and made it to the brick wall of the garage without anyone seeing me.
Right beside me was a heavy chain-link fence rusted with age that gave me a window to a bunch of dead grass and wooden pallets topped with twisted and rusting scraps of metal.
Wonder if this will work?
I glanced down at my clawed hand. The long black nails protruded two inches from my finger and looked sharp enough to cut through steel. I scratched at the cement wall and peeled a deep groove in the brick.
Pushing harder, my entire nail sunk into it.
I grinned as I stowed my rifle and gripped all ten of my nails into the side of the building and slowly started climbing to the roof. My talons easily held, but my feet had nothing but the soles of my boots to use for traction, and it made for an uncomfortable climb. My arms burned with fatigue by the time I hauled my skinny ass over the lip of the roof.
The men at the edge of the roof were rough and definitely needed a shower and a shave. They were turned away from me, staring out towards the roads. Their grips on their rifles were lax as they smoked cigarettes while they playfully bickered back and forth about something. I only caught a few words, as I was too focused on remaining undetected to pay attention.
I drew my M4 as silently as I could and listened for half a second. The whine of a drill going below me sent slight vibrations through the roof, coming from the ground level.
