It’s Not Easy Making Money In The Apocalypse

If the girl was tied up and stuffed in a bag, then there was no real need to rescue her. In fact, the area we had just come from was empty. I could go back to Raven and the two of us could return to safety on the other side of the hospital with almost no difficulty. Yet, if I did that, I would be leaving this innocent woman to die a horrible death.

 I had hardened considerably since I had started spending time in this world. I could feel myself becoming more violent and less tolerant. However, I hadn’t degraded so much that I could just abandon someone who needed my help. Even if I could do it guilt-free, I didn’t want to become that kind of person. If I became someone who no longer valued life, then why was I even there in the first place? I could just return home and hack my way into being a millionaire, or do one of a million other highly questionable things.

Although I had some cheats, I wanted to be an honest man. If the money I used to make the lives of my family better were gained through ill-gotten means, then how could I even look my kind mother and foolish sister in the face anymore? I knew that was rich coming from someone who had killed others, but that had always been a do-or-die situation. There was a difference between being ruthless, and being evil. I would cling to those morals of mine, even if it killed me.

It just sucked that I happened to be in such a situation where my sense of duty might get me killed. I had used up about half of my Stealthco. I had maybe seven minutes left of invisibility, and then I would be seen. I was sneaking in the shadows, but it wasn’t like I was an assassin. Even hiding, I’d stick out like a sore thumb in the middle of this mutant beast colony.

As I tried to figure out what I should do, I noticed the beasts sniffing a lot, and I realized that if they hadn’t been doing their corpse buffet at that moment, they might have smelled my presence even without my invisibility. Simply put, I had been extremely lucky. I needed to push that luck just a little bit farther.

The beast that was holding the back with the struggling girl inside wasn’t doing anything with it. He was just standing there, staring at the fire and licking his lips as he watched the charcoaled meat of the human bodies drip and sizzle. I held back my vomit, very nearly indicating my position. Distinctly looking away from the bonfire and the bodies staked around it, I looked around rapidly for something that could help.

“The loader.” A resigned sigh came through my earpiece.

“Huh?” I whispered back.

“On the other side of that building, you see that large machine?” Cecelia asked.

I squinted past the bonfire, doing my best to pretend it wasn’t there and made out a large vehicle. It was painted yellow and appeared to be some kind of massive vehicle with a crane-like neck that jutted out.

“What of it?” I asked.

“There was still construction going on here when this place was abandoned, and they seemed to have left that there. Construction vehicles are powered with a fusion core, and they are locked using a Perco code.”

“In other words, I can turn it on.” I finished, my eyes shining a bit more excitedly.

“If you’re insisting on risking your life for no reason, then your best bet is to create a distraction. Plug me into that machine. We’ll turn it on. While the mutants are busy trying to figure out what it’s doing, you grab the girl and run.”

I had already reached a similar conclusion, but I wasn’t going to fight with Cecelia about it. I carefully moved as far into the shadows as I could, creeping my way around the massive bonfire and the group of beasts. There were a good thirty to forty of them. Even if I was in my base with my turrets, robots, and guards, I’d feel stressed with that many beasts coming at me. Considering how many we had killed only a short while ago while taking the hospital, it was remarkable just how large this group was. It was no wonder no one had just wiped them out.

I could feel the clock ticking away as my Stealtco ran low, but I didn’t dare move faster. There was way too much junk and rubble on the ground. The beasts weren’t ones to clean up after themselves, and a single wrong step could either cause me to trip and fall or at least cause something to crack, alerting all of those beasts. When I finally reached the other side of the building and carefully climbed up into the yellow control compartment, I was covered in sweat, even though the night was rather cool.

I found the appropriate adapter and plugged the Allco in immediately. Some lights flashed on, and I immediately looked toward the bonfire across the street while cursing under my breath. It didn’t seem like any of the beasts had noticed though. They were too entranced in their tasks. They had finished cooking and were now eating excitedly, their teeth tearing into the dark flesh. I tried not to think about what they were eating. Would that girl be tossed on next? I had no time.

“Are you done?” I hissed.

“Hmph… of course. You have one minute before this thing starts moving.”

“Damn it!”

I wanted to curse at her for not being clearer earlier, but I didn’t have time to waste. I quickly opened the cab and then slid back down, making my way across the street. I moved swifter this time. My Stealthco only had a minute left, and if I was next to the machine when it turned on and everyone looked that way, I was more than just dead.

Unfortunately, I was moving in such a rush that I didn’t see a piece of rebar under some concrete I was stepping over. My foot caught on it, and I fell. This was the exact thing I was afraid would happen. My body slammed into a pile of debris. Several bricks fell, and a bunch of clatters came as I desperately made my way to my feet. Nearly forty beasts turned my direction, and I felt my back turn clammy.

“What was tha-“

Vrrrooooooom! A much louder and more apparent noise sounded out as the cab went off. It started driving forward and then turning. The large arm slammed into the side of the already unstable building where their bonfire was being held. This caused one of the columns to collapse. The sound of the motor and the collapsing building took their interest far more than a few bricks. The mutants began running toward the cab. They seemed to reason it was causing damage to their home, and if they didn’t stop it, the entire building would collapse.

The machine acted like it was possessed, wilding swinging that arm while moving it up and down. It seemed determined to give the building several more smacks, even though the arm was bent after the first one. With the beasts shouting to each other, the engine roaring, and the dust falling from the concrete above, creating a layer of fog that even started to douse the bonfire, I realized this was my best chance.

I scrambled over the piles, no longer trying to be quiet as I raced for the bag had been. I was relieved to see that the beast that had been holding it had dropped it to address the more pressing matters. I raced over to the bag, and then grabbed the rope, hastily undoing it. The girl inside was letting out curses and struggling, making it a bit more difficult than I would have liked.

“Quit that! I’m trying to help!” I hissed at her.

She seemed to hear me because her kicks stopped temporarily. I finally got the knots untied and then opened it, just as the bag fell off the girl, I heard a noise and turned. Standing right in front of us was one of the beasts. I didn’t know why, but I was pretty sure it was the one that had been holding the bag earlier. He had come back to check on her, even during the chaos.

“Shit!” I pulled my 9 mm and without thinking, fired three shots directly into his chest.

The beast looked down at his chest, back up at me, and then he let out an ear-piercing roar. The 9 mm was not effective at taking down a mutant at all.

“We need to go!” I grabbed the girl’s hand and then immediately ran.

A cruel smile formed on the beast’s face, and he began to run after me.

“There they are!” The path I was going back to the cage to jump into the guardhouse was immediately blocked by three mutants.

Not all of them had been in the bonfire. Some had been sleeping, but they had awoken to the noises and were heading out to see what was going on only to be right in the place I needed to be. What was with this luck?

“This way!”

I saw a small ally and darted for it.

“Wait!” I heard her call out, but with one chasing behind and three in front, there was no way we could afford to wait.

That’s what I was thinking, but I only managed to run twenty meters before I realized the issue. This ally ended with a brick wall. This was a dead end. We were trapped with four beasts coming our way.