It’s Not Easy Making Money In The Apocalypse

“You’re a mutant?” I hadn’t exactly processed what Cecelia had declared in my mind yet, and it had just come out as a question.

“Hmph… what of it, human?” She glared at me, but she had already covered up her face with her hood and only partially turned my way.

“She’s a revenant.” Cecelia hissed in my ear. “Humans are their primary food. You must kill her!”

“A revenant… but where are the teeth?” I was still speaking out loud.

“We only extrude our teeth when we’re hungry.” She sniffed, looking down at my hand. “Are you going to do something with that gun?”

I followed her eyes to where I was holding the gun. It was partially brought up toward her, but I had stopped halfway.

“Are you going to hurt me?” I asked hesitantly, not sure what to do.

“You’re the one with the gun.” She responded huffily, but when I didn’t move, she made an irritated sound in her throat. “You saved my life. If I immediately ate you here, wouldn’t I be unappreciative?”

“I guess that makes sense.” I lowered my gun.

“What are you doing? She’s dangerous!” Cecelia snapped. “Kill her.”

“I can hear you, you know.” The girl glared at my ear. “Revenant have very good hearing, annoying buzzing woman in his ear.”

“Ah!” I grabbed my ear, blushing slightly. “Um… that’s Cecelia… she’s just an AI, not a person.”

“Hmph… all human AI is bloodthirsty for people like me.” She responded bitterly.

“I don’t understand.” I shook my head. “Why did they capture you? Aren’t you another mutant?”

“We don’t all get along!” She shot me a look of disbelief. “They may not like the taste of other mutants, but they definitely would have killed me if you didn’t appear. I have to agree. Beasts are not as tasty as humans.”

“So, you ate a beast. Why did they cage you instead of just killing you?”

“My tribe had been hunting off the beasts for a while.” She sighed. “They were hoping my people would come to rescue me. I was the trap. Little did they know I left without permission. They… don’t know where I am.”

“You eat the beasts?”

“It’s not like we like it.” She sniffed. “However, humans are too wily and always travel in groups. We’d have starved if we didn’t pick them off one at a time. We very nearly did starve when they moved into the hospital, but then they got pushed back out again by those robots.”

I had once encountered a pack of revenants hunting while I was with Katarina. I did not doubt that the group I encountered was this group this girl belonged to. To think that the revenants started eating the beasts, causing the beasts to push west into the hospital at the expense of countless lives. Starving, they started hunting along the route to Twin Elms. Meanwhile, the beasts blocked the trade route between the rink and the Twin Elms. This was why I ended up going with Jacques and his mercenaries to the hospital to organize the robots and reclaim the hospital from the beasts.

It seemed like Argos city had a delicate balance going on at all times. Every action caused ripples through the wasteland, affecting people I didn’t know and might never meet. Blocking the beasts didn’t just keep them from attacking traders, but it kept the revenants from hunting them too.

It also meant that this woman I had saved had deserved her place in jail. She had killed who knew how many beasts, so the beasts had every right to capture and kill her in response. Then again, I remembered all for the human bodies on skewers around their fire, and I couldn’t bring myself to imagine them as victims whatsoever. It was just the harsh reality of the wasteland.

“I think we should just work together to get out of here, and then go our separate ways,” I explained.

“Fool.” Cecelia hissed, but I did notice she lowered her volume considerably in hopes that the girl didn’t hear her.

The woman watched me with one of her red eyes for a moment. “Are you willing to work with a revenant? We only see your kind as food.”

“Did you want to go on your own here?” I shot back.

She shook her head slightly. “This is a human base. Any sensors will be tuned to humans. A mutant like me will be targeted and shot on sight. Well, so will a human in a base like this, but you might have a little bit more of a chance than I do.”

“Hmph… then I guess we’re going to work together for now,” I responded. “I won’t attack you, and you won’t eat me.”

“Very well.” She nodded.

I ignored any protests that Cecelia gave, and the pair of us walked out into the hallway. Since the hallways only had so much room, I ended up getting much closer to her. I couldn’t help but take a side look now that we were in full lighting. I couldn’t see her eyes in her hood, but her chin was small and delicate, and she had pert red lips. I had seen enough glimpses of her that I had worked out her face. Well, she appeared a bit cold and dangerous, she was a pretty girl. I had imagined all of the mutants being horrible abominations, so it left me feeling like my understanding of mutants was off.

She seemed to notice me looking at her though, and her cheek twitched. “What is it?”

“When you say you eat people… is it that you drink their blood?” I asked.

She frowned slightly. “Why do you ask?”

“It’s just… you have pale skin, red eyes, sharp teeth, and you don’t like the light. Isn’t that a vampire? How old are you?”

“Y-you’re asking my age?” She sputtered in surprise.

“Are you a hundred or something?”

“A hundred years haven’t even passed since the MGV!” Cecelia barked in my ear.

“Ah, that’s right, but still…”

“I’m eighteen.” The girl responded, her voice slightly irritated. “And yes, we drink blood. I don’t know what a vampire is though.”

“So, ferals are zombies, revenants are vampires. If I had to categorize beasts, they’re like orcs? I wonder about the others. If I had to guess, skinwalkers would be lycans? What would a grunt or a fiend look like?”

She looked at me strangely. I was sure I was talking nonsense to her, but it did feel like an RPG coming to life. The Perco read off my stats like points, and I could increase those points with injections. Why not have zombies, vampires, and werewolves as enemies?

“I’ve only seen grunts.” She responded after a moment. “They kind of look like beasts, except they are really small, only come up to about your chest. They are completely green, have big noses, and are much smarter than the beasts. They also exist in very large numbers, but tend to remain indoors or in man-made structures.”

“Goblins then…” I finished the thought.

“Stop trying to compare things to your strange knowledge. These are comparable things.” Cecelia snapped.

“Yes, yes…” I sighed. “What is your name anyway?”

“Me?” She blinked. “It’s Zara.”

“Hey, the name’s Daniel.” I put out my hand.

She looked down at my hand for a moment, and then carefully brought her out from her robe. It was only when I saw the sharp nails that bordered on claws that I started to realize she wasn’t human. I still took her hand and shook it. Her hand was soft, but also very cold. I wondered if her heart still beat. All mutants evolved from zombies, and zombies were undead. In most lore, vampires were undead too. I felt I had already pushed things with Zara though, and I wasn’t willing to ask something like if she was dead or not. She might bite me just to spite me at that point.

I let go of her hand and turned back to the hallway just as we were passing by an intersection. That was when I heard a sound.

“Intruder detected.”

I grabbed Zara and dived. Gunfire sounded out a second behind me, and the spot where we were standing was suddenly filled with numerous blast marks. The firing continued for a moment before stopping.

“Intruder eliminated.” The robotic voice finished.

I let out a breath of relief. It was nice that the robot told us it was going to shoot before shooting. If I hadn’t gotten that warning, I would have assuredly been shot to bits. I didn’t see if it was a turret or some kind of robot, but I didn’t hear it approaching us either. However, if I had any question that this place had any kind of defense, I think that answered it immediately. Hearing some noises under me, I looked down to see that I was still on top of Zara. My legs were straddled around her, and my hands had ended up pressing on her chest.

I squeezed my hands. “They’re soft.”

I had just been surprised being as she was a vampire. No one ever talked about a vampire’s soft breasts. That turned out to be the wrong thing to say though. Her eyes lit up angrily, and her mouth started to open, showing teeth. I could also see her claws starting to clench. I had to diffuse the situation quickly. If I didn’t stop her from pulling out her teeth wouldn’t I be bit?

Without thinking about it, I leaned down, and a moment later, my lips pressed against hers. In retrospect, that was probably the wrong action to take.