Vermin Alpha
Level 10
Health: 1,190/6,900
Allistor shouted, “Look out!” as the alpha launched itself forward at surprising speed. Jaws open wide, its incisors pointed forward as it charged their position. Most had the presence of mind to dodge left or right. Meg, unfortunately, did two things wrong. First, she screamed. And as the alpha oriented on the sound, she simply backed up, instead of moving out of its way.
The blind alpha’s aim wasn’t perfect. It clipped Meg’s left side as it blasted past her into the wall. But the razor-sharp incisors, each the size of a machete, cut a nasty wound across her left shoulder. The leather and skin opened all the way to the bone. She screamed again and dropped her shotgun as she was knocked off her feet. The alpha didn’t notice as it had run full force into the wall and stunned itself.
Regrouping, the party all fired into the prone giant rat, except for Nancy and Amanda, who cast heals on Meg. Nancy dashed forward and grabbed Meg’s right arm, dragging her back away from the thrashing alpha.
A whip of the rat’s tail caught Nancy in the back of the legs. She fell forward as the rest of the group heard a snapping sound. To her credit, she managed not to scream as she went down. She and Meg lay together in a heap, only about ten feet from the boss.
Allistor couldn’t risk one of them being killed. He put away his shotgun and equipped his spear. Shouting at the boss, he ran forward, spear in front of him like a lance. The vermin alpha turned to focus on his voice, its face coming to bear directly at him as it began to keen again.
Allistor fought the urge to cover his ears as the painful waves of sound washed over him. Keeping his eyes on the boss, he launched himself forward, jamming the spear point down the big rat’s throat. He twisted and pushed, then yanked the weapon out and drove it back in again. As he pushed the head backward, one of the alpha’s foreclaws swiped at his leg. Three deep furrows opened up on his thigh and blood sprayed. Ignoring the pain, he gritted his teeth and leaned into the spear. A moment later there was a pop! as his spear point broke through and drove into the alpha’s skull. It twitched a few times, then went still.
A scream from Amanda made him spin around, his weight on his injured leg. The pain made him see spots for a moment as he tried to find her.
One of the rats that had charged into the flames had somehow managed to drag itself forward far enough to reach them. A slimy trail of burnt skin and blood stretched out behind it all the way to the flickering flames. It had latched onto Amanda’s calf and was trying to drag her off balance.
Michael jammed his sword into the thing’s eye, killing it instantly. Then he and Ramon pried the thing’s jaw open to free Amanda’s leg. Nancy cast a heal on her and handed her a potion. Then she turned and did the same for Allistor.
The fight leveled up everyone but Allistor. He was still a few thousand points from level nine. He sat with his back against the wall as he munched on some of Sam’s beef jerky and drank iced tea from a bottle. Though his health bar had only dropped about a quarter from his wounds, he’d lost a good bit of blood. He watched the others loot the remaining bodies as Amanda came to sit next to him. He shared both food and drink with her, smiling when she made a nom, nom, nom sound as she chewed the jerky.
“Gotta remember to watch your back,” he offered casually.
She took a drink to wash down the jerky and replied, “I was busy trying to heal your dumb ass. Once again you let the beasties bite you.”
Chuckling, he said, “Technically, it slashed me.” He pointed to the three cuts in his leather pants. Each one was a good six inches long. Lilly was going to need to repair those for him. “You’re the one that let herself get bit.”
She gave him the evil eye for a moment, then snorted, “I suppose that’s true. Hurt like a bitch, too. Hurt worse when they pulled those teeth out.”
Allistor nodded in agreement. “Yeah, it always hurts worse on the way out.”
They sat for a few more minutes as the others reloaded weapons and finished looting. Allistor rose and looted the boss. He got a hundred fifty klax, four alpha claws, and a scroll!
Putting everything into his ring, he said, “I think that’s it, folks. Not much of a dungeon, but it was good experience and good practice.” He winked at Michael. “In one of my games, we could all teleport back to home base now. But it looks like we’ve got a long walk ahead of us. Stay sharp – we don’t know if there are more vermin roaming around down here.”
Sam added, “At least those ones that took that left turn.”
They set off back through the tunnels, Ramon consulting his map as they went and directing them when to turn. They took a few side tunnels they hadn’t followed before, just so Ramon could fill in his map. It took them forty minutes to reach the manhole where they’d entered.
Allistor went up first, carefully checking the surrounding debris before climbing the last few rungs of the ladder. He kept watch as the others joined him one by one. Together they walked quietly back to the gates of the Warren, where Lilly let them in.
*****
As more days passed, the citizens of the Warren kept busy with foraging and crafting. Four days after the vermin dungeon run, a group of three octopoids wandered into their sensor zone. Allistor took Sam, Lilly, Amanda, and Ramon outside to deal with them. Lilly had missed out on the dungeon and needed some experience. He invited them to group up, and they went to work.
The group made short work of the monsters, firing on them from a distance until they fell. The Stronghold received more system points for a successful defense, and the group got some good experience. Lilly leveled up and was thrilled to get a dozen pieces of octopoid hide. She’d been working with piles of vermin leather for days, and she was getting a little sick of the smell.
The most disturbing happening of the week came when Meg, not wanting to cook vermin meat, had put it up for sale on the open market just for kicks. They’d collected over a hundred pieces of it from the dungeon run. Thinking nobody would want it, she put up twenty pieces and priced them at one klax per piece.
Within minutes, someone had purchased them. And a minute after that, she received a message from the buyer.
We’re starving here. There are twenty of us, and we’ve killed everything we can find close by. If you have any more, please sell it to us.
She burst into Allistor’s quarters to relay the message to him. His first reaction was “They must be starving. Who would eat vermin meat if they didn’t have to?”
“That’s what I was thinking. They must be humans, right? We should try to help them.”
“Can you send a message back?”
“I… I don’t know?” Meg looked thoughtful. “I don’t remember seeing a way to reply.”
Allistor walked with her back to the kiosk. “There’s a way to do direct sales. When I sold the Mustang, some brokers suggested it. Let’s see if we can find them and help.”
Meg pulled up her holo display when they reached the kiosk. She found the message, and Allistor pointed out the [reply] button. She quickly dictated the message.
We have more. Can do a direct sale to you. Who are you? And where are you? Maybe we can help?
The reply came back almost instantly.
Oh, thank god. We’re survivors from a small town about thirty miles outside of Denver. Half of us are elderly and children. Haven’t eaten in two days. How much more can you sell us? Our funds are limited, but we’ll take another twenty pieces if you have them?
Meg had tears in her eyes as she read the message. She didn’t even look at Allistor before replying.
We have about a hundred more pieces. The price is one klax. Total. I’m Meg. What is your name?
That is very kind of you. My name is Luther. I’m sort of the leader of this group. We figured out how to make a stronghold, and the system chose me. We’ve been talking about leaving, starting over again somewhere with more food. But we’re afraid.
Allistor said, “I know, Meg. They�
�re maybe a day’s drive from us. If the roads are clear. We need to call a meeting.”
“You do that,” Meg said as she transferred the remaining vermin meat to Luther. “I’m going to find them some better food and send it. You already know my vote.” She stomped off toward the kitchen as Allistor smiled at her back.
He began calling everyone together. It wasn’t hard. Every building in the cavern was within shouting distance. When they’d all gathered at what he now thought of as the meeting table, he caught them up.
Amanda was the first to vote. “We have to go get them. They’ve got kids starving.”
Sam held up a hand. “That’s more than double our number here. Even if some of them are kids, it sounds like half of them aren’t. What if the adults are trouble?”
There was silence around the table. Even Chloe, whose eyes had brightened at the mention of other kids, sat quietly, petting Max who sat next to her.
Ramon was next to speak. “I have to say, I don’t think I could live with myself if we didn’t at least check it out. I know it’s a long trip. Probably dangerous. But we’ve been talking about growing this place, right?”
A few heads around the table nodded.
Michael agreed with Ramon. “Yeah. If it was just adults, I might feel differently. Maybe wait and talk to them some more. Or make them figure out how to get to us. But with kids… we have to try.”
All eyes turned to Sam, who’d voiced the only objection so far. He shrugged. “I think it’s a risk. But every time we go outside these days, it’s a risk. I’ll want to be very sure of what kind of people they are before we bring them back here.”
Everyone agreed with that point without hesitation.
“Just as a formality, show of hands in favor of a road trip?” Allistor raised his hand. So did everyone else.
“Fine. We’re going. I say three of us should go. Myself, Meg, and Sam the skeptic.” He winked at Sam.
“That’s not many if they turn out to be trouble,” Michael said.
“I’m going too.” Amanda slapped a hand on the table. “If there are malnourished kids and seniors there, they might need some medical attention.”
With that settled, Sam went to go tell Meg, who was back at the kiosk. The others got to work planning the trip.
The next morning, they were ready to go. The group was taking the box truck, a pickup, and two ATVs. The idea being if the trucks got bogged down somehow, or they got attacked and damaged, they could escape on the ATVs and find shelter.
They loaded tents, crates of food, medical supplies, extra gas, and some weapons into both trucks. Once they reached the other survivors, they could either load them into the box truck or find more vehicles to bring them back in. And they could use the box truck to haul anything cool they scavenged.
Meg had gotten more specifics on their location. Their town was just over two hundred miles away, up on a mountain. On old Earth, that was a trip of three or four hours one way. But if the main roads were blocked or damaged, it might take a full day or more to get that far.
Sam and Meg climbed into the pickup and took the lead. Allistor and Amanda followed in the box truck. They drove up and out of the Warren and were on their way. The group had done a little clearing of Main Street, a bit here and there, so it took them less than ten minutes to get out of town. Sam led the way to the interstate, picking up speed to 30mph. They’d agreed not to go faster on back roads where something might jump out of the woods.
Once they reached the interstate, Sam picked up the pace again. This time they cruised along at 45mph. At this speed, the engines were relatively quiet, and they got decent gas mileage while still making good time. And a wreck at that speed probably wouldn’t be fatal.
The first hour of the trip was uneventful. They had to slow down and weave through abandoned cars in a few places. Once Sam had to use the pickup to push a few cars aside to clear the road for the box truck. The few radio stations that had kept transmitting that first week had died out. Sam had told everyone to be on the lookout for a short wave radio set that they might be able to use to speak with other survivors. So far they hadn’t located one.
At about the eighty-mile mark, they hit their first real snag. They were passing by a small lake when a massive tortoise-looking thing burst from the water and charged them. There was only a narrow spit of land between the water and the highway shoulder, and the monster covered it quickly. It was the size of a Sherman tank, the top of its spike-covered shell maybe fifteen feet off the ground. A long tail extended out behind it, with a set of three nasty-looking spikes at the end.
Ancient Shellback
Level 22
Health: 130,000/130,000
Thinking quickly, Sam gunned his engine and swerved while Allistor slammed on his brakes. The shellback had been targeting the pickup. With the added speed, Sam had managed to outrun it, the thing’s momentum carrying it across the highway and into the median. It slid down the slope, nearly rolling over as its shell caught on a stump. The monster immediately began to right itself and try to turn, but it was more cumbersome than it had been when moving straight forward.
Allistor took advantage and gunned the truck’s engine, shooting forward and past the monster before it could right itself. Both trucks sped away, with everyone watching their mirrors to see if the ancient mob followed them.
When it seemed as if they were clear, Amanda let out the breath she’d been holding. “Holy shit, did you see that thing? It was literally a living tank. I wouldn’t be surprised if it could shoot fire out its mouth or something!”
“Yeah. Level twenty. That thing was no joke. Probably could have eaten that titan we killed. We’ll have to figure a way around it on the way back. Or distract it somehow. It must have been ambushing people here this whole time. Other creatures too, if it’s up to level twenty. Unless the system sent it here that way.”
They continued another twenty miles along the interstate before it was time to hit the state highways. These were much smaller two-lane roads with trees and the occasional house or patch of businesses along either side. Sam slowed them back down to 30mph and they crept along.
They’d only made it a couple of miles when they encountered an obstacle. A multi-car pileup that included a semi-trailer blocked the road. The vehicles were all burned, their tires useless. There was no way to move the wreckage.
Sam drove the pickup off the shoulder and into the steeply sloped grass that led down to a drainage ditch. He was able to creep around the wreckage and get back on the road. A minute or so later he came walking back around.
“The grass is soft, but if you keep moving, you should be okay. The truck isn’t heavily loaded.” He hopped into the cab as Amanda scooched over, and Allistor started forward. Sam gently coached him through it as they went off the shoulder into the grass.
“Take a shallow angle, boy. You don’t want to start to slide. That’s it… good. Now, gun it!”
Allistor did as he was told, and they got back onto the road with only some minor slippage of the tires and flying mud. As they pulled up next to Meg, Sam said, “That’s gonna be harder on the way back with a full load. Let’s hope it doesn’t rain.”
They crept along the state road for another five miles or so before they found another pile-up. This one stretched for hundreds of feet, with dozens of cars involved. Crunched car bodies and old bloodstains spoke to fatalities, and probably monster predation afterwards. With no way to get around since even the grassy areas were blocked, they turned around and retreated to the previous intersection.
Sam knew this part of the country well, having lived there most of his life. But without a map, they were just guessing at what roads might take them in the general direction they needed to go. After more than an hour detour, they managed to get back onto the same state highway.
By the time it began to get dark, they’d covered about a hundred and fifty miles. Better than Allistor had expected, actually. They had planned to sleep inside the box truck
if they needed to spend a night out on the road. But Sam found a farmhouse with a storm cellar that looked promising. They parked outside, and Sam and Allistor went up to the house. After knocking several times, they let themselves in and explored the house.
Unsurprisingly, they found it in chaos. Bloodstains on the floor with paw prints meandering all around the house. They quietly closed the door behind them and moved around to the storm cellar. Its heavy wooden doors were still intact. Opening just one, they descended the short stairway to the cellar. Allistor cast a light globe, and it illuminated the entire space. Not very large, all four walls were lined with shelves that were in turn filled with jars of fruits and pickles and such. Sam whistled. “We should take some of this with us. I’m sure those people could use it.
Back outside, they unloaded bedrolls and weapons and some food and water. Retreating into the cellar, Allistor secured the doors from the inside with an iron bar. The floor was stone and immaculately clean. Whoever had lived here had obviously put a lot of care into the place. They opened up their bedrolls, took some time to eat and drink quietly, and then settled in to get some sleep.
Allistor was awakened by Amanda in the very early hours of the morning. She had curled up next to him, their bedrolls side by side. Now she poked him a few times in the gut as she placed a hand over his mouth to silence him. When he was fully awake, she pointed at the door, then touched his ear.
He quickly recognized the sound of canids snuffling around outside. The storms doors creaked a bit as one of them must have walked across them. A shuffling sound to his right told him that Sam and/or Meg was awake as well. A moment later he heard the scrape of a gun barrel on stone as one of them lifted their weapon.
They sat there for almost an hour, not making a sound as the monsters roamed above. A few times there were scratches at the doors, even some low growls of frustration. But eventually, the night went silent again as they moved on. Everyone lay back down and did their best to reclaim sleep. It took Allistor another hour before his eyes drifted shut and stayed shut.
Shadow Sun Survival: Shadow Sun Book One Page 19
