Fragged

by Zachariah Dracoulis

  My oxygen was dwindling, as shown by the dark shadowing closing in around my vision, but I wasn’t gonna let that stop me.

  You’re feeling very sleepy.

  I ignored the game’s mocking and kept digging just as fast as I could, Chad finally behind me as the Mutie cracked through my dirt wall.

  Just die already, would you?

  With maybe five seconds on the clock I started digging upwards, the claustrophobia replacing the Mutieophobia as, by some crazy miracle, I hit wood, smashing through it with my axe and climbing out of the hole and into the cabin where a very confused Paul stood waiting.

  “What are yo-”

  “Come on Chad! Hurry!”

  The snarls and growls were getting closer and closer, and it looked like Chad wasn’t gonna make it, but then I saw his head.

  “It’s right behind me!” he shouted as he clambered up into the cabin with the rest of us.

  “Build a panel, now!” I roared as I pulled out my rifle and took aim at the hole, my fingers trembling as the faint green glow grew in intensity.

  Suddenly I was all reflex, my eyes locking on my target, my finger pulling the trigger, my hand pulling down the lever. I was like a well-oiled machine of death and after a few seconds I’d emptied my rifle in the face and chest of that single Mutie that would haunt my nightmares for months.

  +2 Firearm Skill

  Firearm Skill: 2/100

  Level Progression: 50/150

  But that wasn’t the last of them, and before long the screams had refilled the tunnel as more of the creatures poured in like ants.

  “Seal it!”

  “That won’t work,” Chad replied from somewhere behind me, “they’ll just smash it and come through anyway.”

  “Then what do we do?”

  “This.”

  Before I could demand to know what he was talking about he showed up beside me with a wooden bucket filled with water and poured it into the hole, creating a less-than-accurate amount of water that flushed through the tunnel and drowned out every last one of the screams.

  “Where did you-never mind, that’s a temporary fix at best, what happens when they…”

  My words escaped me as the sun slowly peeked out over the horizon and the air raid siren started up again, luring the Muties away to wherever it was they came from.

  “Oh sweet Jesus, thank you…”

  You survived the night. Great…

  Chapter Eight

  Melinda successfully delivered three baby girls and named them Felicity, Felisha, and Francesca.

  Community Population: 11/35

  Melinda has completed Medic Grade One.

  Looks like one of your specialists has gone ahead and furthered their ability in the medical field. Good for them, thriving in an environment with you. Anyway, your Medic will now always clean and dress wounds.

  ‘Grade?’ you might be thinking, ‘What do you mean Grade?’ Yeah, bet you thought you’d just get your citizens up to a specialist class and that’d be the end of it, right? Wrong. Idiot. For each of the specialist classes there are set Grades to complete. Engineer with five, Medic with three, Hunter with two, Gatherer with one, and finally Builder which is attached to the Engineer. Nice and simple, right?

  After I forced myself to read through every last bit of the game’s abusive rant, I turned to Paul who’d gone about making sure all the babies were safe, “When did you get around to making all the beds?” I asked as I looked around the incredibly crowded but unchanged, with the exception of Chad’s chest of wood, cabin, “And where did you put them?”

  I could practically hear it as Paul smiled at himself before handing the baby he was holding over to the mostly fully recovered mother, apparently the thought to ask if we were alright hadn’t crossed his mind for a second, “Come with me.”

  Chad and I listened and tailed after Paul as he left the cabin, reminding me once again that we still had to scrap the ute, “While you guys were out having fun in the woods-”

  “Getting chased down by Muties,” Chad interjected, making me smile, “continue.”

  “Yes, while you were getting chased down by Muties, I decided I’d make the unilateral decision to make room for m-our citizens.”

  It wasn’t until after we got a good ten feet from the cabin that Paul finally got us to turn around, revealing that he’d built an incredibly ugly rectangular structure that attached to the cabin.

  “Wait a minute…” I said as I realised what he was about to say, the ugly extension somehow making my mind more alert, “You were about to say ‘my citizens’ weren’t you? You thought we were gonna die so you figured you’d go ahead and start making this place in your vision.”

  “No I wasn…” he trailed off as I gave him a disbelieving look, “Okay fine, a little bit, but in my defence it was past midnight and the Js had just come back on their own.”

  “That doesn’t excuse the fact that you didn’t even bother looking for us before trying to set your claim.” Chad bit back coarsely.

  I wanted to be angrier, I really did, but for some reason I just started laughing, “You’re such an idiot. Come on, I should probably use this downtime to finally level up.”

  “So you’re not mad?” Paul asked as I started walking back toward the cabin, “Not even a little?”

  “Meh, I probably would’ve done the same. Doesn’t change the fact that you’re on dismantling the ute duty. That thing’s gonna start drawing in unwanted attention pretty soon.”

  Maybe it was the fact that we’d barely escaped with our lives the night before, or maybe it was simply because I was glad to have company, but as I walked back to that cabin full of people I felt nothing but lucky.

  Too bad I have a habit of being wrong.

  Like, always.

  Chapter Nine

  Special Trait Point used to purchase the Supreme Leader perk.

  Why am I not surprised that you picked that one? It’s pretty much what it sounds like, your citizens basically think of you as a God, any thoughts of mutiny being quashed by your radiance and your much talked about ability to talk to dolphins. You wanker.

  Normally I wouldn’t have had to have gotten that perk, for one thing I’d never been the proper leader before, and for another I hadn’t planned on keeping men around.

  The Js had proven themselves though, more than once, and as I watched them haul in load after load of wood I couldn’t help but wonder if they’d make a good workforce.

  “Hey Paul,” I asked as I made a mental note of what traits I’d get in the future, “did you feed the babies the berries from the fridge?”

  “No, I think that was… I don’t know, the Gatherer, how come?”

  “No reason.” I said as I looked at the three specialist babies in their adult sized beds.

  Felicity has become a Hunter.

  Meat is murder! Eh, whatever, this ‘ere Hunter specialist will now go out and collect meat without needing to be told, and if you’re lucky they might even teach a few others how to do the same.

  Felisha has become a Builder.

  The backbone of any great community, seriously, they make the position of leader seem irrelevant. What I’m saying is you’re useless and that Builders will be able to accomplish so much more than you ever will.

  Francesca has become an Engineer.

  Ah, the Engineer. Capable of so much, yet constrained to the limitations of working for the likes of you. Imagine if you had to work for an amoeba, that’s what it’s like for the Engineers. These guys work as architects, weapon developers, and just about everything else that requires the creative yet logical mind.

  I had to agree there, the Engineers were bloody brilliant, and when I did eventually get Francesca up to Grade Five she would prove to be absolutely and completely invaluable.

  “So what’s the plan now?” Chad asked as he joined me in the house of beds, “Just stick it out, get more wood and stone?”

  “Dunno,” I replied, finally taking my eyes off the b
abies, “but we’ve gotta do something to fill the time. We’ll need Francesca to be an adult before we can do anything major in terms of base building, and even then we’ll need a whole mess of resources.”

  Chad went silent for a few seconds, staring off into space as he took a moment to think, “We wanna build the bunker out of concrete, yeah?”

  “Yeah..?”

  “Well in order to do that we’re gonna need sand, stone, that sort of stuff, but also a cement mixer, and I think I know where we can get one.”

  “Where?” I asked, not bothering to hide the fact that he’d gotten me interested.

  A little chuckle escaped him and he looked me dead in the eyes, “Oh, you’re not gonna like it.”

  Chapter Ten

  “You guys are insane.” Paul said once Chad filled him in on where the mixer was and what we’d need to do in order to get it, “You know that, right?”

  “Aren’t we all?” I asked, my unexpected support of Chad’s plan coming as a pleasant surprise for him, especially considering it meant that I was able to support him rather than Paul.

  “I don’t see why you have a problem with it.” Chad said innocently, his eyes watching something just outside the cabin, “We’ve done more dangerous stuff before.”

  “With ghillie suits and assault rifles! Not a rifle and a couple of axes.”

  “Yeah, but that’s what makes it more exciting.”

  Clearly my taunting wasn’t doing anything to ease Paul’s concern, if anything it was making it worse, but hey, he’d live with it.

  “I’m just saying that storming a well-fortified compound might not be in our best interests.” Paul said, completely ignoring me.

  “Who said anything about storming the place?” Chad asked with a laugh, “We’ll just do what we did to escape the Muties. Worse thing that can happen is they find us and we shoot them before they shoot us.”

  “Or they shoot us before we shoot them. We aren’t talking about Bobby K and his barely functioning mill, we’re talking about the freakin’ Metois.”

  The Metois were basically the biggest PMC clan in Thren. They had developer support, free game time, NPC human guards posted around their compounds, access to new DLC days before anyone else, and had a habit of making examples of anyone who was stupid enough to pick a fight with them.

  Chad and I wanted to be stupid.

  “You’re right Paul,” I said, forcing back the urge to bite off my own tongue for saying something so painful, “but it’s not like we’re going to war with them or anything, we’re just… extrajudicially acquiring a cement mixer from them.”

  “They once chased an entire clan off the game for stealing a bicycle from their garage! A bicycle!”

  Chad sighed and looked between Paul and I a few times, “Look, we don’t have to, but I’m telling you, this is gonna be easy as dancing.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked curiously, “None of us can dance.”

  “It’s a very common phrase.”

  I raised my eyebrow, “No it’s not. I think you mean easy as pi-”

  “Forget the metaphor! The point is that we’re not gonna do anything that’ll have lasting effects. We don’t have any colours or banners, we aren’t planning on selling it, and I’m pretty damn sure we aren’t gonna advertise the fact that we stole from them.”

  The room went quiet for a little while, Paul’s mind clearly still trying to shake loose a way to get us not to go through with Chad’s plan, but eventually he gave up with a tired and defeated sigh, “Alright…” he trailed off, “let’s go get ourselves killed.”

  “That’s what I like to hear!” Chad exclaimed, balancing out the mood in the cabin, “Now, let’s go round up some cellies.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Getting the cellies was easier than I initially thought it was gonna be, mostly it was just a matter of confusing the AI to the point where they just followed the three of us at different intervals.

  “Wouldn’t it just be easier to tame ‘em?” Paul asked as he jumped over a large root and nearly got nipped.

  “That’d tie them to us, meaning when the Metois took them out they’d have our clan painted all over them.”

  Chad really had thought of everything, something that only became clearer and clearer as we shuffled our way through the forest toward where he’d said the Metois’ compound was.

  “You think the Js will keep the babies safe?” I asked, my mind apparently soaking up some of Paul’s concern, “I’m just wondering if they’ll be able to pull off both the mining and the protection detail.”

  “They’ll be fine,” Chad replied with a voice I’d come to expect from TV dads, “trust me. If a player wanders by they’ll probably get spooked before they get anywhere near the nursery.”

  I admired Chad’s confidence, but as the sounds of the busy forest compound started to come into earshot I retook my position as leader, taking point with my rifle ready.

  “Alright, so Paul’s gonna come with me while you lead the cellies round to the main gate. You sure about this?”

  “Positive, see you guys back here in ten.”

  And with that Chad was gone, his pack of hungry dinos tailing him like puppies after steak.

  Paul and I spent the next thirty seconds in complete silence, something that I couldn’t stand when I was around people, “You feeling okay Paul?” I asked as the compound’s concrete walls came into view and I got into a crouched position.

  “Yeah, how come?”

  “Dunno, you just seem… different. I know you’ve never exactly been a big talker, but even for you this seems kinda… off.”

  “Have I?” he replied as he got to work digging straight down in front of me, “Guess I’ve just been a bit preoccupie-”

  “Cut the bullshit.” I said bluntly once he’d dropped into the hole, “I know for a fact that you’re not one to get preoccupied, and even when you do you start getting weirdly talky.”

  I followed after him once he’d started digging toward the wall and gave me some room.

  “It’s you and Chad.” he finally said after fifteen seconds of silence, “Ever since we met up it’s been you, him, and me. We haven’t been much of a unit. Instead you give me orders and tasks like I’m one of the Js and I get left feeling like you’d rather not have me around.”

  You hear that?

  I didn’t even notice the text at first, my mind too set on what was to be the first time Paul had ever really opened up to me, but when I did I was forced to come to a complete stop.

  “Did you just get that?”

  “Mmhm… Do you hear anything?”

  “No.”

  Oooh, it’s getting closer.

  “Dig.” I said flatly, the sound of whatever it was that was coming still not quite reaching us.

  “But what if-”

  “Just do it.”

  I bet you can guess what it is.

  We’d stopped talking by that point, instead opting to make a mad scramble toward the compound.

  “Concrete,” Paul spat as we hit the wall, “they’ve built the bloody thing into the ground.”

  “Then go deeper!” I hissed, the ground around us starting to vibrate, but still no sound.

  We dug another three metres down before finally finding where the wall stopped and restarting our dig forward.

  Suddenly there was a deep rumbling echoing through our tunnel and I started to get an idea of what we were up against, “Is that a-”

  The sound of treads smashing through dirt and a tank collapsing through the relatively thin layer of dirt we’d left answering my question.

  That’s right boys and girls, a genuine tank! How you managed to find one of these rolling barricades of death I don’t know, less so how you’re still alive to read this, but hey, even the dumbest dog has his day.

  “Up, dig up now!’ I shouted as quietly as I could.

  “We can’t jump that high!”

  “We’re gonna suffocate you idiot!�
�

  Let’s just ignore the fact that I did that before, alright?

  Paul quickly did as I told him, digging a small hole straight up until we were finally hit in the face with daylight.

  “Thank God…” I muttered, “Alright, let’s keep goin’, the driver of that tank’s gonna be pissed in a few seconds.”

  “Why’s that?”

  As if to answer my question for me the sound of metal clanking against itself came from not far behind us and we were both hit with a new notification.

  See, now that the treads have come off that bad boy you’ve effectively made the most useful tool in the world into a sentry gun. And I bet you haven’t the foggiest on how to fix it, do you?

  “So much for quick and quiet…”

  Chapter Twelve

  With no small amount of moaning on Paul’s behalf we made it to where we guessed the Metois’ tool-shed was…

  Fine, we dug up in a bunch of the wrong places, sue me.

  Anyway, apparently Paul’s desire to tell me how hard it was basically being an NPC had vanished, replaced instead with his concern that we were all going to die as we sat crouched behind the two storey building that was the tool-shed.

  “What if they caught him at the gate?”

  “He’ll make it.”

  “But what if he doesn’t?”

  “Then we go ahead as planned and meet him back at Home Base when he respawns. Now just shut up, someone’ll hear you.”

  I knew they wouldn’t, benefits of putting a whole lotta concrete between us and the nearest watch tower, but Paul didn’t have to know that.

  To be fair though I was starting to have my doubts, but right as I went to make a move Chad appeared around the corner, puffed out and with blood dripping out of him like a faucet.

  “Who the fuck just leaves barbed wire on the ground?” he laughed, “Either of you guys got a bandage?”

  Without a second’s hesitation I threw one to him and let him go to work patching himself up, “Did they spot you?”