Fragged

by Zachariah Dracoulis

  I still didn’t get it, but luckily he picked up on that before I had to say anything.

  “Look, you, and I’m only guessin’ it was you based on your proximity with the farm, breakin’ into the compound was probably the most exciting thing to have happened in months for me.” he said with a smile that quickly turned into a small frown, “The game had become like a job up until that point, it was always ‘guard this, go here, do this’, and when I wanted something for myself I always ended up going with a team and we’d clear out a place in seconds. I’m guessin’ you guys planned the attack, yeah?”

  “Yeah,” I replied before cursing myself out for admitting we’d been the ones to attack them, “but I had no idea the truck would show up. We had nothing to do with that.”

  “And that’s just the thing! Random, unplannable things happened and you guys just had to adapt or die. There was rarely anything like that with the Metois, and it was so damn rare that anything anywhere near dangerous for us would happen.”

  Again, not an idiot, but… I don’t know, he didn’t seem to be reading from a script, and all his complaints seemed to have genuine emotion behind them instead of some variation of ‘Yeah, being a law-abiding citizen sucks and I totally love drugs, that’s why I wanna know where you bought them from, I’m not a cop or nothin’ though.’

  Plus, the opportunity to be sceptical was fast shrinking as we drew closer to home, the engine bay finally starting to smoke as leaves, dirt, and loose branches started to clog up the works despite my best efforts to steer clear of the trees.

  Are you trying to become some kind of vehicular arborist or something? Maybe try not hitting the things that actually have a purpose, unlike you.

  “You do know that if this truck explodes we’ll die, right?” Miles asked with what sounded like genuine concern, “And I doubt that the cargo’ll be salvageable.”

  “Look, mate,” I spat, his worry seeming to reset my mind back to the typical state of aggression for some reason, “I’m takin’ a big risk bringin’ you back, alright? So I don’t need you tellin’ me that I need to be careful.”

  “Where’s all that comin’ from?”

  “It’s comin’ from the fact that I’m finally past the ‘Shock’ stage of havin’ you thrust yourself into my life, and straight into the ‘What the fuck are you doing?’ stage.”

  “I… Is that directed at me or at-”

  “It’s obviously directed at me, moron. Shit!” I snapped as we hit a rock.

  There was nothing to worry about at first, but then I watched as the front passenger side of the truck, the part that had taken the brunt of the damage, started to lower.

  Looks like you’ve lost a tyre. I’m sure it wasn’t your fault at all though, right?

  “I think we’ve lost a tyre.” Miles said, aggravating me further despite the fact that I knew there was no way that he could’ve known that he was repeating what had already been said to me, “Want me to change it? It’ll take like five secon-”

  “No,” I growled, “I wanna get home and have everything go back to normal, alright? I’m fuckin’ done with surprises.”

  About that… Remember when I said that whole thing about how the guys could handle things?

  Well, as we finally came crashing through the trees, the sound of something cracking in the engine bay proving that I’d definitely broken the truck, I discovered that I was wrong.

  Dead wrong.

  Chapter Eleven

  “What in the sweet motherfuck…” I muttered as I sat bolted to my seat, my knuckles cracking and popping as I flexed my fists in rage.

  A herd! You’re probably going to get trampled! How amazing!.. Yeah… those exclamation points have kinda drained away the happiness I initially felt when I saw that you were probably going to get smooshed into a soft paste. Thanks a lot.

  There were a full dozen stegosauruses, or is it stegosauri? Fuck it, either, both, who cares? Point is they were everywhere, meandering about and destroying the perfectly good tree cover we had.

  “I take it you didn’t always have a pile of dinos wandering around your Home Base?”

  “No, no I didn’t.” I said bitterly and continuing to stay perfectly still in my seat, “What the Hell happened here?”

  “Do you have a female steggy on base? Because that’d do it.”

  “Zo!” Chad yelled over the sounds of munching dinos, “Zo! I’m so sorry!”

  Knowing that Chad was alive finally gave me the courage to get out of the truck, and no, that doesn’t mean I’m admitting I was scared. It just means that… you know what? I don’t have to explain myself to you.

  I immediately regretted getting out of the truck though as the second my foot hit the ground I was bombarded.

  Felicity has successfully tamed a dinosaur.

  Felicity has successfully tamed a dinosaur.

  Felicity has successfully tamed a dinosaur.

  Felicity has successfully tamed a dinosaur.

  Felicity has successfully tamed a dinosaur.

  Felicity has successfully tamed a dinosaur.

  Felicity has successfully tamed a dinosaur.

  Felicity has successfully tamed a dinosaur.

  Felicity has successfully tamed a dinosaur.

  Felicity has successfully tamed a dinosaur.

  Felicity has successfully tamed a dinosaur.

  Felicity has successfully tamed a dinosaur.

  Felicity has claimed the dinosaurs for Zoey’s Fighters, would you like to GIVE THEM TO FELICITY or KEEP THEM FOR COMMUNITY USE?

  Felicity now owns a total of 13 dinosaurs.

  Felicity has named her pet Roger.

  Felicity has named her pet Richard.

  Felicity has named her pet Ringo.

  It was difficult, but I successfully managed to pull my eyes away from side of the screen as the other nine names popped up, but the one change in pattern did catch my attention.

  Felicity has completed Hunter Grade Two.

  Would you look at that? You kept someone alive long enough for them to reach the maximum level in their field. Great job I guess?

  Looks like your Hunter has proven to be quite the… hunter, there’s no other way to really say that, is there? Anyway, they’ll now set traps around your Home Base that’ll catch prey and predator alike, as well as being able to show a few ‘lesser’ tribespeople how to be better at getting their own food. Careful now, before long they’ll be autonomous and won’t need you anymore, and when that happens… well, let’s just say that I look forward to that day.

  I don’t know why, but for some reason that’s when I came to the stunning realisation that we had a big problem with all the new steggies.

  A very big problem.

  “Why,” I growled as I thundered toward the cabin with Miles right behind me, pushing past the steggies who all seemed to want to lick our faces, “in the everlasting fuck have I got a group of male dinos thumping around the front of my Goddamn house!? Do you know what kind of a spotlight that puts on us!?”

  “It’s not my fault,” Chad replied defensively from his perceived safety behind the door, “that farmer dude’s stegg brought them all in with her pheromones, it’s the same stuff that scares off the Muties.”

  “I don’t give a flyi-”

  The door is locked.

  Door’s definitely locked, but I know you’re gonna try it another three or four times anyway. I bet you’re the type of person who eats the hot food despite several warnings, huh?

  “When the shit did we get a lock?”

  “Paul made it before,” Chad replied, “it’s just a wooden latch, but it keeps people out.”

  “Yeah, well it’s keepin’ me out.”

  The door is locked.

  “Unlock the door.”

  “No.”

  The door is locked.

  “Unlock. The. Door.”

  “No. Not until you calm down.”

  The door is locked.

  Ha! Knew it!

 
“Unlock this fucking door, or I swear to God I will fucking end you!”

  “See? See this right here?” Chad said, his voice somewhat muffled by the wooden barrier between us, “This is why I’m not unlocking the door.”

  “Right, that’s it! Shoot it down.” I said, turning to face Miles as I did so, “Now.”

  Miles seemed just a tad reserved about shooting people he didn’t know for some reason, “I don’t thin-”

  “Good, you don’t need to think. Shoot.”

  “Have you got someone else out there with you?” Chad asked nervously, “Why do you have someone else with you?”

  “Because my current clan members are fucking retarded!”

  I am unsure as to why I had so much rage, after all there were benefits to having a bunch of dinos around, but I’m sure the same could be said for spaghetti, but when it’s all over the floor it’s understandable that you’d be a bit upsgetti.

  “Shoot it dow-”

  “No! Wait, just… Look, if you promise you won’t be mad I’ll open the door. Do you promise?”

  I let that question hang in the air a while before answering with a flat “No.”

  “…I don’t know what I was expecting,” Chad replied in complete and utter defeat, “hold on…”

  There was nothing for a few seconds as Chad took a few deep breaths, and then the sound of a latch being lifted gave me the signal I needed to push through the door and discover what Chad had been hiding from me.

  “Oh… hi Zo,” Paul said from where he laid flat on the ground, “back so soon?”

  It was a mess to say the least, blood everywhere, discarded medical supplies, and a good deal of groaning to top off the whole World War I medical tent vibe the cabin was giving off.

  And there was Melinda, twitchily running between the four grievously wounded men as she tried to make sense of what was going on around her.

  Melinda has completed Medic Grade Two.

  Your Medic’s doing well in spite of you, or because you’re so inept at everything they’re having to constantly fix a million tiny boo-boos, either way it has nothing to do with your ability to train them. They’re now a lot more thorough when cleaning and dressing wounds, and can now perform minor surgeries and diagnoses. Oh, and because they’re so much better than you, they can now train nurses, which is yet another group that’ll go underappreciated in your little ‘clan’.

  “What happened in here?” I asked, all the anger slipping away as I looked at the severely hurt Js.

  “A bunch of horny steggies,” Miles said, “that’s what happened. Were you guys just all outside or..?”

  “Excuse me, who the fuck are you?” Paul asked without so much as trying to hide his irritation, “Why’s this guy coming in here telling me what happened to me?”

  “Because…” I trailed off, realising that saying he saved me was inaccurate, and saying I saved him was an oversimplification, and also a sign that I actually gave a damn about him, which I most certainly did not.

  “Because I happened to be in the truck when Zoey flogged it.” Miles answered for me, “Are you guys gonna be alright?”

  “According to Melinda, yeah.” Chad replied, his arms crossed against his chest in anger, “Her charts put them all above fifty percent healed, so they should be up and about in no time. Now, you, explain.”

  “Oi,” I barked, “you don’t call the shots around here, not until I get an answer as to why there’s a bunch of steggies out there.”

  Chad looked at me confusedly, “Your new… friend kinda explained it already, didn’t he? They all came for Felicity’s pet, then she tamed ‘em. End of story.”

  “No, not end of story, why are they-”

  “Look, Zo, I can’t be expected to take ‘em all out by myself, can I? I’d get killed and they’d probably tear down the entire cabin in the attack.” Chad said calmly and politely before turning back to Miles, “So right now the only thing that can really be fixed, or at least explained in new detail, is why you’ve got a soldier roaming around with you and a Metois truck.”

  Everyone in the room was staring at me after that, waiting for a response that I really didn’t want to give.

  I was supposed to be coming back with a bunch of resources so that we could start doing some awesome stuff with building our base.

  I was supposed to start seeing the fruits of my labour and actually start toward getting everything together.

  I was supposed to be having fun for shit’s sake…

  Ugh, it had been a Hell of a day.

  Death threats.

  Gunfights.

  Dinos.

  More gunfights.

  I just wasn’t prepared for everything to get so damn complicated so damn quickly, you know? I figured I’d have at least another few days of just fun messing around and getting to do what I want.

  But no, instead I get confusion, loud noises, and annoying confrontation in my game time.

  Never offer to be the leader of anything.

  It sucks arse.

  FRAGGED 4

  Chapter One

  “Wow…” Chad trailed off as he looked between Miles and I, “That’s just… wow…”

  Chad had been somewhat reticent about hearing the tale that led to me showing up with a Metois truck, but after I’d gotten to the part where I offed those two guys in the woods he’d become absolutely engrossed.

  To be fair, I may have embellished slightly, but that’s what makes for the greatest stories, right?

  “So, Miles, let me get this straight,” Paul said, his annoyance equal only to Chad’s amazement, “you got shot in the head, at point-blank range no less, and walked it off?”

  “That’s what you wanna ask about?” I replied with an amused huff, “Nothing about how I managed to kill two dudes like I was freakin’ Neo, or how I stole a Metois truck right out from under a fire team’s nose? You wanna know how an armoured guy survived getting shot in the head with a weak as shit pistol?”

  Paul went to shake his head, stopped, went to nod, stopped again, then scoffed, “I’m only asking because I’m bedridden for the next hour or so ‘cause I broke my leg, a bullshit injury that happened due to bullshit circumstances, and then got rammed by a dino ages afterwards. Meanwhile, GI Miles ‘ere takes a bullet to the brainpan and is absolutely fine.”

  “I wouldn’t say I’m fine,” Miles interjected, “my vision keeps going blurry and I think my stats are droppi-”

  “He’s fine ‘cause he was wearing a helmet,” I snapped coarsely, “you’re bedridden because you weren’t careful after breaking your leg.”

  There I was again, going straight for the attack on Paul, even though the poor bastard was horribly injured and confined to what barely passed as a mattress.

  Eh, he probably deserved it.

  “Only becaus-” Paul started before I could cut him off.

  “I swear to all the Gods, old and new, that if you blame me for the stegosaurus rampage I’ll cut your bloody throat and let you bleed out while I teabag you into the next world.”

  Okay, maybe that was a bit rough, but at least it shut him up.

  Though I think it did call into question whether or not I should be leader among the others in the room.

  ‘Quick, change the subject.’

  “So,” I said, turning away from Paul, “about Miles joining our little group. Who’s in favour?”

  Chad’s hand shot up along with mine, and, after a few seconds, Paul joined in, begrudgingly of course.

  “Good, now, what about you Miles, you still happy to join the fray?”

  The ex-Metoi member was obviously uncomfortable, something I couldn’t really blame him for, and he was clearly having some kind of internal struggle, but he still managed to force a smile and nod.

  “Brilliant,” I said with a clap of my hands, “how do you wanna do this?”

  “Huh?”

  “Well, do you reckon you could find your way back here from anywhere on the map?”

&nbs
p; Miles raised his eyebrow, clearly having forgotten our conversation in the truck, “I’m sorry, I don-”

  A shotgun blast silenced him, taking off the top half of his head and splattering the wall behind him with blood.

  Stone_Eagle307 has been slain (World).

  “What,” I snarled as I wiped blood off my face and Miles’ body fell to the ground, “the fuck!? Why would you do that!?”

  Paul looked at me confusedly, his shotgun still smoking, “I don’t understand, we were gonna kill him so he could become a freshie again, yeah?”

  “Well… yeah.” I replied with a half-nod, losing all my anger, “But you didn’t have to do it like that, did you?”

  “How would you have done it?”

  “I would’ve had a conversation abou… Look, never mind, alright? What’s done is done.”

  “Well don’t put it like that.”

  “Why not?”

  “Well, it infers that I’ve done something wrong, doesn’t it.”

  “That’s because you did do something wrong! Goddamn…” I groaned as my eyes clamped shut from the stress of the conversation and I started to rub them like I was trying to get a stain out, “You know what? I hate you. I hate you both.”

  Chapter Two

  We hadn’t been out long before we’d gotten word that there’d been another crate drop, and Chad and I had spent a good couple of minutes trying to decide whether or not we were gonna have a go at grabbing it before deciding it wasn’t worth the hassle.

  Unfortunately that left a lot of room for mindless chit-chat.

  “Why did you say you hated me back there?” Chad asked for the fifth bloody time since we’d left Home Base for a ‘perimeter check’.

  “Because you didn’t duct tape Paul’s face shut when you had the chance.” I grumbled in response as I stepped over a fallen tree.

  “His face? Do you mean his mouth?”

  “Face, mouth, same shit. Dude, please don’t make me regret bringing you along with me, I’ve had a difficult enough day as it is without you adding to it with your sassy, pedantic bullshit.”

  “I’m just sayin-”