Fragged

by Zachariah Dracoulis

  “I doubt anything good…” I replied, “How long on that blood?”

  Pete took a few seconds longer than normal to respond, then gave a quick nod, “Yeah, uh, I mean… Yeah, couple more seconds, if I rush it he could just pass out again in another few seconds.”

  “Alright,” I said through my teeth, “keep us updated. How’re the Muties lookin’?”

  “They’re still staying right where they are,” Paul quickly responded, “but they’re starting to look a bit twitchy.”

  “They always look twitchy,” Miles muttered back, clearly trying to comfort himself more than Paul, “it’s when they stop being twitchy that you need to worry.”

  “Let’s stop saying the word twitchy, eh?” Pete practically growled, “It’s startin’ to make me feel like running.”

  And then it happened.

  With an unholy screech and faster-than-light speed, the rabbit launched at us.

  I squeezed off a useless round, exploding the dead leaves and dirt where the rabbit had been sitting into a somewhat distracting shower.

  We didn’t get much of a chance to focus on that though, no, instead we were gifted with the sound of screaming and roaring as, somewhere in the distance, the rabbit had gone to war with the Muties.

  “Where’d they go?” Paul asked with no small amount of panic as the green eyes vanished from view.

  “I don’t know…” I replied as I struggled to figure out what the Hell had just happened, “but I ain’t stickin’ around to find out. Pete, how far off are we on Chad?”

  Pete made a few unsure sounds before letting out a frustrated groan, “We can move now, but he’s not conscious. Someone’s gonna hav-”

  “Miles, grab him.”

  The former Metois soldier didn’t even bother arguing my order, instead doing exactly as he was told and waiting for further commands which, if I’m being completely honest, I didn’t have yet.

  Paul wasn’t about to give me a minute to figure it out though, “What now?”

  I went to snap about giving me some time to think, but Paul’s question had been enough to make me get my thoughts clear.

  “We’re heading back for Home Base,” I said before taking my position at the front of the pack, “hard.”

  We didn’t move for a few moments as a realisation dawned on me and I was left looking blindly into the forest.

  “Try the map,” Pete suggested somewhat jovially, “tends to be helpful.”

  “Oh, right… thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Chapter Three

  After figuring out where we were in relation to Home Base, I’d started the quick march, keeping my eyes out for the Metois, Muties, and that Godforsaken rabbit.

  Normally something as simple as that wouldn’t have filled me with such dread or discomfort, but there was just this… thing about it. It gave me this innate sort of wariness, like I knew it didn’t quite belong in Thren.

  “Muties, thre-oh, oh they’re gone…” Paul trailed off as we all watched another group of the mutations go down in the darkness.

  “Why isn’t it coming for us?” Miles asked, taking a break from his exaggerated grunts and groans from having to carry Chad.

  “Don’t know, don’t care.” Pete replied before I could, “All that matters now is that we get the Hell out of here before it decides we’re next. Speakin’ of…”

  “We’re a minute closer than when you asked a minute ago,” I snapped, pretending that I didn’t know what it was like to be the one forced to sit in the passenger seat, “so quit asking. It’ll be obvious we’re there when we get there.”

  Despite the fact that we seemed to have a fluffy guardian angel, I couldn’t help but feel like we were in constant and immediate danger.

  I didn’t feel like we were being looked out for, it was more like we were being corralled.

  Suddenly I had this weird sort of sympathy for cattle, but also jealousy.

  I mean, it’s not like they know they’re going to their immediate doom, right?

  Right?

  Anyway, we survived our run through the woods, and got home to see that while the small fires were still burning, the Js had finally returned, smashing the dirt into nothing as they patrolled the front yard.

  “In the house,” I said as quietly as I could, “and get Chad near the fire, stat.”

  The gang started to follow my orders, but to my grand annoyance they stopped just shy of actually entering the house.

  “What is it?” I asked as I shuffled to the front of the pack, “Is the door…”

  My eyes widened and I tilted my head as I looked in at the three horribly wounded Metois troops sitting in my house looking absolutely dumbfounded at our arrival.

  “I… I… What?” I bumbled out confusedly before turning around and looking at the Js, “What the Hell is the point of keeping you idiots around!?”

  The Js, unsurprisingly, didn’t react to my scolding, but one of them did walk over one of the fires and was briefly set alight, which I guess was punishment enough.

  “F-f-freeze!” one of the Metois stammered, “Or we’ll shoot!”

  “With what?” I asked as I looked back to them, making sure I was right in my initial assessment that they weren’t packing, “Whatever did you in has clearly ruined your guns. Guys, put ‘em down.”

  “Gladly.” Pete said before stepping forward and taking aim.

  “No, wait!” another of the soldiers cried, his hands shooting up in surrender as he did, “We… we… we want out, yeah?”

  The pleader was met by nods by his compatriots, but I still wasn’t fully convinced.

  “Yeah? You wanna join the ranks of Zoey’s Fighters?” I asked with sceptical smile, “And, what, I’m just s’posed to take your word for it?”

  The guy started to stumble over all the words trying to get out of his mouth, before opening his eyes wide as he thought of something, “We can tell you where the rest of our group is!” he announced, “If you let us join your group, we’ll tell you where they are.”

  A little chuckle escaped me and I gestured toward Miles, “We’ve already got one turncoat, I don’t think we need any more. Pete?”

  I didn’t have to say anything else before Pete went all executioner and put each of them down with a swift shot to each of their heads.

  Lionaaaaal has been slain (World).

  MrMan has been slain (World).

  The_Smeg has been slain (World).

  “Cheers,” I said as we finally entered the cabin and Miles was able to gently place Chad by the fire, “I’d have done it, but…”

  “But your gun is slow as shit,” Pete laughed before going to work on scalping his fresh kills, “don’t worry I gotcha.”

  I resented having my gun insulted, but at the same time he was totally right. There was no guarantee that one of them wouldn’t have been able to get a move on me before I’d put them all down, which would’ve just led to a headache for me.

  With a sigh, I turned to start looking at the door, realising only once I did that I wasn’t exactly cut out for building, “Mind clearing the bodies out when you’re done? I’m gonna see what I can do about this door.”

  “You sound kinda depressed,” Paul said as he gave Pete a hand and dragged one of the freshly scalped bodies outside, “what’s up?”

  “Nothing, it’s just…” I trailed off as I waited for the prompt that would never come, “I don’t know, sometimes I get reminded that I’m still pretty far from where I’d managed to get to.”

  “Ah, yeah, no, I get that.” Paul replied as he came back in, “It’s weird, like, there’s so much stuff that I was sure I was able to do back in the day, you know? Like… ah, you know driving? I didn’t know you needed a skill to drive a manual.”

  “Okay, guys,” Miles interjected, “as much as I’m enjoying this absolutely riveting conversation, can we please get back to the more important topic at hand?”

  I didn’t turn to face him, instead opting to
continue staring at the door while pulling out a plank, “Which is?” I asked before taking an accidental swing at the already damaged door.

  “The rabbit? The Muties? The three Metois that we just executed!? Any of that ring any bells?”

  “I appreciate your concern,” Pete said disinterestedly, “but you’ve gotta learn to relax man. Things really aren’t that bad.”

  “Not that bad?” Miles scoffed, “Really? Things aren’t that bad? Need I remind you of the veritable shit-storm coming our way?”

  “The Metois?” Paul scoffed back twice as derisively as Miles had, “Dude, they’re totally on their last legs, all we need to do now is wait for their dumb arses to implode.”

  “Oh, no, I totally agree that they’re on their last legs, no doubt about that. But the issue is that, even on their last legs, even when they’re down a base and most of their vehicles, they’ve still got enough resources to wipe us off the fucking map.”

  Then I did it, with a happy little shriek, I managed to start repairing the door.

  -1 Wooden Plank

  You repaired your wooden door.

  You so smart. You so clever. You so… I don’t know, what do you want from me? You fixed a door. Clap. Clap.

  +1 Construction Skill

  Construction Skill: 1/100

  Level Progression: 10/200

  “Did you guys see…” I started excitedly while making a mental note to spend my special trait point, then faded off into a more monotonous voice as I turned to face the thoroughly unimpressed Miles, “ugh, that? Look, I get your concerns Miles, I really do, but the fact of the matter is, as of right now, we are holding our own.”

  “But how long will that last?” Miles replied with a defeated sigh, “If the Metois came to that door right now, what would we do? Seriously? Even if some barely capable platoon of however many they have left decided to make a move on us, what would we do?”

  That felt like a loaded question.

  If I said that we’d handle it, Miles would say that I was a victim of wishful thinking.

  If I said we’d be screwed, Miles would use that as leverage to point out everything else wrong with what I’d said over the past however long.

  I was right about to cave with a shrug and a disinterested ‘I dunno’ when Pete smiled and jumped in to save the day, “Hold our ground as long as we could,” he said confidently, “and make sure we kick their arses hard enough that when we respawn there ain’t a damn thing they can do to stop us from kickin’ their arses.”

  “Good answer.” I whispered out of the corner of my mouth before turning my attention back to Miles, “It won’t come to that though. We’ve got time.”

  “How much time though?” Miles responded with what sounded like genuine concern, “Until morning? Until that rabbit decides to turn on us? When?”

  “For as long as we need,” Chad announced, making us all jump as he got to his feet at an uncomfortably quick speed, “the Metois are solidly fucked.”

  Chapter Four

  “You’re awake!” Paul exclaimed, “Dude, I went out to get you as soon as everyon-”

  “What do you mean ‘solidly fucked’?” I asked, cutting Paul off mid-sentence, “Where did you hear that?"

  “Uh, when I was been dragged through the woods by a cracked-out bunny?” Chad scoffed, “He only let me go when a couple of Metois troops had the shit luck of crossing our path, and let me tell you, they were in bad shape.”

  “Before or after Roger Rabbit had his way with them?” Pete chuckled.

  “Before.” Chad replied with a bitterness that confused me for a few moments, before realising that he probably didn’t enjoy having the thing that had made him its bitch being compared to a cartoon character, “The Metois being torn up from the inside, tons of infighting and power struggles and shit. The best part though? It sounded like they’d completely abandoned their base.”

  “To come roaming after us,” Miles replied sardonically, “yeah, we knew that.”

  “No, Captain Smartarse, not ju-look, I’ve just spent the last thirty minutes staring at a black screen waiting for you nimrods to come and save my arse, so could you at least do me the courtesy of listening to what I have to say?”

  I wanted to say something about how he should be grateful that we even bothered going out looking for him, but I successfully managed to smother that urge under my desperate need to find out what he knew.

  “Chad’s got a point,” I said as convincingly as I possibly could, “he’s letting us in on some pretty important shit. So, everyone, shut your damn holes.”

  Chad regarded me with a sort of confused expression for a few moments before giving me a nod of thanks and looking back to the rest of the group, “We need to attack the Metois base.”

  “What’s that?” I replied, mirroring everyone’s shock.

  “It’s abandoned, and if we don’t get in there soon I guarantee someone else is gonna do it.”

  “But isn’t it abandoned for a reason?” Paul asked, “Like, a literal giant hole in their defences type of reason?”

  “Yes, but we can fix that.” Chad replied with the least amount of contempt he’d given any of us, “Imagine it guys, we get the Js and gals over to the old Metois base, lay claim, and put up one wall.”

  “And what do we do if those guys with the semi attack again?” Pete asked before I got the chance, “Better yet, what if they’ve already claimed it? I mean, it’s not like we’ve been keeping an eye on the place.”

  Chad hesitated for a moment, as if that thought hadn’t crossed his mind yet, before regaining his confidence and shrugging, “I doubt those guys’ll want to give up their roaming base, but even if they have we’ll handle them. C’mon, this is our chance to really do something, to really kick some arse.”

  “He’s right,” Miles let out dejectedly, “if we can claim that place before the Metois or anyone else gets the chance, then we have a real shot at getting a place that we can truly lockdown.”

  “And what about the walls?” I asked, “Don’t get me wrong, the girls have been doing a great job, but there’s no way they’re up to the task of rebuilding an entire base from scratch.”

  “That’s why we put up a temporary wall,” Chad announced as if it were common knowledge, “we get up a wire fence, some wooden stakes, and after that we finally put that cement mixer to good use.”

  I liked the idea of it, I really did, stealing the Metois fortress and building our base around its foundation seemed like a great way to get started.

  The issue was it was just that, an idea.

  It wasn’t anything concrete, it was almost intangible, and it just felt like wishful thinking.

  “I don’t see the harm in trying,” I said before my brain could stop me, like some part of my subconscious had forced the words out, “I mean, it’s not like it won’t be a Hell of a lotta fun.”

  “That’s true,” Pete added, “and I can’t think of a better way to take the Metois down a few pegs than locking them out of their own home.”

  “Exactly,” Chad replied, his voice starting to regain some of its jovial nature as the group turned to his way of thinking, “and if shit does get tough, we just make sure we do our best to level the place before anyone else gets the chance to take it from us.”

  Honestly, I still had some hang-ups about the whole thing, but they were mostly coming from a place of laziness, the idea of having to rebuild my clan up again from scratch seeming like a huge waste of time that was surely going to end with me just giving up partway through and going back to some bullshit FPS’.

  What? Thren wasn’t the only world where I could have fun.

  Anyway, with a silent sigh, I nodded, “Alright, let’s do it.” I said before realising I needed to spout out some semi-formulated plan of action, “Chad, send the Js and the girls ahead, Pete’ll take one of the bikes and set up a sniper nest near the front gate, and the rest of us will follow. Sound good?”

  I was met with a sea of nods by a gro
up of men who seemed all-too-eager to go and wreck some shit, but I’m not one to judge someone for their blatant character flaws.

  Wait a minute… that’s exactly the type of person I am!

  Well, shit, must’ve been an off day.

  “You sure you’re okay with doing this?” Chad asked while everyone else quietly chattered amongst themselves and I finally started scrolling through my many, many potential special traits, “I mean, I know I probably should’ve come to you with the idea first, I was just…”

  “Dude, I get it, do you know how many times I’ve been stuck watching a black screen, waiting to either wake up or to simply have a ‘Game Over’ pop up?” I replied as comfortingly as I could while reading, “You wanted to get what you had in your head out, and that makes total sense. You did the right thing.”

  “I’m glad you think so,” Chad said with a weak smile as he approached me and the door, “I just hope everyone else has your confidence in me.”

  “They don’t need to,” I practically giggled out as I finally found the special trait I wanted, “you’ve got them all riled up, confidence in your abilities doesn’t play into it.”

  “Hey!” Pete snapped, “I take offence to that, I’m not some blunt instrument.”

  “Me either.” Paul added defensively.

  “Eh, she’s not wrong.” Miles said with a shrug, “I know that the logical half of my brain thinks this is a really, really, really bad idea, but the rest thinks it’s gonna be one hootin’ good time to give it a try courteous of Chad’s rousing rhetoric.”

  I waited for the mocking ‘Gotcha!’ that never came for a good long while before finally locking on my decision and spending my point.

  Special Trait Point used to purchase the Remarkably Well-Endowed perk.

  Really? You could have chosen anything and you decide to go with the one that makes your less-than-best feature slightly above average? Egh, of course you did… Rabids and Freemen of the opposite sex now find you irresistible, and have a chance of leaving their clans to join yours.