“What are you talkin’ about?” I asked after climbing out of my seat and starting toward the front of the bus, “This thing just rolled through a forest, I don’t think there’s anything that can… Fuck me with a cactus…”
“Hello, Zoey!” a very proud Freddie called from the front of an angry mob made up of at least a couple hundred people, “Good of you to finally join us!”
Chapter Two
“This isn’t happening, right?” I asked almost desperately as I looked out at the hundreds of somewhat familiar players who were blocking the way about fifty feet up the road, “Please, someone tell me this isn’t happening.”
“This is happening alright.” Pete let out after sucking some air through his teeth and putting the bus in park, “You got a plan, boss?”
“Have you noticed that you only ever call me ‘boss’ when we’re stuck with a shitty choice to make?”
“That’s the point, boss.” Pete replied with a half-hearted smile, “I just wanna make sure you know this is your ship.”
“I’m more than aware…” I muttered as I tried to think of what the Hell we were going to do, “Okay, well, they’re only freshies, right?”
“I only see a few guns in there,” Brendo added after giving me a little nod, “must’ve gotten organised right after the bunker was destroyed.”
“So…” Paul trailed off as he and Chad joined us at the front of the bus, “we’re just gonna drive through them?”
“If you fancy gettin’ your limbs ripped off and put somewhere uncomfortable, sure.” Pete replied with no shortage of pessimism, “Fact is we’d only probably get through a dozen or so before the wheels got all jammed up and shit, from there it’d only be a matter of time before they tipped the bus and swarmed us.”
“Then why aren’t they attacking?” Miles asked, “I mean, if they can just topple us and beat us to death, why not take the advantage?”
“That’d be Freddie’s doing,” Chad clarified, “he’d be making sure that they wait for us to make the first move, otherwise we’ll just escape and use some sorta gap in their defences to get through their meaty roadblock.”
“And why aren’t we leavin’?” Brendo asked Pete in a rather pointedly fashion.
“Because there’s no guarantee that they haven’t got people behind us.” Pete scoffed in defeat, “We came out of the woods, which means there could be anything on the road back there and we wouldn’t know about it. And, before you ask, if we go back into the woods we’ll be movin’ too slowly to get anywhere fast enough.”
Miles let out a long, tired sigh at that, then straightened up and crossed his arms in front of his chest, “So, what I’m hearing is that we’re-”
“Pretty solidly fucked.” Pete finished, “Sorry to say, but that’s about the size of it.”
“You comin’ or what!?” Freddie goaded, puffing out his chest as he did so.
I was stuck.
On one hand I wanted to just wipe Freddie out.
On the other I wanted to figure out a way to get away.
But I really wanted to flatten Freddie.
“Here I thought that you at least had some balls!” Freddie shouted, “But I guess you’re just a little bitch, huh!?”
That was it, the decision maker, the moment when I went from unsure to ‘fuck it’.
“Back ‘er up.” I said coldly, “Then get ready to ram them.”
“You sure?” Pete asked concernedly, “Like I said, the bodies will stop us before we get a tenth of the way through the crowd.”
“Just do it.” I ordered sternly.
Pete hesitated for a moment, but eventually sighed and put the bus in gear, “Alright, buckle up everybo-”
“No,” I interjected, “get ready to bail.”
Everyone in the bus regarded me with confusion for a few seconds before accepting what I’d said and going to the back of bus.
“I hope you know what you’re doing.” Pete whispered as we started backing up.
“It’s my head if I don’t.” I replied coolly as we got further and further away from the horde, “That’s enough, gun it.”
Pete didn’t reply, instead opting to switch to drive and slamming his foot down on the accelerator.
The engine roared, the tyres squealed, smoke plumed around the back of the bus, and then, with a somewhat surprising lurch, we started hammering towards the crowd.
Somewhere under the various sounds the bus was making as the weak frame barely held itself together I heard Freddie shout “Brace!” to his men.
“Like that’s gonna work…” I muttered with a little smile before turning to face the guys who were already as good as out the door, “Bail!”
They all hesitated for a second, but then Miles threw open the door and they couldn’t get out fast enough.
“That includes you.” I said after it became clear that Pete wasn’t getting up.
“You jump first, I’ll foll-”
“Get the fuck off my bus.”
Pete clearly still wanted to argue, but we had all but run out of time, and so, with a heavy heart, he vacated the seat and ran for the back of the bus, leaving room for me to slip in.
“You gonna be alright?” Pete asked after coming to a stop at the door.
“Only if you leave.” I replied with a little chuckle as I pulled out my sawn-off and aimed between the bars along the bus’ windshield, “See you later.”
“Bloody better.”
And that was it, he jumped and I was alone.
I didn’t mind so much though, no, I was actually more than happy playing chicken with Freddie who was facing down my bus with all the unwarranted confidence of an obese uni student that uses ‘xir’ pronouns.
Then I pulled the trigger.
+1 Firearm Skill
Firearm Skill: 26/100
Level Progression: 90/250
It was hard to tell at first, what with the fact that I was hurtling towards a whole mess of people at what felt like the speed of a meteor, but right as I reached the point of no return I saw a group of Freddie’s lackeys pulling him away as he nursed a stomach wound.
“Suck it, d-bag.” I said proudly right before I slammed into the first of the freshies and immediately felt my innards trying to escape through my mouth as I went from going at around eighty to doing less than sixty in under a second.
That wasn’t going to stop me though, no, in fact I used the little death notifications that had popped up in my vision as a sign that I was doing something right and forced myself to push down on the accelerator harder while taking shots at random freshies with my free hand, ignoring the bullets that were bouncing off the bars in front of me.
+1 Firearm Skill
Firearm Skill: 27/100
Level Progression: 100/250
As much as I wish I could tell you that I landed my hits, the truth is that it got to the point where I was lucky if I didn’t shoot one of the bars.
Not that it mattered though, I was driving like a madman and looking forward to the moment where I’d be forced to come to halt and could come out shooting.
It quickly became apparent that that wasn’t how it was going to play out though as Freddie’s men finally decided impressing him wasn’t worth getting squelched and started diving out of the way, meaning that all I was left with were the occasional oblivious player and some seriously blood-slicked tyres.
“Easy, easy, girl…” I muttered as I struggled to keep the bus going straight, but it didn’t matter how much I tried to ease the old gal, we were fishtailing.
Hard.
Every time I’d get most of the way to one side, the arse of the bus would swing out in the other direction and I’d be forced to start wildly turning.
Mind you, I was doing all of that with one hand on the steering wheel which… okay, now that I think about it, it might have been a good idea for me to holster my sawn-off and focus on driving, but in my defence my brain was pretty scattered at that point.
“Tits, ti
ts, tits, tits!” I started shouting as the bus started its first full rotation before one of the tyres exploded following the unmistakable sound of a shotgun blast.
From there it got kind of… confusing.
I was upside down.
I was right side up.
Blood everywhere.
Upside down.
Trees.
Right side up.
Screaming people.
Upside down.
Sparks.
More sparks.
Creaking sound.
Crunching sound.
Stop.
Fun fact, it was not an altogether pleasant experience.
“Ow…” I groaned after I dropped down onto the bus’ ceiling and noticed just how much health I’d lost.
My vision was all grey and there was this aura of pulsating red around every object in the bus, like I was some kind of colour-blind vampire.
I was about to take a few seconds to catch my breath before I noticed that a whole bunch of freshies had started clawing their way in through the still open emergency door of the bus.
“Two seconds,” I said as I squeezed off a shot and managed to shoot one of the freshies right through the nose, “that’s all I ask.”
Twatty has been slain (World).
“Oh, fuck off…” I moaned after spotting a group of freshies at the front of the bus doing their best to pull the bars off the windscreen, spurring me to crawl towards the back of the bus, shooting who I could as I did so.
+1 Firearm Skill
Firearm Skill: 28/100
Level Progression: 110/250
By the end of my desperate crawl to the end of the bus I’d managed to kill a grand total of three people and wounded two others to the point of incapacity, but that didn’t mean shit to the dicks behind me who I was just barely managing to kick away.
“Hello, Zoey.” a very noticeably weakened Freddie said as I pulled myself up through the door of the bus, “Glad we could meet up again.”
Now, I didn’t see him knock me out, but I think it’s pretty fair to assume that that’s what resulted in my vision going black and my hearing to disappear.
Have to be honest, that wasn’t my best moment.
Chapter Three
I waited for a long, long time before I finally came to and was greeted with the sight of the bamboo bars that formed the cage I’d been stuffed in to.
Colour had returned to my vision, no doubt due to the fact that Freddie clearly wanted to keep me alive for whatever reason.
With no small amount of difficulty, I managed to crane my neck and look around at the primal sort of compound I was in, complete with large logs for walls and a few very simple huts.
Hell, they didn’t even have a gate, the players appeared to just shift one of the logs so that those on the outside could squeeze through, but it appeared that that didn’t stop them from dragging my bus into their pit.
“Look who’s up and about!” Freddie exclaimed from somewhere behind me, forcing my attention away from whatever it was that Freddie’s men were doing to the bus, “Well, not ‘about’ so much, but conscious is a good first step.”
“Yippee…” I sighed out as I noticed that I’d been completely stripped of my armour and weapons, “So am I supposed to be entertainment or something?”
“Nah, nothing like that,” Freddie said as he came around to the front of my cage, revealing that he’d taken my armour, and crouched down in front of it, “we’re just gonna go ahead and keep you here for a while.”
“Ah, the Metois punishment.” I replied knowingly, “Good to know that you don’t just poach players, you’ll go after other people’s ideas as well.”
“Hey, your guys found me, not my fault that you left them feeling completely excluded and abandoned.” Freddie drawled out condescendingly before growing a sly grin, “Great job with that bunker by the way, solid effort.”
“Eh, you win some, you lose some.” I said after spotting a little design flaw in the cage, “This is one I intend to win though.”
“Oh?” Freddie replied mockingly, “And just how do you plan to do that?”
“I’m sure I’ll think of something.”
I needed to distract him, just for a second, and then I could take the advantage.
“As much of an opponent as you’ve proven yourself to be,” Freddie said confidently, giving the gears in my head a few seconds to turn, “I sincerely doubt that you’re going anywhere.”
And then it hit me.
It was a bold move, one that could’ve gone either way, but by Jove was I going to take it.
“I think that’s what’ll end up being the cause of your downfall,” I said before adjusting one of my boobs in as obvious a way as I could in the tightly crammed space, “you’re just too damn confident.”
At first I thought I’d failed, but then, without warning, Freddie’s eyes shot down to where I was shuffling, and that’s when I took my opportunity.
+1 Short Bamboo Stalk (Sharp):
Durability: 30/30
Damage: 8
Description: Otherwise known as the ‘Panda Shank’.
I don’t think Freddie had even noticed that I’d snatched the broken bar until I’d gone ahead and stabbed him in the face, causing him to howl out in pain and allowing me to somehow glitch out of the cage.
My feet started sprinting before the rest of me had figured out what we were doing, resulting in this weird sort of cartoonish running for a few moments before I managed to straighten myself up.
“Get her!” Freddie cried out through the blood that was fast-filling his mouth.
The freshies were proper fucking useless though, and I was having absolutely no trouble darting through the crowd as they struggled to realise what was happening.
Within seconds I was mere feet from the front ‘gate’ when, out of nowhere, my vision was once again filled with darkness.
Looks like someone’s been playing with tranquiliser darts. Tsk-tsk, don’t you know better than to fool around with those things?
Chapter Four
With a failed escape attempt under my belt, I decided that it was probably in my best interests to just stay in the newly repaired cage I’d been stuffed back into while I’d been out of it.
Oh, and the fact that they’d gone ahead and decided to suspend the cage a good twenty feet in the air with a series of rather weak looking vines certainly helped in making me stay put.
“Not so resourceful now, are you?” Freddie goaded from beneath me, his face wrapped in bandages following my little outburst, “Now, you just go ahead and stay up there until-”
“Look out!”
Whoever had interrupted Freddie was too late though, and before either of us knew what was happening, the vines had all snapped and my cage went plummeting to the ground, breaking apart as it hit and knocked Freddie right the fuck out, leaving me to fall out on my arse.
Now, I’m sure you’re thinking that I decided to use that opportunity to try another ill-fated escape attempt, but the truth is I was kind of bored of being constantly forced to face a black screen.
“Go on then,” I sighed as I looked between a few freshies and the steady pool of blood that was building around Freddie’s head, “you help him and someone else’ll get started on making a new cage for me.”
It felt weird, ordering around the guys like I had any right to do so, but at the same time I couldn’t help but feel these odd sort of pangs as I looked around at the hundreds of freshies and the base they had built.
I think it might have had something to do with the fact that they were playing the way I’d subconsciously wanted to.
Building up from nothing together and not just taking a few guys to the top via a series of unpredictable shortcuts.
I realise that that probably makes me sound like a pratty, trust fund millionaire who wishes they didn’t have so much money and that their life wasn’t so gosh darn easy, and I’m sure it sounds really rich considering all that t
rouble I’d just gone through with Chad regarding pretty much that exact issue, but the fact is there was a piece of me that still wanted what Freddie and the freshies had.
It certainly didn’t help that this weird wave of sadness washed over me as I realised, no, knew that I wasn’t ever going to have that.
And I mean knew, like I was somehow remembering the future, like it had already happened and I was just stuck on a path.
I know that that probably sounds pretty nutty, but that was the truth of it, and even as I was ushered into a new crate and was once again suspended in the air with a lot more vines than the first time, I couldn’t help but feel a little bit proud of what the freshies had achieved following what had happened with our group.
Okay, so maybe the fact that I’d accidentally managed to hurt Freddie again was contributing to that smile a bit, but it was mostly pride.
Promise.
Chapter Five
Freddie, having recovered from the massive head trauma I’d unintentionally inflicted, made the bright decision to start operating as if I wasn’t there at all, only occasionally sneaking a look up at me as if to make sure I hadn’t escaped.
I didn’t mind all that much though, it gave me the opportunity to start figuring out the nature of Freddie’s new operation, including the truly surprising part about how a lot of the guys that I saw getting around were actually ex-Metois, and not solely boys from the bunker.
Most of them were bitching about the fact that they weren’t able to recover following their deaths way back when, and that they were constantly dying because being a part of the Metois had made them incapable of surviving without a strict regimen and their pretty gear.
Other than that though, they all seemed to be pretty good dudes and a lot more focused on simply having fun than their glorious leader Freddie was, which they had absolutely no problem with constantly bringing up despite the fact that I was clearly within earshot.
That’s actually what got me to thinking about my boys and what they were doing.
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