Apocalypse 2020: A Wasteland LitRPG

by James T. Witherspoon

  A robot clanked into view, its electric coil sparking. Scarlett shot first, aiming her shotgun and filling the doorway with pellets. The shot ripped away some of the robot’s armor, but it kept coming towards them.

  Boothe fired a shot that tore into the metal of the robot’s chest, slowing it for only a moment, before it continued its rush towards them. It reached over the table and jabbed its electric coil down towards Boothe. Bolts of lightning leapt out and burned the skin along Boothe’s arm.

  Boothe takes 2 Electric DAMAGE!

  Boothe HP - 4/6

  Then Scarlett swung her hatchet and completely severed the robot’s head from its body. It let out an electronic whine and crumpled to the ground.

  Two more robots rounded the corner into the doorway, firing machine guns. Bullets dinged against the metal table where Boothe and Scarlett hid, but they did not pierce through. Even more robots were coming in from the hallway, marching towards them.

  Hacking (75%) - SUCCESS!

  [DOOR] Opened.

  The steel door rose with a whoosh and Boothe’s drone returned to hover above his shoulder, its job complete.

  “Move!” Scarlett yelled. She stood up and blasted one of the robots to pieces with her shotgun before running through the now open door.

  Boothe followed her, bullets whizzing by his head. They dashed down the long tunnel towards the stairs that would lead them back up to the surface. The robots followed them, but would not go through the doorway and into the tunnel, as if some invisible leash prevented them from crossing the threshold.

  By the time Boothe and Scarlett made it to the stairway, the gunfire had stopped, the robots left far behind. They crept up the stairs slowly, catching their breath. The brightness of the mid-day sun was nearly blinding after being in the dim hallways below.

  “The turrets are still up there,” Boothe said.

  “I got it,” Scarlett replied. She ducked out the doorway and slid along the edge of the building. Boothe tried to follow her movements, but then she climbed the side of the building and disappeared. Moments later, the clash of her hatchet against one enemy and the blast of her shotgun blowing apart another signaled that the coast was clear.

  Boothe walked out, sat the battery on the ground, and looked up at the smoking wreckage that remained of the turrets.

  “You’re kind of a badass,” he said as Scarlett hopped back down to the ground.

  “Yeah,” she agreed. “Thanks for opening that door back there. And I think you might have killed one of those robots?”

  “I did!” Boothe said. “Shot it right in the head.” He held his revolver up, reloading it with cartridges from his belt. The pistol looked so tiny in his hand.

  “You have to get a better gun,” Scarlett said. “I can’t take you seriously with that little thing.”

  Boothe slipped the revolver back into his holster.

  “Ready to head back?” she asked.

  “Hold on,” Boothe said. “Do you think that we could take the turrets back to sell?”

  She laughed. “If you think you can carry them, go right ahead. They’re like a thousand pounds and still attached to the roof.”

  “Oh,” Boothe said. “I just wish we got something of value out of this place.”

  “We did, dummy,” Scarlett said, holding up the battery.

  She tucked it under her arm and the two of them started the long walk back to Perry.

  When the town’s water tower was in sight, Scarlett asked “Do you think we’ll both get the reward for this quest?”

  “Maybe,” Boothe said. “I don’t know.”

  “Well, I mean there was only one car.”

  “True.”

  “And there’s only one battery,” she added.

  “Also true.”

  “I guess we’ll see when we get there,” she said.

  They made their way into town, where Wulfa stood behind her stall.

  “Hey new blood!” Wulfa called. “You bring me anything nice?”

  Boothe shook his head. “Nothing. That place was a mess. I didn’t see anything valuable.”

  “Aw, too bad,” Wulfa said. “You need anything?”

  “Let me buy you a medkit to replace the one you used on me,” Scarlett said. Looks like you may need to do something about that burn, anyways.

  Boothe had forgotten all about the electric burn on his arm - a blister of red, bubbled skin.

  Scarlett bought two medkits and handed one to Boothe. He quickly used it to heal up his arm, then he paid $5 for another medkit to keep for later.

  Medkit used (+2 HP)

  Boothe HP - 6/6

  Gained 1 Medkit.

  “How much money do you have left?” Scarlett asked.

  Boothe looked through his wallet. “I have $103. Why?”

  She turned to Wulfa. “Do you have a decent gun he can get for $103?”

  “Tell you what,” Wulfa said. “You trade me that snub-nosed, along with the holster, the ammo belt, and $100. I’ll give you this Model 1911 .45. It’s more powerful, much more accurate, and less likely to jam on you. I’ll throw in a holster for it, an extra clip, and a basic belt too.”

  Boothe looked over the gun. It was heavy black metal, and much more impressive than his little snub-nosed. He’d have to give up nearly all his cash for it, but it seemed to be worth the money.

  “Just do it,” Scarlett said. “That little revolver isn’t going to be very useful going forward, and if we’re going to keep questing together, I need you to be able to actually kill things.”

  “Are we going to keep questing together?” Boothe asked.

  “Sure,” Scarlett said with a smile. “I mean, it’s not like there are many options, right?”

  “Okay,” Boothe said. “I’ll take it.” He took off his belt and placed it along with the revolver on the table. Then he took all his money out of his pocket, except for three single bills, and handed it over.

  “Good doing business with you,” Wulfa said. She slid the gun, belt, and holster towards him. “Those things are great,” she said. “They’re upgradable too, so you’re not likely to ever need another pistol. Some people add things like laser sights or shoulder stocks onto them. I don’t do the modifications myself, but you could if you had the skills.”

  “Thanks Wulfa,” Boothe said, putting on his new belt and holster, then sliding the pistol into it.

  ITEMS OBTAINED

  Basic Belt - Waist Slot

  Durability 100% - Value $3

  This basic leather belt is good for both holding up your pants and clipping accessories to.

  M1911 Pistol - .45 Handgun - Aim +2 / Damage 4

  Range 50yds - Capacity 9

  Durability 100% - Value $100

  The most popular and reliable pistol design, the 1911 is powerful, accurate, and precise.

  With that done, Boothe followed Scarlett into The Depot. The place looked exactly the same as it had when Boothe had left it earlier that day. Cliff stood behind the counter cleaning the same forever-dirty glass and Giles sat at the same table, drinking from a cup that never seemed to empty.

  Scarlett sat the battery down in front of him.

  “Oh my God, you got it!” Giles said. He looked up at them, his eyes moving from Scarlett to Boothe, then back again. “You worked together?”

  “That’s right,” Scarlett said. “You didn’t tell me that you’d already sent somebody else to get the battery.”

  “Well,” Giles said. “The more people you send, the more likely one will succeed, right? So which one of you is getting the key to the Falcon?” He held up a key. “I can only give it to one of you.”

  Scarlett looked at Boothe and sighed. “I knew this was going to happen,” she said.

  “How do we decide who gets the car?” Boothe asked.

  Scarlett reached into a pouch at her belt and pulled out a small flare. She cracked the cap off it and threw it to the floor, where it hissed and sparked.

  Scarlett has challenged yo
u to a duel.

  DO YOU ACCEPT?

  5

  “Take it outside,” Cliff said lazily, from behind the bar.

  Boothe followed Scarlett out the front doors of The Depot, and stood in the middle of the street across from her.

  “How do duels even work?” Boothe asked.

  “I have no idea,” Scarlett answered.

  “Well I don’t want to kill each other.”

  “I think it’s just a simulation. I don’t think that the damage actually counts. It’s not like a real death.”

  “How sure are you?”

  She shrugged. “Like 80 percent.”

  “Good enough for me,” Boothe said. “Let’s do this.”

  He accepted the duel and the streets of Perry around him faded away, replaced by a grid of monochromatic blue walls and waist-high blocks to take cover behind. Scarlett seemed to flicker like a badly tuned television, then disappeared entirely.

  You have 10 seconds to choose your starting position.

  Boothe ran through the blue blocks, looking for a place to hide. Scarlett was better in a straight fight than him, that much was obvious. Her stealth was almost definitely better than his as well, but she did not have a drone. His best chance was to use the drone as his second pair of eyes to find her position, then ambush her somehow.

  A voice that seemed to come from everywhere counted down.

  “3… 2… 1… BEGIN!”

  As soon as the word was spoken, Boothe sent his drone up into the sky. He stayed hidden in the shadows behind a wall, pistol ready in case Scarlett turned a corner and saw him. He watched the drone’s camera feed as it flew up and scanned for enemies.

  He saw nothing. The arena was a void, with no movement and no sound. The drone flew around the place, giving Boothe a good idea of the layout, but he did not see Scarlett anywhere. He began to wonder if she was even there, or if this whole thing was some kind of weird glitch.

  Then she came down on him with a yell, her hatchet swinging in a wide arc to cut into Boothe’s shoulder.

  Boothe takes 3 DAMAGE!

  Boothe HP - 3/6

  There was no pain, no blood. The axe slid through his body without leaving a mark, but Boothe knew that if he took another hit like, the duel would be over.

  He sprung away from her, turned and fired his new pistol. The force of the bullet knocked Scarlett’s head backwards as it blew right through her skull. Again, there was no physical damage, and she did not slow. She continued charging towards him, swinging her hatchet. She was too close now, inside of his reach. He tried to aim at her again, but she grabbed his arm and knocked it to the side. Then she brought the hatchet down.

  Boothe takes 7 DAMAGE!

  Boothe HP - 0/6

  The hatchet slid right through the top of Boothe’s skull. He felt his whole body go limp and he collapsed to the ground.

  Scarlett Wins!

  Just like that, it was over. The monochrome world around him broke apart into millions of pixels, slowly replaced by the streets of Perry once again. Boothe lay on the ground in the middle of the road. Other people milled about, uninterested in the fight that had just happened. Scarlett reached down, offering a hand to help Boothe up.

  “Good fight,” she said. “You almost killed me with the one shot! Good stealth too. Took me a while to find you.”

  Boothe stood back to his feet, brushing off his pants.

  “I guess maybe I should have used the machete? The pistol didn’t seem too useful when you got that close.”

  “Eh, you couldn’t have known,” Scarlett said. “If you would have seen me from a distance, the pistol would have been perfect. By the time I was on you, it was too late to swap weapons anyways. It would have opened up an opportunity for me to finish you off.”

  Giles walked up as the two of them were discussing strategies and handed Scarlett the key to the Falcon.

  “No hard feelings, right Boothe?” Scarlett said. “I mean, if we’re going to keep questing together, it doesn’t really matter who has the key right? I’ll even let you drive sometimes.”

  “Sure,” Boothe said. “No hard feelings.”

  And there weren’t. Still, he would have liked the car to have been his.

  A rumble in the distance broke the relative silence of the street. Boothe turned to look at the source of the noise and saw a rising cloud of dust as four vehicles raced across the flat, barren landscape towards the town. Using his goggles, Boothe magnified his view and saw bandits, dressed in leather and spikes, some with guns and others carrying axes and spears.

  “Get inside!” Wulfa yelled. She began to quickly gather the supplies from her stall, stuffing them into a large bag. The other people on the streets all fled indoors. Giles ran back into The Depot. Soon only Scarlett and Boothe were left in the street.

  “Think we should go inside and hide?” Boothe said.

  Scarlett gave her shotgun a single pump and said “Hell. No.”

  They ran to the side of The Depot, taking cover behind its brick walls, and waited as the revving engines of the cars grew louder. The bandits yelled over the noise, whooping and cursing and screaming nonsense.

  “I’m going up top,” Scarlett said, then quickly climbed the drainage pipe on the side of the building. She hid behind the short brick wall that ran around the perimeter of the roof.

  Boothe peeked around the corner as the bandits made their way into town. The cars slowed, the drivers spun their tires and flames burst from their exhaust. These cars were black with oil and dirt, barely more than a frame with roll bars over the top. There were no seats inside and the engines were only protected by a few crudely welded pieces of metal. They all looked like they had been cobbled together from the scraps of other broken vehicles.

  The car that lead the way was decorated with dozens of sun-bleached human skulls mounted haphazardly along its hood.

  The bandits yelled as they shot through the windows of the buildings. They had pistols and shotguns, and one had a rifle of some sort. They weren’t aiming at anything in particular, just firing and yelling as the cars spun their tires, filling the air with dust.

  Then one of the bandits pulled out a glass bottle with a rag stuffed into it. A Molotov cocktail. He lit it and tossed it at a building near Wulfa’s stall. The front of the house burst into flames and a woman Boothe didn’t recognize ran out screaming, her hair on fire.

  The bandits laughed, and one raised a gun towards the woman. Boothe took his shot then, firing before the bandit could cause further harm. The bullet slammed into the Bandit’s chest and knocked him backwards off the car, dead before he hit the ground. Then Scarlett fired too, her shotgun raining death on them from above. The bandits with guns turned them towards her, but their bullets only connected with the brick wall she hid behind.

  Partially obscured by the sound of gunfire, Boothe heard a cry. He glanced over at the camera feed from his drone, which was perched in the sky above the fight.

  Enemies Detected: 13 / Innocents: 1

  Boothe looked at the person that was highlighted in blue, an innocent, a small boy who looked like he was only three years old. The child stumbled out into the street only fifty yards in front of the bandit’s cars.

  Scarlett fired, exploding a bandit’s head in a shower of blood and bones. Then she pumped and fired again, killing the driver of one of the cars. He slumped over, his foot pushing down on the gas pedal while his arms dragged the steering wheel to the left. The car spun and slammed into a building across the street, imbedding itself halfway into the wall. Then it exploded into a ball of flame, cooking the other two bandits inside. As the building’s roof collapsed on top of the vehicle, Boothe hoped that there weren’t any townsfolk inside.

  The driver of the lead car yelled “That’s enough! Let’s go!” Then drove forward, right towards where the young boy was standing.

  NEW QUEST: Innocent Bystander

  Make sure the child is not harmed and return him to his home.

  REWARD:
Unknown

  Boothe ran as fast as he could out of his hiding place beside The Depot. He was right in the open - the bandits could have unloaded on him, ripping him to shreds, but they were too focused on Scarlett to even notice him. He ran towards the boy, who stood crying, his face caked in tears and dirt.

  He wasn’t going to get there in time. The lead bandit’s car sped by. Boothe thought that they were going to run the boy over, but then, at the last second, the driver reached out, grabbed the boy by the back of his shirt and lifted him into the car, never even slowing down.

  The two other cars raced past. Boothe ran after them, firing his revolver, but the shot went wide and the cars kept going, rumbling off the road and through the fields in the distance.

  Boothe stopped and leaned forward, his hands on his knees, breathing heavily, defeated. He should have moved faster. He should have saved him!

  “What are you doing?” Scarlett called. She had climbed down from the rooftop and ran towards him.

  “They got away,” Boothe said. “They took that boy and they got away.”

  “No, dummy,” Scarlett said, holding up the key to the Falcon. “They haven’t gotten away yet.”

  6

  Boothe and Scarlett rushed into the garage and quickly got into the Falcon - Scarlett on the driver’s side, while Boothe rode shotgun. He couldn’t help but think that he should be driving. She was the better shot and he felt like he could handle the wheel. But it was her car, so her call.

  She turned the key and the Falcon started immediately, the engine roaring to life.

  “You ready?” she asked.

  Boothe nodded. Then she stomped her foot down on the accelerator and the car shot backwards into the street. She pulled the gearstick down into first and the car jerked forward. She quickly shifted up into second, then third gear, and they were racing across the open field towards the cloud of dust in the distance.

  “Get the top down,” Scarlett said.

  Boothe pulled the lever that released the T-top on the passenger side, then lifted the panel up and twisted it to pull it into the car and toss it into the back seat. He leaned over Scarlett’s head, and did the same with the driver’s side.