Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 2

by DoctorHepa

  I prepared a smoke curtain. I also moved the Fireball or Custard ticket to my hotlist. I had three scratch-off spots left. If they broke in here, we were screwed. I wouldn’t be saved by a glob of custard this time. What the hell were we going to do? Would all the stations be filled with mobs?

  I feared I would have to resort to explosives, but that seemed like a really bad idea. Even if we threw it toward a rear train car and slammed the door, I feared a derailment would be deadly to the entire train.

  I had my Protective Shell, but I could only cast it once a day, and it only lasted 20 seconds. Actually, thinking about it, Mordecai had told me something about that spell a long time ago that might just be helpful here. But if that next station was also filled with mobs, I’d have to wait to use it, otherwise it would be a waste.

  Okay. Calm down. It’s okay. You’re okay. They put these doorless cars here on purpose. We’re using them as intended.

  I took a deep breath and went over my options, combing through my inventory. Now that the initial panic had eased, multiple options presented themselves to me.

  “We need to hold out until we get to station number 83,” I said. “Katia, if they start opening the door, hold it closed! Donut, do you still have those two ready-to-go trap modules?”

  “Yes. You want them?” she said, pulling each out. She’d received them in a gold sapper’s box she’d received for our battle with the Rage Elemental all the way on the second floor.

  One was a Spike Module and the other an Alarm Module. Each of them were tiny cubes about the size of a pair of dice. I examined the Alarm Module.

  Alarm Module.

  Two items for the price of one! A favorite of the paranoid and the rich, you can use this module to either add an alarm element to a trap you’re building, or it can be used as a ready-to-go trap for those who can’t be assed to sit down and make their own. When triggered, it will play a Very Loud song. And by Very Loud, I mean Norwegian Black Metal loud. You may program the song at a Sapper’s Table. If you do not or are unable to pick an alarm tone, a random, culturally-important song from the past US Billboard Hot 100 will be chosen.

  You have the ability to imbue Fear upon this module, but your current level of Trap Engineer (Level 1) only allows this action to be done at a Sapper’s table.

  If untriggered, your Backfire skill allows you to remove this trap after it has been set with a 100% success rate.

  The spike module had a similar description, but it would cause 50-centimeter spikes to pop out of the ground at two second intervals in a one meter-square area. Friendly NPCs and crawlers wouldn’t set it off, but once triggered, it would keep spiking up and down forever, so we had to be careful.

  I wondered if the spike trap could be affixed to a wall. Or a door. I was about to find out.

  “Keep on this door,” I said. “We can’t guard both sides, so I’m putting the alarm and spike trap in the fore gangway. That’ll give us time to run up there and block out the door if they’re coming at us from that side.”

  I turned and sprinted for the other side of the car before they could respond. The truth was, we could probably guard both sides. Katia could hold one door closed, and I could hold the other. Donut wouldn’t be able to do it. But I didn’t trust Katia’s strength of 11 to be good enough, even if they were just level 6 monsters. Plus I didn’t want to split the party. Not now.

  I ran to the far door and put my ear against it. Sure enough, the rabid babies were screaming and attacking the door on this side, too. But they hadn’t broken into the gangway yet. I eased open the door.

  The handle to the door for car #14 rang as it was jangled up and down, but they hadn’t yet figured out how to slide it. At any moment, one of the little assholes was going to get an arm in there and figure it out. I took the alarm module and set it on the ground. I mentally clicked Activate, and a transparent rectangle appeared on the floor, blinking. The box was about the size and shape of a shoe box. An informational tooltip appeared over the now-set trap, similar to what I saw with bombs.

  Placed Trap

  Set by you.

  Effect: A loud-ass alarm.

  Delay: None.

  Target: Red-tagged mobs.

  Duration: Until the heat death of the universe.

  In addition, I had four options under the info panel. Trigger Now, Set Delay, Set Target, And Remove Trap.

  I left it alone and turned toward the door into the janitor car. I slid it shut, enclosing me in the small space. I placed the spike trap against the door and activated it. It allowed me to place it vertically. I slid open the door to see if it moved with the entry, and it did. I returned to car 15 and slid the door closed.

  Now we would know if they breached the door behind us, and the spikes would hopefully keep them off that door for a short time. I returned aft. Mongo remained in the center of the room, gnawing on the corpse of the janitor. The train swayed as it moved around a curve.

  “Mongo, stay with Donut,” I yelled as I rushed past. “And stop eating gross shit. You’re going to make yourself sick again.”

  Mongo grunted and followed me back to the door.

  My mind raced with possibilities and defenses I was going to have to build. If I knew the dimensions of the cars, gangways, and doors, I’d be able to fashion multiple defensive structures to place within the cars. But we had to survive this first.

  “Keep your eye on that map,” I said to Katia as I rushed up. “Let me know the second you see a train station coming up.”

  “I already see one. Station 82 will be coming up in a minute,” she said.

  “Okay, hopefully they’ll get off. But if they don’t, or if more monsters get on, I have a few ideas.”

  I opened up the door to the gangway. They still hadn’t figured it out on this side, either. “Donut, tell me if that second door starts to open.”

  Mordecai: Okay, I just watched a train pull up, and two crawlers got off. There were mobs on the train, but they were magically prevented from getting off. So don’t disembark until you get to a transfer station.

  “Yeah, thanks for the tip,” I grumbled as I went to my knees and pulled up the panel in the gangway floor. Below, I’d hopefully find the train’s electrical system and controls for the car couplers. I had no idea how this stuff worked in real life, but I was confident enough in my own electrical systems knowledge that I’d at least recognize what I’d find under there.

  The top panel came off easily. But under it was a small metal door with a lock, similar to a breaker box. I placed my hand on it and received an error.

  This service plate is magically locked. You need a Red Line Engineer’s Key to access this area. Do you have a key? No you don’t. So back off.

  “Damn,” I said, putting the panel back. That meant we’d have to go with the nuclear option.

  The loudspeaker crackled. “Coming up on Mora station number 82, home to the Psycho Stickers. Watch out for those guys.” The announcer chuckled. “Next stop is the transfer station number 83 where one may access the yellow line and the Nightmare Express. After that is Rusalka station number 84. Thank you for riding the red line.”

  “Carl!” Donut cried. I looked up to see the door start to slide. I leaped back as Donut blew her wad, spamming Magic Missiles into the hole. One of the babies chomped onto my foot, which wouldn’t do anything because of my…

  …I cried out in excruciating pain as I fell back into car 15. Katia slammed the door shut. The baby remained attached to my foot, gnawing furiously on the meat of my sole. I pulled myself up and slammed my foot down. The level-6 monster exploded like a tomato soup-filled balloon. I spread my toes to make sure they were all there, and I cast Heal on myself. What a disaster that would’ve been.

  “Ow, ow, ow,” I said as it healed. That had fucking hurt. It’d been a long time since I’d allowed my pedicure kit buffs to expire. I was so used to having rock-solid feet, I’d forgotten what it felt like to be vulnerable down there. We really needed to get to a saferoom.<
br />
  The train eased to a stop.

  “I see more monsters,” Donut said. “But not as many. There’s only a few on the platform. But they’re big. A lot bigger. One is going into train 16 and another two into 14.”

  The door handle started to jiggle. I grasped onto it and held the door closed. Squeals of outrage came through the other side. A moment later, the train started to move again.

  “Hey,” I said. “Do you remember if we left the doors open all the way down? The ones to cars 17 and 18?”

  “We did,” Katia said.

  “Okay, let me know the moment you see that next platform. In a couple minutes we’re going to…”

  Peaking at Number 2 on January 13, 2007, it’s “Fergalicious!”

  The announcement was so loud it rattled the walls.

  “What in god’s name is,” Katia started before she was drowned out. The song started, louder than I expected, despite the description’s warning. My ears immediately rang in pain.

  Carl: It’s the alarm trap. They made it through the first door.

  Katia: Do you want me to hold the other door?

  Carl: No. We don’t have time anymore. We’re running aft. Toward the Back. We’re going in about fifteen seconds. We are going to run all the way back to car number 20, and we’re shutting every door we pass. When I say Go, we run.

  Katia: How is that is going to work? I don’t understand.

  Donut: JUST GO WITH IT. WHEN CARL SAYS TO DO SOMETHING WE DO IT. ALSO, I LOVE THIS SONG.

  The door at the far end of the car rumbled. Shrieks of pain exploded from the other side. Experience notifications started rolling in as mobs were impaled on the door spikes.

  I looked at the map to make sure the track was straight, and then I clicked on Protective Shell.

  The large, semi-circle shield formed around us, expanding outside the width of the train car. The shield wasn’t effected or fettered by solid objects.

  I had no idea how fast the average subway car moved, but that didn’t really matter. I knew this train was going fast, and I also knew that the spell’s barrier would be impenetrable by mobs for 20 seconds.

  And more importantly, the spell remained static in the spot where it was cast.

  The magical shell disappeared the moment I cast it, rocketing away toward car 16, then 17, then 18, then 19, then 20, and then away, stuck in that same place along the tracks it’d been when I cast, pushing all the mobs along with it like a bulldozer, squishing them into paste against the first surface they met.

  Carl: Go!

  I threw open the door just as the door at the other end of the train ripped open, revealing a hedgehog-like ogre creature, so large it couldn’t get through. Only its arm reached in, stretching all the way from car 14. The Dreks poured in around it, running and clambering at us. Several jumped to the ceiling and crawled just as fast as they ran, their mouths open in cries I thankfully couldn’t hear. I slammed the door behind us, then the next.

  Car 16 was completely filled with blood. Body parts were splattered around the seats and walls where the Dreks had gotten stuck. Each corpse had dropped about five gold pieces. The ogre creature, apparently called a Psycho Sticker, had been so obliterated it didn’t even register as an X on the map.

  I looked over my shoulder at the sign, and the next station was only four minutes away. I relaxed as we jogged toward train number 17, looting the gold as we ran. We were going to be okay. For now.

  Carl: Don’t slip on the blood! It’s easy to trip on their heads. Believe me.

  Katia: I’m going to be sick. Oh my god, Carl. I’ve never seen anything like this.

  Donut: YOU BETTER GET USED TO IT.

  A note from DoctorHepa

  First and foremost, you're welcome.

  Thanks so much for sticking with this story! Some crazy shit is going to happen this floor, and I can't wait for you to read it. This is going to be a tricky one for our heroes. They don't call it the Iron Tangle for nothing.

  Choo Choo, motherfuckers!

  Chapter 75

  The platform to traveler station #83 looked like any other subterranean subway station from before the collapse. It was a narrow, concrete platform that seemed to go on forever. One end had a set of stairs leading up to a different area. The featureless, white-tiled walls gave off an early industrial vibe. A lone bench sat against the wall, and a faded thick yellow stripe was painted on the landing, warning travelers of the edge of the platform.

  By the time the train had eased to a stop, and the doors slid open, we still had multiple cars between us and the hordes of killer babies and hedgehog ogres. I feared they would pour out of the train, but Mordecai’s earlier assessment that the transit stations would be safe was correct.

  “Do you think the trains get more and more filled with monsters the further it goes?” Katia asked. “Surely they have to get off somewhere.”

  “That’s a good question,” I said, watching the train pull away. Drek glared at us through the windows. I flipped them off. “Go fuck yourselves, creepy babies.”

  Once the train was gone, I stepped forward to examine the track below. It looked like a regular subway path. It was a channel about five feet deep holding two regular rails. On the far end was the so called “third rail,” an electrified length of metal that provided power to the train. Normally these things had covers on them to keep people from getting electrocuted if they accidentally fell in, but there was no cover here. I didn’t know how much juice was running through the line. For all I knew the whole thing could be some ridiculous mana system. One never knew with this place. But the presence of what appeared to be ceramic insulators along the single, raised line suggested this was good ol’ DC electricity. Either way, I knew we needed to stay off the damn tracks.

  “Mongo,” I said to the dinosaur, who was poised to jump down there to go exploring. “Don’t. You’ll get zapped or squished. Probably both.”

  The pet grunted and turned away.

  My eyes caught a freestanding, rectangular sign in the center of the platform with some writing on it. I moved to examine it.

  The sign simply read The Red Line. Trains approximately every 10-15 minutes and had a long, red squiggle. There was a single dot on the line, about 1/3 of the way from the bottom. It was labeled You are here. Station #83.

  I examined the sign more carefully, and I felt the haptic buzz of my Escape Plan skill activating. The map became alive. Additional words appeared. The remaining dots populated the line, starting at station 11 and ending at station 435. It appeared the trains only traveled one way, ascending up the line, which was kind of weird. If there was a second train that went from high to low, it wasn’t indicated here. The transit stations were now circled on the map. They were not at regular intervals, but there were quite a few of them. The next transit center after this would be station number 89, then station 97, then 101. In addition, every five stations had red squares over the dots, but it didn’t say what that meant.

  A box sat in the left corner of the map. It read Saferooms appear at all transfer stations. Stairwells appear at stations numbered 12, 24, 36, 48, and 72 on any colored line. I returned my gaze to the map, and none of the stairwell locations were located within transit stations. The map didn’t give any more details, nor did it give the names of the other lines at this station, though I knew from the announcement there was also a yellow line platform and a “Nightmare Express” platform somewhere around here.

  We’d emerged on the train just after station number 80, and we’d gotten off at 83. There didn’t appear to be a way to get to the lower-numbered stations with the stairwells. At least not directly. Also, I knew that there would be 9,375 stairwells hidden on this floor. If each line only had five stairwell locations, then how many damn lines were there? I hated doing math, but it sounded like this was going to be a mess.

  A timer counted down to the next train arrival, which would be in nine minutes.

  “Let’s go up the stairs. Find the saferoom,”
I said.

  At the top of the short flight of stairs was a small, circular room. Two additional stairwells led down, one to the yellow line and the other to the Nightmare Express. There were three shops up here. A saferoom. A “Mace and bashing weapons guild.” And a small, general store called “Limp Richard’s Sundries.” The proprietor of the general store, Limp Richard, was a type of creature I’d never seen before. A Mole Man. He was a short, squat man that looked, well, like an anthropomorphized mole, complete with glasses. He sat in the open doorway to his shop reading a book. He looked up at our approach.

  Limp Richard – Mole Man. Level 36.

  This is a Non-Combatant NPC.

  Mole men and mole women actually just call themselves “Men” and “Women,” and quite frankly, it’s exhausting. These losers spend most of their days and nights reading. What a bunch of nerds.

  “Welcome to station 83,” Limp Richard said. He put his book down. “I have supplies for the weary travelers.”

  “We are weary. We’ll be by later after we sleep,” I said, moving to the inn, which didn’t have a sign.

  “Suit yourself,” he said, settling back into his spot.

  “Hey, have you seen any other crawlers yet?” Katia asked.

  “You’re the first,” he said.

  We entered the inn, and upon opening the door, we discovered the saferooms had reverted to their previous style from the first two floors. This was a red and white themed fast food restaurant called Nirula’s. Behind the counter stood a shaggy, but female, Bopca Protector named “Wendita.”

  Mordecai appeared a moment later, having been transferred here from his quarters.

  “Holy shit,” I said, laughing. The last I’d seen Mordecai, he’d been a stunningly-handsome Incubus creature. He was now about five feet tall, and he’d been transformed into a mud-colored, warty, slimy toad-looking thing, complete with hanging jowls and a throat pouch under his wide face that looked as if it could fill with air. I examined his new properties.