Amazon Apocalypse: Chapter 5 (Patreon)

“Everyone, form a line! We’ll hold them here!” I yelled.

Some froze. Others shakily took a few steps forward.

“Move it! One line in front, one in behind,” I yelled.

I felt Bridget and Sakura take positions beside me, and Caleb reluctantly backed us up. Following their lead, the others put on brave faces and formed a line.

“What Carter said!” Sakura yelled. The office workers still recognized her as their boss, so when she backed me up, the holdouts stepped up.

“They’re just bugs. They are big bugs, but they weigh little. So a good stomp should take care of them,” I said. That was about all the helpful advice I could provide because they were on top of us a moment later.

The cockroaches didn’t look too tough, and when I stabbed my second cockroach, I realized they were likely all level one, just like the first one.

You have slain [Cockroach - Level 1]!

I received five more notifications, one after another, all showing I’d killed five level-one cockroaches. Each died to one strike, so I had little trouble holding my parrt of the line.

Congratulations! You have reached level 3!

You have four available stat points to assign!

Once I reached level three, the cockroaches stopped coming. It was like they sensed I’d become too powerful for them to rush down, and they instinctually started looking for easier prey.

I used the brief lull in the fight to assign my stat points. I could kill these cockroaches, but what if that rat showed up again?

In order to increase my survivability a little more, I added one point to perception, agility, vitality, and strength. Those were all weak stats for me, so I wanted to shore up my weaknesses. The gamer in me wanted to pour all the points into one stat, but I resisted the urge. For one, I wasn’t sure which stat to focus on. But beyond that, this wasn’t a game. Dumping a stat like vitality in favor of putting all my points into agility might seem like a good idea right until a stray cockroach sneaked up on me. One mistake would leave me dead, and the System had mentioned nothing about respawns.

So I shoved the specialization question off until later. With my life on the line, it was better to shore up my weaknesses, so I didn’t die. I could focus on figuring out how to kick ass later.

The effect was immediate. My muscles didn’t budge, but I felt like my shirt had gotten a little tighter. I felt bouncier on my feet, like I’d gotten lighter. Only the pull of gravity told me the opposite had happened. It was an odd combination of feelings, and I nearly stumbled at the combination. I righted myself before falling and becoming vulnerable to the cockroaches, though a few had darted in as they sensed weakness.

Since they wanted a piece of me, I gave them a piece of my spear. I skewered three more, and soon the rest of the cockroaches were back to ignoring me.

Everyone else was not so fortunate. Sakura was dealing with three of them, bashing down with her improvised club on any approaching her, but she was the only one really keeping pace with the tide of insects besides Caleb. From my party leader screen, I could tell she’d leveled up at some point and was now level two, and it looked like she’d assigned most of her new stat points to strength so she could hit harder and finish the monsters off in one blow.

Caleb had my old table leg, but he didn’t wield it as aggressively as Sakura did. His blows were half-hearted, and while he probably had started with more points in strength than Sakura, he wasn’t as decisive at crushing the cockroaches the moment they reared their heads. Fortunately, just having a weapon put him in a better position than most others.

Bridget was having a tougher time. She had to stomp on the cockroaches, since she didn’t have a weapon. Fortunately, the heels she was wearing were pointy, and they went through a cockroach’s exoskeleton almost as easily as my spear tip did.

But everyone else was faltering, especially off to the corners beyond the reach of my spear.

A good stomp with a shoe wasn’t quite enough to put one of these giant cockroaches down, and several people now had bugs crawling up their pant legs and taking bites out of their ankles. A few had realized the giant cockroaches were weak enough that they could just tear them free with their hands and toss them aside, but others merely shook their legs in a combination of fear and horror.

“Rear line, pull them back and help deal with those things!” I shouted. I realized I would have to step things up a notch to cover the loss of three people holding our line. “Sakura, Bridget, Caleb, spread out!” I shouted, and the three moved to cover the entire front line, with me holding the widest opening. My spear had the most reach, and as of now, I had the highest level of the group, so it was only natural that I covered the biggest opening.

I hacked and slashed, unable to give further orders as I taxed my body to my limits, darting back and forth, skewering cockroaches. My biggest problem was needing to scrape stuck cockroaches off my spear point. They were big enough that when I skewered one, only a bit of spear tip poked through the underside. That meant every time one got stuck, I had to kick it off. My knots held firm, but every second I was clearing my spear off was another second I wasn’t skewering cockroaches.

Thankfully, the rear line was coming together again after dealing with the cockroaches that had bitten the downed front liners.

Bridget finally leveled up, and I covered her for a moment while she distributed her stats. When she started fighting again, she did so visibly faster and with greater force than before

Around my twentieth cockroach kill, the creatures started changing their behavior around me. Before, they’d merely been avoiding me, but after slaying so many, they started fleeing me altogether.

I gave chase, cutting down two more before letting the rest flee when I was certain they weren’t coming back.

The lawyer I’d been talking with before climbed to his feet. I realized now he’d been one of the people running around with a cockroach biting his ankle, unable to muster the will to tear the insects free with his hands. “We did it! We fought those damn bugs off!” He held up his hand for a high-five, and several others took him up on the offer.

“Yeah, we fought them off. And I see a few of you got levels from it, too,” I said, still studying my party leader menu. I hadn't gotten a level, but just like a game I was getting less and less experience from weaker foes. “I recommend allocating those stat points soon. We’ll stay here a bit, then head over to the law office and the landline there. In the meantime, arm yourselves. You saw how effective just having a table leg was for Sakura and Caleb. There are plenty more where those two came from.”

I gestured around the room to all the tables. I wanted the entire party armed. The more of these things everyone killed, the more levels everyone would gain. And the more levels everyone gained, the safer we’d all be.

Your party is victorious! Your party cohesion has increased to 45%.

We spent a few minutes catching our breath. I didn’t like how much every else reacted to the declaration of a break. They slumped to the floor in exhaustion or started loudly talking about the fight. Sakura must have been thinking the same thing I was because she shushed the loudest of the bunch.

“Do you want to attract more monsters?” she asked.

The loud talkers paled and spoke in hushed whispers from then on.

Using the party leader menu, I could watch for the last person who received a level to assign their stat points. Once that was taken care of, I got everyone up, and we headed across the office again.

“Anybody who’s got a high perception, keep lookout,” I ordered.

“What’s high perception?” One of the office workers asked.

“If this is like a game, five should be close to average, and ten should be the limits of human capability. So anyone close to ten should be a lookout. I’m only at 8, so I’ll stay in the middle and leave the rest to you guys,” the lawyer said to the others.

I groaned inwardly, but the precaution proved unnecessary. There were neither cockroaches nor giant rats. The hallway was quiet. The law office was just on the other side of the building on the same floor. We had to cross the stairwell but not go up or down it. Really, it was only twenty paces, but each footfall sent an echo running up and down the stairs. The brief walk had never felt so eerie in all my years working here.

“There’s the phone!” the lawyer pointed into the law office. “It’s just behind that desk there.”

I nodded. I checked the room to make sure it was clear and noticed one printer was running. Without a moment of hesitation, I thrust my spear into it, and ink spilled everywhere.

You have slain [Mimic - Level 2]!

That marked another one of those damn machines that were secretly a monster. I waved to the others. “It looks clear! Come on.”

We all huddled around the landline, which Sakura picked up. She held it to her ear and waited.

“Well, is it working?” the lawyer asked hopefully. Others looked on with equally fervent expectation.

Sakura answered by punching in three numbers and putting the phone on speaker. A moment later, someone on the other side answered.

“This is nine-one-one.” The phone said.

“Oh, thank god, the police!” the lawyer shouted for joy. “We need a swat team here as soon as possible! There are giant monsters in the office! Huge rats and giant bugs!”

I frowned. Weren’t the cops supposed to ask, ‘what is your emergency?’ And were those gunshots I heard in the background? A moment later, I heard something akin to a door being barricaded.

“What’s the situation look like outside, citizen?” The voice on the other end of the line.

“Monster! Giant monsters everywhere!” someone else shouted. “If you don’t come to rescue us, we’re all going to die!”

The dispatcher on the other end was silent for a moment. “What is your location? I will add you to the rescue list.”

“Rescue list?” The lawyer frowned. “Just send a dozen cars our way!”

“The precinct is currently under attack, and we’re unable to leave,” the dispatcher replied. “And most of the armory is nonfunctional. I’m afraid you’ll have to figure out how to survive on your own until we can break out. But keep in touch. We’re building a map of Crownhill County and the surrounding regions to mark out the worst of the disaster zones.”

“Understood. We’ll keep in touch,” I said. And then the line hung up. “Well, you heard it here, folks. There will be no rescue. We’re going to rescue ourselves.”

Considering the situation, it was a miracle the phone line even worked at all, and just knowing there were other people out there was a huge relief. That was the point of view Bridget argued. Everybody else was less enthusiastic.

“But just to confirm,” Caleb began, “I don’t have to finish that update that I was supposed to push out by noon, right?”

“Well, if the monsters all die, then we can get back to work,” Sakura said. “But until then, everyone is off the clock.”

“What, no pay?” Someone groaned.

“I can’t pay you if the computers don’t work!”

“But I set up direct deposit!”

The arguments about survival turned into arguments about whether everyone should get paid. The familiar office arguments were actually somewhat comforting to everyone present. They were so comforting that I nearly missed the scrabbling sound of claws on wood coming up from the stairwell.

“Shush!” I shouted. “Do you hear that?”

Everyone went quiet. In the silence, everyone heard the grabbing, scraping claws.

“It’s coming from the stairwell,” Bridget said. I took a step forward, and everyone beside Sakura and I backed away from the door leading to the stairs.

A familiar monster peeked its head around the door, and this time, it brought friends.

Six giant rats walked into the room, one after another.

“Form a line!” I shouted again, and Sakura repeated my order to those who weren’t listening. People picked themselves off the ground and wiped the tears and fear off their faces. With their improvised weapons in hand, we faced the giant rats.

I had hoped the rats would back off, seeing that we were ready, but whatever the System had done had transformed humble rats into ferocious monsters. They were out for blood, and it would take more than a show of force to scare them off.

I had a theory about why these monsters were attacking us, though. I had gotten stronger by killing those cockroaches and the mimic. It was probably the same for these monsters. They wanted to farm us for levels. Maybe it was just instinct, or maybe these things were smarter than normal rats.

But either way, the System had pitted us against one another, and I planned to be the one to come out on top.

The lead rat screeched, claws digging into the carpet. I met it with a battle cry of my own, and spear met claw. Its hide was tough, but the knife on the end of my spear was still sharp enough to draw blood.

Between my forward thrust and the rat’s own charge, it had skewered itself on my spear deep enough to be a mortal wound. But it wasn’t dead yet. With claws outstretched, it swiped at me. My spear was stuck in the rat’s bones, and I needed to pull it free. Only while I did so, another rat ducked beneath my spear to bite me.

I had to drop my weapon and dodge to the side. Thankfully Sakura was there, and she leaped forward with her club in hand. For a moment, my petite boss looked like a feral barbarian warrior woman, and she slammed her table leg down on the rat’s head.

Dazed by the blow, the rat stumbled. I tore my spear from the first rat, finished it with a second strike right through the eye, and then turned to help Sakura.

You have slain [Giant Rat - Level 4].

You have slain [Giant Rat - Level 3].

The first rat had actually been a little stronger, which explained why it could keep fighting even after being stabbed. I wished there was a way to see the levels of my opponents before engaging them. For now, all I could do was see how strong they were from their kill notifications.

Once again, it was Bridget, Sakura, Caleb, and I doing most of the fighting. The others were armed this time, but only a few of them were truly willing to throw themselves into battle.

Fortunately for them, the four of us could finish the rats. But just when I was thinking we had victory in the bag, a new threat emerged. The remaining rats limped back in retreat, and our own people hauled back our wounded behind our line.

Across from us, there was a new rat to the rear, behind all the others. It seemed familiar, and I saw the wound in its side, just like the rat I’d fought before.

No, that was exactly the wound I’d left on the rat I’d fought. It had been but minutes since that battle, but the rat had grown considerably in that time. While the other giant rats had been about the size of a dog, this one looked like it was big enough to wrestle a bear. Though I didn’t know what level it was, just looking at it, my instincts told me it was far and away more dangerous than the rest of the rats. If I needed any proof, that killing humans made these monsters stronger, the proof was before me now. Tim from accounting’s death had just been the start of this creature’s journey of slaughter. It had probably killed several others since I drove it off, and now it was looking for a rematch.

“Oh god, it’s a Rat Matriarch, and it’s level 6!” the lawyer from before gasped.

“How do you know?”

“When I put those points you get on level up into perception and hit ten, I got something called an ‘Examine’ skill, and now I can see the levels of everything.”

Mentally, I decided to put more points into perception. That skill sounded like it could be the difference between life and death if it could display monster levels before needing to kill them.

“Level six, huh...” I tightened my grip on my spear. This was going to be a tough fight.

But Sakura stepped up beside me, ready to watch my back. A moment later, Bridget joined her. Then Caleb, and after him, all the others who weren’t wounded from the first fight, stepped up as well.

Party cohesion has increased to 60%

We rushed toward one another, humans and beasts meeting in battle. The rat matriarch snarled, baring her fangs with eyes locked on me. I had my gaze fixed on her as well, and with my spear in hand, I had no intention of running.

The rats rushed forward again, and we did the same. I tried to skewer the rat matriarch the same way I’d gotten her before by using her charge to drive the spear into herself. But she was wise to that trick this time, and she swatted the spear aside as she approached.

My weapon turned in my hand, and I held its haft up to shield myself as the rat matriarch’s jaws leaped for my neck. Her mouth clamped down on the spear shaft instead of flesh, and wood splintered between her teeth.

The old janitorial mop gave way. It had never been intended as a weapon and had certainly never been intended to be used against a monster like this one.

But I had been counting on having the reach advantage, and now all I held were two broken sticks, one of which had something pointy at the end. It would have to do.

So with the blunt broken half, I slapped the rat on the side of the head. That was just to distract her, though, because a moment later, I stabbed the bladed side into the other side of her neck.

The point sank deep, but I paid a price. I was far too close to the rat, and its claws swept across my chest, cutting through my clothes and grazing the flesh beneath.

“Carter!” Sakura yelled, feeling fear for me. But she had her own fight to focus on. She swung her club with desperate vigor, smashing aside the rat she was fighting so she could position herself closer to me. The blow wasn’t enough to defeat her enemy, though, and a moment later, it was back on its feet and biting her leg.

Instead of letting out a scream of pain, she swept her leg around and slammed the rat clinging to her into the wall. It found its head pinched between her heel and solid masonry, and a moment later, Sakura slammed the table leg with its splintered end cutting right through the rat’s eye.

Meanwhile, Bridget and Caleb worked together. Caleb distracted the rat while Bridget broke its legs with two steady blows. Once disabled, the beast couldn’t avoid either of them as they rained blow after blow on its head.

The others were winning, slowly but surely. I just needed to hold off the rat matriarch a little longer, and they’d all be able to come to my aid.

I sensed the rat matriarch’s attention drift to the rest of the battle, just as mine had, and I expected it to cut its losses and flee just like it had before. But its hatred of me and deep, and it fought with even greater aggression than before as it tried to finish me before the other rats died.

The spear tip with the knife on the end was still stuck a hand deep in the rat’s neck. There had to be a jugular in there somewhere, and if I could slide the blade across it, the rat matriarch would be as good as dead. I kept the truncated spear tip in her while I wailed on the rat’s head with the other half. It clawed me again, but I dealt with it blow for blow. It shoved against me, and I shoved back with my spear in its throat, driving the bladed weapon deeper and lower.

Blood started flowing, this time far more than before. I was certain I’d scraped across something vital and that it was only a matter of time before the beast went down. Time was on my side.

Then the rat matriarch pushed herself forward once more, jaw opening wide. But this time, a pit opened up deep in my stomach as her teeth glowed red, and I had a terrible feeling about that bite.

I brought my offhand up to block. The rat batted the stick aside, but I shoved it with my arm. I knew the rat had been going for my jugular before, but it changed its mind at the last moment as the glow in its teeth subsided. It turned to my right arm, still holding the spear pressed deep into its neck.

It bit down, and I felt excruciating pain flow up my arm.

You have been afflicted with the poison [Toxic Bite]!

Despite the pain and the notification, I shoved. Blood gushed out the rat’s throat in a great flowing river, and I felt its shock that I didn’t die the moment it bit me. We shoved each other again, using the last of our strength. This time we were both far weaker than before, but I was poisoned, and it was not, so it got the better of me.

It jumped on top of me once more and opened its mouth. With my good left hand, I shoved the broken stick down its throat. It choked, spluttered, and coughed.

In that instant, it finally realized it had no more time to fight me. I had held long enough for my allies to defeat its allies. Sakura, Bridget, Caleb, and all the others would be running to my aid soon. When that happened, the rat was as good as dead no matter how many levels it had.

It turned, pushing me aside as it did so. I crashed into one of the remaining rats. It was one of the rats that Bridget and Caleb had disabled, but it wasn't dead yet. When I fell on top of it, I crushed it and finished it off.

You have slain [Giant Rat - Level 4]

You have defeated a fellow party leader and driven their forces from the field! Bonus experience points awarded for victory against a party of monsters while leading a party of your own.

You have reached level 4! You have four stat points to assign.

My eyes closed as I watched the Rat Matriarch scurry away to lick her wounds. I knew in my heart, I hadn't seen the last of her.

“Carter!” Sakura called out again, this time freeing herself from the dead rat clinging to her ankle and stumbling over in my direction. The battle might have been won, but it wasn't finished. There were still a half dozen wounded and snarling rats with sharp teeth and claws biting and slashing at anyone who approached. But the the risky part was over. Now it was just a matter of finishing them off and collecting the experience points.

A rat stood between her and me, and Sakura swept her club to bash it aside. But just as she was about to make contact, a noise rang out from the back toward the stairwell toward our office.

Crack!

The first sounded almost like a board falling, sharp and quick. But then, when two more rang out, another rat stumbled as bleeding wounds appeared on its body.

Crack! Crack!

Those were gunshots I was hearing, and all eyes turned to the man who made them.

A man in a tactical vest stood with a loaded pistol in his hands, leveled at the last of the rats. He let the clip in his gun fall to the ground and slammed a new cartridge into place.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Three more bullets in quick succession, and the last rat died, just like that.

“Well... who told you pencil pushers to run off on me? You should have stayed safe in your cubicles and waited for security. And by that, I mean, waited for me.” The man was large and had a tactical vest thrown over his shirt. Each pocket had a spare clip in it for the pistol he held in his hand.

The man wore a venomous smile, especially when he looked over at Sakura and me, both wounded. His finger twitched on his gun.

The man, of course, was Craig.

<Note>

Carter Smith (Human, Level 4. Rank F) (4 points unassigned)

Strength: 6

Agility: 4

Perception: 6

Vitality: 5

Intelligence: 9

Willpower: 6

Charisma: 6 (+4)

Luck: 0