Amazon Apocalypse: Chapter 12 (Patreon)

I recovered quicker than Sakura did, and the people in the clinic were kind enough to let us use their decontamination shower. It wasn’t a request either, since the two of them were paranoid about all the zombie goo on the two of us. Their reasoning became apparent when we started talking to them.

“Are you infected?” The man who shouted at us before asked. Before we could respond, he shined a flashlight in our eyes. “Hmm... unusually responsive pupil dilation.” He pressed his hand to my chest. “Normal heart rate. No signs of bite wounds. Impressive muscle tone, too. Must be an athlete.”

I chuckled. I was no athlete, but I could see how the man, presumably the clinic’s doctor, might come to that conclusion. The extra stat points made a lot of changes to my body.

“And you, miss,” the man felt for Sakura’s heartbeat on the side of her neck. “Hmm, alive as well. Good. I would have been extremely concerned to find zombies participating in reproductive behavior. I never liked necrophiliacs. Everyone has strange urges, but professionals can resist them. Assistant! Cross out that last line of notes.”

“Yes sir,” a harried-looking young man said as he scribbled on a notebook at high speed. His pencil had been worn down to a tiny nub, and the thick stack of used sheets and lead-stained hands meant he’d probably filled the entire thing out recently.

“I suppose having two human species as capable as you will be useful,” the doctor said. “Come. We need help restraining a few soon-to-be-undead. I want to observe the process, but we haven’t had the confidence to hold anyone that long. But with you two here, we’ll finally be able to tell if this is a virus, fungus, bacteria, or some other malady!” The doctor cackled and rubbed his hands together.

“Uh, what?” Sakura asked.

“The zombies, girl! We are in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, and only science can save us!”

“Come again?”

Eventually, the doctor explained from the beginning. He was Doctor Roswell, and this was his clinic. He’d been hard at work when the apocalypse began. That had been an odd experience, and he still wasn’t sure what to make of it. But one thing was certain. Upon his return, many of his patients had turned into undead.

But as an avid part-time zombie apocalypse movie critic, Doctor Roswell had been prepared for just such a scenario. His office had a collection of weapons, ranging from a modern shotgun to a medieval longbow with silver tipped arrows. So when the gun failed, he just pulled out some of his other weapons, starting with his battery powered repeating crossbow.

“And look, these leather restraints and ballgags are perfect for restraining a zombie patient! I bought them online, hardly believing so many people were also preparing to restrain zombies for dissection like I was. The ballgags are especially important. I’m still not entirely sure these spread their disease by bite, but you can never be too careful. I need the two of you to outfit the poor infected woman in the other room with these restraints so I can go in and examine her properly.”

Doctor Roswell held up what was clearly a set of leather bedroom restraints and a ballgag. It was quite a collection. His assistants shared sheepish expressions with Sakura and me, and were likely aware that most people who used those cuffs and gags didn’t use them to restrain zombies.

Still, it was an easy enough task, and I was curious about how undead worked, so the two of us helped Doctor Roswell with his experiment. Also, I wanted to test my new Examine skill. First, I looked at Doctor Roswell. He and all his assistants were still level 1.

Human - Level 1

That was all the information the skill provided at first, but even that would be enough to distinguish who I could beat and who I couldn’t at a glance. I noted that when I Examined someone I’d been introduced to, I got a name instead of their race.

Doctor Roswell (Human) - Level 1

One by one, the information for everyone else changed as they introduced themselves. If nothing else, I’d never forget people’s names again.

To make sure it worked on enemies, I tested the zombie they had in containment. Apparently, she’d been a nurse but had been unfortunate enough to be wounded by an undead patient during the early stages of the integration before they understood what they were dealing with.

Doctor Roswell had been doing his best to keep her alive, hoping that she wouldn’t turn into a zombie if she survived. But, unfortunately, with the power outages, a lot of his most advanced equipment was offline, so he had to make do with cruder methods. In the end, it just wasn’t enough, and the nurse died on his operating table.

"Also, we don't do surgery here. I haven't actually seen a scalpel since medical school," Doctor Roswell explained. "That may have been part of the issue."

Zombie - Level 1

The information my Examine skill provided for enemies was identical to what it provided on fellow humans. Not much, but enough to save my life or ease my worries when I encountered something unknown and powerful.

Sakura sat on the zombie’s chest while I put the gag in her mouth and locked her arms and legs to the examination table as quickly as I could. The zombie was thrashing a lot, and despite all her strength, Sakura only had so much weight.

“You’re very good at that,” Sakura commented as I swiftly gagged the zombie and finished binding her wrists. “Have you done it before?”

I chuckled. “No, I’ve never tied up a zombie before.”

“I didn’t mean a zombie.”

I turned back to the glass windows just outside of the operating room. Doctor Roswell had his forehead pressed to the glass as he watched us work, and behind him, his assistant was scribbling notes. “You sure you want an answer here and now?”

Sakura blushed. “I swear, I have the worst luck.”

When we were finished, the doctor burst into the room, and we cleared out and talked with his assistants and the surviving patients. It was difficult convincing them this wasn’t a zombie apocalypse but rather more of an RPG apocalypse. We figured it would be much harder to convince Doctor Roswell when he was here, so getting everyone else up to speed on their own would be better.

“So you’re saying, if I kill some of those zombies, I’ll get levels, and then it’ll be easier to kill zombies?” Doctor Roswell’s assistant said as he massaged his cramped hand.

“Yeah, that’s it exactly.” I nodded. “Sakura and I were just normal office workers. The only reason we could take down all those zombies outside was because of our stats. You guys should have gotten some for free, thanks to Blessing of the System.”

“This alien System thing is granting people special powers?” A woman crossed her arms, looking at me skeptically.

I frowned. Perhaps a demonstration was in order. “Grab that beaker there and set it on the table.”

They did as I asked, and when they were all watching, I pointed my finger at the beaker and shattered it with a Mana Bolt.

“What! How? Are you a psychic?” Doctor Roswell’s assistant asked. "If you are, please don't tell the doctor. He'll want to experiment on you as much as that zombie."

“I'm not psychic. I'm magical. It’s a spell called Mana Bolt. You might pick it up yourself after you hit ten intelligence.”

There were many more questions, but that was only to be expected when showing people real magic. And even more so when I told them they could use magic too. Being able to shatter glasses just by pointing at them had everyone’s hearts racing. Far more so than Sakura’s ability to smash a dozen zombies to pieces with a baseball bat, even if her powers were arguably more useful for any survivor.

The reason I picked up Mana Bolt and started focusing on Intelligence was because I would have died to the Rat Matriarch’s Toxic Bite without having some ability kill things and level. But I supposed firing off a Mana Bolt was much cleaner and cooler, and I happily shared the secret.

I tried talking a few of the people from the clinic into making their way over to the office. We could certainly use a few people with medical knowledge over there, especially if they brought some tools. The only one to take me up on the offer was the doctor’s note taker. In his case, I’m pretty sure he volunteered because his hand was cramping up too much to continue working under the doctor anymore.

We headed back, but he was slow for our tastes since he was just level one. Sakura and I traveled fast thanks to all our other stats, though I’m pretty sure Sakura could go a lot faster than I could. In the end, Sakura slung the assistant over her shoulder and carried him back at a steady jog while I kept pace behind.

We returned to the shelter to find Bridget waiting for us with a rifle in hand and a big smile on her face.

“Did it work?” I asked.

She nodded. “Already tested. Got a special title for it too. Turns out the guns don’t work unless you disassemble every part and put them back together again. Something about the System requires the intent of a craftsman to make items it recognizes.”

“Interesting.” Craig must have lucked into the solution. He was putting his own gun together when the apocalypse began. He was probably hiding in his office until he finished, which is why we didn’t see him until we’d cleared out our rooms and were fighting the rats in the law office. “What was the title?”

“Mechanical Master. Apparently, the System considers a common rifle quite complex. I wonder what titles it would give to someone reassembling a combat drone."

Bridget ran her fingers through her hair. Curly blond locks slipped through her fingers, falling perfectly along her shoulders. After all the fighting we did earlier, her hair should have been a tangled mess. Perhaps her stats just wouldn't let that happen. In fact, now that I was thinking about it, every time Sakura got dirty the grim simply fell right off her when I looked away.

Bridget blushed when she saw me looking at her. "I'm impressed."

"Now that we know the trick, I could get you the title really quick." Bridget smiled.

I gave Bridget a warm half-embrace around the shoulder. “Bridget, you’re a lifesaver. Lead the way.”

***

Mechanical Master

• You have displayed mastery over      manipulating the physical world in complex patterns incomprehensible to      most sapient of your rank.
• +3 Intelligence and a permanent      bonus to solving complex puzzles.

As soon as Bridget told me about the reward for getting the Mechanical Master title, I knew I had to have it. Three more Intelligence points was nearly an entire level’s worth, and that especially was amazing for someone focusing on getting more mana like I was. By now, I could use my Mana Bolt ability with impunity, though I was worrying that I wasn’t getting offers for any new skills. More mana wouldn’t help me much since I had more than I could expect to exhaust in a fight. Even a series of fights would be hard pressed to drain my prodigious reserves.

If I didn’t get a new mana ability soon, I would have to switch to putting stats into physical attributes again, and that would make me use my vitality ability to turn my mana into a backup second health bar.

But the odd thing was the fact that the System treated just putting together a bunch of gun parts according to instructions as something so remarkable. It wasn’t really all that special. Craig managed it, after all. I imagined any human who put a bit of effort into the task could figure it out, even without instructions. But apparently, the System saw it as special. Maybe it was used to working with creatures closer to apes than humans.

Still, I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, and after getting the title, I headed out again with Sakura and Bridget both, with Caleb staying behind. Ben needed someone of a fairly high level to help the others get the confidence to head out of the office in search of levels. As promised, Ben took one rifle, and I took the other. We called the police department up and shared the trick with them, and they promised to try it. They also said they wouldn’t be enforcing any restrictions on firearms for the foreseeable future, which was nice. Not that anyone was going to take the threat of being arrested seriously when the streets were full of giant monsters.

I spotted a giant squirrel scampering through the rubbish scattered around the area. It would have been about hip-high if I was standing next to it, and it would have been a normal gray squirrel if not for the red streaks lining its sides.

Just like the other fuzzy creature I’d fought, this one spat fireballs in our direction. I used my Examine skill on it.

Fire Squirrel - Level 5

“This one is stronger than the last squirrel,” I said to the others. “Looks like the critters in the city are getting stronger.”

“Should we chase it down?” Sakura asked.

I shook my head. “No. This is a perfect chance to try this baby out.”

So I dropped to one knee and leveled the rifle. The giant squirrel didn’t know what I was doing, but must have it thought it could take the lot of us because it charged toward us, spitting fire the entire time.

I dodged the first two fireballs, but the third would have hit me. Just as it was about to wash over my unprotected face, the fireball abruptly swerved to the left and slammed into the ground. It was like someone with an invisible fly swatter had slapped it aside. That was the effect of my Deflect spell.

I could feel it drain my mana as the spell expended mana to exert energy on the fireball. It wasn't too expensive, all things considered. I imagined deflecting a handgun bullet would probably cost a little more to push aside, since it would have less mass but would be moving much faster.

The squirrel was standing there with its jaw open. I liked to think it was shocked, but it was probably just generating another fireball.

But before it could, I pulled the trigger on my rifle.

You have gained the rifle proficiency!

The squirrel squeaked in pain and leaped backward. It was angry now, but it wasn't dead. Blood leaked down its side, but whatever its vitality was, it had enough to shrug off a single bullet. But that just meant I had to shoot it again.

The System acknowledged my first attack with the rifle, and I was curious about how fast that proficiency would level. The squirrel shrugged off the first bullet, ignoring the attack and continuing its charge.

I realized then that this kind of situation was probably what had given Craig problems on his trip to the convenience store. Bullets were fast and packed a punch, but creatures with high vitality would be hard to put down with bullets alone. More than that, my rifle rounds were big enough to topple an ordinary deer in one shot, and whatever Craig was firing from his pistol was considerably smaller. If this giant squirrel was shrugging off my rifle rounds, Craig would have needed to load an entire clip into this thing to put it down.

Maybe things would have been different if I had a semi-automatic weapon, but this was an older pump-action rifle, so it took me half a second more to fire another shot.

The squirrel squealed in a combination of fury and panic as it was wounded once more, but before it could decide to keep charting or flee for its life, I shot it a third time.

This last bullet went right through the creature’s eye, putting it down for good.

You have slain [Fire Squirrel - Level 5!]

“Not bad,” I said as I stood and propped the rifle up on my shoulder and recast Deflect. Weapons like this would be a complete game changer at the low levels and let ordinary humans fend off the local wildlife. Just having these would let humanity retake Crownhill. That way, we’d only have to worry about what’s outside the city instead of huddling in our buildings. We could rebuild some semblance of civilization.

But there were problems with it as well. It already took multiple shots to take down a monster at level six. What would happen at level sixteen? Or level sixty? Would it take a hundred bullets? Ten thousand?

Crownhill didn’t have an ammunition factory. We might make gunpowder, but what about the primers?

And worse, when the day came that we started running out of bullets, we’d be in for a reckoning. All our strongest warriors would only have gun-related proficiencies. They would have to retrain themselves from scratch with whatever weapons we could make. And I had a hunch that whatever threat made us run out of bullets wouldn’t be one that’d let us take some time off from the fight to retrain ourselves.

But I knew how much hope these weapons would bring the other survivors. Of course, no human wanted to face down a snarling feral creature with nothing but sticks and stones. Still, there was something about having a gun that brought renewed confidence. I’d seen the way so many flocked to Craig’s side when he flashed his pistol. A gun represented undeniable physical power to those who knew what it was. Faced with this apocalypse, it was that symbol we needed more than anything.

All this served as justification for robbing the gun store, which is exactly what we did. We stripped every pistol, shotgun, and rifle out of storage, along with every bullet we could find.

“As soon as the secret for how to make guns work spreads, this place and every one like it is going to be looted bare," I announced as we arrived. "And I think these weapons are of better use in our hands than those of strangers. Strip the shelves.”

And so, we went on our third shopping run of the day, this one for weapons. Thankfully, we’d thought to bring some of the shopping carts from earlier over. That made bringing our haul home easier. I killed several more squirrels, raccoons, and other creatures with the rifle, though all of them were on the weaker side and didn’t give me a level-up. Sakura even shot a few monsters that looked like they would attack us, though she still claimed to prefer bashing things with her baseball bat.

I had trouble picking up another proficiency level with the rifle, though. I had a hunch that getting more proficiency levels required a greater level of danger and strife. Simply leveling a gun and pulling a trigger didn’t satisfy the System like bashing things up close and personal with a baseball bat. No one gained any levels, so I had a hunch that it might even affect gaining levels negatively. Perhaps the fact that so much power came from the weapon reduced the System’s rewards. But, despite the reduction in experience, the sheer stopping power of a gun meant those with them could just kill more enemies to compensate for the reduced experience and still come out ahead. Craig had proven that much.

With doubts in my mind, I made one other addition to our looting trip. The gun store didn't just sell guns, they had a whole shelf full of hunting knifes. I picked two for myself. One of a smaller utility size and another as long as my forearm. It was painted jet black and made of good rust resistant steel and would probably make many warriors of the distant past extremely jealous.

While it was technically labeled a knife, I slot it in my head as a short sword. So I picked it up, felt its heft, and then belted it on. The sheath was quite comfortable, which reinforced my decision to add it to my survival kit. Mana Bolt was great and all, but I still wanted a weapon in case people got up close and personal with me.

When we returned to the office, Ben was ecstatic. He’d been practicing with his rifle by shooting cockroaches in the basement, and had put on several levels quickly.

Benjamin Fisher (Human) - Level 5

Now that I had Examine, I could look around the shelter and spot who was doing the fighting. The spread was fairly wide, with most people still at level one. Only a few were at levels two and three, but there were two others at level five like Ben was, including his wife Margaret.

“Now, this is how you survive an apocalypse!” Ben gave his rifle a kiss.

Margaret stepped up behind him. “Now, if only you still kissed me like that.”

The couple shared a laugh. They’d clearly been together for a long time. But after that, Ben’s expression turned grim.

“Honey, I want to talk to Carter about that thing I was telling you about earlier,” Ben said.

Margaret’s eyes darted to meet mine, and her smile turned somber. “I’ll grab Sakura. We’ll use the rear conference room.”

“What’s this about?” I asked as Margaret found Sakura and started tugging her toward one of the rear rooms. Ben put an arm around my shoulders and started leading me in the same direction.

Sakura and Margaret entered first, and Ben shut the door behind us. Margaret passed around a few cups of office tea in paper cups. It wasn’t particularly good, but this little meeting felt more normal.

We weren’t the only people in the room. Ben and Margaret had three other men and one woman sitting and waiting for us. The only one I recognized was Caleb. As far as the survivors we’d met went, all of them were quite high level. Ben introduced them one by one.

“Carter, Sakura, these three are our strongest according to the Examine ability. This is Stacy Williams from Human Resources, Brett Winchester from the Autostore on fifth street, and Michael Thompson from the Exterminator office across the street. And, of course, there is Caleb, who’s been a tremendous help to us already. So, everyone, this is Sakura and Carter, the two Margaret was telling you about earlier.”

Stacy Williams (Human) - Level 6

Stacy Williams was a woman in her late thirties. She had horn-rimmed glasses but had taken the lenses out recently. A few points in perception would have fixed any problems she used to have with her vision. She had a formal dress that looked like it would be home at the office or church, but little else.

Brett Winchester (Human) - Level 5

Brett was a heavyset man in his fifties. He had oil stains on his hands and tightly drawn brows with lines crossing his entire face. He looked like he’d worn a perpetual scowl for years, but today had found a reason to smile. There was a bit of blood staining his sleeves, but he didn’t seem bothered by it.

Michael Thomson (Human) - Level 5

Michael was somewhere between Stacy and Brett in age. He was tall and lean, giving him an almost skeletal appearance. He wore a white vest splashed in green insect guts, and sitting by his ankle was a bottle of pesticide. His method of getting for his current level was immediately obvious. He’d waged a one-man war against giant bugs, and the System had rewarded him.

They were sizing Sakura and me up the same way I was looking at them. Stacy, in particular, must have had the Examine skill because I felt a tingle run up my spine as she looked at me. When she saw my level, she straightened in her chair, and her expression changed to a reserved smile.

“So, this is about the settlement quest, then?” I said, coming to the obvious realization.

“Partly, yes,” Ben replied. “We need to get those details worked out. But first we have another important matter to discuss.”

“Oh?” I set my tea down and pushed it aside. I could tell from Ben’s tone that this was going to be a serious discussion.

Ben took one last sip before doing the same with his cup. Then he looked me dead in the eyes and spoke.

“We’re going to murder Craig.”

<Note>

Happy Halloween! Wish I had time to do a Holloween special chapter. Maybe if I get stuck later today and get struck by inspiration for something.

Carter Smith (Human, Level 8. Rank F)

Strength: 8

Agility: 6

Perception: 10

Vitality: 13

Intelligence: 23

Willpower: 8

Charisma: 8 (+4)

Luck: 0

Proficiencies:

Caster: 5

Neutral Mana: 2

Improvised Weapons: 2

Titles:

Forerunner of Earth, Integration Survivor, Chivalrous Pervert, Mechanical Master

Temporary Titles:

Blessed of the System, Hero of Sakura Miyamoto,