Chapter 4: Andrea

While the shotgun saved his life, it almost killed Spencer in his very next encounter. Turns out getting the first shot through the top of the monster’s mouth was incredibly lucky. The hellhound’s armor-like outer skin could take an entire slug round without slowing the creature much. A fact that Spencer only became aware of after confidently engaging the next pair of monsters.

When the two other hellhounds that had been ransacking his neighbor’s house came to investigate the first gunshot Spencer was ready for them. He set up behind the wreckage of his family’s living room couch. The cushion provided a great resting point for the shotgun while obscuring him just enough so the hellhounds didn’t spot him immediately upon entering his broken front door. Spencer aimed carefully at the head of the first of the two and squeezed the trigger.

Dust kicked up around the gun as the slug exited the barrel and flew at the hellhound at sixteen hundred feet per second. As luck would have it the creature shifted its head slightly to the right just before round left the barrel. Instead of its large eye the slug struck the angled armor-like skin that covered most of the creature’s nose. The bullet ricocheted upwards taking a large chunk of the hellhound’s upper face with it but leaving the monster largely intact.

Both creatures crouched low and screeched at Spencer as he hastily racked his gun to chamber the next slug. His second shot hit the same hellhound in the shoulder. The round found a gap between armored plates but didn’t hit anything immediately vital. The hellhound yelped and pushed itself forward towards Spencer despite eating two shots. The third round struck the creature’s head again and this time found a much softer target to punch through. It fell dead with a ding.

‘Progress made: 3 out of 5 mobs slain.’

Spencer didn’t have time to celebrate as the next hellhound was already halfway across the room. California state law required all civilian shotguns only have capacity for three rounds of ammunition. One in the chamber and two in reserve. This fact ran through Spencer’s mind as the third monster lunged at him with its ferocious jaws open wide.

“Damn it!” Spencer threw himself to the side and fished out another shotgun shell from his pocket.

The hellhound forced its head through the already broken couch and latched its lengthy teeth onto Spencer’s right leg. White hot pain shot through him as the jaws tore through his pitifully thin jeans and latched onto his vulnerable flesh. Spencer forced the single shell into the gun and racked it into the chamber just as the hellhound pulled him forcibly out from behind the couch. Jagged wood pieces caught on Spencer’s clothes and made it difficult to swing the length barrel of the shotgun around. The hellhound bit down harder.

“Die!” Spencer screamed and planted the barrel of his gun directly into the creature’s eye.

The gun bucked and kicked out of his awkward grip, clattering to the floor. Black blood splattered the wall next to him and the monster went limp. The silence that followed was deafening. A train whistle could have blasted in Spencer’s ear and he probably wouldn’t be able to hear it over the sound of his heart thumping painfully in his chest. The rush of all of the day’s events washed over Spencer causing him to laugh hysterically even the pain in his legs brought tears down his cheeks.

‘Progress made: 4 out of 5 mobs slain.’

The next several minutes were a blur as Spencer removed his leg from the dead hellhound’s mouth, pulled himself to the bathroom, and awkwardly patched up his wound using the first aid kit that his parents kept there. He was extremely lucky that the hellhound’s teeth had missed a major artery. At least, he hoped it had. The wound wasn’t spurting blood. According to the very basic first aid class he took when he was sixteen a spurting wound signified a severed artery. There was a chance that the hellhound had only nicked the artery, but there wasn’t anything he could do if that were the case. Nothing in this little first aid kit would help him. Plus it was highly doubtful any ambulances were still making house calls.

Spencer went through all of this in a strange daze. He expected his mind to be a mess, but it felt like his thoughts were underwater. He could hear himself walking through steps at what he needed to do; clean the wound, disinfect, apply gauze, secure with bandage. Yet all of this felt muffled and distant from himself. Like it was someone else going through the motions.

I should be feeling more, right? People have died. Spencer reached for his emotions but only felt a brick wall that pulsated with his heartbeat.

Keep moving. His functioning brain demanded of him.

Once his bandages were in place Spencer slid back against the bathtub and loaded his shotgun with three shells once more. He’d already used five shells. His dad had two boxes of slugs, twenty rounds per box meant he had thirty five shots left. There were also forty rounds of birdshot but gaging by the natural armor the hellhounds had on their body the birdshot would be far less effective.

“Thirty five chances to kill one more hellhound.” Spencer said to himself as he gingerly got to his feet.

He winced. It was painful to use his right leg, but it wasn’t bad enough to keep him in place.

Still, it’s not like I can go running around town. Spencer hobbled out of the bathroom and pondered his situation. I need one more hellhound kill to finish that sub quest. I wonder if I can lure one-

A window shattered somewhere down the street and a car alarm blared loudly in the otherwise quiet section of residential housing. Spencer limped to his front door and peeked out with his gun held steady in his hands. A twenty something year old guy Spencer didn’t know had broken the window of a park car down the street. Judging from the frantic movements under the dash the guy was trying his best to hotwire the vehicle. The desperate thief managed to shut off the car alarm but the damage was already done. Spencer spotted a dark shape bolt around the far street corner.

“Hey!” Spencer hobbled out and waved one of his hands at the man in the car. “Behind you! Hey!”

Every cell in Spencer’s leg was begging for him to slow down, but Spencer pushed forward until his continued shouting finally got the man to look up. The stranger’s eyes went from relieved to fearful once he spotted the gun in Spencer’s hands. He swore and climbed out of the car with his arms up in the air.

“Don’t shoot! I’m just trying to get out of here man!” The stranger shouted down the street.

Spencer pointed repeatedly over the man’s shoulders.

“Behind you!”

Spencer wanted to shoot, but the angle of the hellhounds’ approach put the man directly in his line of fire. The guy finally caught on and spun around just in time to have the hellhound leap onto his chest and bite his throat. Spencer stopped, aimed carefully, and put three slugs through the monster’s chest. Only the third shot hit something vital and dropped the hellhound for good.

Spencer rushed down the road as quickly as he could. Something dripped from Spencer’s leg. Probably blood. He would have to rebandage his wound again as soon as he got home, but he needed to check on the stranger first. Spencer stopped a few feet away when it became clear that the man’s throat was completely torn out.

What else could I have done? Spencer thought numbly to himself.

He reached for an answer but could find none that satisfied the hollow sting of guilt. The sight of the bloodied body should have bothered Spencer more, at least, that's what he thought internally. That mental wall from earlier pushed Spencer away from the scene. With his leg injured as it was he wouldn’t be able to drag the man anywhere so Spencer begrudgingly left the stranger where he lay and limped back to his house as a chime sounded in his ear.

‘Progress made: 5 out of 5 mobs slain.’

‘Sub quest completed.

Reward issued.

Fifty store credits awarded.

Would you like to redeem your credits for your first five pulls?’

There was a yes and no option beneath the text. Spencer glanced around and decided not to continue until he was further out of sight. He ducked into his house, sat in his kitchen, and reloaded his pockets with shotgun shells as he inspected the hovering text box.

Honestly he wasn’t sure what to expect. In the mobile game when you purchased new team members there was an elaborate show of fireworks, doors opening, and ID cards being spun around the screen. Would it be the same? Are five random video game characters just going to appear in his partially destroyed kitchen? 

There was really only one way to find out.

Spencer hit the yes button on the screen.

‘Congratulations on completing your first quest.

Five engie capsules have been pulled and distributed into your surroundings.

Look for beams of light to claim your prizes.

Luck has been doubled for first time purchase.

Zero Conflict boon awarded in accordance with the tutorial.’

Spencer stirred in surprise. In this real life iteration of the game he still received a boon.

“Maybe it’s the same one… Chris said it was pretty good.” Spencer tapped the boon keyword and watched a new screen appear.

‘Boon randomly awarded: Suave Commander.

• Suave commander automatically maxes out the affection meter of any team members added to the roster.

• The commander will receive a subtle boost to charisma when interacting with members of their team.

• Affection can continue to be built even past the normal meter limit.

• Actions or neglect that previously would lower the affection meter of a team member added to the roster will now affect the team member’s mental stability. Affection level will remain unchanged.

• Suave commander does not automatically pass bonding events that normally exist for team members added to the roster (e.g. first time holding hands). Though, such bonding events will be much easier to pass given the maxed out affection meter.’

Spencer rubbed his head. He didn’t make it far enough into Zero Conflict to even learn about the ‘bonding’ it offered between the player and their team. The mental stability mentioned in the boon description was new as well. From what Chris had told him each boon had a downside, but they were usually net positive features to any playthrough. Spencer just hoped this maxed out affection boost would give him some type of advantage over the apocalypse happening outside.

“Speaking of outside…” Spencer painfully lifted himself off of the ground and looked around his house.

He paid for five team member pulls and the text said they would be put somewhere around him. He didn't see anything out of the ordinary inside so he once more limped to the broken remains of his front door, past the corpses of the monstrous canines, and peeked outside.

True to its word there were five blue beams of light in the sky. Spencer’s stomach sank however when he noticed that some of them were miles away. 

The system must be using a global scale because I wouldn’t qualify this as “my surroundings.” Spencer grumbled internally.

His complaining ended however, when he noticed the last beam of light only a block away from his house. Spencer laughed in genuine relief as he tucked his gun under his arm and limped out towards the beam.

******

You know, as bad as this is, if I’m able to kill five of these creatures on my own with a home defense shotgun I can’t imagine the military isn’t fighting back. Spencer thought to himself as he slowly crept through the local park towards the nearest blue beam of light. Edwards Air Force Base is pretty close. Surely they’re assembling some type of military response to all of this.

With no cell service there was no way to know. 

Spencer hoped he was the only one who could see these beams of light in the sky. The last thing he needed was a bunch of monsters to be drawn towards his quest rewards. The nearest beam led him to the park where a large blue capsule hovered an inch off of the ground in the center of the grassy pitch that dominated the center of the park. To the left lay an empty playground and a pair of basketball courts. Three motionless bodies and a blood soaked basketball crowded the far court. 

As if in response to seeing the blook covered orange ball, Spencer’s hand drifted down to his leg and felt warm dampness there. In his excitement to see what these summoning powers he was given could do Spencer had forgotten to rebandage his leg wound. An uncomfortably large splotch of blood had soaked through both the bandage and what was left of his jeans. 

“Well done, idiot.” Spencer limped into a large set of bushes in the park to adjust the soaked bandage and survey his surroundings with at least some concealment around him.

A pair of hellhounds dashed down one of the streets on the far side of the park, but other than that he saw no movement. Spencer pointedly looked away from the various bodies strewn about the nearby basketball court.

“Quick run over, open the pod, get back into cover.” Spencer whispered to himself.

Just as he was ready to call his surroundings safe, a sickening crunch from around the street corner behind him gave him pause.

Spencer stayed inside of the bushes, but twisted himself slowly around to aim back the way he had come. Large footsteps shook the ground as a ten foot tall monstrosity rounded the corner. It was primarily grey, like the hellhounds, but it looked far more human-like compared to the six legged canines. Its head was bald and had no mouth or nose. It did have two narrow black eyes that were too far on the side of its head to be anything other than unsettling. The eyes surveyed its surroundings with terrifying intellect. Its skin was smooth and featureless, but its body was dense enough to leave cracks in the cement as it stepped on the sidewalk. It looked strong. Very strong. What little confidence Spencer had gained killing the five hellhounds earlier dried up in an instant.

Tires screeched in the distance as a car somewhere peeled out in what Spencer had to assume was a panicked escape attempt. The noise of rubber burning on pavement drew the attention of the faceless one. Something thrummed within the creature’s chest and it flexed its powerful legs. Spencer blinked and the creature was already halfway down the street. In no time at all it vanished around the far corner.

Nothing that big should be that fast… He swallowed his fear and forced his lungs to breathe again.

The coast was clear. For now. 

Spencer pushed his injured leg faster than he probably should have, but he was far too terrified of that tall monster coming back to care at that moment. He made it to the blue capsule, chest heaving from the run, as he tried to figure out his next move. There was no handle, no button or lever that he could see to open up the eight foot tall capsule. Not wanting to get caught waiting here too long, Spencer reached out and touched the pod directly. The smooth surface was surprisingly warm to the touch. It didn’t burn, rather it was a comfortable heat like the embrace of a friend. There was a pulse within and the beam of light faded away. The top half of the pod twisted and opened with a hiss. Fog rolled out, spilling onto the ground in waves.

From the mist a six foot tall figure stepped down onto the ground. She walked forward, her tall black boots stepping into view first followed by a toned athletic leg. Black shorts hugged her thighs and a belt hung loosely around her waist more for decoration than function. Her police academy t-shirt was tied up on one side to expose a little bit of her tight midriff. A black kevlar vest covered a fair portion of her shirt and her shapely chest. Her long sturdy arms bounced on either side of her torso with eager anticipation. One gloved hand carried a riot shield while the other had a collapsed nightstick. 

Finally Spencer got a look at this girl’s beautiful face. She had a wide smile, well proportioned nose, and shimmering green eyes slightly obscured behind a black sheer visor that retracted either side behind her ears. Her gaze locked onto Spencer with a wave of pure joy. A mess of red hair tied back into a ponytail bobbed behind her head as she leapt forward and scooped Spencer up in a tight hug against her chest.

“Andrea reporting for duty! I’m so happy to see you, commander!”