2 S1E2 - Naked and Afraid
Immediately, panic sets in. I'm in a world full of death and destruction, where billions have lost their lives so some unknown thing that causes people to turn into zombies… Walkers. I gotta remember, this world had no concept of zombies. I put my hands on my knees and bend over, trying to calm myself down. It's then that I realize… I'm fucking naked. My ass is on full display for any walkers that see it. Instinctively, I crouch down and cover my chest. But, very quickly realize how dumb that is. There's literally nothing around. Remembering what Goddess Sera said, I say,
"Inventory."
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[Inventory:]
[Bronze Survivor's Kit]
[empty]
[empty]
…
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A screen appears before me, showing me that I do indeed have something on me. I tap my finger on the icon, and am immediately clothed. I have on a sports bra, white t-shirt, and a red flannel shirt, underwear and a pair of form fitting blue jeans, a pair of socks, and some brown hiking boots. I also have on a pair of elbow and knee pads, and a holster with a pistol in it. On my other side is a large bowie knife. I also have a backpack tightly fitted on my back, and strapped in the front. Another message appears before me,
[Knife Fighting 1]
[Pistol Shooting 1]
[5 water bottles added to inventory]
[5 MRE's added to inventory]
[ 5 9mm M1911 magazines (full) added to inventory]
[Hammock added to inventory]
Oh nice! Food, water, and shelter acquired! Let's go! As I get a feel for everything on me, I hear groaning coming from the woods in front of me. Stumbling from the tree line is a dessicated walker wearing a dirty pair of overalls and no shirt. It shambles its way towards me, filling me with a sense of dread. It's dead eyes and sunken cheeks lurching forward makes me break out into a cold sweat.
Nervously, I reach over to the holstered pistol at my side and try to pull the gun out, only for it to slip from my hands. The walker is a good 30 feet away from me, so I crouch down and pick it up. As my hand lands on the gun, I feel some familiarity with the gun as my hand moves into position. I hold the gun in two hands, and aim it at the walker's head. I squeeze the trigger,
*BANG!*
The bullet pierces into the zombie's neck, hitting the vertebrae. The zombie- walker falls to the floor, immobile, but not dead. I walk over to the chomping walker with weak knees. I take out the knife and kneel down on the opposite side of its head. I press the knife against its temple as my breathing starts to get ragged.
'C'mon Penny… you're gonna be doing this a lot someday… one day you'll cut down walkers like you're mowing the lawn… c'mon…'
After siking myself up, I put my weight onto the back of the knife, using it to drive the knife into the skull,
*crack*
A sickening crunch travels up the knife and into my hands, making me feel absolutely disgusted as I pull the knife back out, finding it covered in blood and viscera. I shudder and wipe the blood off on the overalls of the walker. I then stand up and take a couple steps back from the walker, taking some deep breaths…
[Rotted Walker - 10p]
[Quest Completed!]
[Kill your first walker: The world of The Walking Dead is an unforgiving one. You will need to become numb to certain things to survive for an extended period of time. After all, it's survival of the fittest.]
[Rewards: 100p, Psychological Strength 1]
As that message appears before me, my hands stop shaking and my breathing returns to normal. I look over at the dead walker, and still feel absolutely disgusted, but I no longer find myself being scared of it.
[Quest Received!]
[Kill ten walkers: Now that you've successfully killed your first walker, you're making progress! Multiple walkers will still pose major issues, but should you overcome this, you'll be much stronger than you were before!]
[Rewards: 300p, Psychological Strength 2, Walker Killing 1]
Ah… I see. She set up a reward system for me. Thank fuck for that. I'd never survive otherwise. I quickly gather myself and begin the long walk to Atlanta…
Maybe I should've asked for a bike…
…
…
…
The trip through the woods was stressful, but uneventful. Every now and then I'd stumble across a dead walker, or the birds around me would go silent. I always hated that. I remember hearing that when the forest goes silent, that means a predator is around. So I'm guessing when the birds go quiet, walkers are around. It's been a good few hours, and boy am I getting tired. Walking that long wouldn't be a problem… If I was on level ground. There were so many ups and downs that my legs are slowly turning into jelly.
Luckily, I've finally reached the outskirts of Atlanta. The sun is further to the west, so I probably don't have much sunlight left.
*grumble*
I flinch as I hear my stomach growl, yelling at me to feed it. It seems I'm coming up on a suburb, so I should find a good place to sleep if it isn't covered in walkers. I do have the hammock, but sleeping outside is a last ditch kinda thing. As I come up on the suburb, I find it completely abandoned. Cars line the street, along with a few puddles of blood. There's a good number of walker corpses as well, meaning someone has been through here. And it's someone who's already well acquainted with the act of killing walkers.
I slink off to the sidewalk and crouch slightly, making my way down the street. I go up to every house and move the door handle slowly. Most are locked, and some have wide open doors, which most likely means walkers. I keep walking down the street until I find the exact house I was looking for, hastily barricaded windows, a closed but unlocked door, and most of all, a quiet interior.
I slowly open the door and step inside, listening closely to see if I hear any footsteps. One thing I never understood from the show is how hordes of walkers can sneak up on the group. But, now I know. Walkers stay pretty quiet when they don't sense anything around for the most part, at least that's my theory.
I creep into the house and slowly close the door behind myself. Luckily, it seems the person that owns this house used some WD-40 on their hinges, so their door isn't louder than a stuck pig. As the door closes, I hear a little shuffling coming from one of the rooms to the right. I can't tell exactly which one it is, but I've got it down to two. The hallway is relatively clean, and by that I mean no blood spatters. It's dusty as hell, but liveable.
I get my Bowie knife ready, as firing off a pistol would be suicide. Thanks to [Psychological Strength 1] I'm relatively calm. A little unnerved, but anyone would be in this situation. I walk up to one of the doors in question, and am about to touch the knob…
But I get a stroke of genius!
I knock on the door instead. At first, I don't hear anything. Which is fair, I did knock pretty quietly. So, I knock one more time, just a little louder.
*knock knock knock*
(muffled) "UwARG! UHHH!"
And I hear the noises coming from the other room. So good, this room is clear. I walk over to the door as the walker starts walking into it. Lightly thudding it's arms up against it. The door opens into the room, meaning that I could probably knock the zombie over if I pushed hard enough. I listen out for a bit, noticing that there's no other sounds coming from the house. So, I brace myself up against the door and breathe in deeply to calm myself down. My right hand, holding the blade tightly.
I twist the knob and slam my shoulder into the door. I nearly trip from how easily the door swings open, but catch my footing by holding onto the frame. The walker falls over, hitting its head on a dresser with a TV on it.I walk into the room and kick the walker in the head before kneeling down and stabbing it in the temple.
[Rotted Walker - 10p]
I pull the knife out of the walker and wipe it clean on its clothing. After that, I do a quick walkthrough of the house, finding no other walkers. Luckily, I was pretty quiet when taking it down, so I don't think I'll have to worry about anything else coming. However, as I'm clearing the last room, the master bedroom, I find something interesting. Sitting on display on the wall over a fireplace is an old double barrel shotgun. The barrel is slightly rusted, but from what I know about double barrels, they are some durable ole guns.
As I reach out and grab it, I don't get that same feeling I got with the pistol. With the pistol, I know how to take it apart and clean it and put it back together. I guess pistol mastery helps out with that. With this one, all I know is what I actually know. I know it's breechloading.
That's about it.
As I take the gun down, I sit in a recliner set up in the bedroom. I let out a sigh and let the long walk fade away.
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AN: The first 20 chapters are up on the Pat.reon. You can join for as little as $1 a month.
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