The Recovery Part 2

While laying in bead waiting for my leg to heal, it got very boring very quickly. I couldn't do anything because if I moved I'd have to take longer to recover. It was like watching paint dry but worse. After a while I began to think about everything that has happened so far.

'I started an apocalypse that has probably killed thousands of innocent people. Who am I kidding, how was I supposed to know that this is what was gonna happen if I answered that stupid question.'

After contemplating life for a while I had a thought.

'These mutations I unlocked, how do they work. This is like a video game so maybe I go to help, but how would I do that?'

"System help" I said out loud

After saying that a popup showed up in the center of my vision.

"Systems not fully loaded, only mutations available"

"Mutation help" I then said

Current mutations unlocked:

Zoom: ???

Augmentation: ???

"Zoom details" I asked

"Zoom, uncaps the limiter on your top running speed potential, however you still need to train to be able to run faster"

"Augmentation help" I then asked

"Augmentation allows you to augment anything about your body"

'I wonder if augmentation can heal me faster' I thought

"Leg will now recover after today's nightfall

Warning, this will cause you to become lethargic"

'A warning would have been nice beforehand, but I guess it's better than nothing. The waiting game is also shorter. I wonder if I can use augmentation to make my legs get faster quickly for the zoom mutation'

"Leg augmentation risky until fully healed, would you like to proceed"

"No" I quickly responded "would pain tolerance enhancing be available again thought?"

"Pain tolerance modifier unavailable until colldown period is over"

'Well that sucks, how long is the cooldown'

"3 days, 4 hours, 47 minutes, 23 seconds. The duration is calculated by ('pain severity' * 'duration of use') / 'level modifier'"

'What's a level modifier' I thought

"Level modifier, is the level of a specific sub skill. A sub skill is leveled up by using said sub skill. The amount of use needed to level up increases per level."

'This really is like a video game. It's freaky, but really cool!' I thought 'How do you unlock more mutations'

"High levels of stress, or near death experiences related to the use of each mutation"

'Makes sense, I needed to run fast and ignore the pain of the sprain to survive. What are systems and how do you unlock them'

"Unavailable until unlock requirements are met"

'That's stupid, but okay...'

I decided while I couldn't move to try to draw so I could pass the time. I decided to try and draw some rudamentary drawings of the wolf bats, zombies, and sound hounds. The wolf bat came out sloppy, but I was never the best at drawing. Maybe I could learn through experience, especially since I have 8 more hours a day since I don't need to go to my job anymore.

After drawing a zombie I realized I wasn't the best at hands, faces, and proportions are really hard. The legs would always look too long or something else. The sound dog was even more difficult because it's something I've only ever seen once. It didn't come out too bad in the end, but it was still difficult.

After I got done drawing it was around 9:45 so I decided to head off to bed. Luckily Allison never came back to bother me, so I was able to sleep in peace.

After waking up at 8:27 I threw off my covers and carefully got out of bed. I slowly stood up on one leg, then transitioned my weight to my sprained ankle. There was no pain whatsoever, I even stood on one foot on my bad leg and still no pain!

"I guess these mutations really work!" I said absolutely tickled at my fast recovery.

I did feel a lot more groggy than usual though, especially since I got a proper bight of sleep.

Maybe healing that much overnight is just really draining. It is a lot of work for your body to heal like that, so I guess it makes sense. I opened the fridge and heated up a bowl of the rice with meat and stuff that Allison made in the microwave. While it was heating up, I chugged a bottle of water because my throat was like sandpaper. I then ate the reheated food, drank some more water and went outside.

I stopped by Ray's room and knocked on the door. He answered pretty quick and was obviously surprised to see me walking around already.

"Damn, you're healed up already?" Ray asked

"Yup, I'm a little drowsy, but at least I can walk with no pain." I responded "So... About this water system you're so proud of"

As soon as I said this Ray's eyes lit up. He then said in a giddy voice "You really want to see?"

"Absolutely" I said with a smile

Ray ran exitedly down the stairs to the parking lot and turned around after a bit, almost admiring his handiwork again. He explained about how he used the gutter system to funnel all the rainwater into a series of garbage cans to store the water, which are ran through a filter into another series of garbage cans. Those lead into a pump that then supplies filtered water through the whole motel.

"I see why you're so proud of it, it's definitely impressive" I said

"You mean it?" Ray asked

"Absolutely" I responded

We then chatted a bit about potential improvements to the motel to make it safer. We both agreed that the wire fencing with an obvious hole at the top of the stairs wasn't protective enough. We decided to try and build a rudamentary fence, but to do so we'd need to go on another shopping trip to get the wood. I grabbed some wood before the apocalypse, but certainly not enough to build a wall.

The only issue with getting the wood was gonna be the zombies and stuff in the stores. If we're gonna get some wood, we'd need some firepower to take care of the zombies in that store.