Chapter 3

It took me a few moments to get out from under the dead zed but when I did I had learned several things for my future run-ins with zombies. First, if I see zombies with rage I need to take them out first or last out of any other enemies I may be facing. If the three zombies I had taken out had been closer together and I got trapped by Mr. Roid Rage like this I likely would have died. Second, I need to try out other weapons as the spear doesn't quite feel right for me. The range on it was nice of course but the enemy being able to grab it was dangerous. Lastly, I need to be more careful of the System reload. It's definitely faster than I can reload on my own, at least without a ton of practice, but I basically get stuck in the action and can't move or break free.

I stood there thinking about what worked well and didn't for a few moments before the smell of the dead and rotting zombies fluids that were smeared down my front brought me back to reality. The smell was pretty bad and I was going to be looking for new clothes and a way to wash myself before I could settle down somewhere for the night. A pond, stream, or even just a rain barrel would do for a quick bath as long as I can find some clean clothes to change into.

Putting that aside for the moment I double looted the dead zombie while I thought about moving closer to the city. I managed to take a ring of keys with a key tag attached labeled "Mark's Big Boy Emporium and Gym" which I went ahead and tossed into my inventory but there wasn't much else of interest in his pockets other than a wallet with some old useless plastic cards and a small amount of cash. I kept the cash and dumped the rest on the ground. From the system side of looting him I got several syringes filled with a yellow liquid, some medical bandages, and a magazine that glowed with a bright yellow color. After dumping them into my inventory I quickly checked their information.

Short Term Physical Booster Shot x 3

1 use per shot

Provides buff that increases physical damage by 50% for 60 mins.

Provides buff that decreases physical damage by 30% for 60 mins.

Provides buff that increases player movement speed by 50% for 60 mins.

Increases jump height by 4 feet for 60 mins.

Medicated Bandages x 5

1 use per bandage

Provides healing of 35 points of HP over 30 seconds.

Magazine of Permanent Strength

Grants a point into your Strength perk permanently! If Strength is already at the maximum 10 points then it grants special perks or bonuses you cannot gain any other way.

I remember seeing that under the perk screen there were several different stats that broke all the perks up into different trees including Strength, Perception, Endurance, Agility, and Intellect. I believe there were also multiple additional stats that were grayed out and covered up, possibly meaning I could find ways to unlock them later if not in this world then in others I am sent to survive in.

I use two of the bandages to quickly top off my HP bar, for safety's sake, before thinking about if I should use the Strength magazine but I decide to save it. I can use perk points from leveling up and from other sources to raise my stats to the maximum and then use the magazine to gain special rewards that no one else has access to.

Having a rough idea of what I needed to do next, before heading close to town, I started poking around my crafting schematics and looking for the different melee weapons. While doing so I discovered that I could make a mental list of the things I wanted to better sort through the complete list of options I have available. Mentally focusing on melee weapons that can be made with wood, stone, and fiber I quickly had a small list of weapons including a sturdy wooden club either 1 or 2 handed, a stone hammer, a stone sledgehammer, a stone knife, a bo-staff, a wooden bow, primitive bolos, a wooden boomerang, and wooden blowguns. 

I took a few minutes and checked over the stats on the various weapons before gathering enough fiber from the grass and weeds around me to make and try out a few. I eventually settled on a sturdy long one handed club that was narrow down near the base and had a larger bulbous head near the business end of the club as well as a wooden bow with 30 primitive arrows and lastly a wooden blowgun with about 50 wooden blowgun darts.

Checking over my newly made weapons I found the wooden club did about the same damage as the spear but when I went to swing the weapon I found I was able to put quite a bit more force behind the swing and that I could swing and recover from each swing much faster than I was able with the stone spear from earlier. I wondered if fire hardening the club tonight would count as a mod or craft function and change the stats for the better and decided I would try that tonight if I got the chance.

Wooden Club

19 damage per swing

2x Critical Damage

3x Sneak Damage

3% Base Chance to Instakill Enemy with Headshot

System Note - A surprisingly solid choice for an early weapon in this world. The heavy blunt force trauma combined with the ability to quickly swing and recover from swings to better maneuver in combat makes this a good starter weapon.

Wooden Bow

10 Base Damage + Arrow Damage

3x Critical Damage

4x Sneak Damage

Effective Range 25 feet

System Note - A simple and poorly made starter bow. This is better than going hand to hand with a zombie… maybe. This weapon is extremely inaccurate due to the materials and methods used to create it. Best used from close range when ambushing an enemy unaware of your presence. 

Wooden Blowgun

3 Base Damage + Dart Damage

2x Critical Damage

3x Sneak Damage

Effective Range 15 Feet

System Note - A weapon used by primitive hunters in dense jungles and designed to be used from ranges nearing melee range from ambush. Best used when combined with poisons or materials that inflict status effects on enemies.

Rough Wooden Arrows x 30

Base Damage 10

System Note - Poorly made wooden arrows that are very inaccurate due to having no fletching and low damage from having no broadhead merely sharpened wooden tips.

Rough Wooden Blowgun Darts x 50

Base Damage 1

Special Effect: Can have poison or other items that cause status effects installed into the darts.

System Note: Are you that insecure about your ability to accurately throw rocks? Because… throwing rocks will probably kill zombies faster than these things without status effect mods to add to them.

I went ahead and stored everything away, while making sure to place the weapons on my quick access bar after trying them out a few times and then… I started walking.

The town was actually farther away than I had initially imagined and since I was being cautious while also using my ability to examine everything for more information it was over an hour before I got close enough that I could start making out what the various buildings were. From where I was I appeared to be in a residential area along the edge of a large town area as I could see what looked to be a large trailer park nearest to me with several large neighborhoods with middle class housing beyond that. I could also see large buildings in the distance, nothing higher than four stories, as well as signs that are typical of business and shopping areas. I saw several gas station signs showing the price of gas along with some fast food restaurant signs in the far distance.

It was only about 10 am when I reached the edge of the trailer park and I could see a number of zombies wandering around both in the gravel stone roads leading between the plots of land housing each trailer but also inside some closed vehicles and through the windows of some of the trailers. I didn't see any smoke or hear any noises that would indicate there were any survivors around here, either other people from Earth dropped here like I was or survivors of this world. I stopped at this thought as the System announcement had never mentioned if there might be survivors from the people who originally populated this planet or not. I didn't know if this world was called Earth either so it might be hard to pick out who was an original survivor and who was part of my group, at least if they didn't know or were trying to hide it.

I decided that the first thing I needed to do was find or create a safe area to hunker down when it gets dark at night, something good enough to last me at least a few nights anyways, until I can find or build something better. I had seen some interesting perks and schematics in my system during my earlier quick browse and had ideas for how to stay safe once I had a better base to build up from. I needed levels, better weapons, better tools, and then a solid base that I could expand and upgrade as I found more and better loot/people to add to it.

I pulled out my crossbow and started quietly exploring the trailers and areas surrounding them nearest to me. I spent an hour slowly taking down zombies in the open as I came across them while I looked for a building that might make a good starter area. I had gotten to the front half of the trailer park, after killing about a dozen zombies, before I found a building that looked like it might work for my needs. It had a sign hung on the front that labeled it as the "Shady Springs Trailer Park Community Building" which I assumed to be one of those buildings the residents could sign out or rent for things like graduation or birthday parties. 

I took some time to make my way around the exterior of the building, clearing out zombies along the way, while examining the building looking for weak spots or reasons I should consider finding another building to occupy but I liked what I was seeing. The building itself was built with red brick from the foundation to the second story. The ground level portions of the building were mostly brick with only a strip of the thick privacy glass about a foot tall that ran the length of the building, likely to let in some natural light, but not nearly big enough to allow easy access by the undead. There were three doors on the building, the double door front entrance that was made of ballistic security glass with the wire mesh inside the glass that prevented it from being easily shattered and broken through with heavier impacts, and two side doors that were heavy steel security doors and well secured from the inside from when I checked.

The front entrance had signs of once having been heavily barricaded but currently the items that had been used to close the door initially were stacked neatly off to the side of the entrance. Honestly it looked like someone had opened the door to leave with plans to return… but they just never did. It's possible they ran out of food or water and needed to go scavenging or maybe they just left for some other reason, I might never know for sure, but it seemed unoccupied right now as I could see several zombies wandering around in the front lobby through the front door.

The second floor was also mostly brick but only up to about five feet in height and from there up the rest of the building was made of thick ballistic glass like they had planned to use the upper floor as a part space open to the sun and stars. It was an interesting design but would work to keep the zombies out, give me natural light during the day, and allow me to scope out the area around my new base to keep watch for threats or potential benefits.

Glancing at my HUD I saw it was now about noon and I could see my food and water meters were only a little above half so I decided this would be my base until I found or built better.

"I guess it's time to claim my little piece of home." I quietly whispered to myself as I started trying to line up shots on the zombies through the open front door. Now that I had decided this place was mine I needed to evict the squatters currently cramping my style.