Alpha Agent: A Post Apocalyptic LitRPG

Surrendering? Giving up his life and putting it in the hands of the enemy? Not as long as Dan lived. Simply rolling over and giving up the fight to allow his enemy to have their way with him would never be an option.

Dan landed on the pavement and continued running.

Dan didn’t think about the original mission anymore. For all he knew, Jane and Allen and the rest of his squad might be dead. He was too busy with his own problems that he hadn’t had the time to reach any of them through the private channel. His own survival was all he thought about. And these Kodak forces didn’t know that Dan was pretty good at survival.

He ran up to one of the black jeeps and looked inside for any way to break in. The only thing Dan had in mind was to just shoot the window and force his way in.

Hacking will be far less messy. Initiate hacking measures?

Yes / No

Dan had no experience in anything involving computer hacking. But since his HUD offered, he assumed he would be walked through the process. He just hoped he didn’t get shot at.

After choosing “yes” on the menu, Dan saw the familiar spinning icon in the center of his vision. The icon expanded into what looked like a rudimentary maze made up of white lines. He watched a blinking white dot pop up on the other side of the maze.

Navigate the dot to the other side of the maze to complete the hacking process.

Dan had no idea how solving a simple maze was considered proper hacking. But knowing he could be shot and killed at any time, he didn’t ask any questions. The maze wasn’t too complicated, but with the situation going on around him, Dan’s heartrate and nervousness made the minigame much more nail-biting.

More than once, Dan took his eyes off the minigame and looked over both his shoulders to check for incoming enemies, further slowing down his progress.

He willed the dot through the maze. It bumped into the white lines frequently because of Dan’s anxiety. Samantha Striker or any other Kodak agent could sneak up on him and kill him while he was playing this stupid game.

The dot bounced around between more white lines before it exited the other side of the maze.

Hacking complete. Kodak Land Transport Vehicle (LTV) is now unlocked.

He grabbed the handle of the door and opened it without any issue. He climbed in and saw a spare CMA rifle on the passenger seat. He hopped over to the driver seat and immediately grabbed the steering wheel.

Syncing with Kodak LTV.

GPS now synced.

Dan steered the jeep out onto the road and was thankful to see the streets were mostly unobstructed by other vehicles.

Recommended route selected.

Destination: 2 kilometers north.

Dan’s HUD immediately highlighted the route along the road with sets of yellow chevrons pointing forward. He pressed the gas pedal and tore up the street as fast as the jeep allowed.

He turned at the intersection and continued following the glowing yellow chevrons on the road marked by his HUD.

This was the first bit of peace and quiet Dan had experienced since Kate’s betrayal back at the subway station entrance. He took the opportunity to reach out to Jane and Allen through the private channel. But Jane didn’t respond, nor did Allen. So much swirled in his mind that he couldn’t focus on a single coherent thought.

Even if all his teammates were dead and he survived this whole mess, how could he possibly go back empty-handed? What would the Alpha Corp tell him?

Judging by how harsh his first solo mission was quelling the riot, Dan knew there were high expectations for him. Michael Cynosa had vouched for him, and even Jane had begun warming up to him. He could he go back with nothing to show for it?

Dan glanced at his side-view mirror and saw something that permanently etched into his mind.

Kate Razor was chasing him. She wasn’t in her own vehicle. She was running after him on foot.

And she was keeping pace.

Dan looked at the jeep’s dashboard and his current speed.

64 KPH.

Kate was running fast enough to keep pace and potentially catch up with him. Unlike the Kodak agents he’d managed to kill so far, Kate was in an entirely different league. If she caught up to him, he was a dead man.

Dan had only one way to put a stop to her. He looked at the dashboard again and saw an option on the screen that allowed him to breathe.

Self-driving mode. Enable?

He tapped the option to have the jeep drive itself to the programmed destination. Dan grabbed the CMA assault rifle from the passenger seat and loaded a new magazine into it. He looked up and luckily found the top ceiling had a window. He pressed and held the button on the roof of the jeep to fully slide it open.

He stood up and peeked out the top of the jeep. He aimed at Kate, who was gradually catching up to him, though she was still a good fifty meters away. Dan took aim and squeezed the trigger, firing short bursts at her.

Kate seemed to already anticipated this and sidestepped the rounds. The jeep began swerving from side to side as sporadic gunfire from the buildings began pelting the sides.

This was impossible. Dan couldn’t get a good shot at her from the wild driving of the jeep itself along with Kate’s insane speed and reaction times. Dan looked behind him on his right side and saw three Kodak agents on a rooftop. The building was quickly coming into view from the jeep’s increasing speed.

Dan ducked his head just in time to avoid bursts of gunfire from the same rooftop. He adjusted his positioning and fired his own shots at the rooftop. The jeep quickly left the building behind with Dan not knowing if his shots ever landed. But his HUD was generous enough to tell him.

Impressive! You killed an enemy agent while traveling 90 KPH.

Bonus experience awarded.

Dan looked back and whatever satisfaction he had from the news vanished as he saw Kate gaining on him.

He loaded a new mag into his rifle and continued firing bursts at Kate, even taking out his pistol with his other hand and dual-wielding the two guns, desperately trying to score a shot.

Kate’s movements were too unpredictable, easily swerving side to side without losing speed. She truly did specialize in speed. Dan grimly remembered she had a rating of fifty-two in her agility stat. Kate moved in such an outrageous fashion that she appeared as a blurred smear along with the other buildings and vehicles that rushed behind the speeding jeep.

Dan crawled out the jeep’s window so that he could get a better view of Kate. Not that it helped. Even when he moved towards the back of the jeep that had an open compartment with flat ground, he still couldn’t land a single shot on her, firing both his CMA rifle and pistol.

Kate slowly gained even with all the swerves and sharp turns. She finally leapt and landed on the jeep.

Dan backed away as far as he could before his ass was up against the back of the driver’s compartment. Kate was right in front of him. Dan pointed his rifle at her, but she swatted the gun away.

Dan lost his rifle again.

Kate for some reason didn’t even have a weapon equipped. Dan didn’t see any pistols on her coat or any rifles or heavy weapons across her back. She thought so little of him that she didn’t even bother arming herself to deal with him. That didn’t make her any less scary.

Dan could hardly recall a time when he froze up from fear. He couldn’t afford to let himself be paralyzed when growing up. But right now, a traitorous agent with superhuman strength and speed stood in front of him.

He knew he was a dead man. Kate could kill him any time she wanted. And yet, the momentary paralysis he felt suddenly drained away. He found the willingness to curl his fingers. Seconds passed by and Dan was dumbfounded.

Kate still hadn’t moved against him. She was hesitating, but not in the same way Samantha did. Kate was calm, though her facial expression remained as a mask.

“I hold no ill-will to you, Dan. I have my own reason for abandoning the Alpha Corp. It’s nothing personal,” Kate said.

Dan didn’t expect Kate to give him her sob story. But nothing she said would ever erase the fact that she had sided with the same forces who were chasing and taunting him. The rest of the squad, his new friends and family, were probably dead by now. All because of Kate.

Kate extended out her hand. “Surrender now. Stop the vehicle and I’ll take you in. I don’t want to hurt you if I don’t have to. Please be reasonable, Dan.”

Dan was even more confused. He stared at her hand for who knew how long. He briefly tried to consider what Kate’s angle was. Was she truthful in her words? The answer was absolutely not. She had betrayed the team and the Alpha Corp. Dan couldn’t trust anything coming from her.

He further pondered Kate’s lack of guns and her attempts to take a peaceful route. But when his own survival was at stake, Dan knew what he had to do. He reached out one hand, dropping the pistol in his other.

Even Kate seemed momentarily surprised at this. Her eyes widened as Dan took her by the hand. But Dan had something different in mind. He stepped closer to Kate, and with all the speed he could, grabbed her left earring and yanked with all of his might.

He ripped the earring off, as well as a chunk of Kate’s lower earlobe with it.

Kate screamed and let go of his hand, staggering a few steps back, but stopping herself before she fell off the jeep.

“Fuck personal, how about that?” Dan said. He couldn’t hold back the grin beneath his mask.

Her reaction to Dan’s deception and defiance was exactly how he’d envisioned it. Dan reached into his inner pocket as Kate regained her composure.

“You,” she seethed. “I’ll fucking kill you!”

Dan took out the smoke grenade from his pocket and flicked the pin off in front of her. He thanked himself for spray painting the grenade black, as Kate’s face contorted into horror.

“You idiot! What the fu—”

The grenade detonated, but not the way Kate anticipated. Dan held his breath as the cloud of smoke exploded out of the grenade and he jumped out of the speeding jeep. While Dan did plan on this, he hadn’t properly looked before jumping. He was lucky that he didn’t hit any cars. Still, he hit the ground hard and a sharp pain ran up his right ankle.

Dan picked himself back up and tried to run, but the pain in his ankle almost caused him to trip. So he limped as fast as he could across the road and into the alleyway. He faded into the shadows and continued on, never stopping.