NOVEL WEB Chapter 15
Chapter 15
The hail of bullets zipped past Jake. A spear of pain pierced his right shoulder as one of the bullets hit him. As he staggered backward, his foot became ensnared in a tangle of grass, causing him to lose his balance. He squeezed the trigger as he fell to the ground. His aim was spoiled, but some of the pellets still caught the stranger, causing him to yelp in pain. After Jake collapsed to the ground, he pumped another shell into the chamber and pulled the trigger one more time, but the stranger had already darted around the large crate. The pellets penetrated the wooden crate, but those of them that hit the exposed side of the steel box ricocheted every which way.
The stranger crouched down behind the supply drop to get out of Jake’s line of fire. He kept his shotgun pointed at the crate, but his opponent was smarter than to pop up from cover. The wooden crate couldn’t offer much protection, but the high-grade steel box inside of it could withstand the force of bullet impacts, creating an effective protective barrier against ballistic threats. Having taken cover behind the bulletproof steel box, the stranger remained hidden behind it, and unless something forced him to, he wasn’t going to leave the secure shelter the steel box provided.
Jake cursed under his breath. This was not how he’d hoped it would go. He wasn’t keen on fighting a fellow survivor for no significant reason. However, he held onto the hope that there might still be a chance to resolve the conflict peacefully.
“How badly are you injured?” Jake yelled to the stranger.
There was a brief pause before his opponent shouted back. “What do you care?”
“I have some stimpaks on me.”
“Yeah? So?”
“We don’t have to fight. I can give you some of my stimpaks so you can heal yourself.”
Jake heard the stranger laugh.
“Do you think I’m stupid?” the stranger shouted from behind the supply box. “You only want to lure me out into the open so you can shoot me dead.”
“No. I wasn’t planning on killing you to begin with. In fact, I was actually willing to share the supplies from the box with you.”
“Oh really? And I’m just supposed to believe you?”
“It wasn’t me who started shooting first, was it?”
The stranger was silent for a moment.
“You were pointing your shotgun at me,” the stranger finally said.
“Yeah. You can’t be too careful in this world. But I wasn’t going to start shooting at you unless I had to. You opening fire on me left me no choice.”
The stranger fell silent again, probably reflecting his words. While he was thinking, Jake glanced at his wounded shoulder. The bullet had only grazed him, leaving a shallow scratch across his flesh. The wound was bleeding but not too much.
“So what do you propose we do?” the stranger said, prompting Jake to return his attention to the supply drop the stranger was still hiding behind.
“Let your gun hang on its sling and come out from cover.”
“So you can shoot me?” the stranger said caustically.
“I’ll do the same. As I said before, I don’t want us to keep fighting.”
The stranger was silent for a moment.
“Sorry, no deal. I still don’t trust you,” he said. “I still believe your true intention is to lead me into the open so you can shoot me.”
“So what do you suggest we do then? Keep fighting until one of us is dead?” Jake retorted, speaking harsher than he’d intended. He was starting to lose his patience with the stranger.
He was silent for a moment.
“I don’t want to fight either, so I have a better suggestion,” the stranger finally said.
“I’m all ears.”
“Drop all your guns,” he said dead serious. “Start walking to the box with your hands raised, then open the box for me.”
Jake almost laughed at his suggestion. “What will keep you from killing me after I open the box for you?”
“I won’t kill you,” the stranger said. “Pinky promise.”
“I don’t suppose you can prove your word is trustworthy?”
“No. You’re just gonna have to trust me.”
“Trust you? After you opened fire on me for no reason?”
The stranger didn’t reply. Jake was still lying on his back, aiming his weapon at the crate. Nothing happened in the next several seconds, and Jake decided to get up. He first sat up, then slowly got to his feet, keeping the shotgun trained on the supply box all the time.
“What are you doing?” the stranger suddenly asked, his voice tinged with suspicion.
This time, it was Jake who didn’t reply. His silence must’ve made him nervous because the stranger took a peek from around the edge of the crate. He glared at Jake for a second, then thrust his submachine gun out from around the crate and let loose with a short burst of fire. None of the bullets came anywhere near Jake, but out of self-preservation, he ducked his head anyway. The stranger dove back in cover before Jake could return fire.
Jake was pissed off now. He was trying to find a peaceful solution to this situation, but the stranger was only escalating things.
“Are you dead yet?” the stranger shouted from behind the crate.
Jake didn’t reply. He was done talking. Shouldering his shotgun, he began to circle the supply drop without getting any closer to it. At some point, he saw an arm pop up above the upper edge of the crate, lobbing some object. A metal canister flew through the air in the general direction of where he’d been standing moments before. Jake had played enough first-person shooters when he was younger to recognize the object.
The stun grenade clanked loudly on the asphalt, rolling across the street. The weeds and grass bursting through the cracks in the road stopped the canister long before it could’ve reached his previous position. Jake looked away and closed his eyes a second before it exploded with a piercing bang and a blinding flash.
Jake opened his eyes. An afterimage hovered in his vision, but he still could see well enough to spot the stranger pop up from behind the supply drop. He pointed his submachine gun at where he assumed his opponent was. Only he was no longer there. By the time he spotted Jake off to his left and turned to face him, it was already too late.
The blast from the shotgun sent the stranger hurling backward as the load of buckshot hit him in the chest. The stranger collapsed to the ground and went still.
By the time Jake made it to where his foe lay, the afterimage had disappeared from his vision and the ringing in his ears had faded out into nothing. The stranger was still alive but barely.
“H-Heal me,” he said, looking up at him.
“Oh, now you want to be healed, huh?”
“You,” the stranger coughed. “You sonofa… It’s not fuh… not fair to… to—”
He suddenly was overcome by a fit of coughing, gobbles of blood flying from his mouth. Then his eyes rolled back, and his body went stiff. The stranger died, and Jake never learned what he’d been trying to say.
Jake stared at the dead stranger for a moment. This encounter had taught him something. Even though the world had collapsed, it didn’t automatically make other survivors his allies. With the ex-human mutants, you at least knew where they stood. The survivors, on the other hand, were unpredictable, which potentially made them more dangerous than mutants.
After looting the dead body and picking up the stranger’s submachine gun, he walked up to the supply drop. He looked at the security touchscreen panel attached to the exposed side of the steel box. When the stranger tried to open the box, nothing had happened, because only the one who had requested the supply drop was allowed to open it.
When Jake pressed his thumb to the touchscreen, a piece of text in white letters popped up. ENTER THE CONFIRMATION CODE THAT HAS JUST BEEN SENT TO YOUR PDA. His device beeped with an incoming notification, and Jake took it out. Sure enough, the incoming message contained the confirmation code: BQ1-39G-62R. Jake returned his attention to the security panel and typed in the code. As soon as he did so, the panel emitted a cheerful electronic sound, and the door of the steel box cracked open with a quiet hiss. It didn’t have any handles, so Jake just wrapped his fingers around the edge of the door and swung it fully open.