Travis's Journey Through the Apocalypse

Hey, y'all, I had to step away from editing for a week. Things got a bit hectic at work and in my personal life, plus I was just feeling a bit unmotivated. That's my shit to get over, though, and I'm sorry for the wait, but here we are right back at it with another chapter! so without further ado, Chapter 26! Here we go!

Chapter 26

Moving and recruiting

The next morning, we finished loading up the supply for the Hospital. Bags of holding made the venture much less stressful and a lot more convenient than lugging over a bunch of shit in carts or something like that. We ended up having an open sheep for the mission as Dr. Tatiana Bowden decided that she would stay at Treehouse Village till the rest of the people from the hospital were moved over. It was clear to us that she didn’t want to return to the Hospital.

Dr. Bowden was already fitting in well and had started working with Frank in the infirmary, and they were working to build an actual medical core, not just the ragtag group we had now. Since there was an open sheep, Brianna decided she wanted to join the mission just before we headed out. The trip back was uneventful, and we made it to the Hospital in no time at all.

When the scouts at the Hospital saw Edwin and our small group approaching, they started unbarricading the entryway for us. We brought the sheep right up to the door this time. We wrapped their leads around some debris where they wouldn’t wander off and headed inside. Janet also threw a bunch of popcorn in front of them, and the sheep seemed pretty content to chill out and wait for us there.

Once inside, we were congregated around a table in their impromptu command center, and Edwin explained the situation to his people. Everyone seemed excited to be putting this place in the rearview. When Edwin told everyone that we needed a week to prepare for their arrival. People seemed slightly disappointed, but when he explained that we had brought some provisions to last until then, people seemed visibly relieved. Shortly after that, we started passing said provisions out. There didn’t seem to be anyone who had problems with the move, and the atmosphere of the people in the Hospital had taken on an air of joy and relief.

When Brianna saw the living conditions of the people at the Hospital, you could see the pain and sadness on her face. So when we started passing around the stuff we brought, Brianna jumped in to help with gusto. She even knew a couple of the policemen and women at the Hospital, which only increased the camaraderie and trust between our two groups. Brianna’s vouching for Treehouse Village, her trust in our group, and the stories of monster engagements successfully rebuffed excited people about the possibilities for the future.

That week went by fast, and Brianna stayed at the Hospital a lot during that time to help prepare everything for the move. When the day finally came for the move, we had already built one new housing unit. We did the math, and as soon as the new residence for the Hospital arrived, we’d only have to wait a few days to get the points to build a second one. It turned out Beth could manipulate the layouts of the rooms so there wouldn’t be any fighting for the bigger rooms.

Beth had figured that out a little after building the first apartment complex for the village, but it was too late to change things now, and everyone was happy enough with their living situations anyway. This time, only families got up to a three-bedroom home, and there were no luxury suites. This would hopefully squash any bickering over who got what room. That was nice. It was one less thing to worry about. The move had taken a lot of planning. We figured with how many people we had to get moved over here. There had to be a better way than just having people walk the distance.

In the end, we found a couple of trucks that we tore apart till only the bottom chassis were left. We made decks out of scavenged wood and tied them all together. It probably wouldn’t be comfortable, but we should make great time with the sheep toeing them. Fewer back-and-forth trips would mean less time in a vulnerable position. It was about lunchtime when we were done retrofitting the trucks, so we all ate something and then headed out.

We had about ten fighters with us, four riding the sheep with Janet and me. The other six were split up amongst the trailers, ready for an attack at a moment’s notice. Once we were at the Hospital, we started loading people up immediately. Brianna had been waiting outside so that we could get people in fast. Then, we could get back on the road. We could only take about one hundred people on each trip, so it was going to be a long day. By the time it was starting to get dark, we still had about three runs left to do before everyone was in the village. At that point, we would still have to go back on a fourth run to salvage what we could from the Hospital, but that could happen tomorrow. We couldn’t leave valuable materials behind. The process would probably take multiple days as well.

We were on our second-to-last trip back to Treehouse Village when trouble hit. A trailer filled to the brim with people got attacked. It was a pack of five Tarzackien death wolves. They came out of nowhere. It was well into dusk, and the light was quickly fading when it happened. At first, I didn’t know what was going on. They had hit the back of the convoy, and all I heard was screaming. I spun around on the back of the sheep and headed back to see what the problem was. Janet’s mount was attached to one of the trailers, so she just jumped off her sheep and ran towards the rear of the caravan.

I arrived first and saw the wolves attacking some of our new citizens. We had left two fights in every trailer, but they were only able to distract three of the wolves, allowing the rest to tear into our numbers with abandon. My sheep zapped one wolf as I leaped from its back blade first, ending another wolf’s life. When Janet arrived, I was cutting down my third wolf, and she killed another. Seeing its comrades had fallen so quickly, the last wolf ran for the hills, and we let it go.

The wolves had killed about six people before we got there, and the rest of the trip to the village was a somber one. However, we had to get back on the road. We still had one last trip of people to bring back to the village, and that attack wasn’t going to stop us. Okay, so it turned out that the attack stopped us for the night. Everyone at the hospital was too scared to travel after hearing what happened to the last group. No matter how much we promised them we wouldn’t let that happen again, they still wanted to wait till morning. It was kind of annoying, and I just wanted to get this over with, but I understood their position and didn’t want to pressure them any more than I had to, so we spent the night at the Hospital.

The following day, we headed out early with the last group of people. We even took some time and gather supplies. Once back at Treehouse Village, we would only have a bit of looting left, maybe a day at most. It turned out that with more people helping, we got much of the looting done the night before. It’s really true what they say, many hands make light work. Even with the help coming from people who were level one and basically just ordinary people from pre-integration, we still moved quickly. Once packed up, we headed to the village, this time without incident. As we arrived, the new apartment building was going up, and the people from the Hospital were in awe at the fact the system could just conjure structures into existence like that.

They were even more excited when they saw the apartment they would be moving into. People couldn’t believe it. They had only seen the hard side of life in this new world, not the luxuries it could bring. They would soon all learn that nothing came for free, and they would have to help keep this place safe. Help build Treehouse Village into a real power true in this new world. They would learn this soon enough. We planned to let them settle in for a few days, and then the short holiday would be over, and they might wish they had never met us. We were going to push them hard.

It had been a week now since the people from the Hospital had officially joined Treehouse Village. We had thrown a big party the day after everyone moved in and welcomed them with gusto. We hadn’t had any trouble yet from the newcomers, but I was sure that shoe would drop eventually. For now, everyone was just getting used to their new lives in the village. The latest members of the village had been taught about stats, what they did, and how to use them to start building a solid foundation. Even if this world had game-like mechanics, it wasn’t a game, so min-maxing wasn’t a really, well, not really a good idea.

It was more likely to get you killed, so almost everyone was going with a more even split amongst their stats. I’m sure that would change a bit as more people got classes, but it was safer to stay as balanced as possible before you got your class. That had been yesterday’s lesson. It had taken most of the day to assist everyone, but we split them into groups, which definitely helped. We planned to do something similar today but with combat. All the newbies were too low-level to even do a dungeon run, so first, we had to do the same thing we did last time. We sent the elites of the village out to catch some savage ripper bunnies, actually a lot of the fuckers, and put them in a large animal pen we built.

We would bring one of the newbies into an enclosure and then put a bunny in there with them. Then, we would tell them to kill it. Some people freaked out, but others killed the bunnies with no hesitation. The ones who were freaking out would get the held-down bunny special, and if that still didn’t work, we asked them to join the non-combatants trying to gain crafting classes. Some seemed disappointed in themselves for being unable to kill the bunny, but many were relieved another option was available. As for the majority that could get themselves to kill the bunny, they were then made to repeat the process until they reached level three. Then, they were taken out in small groups to gain experience against monsters in real-world scenarios.

We lost a few here and there when people got too brave or careless. For the most part, people were steadily gaining levels and would be able to do dungeon runs soon enough. We had been training hard the last three days, and the first of the newbies were getting ready for their first dungeon runs today. I was not going to be involved, however. We had to do some training with the fighters we already had. We needed to work on our teamwork in battle. The last fight could have ended much quicker and more efficiently if our teamwork had been better.

We had been training all morning, and it was lunchtime. Everyone was eating something or just hanging out with friends in the sun. As I looked around at all the people, the fighters here to protect Treehouse Village, I felt pride at what we had built here. All these people were willing to put their lives on the line to protect this place. That feeling set off a fire inside of me to get stronger and to truly become what these people saw me as, their protector. We ramped up the trading even more that afternoon, and everyone was dead on their feet by evening.

Most people ate then just passed out, some even at the tables they had been eating at. I even started my resistance training again with Janet by my side to keep me alive and appease her worries. A couple of times, Janet even joined in, but she had no resistance at all, so we took it slow. Her first time, getting cut by the dagger of minor corruption, knocked her down for a full twenty-four hours. Our days went on like that for another two weeks, and people seemed to be finally settling in.

One day, it was around lunchtime. I think it was a Tuesday. Days were hard to keep track of now, but it was the third week since the people from the Hospital had joined us. Janet and I decided it was time to go again and look for more survivors. We must have been the largest village in the area by now, and we’re probably closer to a small town by now. We were acquiring build points like crazy, but we still could only buy the most basic build options in the town build menu. It looked like there was quite a jump in price from basic village buildings to the more eccentric options. It also seemed like population increases were the only way to unlock more options.

We were about to head out when Tilly ran over to us carrying a stack of papers. “Wait! Take these with you.” Tilly said, then stopped as she reached us, catching her breath. After a few seconds, Tilly continued. “I made them. Beth told me you were going to go out to help more people, and I made these so I could help out, too.” She finished and then handed Janet and me each half the stack of papers. It was a flier, and on it was a hand-drawn picture of Tilly and then words that said,

“Hi, I’m Tilly. Come to Treehouse Village. We can help, and you will be safe. Plus, I need more friends!”

It was super adorable, so of course, we took them and thanked Tilly for helping us out. I told her I was sure many people would thank her and want to be friends. She smiled at that and then ran back off to go play with her friends. Ever since we brought the people from the Hospital to Treehouse Village, Tilly had some kids her own age to play with, and I was glad she wasn’t alone anymore. We headed out on our sheep so we would make better time and be able to search more places than on foot. I was extremely interested in knowing what the sheep were actually called, so I went to the shop to ask the merchant fox guy, Braxin if he knew, and he said he did not know. However, he did give me another option. He said I could buy an ability called identify.

Identify, would let me, we’ll identify shit. The higher the level of the item or living being, the less I could learn about it, and it cost all the store credit I had to get it, but I still bought it. Braxin also said he had an ability for sale called Chatty Kathy, which let you speak and understand most popular languages in integrated space. I agreed it sounded like an excellent ability, but as I said, I spent all my credit on the identify ability, so I’d have to get that one next time. Unity then I got the identity ability, and it was awesome! I just went around identifying as many things as I could, and I loved it. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to identify the sheep, but it turned out I was worried over nothing, to my great relief. I was told it would most likely work, but the Braxin couldn’t be shore, so it was a significant relief when I looked at the sheep, used identity, and got a name and a level.

They were called The Great Zapper-horned Sheep and were all around level nine, plus or minus a level here and there. My identity ability took almost no mana to cast, and it had a level next to it. It said, Identify level one, so hopefully, the more I used it, the faster I would probably get to a higher level in the ability. I was guessing, but I was glad it seemed like I could improve the ability just with use. On the road again, Janet and I decided to stay a little closer to home at first and just did a thorough check of the area. We actually searched in a grid-like pattern this time to increase our efficiency but didn’t find anyone the first day. We did find a lot of bones and half composing human and animal corpses, but no livening people.

The next day, we increased our search radius and finally found some survivors. We mostly just killed monsters that attacked us, but we did end up finding two small groups of no more than ten people, but they looked like they had been barely staying alive. We got them all back to the village where they could get the help they needed, and then we were off again looking. On the third day, we found one group of people in a situation that was almost too much to handle.

We approached the house like we usually did now. We had seen signs of life outside the home and assumed someone must live there. I called out that we knew someone was there and that we were there to help if they needed any. I also said we would like to meet at least to share information. We waited, and then I repeated my message. At that point, Janet saw some eyes watching us from a window and pointed it out to me. I called again, “Look, dude, I can see you. What the fuck.” The eyes flew back behind the curtains, and the next second, a man’s head poked out from behind a barely open door. Shotgun in hand. Then the man yelled at us.

“Fuck off! We don’t need your fucking help! Get the fuck off my property before I shoot you, mother fucker!”

“Is that how everyone is feeling in there?” Janet asked the man, and she was right. I could hear other people talking inside. That seemed to make the guy really nervous, and that was not going to help resolve the situation. The next thing the guy said was,

“This is the last time I’m gonna tell you fuck off right the fuck now, or I’m gonna drop you where you stand.” I looked over at Janet, and she just nodded at me. I turned back to face the guy with the gun, and then I moved. The guy must have been super low-level cuz when I was standing right next to him. It took him a second to realize I was there. Once he did, however, he swung his gun around to point it at me, but I had already ripped the weapon free from his grasp before he realized it was gone. He blinked a few times at his hands, like there was a gun there, right? Then he looked back up at me, mouth agape. I smiled at him, then knocked him out. The man dropped to the ground, and I stepped over him and opened the door.

Right as I stepped into the room, I got a shotgun blast to the chest, but I wasn’t even pushed back from the shot. I looked down at my chest and then used my hand to dust off my armor, armor that the shotgun blast had barely left a scuff on. I looked back at the woman who had just shot me. I stared at her for a second, in which she looked absolutely terrified. I could see her about to fire again, so I moved. I snatched the gun from her hands before she could let off another shot. She looked like she thought I was going to kill her, but I just pushed her against a wall and said, “Sit now,” and she did.

She also pissed herself, which was just sad. We walked into the house and could now see the complete picture. The house was half collapsed and looked like it wasn’t far from falling down the rest of the way any second now. The main room off the doorway was a large living room, but a hole in the floor took up almost half the room. There were two women tied up in the corner. One had only her feet bound and was standing by a camp stove. It looked like she was almost done cooking something, too. The other two were bound by their hands and feet. They were also gagged. We untied them and gave them some water from our bags of holding, which they consumed greedily.

Before we completely untied them, they told us more people were in the basement. The woman also said that two more men stayed here with the shotgun guy, and they wouldn’t be gone much longer. We finished getting the ladies free and hydrated and headed into the basement. It was worse than I could have ever imagined. The smell was the first thing that hit me rotting flesh, piss, and shit. Then we saw the body parts. This was some demented ass shit. People were chained to the walls and were in different stages of mutilation. They were all passed out. One woman had no arms, and another had no legs. A man with every limb gone and his dick cut off. There was even a woman with no boobs, they had clearly been cut off recently, and the wound had not been cleaned, I might add. There was torn and ragged flesh hanging off of her.

In total, there were five women and three men in the basement. They all were missing at least one body part, if not more. Janet had to throw up at one point, and I had been right behind her. This was on another level of fucked up. We got the people down and carried them upstairs. By the time we got back upstairs, the woman who had shot me and who had pissed herself had run for it, but it didn’t really matter. She was probably dead already with all the monsters out there. The two women who stayed were waiting in the kitchen. They were horrified at the acts inflicted on these people and couldn’t even go near them.

I walked over to the man on the floor that I had knocked out when we first arrived and looked down at him lying on the floor. I was trying to understand why. He looked like an average dude, but he was a demon in disguise, wearing a human skin suit. Well, not really. It was just a guy, but this “guy” didn’t need to live anymore. I picked up my foot and brought it down on the man’s head, squishing it like a bug. The man’s head popped, and his brains spilled out all over the floor. The people we’d just saved all screamed at the site, but seeing the man was dead, one woman stood up, walked over to him, and kicked his body once, then twice, then she just let go and kicked the dead body as hard as she could.

We let her go at it. It really made no difference to us. The guy was fucking dead end of the story. If this helped the woman release her anger, then more power to her. She kicked the guy for about two minutes before she started tiring. Then she just started crying. Janet and another woman went to comfort her, and she started calming down a bit. It was at that moment went the other two kidnapping, mutilating sons of fucking bitches walked in the front door. The first thing they saw was us, all of us chilling in the house. Then they saw the women and men from the basement, and they looked perplexed. They finally looked down and saw their buddy lying on the floor with his head exploded off, and they looked even more confused.

We had all frozen out of shock when they walked in, but just for a second. The next moment, Janet and I moved. I pulled my weapon from my bag of holding and ran one of them through mid-chest. The man only had time to look down at my Teremnocal punching through his chest before he died. Janet was not so quick with her kill. She had moved when I had, but when she had reached her opponent, instead of just swiftly ending his life, she grabbed him by the arms and pulled. There was a loud popping and tearing sound, and then Janet tore the man’s arms off his body in an instant. She next pulled each leg off the man individually. The man had passed out from the pain at that point, but Janet didn’t give a fuck.

By the time Janet was done with the man, it was more just a pile of body parts that had once been a man rather than anything resembling a human. After Janet’s little moment, we had to calm the people we were trying to save down all over again because Janet had scared the living shit out of them. Eventually, we got everyone out of the house and headed back to Treehouse Village. We treated the people’s wounds the best we could, but they were still too fucked up to move under their own volition. We had to rig up a sled-like contraption for the people who couldn’t walk and tie it to the homemade saddles we’d constructed for the sheep while the rest of us walked.

It took us a while to get back to the village in that manner, and we had to fight off several creature attacks here and there, but eventually, we made it. Janet ran ahead once we were at the gates to let Frank and Dr. Bowden know they would have new patients soon. When we arrived at the infirmary, Frank and Dr. Bowden were outside waiting for us. When they saw the state of the people we had found in the basement, they rushed over and got them into the infirmary as fast as they could. Dr. Bowden had wanted to know what had happened to these people, and when we told her, her face went hard, and her eyes grew cold.

“I wish you hadn’t killed them all. I would loved to have done it myself.” Dr. Bowden said, and I looked at her in surprise.

“Really? I wouldn’t expect that from a doctor,” I answered her.

“Oh yes, only so I could pull them apart piece by piece till they were screaming for me to just kill them. Then I’d heal them and start all over. These are the worst kind of scum, and what they did to these people is unforgivable, but they are dead now. So, until I get a resurrection spell, let’s just say people like them are lucky I don’t have one. Let’s just leave it at that.” She finished and walked back to help Frank.

“Fuck. Remind me not to get on Dr. Bowden’s bad side,” I said to Janet. Janet looked at me and just nodded, I think, a little in shock at the good doctor’s response.

It had been four weeks since the last attack from the master, and tensions were high. It would almost have been better if The Master just attacked us already. At least then, everyone might stop being so on edge all the time. I knew everyone, except maybe the new citizens, wanted to get this fight we all knew was coming over with already.