Travis's Journey Through the Apocalypse

Chapter 7

Dive to survive

The goat man person was kind of looking off into the distance like when you concentrate. I totally get it. I’ve been there. When you have a tough boogey, that just won’t get the fuck out of your nose.

I don’t know why I was so stuck on the nose-picking thing. Maybe it was humanizing? I don’t know. Then, a thought struck me. With the goat creatures being like 5 feet tall, chubby fuckers, and with the tunnel ceilings at about ten feet, these guys would have to stand on each other’s shoulders to cut these tunnels out, right?

I started picturing two goats, one standing on the other’s shoulders, with pickaxes rapidly mining away. That would be hilarious, but fuck, Travis, not the time, focus. What the fuck were we going to do? So, plan time, it look like this guy, well goat, was not the sharpest spade in the tool shed. Maybe if we did this right, we could fuck this goat dude up with a surprise attack.

I tried to get Beth’s attention, which only took a moment, and she looked at me. I mimed getting low and swinging at ankle height with my axe. She got what I was going for, and we both crouched there, weapons ready.

Janet was standing behind me next to me and whispered that she would hit the goat dude in the head. I just nodded at her. The goat creature got to the doorway, and he turned and looked right at Janet with her bat raised over her head.

We all kind of paused, and then I saw Beth swing, and I remembered the plan and swung as well. Beth’s hit landed a second before my own. As we struck, my axe went right through his ankle, but Beth’s machete did not. She got most of the way through, but then the machete got stuck. The force of the strike was enough to break the bone, and it wasn’t a clean cut.

As the goat man creature fell, it struck out with a punch directed at Janet with its boogie hand. Janet was already swinging at that point and, completely by luck, hit the goat man’s hand out of the way. Janet backed out of his range. While Beth was struggling to free her machete, the goat man whipped his axe around and slashed Beth’s arm.

Beth screamed, and I lunged forward, swinging down to hit its breastplate hard, leaving a massive dent. It’s definitely causing the goat man to struggle to breathe. The goat man struggled to try to rip the breastplate off, but then Janet stepped forward and smashed her nail bat down on the head of the goat dude four times. On the third hit, the skull cracked. On the fourth hit, we saw brain matter squish out between the cracks, and blood was everywhere. On the wall, the floor, and even on all of us. “Well, that definitely could have gone better,” Beth said.

The next thing we heard was hooves pounding the ground, and it sounded like a lot of them. Janet had gotten the worst of the blood splatter. Her face was covered, and her clothes were drenched. She had a kind of crazy look in her eye, like, yeah, I fucking did that, you mother fucker.

I wasn’t too nuts about that look, but it was off her face a second later. Then she looked at me. Beth was staring at me, too, holding her arm. It didn’t look like the goat dude had got her that bad. More of a grazing blow. It was still bleeding, though, and I saw some blood dripping through her fingers.

“You okay, Beth?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’ll be okay. It’s really not that deep. That goat thing just barely caught me,” Beth said, giving a thumbs-up.

At that moment, we all heard what was probably more goat people headed our way. “Back through the tunnel we came from,” I said. Everyone was on their feet fast,

and a second later, we were booking it down the tunnel we’d just come from. It was much shorter when done at a run, not a wary shuffle.

We made it back to the door, and I stopped everyone before we immediately left the Dungeon. “I think we should make a stand here.” Janet looked at me like I was nuts, and Beth had a face on that said, why would we do that?

“Hear me out. The tunnel is too narrow for more than one of those goat things to attack at once. We might be able to force them to fight us one-on-three,” I said.

“Okay, well, we better decide soon because those goat things are going to get her any second now.” Janet spits out in a rush of words.

“Ugg, fuck it, let’s just do this. If we die, I’m gonna kill you, Travis!” Beth said. She was obviously on the verge of a full-on panic but was gritting her teeth. I watched her eyes steady and then resolve settled over her. Janet was looking back and forth at Beth and me.

“Are we doing this? Shit, I guess we are doing this. Fuck it, you only live once, and I liked the way those goat dudes head smash in.” Janet said, then she gritted her teeth and smiled a toothy grin. That same look was on her face again, which was a little scary, but there was no time. They were almost upon us.”

“Okay, Beth, next to me. Janet, standing between us, about two steps back.” I told them my best idea of a battle strategy. Beth and Janet nodded at me and moved. Seconds later, a goat man appeared in the tunnel in front of us, and soon, five more came into view.

It was true. These tunnels were too small for them to attack side by side, but as soon as they registered us, their eyes bulged out, and they charged. They had been moving at a slow trot before but were now running at us. They were definitely weighted down by the armor they had on. Their armor was the same deal as the first guy’s. The one in front had a long sword, and the next had two short swords. I couldn’t see what the others were carrying yet, but it was probably similar to the rest of the group. I assumed maybe there was an axe in there somewhere. Guess we were going to find out cuz here they came.

The one in front tried to use its momentum to get an opening downward chop at my head. I went to block with my axe, and as I did, Beth’s machete slammed into the side of the creature’s head, biting deep. Ser strike ended halfway through one eye of the creature’s skull.

The goat man smashed into the wall on my left. Beth jumped up, landed on the fallen body, and swung down, cutting through its neck and decapitating the creature. The goat men had been closing behind the first but had slowed down, more cautious after seeing their buddy die.

The goat dude with the two short swords was lunging at Beth. It stabbed out with one short sword. Beth dodged, and then it swiped its other short sword out and slashed her arm. She yelped in pain and jumped back.

The goat dude moved as if to stab at Beth again. Janet wasn’t having that and smashed it upside the head, nails slamming deep. The goat dudes’ eyes went fuzzy. She pulled the bat free with the sound of ripping flesh.

The creature looked like it was definitely shaking, so I stepped forward and slammed my axe into its head right between its eyes. Blood hit my face, and I had to wipe my eyes clean. When I looked up, a goat man was stabbing me with a short sword right toward my heart.

I froze, but luckily, I wasn’t alone. Janet swung her bat, and the goat dude had to change from stabbing at me to blocking Janet with its shield. She slammed it into the side of the tunnel, and then another goat dude stabbed Janet across the arm as she jumped back to avoid the blow. It still caught her and left a deep cut in her bicep. Beth had recovered a little by now and defended Janet from the goat dude who had slashed her.

It had pushed past its friend that Janet had saved me from and was advancing on to the women. It had seemingly forgotten me in its eagerness to reach Janet. The goat dude before me was still recovering from Janet’s slam. I took advantage and put my axe halfway through its head. Its head popped and then made a wet sucking sound as I ripped my axe free of its skull.

I stepped forward, leaving the two women and goat dude at my back. I heard what sounded like a child screaming behind me, and then Beth and Janet were back at my side, ready to face the next goat dude.

We stood there, four goat men down, and only two left. One of the goat men had a spear, and the other had an axe like the first one we’d killed. They were also way more cautious of us now since the beginning of the fight. These two seemed to be more willing to assess the situation before trying to kill us as their friends did.

They moved into a staggered position. The axe wielder was in front, with the spear goat ready to stab out from behind his buddy. As they came into range, I went on the offensive, lunged forward, fainted to one side, and swung up from right to left. I was aiming to catch it under the chin and split its head.

It blocked my strike, and I got stabbed in the shoulder by the spear wielder. I jumped back out of range, and while I was getting stabbed, Janet had smashed the axe guy in the face. Beth took advantage of the opening and stabbed the goat dude in the neck. The goat dude fell to one knee, holding his neck. I swung down one-handed into his collarbone. The goat dude screamed that childlike scream again, and then Beth stabbed it in the face straight into its brain.

The last goat dude with the spear hadn’t been ideal and, after stabbing me, swung the spear at Janet and got her in the leg. Janet fell hard to the floor. Beth screamed and flung herself at the goat dude, getting stabbed in the arm and then having to retreat.

I decided this needed to end. We were too hurt to let this fight go on any longer. I lunged in again at the spear goat dude and blocked its attack, pushing it away from my stomach and into my leg. The spear went all the way through my leg, and I screamed. I bit my tung, but I still managed to bright my axe back with one hand and drive it down into the goat man’s skull.

I split its head in half, leaving it to lay open like a book as the goat dude fell to the ground, dead. I didn’t find out till later that I killed the thing, however. The pain had been so intense from my wounds that the act of cutting the goat dude’s head in half had been the tipping point to send me into unconsciousness.

My eyes opened, and I panicked for a second because I’d forgotten where I was. I looked around and saw Beth trying to wake Janet, but she was still on the floor. I remembered what happened. I checked my leg, and the bleeding had stopped, but I could see the bone. It hurt like crazy.

I must have passed out from the pain of my leg wound. If there had been any of those goat dudes left, I would have been totally fucked. I started trying to get to my feet, slipped, and fell back on my ass hard. “Fuck! That hurt”, I half cried.

“Are you okay, Travis?” Beth softly called over, checking on me.

“Yeah, I’m good. I mean, well, no, I’m not really fucking good, but we need to get the fuck out of here now.” I said.

I didn’t even worry about keeping my voice down that much. I was starting to panic again. I scrambled to my feet, grunting through the pain and almost passing out again, but I made it to my feet and hobbled over to Janet and Beth.

Janet was still unconscious, and Beth looked worried. I looked Beth in the eyes and said, “We need to leave now.” Her eyes went a little wide at my shaky voice. I don’t know if she could tell how panicked I was. From the look on her face, I had a good idea that she was starting to pick up on it. She just nodded.

We bent down and grabbed Janet by her arms, dragging her to the safe room. Once we were inside, I started to feel my panic ebb and realized how close I’d been to falling apart. I helped Beth make Janet comfortable over by the small pond and proceeded to clean her wounds.

After Janet was as comfortable as we could get her. We began trying to treat her wounds with the supplies we had, which wasn’t much, but we had brought some gauze and Neosporin. We hadn’t really been planning on going into the Dungeon. I had hyped the girls up and convinced them to go to this place with no provisions. Honestly, I had really fucked this whole thing up big time.

Beth and I finished cleaning our wounds, and then Beth helped me rip my shirt into strips. We used the strips of cloth to bind my leg, and then I helped her bind hers and Janet’s open cuts. At that point, Beth just laid back against the wall next to Janet and passed out.

I bent down, drank some water from the pool, then walked a little ways away from the women and sat down. As my legs touched the cold floor, I let out a gasp. The ground almost felt like an ice pack, and when I leaned against the wall, I nearly gasped again in relief.

After a minute of just enjoying the sensation from the cold floor, I started thinking about how I’d fucked this all up. This was supposed to be a fun trip into a once-thought-to-be imaginary childhood dream.

It was so not what I’d thought. I’d had the naivety to assume we’d walk in here, kill some dumb mobs, NPCs, or monsters that would just revive to be killed again and get some amazing loot. We come out like kings, and I’d never thought about the genuine danger I had just put them through. Beth and Janet were amazing. We made it work and had boned fast in our brief time together.

They trusted me, and I didn’t realize how much I valued their trust, but after this debacle, I’m sure they’d never trust me again. The idea of that finally broke me. I cried, I mean, I cried hard, heavy, deep sobs, and I couldn’t stop. I must have been crying louder than I thought. I’d been trying to cry into my arms to quiet the sobs, but at one point, Janet’s arm was around my shoulders. When I noticed, I looked up, and tears fell from her face. I only doubled my sobs and held her like I was holding on for dear life.

I knew I’d be embarrassed later, but at that moment, I didn’t care. We must have fallen asleep like that because who knows how long later, Beth tapped me on the shoulder, and I woke up with Janet’s arm still around me. I knew the tears had left streaks through the grime on my face.

Janet woke up as I moved. She slowly retracted her arm as Beth joined us on the ground. I felt a bit better emotionally like I’d let some weight off my shoulders, but I would have to thank Janet for helping me get through that. At that moment, she had just made it okay to lose it, and that’s what I needed right then.

Janet was wiping her eyes of sleep when I asked her how she was feeling. “Well, my head hurts a lot still. I hit it pretty hard when my leg went out after I got stabbed”, she said. I winced at that. “I’m so sorry, Janet, this was all my fault. I should have never had us go in there. I almost got us all killed. I really fucked up, guys. I’m so sorry.”

“Stop, Travis, you couldn’t make me or Janet do shit even if you’re at a higher level. You’ve got some moral code, or you wouldn’t have helped us back when you first saved our lives. Honestly, you’re like a proud little doggie protecting its pack. You are harmless. Well, to us, at least. It’s kinda cute. You saved our asses back there. Without you, we would definitely be dead”, Beth finished. Janet took that moment to chime in,

“Yeah, Travis, you were kind of an idiot the way you dove in headfirst without knowing anything about this place. On the other hand, Beth and I jumped right in with you. We should have been more cautious, you know, being older and wiser.” She gave me a wink with a nose-in-the-air smirk, then let her head drop down and gave me a soft smile.

“It’s okay, Travis. We’re okay. No one died, and I know one thing. This blinking exclamation mark in the corner of my vision usually means power up, right? That’s what we came here for, right? So, mission accomplished”, Janet said.We all realized that, yeah, she was right. “We can check on that in a second. Are you guys okay? Beth said.

How’s your leg, Janet? Beth, is your arm, okay?” I asked them. Janet and Beth checked themselves over as I looked at my leg, which had started to heal. It was healing a little too fast for even my new regeneration abilities.

“Hey, are your wounds more healed than usual?” I said. The two women looked at me, then at each other, then Beth said, “I can’t tell?” Then Janet said,

“Yeah, can’t really tell.”

“All good, maybe the water from the pond,” I muttered.

“Yeah, I’m doing okay overall,” Beth finally said. Janet affirmed that she was doing about the same as Beth. I was good. Well, my leg was still painful, but nothing like the pain I should have felt after taking a spear through the leg. I told them,

“I’m okay, but I think I’ll need another day or two to get my leg back to 100%.”

“That bad?” Beth said. Janet looked concerned.

“Yeah, well, that fucking spear went all the way through my leg, and it’s still closing up,” I said.

“We can stay here. You have some trail mix, right? And we got water. We could see if those bean plant-looking things are edible, too. Maybe they’ll be like Senzu Beans”, Janet said with a little smirk at the end, like, yeah, I know what Senzu Beans are bitch.

I blinked at her, then just started laughing. It took me a second to calm down, but I did eventually. Once I was at the point where I could talk again, I told Janet, “I really hope you’re right. I could use a fucking Senzu Bean right now.”

Beth had been looking at us with a you guys are fucking weird look. Janet saw it and explained about DBZ, Dragon Ball Z a little, but Beth still thought we were fucking weirdos. I laughed at Beth’s still perplexed face and told them we better check out our notifications. They both agreed and soon, the two women had a far-off look in their eyes as if they were seeing something I couldn’t.

Janet Katz Stat. Sheet

Level: 5

Race: Human

Experience needed to next Level: 1,343/1,970 XP till next Level.

Titles: Explorer 1 (+3 to all stats)

Strength: 19

Dexterity: 17

Intelligence: 18

Wisdom: 16

Constitution: 15

Luck: 10

Beth Holloway’s

Level: 5

Race: Human

Experience needed to next Level: 1,805/1,970 XP till next Level.

Titles: Explorer 1 (+3 to all stats)

Strength: 19

Dexterity: 17

Intelligence: 17

Wisdom: 14

Constitution: 16

Luck: 9

I popped open my own notifications and had a look. So, first things first, the goat dudes were called Caprainki Strike troopers. That had been driving me crazy, having to call them fucking goat dudes in my fucking head. At least now I knew they were fucking Caprainki. I’m assuming Caprainki is their fucking species, like, I’m a human, and that trooper thing must be their like designation, or title, or what the fuck ever.

I didn’t really give a fuck what they were actually called. They had just given me a fuck tune of XP.

“Level up! You were, and now you’re at Level 6. Three stat points have been awarded. You may freely distribute these as you see fit. Kill, get stronger, and fight for money. These are all hallmarks of a great gladiator. Keep it up, you little killer.” Wow, that was amazing.

Travis Mullins

Level: 6

Race: Human

Experience needed to next Level: 2,995/3,070 XP till next Level.

Titles: Lucky Bastard (+2 to luck)

Explorer 1 (+3 to all stats)

Strength: 21

Dexterity: 17

Intelligence: 17

Wisdom: 15

Constitution: 21

Luck: 14

I decided to put one point in each Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution. At that moment, I did not have any magic. To be totally honest, I hadn’t considered Wisdom or Intelligence for that very reason. I needed to be faster, stronger, and be able to take more damage. That was the only way I saw me ever going back into that crazy fucking Dungeon ever again.

The new level was so fucking needed. I think it’d been a week or so since the last time I’d leveled up. It definitely reminded me that the fucking Slag company was looming somewhere over our heads, and I was sure we’d have to deal with this whole indenture thing at some point in the future. I mean, hell, if we lived that long. That thought brought me back to the here and now. I had another waiting.

“You have ingested Mana Kissed Water. Plus, 40% recovery time for all Mana, Health, and Stamina. This water is not very special or rare. Mana Kissed Water is a by-product of when a spring is created or an existing spring is influenced by high levels of Ambient Mana.

Over time, the water from the spring is infused with Mana to the point it changes the very nature of the water itself and becomes Mana Kissed Water. That’s why we’d all healed up so fast. Damn, Dungeons in all their horrors, we’re truly a marvel.

The next thing I knew, I was pulled from my thoughts as I heard Janet exclaim,

“Holly shit, Travis, get over here,” Janet said as she started to chuckle. “I swear, this is amazing. These are basically Senzu Beans! Travis, oh my god!” She was full-on laughing her ass off now. I started to laugh a little at Janet losing it. I don’t know. Sometimes, when you see someone laughing, you just catch that laugh bug a little.

“Janet, what are you talking about?” I asked her.

“Travis, just come over here. You’ll see what I’m talking about.”, she said. I walked over, still doing a little hobble. My leg was still stiff and hurting, but it felt way better, so walking over to Janet was not too bad, pain-wise. “What is it, Janet? I’m here. I walked my fucked up ass leg over here, so now, what did you want me to see?”

Janet’s expression became a little abashed,

“Sorry, I kind of forgot about your leg there for a sec, but shit, fuck it,” she said. Then, she reached her hand up and cupped my cheek. She put her thumb on my lower lip and gently pulled my lips down. I felt the tip of her finger graze my teeth, and my mouth dropped open. My eyes went wide. I’m fairly sure my cheeks were getting red at this point as well, and it was then that Janet’s face switched from a soft, almost romantic look to one of a, got you, stupid mother fucker look.

My forehead started to scrunch in confusion, but Janet shoved a small pea-like object into my mouth before I could do anything. She then put her hand over my mouth and said,

“Chew.” At this point, Beth had walked over and had been watching our little interplay, and her eyebrows raised high as I looked at her, kind of a, so, gonna try and fuck Janet look. With a healthy side of, in your fucking dreams, smeared across the smirk on her face. I knew I was blushing hard, so I focused on chewing the pea-like thing in my mouth. When I finished chewing, an exclamation mark started blinking in the corner of my vision. I focused on it, and a notification popped up.

“You have ingested a Senzuketa Bean. You gained plus 100% to your regeneration rate for the next two hours. Senzuketa Beans are a by-product of a bean plant that is created or is an existing bean plant influenced by high levels of Ambient Mana. Over time, the bean plant becomes infused with Mana, to the point that it changes the very nature of the plant itself and becomes these wonderful little Magic Beans.

There are magical fruits. When you eat’um they’ll make you toot. The more you toot, the better you’ll feel, so eat Senzuketa Beans with every meal!” In the corner of the notification was “Paid for by the Slag Corporation.”

“Well fuck. That’s weird sounded like that old song about beans and farting. I hope that’s not what I think.”, I said and started laughing. Beth got a look on her face like, what the fuck? I just told her never mind. Janet was still chuckling but managed to hand Beth a bean and told her to eat it. Beth looked at the little bean suspiciously, then popped it in her mouth. She chewed it for a second, then swallowed the Senzuketa Bean. She then got a far-off look in her eyes, and I knew she was checking her notifications.

Only a few seconds passed before her eyes went wide. The following words out of her mouth were, “Holly shit! These little Beans are fucking awesome! Why were you guys laughing? These could literally save our lives, and here’s what… at least 20 pods I can see right off the bat.”

She started picking pods. She popped the first one she picked open, and four Senzuketa Beans were inside it. “Four per pod, too. This is so great, Travis. Janet, what are you waiting for? Come on, help me pick ’em.” We had both stopped laughing and were just staring at Beth going, pick happy with the new little Magic Beas.

Janet and I looked at each other and started laughing all over again. After about five minutes, Beth yelled at us to help her, and we were still just laughing. Beth walked back over to us a minute later and had about 23 pods cupped in her hands.

“Thanks for the help, you jerk’s,” Beth said.

“Sorry”, Janet said, then continued. “I think I needed that good belly laugh. There hasn’t been much to laugh at recently, so that was almost cathartic.” I had to agree with Janet, and I just exhaled, sighed, and nodded in agreement with Janet’s statement. Beth’s expression softened, and she smiled at Janet, then said,

“All good, I get it. But, oh man, these little Treasures are amazing. I already feel like I’ve been healing for weeks. Another 20 minutes, and I swear I’ll be 100% again. That’s just insane. It’s just…” Beth looked like she was trying to find the words.

“Like magic?” I said.

“Yeah, exactly.”, Beth said, then smiled at me. I had to admit, I was starting to feel pretty fricking good, myself. I checked on my leg, and yeah, it was healing at a gradual but fucking visible speed, like I was watching my fucking skin pulling itself closed right in front of my eyes.

It was starting to itch a little, and then, after about another five minutes, itching a lot, and then it started burning. I started to get a little freaked out, and I was visibly showing it—or I must have been because all of a sudden, Janet and Beth were at my side, looking at my wound healing.