NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 13
Chapter 13
While he rested, sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall, Jake checked his current stats on his PDA. His Perception was twelve, which allowed his combat skills such as Pistols and Shotguns to increase up to one hundred twenty. They were currently at thirty-four and twenty-two respectively, so there was no immediate need to increase his Perception attribute yet. After giving the matter some thought, Jake put both his skill points into Constitution.
The huge mutant, which Jake assumed was a shambler, had hit him pretty hard, sending him flying across the width of the corridor to crash into the wall. While his body was hurting from the blow and collision with the wall, it didn’t feel like he’d broken anything. As far as he could tell, he was scraped and bruised in numerous places, but that was the extent of the damage he’d taken. He didn’t bleed—not much anyway—and while his ribs were sore, he didn’t think they were broken or cracked. Not so long ago, he’d allocated one skill point to Constitution, so that probably was the reason his body was more resilient and damage-resistant than it’d been before. Which was why Jake decided to put both his skill points into that attribute—to further enhance his body’s resistance to damage.
He noticed that another tab had been unlocked on his PDA. When he opened it, he saw a message displayed across the screen: SUPPLY DROP IS AVAILABLE (x1) [COMMON]. TIP: TAP AND HOLD ANYWHERE ON THE MAP TO REQUEST A SUPPLY DROP. It was a reward for completing the secondary objective of his mission, which had been to kill the shambler. He couldn’t help but wonder what a supply drop might contain.
Jake switched to the map and studied it for a moment. Those areas of the city where he’d already been were cleared out of the gray fog. As for the rest of the map, it was still shrouded in mist. He tapped and held on the spot next to the entrance to the building he was currently in. A couple of seconds later, a message popped up: WOULD YOU LIKE TO REQUEST A SUPPLY DROP HERE: Y/N (APPROXIMATE TIME OF ARRIVAL: 12 MIN). Jake pressed “No”. Before requesting the supply drop, he wanted to search this building for loot.
He stood up and scanned the dead body of the nearest mutant with his PDA. DEAD EX-HUMAN MUTANT: EMPTY. Even though no info on the mutant was presented to him, by that point, it was pretty obvious that this mutant was called a shambler. He didn’t know its level yet, though.
He then pointed his camera at one of the dead walkers. DEAD EX-HUMAN WALKER: EMPTY. The floor of the corridor was littered with dead walkers he’d killed a few minutes before. He was meticulously scanning every single one of them, dragging the scanned bodies aside to reveal the ones lying at the bottom of the pile. He was taken aback by how quickly he had gotten accustomed to the sight of gore and dead bodies. Some of the mutants had shotgun shells and pistol mags on them. Jake collected all the ammo, stowing it away in his pockets. He loaded some shells into his shotgun and slung the weapon over his shoulder.
After searching through all the bodies, he finally left the corridor and returned to the hall where a few more dead mutants lay scattered. He scanned the nearest one. DEAD EX-HUMAN WALKER: STIMPAK (x1). After taking the autoinjector from the pocket of the dead body, he considered using it on himself. However, since he wasn’t seriously injured, he decided to save this miracle-like healing medication for later. He then proceeded to search and loot the rest of the dead mutants.
He was surprised to find that the four-legged mutant he’d wounded several times was still alive. It lay on the floor, bleeding from numerous bullet holes. The creature watched Jake with its evil eyes, growling faintly, but it was so weak it couldn’t get up from the floor. He scanned it. EX-HUMAN LEAPER [Level 3]. He then drew his pistol and finished the mutant off with a headshot. He scanned the dead mutant’s body again, but the leaper didn’t have any loot on it.
He remembered to check the dead survivor one of the mutants had been eating before all hell broke loose. He located the mutilated body of the fellow survivor and looked at it for a moment, wondering who that guy was. He’d clearly been killed not long before Jake arrived. Maybe if he’d come to this building somewhat earlier, he could’ve saved the guy and they might’ve teamed up. Other than the little regret of having been tardy, Jake didn’t feel much of anything else. This survivor was just another victim of the Collapse. The world had come to an end, and all those mutants he’d been killing for a while now had once been ordinary human beings. Most of the people living on Earth had either died or been turned into mutants when the System came, but Jake tried not to think about it so as not to succumb to depression.
Jake scanned the body with his PDA. DEAD SURVIVOR [Level 5]: STIMPAK (x3), BOTTLED WATER (x1), CANNED FOOD (x2), PISTOL MAGAZINE (x3), BERNETTI PISTOL (x1). The dead survivor had some useful items on him, but looting him felt wrong. In the end, Jake managed to quell his conscience by reasoning that the dead survivor no longer needed all those items. It would surely not be the last time when Jake stumbled across the dead body of a fellow survivor. It would be stupid not to grab any resources that could enhance his chances of survival in this dangerous world.
He crouched down and took off his backpack. For the next minute, he was taking all the useful items from the dead survivor’s pockets and backpack and stashing them into his own rucksack. In one of the dead guy’s coat inner pockets, Jake found a PDA. The device was locked, and when he pressed his thumb to the screen, a text message popped up across it: YOU CANNOT USE THIS DEVICE BECAUSE IT BELONGS TO SOMEBODY ELSE. Jake’s gaze fell on the survivor’s severed arm that a walker had been munching on when he stepped into the building. Overcoming his disgust, he picked up the severed arm and pressed its thumb to the PDA’s screen. This time, another message popped up. THE DEVICE CANNOT BE UNLOCKED BECAUSE ITS OWNER IS DEAD.
So the dead survivor’s PDA appeared to be totally useless. Jake dropped the severed arm and the device to the floor and got to his feet, putting on his rucksack. He then looked around one more time. He looted all the dead bodies, but there were a few doorways that led to other rooms. Jake was sure there were no more enemies around, but just in case, he unslung his shotgun and went on to explore the other parts of the building.
For the next several minutes, he explored the remaining rooms on the first floor. All the stairs leading to the upper floors lay in ruins, making it impossible to get upstairs. Jake didn’t encounter any more mutants in the building, but he found some more ammo for his weapons. After that, he made his way back to the hall. He retrieved his PDA and requested a supply drop next to the entrance to the building. He then took up a position at one of the shattered windows that faced the street and waited for his supply drop to arrive.