If I remember correctly, I pull some wires from the starter and touch them. Then the motor should start. I pull the thick black wire out and touch it to several other wires creating a spark but not much else. It’s not until I stick it in a small gray box near the steering column with a bunch of colored wires that something happens. When the wire goes in, there’s the sound of the motor staring but also every other part of the vehicle starts up too. Including the truck alarm.
A loud ear-piercing horn starts to blare, and I hit my head on the steering wheel trying to get out of the truck. When I’m finally out of the truck, I see that Frank has wisely abandoned the bags of food and is already running away towards the other side of town where we’re supposed to meet up with the rest of the survivors. As I start to jog towards after him, I hear the unmistakable scream of the Howler.
Chapter 25
Frank and I run as if our lives depend on it. Well, they do depend on it. We’re being chased by a horde of zombies.
Thankfully, the zombie horde as a whole is relatively slow, and we’re able to outrun them. However, the call of the Howler has attracted zombies from all over town. As we run through the streets of Blumkin, more and more of the undead come out from shops and alleys. We’re able to dodge and weave around most of them but have to stop and reroute our path when large groups of them block the main road. We dare not stop to fight, or we’ll be overwhelmed by the mass of Shamblers coming up behind us.
After what seems like forever, we finally make it to the other side of town where the rest of the survivors are waiting for us. Understandably, they’re not pleased to see us being followed by zombies.
Thankfully, while Frank and I were salvaging and traveling through town, one of the survivors was able to hotwire a couple of abandoned SUVs and siphon enough gas to get them running. The whole group of survivors plus the four Users are barely able to squeeze into the vehicles, and we get onto the road just as the first Shamblers from the horde reach us.
The two SUV’s tires screech as they burn rubber to escape. Our little caravan gets back on the highway, and we put a few miles between Blumkin and us; at least until it starts to get dark. Then it becomes too dangerous to navigate on the highway and try to avoid abandoned vehicles, debris, fallen trees, and other obstacles. We pull the vehicles onto the side of the road and try to get some sleep.
I don’t know about the other survivors, but I don’t sleep well, plagued by nightmares of zombies devouring my flesh and then becoming one of them.
The next day, we skip breakfast and get out on the road as soon as there’s enough light to see what’s on the road. Even though the vehicles can’t travel more than 20 mph because they have to navigate around the various obstacles, we still arrive at Safe Haven by mid-afternoon.
Unfortunately, Safe Haven isn’t the paradise we thought it was going to be.
The settlement is located off the highway, through some winding dirt roads, up a hill in the forest. The forest has been cleared away from the massive ten-foot wall that disappears around a curve and surrounds Safe Haven. When the SUVs stop, everyone gets out and stares at the gates to the community. Two massive metal gates lay broken and hanging off their hinges, blocking the road. The vehicles can’t drive past the gates, but there’s more than enough room to make it through on foot.
Once the last member of the survivor group walks past the fallen gate, I get a notification.
You’ve completed the quest - Save the Survivors - Part 2.
You receive 1000 XP.
While I’m glad to get the experience points, I’m as disappointed by the state of Safe Haven as the survivors are.
The gravel road crunches under my feet as I walk inside the gates. It looks like Safe Haven is a converted housing tract with rows of one and two-story homes. There are shiny solar panels on the roofs of each house that provide power. There’s a massive field of vegetables growing in the middle of the community. It looks like the perfect place to start over. There’s food, water, electricity, and a wall to keep the zombies out.
What it doesn’t have, is people.
“Where the heck is everyone?”
I turn to see that it’s Nancy who’s spoken, Frank and Joe standing behind her. Her hair is tied back in a ponytail today, and she looks tired. Her shoulders hunch forward slightly, and her eyes are red. She had her rifle out and aimed at the ground, but her expression shows that the situation worries her.
I’m confused myself. “I think the whole place may be abandoned. If anyone were still here, they would have heard us coming and come to say hello.”
Nancy nods in agreement. “It’s weird that the mission isn’t over. We signed up for an escort mission, and it’s done. So why hasn’t the dungeon ended?”
There’s a shout, and a scream from somewhere ahead of us and the four of us run to see what’s happened. We pass the homes and the garden and run all the way to the far side of the complex and the wall that protects that side. Well, the wall that should be there. Instead, there’s a beat-up pickup truck that’s crashed through the wall. On the ground are parts of the smashed wall and truck along with a mass of dead half eaten bodies.
Even though I know that this scenario has all been set up by the User that runs the dungeon, I can’t help but feel horrified at the sight. Either someone accidentally crashed into the wall and a zombie horde happened to be close enough to overrun the town, or this was intentional. Either way, Safe Haven isn’t all that safe at the moment.
There’s another scream, and we run to find one of the people from the survivor group crawling away from a zombie. Well, what’s left of the zombie. Only the upper half of the zombie is clawing its way towards the survivor. Nancy ends the zombie with a single shot to its head, and her brothers help the survivor get to her feet.
Juan and the rest of the survivors arrive a moment later, weapons in hand, ready to fight.
I raise my hands to calm them down, “It’s ok, guys. We already took care of it. It was just a single zombie.”
Juan shakes his head. “No, I’m afraid it wasn’t. We’ve already found four others around here. We put them down, but we’ll have to clear every building before we can start to get settled.”
“Wait, you plan to stay here?”
“Yes. Safe Haven is going to be our new home.”
Pointing to the truck and the battered wall, I yell, “Do you not see that giant hole in the wall there? This place isn’t safe.”
Juan gestures around him, “Do you not see the homes, the solar panels, the food just waiting for harvesting? Yes, the place needs some work, but we can rebuild the walls and improve security measures.”
I look around and see the determined looks on all of the survivors faces and realize that nothing I say is going to change these people’s minds.
I feel a hand on my shoulder and angrily turn to see Frank staring up at me.
He has a small smirk on his face, and he tells me in a low voice. “Calm down. You’re getting worked up about nothing. None of this is real. We’re in a dungeon, remember? All this has to be part of some quest.”
I slap my forehead and calm down. Of course. The darn dungeon got me. I got so involved in the story and the realism of the situation that I forgot where I was.