System, get rid of these fools

Standing in front of the security monitor, I stared at Victor and the people standing behind him. A red notification appeared in the corner of my eye.

[WARNING: SYSTEM STABILITY 18%.]

[SYSTEM SHUTDOWN IMMINENT.]

I put my head in my hands, feeling scared. “How do I stop this?”

[100 SURVIVAL POINTS REQUIRED TO RESTORE BASIC SYSTEM STABILITY.]

I stared at the number and shook my head. One hundred survival points were a lot. But if I didn't get them, I knew most system functions would shut down and that would put me in danger. The base defenses would weaken of even fail.

Shit. If I didn’t get more points, even the zombie-control interface would pause or fail. No. I wasn’t losing that, not after finally proving that the chips worked. The chips alone wouldn’t be that helpful to me.

Through the security monitor, I turned to victor and pressed the intercom. “What do you want?”

Victor stepped closer to the gate and raised his hand. “Open this gate.”

“Not gonna happen.”

“We need supplies,” he said, using his hand to brush his short hair back.

“Go and get them somewhere else.”

“There are people starving at the community center. I heard you knew the apocalypse was coming and didn’t tell anyone!”

“That’s not my problem.”

The people behind him started shouting as if that would help. They didn’t know that being aggressive would only make matters worse.

“You have more than enough!” “Give us food!” “Don’t be so selfish.”

I glanced at the security cameras. These people would turn against me as soon as I let them in. They were so aggressive.

It reminded me of my first life when I was so naive and helped everyone without analyzing if they really deserved it.

“You woman! Stop wasting our time.”

I laughed. “You came to my property with a group of people demanding my supplies. You’re the one wasting your time.”

“You can’t keep everything for yourself.”

“Watch me.” I said with a sly smile.

Suddenly, I heard metal bang the gate. I saw that one of Victor’s men was attacking the gate with a crowbar. Another one with an axe also moved forward.

“What the hell?”

Victor shouted something I couldn’t hear and three more men joined them.

[EMERGENCY MISSION ACTIVATED.]

[MISSION: DEFEND PRIMARY BASE.]

[OBJECTIVE: PREVENT HOSTILE SURVIVORS FROM BREACHING THE PERIMETER.]

[TIME LIMIT: 30 MINUTES.]

[REWARD: 100 SURVIVAL POINTS.]

My eyes widened. “So that’s how this works? Cool.”

The system didn’t want me sitting behind the walls doing nothing. Clearly, it wanted me to fight for survival. Wiping the sweat on my brows, I glanced at the countdown.

[29:58.]

“Fine,” I said with a heavy sigh. “Let’s defend this house.”

Victor’s men were hitting the reinforced gate repeatedly, making the clanging sound of metal hitting metal echo through the property.

Jolie rushed in to the room with wide eyes. her body was shaking like a lead and she looked extremely scared. “They’re going to break it.”

“They won’t.”

“Are you very sure?”

“I spent a fortune on that gate. It will hold.”

She laughed nervously as I turned my attention to the controls. Outside, Victor was shouting at his men. “Keep going!”

The men attacked harder and the integrity dropped to ninety-five as they made a dent. But even when it dropped to ninety-four, the gate remained solid. Victor looked furious and his shouts became more aggressive.

He shouted at one of the men and he ran toward a pickup truck parked nearby.

“What are they doing?” I wondered out loud.

The truck started.

“Oh, no!”

The pickup reversed before accelerating toward the gate.

Jolie jumped just as the truck slammed into the gate. The entire front wall seemed to shake and dust fell from the top. I grabbed the edge of the control desk while Jolie screamed like a horde of zombies was upon her.

For a second, I thought the gate had failed. But when the dust cleared, the truck was crumpled against the reinforced metal and the gate was still standing.

[Main Gate Integrity: 89%.]

I let out a breath. “Thank God.”

Jolie looked through the monitor. “Are they crazy?”

“Yes.”

Victor climbed out of the truck, looking angrier than I’d ever seen. He pointed at the gate and started shouting. I couldn’t hear what he was saying through the thick walls, but I had a feeling he was telling them to try again.

I studied the security controls and realized the system had installed defensive systems around the property but I hadn’t tested them against people. I touched the perimeter control and a list appeared.

“What are you doing?” Jolie asked but I didn’t answer. She couldn’t see the system display.

[Defensive Deterrents Available.]

[High-pressure water jets.]

[Motion-triggered sprinklers.]

[Emergency alarms.]

[Security strobes.]

[Perimeter odor deterrent.]

Jolie stared at me like I was crazy. She wanted to ask something but she just watched me. All these were non lethal so they could work perfectly for me.

Perfect. I smiled. “Activate them.”

A deafening siren went off outside the property, making Victor’s men immediately cover their ears. The security lights turned on, sending extremely bright white strobes across the gate. The men stumbled around because they couldn’t see properly. Seeing them move like confused rats made me laugh hard.

“What’s happening?” one of them shouted.

Before they could understand what was happening, the water jets activated. Strong streams of pink water shot from hidden points along the walls hitting the attackers from different directions.

The man with the axe dropped it as another slipped and fell into the mud. Someone was screaming their lungs out. I couldn’t help laughing.

Jolie stared at me. “Did you do that?”

“Yes.”

But she was too scared to laugh.

Victor was screaming at his men to keep attacking but nobody listened. The sprinklers activated next, leaving the entire entrance was soaked within seconds.

Finally, the odor deterrent was released. I couldn’t smell it from inside, but judging from the way Victor’s men reacted, it was horrible. They started coughing and covering their noses while some of them ran toward the road.

“Get back here!” Victor shouted but two men kept running. I shook my head while laughing. Victor really had no idea when to quit.

When one desperate man tried climbing the gate, my system immediately warned me.

[Unauthorized perimeter intrusion detected.]

A water jet slammed into him, making him lose his grip and fall back into the mud. I stared at the screen and laughed so hard my knees weakened and I had to lean over. I placed my hands on my knees and laughed even more.

This was the hardest I had laughed since the apocalypse started.

Jolie covered her mouth. “Mia!”

“What?”

“You shouldn’t be laughing like this. They’re getting hurt”

I looked at the man struggling to stand and laughed even more. “He tried to break into my house. I’m enjoying it.”

“I’m going to see grandma.” I didn’t even hear her.

Victor finally looked up at the nearest security camera and saw the tiny red light.

“Evil bitch! Open the gate! You can’t hide behind those walls forever!”

“I can hide from the likes of you for as long as I want.”

“We’ll come back!” He warned. “And we’ll kill you.”

“You’re welcome to try.”

I turned off the intercom. Victor shouted something else, but I ignored him. His men were already retreating.

The system countdown reached zero and a notification appeared.

[EMERGENCY MISSION COMPLETE.]

[PRIMARY BASE SUCCESSFULLY DEFENDED.]

[REWARD: +100 SURVIVAL POINTS.]

[CURRENT SURVIVAL POINTS: 100.]

[SYSTEM STABILITY RESTORED.]

I closed my eyes, feeling relieved. It was clear that the system wasn’t going to let me become comfortable. The system was saving me from the bad elements of the apocalypse but I had to prove I deserved it.

[NEW MISSION AVAILABLE.]

I frowned. “Already?”

[MISSION: INVESTIGATE ORGANIZED SURVIVOR ACTIVITY IN HAILVILLE DISTRICT.]

[OBJECTIVE: Determine the source of increasing survivor coordination.]

[REWARD: +200 SURVIVAL POINTS.]

I stared at the screen. Hailville District? Why did the system care about survivors there?

I looked through the camera again and saw Victor and his people already disappearing down the road. Maybe Victor wasn’t acting alone.

“System.

“Why is this a mission?”

The system didn’t answer. I was about to ask again when Tom entered the control room.

“I heard the alarms. What happened?”

“I need to go to Hailville.

“What for?”

“i need to find out who’s organizing survivors there.”

“Why?”

Although Tom was a good person, I was not yet ready to reveal some things to him. I couldn’t just go around telling people I had a system. That’s what got me killed in the last apocalypse. Everyone wanted to take advantage of it.

“I can’t tell you right now.”

“So, when are we leaving?”

I narrowed my eyes as I turned to him. “We?”