Dumpster Diving

Aria stepped outside with the Colt pointing at the ground in front of her, her trigger finger out straight to make sure she didn't discharge her weapon by accident. She patted her pocket and did a quick count: twelve rounds left, two spare reloads beyond what sat in the cylinder now. She had to make them count until she found more.

Happy that she wasn't fighting for her life, she kept close to the wall of the Safe House and started moving to her left. She reached the corner of the building without seeing anyone or anything moving. Where the fuck was everyone? Maybe this was a beginner zone, where you got funneled to a certain point, making some small achievements on the way. If that was the case, she was all aboard.

Carefully she peered around the corner, but it just led to a dead-end alley; jackpot. If she knew anything, alleys were always the spot to find some loot. She peered down, but all she could see was a couple of dumpsters and a door to the next building over. She slinked down the alley, keeping to the wall opposite the dumpsters. If something jumped out, she wanted to make sure that she had time to take aim and squeeze the trigger until the shells were spent.

The closer she crept, the more excited she became. She had done enough fucking around, time to start finding something to improve her situation. She put her hand on one of the black plastic lids of the dumpsters and threw it open. It crashed against the brick of the building, and then fell back down. In the brief second the lid was up she peered inside, but didn't see anything at all. There was the rank, sweet smell of rotten garbage, but nothing else. Cautiously she opened the lid again. She looked and looked, but the dumpster was empty. Disappointed, she let the cover slam back down, and that's when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye.

A shambling figure walked to stand at the opening to the alley. From where she stood, he looked like a beggar. His clothes appeared dirty and he was only wearing one boot. He must be old, she thought, because his stance was a bit stooped. A black wide-brimmed hat hid his face in shadow. Maybe he was an NPC that was going to give her a quest?

"Hello," she called softly, waving her hand in the air in the well-accepted signal of friendship.

The figure turned his head sharply, almost mechanically. The way he moved froze her hand mid-wave. Something wasn't right. He turned his body to face her, and started to run.

Another second passed and she realized that the beggar's purpose was not to offer her a quest, but to kill her. There was no way she was going to die only minutes out of the protection of the Safe House. Aria raised the Colt with two hands to steady her aim and squeezed. The first shot whistled over the beggar's shoulder, and he kept running like he didn't care someone was firing a gun at him.

She fired again and missed again.

Fuck! Ten rounds left.

The closer he came, the easier it should be to hit him, but also the easier it would be for him to grab her. She was sure she would lose any kind of hand-to-hand combat with her measly 10 Strength. She cursed for not bringing the knife with her.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Aria fired three more shots and hit him in the stomach with the first, his shoulder with the second, and grazed his hat with the third. The hits slowed him but didn't stop his determination. Seven rounds gone; one left in the cylinder. She exhaled, steadied her aim, and pulled the trigger. For a split second everything slowed - she watched the bullet leave the barrel, close the gap, and sail right over the beggar's head. Like she was in the Matrix, except the Matrix didn't miss.

"What the fuck!" she screamed in frustration.

She could feel the sweat of panic cover her body. He was ten feet away. No time to reload - not with him this close, not with only two spare loads left to last her who-knew-how-long. There was only one place to hide: she lifted the lid of the dumpster and dove in. Her body hit the hard bottom and her legs splashed into a shallow pool of slime. Aria turned and moved to the corner furthest away from him. She quickly moved to a squatting position to keep as much smelly liquid from seeping into her clothes.

Seconds later something slammed into the dumpster and her ears rang from the echoing impact. There wasn't time to relax or get her bearings. The creature started pounding on the cover. With each strike of the creature's fists, she could see a tiny crack starting to form. Aria reached into her pocket for one of her two remaining reloads and used the light from the emerging crack to load her weapon - six rounds, with one reload left after this.

Initially she thought about firing through the metal of the dumpster, but thoughts of Han Solo in the garbage compactor on the Death Star flashed through her mind. That's all she needed, to get killed by ricocheting bullets before she even found one piece of treasure. She might be a novice in this game, but she wasn't an idiot; she did have an intelligence score of 17.

The lid of the dumpster was quickly losing the fight with the beggar. Now was her chance to take advantage of his distraction. She got to her feet but stayed hunched over to avoid alerting him to her position. She started the countdown in her head, working to build her courage.

Five.

The crack in the plastic lid was becoming substantial.

Four.

A two-fisted strike from the beggar split the lid in half.

She stood up and pushed half of the lid open with her left hand; her right hand had the Colt aimed directly at the beggar. She pulled the trigger, and the first bullet hit the beggar in the neck. She pulled the trigger over and over again. Bullet after bullet struck the beggar in the face, and being this close to him, she knew he wasn't any beggar - his face looked like it was rotting off his skull. Flaps of skin moved and chunks of bone flew as each bullet found its home. Her vision flashed, and she noticed her player info on a mental overlay as her XP bar increased a fraction. The cylinder clicked empty. Six shots, six gone - only one reload left to her name.

The beggar's body crumpled and hit the asphalt with a wet, boneless thud. For a moment, Aria just stood there, the Colt still raised, smoke curling from the barrel. Her hands wouldn't stop shaking. The stench hit her then - gunpowder tangled with something worse, something sweetly rotten that clung to the back of her throat. She looked at what was left of his face and her stomach lurched; she bent forward, gagging, but nothing came up. Oh god. She had killed someone. Something. A person who used to walk and talk and maybe had a family, reduced to scraps of bone and flesh on the pavement because she'd pulled a trigger six times. Her breath came in ragged gasps, and for a few heartbeats the game, the XP, the Safe House, none of it mattered - only the shuddering fact of what lay in front of her.

Now that she could see her pursuer, she knew what he was, and he wasn't a he at all. He might have been a he when he was alive, but zombies were more dead than alive. This wasn't a zombie from some Dungeons and Dragons campaign; this was a zombie like in World War Z. That probably meant other zombies might be drawn to the sound of her gun. A guttural moan from the mouth of the alley snapped her back. She jumped out of the dumpster and looked toward the entrance of the alleyway. Sure-as-shit, she could see two humanoid things moving in her direction.

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

She knew there was only one way she might escape: the door in the alleyway. She turned and ran until she slid to a stop in front of the gray metal door. There was a handle with a keyhole. She tried to turn the handle but wasn't surprised when it didn't budge.

The sounds of something inhuman drew her attention to the two approaching zombies. She fumbled in her pocket for her last reload and loaded the Colt - six rounds, and nothing left after these. While she loaded the pistol, she weighed whether to shoot the lock or the zombies. With her pathetic accuracy from the first encounter, she opted for steel against steel. She lined up the Colt and pulled the trigger. The bullet ripped into the keyhole but didn't do enough damage to free the lock.

It took two more shots before she was able to turn the handle - three rounds left, and the zombies closing. She took a quick glance; they were near, but not close enough that she needed to engage them right now. She entered the building and pulled the door shut. The inside of the doorway was dimly lit from an EXIT sign, but there was enough light to see a bracing bar for the door. She shoved the barrel of the gun down the front of her shorts and felt the burn of the hot barrel. Her vision flashed red and her health bar took a slight decrease. Ignoring the pain, she lodged the bar into place. Once secure, she took two steps back and waited.

Seconds later she was rewarded with the frustrated banging of the zombies against the door. She was safe, at least for the immediate future - with three bullets, and no more reloads, to show for it.