Pay the Piper

Aria woke up and saw that her health bar was full. She got dressed and loaded the Colt. She filled her pockets with extra ammo and stuffed the barrel of the revolver down the front of her shorts. She moved to the next room and checked the terminal screen for any update, but there was none. Lastly, she picked up the aluminum bat and headed out of her small apartment to the next room. She was still level 1, but she was going to do something about that if it killed her.

She moved to the thick exit door and pressed her hand to the metal. Moments later it slid to the floor and she exited the room. She took the elevator to the ground floor; each second her resolve grew to make today's venture outside the Safe House something that would improve her life.

The elevator doors opened and she walked out. Smiling, she held the knob of her bat's handle between two fingers and let the end of the barrel drag on the ground. In movies, she loved the foreshadowing that someone was going to get their ass beat. No one stood around to witness her foreshadowing but her, but that was enough.

The metal scraped over the concrete, creating a soft screeching sound that hyped her up with every step. She was so focused on the effect that she almost missed the small shop that had popped up.

Aria let the bat drop where it clattered to a stop while she ran to the small building. As she approached, she could see the sides were made of brick, but the front was glass. She ran until she could see what was inside and her face lit up when she saw it was a clothing store. She made the connection to the coin she'd found and the emblem printed on it. Above the entrance to the shop was a sign that read:

Bella's Boutique

She pulled on the door and an alarm sounded.

You must be level 5 to access Bella's Boutique

She shook her head in disbelief and pulled on the door again. The result was the same, with the overhead voice's impartial tone informing her of her deficiencies once again.

"Fuck you," she breathed. Taking a step back, she looked through the glass to see what might be inside the store. Her skin tingled as she gazed on items that looked like they were right out of the 19th century. Coats, dresses, shirts, hats, boots, and lingerie filled the racks. She wanted to go inside and try on some new clothes, but she was four levels away, which only fueled her anger. She walked back to retrieve the bat and returned to the shop. She took a swing and her bat struck the glass with an echoing sound. All that happened was her arms went numb and her health bar lowered slightly.

What good was having a new shop when she couldn't even do any fucking shopping? She thought she should at least be able to enter the shop and try on the clothes, then withhold purchase until she reached level 5. Maybe there would be a suggestion box for the game designers where she could drop a note. Frustrated, she rested her bat on her shoulder and walked toward the revolving door. Let zombies be wary - death was coming.

The thought made her laugh, because zombies were already dead. She wasn't going to be able to use a catchphrase about death on the horizon, or any similar motivational quote. She was just going to have to beat undead ass until things opened up. First off, she needed a better weapon.

Aria exited the Safe House through the revolving doors with the bat in her hands. The handle rested in one hand while she tapped the barrel against the palm of the other. She scanned the area and saw the first target. Not too far away, a zombie shuffled along. She gripped the bat with both hands and started creeping forward. With each step she picked up speed, quickly closing in on the target. Just feet before reaching the zombie, she swung her arms back, planted her lead foot, and swung hard. The sound should have been that of metal striking rotting flesh, but it was more of a soft gong.

It didn't really matter what the sound was - the force of her swing dislodged the head from the body and both fell to the ground. Her XP bar filled slightly and she smiled at her success while scanning the area for another target. The area was fairly barren of zombies, but she spotted three more close by. She crept up on each one, and several swings later all three were dunzo, her XP bar updating accordingly. After she disposed of the fourth zombie, her skin started to tingle, sharpening her reflexes and quickening her movements.

She stood waiting, and a zombie walked around the corner of the building. She raced over to engage the creature. Two swings later it was over and her XP climbed nicely. The voice from overhead announced:

Enraged

That was more like it, she thought. Aria started jogging and soon found more zombies in an alleyway. She used her heightened state to whack three more. The next alleyway held two more, and she quickly ended their existence. The overhead voice announced:

Bloodlust

She checked the condition of her bat and noticed that her skin now bore a red outline, which she attributed to Bloodlust. Her bat looked like it was in good order, which was a relief. Zombie fragments covered part of the barrel, but she cleaned it on the worn sweatshirt of one of the dead zombies at her feet. She wondered if there was something more than Bloodlust. Over the next several minutes, she dispatched twelve more zombies, but the overhead voice never spoke again. Her XP bar sat over two-thirds full.

She ran around her area of the city, keeping to the sidewalks and alleyways, destroying every zombie she encountered. When she finished, she stopped in the middle of the street and pulled out her Colt. She fired several shots in the air, hoping the noise would attract more. A minute passed and nothing happened, then another minute with the same result. She was going to have to venture into some buildings.

Aria spun in a slow circle, looking at the shop signs. One read:

Wally's Weapons

She laughed, kicking herself for not paying more attention to her environment. Of course she needed to stop and see if Wally was open for business. She rested her bat on her shoulder and walked to the shop. She pulled on the door and it opened; apparently Wally wanted a new customer. When she stepped inside, she was surprised to see a man behind the counter, standing behind the safety of protective glass. She also noticed that the red glow outlining her skin had vanished.

"Hello and welcome to Wally's Weapons. How can I help?" he asked.

Wally appeared older than dirt. He stood no more than 5'6" tall and looked to weigh a hundred pounds. His long gray hair was pulled back in a ponytail. The only memorable thing about him was his eyes - blue as a morning sky - and she had the feeling that somehow he was looking through her. He wore blue overalls with no shirt, his chest sprinkled with gray hair poking out from behind the straps.

"Hi Wally," she began. "I'm looking for a new weapon."

"Step over here and log in to the system," he said, pointing at a computer screen with a connected hand scanner.

Aria walked over and set her bat on the counter. She placed her hand on the scanner. Seconds later the screen lit up, offering several choices: Buy, Sell, or Modify. She clicked Sell, and images of her bat and pistol appeared, each with a value of $0.

"You can't sell starter weapons," Wally informed her.

She gave him a dirty look and clicked Modify. A message popped up: "Insufficient level to modify weapons."

Fuck this, she thought. Coming in here was supposed to be a game changer, but it was just a kick in the ass about her sad state. Finally, she clicked Buy, and two weapons appeared on screen. The first was a sniper rifle that looked like a single-bolt type from the World Wars - $100. The other was a single-barrel shotgun - $250.

"Two hundred and fifty bucks for the shotgun?" she asked. "That seems like highway robbery."

"I have a way for you to make some money," Wally said.

"I think you have me confused on what type of girl I am," she answered. "You need to buy me a drink first."

Wally didn't appear impressed with her attempt at humor.

"Look at the board over there and you'll find things I need done," he said, pointing to a digital notice board on the far wall.

She walked over and read the board: Current Quests. Under the heading were two listings, gray in color:

Clear the clinic - Eradicate the clinic from zombies

Kill 20 level 2-3 zombies

Those both looked like a piece of cake. She was going to have her new shotgun in no time.

She grabbed her bat and left the shop, scanning her surroundings for a clue. She didn't have a map of the area, but when she looked down the street to her right, she could see something glowing in the distance. Either there was something radioactive in that direction or it was the clinic. She started walking toward the glow and soon knew she was heading the right way.

Once she reached the entrance to the clinic, she took time to make sure the pistol was loaded. Satisfied, she put it back down the front of her shorts and reached for the door. It was time to clear the clinic.

This was going to be like a walk in the park, Aria thought. She'd just dispatched a dozen zombies without breaking a sweat. She limbered up like a batter in the on-deck circle, pointed at an imaginary scoreboard, and whispered, "It's time to pay the piper." She opened the glass door and walked in.

The inside looked like she expected it would. Chairs lay overturned and files spread haphazardly over the floor. She wasn't sure what zombies would want with files, but office buildings were always fucked up like that. It was as if someone had ransacked the place and then called in the bad guys to populate the area and keep intruders away. In this case, zombies were the guardians of the non-information.

The receptionist desk sat empty. A single set of double doors led from the room into a long hallway. She crept around to check behind the desk, making sure no zombie worker hid there eating the brains of the receptionist; no one was home. She searched the desk drawers but found nothing - not even a ball-point pen she could use to disable a zombie in true Jason Bourne fashion.

She walked to the double doors and looked through the windows. Broken fluorescent light fixtures hung from the ceiling at random intervals. Some lights were on, others flickered, and others stayed dark. Several zombies shuffled near the entrance to the hall, aimless in their wandering, while at the far end something else waited. It had a softly glowing red outline framing its bulk, motionless while the others drifted. A knot of unease tightened in her stomach. Something about the stillness of that shape told her this was different from anything she'd faced so far. She thought about what the color could mean. Did it mean the creature was radioactive? No, games didn't outline radioactive baddies in red. Red meant trouble. Maybe it was a mini-boss.

Could there really be a boss-type zombie this early? Part of her wanted to turn around, find an easier quest, and come back once she'd leveled up. But that thought embarrassed her almost as soon as it formed - she'd just mowed down over a dozen zombies without a scratch. Surely she could handle one more, mini-boss or not. She peeked through the window again and counted the aimless zombies. Only four. That wasn't enough to enrage her, let alone trigger bloodlust. The best course of action would be to clear the stragglers first, then deal with whatever waited at the end of the hall.

She squeezed the grip of the bat tightly and pushed her hip into the door. It swung inward without making a sound. When there was enough room, she slipped through. The flickering lights made it appear like there was movement, and sure enough, the four zombies nearest the door noticed her and began to shuffle forward. She backed toward the exam rooms lining the hallway, using the doorways to funnel them one at a time, and made quick work of each. Her bat found its rhythm, and the bodies piled near the threshold of the first room.

With the stragglers cleared, she checked the exam rooms one by one, hugging the wall as she peered around each corner. No more zombies waited inside. She searched the cabinets and drawers and found an EpiPen-looking device with a red plus on it. She tucked it into one of her pockets and moved to the next room. Of the eight exam rooms in the hallway, she found four more healing EpiPen devices and one marked with an E, all of which went into her pockets.

At the end of the hall, the red-outlined shape still hadn't moved. She could sneak past it toward a door marked EXIT at the far end, or she could finish what she'd started and collect her bounty. She thought of the shotgun waiting back at Wally's and tightened her grip on the bat. There would be no sneaking past this one.

The lights flickered for two steps and then went out entirely. Panic rushed through her body as her vision fought to adjust to the limited light coming through the windows behind her. A second later, a backup light at the far end of the hallway flickered on, and she screamed. The red-outlined zombie was running straight at her, its bulk filling the hallway more than it should.

She pulled the pistol. The creature raised its arms to shield its face. She fired until the chambers clicked empty. The bullets barely slowed it. She stood frozen. The large zombie slammed into her and her health bar flashed repeatedly. It continued driving her backward, through the double doors and into the lobby.

Pain flooded through her body and her vision wavered. She found it difficult to breathe. Once in the lobby, the creature lifted her up and threw her against the wall behind the desk like she was a rag doll. She slammed into the wall and parts of it broke away. Aria felt her body slide down into a heap on the floor. Her health bar flashed again, less than a quarter full. She saw the boss walking confidently toward her and raised her gun hand to shoot, but her gun wasn't there. She must have dropped it when the monster slammed into her, or when she crashed into the wall.

Her body ached, but she still held the bat in her hand. She tried to stand, but her legs felt like jelly. If she could barely stand, she didn't know how she was going to defend against the oncoming zombie. This was how she was going to die; she knew it. She wondered if there was any type of do-over. Would she be able to try again, more carefully this time? She managed to stand just as the creature closed to within feet of her. She raised the bat to attack as the zombie pulled back its fist to throw a punch. She knew she had only seconds until her face was crushed and the game ended. She tried to swing, but her arms wouldn't cooperate. She felt helpless and alone, and a tear slid down her cheek. She closed her eyes and waited for death.