The Rules Continued

Aria woke and stretched in her bed, taking her time to work every muscle. Satisfied, she sat up and looked around. Her bedroom looked like it had last night, but there was no Ramboli. A part of her had hoped he'd come back after his raid to let her know he was okay.

She prepared for the day and was about to grab her weapons when she noticed a change to her new shotgun: a small device affixed to it, blinking with several green lights. Looking closer, she found a note attached:

Courtesy of the Witchdoctors

This will let you fire your shotgun without having to manually load it. Try it out; you're going to love it! - Ramboli

Holy shit, not having to manually reload her shotgun was a godsend. She wondered what Ramboli would want in return for the gift. Maybe he planned to keep giving her things, and when she hit level 10, he'd expect a little something-something as payment. Or maybe she was the one with sex on the brain, and Ramboli felt indifferent to the whole thing. No - if he didn't care, he wouldn't have given her all that information last night.

She gathered her gear and headed down to the ground level. When she walked through the large room to exit the building, nothing had changed; Bella's Boutique stood by itself. She took a minute to window shop before leaving.

On the street, a few zombies wandered about, but none paid her much attention. She walked to Wally's Weapons and entered. After some pleasantries with Wally, who was cleaning the same weapon as last time, she checked the board. Two more quests had appeared:

Rescue Rover - Rescue the lost black lab puppy.

Let's Tinker - Collect 10 crafting materials.

The zombies had a puppy holed up somewhere? Fuckers. That shot straight to the top of her priority list. As for the crafting materials, she could probably gather those while searching for Rover. She left the shop with a wave to Wally and a spring in her step. It was time to put her shotgun to work.

Aria felt pretty badass that morning. She had her bat strapped to her back and her modified shotgun in her hands. The Colt sat in her waistband, and she was ready to take out some zombies. She scanned the street and spotted, at the far end to her left, a sign that read "Vickie's Vet Services." It blinked like a beacon in fog, calling to her. The path to rescuing Rover clearly lay in that direction.

As she walked down the street, she stayed in the middle of the road to avoid getting jumped from an alleyway. She was about a third of the way there when three zombies shambled out of a building. They spotted her and ran in her direction.

"Okay, baby, show me what you got," Aria whispered, holding the shotgun at hip level. She let them come, digging her heels into the road. At about fifteen feet, she pulled the trigger. The slug caught the first zombie in the gut and blew a sizeable hole through it. It staggered but kept coming. She lifted the weapon to her shoulder, sighted in, and fired again.

The zombie's head exploded in a shower of gore. It took one more step and fell to the road. She sighted the next creature and fired. The slug caught it in the shoulder and knocked it off its feet. She turned to the last zombie, now less than ten feet away, and fired again, hitting it square in the chest and knocking it down.

Her body pumped with adrenaline. Having a shotgun beat her Colt by a mile, at least today. She looked at the fallen zombies, pulled out her bat, and finished off the two injured ones with several well-aimed swings. She scanned for more targets, found none close by, and gripped her bat tightly as she continued toward Vickie's.

No more encounters interrupted her walk across the veterinary building's parking lot. Several abandoned vehicles sat scattered about, and she took time to search them. The first held nothing of value, but the second, a pickup truck, hid a small box under a shabby tarp in its bed. She opened it and found her first crafting material - only nine more to go.

Once she finished with the vehicles, she studied the building. It stood two stories tall, free-standing, its walls decorated with murals of pets that looked like they'd been through a sandstorm - faded colors, chunks missing from the plaster. She shouldered the bat and raised her shotgun before circling the building to scout the exits. Another great tip from the Zombieland movies: Rule 22, when in doubt, know your way out.

She had to jump a chain-link fence to reach what must have once been a play area for pets waiting on appointments. Sure enough, a door led into the building, but it was locked. That was the only other exit she found before returning to the front entrance.

"Rover, I'm coming for you," she called, loud enough for anything on the other side of the door to hear.

Aria took a deep breath and pulled the door open, shotgun aimed into the building. It opened into a large reception area. She stepped inside, turning left and right to check for movement. The room held only chairs, a reception counter, and filing cabinets behind it. A smashed TV hung tilted in the corner.

She crept around and searched the space, finding no loot. The only other exit was a door behind the counter. She pulled it open and peered around the corner into a hallway holding two zombies. They hadn't noticed her, so she holstered the shotgun across her back and drew her bat.

She watched for a pattern in their shuffling but found none. When the nearer one turned away, she burst into the hallway and struck it in the back of the head, dropping it in one shot. The other turned toward the sound, but she slammed the bat down on its skull before it could react.

No more zombies waited in the hallway, but six doors lined it. The first two led to exam rooms, yielding a Bag of Dog Treats - 20 Count, which she tucked into a pocket. The next two led to a utility room, where she found 1 Crafting Material, and a small kitchen/break room, where she found Soda - 6 Pack, pocketed for later.

The next room was a storeroom. When she opened the door, she surprised three zombies. She switched to the shotgun, keeping her distance this time instead of letting them close in, and snapped off eight shots in a controlled retreat along the aisle until all three lay motionless. The shelves were nearly bare, but in a small cylindrical container on a top shelf, she found something interesting: a pamphlet labeled Blueprint. She couldn't decipher its contents, so she pocketed it and moved to the last door.

She pushed it open into a stairwell, walked to the handrail, and checked the steps above for movement. Nothing stirred. The metal stairs rang faintly under her boots as she climbed to the second floor. At the door, she paused to listen - the soft shuffle of feet in the hallway beyond, and the faint whine of a puppy. It was only a side quest, but any puppy in danger demanded her attention. She gripped her shotgun and pushed through.

The hallway held more zombies than she expected - at least eight, milling about. One turned and let out an inhuman scream, and the rest rushed her as one. She backed toward the stairwell doorway, giving herself a choke point and an escape route, and opened fire. The shotgun roared in the enclosed space, the auto-loader cycling shells faster than she'd ever managed by hand, and she used the advantage to keep firing in controlled bursts, stepping back a pace each time they closed the distance rather than standing her ground as she had at the clinic.

Bones and rotting flesh flew as the slugs tore through them. She held the choke point until all eight lay still, having spent twenty-two shells. Her ears rang from the noise, but her hearing returned as she surveyed the space ahead. The hallway opened into a large room that looked like an indoor play area for dogs. She moved cautiously forward and stepped inside.

A zombie larger than any she'd faced stood watching her from across the room, outlined in red. Two smaller zombies flanked him. None of them moved toward her; they simply watched.

"I'm just here for the puppy," she called. "Give him to me and I'll leave peacefully."

Aria didn't know why she thought bargaining would work on the undead, but it cost nothing to try. To her surprise, the big zombie answered in a voice that sounded like someone missing parts of his throat.

"Leave now and live," he said.

The creature was unmistakably male, dressed in a grimy white lab coat, though he didn't look much like a Vickie. The other two wore ripped, dirty scrubs. Behind the boss, in a cage, Aria spotted a black lab puppy, his dark coat barely visible in the dim light.

"I guess we'll have to do this the hard way," she said.

She noted a row of empty kennels along the wall to her right - cover, if she needed it. Aria fired at the closest zombie, hitting her square in the chest, then pumped the weapon and fired again, catching her in the neck and knocking her head clean off. The other two closed in, and she weighed the old question: focus the boss while the henchmen attacked, or clear the henchmen first and let the boss close the distance. She chose the second zombie, dropping it after three shots, then immediately sidestepped behind the nearest kennel as the boss barreled toward her.

The kennel bought her a second to breathe. She leaned out and hit him square in the chest with a shotgun blast, then ducked back before he could close the gap. The boss altered course, smashing through the kennel's edge and catching her with a backhand that sent her sprawling. Her vision flashed, and her Health dropped by nearly half. This time, instead of staying down, she rolled to her feet and put distance between them, remembering how staying put at the clinic had nearly killed her. She fired from a crouch - the first shot sailing wide, the second catching his shoulder.

The zombie raised his fists to smash her where she knelt. She dove sideways, not far enough - he caught her and flung her across the room. Her vision flashed more urgently, Health nearly depleted, the edges pulsing red. Panic crept in.

She grabbed a +EpiPen from her pocket and jammed it into her thigh. The red pulsing faded as her health bar climbed past the halfway mark.

This time she didn't wait passively - she circled toward the kennels again, forcing him to turn and giving herself a few extra feet of room. When he closed to ten feet, she remembered the hat resting on her head, its accuracy bonus humming at the edge of her senses, and took careful aim rather than firing blind. The slug caught him exactly in the knee, and he toppled forward - a called shot, not luck. He landed only a few feet away and she swung the shotgun toward his skull, but he knocked it aside so hard she lost her grip.

She reached for her bat, but he was already on her. Instead of throwing her again, his hands closed around her throat, choking her. She pounded on his arms and kicked, but her meager 10 Strength made no difference against him. Her Health began to drop.

She jammed in another +EpiPen, and her Health snapped back to full. The choking continued, her Health ticking away again. Burning through EpiPens wouldn't save her forever - she needed something else, fast. Her hand scrabbled for a weapon and found her Colt.

She yanked the revolver from her waistband, pressed it under his chin, and pulled the trigger. His grip only tightened, so she fired again and again until the chamber ran dry. Her vision blurred, Health flashing red, but at last his hold loosened and he collapsed to the floor.

The room fell quiet except for the puppy's barking. She stuck in one more +EpiPen, climbed to her feet, and walked to the cage holding Rover.

"Hi, buddy," she said. "I've come to set you free."

Rover barked excitedly, tail wagging, waiting for her to open the latch. She pulled it, and he leapt into her arms as her display flashed:

Quest Complete

She saw no immediate XP increase or sign of monetary gain and figured she'd need to return to Wally's to collect. She reloaded the revolver, secured her bat, and retrieved her shotgun before leaving the building. On the short walk back, she encountered several more zombies. Before engaging, she set Rover down, where he barked encouragement, and fired her shotgun until the path was clear.

Rover followed her into Wally's shop as she walked to the quest terminal.

"Hi, Wally," she said.

"What can I help you with today?" Wally asked.

She ignored him for the moment, logging in and clicking COMPLETE on the quest to rescue Rover. Her credits and XP updated, and the screen changed, posing a question:

Would you like to keep Rover as a companion?

She hadn't known that was possible. She clicked ACCEPT, and the terminal asked another question:

Would you like to rename Rover?

Excitement bubbled up. Rover was such a generic name - of course she wanted to change it. She clicked YES, thinking of his dark coat and the way he'd disappeared into the shadows of his cage, and typed in his new name: Midnight. She felt like she was riding high on the success of rescuing him. She wondered if she'd be able to train him, or if he was simply a collector's item. She would try the terminal in her place first, before calling Ramboli - though she badly wanted to call and share her success with him, and to hear him say her name.