The Weight of a Bat

Standing behind the safety of the bolted door, Aria caught her breath while the zombies pounded against the steel. Pieces of zombie splatter flew from her hair as she shook her head to clear her thoughts, and she fought to control her gag reflex. Seconds later she turned her back to the door to see what kind of place she was in. The room was dimly lit, but she could see she was in a backroom. Boxes were stacked at various locations without any semblance of rhyme or reason. Normally where there were boxes there was loot. Time for her first score!

Looking around, she quickly found a light switch next to the steel door. The zombies continued to pound away, but her fear faded quickly and she flicked the switch. The glare of several fluorescent lights filled the room, though one near the back stuttered weakly, buzzing like it couldn't decide whether to die. The light provided no additional explanation for the layout of the small 20' x 20' room. Opposite the steel door that exited to the alleyway, was the only other exit to the room; a wooden windowless door. A dark smear ran down its lower panel, old and rust-colored, like something had been dragged away from it. She pulled the Colt from her shorts and seconds later had a full chamber of ammo. Cautiously she made her way to the wooden door and checked the lock. It was secured, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

Now that she knew she had a bit of time, she put the Colt back in her waistband and started searching the boxes. One by one, she tore them open, finding nothing but packing material, box after box of it, like someone had prepared for a shipment that never came. The stuttering light kept its rhythm, and twice she thought she heard something scrape against the alley side of the steel door, though when she froze to listen, there was only silence. Frustrated, she walked to the wooden door and listened.

After several seconds of silence, she unlocked the wooden door and pulled it open.

Slowly she crept down the hallway and seconds later she arrived at the doorway and knelt, listening for threats. She didn't hear anything so she slid to the opposite wall and turned to point her Colt into the doorway. The room was softly lit, and it looked like an office. She stood up and walked into the room.

Once she stepped into the small office, lights came on and she took in her surroundings. A large wooden desk with a tall-backed leather chair dominated the room. Behind the desk was a four-drawer gunmetal gray filing cabinet, a coat rack and an umbrella stand. Several paintings dotted the walls, but nothing dangerous. She walked to the filing cabinet and set her weapon on the top. She tried the first drawer. It slid open smoothly, and emptiness greeted her in that one and the two below it. The bottom drawer stuck, resisting her tug, and deep claw marks scored the metal around its edge as though something had once tried to pry it open from the inside. When she finally wrenched it free, she was excited that it contained something; in fact, there were two somethings. The first was a small circular disk with the image of a needle and thread on it. She flipped it over and the same image greeted her, and as her thumb brushed the engraving, it warmed faintly against her skin, almost like it recognized her touch. The other something was a keycard with the image of a bar of soap. She couldn't imagine what the disk and keycard were for, but she slipped them into one of her pockets and moved to the desk.

Aria pulled the chair back so she could sit. The chair was too big for her, but sitting in it made her feel important. Too bad this wasn't a side quest where she could make some important business decisions, because this would be the spot for it. She pulled the drawers out one after another, finding each one empty. She leaned back in the chair and looked at the room again. The painting directly across from her was of dogs playing poker. She laughed at the image. Aria wasn't sure why people loved that painting, but here it was again.

That was the only thing that drew her interest, so she stood up from the chair and walked over. She grabbed the frame, ready to take it to the desk. When she pulled it off the wall, she saw the safe. The painting dropped from her hands. It was a simple safe door, with a single dial and a handle.

After several minutes of spinning the dial and trying to turn the handle, she gave up. She was going to need more than luck to open the safe to discover what treasures might be hidden inside. A bit frustrated, she pulled the other paintings off the wall, but there was nothing else to discover. Finally, she retrieved her Colt, then swung past the umbrella stand. As she approached, she saw there was something inside. Excitedly, she reached inside and pulled out a white aluminum bat. On the barrel of the bat was written 'Cat X'.

"Cat X - what the hell is that supposed to mean?" she muttered, turning the bat over in her hands, but no answer came, and the weight of it in her grip felt reassuring enough that she decided it didn't matter yet.

She wondered about the Bloodshed skill, and this must be the answer. She was going to have to get her hands dirty.

"Let's see how this thing swings," she whispered.

Happy with the bat added to her small arsenal of weapons, she exited the room and headed for the closed door. When she got there, she found the door didn't have a handle. There was a keycard pad on the wall, and she waved her new trinkets over it hoping they might trigger the mechanism. No luck. That meant she would have to exit the way she came.

Aria walked back to the storeroom and the sound of the zombies still pounding on the door. Adrenaline surged through her body. She weighed the decision of gun or bat over in her head. She wasn't sure which was right. She was a novice in Bloodshed, but also a novice in Accuracy. Back home, most games let her dodge a bad decision; even in Darkest Dungeon, she could power down the console the instant a key character died, then fire it back up and return to the start of the battle, no harm done. There was no telling if the same mercy applied here. She wasn't going to be able to open the door and give herself space to squeeze off several rounds before the zombies were on her. With the bat at least she knew her swings wouldn't sail over their heads; or maybe they would.

No matter how hard she tried to talk herself out of using the bat, she was going to have to channel her inner Frank Thomas. She secured the gun in her waistband and gripped the bat with two hands. She gave the weapon several test swings, feeling the weight in her hands. After a minute of preparation, she was ready. Her heart pounded in her chest while she reached for the bracing bar. Seconds later the bar was free and the door swung open. Sunlight flooded into the room and she jabbed the bat into the face of the first zombie.

The thick end of the barrel smashed into the zombie's face, just below its eye, and she heard bone break. She pulled the bat back and jammed it into the creature's face again, and the end bounced off the zombie's forehead. The two zombies were clawing their way into the room, so she took several steps back into the center of the room. Several empty boxes lay near her feet, and she kicked them towards the approaching monsters.

The one in front tripped on a box and fell, but the second one made it past and closed in on her position. She waited until the last moment, then took a knee and swung the Cat X, slamming the bat into the zombie's knee. The creature wailed louder but fell to the ground. She recovered her swing and spun her body. The bat followed in a large arching motion, and she brought it down on the back of its head. Bone and brain and gore exploded from where the bat crushed its skull. She pulled the bat back and turned in time to see the first zombie gain its footing, almost upon her.

Aria sidestepped it, using the advantage of its smashed eye socket to move so she could swing and hit it in the back. The force of her swing overbalanced the zombie, and it tripped over its buddy. There was no time to wait; she pounced and swung the bat, smashing its skull with several strikes. She continued to swing, trading blows between the two zombies, until she realized they were no longer 'alive'.

Her breathing was heavy from the effort, but she felt good; she felt alive, and the slight increase to her XP bar was a nice bonus. She suffered no cuts or bites or any real damage other than getting sprayed with more zombie brains. Part of her wanted to scream while swinging the bat, but the fear of getting some zombie funk in her mouth took priority. Even the thought of the taste of death brought on the very real threat of barfing.

It didn't take Aria long to run back to the safe house. She didn't see any other zombies on her brief run, but she had tunnel vision just to get back to safety. When she stepped out of the revolving door, something rose from the floor. She was still a bit jumpy from the zombie fight, and she had the bat ready to swing before she realized that she was looking at something that resembled a small podium.

A woman's voice filled the space.

"No weapons in the Safe House."

It was the same voice from before, but it still sounded a bit out of the ordinary. She lowered the Cat X and walked to the podium. When she arrived, she realized that the only thing on the small lectern was a slot similar to a vending machine.

"Please insert the coin in the slot."

Aria looked up for the source of the sound, but she couldn't even see any speakers mounted on the walls or ceiling.

She reached into her pocket and retrieved the disk and keycard. There was no way the keycard was going to fit, but the disk was just the right proportion. She flipped the coin over and looked at the engraving again. She had no idea what it meant, but she excitedly put the edge of the disk into the slot and let gravity pull it down. The podium hummed for several seconds before lowering into the floor. There were no lights or music or any other indication that anything happened. The podium was gone, and she was left standing in emptiness. Fuck.

Feeling a bit defeated, she walked to the elevator. Minutes later she exited the elevator car on the 16th floor and walked down the hallway towards her room. The metal door was closed, but when she touched it with her palm, it slid into the floor to let her in. She crossed the threshold and walked to the terminal. As she approached, it came to life, and she noticed that now there were progress bars by Bloodshed and Accuracy with slight progression.

She smiled at the computer screen, seeing some progress to her skills. Aria wasn't sure how much the bar had to fill before she leveled up, so she was going to have to keep beating zombie ass until things changed. There really should be some kind of manual to what was going on.

Aria took a deep breath and pulled the keycard from her pocket and slid it in the slot next to the terminal. The screen flicked and a new message appeared:

"Bathroom now available"

A bathroom! Hell yeah! She let the bat drop from her hand where it clanked harmlessly on the shiny floor. She turned the corner to her bedroom and saw that there was now a door on the wall next to her bed. She raced to the simple wooden door and turned the handle.

Aria wasn't sure what she was expecting, but the door opened to a small bathroom you would find in a low rent apartment. There were a toilet and a sink and a shower stall. The shower stall made it feel like she'd won the lottery. She walked to the stall and turned on the spigots. After several seconds she was happy with the temperature, and she started to strip.

She wasn't wearing a lot of clothes, so after she set the Colt in the sink, she worked on her boots first. Within a minute she was in the shower, and the warm water surrounded her with a comforting feeling. Aria didn't remember too many games where you took a shower, but she was happy that there was one in her apartment. The water washed the grime of the zombies off her body. There was even a small bottle of generic looking shampoo/conditioner on a small shelf in the stall. That put her in a conundrum. Was that the only product available? Did she have to ration it? In the end she didn't care; she poured a small amount into the palm of her hands and lathered up.

Starting with her hair, she worked the substance through, moving her hands to her face and neck. As the suds flowed down her body she rubbed it over her chest, feeling the size and shape of her breasts. In real life her breasts were larger, but with only a 12 Charisma, she was happy that she had some curves. She washed her stomach and lower until her hands slid between her legs. This might be a game, but she had all the working parts of being human. She wasn't surprised that she was clean shaven; a man must be behind what was happening.

The feeling of clean was rejuvenating. Once she was finished, she turned off the water and opened the glass door. Steam filled the small bathroom, and she fumbled around for a towel. Several seconds later, she realized there was no towel; she was going to have to employ the drip-dry method. Just to be sure, she waited for a bit, hoping one would appear, but nothing happened. She exited the bathroom, intent on using her bedsheet, but when she looked at the bed, she saw a white towel folded neatly by her pillow.

Happily, she grabbed the towel and worked the soft material over her hair and body. When she was done, she walked back into the bathroom and looked at the mirror over the sink. It was still foggy from the steam, so she smeared the towel over the glass to clear the reflection. She was shocked by what she saw.

Aria looked at her long sandy brown hair. Even wet, it had some natural curl to it. Her eyes were light brown, the color of coffee with too much cream. Next, she looked at her body. It looked like she was an athlete of some sort. Her breasts were somewhere between an A and B cup with small light brown nipples centered on each breast. She followed the flat line of her abdomen down to her legs. They were long and strong, like those of someone used to running. Not the strength that comes from long distance running, but from short bursts like soccer. She turned her body, looked over her shoulder, gave her ass a look and smiled. She had a pretty sexy ass. Not that anyone was going to see it, but knowing she had a nice ass gave her walk a swagger.

Happy with her appearance, she wondered about her charisma score. She was pretty fucking sexy, but she only had a 12. Did that mean she was just socially awkward and that drove her score down, because her ass was a 15 minimum? She contemplated the scoring system while picking up her clothes and washing them the best she could in the shower. She was going to have to sit on her bed naked until they dried.

Maybe she could find something to amuse herself while she waited.