Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Antoinette could feel her body filling with a nervous excitement. She was happy that the baddies were higher level, but she wasn’t sure how tough it was going to be so she decided to test out just how tough they were. She started sneaking up on the closest zombie that was padding away.

Her heart was beating fast as she closed the distance to within 10 feet and fired off the first shot, aiming for the back of the knee to disable the zombie. Her blast missed and ricocheted off the pavement.

“Son of a bitch!” Antoinette whispered to herself. “I guess I’m going to need a better hat until I just got better.”

The zombie turned and she leveled her shotgun to chest level. This time the slug hit the zombie and staggered it backwards. She didn’t wait and stepped close and hit it square in the face. The zombie’s head exploded with bones and brains covering the immediate vicinity.

She breathed a sigh of relief and started walking very slow towards the entrance of the casino. As she walked, she looked at the three zombies coming her way and tried to estimate the time it would take for each one to reach her.

One was significantly closer and she moved around a concrete planter. The tree in the planter was dead, but the trunk was still thick enough to provide a stable object to help with her accuracy. She pinned the barrel to the tree and waited, counting down the approach in her head.

Three …, two …, one …, FIRE! The zombie was only three feet away when she pulled the trigger and it hit the zombie in the jaw. Part of the zombie’s face blew off, but it was still on its feet. Antoinette rolled to her left and kicked it in the knee. A sharp crack alerted her that she had hit the spot. The zombie toppled to the ground next to her and she squeezed off another round, hitting it in the side of the head.

Killing the second zombie took longer than she planned, and now they were only several seconds away; closing in from different directions. Thankfully the path to the casino was still open and she took off running. Several seconds passed as she ran at a full sprint until Midnight started barking from where he ran next to her.

Before she could turn to see how close her pursuers were, she felt something pull at her hair. She screamed as she tried to increase her speed, but it was no use. The next pull of her hair was stronger and she knew she wasn’t going to be able to break free. She side-stepped and swung her shotgun like a baseball bat and hit the zombie in the shoulder, sending it past her a step.

She recovered quickly and fired off two rounds, hitting it in the shoulder and head. Three zombies down and one left. Before she could turn her gun on the fourth zombie, she felt something slam into her and it knocked the shotgun from her hand.

The zombie tackled her and then rolled on the pavement until they came to a stop; Antoinette was on her back and the zombie was sitting on her stomach. It started leaning down until she put her hand against its chest to protect herself. It was strong and she needed both hands to keep its snapping jaws from her face or neck.

Midnight was barking frantically only feet away, desperately trying to draw the creature’s attention. The zombie didn’t turn towards Midnight, and started clawing at her chest. The first rake of claws was uncomfortable, but nothing too bad. The second ripped through her shirt and her vision flashed red.

“Fuck this,” she whispered. She turned her hands to grip the tattered jacket the zombie was wearing, and one she had a good grip she pulled her chin to her chest and pulled the creature down hard.

The zombie’s face hit her top hat, which softened the blow to her head, but it still struck hard and her screen flashed a darker red. Her vision blurred and she didn’t see the zombie’s hand punch her in the face. She scrambled for her revolver, but another punch had her vision pulsing red.

Antoinette felt her hand grip the Colt, but the zombie raised both fists above his head for a finishing strike. She pulled with all her strength on the Colt to shoot this zombie that was killing her.

The explosion of the zombie’s head was so sudden she screamed in surprise. Midnight’s barking stopped as the headless corpse collapsed on her. Antoinette dropped the Colt and fumbled for a +EpiPen. Once she had one in her hand, she jammed it into her thigh and the throbbing red started to fade. After another one her vision cleared and she felt right-as-rain.

“Jesus Midnight,” Antoinette breathed. “So much for guns-a-blazing.” She got to her knees and looked around to see who saved her life.

Walking towards her was a tall man wearing gray slacks, a white shirt and gray vest. He was walking with a jet-black cane that matched his shoes. As he walked closer, she could see he was wearing a type of glasses that looked more like something you would find at an optometrist’s office than on a person.

She noticed that the only weapon he wore was what appeared to be a sawed-off shotgun in a holster on his right hip. He didn’t smile as he approached her, and he looked fucking hot. His blonde hair was spiky and it gave his appearance even more of an edge.

Not wanting to be kneeling when he arrived, she got to her feet and tried to smooth any wrinkles from her clothes. He kept coming until he was standing only a foot away. Normally Antoinette would have made a demand he step back, because he was in her personal space, but not this time.

“You have to be more careful,” he said. “What’s your name?”

“Did you make that shot with that?” Antoinette asked. She pointed at his weapon.

“Well, I was trying to hit you,” he said and smiled.

Her smile faded at his admission, but then she thought the situation through.

“You weren’t aiming at me,” she said. “I’m not high enough level for you to attack, so you were trying to save me. Now that we have that clear, what’s in it for you to save me?”

He laughed, never losing his smile.

“I’m Roy,” he said and bowed low. “May I call you Pris?”

“Why does that ring a bell?” Antoinette whispered. She couldn’t put the two names together, but knew she should be able to. “I’m Antoinette.”

“This is for you Antoinette,” Roy said. He pulled something from his pocket and flipped it towards Antoinette. “You are going to need it at some point. If you find another one you can turn it in to materials to help your research.”

She watched it spin in the air until it landed in her cupped hands. It was a disk to enter into the podium in the Safe House. She looked at the image on the disk and saw that it was a microscope.

“How do I know it’s not some sort of trap?” Antoinette asked while she ran her thump over the imprint of the microscope. “You never told me why you saved me either.”

“You found me out,” Roy said. “The disk is actually a venereal disease that when you put it in your podium you contract some random affliction. Hopefully it’s not herpes, that’s the gift that just keeps giving.”

Antoinette thought she should be careful with Roy, but he was so charismatic that she was having trouble not smiling at him. She knew where Roy put any extra attribute points.

“So, spill it, why save me?” Antoinette said. She stood with her arms folded across her body under her breasts.

“You’re pretty cute when you’re mad,” Roy said. “There is nothing in it for me other than being nice to lower-level players as I recruit for my Guild.”

“What the fuck?” Antoinette said louder than she wanted to. “You’re the second good-looking guy that just happened to be at the right place at the right moment for me.”

“Let me guess,” Roy snickered. “Was his name Ravioli?”

Antoinette suddenly felt silly and she could feel her face blushing. She didn’t know if she should admit to Roy that Ravioli had been her source of information so far.

“I can see by your hesitation that it was him. Let me guess,” Roy said. “He gave you a communication device and some mod for one of your weapons, right?”

“Yes, but he didn’t ask for anything in return,” Antoinette said.

“Just be careful around that guy,” Roy said. “Does he know where your Safe House is?”

“He ported in the other day to give me some information,” Antoinette admitted. She felt very gullible.

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“It is okay,” Roy said. “Do you need more friends?”

“Yeah, that would be great!” Antoinette admitted. Even if Ravioli was trouble, he was still a friend, Rebecca was two and Roy would make three.

The two of them entered names into their communicators, and then Roy pulled his weapon and pointed it at Antoinette. She was frozen in place on what to do next. She didn’t know why he would pull his weapon after he just asked her to be friends.

“Duck,” he commanded.

She just barely ducked before Roy’s weapon fired four shots in quick succession. Antoinette turned to see what he was firing at, and a zombie’s headless body stumbled several steps before collapsing on the sidewalk.

“At first I thought …” Antoinette said and giggled nervously.

“Remember, I can’t attack you because you’re not in a PvP zone,” Roy said. “Which reminds me, if you let people into your Safe House, it no longer protects you from PvP.”

“So, it’s just like inviting in a vampire?” Antoinette asked.

“Vampires normally don’t fuck you before they kill you,” Roy said. “I’m sure Ravioli told you about sex, right?”

She didn’t want to admit that it was her that did the asking, so she just nodded in agreement.

“Did he tell you that in order to engage in that kind of activity, you have to be in a PvP zone,” he said and was no longer smiling. “Unless you are in a guild and are somewhere inside the Guild Hall’s walls.”

“What’s the name of your guild?” Antoinette asked.

“When you’re ready, you can contact me and I’ll give you a tour,” he said and winked.

Normally when a guy winked at her it seemed sleazy, but when Roy did it, the action felt different. Antoinette felt like she could trust him, and the wink just seemed seal-the-deal.

“You have yourself a deal Roy,” Antoinette said.

“I’ll make sure you make it to the doors safely, but I can’t follow you in or you won’t get the quest bonuses,” Roy said.

“Thank you, Roy,” she said. She put the disc in her pocket and walked towards the door.

When she reached the entrance, she turned to look over her shoulder and Roy was only twenty feet away. He followed her and she was none the wiser, but she felt safer with him standing so close. She gave him a wink and a wave and turned to enter the Olympus.

As Antoinette entered the casino, she was hit with a myriad of sounds from the numerous machines still running. Chimes, bells and music played from the rows of machines, but there were no zombies in her immediate vicinity.

She was surprised that there weren’t swarms of zombies around with all the racket, but maybe they were in a different part of the casino. She didn’t have to worry about alerting zombies with gunfire, so she readied her shotgun and started searching.

The carpet was a mixture of orange, green, yellow and blood. Even though it looked like the blood had dried and turned a reddish brown, she still avoided stepping in it whenever she could. She walked a short distance and saw a map on the wall showing the layout of the casino.

From what she could tell, the first and second floors were all slot machines. The third floor was for table games, and above that were rooms for guests and high-rollers; now probably all zombie high-rollers.

There was no other indication of which way she should go, so she started to her right. Hopefully the right slot machine would be glowing to give it away, but she wasn’t holding her breath on getting any help.

She kept moving her head looking for any movement as she walked down the first row of machines. While she walked, she was able to pick up some left-behind coins that added to her credit total once in her possession.

Antoinette made it to the end of the row and was about to turn to go back down the next row, when she saw a slot machine titled World War Z. She smiled at the irony of the machine, before noticing that the credit total was blinking. The total was 500, and she knew that 500 credits could go a long way for future upgrades.

Before pressing the button to spin, she checked for zombies. She didn’t see any, so she tapped the max spin button. The machine played the eerie music that starts the movie. After several seconds, the digital reels came to a stop with no result. After numerous more spins, and some small wins, the credit total was down to 325.

Antoinette held her fingers in front of her lips and blew on them, trying to infuse some luck into her next spin. She tapped the button and the reels seemed to move in slow motion until they clicked to stop and images of Subway Sam filled the screen.

“Here comes the number 12 train,” came the message through the speakers of the machine.

Antoinette started to get excited. She must have won the jackpot! She couldn’t wait for the Bella’s Boutique to open and treat herself to a whole new wardrobe and get out of her current outfit.

“One.”

The screen changed to a large number one.

“Two.”

The screen changed to reflect the count and continued to keep pace with Subway Sam. With each passing moment she thought of new ways to spend the credits. The anticipation was building with each count.

“Twelve, trains in the station,” the machine said in the quirky Subway Sam voice. Antoinette held her breath waiting for the lights to begin strobing with loud chiming as it unloaded the credit prize into her pool.

Instead of collecting a treasure trove of credits, the lights in the casino blinked out. All the machines stopped and an eerie silence settled over the vacant casino. Surprisingly the machine she was playing lit up with large images if Gerry.

His voice played through the speakers, “If you can fight, fight. Be prepared for anything. Our war has just begun.”

A chill settled over Antoinette and several long seconds passed before the machine blinked off. The darkness was complete, there weren’t even any EXIT signs lit to show an escape route; so much for safety. After another breath Antoinette could hear shrieks in the distance and she was gripped by a wave of fear.

Midnight started to bark, but he quickly turned his bark to a growl of warning. If only he was big enough to help out in the fight, she was going to need all the help she could get.

“I’m so fucking stupid,” she whispered. “Of course it was a damn trap.”

One second passed and the numerous shrieks got louder. Another second and she could hear them getting nearer while they closed in on her location. She didn’t have anything to light up the area and was going to have to use the flash of the shotgun to try and defend herself.

She thought about calling for help, even though Roy said that she wouldn’t get the loot from completing the quest. Fuck the loot, it wasn’t any good if she was dead. She felt with her hand to help her find a spot where she could put her back to the wall wishing she had a flame thrower.

The flame thrower was really the go-to weapon of choice when fighting anything bad or just trying to make a statement. She thought of Ripley in the Alien franchise, MacReady in the Thing, even Coma-Doof Warrior (the guitar guy) from Mad Max: Fury Road.

Midnight’s growl deepened and she pressed her back against the wall between two slot machines. This would be her last stand. She was duped by the oldest trick in the book, greed. She fired a test shot into the direction of the groans and shrieks and the flash of the shotgun gave her a split-second to see that she had to devise another plan fast.

The mass of pink-outlined zombies was closing in fast and she had to find a way out. She stepped on a stool in front of the machine to her left and then to jumped to the top like a gymnast. Before firing another shot, she could see something glowing on the wall across the room.

She fired off a shot and smiled as she could see the line of machines was going to lead her right to the glowing object. She didn’t even consider that it was another trap and prepared to move. Antoinette was happy that she didn’t have to worry about Midnight’s health and fired one more shot before starting her journey.

The first few steps felt clunky as she fired several times, hitting the closest zombies before jumping to the next machine. After several repetitions, it became more of a dance of death than an ending to her story; this wouldn’t be the last time she was happy to have pumped her dexterity score over charisma.

Her shotgun blasted bone and rotting skin from zombies before she leaped to the next machine, just inches from being pulled to the ground from undead fingers. She could hear Midnight barking in the background, but her movement through the darkened casino was as much of an out-of-body experience as she could imagine.

Firing her shotgun from where she stood on the machines allowed her the ability to hit more monsters in the face and head, as they packed together all trying to pull her down to the floor. It took Antoinette several minutes to cross the room to the glowing object, which looked to be the kind of handle on a generator.

The handle was in the middle of the wall, which she thought was out of place. Whatever the thing did, it was pretty obvious that she had to jump down to the ground and pull the lever. It if turned out to be another trap, then so be it.

“Blam! Blam! Blam!” She fired her shotgun over and over and over as she jumped lithely from machine to machine. Each successive blast showed far fewer zombies pursuing her, and also showed there was about 15’ of open space she would have to cross to pull the lever. She backtracked a bit, drawing the small crowd of zombies with her, firing her shotgun over and over.

“Warning! Low Ammo!”

“Shit!” Antoinette breathed. She didn’t realize how long she had been killing zombies as she leaped from machine to machine with her shotgun blazing.

She turned and fired one more shot to count the machines. She moved as quickly as she could and when her feet touched the last machine, she sprung towards her goal. She landed and rolled through a summersault so when she stood up the lever was within hands reach.

Antoinette reached out and engaged the object, lifting it up and slamming it into place. The lights flashed on, blinding her for several seconds. The momentary lack of sight didn’t prevent her from firing in the direction of the sound of zombies.

When her vision cleared, she saw there were only four left. With her remaining ammo, she took a knee and shot the legs of the shamblers until then were all prone. Her screen showed she only had 6 shots remaining, so she quickly switched to her bat and moved forward to finish the job.

“Midnight, go find any more that are still moving,” Antoinette said.

“Woof!”

She followed her pup around the room, reacting to his barks and growls, killing six more zombies. Once she was satisfied, she was surprised that the only sound remaining were three words said over and over from across the room.

“Wheel … of … Fortune!”

“Come on boy!” She said excitedly. “Let’s go see Vanna.”

She still held her bat tightly as she followed the sound to an old-school Wheel of Fortune slot machine. On the machine was an oversized coin with the image of the Olympus on it. The machine didn’t have a digital screen. Instead, it had three reels. On the side was a giant arm to pull.

“Blow on the coin for luck,” she said, bending down to let Midnight be part of the process. He sniffed the metal and then his tail started to wag excitedly. “Well, that has to be a good sign.”

Antoinette stood up, blew on the coin and dropped it into the large coin slot. She pulled the arm down and the opening theme of the show started to play. The reels spun and spun. After several seconds the first reel stopped, showing a picture of Vanna. In quick succession the second and third reels stopped, each one showing a similar picture of Vanna.

A loud bang sounded and Antoinette thought someone fired a gun, but confetti started raining down from the ceiling and the sound of applause poured from the speakers of numerous slot machines in the casino.

Quest Complete

Instead of coins, a small box slid out of the machine into the tray normally used to hold a jackpot of coins. She picked up her treasure and tried to open the box, but she couldn’t find a latch or hinge or any visible way to open it. A bit frustrated, she put it in a pocket.

“Let’s get out of here,” Antoinette bent down to scratch Midnight behind the ears. “We will have to find a way how to open this later, but this place gives me the creeps.”