EC – Chapter 2

The Vault, Day 1 Afternoon

Boom…

Boom…

A few seconds later…

The steady sound is always at even intervals. It keeps repeating endlessly. The sound is coming from nearby, as if something is hitting a wall with a big weight. That sound makes me so mad and has been annoying the shit out of me for hours.

I’d taken a nap despite the nose, which shows how tired I was…or stressed out.

I opened my eyes. I look up. I had been taking a nap.

It seems like whatever or whoever I am that I really like to sleep.

How do I deal with that critter trying to get in?

Actually, something is really wrong about that.

I mean how can it be banging itself against the door that long for hours on end, just for a chance to eat me? It’s literally never stopped, even while I was quiet taking a nap.

Another problem is that apart from the water source in my little jail house cell, there doesn’t seem to be any other food resources other than the sandwich. The mini-fridge is mostly empty also. And there’s no vegetables or canned goods elsewhere.

I did smash a cricket that had crawled under the door. But I don’t want that to be considered food; that’s worse than starving to eat shit like that.

This is really fucked up.

OK, so that thing messed with my nap. So I’m going to get rid of it. I’m sure whatever it is, it’s not good.

I’m so annoyed and tired of that constant racket!

Fuck…I have to deal with that rabid monster or whatever it is.

Right, but I need a weapon.

I’ve tried out that search command thing endlessly too. I can’t really discover anything else about the room that I haven’t already found out.

I think I used the search and identify skills each about thirty times each just to be sure and because I was bored. I was also experimenting and trying to figure this out, and if a skill could be worked up by using it often; there’s so far no proof of either.

What do I do about a weapon?

It all comes down to that. I’d already tried to find other ‘skills’ and not been able to discover any, other than what I already found with ‘identify’, and ‘search’.

I can’t take apart the roof or the steel girders to make something from them. They are just built too strong. Plus, I don’t know any metal crafting. I can’t take apart the fridge either for fear of damaging that beautiful sandwich.

Yes…must protect…the sandwich…even if it costs me my life!

Well…let’s see…there is a small gap under the door.

I could technically make a huge water pool and then drip water from the sink into the outlet after letting the water pool seep outside the door in the feet of that thing…that creature.

But if I do that I might damage my only electrical source. That would suck. If I do that I could mess up the only source of light and technically be blind as a bat in perfect darkness.

That leaves…the mattress.

Could that work?

I thought about it a minute.

No, that won’t work.

I like to sleep too much to take apart the mattress.

But the bed frame under it is made of wood mostly. I could break the parts between the head and foot stands, that are wood apart into clubs or pokey things to poke at the creature with through the eye slot!

Yes!

That could work!

Freaking yeah!

It took me a long time to break up the old bed frame. I don’t like doing this actually but I have to get rid of that thing before more of its friends come.

An hour later…

Sweet…

Of course this is very basic.

There was a lot of thin but strong wood one by four inch beams in the box springs going all through out it.

I have two makeshift club like projections with stabby ends but that resemble clubs also. (They don’t look so great, so I made a backup.) They aren’t built to be pretty but will do the job. I also have a long wooden shiv. This thing will fit through the slot.

Getting the shiv end right and sharp was hard too because I had to bend and snap the ends in funny angles to do so, without getting a flat dull end.

[Weapon crafting skill acquired!]

[Item crafting skill acquired!]

[Creativity skill acquired!]

Both these two skills appeared in the air screens like before.

Before I fight that beast I tried out a few other things. In fact, I want to see if I can try some things out before I go out.

It’s possible that I could find out all kinds of skills just by trying things out!

After doing pushups and situps I discovered another skill!

[Athletics skill discovered but not yet acquired!]

OK, that was interesting. So, there’s an athletics skill in this hell hole too?

I didn’t discover this skill on the first pushup and sit up though. It showed up after I’d done 50 pushups and 50 sit ups successfully.

I can’t see what the benefits of the [Athletics] skill are yet. I hope there’s something from it though. It’s kind of like I’m seeing that its within reach.

I think there’s probably a jogging skill, but my concrete room is too small for it to trigger. Who knows what other skills are out there.

Well here goes nothing…

“Hey little fucker, come here!” I said.

Enraged the creature tried to get at me again. It goes into a storm of fury trying to bite and scratch at the slot in the door.

Come to think of it, I’m lucky the slot is at eye and head level and not near the feet. Otherwise this strategy would be impossible.

I attacked using the wooden shiv through the window sliding open slot that is barely wide enough to poke sharp things through. And I’d wrapped my hands with my socks and some of the box springs padding to avoid my hands and palms getting cut while using the rough wood.

Miss!

This is hard. I have to get the timing of hitting its eyes right and also not let my weapon get grabbed.

Huh…I didn’t realize it but why is this thing bipedal?

I’m hitting its flesh but it’s bouncing off. To do this just right I’ve trying to aim so that the shiv will go in its eye sockets.

Miss!

Miss!

Miss!

Fuck!

It bit the end of the shiv spear so hard, part of the end snapped off.

OK, I’ll learn from that. I won’t let it grab my shiv spear.

I had to stop and take a break. I ended up making five more long wooden shivs.

I had to listen to the enraged creature on the other side of the slot again for hours, and this time it was louder and messier. Somehow it’s gotten the idea that …wait, does that thing have rabies?

Why can’t it calm down?

In fact, I’m sure of it. Whatever that thing is, it’s infected with some kind of madness or rabies, or some shitty stuff. And it’s gotten some black slime on the slot that I can barely see at the edge, though not much of it has gotten through on my end except for a few drops.

Yet another mysterious peculiarity is that the slime drops disappeared when they dripped down on my side of the lot. That shouldn’t be able to happen in physics. They might dry up or run down the door a bit, but not ‘evaporate’.

Is evaporate even the right word?

What is this place?

Come to think of it, the temperature in this place is so even that it’s bizarre too. It’s neither hot nor cold, but seems to be just right at I’m guessing the temperature of a basement in and old house would be at.

Am I underground?

If I am…that would explain why outside my room is nearly pitch black.

I decided to give it another go with that creature on the other side of the door.

Miss!

Miss!

Hit!

I can’t tell how much damage I did, but I was near the eye socket.

This time I’m trying to avoid the teeth. I can barely make them out if I’m careful.

Wait…those look like human shaped teeth.

What the fuck?!

Hit!

Again I can’t tell how much damage I did.

What am I supposed to do here…

I sighed.

Finally on what seemed like the thirtieth try I stabbed the long wooden shiv into its eye socket. The creature fell over after I’d penetrated its brain.

I was lucky I didn’t lose the shiv this time.

Good.

I listened at the door.

Do I dare open it?

Am I sure its dead?

What if there are more of those things out there?

In theory, any of them could come at any time if there’s one of them.

And what if it’s playing dead?

I waited a long time listening with my ear against the door to make sure it was safe. I wanted to make sure it was really dead.

That’s weird too…

As I studied this out, I can see near the bottom of the door the thing has bled black sludge all over in a pool. Is that is blood? But the pool stops at the edge of my side of the door, almost as if some invisible force is keeping the sludge from seeping into my room.

I think it’s safe… or is it?

Oh fuck…that thing is dissolving!

I didn’t realize it but as I’m peeking under the door through the crack I can see that the pool of black sludge is getting smaller and smaller!

If I don’t hurry then I won’t find out what that thing is!

I slammed the dead bolt open and heaved the door open. But only after being sure that its dead and that there aren’t other monster sounds out there.

It’s like perfect blackness out there. It’s so very dark. The dark makes me squeamish about leaving the door open long. Who knows how many things are out there?!

And its hard to see very far out into the dark with limited visibility.

As I look out, i barely made out the face and head and the chest of that gray and white creature as it’s dissolving into nothingness.

What the hell?

It’s like it’s melting into the cavern floor of a big chamber. I can feel air flow that’s cool also, suggesting a larger chamber out there. But if I stray from the concrete vault room I’m in, I’ll get lost and probably never find my way back if I go into areas where I can’t see the light of the room anymore.

This isn’t a video game?!

How can it melt like in a video game?

Ahead of me some of the light seeps out from my room’s light bulb into close parts of the cave but it’s eerie that I can feel the coldness and emptiness of everything around me. The air is cool, a bit more cool than my concrete room yet strangely enough it’s clear that I’m in some underground cavern system.

Weird…

How can this be?

Are there more of those things out there? How would I know if there were, without them taking me by surprise? And what if some of them are really tough?

Where the fuck am I?! How did I get here?!

I thought there would be like another part of an adjoining building or other structures outside my concrete room.

But there wasn’t.

Instead it was almost like…nothingness.

It was a cavern of uneven flooring of like some kind of old lava rock. There wasn’t even any water.

Wait a minute…the clothes on that guy were so ragged that I didn’t have any clues about what kind of civilization he came from too.

Holy shit…

That guy…

No…

Could it be…?

Was that…

A zombie?!

A real stinky ass zombie!

Where there is one zombie there are sure to be more.

Where the hell am I?!