EC – Chapter 3

The Vault, Day 2

Boom…

Boom…

What the heck?

When I am waking up I heard the sounds of the …zombie, are back again. That’s what woke me up. It’s also the same steady dull thudding against the metal door just like before.

Its just like how I woke up yesterday! But I’m sure a full day had passed. At least, I think it’s the next morning. But I don’t have a clock to be sure. Yet that’s weird because I’d killed off the one already yesterday. Then I’d gone to sleep.

Why is it back again?! Or how many are there outside the concrete vault room?

Last night I couldn’t resist and ate half of the full 12 inch sandwich. There’s 6 inches remaining and it’s in the fridge. I also sealed the wrapping shut as best I could. I drank the bottled water and filled it up to put it back in the fridge before going to sleep again last night.

It’s the morning of Day 2, I feel surer of now as I think about it. And I’m not sure why but this feels different from Earth somehow; almost like something inside me tells me so.

But where are all the people?

I hadn’t left the shelter of this place yet, because it offers shelter and safety. Plus, I don’t know whats going on.

Should I wait for someone to find me?

I have to make a decision soon.

Weird…

How can that thing outside be back again?

The banging continued against the door all over again.

I first washed my face, arms, hands, with cold water splashed on me from the sink. I took a refreshing sip of water from the sink and wash out my mouth. The water feels clean and cool.

I used the inspect command on my weapons…

Inspect is considered the same as identify, so it didn’t give me a new skill from using this ability.

But it does show me that the zombie gore has dissolved from the long wooden shivs that I used yesterday to kill the first zombie. You can’t tell I finished off a zombie with it yesterday.

This time I’ll make sure that it’s really a zombie. I hadn’t gotten a good look at the other one, because of the floor melting it.

What can that mean?

How could the body have just melted? And if that can melt, what else can spawn or be eaten by…whatever this place is? What is this place and why am I here?

Who put me here, is the biggest question. I still don’t have any answers and I’m not even sure how to seek them.

Today I’ll have to find out.

I do a few push ups and sit ups, plus some flexible stretching exercises before going after the zombie that’s trying to crash through the door.

Actually, where did I learn the stretching exercises anyway?

Who am I?

It took careful timing…

“Come here big fella’,” I taunted.

I lured the zombie to the slot. By luring it by taunting it, I can line up its mouth and head with the slot for a perfect strike.

Miss!

Miss!

Dang it…

The first spear like shiv is damaged by the creature biting at it and taking off part of the end.

I have a limited supply of wood, so this is bad.

I equip the second long wooden shiv.

Miss!

Miss!

Miss!

I concentrate.

I feel tired in my arm too, because of having my arm at an awkward angle for a period of time. And I had to have my arm that way so I can whip the shivs up and back before they can get damaged.

Miss!

Miss!

Hit!

Yes! I scored a hit, but it’s not a killing hit yet. I did open up its face a bit though. The narrow slot I’m poking it through helped act as a splash shield too.

I continued a series of hits and dodges for quite a while. It takes a long time but finally I killed the zombie.

Like before I listened to make sure it was dead. If it’s just incapacitated and I go out then that will be bad.

But that’s why I also have the two clubs ready. I have to plan on if a zombie rushes the door when I open it. Someday it will happen, even if it doesn’t happen today.

Then there’s a blue screen popup in the window.

[Taunt skill acquired!]

Hmm, another one, huh?

But if you ask me taunt is worthless.

It’s a skill that exposes you to more danger, when people are already fragile. People underestimate how easy you can die in real life. Why would you want that? Plus, in games or movies a fight goes until you die, but in reality people only go until they have the first hit of damage; then they would run away or try to preserve their own life. Unless they are seriously mentally corrupted, they are programmed by genetics to flee and save their life at that point!

And also Taunt is only useful in a game if you have some miracle recovery skill, which I don’t have. And I don’t think anyone has. And in a survival environment, if you use something like Taunt, then you can’t go out and hunt or fish when you have your body all tore up.

I carefully opened the door, which is really heavy. It’s so heavy that it takes a minute to even pull it back.

There it is.

It hasn’t dissolved yet.

But I did damage the brain.

It’s a zombie.

But what had gotten me curious is if it was a duplicate just like the other one in every way or was it a different zombie.

This one is clearly different from the other.

I still can’t tell what kind of culture he came from. He has some kind of rags hanging on himself that clearly are so worn and torn that you can’t tell them from medieval or modern technological societies. His hair is long and lanky in some places but rotting and bald intermixed in an unhealthy way.

The body continues to dissolve, but even as its doing so I keep an eye out so nothing else can sneak up on me.

[Alertness skill acquired!]

A popup shows me, my current actions and mindset have discovered another skill!

Wow, awesome.

So how did the second zombie appear down here though? Did it wander down somehow? Or…?

Also, this time I checked for loot. I had been so surprised from the previous zombie that I hadn’t bothered to check for loot. This time I was sure to plan ahead to do so.

But as the body is dissolving there’s nothing there.

Also, even if there were to be loot I’d be worried about biological contamination from the zombies.

Nothing, huh? I was disappointed that I couldn’t really use anything from this guy. But I guess that’s not a bad thing.

That sucks…

I don’t think it would be a good idea to leave the door open long. It seems the zombies either come down here from somewhere or …who knows what.

I used the search command outside my concrete room.

Nothing.

Just lava rocks, gravel, and loose shale.

Wait…that’s an idea…

I could probably salvage a homemade flint and steel setup from the lavarocks and scraping them against the metal parts of the pipes or steel parts of things in my room.

I vaguely know that both quartz and flint can be used for flint and steel. But I don’t know for sure which colors go with which. Quartz is usually light colored, but I’m not sure on flint.

I took a sampling of twenty lava rock pieces of all kinds of colors into my room for testing. I will continue this cycle and have a discard pile also until I find them.

I worked all day.

By the time I’d gotten to sample #43 I found a rock that will work to produce sufficient spark when scraped against the steel of the door.

[Firemaking skill acquired!]

I still don’t want to use the rest of the bed frame for kindling though. And until I discover a source of wood, that’s a deal breaker.

What should I do?

I have a half a sandwich left for today…

After that, there’s no food left. And you can’t turn zombie sludge into food, unless you are trying to suicide out.

Maybe I can figure out more skills…

Will meditate work? What happens if I meditate? Will I get anything from that?

I try it.

It’s boring.

I try to focus my concentration and think hard.

The trouble also is that I can’t explore in the pitch black darkness of the cave or whatever the hell it is that I’m in.

But the first time I did it, I fell asleep. Then another hour passed before I woke up. Then the next time I did it, nothing happened. Then same thing again; meditating is just making me take more naps.

Am I doing it wrong?

Maybe I have to think about something very specific to get it to work, was my hypothesis after the fourth try.

Finally …what time is it? I think it’s the second day still, but actually I think that it’s going to be hard to tell. When you are underground its hard to tell how much time is passing. Humans can sleep for a long time when underground.

But that much I’ve confirmed…

I am absolutely underground.

Come to think of it, I have another hypothesis…

These blue popup screens mean there’s a status page right?

Wait, how do I know that?

I still don’t know who I am. But it’s clear I have some sort of education and I’m not stupid.

I tried all kinds of things to get that status page to spawn but it won’t.

“Status!”

“Character page!”

“Um…computer pull up my sheet?”

I ended up saying all kinds of silly things. But nothing works…

So I still have no idea where I am. I don’t know what planet I’m on…wait, which planet was I from? I seem to recall I’m from same place with a name that starts with E.

I groaned while scratching my head.

All I can do is take another nap.

What to do…when I run out of food I’ll be in trouble. I have to make the decision to either leave the area and sacrifice a strong bonafide monster proof shelter, or stay in it when there’s no food.

What should I do?

If only there was some kind of help system.

I thought about that during the day.

The help system is broken, I concluded after thinking about it for the full day. That’s why it feels like I’m in some desolate place. It seems like this was meant to be like a newbie room where someone would leave and walk into town, but that was suddenly broken for an unknown reason!

And this feels too real to be a game.

But why are there air popup screens as if it were an RPG?

I also had cut myself with the shiv’s slivers, so I know I’m not in a video game also.

Now how do I leave this newbie area?