Chapter 28
Riding in the truck was exactly how I imagined; I thought it would fall apart at any damned moment. Kimberly and I rode in the back, several children and one of Sami’s cousins tagging along for the ride. Slampa took the front seat, talking to Sami the whole way. We had to take a longer route, around the hill we had climbed down on, and there was a thin, worn path leading from the village.
This wasn’t a traditional paved road, but more like a worn trail that doubled as a road. As we rode along we spotted other broken down vehicles, trash, and debris off the sides. About 10 minutes into the ride, we slowed down, coming to a stop.
“Oh, thats the other truck!” Sami shouted with surprise. It looked like it had veered off the road, falling into a rut on the side. There were grooves in the sandy dirt, looking like they had tried to get it unstuck, and promptly bailed. This other ‘truck’ wasn’t in much better shape than the one we rode in.
“I guess this is our stop then,” Slampa said, getting out. “Thanks for the hospitality Sami.”
Sami nodded, waving, “Good luck my friends. I’m sorry we couldn’t get you closer, but at least you may find your friends soon! May we meet again.”
Sami got out of the truck, and yelled at his cousin in Afghani, waving him toward the other truck. He hopped out, running over, and started pushing the front of it, beginning to ‘rock it’. Sami got into the drivers seat, and suddenly the truck was unstuck, and back on the road.
I couldn’t help but feel like I was missing out on some things in life. It was obvious that TJ nor Bryce knew how to drive. Hell, very few people did anyone, what with all the AI driven vehicles. Luckily coming from Northern Michigan, I knew the whole ‘rock the car out of the snow’ trick, and I was sort of amazed it worked in sand as well.
Slampa and Miller were already headed in the direction the truck faced, moving much faster than before. I realized then our compass was pointing in that direction, and I wondered if this was really an accident, or had this been on purpose?
DIONDRE TO ADMIN CHAT: The AI won’t allow me to pass this on to everyone, so you will have to. Trainee Adams assistant has finally let us know where his coordinates are; he should be approximately a mile in the direction you are heading. He and trainee Middleton have stopped.
I relayed this information to the group, our pace escalating as we were finally nearing our target after nearly half a day wasted. Eventually, we saw a small fire not too far into the treeline. The sun was beginning to set, Slampa passing on and we had about two hours until log out. As we neared the fire, rifles at the ready once again, we could make out two people sitting on the ground near it.
They must have seen us, I guess the white clothing made us pretty obvious against this backdrop. We could see them waving, but we still approached warily.
Slampa raised a first, much like I saw the Sergeant do earlier, and I understood that as a signal to stop. Miller followed suit, and we put our rifles to our shoulders. Slampa holstered his pistol in his belt, and walked gingerly up to the camp.
TJ was poking at the fire, a long stick in his right hand. Bryce was the one waving and as Slampa neared he dropped his hand, a huge smile on his face. “Hey there, no hard feelings we needed the weapons to… OOF!”
Slampa decked Bryce so hard I thought he might have lost a few teeth.
“What… what the hell?! I was just trying to tell you why we did what we did!” He yelled, big soggy tears rolling down his face as he started sobbing.
Slampa glared at TJ, who wasn’t paying much mind to the altercation, “And you, I barely know you, but we saved your life - what the fuck man?”
TJ stopped poking the fire, seeming to come out of whatever daze he was in, looking up at the big man towering over him. “It was his idea.” He said, pointing back at Bryce.
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Bryces eyes got huge, as Slampas gaze returned to him. “Ca… can I at least say my piece before you hit me again? I lost like 10% of my health in that hit!”
“You have thirty seconds,” Slampa growled.
“W… well, you see, there was this…” Bryce began retelling the story, everything we had heard from Mohammad up to this point. However, the added context was added a moment later, “... and you see, we wanted to help protect them, and we were afraid if we told you guys you’d think we were crazy. They have kids, you know? I know they’re not real, but it doesn’t feel right.”
TJ, who was patiently waiting, nodded after this. “I agreed, so when he proposed that, I went along with it. I get this is a warzone, but I’m not killing any civilians, or standing by if I can help it.”
Bryce nodded, “Yeah, so we borrowed a couple guns from the village, and a few grenades they had. That's when you found us. We ambushed those NPC’s. We wanted to help, and so we did what we could.”
Slampa let out a long breath, like he had been holding onto way more breath than his lungs could handle. I realized then he had taken a huge breath to make himself look even larger, more imposing, and it had worked. “Next time… when you know its your team… talk to them first. Got it?”
Bryce, now looking like a little child who had just gotten caught doing something bad, shook his head rapidly up and down. TJ smiled, and went back to poking the fire.
Slampa turned to us, waving us over. I could hear Miller exhale as well, the tension officially out of the air.
As we sat in a circle around that camp fire, I kicked Lozano out of our party, and added both Bryce and TJ. Diondre had explained that when we log in, whomever was in the party when we last logged out would still be there, unless they left or the party leader kicked them out. We had about an hour left before the auto-logout, so I figured we would all be here tomorrow.
The others took turns, explaining what little they had gained from Theodore during their tutorials, and I pitched in what little I could. It seemed like everything being said coincided with what I had been told, and the gaps were filled in between Diondre and my team. After feeling like I had contributed what I could, I decided to take a look at my new skills.
GRAVEROBBER
LEVEL: 1
TYPE: Passive Skill
BENEFITS: Well I’ll be damned… looting dead bodies? The next thing you’ll be doing is digging up corpses, giving some sort of sob story about how this is for your family or some nonsense… Anyways, this common skill is earned by looting your enemies after they are dead. The benefit is, you have a 1% chance per level to find better loot. The more you loot, the more this levels, and the better loot you find. Hope you have a shovel handy…
Despite the terrible name, this… could be useful? A 1% chance isn’t much, but hell, I have no other skills. I went ahead and equipped it. Waiting for the worst, I closed my eyes… and nothing happened. Well, I’ll take it.
STEALTH
LEVEL: 1
TYPE: Active Skill - Toggle
Cost: 1 Stamina/Second
BENEFITS: Creeping around like a thief in the night is a hell of a skill, allowing you to sneak up and… bam! Nighty, night. This is an active skill. This skill will enable Stamina usage in this world. Stamina will not refill while an active skill toggle is on. While active, you move 60% slower, but make 60% less noise. Additionally, if you strike someone in the back while this skill is active, it will score a CRITICAL HIT regardless of where you strike them. Quite handy!
Wow, now that was a skill! Combined with my Reconnaissance skill, I can sneak up and start scouting for my team, feeding them vital information while possibly getting off a first strike. Without a thought, I went ahead and assigned the skill, and… started screaming.
“Oh, god!” I yelled, clutching my stomach. Everyone stopped, staring at me. It felt like a goddamn boulder moving through my intestines. The pain quickly ebbed, ending as quickly as it started, causing me to breathe heavily. “Sorry… equipped… skill…” I said between gasps.
Everyone around me nodded, Slampa spoke up, “Yeah. I have a couple to add, but I wanted to wait until I was alone. Seeing how you just reacted, I think I made the right call.”
I nodded, going back to my skill menu, still recovering from the pain. Last but not least, I saw a flashing plus sign next to the skills. This must signify that skill point I had to spend. I went ahead and hit the plus next to stealth; I figured this would be the most obvious use for it right now. With that, my status looked like this as the auto-logout notice flashed on my HUD, ticking down towards zero;
NAME: JAMES WILSON WATSON III (NO ALIAS ASSIGNED)
CURRENT SQUAD: THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC (ISIS) - RED TEAM
TITLE: NONE ASSIGNED
STRENGTH: 5
CONSTITUTION: 7
DEXTERITY: 7
INTELLIGENCE: 10
WISDOM: 6
BRAVERY: 4
CURRENT SKILLS EQUIPPED:
PASSIVE - RECONNAISSANCE (LEVEL 1), GRAVEROBBER (LEVEL 1)
ACTIVE - STEALTH (LEVEL 2)
BIOGRAPHY: NONE ASSIGNED