After shaking off the sudden narcissistic thoughts that had sprung up in my dull head, I gazed back at the woman, looking her up and down. Besides several nasty-looking cuts on her arms and legs, I noticed that overall the young woman held no life-threatening wounds and inwardly sighed in relief. After roving the young woman's tattered clothed frame, I was surprised that when I gazed back into her face; I saw that the previous look of curiosity on the young woman's face had now become a heavy, somewhat guarded frown.
'Why is she suddenly shielding her chest like that? Does she think I'm going to attack her?' The odd defensive posture of the woman surprised me, and I couldn't quite say what I had done to cause it. I had just been standing in silence, not really moving at all after they approached. However, looking down at my current blood-covered and grimy state, I suppose it's not too surprising if the woman was somewhat guarded against me. I looked like some crazy sewer dweller at the moment, and after sniffing myself, I realized with a wince that I smelt like one too.
Looking back at the now-guarded duo, I thought it best to introduce myself and at least thank them for bringing my previously unconscious body to a safe place.
"Umm... Hi. I'm... Grubbs." Accompanied by an awkward half wave, my weak introduction echoing in the now silent underground parking lot hung by itself for several long, long seconds. Looking at the brother and sister pair, who were both staring at me with what I could only guess was incredulity now, I couldn't help but rub the back of my head after not hearing anything in reply and decided to just fill the silence.
"Ah, yeah, so, I wanted to say thank you. To both of you. For saving me earlier, I mean. Considering I was unconscious for the last couple of hours, I couldn't imagine I would have lasted long out there. So, yeah, thanks." Even though I received nothing in reply after my rambling thanks, the slight loosening of the brother and sister pairs' shoulders spoke to the fact that I was at least making a little headway.
"So, like I said, my name's Grubbs. Well, my full name is Grubbitish, but I have never liked that name, sounds too close to one of those noble names from Sector 1, and I ain't anything close to that. So, just Grubbs for me, please and thank you. What about you two?" Finally, after several seconds of silence hung in the air, one of the two put my mouth out of its misery and spoke up. Unsurprisingly, it was the boy, who I thought must be just before his teens in age, that spoke first.
Releasing his almost white-knuckled grip on his sister's torn-up clothes, the boy took a small step towards me. Puffing his chest up and straightening his back, the boy adopted what I thought he imagined being a military-style posture and with a fist over his heart he spoke, "My name's Sid Dwayne and this is my sister Marla. On behalf of the Dwayne family, I would like to express our heartfelt gratitude for saving my sister." After the weirdly adult thank you from the very serious-looking child before me, it was my turn to stare in puzzled silence for a few seconds.
I couldn't help myself; the whole scene was just odd. For a moment, I thought the boy might have been taking the piss out of me; however, staring into the boy's eyes; I saw nothing but sincerity. With the traditional fist over heart salute, something I had seen my father and friends do many a time, I couldn't help but replicate the boy's action. With a fist over my heart as well, I bowed my head slightly in acknowledgement. I noticed the boy's serious eyes take on a gleam of pure happiness after receiving my salute, which also put a small smile on my face. The young woman's first words since I had spoken cut with a knife the serious, almost solemn atmosphere Sid and I had created in that moment as we saluted each other.
"Alright, stand down, you two. God, this isn't Victory Square, it's a parking lot filled with mashed-up zombies." Marla's words and slight exasperated eye roll at her brother made me feel a little awkward. Doing my best to make it look natural, I raised my fist over my heart and scratched my left shoulder before putting my arms to the sides. Seeing Sid do the exact same motion with a sheepish look eased my awkwardness somewhat as we both looked at the now arm-folded young woman.
The previous overly cautious young woman had apparently eased somewhat after watching the display between Sid and me and was not looking directly at me. Her eyes, which had started inspecting my form much like I had to hers, didn't make it far before they landed on my neck. Her face, which had just started calming, took on a worried wide-eyed face as she exclaimed, "Oh crap. You're injured!"
Almost as if her words had brought the dormant wound to the surface, my neck and shoulder suddenly felt like they were on fire. Instead of relying to Marla, I raised my hand and touched the area where the zombie had bitten off a chunk of flesh and couldn't help but suck in a breath of air as the pain skyrocketed. Looking at my hand come away with vibrant red on it, I knew that there was still fresh blood leaking out of the wound, and I subconsciously called up my health status.
Name:
Grubbitish Reinbach
Level:
0
Experience to Next Level:
10/200
Race:
Human
Life Tier:
1
Class:
None
Profession:
Leatherworker – LVL 1
Health:
107/145 - Bleeding -2
Stamina:
150/150
Mana:
125/125
Armor Value:
100/100
"What the?" Upon seeing my current total health points, I let out an exclamation in surprise, forgetting for a moment that I wasn't alone. "What do you mean? Did you not realise you were missing a golf ball-size piece of meat out of your neck?" Marla's sardonic voice rang out questioningly. Looking away from my status screen towards Marla, who was now looking at me like I was a slow-witted fool, I raised an eyebrow at her and asked, "What?" Marla in reply just looked at me and then at my neck and then back again. Catching on, I slapped my forehead and said, "I wasn't commenting on my wound, I was just surprised by something on my status screen. That's all."
"Status screen? You have access to your status screen?" This time it was Sid who spoke up first. Looking down at the boy, I couldn't help but give him a puzzled look and reply, "Well, yeah, my status screen, I suppose it's technically called a profile screen here, but potato, potatoe."
As if receiving some incredible secret, Sid's eyes sparkled as he said out loud, Profile. Marla gave her brother an odd look, especially as he now looked to be staring off into space. She didn't appear to bother with what Sid was doing and instead looked back at me and said with a firm tone, "I don't know what's so exciting about this so-called status thing but your wound is still bleeding and I'm afraid if you lose any more you might pass out. I'm certainly not carrying your dead weight around again either. My back still feels sore from luging your body up into the trunk."
Hearing that this petite young woman and apparently had her hands all over my unconscious form didn't excite me but made me very self-conscious. Just the thought of her looking at my open, pudgy stomach caused my face to feel as if it were on fire. Marla either didn't notice my reaction or didn't care and said bluntly, "Well, come with me Bugs, I'll make a patch for your neck."
Looking up, I saw the woman heading over to the side of the SUV and retrieving a very familiar-looking backpack before opening and rummaging inside it. Following after the woman, I muttered somewhat half-heartedly, "It's Grubbs, not Bugs."
Marla retrieved a piece of zombie skin out of what I now knew to be my backpack and looked back at me with a thin-lipped face. "What was that?" Looking at her now from only a few feet away, my previously semi-courageous voice lost all its heart. 'She's gorgeous!' Now that I was closer, I could see that her almond eyes had speckles of green in them that threatened to suck me in the longer I stared into them. Not including the light dusting of freckles on either side of her nose, but her heart-shaped face made me feel slightly nervous now that we were so close.
'Come on, you twat. You're not a teenager anymore, get it together.' After giving myself a verbal thrashing, I held out my hand to the young woman, expecting her to pass over the zombie skin to cover the wound on my neck. To my surprise, however, Marla said after seeing my hand, "Actually, it's better if I do it." Not understanding why she would possibly want to do it herself, I just chalked it up to her being a nice person at heart and insisted, "No, it's fine. The wound's not out of reach, so I can do it myself." Once again, however, the woman refused, which made me somewhat on guard. Like what if she was using the chance of applying a bandage to get close to me and then plunging a knife in my neck? My body started shivering, and it wasn't because I was bare-chested and cold.
"Just trust me; it's better if I do it for you. It's not like I'm going to take the chance to take another chunk out of your neck or anything. I'm not that rude. Ha," Marla said with a slight smile, as if she was trying to dispel my now-clear weary visage. However, the words and smile only made my hackles rise even more and I took a step back. "Don't be ridiculous now. What could I possibly do to you? You beat monsters to death with your bare hands. I'm just a defenceless little woman. Perfectly harmless. So stop moving and let me have at it."
The words coming from the now approaching Marla almost made my heart leap out of its chest. It was as if she were truly trying to lull me into a false sense of security now, and she would soon be digging my eyes out with her fingernails or something. With me backing away and a smiling Marla walking, we soon arrived in front of Sid and broke the boy out of his invisible reading. With a start, he gave each of us a puzzled look before asking, "Marla, what are you doing?"
Looking down at her brother, the woman's eyes sparkled expectantly, as if she had found an ally, and said in a very commanding tone, "Sid! Tell this moron here that I'm a good person and am not trying to harm him. I just want to get at that wound of his, he just needs to kneel before me and everything will be alright. Tell him!" Sid looked at his sister and then back at me, who was still trying to create distance between myself and what I could now see was a very spirited and forceful young woman.
Sid gave a much older sibling style head shake and eye roll at his sister's behavior and creepy smiling pose. He looked at me and said with a helpless smile, "Sorry about Marla. Sometimes she just doesn't think about how she says things. The reason she wants to put the bandage on herself is that she has a talent that increases healing efficiency if applied by her own hands."
Marla was now glaring at her brother and before she could open her mouth and obviously give her brother spray for saying she doesn't think before she talks, I interrupted her with a shaky smile of my own, "Sorry Marla, I didn't know it had something to do with a talent, that sounds very useful. I'm sure you must have done something quite amazing to receive a talent to do with healing."
Hearing my words, the glaring Marla turned back to me, and her pale cheeks took on a slight red hue as she replied while looking away and waving the zombie skin with an air of nonchalance, "Oh, it's nothing special. Just luck. I don't even understand any of this stuff, anyway." Seeing her bashful side made my previously worrying heartbeat again, once again for another reason entirely. Scratching the back of my head, I walked back to Marla and knelt in front of her so the overfoot smaller girl could easily reach my wound.
Either too embarrassed or finally reaching her goal, Marla didn't say anything more and applied the zombie skin over my wound with gentle hands. At the first moment Marla put the skin over the wound and then applied pressure, I had to clench my hands, as my whole body tensed over the fiery pain. However, the pain was soon receding like the tide, and within seconds a slightly numbing and cooling effect was applied over the area, making me breathe out in relief. "Ah, that's amazing. It even alleviated the pain. Very good talent indeed."
Marla, seeing my now relaxed expression, and that the patch was not going to move out of place anytime soon, gave me a dazzling smile and said, "It's not that great. I'm just glad it could help you. And in saying that, even though my brother had also over exaggeratedly said it, I also want to say thank you for your help."
"Don't worry about it. Considering we are obviously people in the same truly messed up situation, it's only right that we should help each other." Not wanting to stick on the topic of thanks, I quickly replied with a small smile. At the mention of the situation we were in, the smile that Marla had just conjured was swept away as if a violent wind had blown it away. Looking around at the flickering light and eerie parking lot, Marla looked back at me and said, "Speaking of this messed-up situation, I have some questions for you. As it looks like you know a lot more than we do. It felt as if we had done nothing but run from one danger to another over the last few hours, and we've had no time to even think about anything else."
"Sure thing. Let's loot the zombies and go back to the truck; it's a better spot to sit than out here in the open." I agreed, thinking it would be a good idea to share notes or at least bounce some of my theories off of another actual living person.
"Loot? So they actually drop loot, too?" Sid asked with excitement as he ran over to touch one of the zombies. After touching one of the zombies, the one whose skull I had stomped into the concrete, he looked back at me with a frown and asked, "Nothing happened. Do you mean actually go through their pockets or something?"
Equally looking back at the boy with confusion written on my face, I walked over and kicked the zombie, getting the familiar loot notification. After selecting yes, the zombie disintegrated into a pile of dust, causing Sid to jump back with a start, eyeing the ash as if it had turned into some different type of monster. Leaning down, I sifted through the ash and pulled out a bottle of water and what looked like a leather belt, before lifting them up to Sis so he could see.
The boy's eye sparkled at what was obviously my retrieved loot but then his smiling face dropped as he looked at the other zombies and said, "How come it didn't work for me?" Pondering for a second, a fairly standard RPG trope came to my mind as I looked at the other slain zombies and then back at the dejected-looking Sid. "I think it works like other open-world RPGs where only the one who defeated the enemy can loot the body. Although I'm not a hundred percent, I have a feeling the world we are currently living in works along very similar rules when it comes to things like loot and such."
Sid seemed to think it over, and after a couple of seconds, he started to nod in agreement and said, "That makes sense. Damn it, I wonder if I at least did a little damage to one of them. I could have also gotten some loot." Patting the kid on the shoulder, I shook my head in amazement at how kids' minds worked. Instead of worrying about the absolute peril he had been in or was currently still in, he was worried about loot. I suppose it did make sense, though. There was a sort of thrill I received every time a zombie turned to ash, and I looked on in anticipation for the possible rewards.
Moving over to the other zombies, I first asked Sid to try to loot before I looted them. Every time, however, only I received the loot option upon touching the zombies' still bodies. After I looted all the zombies, with even Marla looting the one zombie she had brained with a tire iron in the SUV, we all got into the back of the truck I had woken up in. Before getting in, I washed my face with a semi-clean piece of what was left of my shirt and some water. Once inside, all three of us had something to drink and eat and rested for a couple of minutes in silence before Marla's seemingly endless barrage of questions came hammering down on my somewhat drowsy face, making me answer all her questions in a stutter. I felt like I had been called to the front of the class and asked to read something in a foreign language, utterly overwhelmed.