The girl stood up and pulled James to his feet. They look around to make sure there are no more of those monsters.
"Those Wickers sure gave you hell of a time."
"Are you a human?"
"What kind of question is that? Of course yes. My name is Seven, you?"
"James"
"James... what were you trying to do with that Wicker anyway? hand-to-hand fight? You know they can rip a person into shreds."
"I uhhh..."
"At least you got mobility gears that can jump that high, or else we got spotted."
"Right.." James said, he thinks to himself, 'She doesn't know what I am yet... better keep it secret for now.'
She led him to her hideout away from the main center of this city. A broken building standing in an open, grey grass field. She pushed the metal board covering the entrance below the building. A makeshift ladder made from metal. She slid down, and James followed.
Inside the dark, she turned on the light, generator pumping its gears to power the hideout from the outside.
"This is my place, it looks kinda run down, but still livable." She placed the SMG on the table and took her armor off one piece at a time. "There's a pile of clothes that still can be used. Some of them are male clothes, and the bathroom is over there."
James looked at the wooden board hooked on the wall to make a door. "Thanks..."
Closed the board and turned on the small light bulb, he looked at himself in the mirror. "What the... how long is my hair now?" The dark mark below his eyes looks like an upside-down triangle, and the left eye is now turned dark with a white iris rather than a red X like his right eye.
Lifted his hair, a symbol that looks like a Calamity mark can be seen on his forehead. Water doesn't seem to wash it off. "Did that demon curse me or something...?" he tried to take the neckwear off, but it looked like it was imprinted on his neck. Every time he pulled it, he could feel the flesh being broken down.
He took down his old clothes and put on the new ones, a grey shirt with jeans, simple, and it would help to cover his wounds if needed.
After looking at himself in the cracked mirror for the last time, James turned off the light.
He saw the Armor had been carefully placed on the mannequin along with her SMG.
"Yo! Buddy, can you get in here?" Seven's voice came from the corridor of the basement. James followed her voice and entered her underground garden, with UV lights and watering systems.
"impressive, huh? These things are the rarest you could find in this nightmare world."
"Does everyplace just a ruin of bricks and towers?"
"Not really. But this ain't the thing I want to show you." She led him to a smaller room opposite the entrance to the garden. The light lit up, revealing a vast array of weapons, including a variety of bullets and explosives. "When I first open my eyes here, the first thing I see is me being hanged upside down on a stone pillar. It seems when a person appears here, they are always given a weapon like a knife or a gun, mine was a small Colt revolver."
"So all of these weapons..."
"I believe so, but I'm not bringing them here by murdering others, relax, boy." she chuckled.
James rolls his eyes, "So what do you want me to see?"
Seven took out a piece of white cloth inside an ammo box, "This..." She showed him a side of the cloth, drawing that looked like a map. "About 400 days ago, yes, I counted, don't ask. While trying to find more material to build a foundation for my basement, I stumbled upon a dead person, most of his loot was gone, on his body were bullet holes, and in his palm was this rag. At first, I thought it was just a nonsense drawing, but I noticed the area matched the drawing, and I knew it was a map."
James takes the cloth, and there is indeed another area beside the ruins. "The outer parts..."
"I believe this part is the place where we at, the inside part. I saw it long ago, but haven't explored it yet."
"Afraid of survivors? But why help me?"
"Well... honestly, I was so lonely, and the other part, I saw your trails with dead wicked, how can you kill them so easily?" her face smirking, with those eyes looking at his face. "They usually took 10 shots from an M4 to the heart to die."
'crap... can't say I'm a machine...' facing her question, he chose to lie it out. "I... got lucky. The wicked I killed was already damaged."
"Hm... wow, I thought you were like a war machine or something, that would be cool, haha."
James' eyes flickered a bit; the vision of his loved administrator seemed to match her personality.
"Having a person with you in here it's better, you know."
They got back to the main area.
"I can tell, it's better to have someone to watch your back. So... what do you do most of the time?"
"Well, I just stay here reading books, sometimes go out and find more loot, if I feel like it, I will try and go into the deeper area.... and umm...." her face blushing.
James, darting his eyes around, saw a box covered in a black rag, and next to it were old magazines for adults. "I see..."
"You gotta understand it for me, man, I have been living here for over 5 years now. Not even a single survivor came here or appeared here beside me and you."
"Okay, okay, say, what if we go deeper into the inside area? Do you want to?"
"I only searched a few houses on the side. I kept hearing noises from the wicked while looting, so I don't go in deeper, but with you, I think we could go in. Do you have any experience with Guns and zombies?"
"Hey, I'm not as old as you, but I can murder 10 men with a pen."
"Pfft- Sure, sounds good." She cooked potatoes and sprinkled spices on them. "You want some? Surely you haven't eaten anything for hours."
James looked at the meal. It was simple, not too fancy, but delicious for anyone who struggled to stay alive like her. "No, thanks, I found some leftover food and ate it long ago. still not hungry"
"You sure? The road tomorrow is gonna be long and hard."
"Yeah, although I gotta ask more, how can you track me down? Even with the wicker corpse, there's too little trail you could find."
"It's simple, the hunter can mark the victim, which reveals their current location to all the wicker around the area. I had one of their receiver, it helped me find a safe path to avoid the monster and track people down, although I lost track of you after you hid somewhere, which forced me to go in another direction, and luckily enough, I met you before you fought that wicked."
'She's good, 5 years, huh?' James nods slowly. "You seem experienced with this."
"Thanks. I'll explain more about how to survive tomorrow."
Once again, the darkness falls onto the land of dried cement, once again, the screams of the damned echo in this place. Under the ground, the light from the bulb flickers with each stomp from above the surface. Something big has moved passes this place. James cannot sleep; his sleep mode seems to be malfunctioning. He looked to Seven, who was lying next to him with her arm wrapping around his left one. Watching her sleep well, He feels sorry for her, for what she had been through to get used to this world and teaching him what he needs to know.
"How can I return now...."
The Light soon shone upon the land. Seven geared herself up after a quick wake-up routine, armed herself with more guns and ammunition. James borrowed some of her gear, including bags to carry heavy firearms.
"You're sure stronger than how you look."
"All in the workout. So, which direction are we gonna go?"
"There's no concept of direction. We just gotta head straight. Also, I found that place by walking straight from here." She let out a laugh and put on her helmet.
They started marching into the wasted city, avoiding wickeds moving among the ruins, occasionally finding any useful items along the run-down buildings.
[Energy level 50% recommended replenishment before engaging in combat activities]
"Damn..." James cleared his throat, "Hey, mind if I take a quick flush?"
"Hm? Sure, go ahead, but don't go far."
"They stopped inside an abandoned house. Seven took off her helmet and rested near the door, waiting for James.
"Just yell if anything goes wrong."
"Got it, big boy, enjoy your restroom break; my legs are killing me."
Locked the door. "30 seconds...." [activate scanning mode] [fuel source detected] He let out a smile and jumped out the window. He made a quick dash toward the wicked nearby. Counting each second, he made it to the machine creature, "14... 13.." The monster was caught off guard, he grabbed its mouth, his nanostrings muscle helped him tear off the jaws along with its front body. "12.. 11..." James dived his mouth into the machine's heart, Sucking all of the black liquid like a hungry vampire. The stain will soon fade with his weak absorption. "9... 8... 7..." Ran back to the restroom like nothing had happened.
"Done, you want to continue?"
"Nah, let's rest a bit, nothing is interesting along the way, and my feet are itching from the tiredness."
"Aight."
"Fun fact, the Wicked's blood is mostly carbon, kinda like oil, they are pretty useful to power stuff, but you need something like a kickstart, like electricity, to ignite it."
"Huh. That's how u can fuel your generator."
"I got my own trap to kill and collect their blood, took me a lot of bullets to figure out a way."
"Haha."
"So, got anything interesting you want to tell me?"
"Hm? Well, this is hard."
"Like how you die?"
"Well... I... saved a girl from a murderer, I died trying to kill them."
"Whoa, that's brave. Mine was a Jetfighter pilot; I lost my life during a sky battle."
"Dang, I guess you do more than I was."
"Gotta ask you som-" Their conversation was interrupted. A Wicked jumped through the window, and it detected them both. James was Fast enough to gift it a few blasts from his AK-M5, directly at its heart.
"Shit! They found us, buckle up." Seven put on her helmet. They take positions at two windows.
"I see 5 of them." he thinks to himself. 'They got here because of that one I killed? F##k that hivemind signal system.'
"Fire at will!" Seven yelled, and they both squeezed the trigger, AK and MPX roaring with their deadly shots.
The wicked keep charging in, two of them fallen, but three got in. Two of them jumped at the window where James and Seven were holding. The other went above. James brought his elbow and knocked the wicked on top of him, he brought his legs to its chest and pushed it against the wall. Its long arm slashed him, but hit the magazine.
Looking at Seven, she stabbed the wicked in her side, while it wanted to bite her head off. James quickly reloaded the gun he had, slammed and held the creature against the brick wall. His left arm pinned its head, and he unloaded the magazine into its chest to weaken it. Once the monster was slowed down, James kicked the wicked outside and aimed at the one who was about to stab Seven. With his machine eyes, James locked on the arm and fired the AP bullet, cutting off the wicked's right arm, helping her throw a grenade into its chest.
James gets to her and throws the creature out. Right then, the third one fell from the upper floor. Seven threw her knife at its head, giving James enough time to avoid its claws. Bringing his fist, he did a powerful punch, crushing the creature's head like a dent can, and she fired her gun at its chest, into it.
"You okay?" James gave her his hand to get up.
"Yeah, let's get out of here."
They flee the scene, right after James planted a nade into the one that attacked him earlier. More sounds of metal grinding together can be heard, and a sound of the nade went off. They moved quickly and fast, avoiding open areas untilthey reached the border lead to the next area.