Chapter 9

  Jake tio travel through the devastated city, pig his way through the debris and rowation. Every now and then, he was jumped by ex-human walkers. Fortunately, they only came in small groups of twos or threes, making it easy for him to deal with them. When he spotted rger groups sisting of more than three mutants, he made sure to steer clear of them. While he was being more skilled in fighting these creatures, he still wasn’t fident enough to take er groups of monsters. After eater, he meticulously used his PDA to search every fallen mutant for any valuable loot. Some of the dead mutants had pistol rounds and shotgun shells in the pockets of their ragged clothes. Jake collected all the ammo he could find for his ons.

  His bat skills, like Pistols and Shotguns, were gradually improving. He was receiving experience points for killing ex-human mutants, and he had even leveled up a couple of times already. When there were no enemies nearby, he hid in an alleyway and took his time to learn how the system worked. He examined all the information avaible to him on his PDA and learhat the system granted him one skill point for each level he gained, which he could allot to his attributes.

  He also learhat skills were governed by attributes. An attribute put a cap on every skill that was depe on it. For instance, Handguns and Shotguns—the two currently most valuable skills to him—were governed by Perception. Each point iribute let these two skills increase ten more times. His Perception was currently 12, and his Pistols and Shotguns skills had leveled up to 30 and 17 respectively by that point. Sihey could currently increase up to 120, there was no immediate o increase Perception. Still, he allocated one of his skill points to that attribute in order to enhance his ability to see and hear and therefore sense danger in time. He put the sed skill point into stitution to make his body more resistant and reduce the damage he received.

  After that, he tio make his way through the devastated city. The eerie silenveloped the empty streets, punctuated only by the mournful wail of the wind and the echoes of his footsteps. At some point, he reached the point where a cross street seemed to be split open by a huge chasm spanning the ereet—and probably the whole city as well. Jake paused at the edge of the shattered asphalt to take iremendous sight. In the chasm flowed a river, surgilessly through the newly formed ravihe water ed with ferocious energy, rushing through the chasm with great speed, reminding of the city’s tragic transformation.

  Jake checked the map on his PDA to firm that his mission’s location was somewhere oher side of the river. He looked around, searg for a way to safely cross the river. There weren’t any, so he followed the river’s edge, sing for a pce where the water was shallow enough to cross it, but it yielded no easy passage. In the distahe remnants of a colpsed building jutted out from the water, a precarious but possible route across.

  Jake stepped closer to the river to take a better look at the remnants of the fallen building that spahe river. The jagged debris of the shattered structure formed a makeshift bridge that seemed sturdy enough to let him get across the rushing water below. Still, traversing the fallen building wouldn’t be easy. The prospect of bang along the structure made his heart race, but he didn’t seem to have another choice.

  Gritting his teeth, Jake slung the shotgun over his shoulder and cautiously stepped onto the first fragmented se of the fallen building. The shattered crete and twisted rebar beh his feet felt unsteady, causing him to pause for a moment. Still, the ptform didn’t give under his weight, and he decided to tinue oook one careful step after another, sending slight vibrations through the ruins. At some point, he even had to stop, questioning his decision to take this dangerous route across. He even thought to get back, but when he gnced over his shoulder, he realized that he’d already made half the way across, so there wasn’t really a point iurning.

  The thundering rush of water below served as a reminder of the danger as he tio walk forward, bang on the uneven remnants. Navigating the maze of debris, Jake leaped from one fragment of crete to the , his heart pounding in his chest. The relentless rush of water casg over the fallen building made the shattered pieces of crete slippery, and oime, Jake’s foot slipped and he almost fell into the rushing water below. His heart jumped to his throat, and he had to pause for a moment to pose himself.

  “Shit, that was close,” he muttered to himself.

  The remnants of the fallen building creaked and groaned beh his weight as he tinued on. The relentless rush of water threateo knock him over into the river below. With every step and jump he took, his pulse quied and his adrenaline spiked.

  Finally, he reached the opposite side of the colpsed building. Only between the edge of the ptform he stood on and the pavement oher side . It was too wide for him to simply step over, so he had to leap across. He took a sed to prepare himself, then took a deep breath and, summoning all his strength, propelled himself forward. The wind whipped through his hair as he sailed through the air, the water rushih him. A rush of adrenaline coursed through his veins, and as the ground approached with arming speed, he braced for impact.

  With a grunt, he nded oher side of the gap, and a triumphant grin spread across his face. He did it! He gnced back to look at the treaakeshift bridge he’d just taken to cross the river. It was no small aplishment, that was for sure. He then tinued his jourhe rush of the river fading into the distail it no longer could be heard or seen.

  At some point, he paused and dug out his PDA. When he sulted the map, he realized he was just a stohrow away from his destination. Holding the devi one hand, he walked along the street until he reached the shattered entrao a high-rise building. Acc to the map, it was the right pce. He stowed away his PDA and unslung his shotgun.

  He peered into the interior through the shattered entrance, but all he could see was more debris. Still, he khat somewhere in the building lurked at least fifteen walkers and one shambler he had to kill to plete his mission. Would those mutants attack him all at once? He sure as hell hoped not. So far, he’d only dealt with groups of two or three mutants at a time. Dealing with a rger group would surely prove to be quite challenging. Also, he’d never entered any shamblers yet, so he had no idea what to expect from this ype of mutant.

  Shouldering his shotguook a deep breath and stepped into the building.