Chapter 15

  The hail of bullets zipped past Jake. A spear of pain pierced his right shoulder as one of the bullets hit him. As he staggered backward, his foot became ensnared in a tangle of grass, causing him to lose his bance. He squeezed the trigger as he fell to the ground. His aim oiled, but some of the pellets still caught the stranger, causing him to yelp in pain. After Jake colpsed to the ground, he pumped another shell into the chamber and pulled the trigger one more time, but the stranger had already darted around the rge crate. The pellets peed the wooden crate, but those of them that hit the exposed side of the steel box ricocheted every which way.

  The stranger crouched down behind the supply drop to get out of Jake’s line of fire. He kept his shotgun poi the crate, but his oppo was smarter than to pop up from cover. The wooden crate couldn’t offer much prote, but the high-grade steel box inside of it could withstand the force of bullet impacts, creating an effective protective barrier against ballistic threats. Having taken cover behind the bulletproof steel box, the stranger remained hidden behind it, and unless something forced him to, he wasn’t going to leave the secure shelter the steel box provided.

  Jake cursed under his breath. This was not how he’d hoped it would go. He wasn’t keen on fighting a fellow survivor for no signifit reason. However, he held onto the hope that there might still be a ce to resolve the flict peacefully.

  “How badly are you injured?” Jake yelled to the stranger.

  There was a brief pause before his oppo shouted back. “What do you care?”

  “I have some stimpaks on me.”

  “Yeah? So?”

  “We don’t have to fight. I give you some of my stimpaks so you heal yourself.”

  Jake heard the stranger ugh.

  “Do you think I’m stupid?” the stranger shouted from behind the supply box. “You only want to lure me out into the open so you shoot me dead.”

  “No. I wasn’t pnning on killing you to begin with. In fact, I was actually willing to share the supplies from the box with you.”

  “Oh really? And I’m just supposed to believe you?”

  “It wasn’t me who started shooting first, was it?”

  The stranger was silent for a moment.

  “You were pointing your shotgun at me,” the stranger finally said.

  “Yeah. You ’t be too careful in this world. But I wasn’t going to start shooting at you unless I had to. You opening fire on me left me no choice.”

  The stranger fell silent again, probably refleg his words. While he was thinking, Jake g his wounded shoulder. The bullet had only grazed him, leaving a shallow scratch across his flesh. The wound was bleeding but not too much.

  “So what do you propose we do?” the stranger said, prompting Jake to return his attention to the supply drop the stranger was still hiding behind.

  “Let yun hang on its sling and e out from cover.”

  “So you shoot me?” the stranger said caustically.

  “I’ll do the same. As I said before, I don’t want us to keep fighting.”

  The stranger was silent for a moment.

  “Sorry, no deal. I still don’t trust you,” he said. “I still believe your true iion is to lead me into the open so you shoot me.”

  “So what do you suggest we do then? Keep fighting until one of us is dead?” Jake retorted, speaking harsher than he’d intended. He was starting to lose his patieh the stranger.

  He was silent for a moment.

  “I don’t want to fight either, so I have a better suggestion,” the stranger finally said.

  “I’m all ears.”

  “Drop all yuns,” he said dead serious. “Start walking to the box with your hands raised, thehe box for me.”

  Jake almost ughed at his suggestion. “What will keep you from killier I open the box for you?”

  “I won’t kill you,” the stranger said. “Pinky promise.”

  “I don’t suppose you prove your word is trustworthy?”

  “No. You’re just gonna have to trust me.”

  “Trust you? After you opened fire on me for no reason?”

  The stranger didn’t reply. Jake was still lying on his back, aiming his on at the crate. Nothing happened in the several seds, and Jake decided to get up. He first sat up, then slowly got to his feet, keeping the shotgun trained on the supply box all the time.

  “What are you doing?” the stranger suddenly asked, his voice tinged with suspi.

  This time, it was Jake who didn’t reply. His silence must’ve made him nervous because the straook a peek from around the edge of the crate. He gred at Jake for a sed, then thrust his submae gun out from around the crate a loose with a short burst of fire. None of the bullets came anywhere near Jake, but out of self-preservation, he ducked his head anyway. The stranger dove ba cover before Jake could return fire.

  Jake issed off now. He was trying to find a peaceful solution to this situation, but the stranger was oing things.

  “Are you dead yet?” the stranger shouted from behind the crate.

  Jake didn’t reply. He was doalking. Shouldering his shotgun, he began to circle the supply drop without getting any closer to it. At some point, he saw an arm pop up above the upper edge of the crate, lobbing some object. A metal ister flew through the air in the general dire of where he’d been standing moments before. Jake had pyed enough first-person shooters when he was youhe object.

  The stun grenade ked loudly on the asphalt, rolling across the street. The weeds and grass bursting through the cracks in the road stopped the ister long before it could’ve reached his previous position. Jake looked away and closed his eyes a sed before it exploded with a pierg bang and a blinding fsh.

  Jake opened his eyes. An afterimage hovered in his vision, but he still could see well enough to spot the stranger pop up from behind the supply drop. He pointed his submae gun at where he assumed his oppo was. Only he was no lohere. By the time he spotted Jake off to his left and turo face him, it was already too te.

  The bst from the shotguhe stranger hurling backward as the load of buckshot hit him in the chest. The stranger colpsed to the ground a still.

  By the time Jake made it to where his foe y, the afterimage had disappeared from his vision and the ringing in his ears had faded out into nothing. The stranger was still alive but barely.

  “H-Heal me,” he said, looking up at him.

  “Oh, now you want to be healed, huh?”

  “You,” the stranger coughed. “You sonofa… It’s not fuh… not fair to… to—”

  He suddenly was overe by a fit of coughing, gobbles of blood flying from his mouth. Then his eyes rolled back, and his body went stiff. The stranger died, and Jake never learned what he’d been trying to say.

  Jake stared at the dead stranger for a moment. This enter had taught him something. Even though the world had colpsed, it didn’t automatically make other survivors his allies. With the ex-human mutants, you at least knew where they stood. The survivors, oher hand, were uable, which potentially made them more dangerous than mutants.

  After looting the dead body and pig up the stranger’s submae gun, he walked up to the supply drop. He looked at the security touchs patached to the exposed side of the steel box. Wheraried to open the box, nothing had happened, because only the one who had requested the supply drop was allowed to open it.

  When Jake pressed his thumb to the touchs, a piece of text in white letters popped up. EHE FIRMATION CODE THAT HAS JUST BEEO YOUR PDA. His device beeped with an ining notification, and Jake took it out. Sure enough, the ining message taihe firmation code: BQ1-39G-62R. Jake returned his attention to the security panel and typed in the code. As soon as he did so, the paed a cheerful eleic sound, and the door of the steel box cracked open with a quiet hiss. It didn’t have any handles, so Jake just ed his fingers around the edge of the door and swung it fully open.