It’s Not Easy Making Money In the Apocalypse – V6 - Chapter 18

“You’re time is up. We need to head to the next objective.” Cecelia informed me.

I grabbed the last piece of technology, something that looked like a glowing battery. Cecelia told me they were plasma rounds. As I dropped it into my digitizer, I turned and started back the way I had come, moving at a swifter pace this time, especially since most of the technology had been taken. There was still a ton of technology spread across the entire bird’s nest. I had only had the time to search about 1/4th of the ring. Yet, I knew I couldn’t afford to spend any more time.

“What about the other girl?”

“Since she took off, she’s remained outside of my life-sign range. The occasional Rok flying overhead doesn’t help either. At the current, she doesn’t appear to be a problem.”

I nodded. A bit earlier, she had tried to sneak back up to me. Cecelia had warned me though and I had sent a few shots her way. Once she realized I wasn’t easy to sneak up on, she kept her distance.  However, there was no telling if she was still watching and trailing behind me. Thus, I decided when I made my move to move as quickly as possible. With Cecelia mapping the route, I was diving under cars and jumping over scraps as fast as I could manage.

It was only a few minutes before I was leaving the bird nest. As I emerged from the wreckage, I saw a family face. It was Pick. I started to raise my hand, but then immediately fell back behind cover. He didn’t notice me and continued on his way grumbling. I remembered what Jacques had said. From this point onward, we were no longer working together. He might betray me in the same way as that girl. I had to finish this challenge and survive on my own, even if it meant leaving the rest of them to do.

Taking a deep breath, I kept one eye forward and one eye in the sky as I began to make my way toward the convoy. With Cecelia sending me scanning reports, I was able to navigate with some skill. Regrettably, there was no technology emitting signals outside of the nest. This area was a dead zone. There was nothing except crumbled homes and overturned vehicles. Occasionally, I’d see the skeleton of some horrific beast, but it had been picked clean and only a sun-bleached pile of bones remained. Since every creature had been mutated, I could only guess what any individual creature was.

I moved at a frantic pace. I wanted to get to the convoy and make a plan before the explosion occurred. Unfortunately, I had gotten too greedy and taken too much time in the bird’s nest. I could only just make out the convoy, made obvious by the dozens of Rok flying around in a circle around in like vultures waiting to feast. That’s when a massive series of explosions sounded off in the distance back where I had begun.

I immediately fell to the ground and rolled under a car. The ground didn’t even stop shaking before a series of horrendous squawks could be heard. The Roks in the sky nearly tripled as more rose from the ground. A few of them had even been fairly close to me, and it was only luck and Cecelia’s bullseye navigation that kept me from stumbling across one of them. As they joined the group in the sky, they were flying around at increasing speeds like a bee hive that had just been kicked over.

More and more Rok joined the formation of Rok in the sky, increasing the size of the flying hoard as well as the noise levels. It was so loud I had to cover my ears, and even with Cecelia in my earpiece I didn’t think I’d be able to make out anything she said. Then, in a fluid motion, a line of Rok peeled off toward the direction of the nest. Each Rok followed the one behind it, creating a chem-trail-like formation in the sky. They headed toward the nest like a bullet, and once they did whatever they had to do they could return just as fast.

I didn’t start racing for the convoy though. I waited until the last Rok left and started to disappear in the distance. There was a few moments of silence where I considered whether I should go out or not. Then, I heard a popping sound. It was followed by the ratatat of a machine gun. Then, there were shouts. I carefully rolled out from under the vehicle and then lifted my head over. I ducked when I saw an armed man running toward the convoy. He was one of the cloaked men who was part of our test. He had his gun out looking both ways.

Part of me wanted to follow him, but my legs seemed to freeze. It all seemed a bit too easy. My life since coming to this world had never gone according to plan, and I wasn’t so naïve as to believe it would all start working at that moment. I lay low and watched as he was suddenly struck by several bullets. The first one hit and he tried to raise his gun, but three more bullets hit. The last one hit his neck, and he collapsed to the ground. Just like that, he was dead.

I could hear the guns too. They weren’t sniper fire from Dip, our resident raider. Those bullets didn’t come from anyone else on the team either. Unless they walked completely around the convoy and then attacked from the opposing direction, they didn’t come our way at all.

“Attack!” A shrill voice cried out.

At that moment, a large amount of short little men jumped out from some hidden spart and charged the convoy. They were green and seem to have pointed ears and pointed noses. They looked a bit like children, but much uglier with black bug-like eyes.

“Grunts?” I asked.

“It would appear so,” Cecelia confirmed.

As soon as the grunts appeared, all hell seemed to set loose. There were shots ranging out from dozens of spots. I realized that grunts weren’t the only ones present besides the raider contestants. There must have been at least three factions present, although I could barely make sense of who was who in the ensuing battle.

“Can you map out any tech? Give me the safest course.” I hissed, staying hidden behind the car.

I was still a ways away from the convoy, but still close enough that a few stray bullets strong nearby windshields and even caused a nearby car to explode. There were even people nearby me who were shooting haphazardly. They were probably the other raiders, but I didn’t trust them not to shoot me in the back.

“The battlefield is too chaotic,” Cecelia admitted. “Even if I plotted you a path, it’d be irrelevant the second you took the first step.”

I took a breath and then nodded to myself. “In that case, I’ll just have to wing it!”

Keeping low, I ran from car to car. For every step forward I managed to make, I had to run two or three steps to the side. Even though I had a shield, that would only absorb one blow. It’s what gave me the confidence to move forward, but as soon as I got a single hit I would lose that buffer. Unfortunately, my digitizer was using the expansion mod, and I refused to lose half of the stuff I got just so that I could power up the shield and get two hits. Whether it was one hit or two, that cloaked guy had gotten hit four times before he even had a chance to react. I could have ended up just like him. Had I followed him instead of sticking back, I would have ended up like him.

Part of me wondered if I should just retreat now. I already had some technology. I could just pretend I found it and then bribe Dip into letting me go. Yet, I wasn’t confident I had enough to win the competition. Others like Jacques could walk away with even more technology, and if I wasn’t able to get into the R&D building, then everything I was doing would go to waste.

I jumped behind a building just as several bullets ricocheted off the nearby wall.  Those bullets were aimed at me, yet I hadn’t even managed to figure out where they were coming from. I saw a line of cars and then crawled out from my spot over to one of them. I started to crawl from car to car, keeping hidden as I went.

“Stay back, you filthy grunts!” I heard a shout that seemed somewhat familiar.

I continued my crawl along the ground as I heard more and more fire. When I reached the end of the string of parked cars, I got a view of the side of the convoy. There was a girl there barricaded behind a tank. She was shooting as multiple grunts came at her. My viewpoint didn’t just let me see her, but also what was going on the other side of the tank. A few goblins had snuck around and pulled out something that looked like a grenade.

Before I could stop myself, I pulled out of the car and started running toward her. One of the men next to her saw me and raised his gun, but he got shot the next moment. I pulled out a gun and shot wildly at the grunts who were climbing on each other’s shoulders to get up on the tank and drop the explosive on the other side.

I struck the grunt a second too late, and he dropped the explosive as he spasmed back. At that moment, the girl noticed me running at her. She went to raise her weapon but as recognition struck, she paused. That grenade landed right at her feet, but I jumped over it and threw my body over her. The grenade exploded, but I reached Zara just in time.