AN: So.... this happened. Another chapter tomorrow hopefully. :)

Chapter 6: Shop Till You Drop

The day wore on as the little family made themselves at home in the dark house. It was the safest place around, but it was also depressing. The only light was generated by an LED lantern in each room. Neither of them illuminated much, but at least they were able to get around without stumbling over things.

“So, this place isn’t good enough?” asked Tammi. She sat on the couch next to Scott with a towel wrapped around her head. She had just finished her cold shower.

“No, the walls are strong and the doors could stand up to a lot, but there is no way out if surrounded." He paused briefly then added one additional item of note. "It’s also too close to the city.”

“I see what you mean.” She crossed her legs then smiled at him. “You’ve thought this through, huh.”

Scott glanced at her then nodded. “Nothing better to do while sitting in here.”

“Sure. Where would you go?” she asked.

“That’s the problem. Nowhere is safe, and it would be impossible to secure a large area by myself.”

“Well, you have us.” Said Tammi, before leaning to the side and propping her head up in her palm.

“No, he doesn’t.” muttered Wayne.

Tammi glanced at her son. “Don’t start.”

“You don’t even care about dad, do you?” asked the little boy.

“If I didn’t care, we wouldn’t have gone looking for him.” said the woman with a growl.

Wayne snorted and crossed his little arms over his chest. He was not convinced.

Daisy took a puff from her inhaler then walked over to sit next to her mother. The cute little girl leaned against Tammi and said, “Mommy. When can we go home?”

“Soon baby.” said Tammi.

“OK.” said Daisy before she yawned a little.

Anna made a noise as she came out of the bathroom, a towel around her head as well. She shivered a little and said, “Cold.”

Tammi looked over to her and laughed softly. “Problem?”

Anna walked over and sat down next to Scott. “Nope. I’m good.”

Tammi glanced at Anna, but her eldest daughter ignored her. Scott closed his eyes. He wasn’t blind. It was obvious what was going on, here.

“Better check the doors.” mumbled Scott. He stood up and moved to peek out the peep holes. Wayne moved in and took his spot on the couch, to Tammi’s protest.

Several ghouls were milling around the area. He suspected they were drawn by all the noise. They were not overly loud, but multiple voices might make things different. Of course, they might just be in the area because they were in the area. The city had a population of over fifty thousand people. Migration was bound to happen.

He moved to the back door and noted two of the monsters were out there as well. There were too many for him to be comfortable. Scott went back to the small family group and made a shushing noise.

“What’s wrong?” asked Tammi softly.

“There are too many outside. I’m going to have to go deal with them. If they discover us in here, it’ll be impossible to go outside safely if the numbers keep increasing.” said Scott.

Tammi acquired a fearful look. Things had felt so safe over the course of the last few hours. Had they been talking too loudly?

Scott snatched up his bush axe then headed to the back door after telling Tammi to lock and bar it once he leaves. She agreed to open it when he knocked on it.

Once outside, he immediately set about hacking his opponents apart. The ghouls were still as slow and stupid as ever. There was no sign of a stronger monster in the area, much to his relief.

Despite the step-by-step nature of battle, it did not take too long to kill off all of the ones in the immediate area. In the process Scott acquired another letter and a few more copper coins.

The letter was an invitation to shop at the local shopping arcade. There was a discount until dawn, and a map that showed both his current location and the location of the shop.

[Open Invitation]

Shop Till You Drop

The local shopping arcade has opened for business. If you have daemons to spend, you’re in luck! There is a 50% discount on all goods until dawn. Of course, it is also only open at night. Be careful though, monsters are harder to see in the dark and will become more aggressive. It will do wonders for your modern life experience, however.

Mission: Locate and purchase something from the Shopping Arcade at night.

Difficulty: Hard

Requirement: Reach Level 5, Receive Invitation

Success: Get to the shopping arcade and buy at least one item

Failure: Fail to reach the shopping arcade by dawn

Reward(s): 50% discount on items until dawn, 1 Upgrade Point, 1 Salvation Crystal

[--]

Scott’s eyes lit-up. He could go and buy things with his monster loot. The problem was that the shopping arcade was five miles away and open only at night. He rubbed his chin. A fifty percent discount was too much to pass up on even if he did not know how much things would actually cost.

He finished up with ghoul clean up and returned to his home. Once he was allowed back inside he gathered the small group and told them what he intended to do.

“Is that really wise? What if it isn’t true?” asked Tammi fearfully.

“I found your family through a letter like that. If it isn’t true, I can still try and scout out the area and seek other survivors. I might even get word about your husband.” said Scott.

“Dad?” asked Wayne suspiciously.

“Yeah, he would have been called in to the city proper, right?” asked Scott.

“The last time we talked to him, he told me that he was near the fifth street blockade.” said Tammi.

Scott took out his map and looked it over. Fifth Street was closer than the shopping arcade, just a mile past the bridge.

He discussed the situation with them then set out. They were not to open the door under any circumstances unless they could tell that it was him. No one else could be trusted.

It was well past midday, but it would be several hours before it started to get dark. He had five miles to go. On a normal day that would not have been a problem at all, but given the current situation, he would need to move quickly and as quietly as possible.

Movement through the suburb that he lived in was taxing on his nerves. He had killed off most of the monsters in his little cul-de-sac but the moment he stepped out of the cleared area and onto his true path toward the city-center, he knew that things would change.

During the time that he had rested, he had been restored to most of his health. He still had injuries to contend with, but he could not pass up this opportunity. Who knew what would be sold at that place, and even if there was nothing to buy, the fact was that he could get an upgrade point and a salvation crystal was worth the risk.

A loud growl alerted him to the presence of an oncoming monster. Scott turned to face a ghoul running toward him at almost normal human running speed, a sure sign that it was not a level one beast. During the battle that ensued he was forced to dodge a clawing attack that was faster and more precise than he was used to dealing with from the other monsters.

Several hard strikes came his way whenever the beast took its turn, but Scott fended them off with some effort. Soon, he managed to bat the thing’s arms to the side then reversed his blade quickly and hacked into its neck. He followed the attack up with a strong overhead cleaving attack that cracked its skull.

Due to the vagaries of turn-based battle, the fight took over a full minute to finish. Two more, slower, ghouls appeared during that time. Once the faster ghoul was defeated, the two slow motion monsters were nothing. He received no loot for the fight but it did alert him to the fact that higher level ghouls did in fact exist on his route.

He ran into two more packs of hunting ghouls along the way. They were all low-level, thankfully. He made quick work of them, and continued on.

It took him the better part of an hour to work his way to the first problematic section of his trip. He gazed out at the bridge in the distance and frowned. It was packed with the undead. There had to be at least a few hundred of the rotten bastards over there. He could not handle that many at once, even if they all turned out to be level one.

Swimming across the river was not an option. It was not until he looked off to his right that he realized that there was something in the far distance that might work. “The raft…”

Dale’s raft was still where they had dropped it on the first day. It seemed like it was still inflated, though that was hard to tell at such a distance. He hated the idea of taking the little yellow thing across the river, but it was more likely that he would succeed using it rather than trying to cross the bridge.

Scott slipped back carefully in order to avoid the hungry eyes of the bridge ghouls. Who knew what level some of those things were?

He headed off into the housing area that he had to escape from only a few days before. Growls and a few hisses could be heard from various houses. Scott stopped to fight with several stragglers and the occasional pack of ghouls. He did not want to risk them surrounding him or catching him from behind.

It took more than another hour to reach the place where Dale had met his end. Scott did not see him anywhere in sight, nor did he see his rifle. He did not take long to reflect on the passing of the older man. Scott recalled the eerie look in his eyes as he started to turn, and the words that he had said when they had first met, however. Dale had told him that those who died rose again as the thing that had killed them.

On his way to the end of the road a pack of ghouls staggered out to block his path. There were eight of the beasts. He got to work on whittling down their numbers. The way he saw it, every monster that he killed was one less to deal with in the future.

While the battle meandered along in its turn-based manner, another pack arrived. The reinforcements were only four in number, but one of them was a bit faster than the rest.

Lesser ghouls caused little fear in him by now, however. As far as he was concerned, they were merely experience and potential loot unless they were the chatty kind. The ghouls who could talk and plan were deadly. None of them were in attendance for this battle, however. Low level ghouls were nothing more than rotting obstacles for him at the moment. They were like a fence that needed to be crossed.

He gathered a few coins from the fallen monsters and a small treasure chest. Inside the chest was a blood stone, two silver daemons, and a letter.

“Man, I’ve never been this popular. People send me letters all the time now.” He said lightly. He had started to become strangely comfortable in his new role as a slayer of monsters.

[A Desperate Cry for Help]

“Please! Someone save me! I’ll do anything!”

Samantha Cole has requested help from anyone nearby. She is trapped and will die without help.

Mission: Rescue Samantha Cole

Time Limit: 20 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Success: Kill the monsters surrounding her hiding place

Failure: Let Samantha Cole die

Reward(s): 50 Copper Daemons

[--]

As usual there was a map attached that showed both his location and the target. Samantha’s location was a quarter mile away and on his current side of the river.

Scott smiled. An easy mission sounded nice, and he might meet someone else! Score.

He jogged toward his destination. On the way he got the drop on three ghouls and used the three free turns he received to quickly dispatch them. When he arrived at the designated location he saw five ghouls beating on the side of a school bus.

Scott moved in quickly and began the attack. The ghouls did not stand a chance. None of them were particularly strong and just like the previous battle he had the initiative. The ghouls never even got the chance to take a turn. It was indeed an easy mission.

When the last ghoul died a treasure chest popped up. He received his coins, and the chest disappeared.

“Who?” asked a frightened voice.

“Hey, you’re not safe out here.” said Scott, helpfully.

A black haired girl poked her head out the window to look down at her potential savior. “Yeah, no kidding. Thank you for helping me!”

“I’m trying to get to the other side of the river, but if you want a slightly safer place to stay I have somewhere you can set up. There are a few other people there already.”

“You, really?!” she practically squealed with excitement.

Samantha opened the emergency door at the rear hopped down to the ground. The bus had crashed in such a way that its front door had been blocked off. It was not a bad temporary resting place, but it would not have lasted as a true shelter.

Scott nodded to her. “Did you get a little treasure box this morning that lets you fight these things?”

“Yeah, but… Well, I’m not good with that sort of thing.” she admitted.

He gestured for her to follow. “My place isn’t that far, but you may have to defend yourself a bit. Are you able to do that?”

She reached down and picked up a baseball bat that had been laying near the back tire. “With this I can. I kind of dropped it while climbing into the bus through the emergency window, and those things showed up before I could get it.”

“Why hide in the bus when there were so many houses?” asked Scott as they walked toward his promise of security.

“The bus was here, the houses were over there.” she said before pointing to the houses nearby.

He accepted her reasoning easily enough. When in an apocalypse, you took what you could get. She required frequent breaks during their travels, but it was obvious that she was a player. She could keep up with him to a far greater degree than Tammi and her kids. The duo were nearly back to his cul-de-sac before the next pack of ghouls arrived. There were six of them, all low level.

“Dammit, so many!” exclaimed Samantha.

Scott shrugged then ran in to deal with them. “There’s only six of them.”

“Only six?” her eyes widened in surprise. Was he suicidal? The light of battle flared through the area and the fight was on. She tried to help but she could only take two steps at a time. Samantha never came within striking distance of a ghoul before Scott easily dispatched most of the monsters. His movement and number of attacks were insane compared to what she could do.

“Damn…” She would not have believed it if she had not seen it. While she was watching him, a ghoul snuck up on her. It had come from outside of the battlefield.

Samantha gasped and attacked it recklessly with her bat. By the time Scott finished the first group of ghouls, she had gone a few times. Bloody and torn, all she could do was try to back away from it while crying. She had done very little damage to it, but she was close to death.

Scott physically interceded after he got within range, and took the ghoul for his own. It did not take long to simple hack it to death due to his great number of attacks. He had not even had to use his magic during the fight. His damage output was high enough per round to easily kill two or three low level ghouls without resorting to fire attacks.

“Not too bad.” said Scott.

She panted a little a nodded. “Yeah. I'm a Badass, right?”

He laughed and scooped up a few random coins that floated in the air. Money was always welcome.

“What the hell? Floating coins?” she asked. It was her first time seeing a loot drop directly. She had been hunkered down and hiding during Scott's fight with the ghouls outside the bus.

“Yeah, among other things. They sometimes drop letters and treasure chests. That’s how I knew where you were.” said Scott.

“Say what?” she asked, once again surprised.

Scott pulled out the mission letter that he had received for her rescue. She stared at it stupidly for a moment.

“This is just so freaking weird.” she said.

“True, but I decided to stop questioning it and just go with the flow. It’s helped a lot so far.”

They moved on after that. They picked off a few straggling ghouls here and there on the way, but arrived back at Scott’s safe zone not long after. He knocked on the door. It took a moment, but Tammi opened it.

“Got a present.” said Scott. He gestured toward Samantha. She waved nervously using only her fingers and said, “Hey.”

“Holy shit! Samantha!” cried out Anna.

“Anna?” asked Samantha. “Anna!” The black haired teen peered closely at the other girl. There was just no way that it could be her.

“Let’s get inside before you wake the dead out here.” said Scott.

Once they were inside, Scott headed off to the bathroom to clean his weapon and to check his status. The girls sat together and started to chatter rapidly.

“So, you go to school together?” asked Tammi.

“Yeah, we have most of the same classes.” said Samantha.

They were not best friends or anything, but they hung around in the same social circles. It was incredible that they would meet like this. They immediately began to discuss school and other things.

In the bathroom, Scott finished cleaning his bush axe and then checked his status. He had gained a level! “Sweet. Going on missions must help with experience or whatever.”

He finished up and headed back out to the five people that he had taken in. “Alright, I’m heading out again. Same as last time. No one comes in here unless it’s me.”

“Who died and made you boss?” muttered Wayne.

Scott glanced at the mouthy little boy. There was no point in arguing with a petulant child. He merely shook his head then headed out. Tammi barred the door behind him.

He performed a quick search of the area to make certain that there were no lingering ghouls. He found two of them milling around near the wood-line that were easily dispatched. He even gained a copper coin for his trouble.

The trip back to the raft took longer than he would have liked. Several small packs of ghouls wandered into his path and his loose change increased slightly.

Scott checked the raft over carefully. There were no tears or holes. The oars were still inside. Ghouls apparently had no taste for inflatable rafts.

The map was brought out once more and he found his location. He made a route in his mind then pocketed it once more. It was time to get going. He was starting to lose the light.

Scott pulled the raft to the water-line then pushed off into the river. He slowly made his way across while the water carried him further away. Luckily, no lizard men arose to drag him into the deep. He pulled the raft up the river bank a bit and hid it next to an old shack.

He started off toward a set of public access stairs a few hundred feet further down the river, but something strange came over him. Scott stopped in his tracks and then started to tremble. A sound, a light and soothing sound, echoed through the air. It was music, a beautifully clear and resonant tone sung in a female voice.

Unable to resist the urge to turn back, Scott looked toward the river bank. Just inside the water was the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen in his life. The voluptuous maiden reached out for him and sang in a warm, sweet, voice.

“Oh come away, dear one. Bring your heart and come on… Throw your cares away…” sang the voice.

Something was wrong, desperately wrong, about this situation. He could not fight it. He barely even recognized that there was a problem. His mentality began to degrade and soon all he could feel was his need to go to the beauty who sang to him so sweetly.

“Give up on worldly desire. Let our love be your fire. Why struggle when you can plaaaay? Why live in hell, when you can feel my he-a-ven…”sang the girl in a flirty tone. Scott did not even register the sudden flap of a fishy tail when it rose out of the water.

“Why fight for tomorrow, when we can live for our to-daaaay…” sweetly sang the girl as Scott stepped into the water.

He never even noticed the sudden flare of a bright blue battle light. His eyes were glazed over and despite the fact that the fish-tailed girl had stopped singing he continued to hear the song playing in his mind. His bush axe fell from his nerveless fingers.

"Scott Keen VS. The River Siren! Fight-O!" exclaimed the announcer, though Scott paid the voice no mind. Instead of the typical battle music, a soft and sensual piano score began to play in the background.

She opened her arms to embrace him and Scott moved forward slowly in a daze. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.

Her eyes shimmered with a dangerous light. She leaned in a whispered in his ear. “Oh my sweet boy, hold me tighter.”

Once it was his turn again, Scott obliged the lady and she laughed in a dulcet manner. Her soft pink tongue slid out and began to taste the side of his neck. She kissed his collar bone. “Such a strong flavor…”

She playfully nibbled at his ear causing him to moan softly. The playfulness shifted to pain as she bit down a little harder. Her beautiful fingernails clawed at his back. They tore through his coat, though they did not penetrate his denim jacket.

“Such a sweet boy. You’ll be my husband, won’t you?” she whispered tenderly into his ear.

“Yes…” whispered Scott, his eyes still glazed over.

“What’s your name, sweet one?” she asked him before kissing him softly on the ear.

“Scott.” he said in a flat monotone.

“Till death do us part, my lovely Scott.” she said sweetly, before she began to grind her body against his.

Her hands slipped down to grip his ass cheeks and she bit his neck gently, almost playfully. However, the amount of pressure that she used left a vicious red mark.

She leaned forward and kissed him tenderly on the lips, before she bit down hard enough to draw a little blood. She tasted him in her mouth and her eyes narrowed to slits. She ran her tongue over her lips and her face reddened. “Husband, you taste wonderful…”

Scott’s lip bled lightly as the monster that had him in her sensual clutches nuzzled her cheek against his chin. She then leaned back and gazed longingly into his eyes. Her lips parted and she smiled demurely. “I want you inside me beloved.”

Her mouth opened wider revealing a wicked set of fangs, much like a vampire in folklore. She twisted her body abruptly and knocked him into the water. Now atop him while she held his head beneath the surface, she gasped and moaned loudly. Her reddened face showed an ecstatic expression as she ground herself hotly against his drowning body.

“Beloved! Yes! I love this!” she cried out then moaned loudly in orgasmic bliss.

Suddenly, things changed. She squealed in surprise when something hard and determined began to pry its way into her anus. She may be part fish but she had all the general niceties of a human woman.

She released her grip slightly and Scott started to struggle for freedom. It was his turn once more. The sudden submersion under water had shocked him back to his senses. She was strong, inhumanly strong, but the feeling of his finger invading her backside caused her to spasm wildly. She could not comprehend the sensation properly and gave in to the surprising pleasure of the interaction.

Coughing and spluttering, Scott broke the surface of the water and rolled her over. His finger was forcibly removed from her backside in the process and she cried out in frustration. “No! Don’t take it out!”

Scott slammed his fist down and solidly connected with the side of her overly beautiful face. She immediately released him and clutched at her injury in surprise.

Now was not a time to revive the concept of chivalry. He desperately struggled to get out of the water. He hacked and wheezed. He coughed up water on his way to shore. His stamina drained rapidly as he used up both his movement and speed in a desperate effort to make it clear of the girl.

He snatched up his bush axe and stumbled a little as he reached the bank. Scott fell to his knees and he crawled away as best he could until his turn came to an end.

His self-professed wife slipped forward in the water. She held one hand to her bruised cheek, one hand outstretched toward him, and a desperate expression on her face. “No! Come back beloved! I need you inside me!” The flash of her fangs made the statement a toss-up between innuendo and literal truth.

His turn came around again. Scott used his bush axe for leverage and got back to his feet. He used it like a walking cane to keep his balance as he desperately fled for his life.

“Don’t leave me! Please, Scott! I love you!” cried the girl desperately. Her tail thrashed in the water and she began to cry.

She pulled herself up onto the river back and reached out for him in a futile gesture of regaining that which she had lost.

After a few turns he had retreated out of sight. She sat up and covered her eyes with her hands. She cried hot, lonely, tears while whimpering his name. The poor broken-hearted, murderous thing, was quite distraught.

“I can still taste him on my lips.” she whimpered. “Why did he leave me?”

Her chest heaved and bucked. The tears continued to fall as she became filled with self-recriminations. “Why, Scott? Did I do something wrong?”

She fell over onto her back and flapped her tail once. She sniffed loudly then bit her lower lip. Her distraught face made it clear that theirs had been a brief, but passionate, affair. “Come back… Please, come back to me.”

Her lower lip began to tremble gently then she cried out "I just wanted to drown you in the river! What's wrong with that?"

Once he was away from the river, it was quite some time before Scott could calm down. He was still coughing up water several minutes later. “Fuck that river. Fuck it right in its watery ass.” muttered the man. Nothing good had come from it at all recently. Lizard men and murderous mermaids, it was like a line of death separating the town from the suburbs.

Thankfully, the ghouls had not gotten wind of him before he recovered. That brief interaction had taken its toll on him.

When he was ready he continued onward. He was not far from the fifth street barricade. He slowly worked his way toward his destination, and when he was close by he carefully performed a perimeter sweep of the area. He ran across several ghouls, and dispatched them, but saw no sign of the continuance of human life.

“Damn.” said Scott. There was no sign of Tammi’s husband. He did not know where he could be, and he had to get moving.

He moved on toward his true objective, the shopping arcade. On the way he faced off against several packs of ghouls, a few of which were quite fast for what they were. He lucked out and found a few silver, and a few dozen copper, daemons.

The area registered on his map was just up ahead, but he heard a lot of growling and shuffling. Scott chose to climb up onto a dumpster and jump up to get onto a fire escape. He worked his way up to the top floor of the apartment building and broke into one of the apartments. The noise as a bit louder than he would have liked, but nothing bad came of it. Inside the apartment he faced off with a low-level ghoul, but it was an easy event otherwise.

He looked out of the window that faced the building designated as the shopping arcade. It had been a small grocery store before, but now it had morphed into a sleek black and gold building that had a single set of doors in front.

Scott saw dozens of ghouls out front, one of which was several times larger than the others. It wielded what looked like a broken street lamp as a weapon. Every now and then it would swing its weapon around and slaughter several ghouls, after which it would wander over and begin feasting on their undead flesh.

“Fuck me, sideways.” mumbled Scott the first time that he saw it. How the hell did he fight something like that?