Chapter 3.12 B GOBLIN MARKET

Oak Forest, IL

Sunday, July 13th

Richard and Burt watched as Travis and Paige seemed to be doing something at the edge of the Forest. With Stephenson’s M4, Burt could see that Travis was digging up something while Paige was going around looking at things on the ground. A few minutes later, the two dragged something, then Travis began to dig again.

Fifteen minutes later, Travis and Paige returned, with the dog seeming more energetic than before.

“Come on, Stella. Let’s find a place for you to sleep on the bus.”

“Stella?” asked Travis.

“Yea, There was a water bowl near the cooler with her name on it,” replied Paige.

“What did you guys find?” asked Burt.

“9mm gun that needs a heavy break down and cleaning, and three glass vials with paper inside them. I’m betting feeding the dog was some type of quest or event. She led us back to the remains of her owner. It looked like he had buried something. Digging it up, I found one of those pelican cases everything else seems to be in. I’ll wait for Collin to get back before I do anything with them.”

“Interesting,” replied Burt.

With Stella and Paige inside the bus, Travis and Richard got back to grinding down the edges of the metal strips they would weld to the thickening stock. Once attached, they would cut holes in the bus’s side and weld the stock to the bus’s frame.

The two kept working throughout the day. They had eight of the three-foot blades welded onto the bus, in front of the door, right behind the pilot-looking cowcatcher, behind the front tire, and in front and back of the rear tires on both sides.

An hour or so after they finished, Collin and Stephenson returned without Marcus. Collin looked at Paige and the dog playing fetch as he left the bus.

“Quest or event, I think the dog is ours now. Followed it back to a body and a case with three of these,” Travis said as he handed one of the vials to Collin.

“What is it?”

“No idea. Figured we would wait for you to do the honors.”

“Mighty kind of you,” Collin said.

Collin walked over to a log and placed the vial atop it. Grabbing a stone, he hit the end of the vial, shattering it. Removing the paper from the broken end, Collin unrolled to find information printed on it.

Cache Information

Key Card A: Rapid City, South Dakota Weapons Cache: 5 miles southwest Supply Cache: 12 miles west by southwest

“Great job, Paige, Travis. I think we just got a huge lead on everyone else. Let’s clean up and roll out. I want to move from this location before I open another vial. Travis, what’s five miles southwest of this location?”

Travis went into the bus to retrieve his map. Within a few minutes, he responded.

“Tinley Park, IL. Lots of open areas five miles out. There is the public transit location, a music amphitheater, a small mall, a bunch of large industrial parks, and many other locations, Collin.”

“Alright, let’s head to the public transit location first. Once there, I’ll crack open a second vial and see what we get. I want to grab as much gear as we can before we head to South Dakota.”

“South Dakota?” asked almost everyone.

“Yea, Key Card A is located in Rapid City, South Dakota. My money is on us needing to collect the keycards before we can advance.”

Over the next hour, everyone helped Travis cut the sheets of metal to weld them over the bottom of each window on Collin’s bus. They had no more extended sheet metal, so his bus would go without the side door and windshield protection. What Travis did do was weld bars across the side door so that nothing could get through its windows.

Finished up, everyone loaded the tools back onto Stephenson’s bus. Stella, who was sitting right next to Paige with her tongue hanging out, barked at Stephenson as soon as he sat in the driver’s seat.

“Yea, yea, you mutt. Were going,” replied Stephenson.

As they left, Stephenson took the lead with his cowcatcher, with Collin following behind. A half-hour later, they pulled into the transit center’s parking lot. The center was filled with undead.

“Let’s try out the cowcatcher,” said Richard.

Stella let out a bark in agreement. Stephenson began to drive slowly around the parking lot and soon got the zombies’ attention. Stephenson made three circles around the massive parking lot getting most of the zombies into a large group, then turned towards them and picked up speed. With sicking splatters and crunches, they plowed right through the group of undead.

Looking out the top of the window, Richard saw most of the zombies had been cut, or their limbs were broken as the metal blades hit them as they passed the side of the bus.

“Most of them are down now. Make a few more passes, and then we can get out and finish them off,” called out Richard.

Stephenson did just that. Three more passes through the horde and almost every zombie had stopped moving. After pulling the bus over a reasonable distance away, Stephenson got off and did a one-eighty looking under the bus for any surprises. Seeing nothing, he went to the back of the bus and removed a long piece of rebar they had sharpened the end of.

Collin parked his bus off to the side and got out with Burt and Travis.

“Could have warned us a bit before doing something like that,” Collin called out.

Stephenson walked up to the group and began crushing any zombie heads he didn’t see the floating orb above. Travis joined him a moment later with a piece of steel stock.

“Collin, you loot everything, so we keep the AP with one person. That way, we can open any of those prize doors,” said Burt.

“Prize door?” asked Richard and Stephenson.

“Yea, the Tactical Cache was behind a steel door. You had to spend 50 AP to open it. I’m assuming that’s how it’s going to be for the rest of the game,” explained Burt to the group.

After Travis and Stephenson finished killing off the zombies, Collin looted the sixty-seven Cores and AP off the bodies. The group split into two and began to scout out the Transit Center. Twenty minutes into searching, Travis’s group ran into a couple of zombies. After quickly dropping the two monsters, they were happy to find the next room had a steel door with a palm reader on it. Collin’s group found them a few moments after hearing the gunshots. Seeing the door, Collin walked up to it, placed his hand on the palm reader, and cursed.

“It says this isn’t our cache, and I’m not allowed to open it. That means the information we got from Paige and Richard’s group is no good to us as well. Anyone find anything else?”

Everyone shook their heads no.

“Alright, let’s get back to the buses and open the second vial.”

Travis handed the two other glass vials to Collin back at the buses. Collin crushed the end of one with the butt of his Glock.

Cache Information

Key Card C: Seattle, Washington Supply Cache: 6.9 miles southwest Market: Harlem & I-80

“This one has Key Card C in Seattle, Washington. Travis, we got second cords on a Supply Cache. 6.9 miles southwest from here. Can you get us a location? There is also a market at Harlem and I-80. We can head there first.”

“Got it. Looks like a shopping plaza,” replied Travis a few minutes later.

The group got back into the buses and began traveling west on 179th. Taking a left on Harlem, the group headed south. Five minutes later, they saw what had to be the market. It looked like a giant walled-off fortress on top of Harlem’s overpass over I-80.

The gates opened as they drove up to the fortress, inviting them in. Slowing down, they entered the fortress, guns drawn. Getting closer, they saw what looked like Goblin guards around the fortress and its walls.

“Put away your weapons or be fired upon! This is a safe area!” shouted a Goblin from the wall.

The group put away their guns and parked the buses in a designated area. As soon as they got out, a Goblin came running over to them.

“I can fill both of your vehicles up for five Cores each. Or my crew can convert them to use Hydrogen fuel for 120 Cores each, sir.”

“As in, they’ll run on water?” asked Travis.

“Yes, sir! Could have them both done before you login tonight!”

“What do you folks think,” asked Collin.

“We should come back soon as we have the Cores and at least upgrade one of them. Would save us the huge hassle of finding more diesel,” said Travis.

“Alright, little guy. We’ll be back later tonight or tomorrow for that upgrade. What other upgrades can you do to them?”

The Goblin began to rattle off various options for upgrades to a large vehicle. One such upgrade caught them by surprise.

“How much for the spawning pods?” asked Travis and Collin at the same time.

“Each spawning pod is a hundred Cores and needs the hydrogen fuel upgrade. You can have a max of two chambers on such a vehicle,” replied the happy-looking Goblin.

“Can you explain what they do?” asked Stephenson.

“They allow someone to spawn inside them once a day from the group that owns the vehicle.”

“I’m thinking we head back to the Orland Mall and clear out some of those groups as we did at the Transit Center,” said Stephenson.

“I agree,” said Collin.

“Can you fill up both buses and the barrel that’s half-empty? In the back of this one,” asked Collin slapping his bus.

“Sure thing! What type of fuel?”

“Diesel.”

The Goblin ran around the buses and unscrewed the top of the tank. He took out a small red metal canister and began to pour it into the tank. A few minutes later, the green-eared Goblin ran to the second bus and did the same. Finishing up, he tried to open the bus door but couldn’t figure it out. With a sigh, he looked over to the group. Travis walked up and helped him open the door. He escorted the little fella inside to show him which barrel needed a refill.

A couple of minutes later, the Goblin came out and went up to Collin.

“That’ll be 10 Cores for the vehicles and 2 Cores for the barrel, please.”

“How do I pay you?”

The Goblin hummed as he typed something out in the air. A moment later, a prompt showed for Collin to pay for services rendered. After accepting the fee, the Goblin thanked him and ran off.

“That’s an odd choice of NPCs inside a zombie game,” said Richard.

“They’re the same ones from Fantasy,” replied Collin.

“Let’s spread out and check out the market. It being a safe area, we shouldn’t have to worry about the undead for a bit.”

Collin walked around the market, making a note of the prices for everything available. There were stalls for food, clothing, bedding, guns, ammo, armor, even trinkets. It seemed bizarre walking around on Earth’s duplicate, with Goblins trying to sell him things. Walking back to the ammo vendor, he bought four boxes of 9mm hundred rounds for the Glocks and two boxes of 5.56 hundred rounds for the M4s for 10 Cores a box. Collin then walked back to his bus and waited for the group to arrive.

The rest of the group was back within twenty minutes.

“When we kill some zombies, let me loot five of them, please,” said Paige.

“What for?” asked Burt.

“A collar and leash for Stella.”

“Alright, that’s a good idea. We want to keep her safe,” said Collin.

With all their business completed at the Goblins’ market, Collin’s Mad Ghosts boarded their respective vehicles. The Goblins opened the south gate and waved them through. Getting back on the road, the small caravan began the next leg of their journey. Collin hoped this supply cache would be available to them.