Saturday, aug 6, again

the sundress clad leapfrogger, waited for its target to leave its shelter. It expected them any second now, as it heard the footsteps getting closer, what it didn’t expect was the crowbar that hit it in the back, or the boot that proceeded to stomp its neck multiple times until it’s head bent at a weird angle. The last thing the leapfrogger heard was “oh the turn tables…”

——————————————————

besides the counter ambush on the infected, the trip back to the residential area was uneventful. Well, Uneventful until mal came across one of those gated communities. Wait, GATED community, oh no. mal grimly grabbed their crowbar and started towards the gate.

the crowbar didn’t even scratch it, it was a mechanical metal gate, what did they expect? Intelligence and wisdom are different things, but it could be argued mal had neither. What they did have was a concerning ingenuity and bullshit knowledge from late night rabbit holes on youtuba, and searches on the internet by peer curiosity that most likely got them on a watchlist. Searches like how to jury rig a car to start. Which they did.

after finding the nearest car, picking the lock with their knife to turn the lock, and the thinnest Alan wrench to push the pins, they found out it was out of gas, which was probably why it was there.

Luckily? They were able to find a car with fuel. And without much more explaining, they locked the acceleration pedal, tucked and rolled out of the car in an angle, to minimize injury, and crashed the car to a gate as safely as they could (thanks plot armor!)

(as to how Mal accomplished this feat,it can be summarized as the following lyrics from one of my favorite songs: “smart enough to make it, dumb enough to use it” also. A more accurate explanation is They’re the main character, hur dur author protect)

looking at their work, mal could proudly say that not only was the gate broken, but it was either the wrong one or not what that cryptic message meant. Either way they were both immensely proud and disappointed at the same time.

not wanting to go near the broken gate with the messed up car still driving against it, creating the smell of burnt rubber from the friction of the tires and road, mal hopped the 4 foot wall and approached the nearest house for “looting time”

thing that doors are for nerds mal pried open a window and crawled through. The first place they went was the kitchen to grab canned food and water, which they promptly shoved in their bag, they also replaced their full knife for a new one.

As they went to the next room, they were stopped in their tracks when a man brandishing a baseball bat and a woman with a coat rack primed like a war hammer. The man quickly shouted “Ayo, what the fuck you doing in my house, you little shit”

mal was caught like a deer in the head lights for a couple of seconds, before jumping out the nearest window, glass and all, vaulting the yard fence, and getting the fuck out of dodge. They had found a settlement.

Even after absolutely ruining their chance for trading and internet, mal was thankful for one thing, those people didn’t have a musket for home defense. It would have been moral to warn the settlement about the things at the nearby plaza, but mal was mal, so that didn’t even cross their mind.

as the cherry on top, the sound of the car breaking the gate attracts a lot of attention including the infected leapfroggers who were now on their way to check out the cool noise, which was at the settlement, that was full of common folk who never fought or were prepared for something like leapfroggers, and now had a broken gate with a car as a ramp inviting them in. And it’s all thanks to mal, who has no idea what horrors they have just wrought. Oh, and the collision probably heard that car too.

—————————————————

Saturday night, 2067, still August 6

mal, blissfully unaware, had set up a new home about 1.5 miles (or 2.4 kilometers for the metric folks) away from the settlement, in the cellar of a house they made sure was empty this time. As for why the basement, mal has always liked subterranean spaces because they make them feel safer.

after barricading the hell out of every entrance or access to the basement with chairs from the kitchen and hammering nails into wood boards they found in the garage, they began to settle down and doing more recreational activities like decorating the basement.

but just As they started decorating their new airbmb, a message appeared before their eyes. A message that made them fall on their ass with surprise and curious.