I stared blankly at my phone, letting my eyes glide across the same line over and over.

Rescue a Survivor.

Well, that certainly wasn’t what I’d expected. I’d say my gamble paid off, but I really wasn’t sure how to feel about it. Sure, there was a sense of hope and excitement at the knowledge that I wasn’t completely alone out here, but with that feeling also came a surge of anxiousness.

There was something going on here to which I’d been very much left out of the loop, and it wasn’t just these zombies appearing out of nowhere. If that was the only issue, there would still be people around, panicking, fighting, trying to escape... but there was nothing. I suppose I should be happy about that—no senseless tragedy and all—but why was I still here? What purpose could I possibly have?

These were the types of questions I'd been trying to ignore, but the existence of another person made that very difficult to keep doing. What was their story? Were they like me, left behind, lost and confused, or was it something else entirely? If they possessed knowledge that I didn’t, how much would I be able to trust them? Would they try to take advantage of my ignorance somehow, maybe lure me into a trap? Compared to the zombies I could just kill on sight, a human being was a much more intricate and dangerous potential adversary. And that wasn’t even considering the possibility that they might have the kinds of powers that I was starting to develop. They could even be stronger than me, though that was probably doubtful given I’d been assigned to “rescue” them.

I sighed. Maybe I was overthinking it—I didn’t even know how to begin searching for this person. I would assume they must be nearby for me to be assigned this task, but the fact that I was being offered double the XP of the previous daily quest and an additional tier II reward implied it certainly wasn’t meant to be a walk in the park.

Still, even putting the greater rewards aside, if there was someone out there who needed saving, it wouldn’t rest well on my conscience if I didn’t at least give it a try. I quickly finished up my meal and started putting on my new gear.

That turned out be a bit of an adventure in and of itself.

“Why... won’t... you... FIT?!” I pulled the earmuffs down on my head, trying to force the cups around my ears. It wasn't like I had a big head or anything—somebody just made this stupid thing way too fucking small. They could’ve at least added some adjustments. One more failed attempt and I was going to fling this thing at the fucking wall!

My phone buzzed. Fucking hell, what now?

Equip Tactical Earmuffs to Head Slot? YES NO

Oh. Well, I guess that’s how that’s supposed to work. I tapped the “YES” option, and the earmuffs snapped into place so quickly it nearly made me jump. It was painless, though, and now they somehow fit perfectly around my ears without the slightest hint of discomfort. I snapped my fingers next to my ear to test the sound. It was only muffled slightly—certainly not to the extent of the 80% reduction advertised—but maybe that only applied to sounds that would actually hurt my ears. That was pretty convenient considering I’d already experienced how detrimental it was to be deprived of my hearing.

I tried to pull the earmuffs back off, only to find that they wouldn’t even budge. It was like they’d been superglued over my ears. I looked back down at my phone for a solution.

Unequip Tactical Earmuffs from Head Slot? YES NO

I tapped “YES” and the earmuffs popped back off again. That was great and all, but what the hell was I supposed to do if I somehow lost my phone? Would I be stuck with these things attached to my head for the rest of my life?

That didn’t sound like a fun prospect, and I tried not to let the thought bother me too much as I re-equipped the earmuffs. I then threw off my shoes and grabbed my new kicks, which looked no different from a typical pair of basketball sneakers, and repeated the equipping process using the phone. Both shoes snapped jumped and snapped around my feet, the laces tying themselves in a flash. I’d been a bit worried about them being too small, seeing as I was a size eleven, but like with the earmuffs, they somehow adjusted to fit perfectly around my feet.

Finally, came the axe. I picked up the weapon carefully and gave it a few, slow, practice swings. Unlike the earmuffs and the shoes, I could use this thing without actually equipping it, but perhaps there would be some added benefits to doing so it anyway.

Equip Zombie Hunter Axe to Main-Hand Slot? YES NO

I tapped “YES.” Instantly, the weapon became lighter in my hand. That must be the Melee Weapons skill at work. As I gave it a few more swings, I found that the axe also moved with a greater fluidity than before. My actual skill with the weapon hadn’t changed at all, but I did feel more coordinated, and it was easy to visualize myself slashing, bashing, and otherwise destroying some zombie heads with it.

I set the axe back down and... I did not set the axe back down. Huh? I lifted my hand and opened my palm. The axe was stuck to it. I tilted my palm down to let it drop, but even without my fingers touching the handle, the weapon was glued to the skin of my palm. It didn’t hurt or anything, but the weight distribution did make it a bit uncomfortable. Experimenting some more, I found that I could freely position my hand higher or lower, reverse the grip, or take the weapon in both hands, but as soon as I tried moving it to my other hand or even throwing it aside, the handle stuck to my hand like a magnet on a fridge.

This was... interesting. It was nice to know I wouldn’t have to worry about dropping the weapon—I’d already experienced the dangers of that with my hammer twice—but if I ever needed to throw the weapon for some reason, or just disarm myself for a close-quarters battle, I’d no longer have those options. I searched around the XP Shop for workarounds to this, but it seemed only weapons that had the “throwing” label attached to them could be released while equipped. I could, of course, just unequip the axe and use it like a regular weapon, but that would cost me the effects of my Melee Weapons skill, and, I suspected, would also rob me of the axe’s extra damage against zombies and chance for bonus XP. In the end, I decided the pros of keeping it equipped outweighed the cons.

---

The neighborhood was tranquil once again as I stepped out of the house, wielding the axe over my shoulder. I kept expecting to see a band of zombies, or even just a stray I could test my new weapon out on, but there wasn’t a soul to be seen as I made my way up the street. Well, zombies probably didn’t have souls, anyway.

I arrived at the remains of the burnt-down house. Still, no zombies. The rubble was charred and covered in ash, and I had to pull the collar of my t-shirt over my nose to keep from coughing as I carefully made my way through it. No corpses, either. They must’ve all vanished already. Just a big ol’ pile of burnt debris.

The fire seemed to have stopped right around the edges of the property, taking the backyard fence, but not much more. I found that a bit strange, but didn’t dwell on it. I didn’t come here to admire the wreckage—I came here to find some juicy loot! With the sheer number of zombies that had fallen here—including at least four superiors—surely I’d be able to find a couple of useful items.

Manually searching through the entirety of the rubble would be impossible, but I had another idea. Pulling out my phone, I activated the Scan and slowly moved the camera from side to side as I made my way through the wreckage. It didn’t take long for me to find my first item. The white square on the screen flashed yellow or a split second, and I shifted the phone back a bit until I found the area where the square remained yellow. Ah-ha!

I quickly unequipped the axe and began pushing the debris aside. There was so much rubble and ash, I was certain I wouldn’t have been able to find this thing if not for the Scan. The item I uncovered at the bottom was... a roll of tape? I put it under the Scan.

Item: Brawler Wraps Item Type: Equippable (Tier I) Equipment Slot: Hands Effect: +1 Strength Increases Physical Damage dealth through hand strikes by 15% Weight: .4 lb Durability: 7/7

Kind of like the hand wraps a boxer would use. The second effect wouldn’t do me much good, as I really had no interest in fighting zombies hand-to-hand, but I couldn’t complain about the increase in Strength.

Equip Brawler Wraps to Hands Slot? YES NO

I tapped “YES” and the tape uncoiled automatically, wrapping itself around my hands so quickly I didn’t even have time to blink before it was finished. I flexed my fingers. I didn’t have the experience to compare them with conventional combat wraps, but these things didn’t hinder my movements in the least.

I continued Scanning through the wreckage for any more finds. Another yellow flash had me excited, but upon digging up the item, all I found was another dollar bill. I was honestly surprised it had even survived the fire, but maybe the zombies hadn’t actually begun disappearing until the house had fully burned down and the fire had gone out. I still wasn’t sure what to do with the cash, but I decided to hold on to it. The zombies wouldn’t be dropping money like this unless it had some use, right?

Several more minutes went by with me finding nothing more than some more bills—mostly ones, but a couple fives and even a ten—before I uncovered my next item, a dusty old backpack. Well, it was only dusty because it was covered in ash. I brushed it off, careful not to let anything get in my nose, revealing what now looked like a typical modern school bag.

Item: Small Inventory Backpack Item Type: Miscellaneous (Tier I) Description: Contains a 16 ft.3 cubic storage space with a maximum weight capacity of 100 lb. Reduces the weight of all items inside by 75%. Weight: 1.2 lb Durability: 7/7

I held the backpack up and stared at it. Well, we’ve ignored plenty of laws of physics already, what’s a few more? I unzipped the thing and took a peek inside. It was pitch black, yet when I stuck my hand in, I could still see it clearly. I fumbled around, feeling out the dark space. There was a hard surface at each of the edges, but other than that, it was empty.

I pulled my hand out and zipped the backpack back up. Honestly, that was kind of creepy.

Moving on, my next find was in the backyard, courtesy of the spitter. How did I know that? Well...

Item: Jar of Zombie Acid Item Type: Miscellaneous (Tier I) Description: Contains 14 fl oz of Spitter stomach acid. Weight: 1.5 lb

Certainly fit the theme, didn’t it? The glass jar felt sturdy enough, but having such a fresh memory of the acid’s corrosiveness, I was very careful as I placed the item into the backpack. As an experiment, I tried moving the bag around with the zipper still open to find that the jar remained standing steadily inside, even when I upped the intensity and shook the bag vigorously. I turned the bag upside down, ready to catch the jar when if it fell out, but it stayed perfectly in its place. I reached inside and moved the jar to the center of the bag, away from any walls, and it just hovered there in the air, not even falling to the bottom.

Well, it was nice to know it wouldn’t fall over and seeping out everywhere as I carried it around, but seeing the laws of physics so brazenly ignored was rather unnerving. I was a bit curious what would happen if I purposely let the acid spill inside the backpack, but not to the extent that I was going to risk damaging the item to find out.

I zipped it back up again. From the outside, the thing still looked like it was completely empty. Even when I felt along the part where the jar should have been, there was no change in texture. Again, very unnerving. I threw all the money I’d collected so far inside the bag and moved along, forcing myself not to think about it too much.

I found one last item amongst the wreckage, and of everything I’d found so far, it was probably the one that turned out to be the most useful. At first glance, it seemed to just be a piece of old, faded parchment, but upon giving it a Scan...

Item: 1 mi2 Local Map (Low Detail) Item Type: Map (Tier I) Description: Low detail map of the area within a 3000 ft. radius of the location where this item was dropped. Weight: .1 lb Absorb 1 mi2 Local Map (Low Detail)? YES NO

A map. I'd searched the XP Shop for these, too, but found it empty despite what the message had originally said about them being available for purchase. I tapped the YES option, and the parchment shattered into particles of light, which were then promptly sucked into my phone.

Map Absorbed New Map unlocked: 1 mi2 Local Map (Low Detail) Tap here to view

I tapped the option, and a new window popped up that looked like the overhead view of a typical GPS map, with a small compass on the top right. The map also showed the outlines of houses along the neighborhood, and I found it very interesting that the area I was standing on was blank. That meant either the map was updated in real time, or the static picture was taken sometime after the item had been dropped.

I moved the map around with my finger, trying to get an idea of the neighborhood. Knowing where the roads lead, where they branched off, hit a dead end, or circled around would be very useful if I ever found myself needing to escape a situation. I zoomed out, trying to get a full picture of the area, and that’s when I noticed the little yellow arrow in the corner of the screen.