Item: SMW M468 Single/Double-Action Revolver Item Type: Firearm, Equippable (Tier 0) Equipment Slot: Main-Hand, Off-Hand Standard Ammunition: .22 UMR (40-GR.) Standard Ammunition Muzzle Velocity: 1850 fps Capacity: 8 Durability: 7/7 Weight: 2.9 lb

I’d been afraid it was too good to be true—the gun had to be a fake, or some kind of replica, but the Scan revealed that it was indeed an actual, fully-functioning firearm. I put the phone back in my pocket and carefully took the revolver out of the case.

The weapon had more weight to it than I’d expected. It was also almost a foot long, which I thought was a bit large for a handgun, but I didn’t really have the experience with firearms to know for sure. Frankly, this was my first time handling one, and my knowledge on the subject amounted to all of point, pull trigger, gun go boom-boom. A part of me was afraid I might accidentally drop the thing and it would shoot me in the face.

Speaking of which, I didn’t even know if I had any ammo. The case had been empty except for the gun, so any bullets would have to already have been loaded in the, uh... spinney, cylindrical thingy. I gently, then a bit more firmly, tried to push it out, but it was stuck in place. Well, it was probably supposed to be that way since you wouldn’t want it randomly popping out... Maybe there was some kind of lever, or button or something... aha! I found a little latch on the left side and pushed it forward, which caused the cylinder thing to pop out. I was delighted to find that all eight of the chambers were already filled with ammunition.

A series of heavy thumping sounds from downstairs halted any further investigations of my new weapon. Closing the cylinder, I made my way out of the attic. The blows became louder and more frequent as I left the bedroom the attic was attached to went out into the landing. I arrived just in time to see the front door come crashing down as a juggernaut rumbled into the foyer.

The rest of the zombies filed in from behind, heads swiveling around as they searched for their prey. It was the screamer who spotted me first, opening its mouth to let out a horrendous screech. It was bad enough outdoors, but here, the earsplitting sound was free to echo off the walls and mercilessly barrage my ears.

Still, I somehow managed to grit my teeth and keep my concentration as I aimed the revolver at the creature’s head. Wrapping both hands around the handle—I knew well enough to do that, at least—I aimed and pulled back the trigger.

The recoil wasn’t as bad as I’d expected. My aim was. The bullet landed so far off I wasn’t even sure where it went. I fired three more times, and, by some miracle, managed to blast a hole through the zombie’s head with the last shot.

The skull-piercing shrill abruptly shut off as the screamer’s body hit the floor. I didn’t have time to celebrate my first successful shooting as a juggernaut was storming up the stairs and was almost on me. I swiveled to my new target and fired. The bullet went wide, but by the time I shot the next one, the juggernaut was already so close even a complete amateur would be able to hit the mark.

I missed anyway. But the shot after that blasted through its eye and stopped the creature in its tracks. Before the corpse had the chance to fall forward, I activated Power Strike and kicked it in the stomach, generating just enough force to send the massive body tumbling back and taking down the zombies that had been following behind with it.

With the stairs temporarily jammed, I focused on my final target—the schemer. Picking out the lead zombie from the crowd, I aimed and readied to fire. Just as I pulled the trigger, however, the schemer seemed to realize the danger and ducked behind a brawler that suddenly shifted into the path of my sight.

This all proved to be rather unnecessary as my shot missed way off the mark, instead puncturing the stomach of the nearby spitter. The creature had been expanding its stomach, readying to hurl a burst of acid my way, but the fluids now began erupting from the hole in its belly, bubbling as it ate through undead flesh and opening the hole even wider to allow more of the deadly liquid to spew forth.

The schemer began distancing itself from the chaos, and I used the opportunity to aim for it again. The revolver clicked, and I suddenly realized I was completely out of bullets.

The schemer eyed me, as if sensing something was off. I pulled the trigger again, several times over, as if hoping some a bullet would magically come into existence inside one of the chambers. No such miracle occurred.

Shit.

Thinking quickly, I did the only thing that came to mind, something that wouldn’t have worked against any other kind of zombie: I bluffed. Pulling the gun down, I popped open the cylinder and pretended to reload it, going through the motions while using my hands to hide the fact that I had no idea what I was doing and that no bullets were actually being loaded into the chambers. I didn’t spare the process any more than two seconds, which probably wouldn’t have been enough time to actually load it, but my ruse seemed to have worked regardless. When I pulled the gun back up, aiming for the schemer, it once more ducked back behind the brawler.

The two zombies began to move in unison, the big undead meatshield in front, and the brains of the operation in the back. They weren’t going anywhere in particular, just moving back and forth to make a more difficult target for me to shoot. The rest of the zombies followed suit, even the ones who had picked themselves back up from being knocked over by the juggernaut. They didn’t seem interested in climbing up the stairs again. In fact, it looked like they were trying to keep distance both from me and from each other.

I kept the gun pointed at the schemer, trying to figure out what it might be planning now. I had no way to know how well it understood firearms, but it seemed to at least know that I needed ammunition to shoot, and that I would have a limited supply of it. If it was planning to stay at a distance, wait until I grew impatient and shot myself out, that made a lot of strategic sense. Especially since its group had already become significantly depleted, having lost the screamer, spitter, and one of the juggernauts.

Hold on... One of the juggernauts? In the chaos, I’d missed the fact that the second one had never actually entered the house. Where the fuck did it go?

I heard a loud thump from above. No... no way... More thumps, definitely footsteps, and heavy ones at that. You’ve got to be kidding me, how the fuck did it even get on the roof? The steps were clearly headed for the attic, right where the hole in the roof was.

Fucking hell.

A heavy thud shortly followed, indicating the oversized zombie had passed through the hole and was now in the attic. I backed off to the other side of the landing, away from the bedroom door. The gun was obviously useless now, but I kept up the ruse for what it was worth, pointing the muzzle at the door with my off-hand while readying to summon Titanslayer on my main. When the juggernaut came charging through, all it would get was a face full of steel.

As expected, the zombie came sprinting full speed out of the room. What wasn’t expected was for it to be carrying a second zombie in front of it, using its body like a meatshield to cover its face.

Then that second zombie started to tremble, and I realized that it most certainly was not a shield.

A dozen thoughts swirled in my head in the half-second I had to figure out my next action. Run? No, not enough room and the juggernaut was faster anyway. Kill the smaller zombie, hope it stops the explosion? Maybe, but the juggernaut would kill me right after. Jump down the railing, take my chances with the mass below? Possible, but against a schemer, three brawlers, and several creepers at once...

Not likely. Instead of trying to escape the juggernaut, I dropped the gun and bolted forward, activating a Quick-Roll as I dove for the its feet. The giant zombie’s knee slammed into my shoulder like a sledgehammer as I came out of my roll, but I ignored the pain and wrapped my arms around its leg and lifted, twisting my hips as I redirected its momentum over the banister. I couldn’t throw the juggernaut over it entirely—the zombie was far too big and strong for that—but my efforts were enough to get its upper body—along with the exploding zombie—on the other side, just before the explosion triggered.

It felt like a wave of solid metal slamming into my back. I went flying forward, slamming face-first into the wall, feeling my nose crunch before flopping down to the floor like a dead fish. Unsure how I managed to maintain consciousness, I worked my way back up to my feet in a daze, hot blood pouring down my broken nose like a faucet. I shook my head, trying to clear the cobwebs, then realized shaking my head after a concussion probably wasn’t the smartest idea. Instead, I tried to mentally stop the world from swirling around me, as if that would do anything.

Nevertheless, my vision straightened out after a few seconds, at least enough to where I could observe the aftermath of the explosion. The banister was mostly blown through. If not for it and the juggernaut dampening the explosion, I might no longer still be alive.

Speaking of which, how the hell did this motherfucker survive a direct hit? The giant zombie had been blown back, but was somehow still moving, trying to get back to its feet. I doubted it would be very successful in that endeavor, considering both of its arms were missing, but I went over to end its misery anyway. After passing Titanslayer’s blade through its neck, I hobbled over to check the situation downstairs.

Zombie bits were scattered everywhere, decorating the walls and the carpets with their gore. The undead themselves, however, were still alive, having mostly only been knocked back by the blast. A few creepers had lost some body parts, but that was the extent of it. The brawlers were on the ground, intact, but their large masses and poor coordination seemed to be making it difficult for them to pick themselves up off the floor. I couldn’t single the schemer out from the pile, but that was a secondary concern for now—I needed to get down there and finish off the brawlers before they got their shit together.

I jumped off the landing, activating a Double-Jump about halfway down to slow my fall. My knees expressed their complaints as I crashed to the ground, but I managed to stay on my feet, jolting back up and jabbing Titanslayer through the eye of the nearest zombie that had begun crawling toward me. Two more creepers that had gotten to their feet were closing in. Instead of trying to pull my weapon out of the dead zombie’s head, I simply activated Quick-Switch twice, unsummoning and resummoning my weapon to a more ready position. I then shifted my feet to lure the two zombies side-by-side and activated a Power Strike that through their necks in a single, two-handed swing, decapitating both. My shoulder and my back seared with pain on every movement, but it didn’t seem like anything was truly broken, and I didn’t let it hinder my motions as I downed one zombie after another.

I managed to reach the first brawler while it was still in the process of standing up. I didn’t know if the muscular zombies were big enough to activate Titanslayer’s bonus damage effect, but the spear sliced through the its neck with ease regardless, severing its spine and sending the corpse toppling to the floor. The two remaining brawlers came at me as a tandem. I could have tried to keep distance, pick them apart from the outside, but being indoors left me with little room for maneuvering, especially with a weapon as long as Titanslayer. So instead, I darted toward them, activating a Quick-Roll just before I reached inside their punching range. Both brawlers swung wildly and hit air as I rolled between them, rising to my feet and swiveling around to thrust my spear into the back of one brawler’s neck. Before the other one had finished turning around, I’d already double Quick-Switched and pierced Titanslayer between its eyes.

As the final brawler joined its two companions slumped on the ground, I heaved for breath and swept the area for any remaining zombies. None stood, but a few were still crawling along the floor. I dispatched of them quickly, then refocused on trying to find the schemer. Where the hell did that ugly fucker go? I was pretty sure I hadn’t accidentally killed it while I was dealing with the regular creepers, and I wouldn’t expect it to come at me so recklessly anyway. Did it realize it was going to lose and run off somewhere? Or maybe it was hiding among the dead bodies, hoping I’d miss it and leave.

I heard a scuffle behind me, turned around and glanced up at the landing. There it was. I swear the thing was grinning at me triumphantly, even if the dead muscles of its mouth weren’t fully cooperating. It had good reason to, as it was currently holding the gun I’d left upstairs, pointing the muzzle at me with a finger on the trigger.

Ah, so that was the ploy. Use the other zombies as a distraction, sneak upstairs, grab the gun and checkmate. Very clever. The only problem was...

Click.

The zombie looked confused. Well, it didn’t actually look any different, but the way it paused for a second, then furiously pulled the trigger several times was evidence enough. I gave it my own, almost comically cheesy grin, alongside a big middle finger.

“Dumbass.”