“Check it out,” Cody said when Yeoman finally arrived at the new camp. It wasn’t much of a camp. There was only a fire and a few buckets. Over the fire, there was a slab of rock, and on top of that rock, there were a few dead bugs. “I’m cooking dinner.”

A day ago, if someone referred to fat, yellow worms that looked like plump maggots as dinner, Yeoman would’ve felt nauseous. Now, however, he didn’t feel a thing. “I think I’ll eat the fish.”

Cody shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

Yeoman watched Cody stuff a worm into his mouth. “You were right, by the way,” Yeoman said. “I got three Proofs of Murder for killing those people. The person with the most Proofs of Murder gets an additional five hundred points at the end of the stage.”

“Just five hundred?” Cody asked. It looked like he was doing his best to keep a straight face. “That’s pretty lame.”

Yeoman shrugged. “How’s the worm?”

“It tastes like shit.” Cody swallowed with a grimace. “I don’t know how birds do it. Damn, we have to live like this for a whole week? Why don’t I build us a hut? I’ve seen it done on the So-and-so Technology channel.”

“Like you saw how to start a fire?” Ella asked from her spot at the river. Yeoman had no idea how she could hear them from there.

“This’ll be easier,” Cody said, his face slightly red. “I caught the bugs, didn’t I? All we need for a hut is some big sticks and some mud. Let’s construct it a little bit away from the river. It’s too noticeable. If other people end up coming here, they might kill us for some Proofs of Murder.”

“I don’t think people would be that hostile,” Yeoman said and frowned. He liked to believe people were good. Even though the people in the plot of the original story weren’t the best, everyone here was from New York. They were civilized. Assholes, sure, but still civilized.

“Says the murderer,” Cody said. He made a face as he ate another worm. “It’ll be better if we build away from the river. It’s too loud. We’ll never hear infected sneaking up on us.”

Yeoman didn’t bother objecting to Cody’s comment. It would be a waste of energy. “Alright. I’ll help you build. What do you need me to do?”

“See if you can find any long grasses, kinda like hay, or some really long leaves. We’ll need them for the roof. Oh, we also need vines or something we can use as rope.” Cody frowned. “Now that I think about it, didn’t the camps in the story have ropes and metal cans as an alarm system? How come we didn’t run into any of them? Those would’ve been super useful.”

Yeoman’s brow furrowed. Cody was right. Either the aliens forgot to include the ropes and cans, or someone else had left the camp even earlier than them and collected them all. Thinking of the camp, Yeoman wondered what happened between the people there and the smart infected. The people were intelligent and aware of the plot, but the smart infected had been buffed into a brick-throwing murder machine. It was hard to imagine either side losing.

“Take a shirt with you,” Cody said, pointing at the pile of clothes Yeoman had brought to the camp. “You can use it like a bag. If you find more of those berries, be sure to bring them back.”

Yeoman grunted and took a shirt before setting off. The forest wasn’t as scary as before. After killing an infected by himself and then killing another three, his sense of fear was a bit dull. Everything still felt like a dream. He was on a lunchbreak, and then he was here, killing zombies. A sigh escaped from his mouth. He was staring at the ground, making sure not to make any noise as he walked, but he realized by doing so, he was missing out on a lot of his surroundings. There were resources everywhere. Vines were wrapped around trees, and there was a tremendous amount of grass just waiting to be harvested.

A few minutes into Yeoman picking grass and tugging on vines, there came the sounds of rustling and groaning. Yeoman grabbed his bat and turned around. Five infected were shambling towards him. His heart jumped, and he ran, bringing the makeshift bag of vines and grass with him. It didn’t take him very long to reach the river where Ella was still fishing. Behind her, there was a dead body with a wooden spear planted in its head. The old lady turned around when Yeoman caught sight of her. Yeoman called out, “Five infected are chasing me. Where’s Cody?”

“He’s over there,” Ella said and pointed into the forest. “Cody! We need help!”

Yeoman’s face cramped. Why did she shout? Didn’t she know her voice would attract more?

“Coming!”

And why did Cody shout back? It was at that point Yeoman realized his tolerance for risk was much lower than his companions’, but now wasn’t the time to worry about that. He dropped the bag of grass and vines near the pile of clothes and readied his bat. Seeing the approaching infected, he would’ve felt a lot less anxious if he had a shield.

There was a swishing sound, and an arrow pierced an infected’s head. It crumpled to the ground, unmoving. “I’ll leave one for each of you,” Cody said from behind Yeoman. Another two arrows flew out, and two more infected fell down.

Ella brushed past Yeoman and stabbed out with her spear, hitting one of the remaining two infected’s throat. She twisted her body to the side, and the infected toppled to the ground, dragged by wood lodged in its body. Ella pulled the spear out and stabbed down, impaling the zombie through its eye. She used the butt of her spear to nudge the last infected away from her. “This one’s yours.”

Yeoman, once again feeling a little useless, stepped forward and swung his bat, striking the infected on the head. There wasn’t a flash of light coming out of his wrist, so he swung a few more times until he saw it.

[Bonus Mission: Kill ten infected. 5/10]

Not even a day had passed, yet he was already halfway there. Cody’s decision of seizing the initiative might’ve been the right one.

Cody’s eyes lit up. “That’s a lot of grass and vines. Perfect.” He picked up the makeshift bag and patted Yeoman’s shoulder before walking away. “You can loot the bodies, alright? Make sure you don’t break the arrows when you take them out.”

Yeoman glanced at Ella, but the old lady went back to fishing. There were five fish on the heated rock above the fire. It seemed like Ella had been busy since he was gone. Yeoman sighed and examined the dead infected. He had found his place in this group. Cody was the leader. Ella was the survivalist. And he was the one who rummaged through dead bodies looking for stuff. This time, there were a few useful things.

[Obtained Hunting Knife (Common)]

[Hunting Knife (Common): A knife used by hunters to perform bloody rituals on dead animals.]

[Obtained Lighter (Common)]

[Lighter (Common): Some people are handicapped and unable to start fires. This tool evens out the playing field.]

[Obtained Hatchet (Common)]

[Hatchet (Common): The previous owner of this hatchet tripped, and his spine fell onto the hatchet’s head, paralyzing him from the waist down. An infected ate his face afterwards. Now, the hatchet is in your hands. Will you suffer the same fate?]

Yeoman spent a longer amount of time than usual reading these descriptions. When he was done, he went to find Cody to gift him a hatchet; after all, an axe would help him build the hut much faster. As for the hunting knife, Yeoman gave it to Ella. For some reason, he felt like the old lady would find a much better use for it than either himself or Cody. The lighter was left near the fire. Once Yeoman was done distributing the tools, he went back to the dead bodies. In the story, the people would smear the innards of the infected around to ward off other infected, but Yeoman didn’t think he had the stomach for it. He might not be using their innards, but he could still take their clothes. They might be useful for something. He didn’t know how cold it was going to get at night, and it seemed like the sun was going to set soon.

It took a while, but Yeoman stripped all the infected. He went to the river and washed the clothes, but he couldn’t get the stains out. Water simply wasn’t enough, and he didn’t have any cleaning supplies. The river was cold too, and by the time he was done rinsing off all the clothes, his fingers were white, and he could barely feel them.

“Guys, I finished!” Cody arrived at the campfire with his hands covered in mud. He went to the river and rinsed them off. “Now we have a place to sleep at night.”

Yeoman and Ella exchanged glances with each other. Ella left the riverbank and placed her makeshift fishing rod onto a rock near the fire. “Let’s see it.”

“Follow me.” Cody strutted into the forest, leading his companions towards his creation. It only took a couple minutes of walking to reach what Cody called a hut.

“It’s small,” Yeoman said, stating his first impression.

Cody cleared his throat. “We’re just sleeping in it.”

“It’s really small,” Ella said and nodded. “When I was younger, the chickens my mom raised had a bigger shelter than this.”

“That just means no one will notice it,” Cody said, his face red. The hut did end up smaller than he imagined. It was barely as tall as his chest. It looked like a box made of mud with one face missing. “It was hard to get the roof to slant, so….” He gestured at the rectangular shelter. “Yeah.” A fire was burning inside the hut, and there was a hole in the back wall for the smoke to flow out of. At least it was wide enough for the three of them to lay down in, one of them on each side.

“Won’t this smoke attract the smart infected here?” Yeoman asked. Gordan had wanted to put out the fire in the Log Cabins for that very reason. Fire was necessary to boil water, and it was fine to start a fire anywhere along the river, but if they were going to put a fire in their base, wouldn’t that just be signaling to the world they were here?

“We’ll only keep the fire on at night to keep warm,” Cody said. “I just have it burning for now to harden the mud. Also, you have some clothing scraps, right? I need one.”

“Yeah,” Yeoman said and handed Cody a shirt. “What do you need it for?”

“There’s no toilet paper, so….” Cody shrugged and pulled at the shirt. It didn’t rip. “You have a knife?”

Yeoman took out his Swiss Army knife and handed it to Cody. The Asian man cut out a square piece of cloth and handed the knife back. “I’ll be behind that tree over there. Keep watch for me, alright?”

Yeoman had read dogs stared at their owners whilst pooping because they could watch their owners’ expressions for any signs of danger. Yeoman never owned a dog before, but he felt like he could sympathize with a dog owner now. Rather than focusing on those thoughts, Yeoman squatted down next to the hut and sighed. Was their group of one hundred the only ones abducted? Would there be a huge news story about their disappearance? Probably. His mother would go crazy once she learned about it. He thought it was a little sad. He had been abducted by aliens, such a rare thing to encounter, but he couldn’t even get a girlfriend, something so common. Would he return home after these seven days were over? The item description for the Proof of Murder had called this a stage. Usually, there were multiple stages to something. How long did he have to survive here?

“Whew, I wouldn’t go back there if I were you,” Cody said, interrupting Yeoman’s thoughts. “There’s no ventilation system either.”

Yeoman was too numb to be disgusted. He wanted to take a shower. He wanted to lie down on his couch and zone out while streaming videos on his laptop. He wanted to drink a case of cold beers and pass out before finishing the last one. He didn’t want to take a shit in the woods where zombies prowled. He didn’t want any of this. “I’m a bit tired. How about I sleep now, and I’ll keep watch for us later at night?”

Cody scratched his head. “Are you sure? The sun’s still out; we should make the most of it. If you sleep now, one of us will have to watch over you, and our productivity will drop.”

“Let him sleep,” Ella said. “I’ll watch over him. My body is sore from squatting over that river all day. I’m not as young as I used to be.”

“Uh, alright.” Cody nodded. “You two stay here. I’m going to explore a bit.”

Yeoman grunted and crawled into the hut with his metal bat, making his way all the way to the back. There was a bunch of grass placed over the ground like a cushion, and Yeoman lay on top of it. It was uncomfortable. The ends of the grass poked his neck and tickled his ears, and he swore something was crawling on his skin. Falling asleep was probably impossible, but he didn’t want to do anything other than lie there. Memories from his childhood, teenage years, and young adult life played in his head as he lay there. He had never been in a situation like this, had no previous experiences to draw upon. No matter how much he thought about it, nothing useful came to mind. Soon, he couldn’t remember what he was thinking about anymore, and his thoughts came slower and slower.

“Hey! Wake up!”

Something slapped Yeoman’s face.

“There’s a bunch of infected!”

It was dark. The fire was burning in front of Yeoman, but there was only darkness beyond it. Cody was standing by the entrance of the hut, and Ella was crawling out. Yeoman’s body felt heavy, but he forced himself to crawl, bringing his bat with him. After he made it out, he stood up and looked around. Other than the crackling of the fire, he couldn’t hear anything. The eeriness of the forest sent chills down his spine. As someone who lived in the city all his life, he had never experienced any night as black as this. There was always a streetlight or a dim sign illuminating the city at night, but here, the only thing he could see beyond the first few trees was black. “Where are they?”

Cody didn’t have to answer. There was a crunching sound, and an infected stumbled into view from the left. Cody raised his bow and shot it, sending it to the ground. “I finished my bonus quest. Do you guys want me to keep killing them or let you have them?”

“Keep killing.”

“Let us have them.”

Yeoman and Ella had spoken at the same time. Yeoman couldn’t help but feel a little ashamed. Evidently, the old lady was braver than he was. “Never mind. We’ll take care of it, but if there’s too many, help us out.”

Ella nodded as if to say, “That’s the spirit,” while Cody nocked another arrow. The old lady approached the dead infected and waited. Yeoman exhaled and gripped his metal bat tightly before following after her. He raised his bat with both hands, standing in a way that would make any junior league baseball coach proud but any major league baseball coach ashamed. Two infected came into view. Ella didn’t hesitate to stab out with her spear, accurately striking one of the infected in the throat. It raised its hands, trying to grab her, but the spear’s reach was too long. Ella leaned to the left and pushed on her spear, tilting the infected over. Yeoman ignored what she was doing and stepped closer to the remaining infected. It lunged at him, and he struck its arms with a sideways swing. Its body turned slightly from the impact, and Yeoman raised the bat up high before slamming it down onto the infected’s head. It staggered, and Yeoman swung his bat again and again until a light flashed from his wrist.

[Bonus Mission: Kill ten infected. 6/10]

“It might be easier to kill them if you hit the back of their heads, near the neck,” Ella said when he was done. She had killed hers long ago.

Yeoman grunted. Cody and Ella made it look so easy, so why was it so difficult for him? Was he really that weak? He didn’t have time to think about it thanks to more crunching sounds coming from ahead. Four infected came into view. Ella stabbed the closest one in the eye, killing it instantly, and she stabbed another in its stomach, pushing on the spear to lead it away. Yeoman gulped and raised his bat as the remaining two infected approached him. “Cody!”

“Got it.” Cody’s voice was accompanied by an arrow. It whizzed uncomfortably close to Yeoman’s ear before hitting one of the infected, killing it. “Oh, shit. I almost killed you there. My bad.”

A chill ran down Yeoman’s spine, and goosebumps appeared on his flesh. The next time he asked Cody for help, Yeoman was definitely going to duck. Rather than get upset at his partner, Yeoman swung his bat, knocking the approaching infected’s hands away. He stepped to the side opposite of where its arms went, and swung the bat at the back of the infected’s head. There was a snapping sound, and the infected crumpled to the ground; a light flashed from Yeoman’s wrist, signaling the infected’s death. Ella was right; it was easier to kill them that way.

The group waited a bit longer, but there weren’t any other sounds. Cody lowered his bow. “Seems like that’s all of them,” he said and squatted down. “It’s your turn to keep watch, Yeoman.”

“Alright,” Yeoman said, watching as Ella and Cody crawled into the hut. He was wide awake after that short skirmish. It was incredible what adrenaline could do. Back home, he used to struggle with waking up, often hitting the snooze button up to ten times, but look at him now. Yeoman let out a small breath and sat down with his back to the entrance of the mud box. The heat coming off the fire warmed his back. It was comfortable, like he was sitting in a hot tub.