Amazon apocalypse, p.4
Amazon Apocalypse, page 4
She got dressed, as did I, both of us with our backs turned to the other. But as I did so, I noticed something moving in the corner of Sakura’s desk. I got the distinct impression that we weren’t alone in her office.
My head whipped around to investigate, and Sakura yelped, still holding her dress pants in her hands. “No peeking!”
I heard something whirring, like motors spinning. The sound was familiar enough for me to instantly realize it was her printer buzzing to life. “Were you printing something?” I asked, regarding the device with suspicion.
Printers were evil, uncooperative, and frustrating things to work with on ordinary days. But at the end of the world? What could it be? The printer split in half, revealing a maw of teeth made of broken plastic shards, each dripping with ink instead of saliva. It launched itself at Sakura, and the only things she had in her hands to defend herself with, were the clothes she’d been in the middle of putting back on.
Sakura screamed, falling backward and barely snatching her hands back in time to save her fingers. The printer only got a mouthful of cloth for its sneaky ambush. Naked and terrified, Sakura tripped over her own chair and fell to the ground, where the snarling printer spat ink that splattered across her skin. She held up her hands to shield her face, and I knew it would be on top of her in another moment.
“Carter!” Sakura screamed.
I flipped Sakura’s desk over, sending the printer tumbling away from her. It reared its monstrous head, but I grabbed the table by its leg and pushed. Then, throwing my full weight behind the table, I slammed the furniture into the printer, driving it all the way into the far wall.
The printer spat and snarled, but took heavy damage from the desk slamming into it. I pulled the desk back and slammed it into the printer again and then again once more. Each hit sent sparks flying through the air, and when the whirring finally stopped, I figured I had finally killed the thing.
You have slain [Mimic - Level 3]
You have been awarded bonus experience for killing an enemy above your own level.
Congratulations! For slaying a monster in order to save a damsel in distress, you have been awarded the title Valiant Protector! +1% combat stat effectiveness when defending beautiful women. Because you are the first of your integration to achieve this title, its effects are enhanced tenfold. Your title will be upgraded to Gallant Guardian.
You have gained the proficiency: Improvised weapons!
“Gallant, huh?” I huffed.
It sounded like a positive title, so I supposed I should be happy about getting it. The annoying thing was having all these words floating in front of my face. That would have been distracting if it had happened a moment ago, when I was still fighting the printer. Just when I was thinking how annoying it was to have these messages block my vision, they shifted off to the bottom left corner.
“Sakura, are you okay?” I asked after I finished dismissing the message.
“I... I have a quest from the System,” Sakura said, eyes unfocused as she stared at a message just like the one I’d dismissed a moment ago. “It’s telling me to... I suppose it’s easier to just complete the quest.”
Sakura sprang to her feet and pressed her lips against my cheek. It was brief, but the moment she was done, I received another message.
You have successfully saved Sakura Miyamoto from danger! She has recognized your efforts, and you have earned bonus experience points and a temporary title.
You have been awarded the temporary title: Hero of Sakura Miyamoto (Common - Expires in 3 days)
Effects: Enhances combat stats when near Sakura Miyamoto. Effects stack with Gallant Guardian. +1 Charisma (Hidden Stat)
Congratulations! You have reached level 2!
You have four available stat points to assign!
Some stat points have been automatically assigned. You have earned additional stat points which you may manually distribute. If you do not distribute stats within twenty-four hours, they will be randomly distributed.
“Huh... Apparently, I have a title now. I’m the Damsel of Carter Smith.” Sakura blushed as she held her hand up in front of her face, apparently fiddling with her menu.
“Sounds a bit romantic, kind of like my new title.” I chuckled.
Sakura looked at me askance, and I explained the first title I’d gotten—though I didn’t think I’d looked particularly gallant smacking a cheap piece of office furniture against a printer-turned monster.
The two of us shared a laugh, which did a lot to break the tension of the life-and-death experience we’d had with the mimic mere moments ago. Sakura tried picking up her discarded shirt, which was stained with printer ink and torn to shreds. Her pants, unfortunately, were still in the maw of the printer, and even though it looked like it was dead, neither of us wanted to approach the thing to check.
While she fussed with the remains of her clothes, I finished dressing and looked at my status menu.
Besides the one additional point in Charisma, I had four free points to allocate. Staring at the menu, I wasn’t really sure what I should do. If I had a class, the choice would have been obvious. I would have just thrown the points into whatever stat my class was based on. The problem was, I didn’t have a class… yet.
That meant I would have to choose how best to allocate my stats. I wished I’d thought to ask the System which stat would yield the greatest results at the early levels. All I could do was guess what the stats might improve.
Thinking about it, I realized that this decision might be a bit easier if I was a little smarter. Which meant the smart choice was probably to put at least one point into Intelligence. Besides, I was a little miffed that my Intelligence stat wasn’t higher. Sure, seven was probably decent, but it wasn’t great. Thankfully, I could rectify that now.
I dropped two points into Intelligence and waited for a rush of knowledge to fill my head. A few seconds later, I was still waiting. My thoughts didn’t come faster, nor did a miraculous change of personality transform me into someone smart enough to survive this apocalypse.
I did, however, come to the realization that I probably should have dropped those points into Perception or Vitality. Both of those seemed to be survival stats, and if I didn’t have a class, my objective should be to enhance my survivability long enough to get to the point where I knew enough to assign my stats properly. Having realized this, I put one point each into Vitality and Perception. At last, I sensed something change.
I’d started wearing my glasses regularly recently, thanks to having a desk job and staring at a computer screen all day. I wasn’t wearing them now, but it felt like I was. My eyesight sharpened and Sakura came into perfect focus all the way across the room as she poked the dead printer with a pen, trying to extract what was left of her clothes.
“I fear those aren’t going to be in any shape to wear,” I cautioned. Sure enough, when Sakura finally extracted the ruined remains of her former garments, she had nothing more than a few strips of cloth stained a garish shade of purple.
Worry furrowed Sakura’s brow as she turned to me with her hand still covering her chest, even though she had managed to rescue her bra. “I don’t have any other clothes in the office...” she mumbled.
I would be fine in just my undershirt. I stripped my long sleeved button-down off and tossed it to her. It was big enough that—with a belt to fasten it around her waist—it could serve as a tunic, covering her down to her thighs. “That will have to do for now,” I told her.
Sakura dressed, and I realized the noises from outside her office were getting louder. Perhaps her printer wasn’t the only one that had turned evil—well, more evil than printers usually were.
Looking at her, I realized there was something different about her. I'd never have admitted it out loud, but Sakura had always been pretty average for a woman. She ate healthy, but was too busy to do any real exercise. She could probably dress herself up if she wanted, but usually she was more worried about looking professional, than highlighting her pretty brown eyes with makeup or doing anything more than pull her hair back in a low ponytail.
That had changed. Her cheekbones were sharper than I remembered, and her muscle tone a little more vibrant than it should be. It was like she'd spent a month on a vigorous diet and exercise regimen.
“Did you just allocate some stat points?” I asked.
“Yeah.” Sakura nodded. “This is weird, but it seems like real life has turned into some sort of game. I put everything into Strength, since that's always the best stat.”
I wasn't sure I agreed with that, but I couldn't deny the results. “May I?” I asked, before reaching to touch her face.
Blushing, she nodded.
I ran my hand along her cheek. She'd definitely changed, though there was something else there I couldn't identify until I ran my fingers across the center of her forehead. There was a tiny bump in the center of her head. I reached out and brushed my fingers across the spot again. Definitely a bump.
“Did you hit your head or something?” I asked as I gently stroked the little bump.
Sakura let out a sharp startled gasp as my hand brushed against her forehead again.
“I... yeah, I think I did hit my head. Or something...” Sakura said. She squirmed in place, rubbing her thighs together.
“I’m sorry. Did it hurt when I touched it?”
“Hurt? No, not really. I think it’s just pretty sensitive.” Sakura stood back up, touching the bump in the center of her head just as I had. “I'll be okay.”
“You’re sure?”
Sakura nodded. “Yeah. I'm fine.”
I shrugged. I thought about pushing a bit more to make sure this wasn’t something like a concussion, but before I could ask, we both heard a loud thump just outside the office door.
“Something’s happening outside. They might need our help,” I said.
“What if there are more monsters out there?” Sakura asked. “Like the printer thing.”
“Mimic,” I corrected.
I reached for a leg of Sakura’s cheap office desk. It wouldn’t be an ideal weapon, but it was the best we could come up with for now.
“How are you so calm about this?” Sakura asked in wonder as I unscrewed the legs to her desk and prepared for battle. “My printer turned into a monster and attacked us! And yet you don't seem scared or surprised at all...”
I was silent a moment, debating what to tell her. Eventually, I found my voice. “I guess you could say I've been preparing for something like this for a long time.” Heaving and pulling, I tore one leg free, and then another.
Handing one two-foot-long piece of office furniture to Sakura, I kept the other for myself. “Let’s go.”
Armed like a proper pair of apocalyptic survivors, I yanked the door wide open and regarded the rest of the office. With my first step, I found my shoes soaked in blood.
One of the accountants lay sprawled out on his stomach, arms spread wide, as he spilled red onto the carpet around him. His head lay lolled to the side, his eyes were closed, and his slack jaw hung slightly agape as he twitched in time with every breath.
A rat the size of a dog took fist-sized bites out of his stomach. When it saw me, it seemed to grin maliciously. Its dark brown fur bristled and ruffled, and it growled low in its throat before leaping forward. Claws extended, it ran straight toward me, leaving bloody tracks behind it as it charged.
In response, I readied my club. Turning my back on this thing would be the last thing I ever did.
“Sakura, back me up!” I yelled.
[Giant Rat - Level 3]
Like the mimic, this rat was at a higher level than I was. But I was armed, and hopefully, between the both of us, we should be able to overcome the level disadvantage.
“O-okay!” Sakura said, quickly stepping up to my side, her own desk leg in hand.
I charged forward to meet its attack. With the pointed broken end of my desk leg held out in front of me, I intercepted its hungry lunge with the splintered end of the desk leg.
The rat’s jaws locked onto my weapon and tore it from my grasp. I was worried I was going to be next on the menu, but Sakura darted forward and bashed the rat in the head with her own weapon. That dazed the creature long enough for me to tear my weapon free from its jaws, snapping some rat teeth as I jerked it back.
The rat righted itself in moments, turning its attention to Sakura. She hesitated when she locked eyes with the beast, her entire body freezing up. She’d been about to hit it again, but staring at those monstrous eyes, she couldn’t move a muscle.
The rat’s threatening posture as it focused on her had the opposite effect on me. I felt Gallant Guardian take effect, and new strength flowed into my body. I swung the broken desk leg at the rat’s head, the wood connecting solidly with its skull.
My strike broke the skin and drew a line of bright red along the monstrous rodent’s temple. It roared in pain and backed away, shaking its head violently as it retreated. As soon as it scurried past Sakura, it fled into the hallway beyond.
Your Improvised Weapons proficiency has increased to 2.
“You did it!” Sakura congratulated me.
I grimaced. I’d hoped to put the rat down. I bet that would have granted us a good amount of experience points. And it didn’t look like we were in time to save the accountant—I think his name had been Tim. His eyes gazed out blankly into nothing as his heart pumped out the last of his blood onto the carpet. His body lay still and unmoving.
Sakura followed my gaze, and her face paled. “I... I think I loaned the law office across the hall our first aid kit. Let me go get it!”
I shook my head. “There’s nothing we can do for him. Come on. And stick close. There might be others who need help.”
With a nod, Sakura caught back up to me. I saw several piles of clothes sitting beside desks as we passed. While there was a chance those people had simply abandoned their clothes when they returned from meeting with the System, in my heart I knew that another explanation was more likely.
The System had mentioned that many people would be incompatible with integration, and that those incompatible people would find their minds and bodies repurposed. Had that giant rat once been someone I knew? I wondered if it was Karen, the office gossip—she’d always had a bit of a pinched rat-faced look about her.
A comical but welcome change to those grim thoughts came when I saw another of my coworkers, Frank. One of our software engineers, he always seemed to be exhausted. Still, once he got some coffee in his system, he was good for about two to three hours of intense focus. And at the moment, his focus was so intense, that he hadn’t even realized his clothes were lying in a pile on the ground next to him.
He stared at his computer screen with a frown on his face.
“Frank!” I shouted at him.
“Carter, tell Sakura the internet is down again... how am I supposed to work without access to Stack Overflow?” Frank grumbled.
“Frank, you have more important things to worry about!”
Frank groaned, pressing his palms to his eyes. “I told Sakura, I’m still working on it. We don’t need to hold another meeting.”
At this point, Sakura spoke up. “Frank, you’re naked. Get dressed.”
Sakura’s voice finally broke Frank’s concentration, especially when he looked down and realized she was right.
“Crap! I swear I don’t know how that happened!” Frank jumped to his feet, then promptly covered himself. “Just don’t call the cops. You know how hard it is to find work if you get put on one of those sex offender registries...”
“Frank, it’s the apocalypse. The cops are the least of your worries,” I said. “Put your pants back on and grab a weapon.”
“Wait... you mean all that crap about the apocalypse was real?” Frank asked in surprise as he hopped on one leg, pulling one pants leg up. “I thought I fell asleep at my desk and had another one of those weird-ass dreams again...”
“You didn’t feel the excruciating pain?” I asked.
“You’ve been sleeping on the job?” Sakura asked.
Frank shrugged at both our questions. “I just figured I needed to finish my coffee faster.”
I shook my head as I helped Frank arm himself. The guy needed to learn the value of keeping a proper sleep schedule. I handed my club off to him as we reached my desk. Tearing through the drawers, I found my pocketknife.
It was a handy little thing, and unlike most lock-blades, the edge on this one was a full five inches long—about as long as my hand—with a reinforced spine. I claimed it was for opening boxes, but really it was for if the apocalypse Myrina had warned me of ever came while I was in the office. Now that it had, I found myself wishing I’d prepared more toys like this. As it was, most of my supplies were either at home or in my little emergency shelter.
I opened the janitor’s closet nearby, found a mop, tore the head off, and then split the shaft with my blade before lashing the pocketknife to the mop head with the braided rope of the mop to create a makeshift spear. Thanks to having practiced doing this before, the process only took a minute.
“You seem like you’ve done that before, Carter.” Frank opened one eye almost all the way, which was about as close as the sleepy programmer came to arching an eyebrow.
I shrugged. “I’ve watched a few YouTube videos here and there.”
We spent the next few minutes scouting for more survivors and stabbing printers. None of the others moved like the first one had, but I argued that you could never be certain, and it would be best to finish them off before they turned on us.
Sakura’s company owned the entire building, but we only used this one floor. I was sad to see that out of more than thirty coworkers, less than half remained. The rest had never returned after their encounter with the System. I'd been mentally bracing myself for this day since Myrina warned me of it, but the loss still hurt.
