The desert had been sparsely populated, even before the outbreak -- there were no large cities immediately west of the Sunny Mountains, only small and usually ramshackle towns. The coastal region of Talife, in contrast, had been very heavily populated, something like southern California, and as they drew closer to it, they found themselves passing through more and more suburban areas and larger urban conglomerations. This was both good and bad -- good, because it provided them with more opportunities for looting food and supplies, but bad, because there were many, many more zombies here than they had encountered in the desert. Stu killed a Level 3 and a Level 5 in a decaying grocery store, and narrowly avoided getting blasted by a Level 2 Bomber in an old office building where they had taken shelter; the explosion had attracted the attention of more zombies, forcing them to abandon the building and make a quick getaway in the glider.
The zombies were a problem, but their natural cautiousness, combined with Stu's Zombie Radar, was usually enough to keep them out of trouble. They managed to collect a decent amount of food in the ransacked grocery and convenience stores -- several more cans of soup, PrestoMeat, and sugary treats -- but they stumbled across an abandoned apple orchard as well, at one point, and though the apples weren't quite ripe, they were more than edible.
Guns and ammunition were harder to come by. Lucky had lost his machine gun after they were captured by Steckler's forces, and Luna had lost her old shotgun as well. Stu had his Midnighter, with a full clip, and Luna had a revolver with three bullets left, which she had taken from a guard back at the Vroom, but that was it. Stu was determined to find and collect more weapons before they entered Lon Halos, and Luna and the others felt the same way: "If this place rots as bad as everyone says," she declared, "I'm not going there unprepared."
And so they spent the better part of three days searching through old department stores, apartment buildings, and private dwellings, looking for guns and ammo. The Astrian Union appeared to have had fairly liberal gun laws before the outbreak -- private citizens had access to all sorts of firearms -- but not many people seemed to have owned them, for whatever reason, which made them rather hard to find. They eventually stumbled across an unopened gun safe in the basement of a small suburban house, however, and Stu, using a crowbar and his own enhanced strength, was eventually able to pry it open.
Most of the guns they found inside were antique pistols and muzzleloaders, which were essentially useless to them, but they did find a large, heavy revolver -- a Hughes & Samson Elephant, which seemed to be the rough equivalent of a Colt Anaconda or Python -- and an old-fashioned lever-action repeating rifle, which looked like it had come out of a Western movie. Lucky was disappointed not to find more modern firearms, but he took the Elephant for himself, while Millie took the rifle. Fortunately the gun safe contained several boxes of ammo for these firearms as well.
They spent the night in that house. While the others slept, Stu opened up the ICON system and examined the various menus thoroughly. His current status read: Stuart BrakelyLevel 39 "Wasteland Warrior"HP: 1,435
He still didn't understand these designations the ICON system was giving him. He had gone from Noob to Survivor to Overachiever to Bold Bulwark to Wasteland Warrior, and had probably acquired a few other titles in between these as well, but they seemed to be more or less arbitrary.
The various stats were somewhat difficult to understand as well. His HP now stood at 1,435, but what did that mean, exactly? He had nothing to compare it against, because neither the zombies nor the humans in this world had HP stats that were visible to him. Zombies had levels, and designations of their own, which gave him a rough idea of how dangerous they might be, but he had never been able to see their HP or any of their other stats, if indeed they had any. All he really knew about his HP, and his strength, speed, stamina, defense, and intelligence stats, was that they had been going up steadily since he had arrived in this world -- although the intelligence stat lagged far behind the others, having only gone up a couple of points.
Scrolling down, he saw his "Paladin class" appellation, along with all of the skills he had acquired. There were fifteen in all:
Night Vision, which gave him the ability to see in the dark. He had the second level of this skill, which meant he could utilize it for up to an hour every day.
Dead Aim, which gave him the ability to throw any object with perfect precision. This was another skill he could only use once a day, and he had learned, in the midst of an encounter with a rager, that even if his aim was perfect, his target could still dodge or block the things he threw.
Strong Arm gave him surpassing strength. He had the second level of this skill as well. While he wasn't sure what the upper limits of his strength might be -- he had never really put it to the test -- he was capable of flipping over cars and battering down steel doors, and of going toe-to-toe with ragers and some irregulars. His strength, combined with his high defense stat, meant that he could easily overpower any ordinary person.
Speed Freak had enhanced his speed. As with his strength, he wasn't sure what his top speed might be, but he was pretty sure he could hit thirty miles per hour if he had to, and his reaction time had been greatly increased as well.
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Regeneration was probably the most useful skill he had acquired. It allowed him to rapidly heal from any injury -- within moments of being slashed or stabbed, for example, the wound would seal itself up and disappear, without even leaving a scar. It had regrown his eyes, mended his bones, and if Luna was to be believed, even brought him back to life after his battle with the Cannibal. Without the Regeneration skill he would have been dead a long time ago.
Zombie Radar made it possible for him to detect the presence of zombies, within a fifty-foot radius. A sort of buzzing sensation ran through his brain whenever zombies came near.
Don Juan gave him the ability to make women fall in love with him -- or at least, to make them believe that they were in love with him. He had only used it once, on the Researcher, and he wasn't sure how much more use he might get out of it. A skill that allowed him to smooth-talk his way out of a sticky situation was a useful tool, but the effect was unpredictable and there seemed to be no way to turn it "off," which made him reluctant to use it. Besides, he didn't want Luna getting the wrong idea.
Brick Wall was a bonus skill he had acquired after choosing the Bulwark class. It gave him the ability to make himself completely immovable for a five-minute period. He had used it back in Heart's Glow to hold back a horde of zombies, but hadn't really found much of a use for it since.
Artful Dodge gave him the ability to slip through a crowd of zombies. Sniffer had enhanced his sense of smell, which, although it had come in handy more than a few times, was also something of a double-edged sword -- he couldn't filter out the bad smells, and in a world full of rotting zombies...well.
Silence gave him the ability to move silently, and Shadow King gave him the ability to conceal himself within dark shadows. Both were limited -- he could only use them for a few minutes a day -- but they were very effective for sneaking around, when used in concert.
Captain Critical made it easier for him to earn those "critical bonuses" when he killed zombies. He realized now that he should have purchased this skill early on; he was scoring criticals and earning additional SP with almost every zombie he killed now. If this skill had been active from the start, he might have earned enough SP to buy almost every skill in the skills menu.
The Chainsaw Ballet skill turned him into an expert chainsaw-battler, and had been extremely useful in his fight against Steckler and his pet spider-creature, but it was a little frightening, too, because it took complete control of his body, moving him around like a marionette. It wasn't a skill he was likely to use again, unless he absolutely had to.
And Protector allowed him to extend his defense stat and defensive skills like Regeneration to another person, as long as he was in direct physical contact with them. He had already used this one to save Luna's life and to heal Eldon. It was also the only skill, with the possible exception of Don Juan, that gave him any kind of power over other people; his other skills only applied to himself.
He also had six skill points which he had not yet allocated. He was tempted to buy the second level of Speed Freak, which cost four SP, but now that he was a Paladin, the cost of the ICON system's offensive skills had been reduced by a third, and he was interested in buying some more of these kinds of skills. Marksman, Boulder Smasher, Guns Blazing, Red Wave, Decapitator, Machete Master, and Holy Warrior were all possibilities.
He was skimming through these skills, using his index finger to scroll through the lists, when he was surprised by a voice: "That's a weird habit you have."
It was Millie. He quickly closed the screens -- not that she could see them anyway -- and turned to look at her. "I thought you were asleep."
"Nope." She sat down next to him. "You can tell me about it, you know."
"Tell you what?"
"Whatever it is you're doing when you're waving your fingers around and tapping at the air like that. You can explain it to me."
"Oh." Should he tell her? He didn't see the harm in it -- Luna already knew about it, after all -- but he doubted that she would believe him. "It's complicated," he said.
"Does it have something to do with the powers you have?"
"Sort of."
"I didn't really believe it at first," she said. "When I overheard you talking with Luna about having special powers, back in Heart's Glow, well, I thought that was just silly. But that punch the Lab Rat gave you would have killed any ordinary person. You were back on your feet just a few seconds later, and afterwards it was like you hadn't been hit at all. That's not normal."
"No, it isn't," he confessed.
"And that's just one of the weird things about you. You can see in the dark even better than me, you seem to know when zombies are around, and you're strong enough to bend a crowbar with your bare hands." She gestured to the crowbar he had used to lever open the gun safe, which did indeed have something of a bend in it now.
"I have...powers," he admitted. "The more zombies I kill, the more skill points I earn, and the more skill points I earn, the more abilities I can learn. When you see me tapping the air, what I'm doing is manipulating the interface that allows me to sort through these abilities, and to buy new ones. And sometimes I get quests, too, but..." He shook his head. "I told you it was complicated."
She frowned. "Sounds like a video game."
"It's a lot like a video game. Anyway, I got these powers from a guy named Virge -- one of the men who brought me here. I think he must have passed them on to me, before he died, but he didn't get the chance to explain any of it. If he had lived just a few more minutes..." He sighed. "That's why I need to get to Lon Halos. This Dr. Snowe was the one who sent Virge and Wayman after me. He's the one who opened the portal that brought me here. He must know something about these powers, and about how I can get home."
She nodded without saying anything. He glanced at her. "It's going to be very dangerous, you know."
"I know."
"You don't have to come with us."
"You're my friends." She turned her glowing red eye on Luna, and then on Lucky, both of whom were sleeping. "The three of you look out for one another. I like that. And you...you're like me. You're different. I like that, too."
"Thanks. I think."
"Besides, I want to see what it's like in Lon Halos. I think it might be interesting to meet this Dr. Snowe. I thought that spaceship in the desert was impressive, but if this guy really can open up portals between worlds..." She smiled slightly. "The world seems to be getting more amazing every day."