Internal Conflict

After getting to know his squad, Alex returned to the holding area, where he went to sleep after a brief discussion with Emily. The two talked for a half-hour or so, catching up on their positions in the compound. Emily had been assigned to logistics; she would keep track of supplies and distribute them accordingly.

The night passed with only some minor disturbance. A few goblins attacked the gates but were quickly repelled by the sentries. By the time morning arrived, Alex was awake and ready for combat. He quickly rendezvoused with his squad, who were waiting for him at the entryway to the compound.

"You're late."

Brandon said sternly. Evidently, Alex had slept a bit too much and arrived late on his first day. Alex scratched the back of his head in embarrassment and looked away.

"Sorry I overslept"

The team looked at him with contempt; they had agreed to meet up outside the gates early in the morning, and yet Alex showed up an hour behind schedule. The tension in the air could cut through steel. Nevertheless, Brandon felt no need to scold Alex excessively.

"Don't let it happen again."

With that said, the team began to move outside the gates of the compound and enter the dangerous world outside the safe zone. The team silently made their way towards their targeted area. There was a grocery outlet in the area, though most of these places had been ransacked during the initial chaos. There may very well be some supplies remaining inside.

Gunnar raised his rifle as he took point, entering the building with caution. In fact, everyone aside from Alex carried some type of rifle as their primary weapon. The four split into two teams as they swept the store, picking up any supplies they could find. Alex was left with Cassie; she was quite the talkative person even though she didn't know Alex all that well.

"Where's your weapon?"

Cassie inquired as she casually strolled through the aisle, picking up a box of crackers and stuffing it into one of the many bags the team brought with them.

Alex smirked at her response, maybe because he had spent many years playing RPGs. Still, he could foresee the more difficult enemies they encountered, the more useless conventional weapons would become. After all, pistol caliber weapons were already completely useless against even the most basic of monsters.

Alex spotted a goblin sneaking up behind cassie out of the corner of his eye, ready to pounce. He swiftly threw a fist past Cassie's face and crushed the goblins skull with one strike before returning to a relaxed pose.

"My body is my weapon."

With that said, he walked past her and began stuffing supplies into his satchel. Cassie stared at him with awe; she had never seen someone crush a monster's skull with their fist before. Even if it was something as basic as a goblin, that was no small feat.

Cassie quickly caught up to Alex; she was more cautious now and began carrying her rifle as if she were to engage in combat at any moment. Alex, on the other hand, was casually strolling down the aisle picking up supplies.

"We're lucky this store hasn't been picked completely clean yet, this is only our first destination, and we've already recovered some supplies."

Cassie nodded at Alex's remark and spoke more casually than she did before, she had always been friendly with Alex, but she had a better impression of him after he displayed his strength earlier. She was curious as to what degree his attributes were.

"So what is your strength stat at?"

Alex continued to stuff supplies in his bag and didn't pay much attention to her. He naturally responded in a carefree tone.

"Sixteen"

Cassie scoffed at his remark; there was no way Alex's strength stat was 16 at level 4; he had to be joking with her.

"No, seriously? What's your strength stat at?"

Alex stopped what he was doing this time and looked her in the eyes with a serious expression on his face as he repeated himself.

"Sixteen"

There was silence between the two as a look of shock appeared on Cassie's face; she could tell he wasn't lying. She thought that he must have stacked all of his points into Strength and neglected the others.

Alex felt uncomfortable with the way Cassie was gazing at him and turned away from her.

"Let's go. We've scavenged all we could find; we should regroup with the others."

Cassie nodded in silence as she followed behind Alex. Shortly thereafter, the two heard a series of gunshots across the building and rushed over to the location of the noise. By the time the two arrived, they were staring in silence as Brandon and Gunnar were chugging beer surrounded by a stack of fresh goblin corpses.

Evidently, the two men had encountered a small squad of goblins in the alcohol section and immediately opened fire; neither of them was wounded. To celebrate their victory, they immediately cracked open a six-pack and began drinking.

Brandon wiped his mouth after chugging a bottle of beer and threw the bottle across the room; it crashed into the floor and shattered upon impact.

"Took you two long enough,"

he said with a wry smile on his face as he saw Cassie and Alex arrive ready for combat. Cassie immediately scolded Brandon upon witnessing his uncouth behavior

"We have a job to do, and you're already drinking?

Brandon laughed, not taking her words seriously at all

"We hit the jackpot! Look at all this alcohol; there's no way we can bring all this back. We might as well enjoy ourselves"

A frown appeared across Alex's face; he agreed with Cassie; they still had to scavenge supplies from other locations. Just because they encountered a small group of goblins here didn't mean there wouldn't be more grievous dangers shortly. If Brandon and Gunnar got even the slightest bit drunk, it would put all their lives at risk.

Brandon reached for another beer, but Alex grabbed onto his wrist

"Cassie's right; we need to be sharp. You have had enough."

Brandon glared at Alex; he was not going to let this newbie bring down his mood. He broke away from Alex's grasp and sloppily threw a punch towards Alex. There was no way a novice like him could catch Alex off guard. Naturally, Alex saw the attack coming and parried it, then got close to Brandon and put him in a guillotine choke.

Though Alex held Brandon in a headlock, he didn't apply any pressure, and as such, Brandon remained conscious but could do no harm to Alex; he was completely under Alex's control. Cassie tried to pull the two apart, but Alex held onto Brandon, who was struggling out of the position.

"You better calm down, Brandon, or I'm going to put you to sleep."

Alex's voice was filled with an intimidating aura sending shivers down Brandon's spine. He quickly became obedient in response to it.

"Okay... Okay... I'm calm."

Alex let go of the headlock and looked warily at Brandon. Though nobody got hurt, he began to understand Brandon's character better; he wasn't as nice of a person as he initially made himself out to be. It was clear by the look in his eyes he wouldn't take this defeat lying down. Alex decided to be more careful around Brandon in the future.

Gunnar watched the scene in silence; unlike Brandon, he was drinking non-alcoholic beer. As a military man, he knew when to keep his wits about him. Though he disagreed with Brandon's behavior, there was not much he could do about it. Despite appearing unimpressive, Brandon had proven to be an exceptional slayer these last few days, and Gunnar was not confident in being able to take him in a fight.

After defusing the tension, the group decided to move out. Gunnar took point, while Alex guarded the rear, though Cassie was confident in his strength, the others doubted how effective his martial arts would be in a fight; as such, Alex merely watched their backs as they ventured on into the vast wasteland that was once known as Las Vegas.