Close Call

"Oh shit…" Leo utters quietly, swallowing hard as he watches the truck pass by with wide eyes.

He knew that he would most likely have to cross paths with a hostile group of survivors at one point or another, but he didn't expect it to be so early in his journey.

The small group of armed men came from further up the road and were headed down towards the highway. 'They must have a base in town or somewhere else close by.' He concludes, making a mental note to stay out of sight until he knows what he was up against.

The main road into town is bare and will get him spotted almost immediately. Leo will have to bushwhack his way through the forest if he planned to go in unnoticed.

Someone doesn't tie a dead body to the hood of their truck unless they were trying to send a message. Well, the message was definitely received loud and clear.

Don't mess with them.

Just as he's about to head back outside, another quest notification filled his vision.

[Quest: Survivors!]

You have encountered your first group of survivors. Warning! They could be friend or foe, you don't know!

In an apocalyptic world where the strong governs the weak amidst the chaos, you will come across enemies and allies alike. Be careful, the living are more dangerous than any dead.

Objective: Locate the survivor's base of operations within Flintrose without being spotted.

Reward: +15 Exp, +1 Police Grade Kevlar Vest, +2 Stat Points.

Do you accept?

[Y/N]

Leo raises his eyebrows in surprise at the quest. He was planning on avoiding the mystery group of survivors, but now he has incentive to actively seek them out.

The quest didn't specify whether or not they would pose a threat to him, not exactly dismissing the possibility of them being potential allies even. Regardless, he needs to scout them out before making any rash judgements.

Accepting the quest, Leo cautiously leaves the house and heads further up the road in the direction of where the group came from.

His quest doesn't have a time limit, so he figures that he'll head into town the next day after he loots a few more houses. The group seemed to be quite armed, and he only has his revolver with five rounds.

He isn't exactly strapped to the teeth; and if the group of survivors turned out to be hostile, he'd be at a severe disadvantage. With any luck, Leo will hopefully stumble upon some more ammunition in the least.

It wasn't long before he approaches the next house. The house is roughly the same size as the last, but this time the door was left wide open and there are five bodies out front.

Each of the corpses have a single bullet wound to the head, very likely being the result of the gunshots he heard earlier.

Not wanting to be taken by surprise, he still acts cautious as he walks carefully around the bodies. It wouldn't be good if one of them isn't as dead as he thinks they are. After making sure the zombies were actually dead, he's thankful, but he's also mildly disappointed that there aren't any zombies for him to kill for exp though.

Stepping into the house, he lets out a sigh of relief at having not been attacked as soon as he walks through the front door. The last time he was taken by surprise because wasn't cautious enough. He won't be making that mistake again, Leo tells himself. 

The house is picked clean, most of the food from the kitchen was already scavenged and each of the rooms were ravaged for anything of use. Luckily, he managed to find a few more batteries, but the other survivors seemed quite thorough.

Leo isn't sure why the group didn't end up searching the house he was hiding in, but he's thankful they didn't. Likely, it's that they have a search quota or have marked specific houses for places of interest or something along those lines.

An hour later, Leo is looking through a survival book on traps that he found when he hears a loud thud coming from somewhere at the front of the house.

'I already checked the perimeter, there shouldn't be any zombies nearby…' He thinks to himself, throwing the book into his inventory and grabbing his trusty crowbar. Over the past hour, Leo had searched two more houses and had killed three wandering undead.

The book on traps was his most recent find. It's full of valuable information on quick and easy traps and knots to learn that he could use to capture animals. If he had to, he could probably find something within to help him trap a human as well.

Leo was a little disappointed that he didn't get any trapping skills while looking through it though, but hopes that a skill would show itself once he put the book to use.

Other than the book, he didn't really find much else besides some extra clothes that were his size. It never hurts to have extra outfits when killing things. Blood splatters can can really ruin clothing. 

Due to the undead that he has encountered, he managed to level up his Melee Weapons skill two more times, bringing the skill up to level 5. The crowbar made a good weapon, but he hopes to find something a little more versatile in the near future. Maybe a machete or ax?

Walking through the dark house with cautious steps, he couldn't help but feel something is amiss. He feels as if he is being stalked from the dark shadows within the house...

Turning around a corner, he pauses mid-step, his eyes narrowing as they land on the front door—it's wide open. He knows for a fact that he shut it behind him after he entered the house.

There's no reason for the door to open on its own after it clicked shut; something had to have opened it. His jaw clenches tightly as he trains his ears, listening for any small movement within the house.

After a few seconds of listening Intently, the floorboards behind him creaked suddenly, shattering the tense silence. Before he can react to the noise, a gloved hand clamps firmly onto his mouth and the sting of a cold blade could be felt against his throat.

Leo's mind begins to race, his heart beating wildly in his chest as he breaks out in a cold sweat. 'How the hell did they sneak up on me?! Am I really going to die on the first day of my new life?' He swallows painfully, his Adam's apple pressing against the sharp knife with its movement.

"Drop your weapon." The assailant hisses threateningly, pressing the blade against his skin more firmly.

It's a woman's voice that gives the order. His mind beginning to run a mile a minute. Is she with the group that he's supposed to locate?

He quickly complies with her demand, dropping the crowbar with a dull thud, raising his hands up so his palms face outward in a sign of surrender.

"I'm going to ask you some questions, and you're going to nod in confirmation or shake your head in negative. Is that understood?" She asks in a low voice, her breath tickling his ear due to her close proximity.

Leo nods once in affirmation, not wanting to test whether or not the woman is really willing to kill him. From the way the blade cuts into his skin, he has no doubt that she won't hesitate if he gives a reason.

"Good," She practically purrs, her slender fingers digging into his cheek. "Are you with the Grizzlies?"

His eyebrows knit in confusion upon hearing her question. The Grizzlies? Is that the name of the group he spotted earlier? Shaking his head, her grip on him noticeably loosens but is still very firm.

"For your sake, be thankful. If you would have nodded, you'd be dead." She intones smoothly, a smirk audible in her voice. Considering the small line of blood on his neck, he doesn't doubt her words for a second.

There must be some intense history between the Grizzlies and this woman for her to be willing to kill a suspected member so easily. Whatever the history was, he's just glad that she seems to believe him.

"Alright, next question. Are you alone?"

He nods again quickly, his jaw clenching as a single drop of sweat slides down the side of his head. She probably already knows that he is alone. There is no way she wasn't watching him for a while before she decided to make her move.

His thoughts are confirmed with the next words out of her mouth.

"Good answer, honesty is a very important trait. Since the world's gone to shit, lying to the wrong person could easily get you killed…" She lets her words hang in the air, making it painstakingly obvious what would happen if he were to lie during her questioning.

"I'm going to let you go now. Other than that knife on your hip and that crowbar, do you have any more weapons that I should know about?"

Leo has the revolver in his inventory, but she doesn't need to know about that. Until he found more ammunition for it, he'd only bring it out as a last resort.

After he shakes his head, she removes the knife from his throat and pushes him forward. He stumbles over his crowbar, but manages to regain his balance easily enough.

Turning around to look at the girl, he sees that she has removed his knife from its sheath and now holds both blades in her hands, the silverish metal glinting in the dark. Her figure is barely visible amongst the shadows, it is no wonder she had snuck up on him as easily as she did.

Leo eyes her cautiously, sizing her up. Height-wise, she's maybe two to five centimeters taller than him, but her figure is rather lithe. She's wearing dark clothing with a hood over her head, the lower half of her pale face barely visible in the darkness.

Even though he can't see her eyes, he practically feels her intense gaze piercing into his very being.

He rolls the idea of charging her around in his head a bit, but he decides against it. Sure he is probably stronger than her, but she has two knives and he has a feeling that she wouldn't hesitate to kill him.

"Can I uh, have my knife back? I sort of just recently found it…" Leo awkwardly asks a little hopefully, a bashful look on his face. He doesn't expect her to give it back to him, but he had to ask.

The woman doesn't answer right away, rather her head tilts to the side as if in thought. "Maybe." She eventually replies with a subtle undertone of amusement.

Hearing her reply, Leo's shoulders relax a little and he allows his lips to curl in a small smile. It wasn't a no, so a 'maybe' is better than nothing. If anything, it means that she wasn't going to just kill him and loot his corpse.

"What's your name?" She asks curtly, sheathing one of the knives but keeping the other at the ready.

"Leo," He responds, continuing to keep his hands raised and in view. The woman is an unknown variable and he's not trying to tempt fate at the moment.

"Alright, Leo, I'm going to offer you a deal: give me whatever water you have, and I'll walk out like I was never here." She says quietly and clearly, her calm and melodious voice doing only so much to hide the underlying 'or else.'

'That's not so bad. Most of the water is in my inventory anyway.'

Leo doesn't let his relief show on his face, thinking about how he only has to give her the two bottles of water in his backpack for her to leave. Water was one of the priorities when he was looting the campsite, making sure to grab as much as he could while also filling his bags with food.

He has enough food and water to last him a while, so he isn't too worried about a couple of bottles. She easily could have demanded his whole backpack; even then he'd only really lose out on a lighter, some food, and his flashlight.

'She must only be here looking for those Grizzlies or whatever.' He figures, easily agreeing to her "deal" and fishing the two water bottles from his backpack.

The woman tosses him a small sack with her empty hand, ordering him to put the bottles in it, which he does without complaint. If the situation was a little different and she had simply asked for some water, Leo wouldn't have had a problem helping her out.

His inventory is a huge cheat in the apocalypse, allowing him to carry much more supplies than he really even needs by himself. Tossing the now filled sack back to her, his shadowy stalker easily catches it without a sound.

"Pleasure doing business with you, Leo." She says sarcastically, holding onto the sack in one hand and his knife in the other.

"The pleasure is all mine, I assure you…" He drawls, matching her sarcasm with his own.

Without saying another word, she dashes from the shadows and out the front door before Leo could even process what was happening. Her soft footsteps were barely audible on the creaky floorboards as she ran past him. For a split second, he feared that she was going to run him through.

As she passes him, he catches a glimpse of golden blonde hair peeking out from under that dark hood of hers.

Once his brain caught up with him, he quickly grabs his crowbar off the floor and followed her out of the house to see if he could tell where she went. The light stuns him for a second, but blinking away the spots from his eyes, Leo can't see any sign of where she ran off to.

"I didn't even catch her name," He mumbles, letting out a small chuckle as he spots his knife embedded in the porch. "At least I still have my new knife."