A Lonely Artist

"Alright, let's see what we have to work with here." Leo mutters lightly, scanning his surroundings. Figuring some Exp wasn't worth the risk, he had decided to just head up the fire escape instead of going through the inside.

A small little delay though, the rusty ladder scaling up the side of the building is just out of reach. Even if he were to jump for it, he wouldn't get close enough. What he needs was something to give him a little boost.

Spotting a large dark blue waste bin, his brown eyes light up with an idea. "Perfect," He exclaims, grabbing the bin and wheeling it to its spot underneath the ladder. The wheels are squeaky, occasionally getting stuck and grating against the rough concrete, but with Leo's slightly stronger than average strength, he's able to move it without too much hassle. 

Maneuvering to the top of the bin, Leo swiftly swings himself up the rusty ladder and onto the first level of the fire escape. 'Easy peasy,' He thinks, making his way onto the next level. Continuing to climb the metal staircase, Leo can't help but glance into each window he passes. At the fourth floor window, his curiosity is rewarded with a rather disturbing sight. 

With their back to the window, a half naked man is on his knees devouring a dog's carcass. From the position the man is in, Leo is grateful that he's spared from all the gory details. However, because this is only a small taste of the cruelties he had to face in this harsh world, Leo forced himself to observe this dark scene for more than just a glance. 

Rays of late morning sun stream through the apartment window, coating the man's, hunched, glowing pale back as he reached for handfuls of his dog's intestines. Leo doesn't know what breed the dog is, but he made sure to burn the image of its blood stained black and white fur to memory. 

The moment in which he sees one of the dog's hind legs twitch, Leo can't watch anymore and has to look away in deep disgust. Morbid scenes like this have become all too common in this zombie ridden world. 

Reality isn't going to be all sunshine and rainbows. He's been in this town for maybe an hour and a half, and already Leo has been faced with multiple scenes that cause him discomfort on a level all too new to him. It's unclear if he's ever going to get used to the ugliness of the world, but, at that moment… Leo knows that he'll have to continue onward in the face of that ugliness no matter what.

Not long after that, he finds himself on the sixth floor staring into an empty apartment. Attempting to slide the window open, Leo is pleased to find that it's unlatched and he doesn't have to make a bunch of noise smashing it open.

Once the window is open enough to fit his body through, he nimbly climbs in. Being on the fire escape makes him a little paranoid since all someone would have to do to see him is look at the back of the building. Maybe it has to do with his new sneak skill and aspiration to become a deadly ninja, but there's little to no cover out there and it feels good to finally be out of the view of potential prying eyes. 

The apartment has plenty of windows, but it's dimly lit at best with the sun shining on only one side of the building. Retrieving his flashlight, the first order of business is to make sure that he's alone.

Casting the incandescent beam around what seemed to be the living room of the apartment, Leo scanned every corner of the living space with a critical eye. Other than his breathing, pure silence permeated the area. He's made quite a bit of noise climbing in through the window, not as much as when he climbed over the gate or moved the bin, but he felt it's still enough to give away his presence to anyone within the dark depths of the apartment. 

Not wanting to be snuck up on again, with the flashlight in one hand and his crowbar in the other, Leo slowly moves from room to room, scanning the apartment for any threats—from the dead or otherwise. 

From what he could tell, a family used to live here, and evidence suggests that they left in quite the hurry. Most of their belongings look undisturbed, but a bit of clothing is missing in both bedrooms he searched with even some of the drawers still open. Leo isn't a sleuth, but he trusts his intuition. That, and the front door of the apartment is locked, meaning they locked it from the outside. 

If he has to take a guess, the family packed some bug-out bags and locked the apartment behind them in a rush on their way out. 

Confirming that he's alone, Leo transitions to the main bedroom to see if he can get a good vantage point over the middle of town from there. Fortunately, the apartment building is one of the tallest buildings in Flintrose, which allows him to see over most other nearby buildings. 

Looking in the direction where he remembers seeing movement from his view on the highway, Leo can tell that the building he saw earlier appears to be a courthouse with a police station built into the side. From his position, he can see several Grizzly members patrolling the surrounding area around the courthouse. One of the guardsmen were even on the roof of the courthouse with a rifle to keep overwatch. 

Around the building, the group built a makeshift wall together by parking a bunch of large vehicles in front of one another, creating somewhat of a formal perimeter. More than a handful of the mindless dead have grouped up together at different parts of the 'wall' in an attempt to get to the survivors on the other side. 

As Leo observes the group, a small notification pops up in his vision to notify him of his quest's completion. 

[Quest: Survivors!] (Complete)

[Rewards: +15 Exp, +1 Police Grade Kevlar Vest, +2 Stat Points]

Seeing the rewards, a satisfied smile lights up his face and he quickly pulls up his stats to allocate his new points. 

[Name: Leo Hopkins (Age 20)

Title: None

Level: 3

Exp: 45/100

Strength: 7

Intelligence: 7 

Perception: 8

Endurance: 6

Charisma:5

Dexterity: 7

Agility: 7

—

Stat Points: 2

Skills: Melee Weapons (level 6/25)

Trapping (Level 3/30)

Bladed Weapons (Level 3/25)

Sneaking (3/30)

Perks: None]

Leo isn't too sure about what he wants to put his points into this time, but he feels that his charisma is a little lacking. Sure, the only other survivor that he's spoken to thus far had held a knife to his throat, but who knows? If he had a higher charisma stat maybe that situation could have gone completely different.

He doesn't want to have to fight every other survivor he'll come across. If it's an option, Leo would like to be able to settle things a little diplomatically. Allies would be very useful. Not saying that he wants to start a group or anything, or even join one, but it'll be nice to know there are places he can go to and be able to barter or seek other services if needed. 

However, Leo also suspects that the chance of meeting friendly survivors out in the world is probably rather slim. From what he can tell, this zombie virus happened relatively recently, and most people were trying to just gather loot and protect it with their lives. In this stage, the level of greed and paranoia is extremely high, and it may just get worse. Sad to say, but many people will have no problem backstabbing their friends if it meant a few cans of food when they're starving. 

Hoping that he won't later regret his decision, he puts his two new points into charisma, bringing the stat to seven. 

Pulling up his inventory, Leo quickly spots his second reward for completing the quest: a Kevlar vest. Equipping the bullet resistant vest, he pleasantly notes that it isn't bulky and is relatively lightweight. The armor wouldn't be able to stop a high caliber, but it can definitely stop knives and low caliber rounds like 9mm.

"Alright, now we're talking!" Leo exclaims with some excitement, careful not to raise his voice too loud as he didn't know how thin the walls were. Taking some time to admire himself in the mirror, he's beginning to feel like a real apocalypse survivor. While his vest looked brand new underneath his open coat, there are some speckles of blood and dirt on various different parts of his clothing, which gave him a little bit of a roguish look. 

As much as hygiene is important, he only has a handful of spare clothes in his inventory and he doesn't know when he'll find more his size. Because space in his inventory is limited, Leo isn't able to just loot a clothing store and fill it up for a new outfit every day. 

On the other hand, he does plan to grab a new pack of underwear and socks. He doesn't feel comfortable looting people's drawers and wearing their under garments. Just the thought of wearing someone else's dirty smelly underwear makes him cringe. He hasn't been surviving long enough for that type of desperation. 

Not really seeing the need to head out yet, Leo begins to look around the apartment at a more relaxed pace. Where before he was looking for threats and making sure that he was alone, now he's able to search the place for supplies at a leisurely pace. 

Throwing the drawers of the bedside table open, he awkwardly finds a few adult entertainment devices that reddens his cheeks to a light hue. Acting like he never saw them, he casually closes the drawers and goes over to the closet instead. 

Opening the closet, Leo notices more than a few of the plastic hangers are broken with their pieces littered across the floor as if someone ripped the clothing off. 'More evidence of the former residents leaving in a hurry.' He muses, moving the leftover clothing articles aside. After moving a few of the clothes aside, he finds a nice looking wooden baseball bat sitting in the corner. 

He would have taken it, but Leo felt that his crowbar was the better choice and putting it in his inventory would just take up needed space. 

Moving onto the second bedroom, his eyes scan over all the posters covering the wall with a raised eyebrow. Seeing that nearly every inch of the walls are covered with different figures of superheroes in heroic poses or fighting villains, Leo releases a soft whistle. The desk that's against one wall is full of different figurines, from heroes, villains, and even some crazy looking monsters. 

Leo didn't get a good look at this room the first time he entered, only poking his head in to see if anything was hiding within, and so now that he has time to actually look around… well, he is a little flabbergasted. "Must have been some fan," he mumbles, rifling through the desk and closet for anything useful.

He spends nearly fifteen minutes in that boys room. Even though he doesn't find anything useful, the sketchbook that he comes across did happen to draw a few appreciative "hmms" out of him. The sketches in the book are good, very good. Whoever drew them seemed to be quite the fan of realism.

Although he hasn't tried to draw yet, Leo feels now would be as good a time as any. He's curious whether or not he would be able to unlock different types of artistry skills. Drawing realistic sketches would be a cool skill to have, but what Leo wants it for was a much more practical use. If he has a skill to help him draw, he can begin making accurate maps of areas he's been to. With his enhanced memory, it shouldn't be too difficult. 

Flipping to an empty page within the sketchbook, Leo grabs a pencil and attempts to draw something. Just trying to see if he can get a skill, he isn't trying to create a masterpiece and so he starts off with something simple–stick figures.

As soon as he finishes drawing a scene where a stick dude was defending himself against a group of stick figure zombies, the notification he is waiting for pops up. 

[New skill acquired: Drawing]

"I wonder what other types of skills I can get?" He ponders aloud, trying to think about what else he can experiment with. Counting his Trapping skill, he now has two skills that he can grind out whenever he's bored. Cooking will be another helpful skill if he is able to get it, it'd pair well with Trapping. If he can get multiple hunting related skills, even better. 

Tucking the pencil and sketchbook into his backpack, he leaves Superfan's room and wanders off to check out the rest of the apartment. There are two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, and the living room. It isn't a large apartment, but for a small family, it seems to be a good size.

The bathroom is near spotless and there are no surprises left behind in the toilet for Leo to find, which he's very thankful for. Immediately heading to the medicine cabinet, he snags a couple bottles of prescription grade painkillers and a single bottle of sleeping medication, which promptly goes into his backpack. The painkillers will surely come in handy down the line while the sleeping pills he would hold onto in case the need ever arose. 

Leo was hoping for some antibiotics, but he'll just have to find those someplace else. He remembers seeing a pharmacy on his way to the apartment, however, it looked pretty ravaged. Still though, it wouldn't hurt to check it out sometime in the near future to see if anything useful was still there. 

As the family headed out in a hurry, the kitchen is full of supplies. Just like before, though, Leo merely takes note of what is usable and left the majority of the food where it was. He did grab a few cans, but nothing that would burden him. Leo has plenty of food as is. 

When he opens the fridge, instantly the aroma of spoilt and rotting fish hit him in the face like a truck, causing him to gag and nearly throw up as he slams the door shut. His heightened senses did him no favors there as he shudders at the experience. While the expired food was no rotting flesh that he's used to, it seems the family that lived here were big fans of seafood.

Feeling as though he grabbed everything of use, Leo returns to the living room and begins to look out the window. The window in the bedroom overlooks the courthouse, but the living room has a good view of the other side of town. 

Leaning against the window sill, Leo scans the horizon with a thoughtful expression. What was he to do? Sure, he can just move from place to place trying to survive, but what is the point in that? With the help of his system, surviving isn't going to be an issue any time soon. Still though, he feels that he needs to find some kind of purpose or goal. 

If he ends up finding friendly survivors, he could potentially form a group or even join one… but even then, Leo doesn't know if that's what he wants. Leo knows that if he was going to continue onward by himself then he'll eventually start to feel lonely. Hell, he's only been in this world for a day and a half and he's already beginning to feel that way. 

Slowly but surely, his thoughts drift towards the incident with that woman from the day before. She is the only live contact that he's had with anyone else, not feeling like watching the Grizzlies from afar necessarily counts. 

With one hand going up to his neck, he absentmindedly begins to caress the thin scratch she left behind. "That woman…" He murmurs under his breath, frowning lightly as looks out across Flintrose. She could have easily killed him if she had wanted, yet, she simply stole some water and let him go. 

Leo doesn't doubt for a single moment that if he was a Grizzly, he'd be dead. He could still hear the seriousness in her voice, still feel her threat against his skin. "Damn, she was a badass." 

Releasing a sigh, Leo shakes the thoughts from his head and steps away from the window. He'll probably stay in the apartment for a few days, scouting out the Grizzle's base to see if he can figure out what kind of people they are. While he's here, he can also look for more points of interest across town. 

Multiple upper floors of the apartment building have pretty good views, so Leo is sure that he'll be able to locate some interesting spots that weren't hit by looters. 

Considering that the apartment building hasn't been looted yet by the Grizzlies, especially with them being so close, they probably feel it isn't worth the risk. Most likely, they haven't gone through the building for the very same reason he chose to take the fire escape instead of going up the inside–the undead. 

The possibility of there being a whole level's worth of Exp in the building with him makes him kind of giddy, but at the same time, he doesn't like how quickly this world ruled by anarchy is changing his views on death. 

Not wanting to confront his conflicting feelings at the moment, Leo unshoulders his backpack, removing the sketchpad and pencil. With his new skill in mind, maybe drawing could be a good outlet for him? If that doesn't work, the faster he levels up Drawing, the sooner he can create a map of Flintrose.