"Welcome to 'Experiment Gone Wrong' Trail 2:
you have two months to survive or cure the outbreak.
Completion: 4,200,000 coins and skills Failure: Death
Good Luck"
The swirl of the world around me bothered me, but I tried to ignore it with a sigh. I'm not sure that I will get over that swirl and change of view. Found myself at a campsite in the woods. I walked around, finding that there were quite a few camps with people. I watched the people that were being let into different camps. Careful to choose one that will not abuse me. I had read too many stories about people growing mad with power.
We knew the zombies grew stronger the further you got from the spawn point. That often hordes would lose you the closer you got to spawn. It is also the only level that did this. That made the relatively dangerous level easier to beat. With the zombies slowing down, or not entering the spawn area. The spawn area is the size of three city blocks. There is a finite amount of room, but it gave enough to make different campsites.
After seeing a group take in what looked like two boyfriends, I tried my hand with them. I walked over to the person who in charge. They looked a lot stronger than me. The shirt they were wearing looked like it was working hard to not rip.
"Uh Hello," I said, walking over to him.
"Hello," He said with an accent. I thought it was unfair that he is so was cute.
"I would like to join your group," I said, trying to keep a poker face. I really didn't need to show what I thought about him.
He smiled and turned all his attention to me. "Great! What skills did you get from the last trial?"
"Poison resistance," I said confidently. I knew that poison resistance is an exceptional skill. It has quite a few uses. That and his face lit up a little when he heard my answer. It was like the hit he hit the jackpot.
"That's so cool. How did you get it?"
"What do you mean?" That confidence turned to confusion. Getting a skill after the levels is a known fact. Like how the sky is blue. It happened after every level. Maybe it is a language barrier thing?
"Did you eat something poisonous?" his face contorted into confusion as well.
"No, I just completed the trial."
"Oh… Uh, sorry we can't let you join," He apologized. He gave a soft smile and shifted. The movement caught my attention.
"Why not? You said I could." Anger seeped into my voice.
"Look dude, in each trial you can gain more skills than the reward and sense you didn't. That means that you weren't even trying to pass the last trial. We can't have that energy in our group," He said, moving further away from me before finally turning to walk away. I stood there for a moment, feeling confused and a little angry. I didn't realize that you could earn more skills from the tower. It made sense, given what we knew about the tower. It is too late to go back and change things now. I had to find a group to join or I would be in trouble. The tower is a dangerous place to be without allies.
The other camps were the same in their entrance requirement. I didn't even try with the one that I saw Mathew join, knowing that it would be awful with him there even if I got in. No one else had the problem that I did. Everyone had gained at least one other skill in the last level. It annoyed me I hadn't even gained a skill. Staying up all night and tried helping people. I do not know if I even helped someone out there. I could have been making my life harder with all that noise.
"How the hell did I not get one?" I asked the world. I'm sitting in a tree a little away from the campsite. Checking the requirements of 20 different groups.. I figured the groups would merge and end up as one large one or a few groups. For now, there's not much chaos, as there's no reason to start anything yet. I was still in the safe zone, but the others hadn't expanded to this point yet. That would change in the next few days. If I stayed alone, I couldn't even claim this area as mine. I'm going to have to fight on my own again.
I stayed in the safe zone for the next day, using my skill to learn as much as I could about the level. Unlike in the last level, the plants here were more compliant with my wants and commands. It might help that my skill leveled up at the last level by one, making it a little stronger. I had the skill to tell myself if I was in danger. If I got a bad feeling from the plants, I knew it was not safe in that direction.
Surprise, there's not a safe direction to travel. Maybe I could make a cocoon in the trees a bit and ask one camp to let me crash with them every once in a while. The problem is that the resources that we needed to survive were in other areas. The nearest water source is a stream in the second area, meaning the zombies would be could follow travel in groups of three or four. Edible plants were in the fifth through seventh areas. There were animals that where animals you could have a good idea with the zombies around. None of the groups entering the tower before we had figured out what kind of zombie apocalypse it was. If it was natural, engineered, or witchcraft.
For me, I had to be careful about how I went about staying at the camps when I needed to rest. By changing camps so I wouldn't be a burden on any single camp. Not taking food from them. I didn't want to start a war between us. I just needed a place to sleep until I could use my skill more. If I worked hard, I could use my skill to find the safest way to grow edible plants and get something to trade for a night's rest. I would have to figure out a way to get enough food to trade, but not be suspicious.
The next day, I took a walk to see how far the zombies would travel. How soon the areas changed to different areas. If my skill's enough to keep myself safe from the zombies in the weaker areas. I found myself a mile into the woods when I saw a few zombies. There were only three of them, and they were slow. That led me to believe that I'm not far enough from spawn to be in the second area. While the zombies were weak, and they only traveled in small groups, they were easy to miss in the heavily bushed area. Deciding to try my luck with how strong they are, I attacked them. I used my skill to kill off the first three. I pulled on the roots and had them stab at the zombies. The plants reacted slowly to my command. I got used to them being faster than the blink of an eye in the last trial. I am now excited to have my skill level up to whatever level those plants were at.
While wondering the area, I found more groups of zombies and tried fresh attacks on them. The next group of three I found were target practice for me. I carefully took out the handgun I got from the last level. I killed the first one easily. The other two noticed the kill and looked around. I lined up my shot and killed the second one. That's when the third one spotted me. It's moving towards me, but it's slow. Even with taking my time to line up the shot, it didn't get very close. Smiling while thinking that this is an easy experience point. I had enough supplies to return to my tree or even start a nest here, but here is not good enough. I wanted to gain more skills now that I knew I could get something cool. Confident that I could gain skill before going back to the campsites. Using my nature skill to lift me back into the trees and to keep me from falling out of them. I slink further into the forest, watching for movement.
I found more zombies in a slight clearing. One zombie was running into a berry bush. I used the berry bushes' thorns. I caused them to grow and stab their way into the zombie's flesh. The zombie let out a gurgling sound that had the other two zombies walking over to it. I took a breath, lifting my hand up in front of my face. I grew a vine away from the bush and circled the zombies on the floor. Once the zombies were on the other side of the vine, I sprouted it. In casing the zombies into my homemade iron maiden. "Yes!" I whispered. Looking around, no other zombies showed up.
I knew that my nature skill is going to level up quickly. While traveling, I saw some poisons fungi growing from a tree. I knew the Sargent told me about that fungi only giving people powerful diarrhea. The memory of the conversation I had with that guy. I needed to gain more skills and level up the ones I had quickly. I grabbed it and eating it. It tasted of nothing but had a fuzzy texture. I swallowed hard, not wanting the fuzz on my tong.
KECK~ KECK~
Gagging after, I swallowed the fungi. I reached up, rubbing my hand over my tong. I felt something slimy in my hand as I rubbed in on my tong. Lifting my hand back to white wisps of thread and small, clear spiders. They were mostly dead, though some of their legs twitched. I couldn't hold back the vomit. I grabbed the water I had in my bag the moment I could. Backing away from where I threw up and the fungi that now lay on the floor next to it. I washed my mouth out with water. I used the whole water bottle to wash away the fuzzy feeling.
Gasping for air, I had tears in my eyes form emptying my stomach. No need to stay long, wanting to move away and forget this experience all together. I ran back towards the spawn. I didn't stop even passing a few zombies here and there. Though once you get closer to spawn the zombies, you see dwindle. My stomach rolled the further I ran. Stopping when my lungs burned and my legs shook. Taking a breath. I would have to eat something tonight. I used a lot of energy running around and then vomited. There's no way that I would feel good tomorrow. Plus, with sleeping in a tree, I'm already looking at a rough night.
I knew I had rations in my bad, but I didn't want to use them. It would make it difficult if I ran into a situation where I really needed it. When an idea formed in my head. Something that would help me save enough food to take a rest whenever I needed it, and to eat all I wanted without worrying. What were the chances of that happening twice? I changed my focus on trying to find all the non edible things I could. I ran around picking up anything I saw and eating it right there. Some items would make me throw up moments after eating, but I am still alive. After, the third time I thew up I found something that my stomach would keep down.
I returned to the campsite as the sun was setting. Holding a bunch of fungi and other plants that would be poisonous to others in my arms. It wasn't quite safe for me to eat them either. Walking back to my tree, I passed no one. I shoved my food into the tree and climbed up into it after. Spending the night eating the different things, making a note of which had enough taste to eat them again. I still had half a bag of my food left when I fell asleep. When I felt myself falling asleep, it scared me. I found a deadly one that was going to kill me. I didn't get to be relieved of that fear until I woke up.
There was a group of people that were mad at something below me. They were whispering about something. I stretched while trying to listen in to what was being said. They were speaking an unfamiliar language. It sounded like an Asian one. I carefully got down from my tree and waited for someone to say something I could understand.
The man that I first talked to about joining his camp walked forward. "Hey, we were wondering if you would tell us how you got so much food? If you can, that is. I understand if you don't want to share with us" He hesitated before rushing the end of his words. He looked nervous and had a new bruise on his face. He didn't have the last time we talked.
"What happened to you?" I had a bad feeling about this.
"Nothing to worry about, I had a bit of a spat with another group," He smiled "but the food…" he questioned, obviously not sure how to ask for it.
"Its not proper food. Remember my skill I told you?"
"Poison resistance?" he asked, eyebrows raising.
"Yeah, I'm trying to level it up," I said. I saw the words work their way through his head. I could almost see the gears turning. He turned and spoke with the others here for a moment. I saw the looks on their faces go from confusion to understanding as he was talking. They nodded their heads before moving away and back to wherever they came from.
He turned back to me, lifting his hand out to me. "I never told you my name! My name's Zhen Seong Jin," He said while smiling.
"Noa Sanders, nice to meet you," I answered, taking his hand. He gave a quick shake before letting go.
"Thank you for telling me about your 'food'?" he said. "If you need anything, let me know I'll try my best to help."
"The only thing I will need is a night to sleep while my skill resets. When I need to reset it," I countered.
This caused him to smile. "Sure and if you need a meal, that's not poison, I'll swing that too" I nodded my head knowing that will not take that offer. I didn't need to make another mistake like Mathew so soon. I would be fine with having time to rest. When Zhen Seong left, I wondered why people were already acting strange about food. We should have all had the rations to last a few months. We have only had to last a week in the last trial. Sure, they all still had plenty of food to go around. I wouldn't be able to know, as no one let me into their group. I would have to get Zhen Seong some food now and then.
That day, I took time to eat the rest of the poisons plants before going in search of more. Eating poisons weren't as filling as you would think. I had beaten all the zombies in the three zones that I had traveled to before, but I was still sneaking around. I ate more plants as I walked along. Some plants that were bothering me the day before weren't giving me more than a tingling throat.
Looking at my status screen for the first time since entering the tower. I tried to not notice that option, so I wouldn't get cocky with every new level that I gained. Looking at the screen, my jaw dropped. I had gone up a few levels from the last time I looked. The level I had when entering the tower was level 10, and my nature skill level 15.
Noa Sanders level 25 Health: poisoned
Nature's sugar baby: level 35
Poison Resistance: level 5
I am stronger than I thought. For a moment, I didn't think I gained anything from the last level. I wonder if the fast leveling is because of the chameleon or the zombies I killed already. I wish I could see my kill count to see how cool I've been.
With my newfound confidence, I walked further into the forest. I am level 25 with a high-level skill. Everything so far is nothing compared to me. As long as I don't go too far into the zones, I'll be fine. I went further than I had the last few days. Maybe I could even get some food for Zhen Seong. If I could get him the food, this early that would be best. I could help ease his problems.
Running into the woods, trying to keep my feet from making too much noise. Not wanting to attract zombies yet. I could fight them off all day, but I needed to get food for my new friend. I kept up this speed when I ran into a horde. There were at least 40 zombies in this thing. They were moving faster than the previously seen zombies had been. They looked more grotesque and decomposed than the previous ones. I wondered if I had passed too far into the forest. Taking a gulp of air, I moved quietly, trying to make my way back. I mentally scolding myself for thinking I did all that. I knew that looking at my status screen was a bad idea. Why did I have to get cocky about being at a higher level? Whatever, I'm not stupid enough to think I could take on so many zombies by myself.
PING PING~
"Congratulations, you have earned the skill 'Feather steps' You will now make less noise when walking, or running"
The annoying electronic voice rang out. Unlike with the level-ups, where it's a quiet notice that I could ignore. Nor is it something that only I heard. It is loud. I gulped and turned to look at the horde next to me. Their heads turn to look in my direction. I felt the plants grab me and throw me as far as they could. They didn't have as much freedom here, so they couldn't move without my thought. Since my only thought was 'throw me away from them,' I slammed into a tree. It knocked the air out of me. I had to take a moment to breathe before taking off running. That gave the zombies enough time to catch up with me. It would have been better if I had booked it when I saw them look at me. I lost all the advantage of getting thrown further from them.
I ran, commanding the plants to slow them down as I did. The plants slowed most of the zombies down, but there were three that were too close to me for the plants to interfere. If they tried, they would end up slowing me down too or stopping me altogether. When I turned to run behind a tree to get a little further from them.
Bam!
I ran into something that almost gave way to me. It took a second to notice the odd color of the thing. It's not the brown of the trees or the green of a bush. I pulled back as far as I could before changing the direction. I got one step away from the zombie that I had literally bumped into before it had a grasp on my arm. It grabbed my wrist and pulled my arm back toward it. I pulled harder to escape from its grasp. As I heard the other zombies get closer, I tried to shake the hold on my arm. The Zombie didn't fight me hard, but its grip on my wrist wouldn't give way. I looked at its face to see the slack-jaw zombie not making any movements to catch me more than the wrist. I fumbled the gun out of my pocket with my left hand. My right hand still pulling and moving to stop the zombie from biting me. Raised the gun high enough to the zombie's head.
BANG!
A sign of relief filled me as the zombie staggered back before falling. I turned to see that my left hand didn't have the speed needed to free myself from this. The three from before had caught up. They reached out for me. I switched which hand held the gun. I couldn't back away without tripping on the zombie. Shoving a zombie with my left hand. Looking to the right, I shot the other. Cold hands grabbed onto my arm. I turned to shove the Zombie away.
"AH!" a gasping scream echoed. For a moment, I wasn't sure where from. Until I saw the blood. How the zombie's teeth sunk into my flesh like pudding. My body reacted on instinct and punched the zombie until it let go of my arm. Looking down at my biceps to see my shirt, the blood that flowing out like it a dam broken. I didn't hear or see the other two zombies as the world lost color. I couldn't breathe, and my voice wouldn't come. The world faded into black torment.
When the world came back to color, it was dark. I moved to sit up, my head touching the top of what I was in. I lifted my hand to feel what was around me. It vines and leaves. I was in the nest that I envisioned to stay safe during this test. It was a dream? I don't remember making this. This another protective mode thing? they're going to be a horde of zombie corpses outside the nest? I move a few vines with my left hand, only to flinch at the pain shooting up my arm. Any movement I made with my left arm or hand sent waves of searing pain.
My shirt is stained red; the blood had dried, making my shirt become attached to me. The blood covering my arm making it hard to see the injury. I slowly, trying to not jostle my arm, moved to grab the knife at my side. It strapped to my left leg as a last resort. We learned at boot camp we were to keep it there unless we were using it. That Sargent Payton had saved both herself and others thanks to a knife at her side. Yelping in pain, feeling tears well in my eyes. I had undone the last strap, keeping the knife from me, but in the process had moved my arm. I needed to move to a water source to loosen the blood a little.
I moved the plants away from view so that I could move. There I saw the trees, brushes, and the zombies that had attacked me. The four lay there unmoving while plants looked to be growing out of them. Looking around, I realized an additional problem. I was in the woods turning into a zombie, with no idea where I was. I tried to remember what happened but all I could think trying to get away and using my skill to the best of my ability.
"Fuck!" I muttered, looking around, hoping that I wasn't too far from the campsite. I wouldn't go in, but at least that would give me some idea of where I am. I had to pick a direction to move in. Though based on how the zombie that I ran into reacted, I'm gonna guess I ran deeper into the forest. Going back was a good idea, but I wouldn't be able to fight off any hordes or run away from them with this arm. I walked around the vine nest and the dead four zombies peering into the woods for any signs that I should go in that direction. There is nothing but the surrounding foliage. I lost and wounded.
Taking a breath, I took my chances and walking in the direction I ran in. Maybe I would find something of worth if I kept going. Already dealing with the worse case scenario. The trail defeated me once I got bitten and had no chance of winning before my transformation.. I know some people had cheesed the trail like that before. It in credible dangerous thing that bought time so fewer people died. I walked all day, hiding in the trees when I saw any sign of a moment. Not wanting to get caught now. I wasn't sure if it was adrenaline or if I changing but my arm didn't hurt as much when I moved it. Though I had yet to look at it.
When the sunset, I decided that I would have to at least try to look at the wound. I found a tree and had the vines carry me up to the highest point I could get. I created my nest with the vines. Tired from all the walking and blood loss. Shoving the edge of my shirt into my mouth to muffle any sounds. Moving unhurriedly to move my bag off my back. Hesitating at every move that got too close to where the wound looked to be. I saw the dry crack in place as my shirt moved a little. The sleeve is stiff because of all the blood. I bit down on my shirt when I removed the weight from my left shoulder. It took moving my arm in different ways. I heard my muffled scream as I finally got the bag off. My vision blurry, and I took a moment to fill my lungs with air.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck," I muttered repeated in between gasps of breath. My voice wavered after every breath. Once I regained my composure, I had another layer to remove. I slow cut my sleeve off, took off my shirt. I needed no more wounds running rampant on my body. The bloody sleeve still clinging to my arm because of the blood keeping it still. My hands were shaking. I watched them shake. Procrastinating, taking my shirt off. I knew it was going to hurt.
I lay back, looking at the surrounding vines. I saw them slow move with my thoughts. They moved my shirt up on the right and I pulled my arm out. I grabbed the shirt from the vines with a smile. "Thanks," I whispered to the vines. Plants had really done a lot to help me during this tower debacle. I moved the shirt around the sleeve and the left arm so that I didn't have to move it. From there it slow moving the sleeve to crack and loosen it from the wound. It took a while to get it loose enough to remove from the wound. The few times I got bored, and moved too quick the searing pain back to remind me, I was in the wrong. I still couldn't see much with the dry blood, so I reached into my back for a bottle of my emergency water. We had two clean metal water bottles in our bags in case things got bad. I poured a small amount into my shirt. Taking the shirt, I held my breath and whipped at areas that I knew weren't the bite. Slowly getting closer to the wound as slow as I could without losing my mind. It took a few swipes and more water before I could see the bite clear.
The bite deep jagged wounds. The teeth tore at my arm, making the inside of the bite raised. It was 't much, but it still left a bite mark as large as my hand wrapped around my biceps. There is a large bruise around the bite. I touched the red bruise; it felt warm to the touch. "This just keeps getting fucking better," I grumbled sarcastically. I didn't know how to keep it clean or how to get help right now. Either way, I am tired from over-exerting myself. I took out the tank top I had packed into my bag. Putting it on hurts and causes some fresh blood to leave the bite mark. Which caused a leak that kept bleeding after I got the shirt on. I used the old shirt to wrap the wound tight. It hurt, and I shrieked when I had to tighten it.
Everything I could do for the wound was done. Maybe the plants could tell me what I could use to ease the wound a bit. I tried asking, but my head felt fuzzy and I was 't coherent enough for the question to have any effect on the surrounding plants. It was still dark, and I had nowhere to go. My mind was too fuzzy to work with and a warm, safe nest. I soon fell asleep pulling my bag on my stomach as a last-ditch protection.