Chapter 8

  At some point, Jake stumbled across a long-abandoned police car. One of its rear doors was ajar. Jake approached the vehicle and leao look inside. He was surprised to find a pump-a shotgun as well as a box of ammunitioing on the rear seat.

  Reag ihe vehicle, he picked up the on. He checked if it was loaded and found it empty. Taking the shells from the ammo box, he stuffed his jacket pockets with them. He then shoved five shells into the loading port, racked the slide to chamber the first one, and then put another oo the magazio top off the on. He gnced ihe police ore time to make sure he didn’t miss anything and then straightened up.

  He walked to the front of the vehicle and pced the shotgun on the hood. Taking out his PDA, he sed the on to check its stats. While the shotgun was only level 1 and of on rarity, it was surely way more powerful than his pistol. However, Jake figured the shotgun would prove to be most effective only in cle bat situations.

  He didn’t have much experieh a shotgun, having fired one only a couple of times in the past. So while he wasn’t very profit with a shotgun, he knew how to use one and had some general knowledge about this type of firearm. He khat the further you were away from the target, the bigger the spread was going to be. If memory served him correctly, shotguns had an effective range of about thirty-five yards with buckshot. He also khat the general rule about shotguns was that they spread about one inch per yard from the point of firing.

  Still, Jake wasn’t sure if the general principles of shotguns would apply in this altered world. His pistol fired much quieter pared to other ones he’d used before the Colpse. Just like his Beri pistol, the on looked like a typical pump-a shotgun, but at the same time, its design didn’t resemble that of any shotguns he’d ever seen. So maybe the shotgun he’d just found would aewhat differently toiving the matter no more thought, Jake slung the on over his shoulder and tinued his journey. He soon stumbled across another car and fou another handgun ihe newly discovered pistol was identical to the one he already possessed, both in appearand statistics.

  Jake simply stared at the handgun for a moment, lost in thought. While expl the abaores, he had been ing across ed food and bottled water, and now he was stumbling upon ons as well. All these items seemed to have vely been pced in various pces for a survivor like him to find, making it really feel like a video game. From his uanding, the Earth was noart of the much rger world called the Gameverse, having somehow been merged into it. How could something like that be possible? He just couldn’t grasp it.

  Jake shook his head. Whatever was going on, it wasn’t natural. It was pletely different from anything he’d ever known, and his mind couldn’t make sense of it. He didn’t even try to find any kind of expnation for what was happening now. The most important thing was that reality had somehow ged, and he now had to learn to survive in this new game-like world. He decided to focus solely on this task.

  Jake g the newly found pistol one more time. He wasn’t sure if he should take it. After all, he already had one handgun, and they were identical to each other. In the end, he decided that the muns he had on him, the better, so he picked up the sed pistol and checked it out. He pushed the magazine release button to drop the magazine and checked to see if it was loaded. It was full, taining twenty rounds. He jacked the slide bad let it fly, loading the ohen tucked the sed handgun into his belt and tinued on.

  For some time, nothing happened, and Jake was lulled into a false sense of security. And that almost cost him dearly. When he was walking past an alleyway between two high-rises, an ex-human walker lurched at him from there. Jake had just enough time to unsling his shotgun and point it at the enemy before it reached him.

  The mutant sshed its cws at him, tearing the jacket on his shoulder and slig into his flesh. It might have been a game-like world, but the pai all too real. Yelping in pain and rage, Jake squeezed the trigger. A load of buckshot to the chest sent the monster flying bato the alleyway it had e from. The mutant colpsed to the ground a still, blood p from the huge hole in its chest. At point-bnk rahe shotgun was devastating, that was for damn sure.

  Before Jake could rex, a screeg sound came from further down the alleyway. He racked a shell into the chamber and poihe barrel in the dire the sound had e from. As he looked up, he saw two more ex-human walkers run toward him, haended forward, cws poi him.

  Jake smmed oant with a devastating shot and shifted his aim at the other one. He pumped a new shell into the chamber and squeezed the trigger, the on kig him hard in the shoulder. No more shots were needed, as the mutants were dead now, both lying sprawled on the ground in pools of spreading blood. Jake peered into the alleyway, ready to engage new enemies should they show up. No more mutants popped up, though. It was all quiet again, the whistling of the wind being the only audible sound. Then his PDA beeped with an ining message, likely inf him he received ten XP for each mutant he’d just killed. A few more, and he would level up to 2.

  Taking some shells from his pockets, Jake topped off his shotgun, grimag against the pain in his injured shoulder. After looking around one more time to make sure there were no more mutants nearby, he propped the shotgun against the wall of a building and took off his rucksack. He then doffed his jacket too and examined his wound. Four scratches ran across his upper arm. While the wound was superficial, it was bleeding and quite painful. He dug into his pad retrieved the stimpak he’d found earlier. He pressed the business end of the autoior to his wounded shoulder, feeling the firm pstic against his skin.

  With a quick, shaking breath, he pressed the trigger, and the sharp hiss of the device echoed in the silent alleyway. A shiver ran down his spine as the needle thrust out of the devid punctured his skin. The rush of medication flooded his system almost immediately. With a shaky exhale, he let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding as the medication began to take effect. The pain receded as the four scratches closed in just a few seds, leaving behind only barely noticeable scars on his skin.

  Jake dropped the y autoior as he took a step back. The tension in his muscles lessened, and his breaths came easier as the medication did its work. Feeling relief, he took stock of his surroundings one more time. No enemies were in sight. He quickly put on his jacket and then heaved his rucksato his shoulders. The stimpaks were truly miraedications. He was surely going to be on the lookout for more of those.

  He then sed the dead body of the mutant with his PDA. DEAD EX-HUMAN WALKER: EMPTY. He traihe camera of his devi the sed dead body. It didn’t have any loot either. When he sed the third one, he saw a different message on the s of his PDA. DEAD EX-HUMAN WALKER: STIMPAK (x1). Stepping over the bodies of the first two mutants, Jake crouched down beside the third one. He tapped the pockets of the torn clothes it was dressed in, and sure enough, in one of them, found another autoior identical to the one he’d just used. Jake stowed it in his rucksad stood up.

  He sulted the map on his PDA and stepped out of the alleyocketing the device. After the fight with the three ex-human walkers, he decided not to sling his shotgun over his shoulder in case more mutants jumped him. Carrying the on in his hands now, he resumed his journey.