Chapter 12 - Vehicle.

Arther also wanted to find a way to get his hands on some hot weapons. Being a survivor he has used various types of weapons and had a basic understanding of many hot and cold weapons, at the starting stage of the apocalypse hot weapons might become a factor of survival when facing the low-level beasts and undead as not many people have the good physical strength or are trained in close combat during the peaceful times, it can also be a deterrent factor against other survivors as even though many people have gained superpowers with which humans got stronger, hot weapons still had a deterrence against them at the beginning stage as only at a higher level they are immune to the hot weapons. Only a few revolutionaries with defensive traits were not afraid of weak hot weapons.

For the survivors in the outer city, it was a dream to have weapons with high destructive power as hot weapons were seen as a factor to measure one strength, even if one somehow find those weapons from somewhere it will only bring dooms to them as there were few strong factions in the outer cities which will secretly or sometimes openly kill them and snatch all the good things, this was apocalypse were weak didn't have the right to own anything good. Hence Arther wanted to increase his strength sooner as he knew one day he will have to face those factions if he wanted to build his strong base.

As there were wars for benefits and building a base required lots of them. Even if Arther was prepared to face those factions he didn't want to confront head-on with them as while working in the city he had heard some rumors about them, it was said that few of the factions were owned by some strong figures in the inner city they were and most of the factions had some relations with those inner-city officials since they were able to build and protect their factions.

Arther thought that this was a way for that inner-city people to collect the resources from the wasteland and also as their private forces.

Hence he has decided to lay low till he was strong enough to even confront those inner-city officials.

After having a plan to work on, he decided to wait till he got the money.. Arther passed the entire morning in sorting out his plan and marking all the things they will require to remember while on the way to city S along with all the location of the treasures he wanted to get on the downloaded map, he will get a few copies of the map printed since the tab will become useless in the apocalypse.

At 2:00 noon he had lunch and went out, he had to find a suitable car that can be used for traveling as he knew normal cars can't withstand the harsher environment of the apocalypse. So now he was going to a person he knew. His name was Robert, he was a car enthusiast who had his car modification shop in the periphery of the city, Arther wanted to see if he can ask for a car from Robert for a day on rent as he didn't have to buy the car directly from him as that will be waste of money. After the apocalypse, no one will ask him about the car if he has the strength to protect it.

If he can't get any he will have to rent the car from somewhere else and ask Robert to modify it. He had experienced the roads of apocalypse himself so he has a basic idea of what type of car he required and what needs to be modified. He wanted a truck or a heavy tonnage vehicle.

Compared to the suburbs the city seemed more lonely, the effect of lockdown can be seen in the city. Since there was no taxi available Arther had to walk to the shop. On the periphery of the city, in a small not so rich community with many 2-3 story buildings on a corner, there was a two-story building. The shop had a huge front area where in normal times many cars will be parked for repairing and modification, there was a huge iron shutter that was closed.

Arther went around the shop on the other side where iron stairs were leading to the second floor, Robert lived alone, he has modified the ground floor to be a small garage and the second floor was used as a living area. Arther knocked on the old wooden safety door before a burly man with black oil on his hands opened the door, Robert had a very well build burly body with visible muscles and slightly dark skin, he had blonde hair and black eyes, there was an annoyed expression on his face,

"Arther? why are you here?", Robert was also a type of otaku who didn't like to have interaction with many people.

"I have something to ask for.", Arther was not angry with Robert's attitude towards him as he knew him well,

"Come in.", asking him to enter Robert went to continue his work.

Arther had a wry smile on his face as he entered the house which had no fancy furniture there were automobile parts and oil stains everywhere on the floor, there was a small TV and a sofa to sit, after closing the door Arther went downstairs to the garage where Robert was working.

The garage was filled with many cars, Arther watched all the cars with interest hoping to find something he needed, after watching he spotted few vehicles he might use.

"Arther can you pass me that toolbox.", Arther went to the toolbox and passed it to Robert who was working on something that piqued Arther's interest, it was a raptor truck with a modified front collision column and a huge track in place of wheels.

"Do you like it? It is my new baby I am working on, I have modified its engine with enough power to make those crawlers work, those tracks cost me a lot to get from a military firm, it was a broken track from an old tank which I had repaired ", seeing Arther's amazed expression Robert explained with a proud expression.

"I will also add an extra fuel tank as this guy has a huge appetite for fuel", Robert said with a wry smile.

After hearing this Arther dismissed the idea of asking for this truck, as even though those tracks can produce huge forward momentum which will be enough to crush anything in any way and the collision column can be useful for clearing the road blockage. But the fuel was a commodity in huge demand in the apocalypse and most of it was reserved and stored by the inner city and strong factions.

But it can't be denied that Arther was infatuated with this car as automobiles were every man's passion. If not that the shortcoming of this vehicle was a fatal point Arther might have asked for it.

Arther touched the car body and tracks trying to sense the rough touch, it was then that change occurred.