Chapter 41: Shield

FieryKathy

“Didn’t you say it was post-apocalyptic?” Nikki asks, slinging her shotgun over her shoulder.

“I did, I assume the hub is either a rebuilt city or it didn’t get hit as hard. I don’t know everything about this game yet.”

“That’s fair, I guess we’ll have to find out ourselves.” Élise smiles, and starts heading towards one end of the alleyway.

“Where are you going?” I ask her.

“Looking for a bar.” She winks.

“Ah, right.”

We start following her down the alleyway which apparently leads to an even more brightly lit up boulevard.

“Shady bar or not?” My sister looks back over her shoulder at us.

“Why would you want to go to a shady bar?” Sam walks up to her and looks around.

“Quests.” Hilda simply replies.

Élise nods. “I would assume that the people who have some work for us to do wouldn’t want to pull too much attention in a busy establishment.”

“That’s fair. All of these bars look shady to me though.”

“I guess we’re in luck then.” Élise laughs and steps into the nearest one.

The rest of us enter and are greeted by your typical brown bar setup as we are setting ourselves up at one of the tables. We all order something to drink and it doesn’t take long for a local to approach us.

“Y’all seem like a pretty decent group of mercenaries, would you be interested in an opportunity?” The man slides a piece of paper on the table.

“A gang of outlaws have taken up shop in nearby ruins, huh?” Élise quickly reads it. “And what’s in it for us?”

The man smiles. “This gang has been raiding caravans of traders for months now, obviously all the spoils they leave behind are yours.”

Élise looks over at Hilda, Hilda nods. “Add 500 coins to that and we’ll do it.”

“250 up front, 250 after the job is done?” The man clearly expected us to barter.

“That’s fine.” Élise holds out her hand and the man shakes it.

A small screen saying ‘contract accepted’ pops up.

“First quest accepted, easy as that.” Élise looks back over to us and smiles.

“Do we get experience points as well?”

“Not really, most of the advancing happens with money, through buying new gear and stuff like that. While your classes do provide some bonuses. You are for example a bit faster than Élise, while she has a higher carrying capacity and gets way less recoil from heavy weapons.” Hilda explains.

“Oh, I see.”

“So, when are we leaving?” Sam asks while drinking her lemonade.

“Once we are done with our drinks I guess.” Élise sips from her drink as well.

“Even though it’s still dark?”

“Yeah but by the time we’ll get to our destination it’ll probably be light, and I’d rather fight during the daytime than the other way around.”

“We don’t have enough money yet for night vision goggles.” Hilda reaches into her bag, “I did receive these because I’m the party leader though.” She takes out several pieces of gear.

“Voice comms?” Nikki takes an earpiece and puts it in.

“Yes, these three are for me, you and Sam. These other two are specifically for our cat girls.” She hands me and Élise a headset which has a little extension so it can reach our ears.

“That’s pretty cute.” Élise inspects the design.

“I know right.” Hilda nods.

“Regretting not having picked a cat girl yourself Hilda?” I tease her.

“Nah, I’m fine.”

“She’d look great as a kitty though.” Nikki piles on the teasing as well.

“I know right!” I rub my head against her arm.

Hilda blushes and sips from her drink. 

After the drinks we head out back on the streets.

“Quest log says it's about a three-hour walk to the north-east after leaving the city.” Élise closes her HUD.

“Allright, let’s get moving then.”

While walking towards the city perimeter we stop by a small stall to buy some MREs with the money we got upfront from the shady looking gentleman.

“This is gonna be so cool, I’ve never eaten one of these before.” Sam starts gleaming.

“They are pretty much hit or miss, for me anyway.” Hilda shoves hers in her small backpack.

“Oh? Have you eaten them before?”

Hilda nods. “I was curious how they tasted so I bought a couple in an army surplus store a while back. The pasta was horrendous, but the crackers with cheese spread were pretty nice.”

“Hmm. I got the chili one. Hope that one is gonna be fine.” Sam looks at the packaging a bit more closely.

“Oh, I saw a video once from a reviewer and he put it between bread, looked pretty good.”

“I’ll try that then.” Sam smiles and puts hers away as well.

The closer we come to the city perimeter the more the buildings in the city start looking a bit derelict. Signs of shops rarely lit up, half of them not even hanging in the right angle anymore. Bullet impacts strewn over the walls. Some buildings outright destroyed.

“Wow. If this is within city bounds I don’t really want to know how it looks outside.” Nikki comments, pointing at one of the destroyed buildings.

“Well, we are going to.” Élise ads. “Because it looks like we are almost at the gate.”

When we come close to the gate something interesting catches my eyes. The sky softly glimmers periodically.

“I think it’s shielded.”

“You might be right, kitten.” Hilda comments, just when a small bird hits the wall from the outside, sending a sort of lightblue shockwave through the shield.

“Wow.”

“Admirin’ our shield, aren’t ya missy?” One of the soldiers stationed at the gates approaches us, putting his rifle nonchalantly on his shoulder.

I nod at him shyly.

“Has it been up for long?” Hilda approaches the soldier and gives him a firm handshake.

“Aye, has been ‘ere since shortly before the war. Still had its issues though. Shield gave out for a second when the bombs were droppin’ that’s why the buildings around the perimeter are so…”

“Trashed.” The other soldier helps his mate out.

“Aye, trashed indeed.”

“Atomic huh…” Élise sighs.

“I am become death…” Sam continues.

“Destroyer of worlds.” Nikki finishes Sam’s sentence.

“How’s the radiation outside?” Hilda asks the soldier.

“It’s perfectly fine now. It dissipated soon after the bombs fell. We got lucky it weren’t dirty bombs. Heard stories from other cities where they weren’t so lucky. Had to leave for better places or starve.”

“Leaving your home is never easy.” Hilda looks over to me.

“It is if you can find a better one though!” I smile back at her, making her smile as well.

“That’s the attitude lassie! This place needs more positivity.” The soldier sticks his thumb up in the air. “So, where’s ye group headin’?”

“Just going to clean up a gang that’s been harassing merchants a bit further on the road.” Hilda answers his question.

“Ah, I think I know who ye mean. We’d go ourselves but the guard is very thinly stretched nowadays.”

“So you hire mercenaries in shady cafe’s instead?” Élise asks with a bemused look on her face.

“Aye, fer some reason mercenaries always think that’s where they get the best jobs, so we have our guys recruitin’ there as well.”

“Fair point.” My sister chuckles embarrassedly and rubs the back of her head.

“Do you have an idea how many outlaws there are at their camp?”

“Last time I heard, ‘round 40.”

“40!?” Sam cries out.

“Aye, don’t think it’ll be a big issue for y’all though. You got some serious firepower. If you take them by surprise it won’t be a long battle at all.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” Hilda smiles.

“Oh, one last thing before you go. The caravan those bastards attacked had the daughter of a guard in it. She is probably dead... but if you could find her necklace and bring it back, we’d appreciate it a lot.

“We will keep an eye out for it.” Élise nods as we all walk towards the gate.

“Good luck and safe travels.” The soldier says, pressing a button which makes the heavy-duty gate slide open. 

We wave the soldiers goodbye and once we are 100 meters outside the gate, it closes again.

“Must be terrible to lose your daughter like that.” Élise says to Nikki.

“Mhmm. We will make them pay for it though.” She replies.

“Definitely.” I add on.

“Not feeling too angry, I hope?” Sam asks, poking my side.

“How so?”

“With your revenge angel dealio.”

“Oh right…” I go silent and observe my own feelings for a couple of seconds. Paying close attention to my breathing cycle “...Mhmm. I’m definitely angry, but I wouldn’t say I am ‘I’m-gonna-decapitate-literally everyone-with-my-sword’-angry.”

“Maybe your skill is a bit suppressed in-game?” Hilda poses, taking a bite from a cracker in the meantime.

“Maybe, there’s still a lot I don’t know about it yet, maybe my last explosion of angryness was too recent? Also, can I has cracker?”

Hilda chuckles and hands me one. “Perhaps that’s the case. Just tell us when you feel something coming up.”

“I’ll try. Veanya told me that more tasty snacks repress it as well.”

Everyone around me starts laughing.

“Yeah right, sis. At least we know nothing is wrong with your appetite.”

“No overfeeding the cat, please.” Sam gives me a quick hug.

I give Sam a small kiss in return. “Alright then, you can feed me kisses instead.”

“I like that compromise.” She smiles and takes me in for a longer kiss.