Chapter 3: Deadzone

Chapter 3: Deadzone

The most direct route between Kind and Boon was straight through a deadzone. I wasnt familiar with this one, but I figured Id risk the trek straight through to cut time off the journey.

The edges of deadzones arent usually distinct. If you didnt have a geiger counter handy, or werent familiar with an area it could be easy to wander into one without realizing it. This one snuck up on me. The road I was walking slowly went from solid, to broken through by plants and patches of water, until I found myself walking through a thick swamp.

Deadzones tended to be areas with high rads, but they were named deadzones because they killed people, not necessarily because they didnt hold life of their own. The swamp was teeming with it. Lizards the size of dogs and frogs with long tails scurried away as I walked, sensing a more dangerous predator than they could handle. I broke a branch from a tree that bled a sticky orange substance, and I started using it to touch the ground in front of me, using it to avoid drowning in soft patches of earth. My cart had no issues, it just hummed softly as its treads carried it through any difficulty.

As I walked my geiger counter trilled loudly in areas of particularly thick foliage and as I reached what I gauged to be the center of the zone I began to hear a loud buzzing noise. I removed my geiger counter and held it to my ear, but the buzzing wasnt coming from it. I kept moving, and as I did the buzzing grew louder.

I walked about another mile before I saw what was making the noise. What looked like a black cloud was writhing in front of me. It undulated and danced, moving in what seemed like random directions. After watching it for a few minutes I realized what it was. Mosquitos, thick as a cement wall. I wasnt sure if theyd noticed me and were ignoring me, or if they were simply preoccupied with something else. None broke off from the cloud to bite me, instead they moved as a single entity.

After watching them for a few minutes I noticed something. A glint of metal peaking through their thick cloud. I watched that spot a little longer and was able to slowly piece together a picture of a body, guns, and a bag.

Salvage, valuable salvage. Its one of the benefits of being able to explore deadzones relatively freely. A lot of people wander in and die, leaving behind goods that tend to lie untouched. I considered ignoring it, but the gun didnt look like the crap I was used to finding. It seemed well maintained. It seemed like whoever had died to leave it behind had taken care of it.

I pulled out some meat and ate it while I considered what to do. The mosquitos hadnt bothered me yet, but I didnt know if that would last if I walked into them. My clothing covered most of my body, but I was certain they could slip between the folds of it if they wanted to. I considered a fire, but finding dry wood in a swamp didnt seem likely. That left one option. I pulled out my machete.

I yanked my machete out of the now dead salamander. Its body twitched as I did. I couldve made short work of it with my pistol, but I didnt want to waste what ammo I had. Id had to slowly sneak up on them and strike before they could react. They were slippery bastards, but after an hour's work I had two of the salamanders and a half dozen of the frogs. I pulled out a net I sometimes used to carry mail and shoved the newest body into it. I didnt earn PP for killing them since they werent attempting to harm me or my cargo, but I figured the salvage opportunity would make all the effort worth it.

When I returned the mosquitos were still there, a black pulsating mass of buzzing. I took the net, aimed it, and threw it through the thick cloud. It briefly knocked a hole in it, but that swiftly closed back up as the bugs recovered. The buzzing grew excited and I watched the mass slowly move off of the body theyd most recently feasted on and head toward the fresh blood Id provided for them.

I approached the corpse cautiously. It was covered in small holes from the mosquitos, but what surprised me were two large ones. One was in his chest and the other his stomach. They looked like they were burned around the edges, and I could still catch a whiff of burnt flesh in the air.

A notification filled my vision.

Citizen, you have found a dead Marshall. You are being offered the following job:

Federal Marshall

This Job offers the following:

Stat focus: Strength, Perception, Intelligence

Skills: Long Guns, Pistols, Melee Weapons, Investigation, Tracking

Abilities for Lvl 1:

Under Cover: You may retain your previous job and those with the ability to read your sheet will see whichever job you choose to show.

You're Under Arrest: You may temporarily remove all job based bonuses from a target to ease apprehending them. This person will be highlighted in your vision while this ability is active.

This job receives PP based on the following criteria:

Completing investigations

Making arrests

Nationalism- 3

Endurance- 23

Speed- 17

Job Abilities:

Neither Rain, Sleet, or Snow: You are unhampered by adverse weather

Express: You gain a 5% bonus to movement speed

Special Delivery: You can mark a delivery special which will allow you to track it.

Under Cover: You may retain your previous job and those with the ability to read your sheet will see whichever job you choose to show.

You're Under Arrest: You may temporarily remove all job based bonuses from a target to ease apprehending them. This person will be highlighted in your vision while this ability is active.

Skills:

Walking- 34

Pistol- 8

Loading/unloading- 22

Customer Service- 12

Driving- 3

Melee Weapons- 1

Long Guns- 1

Investigation- 1

Tracking- 1

Virus:

Deadman- Bonus to all physical stats +5, negative to social based skills

Natural weapon- Teeth

Night Vision

The new skills had a lot of value, particularly melee weapons. I was already good with a machete, but having it as an actual skill meant I could get much better with it a lot quicker. I also noticed my pistol skill got an automatic boost of one. I wanted to keep these new advantages, to use them. All I needed to do was solve a murder. The strange wounds on the body seemed to be the best clue to finding what may have happened. I went into my sheet and activated my undercover ability to make only my Postman Job display. There was a chance the marshall had been shot in Boon, no sense in me taking the risk of being found out. If anyone had the Mayor or other bureaucratic jobs now theyd only see the profession I had allowed to display. Once I was done I drew my duster closely about myself and went to sleep.