He looked around, squinting through the bright haze of morning as his dash quickly shifted down to a light jog. The street stretched out in front of him, overturned vehicles, cracked pavement, weeds growing through said cracks and thriving. A faint pillar of orange light shimmered in the distance, marking a point just beyond a collapsed overpass.
It was about that time that Kayn realized he just went off half-cocked without really knowing where he was going, and his happy little moment faded. The orange light was evident enough of a possible finish-line, but what was the actual test he had to pass?
"Okay, let's get something clear," he muttered as his feet took him closer to his first set of obstacles. "So just keep heading toward the light and make it past whatever is in the way?"
[Successful completion yields stat enhancement.]
"Right…"
Kayn sighed, trying to figure out what to do with his rebar, and deciding to just bring it along. This also brought on the re-realisation that he was still in his birthday suit, not that there was anything he could do about that. He just had to try and avoid catching his dangly parts on anything sharp and rusted.
"Step one, finish the tutorial, step two, find a GAP or Target, or whatever this place has."
He adjusted his grip on the rebar, wiping a mix of sweat and dust from his palms before realizing that just made it worse as both materials congealed together.
Cars lay stacked like dominoes mid-fall, their frames rusted and stripped, doors hanging open like mouths. The route forward narrowed to a series of crawlspaces between them, dark gaps just wide enough for someone desperate or stupid enough to try squeezing through. Kayn gazed to the left and right, seeing that buildings blocked him from simply walking around the barricade.
"Subtle…" he muttered, contemplating the right course of action. On one hand he could just climb over it, using the windows and mirrors as hand and footholds. It would be easier to just go over, at least from his perspective. To go through, well that sent the hairs on the back of his neck on end. This obstacle had to be half a dozen cars deep, and somewhere in all of those dark foreboding cabs, seats, and trunks… There could be anything.
Just as he started to position himself to climb, he saw a suitcase in the back seat of a black Subaru, was what the system would call…
[Incentives have been…]
He cut off the voice, not actually as it still continued to speak, but he drowned it out for a moment.
"Oh fuuuuck you!" He really stretched the word as he tried the passenger door closest to him.
"Locked, of course." Kayn moved to the middle seat door, also locked. This caused him to shut his eyes and rub his temples before returning to the first door and peered his head in through the broken window. He gazed down at his rebar, held it up to the window, looked deeper into the mess of broken down cars, and dropped it to the ground.
"No way I'll be able to navigate with several feet of unyielding metal in my hand."
He leaned back through the window and unlocked the door from the inside, the handle clicking with the grinding creak that begged for a quart of WD40. The car smelled of dust and rot, faintly sweet, like something had died a long time ago and Kayn did not doubt that one bit.
The first few feet were the easiest, but he knew that there would be no more opening doors, what with every vehicle crammed tightly together. Making his way over the arm rest and into the middle seats, there was now enough room to crouch and navigate past the captain chairs and into the back seat. He plopped down onto the center seat and eyed the treasure he was after.
A navy blue and very dusty suitcase sat inconspicuously next to him. It was scuffed and sun-faded, but intact. Flipping the latches open, he braced himself for disappointment. With a cringe and a sigh that did not fail to express his disappointment, he found his first piece of 'treasure'. Inside was a single gray t-shirt, folded neatly, like someone had planned for a trip and decided to pack lightly.
"You've got to be kidding me."
He held it up, shook his head, and muttered, "So what's the next one gonna have, one sock?"
Still, he pulled it over his head. The fabric was stiff but intact, and after the past few hours of unintentional exposure, even that felt like a luxury.
Kayn chuckled to himself thinking about how he would look to any passerby, crotch exposed, barefoot, wearing nothing but a dusty grey shirt.
"Still a long way to go, probably some boxers at the very least," he said to no one in particular.
He returned to the middle seats and worked his way through the open window and into another vehicle, some kind of coup. The make and model didn't matter so much as the fact that it had no suitcase in it. The world narrowed into a metal maze as he progressed past twisted frames, and shattered glass that were thankfully tempered. Suitcases and backpacks lay scattered as if flung there by design.
The next case contained a single shoe that he slid onto his foot, finding it fit perfectly. The third case contained a pair of shorts, no boxers or briefs, but coverage was coverage. Then, unbelievably, a travel bag with only a single hunting knife inside.
"Oh thank god," he muttered, sliding the blade free from its cracked leather sheath. He held it up, testing the edge with his thumb and pulling back as it split the skin. "Phew," he let out in exclamation as he sheathed it again, sucked on his thumb, and went to put it in his pocket before pausing.
"Meh, it will fall out if I just stick it in my pocket, but at least I can carry it without bumping into everything within three feet of me."
The air grew thicker the deeper he crawled until he found himself noticing various shapes in the vehicles. These shapes weren't just junk, luggage, or seats, they were… People. Pale, dry, and slack-jawed faces gazed ahead, behind dust coated windows. A man slumped against the window, seatbelt still buckled, a woman facing toward Kayn, unmoving, arms hanging out over the open window.
It got so much worse and he could feel his stomach lurch as he noticed the smaller shapes in the back seats. There were families, dozens of them, men women and so many children.
He stared for a long moment before forcing himself forward again. They were just bodies, he told himself. He had to think of them as props as he passed through the occupied vehicles, because he couldn't ignore them. At any point one of them could attack, but part of his refused to look at the kids.
"This is too much," he choked out as he grabbed a partner for his shoe and slid it on.
He was almost through when something shifted behind him. A seat creaked as soft, wet air exhaled from a set of raspy lungs.
"Please don't be a kid," he whispered to himself as he slowly turned to face the looming threat.
He was just in time to see the corpse twitch, well, the first one. A man in the seat belt turned his head, vertebrae cracking like, well, like bone. The undead's once glossy eyes now loosely focused on him, the cloudy orbs searching toward Kayn's general direction.
[Threat detected.]
"No shit," he shouted before trying to take back his words that echoed around the tight confines, but this was something that could not be undone.
Immediately the body lunged, thrashing against the seatbelt, arms clawing through the narrow space. Kayn scrambled backward, his shoulders scraping metal, kicking against the cramped walls. The monster could not reach him, but he wasn't sure how much longer that ancient seatbelt would hold. He assessed the situation and tried to catch his breath.
Thinking quickly, he reached under the seat in front of the zombie and pulled, unlocking it from its place and sliding it back to slam against the undead's knees. His hand slid down between the seat and the door and he pulled another lever, the seat falling back into its lap, pinning one arm to its chest as it still tried to grab at him.
Carefully, Kayn shifted his body close to the door where its arm was pinned under the seat, and unsheathed his blade. With one swift stab, the knife struck bone, slipped, then sank again into rotted flesh. The confined space amplified every sound each of them made, the wet crunch, his own frantic breathing, the sickening screech of the undead monster.
He jammed the blade in again, this time under the jaw, twisting until the thing finally went still.
Silence returned with far more force than it held before.
Kayn stayed crouched on the reclined seat, panting and staring at the body until his arms stopped shaking. Then, finally, he muttered, "Disgusting."
He yanked the knife free, wiped it on the ruined upholstery, and forced himself forward, one crawlspace at a time, until daylight finally spilled over him again.