On the way to the police station, we ran into more walkers, so we took them out silently, in the street we used melee weapons, only when we are in a secure position do we use firearms.
[ Points + 12 ]
We moved carefully, bodies falling one after another with the wet sound of blades slicing through rotten flesh, the air was heavy with the sour stench of decay.
This time I decided to use a machete instead of my knife, so with a single slash, the walkers' heads fell to the ground split in two.
[ Points + 7 ]
Something good I noticed was that the others no longer gave me only half a point, but a full one, this was because I took control of the camp and now I'm the leader.
Turning the corner, I saw the rusty sign of the station, Atlanta Police Department, the glass doors were broken and the interior was dark.
"Get ready, go in slowly, we don't know what's inside." I said quietly, signaling with my hand to divide us.
I put the machete back into the inventory and took out my pistol, which already had a silencer attached, the others followed my example, I had given silencers to everyone, only 20 points each, for a total of 140.
Glenn and Andrea went to the left, Merle, Morales and T-Dog to the right, Rick and I through the center, but we stayed close enough to keep contact.
We entered in silence, the sound of boots crunching over bullet casings and broken glass, the smell was unbearable, a horrible mix of dried blood, moisture, and gunpowder.
Inside, the reception was destroyed, desks overturned, walls smeared with bloody handprints.
"Jesus Christ..." murmured T-Dog in horror.
"Focus." I replied while checking a side door that led to the armory, I tried to open it, but it was locked with a chain and an industrial padlock.
"Glenn, cut this." I said, pointing at the lock, Glenn nodded and kneeled, taking a bolt cutter from his backpack.
While he worked, we heard a faint sound coming from the back hallway, a mix of dragging and raspy breathing, we all aimed at the same time.
"Just one... looks stuck in the wall." Said Andrea, approaching carefully.
A walker dressed in a police uniform was impaled on an iron bar, Andrea lifted her knife and drove it through its eye.
[ Points + 1 ]
At the same time, Glenn managed to break the chain, the armory door opened with a metallic screech, and the dense air inside came out in a burst, I pulled out my flashlight to illuminate the interior.
"Holy cow..." I murmured, looking at more than a dozen walkers slowly turning their heads toward us.
The sound of the chain hitting the floor had woken them up, as soon as the first one growled, the others moved like a wave of rotting flesh and blue uniforms.
"Back!" I shouted, retreating to the hallway while raising my pistol.
The shot barely made a sound, but it was enough to pierce the walker's skull and even hit the one behind it, giving me a double kill.
[ Points + 2 ]
The others reacted instantly and began shooting like the bullets were candy, Rick and Merle were the most lethal, hitting precise headshots.
[ Points + 4 ]
[ Points + 3 ]
The silenced bullets hit skulls one after another while the casings bounced on the floor with a soft metallic chime.
Glenn and Andrea fell back to my side while the walkers collapsed like rag dolls, Rick changed his magazine with surprising speed.
[ Points + 21 ]
[ Points + 10 ]
When the last walker fell, the muffled echo of gunfire faded, and silence took over again.
"That was close." Said Morales, wiping the sweat from his forehead.
"Too much noise." I replied, checking my magazine. "Let's hope we didn't attract more than we can handle."
I walked to the back of the armory, where the walls were lined with metal lockers, some locked, others open and empty, on one of the shelves I saw several sealed boxes of ammunition and assault rifles wrapped in plastic.
"I've seen this before, walkers locked up, saw something similar when I woke up in the hospital in King County." Said Rick, looking at the corpses on the floor.
"Military work, I guess they were too busy to take the weapons." I said, holding a locally-made Remington 700 rifle.
"This baby can blow a walker's head clean off from seven hundred meters." Said Merle, taking another from the shelf with a bright grin.
"Check all the lockers, take everything you find." I ordered, and everyone got to work.
Rick found a bulletproof vest in good condition, he put it on over his police uniform, it was a bit tight but functional.
Andrea and Glenn filled a backpack with magazines and sealed boxes of ammo, while Morales and T-Dog dragged a crate of smoke and stun grenades.
While everyone was busy, I stepped away to check the system shop, realizing I needed an ability that would let me react faster to threats, I didn't want to die for being too slow.
I found some like Spider-Sense, but all were out of budget, though I found one that could be useful, Dead Eye from Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption II.
[ Dead Eye: Allows accelerated perception of time | Cost: 500 Points ]
I bought it without hesitation, which left me with only 1600.5 points, then I decided to buy 6 stat points for a total of 600 points.
That half point left me anxious, so I bought a single explosive bullet, then proceeded to assign the six new stat points, which left me with this result.
Name: Shane Walsh
Affiliation: Abandoned Quarry
Rank: Leader
Age: 32
...
STR: 15
END: 12
AGI: 15
INT: 17
[ Note: 1 Point equals 10 kilograms on bench press strength ]
Skills: Dead Eye, Tactical Shooting (Advanced), Melee Combat (Intermediate), Omnilingualism, Zombie Immunity
Points: 1,000
Inventory: 2 Tanks, 3 M249 machine guns, 2,000 rounds of 5.56x45 mm, 2 fragmentation grenades, 1 tactical knife, binoculars, etc.
After assigning the points, I felt my strength increase, it wasn't extreme, but I couldn't get these results even if I trained every day for six months.
I activated Dead Eye out of curiosity, for a few seconds, everything went silent and clear, I felt like I could hit a fly from three hundred meters away.
I didn't let the excitement get to my head and deactivated the ability, immediately feeling a small wave of fatigue through my body.
It's an energy-demanding skill, but I can handle it, and it'll only get easier as I get stronger.
"Hm, worth it." I murmured to myself, finishing the test just in time as everyone finished packing what they found.
I entered the armory and stored everything inside the inventory: "We've got everything we need, let's go before this fills up again."
With that, we all walked outside, I had a bad feeling, so I decided not to check the rest of the station.
Just as we were about to leave, a bullet grazed past my ear, luckily I managed to dodge in time thanks to my sharp senses and the enemy's bad aim.
"Enemies, take cover!" I said, pushing Glenn, who had frozen in place.
Within seconds, we were all in cover inside the station, adrenaline coursing through our bodies.
"Come out with your hands up and drop your weapons, if you do, we'll let you go!" shouted one of the enemies, which helped me locate their position.
I carefully observed the exterior and managed to glimpse a total of five armed men, all taking cover just like us.
"What's our guarantee?!" I shouted back, it was obvious they were lying, but I needed to buy time.
"There's no guarantee, you'll have to trust us!" the enemy replied, and everything went silent for a while until I came up with a solution.
"Alright, I'll come out first and we can talk details, my friends will wait here in case something goes wrong, agreed?" I asked carefully, trying not to raise suspicion.
"Agreed!" they responded.
"Wait, Shane, what are you doing, it's dangerous." Said Andrea, grabbing my arm, I understood her concern, which made me feel strangely glad, but I wasn't going to stop.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine, trust me, okay?" I said with a smile, she looked into my eyes for a few seconds, then nodded.
With a sigh, I left my rifle resting against the wall and walked out through the broken door with my hands raised, starting to move slowly once I saw no one was shooting.
After a few steps outside, figures began to move between the abandoned cars in front of the station.
Five men, all young, nervous, with dirty clothes and mismatched vests, one wore a military cap, another an oil-stained coat, their fingers trembled on the triggers, but they all had fierce eyes, like they'd shoot at the slightest move.
"Stop right there! Don't move!" shouted one, probably the leader, his voice sounded uncertain, like he wasn't used to giving orders.
"Relax, I'm not looking for trouble." I said, raising my hands a bit higher.
My eyes didn't leave their movements, I noticed two were poorly positioned, one exposed on the left flank, another behind a patrol car with bad cover, they didn't know it yet, but they were already dead.
"Leave the weapons inside and tell the others to come out, one by one!" shouted the leader again, his finger trembling over the trigger of his pistol, a Colt 1911.
"Sorry, buddy, that's not gonna happen." I replied calmly.
The guy stepped forward, furious: "Then die here..."
Instantly, I activated Dead Eye, the world went silent, the wind stopped moving, leaves floated in the air as if time itself had frozen.
I slid my hand toward my pistol, raised it slowly, in my vision, five silhouettes were marked in reddish tones, two points over the exposed ones, two on the chests of the farthest, and one on the leader, without hesitation, I pulled the trigger.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound came rushing back like a storm, the bodies fell almost simultaneously, one collapsing over the hood of a patrol car, another falling seated with eyes wide open, the leader didn't even have time to react, just dropped with a clean hole in his forehead.
In less than a blink, all were eliminated, I deactivated Dead Eye, exhaling slowly as fatigue spread through me.
This was the first time I killed someone myself, it made me feel nauseous, but thanks to the old Shane's memories, I managed to overcome it, which made me realize I'd made a stupid mistake.
"Damn it, I should've left one alive, now I'll never know if it was an isolated case or if we were the target, though I seriously doubt it..." I muttered, thinking about how nervous they'd looked.
"Whatever, I just hope they weren't part of that nursing home group or it'll be a pain." After taking a deep breath to release the tension, I approached the corpses to see if I could get more information.
The others came out with their assault rifles ready to rescue me as soon as they heard the shots, but all they saw were the stiff bodies and me checking them over.
"I see you didn't waste any time, buddy..." murmured Rick, amazed by my skill, but I just looked at him silently and decided not to say anything.
Another thing is that the living don't seem to give points, maybe that's the best thing.