The Unluckiest Raider in Apocalyptia

Story by Procrastinaouthor

>A scrawny man, with a sickly look to him, armed with a sawn off shotgun, gave a nervous look around him and adressed his superior.
>"I-I dunno man, this is smack-dab in the middle of the deadzone, you know what the boss told us about coming here"
>The adressed man scoffed at his underling, and raised his voice to have his whole group hear ,and nip this problem in the bud
>"I know what the boss said, and I'm not ignoring it, I'm not stupid! That's exactly why we came here at noon, plenty of daylight to keep us safe ok? besides, I even got Scrapjack to loan me these!"
>Havin said this, the leader put his backpack on the ground and from it, proudly produced a set of walkie-talkies. A whistle came from several of the raiders, batteries were scarce now, so it was a big deal that they were trusted with these.
>"Besides, with risk comes reward!, the Supermart in this area still has food in it, even after this long. As lon as we are careful abotu it, we will come back to the hideout as heroes!"
>The thing man with the shotgun smiled, his nerves easing up. It made sense, when his group leader put it like that.
>Perhaps today would be their lucky day.

>Thundercat assesed the Supermart they had arrived to, the old building was in clear decay, its walls dusty and splattered with long dried blood here and there. He was the leader of the scavengers, surviving his predecessor because he was a far more cautious man. He ran a hand ofer the side his head, over the tatto of hello kitty crossed by thunderbolts, from which his name was given.
>Ok fellas, this is how we're doing it. I got 5 talkies, one for each of us. When we go in there, I want everyone to report to the open channel every five minutes or so, so we all know you're still allright. If anyone stops reporting for too long, we all high-tail it out of here. No heroics, no rescue attempts. If you go silent, we assume you are dead. That fair?
>Noone in the group argued against it. They all had heard the horror stories from their scouts, of a perimeter around this part of Royal Woods where people would just vanish soundlessly, and later be found with sliced troaths and sometimes tendons. It was specially scary because it was done with precision to the vitals, which meant that the victims had never fought back, not once. And they still handt had any sightings of the assasin.
>A fat man raised his hand, a childish way to call for his turn to speak, but well, he was a simple man. Thundercat sighed and turned to him, having a pretty good idea of what it was about.
>"What is it, Gumbo?"
>"Uh, well, how do we know when it has been five minutes? I'm not good at keeping time, see."
>"Allright allright, look, just wait untill someone else has reported to make yours, no problem that way."
>Gumbo's face illuminated with understanding, and nodded. Thundercat grinned humorlessly. This is what he had to work with, but they were well equipped, and he made sure to at least pick up the men who were better at following orders out of the gang. They could do this, and then he would be in a favourable position when the time to pick the next Boss came.

>Gazelle gulped down his fear and made sure his shotgun was in proper order for the seventh time. He really didn't like his nickname, but he had to admit it was an apt descriptor. He always had had a thin complexion, was startled easily and his first instinct at the sight of danger was to run. It may not be manly, but it had kept him alive, and that had value of its own.
>But now he was very worried, because he had ben chosen as the pointman for opening the doors of the Supermart, reason being he was the nimblest and had the best chance at jumping back out if there was danger, and he was given the best gun for close range combat as a precaution for this role.
>Still, Gazelle steeled himself, steadied his grip on his weapon, and raised his awareness to the limits of his ability, then he opened the doors with a kick.
>Nothing.
>Well, they expected as much, few of the deaths their gang had experience in the city had been to booby traps. But they were all on edge, and had ven cautioned by Thundercat agaisnt loweing their guard while in the Deadzone for any reason.
>The raiders walked to the front of the store by the cashiers, the lines of ailes srawling in front of them offering bounty and danger in equal measure
>Thundercat cleared his troath, and spoke in a voice barely above a whisper
>"Allright, like we planned this, periodic calls on the walkie-talkies, dont get distracted. Put any food you find in your backpacks and keep your finger on your trigger. Oh, and check behind your back often. Go full paranoid on this and we will make it back, guaranteed."
>Nothing was ever guartanteed, but Thundercat was smarter then the average raider, and knew a thing or two about morale.
>The raiders spread out, with grim yet determined expressions, to do their task.

>"Gazelle here, over"
>"Gumbo here"
>"Dysentery here, still alive"
>"Quixote here"
>"Thundercat here, check."
>The roll call had been going like this for a good half an hour now, It had ben stressing as hell, but the amount of canned consumables Thundercat had found just on his first aile assured him this was all worth it. He continued on, being as quiet as possible because his life probably depended on it.
>Suddendly, the most horrifying thing possible stood in his way
>An overturned refrigerator box, opened in a way that did not let him see inde of it.
>Anything could be inside of it, an unknown.
>He hoped like hell that it still had a refrigerator in it. At least, he had the initiative here, if he treated it like a trap, then he would be safe, right? better err on the side of caution.
>Thundercat inched his way to the box with the most extreme of cautions, bordering ridiculousness. Every step treathening to rise demons from the ground to grab and dismember him. In his mind at least.
>He reached the box, no sound coming from within the cardboard deathtrap. He was still alive.
>So far, so good.
>But he knew he could not leave this potential danger be. Turning his back on it and searching eslewere would mean leaving an unknown quantity on his survival prospects, and that literally was no way to live.
>He gripped his hunting rifle tighter, the wood on the stock creaking under his sweating fingers.
>Please just be a zombie, zombies are at least a familiar danger
>After what seemed like a couple forevers, he won the struggle he had against himself in his mind, and decided to go for it.
>He kicked the box, hard, and it went flying.
>It was empty all along. Thundercat drew a long breath to relax himself.
>Then his blood went cold and his face went ghostly white.
>How long had it been now?
>Noone on his team had called, his walkie-talkie had been silent for far too long.

>This was not possible, there was only one assasin as far as they knew.
>But what was or wasnt possible did not matter at this point, only hauling ass mattered.
>He hesitated only a moment, thinking about his backpack and his gun.
> The whole point they came here, and the reason they may just have lost 4 men, was to get this food.
>But the gun weighted him down less.
>Groaning with annoyance, he let go of his backpack, scattering the cans of food around its open zipper.
>Allright, he was good to go now, he took a look to the Supermart's exit to confirm his escape route was clear-
>And Thundercat ceased to be, departing from this world with a wet gurgle as a box cutter sliced into his troath, exposed by a hand which grabbed at his hair and drew his head back.

>Gumbo was confused, almost as confused as he was scared.
>He was told to report after soemone else did
>but nobody had reported in a while now. He was pretty sure Thundercat would be mad at him even if it wasnt really his fault.
>At least he had found a box of animal crackers, the sweet flavor and childhood nostalgia cheered him up a little.
>But he felt so alone now. Perhaps it would be better to just walk out of the supermart and wait for them to come out?
>Gumbo really struggled at times like these. He really didnt like to take initiatives because they often turned out to be the wrong decisions. But sometimes he knew he had no better choices.
>Like now.
>So Gumbo stored away his pack of crackers, dusted the crumbs against his pants..
>And then sat on the floor.
>He wasnt sure what happened, there was a flash of pain and then he couldnt walk no more.
>Panic set in, in a pure an unadulterated way that beffited his simple nature.
>He scrambled on his arms, crawling to the safety of the outside with all he had.
>But then he felt more pain, and a wet feeling in his arms, and now he coldnt put strength into them anymore.
>Realizing his predicament, he gave in fully to dispair, and started wailing like a baby, convinced that he was going to die.
>It wasn't fair, it really was not. Gumbo had been the best person he could manage to be, he didn't kill unless the other person had a weapon or was a zombie, and he had never lied to or betrayed his fellow gang members.
>Sure, he sometimes took more food than was asigned to him and stashed it, but that wasnt worth being murdered in the deadzone, was it?
>Trough his tear-filled eyes, he noticed a small figure obstructing the daylight in front of him.
>Gumbo blinked a few times, and his disbelieving eyes confirmed the reality: a little girl was standing before him.

>"Ru-run away!, there's a killer here!" Gumbo wanted to ask her to save him, how how desperately he wanted to. But he knew he was a big man. Far too heavy for a little girl to do anything about him. Still, he wanted to talk to her, possibly the last human being he would ever meet. And a warning was all he could think of.
>The girl was not impressed, neither shock now fear present in her eyes. She did not make a sound to aknowledge Gumbo, she merely appraised him with her gaze.
>Gumbo wasnt in a state of mind to make any accurte guesswork as to why this girl was here, standing before him. But then the light glittered off a piece of metal and momentarily hit him in the eye.
>This called his attention to a box cutter the girl had in her right hand. A dangerous tool
>Covered in blood.
>He froze and stared at her, at a face that was human by technicality but more akin to that of a mannekin. No hatred, no joy, no disgust. She just looked at him the way one would look at a random car in a parking lot.
>Gumbo blinked, and the girl was no longer in front of him.
>He would have sighed in relief, had he not been killed on the spot.