Chapter 149: Take one Please

The next morning, Travis was back safe and un-possessed, much to everyone’s surprise. Of course, Travis didn’t actually sleep that night, so it made sense he was still alive. Upon being informed that falling asleep probably would’ve gotten him killed, the Master Decoy just shrugged and said he was already operating under the assumption that falling asleep on his own in a zombie-infested Floor was a bad idea.

Travis brought back a few souvenirs from his time alone. Mostly strange ‘convenience’ relics, rings that heated and flavored food, anklets that made the body lighter and repaired arthritis…that sort of thing.

If it was truly valuable, Will wasn’t sure Travis would’ve shown them. The Decoy wasn’t against them, but he did have a streak of self-interest.

I suppose that can be said for most of us, Will thought, scanning the Party as they travelled. None of them were completely saintly, except maybe Anna, and she represented an idealized caricature of what Brianna thought she should’ve been.

As for Loth, they practically had to drag her away from the addictive joy of her infinite Zombie launcher, but after some whining and pleading on both sides, they managed to get her away from the trap and back on the road again.

The blob of splattered zombies outside the building was getting big and beginning to make some concerning moves. Namely, moving.

A few hours into their travel, Will caught Loth designing some kind of zombie-powered threshing machine in her notebook.

When she noticed him looking, she then spent the next hour describing how the mindless energy of the undead could be harvested to make life for the living better.

“So all the foreman has to do is stand there, and the zombies walk towards them on the treadmill, which turns the wheel, which powers the thresher, or whatever else you care to automate.” Loth said, tapping the different parts of the diagram.

“So umm…are we going to export zombies or something? Because nothing grows on this Floor.”

Loth’s eyes went wide for a moment before narrowing as she realized how much of a hurdle her zombie-power revolution faced.

“…Foo.” Loth ripped her design out of her book and tossed it aside. Will caught it and teased her about hanging it up on the mantle.

After Loth gave him ‘the look’, Will backed off and turned his attention to the time, glancing up at the sun, barely visible through the purple haze.

Only a few more hours before we set down again.

Will caught Jason’s attention and waved him over.

“Hey Jason, according to Charnesa, we still have a day before we hit Ghoul’s Stronghold, and I had an idea for something you could help with.”

“What’sup?” Jason asked.

“You notice how all these buildings are about the same, and they’ve all been picked clean of anything cool by generations of Climbers?” Will asked, gesturing to the endless ocean of massive glass towers gliding by underneath them.

“Yeah?”

“Well, I’d like you to pick our next landing spot. One with something cool, if you can.”

“Eh?” Jason grunted, looking up at Will. “How?”

“With your cantrip.”

Jason’s eyes widened and his face lit up.

“Right away sir!” Jason said, snapping off a sloppy-but-enthusiastic salute. “I’ll find us a spot with so much goddamn treasure we won’t be able to carry it all!”

“Just pick a good spot,” Will said, patting him on the shoulder. “More than we can carry is useless.”

Jason gave an ominous chuckle and rubbed his palms together before pulling out a gold coin.

Jason pointed at the nearest building and flipped the coin.

Tails.

Jason pointed at the next one.

Tails.

Will let Jason do his thing when it became obvious that it might take quite some time for him to find a good spot.

About four hours later, Will was playing go with Loth and losing horribly when Jason came back to him, tugging manically on his sleeve.

“Will, Will, Will!”

“You can just tell me what you got,” Will said, turning his attention to the excited prophet.

“That building right there, has some sweet loot.” Jason said, pointing.

Will squinted to see through the omnipresent purple haze.

“That shorter one by the bridge?” Will asked. There was an empty riverbed and a squat building beside it. ‘Shorter’ was relative, since the building itself was still about eight stories tall, which had previously been taller than the biggest building Will had ever seen.

“Is it dangerous?” Will asked.

Jason frowned, turning to stare at the building and flipping a coin.

The coin landed heads in his hand.

“Yeah.”

“I guess everywhere is ‘dangerous’ here. Is it gonna get us killed?” Will asked.

Jason flipped the coin again, and this time he missed the catch, causing it to tumble down to the platform of air beneath them.

The coin landed on its side, slowly rotating in place.

“…Answer uncertain, try again later.” Jason said with a shrug as he glanced back up at Will.

I can’t rely on the coin flip for all my decision making, since it’s fallible. Let’s prop it up with some common sense. Any place that still has loot is probably more dangerous than the rest of the city.

Instead of landing directly on it, let’s make camp on one of the safer nearby towers, and I can explore it solo without having to worry about the civilians getting wrapped up in whatever trouble I stir up.

“Can you find us a place close to it that’s safe to spend the night?” Will asked as Jason stooped to pick up his coin.

“Sure.”

Will sent word to the wagon drivers and they began veering towards the empty river.

Once they were parked, Loth started setting up defenses again, and they tested the area for night terrors. Thankfully they hadn’t run into another group of them despite crossing a rather large distance.

Will hung around for dinner, then got himself ready and snuck over to the squat building beside the bridge.

Perched on a windowsill high above the building in question, Will could see that there was a clear patch of zombies around the squat building, seemingly uninterested in approaching.

I wonder. Uninterested or unable?

Will took a button from his shirt and flicked it down into the empty area.

Nothing happened at first, but the sound seemed to attract attention from some of the undead, who began wandering closer.

Without warning, a round nodule of iron hanging off the underside of the building’s entrance – that Will had previously dismissed as a stylistic choice – twitched, orienting a little black circle towards the zombie.

A moment later, the zombie toppled to the ground with a smoking hole in its chest.

Patches of the zombie continued disappearing in gouts of the nasty black smoke, which slowly drifted around the empty courtyard, gradually coalescing into the form of the demon that had been possessing it.

The smoke demon had mostly congealed when the nodule twitched again, and another hole was opened up in the smoke-creature’s chest, followed by its head, and limbs.

Eventually the smoke-demon was scattered, the ominous black smoke sinking to the ground and lingering there, seemingly drifting through a grate in the ground that led the to sewers.

A few minutes later, the courtyard was pristine again.

I can see how this might be dangerous.

Will couldn’t see any dead Climbers around the building, but between dead bodies being possessed and walking away, and whatever Ability the steel nodules were using to vaporize bodies meant that there wouldn’t be any sign that combat had ever happened.

Now that he was alerted to people getting vaporized, Will squinted, scanning the courtyard.

There were more than a few all-or-mostly-metal Relics scattered around the courtyard here and there, a few simply shoved into the gutters by wind and the shuffling of zombie feet. The only sign that other Climbers had died here

In fact…

Scanning the gutters, Will could easily make out half a dozen Relics that had been durable enough to survive…whatever that thing was. If they dug through the clogged gutters, they’d probably find another dozen at least.

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I wonder if that’s the treasure that Jason dowsed for us?

It would be an excellent score, that much was true, but Will’s curiosity had been piqued. What was inside that building that magical defenses that potent were being employed? How many people had actually made it inside?

Was whatever it was guarding still there, and still valuable eight thousand years later?

I mean…there’s nothing stopping us from carefully looting the outside, and then carefully looting the inside.

Will’s heart was pounding with the excitement of testing himself against a new challenge, but he forced himself to sit down cross-legged while he did the boring part thoroughly.

When did I start getting excited about things that might kill me? Will thought, leaning on his palm as his snakes began digging through the gutters, pulling out loot and delivering them back to the caravan.

Attracted by the motion, the zombies clustered around the gutters, but they couldn’t see Will’s Phantom Snakes, and inanimate objects floating away wasn’t quite enough to keep their attention.

What changed the way I feel about it? Was it the treasure, or was it simply that I would go mad if I didn’t find a way to justify risking my life on a daily basis? Will wondered to himself. He truly did enjoy it now, despite everything, and despite having vivid memories of the terrifying dread of near-death.

Or is it the mystery of The Tower dragging me along, like they said?

It might be.

It was the tantalizing not knowing that seemed to be motivating him to go in there, more than simple greed.

So what’s the best way to get in there?

Will briefly considered destroying the metal nodules on the outside of the building, even going so far as to come up with a plan where he used the zombies as test dummies to trigger the traps.

That idea was scrapped. Not because he couldn’t do it, but because the outer layer of defensive nodules with their invisible Nuker Ability were the only thing keeping zombies from flooding in behind him.

If he had to explore the basement, a flood of zombies entering the building behind him might complicate things, or even get him killed.

You know, now that I think of it. Loth might be interested in studying one of those nodules. They are technically traps. Maybe I’ll snag one on the way out.

Will looped Pinky Snake around his waist and Middle Snake around that of a zombie, lifting it up into the air.

Will set the wriggling zombie on the building’s roof.

A half-dozen nodules rose out of the floor and twitched, but the zombie didn’t die.

Will frowned, squinting.

Each nodule’s little black hole at its front seemed to be shattered or broken in one way or another.

Someone busted them. So people have been here before. So much for raiding an untouched dungeon.

Will cautiously lowered himself to the rooftop, keeping his eyes open for any hint of movement beyond the twitching of the Nuker Nodules that he’d already seen.

The zombie reached out for him, its legs wiggling in midair as it tried to shamble towards Will.

But other than that…nothing.

Will took his Zombie trap-checker and pushed him ahead of Will until he came to a doorway that led further into the building.

It had long-since been cut open by previous generations, and Will felt a tremor of disappointment as he entered behind his decoy.