The Story of Reyes Albert, Island Prisoner

Yeah, there’s some crazy good loot inside that city. He wasn’t really sure he was in it until it was too late to turn around. Nobleboro is likely going to be Reyes’ obsession for a bit, even if it is a death trap. It’s just too good, even if it is full of trouble.

As a former embezzler, Reyes is more greedy than the average survivor. Being stuck on the prison might’ve been the best thing for him, because now that he’s within range of luxury he runs the risk of overextending himself. Same story as what I imagine happened when he was originally sentenced for embezzlement. He’s not a reformed criminal, he was freed by the Cataclysm back to his old self. Back to a life of grand plans coming undone.

I’ll try to keep him alive, but… I see him as a character in a story. I’d love to retire him on the island prison, surrounded by solar panels, growing crops, and even some other NPCs. That would make me happy. But as far as character flaws, he’s greedy. Human failings. That’s a zombie story for ya :smile:

This whole thing is a lot of fun though. Definite recommend. If he does ever die (and I don’t plan on killing him), I’d like to start up a new one.

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Reyes Albert, Prisoner, Ch. 28, "Samual"

Reyes crept through the night, back towards Nobleboro. He’d left The Lowrider behind him. Tonight, he intended to bring solar panels back from a car he’d noticed as he drove through the streets of Nobleboro.

It wasn’t far, but it was past a baseball field full of zombies. Zombies that, he thought likely, had come out onto the road in pursuit of his car as he drove past hours before.

He brought out his M4A1. The rifle had 24 rounds. Reyes also dropped some of his gear here, including his rain jacket. He’d need to be as mobile as possible for this.

He hoped it wouldn’t take long. The night air was clear, and Reyes crept north towards the city.

Reyes neared the baseball field, and then climbed into the forest nearby. No sense walking straight through the streets, when he could sneak through the dense forest.

While walking forward, he noticed a zombie child turn to chase him. Reyes dove off into the forests. It was easy to lose them in the night.

He made it to the car. Now to detach the panels, and carry them back…

It was dark. Reyes turned on a smartphone for light. Hopefully there was nothing close enough to notice…

It only took a few seconds for the first zombie to make its way into his sight. He lured it into the forest, and stabbed it dead with his copper spear. Before he could turn it to pulp, a bloated zombie emerged.

This zombie looked like it might explode if he stabbed it…

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He started to walk away from it, when suddenly…

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Reyes ran out from the gas, clutching his dust mask over his face. He was badly poisoned. He slowed to crawl, nauseated. He needed a minute to recover.

But he would not have any respite. A zombified police canine came after him. His lungs reeling from the gas, Reyes fired at it with his M4A1. His head was stinging from the pain of the gas, but with a precise shot he sprayed its flesh out across the forest floor.

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He had to keep moving. The zombies from the baseball field undoubtedly heard that.

They were set to come at him, straight over the solar car. That might damage it… Reyes needed to make sure they went somewhere else.

But how? He was crippled from the gas. He couldn’t run. He hobbled deeper into the forest.

Reyes traveled south like a hunted man. He heard the zombies clearly close behind him.

He continued south and west, into a bog. Then, he fired a single shot. The zombie would hopefully be led here, into the deep woods. Reyes crept back to The Lowrider.

Oh, hell. One got closer. He went as fast as he could, his lungs damaged by the toxic smoke.

Reyes kept going, and swallowed a codeine pill to help tamp down his headache, induced by the poison. As he reached The Lowrider, it had kicked in.

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After a few minutes, his lungs recovered.

All-in-all, that felt like a bad idea to Reyes. There were too many swarming zombies around there now. He needed a better solution. Reyes clicked on The Lowrider’s lights. He decided to drive further down the road. During the day, he could sleep and recharge the batteries.

As he continued on, Reyes saw a barbed wire fence, with a cybernetic-augmented Mastiff behind. Soon, he saw a sheep. It seemed… inhabited.

There was a living person at a table outside, who shielded their eyes from The Lowrider’s blinding headlights. He noticed they were wielding a machete.

Whoever this was, Reyes had them out-gunned.

Reyes pulled up beside the barbed wire, still on the road. He shut off the engine, but left the floodlight on. A second cyber-mastiff walked up. Whoever this was, they seemed very well set up.

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It seemed like this person was friendly, and connected. Reyes needed people like this in his life. Maybe he could find some sense of normalcy, and stop roaming the wastelands.

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For Reyes, it had been months since last human contact. He’d gone through much, and wasn’t certain whether he could really let his guard down. The cyber dogs certainly didn’t help much, as they observed him at-the-ready.

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He’d heard of these, in the prison. Anarchist collectives wh2o banded together for different things. They tended to keep apart, but when it came to collective tasks managed fairly well. Of course, they were prone to squabbles in ways the other prison gangs were not.

They continued to talk. Reyes unloaded his history at the prison, to which Samual was indifferent. Reyes wasn’t sure whether he could be trusted, but Samual seemed like he didn’t much care for the old world order.

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He wasn’t ready to commit. But he talked it over, and Samual agreed to let Reyes sleep outside in his boatcar, under the watchful protection of the cyberdogs.

Before he turned in for the night, Reyes went for a piss, and took a look around. The road seemed to end here. A dead end.

Reyes had no real option but to drive back through the city. And to do that, he needed to clear the zombies out of the road in front of the solar car. Until then, he’d be stuck here with Samual.

He returned to his car and clicked the driver’s light on. Not yet tired, he read a book on electronics.

Around 4:04 AM, there were loud footsteps outside. Reyes opened the curtains. Nothing. He went to inspect around the corner of the vehicle…

A giant spider was hiding in the darkness. Reyes gave a jump and ran back into The Lowrider. It chased him around the corner.

Shit! It got too close before Reyes could shut the door. He fired at it with the M4A1.

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Damn it. That sound would draw the zombies closer, for sure. Reyes turned the floodlights on and drove around to the far side of Samual’s farm. He saw another spider, still scuttering around.

He tried to sleep, but couldn’t. Eventually, the sun rose, and he got up.

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Reyes Albert, Prisoner, Ch. 29, "Cyber-Hounds"

Reyes stepped out of The Lowrider. It was still missing a wheel, and the solar panel was damaged. That meant he would be pretty immobile until he could get it fixed.

At least he was nearby another person. Samual, the gardener, seemed to be patrolling his fields with a cybernetic laser finger. There was a spider corpse in his yard, splayed out near his work table.

In the morning light, Reyes could see more of this little compound. Reyes stepped through an office, which seemed to be where Samual must sleep. Beyond, there was a sheep. Reyes could see dense webs to the south… this was spider country.

The two cyber-dogs came up to give Reyes a warm welcome. Slobber dripped from their mouths.

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The animals followed Reyes as he walked the grounds. Friendly bunch. Maybe he would settle in here for a while… It might be a few days of work before it would be safe enough to scavenge that solar car Reyes attempted last night.

The two dogs followed Reyes. Samual didn’t seem to be paying attention… It might sour their relationship, but Reyes decided to bring the dogs with him on a little walk. The sheep came along too.

He wanted to see how these dogs could perform in combat. There was one spider still in the forests to the north. With that spider still there, Reyes wouldn’t be able to safely sneak through. It had to go.

They walked over the road, past the gooey corpse of the spider Reyes shot and killed last night.

After slowly approaching the spider to the north, the cyber-dogs surged forward and mauled it to death. Both were uninjured.

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That worked well… Reyes was starting to get a little bold. Maybe he could bring them north a ways, and together they could whittle down the hordes that were around the solar car. That might be the best way out of his stuck situation.

The sheep followed too.

Ahead, Reyes saw a bulldog fighting with a zombie on the road. He waited to see which would survive.

The bulldog. But it looked mad, and started to approach Reyes and the cyber-hounds. The sheep backed away to a safe distance.

The dogs jumped around each other. The bulldog tried to attack, but its teeth couldn’t pierce the cyber-dogs metal-enforced hide. In return, the cyber-dogs kept harrying it until it died.

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Reyes walked over to the zombie, and spilled its brains out with his copper spear.

As they walked forward… Reyes started having second thoughts. There were a lot of zombies. Maybe too many. But he did need to get through… He decided to try and lure a small number at a time.

He did a quick estimate. Maybe in total, there would be twenty between him and the solar car.

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Time to get cracking. The cyber-dogs started to lurch forwards aggressively. What they did was beyond his control now. But he decided to do as much as he could with his spear and rifle.

While the dogs distracted the zombie, Reyes jabbed it with his spear. It went down. Two more zombies were shambling close.

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The second one went down, as Reyes and the dogs fought them in the forest beside the road. The bulk of the horde hadn’t noticed them yet, so they fought on.

Four down. This was working exactly as Reyes had hoped. The zombies were unable to hurt the cyber-dogs, while Reyes was able to do the most damage with his spear.

He removed his dufflebag, since it was throwing off his balance and causing him to miss attacks.

Five. Reyes stabbed one within an inch of its un-life, before the cyber-dog took it down from behind. Six. Seven. The dogs were still uninjured, without a scratch on them.

A zombie with horribly-lengthened arms grabbed one of the dogs, and managed to injure it slightly. Reyes rushed forward and stabbed it dead with his spear.


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His kill count was up to around ten. The blood and guts from the zombies spilled out across the grass and shrubs.

Reyes took a moment to drink some water, and catch his breath. There was a cluster of zombies to the north, but in the middle was a bloated zombie. He’d seen this before, last night, when one of these exploded into toxic fumes. He’d need to make sure it died far away from the dogs.

Reyes pulled out his M4A1, and crept within range. As he did, a zombie noticed him, and the dogs began to rush forward. He needed to do this quickly, and then join the fight.

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Perfect. He swung his M4A1 back around to his shoulder, and pulled out his spear again. Time to get messy.

The zombies from above were advancing, due to the noise. Reyes tried to back up a bit, but it was time to do or die.

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The zombies advanced one-by-one, and Reyes and the cyber-dogs made quick work of them. His kill count rose to 15.

He knew if he kept going, that solar car would be his. From there, he would be able to make it out of this dead-end trap.

As they advanced, they did so faster than Reyes could kill them. It was Reyes and the two dogs, versus four zombies at once.

17 dead. Both of the cyber-dogs were lightly injured. A dog took down a child zombie. 18.

19 down. One of the dogs had gotten into a car, and was tearing the zombies up from inside it. Way to go, boy! Clever thinking. Reyes rushed up to assist. That dog attracted two zombies, who tried unsuccessfully to push through the windshield.

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The bloodbath continued. The two cyber-dogs split, one to each side of the road. It was hard to keep an eye on both of them.

Reyes kept pushing, but he was becoming exhausted. Only a few were left on the road.

But from the forest, more were coming. Reyes fought alongside the dog at the west side of the road, before a cop zombie managed to grab him. He stabbed it until it was dead. Reyes was now completely exhausted, and keeled over onto his knees.

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One of the dogs went running into the woods, west, pursued by a zombie with a distorted, crocodile-like face. The other was to the east, fending off a pair of zombies.

He needed to catch his breath. But he also needed to make sure that the dogs were safe. There were just a few last zombies left. Reyes walked into the western forests, in pursuit of the first dog.

But he ran into another zombie, and no sight of the dog. He saw a zombie that looked like the same one that chased off the dog. The crocodile-faced zombie turned and pursued Reyes. Maybe the dog was close by.

Reyes unslung his M4A1, and fired two precise shots. The second shot hit, and killed the beast.

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Reyes only had a small bit of reserve stamina left, and used it to scramble towards the nearby derelict car. There were still several zombies around.

Towards the north, across the baseball field, Reyes saw something truly terrible. A massive zombie, much like the hulk he had shot dead at the prison, stood in the field.

He hoped it could not sense the gunshots.

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Reyes walked south down the road. He hoped to find the other cyber-dog, somewhere in the forest. There it was! No worse for wear than when he lost visual contact to it.

Panting, Reyes walked towards it, trailing zombies behind.

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The cyber-mastiff rescued Reyes, who rested against a tree while the durable fur-missile fended the zombies off.

One of the zombies turned towards Reyes. In his exhausted state, he fired his M4A1 at it and annihilated it. From behind, a zombified dog rushed towards him. Another precise shot, and it was turned to a chunk of rotten meat.

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Shit! The gigantic behemoth had followed the gunshots to Reyes. He picked up and crept through the forest south. At least it hadn’t seen him yet.

The cyber-mastiff from the east side was back on the road. Reyes was still panting from exhaustion, but pulled out his spear.

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Before he could reach them, the cyber-dog killed the three pursuing zombies, and happily ran up to Reyes. Reyes destroyed the bodies, and then started to trek north to find the other lost hound.

In this direction, they would be far enough away from that hulking behemoth to be safe. Reyes needed to bring both of those two dogs back alive for Samual…

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Reyes Albert, Prisoner, Ch. 30

Reyes had lost the sheep, and one of the cyber-dogs. He wasn’t looking forward to explaining this to Samual.

He kept looking for them, walking deeper into the woods to the west. There were three zombies, all somewhat injured… The cyber-dog might have been near here still.

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It was 6:15AM, only an hour after he had woken up today. The dog and sheep couldn’t be far away.

They traveled west, to a part of the forest that had been burned down some time ago. They kept looking.

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Reyes are the cyber-hound ran into a group of zombies, due west from the solar car. One of them was a boomer.

Two shots, and he blew it up. He hoped this was far enough away from the solar car.

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Quickly, he began to mop up the last two with his spear. One of the zombies was a cop, and Reyes took a Glock 22 with 10 shots left from it.

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More zombies were coming in. As long as the dog fought, Reyes fought too. There was enough time between fights to rest and regain most of his stamina, but never to full.

After killing four more, a quick and deadly zombie appeared. Reyes took his rifle out.

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A precise shiot, and its guts were strewn out against a dead tree trunk. But not before it struck the dog, who was now moderately injured and bleeding.

The zombies were still coming, and Reyes was getting tired. He pulled out the M4A1, and fired through a soldier zombie. Luckily, it had another M4A1 with 22 shots.

Reyes ran through the woods, fleeing from a tough zombie. He was exhausted, and took pot-shots at it with the cop’s Glock 22. Another one came at him, and he killed it.

He walked back to the east, smashing any corpses he saw on the ground.

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Another fast, deadly creature sprinted towards Reyes, but he put it down just before it reached him.

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He had roughly thirty shots left. With two per zombie, that meant that he could kill fifteen more before we went dry.

Reyes proceeded to the solar car. It was all or nothing, now.

Another boomer. Reyes lured it deeper back into the woods, before shooting.

His misadventures had brought him all through the woods to the west of the road. He traveled south, and lured more zombies into the woods to kill with his spear.

He caught sight of one zombie still inside the baseball field. It seemed to be frothing a green acid.

Reyes kept combing the woods. He could come back for the solar car tonight, but returning without those dogs would be a real shame.

There was no sign of the hounds, or the sheep.

Then, he found one…

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This was his fault. He’d brought the dog with him for this, and it died. Reyes tried to think on the positive side. Its death had led to the extermination of forty, or even fifty zombies. Hopefully Samual would see it that way too.

There was nothing more to do. Reyes went south, back to Samual’s garden. He had lost one dog, led another to its death, and let the sheep out too.

What’s this? Reyes noticed the sheep on his way back. At least it wasn’t such a failure anymore.

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Reyes returned to see Samual in the yard. The two talked, and Samual wasn’t as upset as Reyes feared. While he was sad about the loss of his dogs, Samual seemed to care more about the fact that Reyes survived. He had, after all, let the dogs go with Reyes.

He returned the sheep to the yard. Reyes had much of the day left ahead of him, still. He decided to make another attempt at the solar car. With his guns, it should be possible today.

Reyes got himself ready for another run on foot. He wouldn’t have the dogs to back him up any more. He ate some canned veggies, and picked up his other guns. It was time. Those solar panels would be his.

He watched the sheep meekly follow him from the other side of the fence. It seemed Reyes had a way with animals.

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The road up was strewn with corpses. Reyes splattered several more corpses into pulp as he made his way north.

On the bodies, he found forty shots for his Glock .22

He spotted zombies at the edge of the baseball field. His plan was to lure them south, shoot them down, then head into the woods and circle around north.

Walking back, he led them down away from the solar car.

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Once he was far enough, he turned and fired two shots into the zombie in front, which was frothing acid. A great spray of acid shot backwards, coating the zombie behind and dissolving its flesh.

He went forward, and finished it off with his spear.

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Reyes was walking through places that, hours earlier, had been crawling with the undead. His plan was working, and he knew that soon enough those solar panels would be installed, and The Lowrider would be back at capacity.

He needed those panels, and maybe a new wheel if he could manage it… Scavenging the solar car ahead was key to him escaping this city.

Nobleboro was a town that seemed to be surrounded by forest. Reyes thought that if could get The Lowrider mobile again, he could try and take the southwest road out of town.

There it was. The solar car was still standing, but zombies had flocked to it. Possibly due to the smell that Reyes had left there when working on it last night.

That small number of zombies was manageable. Reyes tried to lure them south and away from the city.

But as he kept on going forward, he saw more zombies. They were all over the streets here, which was a problem. Reyes needed them all gone.

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He lured them down, and killed them one-by-one with his spear. But the next one… was different.

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It seemed to be covered in vines, which the zombie controlled. Not wanting to get close, Reyes took his M4A1 and shot it dead.

The thing went down, coating the road in plant sap.

Reyes returned towards the solar car, to see a few zombies passing west into the forest. It was possible they were still traveling there, in search of the gunshots he made earlier.

The road was a mess of blood and bodies. But Reyes pressed on.

Oh, geez. There it was again. Reyes saw that the thing was quick. He wondered how many shots it would take to kill it… he certainly had enough to kill almost anything.

He decided it was worth it. That thing was between him and the solar car, and it had to die.

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Reyes Albert, Prisoner, Ch. 31

He wielded his M4A1. It had 22 shots. He felt that should be enough to lay this behemoth to rest.

After killing several surrounding zombies, one-by-one, after luring them to the southeast, Reyes was ready for this headless horror.

The thing had walked out onto the streets. It was lightly injured. Reyes wondered if one of the cyber-dogs had started fighting it, before being killed.

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He managed to get only four shot out before it was on him. It was fast.

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The massive creature picked Reyes up by the torso. He kept firing, as fast as he could now.

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As the behemoth moved to tear Reyes in half, he fired two quick, panicked shots into it.

The thing was dead. Reyes had barely survived it. He scraped its brains out with his spear, making sure the monster could never get back up.

There was one less monstrosity in Nobleboro. Hopefully now, it would be much easier to get to the solar car.

He lured and killed more zombies. There were several still by the solar car. It was around 8:06AM, still early in the day. This would be one of his longest days yet, rivaling his first day at the prison.

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Four of the zombies followed him down the road.

He shot the first one, a zombie dog, at close range. The second zombie spat a giant gob of acid at him, soaking Reyes.

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His legs continued to burn as he fired another shot. Damn, that hurt! Eventually the acid neutralized.

A crocodile-faced zombie came from the woods, and Reyes shot it down. It had some 9x19mm FMJ ammo, which he had a Glock 19 for.

One-by-one, Reyes killed a further forty zombies today, for a total of eighty in this one day. It was one hell of a day, to say the least.

Reyes found a sniper rifle on one body. It looked like it was immensely powerful, but had only two shots. He decided to save it for a special occasion.

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There were only several more zombies before he could get his hands on the solar car. The nightmare was almost at an end.

Reyes killed a zombie soldier, which had a mountable machine gun with almost half of its rounds still left.

He’d killed so many zombies by this point, the feeling was becoming desensitized. The first few filled him with terror, but now it seemed like a simple set of rules to survive.

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He continued, killing more than a dozen as they followed the sound of his gunshots. As often as possible, he killed using his copper spear.

There were only a few left now. He walked over and tapped the solar car. Not even a hundred zombies could keep him away.

Reyes cleared every zombie in sight of the car, and hopped in. The car was in good enough shape to turn on, and Reyes started driving it back towards Samual’s garden.

He was expecting to have to work on the car, and driving it back was a huge relief.

Samual was stoked to see Reyes return successful. He decided on a trade – Reyes would leave the car intact enough to drive, and Samual would forget all about the cyber-dogs. He said he could get more from Prep Phyle HQ, wherever that was.

Reyes got to work, moving two of the three working solar panels onto The Lowrider. He installed them on the side of the vehicle this time, so they would not get damaged. The batteries began to charge much faster.

Reyes was quite a good mechanist, and he wanted to leave the solar car in good shape for Samual. But he also wanted a lot of the materials… He decided to cut it down to a trike shape, and share the metal to reinforce the front of The Lowrider.

With the additional solar panels, Reyes could increase The Lowrider’s weight. He added some crude plating onto the front, and moved the wheels further back. The hood of The Lowrider was going to be dedicated to crushing zombies.

The front left wheel was gone, so he installed a car wheel instead. The vehicle would be tilted on its front axle, but at least it would be sturdy. He brought both front wheels back a bit, so that they wouldn’t get damaged in any collisions.

It got dark, and Reyes took a much-needed rest inside The Lowrider. The ‘day from hell’ was over. He noticed The Lowrider was fully charged, and slept soundly.

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For breakfast, Reyes cooked himself up a day’s worth of hamburger helper. Bacon, cheese, and pasta. Delicious.

After asking Samual, Reyes took apart some of the garden’s external picket fence. He could use the planks to build The Lowrider’s new aggressive ram.

He installed another stow board, on the side of the ship. The Lowrider was continually getting full, and Reyes was hoping to look some of the buildings near the area he cleared of zombies before he left the city.

The solar car was beginning to look like a genuine, Reyes-approved contraption. It had three wheels, two at the front and one jerry-rigged to the back. One of its corners was now boarded up, and the seats were removed.

Inside The Lowrider, Reyes set up a comfortable bed. This would be much better than sleeping in the driver’s chair.

He installed two quarterpanels onto the front edges of the car. Oh yes, she was a beauty.

Reyes cooked up some deluxe oatmeal, and then installed some crude plating around the floodlight. He also installed a metal boat hull underneath each new quarterpanel.

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As the night fell on the second day of work, Reyes was feeling fantastic. The new Lowrider seemed like it would make light work of getting through Nobleboro.

Reyes was running out of clean water. He’d be able to subsist on soda pops, but decided that today was the day to get going. The Lowrider was all set.

He said goodbye to Samual. Reyes hoped that, without the dogs, the solar car would help Samual not feel so lonely out there at his garden. Though the two didn’t spend much time together, Samual’s place had been a welcome reprieve from the deadliness of the city. It was possible that Reyes would have died without it.

Reyes had another long day ahead of him. He intended to get through the city of Nobleboro, and return to his lake paradise. The mainland had too many troubles, that was sure.

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Reyes Albert, Prisoner, Ch. 32, "Loot 'n Run"

Reyes turned The Lowrider on, and left Samual’s garden compound. He left behind the working solar car, with enough batteries to take Samual wherever he needed to go.

Over the past week, Reyes had cleared a path back into the city of Nobleboro. He had killed over eighty zombies, with the help of Samual’s cyber-hounds. Those hounds had given their lives to let Reyes get back to the lake. Dogs truly are creatures sent by the gods.

With the new solar panels, The Lowrider could travel at four times the speed that it could when Reyes first arrived in Nobleboro. It had been a hard few days, but Reyes had grown from the struggle.

Today, he intended to try and loot some of the buildings near where he had taken the solar car. There was a house, and a bar there. Most of the zombies nearby had been killed in his quest for the solar car.

He drove quickly. The day would be long, and The Lowrider could now handle the speed.

There were only a few zombies around. Reyes pulled up to the first house, and maneuvred The Lowrider right up to the window. He went in without exposing himself to any danger. He could hear the zombies moving around outside, likely wondering at the sound of its engine.

Reyes wandered into a kitchen, and picked up everything of value. Peanut butter, jam, backpack, hacksaw.

As he kept looting, he heard the sound of the zombies bashing at The Lowrider. Some damage was acceptable, but he needed to be quick.

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From the sounds of it, the zombies had lost interest in The Lowrider. That gave him more time to keep looting this house. He finished up, finding not much more of value.

As he opened the curtains to The Lowrider, he saw a dog had climbed up onto the hood. It didn’t look strong enough to break through the doors, but it was a problem for sure. That meant it would be difficult to hop out of The Lowrider.

He launched The Lowrider back up to a fast pace. The zombified dog fell down, and was crushed under the ship. Now it was go time.

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Another zombie ahead went right into the front ram, and was annihilated.

Ahead, Reyes spotted a huge clump of zombies. It looked like he could steer past it, but there were two zombies that seemed to be filled with electric energy. He didn’t want to find out what would happen if he got too close, but that was the only way through.

Reyes launched The Lowrider to move quickly beyond them, skirting by a motorcycle.

The street to the north looked fairly vacant, so Reyes turned towards it. This might be the fastest way out of here.

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He sped between a destroyed bus and a wrecked car.

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There was a warehouse nearby, and Reyes figured he would attempt to get through its metal door. Maybe with his torch, this would work…

He backed The Lowrider up against the door, and took out his acetylene torch.

He clicked his flashlight on. Fantastic. This was a closed-in warehouse, with tons of boxes. A perfect entry, and a great place to loot.

There was a forklift here, which Reyes wanted to take the lift off of. This could enable him to do some more advanced mechanics, if he set it up in a garage.

The warehouse held mostly cookware. He found a large copper pot, a pressure cooker, food dehydrator, and a windbreaker.

There was also a heavy-duty cargo truck. Its battery looked easy enough to take, so Reyes removed it. This would add more capacity to The Lowrider, and allow for more power.

Reyes opened crates in the warehouse, finding some cookbooks. He heard glass break behind the warehouse. There must’ve been a few of them back there. But he was safe inside.

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The zombies were messing around with something out there. Reyes had some work he wanted to do still, like removing the forklift arm.

But the zombies were creating so much noise. It wasn’t safe here any longer. Reyes had to leave the forklift arm behind. At least he got a car battery, and lots of cooking tools from his stop.

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As he opened the curtains, he agreed it was the perfect time to leave. The zombies from the building ahead of him were rushing out, towards the direction of the alarms. Reyes launched the ship into motion and continued north, into the center of the city.

Oh shit! Another behemoth came into view as The Lowrider kicked into gear.

He managed to escape without any severe damage. A few parts had been dinged, but nothing major.

There was a horde ahead. Reyes considered risking squeezing through on the sidewalk on the right side of the road.

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But he remembered the gun store, that he had knocked the door off of the other day. It was nearby, on the block to the east. He needed to try getting in there.

It was right ahead of him, though there were some zombies. He decided to close his curtains, and attempt navigating blind.

He lined his door up with the opening, and headed in. Inside, there were guns. Each item was locked behind a display case, but there were some loose rifle and shotgun bullets on a shelf. He could figure out if he had the right guns later.

Reyes broke open a display case, and picked up the shotgun inside. He heard a voice from deeper within the building…

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He didn’t have time to investigate. He smashed and grabbed more items. A suppressor, a Winchester Model 70, a Kel-Tec PF-9.

He stowed everything into the ship, and opened the curtains. Ahead of him was another horde.

Reyes did a fast reverse, and managed to only run into one headless zombie. He circled around the horde and continue to the northeast.

He squeezed through some parked cars, avoiding zombies when possible. He was only half-way through the city, and needed to maintain The Lowrider for as long as possible.

Ahead, Reyes saw something thoroughly evil. It was painful to look at, and seemed intelligent and sinister. It was standing in the middle of the road, away from other zombies. Reyes knew that he had to run it over, and smash it dead. It was a necromancer.

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He increased speed, straining the battery. This thing would be lucky if it didn’t explode to pieces. He struck it at insane speed, and reversed to make sure it was dead.

The cursed thing was roadkill. Reyes charged forwards out of Nobleboro.

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Reyes Albert, Prisoner, Ch. 33, "Animal Companions"

In all the chaos, Reyes only just noticed that a fox had leapt into The Lowrider with him. Poor thing was bleeding. Somehow it had gotten into the city, and attacked by the faster zombies.

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He was still in the middle of the city of Nobleboro, with undead advancing towards him. The fox was in front of him, but wouldn’t let him attach a bandage. It seemed to be full of life still, and Reyes hoped the cut would heal on its own.

For now, the fox was seated in his basket. Reyes kicked the Lowrider forward. He would let it out once he was further out of town.

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Reyes and the fox barreled down the streets. He was nearly there. This was the road leading northwest out of Nobleboro, and back to the lake.

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Shit! Reyes came up to the part of the streets that caused him so much trouble when he was first getting into Nobleboro. There was a wreck here, and Reyes turned the wrong way. He started to back up the car.

Reyes tried to cram the ship through the gap north of the wreck, like he did when he first entered the city. The fox did not enjoy this, but wasn’t harmed.

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After a very tight squeeze, involving an unreasonably strong mailbox, Reyes was through the bottleneck.

It was smooth sailing from then on out. Reyes had escaped Nobleboro alive.

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Reyes drove onwards, away from Nobleboro. He was free of the death trap city, with its hordes of undead. He had emerged triumphant, having improved the Lowrider, and met Samual and the fox along the way.

But the place had nearly killed him. He remembered that first mad scouting trip through the city, almost a week ago. The Lowrider had lost a wheel in that, and its solar panel was crippled. Reyes felt lucky to have escaped alive, much less to have found more solar panels to improve the ship.

He decided to head straight for the water. He considered bringing the fox to the prison island. There, it could eat whatever small rodents made their home on the island, as well as any roots or berries.

His island was a paradise, and a place Reyes wanted to share. This fox would be the first visitor there. It would be much safer for the fox than the mainland forests, where the animals lived in fear.

Reyes pulled up to the dairy farm, he was last here almost a week ago. There were cows in the field. He hopped out of the car, and went to find any sort of cow feed he could use to lure them into the ship.

He left the fox in the car, shutting the door. He found a few scraps of fodder inside, and started to feed the cows.

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He pushed the cow north, back to The Lowrider. He removed some of the fence so that it could get through. The first cow was in!

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The second cow was difficult, especially since the fox would keep running up to the door. Reyes kept trying, and eventually got the second one in without letting the fox out.

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There was no reason not to keep putting more cows in. Reyes went for a third.

Damn it. This cow managed to lodge itself into the farmhouse. As much as he tried, he couldn’t push it out the window. He decided to move up next to the window, and keep it there until it chose to go through.

It wanted to go everywhere but back outside. It went on the couch, by the bookshelves, even into the kitchen. Reyes got fed up, and lock picked open the front door, and pushed the cow through.

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As soon as they were through the door, the cow seemed to cooperate. It went easily into The Lowrider. Reyes decided to name it “Couchhopper”.

He got a fourth one in. It was getting harder to fit them in now, but he figured one more cow was possible.

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Reyes was salivating at all of the milk, and even cheeses he could make. He wondered if he already had a book that would teach him how to make cheese. With these cows, that island would be a true paradise, and a pleasant place to come back to. Cows were indeed holy animals, and he vowed not to turn any into meat unless the situation got dire.

It wasn’t much, but it was honest work. Reyes kept cramming the cows into The Lowrider.

Shit! He tried to get in, but as soon as he sat down two of the cows went out. Running now, he pushed the cows around, and got them back in.

Finally, he had as many cows as possible inside the ship. Reyes say down at the controls, as the cows moved around. He hoped that everybody had a seat, and started up the engine.

Maybe he would come back for the other farm animals later. For now, he accelerated towards the lake. This was the final strip of road.

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Soon, the Lowrider embarked once again onto the lake, with Reyes’ animal companions.

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1 Like

Hmm… 5 cows? The Lowrider’ buoyancy is amazing… or maybe it’s that creatures in CDDA are weightless?

2 Likes

This is pretty awesome. Excited to see what The Lowrider turns into with time.

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Reyes Albert, Prisoner, Ch. 34

Reyes continued back towards the prison. He figured it would be a long, long time before he attempted such a dangerous, even stupid thing as his trip through Nobleboro. He focused his thoughts to his island paradise, his prime objective, and what he would do once he got home.

On his trip, had found some seeds, and decided that planting a farm would be a good start. He also wanted to set the cows out in a safe spot to roam.

The fox, he knew, would go wherever it wanted. There was enough space around the island for it to run around and explore.

He also had a huge supply of scavenging material. This he would set up at a workshop, possibly near the dock. He wanted to eventually build up a workshop with any machinery that would be essential to making The Lowrider even larger and more robust. That didn’t need to be on the water, but it did need a clear path towards it.

As Reyes was driving across the lake, he heard what he could swear was the sound of gunshots, coming from… Below the lake?

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There was no telling what was going on down there. Perhaps a drone had capsized, and was firing at zombies deep undersea. Reyes turned away, he didn’t want to be caught in the crossfire.

After about an hour at sea, Reyes pulled up to the familiar southern shore of the prison fortress. Home, at last!

It was always a marvel to return back to this place, where Reyes first started his life in the Cataclysm. In another life, he was a prisoner here. But now, he was the only one left.

On his last trip, he found another human being. Samual the gardener. A kind person, who saved Reyes’ life, by providing him with the cyber-hounds Reyes needed to escape Nobleboro. Samual was from a larger organization, which Reyes had no real interest in joining. He wanted to live free, and build up his prison fortress. He didn’t need to follow another person’s way of life. He was happy with his own.

Reyes opened the Lowrider’s front door, and pushed the cows out and led them one-by-one into the inner courtyard.

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The experience was a little surreal. This fortress was once a center to reform criminals, and now it was a highly protected dairy farm. Reyes decided he would eventually set up a larger central pen, but this was a good start. The cows began to spread out around the ring of grass that surrounded the prison, which was protected by another ring of metal bars. The cows were very safe here.

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Now that all the cows were in the ring, Reyes wanted to let the fox out. He was curious what it would do, and where it would go. He hoped it wouldn’t try swimming.

Reyes opened the side door, and chased it out of the Lowrider.

It immediately bolted off to the left, and around the corner of the guard post. It seemed to stay in the shallow water, so Reyes let it be. He was confident it wouldn’t drown itself.

Reyes patrolled around the ring to make sure it was safe, and ensured that there were no breaches. It was perfectly safe on his island paradise.

He felt good about this. There was good grass here, and he knew that these cows would survive. They had plenty of space in the open air between the barred metal fence and the main prison building. It was far safer here than anywhere on the mainland.

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Reyes unloaded a lot of junk from The Lowrider into the prison. He kept almost all of his food ingredients on the boat – he thought it best to keep that mobile with him.

Once he was done offloading items, Reyes decided to plant some seeds. He started to turn over the dirt with a crude shovel, and planted various seeds. Cabbage, beans, blackberries, tomatoes, even some cotton that he had around.

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Not three hours later, they were all planted. Reyes knew it would take a long time for this field to grow, but eventually his island paradise would have a self-sustaining food supply.

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One thing he needed was charcoal. His supply was nearly empty, and in order to keep boiling clean water aboard the ship, he needed more. But he still needed a metal tank, and some pipes for that.

Reyes set off around noon. The Lowrider was only half charged, but he drove slow enough that it wouldn’t deplete any further.

He set off for Barnet, the closest town to the east. He had seen some tanks around the size he needed in the engines of the cars there, and figured pipes could also be found.

Reyes drank some spiced mead as the boat continued eastwards. It was delicious, and brought his spirits up despite the fact that he had gotten soaking wet by slipping outside the boat.

Only a few short minutes later, Reyes pulled up onto land at the shore of the small neighborhood of Barnet. It was empty here; a few days ago he had cleared all the zombies out.

As he looked around, he noticed two zombies that were still here. He killed the first as it came towards him, and lured the second out into the streets before killing it as well.

Reyes couldn’t take apart an engine without a better wrench… He didn’t think there were any around here, and only had a crude wrench he’d made from a pipe, metal, and some wire.

He reversed The Lowrider back into the sea, and decided to try the second lighthouse towards the southeast. He faintly recalled a charcoal cooker being there… But he wasn’t sure. If not, there was at least clean water in the water purifier there.

Reyes was disturbed from his quiet voyage by the sounds of explosive gunshots coming from beneath the water once again. He could swear he heard zombies… and a manhack? Some sort of automated killing machine. Whatever it was, there was something nefarious deep beneath the lake.

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But Reyes kept the boat moving onwards. The zombies wouldn’t be able to get above the water, or into The Lowrider.

Around 1:00PM, Reyes was at the second lighthouse. He reversed The Lowrider against the docks, and stepped onto the island.

No charcoal cooker here. Crap, maybe he’d misplaced it somewhere on the prison island. He needed to organize his things better.

He poured six days’ worth of water into three large glass jars. At least he had that.

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Reyes did a once-around the lighthouse, searching for any items he figured would be useful now. Among some cans of tomato sauce, he came across a note…

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Huh. Worth a shot, especially for getting deeper into towns. Reyes wondered if the zombies hunted by scent, or by sight. He folded up the note and placed it in a pocket of his messenger bag.

He ate some peanut butter, and chased it with a Long Island Iced Tea. Strangely delicious.

Then, he was off. Due west, back to the prison.

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Reyes Albert, Prisoner, Ch. 35, "Ludlow"

Reyes drove west across the lake, back to his prison compound. It was a clear and bright Spring day. He looked at a watch he had taken from one of the dead weeks ago. If it was accurate, it was the first day of Summer today.

He had mapped out most of what he assumed to be the eastern sides of the lake. That side was mostly woods, and included a few small towns such as Barnet, West Fairlee, and East Haddam. The cities of Bethlehem and Nobleboro were also there, albeit inland a ways. He had no intention of going back to either of those hellholes any time soon.

To the northwest, another large city was marked on his survivor’s map. Ludlow. It was possible it was closer to the shoreline, but Reyes couldn’t say for sure. His curiosity and greed egged him on. He wanted to scout the entire shore of this lake, and Ludlow looked to be the best target.

Reyes pulled over at a small island along the way. Since he had no charcoal for his cooker, he decided it would be best to just make a campfire.

Oh boy, was that a lot of work.

He chopped down a dead tree, then chopped its trunk up into planks. This took some time, and he missed the convenience of that charcoal smoker. He packed the extra logs and planks into the Lowrider, for later.

The fire was hard to keep alive. He had to burn down almost a whole tree to make his food for the next day or two. Life in the city was a helluva lot easier. Reyes didn’t want to make this wilderness thing a habit.

Reyes made some deluxe rice and beans, cheese fries, dumplings, and even some caramel out of sugar and water. It took him most of the day, but at least The Lowrider’s battery recharged with gusto the whole time.

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After he finished up, he loaded the last few pieces of wood aboard The Lowrider. He decided to sleep at the prison island tonight.

The cows crowded around the fence to meet him.

He walked the island, and picked up a forgotten gun inside the warden’s office. Maybe he had ammo for it already. It would be better stashed on The Lowrider.

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Reyes worked on the garden until the sun went down, and then went to sleep.

The next morning, Reyes drank a dark cola for breakfast, and headed north. His goal today was to scout the northwestern shores of the lake, near the city of Ludlow.

As luck would have it, the city of Ludlow was indeed a lakeside port. The road went practically right up the the water, and Reyes could easily drive in and out – provided he had room behind The Lowrider to reverse.

This was extremely fortunate. What a prize to find here! Reyes salivated at the looting opportunities. This town would be easy to get out of, and Reyes knew that if he worked slowly, he could even draw the zombies into the lake, to be dispersed into the waters.

His feelings of good luck were smothered when he saw just how numerous the zombies were here. It would be a lot of work before this place would be remotely safe.

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Suddenly, memories came back to him. He knew of three convicts who lived around here. He wasn’t sure where he recalled their names from, but they were there in his head.

They were holed up nearby, just past the giant horde of zombies. Of course.

Reyes tried to remember if they were friends or not, but simply couldn’t. Whoever this trio was, they were on their own for now.

He traced the shoreline east, passing a garden. Seeing no zombies here, he pulled up and took anything that was growing.

While picking the home’s door open, Reyes was interrupted by a group of zombies from around the corner. He hopped into The Lowrider and continued to trace the shoreline east.

There were a number of houses here. Reyes drove by, scoping them out to see if there was anything of value.

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In the chaos, he just noticed a Canada goose had found its way into The Lowrider, in front of him. It sat rather passively in the wire mesh box.

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A huge, dense swarm was on the road ahead.

He lured the horde into the lake’s watery depths, and kept scouting the city’s shore.

Up top, there was a homeless shelter, as well as a hardware store and radio station.

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A pizza parlor, grocery store, and hunting supply store were towards the northwest, inland by one block.

As Reyes scanned the coast, he spotted an eyebot escaping the grasp of several zombies.

Reyes continued south, embarking onto the shores for a few short seconds to grab the attention of the zombies, before heading back into the lake. This would help move more of them out of the city.

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Something was bashing against the Lowrider’s hull. Reyes picked up the pace, and left. There were too many zombies underneath the water here.

To the south, Reyes saw something remarkable. A giant salmon was tearing apart zombies, and had already killed one. The salmon was huge; the size of a large dog.

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Reyes kept moving. He found a quiet spot, and pulled over to do some crafting. He finished some lockpicks, and then set back into town.

He saw a lone zombie, and crushed its skull with copper spear. He did the same to four other zombies around, that had been killed by the wildlife.

Finally, the goose got out. Farewell, goose.

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Reyes drove deeper into the town. One house had a giant spider outside, and it looked like the inside of the home was coated in thick webs. He spotted a few zombies inside, struggling.

Reyes pulled up beside a police van. It was int he middle of town, but could be worth the quick stop. It looked like there were still some things sitting on the seats…

50 bullets for his pistol. A compact suppressor. He scrambled over the seats. Zombies had seen him and were headed his way. MBR vest. SIG Pro, and an MP5 SMG. FN Five-Seven. Six canisters of tear gas. This was a jackpot.

Through the windshield, he could see the zombies were dangerously close.

He closed the door just in time, and kicked the Lowrider into a speedy reverse.

The zombie on the hood was crushed, as The Lowrider took a few hits. So long as the solar panels were OK, the Lowrider could handle some damage. After all, it was mostly just made of wood.

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Crunch! Another zombie went under the wooden frame as The Lowrider backed up out of the horde.

The bicycle wheels of The Lowrider must have been burning rubber from this maneuvre. Reyes turned south, passing by a dense horde of zombies at a playground.

Reyes drove into a tough zombie, and the collision launched it into the air, half a block forward.

He swerved to avoid a zapper zombie, crashing into three zombies. Their bodies rolled off the side of The Lowrider.

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As he drove through the streets, Reyes noticed an atomic SUV in good condition. It was fully mobile, with all wheels and engine intact, although the wheels were not in great condition. He noted it on his map. A vehicle like that could be a great skeleton, if Reyes ever wanted to really amp up The Lowrider.

Towards the outskirts, Reyes parked in the back yard of an abandoned home. He wanted to search this place for anything of value.

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On a counter, there was a pack of 100 nails. He also found the place had a full log, sitting beside a wood stove. He hauled it into The Lowrider for later. He could turn that into charcoal, for his charcoal smoker.

There was also duct tape, and a locked door. After making a few attempts and breaking seven lockpicks, Reyes took out his wood axe and chopped it down.

Protein powder, caffeine pills, and soap. Not a bad haul, in total.

Reyes wanted to get one last thing… some metal sheets, to craft his charcoal kiln.

But he was interrupted by a firefighter zombie, pursued by a gang of beavers. Whatever insanity this was, it was not worth sticking around. He booked it back to The Lowrider and left the town of Ludlow.

The battery was down to 20%. He’d made enough noise for one day. Reyes let the Lowrider drift slowly into the lake, and relaxed. That was enough town scouting for now.

Ludlow proved to be one of the easier towns to loot. He would certainly return sometime soon. Being right up on the shoreline meant that it was easy to maneuver his boatcar on and off of the shores, drawing zombies into the lake’s depths to become blinded and unable to hurt him as he explored.

It was mostly houses, without much in the way of business. There were a few places; the hunting supply store, the hardware store, and the grocers, that he knew he could get into if he applied more effort.

For now, he was content. He felt The Lowrider rock back and forth upon the lake’s waves, as he drifted to a safe distance.

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Reyes Albert, Prisoner, Ch. 36, "Yarmouth"

Geese flew over The Lowrider as Reyes continued south, towards the lighthouse. The boatcar pushed forward gently on its electric motor, as Reyes reclined in his seat.

He intended to find the rest of the needed materials for a charcoal kiln. He knew there was machinery at the lighthouse that could be disassembled.

Instead, Reyes found an extra charcoal smoker. This was just what he needed – it had a 2L metal tank that was perfect for a kiln. He set to taking it apart.

An hour later, it was apart, and Reyes had almost everything he needed. Just a few more pipes and he could create the kiln.

He took apart more of the lighthouse machinery. He’d been here last when he was upgrading The Lowrider.

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Finally, it was done. At around 1:36PM, Reyes had a charcoal kiln. This would make cooking much, much easier, now that he could create his own charcoal.

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He loaded the kiln with a log, lit it, and set it down on the lighthouse’s beach. It would take about an hour to work its way through the log, turning it into efficient charcoal.

For the time being, Reyes decided to see what was left here. He ate the rest of yesterday’s dumplings.

There was plenty of wood here, and plenty of machinery. Reyes loaded steel chunks, chains, and other junk. For the first time in a while, The Lowrider was getting full again.

Reyes needed to think about organization. It was convenient to have everything with him, but it also made scavenging harder. He found himself passing up items because of the limits on space. If he wanted to make his island paradise truly fantastic, he’d need to start centralizing storage.

He started to plan up a way to organize his stuff, so that he could better handle all the treasure he was finding.

Reyes picked up a few cookbooks, and thumbed through the recipes. The Italian cookbook seemed interesting – he certainly had a lot of red sauce to use up.

After reading the recipe books, Reyes went and grabbed another book, Boxing Monthly, and settled in.

Soon enough, the charcoal kiln was finished. The log had created a lot of charcoal! Likely he could cook for a whole week from just the one log. He loaded it up again, and started reading more.

He essentially had his own library onboard the boat. After reading through all of the various cookbooks he had found at the warehouse in Nobleboro, Reyes felt that he was becoming a knowledgeable chef.

After loading up his freshly-made charcoal into his charcoal cooker, he made some delicious granola out of fresh berries he found in Ludlow. It would last over a whole season. He made enough for a couple days.

The sun went down, and so Reyes turned the Lowrider’s internal lights on. He kept cooking, finishing off a can of meat and turning it all into bologna. Salted and herbed, the meat would last over a week without refrigeration.

He had some cheese and meat that was soon to go bad, so Reyes made lasagna. He was already pretty stuffed, but ate the deliciously cheesy food. He could stand to put on a few more pounds anyways.

Around 12:54AM, Reyes finally climbed up into the lighthouse bed and slept.

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The next morning, Reyes took off west. There was another potential city to scout. Yarmouth.

By the looks of it on the survivor’s map, this place may also be lake-side. If those streets went right up to the lake, Reyes would be able to zip around its downtown fairly easily.

On the way, Reyes stopped at a small deserted island. Interestingly, there was a dock there. He took two long ropes. With these, he would be able to make up to four new light wooden frames, if he needed.

Reyes pulled up to Yarmouth. It was just as he had hoped; it was another fully lakeside city. This one was especially big, too.

As he drove by the shore, he heard something repeatedly crashing under the water. He tried to pick up the pace, and it went away.

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Yarmouth wasn’t just big – it was gigantic. Behind it, another city called Weld was marked on his map. If there was ever a place to try and eliminate all the zombies from, this was it.

He continued to scout, as he tried to come up with the most efficient way to get all of the zombies out of these twin cities.

Then, he spotted something unique. Giant wasps had build their own paper hives outside of one of the nearby houses, and seemed to be successfully fending zombies off. Their poisonous stingers made quick work of the zombies, and they were able to evade them moderately well.

Although it was nearly dead, one of the wasps had killed six zombies.

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There were certainly a lot of zombies here. If he was going to clear it, he would need to think big…

He thought back to the atomic car he saw yesterday in Ludlow. If he could find a jack, or something to lift a vehicle with, he could possibly make adjustments to that car, and turn it into a death machine.

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Reyes was imagining what he could do. With that atomic car as a base, he could attach shredders to the front, and carve through the streets…

Oh yeah… the plan was starting to come together.

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/*you fail to notice your inventory becoming lighter*/

Who need Crazy Cataclysm with things like that happening in vanilla? :rofl:

Ha, I already forgot about that detail. Now I’m trying to imagine transporting 5 cows in a vehicle which is basically some wooden planks held by ropes, and running on 4 bicycle wheels.

3 Likes
Reyes Albert, Prisoner, Ch. 37

Near Yarmouth, Reyes stopped by a fast food joint to see what was still there. Those fast-food fries could almost last forever, and Reyes did love some cheesy fries.

In the dimly-lit kitchen, he quickly pushed around the items on the shelves. Fries, irradiated lettuce, cans of chicken. Not bad.

Reyes got back in the Lowrider, and went towards a doctor’s office near central Yarmouth. He needed to get the zombies away from the center of the city. That was where most of the goods were.

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The Lowrider’s horn was incredible. This was the first time he’d tried it out. It was much more powerful and long-ranged than the bike horn he’d used back at Bethlehem. He continued making passes along the waterline, drawing zombies into the lake.

As Reyes circled through the streets, he came across a Humvee with a strong front plate. The vehicle itself was missing its tires. Fixing the Humvee would be impossible, but he could remove the plates and attach them to another vehicle. He marked its location on his map.

Reyes headed back north, towards the atomic car he had spotted earlier in the day. He lured a huge horde of zombie dogs into the lake.

He had explored the shores of Yarmouth. It was an expansive city. It stretched back for many blocks into the second city of Weld. In order to deal with the quantity of zombies inside, he needed to come back when he was well prepared.

He traced the shoreline north, back to Ludlow. The highway ran alongside the shore, on the opposite side of a thin woods. There were a number of farms. Reyes figured that food would be the least of his concerns around this lake.

Reyes was looking for tools, things that would help him assemble his new dream car, The Hound. It would be a mean chunk of metal, but would take a lot of work before it was complete.

He found a break in the treeline, and embarked onto the land near a highway.

But then he heard something heavy flapping in the back, on his bed. OH JESUS!!

A gigantic carp had managed to jump into The Lowrider. It seemed possessed with a hellish rage. Reyes stopped The Lowrider, and took out his copper spear.

It took several hits before the thing flopped over and out of The Lowrider, dead. Reyes butchered it for its liver, cooked and ate it. The rest of its meat seemed… mutated and unsafe.

Now that the giant, mutated carp was out of his car, he continued north. He stopped by some of the nearby farms to collect vegetables, for replanting at his island fortress.

Reyes cooked up a chicken curry, before heading back to the lake.

As he continued on, he heard something… large swimming behind him. On the nearby shores, he saw some fish corpses, mutilated. He pulled up onto the shore, to see the culprit.

One of the Z-sharks was here, luckily unable to break into Reyes’s ship. That wood was too strong for it to damage. He pulled up, got out, and stabbed it with his spear dozens of times, before it was dead.

Reyes then went over to those fish it had slain, and removed what meat were left from them. He cooked them up with some flour, as batter-fried fish.

Reyes came upon a river, before Ludlow. This river seemed to be wide, and stretched on the opposite side of Ludlow than the lake shore. He was curious to see how far it went – was it possible Ludlow was flanked by water on both sides? If so, it would be even easier to maneuvre around, from the safety of his amphibious craft.

But at the edge of his vision, he something terrifying.

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It was as big as a person, with a shell like a crustacean… but possibly thicker. The thing seemed to have eyes like a crab, and skittering legs. Reyes kept a long distance from this monstrosity. He was certain it could destroy him, and possibly his boat.

Dear lord… There were dozens of them, swarming around a shipwrecked boat they seemed to have made into their hive. Crabs are well-known bottom-feeders, and these things had likely come upon whatever survivors or corpses were left, and ate the rotting corpses.

He kept distance, and continued northward upriver. But the distance he kept was not enough.

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The things began shrieking, and dove into the river. Reyes was dazed from the sound, but turned the ship around and sped up its pace. He needed to escape these things.

Their unknown speed at sea terrified him, and so Reyes pulled up on the southern shore of Ludlow. His wooden jalopy bounced over the terrain as he escaped. His battery maintained a charge of 32%.

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Reyes had not survived for this long only to be ambushed by crab-monsters. He drove fast, and escaped. That river was cursed.

Once Reyes was confident he was not still being followed, he embarked back onto the water of the lake. He was near Ludlow now.

The city was still covered in zombies. Although some had gone into the lake, he had brought even more out into the streets from his noise earlier in the morning.

A few dozen followed him as he led them into the lake once more.

As he did so, The Lowrider bumped into what he assumed were the heads of the zombies below water. He could only see the disturbance they were making in the water, but he estimated there were a few dozen underwater here.

Reyes drove by the atomic SUV he was planning to convert into a killing machine. It was in good shape, albeit surrounded by zombies.

If he could move it further out of the city, it would be easier to get started working on it…

He saw a bicycle nearby. If he dropped the Lowrider at that bike, and then took the bike to get the atomic car, he could leap-frog the vehicles outside of town, before setting up a fortified location to do the bulk of the work.

This was better done at night, when it would be more difficult for the zombies to spot him. Reyes pulled back onto the lake to a safe distance, and passed the time.

He made some more curry around 4:24PM. After that, he read from his book ‘Internal Combustion Essentials’. This was a great book, and he figured he could learn from it for a long time.

He heard some of the zombies from Ludlow moving around the boat, but none were damaging the boat at all.

Eventually the sun went down, and it was time for action.

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Reyes Albert, Prisoner, Ch. 38

The book was boring as hell, and Reyes was ready to get going. He ate some deluxe rice and beans from a day or two ago, and had some caramels to cheer himself up.

Reyes planned to drop The Lowrider off near the south shore, then sneak up to the bicycle. From there, he would take that bike into the city and retrieve the atomic car.

He was a junkie for adrenaline by this point. He loved these kinds of dangerous nights.

Reyes started off mostly blind. He knew the shoreline well, and could navigate with just a minimum of light.

He heard some small things being hit on the front of The Lowrider.

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Hopefully the beavers wouldn’t keep a grudge. Reyes parked The Lowrider in the middle of the street, and hopped out.

The night seemed silent. Nothing in his immediate vicinity. The zombies had mostly been drawn into the lake, where they were wandering blindly beneath the water.

Reyes made it to the bike without running into a single zombie. Now, to get to the atomic car…

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He went slowly, so that he could maneuver easily. The atomic car was about a block and a half away. He went on the middle of the street, which would give him more space to turn if needed.

There was a zapper zombie far off, it looked like it might be near the atomic car.

A zombie emerged from the dark in front of him, and Reyes kicked the bike up a gear and swerved away.

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The atomic car was close now, he was searching around in the dark to find it.

He found it, but there were three zombies following right behind, not to mention the zapper zombie. It would be a better idea to lead them away, before climbing in and trying to get it started.

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He gave his bike a honk after traveling to the north side of the road, opposite to the atomic car.

Time to give it a shot… He rode up beside the atomic car, and hopped in.

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This thing was a beast of engineering. It could accelerate extremely quickly, and this was before Reyes would get to streamlining it. The plutonium cell was unfortunately almost depleted, but the storage battery held enough charge to last a few hours at a decent speed.

On the way back, he waded through a couple zombies. They were no match for this thing’s bulk.

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He traced his route back, and pulled up right beside The Lowrider. Smooth. He hopped across, into the other car.

Now that the atomic car was safely outside the city, Reyes just needed to find some more tools to help his work on it.

He was running low on welding fuel. His best bet for that would probably be Bethlehem. He remembered a mechanics garage there had plenty, and he left some behind due to the surplus.

It was a way south, across the lake. The trip would take at least an hour. But he would get a head start tonight, so that he could get in there tomorrow, or the next day.

The night was very dark, and he stopped the Lowrider around 11:00PM. He went to sleep.

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Reyes awoke to a stomach ache. He’d been experiencing intestinal pain for a few weeks now, that he thought about it. It probably started back when he was eating raw fish. He thought he might have stomach parasites…

Breakfast was granola, some old cheese, and water. Then it was time to continue on to Bethlehem.

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The Lowrider was charging slower than usual. It was likely that the solar panels took a beating yesterday, when Reyes was driving through the city to remove zombies from Ludlow.

Traveling south, Reyes passed by multiple dead, rotten beaver corpses. He wasn’t sure what killed them, but he guessed a Z-shark was around here.

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There was something in the water nearby. It wasn’t attacking his boat, but it was certainly keeping pace with him as he continued south. Reyes kicked up the speed for a few minutes, and they seemed to lose track of him. Whatever it was, it was gone.

He saw a number of maimed creatures on the surface of the lake. The Z-sharks were probably active. It was a good thing his boat was protected on all sides by wooden boards.

Reyes pulled up on the highway north of Bethlehem, and stopped for a bit. He wanted to let the Lowrider charge before attempting to get close to the town.

He sat back, and did some reading through ‘Internal Combustion Fundamentals’.

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Around noon, Reyes decided to get moving. The Lowrider was 49% charged. That should be plenty enough for getting in and out of Bethlehem.

He figured that he should just try and push through, hitting whatever zombies he had to. Last time he was near Bethlehem, he didn’t have anywhere near the firepower he did now. And he wanted to give The Lowrider a stress test, to see just how much damage his front prow could do. One perk of being wooden, was that the car could be easily repaired.

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Bethlehem still had a lot of zombies in it, even though Reyes had managed to pull a bunch of them out using his bicycle a couple weeks ago.

His best bet, he figured, would be to enter the city from the west side, and slip over to the mechanic shop. He remembered there were two ways in; but the best was probably right from the street entrance. There was a gate he could open from the outside, and then he could drive The Lowrider right into the safety of the garage while he loaded everything.

The Lowrider’s bicycle wheels (and one car wheel) bounced over the open field as Reyes circled to the west. His goal was the mechanic’s shop at the southwest side.

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There were only a couple zombies outside of the doors. Reyes angled The Lowrider right at the gates.

It was looking good until a huge zombie formed from multiple corpses turned around the corner. He didn’t dare try the door while that was still here. He angled to turn and reverse.

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He exited into the field, honking to draw the surrounding zombies out. He really only needed about thirty seconds of time at that gate to get in, but so long as there were zombies around it, it wouldn’t be possible.

After a couple passes to lure the zombies out, it was clear. Reyes pulled up to the garage, and hopped out.

Right after he got his hands on the winch, a zombie came from around the corner. He still needed more time, and this zombie was too close. He had to fight it using his spear.

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He downed the zombie, but there was no time to waste pulping it. A zombiefied police dog and a child zombie had spotted him. He ran back to the winch, and started to open the door.

Finally, he got it open. But the huge multi-corpse zombie was back, and the other zombies were dangerously close.

He hopped into The Lowrider, and kicked it into maximum reverse. He needed to lose these zombies before going inside.

Reyes decided to try something unconventional. He closed shut his front curtains, and opened the rear one. Using the zombies’ sight, he lured them out and away from the mechanic garage.

When they were far enough away, Reyes closed the back curtain too, and navigated using what little of the front he could see through the curtains, and his memory

He managed to get inside. But the thing was, he could hear the dreaded sound of footsteps.

He opened the front curtains to see that zombies had torn through here at some point. Probably after he had escaped weeks ago. Reyes needed to secure this place, and get to looting.

Reyes heard something crash into The Lowrider. That wasn’t good, nothing should be nearby.

Oh, shit. Reyes wasn’t about to go toe-to-toe with whatever the hell this was. He reversed out of the garage. He needed to lose some more zombies before going in.

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Reyes lured it outside, and brought the Lowrider back into the garage. He hopped out, and spun the garage door’s winch to close it.

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He was pretty sure there was just one more zombie inside with him. Reyes started looting, and loaded two large welding tanks, plus another full acetylene torch. This was a dangerous trip, but once he was done, he would be good for a very long time.

Reyes spotted the zombie that was in here with him. It had wandered over to the other metal garage door. It was wearing makeshift clothes, and wielding a weapon just like Reyes. It had been another survivor.

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Reyes Albert, Prisoner, Ch. 39, "Workshop"

Reyes fit the suppressor he had found at the gun store in Nobleboro onto his Glock 22. Then, he stepped off of The Lowrider and went into the mechanic’s shop.

There was the zombie. He rushed further into the garage beyond it, as the survivor zombie trailed behind.

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Four shots, and it was dead. He killed it just as it tore part of his jeans. Somewhere outside, it sounded like a shriek rang out. He hoped he hadn’t been spotted, or smelled…

The mechanic’s shop was now clear. Reyes smashed the zombie’s brains out, and looted it for what it had. A makeshift gas bomb of some kind… and a cash card with a couple hundred on it.

Reyes saw a two full tanks of welding fuel on the front rack, but wanted to leave those for last. There were some zombies just out beyond the window, which Reyes didn’t want to draw the attention of for as long as possible.

He crouched and crawled up to the equipment locker. There was an electronic arc welder, which would be perfect for when he eventually ran out of fuel. Plus two more small welding tanks.

Through the front window, he saw a huge horde of zombies. Things were getting bad out there. He needed to finish up, and get out of here quickly.

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Upon closer inspection, the zombies were chasing a grocery bot. The thing’s happy, creepy face was being melted by electric shock. A boomer zombie coated it in bile too. Its creators had probably never imagined this being the world in which it would be made obsolete.

The damn thing was running closer. It was at the next house over from the mechanic shop now. Reyes really needed to hurry, as after it was dead, he might be next.

He went up to the front window, to get the last couple things. But the horde had spotted him now. The goddamn grocery bot was running along the west wall of the mechanic shop.

Reyes picked up the last two welding tanks and put them in his dufflebag, as the rampage went on outside.

He still needed to work the winch, and open the garage door. This was way more trouble than he expected, but it was still possible to make a clean escape.

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Reyes cranked the winch open, and rushed into The Lowrider. As he climbed over the hood and through the front door, he noticed the zombies had stopped paying attention to the defunct robot, and had their eyes on him.

Farewell, mechanic’s shop. Reyes had taken everything of value, and was never coming back.

He made a few celebratory honks to draw the zombies outside of Bethlehem once again. Soon he was safe, and riding north back to the lake.

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Reyes turned on his stereo, and enjoyed the music. Damn, it was good. Why hadn’t he done this earlier? The music lifted his spirits as he took the rural road to the shore.

On the way back, he noticed some sets of military gear, just laying near the shore. Mysterious, but he wasn’t about to ask questions. He took the gear, including two M4A1’s with 32 shots, two two-way radios, two sets of canteens, knee pads, webbing belts, a sheath with combat knife, a holster with a M17 with 6 shots, an entrenching tool, and two heavy ESAPI ballistic vests, and a military helmet.

Before he took off, he noticed another two sets of gear. Along with another M4A1, he found some morphine, a syringe, and a flask of “purifier”.

Reyes wondered what had become of these military personnel. It seemed like they had… vaporized into thin air. Their entire outfits were left, right down to their boxer briefs.

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Eerie, but what an incredible fortune. He packed The Lowrider to its cargo limit. He unloaded some of the duplicate guns, and took their ammo out, leaving them as waste metal on the ground.

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Reyes fit a few items on, and stored the others away for later. He marked the spot on his map. This place was worth coming back to.

He took off towards the prison. It was high time to unload, and organize all of his junk.

Reyes arrived around 2:20 in the afternoon, and as always his cows were out to welcome him.

He loaded his mobile travois with as much as he could, and then headed in to plan out where to construct his workshop. He wanted it to be accessible to The Lowrider, for easy loading and unloading. Preferably, it would also be somewhere within the prison.

He found exactly the right place. The gym. The Lowrider was just the right size to squeeze in between the concrete columns, and Reyes could remove the metal bars using his hacksaw. It was even fairly close to the prison’s internal workshop.

Before he started to remove the bars, he wanted to cordon off the cows. With all the nails he had, this would be quick work. Reyes collected planks and began to wall off the workshop area.

Reyes worked until sundown, and then crawled into one of the prison beds.

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He woke up around 3:08AM, to a sound coming from the gym. Upon investigation, it was a cow. He had trouble getting back to sleep, and eventually gave up and hopped out of bed around 5:20AM.

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For breakfast, he cooked up cheese fries.

As soon as 6:57AM he had finished the workshop’s outer walls.

He set up a wooden door in the prison entryway, and then began to remove the top set of metal bars using his hacksaw.

Around 1:13 PM, Reyes pulled the Lowrider up into the workshop. Fantastic. In the sunlight, it could even keep charging.

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Reyes made French fries for lunch. He brought some of the shelves from the prison’s food storage room out into the warehouse. These would be perfect.

He set to organizing his areas. He would put his “hard” craftables to the left, and his weapons and ammo to the right. Food, books, and medicine would be at the top-right.

The workshop was taking place incredibly fast. Reyes stacked his things up, and admired his hoard. The haul was incredible, and represented everything he’d done since the Cataclysm. Putting it out like this made it easy to see everything he had available to him.

Now that everything was sorted, he could put the essentials back in. MRE’s were the next food to be eaten.

He armed himself up with an M4A1, with a total of two fully-loaded STANAG magazines with 30 rounds each. In addition, he kept a Glock 22 with 20 rounds. He attached suppressors to both guns.

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Reyes felt like he had it all. Or at least the basics of it all. He certainly needed more food (he had barely enough to last a week here), and could use some more electronics.

Eventually he wanted to set up a solar panel system for the prison, to give it power. But for now, he was content on his island paradise.

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Wow, i got shredded three times in a row by turrets

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Reyes Albert, Prisoner, Ch. 40, "Gathering"

Next, it was time to expand the farm. Reyes had nearly a hundred seeds by now, after he had explored the nearby farms in the past week. Planting them could mean a huge harvest eventually, and was well-worth a a few days of hard labour.

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Garlic, onions, sugar beet, pumpkin, blueberry, raspberry, strawberry…

It was strange to turn the same places where he had fled and killed the zombified inmates, into farmland.

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Reyes was getting dead tired, exhausted after all of this digging. He stopped for the night, and planned to continue tomorrow.

For breakfast, Reyes had some pumpkin, and deluxe scrambled egg.

He continued the farm, planting numerous berry bushes around the warden’s office. There was the broken plate glass – the same glass that he had been launched through by a hulk on the first day of the Cataclysm. It had been… just over a month since then.

The prison island was his now, and he would be its caretaker. He finished planting the last of the seeds. They were all in the ground now, and in the months to come would surely produce enough food for him to live off of.

Reyes thought about what to do next with his time. He set to working on The Lowrider, improving it for his venture back to Ludlow.

He installed a forklift at the back of the Lowrider, using a steel frame. This would let him lift most other vehicles, to do more intensive mechanics. The thing was also very sturdy, and capable of smashing zombies.

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Reyes gave some tailoring a shot, trying to repair his knee pads. He was so awful that he managed to unstitch the pads and ruin them.

He picked up some armor, and wore as much as he would be comfortable with throughout the day. Tomorrow he would head to Ludlow, to start work on The Hound.

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It was time to take out the last three zombies at the prison. Reyes started with the showers.

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One headshot at the first cop zombie was dead. Two more shots and the second zombie was down, and the showers were safe.

Then he removed the final zombie on the island. The old cop zombie, near the prison entrance. This zombie was a familiar face to him. He’d seen it hundreds of times, whenever he entered or exited the prison.

He was glad it was finally dead. The old bastard deserved rest.

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The bodies were taken to the helipad, stacked with wooden planks, and set on fire.

To make the shredders for his planned vehicle The Hound, he needed to get into blacksmithing. In one of Reyes’ books, it mentioned how to make a clay crucible, and he set off to the nearby islands in search of clay.

On his travels, he saw a Z-shark that had swam through some marshes inland, in pursuit of a fish. He watched as it mangled the fish to death, splashing up foam. The thought that these Z-sharks could navigate the marshes was a terrifying realization.

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He swiftly collected some clay nearby a river, shoveling it into his boat-car’s cargo area. This would be enough for a crucible.

Inland a bit more, he began to chop a log into planks, to use to make a fire to cast the clay crucible.

He had chopped a fallen tree into logs, and was just splitting those logs when a zombified dog emerged from the woods. The creature startled his uneasy peace.

Reyes unslung his silenced M4A1 and fired.

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In one careful shot, the thing was slain. Reyes smashed its brains.

He finished shopping up the log, and then set it on fire. He packed the clay, and cast in into the form of a clay crucible.

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After that, it was time to get back to the island prison. Reyes was well on his way to making an anvil. Following that, his plan was to make shredders to connect to the front of his upcoming death mobile, The Hound.

On the lake, once more he passed the aftermath of the Z-sharks. Half a dozen mangled corpses floated on the water. He noticed as a goose squawked out its death cry, and emerged seconds later as a bloodied corpse.

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While the lake was quite safe for Reyes inside The Lowrider, beneath its surface it was deadly. The zombified sharks were eternally prowling for easy prey, and the resting waterfowl were always hunted.

As he returned he coincidentally chased a Canada goose into his warehouse. In packs, the birds could be quite territorial. But this one was alone, and fled from him as he exited the Lowrider.

To make his anvil, Reyes figured the best way would be to collect some steel frames from vehicles. These he would melt down into material for his anvil.

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He unloaded some things, and ensured that his vehicle was prepared for a voyage into Ludlow. The place was where he intended to build The Hound. It had a numerous zombies that Reyes was trying to lure into the lake’s depths, where they would be blinded by the water. Scavenging from Ludlow was an opportunity both to clear zombies, and to find what he needed for the next step in The Hound’s construction.

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Reyes Albert, Prisoner, Ch. 41, "Metal for the Anvil"

It was evening, and Reyes finished unloading the Lowrider and preparing it for tonight’s voyage into Ludlow. He had plenty of welding fuel from that dangerous second trip into the mechanic’s shop back in Bethlehem.

Reyes loaded an acetylene torch into the side cargo bay of The Lowrider. He also loaded two large welding tanks, and two smaller more portable ones as well.

For weaponry, he had a M4A1 carbine, with a suppressor attached. The weapon had 25 shots. He also carried a Glock 22 with a compact suppressor as a sidearm, with another 15 shots.

He estimated that he would need about four steel frames for the anvil. That was almost a full quarter of a car. It would take the better part of a day to get it all done.

Reyes went to sleep in one of the prison cells, to get an early start tomorrow.

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He awoke to a stomach ache yet again… He figured that he had some kind of stomach parasite. It was around 2:03 AM, and time to get going.

Reyes ate some pistachios for breakfast, and then hopped into The Lowrider. In the pale darkness of a clear night sky, he reversed into the lake and left the prison isle once more.

He drove across the lake at a slow pace. He halted as thick clouds brought the lake into full darkness, before flicking on the floodlight and continuing through the lake, now lit by the light of the boat.

The bright lights removed hours from the ship’s energy span, but he still figured it would bring him through until day would begin to recharge the solar cells.

Soon he passed through an area littered with the corpses of dead geese, mutilated by the Z-sharks. Reyes trusted in the durability of his ship.

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He heard yet another death-wail from a goose as it was pulled under the lake’s surface, to emerge as a bloodied corpse. The lakes were swarming with Z-sharks here.

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Cry after cry rang out, as the resting ducks were killed. It was haunting.

At 2:26 AM, Reyes pulled up onto the shores south of Ludlow. It was a suburban area, with wilderness meeting the few houses against the shore. He had brought the nuclear car which he had intended to convert into a vicious, zombie-killing machine he named The Hound, nearby here days ago.

The grisly scene was lit up by the floodlights from his vehicle.

To the immediate north, Reyes saw a large truck that would be perfect to disassemble. It had plenty of scrap steel which he would melt down into his anvil.

The truck was close enough to the lakeshore that Reyes could escape if needed. He decided to pull up closer, and leave the floodlights on which he cleared the area of the few zombies that remained, using his silenced guns.

A rabid beaver had been following the Lowrider, and Reyes dispatched it with an aimed shot from his M4A1. There was a second to the north, which he killed as well.

He noticed some other creatures also nearby, and readied himself for violence.

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He stood in front of The Lowrider, silhouetted by the bright floodlight. Two firefighter zombies emerged, a zombie dog, and a zombie child. He killed all of them, using about ten shots.

A horrifying, skeletal dog emerged from the shadows, likely drawn out by the silenced sound of rifle fire. Faster than he could react, two more zombified dogs followed it. He would need to aim quickly to take them down before he was overwhelmed. There were more of the undead here at the southern outskirts of Ludlow than he had anticipated.

He changed his aim from the slower and larger, skeletal dog to the two faster, zombified ones.

Two shots, and the first was down.

Then the second was blown apart by his rifle fire. Now for the skeletal dog…

Two shots grazed its stretched hide, before a third perforated it head to tail.

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Another dog emerged from the shadows behind the house. A rot-weiler, with bulging, leaking sores. It was followed by yet another zombified dog.

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The M4A1 ran dry. Reyes immediately dropped it to the ground, and swung for his Glock 22 with the compact silencer.

Two shots, and the second dog was dead. He saw another zombie emerging from behind the house… trailed by yet another zombie. Reyes had thirteen shots remaining, and he was beginning to doubt he could clear all the undead here tonight.

They had just kept coming. Reyes kept shooting as long as possible. Worst case Ontario, he would sprint for The Lowrider and escape.

But they were dead. With just two shots remaining, Reyes quickly splattered the brains of the zombies that had swarmed him near the truck he hoped to scavenge.

Searching his pack, he retrieved a rifle magazine and reloaded his M4A1. He didn’t have much of a bounty of ammo, and so building The Hound would be essential to clearing out Ludlow.

With the zombies seemingly cleared out, Reyes went into The Lowrider for breakfast. He ate some aging cranberries which were drying out. Not a tasty meal, but consider the carnage he’d just incurred, he did not have much of an appetite.

Stepping over the bodies and blood, Reyes brought an acetylene torch over to the flatbed truck, and began to remove parts.

But this was interrupted by another rot-weiler from behind the house. Reyes dropped the torch and wielded his M4A1 yet again, and fired a single carefully-aimed shot to kill it.

Before he could return to his work, another skeletal dog pulled its weakened frame through an open window to a nearby house, and crawled through the overgrown flowers in the front yard. Reyes put it down with one shot.

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A second, more vigorous dog shattered the glass to the building and ran toward him. It seemed there was no end to the zombies at this edge of town. He put it down, waited a moment, then continued scavenging.

At last, he removed the first of four steel frames.

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He was working on the second piece, when a few other straggling zombies emerged. Of these, the worst was a spitter zombie.

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Reyes knew he needed to act fast, so he shot it immediately. Two shots, but it had thrown acid before he could kill it. Sizzling, the acid ate away at the corpses on the road. Luckily, it had not gone far enough or accurately enough to hit Reyes or The Lowrider.

He needed to destroy the corpse, or he risked it rising again while he did later work on the Hound. Carefully, he smashed its brains without the acid spraying himself.

It felt like he couldn’t go a minute without yet another undead fiend coming for him. Two more creatures stumbled around the corner of another house. One crackled with light – he’d seen this one before when scouting Ludlow on bike.

He aimed for the zombie that was crackling with energy. The zombified child in front acted as a shield, and blocked a critical shot.

Finally, he killed it and three other zombies.

With ten shots remaining, he had at last disassembled the full four steel frames he needed. One-by-one, he loaded them into The Lowrider. It was 5:13 AM now, and the sun would soon arise.

Reyes was glad to have cleared out The Hound’s construction area. There had been more zombies there than he’d anticipated, and he was left with less than 25% of his preferred ammo left.

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Reyes hopped back into The Lowrider, and reversed back onto the lake. It was time to craft the anvil, and perhaps dig through his weaponry supplies to choose a different gun.

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Reyes Albert, Prisoner, Ch. 42, "Road Rage"

As the sun began to rise, Reyes crossed the lake back to his prison island refuge. He had enough metal to make an anvil now, which would allow him to make the shredders he idealized for his nuclear vehicle The Hound.

He had no means of recharging the vehicle’s nuclear cell, or have any idea of how to replace it if he needed to, but The Hound could clear the streets of potentially hundreds of the undead. He knew there was a hunting supply store in the center of Ludlow, which he imagined would have plenty of ammo.

The Hound would be the heavy opposite to The Lowrider. While the Lowrider needed to be light, in order to cross the lake, the Hound could be a heavy, zombie-rolling machine.

Reyes pulled through into his workshop at 5:28AM. The sun had risen. Today, he would make the anvil.

But first, breakfast. He ate a can of chicken and dumplings, some nuts, and some aging cheese.

Then he began to shape the steel into an anvil, using the crucible to heat it up to a workable temperature. It took the whole day, but at the end, he successfully made an anvil.

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Reyes tested the anvil, heating up some scrap steel and trying to shape it into a blade-like shape. But it was more difficult than he thought, and he wasn’t able to get it into the shape he desired. He figured he would need something else to make this work… some other tool…

He decided instead to simplify the plan for the Hound, at least for now. Instead of powered shredders at its front, he decided on a row of spikes. These would be less durable, slightly less ferocious, but ultimately much easier to make and repair.

Reyes put his M4A1 under The Lowrider’s bed, as well as the Glock 22 and what little ammo remained for them. He picked up a Browning Hi-Power 9x19mm with over 100 shots, and a FN Five-Seven with around 50 shots.

Reyes made enough spikes to mount onto the wide vehicle that was The Hound. The numerous spikes would be able to distribute damage, ensuring that no single spike was overly damaged. He should be able to careen through the streets, leaving mangled bodies behind him, for a number of blocks.

He loaded the spikes into his pack, and left for Ludlow.

When he arrived, he climbed into The Hound and examined it.

Nuclear cars had been a revolutionary change that happened while Reyes was in prison. He didn’t fully understand them, but as far as he knew, they were charged by plutonium cells that could be ejected or replaced to add energy to the car’s battery.

It seemed that this plutonium cell had almost been entirely depleted, while the car’s storage battery was still almost completely charged. Recharging The Hound may be as simple as finding another nuclear-powered car, and taking its plutonium cell.

Reyes began to weld the row of spikes onto the front of The Hound. Once it was complete, it was a menacing sight.

He hopped in and tested the engine. The battery was exceptionally strong. It would be able to handle days of strenuous use.

Time for the field test. Reyes kicked it into gear, and headed into Ludlow.

It was wider than the Lowrider, and more difficult to navigate around the cars that littered the streets. But Reyes was confident that it would also be able to clip many zombies as he rushed through.

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It was time to start the carnage. He sped up to a fast pace, which seemed good but not fast enough to immediately destroy a zombie. At this speed, he would still need to come back on foot to splatter their brains. He had to go faster.

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Pedal to the floor, he launched the Hound deeper into the city. The spikes collided with a zombie and it exploded into chunks of gore. This is what Reyes had hoped for.

He continued on, launching his metal bullet through the streets of Ludlow, intent on splattering as many of the undead as possible at breakneck speed.

Reyes honked to draw the zombies to his position. He saw a gigantic crowd in the fields, coming towards him. It was time for a real test of the Hound’s killing prowess.

It plowed through the crowd, losing some speed but launching them back in a great wave of gore. The spikes seemed to be withstanding the shock as he continued on. This was fast, but not fast enough to kill them entirely.

Reyes figured that the field was the problem. If he were on the road, the car would be much deadlier. He turned around and returned into Ludlow.

He wanted to find a circuit – an easy path that he could run around again and again as he splattered and crushed the oncoming undead. Reyes drove the killing machine further into Ludlow.

It was working perfectly. The spikes were taking some damage, but the death they dealt out was well worth the exchange.

He attempted to swing past a car, but severely damaged a corner spike in the process.

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Another mistake, and he had broken the windshield on the right side. The speed was difficult to manage, but he kept going. Most of the spikes were still strong.

He’d estimated that so far he had killed twenty zombies, and fully splattered ten. He wanted to go further, and kill more.

Reyes was being reckless, accelerating around turns with his foot fully on the gas. He realized this, and tried to remember to break for turns.

He turned the corner, to see a playground full of zombified children. He closed his eyes as the Hound barreled through.

The vehicle had taken a lot of damage. Reyes decided it was time to evacuate and take it somewhere safe, where he could come back to repair it later on.

The only path out was through the zombies, doing one last loop before he could return the car to where he started.

Very quickly, he returned to the spot beside the Lowrider. The Hound had taken a lot of damage to its front, and grisled flesh hung off of the broken bits of spike. They had all been broken, two of them clean off. It was easy to see now where he needed to improve the durability of the Hound, especially if he intended to use this vehicle to clear out more of the undead.

The battery was at 87%. He estimated he could make it do about nine more of these kinds of battles.

Reyes hopped into The Lowrider, and returned to the prison. He needed to make new spikes, and also see what he could find to strengthen the front of the Hound. If possible, his next shot would be even longer.

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