Ghouls'n Guns Read online

  “Fair enough,” Davidoff replied. He squinted through the gloom and made out the outline of another building at the walkway’s other end. It was a squat, brutalist concrete block with a few flickering bulbs buzzing hard, trying to keep from going out, on its exterior.

  He took a step onto the walkway, feeling the metal give slightly beneath his foot. It was all mesh with periodic steel ribs, all flexible, perfect for being placed so high where the wind blew hard. A more solid structure might buckle, but this bore them both.

  “What’s that?” Davidoff asked, squinting again. The end of the walkway was swallowed in darkness, a slight mist hanging low adding to the night’s gloom. But he was sure he could see something moving, emerging towards them through the mist.

  “I don’t like the look of that,” Zeke muttered behind him.

  “No. Nor do I,” Davidoff agreed.

  The shape was clearly heavy. The walkway shuddered and rocked as it stomped towards them, its gait slow and its feet falling hard. The outline grew more visible after a few seconds, showing them a giant of a man, at least nine feet tall and as broad as Davidoff was tall. It was gaunt, however, its cord-like muscles tight and coiled beneath ravaged flesh.

  “Back off, Zeke,” Davidoff whispered. “I don’t fancy fighting that thing out there. Let’s get back to the balcony.”

  Without replying, Zeke turned and ran. Davidoff threw one last glance at the beast. It was close enough now for him to see its face appearing through the gloom. Yellow eyes were fixed on Davidoff’s own and long, filed teeth pointed from his mouth like fangs, just like the first ghoul they had met. A serried row of horns crested this one’s bald head, however—its mutations were far more advanced than the first one.

  Davidoff registered this all in a second before turning and following his friend back to the first building

  “Jesus, Zeke, run!” he shouted, panic rising. He was elated once more, thoroughly enjoying himself, thoroughly enjoying how real the situation felt.

  Zeke sped up and got back to the first building quickly enough. Once there, he unslung his bolt rifle and rested it on the balcony’s railing, taking aim through the darkness and the mist. Davidoff was right behind him, his heart beating fast and his pistol clenched firmly in both hands.

  Davidoff whirled around when he had gone far enough. He stood at the end of the bridge, ready in case Zeke’s bolts were not enough and the beast needed to be fought in melee. He raised his pistol to eye level, aiming as the outline grew once more, stomping through the darkness. It roared as it came within twenty yards… the roar was a laugh, Davidoff figured.

  He is toying with us, he thought. We are sport to him.

  Well, two can play at that game, he thought.

  No sooner had he said these words to himself than Zeke opened fire, his rifle roaring to the night as its muzzle flashed out, bright and vicious. He was always a good aim and it served him well right then. The monster fell back a couple of feet, clutching the side of its chest with one hand. At the same time, its stats were revealed, nasty looking and brutish.

  Davidoff swore under his breath as the beast recovered and came lumbering back towards them. He looked over its stats:

  Agility

  34

  Melee Weapon Skill

  29

  Ballistic Accuracy

  2

  Damage

  76

  Resistance

  63

  Initiative

  12

  Morale

  92

  HP

  545 / 635

  It was slow, but astonishingly tough. Even with such a good hit as Zeke had just scored, and with such a powerful weapon as a bolt-action rifle, it had lost less than a hundred HP. It was unskilled and lumbering, but a slap or two from those large, clawed hands would remove a quarter or so of Davidoff’s HP and would leave him dazed.

  “We can’t let him get across that bridge,” Davidoff shouted.

  “Agreed,” Zeke muttered, aiming his rifle once more. He fixed his site on their target, squeezed the trigger and the whole balcony seemed to rock under his rifle’s recoil. It wasn’t such a good hit this time, however; the beast survived with HP 494.

  Zeke shot twice more, but being unable to aim as well as before, with time pressing in on him, his shots were becoming less and less critical. The final one, from fifteen feet away, barely grazed the beast’s shoulder, taking a mere 20 HP, leaving it at HP 451.

  My turn, Davidoff thought as it came into range. He fired three bullets, his aim worsening each time, his bullets less powerful than Zeke’s. However, he managed to get a head shot in. It was close enough that melee skills were more important than ballistic accuracy. So Davidoff could rely on his decent Weapon Skill to make the shots good.

  The head shot took 70 HP. The other two hit the beast’s chest, glancing off, bringing it down to HP 349 by the time it was within a few feet. It was nowhere near damaging enough, nowhere near effective enough.

  “What the hell is it?” Zeke asked, backing off to the doorway. He was kneeling down, trying to put in whatever shots he could manage while Davidoff danced with the beast, but he barely managed to get a bead on his target.

  “Some sort of ghoul, I think,” Davidoff replied. “But God knows how they get as big as this one!”

  Then the action started for real.

  The ghoul came to the edge of the bridge, raising its clawed hands, ready to slash. Davidoff ducked under its arm, grabbed the bridge’s railing and swung himself around the ghoul. For a split second, he was out above empty space, free in the air with a fifty foot drop below him. Then he landed behind the ghoul. He backed away quickly, putting twenty feet between himself and the ghoul.

  Another recoil blasted through the night, and then another rang out, as Zeke took a couple of shots. Davidoff did the same, shooting into its broad back. It dropped down to HP 318, then 268… It looked confused, turning on the spot, wondering which of the pesky little humans it should go after.

  “Hey, ugly!” Davidoff shouted, drawing his kukri with his right hand. He darted in, swinging it in a wide arc as the ghoul turned to face him. He caught it in the stomach, tearing a chunk out, taking 28 HP with the damage he inflicted. He slashed again, twice, moving quickly and bringing it down to HP 203 before leaping backwards, out of its way.

  But as he jumped backwards, one of those large, clawed fists caught him. It was only a glancing blow, but it hit him in his chest and knocked him flying. He skidded along the walkway’s floor, winded and dazed. It managed to take 74 HP with that single blow. Davidoff could hardly breathe as he pulled himself backwards, away from the ghoul.

  It bore down on him, ready to tear him to pieces, but another shot rang out. It stumbled forwards like a felled tree, catching itself against the walkway’s mesh side. Zeke had managed a shot to the back of its head, an ace shot, one in a hundred. And he took enough damage in one go to bring the thing down to HP 103. It would have been more but for the creature’s naturally high defense—in any case, it would have been enough to end any character in one go.

  The ghoul went limp, hanging onto the railing as the bridge swung wildly beneath them. The railing was bending and the mesh at its feet warped as it shuffled, trying to hold itself together. One of the bridge’s ribs cracked with a squeal of sheering metal, buckling the whole thing. Then Davidoff saw Zeke running through the darkness, his rifle slung over his shoulder. The big engineer jumped over the ghoul, causing the bridge to shake even more. Then he was upon Davidoff, helping him to stand.

  “Come on,” he shouted. “This bridge is going to give out.”

  They both turned and sprinted for the other side, Zeke barreling past the beast as it staggered. The seconds began to stretch out as they felt the walkway beneath their feet shudder and bend downwards. At the end from which they had just come, a furious roar gave way. It echoed
about, bouncing off both building’s walls, furious and primal and scared.

  The far end came closer, their end goal just a few meters away… then they found themselves bundled onto another balcony, falling to their feet and slamming into the concrete walls and a thick, wooden door. The ghoul was on their heels, up now, blindly moving forwards in its final moments. The bridge was close to collapsing but the ghoul kept on coming, closer with each step.

  “No, you—” Davidoff swore.

  He leveled his pistol at the ghoul’s bulk, aiming his muzzle in the direction of its stomach. Gritting his teeth against the recoil, he squeezed the trigger.

  His shot threw him backwards once more, making him hit his head on the wooden door. But it was enough: the ghoul fell backwards, hard, clutching at its belly. The bridge finally gave out, with the ghoul just a few feet away from them. It fell as the ghoul dropped, its struts giving out the unmistakable wail of screeching metal once more, buckling in midair and descending through the mist.

  The ghoul looked shocked, and furious as it reached out one clawed hand. But then it disappeared and everything was quiet for a second… until a mighty crash sounded from below at long last as everything landed.

  “Are you OK?” Zeke asked Davidoff, kneeling by the door and fiddling with the lock’s electronics.

  “I, I think so,” Davidoff groaned, feeling his ribs. One was cracked for sure. There will be a great deal of bruising, he thought. But he opened his med-kit and popped a couple of pills, dimming the pain and restoring a little of his HP, putting him back up to 393.

  “I’m low on ammo,” Zeke complained, looking into the bag at his hip. “Thirteen shots left.”

  “Let’s hope this is nearly over, then,” Davidoff said. “I think we could both do with replenishing.”

  Zeke nodded, grimaced as he levered something in the door’s mechanism, then smiled. The lock popped, deactivating, and the door swung open. “Let’s go find out,” he said, standing. “I reckon we’re nearly there.”

  They passed from this level to the next as they pushed through the door, entering the final level of this mission. As they did so, they received a bonus from the game: both of them received XP 20 and their health was replenished by 50 points. This put Zeke up to full health and mitigated much of Davidoff’s own damage. His joints were eased, the bruising around his sides disappeared and he could feel his ribs themselves as they knit back together.

  They faced a long, low-ceilinged corridor with flickering, bare bulbs in the walls and the smell of damp lingering everywhere. At the far end, a staircase began, veering off to the right. From above, two or three floors away, they heard the sound of shouting. A gunshot rang out, followed by the sound of a couple of doors slamming and feet running fast.

  “Must be the doctor,” Davidoff said.

  “Must be,” Zeke nodded.

  They both broke out into a run, heading for the staircase at the end. Zeke unslung his rifle once more, clutching it to his barrel chest as he sped, whilst Davidoff swapped his kukri for his combat knife—the knuckle dusters could be handy if they got caught fighting in the kinds of close quarters these corridors seemed to promise.

  Besides, he had not used it yet. This was a game, after all, and he wanted to give everything a go if he could.

  They thundered up the stairs, leaping two or three steps at a time as the noise of fighting continued to clatter around above them. Then, as they hit the first landing, they saw the first ghoul in the level. It was the same height as them, not blown up to giant proportions like the other one. But as they rushed up the stairs and broke out onto the landing, it turned to face them, freezing them in their tracks.

  The ghoul was fully blind: both of its eyes looked like they had been violently gouged out of their sockets. Scarring, putrid and weeping, rimmed the empty holes and yet more scars traced the sides of its face. It was dressed only in rags and its thin skin showed off a well-muscled, hideously lean torso with the traces of yet more scarring crisscrossed all over it. Its arms were long, hanging almost down to its knees, and it sported a stooping, hunched back. The same fangs as in the other ghouls they had met protruded from its mouth and two, curved horns broke out from its bare head.

  However, what really scared them was its nose. As with the other ghouls, there was no full nose. Slits roughly hewn were all that was left. But this one, blind as it was, clearly relied on its sense of smell. Its ears pricked up when they ran up from the staircase, and when they froze its nose took over. It breathed quickly, scenting them, moving towards them at a low crouch. Sniffing, sniffing… it came towards them slowly yet definitely.

  Zeke raised his rifle, ready to club the beast around the head with its butt. It didn’t have much by way of defense or HP and they could probably beat it to death easily enough. Davidoff clenched his knife, his knuckles popping, ready to throw a punch with his knuckledusters should the ghoul come too close. Then, just as Zeke was preparing himself to lunge forwards, his body tense, his teeth gritted, the ghoul raised its hands and the smell of ozone filled the landing.

  A sizzling noise sounded and then a few sparks crackled from its fingertips. With a surge of power and force, the ghoul fully raised its hands, its fingers pointed at Zeke, and shot a cascading stream of electricity into his rifle.

  Zeke dropped his weapon and jumped backwards, but not before the charge had wrapped him up, too. It shot along his arm, into his chest, flickering around his whole body for a split second, taking 80 HP and dropping him to his knees, choking and stunned.

  Well, that is new, Davidoff thought to himself.

  Reacting quickly, he danced around to the ghoul’s left side, ducking low and leaving his knife arm behind him, ready to swing. The ghoul followed him, sniffing, but it was too slow. Davidoff jumped in just as the sparkling began once more in the ghoul’s fingers. He managed to strike the ghoul hard in the face before it could unleash its attack. The ghoul stumbled backwards, blood pouring from the slits of its nose, and Davidoff followed, thrusting with the blade of his knife this time. It met the ghoul’s chest, slicing through the sternum with a sickening crunch. Thin, pale blood seeped out, coating Davidoff’s glove, as the ghoul fell to its knees. Davidoff pulled his knife from the ghoul’s chest and then slit its throat, removing its last few HP and finishing it.

  “You OK?” he whispered to Zeke, his voice shaking a little. They were being loud enough before, but if monsters like this were lurking about, then they would need to move more carefully as they could not afford to encounter too many of them.

  “Yeah, fine,” Zeke groaned, standing. “Just caught off guard.”

  “Come on, then,” Davidoff said, wiping his knife clean on the ghoul’s trousers. “We’d best get a move on.”

  They crept up the stairs after that, listening out for the slightest sound, tense and nervous the whole time. On the second landing, there were three little ghouls, all of them at least a head shorter and eighty pounds lighter than Davidoff. However, they had vicious, bony claws instead of hands and moved about fluidly, gracefully.

  Luckily, with the noise from the floor above still resounding, and with their stealthy movements, Davidoff and Zeke caught them unawares. “Guns for these ones,” Zeke whispered as they saw them on the landing above. “They look like they could tear us apart in melee.”

  “Yep,” Davidoff agreed. “Guns blazing, then we make a run for the final staircase.”

  Zeke nodded. However, rather than unslinging his large rifle, he reached into his vest and pulled out a small revolver. Davidoff raised his eyebrows and Zeke shrugged. “I found it in the other building. I figured it will sort these little ones out. You know, save my bolts for bigger monsters?”

  Davidoff raised his luger and they both took aim. Davidoff caught one of the little ghouls in the shoulder, knocking it backwards, as Zeke’s shot went into another’s chest. The element of surprise lost in the noise and the fury, they leapt up the last couple of steps, blazing.
r />   Davidoff’s next shot scored a critical hit in the third’s head, killing it in one go, as Zeke aimed at the one with the shoulder injury. It had HP 130 remaining and he unloaded a couple of bullets into its pectorals, killing it.

  The final one, with a gaping hole in its torso, jumped towards Davidoff with supernatural speed. He could not keep track of it, and before he knew what was happening, one of those claws was slashing into him. Its sharp edges tore through his coat and some skin as the blunt force knocked him back against the wall. It only did Damage 30, leaving Davidoff with plenty of HP remaining, but he was bleeding. And he would continue to lose a few HP every minute until he could bandage himself up.

  The little ghoul jumped in again, its claws a blur, but it did not make it far. It stopped in midair and then its feet rose up. Zeke had caught it from behind, grabbing it by its scraggly, greasy hair, and had lifted it up. It screeched and writhed, but Zeke turned away from Davidoff, put his revolver between the ghoul’s shoulder blades and fired, exploding its torso outwards.

  Davidoff swore as Zeke dropped the ghoul at his feet. “Damned things… How many varieties are there in this game?”

  “Never mind that,” Zeke reminded him. “They’ll know we’re coming, now,” he said, gesturing to the ceiling.

  “Well, then, let’s get on it,” Davidoff replied. He would deal with his bleeding later. For now, he could weather it for a little while.

  Chapter Three

  When they arrived at the top of the staircase, Davidoff and Zeke saw blood and gore splattered across the walls and floor. Double doors led from the landing to a laboratory. Those doors were broken, the glass was smashed to pieces and the metal frames had been buckled inwards. They were hanging on limply to their hinges.