Global Mutation: The Hunger System-Chapter 11: The Safehouse

The metal shutters rattled.

Ren found the button behind the counter. He pressed it.

Clank. Clank. Clank.

Heavy steel curtains rolled down over the smashed windows. They blocked out the orange sky. They blocked out the burning city.

The grocery store went dark again. Only the red emergency lights hummed overhead.

"Safe," Ren whispered.

He looked at Chloe. She was sitting on the floor in aisle four. She was hugging a jar of peanut butter. She hadn’t opened it yet. She was just holding it like a teddy bear.

"You okay?" Ren asked.

Chloe looked up. Her eyes were red. "You ate him."

"I know," Ren said. He didn’t apologize.

"He was a bad guy," Chloe said. She was trying to convince herself. "He was going to kill us."

"Yes," Ren said. "Eat the peanut butter. You need protein."

He turned back to Arthur’s body.

The man in the suit was lying in a pool of blood. His neck was a mess.

Ren crouched down. He searched the pockets.

He found a wallet. Useless. He found keys. Car keys. House keys. He found a phone. The screen was cracked.

Then he found something else.

In the inside pocket of the suit jacket, there was a small black notebook. And a map.

Ren opened the map.

It was a tourist map of the city. But someone had drawn on it with red marker.

The University was circled. It said "Zone 1: Infestation." The City Center was circled. "Zone 2: Hunting Ground." And the grocery store was marked with a star. "Outpost Alpha."

"He was organized," Ren muttered.

He checked the notebook.

Day 1: The sky changed. People turned. I killed the mailman. I felt stronger. Day 2: Found a sword. Killed three looting neighbors. Level 3. I am faster than them. Day 3: Cleared the store. This is mine now. The weak are just food.

Ren closed the book.

"Arthur wasn’t just a psycho," Ren thought. "He was adapting. Just like me."

Ren looked at the silver rapier on the floor. He picked it up.

It was light. Perfectly balanced. The blade was sharp enough to cut hair.

[Item: Duelist’s Rapier (Uncommon)] [Damage: +15] [Bonus: Attack Speed +10%]

"Better than the axe," Ren said.

He walked over to Chloe.

"Here," he said. He tossed the rapier onto her lap.

Chloe flinched. She looked at the sword. "I don’t know how to use this."

"Learn," Ren said. "Poke the pointy end into the bad guys."

"I can’t kill people," she whispered.

"You don’t have to kill people," Ren said. "Just monsters. For now."

He walked to the back of the store. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

There was a heavy metal door there. "Employees Only."

Ren tried the handle. Locked.

He raised his foot.

Bang.

The door flew open.

It wasn’t an office. It was a staircase going down.

"The basement," Ren said.

He went down. Chloe followed him. She dragged the sword behind her. It scraped on the concrete.

The basement was huge. It was a storage room. Boxes of food were stacked to the ceiling. Water. Toilet paper. Batteries.

But in the corner, Arthur had set up a living space.

A leather couch. A generator. A lamp. A pile of sleeping bags.

And weapons.

A shotgun. A box of shells. A baseball bat with nails in it.

"Jackpot," Ren grinned.

He walked over to the generator. It was silent.

He checked the fuel. Full.

He pulled the cord.

Vroom.

The generator roared to life. The lights in the basement flickered on. Real lights. Bright and yellow.

It felt... normal.

Ren sat on the leather couch. He sank into it. His muscles ached. His ribs still hurt a little from the snake fight.

He looked at his hands. They were caked in dried blood. Green. Purple. Red.

"We have water," Ren said. "We have food. We have a door that locks."

Chloe stood in the middle of the room. She looked around. She looked overwhelmed.

"We can sleep?" she asked.

"Yes," Ren said. "You take the couch."

"Where will you sleep?"

"I don’t sleep," Ren lied. "I’ll take the first watch."

He didn’t trust the silence. The city was still burning outside.

Chloe nodded. she put the peanut butter on a table. She curled up on the couch. She didn’t take her shoes off. She fell asleep in seconds.

Ren watched her for a moment.

[Chloe (Lvl 1)] [Status: Exhausted]

She was weak. But she was loyal. She didn’t run away when he ate the guy. That counted for something.

Ren stood up. He walked to the stacks of food.

He was still hungry. The hunger was always there. It was a low hum in his stomach.

He grabbed a can of spam. He crushed it open with his hand. He ate the meat in two bites.

It tasted salty. Good. But it didn’t give him any stats.

[Consumed: Processed Meat.] [Satiety: +5%]

"Junk food," Ren muttered.

He needed real biomass.

He walked back upstairs.

Arthur’s body was still there.

Ren looked at it.

He shouldn’t waste it. It was Level 8 meat.

He grabbed Arthur’s legs. He dragged the body to the industrial freezer in the back of the store.

He opened the heavy door. Cold air hit his face.

The freezer was full of frozen chickens and steaks.

Ren shoved Arthur’s body inside, next to the frozen peas.

"Leftovers," Ren said.

He closed the freezer door.

He went back to the front of the store. He sat on the counter.

He took out the map again.

He traced the red line Arthur had drawn.

Zone 2. The City Center.

That was where the dragon was. That was where the strongest monsters were.

Ren looked at his own stats.

[Name: Ren] [Level: 6] [Class: Gluttony (Hidden)] [Strength: 15] [Agility: 18] [Vitality: 12] [Intelligence: 9] [Skills: Night Vision, Dash, Heat Sensing, Tremor Sense, Jump, Precision Strike.]

He was strong. Stronger than any human should be after three days.

But looking at that map... looking at the word "Dragon"...

He wasn’t strong enough.

He needed to hunt.

He looked at the shotgun Arthur had left downstairs. He looked at the rapier he gave Chloe.

"Tomorrow," Ren whispered to the empty store. "We clear the block."

He leaned his head back against the wall. He closed his eyes.

He didn’t sleep. He listened.

He listened to the wind outside. He listened to the screams in the distance. He listened to the scratching of claws on the pavement.

And he listened to the hunger.

It whispered to him in the dark.

More.