“Terrific,” Gary muttered as the service station was plunged into darkness. Everyone convened outside his van again.
“They said this would happen on the radio,” Peter said, “Power outages.”
Gary looked at the dark buildings. Far from being the welcoming places of a few seconds ago, they now looked foreboding.
“I don’t know about this,” Fran said, “There could be anything in there.”
“I don’t think there’ll be any undead this far away from any graveyards,” Jonathan said. “Okay, let’s split into two groups. I’ll check the petrol station and supermarket with Gary. The rest of you check the burger bar and the Happy Traveller.”
“What are we looking for?”
“Anyone who is alive, and who might know any more about what is going on. If there’s no-one here, we take any food we can find.”
“What, so you’re just going to steal stuff?” Chantelle looked disconcerted.
“A couple of hours ago you were quite happy to murder me,” Gary said. “Now you have a problem with petty theft?”
Chantelle scowled, “That was different.”
“Look, I mean the lass has a point, though, doesn’t she? Isn’t this, you know, looting?”
“They shoot you for that in America,” Fran commented.
Jonathan held the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger.
“Usually,” the teacher muttered to Gary, “I have to make sure everyone isn’t breaking the rules...”
He raised his voice. “Look, I don’t think anyone is going to begrudge us a few sandwiches at this point. We need whatever we can gather. Ah, Mrs Rain, would you mind accompanying the other group to make sure they’re safe?”
Rain looked at Jonathan’s attempt to corral her into the group with bemusement.
“I’m staying with Gary,” she said, “And it’s just Rain.”
“Right, right, fair enough,” Jonathan said, deflated. He was trying to treat this like it a school outing, and it wasn’t working out as he’d intended.
“I’ve got a couple of torches,” Gary said, producing them from the van. “I guess the rest of us will have to use our phone torches.”
He handed one torch to Peter and kept one for himself.
“Why does he get the torch?” Fran asked, “Is it just because he’s the man and that?”
Peter handed the torch to Fran, “Here, you can have it.”
Fran looked mollified.
“Okay,” Jonathan said, “well, I guess if we all just meet back here in, ah, twenty minutes. Keep close to each other and keep your weapons with you.”
There were vague grumbles from certain quarters, wondering who had put Jonathan in charge, but the second group did as they were told and split up. Half of them headed towards the Big Burger Bar, the other half towards the Happy Traveller.
“Twenty minutes!” Jonathan reminded them.
He turned to Gary. “I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“I think you’re doing fine,” Gary said. “It’s just what everyone needs right now. A voice of authority and so on. Sure, they’re grumbling about it, but I think they’d be lost without someone telling them what to do right now. Let’s check out the station.”
Jonathan nodded and gripped his sword. Gary had taken Simon from the back of the van. He perched the shovel over his shoulder and held on with his right hand, holding the torch in his left hand. The three of them walked towards the darkened petrol station.
“What is this place for?” Rain asked.
“Fuel,” Gary said, pointing to the petrol pumps. “To keep our vehicles running. Or electricity, if they run on that.”
“I wonder how long electric vehicles are going to last in these conditions,” Jonathan said.
The interior of the service station was pitch black.
“Hello?” Gary called out as they entered. “Is there anyone here? We’re friendly.”
There was no response.
A cursory search of the place revealed it was empty, and that some looting had already taken place. The shelves had been relieved of over half of their products.
“Well, so much for no-one panicking,” Jonathan said. “Looks like someone already did a number on this place.”
“I guess we just take what we can,” Gary said.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Jonathan retrieved a handful of plastic bags from behind the register, and the pair of them filled the bags with whatever they could find. A few sandwiches had been left in the fridge, a dozen bags of crisps, some chocolate bars and microwaveable pastries. The grocery section had a few bags of pasta and some tinned vegetables, and not much else. The alcohol section had been reduced to three bottles of cheap red wine and a four pack of even cheaper beer. Jonathan grabbed the lot as Gary scavenged what few remaining bathroom products remained. There were a couple of bottles of engine oil, which they took as well. All in all, they ended up with half a dozen plastic bags filled with a variety of supplies.
“Not what I was hoping for,” Gary said. “Still, better than nothing.”
They took the bags to the van and dumped them inside.
Rain hadn’t taken part in the looting spree, preferring to keep her eyes focussed on the surrounding area. That was fair enough, Gary thought. She probably had no idea what half the stuff in the petrol station was, and they needed a lookout.
On the road beyond the service station, Gary noticed a couple of cars driving along the motorway, visible only by their headlights.
He felt uneasy about meeting other people. It was less than half a day since everything had happened, and already people had been looting.
Was that all it took for society to collapse? Less than a full day?
And if that was the case, then how were other people likely to behave? He presumed they’d be scared, angry. Perhaps even willing to fight over a few packets of pasta and a couple of tins of beans.
The darkness seemed to press in around him.
“Okay, I think that’s everything,” Jonathan said. “I’m going to see if the others have found anything. You coming?”
Gary shook his head, “I’ll mind the van.”
He pointed at the headlights moving along the motorway.
Jonathan nodded, understanding. Like Gary, the reality of the situation was sinking in. Decades of apocalyptic films and television shows had taught them that the most deadly thing in an apocalypse was often the survivors themselves.
The headlights drove on, missing the turning into the service station.
Gary breathed a sigh of relief. Either they hadn’t seen the turning or the fact that the lights were now off had made it seem too foreboding.
“How far is the farmhouse of yours?” Rain asked. Gary jerked in surprise. The woman moved silently and had a habit of appearing by his side.
“You’re going to give me a heart attack if you keep doing that,” he muttered. Then he noticed something. “Hey, wait... I can’t sense you like I can the others. Why is that?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I can feel the other living people around me. Like their general direction and numbers, you know? It’s part of the zombie thing, I guess. But with you, it’s there, but it’s faint. Why is that?”
“Training,” Rain said.
Gary gritted his teeth. “You know, it would be nice if I could get more than monosyllables, doom mongering and sarcastic asides out of you!”
It was Rain’s turn to look startled.
“Why are you raising your voice at me?”
Gary winced. He hadn’t meant to let his frustration spill out, but it had been a long day. He’d nearly died, what, three times already? Between that and the end of the world, his tension levels were high.
But it’s not fair to take it out on Rain, he reminded himself.
He reminded himself that Rain was facing her own challenges right now, the main one being an identity crisis provoked by his existence.
Can’t be fun, he thought, turning your back on the religion you grew up in, only to have it thrown back in your face.
He lowered his voice and tried again.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that. I’m just tired. It’s just I feel you’re holding things back, like... look, I know this is all just an average Tuesday for you. You hop from reality to reality, you’re used to magic, the idea of the dead coming back to life is normal. But for me, for us, we’re all new to this. We barely have any idea what is going on, or how any of this works.”
“You’re frustrated,” Rain said.
“Yes, you could say that. It just feels like there are a lot of things you know you could tell me, tell us, but you aren’t doing.”
Rain frowned.
“I think I understand. I am not used to being with people who are incompetent.”
Gary groaned. “I think incompetent is unfair. How about just new to all of this?”
Rain considered, then nodded.
“It is not in my nature to be forthcoming. My training is the complete opposite. I was raised to conceal everything. Myself, information, speech. It is part of who I am.”
She was struggling to put the words in order. But she was trying.
“You were trained to withhold everything,” he said, “It’s like a vow of silence or something.”
“For the first nine years of my life I was not allowed to speak.”
“Oh. Wow. Right.”
“It’s normal for the Shiranti.”
“Right. I’m... sorry, I guess?”
Gary felt like he was getting a better understanding of the strange, blue-skinned assassin. Her evasiveness and indifference was not an attitude she was putting on. It was taught behaviour.
Rain frowned. “Your apology makes no sense. You didn’t raise me that way, and I haven’t complained about it.”
“It’s just something we say,” Gary replied, “Sorr... never mind.”
“I have been told that people find me difficult,” Rain said, “Although I did not know it until I left the order. Most of the other living people I knew I either killed or they were of the same mind as me. My brothers and sisters. We rarely spoke to each other. It wasn’t necessary, or considered wise. ‘Giving someone knowledge is as dangerous as giving them a weapon.’ One of our scriptures.”
“But you gave me a knife,” Gary said.
Rain nodded. “As a test.”
Okay, Gary thought, I’m making some progress here.
Rain’s face scrunched up, her lips going sideways and her nose wrinkling. It was such an unexpected, almost child-like expression of thinking that Gary almost laughed.
“If you ask me a question, I will do my best to give you all the information,” she said. “What do you want to know?”
The offer and the question caught Gary off-guard.
“Uh, right, thanks, uh...”
He hesitated. There were so many questions to ask, he wasn’t sure where to begin. He wanted to know more about how the system worked, the levelling up, what he could expect it the future. He wanted to know more about the Shiranti and the messiah that he might be. He wanted to know more about the war, who was behind it, if there was any way of stopping it. There was so much he wanted to know it was overwhelming.
He concentrated, working through the priorities.
“Okay, if I understand this correctly, there’s some kind of administration that is responsible for making sure everything – the system- runs smoothly. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“They won’t interfere with whatever is going on here, at all. No matter how many people are killed?”
“No. That is not their job. Their function is to make sure...”
“…. everything works as it should, okay. But sometimes mistakes happen. Things don’t work in the correct way. The glitches that you and the others were hunting.”
“Yes.”
“Right, so, what if you found a glitch, and you wanted to report it to the administration? Like there was a mistake made? Is there some way of contacting them to tell them there has been a mistake?”
“You are talking about your own situation.”
“Yes I am. I’m not thrilled about being undead, and I don’t like the idea of possibly being your religion’s messiah meant to bring about the end of times and so on. So is there any way to contact the administrators and tell them there’s been a mistake?”
Hey folks, it’s time for ANOTHER “Rob’s Friday Notes” - BLIMEY these come around fast… And apparently they’re getting longer, not shorter...
Let’s get into it:
Titles Confirmed!
Well, hell’s teeth that will teach me to ask for suggestions and ideas, won’t it? :D
Joking aside, I’m pleased to report that titles will feature in the story and that is purely down to the enthusiasm and input from you folks to the question posed. Caveat:
With the current plan, they’ll make an appearance – giving minor benefits to Gary AND fixing one of the most complained about aspects of Gary’s story - between chapters 51-55 (We’re currently at Chapter 30 here and I’m up to Chapter 45 on Patreon and 50 in draft format.) This is part of the problem of being so many chapters ahead: It means I can't be as quick to respond to reader's suggestions and input as I'd like to be. As a result, I am considering slowing down in mid-Novemberish to 3 chapters a week, partly so I can be more responsive & flexible. We’ll see closer to the time though.
The link to the collected ideas document is here: in case anyone missed it
Which brings me to:
Credit where credit is due!
It is now looking increasingly likely that I’ll end up publishing GDG as an e-book at some point in the dim and distant future
I’m now getting close to the end of Book 1, which is roughly chapters 1-65 or 70. (Between my comment about when titles are going to appear and this tidbit, you should have an idea of where certain payoffs are planned to land.)
I already posted my gratitude for the input, but I’m going to double down on that by adding that if/when GDG goes into ebook format, I will include a thanks to section mentioning everyone who has had some input on the story so far. I’ll start putting a document together with everyone’s handles next week and post the link, so if I’m missing anyone, you can let me know.
Patreon!
As it’s the start of the month, I’m on a to support the story – link here:
If you want to support the story and read up to 15 chapters ahead, please head on over to my Patreon page, where I’ll be publishing 5 chapters a week every Friday up to the end of October.
All support is very (very) gratefully received.
Moving On!
Pertinent Questions from the comments!
1) Bloody Gary! Is he too nice?
Is Gary too much of a nice-guy/loser/idiot? Or is he the ultimate destroyer of the multiverse?
I mean...that’s just the question, though, innit?
(Though really, can’t he be both? Heh.)
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
At this point in the story, Gary is just a decent bloke thrown into an impossible (and insane) set of circumstances, and he’s trying to do the right thing.
He has given people a lot of leeway for their behaviour due to the situation (and again, in a re-write I’d make this clearer. Not everything in my head makes it to the page sometimes...)
But there is a much bigger story brewing in the background as has been hinted at (or even stated outright), and Gary will have to make some choices about how he wants to proceed and who he wants to be in this mad new world and situation he’s in.
Part of the story IS about his character development - but for a character to develop he has to start somewhere.
2) Which direction is the story headed?
Someone asked me on Wednesday, which way is the wind blowing for the story in the upcoming chapters? Is it heading the LitRPG or the Walking Dead direction?
Well, as I replied, ‘why can’t it be both?’ but I understand the question so:
Up front: we’re going to be leaning into “Walking Dead/Apocalypse Survivors” territory more than straight-forward Level-up LitRPG and fantasy aspects for a while.
We are currently closing in on the end of arc 1 (the church), there’s a 4 chapter interlude where we get to see more of the overall picture, and then in arc 2 we first lean into the zombie apocalypse/ human aspects and then lean back into the LitRPG elements.
I’m not going to lie: When I started writing this I wasn’t quite prepared for what a slightly unwieldy mash-up putting together a zombie apocalypse + LitRPG+ Dungeons & Dragons/fantasy elements + a glitch MC + my sense of humour would prove to be.
But that’s where we’re at.
3) Are people in the story behaving like idiots?
A few commentators have opined that the church survivors are behaving stupidly. Okay, and I get it to a degree, but let’s have a look at things from the survivors’ perspectives, which is this:
8 or so hours ago: A group of ordinary people were at a funeral when (deep breath): Black slugs invaded their minds, they were suddenly “told” there were new rules to reality and a billion people had died, they started ‘hallucinating’ character sheet things, the boy in the coffin came back as a zombie and attacked them, infecting four people, then they were surrounded by a zombie horde, some of them tried to escape and died screaming, and THEN four weirdos and a zombie/Gary (so let’s make that 5 weirdos) bust into the church claiming to be there to help.
And all of that was before shit got really dark for them...
The point is: At this point in the narrative (and I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating apparently): No-one is really dealing with what’s happening and of course they’re going to look for whatever comfort they can. Even if that is a highly suspect radio broadcast from the government. Yes, objectively, they’re not making the smart calls, but they’re also not able to be objective about what is going on because, well – it’s total madness.
So personally I only think people are ‘behaving like idiots’ if you look at it from a meta-perspective, which none of the characters are doing at this point.
Most of them just want to head home for a nice cup of tea and pretend none of this is happening, to be frank.
Also: just like in real life, people aren’t going to agree on what the best thing to do is.
Moving On!
This week’s question for you: Chapter Titles?
Next week I have a question for you all about levelling up and what options should be available (but hold fire on suggestions for that this week as there are some big caveats I need to work into the question & how I’m going to phrase it but make it spoiler free as well), but for this Friday I think something light is in order, so how about this:
I belatedly realised I kinda missed a trick with some of the chapter titles as I could be doing more with the humourous/jokey nature there, so let’s see if there’s any appetite for input on chapter titles with a bit of a humourous/pun-worthy slant.
So, using the following words as a basis: Grave / Dead / Shovel / Gary / Undead / Dig / Zombie - (or whatever else springs to mind based on the story)-
- gimme your best/worst suggestions for puns and jokey potential chapter titles!
Or, failing that, I’ll also be around answering any questions you might have in the comments section for some of the weekend.
(I think it was MVV who gave the idea for one a couple of weeks back, ‘Schrodinger’s Gary’ because Gary is dead and alive at the same time, and I really hope I can work that in at some point as a chapter title)
One last plug for my Patreon page here: - and I’m done!
(Phew! I swear next Friday it’s just going to be “Hey everyone, thanks for reading! Here’s this week’s question and see you Monday!”)
Cheers all and have a bloody good weekend!
Over to you!