7 Days to Die: Building Utopia

"Have you heard of a man they call Z? A master of all things. There was a time when I thought he was just a legend. A dream; something for us to believe in. But you know what's special about him isn't the man… it's what he built. Eventually this world catches you, and it kills you. That is what it means to live now. We all die, one way or another, but what you build from the ruin of the world before is what you will be remembered by. He left behind a great thing. Let me tell you about the great thing that he left behind. Some called it Paradise. Some… those few unfortunate souls who were strong enough to find it."

Ghost of Paradise

"God damn dogs!" This world wants us dead. This life is a struggle. Only the strong and the cunning can survive. It's hard enough being a woman alone in the waste, but this world finds a new way to make it even worse; like sending a gang of reanimated dogs after you. I ran. I had to run. My sniper was empty, the dogs saw me before I saw them, and I was low on rations. One dog is a nightmare, but 3 was a pack that I didn't have time nor the gear to deal with.

"Fuck!" I checked over my shoulder, and they were sprinting toward me with speed that I couldn't hope to best. I dropped my sniper, slipped my knife out of the holster, all in stride, and waited for the irritating sound of a hungry dog's growl.. The sounds of its paws wrestling against the grass grew louder, and the growl of its decaying throat was loud enough for me to know that one of them was right at my heels. I spun my head, caught sight of the beast, and drove my knife into the side of its head. Still moving, I kicked back at the second dog, bought myself a half second to pull my knife free of the dead one, and in one motion brought the knife up into the base of the second dog's head.

"Three!" I rolled backwards as the third animal dived over me. My knife was still in the second dog. I kicked at it, and it locked onto my leg viciously. I didn't have time to scream, instead I leaned over and locked my arm around it's neck. My leg was still in its mouth, I was leaning over it, my head to his tail, and my left arm was tightly wrapped around the creature's neck. I never knew I was this flexible, but when your life is on the line…. Two quick twists and the dog's neck snapped. That wouldn't kill it, but it slowed down enough for me to slip my leg free, reach over to grab my knife and drive the blade into the creature's head.

I kicked the corpse off me. Stood up and examined the bite. His teeth had cut through my leathers. I pulled off my boot, examined the wound and wrapped it up as best I could. The infection swarming around the wound would prevent me from healing and I'd bleed to death in field wrap would help slow it down, but only a little. I fought through the pain, stood up and gathered my knife and went back for my sniper. I looked up and saw a slow moving horde of the undead heading my way, lead to me by the dogs no doubt. Hobbling I began the walk to my safe house nearby. I could feel myself getting weaker by the moment, and my boot was now pooling with blood.

Inside my tiny makeshift safe house, I reset the exterior spikes and traps, and climbed upstairs to my health kit and supplies. I took an antibiotic pill from the safe, sat back on my sleeping bag, and pulled my boot off. Thick black blood poured out. I peeled off the old bandage, cleaned the wound and wrapped it in a fresh bit of cloth I had laying around. I leaned over to my secured chest and took out a bit of jerky. Chewed it down and chased it with some water. It would have to do. I was low on supplies and there wouldn't be another restock for four days.

The dead arrived twenty minutes later. I could hear them stumbling into my spikes and traps outside. Hear their flesh tearing and bones cracking. I pulled my sniper close as the fever began to hit me. I reloaded it from my reserve ammo chest and placed a bag of spare rounds at my side. I was going to black out soon. The fever, it always gets you. I just hoped my defenses would hold…

I gasped as I snapped my head up. I had passed out. I pulled up my sniper and scanned the room. I remained still and silent for several minutes after that. No sounds outside, and no sounds inside. I survived. My leg was no longer bleeding profusely, and the fever had passed. I chugged another container of water and groaned at the pain in my head. I was dehydrated, another symptom of the infection, but it would pass. My leg was sore, and hard to walk on, but I had to walk. I crept through the upstairs of my safe house and checked all my kill holes to the outside and downstairs. All the zeds were dead outside, and none got inside, but my traps were nearly obliterated. I would need to get out there and fix them before another horde came walking through.

~"Scout? Do you copy?"

That irritated me. I shuffled over to the radio and picked it up. Command only called when they were in need of me to do something they were to scared to do.

~"Scout? You alive?"

"No. I died. The fuck do you want?" I clipped the radio line open and began to gather supplies to rebuild my defenses outside.

~"Thank god. I thought we had lost you. Heard a pretty nasty horde was roaming your prairie lands. Should have known it wouldn't be enough to stop you."

"They came through, but I didn't get through it unscathed. Fucking dogs. So what do you want?"

~"We lost contact with a scout several miles north of you. Hoping you could go after him."

"You lose a scout every day and don't care… he must have been special to you. Double up my supply drop this week."

~"Fair enough."

"How long has he been missing and who was he trailing?"

~"He hasn't checked in in 2 days. He was trailing… Z."

"Him? He probably killed him?"

~"We aren't sure of anything. We only know that we ordered him to take that Island from Z, and it didn't happen."

"So either he tried, and Z killed him. He joined Z, and broke orders. Or he left us to fend for ourselves."

~"Or the infected got him. Your orders are to find that scout and his notes if possible, but ultimately you must find a way into Z's island. I hate sending a woman out there, but… you're our best."

"Copy. Ghost out." I took off the radio, tossed it back into my backpack and went outside to rearm my traps. The smell was gagging. Entrails were scattered over everything, but it wasn't the worst I'd seen. After an hour of cleaning up the mess and fixing broken spikes and barbed wire, I went back inside and ate a bit more food. Tomorrow I would load up my car and head for the supply rendezvous. I'd eat well this week.

"Z". I thought on his name as a took a swig of tasteless old beer that I had found in a town nearby. I'd heard of the legend. Now it was time to find him.