Outbreak Chronicles: Dead Pandemic

Chapter 261 - The Life of a Kid in a Deadly World
(This is not a sidestory, this is also part of the main storyline as this kid is crucial to the story)

Day 313: 9:00 A.M

(Byakuya’s View)

I woke up groggily on my makeshift bed. It’s a very painful situation for me to get sick in this time. During the last run yesterday, the moment I returned, I think I caught a cold which caused my loss of energy and the will to move. Thankfully, I stock up enough medicine for normal colds in my stash, allowing me to recover. Although I still feel too groggy and felt too lazy to move, I can’t depend on anyone else but myself.

Feeling my forehead, my fever already toned down a little bit but there is still a little bit of hotness in the surface. I don’t have a thermometer with me so I can’t exactly tell whether I still have fever or this is my normal temperature.

Still, I can’t just continue to stay still. If I don’t do anything today, I will be reducing all of the work done for today. I climb up the manhole’s entrance and lift the lid to take a little peek.

”SH*T!”

I immediately closed the manhole’s lid as I saw a head peeking closely to me the moment I opened the l lid...

”Calm down, my self. As long as you are inside, you are going to be fine,” I said to myself, calming my nerves and nervous body.

I opened the lid again and saw the same scene as earlier but this time, I am already prepared. I calmed down the moment I notice the peeking head of the dead is from a dead that has been decapitated as I can see its neck detached from a nonexistent body. I took a stick from my items and pushed off the head away from the lid of the manhole. I don’t want to keep myself getting surprised everytime I open the lid.

With the surprising crap out of the lid, I took a survey of the surroundings if it is safe to go out. Unfortunately, things are not looking good at the moment, as the infected are all scattered about in the surroundings. I already looted enough food for 3 days worth in my stashes so I decided to stay at home and check things a little bit later to see if it is good to go or not.

Although I still feel a slight headache, I don’t want to keep on laying down the makeshift bed. Also, there are many things I have to do to make my body forget that I am sick. Going deeper into the left pipe is where I am currently making my workbench. I know that its a little bit unbelievable to have a kid work using the workbench but to someone like me who has no one to rely on, I am forced to learn whatever survival things I can get and all the necessary skills to survive, be it by dismantling or creating lethal objects.

Most of the objects I have in here are just normal weapons like modified baseball bat makeshift spears made from wood or sticks, rope or duct tape, and a sharp knife on the tip. Of course, with the help of some books that has this kind of instructions, it helped me in various ways for me to last this long.

Now that I think about it, I think I needed to create something like a range weapon in my arsenal. With only melee weapons, I will be vulnerable against enemies that are too dangerous if approached. Having at least a single range weapon like a bow and arrow would help since a gun is still too dangerous for me and it is kind of rare to find.

Problem is the lack of materials and also I lack the mastery of using it as I have not done any kind of archery activities before. I have seen the way the bow and arrow are used in movies and games. Maybe if I imitate them, I might be able to know how to do so.

Checking the book of making tools and weapons, I found the tutorial on how to create my own bow and arrow. The materials are common but some of it are missing. What I needed is the wood, the string and a few more sticks, feathers for fletchings though it is optional and also stones, bones, metal or anything that can act as an arrowhead. Although the materials are simple, that doesn’t mean that things are simple as it is. I didn’t expect this but it takes a lot of things to consider to create your good bow.

First, I have to find a sturdy wood that is good, flexible and not that easy to snap. It was recommended to create my bow using juniper or mulberry wood since they are tough and flexible but I have no idea how to determine what kind of wood I am using as they all look the same to me.

Second, I needed a string to attach and create the bow’s ”trigger”. It is recommended to use a fishing line or nylon rope, however, it is also fine to use an ordinary twine which is something I currently have in my looted materials.

Third, the bow should be strong enough as the bow doesn’t rely on how tough the string is but on how tough the wood is. The more flexible the wood is, the stronger the power of the arrows shot using it will be.

Things sounded so simple and yet this feels like it is not that simple as it looked like. The challenge I have is finding the suitable stick to create the bow. I have plenty of wood that I managed to take and harvest as firewood but they are not flexible and not thin enough to even work as a material for the bow.

Lacking the necessary materials for the bow, I decided to give it up temporarily as this needs crucial materials that I can’t just replace with second-rate materials. Creating a crappy bow that has a big chance of snapping into two once used might kill me instead of assisting me on my battle.

Feeling a little bit hungry after trying to create bow and arrow, I take my lunch before going back above ground to check the area. And thankfully, it is now clear once more. Without wasting my time, I set out once more even with a sick body to find materials I needed to create a bow and to also loot food and water for myself too.

The sky is a little bit dark which is a sign of impending rain. This might be the main reason why there are only a few infected walking around the streets compared earlier when I checked the lid. Still, that is not a reason for me to just lower my guard down.

Instead of taking the usual street I usually use to loot, I decided to go to another road. Some of the roads I passed by has at least one infected standing or wandering around. Although they are a threat, I am not  planning to get rid of them right now as they are not worth my time. Instead, I should have used this chance to sneak away from trouble. I am just a kid, not someone strong enough to take down an infected without any sort of effort.

As I was walking around looking for a good place to find a loot, I saw someone walking in the distance. He was alone, and is carrying a few weapons. He wears a headphone that has a design that seemed to be designed like a horn and wears a black beanie. His clothes is not similar to many survivors I avoided last time since this guy is wearing a uniform of a school.

I hid from him and observed him from afar. From his actions alone, he seemed to be not doing a looting session but a survey one. He didn’t carry any bag except a belt bag. Also, he is so exceedingly overgeared due to the amount of weapons he has currently.

Just as I was still trying to figure out what he is doing here, an undead suddenly lunges behind me. I managed to block the undead in time but it was a close shave.

”URGH! Ha!” I grunted and forced the dead guy off of me but this guy is too heavy and powerful against me who has almost zero strength to work with.

The mouth of the infected is already in front of my face, ready to devour me if necessary, chomping up and down with thr saliva flowing out. I am getting scared but I steeled myself to continue fighting. I am not ready to die yet and this is the lamest way to die even for me. I can’t die here.

BANG!

That’s the time I was saved from a certain death and meet the guy who helped me stand up strong.