Tevun-Krus #120 - MergePunk

No More Credits Remaining - A Story by @theidiotmachine

No More Credits Remaining

By theidiotmachine

Tyler woke up with a headache and a dry mouth, which wasn't unusual. He was on the floor in his clothes, which was more of a surprise, but still, relatively normal. People were shouting, which, he had to admit, did happen. When he opened his eyes and squinted at them, they all seemed to be wearing fancy dress, which was relatively new.

'Get up!'

He sat up and rubbed his face, and looked around. He was in a basement room, all dirty concrete and water stains. There were grungy strip lights, pipes everywhere, air ducts in the ceiling, and piles of wooden crates with words stencilled on them. A huge metal door filled one wall. His back hurt from lying on the hard floor.

He scratched his leg. He was wearing bright red combat boots and fatigues, which he didn't remember putting on – but then, he'd woken up in weirder stuff. Maybe he'd fallen in with this lot and they'd persuaded him to dress up to join in?

'Get up, dammit!'

Three of the people in the room were standing in a corner, yelling at each other. The last was standing directly above him, glowering down. He looked up at her, realization dawning that she'd been talking to him. He gaped at her.

She was wearing improbable armour which left her midriff and cleavage exposed to the world. She had pink hair tied into bunches, and a pair of pistols in holsters at her waist. She was reaching down, about to slap him with a perfectly manicured hand.

'Woah!' Tyler said. 'Woah. Are you a... soldier?' That didn't seem likely, but he couldn't imagine what else she could be. In his experience soldiers wore helmets and tactical vests. Although, admittedly, they did shout like she did. Often at him.

'You idiot. Get up unless you want to be left behind,' she replied.

Being left behind didn't sound great, but then following shouting people didn't sound great either. Maybe these guys knew where to find some breakfast. They didn't seem like the kind of people he'd go a party with, though, so that was weird. He clambered to his feet.

'Hey! My name's Tyler...'

She ignored his outstretched hand.

'Your crate is over there. Open it and get whatever's inside.'

Not entirely sure what he was doing, he wandered off in the direction she was pointing. In the corner, there was indeed a box with his name stencilled on it. It wasn't nailed shut or anything, so that was nice; he lifted the wooden lid and peered inside.

Inside was a long gun, covered in flashing lights; a dozen boxes of bullets; a bright red helmet; and six green boxes with white crosses on them. He initially thought that these last were first aid kits, but they didn't appear to be have anything in them, or indeed even to be able to be opened: they were literally just green plastic boxes. He picked up the gun and the helmet and ambled back to the shouty lady. She was staring into the middle distance, waving her hands in the air.

'I couldn't carry it all, so I took these...' he said.

'What? You couldn't fit all the things in your inventory?' she asked, distracted by whatever she was doing.

'My what now?'

She snapped her fingers, and turned the full force of her glare onto him.

'I'm only being nice because I need you. Open your menus like this...' – she waved her hand in the air – '...then go to the help screen and find out how to use your inventory. Do you understand?'