Ben Leskey's Blog: cdda_raymon

CDDA let's play: Post-mortem

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 12:00:00 +0000

I tried my hand at a Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead screenshot and text let's play, featuring Raymon Ortega: Would-be Wizard. It was really fun to write, but there's a few points I'll remember for next time:

Choose a more active start. Most of this let's play wasn't very exciting, just trying to get to the refugee center. There wasn't much action. Maybe a megacity playthrough?
Build more story. Getting missions and/or goals sooner will give drive to the character and make the story interesting.
Play patiently. The LP can be built slowly; no need to rush objectives. Raymon probably didn't have to 100% get to the refugee center, I could have built up gear and spells where I was before I reached the refugee center.

I do want to try another. C:DDA is a great game for text-based let's plays, and if I keep in my what I learned here, I'll be able to have even more fun and put out an even better let's play.

Raymon Ortega #4: The End

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 12:00:00 +0000

In the previous episode: Raymon camped out for a couple nights below a city, looting and fighting. After looting and fighting for a while, and discovering there was no way around the city from where he was, he hopped into his SUV and backtracked to try and find an off-road path back to a route toward the refugee center.

First leg

Sure enough, Raymon finds road just ahead, and it's leading east-west! This could be his ticket to the refugee center.

There's a light industrial compound built right next to the road, and it doesn't look very infested with the dead. A few zombies here and there, but what with Raymon's practice back at the city (which he still doesn't know the name of) Raymon feels up to the challenge of clearing this area in search of valuable tools and books.

This recently-risen body moves quickly, darting its head back and forth and gnawing at its hands.

Zombie runners are fast, but not as fast as Raymon when he runs. He kites them around, stabbing with his spear, and they only catch up once or twice to land a glancing scratch or two. Raymon's spear is more than a match for them.

There's vending machines in the lobby of the industrial complex, but Raymon doesn't have a cash card on him.

One of the most effective things Raymon can do to prepare for combat is drop his backpack. With that weight off his shoulders, his spear almost sings through the air as he impales zombies limb from limb.

This flyer Raymon remembers. It was one of many that made him aware of the new evacuation shelters, and probably saved his life when the world fell apart. He couldn't quite remember how he got there though...

One zombie had managed to get itself stuck in a fenced-off machinery area. Raymon pokes at it through the holes until it dies.

Another tactic Raymon uses is lighting a small brush fire and letting the zombies step into it and burn to death as he holds them back with his spear. He manages to kill half a dozen zombies this way, all in the same place.

One of the zombies is carrying a strange coin that Raymon's never seen before. Something seems magical about it—the metal feels too smooth, too strong.

A cube van parked by the other half of the compound holds nearly six liters of gasoline. It's a little too bulky to be his main vehicle though. Raymon siphons the gas and fills up his own SUV.

It was only a child, and little is different about it now aside from the hungry look in its eyes. You'd be hard-pressed to not feel like you were killing an actual child by putting it down.

Killing that little zombie brings Rayon's mood down a ton. He can hardly think of anything else.

There's no time to mope, however. Juking a tough zombie with the cube van, Raymon blasts at it with magic missile until it dies. He's slowly improving, maybe in the future magic missile can become a primary weapon.

There's a ton of useful tools in the boxes and crates stored around the industrial compound. Raymon takes whatever he thinks he can use later; there'll be time to sort it out when he gets to safety.

One downside to using tactical fire is that it spreads. It's getting hot around there.

Hidden in a dark corner was a zombie in police gear. It's tough to kill, but Raymon brings it down with a final spear thrust through the chest. It's got some decent gear that Raymon can use. That holster could be useful if Raymon ever finds a gun big enough to fit it.

Having cleared this entire industrial compound, Raymon dumps his loot into the trunk of his SUV and hits the road again, heading west.

There's a huge irradiation plant tucked into the forest, but Raymon doesn't stay long. He does notice a van in really good condition parked just in front, so that he investigates.

Sure enough, it's in pristine condition. But, as before, it's a little too bulky to be his primary vehicle. Maybe in the future he'll want more space, so he makes a note of where it is on his map. He does, however, take the gasoline.

A little futher down the road is another evacuation shelter. This one is empty too, it seems nobody found shelter here.

In one of the bathrooms in the basement Raymon finds a smudged magic scroll. Well, that might be useful later.

Raymon switches on his SUV's stereo and finds that it's loaded with all kinds of music. His mood improves dramatically as he drives 45 mph down the road blasting some songs with open windows.

There's a fork in the road just past the evacuation shelter. Raymon decides to head north first, to try and get closer to the refugee center. He wishes he had binoculars: it'd make scouting much easier.

Raymon takes a breath at a public pond. Just him and the water. And, of course, the corpses of the mutant bullfrogs and zombies he had to kill to get here.

Further north, there's a roadside gas station, with plenty of gas in the pumps. Raymon tops off his SUV. If only his second gas tank wasn't cracked, he could fill all the way.

Some crates were airdropped nearby, but there wasn't anything spectacular inside, just a MRE and a first aid kit.

A small town comes into view. Raymon decides to go in and loot, he's feeling confident.

Fitting that he'd kill a firefighter zombie with fire. Fire is just so powerful.

In one of the houses Raymon finds a mp3 player. This will be a huge morale boost; he can listen to his favorite music while killing zombies.

There's a beautiful sports car in one of the garages. Raymon siphons out the gas.

A formless slime mold the size of a cow. Crusty bits of cytoplasm fall away as it oozes across the ground.

Van life

After looting the light industry compound and now this town, Raymon's SUV is full to bursting. The damage quarter of the trunk doesn't help either. Raymon decides to drive back to the irradiation plant and steal the pristine van instead. It might be bulky, but in the future it could become a decent mobile home or be useful to carry people or property back and forth.

Raymon smashes down the chain link fence and drives the van out, then transferrs all the fuel, supplies, and spare car batteries from his SUV.

It's beautiful, and in such good condition it can take a lot of abuse before he'll need a new vehicle.

To complete his new van, Raymon reads a new manual he found, Under the Hood, and uses it to install a recharging station in the cab. This will charge his batteries far faster than the little charger he put in the SUV. Then he waves goodbye to his SUV and drives his new van up to the gas station, topping off both tanks. Beautiful.

While looting the little town of Henniker more, one of the wild-eyed feral humans charges him, throwing rocks. They hurt! Some magic missiles and a coup-de-grâce with his tough spear take down the crazed man.

That survivor's note is almost funny. Raymon remembers the rise in cult behavior before the end. Powerful cults, with thousands, even millions of members. There might have been something to them.

There's a SWAT truck stalled in the middle of the street. Zombies swarm it but can't get inside. Raymon looks for guns or tools inside, but doesn't find anything notable.

Returning to his van, Raymon finds two dogs chasing a groundhog. That's the most normal thing he's seen these past days.

There's a river blocking the way west toward the refugee center, so Raymon plans to head north and around instead.

The end

Raymon passes a pack of migos on the road. They try to pursue him, but his van is too fast.

In a little corner of swamp there's a shack. It's empty, but Raymon takes a stepladder and stows it in his van. Never know when that might be useful.

There's a massive farm across the river. Raymon drives slowly along the dirt roads looking for an outlet to get to the refugee center, but there isn't one. He's surrounded on all sides by forest.

This is definitely not true. Knowledge is power!

Raymon drives all around the area, looking for a way to get to the refugee center by van, but there just isn't any. Finally he parks at the edge of the farm and starts looking for a clear path through the forest; maybe he can chop down some trees?

The horrible owlbear is probably the result of genetic experimentation by some insane wizard. These creatures inhabit the tangled forest regions of every temperate clime, as well as subterranean labyrinths. They are ravenous eaters, aggressive hunters, and evil tempered at all times. They attack prey on sight and will fight to the death.

A huge owlbear comes barreling out of the forest. Raymon saw it earlier, but he didn't look long enough to see if it was chasing him, and now it's here. He's already beat up. This will be a fight for his life. He readies his spear and his hands glow with magic missile.

It's not enough. Raymon dies as the owlbear tears through him. He survived only a few days after the end of the world, and never made it to the refugee center. Perhaps someone else will find his van packed with gear, or perhaps it will rot away, unused. Who knows?

Analysis

Owlbears are deadly, but that death was avoidable. I shouldn't have gone away from the van with my torso health that low, but I was getting impatient at not being able to reach the refugee center. Once again, one mistake is deadly in Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead. See you next time!

Raymon Ortega #3: Camping out of town

Wed, 01 Feb 2023 12:00:00 +0000

First Night

Raymon needs more supplies. He'd like a map of the area; extra food is good; tools would be useful. It's almost nightfall; he's spent the whole day traveling toward the refugee center, but now he's stuck just outside a city of unknown dimensions. The zombies can't see very far at night, so Raymon plans to raid some of the houses for supplies as soon as nightfall comes. It's time to set up camp.

His camp is barebones, just a tent and a car, but it's better than nothing. The tent ensures no zombies (or aliens, for that matter) can see him.

Raymon learns a new spell, Magical Light. It's not very bright—even reading by it is slower—but there's no downside to learning it and it might come in handy later.

He makes some black coffee with boiled puddle water and his atomic coffee maker.

Then Raymon spends the rest of the day reading, improving his mechanics and tailoring knowledge. Now that he has an SUV, he needs to know how to repair it. Making his own gear will be very handy too. He wants a strap to carry his spear, but he doesn't quite understand how to sew one together, nor does he have the tools. He reads until nightfall. When there's nothing else to do, reading is always a good way to spend time: knowledge is power.

Finally, night falls. Raymon creeps up toward the houses. He can barely see in the dark, but that means that the zombies can't either.

A feral human breaks wielding a pipe breaks out of the house, mumbling something about intruders. Raymon avoids that house.

While sneaking into a garage in another house, something trips the alarm system. A beeping noise pierces the night from somewhere, and Raymon knows that zombies will be stumbling toward his location even now.

Sure enough, here they are. Raymon leaves by the window, letting the zombies break into an empty house.

A zombie like any other, except that its facial features and skull have been devastated. It's unclear what caused the damage, but between the scraps of flesh you can see that its face and brain are gone, though its ears remain intact.

In another house, Raymon spots a brainless zombie with no eyes. It can't see him, but it seems to react to sound, so he stays quiet. He sneaks through the house, looting useful items.

One of the most useful items he finds is an ice axe. This tool is a decent weapon, in case he drops his spear, and it can be used to pry open doors, windows, and act as a hammer too. It will be handy for the rest of his adventures. He clips it onto his belt for easy access.

Down in the basement of the house he hits another jackpot. Whoever lived here was a tailor, or a dressmaker, and they had all kinds of fabric and threads and tailor's kits and buttons and fasteners. There's enough material here to last him for a long time in his own makeshift tailoring. He loots as much as he can carry.

He replaces his flashlight with a headlamp he finds in one of the dressers. Every bit of space saved in his sling is space for more loot. The headlamp comes with a high-capacity rechargable battery, but he doesn't have a way to charge batteries yet.

This was the video that Raymon remembered. That was the moment that he knew the end of the world was here, now. That was when he knew that everyone was going to die. And now he was killing them again.

As Raymon leaves the houses, he's jumped by a huge musclar zombie that comes sprinting out of the gloom. Raymon swings his ice axe, chops into the festering bulk, but the zombie lands a few powerful hits on Raymon's body. He is bleeding and bruised by the time he finally chops through the zombie's head, and his rain coat is torn up.

Making his way painfully back to camp, Raymon patches himself up with bandages and antiseptic from the first aid kit. He needs to get more bandages, he's nearly out from that fight.

But for now, to ignore the pain, Raymon reads more about tailoring and starts to form a plan for making a spear strap. He doesn't want to be caught out in the open without a spear again, but he also doesn't want to have to carry a spear in his hand all the time.

After a couple hours of study and sewing, Raymon comes up with something good. He ties it onto his back and straps his battered spear in. This will serve.

He falls asleep, and there is morning, the second day.

Second Day

Raymon feels much better after that sleep. He still needs supplies, especially a map, so he decides to hang around this camp a little longer. The first order of business is to craft a new fire-hardened spear to replace his current battered weapon. He shouldn't have tried prying apart a fridge with it. He also needs a better backpack. More bandages would be good too.

An hour and half of work and Raymon sharpens and hardens himself a new spear. It goes straight into his spear strap; it feels solid against his back.

After reading a bit about mechanics, Raymon jury rigs a household battery charger into his SUV's electrical system. It's not very fast, certainly not as efficient as the recharging station he has in the trunk, but it's a lot easier to set up and can keep his headlamp juiced up.

To spend the rest of the day, Raymon decides to learn some more magic. The next spell he learns is Phase Door, which teleports him a short distance. This could be very useful as an escape, or even to break in to places.

Raymon starts inside the tent. The world seems to waver around him, and suddenly...

...He's outside the tent! This will take a little time for him to get used to it, but there's no doubt that it will save his life at some point.

The final spell is Sound Bomb, which creates a loud noise at a location of his choosing. He can't choose a location very far, for now, but later, after much practice, when he can make a noise several dozen meters away, it will become a very useful distraction.

Second Night

As night falls, Raymon sneaks up toward the town and starts hitting the houses for loot again.

Zombies flood these houses on the edge of town, smashing through windows at Raymon's approach. He kites one back to the sand pit.

Running to gain distance, then thrusting with his new sturdy spear deals with that zombie; its blood soaks into the sand.

Raymon replaces his tattered raincoat with a sturdy trenchcoat. Not only does it provide good protection, it also has huge pockets. Pockets mean everything in the apocalypse.

In what will become a common scene, Raymon pops a few aspirin pills to deal with the aching pain of being gnawed on by zombies.

He spots a backpack leaning against a wall in one basement, but the place is filled with strange meat cocoons and zombies. He quickly retreats up the stairs and leaves.

Despite it being the size of a small dog, you can tell this is a very young spider. Its red color is why you gave it this name; you have never seen this creature before the Cataclysm. It is quick, and its large fangs drip with venom.

Raymon stumbles across this horrifying thing in the dark, and just as quickly flees into one of the nearby houses, shutting the window after him.

In a bedroom of the house he fled into, Raymon finds one of the best possible backpacks. This monster backpack can hold nearly 80 liters, and is fairly comfortable too. This will serve as his main pack for the forseeable future.

Some papers in a mailbox deliver more record of the cataclysm that's destroyed the world. Raymon glances over them in the thin darkness. They're just depressing, but he can't turn away.

Inside one of the houses Raymon gets cornered by two zombies. He didn't play this right, and didn't run when he should have. Now there's nowhere to run. He takes several hits as he runs out of the house, and gets nearly run down before he can reach a drain pipe hanging down from the roof.

Bruised and bleeding, Raymon climbs up to the roof of the house as the zombies stumble and slam into the walls below. He stays there for a while, catching his breath, thinking about how close he came to dying.

Finally Raymon climbs down, managing not to hurt himself more in the process. He keeps on looting, despite the brush with death. Something's made him braver recently, but he doesn't know what.

In one basement there's a pile of human bodies and huge cockroach carcasses. They seem to have fought to the death down here. Raymon picks his way through the refuse to claim his prize.

Raymon finds a gun! It's not a very powerful pistol, but it's lightweight and fits in his pocket, and he found plenty of extra ammunation with it too, in the backpack of the dead woman he pulled the gun from. She must have been zombified before fighting the cockroaches, or he would have heard shots. Either way, this is another tool in his arsenal to increase his chances of survival.

In a basement office, Raymon finds a stack of newspaper articles recounting events just before the end of the world. Raymon remembers the China-blaming fever, but that all seems trite now. The canning article seems the most relevant to his situation. Maybe he'll get to the point where canning food makes sense again instead of scavenging whatever is left in people's abandoned homes.

Raymon jumps a fence to escape a huge muscular zombie, but he knows he can't outrun it; he can feel his breath giving and his heart pounds in his chest.

He kites the tough zombie a little way and takes stabs with his spear until it collapses, bleeding out. Another victory.

Back at camp, makeshift bandages staunch his own bleeding. Then it's off to the city again, for another round of night raiding.

As Raymon pries open the back door in another house, it triggers their security system. He knows that dozens of zombies are now stumbling toward him in the darkness, and runs.

He's almost out of breath when a zombie dog catches up to him. He kills it with his ice axe, but it landed several bites. Raymon doesn't think he can raid any more tonight.

Yeah, he's too injured to keep going. He settles down in his camp and patches up, cleaning and bandaging his wounds.

To spend the time, Raymon reads two books on throwing technique and handgun basics. He figures both'll be good investments, especially now that he has a pistol in his pocket. He churns through headlamp batteries, but his battery charger in the SUV keeps the lights on.

Finally, with the help of some melatonin tablets he looted in the night, he falls asleep snuggling his blanket.

Third Day

When he wakes up, Ramon decides it's time to move on. He's got some good loot here, but the hunting grounds are stretching thin. He needs to find either a way north past the city, or go around and find another way to the refugee center.

A strange fungus-like tower emerges from the ground near some of the houses; he hadn't seen it before because it was so dark.

Raymon's way around the city is blocked by forest and more residential areas. He can't get through here with his SUV; it's time to backtrack again.

He consults his hastily drawn maps and decides the best place to drive cross-country is there, just above the hunting lodge. If there's an opening in the forest, he can drive up toward the refugee center until he hits roads again.

As he drives, he finds a run-down house with some makeshift beds and graffiti littering the walls. There is nothing of value there.

As Raymon comes round a bend in the forest, he finds his path clear in front of him. The couple of nights spent camping by the city are over. The journey to the refugee center begins again.

Raymon Ortega #2: Battery Heist and a Sweet Chariot

Tue, 31 Jan 2023 12:00:00 +0000

On foot

Last we left Raymon, he had scrounged together some meagre gear and a sturdy spear and was about to hike north west toward the refugee center.

Striking out across the field, Raymon headed toward the regional dump near the evac shelter. It wasn't far as the crow flies, though not connected by road anywhere nearby.

This is some form of otherworldly hound. Lean and hungry-looking, its twisted red flesh is stretched tightly across its misshapen, angular frame. Loping grotesquely along, its unusually long neck stretches forward, its skull-like head near the ground as it sniffs out its prey. Its foulness partially veiled by some arcane force, it seems to almost flicker in and out of your perceptions in a fashion that awakens ancient nameless terrors in the back of your mind.

A strange red monster comes into view, hanging just outside the barbed wire fence surrounding the dump. It doesn't seem to notice Raymon, but he's not taking any chances. Taking chances is how he'll die. He goes further north, toward the main entrance.

As he walks furtively north, looking over his shoulder to make sure the creature doesn't chase him, he sees it lunge at a frightened chipmunk that scrambles away from the beast's long gaping jaws.

Raymon spots movement among the dumpsters at the near corner of the dump. A huge fly, so big it might have been a balloon, buzzes lazily over the barbed wire. Behind it are two stumbling figures. One is big and bloated. The other crawls with its forelimbs, its legs mangled beyond belief. They reach for the fly and seem to wave at him across the field. He recoils in horror and moves on toward the entrance.

There's one of the cutting-edge solar cars parked in front of the dump. Raymon gets excited for a moment—most of the panels and the cab are in good shape—but then he sees that the tires are shot. He moves further toward the dump, cautiously. There are huge black rats moving in and out of the mountains of trash, with teeth as big as his hand.

When Raymon gets close enough he sees a big flatbed truck in pretty good condition sitting there in the parking lot of the dump. It's got all its wheels! If he can get it working, he'd feel so much safer.

Raymon walks along the road toward the dump to get at the truck. All the rats put him on edge, high alert.

Getting closer he can see that the dump is filled with zombies. They shamble among the old appliances and bathtubs and stumble over metal piles and old cars. They start to notice him as he walks up to the truck.

Raymon gets to the truck door before the zombies reach the other side. He flings it open and pokes his head inside.

It'd run. The truck would run. It's got gas. He starts frantically searching for keys anywhere in the truck, maybe in the glove box? Maybe in the console? The zombies get closer, and another massive fly casts a long shadow on the ground and buzzes as loud as if it were right next to his ear.

There were no keys in the truck, and he doesn't have time to hotwire it. The zombies are almost knocking on the other side of the truck. Raymon jumps out and runs for the fence. The shambling zombies can't get around the truck quick enough to catch him, and soon he's on the other side of the fence.

The zombies get stuck in the barbed wire, cutting their flesh and clothes in their vain attempt to get at him. Eventually they seem to lose interest.

Raymon gets out of there and walks north along the road, past a swampy area.

A mutant mosquito the size of a small dog, buzzing and fluttering erratically.

Finally a normal sight: fish playing in a pond. Raymon just stands by the pond for a few moments and contemplates what his life has come to. Then he's on his way again

To the north, Raymon sees a little scrap yard jutting off the roadway. Maybe there's something left for him to scavenge.

There's a tow truck in pristine condition sitting in the driveway, and the place looks kept. Raymon goes to the little office building and slowly pushes the door aside.

There's a man behind the counter in a workmans outfit, sitting with his feet up on a wooden chair, a huge crowbar within arms reach, a rifle holstered on his back. They stare at each other for a few moments of disbelief.

Francisco Amos, scrapper: Haven't seen another face in quite a while. Not a living one, at least. State your business. Maybe you got some use for some of this scrap metal?

Raymon talks with this guy for a bit. Basically, he was a working at the scrap yard on a solo shift when the cataclysm hit. He decided to just stay here, and now he's selling scrap metal to anyone passing by. He fortified his scrap yard. He even offers that Raymon can sleep in the shed out back, where there's a little cot, but Raymon has to be on his way.

If we wanted, we could trade items with the scrapper for, well, scrap metal of all varieties. This might be useful later, but scrap metal isn't important for our journey to the refugee center.

After saying goodbye to the first human he's seen since the cataclysm, Raymon continues his journey out into the unknown.

A huge wasp the size of a large cat with bright yellow markings on her jet-black carapace and a threatening stinger. She flies around erratically, searching for smaller prey.

Raymon stays far away from that, though secretly he thinks he might have a shot with the new magic missile he's learned.

There's a massive sinkhole opened in the field here, he peeks down and sees some water, but there's nothing for him here.

Finally, after a long walk, he reaches the edge of a forest. He starts stumbling through the brush and trees, heading north toward where he knows a road will be.

But in the distance, he spots a campground with tents and tables!

Campground

Yes, it's a campground! There's a lightweight electric solar car on the far side of the campfire, and an SUV closer to him, parked by the abandoned tents. Both cars look in good shape, and Raymon's heart gives a flutter.

To the west is a strange stone building with snakes swimming and diving in the water surrounding it. Raymon just keeps his distance and stays in the campground.

The SUV works. One of its gas tanks is leaking, but the other has over seven liters in it. The battery is draining, however, and that means that unless Raymon can get a new battery, this car will be useless.

Raymon backs the SUV out of the campground to the road and puts it in park. He'll deal with the battery situation later.

The electric car is fully functional, though its solar panels are heavily damaged and one of its batteries has given out. An electric car would be extremely useful because it can just charge from its solar panels without ever needing to scavenge fuel, but this one charges so slowly it might not be practical to wait weeks just to travel a few miles.

Raymon drives this car out to the road too, just in case.

Then Raymon loots the campground for canned goods and other stuff.

He finds a runner pack in one of the tents. It's smaller than his makeshift sling, but he straps it on too. More space to carry stuff is good, and the runner pack could be better long term.

Raymon takes down one of the tents and hauls it toward the cars. It's time to make a decision. Does he dump everything in the electric car and drive as far as it can take him, then just wait as it recharges? Or does he go find a battery for the SUV, and just deal with scavenging fuel? Raymon decides on the SUV. It shouldn't be to hard to find a working car battery somewhere in an abandoned car, nor gasoline. He doesn't want to be stranded with a finicky, lightweight electric car when he could be cruising past zombies in an SUV.

He drops all of his looted supplies into the big trunk of the SUV. Now it's time to find a battery. The electric car still has a little charge, so Raymon hops in to go scout north and see if there are any abandoned cars.

He drives north for a little ways.

Eventually a huge building looms up in front of him beside the road, high brick walls reaching toward the sky, some kind of research facility if he had to guess. He hears an explosion, and up ahead part of the brick wall collapses.

This robot looks like a large metal spider, a bit bigger than a person, with its thorax covered in tiny holes. An ominous buzzing emanates from it.

Nope. Raymon shifts into reverse and hits the accelerator.

He backs up all the way to the campground.

Battery heist

Time for plan B. He remembers the wrecked car in front of one of those houses near the evac shelter. Maybe it had a battery? He can't remember, but he'll walk all the way back to check. It's not that far.

As Raymon walks, one of the huge cat-size wasps swoops down from nowhere and starts charging him, darting this way and that. There's no way he could hit that thing with his spear, so he drops his spear and remembers what he read from the magic pamphlet. Magic missile! The first missile pierces the wasp's chitin, and a few more send it fleeing.

Another big wasp comes buzzing at him, but this time he's ready. He drops his spear again and raises his hands.

A few magic missile's later, and that wasp is dead. It couldn't get away from Raymon, no! He shakes his head. Something's wrong with his brain, why is he so aggressive? He doesn't know.

He smashes the wasp to a pulp with his boot, just for attacking him, then walks the rest of the way to the wrecked car.

It doesn't have a battery. Raymon chuckles coldly. He decides to head north through the forest as he cuts back to the campground, maybe there'll be a car with a battery on the road up that way.

Raymon reaches the road, but spots a strange strange snakelike shadow flying through the air. He heads the other way, toward a golf course.

The golf course is almost peaceful, and still looks good too. Raymon walks over the green toward the club house. Is that a person over by the club house, holding a crowbar and talking with someone?

Their pupils are dilated and what can be seen of the iris and sclera are bloodshot. This crowbar-wielding maniac still breathes, but the zombies treat them like one of their own.

The presence of these strange people walking among the shambling zombies fills Raymon with a cold dread. He sneaks around the bottom of the golf course, past the club house.

Something about the golf course scared Raymon. He just wants to get out of this place and get to the refugee center. It doesn't really matter how. He starts to concoct a plan. That scapper, Francisco Amos, had a tow truck in perfect condition, except it had no front wheels. It wasn't going anywhere. What if... What if Raymon stole the trucks battery? He'd have to make it stealthy, or the scrapper would no doubt pull out his rifle or beat him to death with his crowbar, but if he could just get that battery... The more Raymon thought about it the more he liked the idea. The scrapper would be fine, of that he was sure. It would be easy for a survivor like him to find another battery. Yes, that's what Raymon'd do. He'd steal the battery from the scrappers tow truck.

Raymon walks through the forest toward the scrapyard.

He's back, and his heart is pounding as he begins his heist.

First he goes into the office, and when Franciso isn't really paying attention, he closes the curtains. They were almost closed anyway, but this way the scapper won't be able to see what's going on in the driveway.

Then Raymon slips outside and removes the battery. It takes less than a minute, and the scrapper suspects nothing.

He drags the battery out a ways from the scrap yard, but is forced to leave behind his spear to carry it further. That's OK, he'll be back.

Walking back to the campground, he sees the field to the north is just covered in the moving blobs of slime, some big, some small, just glooping around the grass aimlessly. He moves on quickly.

Boom. The battery is installed, and Raymon has a working SUV. He even has a decent amount of gasoline. But he's going to need more to keep this car running, and he doesn't think that the pumps are exactly the best place to get gas right now. Raymon needs a hose to siphon gas from other abandoned cars. One of the refrigerators in the houses by the evac shelter should have one, he'll just need to smash it up a bit to get to the internals.

First, though, Raymon drives down to where he left his spear and picks it up again. Even if magic missile is a good weapon, a spear in hand is just... comforting.

Raymon arrives back at the house by the evac shelter.

He tries to pry apart the refrigerator, but only manages to damage his spear. Oh well.

He goes outside, smashes a bench, and gets one of the sturdy planks. This will serve.

He catches his breath before smashing down the refrigerator

This rubber hose will serve well for siphoning gas out of people's abandoned cars and into his own.

He takes advantage of having the trunk space in his SUV and loots some of the books he had to leave behind before. Raymon is a bookworm, and there'll probably be something useful in these volumes.

Back in his car, Raymon downs a bottle of water and four hot dogs. He feels satisfied and ready to take on the world.

He drives back to the fork in the road beneath the scrapper, but decides to head south west for now instead of north west, to see if there's a cleaner way to cut around and avoid the research facility.

On the road again

There's a huge stone... mountain? castle? beside the road, but Raymon doesn't stop to investigate, he just keeps heading south along the road.

Another house comes into view, and Raymon parks in the driveway. There might be some more supplies to scavenge, and now that he has a car he doesn't have to leave anything important behind.

Some books are always good. Raymon snaps these up.

A sturdy canvas duster could be useful for wearing or for scraps to make something else. There's a platter of cake that still smells good, Raymon takes that too. Whoever used to live here won't mind.

A flicker of movement to the south makes Raymon peer out the window, where a zombie stands in the forest wearing firefighter gear. Did they die on a call to this house? He couldn't know.

Suddenly on high alert, Raymon hears whumping noises from the bedroom.

He hears more thumping as he loots some nonperishable foods from the pantry closet.

Creeping around, he stealthily opens the bedroom door and peeks his head inside. There's a zombie in the closet, the former occupant of this house, aimlessly stumbling among their clothes.

Raymon slams the door shut. No need to fight, right? He heads to the other bedroom door...

...and is met with a zombie in his face, dribbling saliva and black blood.

Raymon runs, dodging chairs and tables to get outside. The zombie stumbles after him, groaning low in its throat.

Raymon runs around the house to the other side.

He smashes in a window and gets into the bedroom from outside. The owners are in no state to protest, they just want his brains, or whatever they're after. Raymon didn't care.

These hard leg guards, found in one of the dressers hastily thrown open, will serve well to protect him. He straps them on, listening intently for any sound of the zombie coming around.

Raymon decides he wants to search the other bedroom too. He'll juke the zombie in there the same way he did the first one, by running around the house.

He opens the door and lures the zombie toward the other bedroom.

Then he plays the roundabout again. The zombie cuts itself on the shards of glass in the window.

He couldn't shake it, and now the zombie is way too close for comfort.

Raymon runs out of the bedroom and shuts the door. The zombie bangs lazily on the door, and groans, but it doesn't know how to use a doorknob anymore.

Jumping the oven, Raymon leaves via window.

The firefighter zombie sees him, and is steadily approaching.

Raymon drops his spear, and his hands start to crackle with magic missile.

But his magic is too weak, and the firefighter zombie is almost grabbing him. Raymon picks his spear up and sprints to his SUV.

He reverses out of there with the door still open. Running away is a victory. He's still alive.

Raymon heads south again, toward a bridge across a little river.

Up on the bridge he gets a look at his surroundings. Doesn't seem like much, but he'll scout a little further before deciding which route to take to the refugee center.

He tries to go north-west, rounding a bend after the bridge. Maybe there'll be another bridge across the river.

The road trails off into a driveway. Raymon hops out of his SUV. A piece of newspaper lying on the ground catches his eye.

Raymon remembers this news story. Before everything fell apart, there was a big kerfuffle about the police using less-lethal robot turrets. They'd just watch restricted areas day and night and shoot anyone who came at them. There'd been a scandal when a kid got shot, but nothing ever came of it. Was that a year ago? Two years? Raymon couldn't remember.

Raymon left the newspaper page in the dust and went into the unlocked house. Just like most the others, nobody was at home. He listened carefully and didn't hear any shuffling. He loots the kitchen for useful tools.

One of the bedrooms was locked, so Raymon goes around and smashes through a window.

He finds a bike helmet for his trouble, and puts it on, discarding his baseball cap. A helmet might be useful, he figures, if he were to do any fighting.

With that house looted, Raymon made the decision to try his luck on the north road again. He needed to reach the refugee center, and he couldn't see any way across the river from down here. So he hopped into his SUV and drove back the way he came.

Past the campground...

He drove all the way up to the breach in the wall of the research facility. He could see the spidery robot still skittering around the explosion crater.

Crouching behind the wheel, Raymon slowly eased his SUV past the breach. If the robot couldn't see him, it couldn't zap him or whatever it was capable of doing. He didn't know, and he wasn't about to find out.

He made it past the facility without incident and continued north along the road.

A light industrial complex loomed in front of Raymon's car. He considered trying to loot some tools or materials, but as he thought about it a crowd of zombies started smashing out the windows toward him, rage and hate glaring in their dead eyes.

Way too many zombies to fight. Raymon went around the industrial park instead.

Along the road, he found four dead bodies, their belongings scattered around them. He couldn't tell what had killed them, but something caught his eye on the road beside one of the bodies.

This mess kit would be a huge boon for cooking food on the road. He didn't even blink as he pulled it out from under a dead man.

Further up the road, down a little fork, Raymon came across a mine. There were a bunch of cars parked by the buildings, with just one zombie wandering the parking lot as if it had stepped out of one of the cars and lost its mind.

This zombie was ripe for a spearing. Raymon closed distance and thrust with his spear, piercing the zombie's flesh.

He slowly kited the zombie back toward the SUV, running to keep distance and stabbing at it as it bled out.

With a final fierce thrust, the zombie collapsed, twitched, and lay still.

Raymon siphoned gasoline out of the parked cars into two of his zipper bags that he'd brought from the first house near the evac shelter. He poured these into his own SUV.

Some of the zombie miners broke through the wire fence just as he siphoned gas out of the last car, but he ran back to his SUV before they could catch him.

Still heading northwest, he scanned his scrawled map copied from the restaraunt brochure earlier that morning. He'd drive across a field toward Rumford, and try to get around that way.

A big wooden fort stood stark and squat toward the north. He could see spikes on the battlements. Something told him whoever lived there wasn't friendly. Nobody took any shots, but he didn't antagonize whoever lived there either.

There was a pulverized wreck of a military truck on the side of the road as Raymon rounded another bend. No use to him now.

These TALON-derived riot control platforms were widely publicized a few years before the Cataclysm as a new semi-autonomous device that could fire less-lethal rounds with far more accuracy than a human, ensuring safer hits against a target's limbs. They were quickly adopted by prisons and inner-city police forces, where they demonstrated that 'less lethal' does not mean 'non-lethal'. In the days before the Cataclysm, massive stockrooms of these things were put into circulation. On the bright side, although it shoots autonomously, it requires a human operator to relocate, so it's not mobile anymore.

Raymon doesn't mess with this roadblock. He drives off road a little ways, avoiding the range of the automatic guns.

There's a huge mall on the edge of Rumford. Raymon drives as close as he can, but the zombies are just too thick to venture further.

He drives parallel to the horde, heading north.

Just beyond the horde he stops to quickly siphon some gas from a pickup truck, then hops back in and drives away as the zombies start to catch up.

Raymon's SUV is looking pretty good, over a quarter tank of gas just from what he could scavenge. This should be enough to get him to the refugee center, if the roads didn't give out.

Raymon spots a hunting lodge alongside the road, and eases off the accelerator.

He parks in the hunting lodge, a long building with huge water tanks outside, and starts looting.

This book looks interesting. It's not a spellbook, that much he can tell, but it seems to have strange arcane recipies for tools, and it talks of a force from beyond the veil. He'll have to study this more later.

There's a lot more books, far more mundane, but not necessarily less useful.

Jack. Pot. This atomic coffee maker doesn't need batteries, and it can boil water, make coffee, make noodles, anything he needs. This is going straight into his supplies.

Those riots... That's when Raymon knew the world was ending. They thought it was China back then. He guessed China didn't exist anymore.

He went down the basements steps and found a little office room with some meaningless files.

There was a Magic 8-Ball hidden in one of the desk drawers, carelessly left open. He took the 8-ball in his hand. Will I survive this?. He shook the ball.

Sounds good to Raymon.

A crack between the bookshelves makes Raymon pull one back, and he finds a secret room. What could be in here?

Just some board games. What, did the members of this hunting club just hang around in their secret society playing shogi?

Upstairs he found a motorcycle helmet, sturdier than his bike helmet. He swapped helmets. Better to be prepared for something hard smashing into his head.

The upstairs of the lodge looked comfortable, but there wasn't much more useful up there.

Raymon enjoyed some food left behind in the lodge, then returned to his car.

While he'd been upstairs, he'd looked out toward the forest and saw a cabin tucked away in the woods. He drove down across the field to the edge of the forest and walked the rest of the way toward that cabin.

A gruesome sight met him. The cabin was filled with corpses, and bodies littered the ground outside. He searched briefly for anything useful, but was glad to get out of there. There was a torn newspaper article stuffed hurriedly into one of the bookshelves. Raymon wondered if that had been the start of a lethal argument.

Raymon drove north a little ways, and came across one of the strangest sights he'd seen so far. Crystals grew out of the ground and glowed, and he could feel the magic in the air. Something seemed holy about that place, but also dangerous. He looked, but he didn't touch.

The road forked, and down the west fork a prisoner bus blocked the road; zombie prisoners spilled out like clowns from a clown car. They shuffled and moaned low in their striped shirts. Raymon didn't want to drive around that block, so he tried the other fork, heading north.

An alien creature of uncertain origin. Its shapeless pink body bears numerous sets of paired appendages of unknown function, and a pair of ribbed, membranous wings which seem to be quite useless. Its odd, vaguely pyramid-shaped head bristles with numerous wavering antennae, and simply gazing upon the unnatural beast fills you with primordial dread.

As usual, Raymon noped out of there. Better to maneuver past a prisoner bus full of zombies than face some kind of alien monstrosity.

He lined up his SUV and hit the gas, zooming past the slow zombies.

But the road didn't go any further past that point, it just curved around into an apple orchard.

There was a recharging station sitting on one of the countertops in the barn. This might be useful later, but right now Raymon didn't have the skill to even use the thing. He stowed it away in his SUV trunk anyway.

Since there was nowhere else to go, Raymon had to return and try to drive past the alien mi-go creature. He'd just drive fast, that's it. But before that, he had to get past the prisoner zombies again. They were blocking the entire road.

He drove up then slowly reversed, luring the bulk of the group toward him.

Then he turned down, accelerated, and shot past them, nearly grazing one on his way out.

The alien mi-go wasn't even much of a problem, though it seemed to have killed at least four people on the road. Raymon didn't care; he drove straight over the bodies, confident in the sturdy make of his SUV.

A solid concrete laboratory lay nestled by the side of the road, thick metal doors sealed shut. A moose grazed in the lawn outside. Raymon didn't bother stopping, he didn't want to know what horrors lay inside there. Even where he was on the surface, he could hear a blam! from deep underground, shaking the earth.

The road gave way to an open area, and Raymon saw yards and houses in the distance. Another city, right in his path. This might be a good thing, it was growing dark, and from what he observed these zombies couldn't really see int he dark. He needed information about the area, and surely there would be maps in the houses, and maybe some food too so he wouldn't have to dip into his stock. He would rest a distance away from the city for a few hours, then when it grew dark he would creep up for a night raid. He settled back into his SUV and picked up a book. Night was coming.

Raymon Ortega #1: Would-be Wizard

Sun, 29 Jan 2023 12:00:00 +0000

I'm starting a new Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead (CDDA) game, and I thought'd be cool to document my adventures. Maybe it'll force me to play more thoughtfully, not falling victim to that classic killer of permadeath roguelikes: Hubris.

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead is a turn-based survival game set in a post-apocalyptic world. Struggle to survive in a harsh, persistent, procedurally generated world. Scavenge the remnants of a dead civilization for food, equipment, or, if you are lucky, a vehicle with a full tank of gas to get you the hell out of Dodge. Fight to defeat or escape from a wide variety of powerful monstrosities, from zombies to giant insects to killer robots and things far stranger and deadlier, and against the others like yourself, that want what you have…

—https://cataclysmdda.org

Even without mods, CDDA has an incredible world and set of experiences, but I want to spice things up even more with some magic! I'll be using two of the most popular mods: Arcana and Magic Items by chaosvolt, which is not included with the game, and Magiclysm which is included with the game, so you don't need to download anything extra, just enable it.

Character creation

Our guy is Raymon Ortega, Would-be Wizard. He's extremely smart—which will be important for using magic—but is lacking in physical capability and is a bit flimsy. He's also pretty short.

As you can see from the character creation screen, there's quite a bit going on. I'll run through the important stuff.

Strength: How tough you are and how much stuff you can carry. Raymon's got 8, so he's completely average. This might cause us problems later.
Dexterity: Helps with dodging, ranged weapons, etc. 7 is below average but ok.
Intelligence: Helps with reading books to learn stuff and with magic. We've got 14, which is extremely good.
Perception: Helps with critical hits, ranged weapons, avoiding traps, etc. Like dexterity, we've got 7, which is ok but not great.

Bookworm: Raymon loves reading! Reading makes him happy, and he gets much less upset than most people if he has to read dry textbooks or technical manuals.
Fast Reader: Raymon gets through books really quickly. This, plus his high intelligence, means books will be a breeze to read.
Light Step: We'll be a little better at sneaking around.
Mana Efficiency, Regeneration, Sensitivity: Raymon has a lot of mana, used for casting magic, and it regenerates quickly.
Far-Sighted & Near-Sighted: Raymon needs bifocal glasses or he'll suffer vision penalties. Fortunantely, we start with a pair.
Flimsy: Raymon has 25% less hitpoints than usual. This is bad.
Poor Hearing: Noises are less noticable. This might be a problem if we can't hear the zombie shuffling around in the next room.
Squeamish: Raymon can't put on filthy clothes. This is hardly even a penalty, just free points for character creation.
Truth Teller: It's hard to tell lies to NPCs, but we probably won't need to tell any anyway.

Raymon's initial skills are all in the crafting skills: fabrication, tailoring, etc. which will give us a bit of a leg up as we start to craft before we get books.

The evac shelter

You've managed to get to a shelter, but reality has grown weaker than normal, and portal storms will be quite strong.

Here we are in the evacuation shelter set up by the Department of Emergency Management before the apocalpyse. We're safe, for now, but the rest of the world has gone down the drain faster than a wedding ring. It is morning, Spring, day 61.

Can't see much in the dark, but there's a computer over in the corner there.

We also know a bit about the area where we are. The map can be a bit hard to read, but in the middle is our evacuation shelter. There's a big dump a little ways to the west, and some roads, forest (green F), swamp (cyan F), and a river (blue R), but no other civilization.

We start out with some basic clothes, a hoodie (this is nice!), jeans, boots (these are also nice!), and A Beginner's Guide to Magic in our jeans pocket.

A Beginner's Guide to Magic is a spell book, and it provides some really basic but also really useful spells. This will be our introduction to wizardry.

Now let's go check out the computer, and see what it's got for us.

There's some instructions for all the panicked evacuees:

DO NOT PANIC.

REMAIN INSIDE THE BUILDING.

SEEK SHELTER IN THE BASEMENT.

USE PROVIDED GAS MASKS.

AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS.

A decent set of instructions, but only if the government was still coming to help. They're not. There is no government now. I'll try contacting them anyway.

Trying to contact the Department of Emergency Management gives us directions to the nearest Refugee Center, a much bigger place than this little evaucation shelter. We make a note of the location so it will be visible on our map.

It's really far away, over 250 map tiles to the northwest. There's a long winding road leading there, but it leads all over the place and through cities. We do get a peek at the rest of the map though.

There's a big city nearby, Weld, and a some dirt roads in the nearby forest to the east that could be interesting to check out. But first, let's explore the rest of the evac shelter and see what we can scavenge.

Raymon took a walk outside and slipped down into the basement too. The evac shelter is pretty small. There's a few bottles of water and some protein rations in the lockers and cupboards, some empty flashlights, soap, vinegar, bleach. There aren't any of the promised gas masks, and there's nobody else here.

Raymon grabs some of the most useful things from around the shelter and stuffed them into my hoodie pockets and jeans. Some food and water, for starters, then a flashlight, a lighter, and a pair of pliers. The multivitamins and first aid kit will be helpful to keep me alive in the future. Raymon can always come back for the rest of the food and water, but if he gets stuck somewhere he needs to have a bit with him. There's not a lot else in the shelter.

Raymon needs some goals now, both in the short term, and in the long term. So, in the short term, Raymon wants to get a reliable water supply, a stock of food, and a decent shelter. In the long term, Raymon wants to reach the refugee center and see if there's any safety there. The world has become an extremely hostile place, so it will take all his ingenuity and newfound arcane knowledge, but he just might make it.

Adventure begins

We leave the evac shelter and head east along the road. Those dirt roads on our map could mean houses, and we'll either find someone to help us or maybe some useful stuff if they've abandoned their home like we have.

There's a random leather car seat sitting here on the road, on the corner before the house. It's just so strange, walking toward the corner and finding a pristine car seat just sitting there. What could have caused that? Who just abandons a car seat? Raymon ignores it and we move on.

There's the house. A long dirt driveway leads up to a house that looks quite empty. We march right up to the mailbox and take a peek. Maybe we'll get a clue as to how long they've been out. There's a slightly damp brochure in the mailbox.

This is a small brochure advertising for local restaurants with an address below each entry. Using it will add roads an local restaurants, diners and bars to your map.

We learn a little more about our surroundings from this map. Why don't we remember where we are? Why do we have to learn this from a map? Something's really wrong, but Raymon can't quite figure it out. He stuffs the brochure into his pocket and heads into the house. The door is unlocked, and nobody's home.

It's a nice place. The kitchen storeroom was locked, but Raymon explored everywhere else inside. He grabbed a screwdriver, a hammer, and a pair of scissors just in case he'll need them later, and stole a belt from the bedroom dresser. Whoever lived here won't mind now. There's some medicine in the bathroom, and some books on the shelves, and some food and water in the fridge. The smell made Raymon remember he hadn't eaten breakfast that morning. There's a nice pack of hot dogs in the fridge, and with the power out they won't last long...

Hot dogs are good, filling food, and they taste great. Feeling satisfied, Raymon sits down in an armchair facing the south window and pulls out his magic pamphlet. Might as well figure out if the crazy man passing these out in the streets just before the end really had something after all.

Magic missile is a basic damaging spell with two key features: it deals pure damage—nothing can resist it—, and it's castable through walls. This will be the first spell we learn, it gets up to 20 damage at max level and only costs 50 mana.

It takes Raymon an hour or two to learn it, but eventually he gasps as understanding floods his brain. Learning magic missile will lock us into the Magus class and out of the Animist class, but as we don't have any Animist spells and Raymon needs every tool he can get, he chooses to embrace the Magus tradition. Raymon is now a wizard.

We've got a long way to go, but magic missile is now castable. With this weapon, Raymon moves on to explore the other house just a little way down the road.

The first thing Raymon sees is the car sitting at the end of the driveway. If that car works, it could be his ticket out of the middle of nowhere. If it doesn't work, he could be in for a long hike to the refugee center. But first, Raymon walks past the little fenced-in vegetable garden to explore the house.

The front doors are locked, so Raymon goes around to the other side.

Fortunantely, whoever lived here left the back door unlocked. Raymon slips inside and takes a look around. There isn't anything spectacular in here, but there's food and drink, and some spare clothes. After exploring the house, Raymon heads up the driveway toward the car.

The car doesn't look so good, and it smells of gasoline. Raymon pops the hood anyway.

It's completely wrecked, and hasn't got any wheels. Well, that's a disappointment. Raymon decides to scout the road toward the city on foot.

It's a pleasant hike most of the way, but as he gets to the last bend before the city limits he sees something in the distance, something stumbling, shambling around a spun-out sports car.

Once a soldier, it is dressed head to toe in combat gear and carries itself rather steadily for a zombie.

Nope. Nope. No way. Raymon isn't about to get close to that. He turns around and legs it back to the house.

Raymon is safe again inside the house with the yard garden, but this isn't going to work long term. There's no food, no water, and he doesn't even have a weapon. What to do? He needs to find someone else, anyone else, and the best place to try would be the refugee center. But that's a long way off, and it'll be a hike through forest, bridges, rivers, and—he's certain—zombies. He'll need a weapon, a pack of supplies, and a lot of courage.

Gearing-up montage

Raymon sits at someone else's kitchen table, set with a kid's bowl and a kid's spoon for a child who will never eat here again. He scrawls a simple plan, just drafting out his thoughts:

Get a weapon
Get a blanket
Fill a sack with food, water, and medicine
Hike to the refugee center

First things first, Raymon snaps a young tree into a few sturdy sticks and selects the best. Then he lights a fire with the rest of the sticks and starts carving his chosen stick into a fire-hardened wooden spear.

This is a good weapon, and it means he can poke at zombies or other unknown threats without getting too close. Nothing's better in your hand than a good spear. At least, maybe nothing except a gun.

Spear in hand, Raymon goes into the bedroom and ties one of the blankets up into a makeshift sling. If he has to, he can bring it out again and use it as a blanket, but hopefully it won't come to that. His food, water, and medicine can go in this sling for the hike. If only he had a backpack... but this will have to do.

Raymon grabs essentials from the bathroom and kitchen. Duct tape, batteries, plastic bags. Anything light and useful goes into the bag. Who knows what he'll have to cook up on his long hike to the refugee center?

He slips out the front door of the house and leaves. He probably won't ever come back here. He might not even be alive in a few days.

Raymon returns to the first house and loots this one too. He gets some more water bottles, and takes the rest of the hot dogs.

Raymon finds a rain coat in one of the dressers; this is a good find with a waterproof hood. If it starts raining, he doesn't want to be stuck in just his hoodie. He slips it on over the rest of his clothes.

A fresh crispy cranberry sitting on a desk in the bedroom calls his name. Raymon downs the can, sets it back on the desk, and heads out of the house to the evac shelter. It's an easy walk.

Before leaving the evac shelter, Raymon takes inventory again. He's pretty well stocked, with tools, food, water, medicine, and spare materials. It's time to hike.

Raymon steps out the back door of the shelter to head west toward across the field toward the dump. He'll hit the road there and just keep walking northwest until something gets in his way or he reaches safety. If there is any safety left. Raymon doubts it. He grips his spear tight like a walking stick and puts another foot forward. It is nearly noon.