The light was shining in her eyes, and she raised a hand to shield them before groaning and slowly opening her eyes into a squint. She was actually lying down this time, on the dusty wooden floor of a rundown building, the wood in the floor and walls were starting to rot and light was coming from the sun shining through a partially collapsed roof. Sitting up, she disturbed some dust which ended up swirling around her for a second before settling.
Lillian looked over herself, genuinely surprised to not see horrific burns all up and down her body. However, she was wearing strange clothes that looked like leather armour but were far less rigid. It was a dusty brown tunic over leggings that looked only a shade darker than the tunic but seemed to be made of a sturdy linen, by her reckoning. Her boots were black and came up to about calf height, looking to be made of the same soft leather as the tunic. It was, overall, a pretty comfortable outfit while still offering a bit of protection. Thankfully so, as she did not know what sort of things she would encounter here. The style looked like something a peasant from the medieval period would wear, and she guessed that was the sort of time period she was going to be dealing with here. Thinking back to her long sessions of Dungeons and Dragons with friends, she may have to deal with some sexism, racism and classism, depending on the setting. Those were some thoughts for another day though, once she was safe.
Standing up, she attempted to get her bearings. This room was old and very obviously abandoned, so why would whatever the bland afterlife was going on in that white room drop her off here? It looked like it wasn’t the most expensive place as well, even in its heigh day. The room she was in was just a floor, 4 walls and the half fallen down roof. At least it had a door, that looked just as rundown as the rest of the place, only being held up by the top hinge and the latch.
She walked over to the door, kicking up more dust, and realised that was wrong, both sides of the door were being held up, both sides holding up the other as they rested on their respective fastenings. One gentle push and the door would just collapse, she guessed.
It was time to figure out what she was doing. She needed a plan, so she didn’t starve or dehydrate to death. She moved back to the spot she woke up at and started drawing in the dust.
First things first, water, food, and shelter. Then a way to protect myself.
The first would be easy if this town had wells or public sources of water, less so if it’s a river or another fresh water supply, double that if the only source of water was an ocean. Food could wait a few days, she felt full enough for now, if she conserved her energy, she would be fine until she found something. Shelter was going to be rough, she didn’t have the skills to make something rudimentary for herself, so she’d have to find it. She drew in the dust a water drop with a 1 beside it, an apple with a 2 beside it and a tent with a 3 beside it.
If this was truly a new life in a game world like the classes offered in the white room suggested, she needed to get stronger very fast. In the dust, on top of the other drawings, she drew a tiny sword and put 1a beside it. As she looked for water, she would have to look for a weapon or anything else that she could defend herself with.
Lillian stepped back and admired her shitty dust plan and put her hands on her hips. Her left hand brushed something hard strapped to her upper thigh. Pulling up her tunic hurriedly, she noticed that it was a small, mean looking dagger. It was strapped to her thigh at the top and bottom, with the bottom having a small cup that covered the point. Hanging off the strap, as well, was an oiled leather water skin.
That was easy.
Now all she had to do was to figure out how to use it. That wasn’t important for now, though: she needed to find a source of clean water. From the fact she didn’t notice the weight of the water skin on her thigh, it was obviously empty. Letting the weight of it rest on her hand confirmed this, and she noticed the oily leather had a weirdly smooth, almost slimy texture to it. Was it freshly made? Everything on her person looked brand new, did she just happen to get a new set or was it made specifically for her? The outfit certainly felt like it was, fitting her perfectly. Did someone dress her? She didn’t like the thought of being touched while technically dead. She thought it was ok though if the stuff just appeared on her.
Shaking her head to get those distracted thoughts away, she resolved herself to step outside and see what was out there. She could worry about the existential crisis that she was seconds away from later when she was safe, watered and fed.
Lillian strode purposefully over to the bisected door, getting her hand on the door before her resolve faltered, her mind spiralled into more and more ways she could be hurt, tortured, maimed and killed, and the anxiety of the situation before her took hold. Her breath hitched and quickened, and she was sure her eyes went wide and wildly darted around. This was an unfamiliar place, in an unfamiliar time, if her outfit had anything to say about it. No one she knew or loved would be here: if they even had existed in the first place. She was utterly alone and out of options, for the very first time, and her mind had balked at that fact. She always had a plan, a way to achieve her goals, even if the steps to get there seemed small and meaningless to others.
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Clenching the hand on the door into a fist, she fantasised about smashing the door to pieces. It would be easy; it was already on its last legs and the slightest bit of force would probably shatter the remains of it. She brought her fist back, ready to deliver the final blow but stopped, breathing heavily, after getting the image of a giant rotted splinter embedded into her knuckles. There was no way she could find medical supplies advanced enough to cure an infection, if her assessment of the time period was correct. The pause in her racing thoughts grounded her and allowed her to control her breathing, she held onto that for a long minute, steadying herself. It was no use panicking when what she needed to do was survive.
After Lillian regained her composure, she shoved the two halves of the door apart and took a step outside. Above her was the sun, high in the sky, shining down on a dirty cobble road beneath her feet. She was standing on a narrow road, fenced in with buildings, only broken up with more narrow roads. The buildings all looked as decrepit as the one she came from, with many not even having the false door that hers had, opening onto dark musty interiors. The whole place looked abandoned. Wind swept along the road, carrying with it the smell of water, there must be a water source nearby.
Lillian headed towards the smell, excited to be able to cross another thing off her to-do list. Quickly she realised that her feet were not used to the harsh cobble road, that or the soles on her leather boots were not the best. She could feel every surface and edge of the cobblestones as she walked, and she could tell that her feet would be killing her if she had to walk for long periods of time in these shoes.
Luckily, the water source had turned out to be a big well in the middle of what looked like a town square. Unluckily, there seemed to be several humanoids making guttural moans shambling around the square. Lillian heard the noises before she had turned the corner of the last building, so she had stealthily crept around the building and poked her head around the corner. The humanoids wore tattered and dirty rags, strangely all appearing to have once been white robes, now grey and black from dirt and blood. A couple seemed to struggle to keep their heads upright, lolling to the side or the front. They all shambled hunched over, only maintaining balance through the act of movement itself. She counted 3, one was loitering around the well itself while the others were further out in the square. She couldn’t make out individual features from this distance, but just looking at them made her uneasy and her anxiety start to bubble up again.
Shit, she cursed quietly, praying that none of them had seen her as she darted back behind the building. They just had to be zombies, this whole thing just had to be a zombie game, didn’t it?
She needed to get to that water, if there was a well here it meant that a different water source was miles and miles away and she didn’t have the time to track one down, considering she had no idea how long she was out for. She looked around, hoping to find something she could use as a distraction, when her eyes caught on the building across the road from her. This one had shingles, small interlocking pieces of brick, and they were loose. Depending on her strength she might be able to throw them far enough to get the zombies away from the well and the roof would give her some protection if her plan backfired. The whole building was brick, and she could very easily see handholds all the way up. In fact, it was the only building she had seen that didn’t look too damaged, it was significantly bigger than all the others as well. Maybe it’d be a good place to hide out after she cleared out the zombies.
Having made up her mind, and not with a little trepidation, Lillian ran as quietly as she could over to the brick building. She silently thanked the boots on her sore feet, it was probably the only reason she was able to be this stealthy. Grabbing onto one of the handholds she had spied before, she started hauling herself up the side of the building, having a surprisingly easy time of it due to her prior thoughtfulness, although the actual act of pulling herself up felt easier than her past life as well. At least this body would be stronger.
The hardest part was scrambling onto the roof without knocking any of the loose shingles, and as she got to about the halfway point, that worry was warranted, as a shingle gave way underneath her foot. In a burst of inspiration, she moved and shifted her balance so that her other foot could pin the offending shingle to the roof, managing to get it just before it went out of reach but creating a lot of noise in the process. Her heart and body froze, listening for the creatures characteristic moaning. They had fallen silent, but she couldn’t hear their shambling movements either. A long moment passed with her heart fluttering in her chest and her eyes wide, not daring to move further, until the moment was broken by the moans of the zombies starting back up. They were significantly louder than before so she assumed they had been attracted by the noise but could not see her position on the roof.
Ever so slowly, Lilian edged more of her weight over so that she could grab the loose shingle from the roof. If she was going to do some distractions, might as well start with the one that almost gave her away.