Earth Tactics Advance: Volume 1 Read online

  Earth Tactics Advance

  Volume 1

  By Scottie Futch

  Copyright 2017 Scottie Futch

  License Note: This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite eBook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Please Note: This story is part of a larger project known as Project Scott. It is a work of humor and parody designed to entertain. If you dislike fun in general, then this tale is not for you.

  Any character found engaging in sexual actions within the confines of this story is at least eighteen years of age or older. They are also quite fortunate, and I freely admit that I am jealous of their social success.

  Table of Contents

  1. Chapter 1

  2. Chapter 2

  3. Chapter 3

  4. Chapter 4

  5. Chapter 5

  6. Chapter 6

  7. Chapter 7

  8. Chapter 8

  9. Chapter 9

  10. Chapter 10

  11. Chapter 11

  12. Chapter 12

  13. Chapter 13

  14. Chapter 14

  15. Chapter 15

  16. Chapter 16

  17. Chapter 17

  18. Chapter 18

  About the Author

  Discover Other Titles by the Author

  Connect with the Author

  Learn More About LitRPG

  Chapter 1

  The world and all those whom reside within it had continued on in its normal manner since time immemorial. The disparate members of humanity lived their lives by the habits of their cultures and climate.

  In some parts of the world people lived like their ancestors did over one thousand years ago, elsewhere people abandoned the old ways and reached for the stars. While some might deny the evidence, men had even stepped foot on the moon. Forever out of reach to ancient humanity who looked up at the sky, the lunar surface was no mystery to modern man. It seemed that nothing could stop the forward march of human technological progress.

  Just as technology differed, so did the lifestyles of humanity. Many were the customs and lifestyles of the peoples of the Earth. Some enjoyed their lives more than others. They spend their time joyfully amongst their friends and family. Whether they lived simply or with great affluence, it did not matter. They enjoyed their lives to the fullest.

  However, there were far more people who did not enjoy life as much as they might wish. For some, the day to day grind of living can be seen as a farcical example of how life likes to take a supremely foul shit atop their hopes and dreams.

  The stench of this affront to human dignity, a concept known as modern life, could only be washed away by the most potent of rain storms. The foulness clung heavily to all that it was flung upon.

  A blistering series of curses echoed through the air on a rural North Carolina highway. Cows in a nearby field glanced over toward the source of those foul sentiments while they chewed on their grass and enjoyed their lives. One might wonder why a creature who spent all of its time eating and shitting before being loaded up for slaughter might be having a better day than the one who cursed.

  Ignorance was bliss, the cow knew nothing of the world except for the quality of its meal and the extent of its fenced in living area. Sadly, a man did not always have that luxury. Sometimes a man knew too much, or thought that he did.

  Today was not a good day, not for Scott Keen. His girlfriend had left him for another woman. He was late for class due to the bullshit surrounding the fact that his girlfriend had left him for said woman. The dick professor banished him amid the laughter of his so-called peers. On top of all of that, his shitty little scooter decided to crap out on him halfway home. Stranded, bereft of both well-endowed girlfriend and education, he could only rail at the heavens for a moment.

  “This shit, seriously. What else is gonna happen today?!” He stared defiantly up at the clear blue sky, his fist raised up confidently to emphasize his point.

  The heavens responded by unleashing a powerful thunderclap followed by a sudden torrential downpour. It was as though god chose that very moment to take an epic piss on him to cap off his day.

  "Fuck!" snarled Scott as he threw his hands over his face and tried to sneeze out the water that ran down his nose. The rain fell in fat, heavy, drops, but it felt and looked more like sheets of oppressive liquid that were meant to drown him.

  He gripped the handlebars of his scooter and started pushing as the rain beat heavily down upon him. There was a gas station up ahead. It was a few miles away still, but it was a straight shot. He knew the place well, as he had stopped there for gas often in the past.

  Once he arrived, he would dry out a little and try to see what was wrong with his scooter this time. There always seemed to be something wrong with the thing. He bought it new, and chose to be damned proud of himself at the time. Less than a year later it broke down, and continued to do so once every few months. If anything it was overdue for another round of siphoning off what little money he had squirreled away.

  After a good two hours of dealing with the heavy downpour, Scott managed to push his scooter under the shelter that covered the gas pumps. As soon as he did so, the rain began to let up, and the oppressive storm clouds began to disperse. It was not long before a magnificent, perhaps even glorious, rainbow appeared in the sky overheard. Birds flew lazily through the sky. All seemed perfectly right with the world.

  Scott glared at the beautifully hateful rainbow bastard for a moment then sighed loudly. “It’s like the world decided to royally screw me over today for some reason.”

  Soaking wet, and as angry as a badger with irritable bowel syndrome, he slogged over to the door to the convenience store. He stood before it a moment then sighed. At least he could get a sandwich, or something. This particular store also provided a little side-grill where they made hotdogs and barbecue sandwiches, another reason that he stopped by frequently.

  He opened the door and headed inside. At first there was nothing strange about the quiet atmosphere inside of the store. There were usually only a few people milling around at this time of day. It was not yet time for the lunch rush that would cause the small grill area to become an overflowing sea of hungry people with little patience, though he was cutting it close.

  Scott thought to go get a drink first and turned down the next aisle so that he could snag one from the coolers at the back of the store. He stopped cold, however, when he looked down and saw someone lying on the ground. It was Gladys, the cashier who also worked the grill. She typically worked alone at this time of day, but another cashier should be along soon for the lunch rush.

  Normally, the lack of a second cashier would be the strangest thing about the eerily quiet store. However, what Scott saw on the floor far exceeded the norm. Gladys had been brutally murdered. Throat torn out, and stomach ripped open, it looked as though she'd been horribly mauled by a wild animal. Strangely, there was little blood coming from her wounds.

  “Shit! Gladys!” Scott rushed forward and knelt to check her. Maybe this was some sort of prank? That would explain the lack of blood. Who, or what, could have done this to someone like her? Gladys was well-liked by the folks who came by the store to order from the grill.

  Concern, and growing anger, clouded his vision briefly as he lightly pressed his fingers to her neck to check for a pulse. It was ludicrous to believe that she was still alive,
but he did want to check. The moment that his fingers touched her cold dead skin, her eyes snapped open.

  Scott should have been happy to see that she was alive, but what he saw scared the hell out of him. Her eyes were wrong, inhuman. The irises were a golden-amber color, like a wolf, and the sclera of her eyes were a bright red color. The pupils were narrow slits like a serpent, but widened a little as her eyes snapped toward him.

  “Meat!” snarled Gladys before lunging upward toward Scott. He instinctively hurled himself backward and narrowly avoided having his throat ripped out by her jagged teeth. Her mouth now bore teeth much like those of a shark.

  Gladys flopped over and rose up on all-fours like a dog. “Meat!” she snarled before she shambled forward.

  Scott rapidly scooted back on his ass kicking against the floor with his feet in a desperate bid to escape the insane shark-toothed monstrosity before him. He pulled items off of shelves in the process, and then knocked over the end-cap display that was loaded down with cans of beans.

  Gladys was knocked about the head with dozens of cans, and to Scott’s great surprise she was temporarily distracted. He managed to get to his feet during the confusion, and made a mad dash for the door.

  Rather, he tried to do so but something even more terrifying occurred. He found that he could not move. Suddenly, a blaring sound blasted out from unseen source. It rapidly became something akin to a heavy metal guitar solo mixed with electronic dance music. While the music played, and he remained frozen, a bright blue light washed over him from somewhere behind him. The light continued outward for a good distance. Through the door glass he could see that it stopped a short distance beyond the gas pumps and seemed to be in a semi-circular shape.

  A strong masculine voice reminiscent of a movie announcer cried out, "Scott Keen versus Gladys the Ghoul! Fight-o!"

  He heard a loud moan from behind him followed by the sound of something being dragged across the floor. It was accompanied by the clatter of metal striking metal as the cans were knocked against something that he could not see.

  The sound of Gladys' movement stopped. Scott soon regained his ability to move and he instinctively tried to run forward. Sweat beaded up on his forehead, and another sort of liquid threatened to run down his leg. Unfortunately, he was only able to take a single full-length stride before he froze in place once more.

  Immediately afterward, he heard the sound of movement once more. Gladys crawled ever closer while he was frozen in place. He found that he could speak despite the fact that his body was frozen. "God dammit! What the hell!"

  Through some unknown mechanism, he soon discovered that his body was once again capable of movement. He took another full-stride toward the door. Once again taking that step ended with his paralysis. At the current rate of speed, he would need to take three more steps to reach the door.

  A hungry snarl from behind him signaled that Gladys was once more on the move. He could not even turn his head to see how far away she was.

  Unable to do anything in the ridiculous situation that he was in, Scott kept moving toward the door at every opportunity. He managed to reach it after three more rounds of paralysis. It became obvious that both he and Gladys were only able to move when the other could not.

  Once his turn came around again he snatched the door open just in time to see someone running down the road with three people chasing after them. While Gladys moved toward him, since opening the door had counted as a turn, he watched as a blue light flared outward from the ghouls and envelope the fat man that they chased.

  Scott moved through the door and it closed behind him. He could not hear Gladys move, but he knew that she had to be taking her turn. He watched the fat man take a small step forward while the ghouls behind him each moved forward at twice his rate of speed.

  Once it was his turn to move once more, Scott took a hard step toward the left without turning around. That allowed him to see the fat man moving in his own dance with death.

  Scott took five side-step turns occurred before the inevitable happened. The fat man was snatched back by the shirt, and the shark-like teeth of his pursuers tore into his flesh.

  “The fuck!” exclaimed Scott in surprise as the slow-motion nature of the turn-based movements gave way to frantic stop-motion struggling between the man and the ones who tore into his flesh. The blue field of light surrounding them fell not long after the man was brought down.

  A growl beside Scott told him that the few turns that had passed while he tried to escape were enough for Gladys to reach her feet and open the door.

  The fat man screamed for help. Gladys screamed out in hunger. The three people chowing down on the fat man looked up, but did not leave their feast. They had frozen in place once more. Scott took an exaggerated step to his left to further distance himself from Gladys, and watched as the fat man feebly struggled to escape from the frozen monsters that gripped him tight. After a brief few seconds of struggle, he froze up and the ghouls began to tear into him once more. One turn later, the blue light disappeared from the fat man's area. The ghouls looked around and eyed Scott for a moment, but then turned back to their meal and continued to gorge themselves.

  A loud moan reminded Scott that he would share that poor bastard's fate if he did not escape from Gladys. He had to get out of the area, and fast. The term fast was relative, of course. He could only take one step at a time.

  Scott moved toward the blue light, hoping against hope that if he could reach it he would be able to escape whatever the hell was happening. There was no way he would survive if he had to move one step at a time. Even with the ground that he had made against Gladys, she would soon catch up. She did not seem to be able to move as fast as the ghouls that chased the fat man, but he could not trust that suspicion.

  He moved as quickly as he could toward the edge of the area, but to his horror there came a time when he felt an incredible sense of exhaustion overtake his body. When it happened, Gladys was able to move twice before he was able to move again. The blue light was close, but Gladys was getting closer. Each time he took a step, the exhaustion returned and Gladys took two steps toward him before he could move again.

  She was three steps away before he reached the edge of the blue light, and one step away before he crossed through it. For a brief moment he did not realize that fact that he could move freely. Escaping the blue light ended the stop-motion horror show. However, he knew better than to stay where he was.

  His scooter was fucked worse than he was, so Scott was forced to run off toward the hill on the other side of the store. Of course, actual running was out of the question. He was exhausted for reasons that he did not understand. All he could do was stagger away. Whatever was happening was beyond anything he had ever dealt with before. At the moment saving his ass was the priority. He could worry about what was going on later.

  After he staggered for a few seconds, the exhaustion lifted a little and he trotted over to the hill as quickly as he could before the exhaustion returned.

  Slowly, due to the sense of exhaustion, he began to make his way up the side of the hill. He used the young pine trees growing there, saplings really, as hand-holds to help him make it up the somewhat steep terrain. Scott could not spare a moment to look back to see what Gladys was doing. He needed to focus all of his waning strength on pulling himself up the steep hill.

  Halfway up, he heard a growl from down below. He glanced down and saw Gladys attempt to climb up after him. He breathed a sigh of relief when she fell down and hit the ground below. He had been right. She could probably run at a hard jogging pace like the others when she was not inside that blue field, but she was clumsy.

  However, she was also tenacious. She righted herself and started up after him again. He reached one-third of the way from the top before the thing he feared most happened once more. The blue light flared out and encompassed him once more.

  Suddenly, everything became more difficult for him. If he tried to climb up, he immediately froze in place and
Gladys got a free turn. Luckily, she was a terrible climber.

  After a few attempts at climbing, Scott stopped and did nothing. He wanted to test something that he had come to suspect. A few seconds later, about ten or so, Gladys began to move. However, he did not freeze up. A sudden realization swept through him, he only froze up when he moved. If he waited a moment without moving, he would lose his turn. Yet, he was able to move in place a little without it being a problem.

  The weakness passed after a few turns passed. Scott watched Gladys fall down once more, before he tried to climb up the hill again. This time he was able to move upward the equivalent of about one step before he froze in place. The exhaustion did not return, and when it was his turn again, he climbed up another full-step.

  Twelve turns later, Scott crawled onto the top of the hill and panted a little. After a few steps he had to start the recovery process over again, and now he was exhausted after the climb. He looked down and saw that Gladys had fallen once more. This time it looked like she broke her arm in the process, as it now hung limply at her side. Uncertain what else to do, he decided to kneel there and rest for a few turns in the hopes that he would regain enough stamina to walk out of the weird blue field of energy that caused the problems that he now faced.

  A few turns passed and took the weakness with it. He rose to his feet, but did nothing more. Scott stood there a moment while he watched Gladys carefully. He was partially hidden by the older trees at the top of the hill, so he took that time to consider what he needed to do. Where did he go? Was it like this everywhere?

  Once he felt like he was fully rested he took another step and left the blue field. There was only one place to go, his house. It was probably the safest location nearby since it was made of concrete and mortar instead of thin wood and vinyl. He had gotten a good deal on the rent since it used to be owned by a well-heeled meth dealer who was paranoid about home security.

  While he thought about his options he noticed something even more disturbing than half-eaten people with shark-teeth chasing after various members of humanity. Gladys’ supposedly broken arm shimmered slightly and then began to move around as though nothing had ever happened to it.