Chương 15: Aggro

(Meghan)

The two of them snuck back behind the wall as Ray pulled out his phone and called Rody's number. He picked up almost immediately.

"Hello?"

"Rody, I need you to draw aggro."

"What?" Rody and Meghan asked at the same time.

Ray gave Meghan a look that meant he would explain later. He then repeated what he said before adding, "The basement is full of Deathless. We need a distraction so we can get to the car."

"What are Deathless?" Rody asked.

"Ahh—it's just what we're calling them. The monsters…" He replied awkwardly.

"You guys couldn't come up with a better name?"

"You want to sit here and debate about what we're going to name them or do you want to get out of Prime before this whole place becomes a death trap?"

"Fine, fine…" he said, "So how exactly do you want me to draw aggro?"

"Right, so basically I need you to set off the fire alarm in your apartment. The siren is loud and imposing. I'm sure the Deathless won't be able to ignore it. My guess is that they will all be lured in by the racket. And seeing how your building is in the opposite direction of where Meghan's car is parked, it works out perfectly!"

"Oh geez… set off the fire alarm, huh?" Rody asked in an uneasy voice, "Are—are you sure?"

"Yeah, don't start a fire or anything. Just burn some candles or incense and hold it near the sensor. The siren should go off almost immediately and keep ringing for a solid minute or two. That will buy us enough time to get to the car and drive out of the basement parking lot."

"Wait, won't that mean they'll all be drawn to my house?"

"No, because each one of our buildings has a common alarm. It's not flat specific. And besides, we'll be driving up to get you right away. It'll take us less than a few minutes to reach behind the D Block building. You won't need to use the front door, you'll be jumping down from your balcony so it shouldn't be a problem whichever way you look at it."

"Ahh that makes sense. Just hurry up, okay? I'm already getting tensed. I think I heard some scratching on my door earlier."

"We'll be there." Ray promised.

"Alright, I'll go burn some stuff then."

"You do that. See you soon, buddy."

Saying so, he cut the call and looked at Meghan.

"See? Safer distraction. Neither of us take any unnecessary risks and even if a few Deathless remain behind, we can sneak past them or take them out before getting in the car."

"Alright, don't gloat." Meghan said in a snarky tone, "You were having an existential crisis not five seconds ago."

Ray smirked at her, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"What the heck is aggro by the way?"

"Gaming term." Ray replied simply.

"Yeah, no shit Sherlock! Explain."

"It's a style of play in online multiplayer games. It's when one of your teammates plays much more aggressive than normal in order to get the enemy's attention. Their goal is to draw away pressure from the other teammates who are looking to achieve an important objective elsewhere on the map."

"The important objective here being us successfully reaching the car?"

"Now you're getting it!" Ray smiled, "Rody's role is to take away pressure from us so we can make it to the objective safety. He does that by drawing aggro from the Deathless."

"How did Rody even understand that? Is he a gamer too?" Meghan wondered out loud.

"Yeah we play together sometimes. He's not as big of a fanatic as I am though."

"Somehow I don't doubt that!" Meghan commented.

The two of them waited on either side of the entrance. The moment the alarm went off, their plan would be set in motion. There was no looking back now. This was perhaps the scariest and most dangerous thing that they had to do so far. But if they were successful, they were that much closer to escaping from Prime alive.

"Wait for them to clear out, don't start moving immediately." Ray whispered the final bit of instructions to her.

Meghan nodded even though that should have been obvious. She was in no hurry to run head first into a horde of Deathless.

"It's taking a while…." She remarked.

"He'll come through, don't worry. He always does."

As if right on cue, a loud alarm started blaring from the D Block building. Even though they were in the basement, the sound was loud enough to disorient Meghan for a second.

'Please work,' she prayed, 'Please, please work…'

It seemed that luck was on their side. Meghan's heart leapt as she saw the horde turn towards the source of the noise and slowly start moving in the direction of the building. She wanted to jump up and do a little dance but she controlled that impulse. She watched in pure solace as the path to the car got cleared out within seconds.

"We need to go." Ray said and ran out through the F Block entrance.

Meghan followed close behind him as they made their way through the parking lot. Even though the area was now cleared of Deathless, Meghan still sprinted to the car as fast as she could. Ray had already unlocked the car by the time she got there.

"Get in, get in! Let's go!" he exclaimed exuberantly.

Meghan whipped over to the passenger side and opened the door. The two of them sat inside and shut the door at the exact same moment, almost as if they had previously rehearsed it. They threw their bags onto the backseat as quickly as they could. Ray handed over his javelin to Meghan, who promptly tucked both their weapons in between the seat and the door.

It took Ray only a few seconds to start the car, adjust his seat and lower the hand break. He shifted the gear to drive and pressed down on the accelerator. It was only when the car started moving that Meghan breathed a big sigh of relief.

"Whoop!" she cheered happily, "We did it. We actually did it! I can't believe it."

"God damn, I can't believe it either." Ray started, "We really owe Rody for this. I don't know how we would have gotten past that horde without him."

"Yeah," Meghan agreed, "Now, let's go save our savior."

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