She stood, annoyed for the instant it took her to realize her situation. It hadn’t been one rattlesnake, but several, and a deep seated fear clutched at her guts. Her horse was prancing in terror, lashing out and crushing them as they swarmed around it. Kitty’s hands started moving, digging into her satchel for bottles, rags, and matches. The horse was bitten several times, and suddenly stopped fighting. It hung its head and whickered, before slumping down and to the side, wheezing in pain.

  The snakes were joined by large striped lizards as they began moving towards Kitty. In the seconds it took her horse to succumb, their numbers had grown by dozens. A swarm of venomous reptiles aggressively approached her, ignoring the downed horse. Kitty looked around as she stuffed a rag into a bottle, striking a match to light it. She recognized a Gila monster before it was engulfed in flames. She threw another bottle to the side, landing it in the middle of the swarm as it surged away from the first bottle’s effect.

  Kitty turned as a weight attached to her leg, accompanied with a spike of pain. A Gila monster was attached to the back of her thigh, its mouth clamped down on the sensitive area. With a shriek of pain, she grabbed it around the neck and hauled it off her leg, taking a good chunk of her own flesh with the irate reptile. It thrashed and snapped at her until she tossed it into the patch of fire nearby. She pulled another two bottles from her satchel and slammed them into the ground on either side, extending the fire patch into a rough circle around her.

  She felt the lizard’s venom burning and muttered a curse, checking her HUD. There was a new debuff icon next to the now familiar bleed debuff, indicating a fang with a drop of green liquid dripping from it occasionally. Her health bar was reduced to a scrap again, and was ticking slowly down, pulsing with green veins lacing it and the orb. The swarm of reptiles got her attention, as it surged into her wall of fire. The snakes and lizards just ran into the flames, to instantly fall dead and burn.

  “What in the hell . . .” Kitty looked around herself in a circle, as more and more reptiles joined in the mass suicide, racing into the patches of flaming liquid in a futile attempt to get to her. By the time the flames had died down enough for her to leave the patch of charred ground, there were over a hundred burnt corpses scattered around her.

  She took a moment to assess the damage, willing her HuD to come into view. The bleeding debuff was clear, throbbing in time with her again receding health orb. She scrambled at her satchel, producing a clean rag and wrapping it around her bite wound. The pain had reduced itself somewhat, but there was an ever present burn from the venom. Her debuffs didn’t vanish like they had with the makeshift cauterization she had performed on the train. Now an unfolded bandage icon appeared beside them and seemed to freeze the bleed debuff’s movement. As she watched, the bandage icon’s vibrant green outline pulsed once and became slightly tinged with red. A glance at the bandage showed that it was absorbing and slowing her bleeding enough to be considered a stop gap, but that the wound wasn’t likely to close without some kind of intervention.

  This situation was quickly becoming untenable. She was now covered in fresh blood again, her blood scent debuff vibrant and glowing. Further, she was poisoned, and could feel the venom coursing through her veins and making her sick and sluggish. Defending herself against reptile swarms with the revolvers was out, she couldn’t hit anything reliably at any range further than point blank, and the sheer ammunition required made the option laughable. The fires went out, but some scrub bush behind her continued to crackle and glow comfortably. Thinking over her situation quickly, Kitty decided it was time to craft some better fire bottles.

  She started with the matchboxes, dumping their contents on the ground. A scattering of small wooden matches lay around five small strips of sandpaper. Grateful that she had swiped everything she could see from the bar car in the train, she used her knife to shave down the five sandpaper strips before stopping and appraising her work and deciding it was adequate. Unwinding a length of the ‘Farm Wire’, Kitty immediately recognized it as simple baling wire and nodded. This she could use. She smiled, remembering a recipe from an ancient zombie swarm game based on a wildly successful book she had played and read in her youth.

  After cutting a small length of the malleable wire, she wove it into the top of her sandpaper strips and twisted the end around into a loop her finger would easily go into. That part accomplished, Kitty set about wiring matches to the bottles, wrapping them tightly in close clusters of three and ensuring they wouldn’t slide away from their positions. Then she carefully pried them up to place the sandpaper with attached wire loops underneath the match-heads, letting just the snugged down matches hold the strike strip in place.

  Smiling at her handiwork, Kitty poured the contents of the alcohol bottles out and slowly filled each of them from her bandoleer of lamp oil, before stuffing a rag into the bottles and wrapping another length of wire around the rag to keep their ends held directly over the matches. Now when she yanked the sandpaper out from under the matches, they would light and catch the rag, essentially giving her fire bottles a grenade-style pull pin. No more laborious lighting of each fire bottle before she could throw them.

  Her crafting finished, she pulled the journal out of her bag and flipped through to the quests section and smiled to see the area about improving one of her recipes fulfilled. With a grin, she set about making the rest, performing the task more quickly as she made another four of the improved fire bottles and tucked each away into her satchel as it was finished. Her HUD flashed invasively, the words Permanent Perk Unlocked popping up for a few seconds before fading away.

  Rifling through her journal, she laid the small book open to her new Perks section.

  American Ingenuity

  (Permanent Perk; Rank 1)

  Self-sufficiency was not optional in the wild west. Building your own items and making do with what you find is critical to success. Keep up the hands-on work to upgrade this perk.

  All discovered crafting recipes now stay in your journal upon death. As a secondary benefit, you will now always spawn with a roll of farm wire in your satchel.

  That raised Kitty’s eyebrows a bit, so she flipped to her quests section to see the crafting perk quest had updated itself.

  American Ingenuity continued

  Perk upgrade Quest

  With the majority of the West being wilderness, the opportunity for store bought goods was limited at best. Creating your own items will be crucial for continued success outside of towns and cities. Work with your recipes to further upgrade an advanced version of one or more of them, and then craft twenty-five advanced and five refined items for a permanent perk.

  1/1 advanced recipe learned.

  5/5 advanced items crafted.

  0/1 refined recipe learned.

  0/25 advanced or refined items crafted.

  0/5 refined items crafted.

  “Huh. Alright then, I can work with that.” Kitty stood up and stretched out, yawning as she started to feel her all-nighter wearing her down. Looking for a new horse was a hopeless endeavor, as she had no faith in her ability to sneak into any stables to steal one. That sort of task was for underlings. Kitty made a mental note to find some of those as she turned in a circle, searching for the faint lights of a distant town.

  Packing up the now empty bandoleer of oil flasks, Kitty stopped before leaving and looked at the bodies of the myriad reptiles on the ground. She focused on them, but nothing happened so she unsheathed her knife. Thick white segmented lines appeared on the bodies, indicating where she should cut in order to skin the animals.

  “Yep, that’s what I thought. Nothin’ doin’ BlackLight; your skinning system is disgusting.” She thought back to Brescia Online again and shuddered. Skinning had been a crucial profession in that game, but the gore system had been far less robust. Trying it in Deadeye was simply not something she was willing to subject herself to.

  Turning in the dust on her booted heel, Kitty started walking towards the town. She moved with purpose, doing her best to ignore the blood scent debuff while keeping an eye out for further predators. Still, she kept an advanced fire bottle in one hand and her head on a swivel, breathing a sigh of relief when she arrived at the town's outskirts and could put her weapon away.

  The town was shaped like a horseshoe, two main roads bending to meet at the train station, with alleyways strung between them haphazardly. The train station was off to the south a small way, connected by an open road to the U-bend of the town’s main street. It too was modest, a single building for passengers next to a fenced off cargo area. Most of the town was silent, aside from the obvious saloon building nestled into the center of the strip. That one was clearly in use, with light and the jangle of a harpsichord emanating from within. Kitty noticed more houses and smaller buildings smattered about the landscape as she approached, with one notable plot at the end of the main road, beside a humble cemetery.

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  A large building had stood there, but had clearly burned to the ground recently, wisps of smoke still rising from the charred timbers. It appeared to have once housed a steeple, giving Kitty the impression it had been a church as she walked around the perimeter. As she moved around to the front of the building she could see what had happened. Someone had boarded up the front doors of the building and lit it aflame. Based on the sheer number of coffins she could see lined up in front of the surrounding fence, she surmised the church had been full when it happened.

  Several of the coffins were undersized. Kitty thought back to Jacob’s soot covered hands and feet and shook her head. She should have finished those bastards off.

  Shaking off the specter of the church, Kitty moved into the town proper, being careful to avoid the sheriff’s office with its board of bounty posters. Even at a distance, she was able to recognize her character's long black hair and the type of hat she was wearing. This was definitely where the posse had come from, but Kitty felt she could probably grab some food for the road and get a doctor to tend to her wound, maybe even cure her poison and turn in her quest, if she was lucky. She approached the noisy saloon and peeked over the batwing doors to see a thriving, if morose drinking establishment.

  The building was full, but none of the NPCs were particularly celebratory, with tables of men sitting and drinking or playing a halfhearted game of cards. Sullen prostitutes leaned against the stairs, clearly bored at their lack of customers on such a busy night. As Kitty slid by the doors and approached a window adjacent to the bar, she could hear a woman sobbing quietly as the bartender shook his head and polished a dirty glass. He muttered the phrase “dark days” as Kitty moved on, leaving the saloon’s patrons to drown their sorrows.

  She hugged the darkness and searched all the shingles above doorways for the town’s doctor, keeping the collar on her coat up as she noticed the occasional townsperson wandering the street. The building she was looking for sat at the far end of town. Kitty didn’t even try the door, knowing it would be locked, instead she just knocked loudly and waited. Shuffling noises and a dim light approached from the inside of the building, and soon a kindly old man’s face appeared in the window.

  He moved away, and Kitty could hear the click of his lock coming undone, so she stepped into the door as it opened, immediately stripping off her coat and hanging it on the rack next to the door. “Thank you doc, I’m in a bad way.”

  He stepped back, lifting his lantern to look her over. His bushy grey mustache twitched slightly. “Looks like animal bites, mayhap?” At her nod, he set his lantern down on a nearby table and motioned to the barber’s chair next to it. “Have a seat, and you’ll need to take them trousers down.”

  Raising an eyebrow, Kitty disrobed partially and left her gun belt on the table beside them. She stared at the doctor pointedly for a moment, tossing the bloody pants on the floor. “Guess you won’t likely care about my nethers anyway.” Kitty was wearing what looked like long boxer shorts for underwear, which she identified as bloomers. She had to lean to the side in the chair and hike up one leg of them to let the doctor look at the bite on her thigh, which he did with a detached expression.

  “Young lady, I buried my wife almost twenty years past and haven’t cared for the sight of a woman’s body since.” He met her gaze wryly as he carefully brought a pair of scissors to bear on the bandage. “Your ‘nethers’ are indeed of no interest to me. Was this a Gila monster by chance?”

  “Yep. Big mean ones, and lots of em.” She sighed at the memory, reaching for her satchel. Digging out the bundle of dried herbs, she handed it to him. “Here, this is for you doc.”

  The stern expression on his face changed, a simple twitch of his mustache that could’ve been mistaken for a smile. “Why thank you young lady. These will be most helpful to my practice.” He scooted his chair back a bit and grabbed a small leather-bound book from his nearby shelf, turning back and handing it to her. “Here, since you clearly have an interest, this should help. I’ve just had the recent edition arrive, so you can keep this one.” The invasive message popped up on her HuD again; permanent perk unlocked.

  Kitty happily opened her journal to view the perk. Having both books in her lap at the same time caused a reaction while the doctor's back was turned. They joined suddenly, the journal seemed to simply absorb the other book and grow a little thicker from it.

  Cowboy Medicine

  (Perk)

  With doctors few and far between, the ability to heal your own wounds is critical in the west. Basic knowledge and tools will go far in this respect.

  You will now spawn with the herbs and medicine tome, and all useful plants will be highlighted in your HuD.

  She opened her journal to the herbs and medicine section and started to flip through it. The book detailed medicinal herbs, where to find them, how to gather them, and how to make use of them. Several crafting recipes for different medicinal tools were laid out as well, from poultices to teas and herb enhanced splints. Even which herbs could be simply chewed for beneficial buffs. Further into the book, basic first aid for common wounds was detailed, with helpful diagrams wherever possible. She smiled as she tucked her updated journal away in her satchel. This was useful stuff.

  The doctor turned from his inspection of her wound to a nearby glass front cabinet. It was filled with various jars and bottles, along with an assortment of small metal tools. She couldn’t make out what they were, but he busily gathered several and began pouring small amounts of liquid from one bottle into another.

  “Just have to whip up more anti-venom. Got all the makin’s here and ready, been an awful lot of reptile bites the last few days.” He held up a tiny glass bottle to the lantern light, swirling its contents before nodding. “Drink this.”

  Kitty did without question, as he took another bottle and dabbed it onto a clean cloth, pressing it to her bite wound. The poison debuff fell away and her health orb shed the throbbing green veins. That accomplished, the doctor began preparing his catgut sutures to repair the damage. He applied a series of fast, nearly painless sutures, before wrapping the leg in a clean cloth bandage.

  Kitty focused on her HuD, pleased to see the bleed debuff gone. Once he finished up with her leg, the doctor straightened up with a grunt, looking at her midsection. She followed his gaze to see the area her poultice was wrapped around, part of it poking out from her bunched up shirt.

  Her eyes narrowed, and she shook her head, pulling the shirt tails out to cover the area better. “That’s old, and it’s mostly healed up, don’t worry about it.”

  The doctor cocked his head to the side and nodded. “As you say. One wound stitched at a dollar; poison cure is another two dollars. I’m afraid I have to charge a ‘late night’ fee as well. I don’t get out of bed for free these days. Five dollars even.”

  “Oooooh, right. I’m a touch short doc, what’d you take in trade?” She fished out all of her money for him, offering it over with a chagrined look on her face.

  “Well . . . if you haven’t any more of them herbs, I could hawk that revolver for the rest. Doesn’t look overly quality, but it should do to cover your bill.” He scooped the coins into his own hand, nodding at the holstered gun on the table between them.

  Kitty snorted. “Ha! All yours, I can’t shoot the thing worth a damn anyway.”

  He moved to a basin at the back of the room and lifted a bucket of water to fill it. Turning to face her, he pointed at the basin. “Best wash up those wounds, I’ve got to go out to the well for more water. Once that’s done, I’ll put a fresh bandage on those bites and give you some care instructions.” With that, he picked up the revolver, backed out of the room, and left the building through the front door.

  She splashed some of the water on her face, reveling in the refreshment after her day in the dust. Grabbing a nearby cloth, she washed her wounds off and was pleased to see that all of her debuffs were gone for a change. Her food bar was dangerously low, but everything else seemed to be in good shape. Even her health bar was moving in the right direction and pulsed a vibrant red every few seconds as it continued to slowly top itself up.

  Kitty splashed more water in her face before taking a drink and topping off her thirst bar, and then turned to get dressed. Her hand froze in the air as she reached for her pants. There was a light in the window outside, and a group of men seemed to have formed in front of the building. She listened carefully and could hear hushed voices talking but couldn’t make out what they were saying. The pants forgotten, Kitty crept as quickly as she could towards the back door and carefully opened it, digging in her satchel for an improved fire bottle and her spare revolver.

  “She’s makin’ a run for it out back!!” The voice sounded from a patch of shadows behind the door and Kitty could hear the click of a revolver’s hammer being drawn back.

  Kitty slammed her shoulder into the door and bashed it into the man hiding behind it, knocking him down and running for the fence that marked the doctor's backyard boundary. Leaping up, she grabbed the planks atop the fence and hauled herself up. A gunshot stopped her cold, as she felt the bullet punch into her leg from behind before she collapsed from the top of the fence to tumble back into the yard.

  “She’s down!” More voices, coming from inside the shop and from beyond the fence now as well. Kitty struggled to her feet, trying to run again. A prevalent broken bone debuff blinked red from beneath her health bar, and she assumed the bullet had gotten her in the femur. Her leg refused to work correctly, and she couldn’t put any weight on it without partially collapsing. The agony when she tried was enough to dissuade her from any further attempts.

  A group of men fanned out from the doctors shop, various weapons cocked and pointed at her. Kitty’s teeth bared instinctually, and she gripped the ring on her advanced fire bottle, about to rip it out when a sight stopped her. The woman from the train stepped through the doorway, tears streaming fresh trails through the dust and dried blood on her face. She locked eyes with Kitty and started to shudder violently, a scream of anguish erupting from her lips as she bent double and clutched at her stomach.

  “Kill her!” The woman’s wail filled the still night air and Kitty’s finger slipped from the ring of her fire bottle.

  One of the men in front of her began to approach, a set of manacles in his hands. The tallest man in the group wore a silver star on his chest and turned to comfort the sobbing woman in the doorway. “That’s not how we do things ma’am. She’ll hang, don’t you worry, but not before she sees the judge.”

  This wasn’t a damn game. What the hell was BlackLight doing? Kitty struggled to reconcile this woman’s behavior with the supposed game environment. She sighed, sitting in the dirt and shaking her head. “I’m sorry . . .”

  The woman shrieked in fresh anguish, grabbed the sheriff’s gun and bolted past him, taking the few steps up to Kitty in a rush. She hefted the gun and pulled the trigger, tears streaming down her face as the gun clicked in futility. “Die you monster!”

  The sheriff seemed hesitant to tackle the poor woman, instead stepping up behind her and raising his hands in a defensive posture when she glanced over her shoulder at him. “Woah . . . woah, you can’t just kill her . . . she’s my prisoner now.” He started to reach slowly for the gun in her hand. “Just ease up now, she’ll get justice.”

  Kitty shook her head and looked up into the woman’s eyes, holding her gaze for a long moment. “Pull back the hammer,” Kitty said.

  She whispered it, but her words echoed in the now silent yard. The woman’s eyes widened in shock and anger, and her hands moved automatically, drawing back the hammer in a rapid series of three loud clicks. The sheriff lunged for the gun, but it roared fire and smoke, causing Kitty’s vision to go black.