CHAPTER 11 - ON OUR OWN
There was no time to screw around. Alfred was strong, but the only way we’d outrun these things would be a flat-out sprint, and I didn’t think he could handle that while carrying Kat. I whirled back toward the others and shouted, “Alfred! Go! I’ll hold them off. Get to the security office.”
He snapped me a nod, hefted Kat more firmly in his arms, and set off at a jog across the parking lot, making for the trees on the other side. Once he was past them he’d be almost to what we hoped was safety.
That left me and my zombies on our own.
It was time to see what I could do. I gave my boys a mental command, ordering them to rush forward and engage the lead zombie. Rosie grabbed it by the shoulder while Guildenstern attacked with the knife I’d given him. Between the two of them they were making short work of the first attacker.
The second came straight on at me. I hefted my axe and ducked under a swiped from its hand, coming up with the axe into its torso with a wet smack and what sounded like the breaking of bones. It doubled over and collapsed forward. I whipped the axe back, then up and around, bringing it down hard on the back of the monster’s neck. It went down for good.
But there were already two more zombies outside, and who knew how many more coming this way. The noise from our battle would certainly attract some more attention, so I needed to make this fast. Blunt their attack and then take off for the trees, hoping to lose the rest of them.
A quick Look over my shoulder told me Alfred was only halfway across the parking lot. He was slowing down, too. I needed to hold them off longer.
I tapped the dead zombie and was rewarded with another black stone. I slipped it into a pocket and moved to assist Rosie, but Guildenstern had already chopped their opponent up pretty well. A blow from my axe to its spine finished the job easily enough. I sent them forward to engage the other two, each one clinching, arms on the shoulders of the opposing zombies, tying them up.
That gave me time to pocket another black crystal from the fallen foe. Like the last one, it didn’t sink into my hand. What I badly needed at this point was some time to sit and explore how these things worked. I needed a breather. A lot. But that wasn’t happening yet. It would have to wait.
I closed with the two enemy zombies tied up by mine. It took two solid blows from my axe to take each of them out. I tried to ignore that these people had probably been students like myself, killed by a zombie and thus turned into one. I hadn’t recognized any of them yet, thank god, but it was still a shitty feeling, killing things which had been people an hour ago. I collected two more black crystals—that was four more in all, so I was deeply hoping they might be able to connect together the way the first ones had.
Magical Stones
Point 1: Black Stone (Tier 2) - Control Undead
Point 2: Clear Stone (Tier 1) - Agility
Point 3: X
Point 4: X
Point 5: X
Spare Stones
Black x6
Clear x3
From what I’d gleaned out of the memories I’d been fed from the stones, getting a stone to tier three would open the third Point, allowing me to insert a third type of stone. Making that happen meant building two tier two stones, though, so I effectively needed two more copies of Control Undead to make that happen. I had six black stones, so with luck, it might just be enough.
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With a bang the door came fully open and a swarm of the monsters came pouring out, one zombie after another. Two, four, seven… It was definitely more than I could handle. Alfred was already almost to the trees, so it was time to beat feet.
I sent my zombies down the hill into the parking lot as fast as their legs could carry them, but the ones chasing us were about the same speed. They were keeping up with us just fine. I could outrun them, but I’d need to leave my zombies behind, and I wasn’t willing to dump the advantage my boys gave me.
Instead I decided to use my zombies as lures. I ducked down behind a car in the parking lot and waited for the first zombie to catch up. It was focused on what it could see, which was Rosie and Guildie, so it missed me entirely until it was too late to slow down. I popped up swinging, the axe coming in hard against the zombie’s hip. Something went crack, and the thing staggered sideways. It was still alive, but I’d slowed it down a lot and now the ones coming up behind it were stuck, too, blocked by the zombie in front of them and the cars on either side.
“Time to go!” I wished I could have gotten another crystal, but I’d only wounded a zombie, and sticking around felt like a bad plan. I took off at a sprint toward the trees, quickly catching up with Rosie and Guildie. We’d gained enough distance I felt comfortable reaching the tree-line without the enemy catching up.
I stopped cold right in front of the trees, though. This wasn’t a real forest, mind. Just a stand of trees. But they were packed pretty close together and spanned almost as much area as the parking lot behind me. Anything could be hiding in there. More spiders, goblins, whatever. And I wouldn’t know it was there until it was just about on top of me. That was some scary shit. I in no way wanted to go into that darkness.
“Alfred! Where are you?” I called out. There was no answer. He must have already gotten through the trees by that time, right? He was probably already getting close to the security center.
Assuming he hadn’t been eaten by something already, anyway.
The moaning of an oncoming zombie horde made my decision for me. There were a dozen zombies ambling across the parking lot toward me. Fortunately they weren’t that bright, so they kept getting blocked by cars. But that was also spreading them out, so when they did reach me, they’d have me surrounded. There was no way I could fight so many all at once, from all directions. It was time to bite the bullet and go into the woods.
I sent my zombies ahead of me, hoping anything nasty waiting inside would go after them first and give me time to react. The darkness once I was under the canopy was nearly complete. There was no dim glow from streetlights in the parking lot anymore, and it felt oppressively black all around. The fastest way to get to safety was to move fast, so I pushed my zombies as fast as they could travel.
Something crunched in the darkness to my right and I whirled, axe at the ready. I swung in the general direction of the noise, my axe smacking into a tree and rebounding off the trunk. It made a lot of noise, and maybe that helped encourage whatever it was to mind its own business, because nothing came after me as I pressed on.
Finally, I was back out in the moonlight. After the dim shadows of the trees, any light at all felt like a blessing. East Avenue was directly ahead of me, so we plowed forward across the road, racing toward the side streets where I hoped we’d find safety.
Five minutes of huffing and puffing later, I was in sight of my destination. I hadn’t been down to this end of campus too often, but I knew my way around well enough to find it even in the dark. Angry voices from somewhere up ahead caught my attention, and I slowed my approach. So far the zombies hadn’t even exited the forest yet, so either I’d lost them or they were just moving slowly through the trees. Either way, I’d take it. That gave me the time In needed to assess what was happening ahead of me.
I spotted Alfred at last. He stood in the middle of the street just in front of the security center. Kat was still in his arms, but she wasn’t speaking. She looked unconscious.
Barring him from entering were four men in uniforms, each of them carrying some sort of improvised weapon. Two had long, spear-like shafts of rebar. One had an axe a lot like mine, while the last carried a short blade that looked something like a machete.
From the angry tones of voice shooting back and forth, this new crew wasn’t friendly, and they stood between my roomie and getting the help she needed. That wasn’t going to stand. I stepped forward briskly toward the crowd, my zombies close behind.