CHAPTER 22 - HOPE

Brad didn’t react well to that at all. He saw the zombies coming at him as a legitimate threat, and to be fair, they were. He was tier two himself now, so he might be able to take down both of them, but it wouldn’t be a simple fight. Plus, he’d seen my Drain Life spell in action. He raised his rebar higher, in a guard.

“Don’t,” I warned. I had my Drain Life spell ready to go. He so much as twitched that rebar toward me…

“Don’t what? Defend myself against your monsters?” Brad spat. “Those things are disgusting. We should put them all down. The mutt, too. Bet they’ll drop crystals, and we could all use more of those.”

He advanced a step, and I backed up. Maybe not my best move, but he washolding a five-foot chunk of rebar and had a tier two Strength stone. I wasn’t sure if he could kill me with one blow or not, but I didn’t want to find out. Rosie and Guildie were now side by side with me, staring him down with daggers in hand. I sent a mental command to the bone dog, ordering it back out of the car. If he wanted to throw down, I’d need everything I had ready for him.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Bradley!?”

He jolted when Lords said his name and shrank into himself. His hands lowered the rebar, and he looked almost sheepish. “Protecting myself! That girl is going to kill us all with her monsters, and you know it!”

“I know nothing of the sort,” Lords said, ripping the rebar out of Brad’s hands. “She’s done nothing but help so far.”

“How do you know she didn’t order those things to attack us in the first place? The girl’s controlling dead things, Sam! It’s not natural!”

Lords looked at Bradley like he’d grown a second head, which for all I know was possible at this point. “Are you serious? Natural?”

He glanced around, then gestured at the broken bodies of the undead dogs lying on the ground. “Have you looked at what we’re fighting? What about any of this strikes you as natural? We’ve got zombies, goblins, giant snakes and undead dogs. How is any of this natural?”

“I—“ Brad started to say something belligerent again, I could see it in his eyes.

But Lords cut him off. “I don’t want to hear it. Go back to your grill. Start serving up that food you made. Come on, man. We’re here to protect people. Not threaten girls.”

Bradley looked like he wanted to say more, but he just grimaced and stalked off without further comment. I made a gesture, and my undead headed back to their car again for storage.

“All right, that’s enough. Attack’s over, and we’re safe,” Lords told the crowd which had gathered around the altercation. “Food’s done! Go get some hot chow.”

That shifted everyone’s attention back to their empty bellies, and people followed Brad over to the grill to get some food. I sighed, worrying. The kind of mad vibes I was getting from Bradley didn’t bode well for future relations.

“Sorry about that,” Lords told me as people drifted off. “He’s a hothead, but he’s usually pretty decent. I don’t know what got into him.”

“I think he’s scared,” I said frankly. “Hell, we all are. Anyone who isn’t frightened right now is an idiot. But people like him, Lords? They’re used to control, used to being in charge. They don’t deal well with scared.”

“I’ll make sure he keeps a lid on it,” Lords growled. “Worked with the man five years now. He’ll be fine.”

Then he stalked away and left me there, wondering.

Bradley was going to be a major problem. I felt it in my gut. He didn’t like me, and now I’d challenged his authority and made him look bad in front of his boss. This wasn’t even close to settled. I’d have to make sure I didn’t end up alone with the man, like, ever.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

A tap on the shoulder made me jump, but it was just Alfred. He stepped back when he saw how startled I was. “Sorry about that. Didn’t mean to scare you.”

I shook my head, mostly to clear it. “It’s okay. Just rattled from all of that, you know? We have so much trouble here already. Why make it worse by picking fights among ourselves?”

He laughed. “Especially with the strongest of the bunch of us.”

“What, me?”

Alfred cocked his head at an angle. “You hadn’t seen that already? It’s why he hates you so much, that Brad guy. You’re the only tier three we’ve got. You have three undead under your control and the only direct damage spell we have, too. Honest, I don’t see anyone else in this group being even close to you. You rock, Selena.”

I had to laugh at that, partly because it sounded so stupid, but he wasn’t wrong. If I did the math, it was clear: I was the strongest combat asset the group had. Henry might be more important than me, because he was a healer. But I could probably punch out more bad guys than any two folks we had, now that I had a new puppy to join my minions.

I called the dog over with a mental nudge. I’d been doing that enough times now that anyone who hadn’t seen I could control them without using my voice, wasn’t paying attention. The dog trotted over to stand in front of me, skeletal tail thumping on the pavement. It canted its head at an angle just like a living dog might have. The thing was so cute I wanted to laugh.

“You need a name, sir!” I told the dog. “Something good.”

“Spot?” Alfred asked. “No, that’s dumb. Something good. What about Bones? Boney?”

“Too on the nose,” Samson said from a short distance away. He was chewing a chunk of snake on a stick, and handed us each one.

“Thanks!” I told him. He smiled. We’d fought side by side against the goblins out there and watched out for each other. I guess that formed a bond that didn’t snap too easily. “I think you’re right. That’s too simple and easy. You have any ideas?”

“Huh. Maybe. I helped raise a service dog once,” Samson said. “You know, from a puppy? They farm them out to good homes from about three months until they’re a year old. She was a good pup. Took to commands like you wouldn’t believe. Smartest mutt I ever met, too. Her name was Hope.”

He reached down and patted the bone dog on the head. “I was thinking we could all use some Hope, right about now.”

“I like it,” I said. “It fits, and you’re right. Hope is the thing we probably need more than anything else. How’s that sound for you, pup? You like the name Hope?”

The dog sat back on its haunches and yipped at me in response. I didn’t know how it was making that sound, or the uncanny howls it made when it was first attacking us. Wasn’t like the dog had vocal cords, but it didn’t have a heart or lungs and was running around anyway, so the old rules were all gone.

“We’re going to go clear the apartments just north of us after eating,” Samson said. “Up where you ran into that snake this morning. Lords wants to gather any survivors we find there, and any homes that are empty, we raid for useful materials.”

“Yeah, I can help,” I said.

“Count me in, too,” Alfred said.

I hadn’t seen any survivors when I’d been up there, but I hadn’t gotten very far into the apartment block before I’d gotten bit and forced to withdraw. If I remembered right, that was the nearest regular housing to the campus police station. It was a good pick for a first area to scout. We’d undoubtedly find supplies up there, and maybe a few survivors hidden as well.

Each day that went by, survivors were going to be fewer. This disaster was so epic in scale that I could barely focus enough to consider all of the factors involved. How were we even going to survive? We had no source of water, no long-term source of food either. Our shelter was going to keep us more or less safe for the time being, but that depended on getting more people with crystals, which meant killing more monsters.

More people meant more security, but also meant we’d struggle to get enough food and water for everyone. No electricity, no combustion engines, and no guns meant that our entire tech base was toast. If this was world-wide, how many people were going to survive that?

Probably not many.

Overwhelmed, I sagged back against the car wall behind me and closed my eyes. It was so much. Too much to take in. The Event, whatever it was, happened yesterday. It hadn’t been twenty-four hours yet, and how many people were already dead? Was there any hope left?

As if to answer my unspoken question, the bone dog leaned forward and bumped my hand, whining softly. I opened my eyes and looked down at her. Yeah, after Samson’s story, she was officially a her now. Since I couldn’t tell what her gender had been in life, that was good enough for me.

“I’m okay, girl,” I said. “Thanks, though.”

She snuffled my hand, then barked and returned to her car at my unspoken command. Better to keep my undead out of sight as much as I could. Already I’d seen a few of the newcomers staring at the zombies in fear or disgust. Bradley was over there chatting away with everyone as they got their food. What he was saying, I didn’t know. Was it just my imagination that a few of them looked at my undead with more anger in their eyes, after they’d gotten their chunk of snake? I hoped so, but I had a bad feeling.