CHAPTER 27_HEX - A Zombie Survival LITRPG

Ray

It was early morning, and Ray was checking his inventory inside of the command room to ensure that he had everything in order for their large push into the fortress at the other end of the island. He wasn’t sure what was waiting for them there, but it certainly wasn’t going to be good. If anything, he expected most, if not all of them, to die a horrible death. So really it was like any other day up to this point.

As he finalized his gear, Gale came up to him. Josephine, ever at his side, gave her a once over before going back to looking over her own weapons.

“Jalla will not be able to accompany thee into battle,” said Gale, sitting next to Ray. “The Draemon have stressed thy-selves into a state of rest. Many are not able to move, and only Jalla himself is able to travel any distance. Mine recommendation is to ensure that this Outpost is sealed once thou departs.”

Ray nodded at that, choosing to say nothing. It was no surprise that Jalla and his little group had stressed themselves. Based on his conversations with the Thymians, what they had done was nothing short of a minor miracle. Once that could have easily killed them.

It turns out that magic, and the use of Mana in general, was not so cut and dry as it seemed. There was no Mana Pool like in games, nor was there a way to accurately keep track of how much you had available. That only came with knowledge and experience.

Mana was a complex conversion of the System’s raw energy into a form used by specific classes. Much like the other two primary types of energy, Miasma, and Aether. Spell casters could be immensely powerful if they literally didn’t burst into flame or disintegrate using the very energies they cast with.

Jalla had nearly burned out himself and his group with such a massive cast. Remus had explained that the spell the Draemon had used was a higher mid-level one called Reign of Fire. It didn’t so much summon fire as it breached the walls between Realms to allow fire into this one within a target area. Honestly, the entire thing was very complex, and even with his knowledge of games giving him a very basic understanding of events, Ray was still confused.

He would learn in time however, he had no choice.

Ray nodded at Gales's explanation, irritated but not surprised. “Right then. Now we have a choice to make. We can progress in one large group, or we can split into two groups,” he said. Gale looked doubtful but he reassured her. “The island isn’t big enough to get too far away from each other to support the split. And I know basic game law is to never split the party. Regardless, we need to rapidly speed up our clearing of the island in order to have time to return and get the core.”

They had sealed the core in what amounted to a building-sized block of solid concrete and steel. Turns out that, unlike many of the stories he had read, the core didn’t need direct access to its surroundings. This left a ton of options to secure it. However, you did need direct access to it to make any last changes to its parameters. It made sense to him that there were drawbacks to any plan. The System didn’t seem to be overly fond of absolutes.

Ray stood up and walked over to the large table in the center of the room. On it were maps from tourist pamphlets, what building schematics they could find, a massive poster of the island from an aerial view, and a bunch of scavenged pens and markers.

The poster had been marked, with lines showing what had been cleared as well as buildings with thick black marks through them showing they had been cleared.

The center of the island was a large, winding park. Multiple roads and paths cut through it, allowing for easy travel from one point to another. The northwestern side of the island was a collection of empty foundations where cabins had once stood. Dividing the center of the island was a long administrative building with additional organizational structures on the northwestern and southeastern sides. Above that was more parkland, housing, several additional large buildings, and Fort Jay itself. Their final goal.

Ray gestured to the others in the room to join him. Grok, Gale, Derrick, Remus, Josephine, and Verrick all gathered around where he was. Drawing his finger along the northwestern side of the map he said, “I think we should split. At least until we clear up to the center of the island. We should split our forces evenly, with Grok, Remus, and Verrick leading the northwestern group. Gale, Josephine, and myself will lead the southeastern side group.”

“Is splitting our forces the best thing to do? Not splitting the party is basic strategy one oh one,” remarked Derrick.

Ray nodded, “Normally, yeah. But we don’t have a lot of time. It took us around thirty days to get where we are now. We have a little less than half the time remaining before integration, and we haven’t even taken Fort Jay yet,” he said. “we need to clear and secure the island as quickly as possible. Or we will be in serious trouble.”

Derrick accepted that explanation as the others examined the map. Verrick surprised the group by speaking up next, “Lord Ray, I believe your idea is sound. However, I would like to discuss a modification of the plan.”

Curious, Ray gestured for him to continue. “I believe we should come together after the midpoint of the island and clear the fortress immediately. Then break into smaller clearing parties based on building size. This will speed up our process while ensuring as much of our safety as possible.”

“That is if a horde doesn’t appear out of thin air again,” remarked Josephine quietly.

They all had valid points. “Gale? What do you think of Verrick’s idea? I don’t see any issues with it, and it's better than what I had beyond the midpoint of the island.”

Gale thought for a moment, looking at the poster map of the island. After a few minutes, she turned to Verrick and said, “Thy idea is sound. As we are so limited with resources, this is the by far the preferential plan of attack. However, should we be beset by another horde we face extermination.”

“Nothing we can do about that,” Ray interjected. “If this is the plan that lets us clear the island the quickest, maybe we can find the source of those hordes and creatures and block it off somehow.”

As they spoke, Derrick had been examining the map in detail. As they spoke his eyebrows drew closer and closer together, until eventually, he said, “Oh shit! I got it!”

Everyone looked at the engineer, who blushed in embarrassment at his outburst. “I mean, I think I know where these things are coming from. Maybe not the snail, but at least the hordes of undead,” he clarified.

“By all means, do not keep us in suspense,” prompted Gale at his lack of follow-up.

Derrick gestured to the northeasternmost part of the island, to a small round concrete tower. “As most of you know I am an Engineer by trade. What most of you don’t know is that I am a structural engineer and I worked on major public projects. This, ladies, gentlemen, and beings in between, are what is known as an emergency access tunnel. It is, for lack of easier to understand terminology, an emergency escape and ventilation tunnel leading to the major highway system under the river.”

“Mother fucker,” said Ray simply.

Derrick nodded as the others looked confused. “Boss man gets it. There’s a huge road network under the river connecting everything. This access tunnel is connected to the island by a massive concrete causeway that rivals the size of the pier we arrived on. The island cant hold as many undead as we have killed off. Care to guess where they are all coming from?”

“Wouldst thou be insinuating they are traveling under the river using these roads. Then climbing up onto the island from the depths below?” guessed Gale.

The engineer grinned in acknowledgment. “Yup! I can almost guarantee that, unless they are pulling some Pirates of the Galapagos shit, this is where they are coming from,” he confirmed. The others looked confused at the reference so he added, “Unless they can walk on the bed of the river, which with the current is probably not possible, they are coming from the tunnel system.”

“This is good and bad,” Ray said, getting the group's attention. “Good in that we can bottleneck them and close off access fairly easily. Bad as in there are probably tens, if not hundreds of thousands of undead in those tunnels. Getting anywhere near that place, even during the day, is going to be insanely dangerous. We definitely are not going inside.”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Ya can blow upz the bridge boss,” Grok said. “The Gobbiez and me can make a bomb.”

Ray shook his head, “No. As much as I want to do that, the access is too much of a possible resource. With all those undead and the resources and NEX we can obtain from them, I don’t want to close it off permanently. But we defiantly need to find a way to seal it up, at least for now.”

Grok grunted at that assessment, having nothing else to add.

“Alrighty, let's get this show on the road then,” Ray said. “Let's seal the doors here and start heading out. We have a big ass warehouse to clear and you all have a bunch of fields and administrative buildings to make safe. Let's meet in the middle no later than … let's call it early afternoon. Then we can set up another outpost and lock up for the night. Before tackling Fort Jay tomorrow.”

Ray headed out into the cool morning air, Gale and Josephine behind him. They rallied up a few Thymian Mages, four archers, and a dozen Goblins and Orkin. Roughly a third of their forces. Since the heavy hitters in their little army were with them, Ray assigned the rest of the troops to the other team with a small contingent to stay behind and secure the outpost.

He began moving off, the group in a short, stubby column behind him. Gale and Josephine were on either side of him as they followed the southeastern road along the shoreline. The massive black and grey warehouse was easily visible in front of them, only being a few hundred yards away.

They didn’t even make it halfway before they got into their first fight.

Fortunately, they were surprised. There were several decently sized open-ended storage sheds n the concrete pad just before the warehouse. As they passed by a dozen or so undead stumbled out of it. These ones must have been particularly stupid, as they immediately went up in flame in the sunlight.

The group watched them burn in silence. Ray chose to speak up only after he was sure the last one had turned to ash.

“Did … they really just do that?” he wondered aloud.

No one really had an answer to that obvious statement, sot he group continued on. It was only a couple minutes before they were huddled around the outside of a large bay door that led into the dark interior of the huge warehouse. Peeking inside carefully, Ray could immediately see dozens of undead. Turning around and stepping away from the door, he informed the group of what he had seen.

“Lord Ray,” said a Thymian, “Are you looking to retain the building in its current form? If not my partners and I could simply incinerate the undead inside.”

He entertained the idea for a few moments before shaking his head. “No, we better not. While I can see undead inside, there’s no guarantee there isn’t something else lurking around in there. If the sunlight won't kill it then we may find ourselves in a bad spot. Better to go in using our established tactics. Goblins and Orkin in front, Gale and Josephine supporting, mages and archers in the back.”

Everyone agreed, and the Goblins seemed excited to finally be killing something again. Not for the first time, Ray wondered if they had enjoyed the snail meat. Shaking his head, Ray brought himself back into the present. He was finding himself to be lost in thought more often than not anymore, sometimes in the most absurd situations.

The formation moved into the warehouse slowly, not drawing any attention from the undead at all. That was, up until a Goblin decided to stab one.

The resulting melee was as brutal as any other engagement that Ray had been in up to this point. Undead came, undead died, Goblins were used as melee weapons and occasionally caught fire. Nothing different. Nothing different at all.

It took an hour to clear that first major section of the warehouse. All in all, it was a quick engagement with almost no surprises. There were two spitters and a strange, hunched-over undead that jumped on a Goblin and tried to ride him. Ray didn’t ask any questions beyond that.

The second, and main, area of the warehouse was a much more savage. The entire place had been turned into a nesting ground for the white bone spear-throwing undead. Ray wanted to call them Bone Throwers, but after the name snafu of the Death Slugs, it was decided they would be referred to as Wendels.

That fight went much more poorly. Four Goblins and an Orkin were killed in the engagement. The moment they crossed over the threshold the entire front line was hammered with a couple of dozen bone spears. Apparently, the Wendels had gotten smarter, having set a trap for them as they entered.

They stayed out of reach, fighting from a distance until the Goblins finally had enough of not being able to reach them. They had the Orkin hurl them at the white, spider-limbed undead. There were plenty of misses, but the tactic was effective enough to wipe out the annoying fuckers in less than an hour.

That should have cleared out the facility. Ray wasn’t so lucky, however.

As the group left the building to continue to the center of the island, they walked right out into a horde lurking in the shadows of the building. It wasn’t as large as the one that had stormed the Outpost, nor did it have a Smog Snail. But it did contain enough specialized undead to cause some serious injuries among his remaining troops. After another hour of hard fighting, Ray was left feeling tired, empty, and reluctant to continue. And the day was only half over.

“Fuck me,” groaned Ray as the group trudged through the burning remains of the horde that had just hit them. Oddly enough, it seemed that the sunlight affected them less than the last horde. Granted, these ones had still been loitering in the shade, but it seemed their outright fear and hatred of the sunlight was waning.

“Gale, why are they attacking us in broad daylight?” he asked as the center part of the island came into view.

She was silent, contemplating possible answers. Then she clapped her hands together, causing Ray and those near her to jump in surprise.

“Ray, thou are going to have a most difficult problem. I believe that, at last, advanced undead are appearing. True Advanced Class undead, that is.”

Ray had no words for that. He was confused, but Gale simply pointed and told him to inspect one of the more recent corpses they were walking by.

He did so and cursed every god he could think of.

***

RAYMOND ‘RAY’ FINNEGAN

RACE

HUMAN

CLASS

NONE

NEX

CALCULATING

LEVEL

PHYSICAL STATE

GOOD

MENTAL STATE

PISSED

ATTRIBUTE

BASE

CURRENT

NEX TO INCREASE

STRENGTH

AGILITY

POWER

100

WISDOM

LUCK

400

JOSEPHINE SANCHEZ