CHAPTER 38_HEX - A Zombie Survival LITRPG

Ray

It turned out there had only been a couple of undead in the first section of the building. While not very large, the floor plan could easily accommodate the roughly thirty party members there who were accompanying him. They pushed the undead they had cleared, along with two more they found loitering in the dark recesses of the reception area, out of the window, and into the water. Hopefully, the fish would find them tasty.

Sighing at the bit of grunge work that they had completed, Ray was more than happy to issue the order to begin bringing in their equipment. There were several boxes of arrows, fishing equipment, and a small fuel cell bomb. Ray was nervous to have that particular thing with him, but couldn’t disagree that if they did need something like that it was better to have it on hand than not. Along with the bomb were some basic building materials they had scavenged, boards, nails, and hand tools.

It didn’t take long to unload their equipment. Ray watched as the last Goblin scurried up the rope and the barge began to steam off upriver towards the island. He only hoped they would get a chance to return there before the Integration. He was already nervous enough about something going wrong, although if the planet exploded he supposed it was a moot point.

“Alrighty, listen up,” he said, getting everyone’s attention. “Verrick, you are on overwatch and scouting duty. Get across the bridge and scout out the area. Don’t be gone for more than a couple of hours and be careful. Don’t engage anything that you can avoid or retreat from,” he ordered.

The Aelvin Ranger nodded and got his squad moving. Turning to the rest of them he started dishing out tasks. “Goblins, get your fishing gear set up. Anything we can catch and eat here will be that many fewer inventory goods I have to dish out. Orkin, start repairing the building, fortifying the walls, and prepping the bridge across the gap.” The two groups launched into motion with no hesitation. Ray couldn’t help but be impressed with their determination. Even the Goblins seemed uncharacteristically serious.

“Jalla, I need you to get the Draemon ready. Small support spells, tricks, and any level of unpleasant nastiness you can think to throw at anything that may come our way. I need you to be on point for this. If we lose anyone else … we may not be able to survive,” he stressed.

The Draemon leader nodded, face fixed in a blank stare at Ray. “We will obey,” he said before turning away with his group.

Sighing, Ray sat down on a pile of boards that had been stacked against the wall. “Shit. Never any rest for the weary,” he grunted out.

“It's no rest for the wicked, I believe,” corrected Josephine. “A few short weeks and we will be into the Integration. At that point, we will either all be dead, or a new world will quite literally spring up around us.”

Ray grunted at that. He wanted his old world back, not a new one. Maybe he was being a bit stubborn again, but he couldn’t help it. His goal was to get humanity back in the saddle again. Before he had been locked out, he had seen there were more than two hundred million people left on the planet. With his ability to resurrect the dead, he was sure that mankind could bounce back from the apocalyptic situation they found themselves in.

“Maybe. No point in worrying about it until it happens. There's no way we can stop it anyway,” he said, leaning back.

He closed his eyes and was nearly asleep when Josephine spoke. “What if there was? A way to put it off,” she said quietly.

Ray didn’t bother opening his eyes when he responded. “No way. I don’t have another item that would allow me to move the core. We can't put it in limbo either, Gale was sure that there would be immense and immediate consequences. She was nervous about us moving it the first time.”

“We could break it,” she said quietly. “I was talking with Jalla. He said nodes couldn’t be broken, mostly because they tended to be absorbed by the world they were on. Cores through… those can be shattered.”

Ray leaned forward and opened his eyes, “No way. We fought too hard and lost too many people to break the thing that could give us the opportunity to come back from the brink,” he said shaking his head. “Definitely not. Besides, I don’t think Jalla always has the best ideas. He is a font of knowledge, for sure, but something has always seemed a bit off about him.”

“Agreed. It is why I stick close when you are anywhere near him. That man is dangerous. In a way, I may never be. And we have probably not seen even a fraction of what he or his group can do,” she admitted readily. “Until he proves his loyalty without a doubt, I will be keeping a close eye on him.”

Tinkling laughter flowed from the doorway as Ray and Josephine’s heads swiveled to see the previously mentioned Draemon leaning against the door frame, a huge grin on his face. “That is both a wise and prudent precaution on your part. One I wholeheartedly agree with,” Jalla said, still smiling.

He pushed off from the door frame and walked into the room fully. “The building is clear. We are on the roof to hit anything that comes nearby,” he reported. “There are many undead in the surrounding towers and buildings Ray. Many.”

“Can you define ‘many’?” Ray asked with apprehension.

Jalla laughed again, the soft sound washing over them. “We can use our magic to sense up to a half-mile radius. There are so many undead within that zone that we cannot count them all,” he paused, a pensive look on his face. “Hundreds of thousands at a minimum.”

Ray shuddered at that as Josephine looked on in horror.

“We … I expected something along those lines to be honest. This city was home to nearly twenty million people after all,” Ray admitted. “New policy, we sure as fuck don’t go out at night.”

The two nodded at that declaration.

“In fact,” he continued, “At night I want to be buttoned up, secure, and leak no light, sound, or odors. Is there a way you can help with that?”

The Draemon thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “We can certainly set up a barrier, however, it will take us out of action for most of the night and following morning. Barriers are extremely expensive in terms of energy, and with no catalysts, we power them ourselves,” the horned man said. “But it will effectively seal us off from everything except a legendary undead. Of which I doubt there are many on this world outside of the Lich we met.”

“Get ready to do just that. I want it up and in place an hour prior to dusk. We can't take any chances with this,” Ray replied. Jalla performed a sweeping bow of acknowledgement before standing and heading back out of the room.

“I will get my team prepared. The barrier will be live and empowered by the time you have specified,” he said eloquently. Then he was gone.

“Still gives me the creeps,” Josephine said under her breath.

Ray shrugged, he would take any help that he could get. There was no reason to be picky with who was with them when everybody that wasn’t an undead counted. They were low on people anyway, so beggars couldn’t be choosers.

He leaned back and got a bit of shut-eye. Ray hadn’t been sleeping well. No wonder, with everything that was going on. Losing Grok and Derrick had resulted in nightmares every night. More often than not he found himself flinging himself forward bodily, emerging from sleep ready to fight a battle. Josephine had to, more often than not, talk him down. She was never far away and always seemed to understand.

Thinking back to their first encounter, and the night she had died, he remembered her own trauma. She had something in her past that had scarred her deeply. Something so horrific that he wasn’t sure she would ever recover. But at this point, who didn’t? She would talk to him when she was ready, he was sure of it. It wasn’t like he was an angel either.

He wasn’t sure how long he was out for, but the screams woke him up.

Shooting to his feet, he had his blade out and in hand in less than a second. Josephine came into the room a second later holding a wooden board with several portions of cold, but cooked, fish on it. “They started up a while ago. You’ve been out for about twelve hours,” she said, surprising him. “You must have really been tired. Jalla got the barrier thing up, I can't even tell it's there. The undead hasn’t come our way though, and we can use fire without an issue. You should go to the roof and look at them all … its something else.”

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Ray took the platter from her and dove into the food with a garbled thanks. He was starving. It was more surprising to him, though, at how long he had been asleep. What he had wanted to be a short nap turned into a recuperating rest. At least he hadn’t dreamed.

Finishing the food, he set his makeshift plate aside and followed Josephine to the stairs. They led to the observation deck on the roof. Probably a place where tourists waited outside for the next ferry to come in.

As soon as his head crested the top of the steps, he froze. There were more than a few others on the roof who turned to look at him in grim amusement as Ray looked out over the tens of thousands of undead that packed the streets.

There were the white spider-like fucks that threw spears, juggernauts, spitters wandering around dripping acid from their oversized mouths, and dozens of other variants that Ray had never seen before. They were as varied as they were many. A legion of the dead come to life and mutated because of the System. At least a lot of them were. Most were the normal shamblers that he had regularly dealt with and who made up most hordes.

And while the sight in front of him was terrifying, it was the things in the air that scared him more. He couldn’t make out many of the shapes in the pale moonlight, it being a sliver of a moon and just rising. But he could make out their shapes. Large bat-like wings, long tails, and differing speeds made him think of the stone gargoyles that used to line the tops of churches.

“Interesting,” Gale said, coming up next to him. “Thou are seeing Dire Wraiths for the first time Ray. Terrifying creatures who feed upon the flesh, Mana, and life force of any victim they obtain. They are capable of killing undead for sustenance as well. There must be a large hive of them present within the city.”

“Fuck those things,” Josephine said simply, staring at the swooping and diving silhouettes.

Ray was inclined to agree. If there were already flying undead, or some other equivalent of ariel creature, then his plan to get zeppelins in the air could be in danger. on the other hand, he was sure that his people could come up with a myriad of defensive measures that he couldn’t even begin to imagine right now.

Nevertheless, it would be dangerous to traverse the skies.

“Are there many kinds of flying undead?” he asked aloud.

Jalla’s tinkling laughter was his response. “Yes. But on worlds where the undead are prevalent, there are also many creatures of terror that exist as well. You have seen several, such as the Brood Rats and now Dire Wraiths.”

“Fuck. What doesn’t want to kill us on Earth anymore? It's like the whole place has become an undead version of Australia,” Ray spat venomously.

Australia was a continent in the southern hemisphere that had long been home to many of the world's most dangerous plants, animals, insects, and arachnids. And don’t get people started on the sea life. Enough dangers were in and around the continent that could kill a person that it was a place that ranked in the top three most deadly places to be.

Of course, the reference went right over the heads of most of the people present.

“Right, forget about what I just said. There's… no amount of context I can give you that would get you to understand that,” He said, facepalming.

The group went back to watching the undead and Wraiths fight. Every so often one would swoop down and be snatched out of the air or shot down with acid. The minute it hit the ground it was summarily torn apart by the monsters packed nearly shoulder to shoulder below them. Ray didn’t know how they could fight that. They would have to move only during the day and avoid everything they could. Going inside of buildings was an immediate and absolute no. Entering one was a death wish.

They watch the constant war between the two groups for about another hour before Ray noticed something had changed. It was slight, almost imperceptible. Kind of like the morning temperature warming up. You don’t realize it's happening until the difference between what was and what is had become large enough for the primitive part of your brain to recognize it.

“What’s different,” he muttered to himself. He watched the undead hordes closely as they ebbed and flowed, moving back and forth like a tide of hate, rage, and decaying flesh. Then he saw it. Tiny, imperceptible. But it was there nonetheless.

“Jalla!” he called out, getting the Draemon's attention. “I need something bright and small that can be turned off and on rapidly. Can you do that with your magic?” he asked urgently. Thinking for a moment, the Draemon nodded to confirm the curious request.

“When I tell you to, flash it three times. No more than that,” Ray ordered, raising a finger in the air. The group stared at him in curiosity. Seconds stretched into minutes as whatever Ray had in mind was only known to him. Up until he suddenly dropped his finger and said quietly, “Now.”

Jalla flashed a flame from his hand, hot and bright, three times. The light was bright enough to flood the street in front of the ferry terminal with light, catching both the undead and the Wraiths off guard. As they temporarily broke off their fight to search for the source, Ray pointed to the top of multi-story office building just down from them.

As everyone watched, three small, much less intense flashes, came back at them.

“What is that?” Josephine wondered, staring intently into the darkness to try and make out any details.

Verrick was much angrier, “How did I not see that?” he muttered.

Ray only grinned. “That, my friends, would be survivors. I hope.”

That hope immediately blossomed into a new level of determination to get them rescued. There was no way there would only be a few people left in the city. That wasn’t possible. Humanity was kind of like cockroaches. Give them even basic tools and not even a barrage of orbital strikes would kill them all off.

Letting loose a soft grunt, he tried to stay optimistic that there were enough people left to make this trip worth it. He also worried that they may have significantly devolved in terms of having the ability to work together. In times of extreme adversity, it was every man, woman, and child for themselves. Very rarely did they band together outside of any reason that didn’t affect their immediate ability to survive.

He only hoped he wouldn’t have to kill any of them.

***

RAYMOND ‘RAY’ FINNEGAN

RACE

HUMAN

CLASS

NONE

NEX

CALCULATING

LEVEL

PHYSICAL STATE

RESTED

MENTAL STATE

ANXIOUS

ATTRIBUTE

BASE

CURRENT

NEX TO INCREASE

STRENGTH

AGILITY

POWER

100

WISDOM

LUCK

400

JOSEPHINE SANCHEZ