Chapter 32 Forward

Kate shivered. She felt cold. Her hand was sweaty, still held tightly by the young man sitting next to her.

Grey had started filling the bags in silence.

She heard them breathe, heard the wind outside push against the windows. Her eyes were dry. Her face hurt.

“Doing better?” Ethan asked. He gave her a smug look.

She removed her hand out of his. “Fuck off,” she said. “And thanks.”

“Of course, ma’am,” he said and patted her shoulder.

Kate saw him stare at the opposite wall.

He glanced down, opening his mouth before he shook his head and grabbed one of the bags.

Kate rubbed her eyes again and blinked. World’s in the shitter. Focus. You’re the firefighter, not them. Get the fuck up. She stood up and growled, not using her magic. She shook her head. “Like a fucking warzone. Think anyone survived that?”

Grey just glanced her way but avoided eye contact.

Ethan shrugged. “Who knows.”

“Some must’ve,” Kate said. “Before being eaten by monsters,” she added, taking one of the bags too. “Sorry if I’m being too dark.”

“Falstadt is pretty dark now too,” Ethan said.

Grey chuckled, nearly choking at the attempt to stop himself.

Kate grinned. “Right. Ragtag team of idiots.”

Ethan raised his brows, some of his red hair jutting out from the ski mask.

She shooed him away. “Supplies. Let’s empty this place before some General decides to nuke this damned village.”

They worked in relative silence, all three of them filling several large sports bags with all sorts of medical supplies. Kate even found oxygen tanks in the small storage room at the back. They left another note and a few essential medical supplies, telling survivors to seek Keilberg Castle. It took them a while to fill everything, the bags nearly bursting when they left again through the window. Kate made sure to listen to their surroundings, focusing on the task at hand and forcing herself to ignore the distant smoke rising above Falstadt.

She kept an ear out for the Wyvern especially, occasionally using her echo location to check on their surroundings. Each use was accompanied by a slight bout of nausea, nothing worse than a little bit of smoke poisoning.

They reached the car ten minutes later without an incident, Kate putting the supplies onto the loading area.

“Shouldn’t we hide everything first? Someone might steal the car,” Ethan said.

“I have the keys,” Kate said.

“I know… people who could hotwire a car. It’s not… it’s supposedly not that hard,” Ethan said.

Kate looked at him and raised her brows. “Sure. People. That you know. I’d still prefer to have the stuff on here, in case we need to leave quickly. Plus if someone takes these medical supplies, they might need them more than we do.”

“Right,” Ethan said.

“We are technically stealing all of this,” Kate said while looking at him.

“More just looting or raiding,” Grey interjected.

“I don’t disagree. I’m just saying, nobody really owns this stuff anymore,” Kate said. “Now let’s go get the rest. Then we’ll try to go to the Police station.”

Another trip and a lot of full bags later, they had emptied the entire pharmacy. Twenty one bags full of medical supplies, though some of it wasn’t exactly immediately useful. But Kate knew a time would come where they’d be more than happy to have taken shampoo and deodorant with them as well. The loading area of the truck was half full by now, Kate glad they had taken so many bags with them.

When they returned towards the northwestern part of Grenndorf, Kate heard a screech resound from the center of town. She signaled to the others but it seemed they had heard it too.

Putting down her numerous empty bags, Kate grabbed her hammer and glanced around the side of a nearby house. She spotted the yellow wings of the Wyvern. It flew up and landed on the main road. Can’t go back that way then. She did a double take before grabbing her binoculars from her pack. A closer look showed the creature bite down onto a small green figure, the large head whipping from side to side before a body was ripped in half by the motion. Kate saw another creature rush at the Wyvern. A goblin?

She watched the small green skinned being run, then jump up, the glint of a blade visible as it stabbed down into the screeching Wyvern’s neck. Kate watched with raised brows. What in the…

The winged yellow being stumbled to the side and hit the stone wall of a small building, the impact audible even at this distance. Bits and pieces of the goblin were all that remained on the Wyvern’s neck, the scales now showing spots of dark blood.

Kate saw it shake its head before it resumed its meal, relocated now to the main road that led through the town. The wolves she had spotted before were gone. She put away her binoculars and gestured to the others.

“Was that a goblin?” Grey asked.

“I think so, yes,” Kate answered as she moved ahead, hammer fastened to her belt and bags in her hands. She moved past a set of buildings, already seeing the supposed station in the distance. Kate walked at a brisk pace, the three of them glancing past the buildings and into the forest, listening before they rushed through the town with as little noise as they could manage.

Kate came to a stop near the back entrance of the Police station, the building a three story concrete block with steel bars in front of the windows. She checked the door but found it locked.

“Why would goblins attack a Wyvern?” Grey asked in a whisper. “They’ve been afraid of even us. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Maybe they have magic like Kate’s?” Ethan said.

“A Berserker Class you mean?” Grey said, considering for a moment before Kate interrupted them.

“Strange goblins or not. If they attack us, we kill them. Now focus on why we’re here,” she said, moving around the block and up the slight slope before she checked the road ahead. Her tongue clicked, a flash of the surrounding roads and buildings coming to her mind. Corpses littered the ground.

She could see several dozen near the station entrance. More orcs and ogres, interspersed by goblins and humans. Some of the monsters had limbs missing, heads entirely caved in. There were bullet holes. A lot of them. The main double doors to the station were slightly ajar.

She moved up, ignoring the bodies as best she could, hearing the others follow behind. She got her hammer and a headlamp. Kate turned around when she heard a clicking sound, Ethan crouching near a uniformed body with a pistol in his hand.

The man checked the magazine and shook his head. “Empty.” He opened one of their bags and put the firearm inside.

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Kate glanced up towards the edge of the forest where she saw movement from the corner of her vision. Nothing was there. Leaves moved in the wind, making her unsure if that was all she had seen. “Let’s go inside before more monsters show up,” she said and quietly entered the building. The smell hit her instantly. Blood and decay. Much worse than outside. She was glad for their filter masks. Already, she heard slight tapping sounds from somewhere up ahead, followed by quiet grunts.

Grey and Ethan entered behind her, the latter closing the door just as Kate turned on her headlamp. She gripped her hammer, seeing the carnage within. A corridor led deeper into the station, doors on either side wide open. Bodies both human and monster lay on the floor, blood and guts on some of the walls, most of it already dried.

She heard Ethan gulp, the other two turning on their lamps as well. “Something moving ahead. It’s not coming closer,” she whispered, her voice slightly muffled through the mask. Kate heard Grey unsheathe his sword. Ethan stepped to the back with the two close combat fighters taking the lead.

Kate clicked her tongue and saw a similar picture in the corridors ahead. Corpses all over.

She moved into one of the rooms at random, finding a few officers on the ground, all of them dead, bullet holes in the walls and doors. Their pistols remained, suggesting that nobody had looted this place yet or that the monsters who attacked had not considered taking the guns. Did they not understand how they work? Or were they all killed or injured in the attack? Maybe someone got out.

“Kate,” Grey whispered, his lamp shining onto a map on the wall. It showed the setup of the station, including escape routes in case of a fire.

“There in a minute,” she said, figuring out how to remove the magazine from one of the pistols. These guns still had a few bullets. “Does either of you know which one the safety is?”

Ethan crouched down next to her and moved his bags onto the ground. He opened one of them in silence and took out the gun he had found before. Removing the magazine, he checked the chamber to make sure there was no bullet left inside, then he pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. He fiddled with a few of the other mechanisms before he gave up. “No idea.”

Kate removed the magazines and checked the chambers like he had before she put them into her bag.

“Shouldn’t we use them?” Ethan asked.

“And alert everything in however far a gunshot can be heard?” Kate asked.

He raised his brows. “Is that really an issue when we’re about to die?”

She shrugged. “Maybe not. But I don’t trust any of us with a gun. I’d rather have you throw fireballs, which you have trained, than have you shoot a handgun from behind me. While fighting.”

He considered and finally nodded. “Fair, I guess. Still not sure it’s the best idea.”

“Take it then. If you have nothing else left, use them,” Kate said and handed over the sports bag. “Last resort,” she added and gave him a long look.

“Last resort,” Ethan said, shouldering the pack with his others.

She stood up and moved over to Grey who still looked at the plan. There were plenty of offices, a break room, meeting rooms, nothing particularly interesting to them. She took out the piece of paper, smiling when she found the plans of the other floors below.

Above were more offices, but in the cellar below were a few rooms labeled with storage.

“Found keys,” Ethan said, shaking the set in his hand before he put them into his jacket.

More robbing of the dead, Kate thought, shaking her head to get rid of the sickly feeling. These people were gone. They had no use for their keys and guns. If anything, they’d welcome someone else using it all to fight back against the monsters.

“Cellar?” Grey asked.

“Yeah,” she said and looked at the ground floor map again. “Sounds like something is alive in this direction.” She pointed at a set of meeting rooms ahead and to the right.

“Should we find out what it is?” Grey asked. “Could be humans.”

“Doesn’t sound human,” Kate said, considering for a moment. She didn’t like the idea of knowing that something else was in here with them. “It’s on the way to the stairwell.”

“Might be surviving monsters,” Ethan said. “Let’s go kill it then, before we go down.” His expression wasn’t quite as confident as his words implied.

She prepared her hammer and checked the knives on her belt, activating Mindless Ferocity. “Quiet now. And fast. We don’t have a healer.”

Kate moved ahead, stepping over the corpses in the way. She tried not to slip on any of the blood. Most of it was dry but there were large puddles remaining here and there, the smell of it strong and permeating. Around the corner and towards the next corridor, she couldn’t even find a free spot to stand on the floor, instead stepping onto a dead orc before she moved on and around yet another corner.

The sounds were closer now. She could pinpoint them to an open door ahead, the stairwell beyond. Sneaking was difficult with all the bodies and blood, Kate hearing not only the strange groans from the creature but the breathing and stumbling of her allies. When she took another step, the sole of her boot squeaked. She froze, hearing the creature ahead make a higher pitched sound.

She barely had time to react, seeing a goblin rush out of the room and towards her, nearly moving on all fours before it jumped. Kate moved faster, catching the creature in mid air with her hammer before it was slammed against the wall. More noises came from ahead but she kept her focus on the goblin. One of its arms seemed broken, blood all over its body as it stood up again. It growled, blue eyes staring at her as its mouth opened.

Again, she struck it with her hammer, this time hitting its head. She watched it hit the ground in a split second, bits of its skull missing, and yet it still tried to stand up. Two more goblins were rushing up from the stairwell, both stumbling over the corpses with movements far faster than any goblin she had ever seen.

Kate stepped to the side and stomped down, Shattering Step activating before the goblin’s head was turned to mush. The ground shook slightly as a fireball flashed past, exploding on the chest of a goblin.

The creature slowed for a moment, smoke rising from its burnt chest. Bones were visible, its lower jaw gone but it kept running forward.

Grey put his blade in its sheath before he sliced upward, the jumping goblin cut vertically in two, dark blood splattering onto his jacket.

Kate jabbed the last creature with her hammer but it hardly slowed down. She struck again, hearing a crack. A kick pushed the goblin back ever so slightly before the spike of her hammer cut into its head. She watched with wide eyes as the creature struggled to get closer, its head stuck to her hammer. “More steps from ahead,” she said, unsheathing one of her knives before she slammed it into the monster’s throat. This time, it died.

“That’s an officer,” Ethan said.

She ripped her hammer out of the corpse and saw the stumbling man. The light of their lamps reflected off his ice like blue eyes. He took two steps and hit the wall with his shoulder, one of his legs not quite at the right angle. Deep cuts showed on his torso. And he held a rifle.

“Cover!” Kate shouted when she saw him raise the gun, reckless charge activating as she aimed for an open door adjacent to the corridor. She hit the edge of the door frame, hearing a crack before she moved into the room and pressed her back against the wall. The man fired.

Kate sank down and covered her head, her ears instantly ringing from the continuous gunshots. The firing stopped after a few seconds but her ears still rang, a pounding in her head. She forced herself to stand up. Not knowing if the others were alive, she glanced around the corner and saw the uniformed man drop the magazine from his rifle. She moved.

Three quick steps and she was there, striking right into his damaged chest with her hammer. She heard the cracks and let go with her left hand, grabbing the rifle before she pulled. Her brows rose when the man held on, her entire strength needed to pull the weapon away, half his arm coming with it. He kicked forward.

Kate stumbled back from the impact, all the air pushed out of her lungs as her eyes blurred slightly. She went down to one knee and coughed, throwing aside the rifle. What kind of- He ran towards her when a ball of fire zipped past and exploded on his face.

Half his head was gone but he kept going.

Kate dodged to the left, the remains of the man moving forward and past. She struck his right leg with her hammer, breaking bone. He stumbled and fell. She broke what was left of his left leg. He swung with his arms, ripping away a piece of leather armor from a dead orc. Kate stepped behind him and raised her hammer, using all her strength, she brought the metal down upon his skull. Bits and pieces of bone and blood splattered to the side.

He stopped moving.

She looked up as her ears popped, some of the damage undone.

“... that was loud,” Ethan said. “Did he get anyone?”

Grey stepped out from behind a filing cabinet. “No. His aim wasn’t the best. Fully automatic too. I don’t think you’re supposed to do that.” He rubbed his ears.

“So much for alerting monsters in the area,” Ethan said. “What should we do?”

Kate looked at the dead officer before she checked the blinking notifications.

‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [Undead Goblin]’

‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [Undead Goblin]’

‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [Undead Human]’

There were a few more notifications but she ignored them for now.

“They’re undead,” Kate said, immediately glancing at all the bodies around them.

“Right… shit,” Grey said, his sword at the ready as he stepped closer to Kate.

“Was anyone bitten?” Ethan asked.

“Undead aren’t zombies,” Grey said.

“We don’t know how they work,” Kate said. “Try not to get injured either way.”

“So what do we do? Leave before anything comes in response to the shots or stay and search the place?” Grey asked, both men looking at Kate.

Her spell had worn off by now, adrenaline still in her body. I just killed a man. No. Undead. She focused on her breathing, taking a few seconds before she nodded. “Too many corpses here. We don’t know if and when they become undead. Those three were all that attacked. Let’s use the time we have to get what we can, before they become a problem. Then we check the surroundings and leave through the back entrance if possible. Ethan, you have the keys?”

“Several sets,” the man said.

“Then let’s move,” she said and stepped down towards the cellar.