“Bulwark, this is Phoenix One, do you copy? Over,” announced Pasha over the Phoenix’s long-range comms system.
“Zzzzt...this is Bulwark. We copy you, Phoenix One,” came the heavily accented reply. “What’s your ETA? Over.”
“We’re twenty-five minutes out,” announced Pasha, adding, “We’ll be coming in hot. Also, could you spare a couple of your best marksmen? I’ve got a pair of gun stations onboard and no one to man them. Over.”
“Zzzzt...copy that,” replied person on the Bulwark’s comms system. “Be advised, landing coordinates are as follows; 40 degrees 26 minutes 38.9 seconds north by 116 degrees 55 minutes and 23.9 seconds east. We’ll supply you with two gunners once you arrive. Really looking forward to the help. Over.”
Pasha read back the coordinates while she put them into the nav computer before ending the transmission. She could hear a smattering of cheers over the comms. It was clear that the defenders would be very appreciative of the assistance. Based on the reports of the zombie horde, none of the Phoenix’s passengers were surprised by their response.
“Okay, we’ve got landing coordinates,” announced Pasha over the internal comms system. “We’ll be wheels down in just under twenty-two minutes.”
Surprisingly, the rest of the flight went quickly, at least for Reece. Everyone made small talk to distract from their nerves. They didn’t have a good idea of what they were getting themselves into, but the defenders needed help and they were the only ones capable of giving it. Reece could only hope that they weren’t too late. By his rough estimation, there had to more than a billion undead in China alone.
He was also interested in how Nisha, Rik, and Dre – the newest additions to their crew, would fit in with the group in a combat situation. Since the vampire trio joined them, they had showed their desire to help by assisting around the carrier anywhere that they could be useful. They did heavy lifting for the first few days until Capt. Schwarzenegger could place them in positions that complimented their skill sets. Rik became a welder, Dre worked in munitions, and Nisha helped by managing the kitchen, rationing food, and organizing foraging expeditions, fishing, and hunting. She also set up a greenhouse on the southern deck to grow crops. With all the people they had to feed, Nisha was more than earning her keep, as were Rik and Dre.
Looking at the sultry redhead, he noticed her staring back at him. She gave him a shy smile before turning away, her cheeks turning red. Reece chuckled to himself, knowing it was his heritage more than anything that was to blame. Shaking the thought from his mind, he concentrated on the task at hand, securing the great wall for the survivors and the nightcore fragment that was supposed to reside there.
Suddenly, the Phoenix slowed down to hover in the air and the ramp slowly pivoted open. The first thing that greeted them was a low droning noise which Reece sickeningly realized was the sound of a hundred thousand moaning dead. A shiver ran up his spine and he could almost feel his skin crawling in revulsion.
Trying to ignore it, Reece concentrated on getting the lay of the land before they joined in on the battle being waged before them. Reece could just make out an open area made up of large bricks, as massive as they were ancient. The sounds of near-continuous gunfire emanated from all around, interspersed with the occasional explosion from some grenade or rocket. The acrid scent of smoke filled the air, mercifully drowning out much of the smell of rotting corpses, of which there were countless.
The Phoenix turned and quickly settled onto the landing pad. Reece could hear Pasha on the comms, requesting an airstrike. Nodding at Pasha’s quick thinking, Reece turned back to take stock of the situation.
While the Phoenix hovered over the wall, Reece peered over the stony edge and had his first look at the enemy. What had to be hundreds of thousands of Z’s were swarming over everything in sight. From Reece’s vantage point, they reminded Reece of a colony of ants that were in the process of picking the carcass of some small animal clean. Only now, the entire landscape was the animal, and what was happening to it had nothing to do with nature. Above the gut-wrenching scene of crawling death below them, hundreds of creatures flitted through the sky, held aloft by bat-like wings. If the zombies were ants, then these were the flies buzzing over a putrid corpse. They appeared to be emaciated horses, covered in rot, and they were carrying human-shaped riders.
Like something out of a bad dream, the animated horse-corpses ranged in color from a grotesque blood red to a coal-black and the signs of rot could be seen all over their severely emaciated bodies. Their wings must have been surgically grafted to their equine bodies and gave them a look much like a nightmarish Pegasus. The defenders hadn’t oversold the threat they now faced. Their situation was quite dire indeed.
As usual, the stoic Aika and Karina were the first down the ramp and into the battle, wasting no time in bringing the fight to the undead. Everyone else filtered out in a hurry to catch up and help. Two of the war-ravaged defenders, both men with unkempt brown hair, nodded at the landing party before quickly jumping aboard.
“We’re da gunners,” said the lead man with a Russian accent, using his thumb to indicate the second man. “Much thanks for da assist. Zhet’s send ‘em back to Hades, eh?”
They wasted no more time with pleasantries, scrambling aboard the Phoenix and allowing Pasha to take back off to provide some measure of air support. It wasn’t long before massive explosions began rocking the great wall as hundreds of Z’s burst into flame from the airstrike that Pasha had called in just as they arrived. Reece hoped that would soften up the enemy, though their numbers seemed endless.
Reece turned to take better stock of the situation. He saw that there were hundreds of defenders from dozens of cultures, all brought together to fight side by side against the greatest threat that they had collectively ever faced. First, the Chinese people that had advanced notice were able to escape to the wall. Soon, the Russians and Mongols came to offer them assistance and supplies to keep the billion or so zombies at bay. There were Iranians, Afghans, Turks, and Siberians all along the wall. Reece was impressed and humbled by the tenacity of the patchwork army of defenders. And they were even holding the wall. That was, until the Order arrived with the nightmares and their riders.
Reece’s eyes scanned the wall from one horizon to the other. Everywhere there were undead trying to climb the massive wall, and everywhere there were platoons of defenders fighting them off with a very heavy use of ammunition. Despite that, they were vastly outnumbered by an enemy that did not eat, sleep, or rest and would never give up. Still, up until a day ago, the defenders had been fighting the zombies off for years. The wall became their greatest advantage over the almost unlimited numbers of the plague of undead, the high thick walls providing them all the protection they would need to guard their sanctuary against the relentless onslaught of the zombies below.
Now it was up to Reece and his companions to turn the tide of this battle that thanks to the Order, was slowly being lost by the patchwork team of stubborn defenders. Considering what they were up against, he wasn’t sure that he and his companions would be enough. Sighing inwardly, he got to work by looking over the edge of the wall again. Not twenty meters below, the Z’s had managed to swarm over each other and create numerous hills of dead and undead bodies. Based on the rate of growth of the hill of zombies, the undead would crest the wall within a handful of minutes.
Among the mass of crawling and climbing Z’s, Reece could see several larger undead. He made out abominations, behemoths, and some others that he had never encountered before. Reece picked out the closest and bent its will to his command. He did this for every one of the undead monsters within sight, making them attack everything around them. The massive undead beings began causing confusion and turmoil amongst the Z’s ranks as they smashed, pummeled, stepped on, and ate any zombie that came within reach.
Once he had caused sufficient chaos, Reece glanced around to see what his companions were up to. He got his answer as a mighty ball of fire streaked from somewhere nearby and exploded into a large clump of zombies. They had been attempting to climb over their brethren in a relentless attempt to scale the great wall. Now they were no more than fiery embers crumbling down the side of the fleshy mountain of decaying monsters.
Turning, he saw that Sora was the source of the blast. She was floating a meter off the grey-bricked floor and had a series of foxlike tails splayed out behind her. Above one tail floated a new ball of fire. Above another was a second ball, this one crackling with electricity. Her eyes were glowing a brilliant yellow as she unleashed a bolt of electricity toward the oncoming Z’s. Reece watched as the bolt hit the first zombie and burst clean through it before splitting and hitting two more with the same results. The bolts continued to split and arc toward other zombies until over a hundred of the walking dead were reduced to no more than charred and smoking corpses.
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Sora launched the ball of fire at a separate group of Zs a moment later, blasting them away from the wall. Their flaming remains rained down upon their desiccated brethren, starting numerous small fires amongst the massive throng of the undead. Reece smiled grimly at the chaos Sora was causing below.
Returning to more immediate concerns, it took Reece a minute to spot Aika and Karina as they were both springing from one undead flying nightmare horse to another and throwing their riders to their doom. The three vampires, Nisha, Dre, and Rik joined the two females in their grisly task and soon the flying mounts and their riders began to rain down. As one fell past him, he could hear the scream of a living man. The Order was here and had probably orchestrated this attack. That further reinforced the notion that another nightcore fragment was nearby. They needed to protect this area until they found it.
Luckily, airstrikes were still coming in from the carrier, although Reece knew they didn’t have a whole lot of long-range missiles left, even after the resupply. Of course, Pasha had put the Russian gunners to good use. The Phoenix bobbed and weaved like only Pasha could maneuver, all the while the Phoenix’s guns were strafing the ground forces or laying waste to the flying horses and their unlucky riders. Reece hated the loss of life, but these people had made their choice.
The twins, Angel, Bjorn, Hank, and Dmitri all took defensive positions, waiting their turn to fight. Things seemed to be going well. Sora continued to alternate between lightning and fire, annihilating zombies as fast as they could scramble within range of her devastating attacks. Reece reached out with his mind and turned every lumbering monstrosity he found into pure chaos against the attacking force. Aika and Karina, along with Pasha and the gunners harried the nightmares, slowly clearing the skies of their presence.
The defenders seemingly had the battle well in hand when several high-pitched whistles announced an incoming barrage of missiles. Reece watched in despair as the missiles struck the wall and the nearby guardhouse, obliterating them and tossing dozens of defenders to their deaths below. Worse yet, as the wall collapsed, it rained bricks down upon the mountain of zombie bodies leaning against the remains of the mighty wall, creating an opening for the zombies to finally be able to scramble onto the top of the wall and attack the besieged defenders from close range. The zombies wasted no time in taking advantage.
The wall defenders regrouped with Bjorn and Hank holding the middle of the line. Angel and the twins, Masika and Nephi defended their flanks and kept the undead menace from surrounding them. A group of Russians fired AK-47s into the mob of undead, slowing them down and allowing the melee combatants a chance to recover. Some of the other defenders did the same from the other side of the destroyed tower. Apparently, the missiles hadn’t taken out everyone on that side. Reece decided to do something about those missiles.
Reaching out, he found the thinking minds of several Order members across the ravine from where they now fought. Picking one, he attacked. The battlespace came up and he quickly skewered the man with a spear. The man simply just glared at Reece through narrowed eyes beneath a furrowed brow, having no idea what had just happened to him. Reece quickly took control of the disoriented man’s body.
Quickly looking around, he found himself in a bunker. A hundred other voices echoed in his head, an effect of the mind hive serum the man must have taken. Not wanting to get found out and possibly counter-attacked by a more powerful mind connected to the enemy’s network, Reece quickly looked around until he spotted the launcher that the man and his buddies had just used on the wall. Reece picked up the launcher, loaded a new rocket into it, and turned it into the side of the cliff.
Pulling the release, Reece’s mind was unceremoniously shoved back into his body when the cliff exploded. That was followed by several other explosions as the first missiles set off several storage crates of additional missiles. The fireworks display was unparalleled, some missiles even launching down into the zombie army below, blowing away whole swaths of their seemingly unlimited forces. Reece watched in horror as one of the errant missiles flew haphazardly towards them only to overshoot the wall by less than twenty meters, exploding into the mountainside behind them.
With the danger momentarily subsided, Reece heard Chippo in his head.
“I know where the nightcore is,” the Furdian squealed gleefully. “Yep, yep, it's close. Very close. Somewhere below us, in the wall. How to get there? I don’t know...don’t know.”
Looking into the sky, Reece had an idea. It wasn’t an idea he particularly relished, but it was the best option he could think of at the time. Concentrating on the nearest of the flying nightmare horses, Reece reached out his mind and grabbed ahold of its own. It was simple, only slightly more intelligent than the zombie whale he had first tried this trick with. This time he was going for something a bit more elaborate. To get where he needed to go, he needed a mount, one that could fly. After all his practice, it was a simple matter to take control of the steed. It took a moment to have it throw its current rider, a very surprised foot soldier of the Order. While the man fell screaming to his death far below, the nightmare horse flew down to land at Reece’s side.
Up close, the creature was an emaciated horse covered in a thick black coat. Its eyes were blood red, as were its hooves, its mane, and its tail. As he suspected, the blackened bat wings had been sewn onto the beast. However, there was more to it than that. The suture marks that told the tale were little more than faded scars, meaning this creature had somehow healed from the horrific wounds inflicted upon it by its creators. Reece felt sorry for the creature. In fact, it was beautiful in its own way.
Needing to ride the beast, he noted the black saddle lashed to its back. Grabbing the pommel, he slipped his foot into the stirrup and lifted himself up and onto the saddle. He took the reins and breathed in deep. He had ridden horses but wouldn’t call himself a cowboy by any stretch. Plus, this was different. First, they weren’t really horses. And second, they could fly.
But he reasoned that if the Order’s lackeys could figure it out, then so could he. plus, he didn’t have to rely on his knees or the reigns to guide the creature, he had his mind link. Using the link, he gave the horse its second set of instructions. The nightmare rose on its hind legs before letting out a dry and ghastly whinny, an awful sound that made Reece’s goosebumps get goosebumps. Then they were off, the creature’s mighty wings buffeting the brick flooring and launching them into the air and over the side. While they flew downward, which Reece found little different from falling, he reached out to Chippo.
“Okay little buddy,” thought Reece. “I need you to guide us to the nightcore. Can you do that?”
“Oh, sure sure,” began the Furdian before he freaked. “Wha...we’re flying on a friggin’ dead friggin’ horse...you’re crazy, friggin’ crazy!”
Reece had never heard the Furdian swear before, if you could call it that, and he found it comical. Given the situation, he didn’t laugh, instead, reaching back out to Chippo, hoping the Furdian could get over his unnecessary fright. He was a ghost after all.
“Come on, Chippo,” pleaded Reece. “I need you to guide me.”
“Fine, fine, crazy Reece...so crazy,” replied an annoyed and slightly terrified ghostly Furdian. “Do you see that opening at the base of the wall?”
“Yeah, I see it,” answered Reece, immediately noticing the gap and excited at the prospect of retrieving another nightcore fragment.
“Okay, good, good,” said Chippo. “But that’s not it.”
“What?” lamented Reece, the frustration causing him to speak out loud. “Then why did you ask me if I saw it?”
“Because the passage you want will look like it,” patronized Chippo, the condescending tone hard to pull off with his high-pitched voice. “Follow the wall to the east four and a half kilometers. That’s the entrance you need.”
“Alright, fine,” projected Reece. “We’re on it.”
With that, he spurred the nightmare onward and with two loud swooshes, it took off through the sky and towards the entrance to the east. The wind blasted Reece’s face and whipped through his hair as he held onto the reigns with a white-knuckled grip. Though he normally didn’t have a fear of heights, the tingling fear of death ran up his spine as death was something that would greet him quickly if he lost his perch atop the macabre steed.
Trying his best to ignore the awful sensation, he turned his head upwards from the blur of rocks and bricks that sped past below his dangling feet. Instead, he focused straight ahead and towards his goal, still unseen in the distance. He was both pleasantly surprised and scared to death by the incredible speed the strange mount was able to achieve as it bore him with an almost constant swishing of wings towards his goal. Luckily, the other nightmare riders were too busy fighting or dying to bother with him.
When what seemed like an hour, but was only a few minutes had passed, he finally spotted the entrance in question as it hurtled towards him. Pulling back on the reigns out of habit, Reece reinforced the move by using his connection with the monstrous animal to command it to slow down and prepare to land. Much to Reece’s relief, the beast complied and promptly angled its wings to slow their speedy descent. Reece had to hand it to the steed, though it hadn’t been born with flight, somehow it had developed the instinct to fly and to land gracefully. It did just that on the broken rocks that surrounded the half-covered entrance. The noisy clip-clop of its hooves echoing across the rocky landscape now that they were well away from the heaviest fighting.
Once Reece was safely on the ground, he quickly dismounted and checked his surroundings. The horse folded its batwings and snorted with that same dry quality, shaking its head as any normal horse would do. It seemed this area of the wall hadn’t been maintained in quite some time, at least decades before the zombie plague had started. Though the why of it bothered Reece, he didn’t have the time or luxury to worry much about the Chinese’s maintenance practices. Dismissing the fleeting thoughts, Reece headed for the broken entrance.