The room's stillness was broken by Grace rifling through the shelves.
“I think we need to leave soon, we’ll grab all the food we can carry and continue making our way to the park. The sooner we arrive the safer we’ll be.”
Mark looked up from his status, he’d spent the last 20 minutes trying to keep his [Corruption recovery] active but had quickly come to the conclusion that it was going to take some time to work out.
The reason had to do with how [Corruption recovery] worked, to use its active one had to concentrate inwards and send Prana towards the Corruption. The two energies burned away at one another, fighting until one of them was completely extinguished. However, because the two repelled each other Mark had to constantly direct the Prana to remain near the Corruption. This took constant work so it wasn't yet something he could split his attention to when there was danger around every corner.
He did manage to lower his Corruption value to 9.09% by burning through more Prana. He had shivered when he came into contact with the Corruption in his body for the first time.
It was similar to the other energy types except it didn't have a core and seemed to move of its own accord. The longer he focused on it the more agitated it became like it knew he was watching and in turn, watched back.
He didn't try and manipulate it in any way because he could feel that that was what it wanted. He had no doubts that it would be very easy to use, but then that was its draw causing you to seek more out and slowly lose yourself to it.
So he left it alone to languidly move throughout his body, just keeping his Prana near his chest and head to block its passage.
“Before that, though, I think we should just chat about a couple of things,” Mark said when he had everyone's focus he continued.
“First, we should be really careful about the original zombies that came out of the ichor. They seem different, did you notice how the one we fought acted, Donny?” nodding Donny spoke up.
“Yeah, when we first saw it it was almost like it had sniffed us out. That, coupled with the intelligence it showed to dodge and summon allies. I think we should avoid them entirely if we spot one.”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“Right. then on another note, I have a bit of good news… I got a spell-”
The silence outside was shattered by the sound of groans moving in the streets.
Everyone tensed up as the movement of shuffling bodies and moaning became louder. The faint sound of growling and barking became clear.
Mark crept over to a single high window in the storeroom to see if he could catch a glimpse of the outside.
The window opened to a dark alleyway filled with trash and debris. The back door to their storeroom seemed to lead into this alleyway. Beyond that, Mark could see the other side of the road. Wondering up the street there were at least thirty zombies moving down towards the beach. Mark had to do a double-take when he noticed who was leading the group.
A small Border Collie trotted at the head of the pack of hungry, Corrupted creatures, barking loudly and glancing back at them.
While its coat was a little dirty, it looked healthy and not the least bit scared of the approaching hoard.
Mark stared on in shock as he realized the Collie was barking at regular intervals. Moving around the zombies to the slowest ones yipping words of encouragement at them before bolting off, repeating the process whenever one or two of them strayed. It was using itself as bait.
The bloody dog was herding them.
Mark looked back at the group with a look of bewilderment.
“Um, there's a dog out there and I think it's leading them away?”
“Then we should move, grab as much as you can and let’s go!” Grace said.
“I found two backpacks, here,” Daphne said as she handed Mark a small rucksack, probably left by the previous employees.
She paused and began fidgeting for a bit.
Mark looked up
“Everything okay?” he asked. She looked like she wanted to say something.
“Aaa, yeah don't worry bout it” she said, moving to pack her backpack.
He wanted to find out what was bothering her but at the same time he didn't want to force her. They were also running low on time so he chose to address it later.
Mark began stuffing as many non-perishable foods and snacks into the bag as it could hold.
The barking was getting distant now.
As they moved to the door Mark couldn't help but hope the dog would be okay.
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Once everyone was ready, Donny moved to the front and opened the back door. The smell of warm rancid garbage washed over them as they moved into the alleyway. Nearing the mouth Donny poked his head out checking in both directions. Nodding he moved out into the street and started moving toward their destination. Following they began moving up the street once more. Mark looked over his shoulder to see if he could still spot the dog, turning back just in time to see it running right at the herd. His heart dropped until he saw it jump at the very last second and clear a good three meters in the air, safely landing on the other side of the pack. Then it went bolting down one of the side streets. Mark waited for a moment trying to figure out how it had made that jump before realizing the horde was now turning their heads this way.
“Hide!” Mark panted.
Dragging Daphne with him into the shadow of a half-destroyed newsstand. Grace and Donny were quick to react and jumped behind a set of fallen trash cans.
Frozen, Mark waited for the sounds of the chase, but when none came he poked his head around the corner. The group was mostly wandering aimlessly, scattering in all directions.
“Donny! Grace! Let's go, they are dispersing” Mark hissed. Keeping low they began to move.
The further they got the better Mark felt. Until the horde was securely behind them.
Just as they were about to cross underneath the shadow of a bridge, movement caught Mark's eye. Across the road, stepping into the light was the Border Collie, sitting there calmly just staring at them.
“The dog?” Donny had also noticed it. Suddenly the dog dropped down onto its belly and scooted closer to them.
Stopping just shy of entering the road, it looked towards the bridge and then put its head down and paws over its snout.
“I think it's trying to tell us something,” Mark said looking towards the group.
The dog got up and turned towards a side road, stopping to look back at them with its tail wagging.
“Is it just me or do you think it wants us to follow it?” Donny whispered.
Mark nodded in agreement, he was just about to move when Grace spoke up.
“Are you guys really thinking of following it? We don't know what it wants, it could be leading us into a trap!”
“It's a doggo Grace, it can't want to hurt us,” Daphne whispered, looking toward the dog, then to Grace with pleading eyes.
“No! Listen we need to stay on course, the sooner we get to Prospect park the better”
She looked at Donny.
“Let's go, the last time we stood around arguing, shit hit the fan”
Donny looked uncomfortably at the dog and then at Mark
Mark raised his eyebrows and put his arms up in surrender.
‘Sorry buddy you’re on your own here, but I know what I want to do.’ he thought
“My vote is to follow the dog,” Mark said.
“Of course it is, listen we don't have time for voting right now let's just go,” Grace said as she started walking to the bridge quickly crossing into the shadow.
“Wait! Grace, don't just run off on your own!” Donny chased after her.
Daphney looked once more at the dog longingly and then at Mark. Grimacing and then shrugging her shoulders she followed after them.
Mark tore his eyes away from the collie, to watch her go. When he looked back its tail had stopped wagging.
“I’m getting real tired of this,” He sighed to himself before turning and following them.
Passing into the shadow he felt the sun's warmth fade, up ahead Grace was power-walking down the street with Donny right behind her.
Mark tried to keep an eye on their surroundings. Something about the way the dog had acted towards this bridge had him on edge.
The group had started to pull ahead of him now and Mark was about to close the distance when he noticed the way the support structures above them were warping. Mark's eyes snapped up, he realized that the whole underside of this bridge was covered in ichor. One just couldn't see it from the light because it was hiding among pillars of steel.
A large globule was beginning to form near the center of the bridge, close to where the other three were.
“Guys! Above you!”
The amount of ichor was easily three to four times the amount Mark had seen the first zombies using when they came into being.
A bulbous drop began to take form until it could no longer resist the pull of gravity. Falling down, landing straight on top of a nearby car, and blasting out the windows. Sending shrapnel and broken glass in an explosion around it. Mark was lucky, he was nowhere near the blast and he saw it coming so he managed to duck behind a parked car. Sadly the others were not, they had been very near the touchdown point and worse still there was no real cover in the area.
Mark dashed forward, from the looks of it Donny had shielded Grace with his body, the telltale signs of shrapnel sticking out of his back like a porcupine. Grace looked okay but she clearly had some deep lacerations near her legs.
Mark hadn't seen what she’d done but Daphne was probably the best off of the three of them, she had cuts littering her body but they mostly looked superficial.
Already the ichor was moving, taking shape. Faster than anything he’d seen on the beach.
He reached the group, moving straight to Donny; he hit him with [Regenerate] focused on pushing out any foreign material and sealing the worst wounds in the shortest time possible.
The ichor had already developed bones and innards. The muscles were still climbing up the bone packing themselves densely onto the frame. It was much taller than the others and far bigger than it had any right to be. This was far from the normal Corrupted.
Mark picked Grace off the floor, putting her arm over his shoulder, and dragging her backward so that Donny would have room to move.
Grace also got a healthy dose of [Regenerate] aimed at her legs and getting her running.
The sound of glass and metal clinked to the floor as they fell from Donny's back. The wounds having already pushed the offending material out.
After those two hits to his resources, Mark was sitting around 40% Prana. He had only managed to recover to around 75% before they had to leave the gas station and Mark had given him a 20% hit to make sure Donny was in fighting shape before this thing got up.
Daphne moved past them and went to stand next to Donny.
By now the body had stopped growing and had topped out at 7 feet tall, flesh was starting to coat the strands of muscle underneath.
Grace was gasping in pain and sweat was pouring down her forehead. Tears streamed down her face, her pupils narrowed in fear, transfixed on the growing abomination.
“Grace! Please snap out of it, we need you right now!”
She didn't move to stand on her own. Mark didn't know what was wrong.
They needed to retreat.
A splat came from behind them, then several more. Mark turned his head in time to see smaller drops of ichor forming into more Corrupted, blocking off any route of escape.
This was a trap and they were caught right in the middle of it.