The morning light was just beginning to crest the horizon when Mark’s stomach grumbled with indignation.
“Yes-yes my love I'm going to get something to sate you soon,” he whispered while patting his belly.
Sadly, they had not been in a position to move last night. The dark had made getting to shore a dangerous endeavor. So they had all decided it would be best to wait till morning to find any food and just rested for the remainder of the evening.
Well, try at least, the quiet of the night had brought with it time to think. Something Mark was trying not to do. To grapple with the reality that the old life that had prevailed for generations before, was over.
Mark’s thoughts spiraled for a long time until exhaustion took him. He felt like he had only just fallen asleep before the sound of Grace’s alarm went off.
They had agreed to move very early. So when it was light enough, they started towards land.
They needed to get to the center of Brooklyn and the best place to do that was to land near the Coney island docks. The map said to avoid this area as this would be a high-traffic zone. So they chose to move further up the coast. There was a more secluded set of docks there, as a bonus if they could get off the beach and onto one of the main roads it was a pretty straight shot to Prospect Park.
As the land came closer they started to make out more details. The beach was mostly empty, however, they could see the odd shambling corpse here and there. Beyond that was a sight that shocked them all.
Almost every building had cracks in its stonework or was splattered with black ichor. The tall skyscrapers in the city beyond still stood, but with all that damage caused by the ichor who knows for how long. Ruble lay in the streets along with overturned trash cans, rubbish, and abandoned vehicles. From their vantage point, there wasn't a single soul in sight.”
Donny began guiding the boat toward the nearby jetty. The boat was almost completely out of gas so no one was bothered about abandoning it there. They all jumped out and made their way down the jetty.
During their ride to the docks, Mark had used the time to unfasten the handrails on the boat with his screwdriver. He had given them to Donny and Daphne. They were nothing more than oddly shaped poles of steel.
They made terrible weapons, but the alternative was fighting zombies with their fists. They tried to be as silent as possible when they got to the sand
Unfortunately, their arrival did not go unnoticed and the conditions on the beach were worse than they first appeared. As zombies turned and started making their way over, Mark counted eight in total. Donny moved forward to stand at the front. Mark glanced over to Daphne who seemed paralyzed.
Mark had given her the weapon because she was an Aura user and she would have to get used to being on the frontline.
He gently brushed past her, whispering “Come on Daph you got this.” when she didn't move Mark tried to jolt her by putting a hand on her should.
She was trembling.
Mark sighed. “Okay, I got this” he reached forward and grasped the metal pole from her hand. She put up no resistance letting him take it from her grasp.
“Guys, get ready!” Grace shouted while small arcs of lightning whirled around her.
Stopping just beside Donny, Mark readied his weapon. He was worried, of course. He’d be stupid not to be. Right now, his build did not want him up front, but Daphne did not look like she could move right now. So he’d do what he had to.
Mark raised a hand and simply thought about using the [Force Bolt] and he could feel the Mana moving on its own.
“Huh so getting the skill automates the mana?” he thought
A small blue bolt of energy formed in his hand. He aimed for the closest zombie and fired—the bolt went screaming toward the neck and detonated rapidly separating the head from the body. Slatters of blood and viscera went flying backward into the approaching hoard.
At the same time. A finger-thick bolt of electricity went flashing past Mark and smashed into the torso of one of the zombies. Streams of electricity arced off the first one and then jumped to a nearby zombie dropping both to the ground.
Donny moved forward to engage three of them, swinging the bar down, a sickening crunch of bone and metal could be heard.
Mark's attention went back to the remaining two, who were very close by now. He prepped another bolt, but in his rush, it skewed slightly off target blowing off the zombie's right shoulder and staggering it.
However, it still looked very much alive. The other zombie arrived just as the first one had recovered. Mark raised his weapon and swung as they came into range. The pole cracked into the injured one's skull, dropping it. A flashing appeared in the corner of his eye.
At the same time, the second one lunged forward and brought its mouth right to Mark's neck. Mark had just enough time to get his arm in the way before its teeth sunk into his flesh.
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White hot burning pain ripped a scream from Mark’s lungs. He tried to shove the zombie away, but with one arm pinned to his chest still holding his weapon and the other in its mouth, he couldn't get any purchase.
Suddenly Daphne appeared in corner of his vision, and an immense vibration shook through the zombie as She hit it in the ribs with enough power to shatter nearly every bone in its chest.
Unfortunately for Mark, the creature did not let go. In fact, the zombie began ripping and thrashing eliciting even more pain from his wounds. Mark made a desperate plan. Daphne’s earlier impact had allowed him to release the pole and get his hand up just above the creature's clavicle. Placing his hand flat he cast the Force Bolt spell once more. Taking form near instantly it detonated and sent both Mark and the zombie in opposite directions. Mark's world shook and spun. His neck where the spell had hit was burning like molten rock, he tried to sit up and when that caused him to almost puke his guts out he lay back down.
Already he could feel his Prana going to work, fixing anything it passed. He blinked once and tried sitting up again. When he did he was greeted by the sight of Donny ripping his weapon out of the last zombie's skull. He must have only been down for seconds. ‘Damn that passive regen was a beast.’ he thought.
Looking down at his forearm grinning. The blood had already stopped. It still hurt like crazy and would still take some time to heal properly, but even now he could see the flesh slowly trying to knit back together.
Getting up he looked around there were no zombies left alive in the area. He had taken out three, and so had Donny just with significantly less effort and injuries. Mark looked over at Daphne and Grace to see if they were okay.
Grace had a look of disgust on her face her eyes were glued to his wounds and Daphne looked horrified.
“Thanks for the help Daph, but we need to move, more could be here any moment,” Mark said his voice sounding hoarse from the explosion.
He looked down at the fallen zombies and noted that all of them wore some form of clothing. That meant all of these ones had been people before this. They had had lives and dreams and now they were just rotting corpses in the sand.
Mark felt the acidic bile at the back of his throat threatening to bubble up. He turned his eyes away from the sight and towards the buildings in front of them.
The nearest was a set of apartments, it was mostly still intact, but a good portion was covered in what looked like solidified ichor.
Mark didn't like the look of it but they needed to get out of the open. He grabbed everyone's attention by pointing to the apartment.
Everyone followed his gaze and Donny nodded. They gathered up and began moving toward the building.
The couple minutes it took to cross the sand felt like forever to Mark. With each step nearer to the apartments the more it seemed to loom over them.
Crossing from sand to tar they made their way to the front entrance. There were a set of glass doors that led into the lobby. Containing a small service desk and two elevators.
Donny pulled on the handle, and it opened. They all dashed inside.
The lobby was in a state, things were strewn about the floor and a single lamp on the desk provided light to the room. Good, the power is still on, mark thought
Closing the door behind them, Grace and Donny dragged a large potted plant over to block the door.
Panting and in pain, Mark sat up against the wall. His wounds had not gotten any worse thanks to the regeneration passive and looking at the rate of healing it would be completely closed in the next two hours. Sadly even this miracle-like healing speed was too slow right now. They could be in a fight any second now if he waited for it to close the bite he would be down one arm in any future fights.
Closing his eyes he tried to ignore the pain from his neck and arm, radiating like two separate heartbeats.
He began to move his Prana, first to the bite. Willing the flesh to seal and scab over. Promoting cell growth and regeneration in the muscles. The wound closed in seconds. Next, he moved his attention to his neck. Unsure what was damaged he tried sending waves of Prana through the area. Hoping to see some areas more damaged than others. Then he'd hopefully be able to diagnose what was wrong. With each wave, he got a clearer picture. Until he determined there were minor fractures in the surrounding cartilage around his vocal cords. A ping went off beside his ear.
Sending a burst of Prana in the area had healed it up rapidly. Checking his reserves, he found that with the increased efficiency of his area-focused healing. He had only lost about 20% of his Prana
Mark opened his eyes and got to his feet, renewed.
“Guys, does anyone have any wounds they want me to check?” Mark asked everyone.
Donny and Grace shook their heads, Mark expected Donny to have at least a couple of minor wounds.
However, he just grinned like an idiot. “Hah please, I’m way too fast for those slow-moving targets.”
After almost rolling his eyes into the back of his head, he spotted Daphne moving forward clutching her right fist with her left.
“Um I hurt my hand, could you take a look at it?”
Mark sat her down. She said the pain was in her hand, near her pinky finger.
Mark nodded and took hold of her hand. Sending in a wave of Prana he tried to determine what was wrong. He noted the wave released much quicker this time and gave him a better picture.
She actually had a break in the neck of her 5th metacarpal bone. Mark froze and stared up at Daphne in shock, while a smile slowly crept onto his face.
“You have a broken metacarpal bone”
Now it was her turn to look shocked
Also known as a Boxer's injury, did you punch a zombie to save me?" Mark knew she had hit the zombie earlier - it was the main reason he had managed to escape. He just never would have imagined this small girl would just dash forward and punch the thing.
Grace began to smile and Donny was trying not to burst out laughing.
Daphne blushed
“You were in trouble, what else was I supposed to do?” she wined pulling her hand from his.
This caused Donny to lose control, bursting out into fits of muffled laughter.
Seeing how she was pouting now Mark looked at her and said with absolute sincerity.
“Thank you, really, you were very brave to come to my rescue. I'm glad to know you have my back, now should we get this healed up?”
He asked while holding his hand out for her to take again.
After a moment of hesitation, she did.
Mark closed his eyes and sent his Prana into the wound, heading straight to the bone. He prompted it to begin growing in the correct manner. He noticed right away that healing bone took more prana than anything else. When he was finished that small bone had taken almost as much as both of his injuries had in total.
“Okay, that should do it” Mark smiled once more.
“Oh hell yeah, I leveled up.” Donny said “guys check your statuses”
Mark blinked, status? Then he realized he was referring to the blue boxes. Mark vaguely remembered that's what they were called in the books he used to read. Looking around they were safe for now, he could take a moment. Nodding to himself he opened his Status.