“Drop to the ground…..NOW!” The cops yelled out again. They seemed to be led by the big man in the center with red hair.
Their guns mostly aimed at Moses, though some were also trained on Abraham and Elijah.
Elijah stepped back slightly so he was a bit more obscured by the powdery mist in the air.
Standard Australian police issue. Glock 22. 15 round capacity .40 caliber pistol. Elijah thought as he gazed at the guns.
Instead of dropping on the ground Moses simply stood there as if daring them to fire.
“Fucking Noongar's. There is a zombie apocalypse and your still stealing cars.” The man with the red hair said with a look of scorn on his face.
The brothers had forgotten they were 18 again. In Perth, Western Australia there was a common stereotype that Aboriginal youths were all car thief’s and criminals.
The brothers were not strangers to racism. They had grown up in an era where Aboriginal people did not have the right to vote or have many basic civil rights. In fact when they came back from WWII they were not even allowed to march in the ANZAC parades.
“Firstly, we aren’t Noongar. You got the wrong tribe mate,” Moses spat.
Noongar’s were the collection of Aboriginal clans in the South west of Western Australia. Their mother was from Pilbara region in the north west of the state.
Their tribe was Palyku.
“Secondly, if you put those Glocks down and slide them over here I won’t have to kill you.”
“Like fuck we will you little bastard. You circulate so much as inch of Qi and I’ll blow your fucking head off.”
Elijah began to relax his breath as he felt the tension in the room build.
For the three brothers an apocalypse was nothing new to them. They’d lived through WWII and Vietnam. They had survived the end of the world and lived to see what was on the other side.
They knew the ruthless precision that was required to survive.
A minute passed as the brothers faced off against the Cops...............
The red haired Cop stared down the barrel of his Glock as his stomach flipped. The eyes of the three kids across from him were cold and empty.
They looked like messengers of death.
They’re just punks…..just fucking punks. The Cop kept repeating in his mind as if trying to convince himself.
Despite having their Immortal Path’s unlocked not all the Cops were as strong of heart as the red haired man. Their guns wavered slightly as the tension built and their arms began to feel heavy.
Tension caused a lot of wasted energy and it was easy to fatigue while in a state of high tension.
Not only did Moses know this, he counted on it. The longer the stand off drew out the more relaxed he was and the more tightly wound the Cops became.
“warghhh.” The muffled sound of a random zombie echoed as it crawled into the middle of the room. Its legs were shredded and it slowly pulled itself across the floor towards Elijah.
No one even looked at the zombie as they gazed at each other across the room.
Moses eyes tightened.
Fingers on triggers began to twitch.
“Don’t do it maaaan.” One of the Cops pleaded as he saw Moses’s left hand shake.
Like a spark next to kerosene it didn’t take much to cause the room to explode.
Moses flicked his cigarette butt out of his right hand and it flew through the air as if in slow motion.
The eyes of the Cops tracked it as it rose high in the air before falling with unerring accuracy towards one of the cops.
Ping!
It bounced off his left eye and caused him to wince as the ash flew.
The Cops finger twitched.
BANG!
A bullet shot out towards Moses.
BOOM!
A wave of Green wooden Qi exploded from Moses and his skin changed into withered bark and a bullet ricocheted off his chest.
A second explosion rocked out and the taste of Metal Qi filled the air. Abraham had already leaped into the air the moment the cigarette left Moses's hand. He burned his reserves of Metal Qi and it caused his skin to shine with a silvery sheen as he hurtled through space like some kind of mad angel.
Elijah slid on the ground and picked up the crawling zombie and held it front of him as a meat shield. A wave of bullets sped his way and collided with the zombie.
THUNK
THUNK
THUNK
The first two rounds were absorbed by the zombie’s body, but the third splintered through and grazed the side of his face.
Unlike the other brothers, he had already spent his Qi reserves back in the hospital.
He threw the zombie as he closed and it landed face first on a cop and sunk its teeth into his face.
“Arghhh!” the cop screamed as Elijah exploded over the counter.
A gun rose to his head to the right and he spun chopping at the cops arm. The move knocked the shot astray as the bullet left the chamber and the gun went sprawling.
The cop with the zombie on top off him put a round in the zombie’s head and began to struggle free.
No hesitation. Elijah thought as his body moved on muscle memory.
He struck again at the Cop to his right as his fingers jabbed the man’s throat.
Just as his fingers struck flesh they bounced off and Elijah felt a finger break.
The Cops eyes lit up with glowing stars and the eternity of time and space glowed inside them.
Ohh fuck.
Elijah dropped low as a beam of light exploded out of the man’s eyes and tore a hole through the wall.
A bright flash of light shone and the whole room heated up.
Elijah leaped to the side and over to the loose Glock on the ground. As he grabbed it he turned and began to pop off rounds.
Three rounds hit the Cop in the head and bounced off so Elijah put the fourth round in his chest and the fifth round in his nuts.
“unghhh.” The Cop grunted as the glow in his eyes dimmed and he dropped to his knees holding his groin.
Only the fifth round in his nuts had gotten through.
Elijah sprung up as bullets sprayed towards him. He used the kneeling Cops body as a shield and popped a round into the head of the Cop he had thrown the zombie at.
The bullet went straight through the Cops head and brains exploded out the back.
Not wasting time, Elijah turned his gun point blank towards the kneeling Cop and blew his brains out.
A surge filled Elijah’s body and the Red Lightning Qi poured into him as he felt a small Core sea begin to form deep inside his body. The sea was a deep scarlet red and it flickered with an electrical charge.
What the fuck?
As the man’s body keeled over, Elijah looked up.
All the other Cops lay dead.
Some were riddled with bullets while others necks and bodies were simply broken askew.
Red lightning flashed in Elijah’s eyes for a moment before fading away.
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“You guys level up?” Eli asked.
“Yup.” Abe replied and Moses nodded his head as well.
“It’s weird, seems like a lot more experience and points for killing humans.” Abe said.
“Scavenge first then evac.” Elijah said and the brothers went to work with a practiced expertise.
Bullet-proof vests were stripped off the cops that had them and were equipped. Side and shoulder holsters for multiple guns were strapped.
Abe checked the back and came out with a duffle bag filled with more guns and ammo as well as flashbangs.
In under 5 minutes they had picked the Police Station dry and were locked and loaded.
“One of these guys had this on him.” Abe said tossing some kind of jade scroll to Elijah.
“What the fuck is this?” He said as he unrolled it. The scroll was covered with countless strange characters that he couldn’t make heads or tails of.
Some strange instinct compelled him to press it to his head. He held it there for a moment but nothing happened.
Thinking for a moment he injected the tiniest trace of Qi into the Jade scroll and a burst of power lit up the scroll.
Instantly knowledge poured into his mind.
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BASIC GUIDE TO THE IMMORTAL PATH – 10 POINTS
LEVELING
Killing provides experience. Experience provides levels. Groups of levels correspond to stages of cultivation:
· Qi Condensation
· Foundation Establishment
· Core Formation
· Nascent Soul
· Spirit Severing
· Dao Seeking
· Immortal Ascension
UPGRADING CULTIVATION METHOD
Killing provides Points. Points are used to purchase upgrades to your cultivation method. At higher levels your cultivation method will develop new applications which can be purchased.
THE SHOP
Cultivators can purchase pills, weapons and other upgrades through the shop interface. All purchases require points.
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“Holy shit.” Elijah said as he flung the scroll to Moses. Moses copied what Elijah had done and absorbed the knowledge.
“Shop.” Elijah said and a drop down screen appeared in front of him.
He had 20,000 points which could be used to purchase random items. All sorts of items seemed to be in the shop, most of which he did not understand.
As Elijah was looking at an almost infinite list of items zombies began to stagger into the Police Station.
“Zulu’s back.” Abe said. He pulled out a knife he had taken of one of the Cops and went about dispatching the roamers.
As Abe cleared, Elijah assessed the situation.
“Alright first things first. Mo, no more Jabberwocky shit please.” Elijah said seriously as his eyes bored into Moses’s. Driving a car through a Police Station window was only the tip of the iceberg of what could happen when Moses got loose.
“Don’t go back their bro.”
Jabberwocky was a monster in a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll. Abe and Elijah had first coined the term to describe Moses’s murderous side back in Vietnam.
Moses wasn’t built the same as Abe and Elijah, while he wasn’t a complete sociopath he wasn’t far off. The more he killed the worse he got.
Elijah’s mind cast back to a village in Vietnam. Not a single soul was left alive by the time they had found Moses standing over a pile of corpses. All he kept saying over and over again was that he had neutralized the threat.
Logical. Precise.
Borderline inhuman.
But fuck he was a magnificent killer. Elijah thought. That was the day they had called him Jabberwocky.
Moses returned Elijah’s gaze with unfathomable eyes. They had been through this so many times that the exchange had lost meaning. Only old age had taken the edge off as Elijah's memories had dimmed.
When it came to War, Moses only knew one thing with certainty.
He would survive.
And his brothers would too.
“Don’t go back there?........Unlike you I never left.” Moses said simply.
“Let it be Eli, please let it be.” Abe said.
Elijah gazed at the zombies slowly making their way into the building as he sighed.
What will be will be.
Trying to preserve his brothers soul in the middle of an apocalypse was not achievable.
“Elijah you know what the difference between us and these cops is?” Moses said as he reloaded a Glock.
“What?” Elijah replied.
“They thought they were trapped in a world of zombies.”
“So how is that different from us?”
“Heh, we aren’t trapped in a world of zombies. The zombies are trapped in a world with us.”
Moses looked up with a glint of a stone cold killer as he slid the clip back into the gun.
“Haven’t you worked it out yet brother? We are the Jabberwocky’s.”
Elijah saw himself reflected in Moses eyes and he didn’t like what he saw.
The rush of the Divine Youth Pill had started to fade and the reality of war came roaring back.
The blood.
The death
The murder.
Worst yet…….
The joy of killing.
A long suppressed memory surfaced in his mind.
The village back in ‘Nam and the fall of rain that couldn’t disguise the stench of death.
Moses hadn’t been the only one in that village.
They had all been there, even Abe. Elijah watched in his memory as the blood flowed down his face as he hacked person after person down. Smiling, he was always smiling when he killed.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son. The jaws that bite, the claws that catch.” Elijah whispered as he remembered the massacre.
Moses was right.
We are the monsters.