With a desperate yell David triggered Halt focusing on the advancing zombies, desperate to stop them spreading out. He felt power rush out of him, more than that he felt something deep inside him stir and reach out as the word he had shouted resonated oddly in his spiritual hearing, different somehow from the physical.
The zombies crashed to a halt.
The effect was devastating, all voluntary movement ceased but not forward momentum. Already clumsy the creatures tumbled like bowling pins.
Then the others were reacting. There was a flare of light and flame as Charlie started to cast. Deafening explosions as Carl fired his gun.
Then things got really frantic as the noise shocked everyone into momentary stillness then frantic motion. Most of the zombies were still down, but the ones struck by the teams initial counter attack were moving.
The one struck by Carls initial shot writhed and struggled to rise even as he hit is again and again center mass. The one Charlie struck fared worse, His bolt had set it alight and it was burning far too easily with David hearing the thing inside the body shrieking as he realized it was burning.
David reeled, he somehow felt connected to the fallen zombies and the strangled abbreviated death shriek of the burning creature cut into his head like nails on a chalk board.
He dimly heard Charlie screaming “go for the head!”
Then the roar of Carls gun paused before he resumed firing twice more before David’s head was split by a far louder death scream.
Camila and Mark were going on the offensive going for heads on the downed zombies. Charlie added another blossom of flame and yet another burning zombies emitted a choked off death scream.
David could feel the zombies, or more accurately the Nath, the parasites which animated them. His magic still held them, though they broke free when attacked with a surge of something, an emotional outburst without words that felt awfully like betrayal.
Carls gun had fallen silent and a moment later he yelled “reloading”.
Still the zombies didn’t rise as Charlie lit a third, and a fourth and Camila and Mark staved in skulls ending unlives. They only started to react when attacked and slow and clumsy as they were it wasn’t enough.
The death screams kept coming.
David noted with a sort of detached surprise that it was getting easier to think, to move even now that fewer and fewer zombies remained. Some strain he hadn’t realized he was feeling was fading.
David found himself thinking clearly. They were winning. Then he looked at the crowbar in his hands and rushed to join his friends raising the weapon with a cry.
Camila’s arm blurred with power and every blow staggered the zombies, even striking hard enough to leave dents in her aluminum softball bat. Her low batters strikes were especially devastating when a zombie started to rise.
Mark preferred large overarm swings of his improvised wooden club, battering the zombie back to ground and establishing a rhythm where the creatures hapless attempts to rise just put it back into the impact zone.
David joined them swinging his crowbar with adrenaline fueled fury ignoring the death cries now as wet crunches marked his impacts. In moments he was breathing hard, arms aching as he exerted himself and his blows started to slow even as Mark and especially Camila moved smoothly onto new foes, seemingly inexhaustible.
Ten seconds later it was all over, the three melee fighters stood over the last zombies. Carl and Charlie had to stop firing at the end because they didn’t have a clear shot.
David felt sweat pouring down his face as he gasped for breath. Camila and Mark were also breathing deeply but seemed far better off than him even though they did most of the work. All of them bathed in the warm rush of XP, so much sweet XP.
With everyone’s ears ringing Carl spoke “Well, shit! You ain’t jacked up on roids are you?”
Camila responded “No I’m not some muscle-bound He-Man, maybe a bit of black widow being a total badass…”
Charlie broke in “Holy shit, you were awesome! Was that your skill in action?”
Camila nodded “Boost for the win! Puts the power in girl power…”
Mark responded looking confused “Damn, I totally want to get that but if it’s a women only power…”
Charlie opened his mouth to correct Mark. Camila and David shared a look then burst out laughing. It was slightly hysterical, releasing tension but Mark’s honest mistake made them both crack up. Charlie realized why they were laughing even as Mark and Carl joined in, seeing the joke.
As the levity faded Camila took charge of loading the survivors.
“Get them on the stretchers, lets move people.”
A few seconds later she spoke more quietly to David “I’m pretty low on Stamina, help me get him up.”
David silently noted that boost was incredibly powerful but seemed to be pretty resource hungry.
Working together they loaded the family of survivors and were just starting to head towards the exit.
David hissed “More coming.”
Assessing for a second he spoke “Carl, Charlie, behind us – don’t take risks but see if you can slow them down if they get close. Mark, Camila let’s get these stretchers moving.”
Seconds later the group was rolling meeting Sarah, Billy and Katie who were heading their way.
Still fired up from combat David snarled at them “goddam it! We can’t keep doing this. Why are you guys here? We need to know the route to the vehicles is safe…”
Everyone paused and just when it looked like there was about to be an argument Camila yelled, more to be heard over the ringing in her ears.
“Not now, lets go. You three help us to get the stretchers to the vehicles.”
The tension was cut by the explosion of Carl’s gun, followed by a whoosh of fire from behind.
Then a yell “Move! Move!” followed by more gunfire.
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
David again yelled orders “Billy, clear ahead of us, Sarah support him. Katie take my stretcher!”
Sarah, who had been heading in the direction of the fight paused then asked
“Why! They need help!”
She then moved towards Charlie and Carl who were trailing behind the others clearly intending to add her ice magic to the mix. Katie thankfully took the stretcher from David as he moved falling back as well yelling at Sarah.
“Because I have Halt and can stop all the bloody zombies to buy time while your spell gives Billy cover if he needs ranged support.”
Sarah flushed then looked rebellious “but I can do this!”
She then unleashed her ice bolt straight at a zombie that was lurching out of the ER exit towards the lobby. She scored a direct hit and the creatures head and torso where shrouded in frost. It kept coming, slower and less certain but not dropped.
Charlie cast again and lit up the zombie behind the frosted one causing it to collapse and release its death scream within a second or two.
Sarah’s response was bracketed with muttered expletives “not fair! Why do they die when you attack them?”
Charlies’ response sounded smug, “stats are king! Plus I think these suckers might be weak to fire and head shots.”
Sarah huffed “I did get a head shot, it’s not like outside when I kept missing them!”
David looked at Charlie with concern “Did you buy health like we talked about?”
Charlie responded “bro, I like totally get your view but now is not the time to debate builds! Be glad I have the extra juice!”
Growling to himself but seeing the point David kept moving.
Carl, Sarah and Charlie picked off zombies as they steadily retreated. The agitated creatures continued to emerge from deeper in the hospital. David watched and judged whether he would need to cast Halt.
Aware of his own mana reserves he wanted to avoid tapping out, though the devastating effect on the pack was still fresh in his mind. Instead he tried to keep an eye on things and yelling instructions to the others to keep them backing up in the right direction.
Katie seeing what he was doing started to call directions to him from where her stretcher was propping the side door next to the now dead automatic doors open.
“Come on we have to get moving”
As she spoke David broke from the group figuring they were doing well enough without him. Sarah dropped her zombie with a second spell and While Carl was laying down measured shots Charlie was doing most of the damage with his spells.
As David took over holding the door it was all going well until Charlie announced, “I’m out of Magic.” Seconds later Sarah followed suit and Carl was left the only one attacking.
“Move, lets get out of here” David yelled and the three turned and rushed towards the door he was holding open. As they did Bessie started barking and growling behind David and the three of them streamed past him even as a zombie entered the lobby.
Not having anything to secure the doors with David quickly fell back veering to put the automatic doors between him and zombie. As he hoped it crashed into the closed panes rather than pushing through the door buying precious seconds for the team to load the survivors.
It was here the stretchers really showed their worth. They were simply run against the back of the trucks and their legs folded in allowing them to slide smoothly inside followed by whoever was pushing them.
Billy was yelling at Bessie and it was only when David looked up that he saw just how badly things were going.
There were a lot of zombies coming around the building into the parking lot from the direction of their first diversion. He stopped counting at dozens and made a beeline for his vehicle.
He saw Mark was already up in the driver’s seat of one truck while Carl was making a beeline for his truck. Katie worked on the stretchers in the back of the big truck as Camila headed for the drivers seat.
Mark was yelling that they had to go as everyone scrambled toward vehicles.
As soon as Sarah got to the pickup Carl started to move Rolling down the looped drive towards the oncoming zombies, clearly planning to make the turn before they got there.
David rushed towards the moving truck he was driving yelling “Stay with the survivors” to Katie as he passed the rearmost truck where they had loaded people.
Quickly jumping up in the cab he put it in gear, glad that they had agreed to leave all the vehicles running. He immediately lurched forward as he started to accelerate down the drive after Carl.
His heart froze when he saw that Billy was chasing Bessie across the grass of the lawn as the dog moved to protect them from the oncoming zombies snarling and barking.
Carl had made the turn and was heading down the road toward the street exit, clear zombie free road ahead of him. David didn’t follow, instead when he reached the end of the looped drive, passing Billy and Bessie he slowed, then pulled across the road facing the oncoming mob of zombies hoping to give them a way out.
There was space for the trucks to come past him so he then reached across the cab to open the passenger door hoping Billy could get the dog in without help.
Then focusing as he wound down his window he prepared to cast, hoping and praying that he could buy enough time.
The rumble of one truck then two passing him told him the others were pulling away. Where was Billy? He didn’t dare look away from the advancing corpses.
The lead elements of the pack of zombies were spilling past the parked cars in the lot and approaching him thirty yards, twenty, ten.
Many of them were looking to pass the front of his truck moving towards the barking snarling dog that had drawn their attention away from the entrance. As half a dozen reached the road he acted.
Throwing everything he had into his skill he unleased Halt trying to engulf as much of the pack as possible.
Again, he felt the surge deep inside him as something awoke, shifting his spell into the spectrum he was now calling the spirit frequency. Then he felt it wash out of him, feeling almost like streamers, or tethers reaching out to touch the Nath crouching within the bodies of dead people.
Everything snapped into focus and again, he was shocked by how effective it was. The closest zombie was almost within arm’s reach of the truck. It lurched to crash stiff and immobile against the drivers door.
More than a dozen of the closest zombies lost their balance and went down, he felt like he had reached and touched them with tethers or reins, commanding them to fall.
Those further away staggered and lurched to a momentary stop with no feeling of touching them.
His focus was totally on the zombies, on keeping them still. Those further away seemed to shake off his command their bodies twitching and the Nath control reemerging. David didn’t know how much time had passed as he felt the ghost in his chest stirring, responding to the tethered spirits.
It was hungry. It wanted these Nath, and he realized dimly that the tethers were its, more accurately they were his but he inherited them from the creature he first faced. What could he do? Instincts were surging, deep, alien.
Dominance, authority, drones to obey.
The alien impressions were more complex than the simple impulses he picked up from the Nath themselves. The further zombies were advancing now and he dimly heard a thump from behind him. Then another and a bang.
Then he heard it. From the closest Nath.
Master?
It was questioning, confused. It awoke something inside him. He wanted this, it felt right, this lesser thing should call him Master. He needed more, more strength. More authority. More tethers.
Instincts he didn’t know he possessed acted, he began to release the other Nath he was holding and like some ethereal squid he began to wrap all his tethers around the last, the closet Nath.
The nearby zombies were now moving, the tide approaching fast. Sound reached his ears, dimly. Not right, not important. No that was wrong. Frequency. It was what his regular ears were hearing.
“David, David! We gotta go man! Move dammit!” Then pain blossomed as something clamped onto David’s arm. Teeth.
Bessie had bitten him and was trying to pull him back from the window across the bench seat toward Billy. With a final wrench he pulled his focus back to himself, feeling something tear free then a rush of something.
The last word he heard was a statement.
Master.
Then he was back, seeing the zombies and moving his foot from brake to gas. Gunning it hard to get the truck moving, the need to escape distracting him from processing the strange sensation he had felt.
Zombies that had been moving had closed with the Truck. Some were even in front of him now. With a roar the truck lurched forward, lightly loaded it had plenty of power to move and its large, heavy bonnet smashed into the nearest zombies.
He tensed, expecting more safety features to bring him to a halt but nothing happened beyond the sickening crunch and bump of at least one body run over. Cheap commercial vehicles were apparently better than modern passenger ones in the apocalypse…
Moments later more death screams filled his senses, causing a strange multi-faceted sense of alarm to ripple through him. At the same time the sweet rush of XP muted this odd feeling of concern for the zombies.
That scream broke any last vestige of paralysis from Halt. The remaining zombies, too many to easily fight, surged forward. Still there were too few of them in front of him to slow him and whatever else the Nath were they didn’t understand the pitiless physics of a truck barreling towards them. With a few more thumps and lurches he accelerated towards freedom, or at least the open road.
