David stood beside Camila at the front of the crowd of people who had decided to go to the airport to attempt the biggest rescue to date, he paused lost in thought about everything that had changed.

  "Don't get loco, I can see you thinking. We use what worked and don't overcomplicate things."

  Camila had a way of knocking him out of his head, so it wasn't a surprise that she did so now just as he was about to try and figure out new tactics for a larger group.

  He caught himself mid-thought and let out a breath. She was right. They'd developed tactics that worked against zombies, using their instincts against them. No need to reinvent the wheel.

  "Bait and clear," David agreed. "Same as the train station. Draw them out, funnel them into kill zones, don't let them surround us."

  Carl pushed through the crowd toward them, a duffel bag slung over one shoulder. "Y'all thinking we use the same tactics, firing line and bait?"

  "Yes." Camila gestured him closer. "We had just agreed that would be best."

  “Do we have enough people with Guns to make that strategy effective?”

  David’s question made Carl pause. After thinking he responded.

  “Despite losing the asshats who follow Micky we picked up enough people to make up for it. Some had their own weapons, though not as many as I would like. I scrounged up enough spare guns to make up the difference. We are still light compared to yesterday and have far too many pistols and not enough long guns, but we can do it.”

  David nodded, better than he had hoped.

  “Hey, Charlie! Get over here! You too Sarah!”

  When the other two came over he asked them if they could circulate and find people with offensive spells and get them organized. Those should make up the difference and David had a feeling that long term they rather than guns were the solution.

  As people completed final preparations The three spoke briefly about their plans for the Airport and how to clear terminal by terminal.

  "Okay," David said, addressing the expanded group.

  "Listen up. We're assuming that, like all the places we have visited so far, the main threat will be zombies. We also know that mutants could be a risk too but the two don’t seem to get along. We are going to use the approach to the departures to control access, then we are going to bait the zombies out and have a nice, organized firing line to take them down. We will make sure that we have a plan to retreat before each engagement and we will take it slow. Once we thin them out we can enter the terminals and start rescuing people.”

  Someone near the back called out, "What if there's too many? We ain't exactly an army."

  "That's why we don't fight fair," Camila said, her voice carrying clearly.

  “They aren’t clever, they respond more like an animal or a wasps nest than people. They don’t have ranged capabilities and while they are strong we can handle small numbers up close if we need to.”

  Carl nodded. "We work in teams y’all. These things cooperate a little but having a buddy who covers you and lets you reload is key. It’s important to take your time and try for head shots. Zombies die if you hit them center mass enough, but it’s way harder that shooting something normal. They may look like a person but they ain’t the same.”

  Charlie then chipped in “Magic is more effective center mass, especially fire magic which seems to kill the spirit animating the zombies.”

  David looked around at the assembled group, people were nodding. Over a hundred people, maybe closer to a hundred and twenty now that stragglers had joined. Most weren't fighters. But they were all choosing to be here.

  "We need to organize properly," David said. "Four elements. Scouting, Fireline, melee protection and medical/support."

  He turned to Billy, who stood with Bessie sitting alertly at his side. "Billy, and I will be running scouting. We both have skills that allow us to sense dangers early. If anyone else has stealth or detection skills or a mobility skill form up over there with Billy.”

  Billy nodded, one hand resting on Bessie's head. The mutt's ears twitched as if she understood the importance of her role.

  "Carl, will coordinate the shooters. He will work with Charlie and Sarah who will coordinate casters who can throw an attack spell to kill zombies. Form up with them it that’s you."

  David gestured to the people carrying firearms already with Carl. "You’re our main damage dealers, casters you need to watch your mana levels and rotate out to rest BEFORE you run dry! Gunners, keep an eye on your ammunition."

  "Copy that," Carl said in his southern drawl. "I'll get them organized into proper fire teams."

  "Camila, will run the melee element." David met her eyes. "Protect the shooters, handle any zombies that break through, keep everyone alive."

  She gave a sharp nod. "Form up with me if you have stamina combat skills like boost or Health skills that let you take a hit."

  David then turned to Mark.

  “Mark is in charge of the support. He will be operating all the healers so if you have a healing skill tell him.

  Also, everyone who isn’t confident fighting or doesn’t have a useful skill starts here. You have the most important job; saving people. Ours if they get hurt and survivors. Secondary responsibility is for the vehicles – if you’re confident driving a truck tell Mark.

  Finally, if there are useful things we come across you guys will be responsible for collecting them.

  “Someone spoke from the back “Do we grab people’s luggage when we rescue them?”

  “Good question, my immediate answer is NO. We can come back for it later the survivors are the priority.”

  Another question “Why will everyone still be asleep? We woke up!”

  Charlie answered that one “Dude, great question! The Obelisk and the safe zone help keep you healthy while you initiate your system so it goes faster and smoother. The further you get from the Obelisk the longer it takes, though we know there are exceptions so there might be people who are awake. So watch for that…”

  David finished “Now there are a few people who have crowd control magic.” Here he gestured at Sarah. If you have some of that come and talk to me so I can tweak your assignment.

  The group organized, David looked around. They were light on guns, and maybe had more people than he really wanted in support but he could understand that. The real worry was crowd control.

  It was him and Sarah. That was a great ratio when it was just them, but wouldn’t cover the group, especially if he was scouting.

  Within twenty minutes, they had everything sorted out and were ready to go with a functional structure. Not perfect, but workable.

  "Alright," Carl announced. "We load up. Stick with your squad. Support folks, you good to drive them all?”

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  Mark gave him a thumbs up and they loaded up. David looked on, wishing they had more effective transportation for their people. He made a note to grab some school buses or something if the opportunity arose. Maybe they could even get an airport courtesy shuttle or two…

  Their convoy headed out with the trucks rolling out of the safe zone. David couldn’t swear to it but he felt the expansion of the zone had slowed to a crawl, maybe even stopped.

  David fell into step beside Camila, Billy and Bessie on his other side as they loaded up in what he was thinking of as the command truck, not Carl’s original one which he didn’t see anywhere but one of the big ones they had picked up from Home Depot. Carl was up front driving.

  "This is bigger than anything we've tried before," Camila said quietly.

  "I know." David kept his voice low. "But the principle is the same. Stay organized, don't panic, trust the tactics."

  "And if the tactics don't work?"

  "Then we adapt." He tried to sound more confident than he felt. "We've done it before."

  She studied his face for a moment, then nodded. "Okay. Let's go save some people."

  The drive to the airport was fairly uneventful. They saw Micky’s patrols immediately after leaving then went through the usual routine picking past wrecks and out to the highway and round towards the airport which was at the edge of town, though over the decades the town had grown out to envelop it.

  David rode in the command pickup with Camila, Carl, Billy, Bessie, Charlie, Katie, Mark, and Sarah. It was psychological but having the team around him calmed David’s nerves and reassured him.

  They were the first vehicle and had scouting and heavy hitting so that made sense.

  He found himself listening with his spiritual hearing more than his normal senses. Combining that with the ability to send out his personal spirits and he could sense that as before the further they got from the safe zone the more pockets of Nath there were. He was now also aware of the flutters of free Nath that seemed to flit like butterflies between their embodied kin.

  The highway towards the airport was pretty clear. The odd crashed car but no major pileups. He just hoped the elevated concrete roadways of the approach were this free.

  "Airport's coming up," Carl called through the open window. "Two miles to the exit."

  David reached out with his hearing, pushing it as far as he could manage. Nothing yet. Just the background murmur of Nath scatted across the suburbs they moved through.

  "We've got company," David said. "Not close yet, what you would expect. I think they are still stuck in houses for the most part as I’m not picking up concentrations of them."

  Billy's eyes unfocused slightly as he concentrated. Bessie's ears perked up, then she gave a little whine. "Yeah, Bessie is smelling death on the wind, also something else. I think mutant but it’s faint."

  "Coming up now, focus on the airport boys." Camila ordered.

  David and Billy exchanged glances. "OK," Billy said. "I’ll speak up if Bessie gets something, she’s enjoying having her nose in the wind despite the smell of death so nothing is worrying her yet..."

  Carl slowed as the convoy hit the airport exit. "Alright folks, this is it. We take this as close as we can then dismount and form up."

  The trucks pulled onto the ramp to the overpass leading to Departures. There were a few cars disabled on the overpass and they were able to maneuver past them easily enough on the multi lane areas.

  The first real problem occurred when they hit the turn to the first domestic terminal. An SUV was slewed across the road at 45% it’s front crumpled against the side. They might be able to inch past with the pickup but the bigger trucks were never going to fit.

  David saw that other crashed vehicles on the approach to the terminal also offered potential chokepoints.

  As the convoy halted David focused on his hearing. The whisper of active Nath was clearly audible ahead and at a glance he could even see a few figures milling around.

  The group was dismounting and moving into their designated clusters, apparently undetected.

  The scouts as the smallest group assembled first. David called out to the others.

  “We are going to move up and check ahead while you get organized. Mark, do you think your group can get this SUV moved so they can bring the trucks closer? I like the idea of having lots of space when we fight our way in, but it will be a pain once we start rescuing survivors.”

  “Sure, we can look at that once the fighters have us covered.”

  "They're scattered," David announced to his group. "Not agitated yet, we need to avoid a fight because if you kill one it will alert the others as it dies and they will come swarming out. Our job is to figure out the best place to start a fight, so keep an eye out for trouble and good chokepoints where the gunners can work safely.”

  They moved forward cautiously crouching low despite the poor eyesight of the zombies, it was just instinctive.

  Carl and Camila were already organizing their groups and before they got out of earshot David could hear instructions.

  "First line takes position here, second line watch the approaches on the overpass, I know we haven’t seen any zombies on the way in but it’s still our best line of approach and it’s our way out if we get In trouble…”

  Billy and Bessie moved in front of David. The dog was low to the group like she was stalking a rabbit, her wagging tail the only clue that she wasn’t deadly serious yet. As they advanced her posture changed and her tail stilled. A low growl warned then something was wrong as they approached a flipped vehicle that had clearly been going too fast when the driver collapsed.

  "She smells something! Not the zombies, something else." Billy said quietly. "She doesn’t like it at all…”

  David nodded, gesturing to the other scouts to be ready as he moved to check the only place that a surprise could be waiting. Inside the downed vehicle.

  His spiritual senses picked up a faint buzzing sound, familiar and rising in cadence. It was much harder to hear than the murmur of the Nath but it grated his hearing now that he picked it up.

  He pointed urgently towards the flipped vehicle and then spoke softly “OK, this is a decent chokepoint. I’m not sure what will happen when we engage but there is a mutant in that vehicle.”

  Everyone froze. His scouts all had guns, still the idea was to scout not to fight. The plan was for Carl and Camila to start things once they were ready.

  Waving his hands he let the scouts know that they needed to retreat, slowly.

  They fell back, reaching the main lines and sharing their findings.

  “There is something, I think a mutant, in the overturned vehicle. We can’t get an easy line of sight to it and don’t want to start something that might attract zombies until you are ready.

  Camila replied. “Sounds like a job for my close in fighters with some support.”

  With a little more discussion they were moving up. Using the advance as practice having groups of gunners and casters leapfrog each other until they were close. The Melee troops that Camila had assembled numbered around twenty and were divided into two groups – one left with the first group of gunners and casters and the other advancing with Camila herself plus David, Sarah and Charlie.

  David was tense, every encounter with a mutant had been paid for in blood. They were fast, strong and flexible. Their natural blade claws were formidable weapons and there was little doubt that they were far, far more dangerous than the zombies could ever be.

  As they approached Camila gestured for her fighters to fan out as she herself advanced holding the four-foot crowbar that was rapidly becoming her signature weapon/tool combination.

  David watched ready to support with Halt at the first opportunity, noting that the willowy Latina was even more graceful now than when he had first met her. She was wearing tight, form-fitting clothing and David couldn’t help but admire her graceful form as she cleared the front of the car.

  The creature surged forward, clearly attacking as soon as it had line of sight and was certain it was no longer hidden from this new threat. As it moved the buzzing sound David associated with the Mutants increased in volume.

  As it surged into sight around the vehicle Camila was already moving with the explosive power of a triggered use of her Boost skill. There was a flurry of movement as the creature twisted to avoid her crowbar even as she danced backwards drawing it out into the open where everyone could attack.

  The creature reared up claws raised for a devastating slashing attack when David hit it. Unsure how much he needed he poured everything into his attack, committing fully half of his spirit reserves as well as a massive chunk of his available resources to ensure a quick end to the fight.

  “HALT!”

  The word exploded out its force amplified farther than any individual cast he had used in training, even though she wasn’t the target he saw Camila’s steps stutter as the wave of power passed her. Then it hit the creature mid-advance.

  It fell, tumbling like reaped wheat. Even as it Crashed down Camila shouted.

  “Now, mob it before it recovers!”

  Suiting action to words She rushed forward with her crowbar. David followed with his broom handle even as the other fighters in the first group joined in the rush. In moments there was a circle of pummeling humans surrounding the enemy in a frenzy of attacks.

  David could feel the creature writhing and fighting his control desperate to break free. He could feel the strength he had lent his spirits fading quickly. Still, the creature couldn’t move immediately.

  That was the end of the fight, a single use of his spell and he had crippled the thing and given the other fighters an easy beating to administer.

  quietly confident that with all the progress he had made with Halt he could stop the creature.

  Charlie, who had nothing to do until now, spoke calmy.

  “Guys.”

  As the group continued to pummel the mutant hideously elongated body his voice grew more urgent.

  “Uh Guys! Heads up! Incoming!”

  There were twelve of them, Zombies shambling down the access road from the terminal. Clearly having sensed something from the engagement.

  Worse than that, David could hear a change in the murmur of the Nath in the background. They had stopped. They were listening and then softly spreading like a ripple, spoken softly, repeated by hundreds, maybe thousands of voices.

  “Danger, Danger, Danger!”

  The Nath Chorus shifted in seconds, every Nath within the range of his senses had responded.

  David paused, unsure. This was the first time the Nath had broken their predictable patterns.

  Facing the oncoming zombies he didn’t see anything different, it was like they baited them. Only this wasn’t a response to a death scream, so their predictable patterns had changed.

  He felt an icy tendril of doubt and fear crawling up his back even as everyone moved smoothly to initiate the plan.