Chapter 27

St. John’s was a total bust. I didn’t detect any Weapons in the city or at the jail although Mace stopped the car at one point near a big trucking yard and mentioned that there were a whole hell of a lot of them in there. He made a whole bunch of notes and then drove on, just letting sleeping dogs lie I guess.

I figured we’d drive back to the ferry and then on to the mainland, but no. We were flying and would pick up a different car in Moncton for the remainder of our lonely tour of the rest of the great Atlantic provinces.

Big, Pretty, Friendly...

Mostly Boring.

That basically describes the next few weeks. The East Coasters are a friendly group and If we stayed at a small town it was guaranteed that there was a show, or a dance, or one of their musical houseparties called a ‘Ceilidhs’. We were invited so often that even with no musical skill at all, I ended up buying my own set of spoons to play along with (look it up, they’re a riot). Mace didn’t play but had a great baritone and joined in on rhythmic songs, singing the chorus when he could. We learned a lot of new songs and made a number of single-serving friends but work-wise it was a total bust. In all the Atlantic provinces there are only a dozen prisons, and we didn’t find anyone who already had a weapon. It was looking more and more like this mission was going to be a waste.

The port of Halifax is one of the world’s greatest natural naval ports. A narrow neck with a defensible island smack-dab in the middle, and it bottles up a huge deep basin. The town that sprung up on the shores has changed over time, and it is commerce and tourism, not the military that now dominates the shoreline.

In the middle of a park near the shore, beneath a huge sculpture of a wave is the areas most famous portal. The area was already a hub for tourists and locals alike; nearby there was a large children’s park and ice cream stands. During the better weather in the summer it was packed. The portal was just another curiosity for tourists and locals to look at.

Fortunately for everyone, the second outbreak happened really late at night, with only those staggering home from the bars about.

Folks like me.

Mace had opted to stay-in that night while I went bar-hopping looking for some live music and bored lady. I found the music (and was working on an interested lady), choosing to stay a bit and listen to a 3-piece blues band while drinking a locally made ale. Just around midnight, some group of guys ran in from outside and slammed the door shut. The band wasn’t put off in the slightest but I was. I turned to look at these dudes and saw them laying someone in a table just as I heard them asking if anyone here was a doctor.

Uh-oh.

It took a few moments to figure out that this wasn’t a hit-n-run or some street fight gone sour, there had been another Breakout.

‘The Wave’ was about two blocks North of me, so I knew then and there that any hope of keeping the Zombies bottled up and wiping them all out was long gone. My phone rang, without glancing at it I answered “I’m about two blocks south of the purple Portal, I’m about to gear up and go hunting Zombies!”

“What you don’t know, is that it’s only the Bosses that escaped. Story is that 5-10 of the Bosses of every level just ran out of the Portals ... all of them!” Mace shouted, I could hear his heavy breathing already and the ‘chunk’ of his armour at every footfall.

Dear gods ... ten Ghouls.

“We’re teaming up right?” I shouted into the phone just as the front window of the bar shattered and two Ghouls started pushing their way in, climbing in past the frame and over the tables and chairs headed for the unarmed patrons.

My armour and weapon out in a flash, and since Mace wasn’t here, I started pulling out more weapons, Willy-nilly tossing them to anyone nearby. “Back me up, poke at them if they get too close I screamed as men around me awkwardly clutched clubs, spears, swords, and shields.

The first Ghoul and I hit each other at the same time, both our magically blunted weapons not making much of an impression on the other. Once again I was trading off a reduced ability on myself to give those around me a fighting chance. As the second Ghoul jumped inside, someone managed to stick him with a spear, then the rest of them just fell on it, taking a few hits of their own, but putting it down faster than I was doing with mine.

We circled each other for a second but I had the advantage of knowing that the rest of the place was with me, so when a big bang happened behind him (I learned later it was one of the musicians turning over a table to make a barricade) the ugly thing was distracted for a second and that’s when I made my move. The axe was gone, and another spear was in my hand and in his chest a split second later. I’d once heard of one of these things running all the way up a spear and goring the idiot who was still holding it, so I pulled a mace with one hand and batted at it while ‘steering’ the skewered Ghoul with the other. Behind him, the razor sharp point of the spear waved this way and that, a total hazard to anyone nearby.

Eventually he ran straight for me and I swapped weapons as I crouched, then pushed off of the floor, bringing the axe upwards like an uppercut. Despite the ‘dullness’ penalty and the fact that the ghoul twisted to avoid the blow, the face of the ghoul separated from his head and the thing lost its ability to fight. It lost its whole head seconds later. I’d taken three hard hits, but its talons must have been considered ‘bladed weapons’ by the system ‘cause they never managed to penetrate much of the armour padding. There was blood but it wasn’t too bad. I gathered the weapons back, leaving behind two, and pulled the Silver and prizes. Twenty Silver each, and the one that I sliced open had a marble.