Chapter 18

We summoned Edna and her group back the day after she ran the last first floor Green Gate run with the other half of our team.

Based on Heather’s information, which she acquired from the army, the six of us planned for our upcoming run. They had a few teams that passed Indigo’s third floor with regularity. No one was reported to have returned from the fourth yet. That they were willing to admit to.

The rest of the world wasn’t sharing either.

Our light composite backpacks were supposed to have the same contents. All of us except for Kate. We divvied up most of her survival gear while she replaced hers with medical supplies. In the White Room’s Shop there was a deluxe field doctor’s kit for 5000 silver, that I was close to asking our main team to chip in a purchase for her. Toll and Toff were still outsiders and I wasn’t willing to go that far for them.

This run was not just a test for us, but to see how well they worked with my friends.

We strode through Indigo level three without a hitch, checked for magic, divvied up the spoils. I was the odd man out and entered down the stairs and into level four of Indigo, a city filled with zombies.

And on fire.

Heather was our leader for this trip. She and Kate each carried a pair of binoculars. The rest of us were supposed to focus on nearby threats, giving our Mages time to use their visual enhancers to look around our surroundings more at ease.

Our formation was specific to this map also. We were traveling in a square, Ed and I in front on the corners, Tol and Toff in the rear. Heather and Kate were surrounded in the center keeping an eye on the long-range threats. We were supposed to adhere to any order either of the two gave while heading to our map provided rendezvous.

Each entry on this map, was in a different location, so too was the destination, according to Heather’s report from the teams who ‘had not been here’...

That we only had seven days to get wherever the map specified was the issue. As it could be twenty miles away and blocked by hordes of zombie packs led by Ghouls. The fastest reported crossing reported needed four days. And they lost two teammates due to their haste.

Something completely unacceptable to me and us.

“I smell fire,” Heather called out, soon followed by the rest of us.

We arrived on Indigo’s fourth floor discovering our start area to be inside of a burning warehouse, with broken and scattered crates throughout the large abandoned warehouse. Edna led us to the opened roll-top trailer truck entry as we hurriedly abandoned our start location.

Not knowing what was inside the crates, or what else was inside of a burning building, was too dangerous to stick around and investigate.

Once outside, Heather, as the party leader, pulled out a scroll that the System placed there from her inventory. Inside was a printed satellite picture that had been partially distorted, as if it had soaked it in water for too long of a period of time.

The southern corner being burnt off barely affected the image at all...

“We have seven days to arrive at the Yolanda, off of Pier 12. The picture makes it look like a container ship. We will have to pass through a container yard here. The map doesn’t have a scale, but it looks to be twenty to twenty-five miles.”

While she read over the information, I scanned the area. Mid-morning sun and an overcast day, 50F with light winds from the east, according to my compass.

“We need to head north-northeast. I don’t see any residential areas, it’s all commercial and industrial in this area. We need to pass through almost a full two miles of heavy industrial building surrounding us. Let’s hope that our zombies are shoppers.” Heather announced with a light tone, hoping to get us off on the right foot.

We mostly stayed put while two sets of eyes used their binoculars to scout around. Not reporting any movement, we headed out.

Ka-BOOM!

Steps later, a large explosion rang out from inside the warehouse behind us.

I jumped then hit the ground like we were all instructed to.

“Clear.”

We had started out with a bang.

Auspicious.

Following the roads we headed mostly north. Heather’s satellite map was zoomed out and the road lines were suggestions at that point. Within two hours, we met our first zombie blockade. Countless undead were milling around with no real purpose. We had to head west since Kate reported a large fire spreading to the east.

West, then north, brought us to a bridge three hours later. A collapsed one with a small river sluggishly flowing under it.

“I think there is another bridge a couple miles southwest. The other one was behind the zombie horde back there.”

“We are following you, ole Prime Leader.” I chimed out my two cents.

After deciding our route, we took a ten-minute break to snack on an energy bar and a cup of water. Then headed mostly west with a hint of south as we navigated through the underbrush along the river bank.

Our first actual encounter with zombies was a small grouping; only two hundred or so. Extended Slash unreasonably cut wide swashes through them. The sole ghoul avoided me, only to get cut down by Toff’s K-bars. With three consecutive activations of my Spell, I probably killed half of the undead alone.

HALF!

The only real recoil I felt was from the first zombie’s body that I hit. The rest were follow-throughs from the magical attacks.

I knew that everyone else was thinking the same once the fight was over. In our recent level three excursions, I never used that spell more than once per run. I believed that I needed the practice and with the support of Ed and the loud Sergeants, I didn’t feel the pressure to perform at optimal at every second.

“Are you sure you can’t teach that to me?” asked Ed, as we cooled down after the fight.

“I don’t know how.”

“You suck.”

Ed had been opening up to me more and more since our trip to Montreal. We both knew that my Skill was overpowered for our Levels. In our one real in-depth discussion concerning the gold box, we both agreed that gold keys and box drops were too infrequent and scattered across the globe to ever be expected to match up at this early stage.

My Key purchases via my website had all but dried up, too. The going rate for Brass Keys was now a hundred thousand dollars or 2500 silver. Both were too high of a price, we agreed, for a random Skill. Maybe we were being shortsighted. (Time would tell and prove us morons.) Besides, we just didn’t have the money or available silver nuggets

Silver and Gold Keys were no longer being sold openly. What happened to them, only their governments knew, and they weren’t telling, even if eBay said differently.

I believed that the community as a whole recognized that big brother stepped in and made sure that if a gold or silver of anything appeared, that person was made an offer that they dared not refuse.

Our first Ghoul’s head was empty of goodies. So, too, were the next half dozen.

Kate called out just past 10:00 PM our time, “go there,” she pointed at the S. Walton’s 5&10. Tired as we were, we followed directions without question.

Inside the convenience store, was clutter, clutter, and even more rusted clutter. The sole, clean and unbroken window on the display entrance must have called out to her detection Skill.

After checking the store out, we decided to make camp on the second floor; after we finished searching the first floor. Toff discovered the prize; A brown bottle of Snake oil. He read off the description from inside his inventory: ‘Carl Earl’s Snake Oil. Made with Geunuine Snake. Misspelling and all,” Christoff read aloud. “Guaranteed to cure what ails ya, or double ya money back!’

“We have found those before. This one is less descriptive than the others.” Heather glanced at me. “Save it for emergencies. But they work exceptionally well.”

There was movement that night, but the undead stayed outside and seemed to not care whether it was day or night.

Tuesday after a breakfast of those hot (lukewarm), tear-off breakfast packages, we reviewed the map; trying to get a better idea of just where we were. Believing our map holder, we needed to head west before we headed northeast again.

We had left the industrial district of low-rise massive warehouses and entered into the realm of the medium to huge skyscraper area. We were closer to our destination as the crow flew, but I didn’t think that any of us believed that we had made much progress.

“Don’t forget to look up. Ghouls and zombies don’t mind jumping down. Even if they go splat,” I reminded everyone.

Heather had us pause while the protected duo scanned the buildings with her binoculars. “We need to avoid that building. I count sixty-four ghouls climbing on the sides up ahead.”

“Wonderful,” Tol noted with unneeded sarcasm at that point.

The other road was no good. A collapsed high-rise fell into another and they dominoed. “Let’s see if we can tip-toe around that building. Hopefully they won’t notice us,” Kate suggested. We really didn’t have a better option, other than doubling back and losing four or five hours. Or more.

Trying to keep a low-rise apartment building between us and the financial building swarming with ghouls, we journeyed on.

Our tiptoeing failed.

Spectacularly.

Catastrophically.

Zombies poured out of all the nearby buildings with their Bosses’ encouragement. Thankfully, there was no fire in this area, but there were more than enough undead that fire was not even in our minds at the time.

A city full of undead who all seemed to be waiting for us to do something as stupid as to walk into their main nest...

The low rise we chose to use as a choke point was not the best, but it beat being out in the open. The ruined set of double doors protected both Heather and Kate while the Sergeants named T, stood inside the building. Ed and I remained outside as the first line of offense. Surrounded, we had nowhere to go and could only hope to outlast the never-ending swarm.

Ed and I hoped that the inside numbers would be fewer, so that the Ts could spell us after clearing out whoever was left inside.

After the first hour, Edna called out, she had taken a large gash to the arm when she faltered from fatigue. I had just recovered enough Mana to use my Spell again and immediately activated Slash, freeing her enough to retreat and to get treated.

Heather stood forth to cover me while I went wild. A minute might not seem long, but in a fight against a massive horde when every swing takes down a half dozen or more opponents, it was an eternity.

I even noted a few ghouls falling for the first time since the fight began during that mad rush of mine.

When I retreated after my spell ended, I noticed Toff replaced Ed on my left. “How is the rear doing?”

“There are so many bodies, that we can use them as bunkers.”

I nodded; it was like that here too. I didn’t let them get too high; ghouls liked to jump.

“How are you doing?”

“Fine. I have a couple of hours in me.” I wasn’t all that tired. Physically. The strain was beginning to tell.

“Take a break when you need it.” He sagely advised.

It was obvious from his reply that he didn’t believe me. But I didn’t lie. The Stamina Rune was a godsend. Especially when I used it in conjunction with Slash. The stacked effects were amazing.

Really amazing. Beyond amazing. Amazingly amazing. Every swing with Slash in effect, I recovered some endurance. Every swing I recovered more Stamina than I spent. Every swing while under the effects of the spell Slash, I woke up more and more, the poisons built up in my body from overuse, dispersed and I became more alive and more awake.

The two Skills’ synergy was near perfect when fighting weak mobs such as zombies.

From then on every fifteen minutes or so, I went berserk and slashed the undead to death, refreshing and renewing myself while creating more room for my teammates to breathe.

After the second hour under siege, I was notified that the rear was clear when Ed returned, Spelling Tol. The three of them were now switching every fifteen minutes.

I still had not bowed out. Those three did not have my superhuman Endurance, nor did they have my broken, insane, godly combo of Spell and Rune. Even Heather stepped in occasionally when all three needed rest. The only one spared from a stint as my partner was Kate, who had enough to do with just healing our constantly wounded bodies.

Three hours fifty-one minutes later, silence reigned on the block. No birds, no insects, not moans of zombies or shrieks of ghouls; just the heavy breathing of six very tired individuals.

I laid down next to Kate and closed my eyes, asleep before she uttered a word. Mental fatigue draped my brain in a sheet of black.

Three or so hours later I awoke to low-volume arguing. Moving was being considered. Me being asleep was the point of contention.

“Area searched?” I sleepily asked.

“You’re awake,” Kate gushed.

“How do you feel?” Heather asked.