Chapter 22

Ed was pissed that I did not include her on Indigo level four Mk two (our second time entering the fourth floor). Even my explanation of wanting her for our third and fifth runs did not improve her mood.

Even on the promise that we would continue running and she would always be with me three out of every five runs.

We knew that they were dangerous and we knew that one of us had to be in every run, we needed to spread the risk. She still did not like it.

Toff, Kate, Nat, (she won the coin toss vs Jude) myself, DB with his halberd and Beau with his Greatsword were going to be the first team in. we needed four front line fighters on these runs. Even if we hoped to never fight, the mobs were too large otherwise and the map too open.

The others were doing a quick run-through level two to work on teamwork. Francis was off to who knew where, so we were down one team member.

I was front right, Toff; left rearguard. DB was Toff’s partner for the run and Beau mine.

We drilled the second-string mentality into them. They were back up. Toff and I were to take the brunt of any attack. Everyone agreed, Beau and DB easily capitulated with my plan.

Our goal was to avoid any confrontation with groups larger than twenty zombies unless we had to. On this run we planned on staying nearer to the region in flames. No city center for us. No speed runs either. We should have plenty of time.

Nat was leader.

Indigo level three went clean.

Level four started out fucked.

HARD.

...

We all smelled flames, “Toff, take a look.”

There was a large broken out window twenty feet away. The high winds blowing through the opening did not give me much hope.

“Nat what do you have?”

“Same image as last time. But we need to go north-west. Looks like a university or something. A large open campus. It’s blurry. Kate?”

Passing over the satellite image, Kate read the instructions aloud, we have seven days to get to Kresge library.

“Jason we are thirty stories up. Same city building as last time.”

“Ghouls?”

“Can’t see any. But I do see a shit load of zombies.”

“Well fuck. Careful on the stairs.”

Of course, us trampling down the stairs made noise. We had four very heavily loaded up men. What would anyone expect?

We had to fight our way down. Thankfully, it wasn’t all bad, we only had an sporadic following for Toff and DB to deal with.

Beau and I weren’t so lucky. Nat assisted us and Kate mostly looked around for trouble. By the time we hit the second floor. Everyone besides myself needed a rest.

“How are you still standing?” Beau wheezed.

“Clean living.”

“And an Endurance that only god could love.” Nat stuck her tongue out. She too sat in a corner sipping Gatorade. The blue stuff with extra sugar. She preferred that to the specialized energy drinks.

Shrug.

During our thirty-minute rest, I left them behind and scouted ahead. We really needed David and Jude to get some real scouting Skills. I suspected that their runes on their Weapons would provide those.

We weren’t going out the front door.

Nor the side door. The basement looked like a dead end. The only good thing was that it looked like we cleared most of the undead from inside the building. The bad news was that there were more outside than last time. The ghouls went unseen, lost in the swarm.

“We’re stuck. We will have to fight our way out.”

I answered a few questions. All of my responses were, “We’re surrounded by a sea of undead.”

We rested and waited for another hour before facing off against the sea of undead. I descended the stairs and killed the stragglers that entered the lobby. Moving around the debris to make a heavy break, in case some got inside, would it would help the rearguard.

Thankfully, all of the other entrances to this building were closed. We only had to worry about what was outside and what was left inside that hadn’t found us yet.

I returned to Kate lecturing the two new guys. Both were near 300 pounds and strong as bulls. To see a 115-pound teen trying to build their morale was oddly amusing and quite out of place for me to laugh at that juncture.

“Jason, can you do it?”

“I can.”

“See! Nothing to worry about. We have Jason. Just follow the substitution pattern. It worked last time, we can do it again.” Kate encouraged the big guys.

“What do you mean it worked last time?” DB asked.

“We made a wrong turn and had to fight our way through. Jason killed thousands of them. Just watch if you don’t believe us.”

Thousands?

At Toff’s nod. A solemn one, they almost started believing. They didn’t have a choice but to believe if they wanted to live.

“It’s either that or wait until time runs out and see what happens. Does anyone truly believe that the Gate will not kill us if we aren’t in that library on day seven?” Kate demanded.

No one believed that.

I stood forward and activated slash feeling invincible.

Undead died in droves.

Nat had a new spell. Fire Lance! A six-foot stream of fire that penetrated the zombies and kept going. Kate had one, too. Protection from harm. It added a complete layer of DR 1 to everyone for ten minutes. Usable once per hour. She hit me four times that afternoon. Apparently, it was expensive to cast.

I learned to time my Slash with the migration of Ghouls. I would hold casting my spell for a few minutes in order to catch more in my wave o’ death.

Just short of five hours later, I was the only one standing.

“We need to headhunt and move. I don’t want to be here at nightfall.” Nat was taking her leader position seriously.

I let them go hunt. My legs weren’t moving all that well. Or at all. I could swear that I had no arms either. My Axe put itself away. Maybe I was floating.

Honestly. I could float, just look at me.

Kate moved me around, I thought she was undressing me for bed. A massage would have felt great.

“This way, Jason,” I felt a tug on my arm. I followed to where that voice led. It wasn’t long before I got my massage. And sleep.

I hurt.

A lot.

Someone was groaning loudly in my ear.

The warmth of Kate’s heal spell helped a lot. So did the Bless.

I hurt less. For a given value of less. Not a good value either. One of those multiply by the square root of negative one, values.

I was fed and watered and slept again. The next time I woke, I could actually open my eyes.

Painfully, but they were open.

“Did anyone get the number of the building that fell on me?” I slowly sat up.

“He lives,” DB announced in that ultra-low voice of his.

“How long was I out?”

“Thirty-five hours.”

“Oh, is that all?”

“Is that all, he says?” Beau sounded scared.

I didn’t blame him.

“I need food and a bathroom. Not in that order.”

An hour later, I was up and moving, albeit slowly. My helmet was lost. My clothes were a hundred percent destroyed and I was covered in wounds. Even with Kate’s constant healing, I still looked like I took a dip in a food processor. With rose bushes fed into it, for good measure.

Working out the kinks. I stretched and asked where we were. Only to be told that we were only a few blocks away from our start location. Originally, they wanted to carry me and go further when I collapsed. But weighing over 400 pounds put an end to that idea.

Looking over my team, Toff and DB were all good; so too were my girls. But Beau had a splint on his left arm. Broken.

Not badly, according to Kate.

“Here take this.” I handed him an Orc Machete. His Weapon needed two hands.

No one other than Nat had a Combat Jacket. The rest of us were down to our new under armor and boots. Even Kate. I frowned at her. We needed her healthy in order to survive.

“Nat, where to next?”

She, they, had mapped out a probable route and a couple of back-up routes while I was out. We traveled at a fairly decent pace for the first few miles. Kate pointed out three houses that we needed to visit, and two gave up results. One even had a Brass safe. I used one of my keys to open it, Kate took the spoils for dicing later. I pretended not to notice that it was a jump Skill. Or maybe it was a Spell?

We entered the campus a few days later. Oddly there were no real undead groups to block our path. Just small ones or singles here and there.

We did have to halt near dusk. The sun going down was not the reason. Kresge library was ahead of us. So too was a twelve-foot Ghoul Lord munching on a zombie leg perched on the steps of our end goal.

“We can try the side or rear entrance,” Nat, hopefully threw on the floor.