(?) Zombie Poppies

Without a word, Gideon went charging into the underbrush after Ix and Jorhis with the kind of speed one would not have expected form someone his size (and let’s be honest here—one heck of a fighter Gideon might be, but he was still Malakan’s brother), leaving a trail in his wake that would be easy enough to follow.

I don’t know where he got the energy. There was no way I was running off again that quickly, not after that fight.

Deciding that it was time to let that fool of a bard have a breather of his own, I opened the bottomless bag and pulled him out.  We tried standing him on his feet, but he started wobbling dangerously almost immediately.

“How’re you doing, Veir?” Aelveron asked.

“I’ve…been better.” He was looking rather green. “I imagine this is what being carriage sick is like. I’m—”

“You sound drunk.” I told him.

“—going to go throw up now.” He spun on one foot and stumbled towards the bushes, retching all the way.

Aelveron went over to him and stared patting him on the back.

There were further sounds of retching and sick splattering on the ground. “Sorry about your shoes.” Vier said weakly.

“Okay.” The wolf-boy didn’t sound like he was enjoying the smell. “I’m…fortunately not having any drive to eat that.”

Tyranna/I was ignoring all of this. “Before we go into the Faewild, we may want to re-enforce the enchantments on the orbs of power that we do have.”

“Right.” Vier was finally catching his breath, but it sounded like it was still going to take him a minute.

Aelveron looked back at us. “So…two of us just got carried off--”

“Three.” Tyranna and I corrected him.
            “For all intents and purposes three, as Gideon’s chased after them, though I guess we know where he is as he’s left a very distinctive trail through the jungle!” Vier whined as he came back over.

“So do we want to run after Ix before they get hurt?” Aelveron asked.

Vier and I gave him a look. “We kind of need Ix.”
            “Do you really think it’s safe to go into the Faewild without him?”
            “We really can’t get into the Faewild without him.” I corrected.

            Aelveron started nodding as Tyranna grimaced in agreement. “Yes, we do need him.”

            “Okay. So…let’s go follow him.” Vier still looked a bit shaky, but he was clearly steeling himself for what lay ahead. “I trust Gideon’s senses to follow, I think he probably has the best idea of being able to follow that…following…ness. Yeah.”

            “You’re still not with it.” Aelveron was barely hiding a smile.
            “Hey, you try riding around in a bottomless bag for half a week, it’s not fu—“

            “Bacon.”
            Stars above, Vier had nothing to say to that.

            “He can’t keep bacon down, I’m sure.” Tyranna was also trying not to…dare I say it, giggle.

            “Bacon can’t cure everything, Aelveron.” And I’ll admit, I wasn’t working to hide anything.

            “But it’s special bacon. It’s stegosaurus bacon.”
            Vier was still grasping wildly for something to say, and wound up with “Spiky.”

            Not that anything was about to stop Aelveron. “Mixed with caffeine!”

            There was a pause, and then we all started talking at once.
            “Caffinated…bacon.”

            “Okay, so now I’m buzzed and I have a jitter AND I’m nauseous, thanks!”

            “Why is this a good idea?”

            “I’m trying to get him back with the living.” Aelveron defended.

            We do try to remember that he’s an amnesiac, and was probably dropped a few times as a baby.  Really, we do. As proof, we just decided to ignore this newest bout of insanity.

            “So. Off we go?” I asked brightly.
            “Are you sure we don’t have time to rest a moment?” Aelveron asked.

            “We really don’t, not if we want to catch up.” Wasn’t like I wanted to go for a skip through the woods either, but—suck it up.
            We shouldered our gear and started running. It’s a good thing we did, as the path was already starting to grow over—which, considering that divide from this world and the Faewild was fairly thin in this area, was not that surprising.

The way was strewn with hundreds of brightly colored, faintly glowing flowers. Vier must have gotten a second wind, as he started moving like he was one of the Fae himself, dancing back and forth along the trail, grabbing a few blossoms and trying to stick them in our hair.
            I swear, even now, years later, I don’t exactly know where this all came from.

It was probably easier for him to come after me—outside of still being worn out from the fight, I’d never been a fantastic runner. I could keep up well enough, sure, and tripping was the last thing I was worried about, but I still had to slow down a bit and catch my breath every few minutes.

The path was certainly growing back quickly. Tyranna nearly tripped a few times as roots sprung up faster than she could move to avoid them. Fortunately for her, Aelveron was always there to catch her.

            You’d think that he’d move a bit slower, considering all that bacon.

            I watched him catch her again—blast, I’d have loved to see her flop into the mud---and it struck me as odd that he was always so near at hand for her. I’m no saint, but something about that woman was just…wrong. There was more to her motives than she was letting on. Don’t get me wrong, I love explosions as much as the next girl ( and maybe a little more), but something about her wasn’t all boom-and-fin. It was…dark. Really, really dark—and I’m a night elf.

            Aelveron’s no saint either, but…I’d have figured that he’d have picked up on that vibe. I’d have thought he’d want nothing to do with it either, considering how much time he spent restraining me.

            Speak of the devil, I was jarred out of my musing by Aelveron suddenly appearing next to me and trying to jokingly trip me up. I glared at him, and a few minutes later he did it again.

            And again.

            That time, I was ready for him. I called up the cloud of sparks I so loved using to zip around the battle field, allowing the sparks to dance along my skin. The next time he made contact, the charge I’d built up was enough to send him flying face first into a nearby tree.
            I laughed gleefully over my shoulder at him as I continued running forward. He wouldn’t be trying that again any time soon.
            Then again, neither would I.

            While I was busy admiring my handwork, as luck would have it, I tripped—over my own feet, of all things—and landed in the mud.

            Tyranna and Vier ran past me, the latter not bothering to hide a smug smile.

            Curse him.

            There were more brightly colored flowers beginning to blossom out of the mud. They were actually rather pretty, but there was no time to stop and smell them, as the saying goes. I kept moving, but I couldn’t help but notice there were a lot more of them than one might ordinarily expect, even at their rapid growth rate.

            The bard must have thought they were just pretty enough, though. He managed to pick a few as he made his way past. Once again, he tried putting one in everybody’s hair, though to his credit he must have remembered who he was with as he moved rather faster than before.

            I was about to chase after him and tell him, politely of course, where he could stick the flowers, when I heard something.

            It was faint, even to me, but it struck me as something that didn’t belong in a fae-related jungle.

            Aelveron must have heard it as well, I could see him looking around for the source ahead. He motioned for everyone to stop so he could try and make it out. We did, and then I remembered—

            I’m not exactly a hard target to go after. I took cover, blending quickly into the shadows.
            “Did you hear that?” Aelveron asked the others.

            They started to shake their heads, but then it sounded again.

            It was this crackling sort of moan, echoing through the trees.
            “Where is that coming from?”

            A few seconds later it sounded again. It was defiantly getting closer, though slowly. Good, right? Not so much, as it was also coming from behind.

            “It sounds like something choking.” I could almost see the sparks dancing around Tyranna’s hands as she clenched them into fists, worry beginning to show on her face.

            I considered climbing the nearest tree and trying to see what was coming, but somehow I didn’t think the dense foliage would allow it.

            The sound came again, and while it was still beind us, seemed to be coming from a slightly different direction this time—to the right instead of just behind us.

            I started to worry that whatever it was had found us and was now circling around, when it sounded again from the opposite side, left instead of right, closer than ever.

            “Azrael, where are you?” Vier asked, his voice tense.
            “Don’t worry, I can see her.” Aelveron had his back to me as he reassured the bard. I stifled a nervous laugh. My skin is pitch black, it was twilight, and I was safely tucked into the shadows of the underbrush. Even if he’d been looking right at me, he wouldn’t have seen me.
            Again the crackling sounded, strangely from a bit further this fine, before sounding closer again.

            A pack. It was the only explanation.

            “That doesn’t sound very friendly or faerie-like.” Vier moaned. Apparently even after meeting me, the fabled night elf, he still believed in the good faerie. “It doesn’t sound like faeries and gnomes and pit bulls.”
            Pit bulls? Whatever. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling antsy myself. A pack coming after us, no matter what it was comprised of, couldn’t have been good, especially this close to the Faewild. I started summoning the energy I’d need to power my trademark bouncing lighting.

            “I think we need to run.” Tyranna said cautiously, her eyes focused on the forest we’d just run through.

            “What is it?” Asked Aelveron.
            “I’m not sure…nothing good, but I’m not quite sure exact—”

            The croaking came again, louder thane ever before, seeming to come from right behind us, in our ears.

            We ran for our lives.

Tyranna and I blazed ahead, leaving the boys far behind, trying to put as much distance between ourselves and that horrible croaking as possible.

If there was any squeaking in terror, Demon-girl and I deny it to this day.

We could hear Aelveron catching up, stumbling slightly and presumably dragging a terrified bard behind him. The croaking continued to follow us, always right on our tails, when suddenly the trees ended and we burst into a clearing and were almost blinded by the sheer amount of light.

            I’d been wrong. The sun wasn’t going down at all, it was midday.

            The shock of the light hitting our eyes caused us to slow to a stop before we wound up tripping and falling flat on our faces.

            I spun around, scythe and lightning at the ready, blinking furiously to try and adjust to the daylight and see what was coming after us. The awful noise of whatever had been chasing us was no longer audible. I glanced behind me to see what the others thought. They were standing slack-jawed, staring at something…and then I saw it myself.

            The clearing was absolutely covered in the most beautiful flowers I had ever seen, in ever color imaginable. They completely carpeted everything in sight, save for the bayou tree in the middle of the meadow. The tree stood some forty feet high, about two hundred paces away. The flowers that populated the area had started to not only grow around but up the tree as well.

            I didn’t like it.

            Behind the tree, there was a small girl in a white dress with long dark hair watching us. She smiled at me and ran back out of sight behind the tree. I could hear laughter.

            I glanced at the others, wondering if I’d been the only one to notice her. Little girl, big random tree, field of crazy flowers….I really wasn’t liking this.

            Vier must not have seen the runt, as he suddenly started forward across the meadow. Suddenly, he collapsed. Aelveron, I hadn’t seen him move, also blacked out and sank to the ground. Tyranna passed out almost immediately after, landing on top of him

            My eyes went wide, even greater panic than what I’d felt while charging through the forest sized my breath. It had to be the girl. I ran forward before whatever invisible giant had whacked my friends with a pillow from his bed could get me as well—but it was too late. I stumbled, feeling suddenly woozy, my legs collapsing on my own beneath me.  I hit the ground, and before my eyes could close I could see the girl walking towards me. I blinked, and suddenly she was to the left and less than 20 paces away. I blinked again, and suddenly she was five paces away and to the right.

            It hadn’t been a pack at all, had it?

            I woke to one Holy Raven Queen of a headache. I sat up and looked around. I was in the school’s medical bay, instruments of the get-well club all over. What kind of party had I…wait. School? And what on earth were some of these tools? For medical purposes, obviously, but…barbaric.

            There was a loud banging sound, and I whirled to see the door to this place where someone was obviously trying to get in. Several someones, actually, and good luck to them--there was all manner of desks, cabinets, beds, and chairs shoved up against it.

            I rolled off the bed I’d been laying on and onto my feet, moving to look out the nearby window. There was something covering it, making it hard to see out of. I opened it, and immediately wished I hadn’t.

            Smoke and the acrid smell of burning flesh came pouring in. With it came the sounds of groaning, more of the moaning crackling that had chased us into the meadow, and through it all pain filled, terrified screams.

            What in the realms…

            Suddenly, it occurred to me how dark it was in that room.

            And that mattered to me.

            There was a mirror on a nearby counter. I snatched it up, and looked at myself. I thought there must have been some kind of head trauma from when I’d passed out, but there weren’t any injuries that I could see. The only other question was what in the worlds was I wearing? Some sort of thin shirt with unfamiliar lettering across the chest, and short pants of a curiously sturdy…tee shirt and jeans, came the thought. I had no idea where from, as I’d never heard the words before, but…what else could they be? I again looked down at the shirt, and was able to read “SDHS”. It must have been an acronym, somehow ‘sids’, the only pronunciation I could come up with, felt very wrong.

            And there was a bow in my hair.

            …Vier. I’d deal with him later.

            I looked for my companions, and saw Aelveron on the other side of the room. He was wearing a ripped shirt on with a …tank…underneath, jeans, and what appeared to be only one…sneaker.

            Words. I’d have to deal with them later too.

            Tyranna was wearing a leather jacket that had clearly been torn in a not-so-artful way, and was otherwise normally dressed, compared to me and Aelveron—jeans, shirt, and the like.

            Again, I was struck by how little I could see in the growing darkness. That really, really couldn’t be right.

            Looking around the room—definitely an unfamiliar style of building—I heard more screams, more pounding on the doors…and the sound of running footsteps down the hallway outside and the voice of a young man screaming “Help! HELP! HE-“ the cry dissolved into incoherent screams as whoever that had been was dragged away.

            The beatings on the door died down slightly, and we could hear shuffling feet more towards the dying screams.

            I felt sick. This, whatever it was, couldn’t be happening.

            Aelveron moved to pull out his sword, a smooth and practiced motion even a genie’s spell couldn’t make him forget, and instead drew a length of smooth, weighted wood.

            “What’s this?” He seemed too confused to sound surprised.

            “It looks like a blunt instrument.” Always helpful, that’s me.

            “I don’t like it.”

            “I…um…” I reached for my scythe, suddenly worried about what a missing sword could mean, and instead found myself holding a very small, pocket sized knife. I looked down at it in shock, and let out a very small squeak of…well, terror.

            Aelveron began to search the room. Who knows for what—who cared? My scythe was GONE.

            “Azrael, come look at this.”

            I looked up at him, panic, I’m sure, still clear across my face. The banging on the door continued. Moaning, creaking, and screaming still echoed through the window and from what ever was trying to gain access to the room. I looked back down at the knife, swallowed forcefully the swirl of emotions that were threatening to have me reprise Vier after we’d pulled him from the bag. A knife was better than nothing, and now was not the time to panic.

            Aelveron was standing over a human woman in a medical uniform. Her face had been bashed in, and her brains had started to come through a large crack at the back of her skull.

            “Aelveron, what did you do?” Sass. Okay. Maybe I could handle this.

            “I didn’t do anything.” He motioned with the bat, which was free of incriminating fluids, to the crowbar wedged into her torso. He then reached forward with his other hand to yank it free. Any shelter in a storm, any weapon in a fight, right?

            Tyranna, demon girl of ancient beauty treatments and evil, looked uncomfortable. “This really can’t be right.”
            I glanced over to her, and something struck me as odd. Something about her was…missing. My gaze landed on her hair, and I must have been looking a little too intently as she reached up and felt the headband she was wearing, exactly where her horns should have been. She went white, and she reached behind herself to where her tail should have been, and found a sort of sash or fashion belt instead. She whimpered, staring at it.

            She’d deal.

            Now that Aelveron was back to dual-wielding capacity, I went looking for the longest, sharpest weapon I could find so I could attach it to a pole and make my own make-shift scythe.

            Unfortunately, all I could find were some hypodermic needles. Useless. Apparently the mutt already had the sharpest thing around.

            With Aelveron’s help, Tyranna managed to collect herself and get into the spirit of arming ourselves. She made use of a pile of broken glass and a strip of leather she’d torn from a sleeve of her jacket, wrapping some of the shards into place to the effect of make-shift claws.

            Told you.

            “What’s going on?!? Came a panicked squeal. 

            Vier. Knew I’d forgotten something. He was sitting in the corner, jittery with terror. He must have just woken up. Why hadn’t I…
            “Do you have any weapons?” Good ol’ Aelveron, taking the lead.

            Vier looked around, presumably for his bottomless bag. “Let me check, I might have something in—it’s gone! My bag is—”

            “WHAT?!?” No. No. Stars and gods above, no.

            Vier had in his hands a back pack, small and filled with paper, pencils, a few bouncy balls, and clearly nothing of ours.
            “Where are the orbs?!” I demanded.
            “I don’t know! These don’t look like orbs!” He took one of the small rubber balls and chucked it at the wall, and it shout back at him before ricocheting off the wall behind him and continued to bounce around the room. He shrieked an started cowering again.

            “Okay, this is extraordinarily trippy, but something else is going on here, in case you didn’t notice, and—” Aelveron was trying to regain control of the situation. I cut him off.

            “Yes, great. One quick other check--”

            They ignored me. Aelveron handed Vier a little box that read My Little Pony. The bard opened it up to find some sort of sandwich.

            The box and food both looked bizarre, and that plus being interrupted and what I still needed to check…. “CHAOS STRIKE!”

           

            Nothing happened.

           

            Oh. Cth---.

            “But, you can’t…” Tyranna murmured, also shocked. She waved her hands trying summon one of her trademark fireballs.

            Nothing.

            The warlock and I looked at each other, our expressions of shocked panic perfectly mirrored.

            No magic?!

            Then something else clicked into place. We were all human.

            “Bob?! BOB?!?”

            A series of chimes sounded from the pocket of my jeans. I pulled out a dying cell phone with a waiting text message. According to the display, it was from Bob, and several hours old. I opened it, hoping for I don’t know what.

            “Hey Babe, just wanted to make sure we’re still good to meet up after class under the bleachers. Give me a call when you get this.”

            I stared at it blankly for a moment. “WHAT?!?!” I threw the phone at Tyranna. “I think this belongs to you.”

            Tyranna caught it, and the motion dislodged something small from her pocket and clattered to the floor. She picked it up and started to fiddle with it.

            Aelveron handed Vier the bat, who then went to look out the window. He started shaking again. “Guys…the courtyard…there’s a lot of zombies everywhere.”

            I stiffened. “Scythe. I need a scythe. Now.”

            Aelveron tried to take the lead again. “What do we have to work with?” 32:50

            Way ahead of him. There was a stand IV’s were typically attached, perfect for a blunt instrument, if only for a few blows—enough to get away.  I claimed it immediately and began looking for something sharp to attach.

            Meanwhile, Vier found a few simple medical supplies in the ruins, and started placing them into his pack. The dead nurse appeared to have been bitten multiple times, but was still holding a syringe in one hand, filled with some sort of yellowish fluid. Vier snagged and capped it, placing it in his bag as well.

            Aelveron eyed the corpse warily. “What are the chances of her coming back?”

            I shook my head. “None. There’s nothing left to come back.”

            “We need to get out of here. I don’t know where we are, but we need to get out of here…”Vier, having nothing left to do, seemed to have gone back to panicking. I ignored him, and found some glass and medical tape, and started to try and fashion at least some sort of spear. I was scared—scratch that, I was terrified. I’d lost everything I’d depended on, and the cataclysm around us was on a level that in all my years I’d never known. But like Grimkol was I going to let it keep me from getting out alive. I gave the ‘spear’ a few trial swings, and the glass started to fall off almost immediately. Useless.

            “Stop making so much noise—they’re going to know we’re here!” Aelveron ordered.

            “Like they don’t already know we’re here!” I snapped back. “My suggestion—we go through the ceiling.”

            “That may not be plausible.—about as sensical as jumping out the window.”

            “Are you seeing another way out of here? We can’t exactly take the front door!”

            “There is a ledge outside the window to the other rooms on the floor.” Vier offered.

            “How high up are we?” I asked. I remembered some distance between us and the ground from before, but I couldn’t have said how far.

            “We’re on the third floor, with two more above us.”

            “There’s no one at the door—why can’t we just use it?” Aelveron was getting impatient.

            “Are you sure there’s no one there? I can’t see out that window from here.” I pointed to just such a glass-covered opening in the door.

            He grimaced. “It’s worth checking. Be ready.” He started shifting some of the blockade. He got to the door and called back, “There’s too much blood on the other side, I can’t see. I’m going to open the door.”

            “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” I started twisting the pole in my hands.

            “Nothing sounds close by.”

            “Is there an echo to it?”

            “Slightly, why?”

            “They’re by a stair case.”

            “How could you possibly know that?

            “Night elf. A staircase probably isn’t a bad idea, but I don’t think we should chance charging through, not without more weapons.” I motioned to some cleaning supplies I found. “Tyranna, I assume that thing you’re fiddling with is a lighter?”

            She nodded, still flicking her thumb at it.

            “We’re making some bombs.”

            “I…I can’t get it to work. I know fire can come out of this thing. I can smell the gas but…” Desperation crept into her voice.

            “Let me see.” Vier took the lighter and flicked at it. Lo and behold, a flame ignited.

            “Fire!” Demon girl cried. “My precious…” She actually did sound like she was going to start weeping at any moment as she cradled the tiny device.

            “ Careful, we don’t know how long that’ll last—I don’t think it’s magical. Azrael,” he hefted a bottle of ammonia. “You said we can make bombs out of these?”

            “Shouldn’t be much different than mixing potions.”

            “You know how to make potions?”

            “It wasn’t my favorite subject in the Academy, but I can do it.” I grabbed some medicine bottles, emptied them, and started mixing.  We soon wound up with a number of small, Molotov-cocktail styled mixtures.  I didn’t think they’d do too much damage, but they’d still come in useful.

            While Vier and I worked on that, Aelveron had re-blocked the door and started looking for another way out.  “Okay, we’ve got a window and a door.” He looked up that the tiled ceiling. “Going up might be our best option.”
            “Something tells me we’d get more attention going that way.” Vier obviously didn’t like the idea. “I think our only option is the ledge.”

            Aelveron nodded. “I’ll go check it out.” He clambered out onto the ledge. I leaned out to keep an eye on him.

            “There’s a window about ten feet down, and another a bit further.  First one’s closed, second’s open.” He edged out to the first window. “I can’t see anything, there’s dust and some kind of fluid all over it. I don’t like how this looks.”

            Vier, standing behind me, was starting to get antsy. “Hang on, let me catch up.” I moved out of the way so he could clamber out to join Aelveron.

            They started to move past the window when a hand slammed against the glass. From my vantage point I could make out the face of a girl looking up at Aelveron. There was a pause, and suddenly she went rabid, beating the glass and trying frantically to get to him. It startled the elf enough to unbalance him, and he began to tumble backwards.

            In a surprisingly cool motion, Vier caught Aelveron by the arm. “Don’t you dare fall now—there’s more of them down there.”

            We glanced down at the courtyard. It seemed our escape route was not going unnoticed. There was a small horde of zombies clambering over each other at the base of the building. More of them were distracted by their high school student meals, but that wouldn’t last long if someone fell.

            My ears perked at the sound of shuffling footsteps making their way back towards our door. It seemed the girl next door was drawing the party back towards us. I looked nervously at the door, and then glanced out the window again. The guys were continuing to edge their way to the second window.

            “Tyranna, it looks like we’ve either got to follow the boys or stay put and chance finding another route. What do you think?”

            She came over, and took her own glance out the window before turning green. “I…I can’t do this…” she sank to the floor and started hugging her knees, real panic starting to set in. She stared to whimper and shake. 

            Oh, the realms for a camera. There wasn’t time for this. I grabbed her by the front of her shirt and hauled her to her feet. Then I slapped her hard across the face, which really would have been more gratifying under different circumstances. With a grunt of effort, I then threw her hard against the nearest wall.
            That did it. Fire ignited behind her eyes, and she came at me snarling. Were magic possible, I’m sure she might have actually singed me. As it was, she had to try throwing a clumsy punch at my face, but I slipped out of the way, got behind her, and got my knife to her throat.
            “That’s better. We don’t have time for you to freak out. Keep it together, or I’ll throw you to the zombies myself. Am I clear?”
            She nodded, and I withdrew. “I’ll do you the kindness of getting on the ledge first. Don’t fall behind.”

            We caught up to the boys, crouching beneath the first window as Vier had done, and we saw that the second window as actually broken, and there was some blood on the remaining edges.  I hazarded a glance down and saw a young man lying on the ground. He must have been thrown out.

            Aelveron led the way into the classroom. It seemed pretty safe, there were a few dead students in varying states of ‘eaten’, but nothing immediately deadly.

            Just then something moved, and we whirled around to see a girl with short hair and glasses crawling towards us, tears in her eyes.

            “Please.” She sobbed. “Please, please help me.” Below the hem of her skirt, I could see that part of her calf was missing, and I honestly couldn’t tell if it had been bitten or torn off.

            Of course, that’s when we noticed the clearly brain-dead linebacker inching after her.

            “Help me! Please! HELP!” She started screaming.
            Aelveron moved swiftly, smashing the jock’s head in with a crowbar, and the zombie fell back with a bloody finality.

            I looked away, feeling sick.

            “Uh, guys?” Vier’s voice was shaking again. “The door’s open.

            Tyranna and I stiffened, our eyes wide as we turned to the door. Aelveran went to close it, and I saw his own shoulders tighten before he spun around, panic in his expression.
            “They’re coming. Shut her up—hurry!”

            Tyranna locked an arm around the still creaming girl’s shoulders and sealed a hand over her mouth. The girls started coughing up blood between wails, and blood spurted from between the old hag’s fingers.
            “She’s dying.” Tyranna said in disgust, clearly willing to put the student out of her misery.
            “Tyranna,” I ordered, voice low and heavy with warning as I snatched her hand away from the girl’s mouth. “Let go—now.”
            The girl snapped at Tyranna’s hand, and demon-girl shoved her away. As she slid away, the teenager twisted around and started coming at us with surprising speed.

            Tyranna took one of her glass incrusted fists and stabbed her in the face as I let go myself and twisted out of the way.  A moment later, Vier and I were the only ones not splattered in blood.
            I faced the old warlock, feeling strangely calm. “You can get that off if you do it now.”

            “I don’t know how.” She shot back.

            I turned to focus on the door again. “How stained are you?”

            “Well, just my hands…”
            “Then wipe them off on something. Believe me, you do not want this stuff staying on you. Zombies are not uncommon where I’m from.”

            Aelveran must have been listening as he stared wiping off his exposed skin as well as he could. “Yeah, well, these zombies are coming, guys.”

            He risked another look into the hallway as I muttered to myself,
            “They’re just not so eat-your-brains, the ones I’m used to.”
            “Okay.” The pale elf waved us forward. “They’re distracted. Let’s go.”
            I went first, followed by Tyranna and Aelveran, Vier bringing up the rear as we tried to use our gods-given stealth to get past the horde in the hallway. Thankfully, the student they were tearing into seemed to occupy the whole of their attention, for now at least.

            As we snuck by, I had a hard time controlling my breathing. Like I said, these undead weren’t quite what I was familiar with, and as much as I didn’t like to admit it, they had me on edge. The unlikely pair after me were holding it together well enough though, thank the night.

            The violence here and the sheer gore of everything was taking its toll on all of us. The level of brutality here was something even we, after everything, weren’t used to. I couldn’t remember the party, in any of its various formations, ever coming across anything like this.

            It was right then, of course, that Vier decided to freeze, his breath coming in short, barely concealed gasps. I went to snap him back to his senses, but it was too late. The zombies had noticed us.

            “RUN!” Vier screamed.

            We flew down the hallway, zombies bursting out of classrooms as we passed and coming after us. Vier screamed again, and I threw a quick glance over my shoulder and saw that a zombie had caught up to us and was dragging the bard back by his back and towards the swarming horde.

            “GUYS! HELP ME! HELP!”

            Blast it. Aelveran and I spun around on our heels. The elf knocked away one of the arms holding Vier with his crowbar, and I took out the other one with my pole. The zombie fell back, and we grabbed Vier by the arms and stared pulling him after us again.

            We reached the now closed doors of the stairway. The lights were flickering on and off, and we couldn’t see through the window to the stairwell enough to know who or what would be on the other side. Screw it. We tugged open the door and ran through, and thankfully nothing was waiting for us.

            We needed light. Tyranna fumbled with her lighter and brought it to life. I stripped the cloth belt from her waist before she could protest, and rapped it around the banister. Vier, getting the idea, pulled some rubbing alcohol from his pack and poured it on the cloth. Tyranna grimaced and touched the flame to it, igniting it.

            Aelveran jammed and locked the door as best as he could to keep the hard from coming through immediately, and we took a little more of the disinfectant to try an d clean ourselves off a little. It was a miracle, but nobody had been injured yet.
            I saw Aelveran examine his hands, which looked a little raw. I guess along with my hears and scythe, and Tyranna’s horns and tail, his calluses were missing. “What would I give for my sword, or claws…”
            I shot him a light glare. “I cannot cast Chaos Bolt. And Bob’s not here. Bob’s some weird guy waiting for me under a stadium—and that’s her job!” I motioned at Tyranna.

            Zombies banging on the door we’d just come through interrupted our mourning.

            “Right. So. Up or down?” Vier asked quickly.

            “We go down, we’ll wind up on the ground floor and we’ll have to fight our way through the courtyard. That seems stupid.” I stated.
            Aelveran shook his head. “Head to the roof, we’ll get trapped there.”

            “But it’ll offer high ground advantage.” Wait, was Tyranna agreeing with me?

            Gah. Later. “We do have bombs.” I nodded.

            “But they’re not very powerful—who knows how much damage they’ll do?”

            That’s better. “you want to go charging through that horde?!”

            Wolf-boy interrupted. “Were there any other buildings we could get to?”

            “I think I saw a skywalk to another building on the map.” Said Vier, pulling out the document.

            The sound of a door slamming open and I don’t know how many stumbling feet rushing from the ground floor up towards us cut off any further discussion. We froze, still undecided.

            “What are we doing, guys? I’m trying to read this map here, are we going up or down?!”

            Aelveran, Tyranna, and I peered down at the lower flights of stairs. There was a zombie or two crawling towards us from the first floor, but more from the second had noticed us and started shambling up the stairs. They’d reach us in about a minute.
            I turned, snagged a bomb from a pocket in Vier’s pack, and tossed it to Tyranna. She lit it, and threw it down at the oncoming company.

            It was more portent than I thought it would be. The zombies were forced back, some of them burning. Some of the fluids had traced back as Tyranna had thrown the bomb, though, and burned her hand.

            “Bandages! NOW!” Aelveran tossed me a roll and I wrapped her hand swiftly to prevent anything from getting into the wound. “We got a few of them. If we run down a story we might be able to find some supplies.”

            Aelveran ignored me and tied off the bandages on his worn hands. “Let’s go up.”

            “Okay! Great! Let’s go!” Vier rocked up the stairs in a panic, the rest of us on his heels. 

            We poured through the door to the fourth floor. The only lights shining on that floor were at the other end of the hall, hanging and swinging from it’s cord. Outside of that, there was an occasional spark from torn fixtures on the walls.

            “Okay, the skywalk’s on this floor, and there’s a storage space and the map said something about an antenna above—“
            “I think we’re going up to the roof.” Aelveran interjected.

            “We should still check this floor for any suppose or other weapons.” Running into a dead end only works when you have firepower enough to deter what’s following you.

            “Can you see?” he asked.

            “No, I can’t. and believe me, that’s frustrating right now!” Did those ears of his work?

            The creaking groans of the zombies suddenly sounded a lot closer. They’d caught up.

            Aelveran whirled to shut and lock the door. As he did, the hand of an abomination that must have been crawling reached through and left a long bloody scrach on the elf’s exposed foot. Yelling in surprise and pain, he shut the door on the hand so hard tsome of the fingers fell off. He bolted the door as Vier pulled out more bandages and started wrapping Aelveran’s foot.

            “Can’t that wait until we get to higher ground?” Tyranna demanded?

            “I don’t know…um…let’s just run, just run!”

            They were beating on the door now, and suddenly the window on the door shattered and hands started reaching through. One caught Aelveran’s hand and he got another scratch. He managed to get free, and not a moment too soon.

            “GET DOWN!” I shouted and hurled a few lit bombs through the window. They punched a hole in the horde and zombies started falling back down the stairs. Aelveran took the opportunity to rush the door, trample the still-burning remains, and fly up the stairs, the rest of us right behind him.

            We reached the fifth floor, and Aelveran kept right on going.
            “Hey! Stop! There’s a maintenance walkway to that other building here!”  Vier called. We came to a halt, Aelveran leaping back down to join us. We glanced nervously at the flight of stairs below.  Vier tried the door, and found it locked from the other side. He and I looked in through the window, and saw that it was also barricade shut, as was every classroom on this floor. Apparently this floor had done a lot better than the others in defending itself.

            In yet another wave of panic, Vier started banging on the door and calling out, “Hey! Somebody! Let us in, we’re still alive! Somebody help us!”
            A young man came into view, bursting through a classroom door, shouting, “No! NO! NO!”

            A zombie followed him out of the classroom and defenestrated the kid out onto courtyard below. The zombie’s momentum was enough that it fell out the window as well.

            There was the briefest moment of shocked silence.

            “Uh, that’s not safe.” Vier breathed. “To the roof. To the roof!”

            We ran up the last flight of stairs. Again, the door was shut and locked.

            Vier continued whining. “What are we going to do? They’re coming!”

            I pulled out another small bomb. “Stop panicking and tape this thing to the doorknob. We’ll blow the lock. Everybody, duck and cover!” Vier did as requested, I used Tyranna’s lighter, and we dove out of the way.

            The bomb exploded, and as the smoke cleared I looked up. It seemed I’d gotten the mix a bit wrong on this one, it wasn’t as effective as the others had been—but it was enough for Vier to jimmy what was left of the lock and get the door open.

            We rushed through, and as our luck would have it, there were another five or six zombies shambling around on the roof. How…

             A croaking from behind sounded, alerting us to the fact that the zombies we’d dealt with earlier had almost caught up. I glanced back, and saw that they’d reached the fourth floor, and would be at our backs in less than five minutes.          

            The undead ahead of us didn’t look particularly eaten, except for the corpse of one girl leaning up against the communications station on the other end of the roof. She probably didn’t have the chance to turn.

            Aelveran started trying to find a way to block the door behind us. “There’s got to be a way to keep this thing shut at least.”

            “Not really—there’s no door handle, we blew it off.” Vier clamored.

            “Unless you want to use my staff, which would deprive me of a weapon—”

            “That wouldn’t work on this door anyway!”

            Ah. Yes. That’s why we keep him around.

            “The roof was enclosed by a fence, presumably to keep people from jumping off. Our best chance would probably be to get onto the enclosed communications outpost. There was a ladder leaning against one wall that we could up to get to the higher ground. The thing was, the the building was just far enough away to make getting to it a mite troublesome.

            “Alright,” Aelveran said quietly. “Vier, you and I are going to run ahead, take out every zombie we can, and make out way to that spot of high ground, got it?”

            Vier clutched at his bad and nodded. My pole only looked to have one good hit left in it anyway.

            There were two zombies directly in out path. They would defiantly reach Vier and Aelveran at least before any of the others. The assassin rolled his shoulders with some discomfort, and the pair charged ahead.

            Vier took out he first monster to reach them. Aelveran swung his crowbar at another one and somehow managed to not quite kill it, while lodging the weapon in the creature’s eye socket.

            Tyranna and I, not wanting to get eaten, ran after the boys. There was another two zombies coming at us, one about ten feet in front of us, another 15 feet to the side.

            As we met the first, I swung my pole and connected with its head, sending it flying towards the fence. In the process, the staff broke in half.  I dropped the half I was still holding and pulled out my pocket knife. It was something.

            Tyranna threw shards of glass into the other zombie’s face so forcefully that it stumbled back and fell over.

            Aelveran was still trying to get his crowbar out of the second zombie’s skull.  He gave the weapon a sharp pull, and the creature came forward as well. It latched on to the elf, and threw him down, pinning him to the ground before it started biting and clawing at him.

            Tyranna came running and placed a well-aimed stiletto heeled boot through the zombie’s weakened eye, and the creature fell away, dead. Enough damaged appeared to have been done that the crowbar also came free.

            It seemed as though Aelveran had taken most of the bites through his clothing. He was bleeding and shaking pretty badly, though with any luck that last bit was out of shock

            “Aelveran, don’t you dare die on us—the last thing we need is a zombie werewolf.” I called to him.

            The mass of zombies from the stairwell was now trying to clamber through the doorway behind us, putting them about twenty feet behind me, forty feet from everybody else.

            Needless to say, I ran to catch up. By the time I did, Vier and Tyranna had gotten Aelveran to his feet and were supporting him. I reached down to claim the crowbar, and we got moving again.

            We reached the ladder. Tyranna started helping Aelveran up to the higher level while Vier, armed with the bat, and I waited for the three still moving zombies to advance a bit closer. Back at the door to the stairs, the horde had been bottlenecking and they were starting to come break through, though they had to climb over one another to do it.

            I took the crowbar and smashed it into the head of the zombie that was closest to me—incidentally the same one that I’d sent flying earlier, and I hit the same spot as before. Brains spurted out the other side of the abomination’s head, and I quickly wedged the crowbar back out of the zombie’s head.

            Vier swung the bat at the second zombie, and his grip slipped slightly in his sweaty palms. He managed to knock the zombie over a bit, but it was still moving. I whirled around and struck it with the crowbar as well, and it hit the floor for the last time.

            There was a clattering sound, and I glanced quickly at the odd couple and saw that Aelveran had apparently stumbled and Tyranna was holding on to him, trying to drag him back up the ladder. They made it, though barely, over the lip and onto the roof.

            “Vier!” Tyranna called down. “What’s that stuff in the syringe from earlier?”

            “Oh, I have no idea….Take the bag, take the bag!”  Vier threw it up to her, and she caught it.

            “Vier! Little help!” The third zombie had closed in and I spun to the right, crowbar outstretched and aiming for the head. The bard came in from the left, and we connected simultaneously, creating a horrible pulpy mess.

            The horde was now about 20 feet shy of us.

            “Should I go ahead and use the syringe now, or…” Demon girl called down.

            I could barely hear Aelveran tell her, “Just do it.”

            “We don’t know what it is!” Vier warned.

            “Well, how are we going to—“

            Oh, for crying out… “There’s no time for this! Neither of us can check for magic and there’s no time to examine it! Vier! Let’s MOVE!”

            We made it up the ladder. Aelveran looked like he’d been dragged through Hell—he was barely holing on to consciousness as he dealt with the physical shock of what was happening. He started coughing up blood.

            “Tyranna, what—”

            “He bit the inside of his cheek earlier. It’s probably just that.” She didn’t sound too confident.

            The horde reached us and stared clambering around at the base of the post. Thankfully, they didn’t seem able to use a ladder.

            There wasn’t a whole lot of room to maneuver, though, between the four of us and the satellite dish.

            A though hit me, and I moved to the dish, waving for Vier to follow. Two birds, one stone, right?

            “Help me break this thing off—we’ll try to crush a few zombies while we’re at it, at least until we figure something else out.”

            Tyranna saw what we were up to and busied herself trying to help the wolf boy. She’d found some meds in Vier’s pack and was busy rubbing it into his wounds before wrapping them. Aelveran’s face, however, had lost all color, and he started screaming.

            “Have you used the syringe yet?” I shouted to her while trying to move the dish.

            “Not yet, I’m—”

            “Do it!” I ordered.

            “We don’t know what it is!” Vier was starting to sound like a broken record.

            “Well, it’s either going to kill or save him!”

            Vier and I were having a hard time with moving the satellite dish. It was pretty well fastened to the roof.

            “I’ve stopped the bleeding!” Tyranna called over. She sounded a bit queasy, and there was the sound of retching as she heaved whatever had been in her stomach over the side.

            A hand grabbed my foot. I shrieked as a zombie that had climbed over a few of its companions started to drag me over the side. Vier caught my wrist an started pulling me back. I went to swing the crowbar at the hand of the creature holding me, but I’d put it down hen I’d set to work on the dish, and it was out of reach.  I started struggling harder against the zombie , and managed to kick it off. I’d been squirming too much for Vier, though, and I slipped from his grasp.

            I fell, somehow catching the ledge at the last second, my feet about four feet from the ground. I tried pulling myself up, and with Vier’s help managed to get back up onto the roof with the others.

            Tyranna was dry-heaving by now, and scrambling for some water. Vier dashed over to her help her, and pulled out a few pills, instructing her, “Take these, and hold on. We’re going to take care of you guys. It’s going to be okay.” He pulled out the syringe and gulped audibly, obviously trying to talk himself into using it. “Aelveran, how do you feel?”

            Aelveran didn’t respond.

            “Tyranna? How are you doing?”

            “I…I can’t puke anymore.” She limped out.

            The bard looked at me in desperation. “Azrael, I don’t know what this does.”

            Without a word or second though, I took the syringe from Vier and stabbed Aelveran in the thigh with it. Aelveran lurched forward for a second before passing out.

            Tyranna started to get frantic.

            Vier gaped at me before shoving it all away and glancing over the side. “Azrael, we need to get that dish off now. They’re starting to stack up!”

            I moved to help him, and by some miracle the one good shove we gave it was enough to work it free, but it looked like we’d need one more set of hands, even if it was Tyranna’s, to lift it over the edge.

            We coaxed her over, and threw it over onto the starving undead below. We must have put just a little too much into it, as Vier went over the side with the dish.

            By sheer luck he landed in the dish in such a way that the zombies that weren’t crushed couldn’t’ immediately get to him.

            “Azrael! HELP!” He screamed, scrambling to try and get back up. I grabbed one hand, Tyranna grabbed the other, and we tried to pull him back. One of Vier’s shoes managed to grip enough onto the side of the dish and he started climbing when Tyranna’s sweaty hand slipped. Stars help me, I wasn’t ready to hold him on my own.  

            Vier fell back into the waiting arms of an undead, who promptly bit down on the muscles of his calf and started hauling him back towards the horde.

            Vier screamed.

            I hooked a leg around the ledge of the roof and lunged forward, barely managing to snag Vier’s hands. Let no one tell you the limits of adrenaline. I somehow managed to drag him away from the zombie and help him get back to safety.

            I quickly checked on Aelveran—he had completely passed out.

            There as the sound of more retching behind me. Vier has started to vomit a mix of bile and blood, but there was no time for me to see to any of them. I scrambled around, looking for something—anything—to continue defending our position. The crowbar had been knocked off the roof at some point; I could see it…of all places sticking out of the skull of another now-real-dead zombie. Convenient.

            That left me with the bat. The zombies looked like they’d be able to reach us in a minute. Vier, seeing this as well, started to freak out. Tyranna, looking at him, reached all new levels of panic on her own and passed out, collapsing next to Aelveran.  Soon after, Vier joined them.

            I looked around again, desperate for any other tool. If I had to fight alone, I’d need something else to fight with than just a wooden bat.

            There was some cabling and a smaller antenna that I might be able to sue. I broke it off, and considering how little effort I put into the motion knew instantly that it’d be useless.

            Well then. I took the bat firmly in hand and went to town.  

            “Azrael, help…it hurts…”
            Vier. I hated it, but I blocked him out and kept knocking the enemy back.

            A zombie roared and tried to take a swing at me. I broke its arm with an upwards swing of the bat, connected with it’s jaw, shattered it, and snapped the neck as I forced it’s chin farther back than it was ever meant to go. It fell back, and I returned to giving a warm welcome to its companions.

            A burning hot hand suddenly came to rest on my shoulder. I glanced back at the owner. It was Aelveran,. Blood was started to drip from one of his eyes and was drooling out of his mouth. He lunched in at my throat, jaws snapping. I barely managed to twist out of the way, and his momentum carried him over the roof and into the horde.

            I dance out of the reach of the oncoming undead, and as I did, my eyes landed on Tyranna. She was crawling towards Vier, who was curled in a corner, fumbling through the pack for some supplies to bind up his still bleeding leg.

            I had a choice. A really, really easy one.

            “Tyranna, I’ve always wanted to do this.” I took a few bounding leaps to build my momentum and brought the bat swinging down onto her head.

            Blood splattered everywhere. Some of it got onto my face and I stared blinking furiously. I managed to get enough of it out that I could see properly again. Vier was coming towards me, panic etched onto every part of his face.

            "Azrael! Behind you!"

            I looked, and saw the zombies had gained the ledge and were headed right for us. I turned back to Vier, and he pushed me unto them.

            Hands reached out and grabbed me, pulling me back into the hoard.

            Wait. This couldn't be right.

            A zombie stared gnawing on my leg.

            This couldn't be happening.

            Vier came forward and stared to bite down on my neck. I struggled, and managed to shake off everyone. I stared to back away, scrambling for the bat.

            Where was...

            Vier lunged at my face, and everything went black.

            We woke up in the field of flowers. It wasn't so pretty anymore. they had all turned a dead and wilted brown. The entire area felt desecrated. From the banyan tree hung the dried out corpse of a young girl. The jungle around us was fine, though I could see the path we'd taken to the meadow. Where the same poppies that littered the path as had carpeted the meadow, there were now dead brown patches.

            Suddenly it all came back. I sprang to my feet, the familiar weight of my scythe in my hand. I held it at the ready, waiting for something to come at me again.

            Tyranna rolled to a kneeling position, looked up at me, and promptly threw up again.