“Why?” he said, caught by surprise.

He asked more out of shock than for a specific reason. Ivey was just being decisive. They were prepared to fight. There traps were laid out and while it would have been nice to have taken the time to expand the number, that luxury was not something to buy at the cost of other lives.

He was not ready for this, but his ears still picked up on what was happening. The banging had stopped. The monsters had heard Ivey and were coming to get them. They were around the corner, but he was sure he could hear their shuffling movements.

She could have warned him. It should have been a group decision, but he knew he was just being childish. If challenged, he would have yelled “help” himself, and waiting for him to process what they needed to do would have wasted time, and that was something the zombies’ previous targets may not have had.

It was done.

They were coming.

Daniel carried out a quick stock take of what he had set up. The pressure plates were down in front of him and the restraint nets ready. Best case, they would run through and kill themselves and, failing that, the nets would entangle them and bring them down and make them an easy kill. He was pretty confident in his creation; providing the zombies were not hugging the walls, the restraints would ensnare them for sure.

There were noises coming.

He shifted one trap a little further away from them, giving him more space to fight. A zombie head appeared briefly twenty meters from them at the corridor intersection. It had been assessing the situation.

That was not good at all.

“Smart ones.”

“Probably not,” Ivey disagreed, making Daniel wonder if it was just by habit, because if it had scoped them out like that, surely there was no more certain evidence of intelligence.

Daniel’s head snapped left and then right, wondering where they were coming from. There was a single circuit that linked all the rooms. A rectangle with a couple of dead off shoots, presumably where the suites were smaller or the irregular space of the building let them pack in extra guests. There were noises behind Daniel and Ivey and in front. The monsters were smart, as they had looped around to his other side. Was it wolf clever or something more terrifying? Daniel could feel sweat on the palms of his hands.

Soon, he thought. His club was placed against the wall next to him, and he clutched the restraint trap to get ready to throw it in either direction. The second and third nets were next to him as well, prepared to be used at a moment’s notice. If they were coming from both sides, he would need them, and if they were not perfectly coordinated, then their flank trick would fail.

He patted the webs subconsciously, thankful that he had them.

Head on a pivot.

Had all of them moved to hit from behind or only some of them?

“This is a bad idea,” he told Ivey before regretting the statement almost immediately. With no concrete knowledge of what was out there, they had to gamble. This was as good, if not better, than other ideas they could have come up with.

The important thing was to act now before dehydration weakened them. The slow approach of taking over hotel rooms one by one might have worked better, but the fact the zombies had been breaking into another apartment had tipped their hands. Plus, once they won this fight and they would control the corridor, and then they had access to as many minibars as they liked. They might even have water to spare to wash himself. That would be a luxury. If they had stayed in their rooms, Daniel knew they would have resorted to drinking toilet water. Thirst did strange things to people.

Drinking from the toilet or facing likely death to kill a zombie swarm. Daniel would not claim it was a straightforward choice, but there was an excellent reason they were out here rather than playing defensive in their rooms.

There were sounds of moving feet to his left, so he turned to face the direction. The zombie that had poked its head out was loping toward him. If it was not for the burst jeans that it was still wearing and the scraps of cloth around its neck that were once a T-shirt, he would have assumed he was watching an escaped gorilla.

It had blond, almost white fur covering it, and was the shaped like a silverback but bigger. An abominable snowman? Maybe? It was scary, and Daniel’s eyes were drawn to two teeth jutting out of its jaws. How he imagined a sabre-tooth tiger would always look. It was not something you would expect to run into in a dark alley, let alone a hotel hallway. It was not in a hurry, instead choosing to lope slowly, taking the time to assess them.

Too slowly.

Daniel’s eyes snapped behind him in order to see three zombies rushing toward him. These were more traditional, with shapes that more closely resembled human. They were all furries with none of the hairless types. Why were there no skin ones? It was something to worry about later.

All three of them were charging at him. Two black and one brown, they were all on the smaller side, but every one of them had long claws.

They were already close.

Cursing to himself, Daniel launched the first net and then a second one at a slightly different angle before rotating to face the big, blond threat. In the moments that he had been distracted by the flanking zombies, the other had sped up, and instead of being eight rooms away, it was only four. It was too late to net it. Between grabbing the third and activating it, there was no longer anywhere near enough time to expand and then close. The restraint would be little better than throwing a fluffy pillow.

The blond thing charged him.

Now that it had committed to an attack, it was moving faster than the others. Muscles bulged in its arms, and Daniel wondered whether what he saw meant anything. Visual clues were less accurate now than previously. When he exerted himself and lifted heavy objects, he could feel his new strength. Yet his muscles were not visibility bigger; if anything, he was leaner than he remembered, but he was stronger and that screen that Ivey helped him to access agreed with experience. The power was clearly there when he used it, even if his appearance did not reflect the improvement.

Those bulging cords of muscles that the thin hair could not hide. What did it mean? Did this thing have a strength of forty or was it still stuck in the old world and, despite its bulk, was it weaker than Daniel’s new enhanced strength?

Daniel activated the net in his hands and tossed it behind him. It might open or it might not. There might be another zombie coming, or there might not be. All that mattered was his hand was free. He grabbed his club, and he felt more complete and ready to fight. His brain, which had been shutting down, sharpened and focused more completely on the battle.

There were sounds of snapping and cracking behind him. A cacophony of sounds. Restraints first opening and then shutting as they presumably slammed into the running zombies. Preparing to close around them like a snap band and hopefully tangling or, better still, pinning zombies.

Crack!

In his more focused battle state, he knew it was a pressure plate going off behind him. That was optimistically one down, but for now, he needed to focus on the white beast charging him. Daniel was certain this was the leader, and that was confirmed when it shifted its weight to weave through the three pressure plates and avoid them all.

If he had all the traps in the world, Daniel was sure it would have avoided all of them. It was too smart to fall for his tricks, so he would meet it in open battle. There was no time to consider strategy, so he flowed into a golf swing, relying on his sporting experience to transfer his strength into the head of the weapon.

A muscular, hairy arm moved out in a block.

Too smart.

Crack!

That was the second trap behind him going off.

Thud!

His blow met the animal’s forearm. The momentum was rudely stopped dead, and he felt a click in the middle of his weapon as the wood cracked. Despite its reinforced nature, the magnitude of the collision caused cracks to spiral through the wood.

Surprise washed through Daniel at the same time his hands smarted at the shock wave that went up the shaft of the wood, numbing his arms to the elbow.

The white monster roared in his face, pulling away an arm that Daniel was glad to see that its hand hung limply from. Then its other arm swung at him.

Still slightly in shock caused by the massive collision of his club with the gigantic beast, there was no time to retreat, dodge, or duck. All he could do was brace himself as the back of the arm struck Daniel’s own arm, then his stomach and chest area, whiplash extending to his head, and his feet left the ground, the force of the blow sending him flying.

Not for long, as Daniel felt the air whoosh out of him, and he was certain some of his ribs cracked even as gravity claimed him and he was tumbling in the air and then hitting the floor. Propelled by such force, he ended up rolling right over the restraints. Stray slivers of wood stuck him with stinging pain, and he slammed into a wall. Miraculously, his club was still in his hand.

Thankfully, the monster had backhanded him. If it had swiped with its claws, the outcome would have been different.

His tree power immediately flowed into the club to strengthen it. Scars built upon scars with the structure of the wood. Something told Daniel that with time, this weapon would end up being something more than just wood.

Healing energy struck him and ignored his internal injuries and instead ran over his skin to close the many cuts that his own traps had left him. Fair enough; blood loss was a risk, and he had made those slivers of wood to be razor sharp.

His head rang from both the backlash and hitting the wall as Daniel tried to work out what was happening.

The big zombie was howling, clutching its arm in agony, but those beady eyes immediately focused in on him. He had hurt it, but had also got it mad. Then he looked to his right. The third restraint had done nothing, but the first two had worked like he had envisaged. One of the three other zombies was dead, having fallen with a leading head onto a pressure plate; another had wounds on its leg but was almost free of the restraints with the last firmly trapped . . . but then Daniel had no time to think as the white monster charged him.

Daniel rolled desperately to the side, or at least attempted to roll in practice. He more fell heavily with a half tumble built into the movement.

The zombie slammed into a hotel room door Daniel had just been in front of, which was fully blown off its hinges. Maybe he had been lucky and that this thing had not been involved in the initial attack on his room, because if it had, then he might never have got an opportunity to have reinforced the door.

Daniel scrambled to his feet, hopeful of getting a hit in while it was disoriented. It was only a momentary reprieve.

His blunt club would do nothing. There was no way he was battering this thing to death. Maybe a spear would work, but his best hope was still the pressure plates. It did not feel like anything else would do enough damage to the monster.

They looked at each other and while holding eye contact, Daniel brought his club down hard on the third zombie that was almost out of the netting. It had been so focused on escape it did not see the blow coming. The mace slammed into the prone creature’s head, the sharp spikes helping to break bone.

Crack!

Daniel’s eyes did not retreat from the white monster. The true threat. The zombie he had just executed was dead. He had felt the bone give way and the club being slowed by soft brain matter. Not even a zombie could survive that.

“ROARRA.”

While it yelled, Daniel looked down at creature at his feet. It was toppling over with its skull caved in as badly as he could imagine. There was a depression the size of a melon with brain matter coming out of its nose. It had to go somewhere after being forced out of the skull.

One less to worry about. His eyes flicking back up to witness the white zombie finishing its roar.

That was the monster he needed to kill.

Do you even realise you just lost your friends? Danie’s taunting was all internal. It was just an animal and there was no need to waste his breath.

The zombie charged at him. Daniel leapt, going for a swan dive to his right, sort of envisaging a world where he could land on his hands, push off and end up clean on his feet. Yeah, he was a noob and had only ever watched the move on the big screen, but a large part of him hoped the agility he had gained would translate to successfully pulling off extraordinary feats of acrobatics.

The springing to his feet failed, and the ground smacked him. He face planted on the carpet. Another of Ivey’s heals hit him and reminded him of the wider battle.

If he had stayed in one spot too long . . .

Daniel rolled to his side.

There was a crash next to him, and he saw clawed, light yellow, fur-covered feet having landed right where his head had been moments before.

Daniel rolled further away, and was happy with his instinct as an arm flashed over him. If he had stood up . . . it did not bear thinking about it.

The desperate move took him over a pressure plate, and only the application of his growth power stopped it from triggering and chopping him in two. Daniel pushed himself up and on top of the object.

The eyes of the zombie—or mutated human or whatever he was supposed to call it—dropped to look at the dead plate under him. The third zombie, the only one that was still alive, was completely trapped. It would not get out by itself.

He just needed to take care of this one monster.

Daniel watched it and was ready to spring out of its way.

The beast snarled at him. Or maybe it was laugh. Daniel stepped backwards, bringing his club up. Behind the creature, he could see Ivey in the shadow of the room with a bow in her hand, ready to fire.

Daniel shook his head. If it went after her, she stood no chance, while his speed had so far proven to be sufficient, if only barely, to avoid its strikes.

He was faster than it, Daniel realised, and then he internally promised to keep his feet. There were three traps in play, including the one he had rolled over which he had reset the moment he had left it.

Even with Ivey’s healing, his ribs still hurt. He had got lucky with that first hit and needed to make sure another did not land.

Thankfully, Ivey lowered her bow.

The monster stepped forward, swinging its good arm. Daniel danced back, wondering if he could hit the arm when it tried to attack him, but only if it was not using its claws because he was sure in the contest of those claws against his club that the wood would lose badly.

It moved toward him once more.

Then it froze.

Pinned him with its gaze.

It snarled. Soft, guttural.

Then, with extravagant movements, it stepped around the pressure plate.

Looked at him with its teeth showing. Like a smile.

Another snarl, but it was not aggressive.

It was definitely laughing at him.

It kicked the pressure plate, and it skidded along the carpet to create more room.

Another laughing snarl.

Daniel moved to shift the last plate between him and the creature, even though he knew it was pointless.

“Do you understand me?”

“ROARRA.”

Of course it did not.

Another one. It was enjoying itself.

Then it jumped forward, and a single swing of its good arm forced Daniel to retreat. The monster’s feet were on either side of the plate, with the wood between its feet doing absolutely nothing.

Maybe he could run around the looped corridors to get back to the pressure plates?

Daniel assessed the monster, and while he was more than agile, running in straight lines was a mistake. This thing would easily hunt him down in a straight line. He remembered how fast it was when it charged him.

Think, Daniel told himself, desperately trying to put thought into the words. Maybe he could risk breaking into one of these hotel rooms and hope the door would hold.

Nope.

It had crashed through the other one like it was paper. There was no way he would get to reinforce it in time. Even if he did, it was questionable whether he could get enough spikes out to stop it before his mana ran out. Not to mention that would leave Ivey helpless.

It had laughed, so he knew it had seen her and would go after her once he was finished.

There had to be a way.

Run? Hide? Fight? Each of them felt more ridiculous than the last.

Suddenly, Ivey’s spear was thrusting at the beast. Impaling it from behind would be a generous description. It was more like an unexpected poke that got close to drawing blood. The monster reacted, rotating with its terrifying speed to face the potential threat, stepping sideways and backwards to give it time as it did so.

Crack!

Ivey was already retreating, looking petrified.

It had stepped on the trap. While the device had successfully killed a lesser zombie, it clearly would not take down the monster in front of him. The teeth of the trap had closed hard on the leg, and some of the sharpened wood looked like they had reached bone, but there were no signs of the foot being cut off. It was just a flesh wound. Ivey was almost running backwards, and the monster had shown that it would focus on whatever had most recently hurt it and that currently that was Ivey.

He needed to save her.

“DIE!”

It had rotated to see both of them, so he stepped forward, going for a head strike. It parried easily, using its good arm to match his blow. This time, he had less power and the force of the counter had his feet lifting off the ground and sent him careering into the side of the wall.

Daniel dropped the club, convinced it was useless against the thing he was fighting. One of the pressure plates was right in front of him, and with both hands, he picked it up and threw it.

Ivey was running away from the beast who, having taken care of Daniel, had turned its attention to the girl that had caused it to hurt itself. Given the laughter, it might have been embarrassment driving it. The creature was clearly no longer human, but it was smarter than a dog, though driven by its instincts. It took a step, dragging the locked trap with it.

Crack!

The one he had thrown slammed into the monster’s hip. Daniel was already scrambling for the third one. Yanking it up, he used his ridiculous strength and moved toward the monster.

This last trap had to count; otherwise he was not looking forward to beating this beast with just a club or spear or trying to get close enough to channel his growth into the trap and have the wood inside the beast do the damage.

“ROARAR.”

Its focus switched to removing the two traps on it. Yep, that was the dumb beast within it. Where its focus could be interrupted by the latest shiny bubble or inconvenience. Thankfully.

It leapt into the air and tried to land on the device hanging off its hip. Hoping that gravity and its full weight would splinter it.

It held.

It felt like the wood should have been shattered under the explosive impact. Unfortunately for the beast, the trap had been forged with his magic, and while man-made devices with their numerous weak points created by screws and nails would have splintered, all the monster achieved was to drive the wooden teeth further into its flesh.

It was hurt.

Now was the time to finish it. If he could blindside it and bring the trap down on its head, then the energy stored within might be enough to exterminate it. The monster was not looking in his direction. All of its attention was focused on freeing itself. It brought its undamaged arm down on the trap with claws extended. The angle was not optimal, but the sharp claws cut into the wood. Magic or not, it was still wood, and the claws dug in deep. The first blow left scratches, the second deeper wounds, and the third resulted in tearing sounds. While it was striking, Daniel was sneaking up behind it.

His whole body trembled, his heart beat thundering. First, he shifted positions to be directly behind it and then sneaked forward. In front of him, the monster brought its good arm down into another blow, and the brute force rippled through his creation and tore it in two.

The monster snarled in satisfaction and flicked the broken pieces off it. There was a small swell of blood. It thought it was invulnerable and winning.

Please let this work, he thought. It would. It had to. With the trap firmly in two hands, he brought it down upon the unprotected head.

Crack!

“RORARA!”

It threw itself to its feet seemingly unimpeded, and Daniel leapt backwards. Both hands, even the previous limp one, were at its neck trying to protect itself from whatever had happened.

It was still standing and functioning despite a bear trap that decapitated the lesser zombies having closed around its neck successfully.

Daniel turned to get distance. His bum stung as claws slashed past, and it felt like he had been picked up and thrown once more. Another glancing blow sent him helplessly sprawling. This time, thankfully, not into a wall or on top of razor-sharp debris. Something told him that his favourite pair of jeans was ruined. Stupid thought, he grumped internally. None of that mattered if that creature was still coming for him.

Daniel tried to get to his feet while looking for a weapon. He slipped and fell when his left leg failed to respond. The hand that had clutched his stinging bum came away wet with blood. That light stinging blow was apparently far deeper than he had thought.

He looked up, expecting the worst, but the monster was not going for him. Instead, it was tearing the trap off its head. One hand on each side and the jaws opened under the powerful assault, dislodging the teeth that had sunk fully into the neck. Blood spurted out of one hole in its neck, and its chest turned red. So was its leg, Daniel realised. The hip wound was also bleeding heavily.

It tossed the remains of the trap away and then swayed. Its hands were pressed hard into the neck wounds, futility trying to staunch the loss of blood.

It made gagging sounds.

Blood spouted out of its mouth. A lot. It was near death, Daniel realised. Then it fell with an almighty crash. Healing magic was flooding into Daniel, but when he looked, Ivey was walking over to the trapped zombie with a spear in her hand and a determined expression on her face.

“I think we did it,” Daniel said before noting coldness building in his belly. Not again, he thought, even as pain radiated out from his centre.

No, he could not afford to black out when other zombies were out there and potentially still alive. Just because only four had come originally did not mean that others were not on the way. Daniel struggled against it, but the agony kept coming, and his eyes rolled back in his head, and he went limp.