Before each door, they prepared the defences. Deploying four pressure plates and the playpen. It made each room take longer, but they did not mind. But time was ticking, and they all knew that they could not check all rooms before night time. However, the more they got through, the better. More chances to find survivors and access to water.

“Don’t rush,” Ivey ordered him. Daniel complied, taking his time because she was right. It was not worth it. They continued systematically around the corridor.

Two more zombies died. Both times lured onto the pressure plates with the playpen not being required. Still, having it filled Daniel with confidence that if there were more dangerous monsters, the humans would win.

“Are you guys getting experience?” Daniel asked.

“Yes.” Ivey rolled her eyes. “You will get it too.”

“You can check in the interface?” Anthony told him helpfully.

“It’s broken,” Daniel started to answer.

“He probably assumes,” Ivey said loudly, talking over the top of him, “that he is the only one getting it because it is his traps.”

Her eyes were challenging him the whole time, telling him to shut up, and he understood the point. There was no reason to let anyone else know that he had almost become a mutated zombie. At best, they would not care; at worst it would backfire.

“He was a farmer,” she continued, as if that explained everything. “Probably does not know how to check the detailed logs.”

Daniel felt like objecting, but Anthony was nodding his head like that made sense and then Daniel wanted to hit him, even if he was a dad. Instead, he lugged the playpen to the next spot.

The usual routine.

There was no crashing and banging from the room, so there was probably no zombie.

Anthony charged in first, with Daniel behind him.

It was incredibly repetitive, and with all the lugging of traps, it was also back-breaking work. Despite the faster healing the world possessed, his muscles were all hurting.

He ducked his head and kept going. The only actual break was when he got to storm into the rooms. From what he could tell, two out of every three rooms still had suitcases in them. They had been unlucky to have bugs fall on them, though not unique. One room had had some chicken-sized spiders in them, and in another, a rat had fallen through. Anthony dealt effectively with all of them and, after checking the sword each time, Daniel was pretty happy with how it was holding up.

Regarding occupancy, it looked like maybe one in three rooms still had people in it when the world had changed and most had ended as zombies—and around half the zombies had broken out successfully.

Another room.

Together, they charged in. Anthony was yelling. There was the sound of something slamming against the shield, but the man powered forward to allow Daniel following behind to get in.

“Zombie,” Daniel yelled, spying dirty brown fur. It had struck the shield with all of its force but been repelled. Daniel knew they had to finish them quickly. The longer they took, the more likely it would get a hit in. Anthony was turtling behind his shield, effectively blocking the zombie but also obstructing Daniel’s action. He needed to improve the angle if he was going to hurt it.

Anthony seemed to slow down as Daniel activated his ability and took a quick step. The monster was typical of the others. Its torso and arms were a hundred percent animal, but its ears were still human and, in this one, its feet as well. Even the toenails were normal. The distortion and selective changes were to his mind the worst part of fighting the monsters, as it provided a continual reminder of what they used to be. At least the face did not look human like that late teenager version.

Another step to the side to give himself room, and both Anthony and the monster were locked in combat, moving in exaggerated slow motion. This speed ability still humbled Daniel more than a little. The zombie was trying to tear the shield down in order to get access to the softer flesh, but Anthony was expertly braced and short of tearing apart the instrument, the zombie’s attempt was doomed to failure. Given that the shield was enhanced with Daniel’s magic, the feral mutated human would not get through. With more time, Daniel knew Anthony could get his sword into action and finish it without help.

There was, however, no need for that. He swung his club down, positioning the zombie claws to tear into the biceps of the creature.

The club slammed home. Briefly, it felt like his growth magic was being drained out of him by the club and it felt like the weapon distorted with those claws that physically flexed coming out of the wood like you would expect from a cat. The club seemed to latch onto the arm, and as he dragged it down, the flesh was instantly shredded. There were far more cuts and blood than he thought possible.

It was not something to complain about. The face distorted into a snarl, and it was turning to look at what had hurt, but it was like it was moving in molasses. Daniel moved faster than it could look. The club went high over the head before he brought it down, driving even more strength into this blow.

The club landed with a satisfying thunk, and at the same time, his speed boost fractured. Breath whooshed out of him. He was both sweating and breathing heavily. The weapon twisted in his hand as it hit the skull, but nowhere near as bad as when the white yeti had blocked him. Daniel brought his club back for another blow, but there was no need.

He had shattered the cranium, but it was still alive. Yesterday, that much damage to a head was lethal, but then again, yesterday, this abomination did not exist. It stepped back, looking dizzy and like Daniel had done it a thousand times. Anthony ran the monster through. It had thickened skin and the blade briefly struggled to cut, but then once the point was through, the rest followed till it burst outside the other side.

Straight through the heart.

It was dead.

At least that one was, and Daniel cursed his lack of awareness as his attention flicked back to the rest of the room. If there was another, he was hopelessly exposed and had most likely unnecessarily burned his speed capacity.

Luckily, no monsters were leaping at him.

Ivey was suddenly in the room too, her spear at the ready. Healing magic reached out and fluttered through. The breaths came slightly easier.

After confirming there were no other enemies, he let himself relax silently.

“They are not zombies,” Ivey reminded him. Daniel had forgotten he had yelled “zombie” at the start of the fight.

“If they . . .” he started, wanting to do his quack like a duck thing.

“No, they are feral mutated humans,” Ivey interrupted.

“I . . .” he attempted to say it again, but she gave him a quick peck on the lips to stop him from arguing. As a tactic, it was a little underhanded, but effective.

He gave up.

“It was waiting for us,” Anthony said.

“Yep,” Ivey agreed. “But good work.”

“If there were two,” Daniel pointed out.

“If there were two, they would have broken out,” Ivey said, “Plus, given how fast you took out this one, we would have been fine, anyway.”

Daniel, who was aware of how much that speed burst had cost him, was not as certain.

Anthony pulled his sword. “My good man, how hard did you hit it?” the plumber, now holy paladin, asked, staring at the bloody arm. The entire upper section had been stripped to the bone.

“I might have put a little too much force into it,” Daniel answered, still stunned by the effectiveness of that strike. He could remember how the weapon had seemed to flex. Maybe that was one of his new plant powers and he had driven that behaviour subconsciously. However it had happened, that claw flex had been brutal in its efficiency.

Ivey bent down and cut out the core and threw it at him.

“Shouldn’t we share those?” Anthony asked.

“Check your help files,” Ivey snapped. He looked confused. “Check them,” Ivey ordered.

“I can use animal but not feral human cores,” Anthony said, sounding confused. “But he can use feral?”

There was a question and a hint of surprise was in his voice.

“Yes, a by-product of his growth magic,” Ivey smoothly without missing a beat. “And if you have not noticed, that is the only reason we are alive.”

Then Daniel realised she might not have lied. The growth magic came from being turned into a monster, and that was why he could use the cores. Daniel was stunned at how quickly she could think on her feet.

“Come on, we have time to do a couple more rooms, and then we should move into one of the unoccupied double rooms and build up a defensive fortress,” Ivey said.

They kept going.

Ivey knocked.

Then suddenly she was jumping sideways. Instantly, Daniel was moving to shut the final bit of the playpen, but her hand stopped him and she reversed direction.

“Hello.”

“Thank god, people. Can you stand in the peephole?”

Ivey moved and repositioned slightly.

There was the sound of the chain being released, and the door opened outwards. Right into the space where Ivey was standing. Unfortunately, she was in the playpen space with traps directly behind her and the wooden net that meant she could not jump clear.

Panic flooded Ivey’s face.

Push the door shut, he screamed internally, hoping that she would receive his psychic urging through the bond. There was no time to communicate verbally.

“No,” Daniel yelled out loud, not concerned about the noise because most of the zombies were dead.

Everything slowed.

Ivey, to prepare for the door opening, had instinctively taken a step back and then realised that the pressure plates were behind her.

She was still stepping. He focused on moving faster, getting a hand on the door and forcing it shut to stop it from running into Ivey and making things worse. When he pushed it, there was hardly any resistance, so he guessed the girl on the other side was light.

Then his eyes went to Ivey. She had committed to that subconscious step back, and even moving at what he knew was a blur, there was no way that he could grab her in time.

So stupid, he thought to himself. To be almost dying because of their own carelessness.

If he could not stop her, then he needed to knock the pressure plate away. Daniel swung his club at the pressure plate. It moved far faster than Ivey’s foot, but it did not take a degree in physics to understand that his club was going to result in collateral damage. So while swinging his club, he reached out with his other hand to grab her to stabilise her.

It was all instinctive, but he took the only path that would save her leg. Knock away the pressure plate, but after that, it would keep going, and she would have an almighty bruise if not broken legs.

Better that than death.

But when the club hit . . .

If she fell on the other plates, that was how she would fall unless he could pull her to safety.

But the club was going too fast with his strength and enhanced speed. He remembered what the combination had done to the previous zombie.

He needed to arrest the momentum of the club. It was all running through his head in a rush. Time slowed further. The club was beating the foot, so he slowed it down. His other reaching hand caught hers. He rotated the weapon so it hit the pressure plate flush like a hockey stick hitting a puck. It was skidding away.

Her foot was still coming down upon it, but the club collected it.

He had forgotten about the claws, and when he looked down, he could not see them and he could see the entire club that was not next to her leg. They must have shredded her. Hopefully, Anthony could heal her quickly.

IDIOT! Daniel screamed inside of himself. He should have rotated the club away. At least the foot was lifted over the pressure plate.

Everything was slowed so much that there was no blood yet, or even sound, but bones would be shattered and those claws might end up doing more damage than the pressure plate would have managed. The club kept moving and swept out the second leg; the impact was slower this time, and he yanked her closer towards him. He felt her legs leave the ground, and the job got easier.

Crack!

The first trap went off, but had pulled her through the air. Her foot was shattered, but there was none of the tearing he had been fearing. Then her full weight slammed into him, and his increased speed faded away. As time was restored to normal speed, he dropped his club to use his second hand, grabbed her tight and threw him out where he knew the gap to the playpen was.

The pressure plate he had hit would slide into the playpen, triggering it, and with the other traps still inactivated, he really did not want to be wrapped up, as there was too much danger of falling directly onto the traps.

Ivey was in his arms. He fell, rolling on his shoulders, using all of his strength to protect her as they tumbled out of the destruction zone.

Crack! Crack!

Another two plates had gone off. He might not be able to see them, but he could certainly hear them. His head hit the ground, and he found himself on his back with Ivey on top of him, her face scrunched up in pain.

It was hard to focus. His head was swaying. They had survived. Relief and then panic flooded through him.

Pain was blossoming in his stomach.

No. Not now. He forced it down.

Anthony was yelling. There was cursing from the room, and then the door was being pushed open again.

“No!”

Daniel forced himself to his feet while still holding Ivey. The whole world rocked. His stomach seethed with pain, but he could not afford to fall, because if she stepped out then the trap might kill her and he also did not want to hurt Ivey by accident.

A step forward and then he reached out and grabbed the edge of the door, stopping it from opening fully.

He wanted to puke.

“Wait.” Daniel forced the word out. Ivey was sobbing in his arms. Why wasn’t Anthony healing them? “Traps,” he croaked out to whoever was opening the door, trying to warn them.

The door stopped trying to open in his hands. He let it go and looked towards Anthony. The man had fallen onto his bum. His orange t-shirt was drenched with blood.

“No,” Daniel whispered in shock, recognising the wooden stakes that had impacted the other man’s torso. His mind connected the dots, his eyes filling in what had happened. When his club had hit the pressure plate, it had flipped up slightly before triggering. Anthony’s shield had been out of position, and he had not moved it quickly enough. In fact, out of the five spikes, only one had been deflected, two missed, and the last couple had hit him.

It was where they had hit that was the problem. Maybe they had missed the heart, but maybe not.

This was a disaster.

“You need to heal Anthony,” he told Ivey, hoisting her up and stumbling to the others man’s side.

Should he be pulling the stakes out or not? The advice was always to leave the impaled objects in till there was medical attention available. Was that Ivey? He had positioned her within reach of the older man.

“Anthony, heal yourself,” Daniel encouraged, but the plumber’s eyelids were already shutting. “Ivey?” He looked at the girl in his arms, and she was lucid, but her eyes were filled with pain and she was biting her lower lip. Her hand reached out. White light formed in it, then broke apart. He was sure it was supposed to leap at the other man if it worked.

“Ivey!”

She was grimacing in pain and he remembered he had shattered her ankles and perhaps worse. He looked down. There was some blood, but nothing like what was rushing out of Anthony.

“It failed,” she hissed, but she had not given up or slowed down to explain to him. The light was already forming in her hand.

Daniel was helpless and made sure he did not move. If he shifted, it would distract her and probably cause the spell to fail like the previous one. Please, he prayed inside his head.

The door across the hallway creaked open. The women who had inadvertently set it all off emerged. She was an old Swedish lady, not tall and slightly built. She was searching for the traps.

Not a threat.

The light in Ivey’s hand failed once more.

“Come on,” she cried, egging herself on. The glow formed once more. Anthony slumped further. Daniel still did not dare move, as he did not want to risk distracting her.

The spark shot across and hit Anthony. “Yes!” The excited statement snuck out. Anthony definitely looked like he had more colour on his cheeks because of the spell.

“Not enough,” Ivey told him, with another cast forming in her hand.

Then it flickered and failed.

“No!” There was desperation in her voice. The light started up once more. She lowered her hand to have physical touch with some of Anthony’s exposed leg. If she needed to be closer, Daniel was sure she would have already have asked him. “No!”

The glow brightened, and then it wavered and collapsed in her hand. Horror filled the girl’s eyes and doggedly, she tried again. This time it did not collapse, but when it hit Anthony, it did nothing, just washed over him.

“No,” Ivey whispered, anguish in her voice. He was dead. Daniel realised that was why the spell had failed. There was a vitality missing from him.

There was a sound of a door opening down the corridor. Daniel, helpless to do anything else, pushed Ivey off him and stood up, realising his club was in his hands. How had that happened? He remembered putting it down but not picking it up. He had it and he turned to the face whatever was going to emerge.

How had things gone so wrong? It was all Daniel could think about. How?

A young man around his age emerged, hands in the air. “We thought we heard people?” he said, holding his hands out in the classic “no need to overreact” manner.

“We?” Daniel asked.

“Us,” a girl said, coming out the doorway. She was a stunning African woman with a strong English accent.

Daniel swallowed. Despite the situation, despite the horror, there was definitely something about her looks that appealed to him. He looked down, a little guilty at Ivey. They were not together, but in a way, they were. There was nothing like an apocalypse to form strong bonds quickly.

Her hands glowed, hit Anthony, and failed once more. She had her ankle crushed and had not cried, but this failure had pushed her over the edge. He felt helpless. There was nothing he could do to comfort her. Another glow failed in her hand.

“Heal yourself,” he urged.

“Have you killed all the monsters?” the new girl asked, emerging fully into the hallway.

Thump!

A door two down from the new couple rocked back on its hinges.

“Quick, get behind us,” Daniel yelled, lifting Ivey in the crook of one arm. He carried her to a spot behind the traps. The playpen was still intact, and just like it could be used to encircle a doorway, it could be stretched across the corridor. He placed Ivey gently down.

Thump!

This time, the door half splintered with the next attack. It was definitely going down.

The couple and the old lady were past him, and he wrestled the playpen across to cover the hallway. The remaining active traps were all clustered around the door and their placement was not perfect.

However, if the monster was dumb . . .

“Everyone over there,” he yelled, nodding to show where they had to gather. Hopefully, it would see the massed flesh and charge straight through the still-active traps.

He grabbed Anthony’s body and hauled him across too. No need to give the creature an easier target.

Thump! This time there was a wave of debris as the monster exploded through the door. It was big and actually larger than the other two that he had killed.

Not again, he thought. He was supposed to make sure every battle he fought was easier and without a chance of dying. Yet every encounter was more dangerous than the last.

“ROARRAG!”

The sound was so deep that it was like bass speakers at a concert. The roar made Daniel’s insides physically shiver.

Log report 5 - Entry 5

My host got hurt!

By environmental damage, with allies surrounding her.

That made me wonder if the ability, ‘Something accidentally attacked me and I responded with claws of shredding blackness and boiled them alive, oops’ was as perfect as I had envisaged. In this case, her allies would have been rendered and cooked unnecessarily, as opposed to her enemies. It is something I will have to look at improving it in future iterations of ‘Emergency Blast.’

Yes, you are correct in noticing the change of names. My host insisted on the ability being renamed for some unfathomable reason. Ridiculous like with the Pobournes I am demonstrably great at naming things and it should have remained unchanged, but you know bipeds

*Shrugs.*

They’re biologicals and we need to accept their stupidity.

Speaking of which, I addressed some of this with my host’s pet.

Now I know there are strict rules about influencing my host but a co-wobub?

After this event, I’m definitely going to get specific clarification, but for now it is absolutely not explicitly stated as being against the rules..

I’m certain because I checked twice.

Excessive?

Probably, but after what happened with host four, I figured it was necessary.

I don’t have much influence on the co-wobub and to be honest it’s less than I hoped. You could say it’s at the margins, but every time my host establishes contact I get a bit of wiggle room. Straight after transition, I used it to reduce his focus on his family back home. I accept that bipeds are going to *like* smaller bipeds, but I needed the co-wobub to concentrate on my host’s immediate situation.

I think it worked a little. With a different species, I wouldn’t have bothered, but with them being bipeds I’m not sure that they cope well with distractions. You know with all the effort they have to continually expand not to fall over.

The initial alteration appears to have been successful, so in the last couple of connections I’ve influenced different angles. I know it’s stated explicitly that you aren’t approved to turn off pain receptors.

But is releasing endorphins after pain banned? Nothing says I’m not allowed to do that so *Jumping excitedly.*

He’s swallowing those cores like candies now.

I’m brilliant. He has an artificial chemical good time and my host becomes safer.

Everyone wins.

As always total Falls: 8.5 (+3.5) and it hasn’t even been a full day!. The co-wobub fell over three times, fighting the sapient deconstructed. Sure, the creature might have tapped him slightly prior to each tumble, but in my professional opinion that does not matter. A fall is a fall of course.

You might also wonder about the 0.5.

Well the paladin fell over and I was going to count him as a full fall but apparently he was *dying* and even if he was quad or hex peds, he would have fallen as well, so I couldn’t count that. However, my host almost falling resulted in the original problem and so I assigned that almost tumble a 0.5.

Finally, we have what is happening currently. A potently mutated sapient deconstructed is fighting my host’s pet. She might even lose him.

It will be very sad because the co-wobub dying now might impact my survival record. I’m now aiming for two days.

Ambitious?

Yes.

Achievable? Well… based on history I’m not the best judge of this.

We’ll just have to wait and see. How exciting.

Anyway, she might lose her pet, but we should always strive to be optimistic. The pet should provide a sufficient distraction for Ivey to use the terrain to her advantage.

Here’s hoping she finds a good hiding spot, though if she doesn’t then that is not the worst thing in the world as I might get to see ‘Something accidentally attacked me and I responded with claws of shredding blackness and boiled them alive, oops’ in action!

*I can barely wait.*

Note to self: Prematurely triggering emergency blast ability crosses the whole self-determination thing.

Note to self 2: Bipeds preferred term of address is humans.

Note to self 3: Is pet the correct term? Research!

Note to self 4: Check with others to confirm that ‘Something accidentally attacked me and I responded with claws of shredding blackness and boiled them alive, oops’ is a superior name to ‘Emergency Blast’.

End log report