Settling down, Daniel tried to work out how to get the trap in place. First, he needed a nearby wood mass that could encase the girl. Once that mass was available, he could make it nasty, turn it into hard spikes that would repeal the zombie and protect the young woman. Growing the size was easy enough, but he would need to do it right next to them. The real question was whether to go through the roof or wall.

The debate lasted a few precious seconds and then he realised he was wasting time and he did not know if he could get through the wall easily. As far as he knew, it might be as hard as the bloody floor.

Touching the convenient desk, he found some live cells, or at least ones that could be revived, and a tendril shot up. With a burst of extra energy, he had it extend where he sat all the way up into the neighbouring room.

First step done, he relaxed, but only slightly. After all, the monster could wake up at any time. There would be nothing worse than if the poor, traumatised girl died because they were too slow. It was why he had woken up everyone in the middle of the night. He had to save her. Failure was not an option.

Anthony may have died, but this girl would live. The promise was settled deep inside him. Daniel was surprised how emotional he was getting and forcefully focused on breathing. He needed to keep a clear head, slow and methodical; if only he had mastered Animal Sense earlier. If he had insisted that they wait, then Anthony would still be alive. It was simple enough logic. Not your fault, he reminded himself fiercely; it was a tragic accident. Daniel stopped himself once again. If repeating that line made a difference, then he would be over this already.

Save the girl. But now that he was in the room next to them, there was not much he could do until he was ready. It was just a matter of time. Exclusively using his overflow, he grew the key tool for his rescue mission. There was no digging into his reserve because when he triggered the scoop, he would need all the power he had available to make sure the zombie could not get through the defences to the defenceless kid.

Sitting there in the moonlight and just letting energy flow, his mind wandered, second-guessing the plan that he was putting in place. Maybe he should build a big pressure trap and fire down into the sleeping zombie: a dozen three-foot-long spikes and then wham. Kill it in a single blow. It was fun to think about as he passively built up his plant mass above the bed. However, it was fanciful because he doubted he had the time that he needed to create structures that were powerful enough. Turning the soft, floppy vines into solid wooden spikes and building up the compression to use them would take over five times the energy that he would need to just protect the girl. In a perfect world with unlimited time, then sure, he would go down that path. Right now, it was not worth considering the option. The monster would almost certainly wake long before that sort of setup became operational.

Plus, what would the zombie do when the spikes hit home?

It would probably spasm and lash out, and with the size differential, the girl might die even if the zombie was not actively trying to eliminate her. So if he went down the death-trap path, he would also need to create a fence to prevent the zombie accidentally hitting the girl, and that would take even longer.

He could not risk it. Protect the girl and then lure the zombie into his existing traps. It was that easy.

The mass grew, and Daniel glanced back at the others. They were mainly dark silhouettes. Tamara, the darkest of the two, moved slightly. Maybe a thumbs up and there was a brief flash of white teeth.

Hopefully, they would not be needed, but they were backup if he was required to engage the monster in a face-to-face fight.

The mass grew, and Daniel knew the moment the zombie woke up, it would see it and he would have to act irrespective of where his preparations were. Scenarios went through his head. Luckily, the smart girl had got space from her captor. It was only a foot or so, but every inch mattered. It was not much, but it gave him room to act. He would drop his mass down and use a pre-made form to scoop her up and push her right into the corner, and then he would defend her with his growth magic.

That scoop was ready to go, and while it was slow going, he was adding wood into the mushy vines that were at the core of the mass. That extra preparation would hopefully provide the backbone of his defence in those first moments. Being available to damage the zombie if it tried to dig into the mass of greenery to claim back its prize. He was ready, but the longer he got, the more genuine wood could be included and the more certain he could be in his success.

Best case was that it would be scared away and decide getting back its snack was not worth fighting the monster that had snatched it. Daniel was not in the habit of planning with rose-coloured glasses; he needed to be ready to stop it when it tried to dig the girl out, and that was what he concentrated on. When the mass dropped, he could strengthen it quickly. Within minutes, it would be as strong as a fortified door.

Another two minutes passed, and he added interlocking wood into the structure. The internal defence was rapidly forming as he had planned.

The zombie stirred. It half sat and was looking at the girl.

He was out of time.

The mass of root stock fell, and his hands glowed green as he pumped magic through the conduit that he had grown to be as thick as his leg. His conscience was in the scoop and plant defence, already strengthening it.

The zombie was still drowsy, having only just stirred, but it was facing his creation, and its eyes would widen, and Daniel knew it would leap in to grab the girl. The monster in it would be unwilling to give up the prey that it had been guarding for so long.

The scoop worked, falling over the kid, dropping into place as he had designed, with gravity doing all the work.

The zombie was moving, reacting faster than expected, but Daniel had built a large margin of error into his calculation, so it was still going to be too slow.

The vines tightened, pulling the scoop down and to the wall. His consciousness itself drove part of this. Even as the mechanical bits did the bulk of the work, he directed spurts of growth to form a cradle around the girl, smoothing out edges to stop the bedding from getting caught in the scoop. Then she was cradled in vines instead of the bed and was yanked towards the wall.

It was for her own good. It was not gentle, but what were some bruises or minor concussion versus getting eaten? The scoop kept going, and the final bit of the design kicked in with suction caps connected to the door. With a touch of power, the seal was made perfect, and the space expanded, while letting no air in. The result was a connection that was stronger than nails.

Forget Spider-Man. Daniel knew he could climb vertical walls easily with this technique, especially once he got a bit more experience.

Per one scenario he had rehearsed in his head, the monster immediately dug into the mass of vegetation to get to its prey. Daniel shifted the spikes into position. It was inefficient, as most of the time he had to brace them with magic as opposed to structural integrity and physics.

The girl was screaming.

Daniel could hear her through the wall. The zombie was roaring as it tried to burrow through the mass of vegetation. She must have been terrified.

Yet as much as the zombie threw everything at the plant, his magic flowed out in a torrent, outpacing the damage. It gave Daniel time to strengthen the core of whip-thin wood to protect where the girl was pinned into the corner. Spikes spread out to get the zombie even as he kept building additional layers of defence.

It was like structuring match stick towers. He braced pieces of wood against each other, using a pyramidal grid to make the whole tougher than each individual piece.

“ROARAG.”

In his perception, the zombie was pulling back, frustrated.

Daniel was winning. Another thirty seconds and the girl would be safe.

The creature was leaping up to attack his mass from above, creating a new angle.

Won’t help you, Daniel thought in triumph. This plan was working perfectly. He would spend another couple of minutes of reinforcing, and then they could deal with the zombie at their leisure without worrying about the girl.

Just to be sure, he focused his energy on shoring up the top of his plant mass.

An alarm went off. The conduit that linked him to the girl’s defence tore.

What?

He tried automatically to arrest the destruction.

Another tear appeared in the conduit. Everything was chaotic. Wood sense provided an overlay, as did the tiny blip of Animal Sense he released.

The image was fuzzy. The zombie was on top of the wood mass but not digging down towards the girl.

No!

Understanding flashed through him. The strike on the conduit was not incidental damage. The animal was targeting it. Over half the structural integrity had already vanished in those first two blows. There was no wood to protect it, no spikes available to reposition. The whole thing was just a mushy, soft, pliable vine. Against zombie claws, there was no contest. The ability to reinforce the growing defences vanished completely as the conduit was fully severed, fell apart.

He jumped to his feet. His cheek muscles hurt from how hard his teeth were clamped together.

The zombie had deliberately cut his connection.

Head pounding, Daniel needed to do something.

Why hadn’t he gone through the wall? He had gone for speed and it had backfired. Focus, he thought hard. The failure did not matter. All that mattered was the current situation.

The girl!

Without him continually reinforcing the plants, they would fail quickly.

“BULL DUST.”

The others startled, then they gathered their weapons as Daniel grabbed his own and sprinted to the door.