Daniel ran up the stairs, pausing on the landing. This section was more complicated to traverse. As he stood there, Priscilla shared an image. It was of Fire Hands running and as it ran; it tripped and then it fell, skidding conveniently to land at the feet of the twins.

It was the Professor in action. Daniel knew that with cold certainty. It was why they could not afford to face it anywhere near where it had allies or in a field of traps.

There was no noise, but the twins looked like they roared at the sky and then fell on the helpless monster, tearing into bits. Daniel slowed his mad rush. The Professor and twins had paused to deal with the coward.

“Slow down,” Daniel called out, moderating his voice because he did not want the zombies to hear him. “We have time.”

The jerky movements above him reduced, and they could pick where their feett landed more carefully. He was pleased that all of them were being careful not to touch any of the wooden objects he had put in place. Fair enough, too. He kept moving and used the vine they had done to swing around the landing. It involved climbing the wall first to get high and then jumping. But while the section of the wall you climbed looked trapped it was not. With a tug, it fell down behind him. They were probably too stupid to use it, but there was no point taking the risk.

Finally, he got out of the stairwell and then froze as another image grabbed him. It was the corridor they had just defended. There were bodies everywhere, and the Hulk was down for the count, and out of all the ones that had thrown themselves at them in over those ten seconds, only one was still alive. The one that had attacked from the left and never reached their defensive line.

Good, it was progress. The numbers against them were being diminished, but there were still five elites left standing as only the Hulk had been classed in that threat band. If the stairwell had worked as well as they hoped, then hopefully none of them would even reach their floor.

Not relying on luck was his new life ambition. If they navigated the stairwell, he would be ready.

Daniel’s only regret was that the Professor had been in the corridor when they had launched the attack. If they had got it trapped, they might have been able to continue the fight below and kill more of the zombies. He felt that despite how effective it had been only half the traps had been activated.

The main issue with the Professor was that they had to avoid getting too close to them. There was no option to leave the top door open and scream down at the zombies. They just did not know if that telekinetic ability needed line of sight or whether it was purely distance related. If it was the second, they had to be more careful and so they assumed the worse and it meant they could not as easily drive them into a rage.

Without the need to rush, he slid the door shut and then let his power trickle into a conduit in order to turn on the traps. Priscilla was just a safety valve. If they were slow, then he could get them all triggered, so he started on the strongest ones. Triggering the roof traps after all those, if they hit as expected, would strike the vulnerable head and chests and were anticipated to be the most lethal.

Twenty seconds passed, and he received another image. The Professor and the two twins and three fodder-class ferals were approaching the open door. They were taking their time, and to his annoyance they were staying clear of the traps. The Professor looked like it was talking with its fingers pointing at each of the pressure plates they had left. It was showing the intelligence he was hoping they did not have, and the other zombies the obedience that made the Professor even more dangerous.

They were moving slowly. Priscilla sent him a memory. He knew what it was the moment that it started; it was her favourite recollection to share.

The vision snapped into place. It was a close up of a zombie claw reaching to rend her to bits. Priscilla had been confident of her speed, and the claw slowed to the point it was barely moving, though it was still inching forward. From using his speed ability, Daniel recognised when time had been adjusted. Those sharp edges were less than a mouse’s length away when she scampered sideways. Slowed did not mean stopped, and by the time she cleared the descending attack, the tips of claws were just centimetres from the ground.

Because he had seen it before, he focused on what the mouse was running along. It was orange, bumpy, and what looked like weird brown grass poked out at irregular intervals. Hairs, Daniel knew from the context but from a mouse’s perspective, they seemed larger than he expected. Her face slid upwards and tracked the claws to the hands to the arm and then the ugly face of a Brother zombie. He had experienced this vision before, and he could think was that Brother versions were not the smartest zombies in the tool shed. Those claws kept descending, butting into the waxy orange skin. Just before they hit, magic began forming on top of the skin, but the claw kept going.

Cutting deeper.

Priscilla was still moving away, and he was looking across what was happening from the other shoulder. If the Brother zombie had been going for the neck, the cut might have just been deep enough, but with the claws having penetrated only an inch, the armour manifested itself and stopped the swinging attack dead. The Brother pulled its arm back, and blood welled out of the gashes that had been left, but not a great deal of it. The wounds were clearly only pinpricks in the greater scheme of things.

Savage glee coursed through the mouse. So much joy that he almost expected her to somersault.

The zombie that Priscilla was on was covered in earth armour. At the time, he had been confused, but her perch was on one of the dangerous elite twins. Priscilla perceived the armour to be close to unbreakable, but now that it had appeared, she examined it further, identifying weakness that primarily revolved around magic. Physical power would just bounce off the shell, but any school of magic could damage it, but not quickly. The lightning in her pet’s memories would not automatically work against it. Fire, or something else, should be used first.

Priscilla was extraordinarily pleased with herself to have confirmed that hunch, and after the first time he had experienced the image, he had told Tamara to use a spell other than lightning against a zombie to break the shield.

Yet that was not why she was excited. It was his second, and bile came up his throat in reflex.

Priscilla was focused on the zombie that had had tried to hit her. The Brothers’ facial features were neanderthal, big and blocky, but with human-like eyes, though more recessed than normal.

As she looked, abject terror filled those orbs. It flinched away, and the twin encased within the earth armour hit it back. Priscilla was no longer slowing things down, so the blow hit the Brother in the shoulder and from the distortion, it had cracked bone even if these visions lacked sound to confirm that fact. It flew backwards and slammed into the wall.

Then the twin was looming above it. Priscilla had shifted and watched with a sense of accomplishment. Briefly, the twin howled at the sky and then bent down over its helpless victim and then pulled off one arm and the other. Blood sprayed, and the twin had waved the arm around before taking a bite. Then it had walked away gnawing on its prize, satisfied with both its food and the swift punishment it had levelled on the lesser creature that had been stupid enough to hurt it.

The armless Brother lay on the ground screaming. Nothing cared. A second zombie had grabbed the other arm. Daniel swallowed the bile with his eyes watering at the acid feel in his throat.

Armless had not survived.

The image faded, and he was back in real-time mode, seeing once more through the mouse’s eyes. The pack of zombies had barely moved when Priscilla shared memories, even as the old one’s time pretty much stood still. The group of zombies were still picking their way through the traps. Priscilla’s attention switched from the strength twin to the other one.

There was going to be another one.