Chapter 75

The light show started.

“Ten survived, one lost, optimistic.”

“Four alive, three dead. Trapped. Need help.”

Not happening, Daniel thought. None of them had the strength to save themselves, let alone others.

“Combined group. Now fourteen. Five fell, floor secured.”

Dave made a claw up gesture at that summary. Yes, they had secured an entire floor and versus the bulk of the updates, it was a success, but overall, humans were the cockroaches of the system. Unable to hurt the monsters around them but tenacious in their survival, at least so far.

“I think around twenty percent of people have died over the last day’s hours,” Ivey summarised. “However, the security of the survivors has increased.”

Dave started flashing his own summary of their situation out to the wider world. Their little group was about to get famous. From what had been captured so far, they had the most territory secured out of everyone they had spoken to. Three other groups were bigger, but the way they were losing numbers, that would not last.

“Ask about other life in our building.”

“Raraf.”

More flashing from Dave. Information came back and Ivey scribbled it down.

“No contact with anyone below. Two contacts above and an SOS from the top of the building.”

“Tell them about using kids,” Daniel suggested.

“No,” Tamara objected.

“That is not a good idea,” Carly’s dad said, quickly agreeing with Tamara.

“Just tell them.”

Dave started flashing even as the rest of the room tried to argue that they should not air their dirty laundry. To be honest, he was a little surprised that they felt so embarrassed about the choice. The world had changed, and while he was sure all three of the kids who had been “killed” by the zombies would wake up with nightmares, they would wake up. They were alive, and others lived, and frankly that was all that mattered.

He had to use every tool available, and these groups needed to do the same.

“We sound like monsters,” Tamara said fiercely, though she had stopped protesting.

“I think more like practical survivors.” Daniel disagreed with her. “And successful ones.”

She harrumphed and disappeared, with Jayden following in her wake.

Dave put the lamp down; there was not much choice as the magic Tamara had created was fading now that she had departed.

“The SOS from above,” Ivey said quietly. “They are being attacked by a monster that is travelling between floors.”

Daniel grimaced at that.

“You know that means it will come for us, eventually.”

“A problem for another day.”

“That was sad,” Alisha whispered.

“Yeah,” Ivey agreed. “Depressing.”

“Not good.”

“Better than expected,” Luke disagreed.

Not good, but better than expected. Those two sentiments summed it up brilliantly. “We are the cockroaches,” he told the room. “Helpless, resilient at surviving.”

Luke grunted. “I don’t like being cockroaches. We need to carve out a better niche. Create a future for our kids.”

“Yes,” Daniel agreed. “That is exactly what we should do . . . in the future.” Tomorrow they were going to go up, save lives, and kill whatever thing had caused the penthouse to issue an SOS.

The group broke up. “Will you stay with me?” Ivey asked, linking arms with him.

“Of course.”

“Level twenty-two, room forty,” she suggested. “I gave it a once-over earlier.”

They reached their room, and unlike everyone els,e he could lock the door behind them. The guaranteed privacy would be nice, and after Beau and his thugs, the extra safety was useful as well.

The light Ivey could conjure dimmed and flew off into the corner. She had a naughty look in her eyes.

“I think I need to reward the hero,” she whispered huskily while pulling off her top.

There was a crack in the room.

Instincts took over, and he was pushing in front of Ivey, bringing his club up to his shoulders, ready to hit anything that threatened.

Instinctively, Animal Sense flared.

Nothing was there. Only Priscilla?

The mouse was sitting on a chair in the corner, and as he watched the chair fell apart, collapsing under its own weight.

“Priscilla.”

Ivey squealed and jumped onto the bed. A sense of apology with a hint of smugness came from the mouse. The imagery showed that she had been trying to make a nest in the chair, and it broke instead.

Suspicion filled him. That chair had not broken by accident. He was going to need to do something about the mouse. “She is jealous.”

“Oh, I know,” Ivey purred. “I have dealt with jealous competition before.” On the bed, she started pulling off her jeans. “If you can be a hero and get rid of the mouse, I . . .” She ran a hand down her near-naked side.

He could definitely work with that.

Shoo, he thought.

Annoyed acceptance flowed back, and he could feel Priscilla obeying.

Still on edge, his Animal Sense flared again. Just to be careful, he spread it wider to make sure there would not be any other unwelcome interruptions. There was a presence at the door.

Four of them.

The door handle jerked as someone yanked on it.

“Damn it,” he snarled and threw an apologetic look toward Ivey.

The light dimmed further; Ivey knew that while he could not see in the dark, he had better vision than most people. Priscilla’s reluctant exit changed to all business, and she zipped up and away, disappearing through the crack into the wall and emerging further down the corridor. In just a blink, she was positioned to watch.

Four figures. Beau with dark magic in his hands and the others armed with some axes Daniel had created for general use. The spear that the henchman had possessed earlier was gone. None of Beau’s friends were in combat classes. He knew that, as Beau was the only person who had taken a combat class and was not part of their frequent raids.

Why now? The thought flushed through him. Why couldn’t they just mind their own business?

Conflicting thoughts exploded through him.

Anger. Justice. Restraint.

The fight was a forgone conclusion.

They were idiots. Beau was the only one that represented the slightest risk to Daniel, and with Daniel’s speed, he could dodge the man’s attacks and dart and land one strike. As big and bulky as Beau looked, the attributes you had from levels up were more important than pre-event muscle mass. Beau had almost certainly put all of his level-up benefits into magic.

Not that he needed to get physical. There was a wall between him and them and, as the zombies had discovered, that made the other side impotent.

There were so many options that Daniel was spoiled with choice.

The more important question was what to do.

Compromise or destroy?

God, he had told Beau that he would kill him if he tried to attack him again. He had told him that with witnesses present. If he stepped away from the oath, then what then? No one would believe any future threats.

“What?” Ivey asked, groping in the darkness to retrieve her top.

“Beau and friends,” he grimly whispered. “What do you want?” he called out more loudly.

“I just want to talk, farmer boy,” Beau said and then with a flick of his head, both of the closest goons moved to either side of the door. Axes were on their shoulders, ready to strike the moment someone stepped out.

There was no subtlety, and it was like they had not worked out that Priscilla could scout for him.

“We can talk in the morning.” He had not expected them to come after him. Maybe raid the liquor room, but he had thought his display of superiority earlier would have bought him a few days of pretend obedience.

“I want to chat now,” Beau said. “Be a man and come out, or are you too cowardly?”

“Regime change,” Ivey whispered urgently to him. She abandoned looking for her top and instead grabbed him and hugged him tightly to stop him from charging out of the room. It was a weird juxtaposition of situations. The toxic masculine challenge and the very discrete awareness of the almost-nude body pressed against him.

“I am off the clock,” he yelled back. “Come back tomorrow.”

“I don’t think so. We do that and you wake us up with your furry guard and your protective skirts. It ends now. Be a man and face us.”

“Or what?”

“We will break the door down. There ain’t no one else on the floor.”

Which, unfortunately, was true. Daniel and Ivey had come down here to get privacy.

There was no point in putting it off. They were going to keep coming back for him. It ended today. Conciliation could go piss off to a gentler time.

“It is just me, kid,” Beau yelled, clearly lying. “Let’s settle this man to man. A fistfight. I win, you swear to obey me in the future, and I will let you keep your girl.”

“And if I win?”

Priscilla showed him the smile that lit Beau’s features. It was best described as predatory. “Then I will do the same. We will never have this conversation again.”

“You can’t,” Ivey whispered to him, not letting go. “He won’t play fair.”

He hesitated for a moment and then kissed her on the lips. “And nor will I.”

Beau wanted to overthrow him before his power grew too much. So the other man had acted decisively. He was too late; Daniel was way above him. Beau might understand how the level system worked and may have judged himself and lackeys against Daniel’s level-seventeen beast whisperer class and concluded that would be a favourable battle, but that was only a fraction of Daniel’s strength. The zombie—the feral—core power curve was on a different level.

Ivey was still clutching him. Daniel thought furiously Beau either needed to die or be exiled, but Daniel knew that was the same choice. The second only came into play if he was too cowardly to do the first or if he wanted to pander to the pacifists.

Zac’s brave face came to him. That little kid was willing to be bait to help lay the trap to kill the mutated humans, but more telling was afterwards. Even after being hurt, the boy had still wanted to come again.

Such courage. All the kids, in fact, and that was the example he needed to look up to.

Carefully, he disengaged from Ivey, patting her comfortingly on the back.

He had this. A deep breath. He held the club in front of him.

It hungered, and he embraced the emotion.

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