Captains log. Date, one month and a half after the day the world went away. That is, by the way, what we have decided to call it after I threatened them with the silliest name ever. A name I will not repeat here.

It was Zindependence day. With a Z for zombies.

Shut up Knight.

We have been driving for several weeks now following the remains of roads we found. They are very damaged and almost impassable in some locations, but we have managed to continue for now.

The Zombinator is still in a perfect state and giving its all for the mission ahead. There had been a few problems with the doors and Sam believes it has something to do with the constant changes of temperature that we have. We can’t do much about it, but is still working without problems. Oh, that and the weird smell that is coming from one couch because somebody and I’m not looking at anyone, Sam, spilled an entire can of food over it.

Whatever the case the point is that it smells weird.

We have not make any progress with the enchanting thingy yet. Even when I tried to remember things from my magical memory of things I remember we found nothing. It was useless but we will find something with time.

The roads are getting harder to pass through and according to our maps all the roads ahead are too far apart from any source of water so…

We will have to start moving close to the rivers, there is one close by and we are going to follow it north or wherever is going now given that everything seems to be changing paths. We will just have to hope very hard we don’t find hundreds of monsters or psychopathic plants.

Oh. Adam, that reminds me. I took your flower.

I closed the laptop with a sharp movement and stare at Sam. He was looking at me completely straight.

“No offense, but you are not exactly my type. And if someday I can proudly announce that I have done it with a black guy I would prefer to remember the deal so… Where did this happen? And can you elaborate a bit?” I said.

Sam just stood there for a moment before catching up and feeling embarrassed.

“No, no! I mean, not your…” he sighed watching me and trying hard to look away. “The flower samples you took, the white dream. Before the evil tree, remember? You gave them to me the other day to experiment and I forgot.”

A tiny white flower appeared on his hand.

White dream

Crafting ingredient.A flower born from the light. These flowers have been gifted by nature with the ability to produce sweet dreams to those who smell them.

I walked to him and took the flower from his hand. I forgot about them too.

“Huh,” I muttered simply.

I was moving suddenly, opening the cabinets and being given confused looks from Sam and Knight. I took a bowl and walked outside not saying anything. The day was clear and hot. We have parked the Zombinator on top of a hill that let us see all around us before anything could get closer.

I dropped to the ground scrapping the soil with my hands for a little dirt and put it in the bowl. I entered back inside adding some water to the mix before finally getting the flower in place. It didn’t took much encouragement for the flower to grow back. The tiny mind of the flower understood what I was trying and almost cried in gratitude. Fortunately it didn’t because the closer it could do to crying was gassing us with sleep powder. In a moment the flower had grown roots back inside the bowl and I put the bowl over the table.

The flower transmitted a last thought of gratitude before I moved my hand away.

“So… Are you starting again your collection of rare flowers?” asked my brother looking at it.

I snorted. “No, that was a thing the old Adam did. The new Adam is starting a new collection of magical flowers that will do my bidding and feast in the blood of my enemies. It’s a huge change, before I hugged trees and now I made trees hug people to death. Repeatedly.”

“You still hug trees,” pointed Knight.

“I was doing magic it’s completely different,” I defended myself.

“Hey, I don’t judge. As long as a tree doesn’t take your ‘flower’ I don’t mind.”

I stared at him completely dumbfounded. “Were you just thinking about weird tentacle porn with trees? Because that is just wrong in so many levels that-”

The sound of an arrow flying interrupted my thoughts. I moved to the door and opened inspecting outside. There was a ghoul in the ground with an arrow sticking from its head. I tried to process that when John appeared out of nowhere running to the Zombinator fast. Like really fast. He took the arrow from the head of the ghoul while running which was impressive and scary as fuck at the same time because I couldn’t imagine what would make him ran like that.

“Run,” he said simply stepping inside the Zombinator and closing the door behind.

Sam took his place at the drivers set before I had the opportunity to ask something more. John looked at me sharply.

“There are groups of ghouls moving towards us from all directions. They are trying to surround us,” he said taking position close to a window.

I paled for a moment. The Zombinator moved driving down the hill. The ghouls appeared then, clearly running up towards us, dozens of glowing purple eyes sprinting fast.

“I was thinking… If they are ghouls why don’t we change the name of the Zombinator?” asked Sam driving.

“Do you really want to talk about that right now?!” I asked.

A ghoul jumped over the Zombinator making it move out of the road. The Zombinator shocked with a muffled sound. I looked back trying to see how many ghouls were but got distracted. A sound was coming from on top of us, the sound of scrapings and growls.

“Shit. One is on top of us!” I yelled.

Sam heard me and immediately drove faster trying to make it fall. It didn’t work. In a few moments more ghouls jumped, some of them simply tried to damage the Zombinator hitting it with their bodies, others managed to repeat what the first one did grabbing onto our vehicle and scrapping aimlessly against the walls.

One of the ghouls somehow grabbed to our side and looked at us through the windows. Then it started hitting it with all its strength, but the bars protected it. I moved back to the center of the Zombinator where I could see everything and tried to concentrate enough time to make a plan.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

We stared at the door, every thought we had lost. Nothing happened for a second before we heard the sound of growls and saw the head of a ghoul moving at the window closer to the door. More knocks followed and the door seemed to open just a little before coming back in place.

We stood there in silence.

“I don’t suppose it could be a Jehovah’s witness,” I muttered to which the ghoul answered with an incomprehensible loud growl.

“It imitates them quite well, but we aren’t that lucky,” said Knight walking towards the door that socked with the knocks. “Do you think it can break the door?”

I shrugged getting close. “The velociraptor in Jurassic park could open doors. I wouldn’t take a chance.”

John snorted moving to the door. He put the hand over the handle and looked at my brother. “At the count of three I open the door and you kill it. Take out your spear.”

Knight nodded and equipped the spear. John counted slowly to three and with a sudden movement opened the door to the outside. The ghoul shoved his face over the opening, quickly trying to use the opportunity to enter inside the Zombinator but Knight was ready. With a push the spear pierced the head of the ghoul and despite the action the enemy screamed. It was a frightening scream that froze my blood hugely emphasized by the spear still sticking inside his head. I noticed almost immediately that the weapon was stuck and the ghoul tried to wrench it from the hands of my brother making it slip a step towards the door. I tried to act almost at the moment but it was already too late. The spear glowed with a red light for a second and the head of the ghoul became ashes stopping the scream. Knight fell backwards and John closed the door again.

“Are you all okay?” asked Sam trying very hard to maintain his head to the front.

“Did you just disintegrate the head of a zombie?” I asked openmouthed.

Knight swayed and nodded getting up from the ground. He didn’t bother to answer and the rest kept moving and putting away everything that could get in the way. With time and due to our apparently easy way to get in the middle of lots of monsters we have learned a few things. The first was that when we have to run madly from things its better if we don’t have many things that can break around.

“Okay, so disintegrating heads is a thing now. Great.” I muttered.

There were many ghouls outside now. I could easily count dozens of them running frantically to us.

“What the hell is happening? Where did they come from?” asked Knight.

John shrugged. “I only saw them coming when they were already too many to do something about them.”

“It’s weird they have come in this numbers now when we haven’t seen so many ghouls around,” I said.

I got back to the table and took the flower I just planted. Not a bloody good moment to do it but whatever. The ‘good moments’ were starting to be less common lately. The flower would have to be secured in a cabinet for the moment. I glanced back watching as more ghouls joined the others and I cursed. Some of them were going very fast, fast enough to catch up to us in little time. Before I could say anything about it John was already on the front of the Zombinator guiding Sam.

“We can’t outrun them. We have to lose them,” he said pointing at the beginning of a forest. “Go there. It will make it more difficult for them to follow.”

“Only because it will probably be filled with even more monsters,” I sighed.

“We don’t have many other options do we?” asked John.

I shrugged not bothering to answer. I didn’t have an answer. It took me a second to notice that everyone but Sam was looking at me and waiting for an answer. No, they were waiting for… What, an order? They were doing that, waiting for me to give not my opinion on things, but answers. Like if I had something more to give them they didn’t know about.

Which I suppose I did but still… It was annoying for time to time to see that face expecting something more.

“No, we don’t. I guess,” I said slowly.

Sam took that for an answer and accelerated as much as it could into the forest. The ghouls were getting closer by the moment, some of them dropping back unable to follow, but most of them pressing on faster. We entered the forest faster than it was safe to do, bumping into the first root we found and hovering in the air for a second.

The trees did make it difficult for the ghouls and some got lost on the way in thanks to the terrain. We still had two ghouls glued to the Zombinator. The one in our side couldn’t help but hit frantically the steel bars protecting the window until it seemed the bars were actually breaking. I could see them bending from the hits.

Shit. That was bad. I knew the ghouls were strong but somehow they had gotten even stronger. I panicked for a moment before inevitably something new appeared that made me forgot completely about the ghouls.

I only managed to barely see it before it attacked. It was big and black. It was that thing that every game developer added to their rpgs for some sadistic fucking reason. Even though everyone hates them. I took a brief moment to curse mentally at whoever added fucking giant spiders to our world and then dropped to the ground when the spider attacked.

The Zombinator shuddered hurt by the giant spider web that made us change direction. On the positive side, the attack launched the ghouls out of our way. We just had to fight spiders now. Great.

The next attack didn’t make us wait. More spiders appeared everywhere, some as big as cars and made their way slowly around us. They launched attacks, white streams flying, trying to stop the Zombinator. And for a moment it seemed useless, none of their attacks did anything more than make the Zombinator rock in place.

Then, one of the attacks went lower touching one of the tires and making it blew with a loud sound. The Zombinator limped some more but more webs were launched blocking the rest of the tires and it was clear we couldn’t go on.

“Out!” yelled John walking outside before anyone could and directly launching an arrow to the closest spider.

It didn’t took more encouragement to start running in the direction with less spiders. I unequipped my boots while moving and started summoning the mana from life. Sam just ran. John launched arrows while running and somehow my brother used his spear to burn the few webs that were being launched.

We were in a bad position. Running for our lives inside a forest that could be filled with hundreds of these things. I ordered something simply to the grass making the mana flow back to it. The grass just had to give us time but it was having it difficult.

Finally it was the moment when one of the spiders, annoyed that none of his long range attacks were doing anything, got close. The arrows that John was using weren’t very useful with an enemy so big and my brother knew he was the only one that could do anything. With a shove he ran at the spider holding the spear over his head and aiming at his head.

Knight went flying pulled by the spider web that was launched and ended pinned against a tree. His spear went flying in another direction not far away. I could see him trying to free himself but not managing. I cursed turning back and summoning the crossbow ready to face the spiders if that gave enough time to Knight to get out of the web. It turned out to not be necessary.

As soon as one of the spiders tried to walk closer something stopped it. The spider shrieked lifting his body on its back legs before walking back as fast as it could. The rest of the spiders followed shortly after trying to outrun one another and disappearing inside the forest. I just stood there watching with my weapons ready and a well of mana to command the grass. They were just gone like that. I was confused but I didn’t let the mana go until I was sure we were safe.

“Oh bloody hell. I hope this is venom because if not I’m covered in spider’s drool,” said Knight still pinned to the tree.

“Don’t move,” called Sam. “I’ll get you out.”

Sam took a knife and started cutting the web. The spiders did not seem to be coming back, in fact nothing seemed to be getting closer at all.

“What just happened?” I asked mumbling.

“They looked scared,” answered John. “Scared of something that isn’t us I presume.”

I paled and looked at him. “Oh god, this is the moment where the really big monster appears behind us, right?”

I glanced behind and there was nothing. There was a sudden yell when my brother fell from the tree released with a heavy thud.

“Are we safe?” he yelled getting back on foot while massaging his back.

I nodded and yelled back. “For now at least.”

“That is something, maybe now you can heal me. That hit was not good for my back,” he said looking at his hand slowly and frowning. “What the…?”

Sam touched his hand trying to see what was wrong and then recoiled with a yelp dropping the knife.

“Adam, ADAM HELP!” yelled my brother.

I snapped at the sound of urgency in his voice and ran to him. There was something in his hands, something red and growing. It was in the hand of Sam too. My mind entered panic mode trying to do twenty things at the same time.

Blood moss

Crafting ingredient.Moss that grows in the bark of old trees. A dangerous plant gifted with a connection to the element of blood. It will try to eat any living being that comes in contact with it to support its own growth.

“It’s burning!” yelled Knight.

The moss was spreading visibly along his arms. It was fast and for the description I imagined it was eating his flesh. My mind tried to concentrate in the problem. The most obvious answer was to just order the moss to stop, but for that I had to be touching it physically. Remembering our fight with the tree it was a risk and I could very well be unable to stop it and get infected by it.

Healing him was the other option I had but… I glanced at Sam. His hand was being covered by the moss too. It took two minutes to build the seed for one person, more if I tried to do it for both. At the speed the moss was spreading it will expand to their heads in less time I had to heal both of them. I looked at the eyes of both realizing my problem. I could risk it touching the moss or I could try to heal only one of them, but not both.

“Adam, do something!” screamed Knight.

I snapped. I was not going to let die one of them. The choice was obvious. With a quick movement my hand darted to Knight’s arm and the moss touched my skin. It burned spreading on my hand quicker than I expected. The pain made me flinch and I forgot for a second what I was doing but I didn’t let it go further. I opened my mind to the moss, a connection enhanced by the fact it was eating little pieces of me. I commanded it to stop and nothing happened.

I paled, half because of the pain and half from the surprise. I gritted my teeth and tried again opening more of my mind to the moss, trying to deepen the connection. It worked somewhat. For a moment all the moss growing on the trees lit up like a Christmas tree trying to talk back and I listened to it. Overwhelming. It was like the tide of the ocean trying to eat everything. Trying to grow, always growing, never stopping or looking back. That was everything the moss understood and why I couldn’t make it stop. His mind, his vocabulary only had two words.

Eat and grow.

“Fuck!” I screamed from the pain.

The moss was already in their chests and finishing with my arm. Not much time left to think. I had to face this from another perspective.

Okay, think Adam. How do you make an idiot that doesn’t understand proper English half of the time do what you want?

“If you stop we are going to make America great again!” I yelled.

The Trump way didn’t work. I breathed deeply. Think. It just wants to eat. I had to convince a glutton to stop eating in the next seconds or die. Great.

I tried to transmit more things, tried to make it grow outside of us, tried to convince it to stop in exchange for more food later. It didn’t work. It just wanted to keep eating. I blinked suddenly aware of something obvious. It wanted to eat so I ordered to do just that.

I ordered to eat itself.

It worked. It was painful as fuck but it worked. In a moment the moss started eating itself until all of it was dead and the rests fell like red dust scattering in the wind. We were alive. There was only one little problem. Part of my hand was missing, the skin and muscle eaten in seconds and I could see part of the bone. I glanced at my friends and I almost wanted to throw up.

I managed to hold it and casted the spells on myself and everyone as fast as I could trying not to look. It was harder than I remembered but in moments the healing took effect and the only reminder of what had happened was in the scared looks of Sam and Knight and their labored breathing.

And aware I just finished my job I doubled down and threw my breakfast.

“Are you all okay?” asked John in my place.

They didn’t answer still breathing with difficulty.

“I think-” I gasped. “I think we just found what made those spiders ran.”

John nodded gravely walking between the trees, already looking for more threats.

Knight’s breathing got normal and he went to help Sam, who was still panicking and started puking.

“I promise to not laugh again at your plants Adam,” said Sam after a moment.

I laughed and both of them followed.

“Yeah. That’s what happens when you are evil and laugh at plants,” I said smiling and then blinked. “Although that moss would be a great addition to my collection.”

I took the knife that Sam had dropped before and looked to the trees. The moss had died in the closest ones but some others were still covered in red. Sam and my brother were out of their game and didn’t notice me walking to the closest one.

It was risky but worthy. I pulled the knife inside the bark yanking it around carefully and cutting a piece of the bark covered in moss. With a snap the bark broke and fell to the ground. I took it barely touching the bark at all and made it disappear inside the inventory. I knew I couldn’t control it, at least yet, but it acted so quickly that as long as it touched an enemy first than me I wouldn’t need to. I grimaced at the image.

I inspected the rest of the moss. For some reason it only grew on top of the bark and only on some of the trees. It was strange that something so dangerous didn’t just grow like crazy in all directions. I paled.

“John?” I asked running to him. “I don’t think the moss is what makes the spiders run. It only grows around the trees, and they are big but they can pass around it!”

John glanced at me and nodded. “I think you are right,” he said pointing at something.

I got closer and followed his hand choking when I saw it. Sam and Knight walked closer then and stared.

A white tower stood there in the middle of the spider infested forest. It was an old circular tower built with huge stones. Arches and broken walls were sitting along with it, ruins of other buildings that were completely broken to pieces. The tower was intact. No damage could be seen on it whatsoever. It just stood there surrounded by ruins.

And over it, hovering in midair a gem floated glowing with a bright white light. Almost welcoming or perhaps daring anyone to enter.

You have found the ruins of the Tower of Sorcery.One of the old wonders of the world. The Tower of Sorcery was the place where many scholars went to refine and share their knowledge. Now it lays abandoned.For being the first to find it:

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