Zombies are the second weakest form of undead. They require at least a corpse in somewhat decent condition to create them. They have greater strength than the base creature did in life but also suffer from reduced mobility and speed. - Common Monsters

Adrian

By the time dawn comes around I managed to figure out a few things, my manipulation of darkness has gotten better. I think I figured out durations to, at least a bit. Regardless it is time for everyone to start waking up so I stop. I don’t want to get a backlash because someone woke up while I was practicing.

Tom calls a meeting outside and he wanted us to be there. Validation of his words and leadership I think. Abagail agreed to it so we go. There Tom repeats most of the information that I gave him yesterday to the dozens that are paying attention. Then he has me ‘give’ him the food to support his call for arms against these invaders.

I am smiling the whole time. I don’t know if these people can actually kill the Althaen camp, but they do have the firepower to decimate them. Some of these people will end up dying to the Althaen, but they will hurt the Althaen and give us more time to get out of here. 

After Tom’s little speech we begin to depart. I think that we will be able to get to where Bryan’s parents’ house is by night fall tomorrow. Before we reach the other side of this fortified area a few men surround us, they are not armed nor do they seem like they were members of the gangs before any of this happened.

They must be civilians then. One of them speaks up, “why are you allowed to leave?”

Abagail answers, “we were never going to stay.”

“But the gangs don’t let anyone go. They make us all work.”

Many of us frown, I was hoping that the gangs were relatively good people. It seems that they are not, but this is not truly my problem. I interrupt, Abagail is too soft hearted for this. She will try to bring some of them with us.

“We can leave because we were never part of you. We were never part of this community, if you want things to change learn to do it.”

“But you can help us!”

“No, we can’t just because we can defend ourselves does not mean that we can defend others.”

The crowd in front of me is getting unruly. The few members of the nearby gangs do nothing. I hear them begin to demand food and safety from both the gangs and the strange men.

Abagail sympathizes with them, but is scared. She wants to help them but knows that we can’t, no more than we could kill all the Althaen. The crowd is now too loud for them to hear me unless I yell. Even if they did I doubt that they would respond to words now. They will no longer listen to reason, a solution other than words is needed.

I don’t think killing these people will go well, should I distract them? Run? I’m sure everyone except maybe Abagail could out run them. Intimidate with guns? Tie them up with magic? Many ways to handle these few dozen people flash through my mind. 

In the end; magic will backlash, shifting into a dragon will panic the gang members, and gunfire will turn the gangs violent. I charge at the largest guy in the group before me, incapacitate a few and threaten the others. Bryan moves to guard Abagail, he must have guessed my thought process.

A gut punch followed by a blow to the back of the head and the man collapses. There is a burst of yells from the crowd I am now in. They did not expect me to attack, I take out another man before they start to attack me. 

I take a few hits from those around me before kneeing a man in the crotch. Sorry but I need everyone to not block our way. The hits from the people don’t hurt much, I think the trio joined in on the brawl. At least K did.

Soon most of the mob is either unconscious or fled. I can hear them questioning why we attacked them. I don’t answer them, but Abagail does. She is telling them something about learning to defend themselves. She looks sad as she says it. This world sucks but she is learning to deal with it.

In the end the gang members nearby do nothing. They do appear impressed from the fight that they just ignored. These people are better than the Althaen but still terrible. At least I got them to point their weapons at someone else.

After this no one stops us on the way out of the immediate area. Something feels off, but we leave in peace. Once out of earshot Abagail asks me a question, “could we have helped those people?”

“I don’t think we could have changed anything long term.”

She frowns, I know she wants to help others. 

“Could we have given them something?”

“Would they have been able to keep the charity?”

She does not speak for a minute, thinking about my question. “No, Tom or someone else would take it from them.”

I nod, the gangs would have taken anything we gave them. Even if they did not, that would free up resources that would then be spent on their military activities. While I do want them to cause problems for the Althaen, it is better if I do not fund them. If I do they will expect me to continue to do so.

After about an hour of travel a dozen men step out from behind cars and into view in the nearby windows. They are men from the gangs, but they stood nearer one of the other older men instead of beng near Tom or Aaron. A different gang? One of the men speak up, one carrying a rifle.

“I know you sold food to Tom. Give us everything that you have.”

Great, a dissenting group wants to rob us. They haven’t taken aim yet, if they all open fire at once we will end up dead. Preemptive strike? No, I won’t take enough out fast enough.

“Does it look like I’m carrying any food?”

“You pulled food out of nowhere. Just do it again.”

“So, you think I can just make stuff appear and disappear?”

“Just make the food appear already.”

I smile, they accept some magic to exist.

“What is to stop me from just doing this then?”

I hold my hand out and twist reality, the rifle is now in my hands. I don’t feel a backlash, while he looks in surprise I drop his rifle into Void Cache.

“Give that back!”

I need to act quickly, there are eleven other guns that will soon be pointed against us. I pull three more guns from the men before I hear a gunshot, a bullet passes through my leg. Eight men still have firearms, I can’t pull them all before they would kill us.

I hear the man who talked start shouting something, but it is not time to pay attention to his words. Blind the field, that is the only way to keep us from getting shot. I make a motion as if I were tossing something to the ground, as I push the image of dark mist covering the area.

I try to make it look like smoke, something believable to these men. 

“Take cover, it won’t hold long.”

I hear my friends moving to a nearby building. I move from my location and hear a bullet strike the asphalt where I was. Other bullets are flying through my cloud of darkness, I hear one of the twins cry out in pain. Dammit, someone is hurt.

After a few seconds, I allow the cloud to start dispersing. I have taken cover behind a car, and take aim at one of those in the windows. One who's gun I did not steal. I fire a shot, but missed; my own cloud of darkness obscuring my vision. The recoil is greater than the other rifles I have used, not a .222. Still a single shot semiautomatic.

The mist fades to nothing and I shoot again. He was the only one with an open shot against me. He falls back into the building, I don’t know if he is dead or not but I think he is. Gunfire is continuing to rain down towards me. The others seem to have entered the building behind me.

The building had the man I just shot, so perhaps they can use its windows to shoot from in a few minutes. There are seven gunmen and four men without. Those without are going to end up trying to flush me out. I need to move, but I need to fix my leg before too much more.

I begin to accelerate my healing and wait for the first person to move in attempt to force me into the other’s gunfire. Two gunmen are in windows, five on the ground. No guarantee that those who move to me will be gun less.

I was right in my worry of the first two that came into force me to move, one had a gun. I am lucky in that he missed, he aimed for my head. My ears are ringing, and I put a bullet from the rifle into him. Not a kill, but he is down on the ground screaming. 

The other man runs at me, the rifle just clicks when I fire at him. The rifle is empty? Why was there only three bullets in it? I drop it and pull a spear out of Void Cache. The man charging at me skewers himself, convenient. 

My leg is mostly closed, I allow my healing to stop. I can move, so I warp light and pull the shotgun from void cache. I am invisible and move from behind the car. Two men without guns are moving to where I was, along with three with a gun.

I could not have held that position. Luckily, they stopped laying down suppressive fire long enough for me to get away from the car. I smile, who should I take out? The shotgun only holds four counting the one in the chamber. 

When I fire the shotgun, a man’s chest is destroyed. The shot reveals my location to the other men, though I am still invisible. I run to the side, as I reload. I feel a bit of tension coming from my invisibility. These men do not think such a thing is possible. 

I move behind cover and drop the invisibility. Unfortunate, but we can still win without me warping reality in that way. I take a quick shot from cover, but they had moved so I missed. I duck barely dodging a few shots.

Then I hear gunfire answered by the pained screams of these enemies. Bryan and Abagail have found a spot to shoot from. I hold my cover for a moment, switching to another rifle stolen from these men. When I look over the abandoned car, the men on the street are dead, but the two in the windows are still there. They are swearing loudly, they have cover against the others. 

I can’t get a clear shot from here either but I can get into the building. So I run into it, no one shot at me. I guess the two are busy ducking from my friends’ attacks. I hope that the twins did not take a lethal hit.

I climb some stairs to the second floor, and soon see two men crouching up against a wall. Game over for you. This rifle was a .222, or close to it. The first man died to a head shot then I put several rounds in the other while he turned at me in a panic.

Rather than search the men I jump from the second story window. The landing hurts but I need to treat the injury that one of the twins took. I hope that no one else took a hit, but find my hope unanswered. K also took a bullet, her’s is in the shoulder while Talia has a bullet in her gut.