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He flailed as he tried to escape the entity’s maw. His very soul being crunched down and torn asunder.

“Get. Me. Out,” Jace shouted and sat up in a rush. His head spun dizzily, his vision blurred, going filmy momentarily.

He looked around himself as his sight cleared by small degrees. The cold press of the hard stone beneath him and the rough spun fabric of his clothing grounded him back in reality.

A pair of torches illuminated either side of the small room he’d woken up in.

A small room, he realised that was packed to the brim with a lot of people.

People who were watching him.

“H-hi,” Jace greeted automatically, catching his breath as he tried to smile. All it did however was make him look even more insane in their eye’s, and possibly his.

He looked down at his hands briefly and noticed that they were shaking. He tried to calm himself but all that did was make him tremble even worse.

“Hey, are you alright?” a voice close to Jace asked him. He looked up to see a man standing there.

He was tall, at least six and half feet in height. He looked athletically built, though Jace had no idea what athletics were.

“Y-yeah. Where am I?” Jace replied quizzically.

The man sighed heavily and Jace noticed that a few of the other people in the small room had slumped a little at hearing his question. Obviously dejected.

“We … don’t know,” the man replied and crouched down to eye Jace. On closer inspection Jace noticed that he had a buzz-cut and a neatly trim beard. His eyes were a stark blue, and his teeth pearl white.

“None of us know,” the man continued and reached out a hand to Jace.

He accepted and with the mans’ help he climbed to his feet.

“Fuck,” Jace whispered, standing. He clench his hands into fists and hid them behind his back.

Out of sight, out of mind, he thought.

Except now his knees and balls were shaking.

Being at eye-level with everyone else didn’t help much either. They were all focused on him.

He gulped and turned slowly around, surveying the room. He then realised that there were more people crowded in the space that he’d first thought.

“How- how many people are there here?”

“Fifty-two now, including you,” the man who’d helped him up said. Jace’s mind spun for a fraction, as the words correlated with something.

Something he realised, that he couldn’t…remember.

“What is everybody’s name?” Jace gestured to encompass everyone.

He wasn’t sure why he’d asked. But something in him said that when more than five people crowd into a small dimly lit room. They usually start with everyone introducing themselves. Followed by how long they’d gone since their last drink

“We don’t,” the man breathed out. “We don’t know that either,” he muttered and sighed.

Jace registered that he might’ve touched on a subject that was plaguing everyone. And soon, possibly him.

“Man is it cold,” Jace shivered and looked down at his clothing.

The rough spun material he was wearing, was something he’d usually see in…? In? Where?

“Where am I? Jace parroted his earlier question and looked intensely around the room.

On the opposite side of the room from him was a thick wooden door with bands of iron criss-crossing over it.

Had they even tried to check outside?

The man who had helped him now eyed Jace intently.

“Do you know your name?” Jace directed a pleading note in the man’s tone.

He hesitated and then softly murmured, “Jace.”

Everyone froze and stared at him, then his helper’s intense gaze softened. A wide grin split his face. Jace thought he might even tear up.

“Ah-hah! Finally someone who knows something,” the man exclaimed.

“Why is that a good thing?” a women asked with a frown. She was taller that Jace with a thick braid of blonde hair gathered over her shoulder. She seemed strong and sturdy. Built to take a beating and give one as good in return.

Jace’s mind rapidly sorted out the answer. “Because if I know who I am, then hopefully so will the rest of you.” Yet something in Jace knew that this was incorrect.

These people and even Jace himself, knew they were never getting back what was lost. There was a hollowness in him. In these people. A fragmented void that stuff bled occasionally every now and then.

“It could just take time. Different intervals for different people,” the man explained with a smile. To Jace though, the smile seemed false.

He’s trying to keep everyone’s spirit up.

Good for him.

But as he scanned the faces of the crowd, he saw that more and more of them were either despondent or starting to be.

There was a sharp splintering crack that resounded throughout the room. Jace froze, his instincts screaming at him to run and flee.

Something’s here. Something bad is fucking here.

Another crack and the door at the opposite of room caved in. The iron bands bulging from a blow. People screamed and rushed about. Some slammed into Jace and his helper, who he had just decided to call Guy.

Guy fanned his muscular arms out wide protectively.

Something heavy sharp and metallic struck through the wood of the door popping one of the iron bands at its centre.

Guy cursed, and Jace fearfully pressed himself back further into the crowd. Wedging himself as far back as he could go.

Put more bodies between you and it now! His instincts cried out.

Then the door broke off its hinges with a crunch, and as it hit the stone floor a bloom of dust and dirt spread up into the air cloaking what was outside.

People cried quietly to themselves and huddled against each other. Trying to do exactly what Jace was doing.

Then a figure in black clothing sprinted through into the room with an odd stumbling gait.

It rattled a deep ragged screech in its throat and charged directly for Guy. The mountain of muscle smashed his fist square into the figure’s face. It slammed into the ground with a heavy thud.

Guy turned to the rest of them and smiled cockily.

Then he started screaming.

Jace elbowed and jived his way to a crouch among the pile of screaming bodies.

There!

The black clothed figure Guy had presumably knock flat on its ass was sinking its teeth into his ankle. With a tearing squelch the zombie tore the flesh free in a bursting gush of blood. Then it started biting further up Guy’s calve muscle, tearing chunks of flesh.

More zombies poured through the door and into the already crowded room.

Jace wasn’t one hundred sure why, but the name zombie set alarm bells off in his head. As if he had experience with them before.

Their heads were mostly covered by a black hood stitched to their face to only reveal their mouth’s. Their skin was a sickly pale white and blue, with pink pock like blotches.

They like Jace wore rough spun clothing, except theirs was a deep-black.

He cowered back as a zombie lunge for the pile, for where he’d viewed through the press of bodies. He ducked and dive backwards as the reek of rotting flesh and foulness sprayed over him in a stench of foul breath.

The zombie gnashed its teeth at Jace, and he got the distinct impression that being bitten by one wouldn’t be great for his health.

So Jace gave it someone else to chew on.

Grabbing the arm of a woman practically climbing over him. Jace thrust their limb into the zombies maw and watched with a sickening amount of horror and fascination as the zombie chowed down and tore through.

Blood spilled and sprayed out, hitting Jace and covering him in its sticky warmth.

“Bleh! I need to get the fuck out of here,” he said sagely. Wiggling his way upwards proved to be a bad idea. The woman who’d been climbing over Jace, using him as a stepping stool to her own safety was now one of them.

She growled ferally and tried to bite him. Jace just managed to get his arms free enough to catch her jaw in one as the other snaked around to the back of her head. With a twist he snapped her neck and twisted her head around. It spun and Jace tried his best to not spew right then and there.

He needed to keep moving. The broken neck hadn’t killed the woman though and she began to munch down on the flesh of another person’s shoulder.

Jace kicked, punched, and elbowed his way to the top of the mosh-pit—whatever the hell that was. There, he scanned the chaos and instantly realised how utterly fucked they all were.

The zombie who’d bitten his would-be-best-friend Guy, were now set to fully devouring Guys dead body.

Why hasn’t he turned yet? Jace shook the question away and focused.

The most dangerous place right now was the press of bodies he stood upon. They rolled and wavered under his feet, the sensation felt familiar to Jace.

Had he surfed on a pile of bodies before?

He jumped, clearing the press of them entirely and hitting the ground at a roll. An inhuman screech roared at Jace and without thinking he snap-kicked his leg out and caved in a zombies knee. He then rolled to his right and sprung lithely onto his hands and feet.

Another came at Jace as the one he’d downed crawled for him, only to get distracted by other prey. Jace grabbed the zombie’s outstretched arm and spun inwards, pulling, and tossing with his shoulders, arms, and hips. The zombie went down and thrashed as it hit the hard stone but was up again quickly enough and coming for him.

He backed off, bumped into a woman who was in the process of crushing a zombie’s head with the heel of her foot. Jace picked her up from under her arms and threw her at the zombie charging him. The woman cried out in terror as she and the zombie went down in a tangle of limbs.

He frantically looked about and saw that the exit was free of clutter. He sprinted for it and slipped on a spill of blood and intestines, sliding for the broken-down door. Jace sprung to his feet and grabbed a hold of the intestines. He wrapped them around the arm of a zombie and twisted, tying the arm and the its head together. He kicked its ass and sent the it stumbling into the feast for three, now munching down on dead Guy.

Jace turned and ran.

He hit the corridor outside the tiny room at a sprint.

Momentum, he kept drumming through his thoughts.

He needed to keep moving. Keep running and fighting.

Why the hell am I so calm? he thought and bounded off the wall as he hit a tight turn in the corridor. He ran on. More dead bodies. More feasting zombies too occupied to pay him any mind. He ran past an open door and skidded to a halt. There was light emanating from within.

Something crashed down from behind him and he twisted as a man holding a plain ball mace hit the ground. A zombie lunged through a broken door to land on the man.

They started to struggle.

Jace ran over to them and kicked the man in his head, hard enough to daze him.

The zombie then darted in and bit down on the mans exposed neck. Jace, using that distraction pried the mace from the dying man’s fingers. He hefted it and then crushed the zombies head to a palp.

That’s how you kill them. Go for the head, he thought and nodded.

Jace went to run when a hand caught his trouser leg. He turned and saw the dying man, his throat pissing out with blood as he tried futilely to stop its flow.

A scream and more crashing came echoing down the corridor Jace had come from.

“Help,” the man mouthed. Ignoring him Jace twisted his trousers from the man’s grasp and fled.

He slowed himself down to a jog and darted looks in every room he passed. There were sleeping quarters and cafeterias. Dining halls and study rooms. There was a ridiculous amount.

In fact the amount of rooms Jace past were seemingly endless.

A loud grunt and a yell came from up ahead of him. Zombies came sprinting around the corner, three of them, each holding a weapon. One a cleaver, another a crutch, and the third held a rusted sword.

They screeched as they saw Jace and ran at him. He dived and ducked away as they cluttered and interrupted each other swipes, jabs, and swings.

Something in Jace told him that zombies weren’t usually meant to hold weapons. That this was a deviation from conventional norms.

Jace told that part of himself to shut the fuck up as he bounced forward and kicked the centre zombie wielding the crutch in its sternum, sending it tumbling backwards.

He blocked a wild swing from cleaver on his left and then reversed his action and smashed the mace through the head of the zombie with the rusted sword.

Jace leaned back as cleaver tried again to flail at him. The zombies’ attack’s with the weapons were clumsy and wide open, seeming unwieldly.

Ducking another swipe Jace threw himself down in a roll and came up bearing his mace in a swing that collapsed the zombies left thigh inwards.

Then he hopped to his feet and brained the zombie as it fell to a knee. The crutch wielding one had somehow entangled itself. Its right leg wedged in through the opening ‘V’ of the wooden support.

Jace kicked it in the back of its head and then smashed its skull.

Brain soup, lovely.

Pounding footsteps from behind had Jace on guard instantly. A tall bloodied woman with a braid of blonde hair, wielding a rusted and chipped longsword on her shoulder. She ran down the corridor from where the three stooges had come from.

Three what? Agh, never mind!

Jace eyed her warily as she came to a stop before his handy work.

“Is this your doing?” the woman asked with a cocked eyebrow. Jace recognised her as the one who’d spoken with—the now dead—Guy.

“Of course,” Jace answered coolly. The woman grinned at him, looking fierce and feral.

“They came from your direction,” Jace said and nodded back the way she’d come.

“Yeah, the fuckers actually ran away from me. I can’t help but feel like that ain’t right, if you know what I mean,” the woman gestured Jace to follow her as she started back down the corridor.

Jace followed behind, watching the bounce of the woman’s muscular ass and thighs. He got full definition, her cut-off trousers were that tight, plus the thin layer of blood coating her ass helped.

“Eyes up killer,” the woman said and nodded ahead of them. Two men with axes and shields were fighting off against six or seven zombies.

“Are we helping them?” he asked. He wasn’t particularly fond of the idea of stopping to fight such a large group. The woman just grinned and increased her speed.

Should just leave them. Leave the woman as well and find a way out of this place.

Jace wasn’t entirely sure when the change had hit them. But he knew that just before the zombies had crashed their party, he’d been a mess. Now though he was calm, analytical, and felt oddly distant from the situation.

Which only meant one thing. That he would crash soon enough.

He needed somewhere—preferably not infested with zombies—to collect himself and calm down. Jace suspected though that he wouldn’t be finding anything like that soon enough.

Xena, the god-damn warrior charged the rear flank of the zombies and smashed through them like a bull at a tomato festival. Then Jace was wading through, crushing heads, snapping limb’s, and stomping his way through the wave of undead.

Seconds later Jace and Xena—as he now thought of her—walked towards the two men. But stopped when one of men started to shake and vomit as bloody air bubbles began to froth from his lips.

The other man took a clumsy step away and bumped into Xena who pushed him aside.

Jace titled his head and observed as the infection spread through the man. He searched the man’s rigid and shaking body for bites and found one on the man’s upper left thigh.

That must’ve hurt like a bitch, he thought.

The man stopped shaking and threw his head back with feral cry of animalistic hunger and anger. When his head came back down, Jace noted that the man’s pupils were now black, and thick varicose-like veins were webbing out from his eyes.

The newly minted zombie raised his axe to attack, but Xena’s sword was already sweeping through its neck. Turning, Jace glanced at the other man, who’d been fighting alongside the now zombie.

“Were you bitten?” Jace asked him.

“W-what?” the man scowled confusedly at Jace.

“Were. You. Bitten?” he repeated, stressing each word.

“N-no,” the man stammered and swallowed thickly as he glanced at the zombie corpses, and then at Xena and Jace.

“Where did you find the axes and shields?” Xena asked, stepping over the undead bodies. Jace heard a lone cry and clash echo from behind.

That’ll be last of those still near that room I bet.

“There were these glass display’s in one of the rooms. We broke them open but these – thing’s - they must’ve heard us. We were swarmed by fifteen, and a few of us ran.”

The man looked guiltily from Jace to Xena. Xena nodded as if expecting such an answer. Jace simply shrugged, he would cut the legs off both Xena and the man if it meant escaping this place.

“Come on, let’s move,” Xena spat on the bodies and started off down a random corridor. Jace followed behind. His eyes were no longer on Xena’s muscular ass but now on the backs of her knees.

~*~*~*~

He kept pace with Xena as the tall woman strode down a tight corridor that branched into three passages. One to either side and another straight ahead of them. Looking back over his shoulder, he realised that the man who had been following them moments ago was now gone.

“Do we split up?” Jace asked and scanned each passage.

These corridors seemed dimmer somehow, and he got the sense of something swallowing and drinking in the light. Something that was heading right towards them.

A screaming snarl crescendo down the left and right passages. Jace cocked his arm back preparing to meet there assault but froze.

There were ten or twenty of the zombies on either side of them. But amongst those in the right passage was some Baldur’s Gate – Dark Descent looking motherfucking.

A humanoid squid-faced man walked among them, and their eyes met. Jace felt a flicker of intense pressure passed over his forehead and eyes.

“Go!” Xena shouted and started running for the straight passage, howling cries from the zombies followed after them as they ran. Xena lead the charge through the tight hallway as Jace brought up the rear.

“Fuck!”

“What is it now?” Jace asked and watched as the shadows behind them built and built till a horde of undead began swarming down after them.

“There’s door ahead,” Xena called back. One of the zombies broke away from the horde and sprinted for Jace. He whipped about and jabbed his mace into the zombies jaws. The tight confines of the passage made it hard to swing his weapon.

His attack connected and the zombies jaw crushed inwards with a crunch of bones breaking. Jace kicked the stunned zombie in its chest knocking it to the ground.

A loud crash came from behind him and he spun to see that Xena had broken down the door. The warrior woman stumbled to her feet and picked the door up.

Their eyes met and Jace saw the instant she’d decided to betray him.

She dead lifted the door closed.

“Fuck that nonsense,” he growled.

He pumped his legs furiously down the passage straight for the door. He wondered if Xena was attempting to block and barricade it from the other side.

Time to find out.

The zombie kept pace though and Jace knew he only had one shot. A hand clipped his heel and he almost fell as he reached and hurled himself bodily through the door and smashed into the wooden barrel Xena was carrying. She had tried to barricade it,

Rolling to his feet Jace groaned and felt at his side. It was bruised but nothing severe. He hissed as he prodded along a tender rib and quickly ducked out the way when a sword gilded through the space he’d been in.

“Should’ve just fucking died and let me escape,” Xena growled at him and was about to swing again when a zombie jumped onto her back.

A hand reached for Jace just as his own hand found his weapon and swung. Snapping the wrist down to the elbow with a crunch. Like a hammer hitting a nail.

Jace scrambled to his feet clutching his chest and jogged winded for the exit. He left the woman to her karma, as she fought ferociously against the undead.

More corridors, more empty rooms, and studies. Where the hell were they? Jace shook his head and kept winding his way through. The sounds of fighting and the inhuman cries were fairly muted as he walked.

He was so tired his mind began filling with dreadful thoughts. Was there actually an exit? Where on Earth were they? Could he actually go outside? What if he made it all that way and just found some apocalyptic wasteland?

Jace stumbled and lean against the hard-stone wall to catch his breath. Ahead, the passage reached a T intersection. Faint light shone dimly from either end.

Then a figure sprinted past, and Jace blinked. Then another, and another.

“Hey!” Jace called out just as another figure passed by. Jace swallowed thickly and pushed off the wall. The light dimmed on one side as the figure Jace had called out to came back.

He squinted as the person hissed a shushing sound and waved at Jace to follow frantically. Without even waiting for him to acknowledge the figure took off.

“More running- figures,” Jace grumbled, and taking a deep breath he ran to join them. His ribs no longer sore.

Running down the corridors, through rooms, and hallways, Jace loosely followed behind. Just always catching sight of the figure he was following.

“In here,” Jace looked to his left and saw a short man waving at him frantically. He was standing in a doorway, the door only slightly ajar.

Jace entered quickly inside and scanned the interior of the room. A few tables, and a pair of chairs. A cold damp fireplace, a few shelves, and a moth-eaten bed.

Four other people were in the room with him, not including the man still peeking out of the door.

A young petite woman with strawberry-blonde hair was holding to a wound on the side of her head. Her eyes kept blinking owlishly focusing in and out.

Another, a grey-haired woman who was in the process of tearing strips of fabric taken from somewhere.

Bandages, Jace guessed.

The other two were a long-haired skinny man with a small goatee. And leaning against the wall was a dark-skinned man with a black beard and black curly hair.

Jace gave each a jerky nod as they eyed him critically. He moved further into the room and flopped down onto the floor with an exhale of relief.

He kept a death grip on his mace though and eyed the small man at the door. It wasn’t even a ten seconds before the small-man stepped back and closed the door as quietly as possible. He turned back to the rest of them and held his finger to his lips. Everyone shuffled nervously and Jace got to his feet silently and crouched with his mace in hand.

Distantly he heard the bare slapping sprint of feet growing closer and closer. Then an instant later, thundering footfalls and the sound of panicked breathing whizzed past the closed door.

The small man by the door, slowly crept up to it and pressed his ear against the wooden surface. Jace froze and his breath quickened as adrenaline began to pump through his veins so loudly that he had trouble hearing.

Then out of nowhere the door buckled slightly as a roaring force of what could only be many, many zombies ran past.

Jace was up on his feet in an instant and ran to the door to press his weight against it.

The strain was continuous and Jace got the distinct impression that whatever was on the outside was in fact not a horde of zombies but something far larger, heavier, and continuous in length.

More hands joined Jace and the small man’s effort. They grunted and pushed against the door, and Jace felt the wooden geography of the door actually bulge inwards jabbing him in his once again sore ribs.

He winced but kept his mouth shut.

Then it was over, and the pressure vanished all at once.

Slumping away from the door the four men all looked at each other and nodded minutely. Jace brought up his mace and nodded to the smaller man.

“Open the door slowly. I’ll peek outside and have a look,” Jace whispered and they all nodded. He heard the woman with the head wound whimper as the older one hushed her.

The dark-skinned man grabbed a hold of one the chairs in the room and nodded at Jace. long hair and the small man pried the door open silently and Jace peeked out.

The walls, ceiling and floor were coated in a thick mucus(y) slime.

“I do not think that was the undead,” the dark-skinned man commented quietly and Jace had to agree. The man had a strange accent that was familiar to him, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

Jace stepped outside and frowned, looking one way and then the other. The soles of feet plunged into the thick substance and Jace felt a momentary burn roll across his bare feet.

“I think we need to move. Whatever that was its bound to still be nearby.”

“I agree with you. The others though…” the man replied off. “I doubt it.”

Jace sighed as they re-entered the room and they shut the door behind them. His bare feet were sticky and sore from the slime in the corridor. It had dried almost instantly when he’d stepped out of it.

He grimaced and rubbed at the almost smooth surface of the slime coating.

I really hope this washes off easily, he thought and glanced at the others.

“We can’t stay here for long,” Jace told them.

“Why not?” long-hair asked him and scowled.

“Because we do not know what that was,” the dark-skinned man offered. “An unknown variable will cause us problems I think.”

The smaller man nodded agreeable and drew a line across his neck.

“Look, we need to move swiftly. Whatever that was it could still be in the area. Not to the mention the undead still roaming this place. What we need is a way either up or down, or out.”

“Yeah see, that all sounds good. But what if there isn’t a way out of here. We don’t know where here even is,” the older woman said in a whine. Jace heard a slight drawl to her accent.

He nodded agreeing with her, “we don’t, you’re right. Which is why we need information.”

“Then why don’t you go?” long-hair asked him.

Jace sighed and with his free hand rubbed at his brow.

“Let’s say I leave and find this exit,” Jace suggested mildly. “Why would I come back for any of you?”

“You mean you wouldn’t?” the older woman asked Jace.

Jace nodded. “I wouldn’t. Because I’ll be putting myself at risk backtracking to find you all.”

“I again agree with you,” the dark-skinned man said nodding at Jace. “We have unity together. A part, even I would look out for only myself.”

The man then gestured at Jace’s weapon and then added, “plus he is also the only one with a weapon.”

“I’m leaving soon,” Jace exhaled still slumped against the wall by the door. His hearing was focused on distant sounds and noises.

“Well I’m not going. We have safety here. I’m not throwing that away for the possibility of escaping where there is none,” Long hair said firmly and sat his skinny frame down in the only available chair in the room.

The women spoke in hushed whispers and eyed Jace, the smaller man, and then the dark-skinned man.

“We will go with you,” the older woman said and sighed. “I don’t know if we’ll be able to keep up though.”

Jace scratched at his head and only then did he realise that his entire head had been shaven.

I guess it wasn’t before then if I’m that surprised by it.

“We should break the legs off that chair then,” Jace suggested straightening upright in a stretch. The dark-haired man nodded and spun the chair in his hands and quickly set about snapping each leg off.

They were about three feet in length. It wouldn’t provide much protection, but it was enough for now.

They left the scowling hippy alone and crept outside quietly. They paused every few yards as they walked through the maze silently. The young woman with the head wound now had the right side of her face and head covered by strips of cloth in an improvised bandage.

“What happened?” Jace asked nodding at her head. The woman didn’t reply and instead moved closer to the older one.

“A man tried to rape her. She fought back and when the zombies came, he hit her over the head and ran.”

Jace nodded, he expected they would encounter more people being assholes like that.

“Well, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry you had to go through that,” Jace said softly.

“Coming from the man who had said he would abandon us,” the older woman retorted archly.

Jace smiled and nodded, unperturbed. “Of course I would abandon you. None of you mean anything to me as of yet.”

“Oh? When will we matter then?”

“When you prove yourself. At least when I do abandon you, I won’t be trying to force myself on you before-hand,” Jace turned his attention back to his surroundings.

He heard the woman say something along the lines of, “that’s what you say now.”

“Shush,” The dark-haired man said coming to a stop. Jace paced up next to him, mace at the ready. They listened.

Voices.

“Those are-”

“People,” he agreed. Judging from his expression, though, Jace guessed that he wasn’t fond of the idea of meeting other’s.

“Let’s go right,” Jace said nodding down the passage that had a few open doors. These doors, he noted as they past, had small grated viewing windows. The doors had a series of locks all along the outside. Jace shook his head and once again wondered at what this place was.

They turned right and then left, keeping a steady pace as they jogged lightly. He heard what sounded like a questioning growl and suddenly one the doors behind them burst open as a zombie crashed into the wall opposite the door.

The women immediately froze as they saw it. He could only imagine that their minds were harkening back to the small room where this chaos had started.

I wonder how many of the fifty-two are actually left.

The zombie came at Jace and he dodged, narrowly avoiding its lunge. Swinging his mace overhead, he brought it down in a crunch that saw the back of the zombies head crushed underneath his blow.

His weapon dripped blood and Jace looked to the others.

“Anymor-” he was cut off by a small wet splashing sound. Looking down he frowned at the zombie corpse. There in between the bits of fragmented skull and brain matter something moved.

“What it is?” the dark-haired man asked Jace.

“I don’t know. Hold on…” Jace nudged the pieces around, pushing bits of brain to the right and blinked in surprise.

He hadn’t expected this at all.

There within the mushed brain of the zombie, were thin tentacles like that of a squid’s.

Though I have no idea what a squid looks like. This is still odd.

A need built inside Jace. An eager urge to kill whatever it was and quickly at that.

Without even hesitating he buried his mace in the brain, over and over until all that remained was an indescribable paste.

“Are you okay?” Jace looked up and saw that everyone was watching him intently.

“Yeah. Just really needed to kill it,” Jace replied and swiped at his forehead. He hadn’t realised how hot he’d gotten until now. He swiped at his brow again and frowned at the other’s. “What?”

“Kill it?” the dark-haired man asked.

Jace nodded, his frown deepening when they looked at him like he was crazy. Shrugging off their confused glances Jace stalked off, pushing on through the floor.

Maybe only I saw it then, he thought. If so what does that mean for me?

He had no answers to any of his question’s. He was also getting tired of referring to these people by their damn descriptions.

~*~*~*~

Jace punched the first zombie that ambushed them. It crumpled in a heap and he brought his mace down hard enough that he connected with the stone floor underneath it.

Need to make sure I kill the squids as well.

Swinging his mace in a wide arch he caught the neck of one and smacked the head of another, they went down, and he dispatched them quickly.

A scream drew his attention and he spun just in time save the older woman as a zombie caught hold of her legs and was pulling itself towards her.

Jace kicked it off snapped its arms in half with two blows and then stomped it skull.

Tentacles burst out of the brain and wrapped themselves his ankle, they had tiny suckers with thin hook’s hidden within, and they dug into his leg.

Jace cried out as he was then tackled to the ground, he punched the zombie with an uppercut and threw an elbow in its face as he rolled on top. He leg spasmed with pain, yet he clench his teeth and buried his mace in through the zombies nose and into the floor.

Grabbing a hold of the strange brain squid proved to be a bad idea as the tentacles suddenly latched to his hand. “Get the fuck off,” he yelled frustratedly. Inch by inch he pried the tentacles off of him.

Save us. A voice blunted Jace’s mind and he winced. Prying it off he threw it down. The voice speaking to him sounded like that a child.

Don’t leave us. We must be one. You are strong- Raising his foot Jace stomped down repeatedly, not caring if it attacked his leg again.

“Can my day get any stranger,” he groused and grunted as he clubbed a zombie wrestling with the dark-haired man in the back of its head. Helping the man to his feet, Jace scanned around and grimaced.

The older woman he’d just saved was being feasted on, whereas the small man was defending the shocked and paralysed younger woman.

She just kept repeating, “I’m gonna die-I’m gonna die-I’m gonna die,” over and over like it was her personal mantra.

Jace almost walked away. He almost said leave them, yet that small squid voice and it words were interposing themselves with these people.

“Save them. Don’t leave them. We must be one. We are stronger together.”

Muttering, Jace charged the ranks of zombies attacking the small guy and pounded into them.

In a striking frenzy he swung and spun with a fury as he broke limbs and crushed skulls. The dark-haired man rushed past him and picked up the young woman eliciting a scream as she tried to fight him. Jace and the small guy brought up the rear.

No one chased after them, though, and he breathed a sigh of relief grimacing as he looked his hand and leg. Deep puckered mark line the skin, each centred by vertical lines that bled freely.

He blew out a breath.

“We need to rest,” the dark-haired man said after a few minutes of jogging. “That ambush came out of nowhere.”

“Yeah…” Jace sighed as they slowed down. “The fact that they’re ambushing us this far away from the area we started in, could only mean a few things.”

“Such as?” the man asked.

“Well either more of us have made it further than we thought. Or…”

“Or we’ve gone in a circle and are back near that room,” the man finished for Jace.

“Let’s rest,” Jace said finally. “I need rest.”

They all nodded their agreement, with the exception of the woman who was now despondent. Small guy lead the way and soon enough they found an empty workshop. Several small cages lined one side of the room and the desk was filled with notes and murky brown jars that there were empty.

They set the woman down in a corner and propped the chair up against the door as well as sliding the desk over to reinforce it.

The dark-haired man gasped and Jace looked over his shoulder to see that the man now sat cross-legged on the floor, a journal in his hands.

“Oh damn. I can read this,” the man said and seemed mystified by this knowledge. Jace wasn’t entirely sure why but he was surprised as well.

All it did, though, was reaffirm the belief that he wasn’t where he was meant to be. That this wasn’t even his world.

“It’s a journal,” the man started and Jace nodded for him to continue. “The date of the first entry is: 5th Hindus. Barrendel. Aederon Eclipse Cycle. Year 682.” The man licked his lips, “They’re only a few entries in this, and the last two are coated in dried blood.”

He scanned the page for a moment and then nodded. “This journal belongs to one: Tormund Yasgaes. The first entry…”

This novel is the work of Rhys Thomas. If you are reading this and it has not been published by Rhys Thomas, then this work has been stolen. Please report this to Amazon and me at email: [email protected]