Chapter 34

There was a long period of silence as they looked down at the world below, trying hard not to notice when creatures that were too large moved. Tamara nudged him. “If I know Cirano, they’ll be a delicious meal ready by now.”

“Can you get it sent down?”

She shook her head. “Nope, you’re coming up and eating. Plus, I’m sure you want to watch the light show.”

Daniel looked down at his club. He was happy to miss the daily updates from outside. Even though he didn’t know morse code, he could watch it from here. Most of the reason he liked it was seeing those flashing lights each representing an active community group.

“It’s safe. It’s okay to leave it for a bit. And no, I’m not going to organise someone to come down and translate it for you.”

“Was that an option?”

She laughed. “I just said it wasn’t.”

With a dramatic sigh, Daniel stood. “Fine.”

They headed upstairs together.

Dinner was a strew.

They both looked at the chunks of meat floating in a thick gravy and then at Cirano

“Good stew. It’s damn tasty. Using magic while cooking is incredible!” The cook enthused.

Tamara and he glanced at each other again.

“You ask,” Daniel whispered hopefully.

Tamara shook his head, and he sighed.

“What’s the meat?”

Cirano grinned. “You don’t want to know?”

“It might surprise you, but that’s not an answer that comforts me.” Tamara said dryly.

The cook laughed and clutched his sides. “It’s fine. No feral meat is in it. Guaranteed.”

“A hint?”

“I would prefer not to say before you’ve tasted it.”

“We’re not eating it till you tell us.” Tamara stated.

“It’s rabbit.” Luke yelled out.

“Hey,” Cirano spun and almost threw the bowl he was holding at Luke who just laughed uproariously. “That’s unfair.”

“From level thirty-seven?” Daniel asked, ignoring the byplay.

“Somewhere like that.” Luke answered. “We butchered it today.”

Daniel tasted it. The meat was gamey but perfectly spiced. He moaned appreciatively. “Giant rabbit tastes good.”

“If I can do that with rabbit and packet food can you imagine the meals I can make once we get a proper garden and actual eating animals.”

“I can’t wait… If it’s anything like this.” Daniel agreed.

“It’ll be better.” The cook assured him.

Around them, everyone was already setting up. There didn’t seem to be as many people as usual.

Tamara grabbed his hand and pointed at two seats near the window. “I think those are for us.”

“Yes. They are.” Luke agreed. “And Tamara we don’t need you do the light.”

Daniel looked around once more. There were a lot less than he expected. The Parkers weren’t here, and he had been expecting one of those to be attending at the very least. “Why are there so few people?”

Luke laughed. “There’s not.” His thumb pointed to the neighbouring suite. “Two other viewing rooms next door. We don’t need to crowd in as there’s like nine of us who can translate morse code.”

Daniel nodded, feeling foolish. He probably should have guessed that was the case. For example, he had known the Parkers had at least one person able to use the skill.

“It’s starting.” Richard their resident monster identifier declared.

Daniel stood up and leant forward just like Richard had promised. There were a lot of lights spread across the landscape.

He sat down again.

“We’re doing a count of participants.” Richard told them while furiously scribbling on a piece of paper. “Damn. Designation number four hasn’t signalled.”

“They were a group of three.” Luke told the room after consulting notes.

Everyone swallowed. It was all too easy to imagine why a group team would fail to report their status. A few minutes later, the first phase of communication was completed and three other groups had not called in, representing fifteen people in total. They were not necessarily dead, but it was likely the usual signaller had perished at a minimum.

So many presumed killed, and it was a good start, not a bad one.

Then the more detailed updates started up.

Richard went first, as the order was determined by group size. He tapped away at the lamp to communicate their status.

“One lost,” he muttered, verbalising what he was typing. “All floors secured from level twenty up. No immediate threats. Thirty plus fighters. Plan to liberate to ground tomorrow.”

Richard stopped his furious signalling with a sigh of relief, and then the other groups started up.

Updates were called out, but there was nothing particularly surprising in any of them. Some were optimistic others were not. Daniel tuned out. Still unable to believe that he had lost Blood Drinker.

“There’s a team below us in the tower.” Richard said in abrupt excitement. “Pinned on both sides. Thirty-nine total and seventeen fighters.”

“That’s great.”

“We need to link up.”

Daniel stood up, drawing the entire room’s attention. Internally he was elated he had thought everyone else in the hotel was dead. “Ask what the enemies are and the floors they control.”

Richard sent the question through and then waited presumably because another group had to signal to the people below as there was no direct line of sight. Their signaller slumped for almost a minute and then noticeably perked up. “They’re currently restricted to floor nine and eight.” Richard reported. “Feral mutated humans above and a carnivorous plant below. Can’t defeat either.”

“Tell them we’ll try to reach them tomorrow and we believe we did significant damage to the feral’s by killing their leader around three hours ago.” Daniel ordered.

Richard flashed the information and as he did so Daniel touched based Priscilla. The answer to who the ferals had been fighting had been revealed to him. That war of attrition that they appeared to have been winning because they were not losing anyone looked like it had been against humans after all. Furthermore, if they could wage a war down to level nine, then they almost certainly could push upwards if they chose. That was if the super was still active.

Priscilla answered.

There was a confusing jumble of impressions. She was not currently watching the ferals instead… He got the impression of an open packet of chips, other empty packets, a full stomach and intense satisfaction.

What?

A flash of memory slipped through. It was fragmented, but from what Daniel could tell Priscilla had used her growth magic to create sharp thorns combined with unguarded packets and….

What?

The emotional connection cut off abruptly and then re-established itself. Priscilla, on the other end of the link was alert and available to help her pet. She wanted to support.

Daniel was more than a little suspicious. What were you doing?

Hungry, Small Eat.

The very innocent response came back.

Daniel remembered the impression of all those open packets. She had…

Contact important? She interrupted him. Her emotions expressing curiosity and a willingness to drop all of her very valid mousy needs to help.

He didn’t bother with words. He sent through impressions of the ferals fighting humans below. The concept of how devious they would be. A large group rushing up suddenly, type of threat and that she needed to make sure they were not surprised before this session ended.

Any thoughts of full stomachs vanished from Priscilla’s mind. She dropped her direct connection and below on floor nineteen he could feel her moving.

He came back to the real world, and there was a babble of nervous conversation. “Priscilla is making sure we will not get surprised.” He told the room.

That undercurrent of panic that was rising faded away, but only slightly.

“Also,” Daniel continued. “It’s likely we cut off the head earlier today. I’ll monitor, but I don’t think it’ll be necessary.” This time, his words reduced the edge of tension.

“Good point. I’ll go remind the others.” Luke declared and stood and left the room.

With the immediate drama passed Richard kept reporting on what was happening.

“One lost,”

“Zero deaths.”

“Need food desperately.”

“The creche and school group have suffered two more deaths. They remained pinned upstairs. The enemy is a swarm of Silver Flies. They are on half ratios and they think they can defend and stretch that food for three days after that they’re in trouble.” Richard finished the summary in a sudden dead silence.

“What’s a Silver Fly.” Tamara asked, looking right at their monster expert.

Richard sighed. “Bad news. But the fact they’ve survived this long means they don’t have a queen, which is a massive stroke of luck.” Richard frowned. “Its sound like they’re up against a full hive but even if it was a newly budded swarm, they would still be a problem. Not at all easy to fight this early in the alpha event. Silver flies are physical based fighters, and a quarter swarm is probably a challenge on par with the octopod.”

There were murmurs of concern at that statement.

“That’s good.” Daniel called out to everyone. “We’re stronger than when we fought the octopod, and if we get the twenty fighters from downstairs, we’ll be even more effective. It’ll be easy to kill the hive.”

“Providing there’s no queen.” Richard muttered.

“Which there isn’t.” Daniel pointed out. “Because they’re still alive.”

“Correct.” Richard returned his attention to the flashing lights. Once more, his voice droned out a series of updates. A short time later, he stepped back with the light show having ceased.

“Luke?”

The de facto leader of the fighters consulted his notes. “Best day yet.” There were cheers around. “Losses are between three percent and four percent depending on the number of dead in the groups that didn’t sign in.”

“Three percent that’s good.” Carly said. “That’s half the losses of yesterday. But…”

“Yeah,” Luke agreed, hugging his daughter. “But, it’s still a lot of people.”

They broke up their grouping and Daniel hurried downstairs by himself while the others organised what was going to happen. He sat in his seat, looking out at the now dark expanse. So many dead. The enormity of what they had to do struck him again, but he had his plan. Clear the tower tomorrow. Then defeat the flies the day after at that point they would be community and they could hopefully stop the haemorrhaging.

Five minutes later Tamara knocked on the door holding a plate.

It smelt? He sniffed. Sweet? “Chocolate?”

“Brownies,” she said excitedly and brought it over before plonking down on the seat next to him. “Its been simultaneously the least stressful day since the event and the most.”

“If that bloody super hadn’t turned up.”

He could see Tamara shaking her head in the near darkness. “It turning up and being killed is the only reason I’m not panicking. We were just told that the ferals were pressuring a group almost as large as us, but ten floors down. If we thought they were at full strength still how would we be feeling?”

“True.”

“So,” Daniel said through a mouthful of food. “Any other impressions you want to share?”

Tamara sighed heavily. “I think it’s best described as business as usual. I know that sounds horrible given the number of deaths, but.”

“I think you’re right.” Daniel interrupted gently. “There wasn’t much progress. We did nothing. Only two groups expanded at all. Less, but still a concerning quantity and, of course the worry about food and water is ramping up.”

“It’s like you were paying attention.”

“I was.”

Daniel took a bite of his brownie, enjoying the crunchy crust paired with the gooey softness. “How the hell are we eating gourmet food in the apocalypse.”

“Trippy right. Same deal with being able to have hot baths.”

“What? You’ve had a hot bath.”

“Yeah, I make the water and I have fire magic. Combine the two together.”

Daniel pouted at the thought.

“I’ll let you go after me next time or if you’re extra nice, I’ll make you a fresh one.”

“That would be.”

“I bet you’re wishing about now that you were better at throwing spares,” she teased.

Daniel chuckled and then looked down at the plate. There was one piece of brownie left on it. Daniel gazed at it longingly. “Share?”

Tamara shook her head. “No, I’m full. Go for it.”

He took it, bit in. “So good.”

“No talking with your mouthful.” She hugged him.

Chapter 35

“Thankyou,” he said through a mouthful of brownie.

Tamara waved it aside. They sat in silence, enjoying the other’s closeness and watching the dark world outside. There were no clouds, and the moonlight lit the city below them.

She pointed, and he followed her finger.

“What’s that the size of a minibus? Larger?” Daniel whispered. With the open window, it felt dangerous to talk out loud.

“Maybe bigger.”

“It might be friendly?”

He could feel Tamara’s body convulsing as she suppressed her laughter. “I’m sure it is.”

The monster moved out of sight. Daniel looked upwards. “The stars are the same.”

She followed his gaze. “I’m not from Australia. But I agree they look like normal stars.”

“I was never good at that stuff either. You know being able to find constellations. I only know.” He searched, not sure if they would be visible from this angle. “There.” He pointed. “The southern cross. It’s the only one I can recognise, but the rest of the stars seem familiar.”

“And I haven’t noticed anything flying above us all evening, which is another bonus of the sky.” Tamara grabbed his arm and put it over her shoulders and snuggled in. “It’s getting cold.”

There was silence.

“If you won, what were you going to get me to do?”

Daniel tossed up the appropriate responses; the dirty ones, the inconsequential ones and the most likely choice. “I would have insisted you let me take you out on a date.”

“Really, that’s all?”

“What else would I do?”

There was a roar, and they all jumped.

Tamara pointed. “The minibus.”

Another roar and this was met by high pitched squawking. The enormous mass was being accosted by multiple smaller creatures. It launched itself to the right. In the dark, it was hard to confirm, but it appeared to have successfully landed on its target. Not that it helped. Half a dozen smaller shapes swarmed from the other side and leapt onto it.

The squawking sounded more excited. The mini-bus that was sort of like an eight-legged giant dog with a crocodile shaped head arced backwards and up in the instinctive reaction most animals responded to when something cut into its back.

They heard the thud when it tipped all over and fell, trying to squish the things crawling on it.

It righted itself, roared and rushed forward the squealing smaller shapes that had abandoned their perch when it had flipped over followed it relentlessly.

The visual battle disappeared behind houses, but they could hear it ongoing. Sporadic roars and continual squawks continued. They sat listening, tracking the progress of the fight as it travelled down the road hidden by the homes in the way. The conflict ebbed and flowed. Sometimes the creature was heading away from them and at other times it back tracked. Over two minutes passed, and the high-pitched squeals crescendoed then there was silence.

“What do you think happened?”

“The mini bus died.” Daniel answered immediately.

“Probably, but we might never know.”

“We know.”

They waited.

There were no more noise. “What’s that?” Tamara said abruptly, sounding terrified.

Daniel followed her finger in confusion. What could have scared her? Surely, after seeing whatever it was in the bay and the lizard there weren’t any threats that should have created that type of reaction.

Then he saw what she was pointing.

“Fuck!.”

The multi leg lizard, now in three parts was being carried across an intersection.

Tamara’s hand tightened on his own. “What the hell?” The shapes were lost from sight once more. “They’re heading to the bay.”

Daniel thought about that for a moment and his original concern over intelligent creatures deepened. “I imagine, given the first rule of an Alpha event that’s bad news.”

“I don’t know.” Tamara whispered.

“Well, my understanding is that the first rule is ‘don’t go into deep water.’ What does it mean if an enemy is heading back to said water?”

She patted his leg. “That’s not what I didn’t know. I followed your logic… I… I need to talk to Ivey.” She half stood and then sat down. “But she’s presumably still unconscious. Richard tomorrow then.”

“Is it that bad?”

Tamara shook her head in denial. “No. We don’t know.” She sounded helpless. “It probably only means something has a base near the water…” Her voice trailed off. She did not sound convinced.

She cuddled in more aggressively and he noticed her shooting concerned looks toward where the river joined the ocean. The apparent destination of the creatures that had killed the large mini-bus creature.

Daniel squeezed her. “I think whatever that was it’s a problem for three days’ time. Tomorrow we will clear this building. The day after, consolidate the survivors and save the kids. The day after that, depending on how we feel we’ll either destroy them.” He glanced toward where the meat had disappeared. “Or the lizard.”

She giggled.

“Then?”

“I’ve always wanted to be a king. I guess we’ll save the rest of Melbourne, and they’ll just crown me.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

He chuckled and kissed the top of her head. Tamara looked at him and he saw her white teeth visible in the moonlight. “I’m going to leave here because I need my sleep.” She licked her lips.

She leant forward slightly.

Daniel shifted backwards subtly discouraging her. “Ivey made me promise.”

He saw her nod. “Probably for the best.” She stood. “About that date. I would have given you that for free.”

“Miss Murphy may I take you out for dinner.”

“You may, and before,” she leaned forward clearly considering once more attempting a goodnight kiss before she stopped herself and pulled back with reluctance. “I… I’m going.” She turned and rushed out.

Gently, Daniel hit his head against the hard wall. It was for the best, but he could still be annoyed by it.

Animal Sense flared out to distract himself.

Nothing.

With Tamara no longer there, he switched his attention to assembling the ramps they would use to take the fight down to the monsters below. He fell into a routine alternative his magic between preparing tools and monitoring the zombies.

Priscilla’s mind touched his own from floor nineteen, but on the opposite side from him.

It was an image.

Three elites were facing off against two other elites and five normals. At a glance, it was clear that a fight was about to break out between. One because Priscilla was involved, and that was the sort of thing she shared and second the hostility between the two groups. They faced each other limbs trembling. Their centre of mass held low and expressions threatening violence.

The tension grew, then it was like someone had dropped a start flag and the zombies charged each other.

Through the open windows, Daniel could hear distant roaring but of course no direct sound from his connection with Priscilla but he imagined at ground zero they were screaming at each other at full volume.

If Priscilla had the access and the appendages, she would have been shovelling popcorn into her mouth. She was settling in for a fun show.

The three elites sped up and Daniel discovered they were all speedsters. While to his perception, they moved at normal pace because Priscilla had slowed time, the other side was moving in ultra-slow motion. Three elites on the one side meant the result was almost predetermined.

The more numerous group was about to be cut to bits.

Priscilla’s eyes flicked away from the speedsters to focus briefly on the larger party. One of the opposing elites was covered with Earth armour and the other was a speedster because in the image being supplied it was moving at a normal pace while the Earth feral was as good as frozen. The opposing speed might help counter the trio but not enough Daniel decided. In this clash, regular zombies could as well have been traffic cones.

The opposite forces collided.

The trio broke up. Two went around the elites clearly intending to gut the weaker normals. The last of the three targeted the opposition speedster as they made the intelligent decision not to target the briefly invulnerable armoured enemy. It was not like ignoring it cost them anything, as there was no way it could move swiftly enough to threaten them. The earth zombie registered the moment they blurred forward because it tried to swing a claw through the path one of the enemy was taking but by the time the slash went through the targeted space the speedster was already tearing the head off the first regular feral behind the earth zombie. It had missed by so much it was almost cartoonish.

Then the remains of the trio broke away. The battle had been transformed. The victor of the speedster clash was the ally of the earth zombie but it was now seriously wounded. As for the five regular ferals, they were all dead or disembowelled so badly that they probably wished they had been the lucky ones who had been decapitated. Instead of seven on three it was two versus two and the speed zombie paired with the earth one was seriously injured.

The two uninjured ones sensed blood in the water and swept in. Despite being damaged, the wounded speedster took down its opponent by tangling ups its limbs even as it had its throat torn out. The Earth zombie fell on top of the fallen speedster and ripped it in half. The speedster tried to fight back, but its claws slipped helplessly over its enemy’s army and got zero purchase.

Triumphally the earth zombie stood roaring, beating its chest and the last remaining speedster retreated. Like Daniel had found the speed oriented ferals were absolutely deadly but incredible fragile. The earth monster chased its opponent with futility. Even without its outrageous boosted speed it was far faster than its lumbering enemy.

The earth feral chased anyway. Some small part of its brain surely registering the consequence of it not finishing the battle quickly. The other feral toyed with it, staying a steady three metres clear even while jogging backwards.

Then the magic armour failed.

The speedster instantly stopped retreating and its face split into a toothy grin.

Concern ran across the furry face of the other elite. It stepped backwards cautiously now that it was no longer protected with its near invulnerable armour.

Then it was like it was moving in treacle once more. The other zombie jogged forward and Daniel knew the only reason it was not blurring was that Priscilla was slowing time sufficiently to reduce the monster’s movement speed.

The number of teeth shown increased. Brutally, it blocked the swinging counter of the earth zombie. Its arm moved ten times faster than the other and its long claws targeted the earth ferals wrist and they went through skin, flesh and bone effortlessly.

Declawed, on at least one arm, the earth feral was helpless. The speedster, still grinning brought its right hand flashing into the exposed neck. There was a spray of blood accompanied by excitement from Priscilla.

Then it swung its other arm from the opposite direction. This time, the entire head went sailing off.

Decapitated, the headless body fell to the ground. The speedster crouched and plunged his arms down into its fallen enemy’s chest. Each arm striking the sternum next to each other. The flesh parted and then the zombie tensed and pulled outwards effectively tearing the chest cavity open.

It looked up, roaring in triumph, and then lowered its head to eat.

The vision vanished.

Daniel blinked away the aftereffects of the vision while looking absently at the stars. Normal, non-magical and unchanged stars.

The feral had not been thrusting its face into its opponent’s chest cavity to consume internal organs. It had been going for the core almost certainly to get stronger.

“That’s the second fight she’s witnessed and then there were the other bodies, which must have been the aftermaths of the other battles.” He told Finigan while scratching the dog behind his ears. The dog had adopted the seat that Tamara had abandoned. “There isn’t a question anymore. They’re tearing themselves to bits.” No pun intended he thought to himself, recalling the various body parts that had gone flying in the last battle. “And we need to kill them before another super emerges.”

It was finally lightening outside. He could now see details of the roof tiles of the houses a couple of streets over. Apart from Priscilla enthusiastically sharing her hunting, it had been an uneventful night after Tamara left.

Only after she had left, he still remembered those small creatures who had killed the giant monster. That was definitely a conversation he needed to have with Richard. A problem for future him, maybe.