Concentrating on the shark-headed creature, Reece reached his mind out and latched onto the thing’s consciousness. Its mind was a mess. Numerous screams filled much of the void, but there was an undercurrent of primal cunning that guided its actions. Reece focused on that as two more of the creatures crested the surface of the water and began hauling their grotesquely mutated bodies up onto the sandy beach.

The monster’s smell hit him and nearly broke his concentration. When Reece was younger, he had come upon a beached whale that had been dead for days. He found that the smell was like that, but ten times worse and mixed with the smell of a charnel house. His focus waned, but he never completely lost it. Using what he had done before as a sort of guideline, he sent the image of one of the other two creatures into the first one’s mind along with a word, “Kill”.

The creature stopped moving for a moment as it processed the new command. Then it roared, turned, and launched itself at its closest companion. What the smell had failed to do, the roar had accomplished. The horrible, high-pitched, gargling cry didn’t sound like anything animal or human that Reece had ever heard, and it was truly awful to experience, completely breaking his concentration.

Luckily, the beast had already committed to the attack and Reece got to experience just how deadly these mishappen creatures were as the first one bit into the second with its massive shark maw. Reece watched as the thirty-plus centimeter teeth tore through the unfortunate victim’s hide. Rotten gore and filth gushed from the wound and the wounded creature let out a wail even worse than the roar from the first monstrosity.

While the two creatures tore at each other, the third creature lumbered unopposed towards Reece. Before Reece could call out for help, the loud report of heavy gunfire kicked off from behind him. Reece stared at the shark monster while its body was torn to shreds by a hail of large-caliber bullets. Reece turned to greet his savior and saw that Pasha had turned the Phoenix to the side and had unloaded all four of its forward guns directly into the monstrosity. Rubbing his sore eardrum, Reece waved thanks to Pasha and turned back to witness the outcome of the battle between the other two undead mutations.

The massive shark-headed behemoths assaulted each other with no regard for their bodies. Gore, thickened blood, and chunks of rotted flesh rained down upon the beach as they took ghastly chunks out of each other. Between the shark heads and their clawed arms, the wounds they inflicted on each other were beyond fatal. Reece forced himself to look away, feeling queasy from the sight. It helped, but between the nauseating smell and the sickening splashes and splats of blood and gore dripping down from the two creature’s terrible wounds, he didn’t know how long he could keep the contents of his stomach down.

Doing the only thing that made sense, he jogged away from the epic battle, the sand somewhat slowing his progress. A few seconds later, the sand gave way to the hard ground of the jungle floor. The smell and awful sounds were mercifully far enough away now that he felt he could breathe normally. Gulping in semi-fresh air, he glanced around to assess the situation. It appeared that Pasha had gotten them there just in time. Many Madagascans were lying dead on the beach, but it was clear they had saved many more.

It was then that he noticed the swath of destruction that led into the jungle. Something big, perhaps another one of the shark-headed behemoths, had already bypassed the defenders and made its way inland. Reece ran up to the nearest of the defenders while the woman fought to catch her breath. She was kneeling at the edge of the sand and sucking in deep breaths as she prepared herself to re-enter the fray.

“What got past you?” he yelled, raising his voice above the still ongoing battle while more and more zombies emerged from the ocean waves to shuffle onto the beach and join the seemingly relentless attack.

The woman stared at him, pale-faced and wide-eyed. Reece was taken aback by her striking intensity, enhanced by being terrified and half-covered in blood and gore. Her skin was like dark molasses which accentuated the whites of her eyes, currently bulging in fear.

She carried a blood-drenched spear and had a blood-smeared machete strapped to her hip, signs that she had been going toe-to-toe with the Z’s; most likely for the entire battle from the looks of her. She gulped in more air, her perky breasts straining against her dark tank top from the effort. Despite all the blood, she seemed uninjured, though winded. While he scanned her body for bite marks and other wounds, she began to calm down enough to finally speak to him.

“I... ah...don’t know...what... it was,” she got out between gasps as she indicated the shark-headed juggernauts still battling it out. “It was bigger... than those. Body... like... a whale. Human arms...but, like... a centipede. It was... slow.”

“Okay, we’ll handle it...you just concentrate on the zombies,” announced Reece, projecting confidence even if not feeling it entirely himself.

Nodding, the woman gave him a brief smile before rising to her feet and trudging off to join the defensive line to allow someone else a moment’s respite from the battle. Looking down the beach, he caught sight of Aika and Karina as they worked in tandem to drop zombies by the score. A mountain of bodies quickly formed and forced them to move. The two women continued to make the perfect team. Karina would swing her spear in a wide arc, cutting down everything within three meters of her.

Aika would either duck below Karina’s wing or jump over it. Either way, she’d clear a path through the never-ending stream of undead, which allowed the two to keep moving slowly away from the beach and towards the woods. Reece needed to somehow get through the zombie horde to reach the pair, but the throng of rotting corpses was far too thick to navigate effectively.

The answer to his problem came when the line of Madagascan defenders immediately shifted to form a sort of phalanx and forced themselves into the mass of water-logged corpses still shambling forward. Luckily, the horde had been thinned out some by the efforts of Dmitri, Hank, Aspen, and Bjorn. The phalanx took advantage and lunged forward, using a handful of riot shields to push the remaining zombies back. The move opened a gap that nearly made it to the pair of battling ladies. One member of the phalanx glanced back at him. It was the woman that he had just spoken to.

“Go!” she yelled to him.

She didn’t have to say it twice. They had taken a big risk with the phalanx to give him a path to the two women. Apparently, they had figured out that he needed their help to deal with the whale-centipede nightmare that was currently dragging itself through the forest and towards their settlement.

He rushed through the gap, Ciera lent him her assistance; taking out one, then another, and another of the shambling corpses as they stepped in to block him. Breaking into a run, Reece cleared the opening and hit the second wave of undead bodies, checking three of them to the side and cleaving the heads off another pair before he got within swinging distance of Karina.

He stopped short and sucked in his gut as her spear arced around again. Karina’s eyes flashed in fear that she had just accidentally sliced Reece open, but he had stopped just in time. Looking down, he saw a long slice in his outfit quickly close back up. Another nice little benefit of the suit, but just after that registered in his mind, he realized just how close he had been to being sliced in half by the lilitu’s wicked weapon.

“What the fuck!” yelled Karina, clearly livid with him. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

“Not really,” answered Reece before he went on to explain. “Something bigger than all those shark-headed bastards has already broken through before we got here. It’s heading through the jungle and to the nearest town. I need you to catch up to it and kill it. I don’t want to risk it reaching the community there and you two are the fastest of us all.”

“No, Reece,” replied Karina before pointing towards the Phoenix. “They need us here. Besides, there’s someone just as fast.”

“Of course,” gasped Reece, chastising himself.

Reaching into one of his near-endless pockets, he pulled out his short-wave radio and dialed in the Phoenix’s frequency as Karina and Aika worked to keep the zombies off him. Ciera stepped in behind him and guarded his back, her steely daggers finding their way into the eye sockets of every zombie that shuffled, walked, or crawled to within five meters of him. She was as efficient as she was beautiful. Unfortunately, Reece didn’t have time to admire her or her work.

“Pasha, do you copy? Over,” he yelled into the radio after pressing the button.

“Uh, yeah... what’s up? Over,” came Pasha’s quick reply.

“We’ve got something big that’s headed inland,” Reece explained. “It got past the Madagascans before we got here. Do you think you can take care of it? Over.”

“Consider it done,” replied Pasha as the Phoenix began to rise and turn towards the inner island. “Over and out.”

Seconds after Reece had contacted him, Pasha took the Phoenix above the jungle and shot out of sight, on the hunt for the rampaging monstrosity. Reece turned and did a quick scan of the beach. While the phalanx of defenders reformed, Karina and Aika formed a defensive perimeter around the quickly tiring group. Between the two of them, they were able to thin out the herd and pick off any stranglers.

The remaining zombies were easily cut down by the phalanx of Madagascan defenders being assisted by the massive yeti, hulking berserker, Dmitri’s hammer, and the clawed fingers of Aspen – each capable of becoming a six-meter-long spear. Reece pulled his handcrafted scimitar from the outfit which was quickly proving to be very handy. He hadn’t used the weapon since it was returned to him aboard the carrier, along with his bike and guns.

Moving up to join the phalanx, he assisted in finishing off the once-massive horde of zombies. While he sliced through the neck of a grotesquely water-logged and very dead fat man, he contemplated what had made the zombie horde attack this island in such numbers. It didn’t seem likely that it was some random attack. The Order most likely sent them, but why?

Reece needed information, and for that, he needed to get more pieces of the nightcore. If what Chippo indicated was true, then the strange little weresquirrel’s mind would be mended and maybe he would offer some insight into what was going on. Reece needed to get to Egypt and start hunting for the next nightcore fragment. Without it, they were essentially fighting blind.

Reece’s thoughts were interrupted by chatter over his long-range radio.

“Zzzzzt... Hunter, this is Phoenix One... do you copy? Over.” Pasha’s voice sounded tense.

“This is the Hunter. We copy you Phoenix One. Over,” returned a woman’s voice that Reece didn’t recognize. He did notice that some of the Madagascans were watching him, worry on their faces.

“It’s fine, they’re with us,” said Reece, raising his voice so that they could all hear him. Before he could continue, Pasha’s voice cut him off.

“Okay, can you do a few missile strikes? I’ve painted a few targets and have sent the coordinates your way. They’ll only be good for a couple more minutes. Over,” stated Pasha, some of the tension dissipating from his voice.

“Prepping them now, Phoenix One. In the meantime, why are we sending multiple missile-strikes into Madagascar?” asked the female voice, now sounding just as tense as Pasha had a moment before.

“Uh, yeah...” came Pasha’s strained reply, sounding like he was performing evasive maneuvers as he talked. “Half the island’s been overrun. Those missile strikes will give the Madagascans some time to shore up their defenses and allow us to reinforce them. Otherwise, they’re about two hours from being completely overrun. Over.”

The moment the Madagascans heard what Pasha had to say, they all started talking and yelling at the same time. The woman Reece had met earlier strode up to him and Ciera.

“This was merely a diversion then. The island’s too big to watch everywhere at once,” she lamented.

“Is this your entire force?” Reece asked, assessing their numbers. There had to be a couple of hundred Madagascans left alive on the beach.

“Of course not,” she scoffed, clearly offended. “There are over a dozen defensive battalions just like this one, plus we have another four pods of Aquatic Marines.”

That was a new one for Reece. He had never heard of a “pod of Aquatic Marines” before. She noticed the look on Reece’s face, his brow furrowed with eyes squinted while he tilted his head. That’s when it dawned on her.

“I forget, you are new here,” she started to answer his unspoken question. “Short version, once zombies started killing everyone everywhere, a group of Adaro was driven onto land. Once our shock had worn off, we assisted them in destroying every zombie that dared peek its head out of the water. A pod is roughly six dozen swimmers, and an Aquatic Marine is one of their elite military units. By the way, my name is Amahle Windemere and I’m originally from Southern Africa.”

“The world just keeps getting stranger, huh Amahle? Name’s Reece Danielson, and I’m originally from America, by way of the Zhengzhou space station,” replied Reece. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, but I’d have preferred more pleasant circumstances.”

“As do we all,” she replied. “Now, our brothers and sisters need our help. Please, you and your friends can come with us. We will give you a lift.”

“Lead on,” said Reece. “That’s why we came.”