With the zombies defeated, the defenders were melting back into the thickly treed jungle. Walking with Amahle, Reece joined them. Karina and Aika soon met up with them at the head of a trail cut into the dense jungle.

“We’re going to meet up with more of the Madagascan defense force and try and lend a hand,” stated Reece. “The Z’s have attacked the island from multiple locations.”

“We heard,” said Karina, indicating herself and Aika. “What do you need us to do?”

“For now, come with us and help turn the tide,” replied Reece. “Each of you is worth an army.”

Just then, they all heard a far-off explosion on the other side of the jungle. They all nodded in agreement. Bjorn and Hank both transformed, shrinking back down to their more human size. Reece hadn’t seen Hank transform before, but that was the only way the two of them would fit onto the Madagascan’s vehicles.

Hank was a tall and lanky man with shaggy white hair and bushy white eyebrows. Piercing blue eyes peered out from under the pure white mop. He still had a shaggy coat of fur that covered his midsection and legs, indicating some control over his transformation. It made Reece wonder why he always chose to remain in his beast form. While shrugging the thought off, Ciera interrupted him before he could form a new one.

“One of Hunter’s missile strikes, no doubt,” she explained. “It’s doubtful we’ll hear anymore. This island is over two hundred kilometers across, and there are only so many points to which they can gain access. I spent some time here a few years back.”

“I heard two others, very faint,” added Karina, her lilitu ears picking up more than Reece could ever hope to. “From their apparent locations, my guess is that the Zs are coming from the African mainland. I doubt they would have surrounded the island. The ghouls are slow, and it would have taken too long unless they meant to spring a trap. Of course, these sea-based Adaro would have made it impossible.”

“Well,” replied Reece. “That’s a pleasant thought. So, have you ever heard of these Adaro?”

Ciera just shook her head. Bjorn shrugged. Hank and Dmitri were talking off to the side and hadn’t heard him.

“Sure,” stated Karina. “Mostly rumor, but there have been countless sightings by seamen over the years. Where do you think the stories of tritons, sirens, or mermaids come from? The ancient African Duala people certainly believed in them.”

“You are just a walking encyclopedia,” said Reece as he kissed the lilitu on the forehead. “One of the many reasons I love you...” Noticing Aika standing off to the side, listening intently to their conversation, he added, “... both of you.”

To keep things from getting more awkward, Reece turned and jogged after the Madagascans as they retreated farther into the jungle. Loving two women as much as he did Karina and Aika was... difficult for him, at best. He was just glad that Ciera was out of earshot. Whatever their relationship, he was sure she wouldn’t have appreciated the comment.

He cleared his head and focused on catching up to the Madagascans. After a minute of dodging branches and jogging through tall grass and exotic plants, Reece cleared the dense foliage and stepped into an open field. Parked haphazardly all over the open grassy expanse were “Ground-Hogs” wide-wheeled ground jets. Some of the Madagascans had already mounted a few and were taking off down a narrow path that led deeper into the island’s interior. Reece groaned inwardly.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he complained out loud.

“What is it?” asked Aika, a worried look crossing her face.

“Just that these vehicles are glorified deathtraps,” replied Reece. “Calling them dangerous would be an understatement.”

Amahle had overheard him and responded as she mounted her Ground-Hog. “The whole world is dangerous, and these will get us to where we need to go in a hurry, which is exactly what we need right now. We have a long way to go and very little time to get there. Now, get on.”

Bjorn, Hank, Ciera, and Dmitri all took the rides they were offered without question. It seemed that everyone that Reece traveled with these days was a little bit crazy.

Shaking his head in disbelief, Reece walked over to the vehicle and slid on behind the woman, circling his arms around her waist. He could feel her rock-hard abs through the thin material of her shirt. Reece began wondering about this woman’s story. Amahle glanced back over her shoulder for a moment.

“Hold on,” she yelled over the sounds of dozens of the machines starting up and taking off.

“I am,” Reece yelled back, barely being able to hear his own voice.

“Tighter,” she added. Reece pulled into the woman and held his body tight to hers.

While she pulled the Ground-Hog out, she let the current flow and the bike-like vehicle threw dirt behind it, swiftly taking off. Reece immediately understood why the woman had him hold on tight. The momentum was almost enough to cause him to lose his grip. He could feel more than hear the woman laughing as she pushed the Ground-Hog even faster. Whatever her story, Reece surmised that it had driven her mad. Opening his eyes, he felt his pulse quicken as the trees flew by in a blur. He surveyed the sides and could just barely track the lilitu and the vampire as they kept pace with them.

They both dodged and weaved through the jungle’s undergrowth and numerous tree trunks at unbelievable speeds. Both women kept close to him, probably because they’d be the only ones who could save him if Amahle crashed the bike. They were going nearly as fast as he did on his Helios, but while he rode on open roads, they were traveling through narrow jungle trails.

Reece peeked over Amahle’s shoulder, impressed by the way she handled the dangerous machine. He could feel his nearly shoulder-length hair whipping in the wind as he noticed the speedometer. They were going over one-hundred and seventy-five kilometers per hour through a thick jungle. He saw the narrow trail ahead of them, barely fifty centimeters on either side of them before it became a wall of trees and plants.

Trying to relax, he simply hung on for dear life and waited until it was over. There was no way he was going to try and talk to her or distract her in any other way. He decided to trust her and continued to hold himself close, breathing into her neck as her hair flew wildly over his head, caught by the wind.

While they sped through the narrow jungle trails, curving this way and that, Reece could feel the woman’s body wrapped in his arms. She felt like she was made from steel and seemed to have the strength of it as well. Luckily, Reece knew how to ride and leaned as he needed, minimizing the amount of force he exerted on her whenever they changed velocity. He did everything he could to make sure she could concentrate on her driving. Anything less would be both of their asses.

Finally, after what was probably an hour but felt like three days, they must have reached their destination because she started to bring the machine to a halt. It was the first time since they had taken off that he saw another one of their vehicles.

“At least they had the sense to not ride too close together,” Reece thought.

Once they had stopped, Reece pulled back from the woman. She smirked when he noticed she had goosebumps on her neck, most likely a result of his breath for the last hour. When she gazed back at him, her nose flared, and he could see that her pupils were dilated. Reece had seen it before and knew that it would be nothing but trouble. A kind of trouble he had plenty of already.

He quickly jumped off her Ground-Hog and backed up, nearly running into Aika. She just looked at him with a half-smile and a twinkle in her eye. He gave her a look in return, lips pressed together, eyes half-closed, and head cocked to the side. Reece’s unamused demeanor did nothing to diminish her mirth. It just made her laugh. Looking at Karina, Aika just rolled her eyes at him.

“Thanks for the ride,” he told Amahle as she hopped off the machine herself. “So, what now?”

Amahle just glanced to their right and nodded her chin in that direction. Reece’s eyes surveyed where she had indicated and noticed a massive melee taking place. His ears were still ringing from the exceptionally loud Ground-Hogs, or else he would have easily heard the battle being waged so close.

The jungle had completely opened into rolling hills which had given way to a stretch of rocky shoreline for a wide river flowing in from the ocean. Hundreds of Madagascans and dozens of Adaros were embroiled in vicious hand-to-hand combat with what had to be thousands of Z’s. The water-logged bodies of the undead were continually pulling themselves from the river as they relentlessly attacked the living. Though it was far, Reece was able to distinguish the Adaro by their manner of dress and the fact that many of them had skin tones ranging from blue to green. From what Reece could make out, most were fighting with thin spear-like weapons, probably fashioned with underwater combat in mind. Aika and Karina dashed off to confront the new threat, leaving Reece to jog after them.

Once Reece had finally gotten close enough, he saw that the defenders had been steadily pushed back along the river, the numerous waves of zombies keeping them in almost full retreat. Aika and Karina had arrived and were already systematically dispatching the ghouls. Aika was a whirlwind of blades as she sliced the heads from undead torsos, two at a time. Karina was wielding her spear above her head and spinning it, the sharpened head of the heavy weapon separating several zombies from their heads with nearly every rotation.

The two women were working together to slow the advancing force, but the zombies trudged forward regardless of the danger to their rotting bodies. This was probably what made them the most dangerous, Reece thought. They were fearless, tireless, and just kept coming, no matter what they were walking into. Bjorn and Hank were transforming as they ran on ahead, and Reece joined up with Ciera, Dmitri, and the Madagascans as they all rushed to reinforce the besieged defenders near the riverbank.

At fifty meters out, Ciera began launching daggers as she ran. Reece watched, almost mesmerized as the daggers flew end over end, arcing through the daytime sky. A couple of seconds later and the daggers had found their marks. By the time Hank, Bjorn, and she had joined the melee, six zombies had been dispatched by the incredible markswoman.

Of course, Bjorn and Hank quickly caught up to Ciera’s lead. Hank clawed, kicked, and stomped zombies into the ground. Bjorn used his sword to slash zombies two at a time. While the two went to work tearing into the undead mob, rotted body parts began flying every which way. The river defenders stepped away from the trio, not knowing what to make of them. However, none got in their way or made any effort to confront them.

Drawing closer, Reece noticed that most of the defenders appeared to be regular humans. Most were dark-skinned, but many had bronze or even light-colored skin. It seemed like much of the eastern coast of Africa had abandoned the completely overwhelmed continent and had regrouped here, forming a community for mutual protection. Amongst the various ethnically diverse humans, Reece saw flashes of green and blue-skinned Adaro. When he finally got a good glimpse of a pair of them, the first thing he noticed was that they were nearly nude.

One was a green-skinned male, rippling with muscles. He held a pair of bone-white curved daggers in his hands, probably teeth from some aquatic creature. He was tall, with broad shoulders, long arms and torso, and a thin waist. He was dressed in skin-tight straps of what appeared to be sharkskin, the leathery material only covering his loins, lower legs, and forearms.

The blue-skinned female was also tall and well proportioned. With small but firm breasts and a tight stomach, it was clear she led a very physical life. She was dressed like the man, but her breasts were flattened out by straps of the dark leathery material as well. She held a spear in her hands and fought slightly behind the male, using the extra reach of the spear to protect the man’s flank. They were fighting as a team, familiar with each other’s moves.

A wave of sadness swept over Reece when he noticed the man had at least two wounds. One was on his shoulder and had the shape of a bite mark, the other was a gash on his leg. Once bitten, if he’s like every other creature on the planet, he hadn’t much time left.

Reece stopped short of joining the fray when he saw another mass of Z’s emerge from the slowly flowing river and quickly drag themselves up the muddy bank towards the already overwhelmed defenders. Reece saw several undead Adaro in their ranks and most of these had wounds that still bled, very little to no rot, and moved much faster than the older putrefied zombies that they were used to dealing with. These had probably been recently turned and would be much more dangerous to deal with. It also validated Reece’s concern over the bitten Adaro man.

Deciding to try something new, Reece reached out with his mind, but instead of targeting one of the creatures, he opened his mind to the entire mass. He was able to feel each of their simple minds, dozens of them with a singular goal, to feed on living flesh. His skin crawled at the awful feeling, but he forced it down and concentrated on changing their minds.

He connected them all in his mind and sent them a new goal, to feed on rotting flesh instead. It was nearly instantaneous. The zombies slowed, looking around aimlessly. A few more seconds passed before the frenzy began. Reece watched, mesmerized by the horrific scene of the freshly killed zombies ripping into one another. They were literally eating each other.

Reece quickly realized that there were a couple of downsides to his tactic. First, he had to maintain concentration on them since he had them going against their natural instincts, as much as anything could be considered natural about the unnatural creatures. And second, they weren’t very effective at killing one another. Most living people died from either bleeding out or the infection itself.

Since it was almost impossible for them to bite into the brain, this was going to be very messy and take a very long time. On the upside, he had effectively removed them from the battle, at least temporarily. If the defenders found time, they could kill them with very little risk to themselves. It was the best Reece could do in the current situation, and he would take it.

The situation changed when a massive turtle, mutated and zombified, swam up to the riverbank and pulled its hideous body from the waters. Reece could hear a collective gasp and individual wails of hopelessness from the Adaro and Madagascans still in the fight. Reece glanced over and saw that Amahle and the rest of the Madagascans from the beach had stepped in and were giving their brethren some time to take a breather. Reece got a little smile on his face and let go of the zombies’ simple minds, focusing on the turtle instead.

The beast’s head was a meter in diameter and its shell was easily six meters wide and eight meters long. It had a snake-like neck, long thick tail, and powerful-looking legs ending in wickedly clawed feet. The turtle hissed at him, and he noticed that it had sharp teeth. It was unlike any turtle he had ever come across and was much larger. Its eyes were clouded over in a whitish-yellow film, but Reece stared past those eyes and found its mind. Using the skills that he had already begun to develop; Reece sent a simple thought and image into its head. The thought was “Kill!” and the image was the throng of zombies that had just stopped eating each other and were resuming their death march towards the Madagascans, Adaro, and Reece’s companions.

The effect was dramatic. With a loud gurgling roar, the turtle charged into the undead throng and began snapping the heads off the zombies and trampling others at the same time. The zombies completely ignored the monstrosity, instead, focusing on the living and their unending need to feed. This mattered little to the turtle, the thing tearing through the zombies’ ranks and easily overpowering the dim-witted creatures while they paid it no heed. The tide of the battle had finally turned in the defenders’ favor and the zombies were stomped out in a matter of minutes.

When the battle was over, hundreds of corpses lay scattered along the riverbank and the nearby field. Reece caught Karina’s eye and they nodded to each other. The lilitu swung her spear in an arc in front of her, and the last two zombies in her proximity lost their heads. Every move of hers was efficient and this was no exception. She used the momentum of the arc to drive her spear down toward the ground, skewering a crawler’s skull to the field beneath it. Yanking the weapon back out, she casually approached Reece as he continued to control the undead turtle.

“Release it,” said Karina, placing a hand on his shoulder, a symbol of comfort.

With the zombies all but destroyed in this part of the island, Reece let the connection to the creature drop. “It’s done,” he told her.

Nodding to him, she hefted her spear and walked right up to the thing’s mishappen head while it slowly regained control over its thoughts, such as they were. It had just enough time to rear its head back and roar when Karina leaped high in the air and brought the heavy spear down in a powerful arc, neatly splitting the unfortunate thing’s head in two. The two sides of the turtle’s bifurcated head slumped to the ground moments before the rest of its body quivered slightly and joined the destroyed head in true death.