Chapter 10

Daniel’s consciousness spread out through the door.

His stomach dropped. There was no connecting wood on the other side. He had been hoping for skirting boards or something similar to hijack. Instead, he could feel what was happening in a small sphere in the stairwell, and that was it.

That was it!

He could sense the space he saw the flies blasting in for a moment before they struck the wood and were bounced back by Brian’s skill. There was about two metres of the stairwell, which was enough for him to sense an incoming fly and for him to flinch before the boom of the strike reached them. He searched, but there was nowhere else for him to spread his consciousness, just the door and a lot of useless concrete.

Daniel should have known better. Even rushing down the stairs, it had been obvious that this place did not use wood if they could avoid it. Everything had been artificial. The restaurant downstairs, the floors he had entered there had been next to no wood. He was sure some of those partitions used chip board, but the building itself was plaster, steel and concrete.

Daniel dropped his hand from the door.

“What?” Alex asked, catching his expression.

“My usual approach isn’t going to be feasible. I don’t have the wood to work with.”

Alex shook his head. “Nope. We can’t leave the queen.”

“I said it won’t succeed. There is no practical way for us to go up the stairs.”

“Just like you did against the zombies. It’s uphill instead of down but.”

“There’s not enough wood. If I was forced to do anything, I would grow conduits up and launch the attack purely remotely.”

“Do that.” Alex insisted.

“Who’s the boss again.” Daniel asked light heartedly.

Alex looked genuinely offended. “That’s not what this is about. We can’t leave the queen. Without a queen, the flies were about the threat of that octopod we fought on the top floor. But with one…”

Slap.

Alex hit his side in frustration. “Richard didn’t share a lot of details, but it’ll be worse than anything we’ve faced.”

“I just don’t have the firepower to do anything quickly. Ivey?” Daniel asked, looking hopefully at her.

“What?” she appeared confused at the question.

“Your explosion.”.

She shook her head. “I can’t use Emergency Blast for at least a week. Plus, it’s not very…” then she realised who she was talking to. “Pleasant to use but I won’t let that stop me.”

“We would still have needed to get her close enough, anyway.” Alex pointed out. “From how you described it the thing was hardly long range. Anyway, Ivey is out. What else can we use to kill this?”

“The critical problem is getting close enough isn’t it.” Tamara pushed. “The queen is too well protected. We either kill all the flies or sneak in.”

Alex shifted his armoured leg in frustration. Stamping on some bug on the floor to turn the motion into something useful. “Yes. Or at least that’s the first problem we need to solve. We can’t kill it if we can’t see it.”

“Separating it from its hive addresses that problem.” Daniel suggested.

“Why do you keep saying separate?” Alex snapped. “It’s kill not–”

“Because,” Daniel interrupted before Alex could continue down the pointless rant. Alex might pretend otherwise, but he was upset about the people who had died under his command. He was also probably rightly stressed about the weight of responsibility that was on him. If he was going to kill the queen, he was well aware of those orders would cause more of his troops to die. “I use that term,” Daniel reset in a quieter voice. “Because that’s the problem we need to solve. Or at least the first stage of the process to kill the queen. Where it is, the challenge will be to eliminate it quickly. Why quickly? Well, if we don’t those thousands of flies will intercept future attacks. That means a quick kill or we get it somewhere where we can kill it slower. And before you say it’s the same things it’s not. I’m much more confident of launching it from a catapult arm than I am of crushing it remotely, and if we send a strike force, then they’re not coming back.”

“If we that is what we have to do.” Alex said quietly. “I’ll be in the attack group.”

“Hopefully it won’t come to that.”

“We still have the problem of getting your ‘catapult’ close enough. Instead of solving that it might be better to solve killing it from a distance.”

“Or how to smuggle someone so that a melee combination by one or more people can one shot kill it.” Ivey suggested.

Alex studied everyone in the room with them, and then finally shook his head. “Even on a suicide mission, I don’t think anyone here could do it. Maybe Tamara with lightning, if it’s vulnerable to that or failing that you being your usual super human.”

“Me,” Daniel agreed. “If the plan is to send her, then I’m going. I’m pretty sure functionally I’m better in every situation.”

“True.” Alex agreed.

“Not true,” Tamara disagreed gently. “If the enemy is highly vulnerable to either fire or ice, I beat Daniel comfortably, but against the queen he is correct. Anything I can do against it, then Daniel can do better.”

“Comfortably.” Alex agreed, which made Daniel smile.

“Alex, we have to sign you up to the team don’t give Daniel a big head.” Tamara teased while she winked at Daniel.

Alex laughed. “Consider me signed up. That sounds like a worthy cause.”

Daniel got up and paced while he thought the problem through. The whole thing reminded him a little of the trap he had sprung to capture Dave on the first night. That need to build up plant mass and then unleash it. But back then, he had targeted his ambush from above Dave’s bed. He had massed the plant matter for almost half an hour before unleashing it and it had been barely good enough. Admittedly, he was stronger now, but the opponent was magnitudes of levels more dangerous than Dave had been back then. And probably paranoid. He couldn’t imagine those suicidal flies letting anything close to their queen.

He shivered as he remembered those spinning almost hypnotic streams of bees spiralling to the pattern the queen wanted. They would definitely attack anything that moved, and he saw what concentrated bombardment from the flies could do. The floors had given away if they physically targeted his body or anything of wood he created would stand a chance.

That framed the problem better.

If he was resorting to his plant powers to do this. He needed to get a large of material right on the edge of whatever that extra sensory sphere the queen had. Then he could launch something across the remaining gap to stick to the queen and then catapult it away from its minions before said minions destroyed the structural integrity of the trap he had set up.

That second bit actually felt achievable. He had lots of experience putting items under tension and if he burrowed a trunk of a tree. That could act as the pivot point of a catapult. Apply tension like his pressure plate traps and then unleash. That type of setup could easily launch it hundreds of metres.

The question was could he source enough wood to create what he was imagining. If he created something large enough, then what could the flies do to him.

“What?” Tamara said suddenly. “Daniel, what are you thinking?”

Daniel grinned at them all. “I might have a plan.”

“We need to go quickly,” Alex repeated. Everyone looked at him. He was like a broken record. “We’re on the clock. This queen will increase its range by a metre or so every few hours. I think you understand what a problem that would be.”

“What’s your plan?” Tamara asked.

“A good one. Well, maybe just a plan, and it only relies on one tiny assumption.”

Chapter 11

Tamara looked at him in horror at what he had said. “What assumption?”

Daniel smiled at that. It seemed like she knew him too well. “I need to get close enough to trap the queen. The flies when buzzing around don’t run into trees. I’m going to build a mech animated with my wood magic and sneak in.”

“Absolutely not.” Tamara stamped her foot.

Alex was nodding thoughtfully. “We’ll do it.”

“No, we won’t,” Tamara snarled. “If that goes wrong and the entire hive turns on Daniel.”

“I’ll probably be okay,” Daniel interrupted her. “I mean even if it goes wrong. I’m going in with six inches of wood and wood is effective against blunt force drama and my magic will reinforce it constantly.”

“No.” Tamara repeated. “You almost died yesterday… and now.”

“What do we need?” Alex said.

Daniel ignored him and stepped forward to grab her hands. She refused to look at him. “Tamara, you know this has to be done.”

“It’s not…”

“Nothing has been fair.” Daniel said, gathering her in for a hug. She sobbed against his chest.

“What do you need?” Alex repeated.

“More information on the flies from Richard. And to construct the mech we need to get as close to the building as possible and of course lots of wood. If this was at the tower and I had access to the plant mass, it would be easier.”

Alex pondered that for a few moments. “You want us to bring Richard here? Or can you prepare questions for us to ask him? He’s an old man I don’t want to drag him here if we can avoid it.”

“I know how old he is.” Daniel thought it through. “My issue is his answers are going to provoke more questions and if we’re on the clock.”

“I’ll bring him. I’ll leave you about half the fighters for protection and to get the wood game happening and take the rest to collect Richard. When we come back, we’ll bring more wood. You seemed to like the hotel doors?”

Daniel shook his head. “Anything will do.”

“We’ll cart back as much as we can.”

Daniel nodded.

“That sounds good. But I only need guards. It’s a lot easier to work with living plants than dead ones and from memory. There[1] should be lots of trees.” He pointed at the garage roller door. “On the street. I’ll subvert as many of them as I can and use them to get close to the queen.”

“Agreed.” Alex said and started snapping out names, including Tamara’s. “You are all with Daniel. The rest of us are going back to headquarters. For now, everyone gets into battle formation. We need to get out of this garage and there might be monsters like the devil dogs outside.”

Daniel doubted that last bit. The devil dogs had felt like Apex predators and, as they had cleared them out, there shouldn’t be anything nearby. Then again, in this new world, who knows if old world logic still applied.

Tamara hugged him tightly. “Last time, okay. After this, you have to stop being a hero.”

“Of course.”

She looked at him, then shook her head. “You’re going to give me premature grey hairs.”

“I’ll be careful.” He promised.

Alex got them moving. The devil dogs had been processed and the useful materials piled into some makeshift trollies someone had repurposed from a storage area. The glowing balls of light spread out and created deep vast shadows that because his night vision was broken, they were difficult to pierce.

Together, they moved as a group toward the exit. It was visible because of the small amount of light leaking through from outside. They were running out of daylight to defeat the flies. There were a couple of more hours of light. Daniel considered the logistics. The hotel was only a couple of blocks away. If they were not fighting every step of the way, they could make the journey multiple times before it got too dark to travel easily.

Or dark enough for the monsters that Tamara and he had watched the other night to come out.

That thought sent a chill down his spin. The monster they had fought had looked both big and powerful and in the end it had been a one sided fight. Daniel got the impression that those monsters were like the devil dogs, a lot of power mashed in a relatively smaller creature. Though unlike the devil dogs that came up to his knees those things would almost reach his shoulders. They would be a completely different foe.

And smart…

He shook his head and concentrated on the immediate threats. They reached the ramp that led up to. Daniel was not at all surprised to discover that a metal roller door was being used to secure the garage. It was mostly intact. He went up to it. Then shoved it. The metal hardly shifted it was strong. Next, he tried to pull it up, but that didn’t work. The mechanisms were probably rusted even if the rest of the structure was pristine. Murphy’s law or something similar.

There was the squeal of protesting hinges from his right, and Daniel jumped in surprise.

There was a muffled ‘hell yeah.’

Daniel looked over at the noise and saw a small curb on the side of the driveway.

“Pedestrian door.” Alex told him. “We can get it open. Standard breach formation.”

There was a brief reorganisation which basically resulted in Alex’s team gathering around him. There were the sounds of tortured metal and the group ran through the door. The tension was palpable.

The remaining fighters lined up like an ultra were about to come through the open door. They stood with bows at half drawn and spells at ready to blast down any monster that tried to attack. Two fighters were acting as a communication channel in the doorway. There was a long pause and Daniel listened for sounds of fighting or alarm. The men at the door tensed and he could hear a muffled conversation.

The second of them, an archer after listening for a moment, turned around. “Alex needs ranged lightning.” The man called out.

Daniel stepped forward ready to kill what must have been a couple of silver flies, but the man shook his head. “Not you Daniel. he wants someone slightly more stealthy.”

“I can do it.”

Tamara, still not meeting his gaze fully, walked straight up to the door and was let out. There were the familiar sounds of the slight crackle of energy that accompanied Tamara’s advanced attacks and then more conversation.

“Outside is secured. We’re leaving en masse.”

Daniel went through the restrictive door. Their superhuman strength had been applied to the problem of opening the door. Its frame had warped and instead of it swinging cleanly open the bottom of the door had jammed against the road. Metal, the hard concrete and human muscle had collided and the metallic door had been the one that failed. The bottom edge was severely warped by their efforts. The metal security door was firmly wedged, and it would never be the same. Even if they pulled, it closed the lower foot of it would be bent up at right angles and leave a gap that something like the devil dog could get through which from what he had seen meant of the new world meant its effective protection was halved.

Outside the door, Daniel found himself about halfway up a combined exit and entry ramp. A single lane that widened to two further up the ramp. It wasn’t exiting out onto the main street but the side road that also serviced the building. Buildings loomed on both sides, including the one containing the silver flies hive. At the top of the ramp, there were four fried flies. Tamara stood as part of Alex’s group who eyes watching for other threats.

Alex snapped more commands, and all forty of them went up onto the ramp to spill out and stand in the centre of the street. There were no visible car crashes in this stretch of the road and with the trees above them and the mostly intact building, if you didn’t look closely it echoed memories of suburbia. He wasn’t the only one to notice it. There was poignant sadness in the group.

No flies, he noticed. The queen, he suspected was calling them back because when they had arrived there had been more flies exploring the random area than were now visible.

That nugget of information just added to his apprehension.

Alex had gone out on a limb, insisting the queen had to die before it grew into its power. Small things like summoning its workers to surround it worried Daniel.

How far along that maturation process was it? Had its power already peaked?

Daniel shook his head and looked up at the building that he had to storm to destroy the queen. Trees spread above him. Big elms that stretched six stories up, which was larger than they had any right to be. They had grown during the alpha event.

Tom teeth ground. He had known it deep down, but this confirmed it. The event had changed everything. Just because he recognised something from pre-event didn’t mean it was safe. He looked through those leaves at his target. The building looked decrepit. In the old world, it would be classed as condemned and roped off.

In this… he needed to get in there, kill a monster, and evacuate kids from the top floor.

He studied the hole and in the shadows he could see the ropes of condensed flies spinning around. From here they were like a stream of silver suspended in the air, but he had seen them close up and they were more than that. That was an active hive with multiple spears primed to be shot off to kill anything that threatened it.

With cold certainty, he knew that was where the queen was and where he needed to go. It was more than that. It was that hole in the building that spread from floor five to seven was his entrance point.

He had to sneak through that.

And then kill the queen or separate it away from its guards.

From the outside.

He had to build his own supports, though those stretching tree branches were part of the solution. They at least went high enough. His task was to get there and somehow do it secretly. Hopefully, they would not react to slow growing wood because that was the only way he was getting in there. If the queen sensed him before he was ready, Daniel had no illusions about how long anything no matter how perfectly built could withstand a sustained assault by those flies. The attempt to sneak through the internal building had failed, and he was pretty sure it was no longer an option. Plus, the risk was too high. When the enemy could literally knock the floor out from underneath your feet, you needed to become creative and if they knocked many more holes in the structure Daniel wasn’t sure it would remain standing.

Another reason to sneak in from the side. To give him a chance to kill the queen without the building tumbling down.

The problem got harder and harder.

Or he could collapse the building, and that might kill the queen. He hated himself for thinking it, but if there was no other option… Tamara?

If he had to do it, then he would.

Priscilla snuggled against his neck. Thoughts of support and loyalty flowed from her. If he did, Daniel would still have her unconditional loyalty. Finigan added his love to the communication. Blood Drinker didn’t but there was no need for the club to express those sentiments. They both already knew the club couldn’t care less about abstract concepts like collateral damage. For now, its empathy did not extend beyond its feelings for him.

No collapsing everything Daniel told himself even as his mind conjured images of growing roots in certain ways and the impact of sudden growth spurt. It would be easy and presumably effective against the queen they were targeting.

No.

He was not here for that. This was a rescue mission before it was a threat elimination and he would stick to its origins as long as possible.

He needed to get through that hole touching nothing that might bring the house of shoddy supports down.

“Daniel.” Tamara tugged on his arm.

“We need to go through there.”

She looked and while the hole was not visible from the front from this angle, they could see that it was a major thoroughfare for the flies. Dozens transitioned in and out every second. Tamara shook her head. “No, you’ll get killed almost immediately.”

“Why don’t they fly through walls?”

“That’s obvious.”

Daniel shrugged. “Not to me. Is it because the walls aren’t moving? Or is it because it’s dead and they navigate using life force?”

“It doesn’t really matter, because you’re not a wall.” She looked at him sharply. “No.”

“We have to kill the queen.”

“No. Stop trying to sacrifice yourself every chance you get.”

“We have to save the kids and we can’t do that why the queen’s alive.”

Tamara appeared torn. “Maybe we can’t.”

“I’m not giving up.” He told her.

“You’ll die.”

“I won’t.” Daniel promised. “I’ll be safe down here. What does your skill tell you about the elms?”

Her eyes went unfocused. “Fast growth, single organism, parasite defence.”

“What’s that?”

“They can create a type of wood sprite to protect themselves.”

“Nymphs?”

Tamara smiled and shook her head. “I doubt that they’re humanoid, and if they were, they’re tiny.”

“Interesting.” Daniel strode forward to place a hand on the tree. He barely noticed his body guards shift with him. Alex was being careful he had left the best fighters to watch over him. The remains of squad one, all of squad three and Carly of course to make sure he didn’t do something fatal with his scars.

His hand slapped down onto the bark, and he extended his awareness.

Daniel sighed in relief. The organism under him felt like a tree and he had been concerned that like everything else that he ran into that it was something more.

Only a tree and no consciousness fought his own.

Daniel focused on guaranteeing that there were no hidden threats. For a long time, his mind swept around the tree. Analysing the problems he might face, there was nothing threatening. Despite the slight magical properties of these trees, Daniel could manipulate them like they were normal trees. Potentially, their magical nature might even make it easier.

Now that he had access to a source of plant material and this tree and its siblings were far better than any number of doors that Alex could bring back, Daniel was stumped for a moment. What did he actually want to do?

Initially, he had considered creating a mech suit made of wood and going to battle with it. Not battle so much as withstand all the damage they could throw at him using people like Brian to help strengthen the wood and then advance like a glacier until he was close enough to attack the queen.

That was still an option, but he didn’t need that. He was thinking an elevator type arrangement where he inched closer and then crossed the last ten metres at speed was the best outcome. There was no need of a mech suit OR anything flashy like that. Just his trap to eliminate the queen and a way to get his trap to the right spot.

Two options filled his mind.

A quick fast attack to kill or…

He knew he probably looked mad, but he spun to face Carly, excitement rushing over his face. If he could turn a deadly enemy into a useful ally, that had to be the best outcome.

“Can you bond an animal?”

“What?” she stumbled over the words. “Yes, I think so but…”

Daniel pointed up at the silver flies. “If you bond the queen can you control the minions?”

“I don’t know.”

He looked at Tamara.

She shook her head. “Ivey, Richard… maybe one of them can tell. It’s specific knowledge,” she clarified when Daniel did not look away. “We need to know details about the species and unfortunately the general data download doesn’t tell us. You can check this for yourself.” She admonished him gently. Lying and protecting his secret by doing so.

“I guess I’ll keep my options open.” He muttered to himself.

“Daniel, what are you planning?” Tamara asked him. She was suspicious once more.

“Trojan horse if it’ll work other wise wooden mech with a frontal assault.”

“You’re going to pretend to be a fly.”

Daniel spun to stare at her incredulously, but she was smiling. She was trying to lightning the mood. “I considered that, but decided I didn’t have enough paint. Instead, I figure they’re insects. They’re senses can’t be that good and hopefully they have a memory like a goldfish. Yes, I know that saying doesn’t work because the goldfish are actually quite smart,” he corrected himself absently. “Have it move slowly. They don’t register it as a threat till we’re close enough to hurt them.”

“But if they notice whoever is in that room will get.”

“I was going to ensure the shell was at least half a metre thick and designed to be attacked by the bloody things. Stone would crack for sure, metal too but wood. Wood can be resilient especially if I’m super charging it in the background.”

Tamara was nodding in agreement as was almost everyone else gathered.

“It’s worth testing, at the very least.”

Daniel got to work, and he wished Cindy was here. He would definitely benefit from some of her engineering experience. Storing potential energy was easy. He knew it was needed and while his brain tried to unravel what else was required, his magic was dedicated to setting up the right conditions for what he already knew. The tree near him grew and objects began falling to the ground. A couple of large springs and then around him the sticks of wood that the strong guards needed to bend on his behalf formed.

There was a loud groan behind him.

When he glanced at the crowd watching him one of the tanks from up the hotel was pre-emptively massaging his biceps. “You know this was the only thing that has given me sore muscles since the event started.”

Daniel shrugged and then frowned and looked away. Out of that team of five, Luke was desolate at the loss of his seed weapon and Karolina was dead. Those hours had been fun and now they felt…

“Everyone,” he called out. “I need the strongest amongst.” There was a stir and several people stood, other stepped forward. Daniel smiled there was about nine volunteers including three of the non-ferals. “The more the merrier. I’ll show you how to do it.”

Daniel refocused on his next steps. He would store the potential energy they were producing and that could be then be turned to whatever he needed, whether it was to move his mech or to be part of the final catapult. It would be there for him.

While he waited patiently for reinforcements, he built his box and constructed the supports to let his trap reach the huge gap in the building.

They could do this.