Part Nine

“You’re sure it’s gone?”

“As sure as I can be. Whatever that thing was, it didn’t seem like it was intending on doing anything to me. Its very presence was just like……malice incarnate. Heck, I’m not even sure as to why it bothered to talk to me. If it hadn’t stopped, I probably wouldn’t have even noticed it.”

Gwyn had woken up at some point, and after feeling that something was off, he’d come out to find me trying to console an agitated Kalia. Apparently, even though she hadn’t seen the shadow creature, she’d heard its voice, and it had freaked her out. Even now she was sitting in the corner, arms wrapped around her knees and face buried in them, though she was still responding to us.

With the situation being what it was, Gwyn and I had decided to wake the others, which was what led to our current discussion on what to do next.

“If it had wanted to, I’m sure that thing could’ve killed all of us. It’s not even a question of if it could, but how long it would take.”

“If Michael’s saying that, then it’s probably best we heed what it said. Somehow, this thing decided to come give us a visit and left without causing an incident. Any other time, we probably would’ve all died then and there, but we didn’t. I say we try to move on from this and just accept what’s happened.”

“Haaaah, yeah…..should we maybe head back to the mainland? Now that this thing knows we’re here, it could come after us at any time. It’s dangerous enough here without this hanging over our heads.”

For a moment, everyone went silent. Then….

“What the hell!? Since when are you a quitter?”

“Gwen…”

“Seriously, our entire lives, you’ve always been hypercompetitive, to the point where you’ve ruined friendships because of it. So why the fuck are you letting some creepy ass monster get to you like this? It’s fuckin' gross.”

“”“…”””

“Ehem, Gwen? Is this really the time for this?”

“Yeah, it is. Besides, what’s stopping that thing from tracking us anywhere we go? If it can fly, what’s stoppin’ it from crossing the channel after us?”

“”””…””””

Oh shit. Uh, are we fucked? I mean, convention says that it’s not possible to follow us that far, but that thing might be able to pull it off. I wouldn’t be surprised if it just randomly showed up one day.

“Uh, maybe we should just do what it said? It only said not to go near London, so as long as we don’t do that, then shouldn’t we be fine?”

“That’s only if we feel like we can trust some strange eldritch creature. This is one of those situations where nothing we do is going to be completely right. Hindsight is twenty-twenty and all that.”

“Okay, so we’ll just keep going like we planned?”

“Sounds about right. We’ll just have to avoid London. Even if that thing doesn’t show up, there’s clearly something happening there.”

“Yeah, we should definitely stay away from there. Which means I’ll have to adjust to account for that. I’ll take tomorrow to think over our options, then we can decide where to go from there.”

I can’t help but feel like we’re going to make a mistake. Is this how the victims in horror movies feel? Like they’re trapped at a dead-end with some nastiness horror tight behind them?

***

Once we’d decided how to handle the situation, or really, how to ignore it, everyone except me went back to bed. Enough time had passed that I knew I wouldn’t be falling asleep any time soon, so I just decided to bite the bullet.

Haaah, this is fucking insane. Everything seemed to be going as well as it could, and then this had to happen. I still can’t believe that it just left like that. I thought I was dead for sure. What was that thing?

One thing about that encounter actually stood out to me. The creature had called me a ‘fledgling child of the Dark’. While I wasn’t certain, the only reason for this I could guess at was the fact that I had an affinity for Dark Magic.

But I don’t understand why that would attract the attention of something like that thing. Aha, there’s too much about this that I don’t understand. Too much about everything. Haaaah, there has to be a way to learn more. There has to be.

***

Mercifully, nothing else happened that night. No eldritch creatures appeared to further disrupt our sleep. The sun rose in the morning and everything went as back to normal as they ever are these days.

Not.

“Gaaaaaaaaa…..”

“Uaaaaaaa….”

“What the fuck!? Why are there so many zombies!?”

Hundreds of Zombies had taken to the streets, practically overrunning the town. Most were Goblins, but I also saw wolf, monkey and crow zombies here and there amongst the horde. It was like the town's whole monster population had become Undead overnight………..oh. Shit.

“So, just a wild guess off the top of my head here, but I think we may know what that thing was doing here.”

“Yeah, gonna have to agree with him here. This shit don’t just happen.”

“Huh, can’t say I was expecting anything like this to happen. I’ve come to expect the odd and strange ever since the System appeared, but a zombie apocalypse? Haaaah, fuck.”

There had to be hundreds, if not thousands, of Undead all throughout town. They hadn’t taken notice of us yet, but considering the sheer number of them, it would probably be hard to get out of here. The only good news was that every Zombie within range of Analyze was F-Rank. My fights against the Undead within the Labyrinth showed that weak Undead weren’t very dangerous, even in large groups.

“Hey Kalia? Do ya think Healing Magic hurts Undead when you cast it on them?”

“What? Why would it do that? Wouldn’t it just….Heal them? Or, not, since they’re already dead and everything.”

“Well, you know. Magic and everything. I don’t know.” Guess not everything will follow video game logic. Damn, and this would’ve been so much easier if it did.

“This is going to complicate things. It won’t be easy to find a working car with all these zombies around. Could we maybe thin out their numbers?”

“Probably, but that runs the risk of being surrounded by the damn things. I’ve fought Undead before, and they’ll all come towards us once we start fighting. The Goblin Zombies won’t be a problem, but the Undead Beasts might. They’re a lot more agile than the Goblins.”

“Then what if we used hit-and-run tactics? We kill a few dozen, then run off to hide in a house. Rinse and repeat until there’s enough of a gap for us to escape through.”

“That….might work. It’ll be rough though. There’s at least a couple hundred just in the area around us, and there’s no telling how many there are in total. Each one may be weak, but their numbers are sure to drain our stamina as the fight drags on.”

“Mn, we’d need to establish a safe spot first. Somewhere we could go to rest when we’re tired. Hm, maybe if we-.”

“Hey, dumbasses. Aren’t those zombies moving away from us?”

“”Huh!?””

Sure enough, the Undead that had been clogging the streets were slowly shuffling down the road, all moving with the same mindless focus. Seriously!? But, but, but we were thinking so hard about what to do.

“This is almost too convenient. Like this was set to happen right after we noticed them. But at the same time, it’s not like we can afford to not take advantage of this. Still, I’m too curious about what’s going on here to just up and leave. Should we maybe follow them?”

“I’m all for it. There’s clearly something happening here. First a strange shadow creature shows up, then the town's monsters turn into Undead, and now they’re all heading somewhere. Yeah, not following them would be dumb.”

“It’s…I, suppose we should.”

“Hmph, I’m not chickening out here.”

“Uh, do we have to? Couldn’t we just leave? There’s no real point to doing that now, so couldn’t we just leave? Please?”

“””…?”””

“I-I-I-I mean, please? We could probably just sneak by them once they go wherever they’re going.”

“”“Uh, what?”””

“Haaah. Again?”

Alicia’s fear of the Undead had reared its ugly head again. It had been a while since her last episode. Then again, we didn’t really run into Undead all that often, so perhaps this was just something that was going to happen from how on. It was hard to get over a phobia when you never confronted it after all.

“W-w-wellllll, there’s no good reason to ever purposefully seek out danger like this. And should all five of us really do this together?”

“…She’s got a point. There’s certainly no need for all of us to go out there. Couldn’t one or two go and just tell the others what they saw? It seems like that would be the best course of action.”

“Oh! Y-yeah! What Kalia said. Um, only one person needs to actually see what’s going on. All of us going just seems excessive. The others can stay behind and look for a car.”

“…Fine. Then I’ll go. I’ve fought Undead several times before, and I’m probably the fastest out of all of us. Plus I’ve got something that’ll make it harder for them to find me. And if it comes down to it, I can just book it out of town and meet-up with you all later. But first, Kalia, could you cast [Bless] on me?”

“…Yeah. I can do that. Just…be careful.”

“Always. Gwyn, keep an eye out for other Undead. There’s always a chance that a few might not be doing whatever the others are doing.”

“Got it. Good luck.”

***

Ten minutes later, and I was scrambling up a ladder I’d propped against the side of a house. I’d followed the Undead deeper into town, and was now about to observe them from what I hoped would be a safe distance.

Back in the Siege Dungeon, I’d seen that the other mercenaries carried all kinds of various tools with them. Things like lamps, flashlights, portable grills and tents were pretty common, but some were more unusual items like fishing wire, a butane torch, and binoculars. The last one had seemed pretty useful, so I’d found a cheap pair just in case I ever fell into a situation like this. And peering through them, I wasn’t so sure if it had been worth it.

All of the Undead were fighting. At first, I thought that maybe the horde had located some regular Goblins and were swarming them. But the reality was much more grotesque. The Undead were eating each other.

As I watched, one zombie pulled off the arm of another, took a bite out of it, and then had its arm ripped off. Undead Beasts were lopping through the mob, biting and tearing at any exposed flesh. And any zombie that had the misfortune to fall was quickly grabbed and torn apart by the others.

And then there was the Miasma. The more Undead blood that was shed, the more the clouds of black mist drifting across the battlefield appeared. It was like the fight was only occurring to generate Miasma.

“…”

I’d seen my share of zombie films, so I was well aware that they’d eat just about anything. However, I couldn’t recall a single movie where something like this happened. I was under the impression that normal zombies avoided eating other Undead. Heck, there’s a certain TV series where the characters would cover themselves in blood to camouflage themselves.

Okay, I know I shouldn’t compare this to television, and that fantasy Undead are usually pretty different from their sci-fi counterparts, but this is just…..horrifying. What the fuck is happening here!? And what’s with all the Miasma? I, I don’t know what’s happening here, but I should get away as quickly as possible.