Kevin McLaughlin

Chapter 47 - Utterly Soundless

Kara was an interesting traveling companion. She was interested in the undead, at first, but once she understood how they moved and fought, our conversations quickly moved on to other things. She was practical in a manner that most people lacked, and I truly appreciated that. Too many of Alfred’s little group were sitting around like they thought someone was going to save them—which,...

Chapter 46 - Gunpowder Burns

As the meeting broke up, I approached Alfred. He flashed me a smile, hints of the annoying, gawky med student he’d been a week ago still there on his face, although so much had changed that I knew he was no longer that man.

“What’s up?” Alfred asked.

“I was hoping I could go check in with Kat, before we head out,” I said. “Just to say hi, let her know I’m okay...

Chapter 45 - Lot To Ask

Their lair was a true mess. They had an excuse; they’d fled the police station in the middle of the night and holed up in this place, huddled and fearful. Then they’d spent the morning setting it up to be defensible, what with filling the stairwells. I still wasn’t convinced that was a smart plan.

What they hadn’t spent time on was making the interior more livable.

Bl...

Chapter 44 - Lemon Fresh Zombies

Alfred opted to bury their dead right away, rather than trying to bring them back to the others. They’d taken shelter in a UVM building, he told me, and there were monsters wandering around outside it. Burying someone there wouldn’t be simple. I had my skeletons do the job; since one of them already had a shovel as its ‘pole arm,’ it didn’t take too long to dig six graves for t...

Chapter 43 - Caster Duel

My archers were already shooting, firing arrows into the oncoming goblin swarm. I ducked back behind the line of my skeleton warriors and ordered them to advance, protecting themselves with their shields. Ahead of me, the less well armed tier one skeletons were doing their best to skirmish with the first goblins, but they were going to be overwhelmed fast if I didn’t do something.

Chapter 42 - Feudal Oath

Gideon watched as his army poured themselves into the work of building his fortress. The walls were coming up quickly, now that the skeletons had better direction. Hiring on Brian West was perhaps the smartest decision he’d made so far. The man worked almost as hard as the undead, and didn’t shy away from giving them directions. Once Gideon told the work-crew undead to obey Brian’s...

Chapter 41 - Show Of Force

It was humans, not goblins. That was a good sign, but I didn’t recognize any of them, so I remained hidden and watched. Whoever they were, they had better weapons than the refugees at the station had when I left. They’d all been armed with rebar or chunks of wood. My fire axe had been one of the best weapons of the lot.

This crew was different. They all had shields, for starter...

Chapter 40 - Gutted Ruins

The battle didn’t last long. It wasn’t even much of a fight, being honest. As the enemy undead came my way, I started casting Control Undead on the ones toward the rear of the pack. As each one slowly came under my control, I had them bide their time, waiting. By the time I’d cast it four times back to back, I’d tapped out most of my mana. Much more and I wouldn’t be able to fi...

Chapter 39 - Smoke And Fire

I woke with the dawn again. That hadn’t been my habit, before all of this. I’d been more of a night owl. But these days it felt like there was always more that needed to be done than there were hours in the day, so as soon as sunlight hit my eyelids I’d snap awake and be unable to drift back off. I yawned, stretched, and packed my things back into my bag again, then headed back dow...

Chapter 38 - Hasty Withdrawal

Alfred stared out into the night, watching for movement. The goblins had been more active, and he worried they might try something now that the sun was down and most of the humans were secure inside the police station, sleeping. They kept guard shifts, of course. His would end in a few hours, and then he’d get some much-needed rest.

He could barely recognize himself, at this poin...

Chapter 37 - Count Your Winnings

There were a lot of stones on the blanket in front of me. First thing I wanted to do was to count them and divide them out into groups. I also checked out my existing stones:

Magical Stones

Point 1: Black Stone (Tier 3) - Control Undead

Point 2: Black Stone (Tier 2) - Animate Dead

Point 3: Black Stone (Tier 2) - Drain Life

Point 4: X

...

Chapter 36 - Ticking Sound

Our lines crashed into each other for what I hoped would be the final fight.

The enemy undead had the numbers still; we’d worn them down, but it was close, now. Twenty of them, six on my side. That wouldn’t be fair, except each of my team was worth two or more of theirs. Those shields held back their rush like a proper wall, although my line had to give up a couple of steps, pu...

Chapter 35 - One Brick

As the sun began to sink for the third day since the Event, Gideon watched his minions carrying out their assigned tasks with a sense of satisfaction. It wasn’t pleasure; he wouldn’t allow himself that, not so soon after the death of his family. He had done well, though, killing scores of undead and gaining their crystals.

There was still much work to accomplish, but it was com...

Chapter 34 - Into The Breach

With a thought, I ordered Hope to intercept the rush of attackers as best she could. Anything she did to slow them down would help, but I already knew it wasn’t going to be enough. I had my pair of skeletons form a smaller shield wall at a ninety degree angle to the zombies. Their shields ought to keep him in one piece long enough to hold the attacking wave back for a short while.

Chapter 33 - Shield Wall

I had my undead form a tight rank ahead of me as we entered the cemetery for what I hoped would be the last time. No promises; there were a lot of skeletons in there! But I had a good feeling about this run.

The skeletons were in the middle, my zombies on the outside. I’d noticed a tendency for the enemy undead to chase after my skeletons especially, and if that held true again I...

Chapter 32 - Upgrades

I’d been hoping that the Animate spell would effectively double my number of controlled minions. As I explored the new spell, I found that it would animate a single dead body into something basic, like a tier one zombie or skeleton—or I could combine a few bodies to create something more complex and higher tier.

As I looked at the piles of bones in front of me, the spell gave m...

Chapter 31 - Animated Discovery

There were way too many of them to safely handle. I was growing more confident by the minute, both in my spells and my fighting skills. But I counted eleven of the things approaching now. It was time to get clear, regroup, and find a new strategy.

I ordered the zombies to withdraw, but they were locked in melee combat with a pair of skeletons. It wasn’t simple for them to just di...

Chapter 30 - Boneheads

If I was looking for undead, I’d come to the right place for sure. That cemetery held a swarm of skeletons. Better still, they were unarmed. They wandered about aimlessly, following the fence like they were looking for an escape but couldn’t find one. From where I was at, I was safe. But I couldn’t attack them either, not unless I got closer to the fence, anyway.

The fence it...

Chapter 29 - Army of the Dead

It was a long and restless night. The forest was no longer a peaceful place. I woke at least a dozen times to various noises, none of them pleasant. First it was a pack of goblins, who looked like they were out on a hunt. They made enough noise to rouse me as they crossed the parking lot on their way to wherever. My zombies were hunkered down, though, and just about invisible in the dark...

Chapter 28 - Map Quest

Alfred was the first on the scene, coming around the corner at a run. He’d started moving as soon as he heard the shouts and cries of alarm coming from behind the house Selena’s team was searching. When was she going to get a break? She’d been in the middle of every fight so far, even running into that monstrous bear. Now her team was in trouble—again!—and he was going to get t...

Chapter 27 - Wooden Walls

Carver was up with the sun and moving about on his mission. His house lacked many of the supplies he’d need, but that was fine; he had a horse, after all. Dead, but still able to take him around the city faster than anyone could travel on foot. That was a significant advantage, and one he planned to use well.

He’d gathered up everything that might be useful, packing them into b...

Chapter 26 - Do No Harm

A lot of things happened very quickly after that spell landed on me.

My full attention was on Bradley. I knew he was going to be trouble, and here he was, angry face and five feet of iron, coming straight for me. I swung my axe at the grass pinning my legs, thinking nothing more than to break free of this trap.

My critters, on the other hand? Well, I’d left th...

Chapter 25 - Entangled

The demon bear rushed me, and I swear I now totally understand what people mean when they talk about their lives flashing in front of their eyes. There was a brief moment where everything seemed to slow down and all I could see were those horrible red eyes, boring into mine. This creature was so full of anger and hatred that it was practically oozing out of its pores.

I screamed—...

Chapter 24 - Call for Backup?

I followed right behind my zombies, axe up and at the ready. The house reeked. It stank of old meat and blood. The red stains on the floor in the front hall told me we probably weren’t going to find anything friendly in this place.

“Anyone here?” I called out, loud as I could. If there was a survivor in here, I wanted to let them know we weren’t ...

Chapter 23 - Part of the Job

Everyone was feeling much better after some food, and the fact that we were returning to where I’d found the first snake had folks in a good mood. In fact, Lords had more volunteers than he needed. That was probably a good thing, too, especially in the longer run. We needed people to get out there and fight off these monsters, win more crystals, and above all—grow stronger.

He ...

Chapter 22 - Hope

Brad didn’t react well to that at all. He saw the zombies coming at him as a legitimate threat, and to be fair, they were. He was tier two himself now, so he might be able to take down both of them, but it wouldn’t be a simple fight. Plus, he’d seen my Drain Life spell in action. He raised his rebar higher, in a guard.

“Don’t,” I warned. I had my Drain Life spell ready ...

Chapter 21 - Puppy Love

The smell from the cooking snake was going to kill me.

It was so good! Smelled like someone was setting up for a chicken barbecue. My mouth watered as a gust of wind blew some of the smoke my way. Distracted, I glanced over toward Brad and his makeshift grill. Alfred saw and laughed.

“What?” I asked. “You saying you don’t want some of it?�...

Chapter 20 - Crafting Skills

I’d patched up most of Samson’s injuries, but he was still bleeding pretty bad. I raised my head to shout for some help. “We could use Henry’s skills here!”

“He’s on his way,” Lords said, crouching next to his wounded man. “You gonna make it, big guy?”

“Yeah, I’ll live. Been through worse than a few paper cuts like this,” Samson replied. He reached o...

Chapter 19 - Drain Life

Lords was moving faster than I’d have expected from the man. As the goblins rushed us, he lunged forward across the gap between our two groups, ushering the party forward with his hands. “Let’s go! Move fast! Up this road, hurry!”

The other two suits took one look at their buddy on the ground and started running. The rest of the group hurried along in their tracks, quickly ...

Chapter 18 - Outrageous Fortune

It turned out Bradley of all people had grilling skills. I can’t say I was shocked. He looked the type: sort of had that somewhat overweight, straight from the back woods vibe. I didn’t like him, didn’t trust him, and didn’t want to hang around him.

But he knew how to cook snake, so he was everyone’s hero of the day. Turns out garter snake did indeed taste like chicken, a...