We’d gone straight back to the Farm from the Guard base, rolled up our sleeves, and got to work. There was too much that needed doing, so much that I barely even knew where to start. Fortunately, I had friends who could help me out with that.
Alfred was a rock. He took over handling everything for our fortifications. With him driving things forward, I watched the inner walls grow...
2025-05-15 01:03:57 +0000 UTC View PostThe dragon’s wings sliced through the northern wind with steady, thunderous rhythm. Peter Eddings sat tall in the saddle, the cold air whipping his coat behind him as the land rolled by beneath him. At first he saw only broken neighborhoods, shattered houses with sagging rooftops. Soon he left the suburbs behind and spied farmland below instead. But not all of it was dead. The further ...
2025-05-14 02:58:08 +0000 UTC View PostSue’s skeletal feet crunched along the cracked asphalt streets as we rode northeast. Kara rode behind me, seated cross-legged in the saddle behind Sue’s spine with her bow slung across her back. She hadn’t said much since we left the Farm. Neither had I. Hope rode on the saddle with us. The Air Guard were rarely thrilled about letting Sue into their base, but they didn’t mind my ...
2025-05-12 22:59:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe inner wall was almost finished. The full outer perimeter wall that would someday protect the crops and grazing fields was still just some stakes in the ground to mark where it would eventually be. But the inner wall—twelve feet high, built from scavenged chunks of concrete we mortared together—was nearly complete.
I stood just outside the main courtyard, hands on my hips, s...
2025-05-09 22:59:01 +0000 UTC View PostPeter Eddings adjusted his seat on the hand-made saddle and leaned slightly forward, one gloved hand resting on the curve of the dragon’s neck. The scales beneath his fingers were a deep red, almost the color of blood. They were warm to the touch even at this altitude. Below them, the ruined city rolled on, the scattered ruins of civilization stretching out for miles in every direction...
2025-05-08 21:10:44 +0000 UTC View PostI had to take back all my previous thoughts about General Jefferson being stuffy and quiet, because holy shit, can that man throw a party.
Or maybe it wasn’t him at all. Maybe it was just soldiers in general. I’ve heard they know how to celebrate, and now I believed it. After the orcs were driven off, after the fires were finally out and the screaming had stopped, Camp Johnson ...
2025-05-07 20:46:01 +0000 UTC View PostI took to the air, magic pushing me upward as I climbed for a better view. The sky above Camp Johnson was streaked with smoke, the rising sun casting long shadows across a battlefield that had tipped from dire to catastrophic.
The breach in the wall was enormous, a ragged hole blown wide open by those Alchemy packs. Through it, the orc horde surged. They were hundreds strong, pouri...
2025-05-06 22:36:34 +0000 UTC View PostThe groaning crash of the collapsed siege tower was still echoing across the field when the next wave surged forward. I turned and spotted another tower creeping in from the west. Orcs dragged it forward on thick, creaking wheels, shouting in their guttural tongue as they strained to close the distance before we could regroup.
Behind me, the defenders struggled to pull themselves t...
2025-05-05 22:13:58 +0000 UTC View PostWe moved fast. There was no time to waste. Kara and Clay organized our people, gathering fifty living warriors, mounted on salvaged bicycles. Twelve abominations jogged in their shambling lurch behind us. They were a little too slow to keep pace but they weren’t falling too far behind. I had hopes they’d arrive in time to make an impact.
Sue ran ahead like a freight train of ra...
2025-05-05 01:00:00 +0000 UTC View Post(Got that first catch-up chapter for you today! I'll have another for you tomorrow, too - already partway finished it. Just don't want to fall behind 'cause I was sick a couple of days. Enjoy!)
The next morning broke crisp and clear, the sky streaked with faint traces of lavender and gold. A chill breeze stirred the early autumn leaves, and the scent of woodsmoke...
2025-05-03 20:34:58 +0000 UTC View PostThe road we’d built running from the highway to the farm wasn’t much more than packed earth and gravel. On either side were fields in various states of being reclaimed from the wild. The wall around my home was only half-finished—sturdy stone rising to waist height in places, taller in others, with zombies steadily stacking new sections even as our visitors approached. The outer wa...
2025-05-02 20:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostMy apologies, folks! I have been given six zillion vaccines thanks to my time in the Army - they lost my shot records a few times, so I got the full series a lot! Never had an issue before. But when I got the first dose of my shingles vaccine Monday, it hit hard. I was spiking high temperatures all day Tuesday, and was still sick Wednesday as well. BUT! I'm feeling much ...
2025-05-01 23:14:47 +0000 UTC View Post
Folks, I’m so sorry. I have come down with something crappy and I’ve been resting all day. There won’t be a chapter today. I’ll try to do a makeup chapter later this week.
2025-04-29 21:39:05 +0000 UTC View PostOverall, the operation was a complete success. The battlefield still smoked in places as we pulled out. Fires smoldered where the fire skeletons had scorched the ground, goblin bodies littered the ground in every direction, and the broken palisade wall slumped inward like the ribcage of a fallen beast. I’d ordered my undead to finish destroying the walls. Since we weren’t going to oc...
2025-04-29 01:03:57 +0000 UTC View PostEven as I was thinking that, Plum smashed into the wall again, this time with enough force it almost threw me from my feet. I took to the air again, flying high enough that I was out of arrow range, and took in the entire spectacle from above.
Plum had broken the outer wall. The inner logs were still holding together, but only just. Another few blows and she’d be through. Sue was...
2025-04-25 23:20:56 +0000 UTC View PostBallistas—or was it ballistae? I was never sure where I ought to be using Latin endings and where I should just stick with English. Whatever they were called, though, they were bad news.
The second I saw the massive bolts start flying, my stomach dropped. Those things could punch clean through a tank, and while my undead bruisers weren’t feather weights, even Sue or Plum couldn...
2025-04-24 22:20:45 +0000 UTC View PostIt was finally time to strike. My minions were in position. The small band of ratkin and humans we’d brought along were gathered around me, too. All we were really waiting for was the sun, which continued its slow creep higher in the sky.
“Fighting goblins is weird,” Farnsworth groused under his breath.
“How so?” I replied, keeping my voice soft. The goblin...
2025-04-24 21:26:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe pipe worked better than I’d dared hope. Once Clay got it jammed into the entrance and we’d pulled back to safety, it flooded the nest fast. Water poured down into that tunnel with enough force to drown out the angry clatter of mandibles and claws, turning the anthill into a mud-slicked whirlpool. A few ants managed to crawl out before they drowned, but we made short work of those...
2025-04-22 22:02:26 +0000 UTC View Post“Okay,” I said, squinting up at the rust-streaked water tower, “you’re going to have to walk me through this one, because all I’m seeing is an excuse for tetanus.”
Clay gave a snort, clearly amused. “No faith at all. I’m hurt.”
Kara, who had apparently decided she couldn’t let us go adventuring unsupervised after all, rolled her eyes. “He was talking abo...
2025-04-21 21:43:41 +0000 UTC View PostIt took us two days to get everything ready for the mission I had in mind. I wanted badly to push ahead faster, but there simply wasn’t time to get everything required ready. The real barrier turned out to be the damned chicken, of course.
There was a lot of chicken on those bones, and I could only Animate it once. If I tried right away, I was going to get a zombie chick...
2025-04-19 01:14:34 +0000 UTC View PostIt turns out that determining what to do with a giant dead chicken carcass that’s had zombies chewing on it was a little more complicated than it looked.
First off, folks wanted to be sure there was no risk of infection. There’s a whole lot of zombie movies out there in the old world, and pretty much everyone had seen at least one version, if not more. Since the real-world zomb...
2025-04-17 20:26:04 +0000 UTC View Post(Bonus chapter today! Got some free time, which let me get in a little extra work today, and I figured folks would appreciate it if they got the resolution to the cliffhanger from last chapter. Now - when you reach the end here, I would LOVE to hear comments on which way you think Selena is going to go with the decision she faces. I already have something in mind, but I'd love to he...
2025-04-16 21:08:29 +0000 UTC View PostWe made it most of the way back to the farm without further incident.
We followed Dorset Street for about half of the trip, until we reached the spot where it crossed with the interstate, and then we just climbed the bank and switched roads. The highway and major streets were still cluttered with dead cars, although I had the Abominations clear away a few of those, general...
2025-04-16 18:33:12 +0000 UTC View PostThe rest of the day was shockingly uneventful, although after the dragon attack just about anything else might feel sedate, I supposed. Farnsworth and I were housed in adjoining rooms, with all our needs met. We were allowed to explore a bit of the city during the afternoon and evening, albeit with an armed escort—something I understood. They didn’t know us yet, so we were a security...
2025-04-15 21:37:30 +0000 UTC View PostClay was watching me carefully. I got the impression he was seeing some of the same things I was, and we were going to need to have some long conversations, afterward. But not here. The last thing we wanted to do was call the guy with a thousand well-armed troops a liar to his face, at least not without an outstanding reason.
“You said this was the third time it’s come after yo...
2025-04-14 21:13:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe dragon gave a cry that felt loud enough to shatter stone. It certainly stunned me—I froze, standing there helpless for a moment as it continued its approach. I shook my head to clear it.
“Peter! Snap out of it!” I shouted. He’d stopped moving, too. My cry woke him back up and got him in motion again, frantically winding the winch.
It cried out again, and the sound...
2025-04-14 17:06:00 +0000 UTC View PostPeter led us toward his table, which was already heavily laden with an astonishing variety of foods. I glanced at Farnsworth, but he was surprised as well. Back home, we were eating nonstop dry foods and canned goods. It was all that remained edible from the supermarkets, and thankfully there were piles of the stuff still available. But this was very different.
The table had fresh ...
2025-04-10 21:11:17 +0000 UTC View PostHarding led us to a stable near the gate where Farnsworth was asked to leave his mount. Once the horse was settled with a stableboy, we pressed on. Harding left about half his force near the gates, taking the others with him as a sort of honor guard for the pair of us. They marched on all sides as we proceeded down the main path toward the keep at the center of the Domain.
I had to...
2025-04-09 22:16:33 +0000 UTC View PostThe rider with the white flag slowed as he approached, reining in his horse with practiced ease. His armor shone as brightly as the others, but up close, I could see the scratches and dents—he’d clearly seen some action. Then again, hadn’t we all?
His face was weathered, eyes sharp and appraising beneath the brim of his helmet. He stopped a few paces from my lead Abominations...
2025-04-08 21:16:24 +0000 UTC View PostI prepped to leave early the next morning. We had a long voyage, and I wanted to get there as quickly as possible, arrive as early in the day as possible. It was only a few miles, but if we ran into trouble that could take a lot longer than it ought to, and I couldn’t rule out trouble.
This time, Kara wasn’t coming with me, which seemed to please Alfred, but pissed her off migh...
2025-04-07 21:19:24 +0000 UTC View Post