Grave Creatures

by John P. Logsdon

  “No,” he answered. “It was a thought, but I had to use my powers elsewhere. Besides, it’s not like she’s any threat to me. I do, however, plan on making her a zombie as well.”

  “Well, that’s thoughtful.”

  “Thank you.”

  The other three chairs were clear and so was the table. But on top of the fridge behind her I spotted a box that looked nearly identical to the one Fred’s master had been holding in my vision. Even the etchings looked similar. Not identical, but I’m sure that Fred had made some enhancements over the years. I hadn’t spotted it originally because it was sitting behind that picture of Fred.

  I spun on my heel, trying to keep my excitement at bay.

  “Then it finally hit me,” I said while wagging a finger at him as I held a mischievous grin. “You were planning to build an army of zombies through two major channels. The first one was via graves. That was the easiest one.”

  “Not as easy as you may think,” Fred rebutted. “Necromancy is a challenging art that requires years of dedication. And it ravages your body in the process.”

  “So I noticed,” I said as he showed me his gnarled hands. I opened a channel to Rachel so that she could listen in. “But you wanted to attack in a more prominent way, which brings me to the second channel you decided to use.”

  “Keep egging him on,” Rachel said, “we’re closing in.”

  “The graves brought you enough zombies to kill residents. From there you’re planning to raise those you kill, turning them into zombies, and then you’ll watch your army grow and grow.”

  He clapped his hands as I moved back into place and withdrew Boomy, resetting it in position. I had to hand it to Fred that he had kept his word about that. Most bad guys wouldn’t have.

  “Well done, Mr. Dex,” he said almost proudly, “though I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that my plan wasn’t all that complicated to figure out. Why go elegant when you can do the straight and narrow?” It was his turn to pace. “But you did miss one thing, I’m afraid.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You, Mr. Dex.” He had his hands clasped behind his back. “You’re an amalgamite. You have many traits that I can expand once you’re under my command.” I glanced over at Matilda. Her eyelashes were fluttering. “Killing you is the first step of that because I have no desire to be in a constant battle of wills. But once that’s done, you’ll be brought back with a mind even more numb than your current one.” I felt that I should have been offended by that. “That’s when all that you are capable of, Mr. Dex, will be at my disposal.”

  He stopped and looked at me with questioning eyes.

  “We’re going to wait for your play,” said Rachel, “and then we’ll commence.”

  “Fine,” I replied and then glanced up at Fred’s cataract-laden eyes. I didn’t want him to know I was communicating with Rachel. “Fine, fine, fine. Sensible, too, I must admit.”

  “Oh,” he said, adding a little skip to his step as he returned to his original spot. “I believe I was about here, no?”

  “Close enough.”

  “Please do fire, Mr. Dex,” he said with a wink. “I do so wish to get things moving.”

  “I will, but I have a couple more questions, if you don’t mind?”

  “Go on.”

  “What was with the skeletons?” I used the notches on the barrel of Boomy to scratch the side of my head. “I get the zombies, but the skeletons just seemed dumb. I mean, no offense, but what were you thinking there?”

  His head was bouncing while I was speaking. Apparently, he agreed with the skeletons being a weak move on his part, but I was still curious as to his reasoning.

  “It was another attempt at trying to make the zombies tougher to kill,” he explained. “Sadly, I went a little overboard in my planning and ended up with skeletons. They were instrumental in my setting triggers against your mages though.”

  “True, that was cruel indeed.”

  He waved a dismissive hand. “It’s a little late for flattery, Mr. Dex.”

  “Never hurts to try. You also had a zombie who was speaking to me in full sentences. It was a little creepy, if I were being honest. Were you controlling him directly or something?”

  “No,” he answered, “but that’s a novel idea. I did see this vocalization happen with a couple of zombies myself, though. My only guess is that they were freshly dead and therefore able to use their voices better than the others. It was a fortunate happenstance, though, since I’ve been able to use them for power words.”

  “So we’ve noticed.”

  Fred tapped his watch. “If that’s all, Mr. Dex, I would appreciate it if we could get a move on. I have a city to invade, after all.”

  “You bet, Fred,” I said, turning the gun toward the little box.

  I fired.

  It exploded.

  Chapter 43

  Time seemed to freeze as the light dissipated from the explosion. There was no debris or even a shockwave. It was just a bright light and boom.

  “Ha ha!” Fred exclaimed, clapping his hands. “I was right!”

  I was baffled.

  Shooting the box should have ended everything. Seeing that it didn’t meant that this was a trap, especially after Fred’s declaration about being right. About what, I had no idea, but it couldn’t have been beneficial to me and my team.

  “Rachel,” I whispered while pretending to check my gun, “don’t engage yet. It’s a trap.”

  “I saw that,” she answered. “We’re going to take a different angle on this. Hang tight.”

  “Uh…” I said, looking up. “What was it you were right about again?”

  “When you bumped into me near Freemont, Mr. Dex, I felt something odd. It was an energy transference of some sort.” He looked to be searching for an answer. “I couldn’t explain it then, and I’ll be honest and say that even now I’m rather confused by precisely what happened, but it felt as though a piece of my history left me.”

  “Couldn’t that just be senility?”

  “Cute,” he replied with a cheap grin. “Still, something told me that you would know more about me than I’d expected. Thus, when it came time to finally meet you, I took the one thing that held my greatest power, my personal essence, and hid it away.” His hands were rubbing together in that evildoer kind of way, which was just a shade over mad scientist style. “Then, as a test, I created another box that was nearly identical. I figured that if you searched for it and destroyed it, my assumption would be correct.” He motioned at the spot where the box had been sitting a minute ago. “It seems my supposition was dead on.”

  What was the point of Flashes if they told the bad guy you were getting intel on him?

  “Well, I guess that worked out in your favor.”

  I fired Boomy at him and the bullet stopped an inch in front of his face and dropped.

  I sighed.

  “Had to try,” I said, shrugging.

  “It would be foolish of you not to,” Fred agreed. “But now that you’ve put in your pitiful attempt, and noting that I have a lot of firepower standing here that not even you, Mr. Dex, could hope to overcome…. May I suggest that you lay down your weapon and take your medicine?”

  “Do it,” Rachel said. “I have a plan.”

  “You sure,” I replied, keeping my lips from moving. “I really don’t want to be a zombie.”

  “Do it,” she replied more insistently.

  I dropped my gun and put my hands up in surrender. Whatever Rachel’s plan was, it had better be good. Being dead or undead or reanimated or whatever the hell you wanted to call it sounded pretty dismal, especially since I’d end up in the undignified position of serving this old fart.

  “No need to put your hands up, Mr. Dex,” he said as two zombies approached me. “If you get rambunctious, we’ll deal with you in the roughest of ways, which I’m sure you already know.”

  “Right.”

  “Plus, you must also be aware that you’ll end up on in my
clutches eventually anyway.”

  “Yep.”

  “Good, good.” He patted the table as a group of wizards began to close in. “Just hop up here and I shall endeavor to make this as painful as possible.”

  I jumped up on the table and then blinked a few times, wondering if I heard him right.

  “Don’t you mean you’ll make it as painless as possible?”

  “No, I don’t think I did.”

  A couple of straps launched up from the sides of the table, wrapping around me and tightening to the point where I found it hard to breathe. They were cutting into my flesh, which meant they were ripping my suit. Honestly, I had to invest in more appropriate attire for these adventures.

  The wizards began their pygmy-style chanting, causing me to giggle.

  “Finding this humorous, Mr. Dex?”

  “Love the pygmy stuff,” I replied, fighting to keep my wits about me. “It’s truly hilarious, Fred.”

  “It’s Frederik!”

  “Right, right, sorry. I just thought we were starting to be pals, ya know?”

  “Pals?”

  “Buds, buddies…friends.”

  His eyes went wide. “Genuinely?”

  “No, Fred. Not at all.” I laughed in a mocking way. “You’re about to kill me and turn me into a zombie and you think I’d genuinely want to be friends with you?” Then I cursed myself and tried, “Unless our being pals would make it so you didn’t kill me?”

  “Enough out of you!” He slapped me with his gnarled hand.

  “Damn, Fred,” I said with a chuckle as I turned back to him. “You hit like a girl. It’s amazing that these people follow you at all. I mean, look at you. Old, frail, hit like a girl…”

  A stream of energy flew at me from his fingertips, but bounced off because of the amulet I was wearing.

  “For the love of Pete!” he yelled and then reached in and removed the amulet.

  Shit.

  This time his energy spell worked, and it hurt like hell. My body convulsed as my eyes rolled up into my head. I was hearing someone calmly saying, “Go to the light. Go to the light.”

  Screw that.

  I fought.

  I fought hard.

  But I was losing. The pain was beyond tolerance and that light was getting bigger and bigger. A scream burst from my mouth that was completely out of my control.

  Then everything went black.

  Chapter 44

  I don’t know what Rachel’s plan was, but I awoke to find the world was very hazy. My head was swimming and I could barely see. Sounds were muffled at best and I was having trouble focusing on anything.

  “Get your ass up,” Rachel said through the connector.

  At least that was coming through loud and clear, and it told me that she was still alive. But I couldn’t get the words out to reply. Either I was still magically drugged or I had become a zombie. The way I felt, it made me think it was the later.

  “Unn mmmm,” was all I could say.

  “The restraints are off, Ian,” she explained as the sound of popping filled the air near me. Those were Desert Eagles firing. That’s one sound I couldn’t forget. “Get the hell up and get moving.”

  My hindbrain kicked into gear and pushed me to move. It took everything in my being to roll over and I instantly regretted it because I’d fallen off the table and was now lying facedown on the ground.

  “Ow,” I mumbled into the dirt.

  “Shit,” said Rachel, and then, “Merle, give him some of this.”

  I felt Merle flipping me onto my back. Then a burning sensation filled my throat as the elixir that Serena had made hit me.

  My eyes flew open and I bolted upright.

  Two hits of that potion so close together was not fun. Instant headache.

  On the plus side, Fred had clearly been unable to complete my transition into zombieism. That was obviously a relief seeing that I had no desire to die. My only thought was that Rachel had gotten there in time to stop whatever ritual that old asshole was performing on me, and my healing capabilities were enough to wrench me from death’s grasp.

  “What’s happening,” I said, my vision blurring and correcting in such a way as to make me feel seriously drunk. “This sucks.”

  “We interrupted his spell and took out three of his mages.” She grunted and I felt a stream of heat pass over my head. “I’m starting to run low on reserves, but you needed that hit more than I did.”

  “Thanks. How is Paula?”

  “She’s on the ground, we’re covering her.”

  I got up and saw Boomy sitting in the dirt. It took a minute for me to pick it up, but soon I was firing it in the general direction of the bad guys. The bullets did nothing against the magic users, as they were shielded, but the bodyguards were dropping at regular intervals.

  “Looks like we’ve got them on the run,” I said between breaths.

  “Chief,” Chuck yelled through the connector, “I don’t know what’s going on, but all of the zombies that are still walking just did a one-eighty and are running like hell back your way.”

  “Joy,” I replied, using the table as a stabilizer. “Chase after them please. We’re in a difficult spot here.”

  “On it.”

  My head was gradually clearing as I kept moving around, getting the elixir through my system. Honestly, I’d rather have been suffering through a massive hangover than dealing with this. If you’ve ever felt the sensation of your heart flipping over, take that and apply it to your brain.

  There was a scream off to my left.

  I glanced over to see that Harvey was collecting on his prize. He had Chip up in the air and he was growling for all he was worth. A second later, the crumpled body of his former brother-in-law lay in a heap, pierced by the jagged edge of a rock. It did not look like a fun way to go.

  Matilda had obviously seen this, too, because she shrieked angrily and started running at Harvey. But she had to cross by me to get to him. I had just enough energy to knock her on her ass.

  Unfortunately, I was still lacking coordination, which meant she landed on her back and I landed on top over her, wedged nicely between her legs. There was nothing sexual about this at all, but when I pushed up I couldn’t help but notice her hungry stare. Yep, she needed a firm hand. That firm hand came by way of Harvey the werebear. He clearly did not like the fact that I had mounted his wife. This was apparent because I was in the air and he was looking for another jagged rock.

  “Put him down gently,” said Cletus, “or I’ll stick a hole in ya.”

  Harvey growled, but set me down.

  “Thanks, Cletus.”

  “Don’t mention it.”

  “Sorry, Harvey,” I said. “I was just trying to knock her over so she couldn’t get to you. I’m just a bit clumsy at the moment.” To prove that point, I fell over again. “See?”

  He picked me back up. “No, it’s my bad. I’ve got a jealous streak.”

  Matilda stood up and began screaming at him while bullets and magical craziness zoomed all around us. Honestly, this was not the best time for a marital dispute.

  “You’re about to have the worst night of your life, mister,” she was yelling. “And if you think tonight is bad, you just wait until I contact my attorney in the morning. You’re going to rue the day you ever…”

  Harvey had clearly had enough. His eyes were glowing yellow. This wasn’t going to end well.

  He turned to her, picked her up to face level, and let out such a ferocious roar that everyone literally stopped firing bullets and magic. It was that intense.

  Matilda said, “Ooooooh,” and then passed out.

  “Get down,” Rachel yelled as a bolt of energy flew over my head a second later.

  Harvey was hovering over his wife, protecting her from the onslaught. Obviously he still loved her, which I could understand from a physical point of view—though I suppose that’s technically lust—but I didn’t get the personality mix. Still, he had to have seen what had just ha
ppened, but he may not have connected the dots.

  “Harvey, I gotta tell you something,” I said, thinking that if we did make it out of this alive, he may just be able to patch up his marriage. Again, Matilda was going to end up doing time for her involvement in this little bit of fun, but at least she’d have something to look forward to when she got out. “Matilda has a thing for powerful men. It’s probably why she married you. I don’t mean abusive here, though I have little doubt that she’d thoroughly enjoy a good spanking, I’m talking about someone who is very strong and controlling. You know, like a werebear, for example.”

  “What?” he said, glaring at me. “Her? But she’s such a dominant bitch.”

  “That’s because she’s not the kind who willingly submits,” I explained. “She needs to be pushed. Trust me, I’ve got a lot of experience with this sort of thing.”

  Matilda came to and said, “What happened?”

  “You’re a bitch, that’s what,” Harvey said, “and I’m sick and tired of it. If you want to get an attorney tomorrow, go for it; otherwise, you’d best get your shit together and start treating me the way I deserve to be treated.”

  “Oh, Harvey,” Matilda said with a mesmerized glow in her eyes.

  He turned to me with a shocked look.

  I shrugged. “Told ya.”

  Chapter 45

  We weren’t out of this mess yet.

  Zombies were zooming in behind us and they were only about thirty seconds out. Many of them were turning to dust since the rest of my crew was firing like mad at them from behind. There was no way they’d get them all, though.

  “We need to find that damn box,” I yelled right before a fireball caught my shoulder and spun me through the air to crash into the table I’d been dying on earlier. I pushed myself back up. “Okay, that hurt. I don’t suppose anyone has seen my amulet?”

  “It’s on the ground over by Fred,” yelled Harvey.

  “My name is Frederik,” screamed the old necromancer as he launched an energy blast at Harvey.