I was worried it would be hard to find the rock I’d found last ti, the one that looked like it could have once had sothing of a “nose.” But Xyla’s sense of direction was uncanny, and her squirrels helped her find things.
The compass worked. I don’t know if it pointed to a north pole, but it pointed in the sa direction all the ti, and I was able to make a better map. I could probably find my way back on my own, which was important to .
It took another hour after locating the rock to find the cave. It wasn’t much, just a crack in the ground, really. But when we found it Enash recognized it instantly.
That’s it! Power is at hand! Either that or a horrible death being mutilated by zombies. Well, anything is better than being the captive of an incompetent weakling.
Having you in my head is no picnic, either, I thought of saying, but it seed unlikely to help matters. I wondered if he was luring into a trap.
“I’ll go first,” Gren said.
I shook my head. “I should go. This is for . I’d expect you to take the bigger risks for your village, and Xyla for her forest.”
Even though Gren was bigger, I didn’t doubt that she could get down there if I could. She was pretty skinny, other than up top.
“I’ll keep watch up here,” Xyla said. And she walked into a tall oak tree, and disappeared.
Neat trick. She probably made a hell of a guerilla warrior, as long as she was in her forest.
I took my phone out of my backpack and used it as a flashlight to peer into the crack.
“What is that?” Gren asked, crouching down with .
“It’s easiest to just say that it’s magic.”
“The easy way is often not the best way.”
“But sotis it’s best to go with it,” I replied. I couldn’t see much. There was more cave down there, but I didn’t see any zombies milling around, which might be bad news if it ant that the treasure had already been pillaged, or that Enash was lying to . Nonetheless, it looked fairly safe.
I tied a harness around my hips with so rope from my backpack, and then used another rope to attach that to a tree. Not the one that Xyla had lded with, as amusing as it might be to tie her up soti. Then, I slid into the crack in the earth, one hand on the rope, one hand on my chainsaw, and feeling a bit like I was playing Tomb Raider.
The cave mouth is kind of like a pussy, don’t you think?
I wasn’t thinking it, and now that he’d ntioned it, I didn’t want to.
I didn’t need the rope, as it turned out. There were rocks I could scramble on if I wanted to get back out, and the floor of the cave was only eight feet or so below the fissure. I shone my light around. Curved stone enclosed all about, but in one direction there was an opening.
Gren landed on her feet next to , her bow ready and an arrow in her other hand.
“Might have waited for my signal,” I suggested, untying the hip harness.
“No zombies,” she said.
“No.”
I took a headlamp out of my pack, and strapped it on, turning it on. It had co in useful before for fiddling tasks inside dark closets, but I’d never used it in a cave. I flicked it on.
“Nice,” she said. “You’re a light mage, then?”
Hahahaha!
“Not exactly.”
“I’ll go first,” Gren said.
“I have the light, and you have a ranged weapon. I go first,” I said firmly. Did I want to? Hell no. But it made the most sense.
“What is that thing, anyway?” she asked, pointing to the chainsaw.
“Think of it kind of like a sword,” I told her. “It makes so noise, though, so don’t be startled.” I wasn’t going to demonstrate, just in case the noise alerted sothing that didn’t notice the light. Cautiously, I crept forward, letting my lamp show the way. Gren nocked an arrow.
The cave narrowed, then widened again. It seed quiet.
As quiet as a tomb. Although it slled really, really bad, like a steak forgotten in the fridge. I only had that happen once, but I’d never forget the sll.
I crept forward.
“Watch out!” Gren shouted, just as I’d noticed myself. What I thought were rocks or irregularities in the floor suddenly rose up. There were four of them, grey, shambling figures. Flesh fell off their bodies when they stood, revealing naked bone in spots. They each held a large tal club.
I had to bite back the urge to throw up. They possibly hadn’t moved in eons. Well, at least this was an enemy that didn’t make wonder what I should do. The dead should not move. I turned on the chainsaw.
They should have all gone after one of us, but I guess zombies aren’t master tacticians. Two of them went for Gren, who was still twenty feet back. And whatever primitive instincts guided them probably led them to think that a weapon being held fairly still without obvious sharp edges wasn’t very dangerous. In fact, the first one decided to simply bat the chainsaw aside.
Its arm fell to the ground with a thump. I shifted my weapon and sawed right through his torso.
I had to dodge out of the way while the other one swung his club at , and it still caught my arm. They were a little on the slow side, but he was basically swinging a steel baseball bat. If it connected solidly, it was going to break bones, and the bone he’d been going for had been my skull, which ant that my arm only got a nasty bruising side swipe of a blow that turned it numb.
I couldn’t parry with my chainsaw. It wasn’t designed to hit tal, and would probably break, with little shards going everywhere. And it was fair to say that it wasn’t a weapon designed for agility, either.
Gren had fired two shots with a bow and now had her knife out. The arrows had stuck, but they didn’t seem to do much.
Dinsion Step. The zombie’s second swing, which would have co crashing down on my head, clattered against the ground as I disappeared. I reappeared right behind one of the ones nacing Gren. The demonic ability didn’t change the direction I was facing, and I had to pivot just slightly to run my saw through its midsection.
It collapsed in two pieces.
“Holy crap!” Gren yelled, proving that so concepts cross all cultural boundaries. I think she was talking about the chainsaw, but almost at the sa instant the montum of the zombies swing carried its club into her leg. I was relieved not to hear any splintering bones. She parried another tal club with her knife, and then swung at the abomination’s neck. Its head lolled, but it was still moving.
I thought she could probably manage the rest, and turned just in ti. I hadn’t gotten far enough away from the zombie that had been after , and as I turned my chainsaw hit his club. The chainsaw kicked back from the contact and jerked out of my hand. I knew the chain was all ssed up now anyway. I dove to the side, and narrowly missed losing a nipple because I wasn’t used to dodging so as to get my boobs out of the way. I’d hit nails before, which sucked, but nothing like a tal bar being swung at with force.
Dinsion Step. I was weaponless, and I wasn’t sticking around for another blow, even if I didn’t know exactly where I should go. The zombie hung on to its club sohow. It turned around until it found at the far edge of the cave, which probably wasn’t hard given that I had a light bulb attached to my head, and charged in my direction. Well, fine, at least that took ti. The zombie on Gren was just flailing blindly, and she ducked in and under its swing and cut its neck the rest of the way off.
Its head fell to the floor first, and then the rest of its rotting body.
Dinsion Step. I moved to where the halves of the first zombie I’d cut in two lay and grabbed its tal club. The remaining zombie whirled to face again. But the odds had changed from two against four to two against one. I just had to not screw up, which given that I didn’t know what I was doing and had no training, wasn’t necessarily going to be easy. But I could Dinsion Step at least five more tis.
I didn’t need to. Gren moved behind it, and it paid no attention to her as it fixated on . I backed up slowly, getting ready to try to parry its club with mine. They t in a jarring clash of tal, although at least this clash didn’t involve a power tool. Still, I felt it in my hands, and was reminded that my left arm wasn’t happy, either. I hung on.
Gren slashed through its spine, and it seed to balance precariously for a mont before finally topping to the floor of the cave.
“Two each!” Gren said.
“But who’s counting?” I said weakly.
“I am,” Gren said, clearly wondering why I was confused about that.
She was limping, although trying to hide it. I did a quick look around, looking for more enemies but also making sure that the dead stayed dead. They’d already proven they were fuzzy on that concept, and I wasn’t sure they weren’t going to move just because they’d been cut in two. But no, it seed we’d won.
I also hadn’t gotten an experience notification for it, which was annoying, but I was happy to be alive. When the chainsaw hit the club, I had freaked out a little. But I gave myself credit. I’d stayed in the fight and kept being useful. And really, not much in my life had prepared for zombies with tal clubs trying to kill .
And now, a nicely built woman in skimpy leather was looking at with admiration. “You move so fast. I could hardly even see you move. Such an amazing woman. And when that short skirt flounces up, it’s so distracting.”
I grinned. “You were pretty aweso yourself,” I told her.
She made a face. “My arrows were useless. I hit them right in the eye, and they kept coming. Zombies.” She spat on the ground.
“I know, right?” I said.
The cave went deeper. My arm was sore, but functional, and I’d lost my main advantage with the chainsaw. Maybe we should turn back. I wasn’t sure what the outco would be if we fought another group, or how effective a club would be against the undead. “How’s your leg?”
“Bruised, I think. It’ll hurt worse tomorrow. I can continue. Let’s get what we ca for.”
There might not be any more guardians.
Might. “I can repair my chainsaw, and probably heal up so if we go back. Another fight like that and I don’t know what would happen.” Although maybe a chainsaw wasn’t such a great weapon, after all. Maybe I needed to get a sword, and I suspected I could just go buy one, back on Earth. I’d just have to tell soone I intended to hang it up on the wall, rather than actually use it.
Kidding! There aren’t any. Go on, get the wand. It’s in the next chamber.
To give him his due, he’d played fairly straight with about the cave so far. And there was a danger in Gren knowing about it, especially if it was now unguarded. I thought I could trust her, but I didn’t have great reasons, and I knew I had a prejudice for attractive won. Fem body or no, that hadn’t changed a bit. But I didn’t think she’d stop at much to rescue her father, and I didn’t know that I could bla her for that.
“We can go back if you want,” Gren said. “But as I said, it’ll stiffen up tomorrow and be worse. What is this thing, anyway?” She gestured at the chainsaw, but was clear she didn’t want to get too close to it, even though the auto shut-off ant that it was no longer whirring. “Chainsaw, you said?”
“Yeah. It’s really not ant to be a weapon. More of a replacent for an axe or a saw, really. But it’s what I had.”
“It was brutal,” she said with admiration. “But it’s broken?”
“It’ll need to be fixed, yes. Alright, let’s go on.”
Gren smiled. “I love a woman with courage. Seeing you fight made wet.”
Alrighty then. Knowing she was horny made a little horny, too, but I wasn’t going to get it on with her in the middle of a cave that might still have zombie guardians in it. “Let’s talk about that when we get out.”
“I accept your promise, Abby of the whirring weapon,” she said.
“It wasn’t a promise, just a suggestion.”
“Okay, she whose bottom bounces bountifully.”
She really liked her alliteration.
We kept going deeper into the cave, with leading. How much did the skirt flip up, anyway? I thought it was long enough, but I suppose combat was a different issue. I wasn’t flashing Gren just by walking ahead of her, was I?
And if I was, did I really mind?
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