《Hanging on Bones》 Chapter 1: Rag, Pipe and a bone. The first two chapters might be little slow and in lower quality in comparison to the rest, but please bear with me until it gets really interesting. Also all the comments are really appreciated !! -------------------------------- Hanging on Bones Chapter 1 Rag, Pipe and a bone. *bip* *bip* *bip**bip* ¡­ *crash* Stupid alarm clock. Why the hell did I put it sooo far away from my bed¡­ Well whatever. Since I¡¯m already on the floor, I¡¯d better get up. The usual toiletries and then up the stairs I go. Delicious smells of fresh baked bread served together with crunchy bacon and eggs make me droll. Grabbing the cup of long expired yogurt I slam the fridge doors with a passion. The high class restaurant next door is driving me crazy again. Should have known that cheap flats come at additional price. I can understand the coldness and mold. It¡¯s an basement after all. But the torture of high class restaurant as a neighbor while living on crumbs really hits the spot¡­ Better to not dwell on this, It¡¯s time to go to work. Same street corners as always. Same slow walk to low paying work. It¡¯s getting a bit chilly already so I guess I will have to swipe some scarf or something from one of the customers. ¡°Hey you!¡± I look around and sure enough there is some old hag in dirty rags, wobbling and stumbling at a steady speed towards me. Hell¡­ the rags she¡¯s wearing are so worn that I¡¯m surprised they don¡¯t fall off of her. The wrinkles and loose skin on her face make her look as if she¡¯s more than ninety years old. Seems like she doesn''t have any teeth, since when her mouth closed, her lower lip went up to her nose in disgusting fashion. She must have stepped out of that garbage strewn alleyway I just passed. ¡­ Ah my rotten luck again. But at least she seems harmless enough. ¡°What do you want from me, old one?¡± I say while coming to a stop. She wobbles little closer panting heavily and slows down. The piece of short stick taken out from the massive amount of things that due to tears and holes only approximate clothes, is instantly making me more wary of her. Leaning on her cane, she smiles up at me. *kher* *kher* ¡°So you¡¯re here after all¡­¡± *kher* She says this with no apparent hurry, grunting, wheezing and spitting from time to time. She then pauses and starts to make this strange motions with her mouth, as if she was chewing. Problem is she doesn¡¯t have teeth and it looks grotesque. Damn so disgusting. She must be some kind of lunatic since it¡¯s the first time I see her in these parts. ¡°I have no idea what you¡¯re getting at but if you are here to beg, then as you must have noticed by now, there¡¯s no way I have any money to spare for you. Good bye¡± I say and start to turn. She then suddenly grabs my coat and closes the gap between us, Our bodies are touching. I freeze staring at her in amazement. *kher**kher* ¡°Here, here now¡­ it¡¯s the opposite¡­ you should be the one begging me kid¡±*kher* She says this between her grunts while sneering at me with spit hanging from the corner of her lip. The mad glint in her eyes makes me shiver. I jerk away from her in shock freeing myself and take several quick steps back. ¡°You¡¯re mad old hag ¡­¡± No way in hell I will get more involved in this then I already am. Better to have some professionals deal with her. Before she has chance to do anything else I start jogging in the opposite direction. Seeing that she¡¯s not following I simply make wide semicircle and go on my way. Tsk. Another shitty day. I simply cannot believe how many mad people are there in these parts of town. I¡¯ve seen plenty of nut cases but she is up there with the best of them. After opening some distance between us I take out my cell phone to dial for some help. I feel bad about ratting someone out to those pieces of shit that call themselves ¡®cops¡¯ in this neighborhood, but at least they will have the means, to either put her in asylum, or on some medication. Maybe she will at least curse one of them to death or something. That would be fun. The ingrained social standards make me stop when the lights changes to red. Since it is still early morning there¡¯s not much traffic. Just one black car is idling on empty road, waiting with me for the lights to change. As I stand there nervously, the phone starts making connection. ¡°The number you have dialled cannot accept this call, please try again later¡± ¡­ what the hell¡­? I look down at the phone. It seems in my haste I accidently pressed wrong speed dial button. Huh. I was sure it was this one. After typing it in manually, I rise the phone to my ear and straighten. My eyes open wide as I see the moment black sports car is rammed into by truck. The driver must have fallen asleep or something since I didn¡¯t hear the sounds of braking. The speed was so high that both of the cars toppled over. Wholly sh**t¡­ ¡°¡­ Police, what¡¯s your emergency? ¡° I¡¯ve missed part of what was said but at least I¡¯m connected¡­ ¡°I¡¯ve just s¡­.¡± I started to say but without a warning it was as if my mouth was filled with water. I couldn¡¯t speak¡­ What the hell? ¡­I looked down¡­ the f**k¡­? ¡­there is this white round object¡­ sticking out of my chest¡­ ¡­ looking up I see the truck filled to the brim with these white objects¡­ the thing on my chest¡­ red fluid is gushing out of one end of this ¡­ what¡­ pipe? ¡­ ¡­ ¡®Who the hell makes white pipes?¡¯ I think as I topple to the side and vomit blood. ¡­ Laying on the ground I hear the clatter and noises from the cellphone that fallen next to me. ¡­ The last thing I see is the old hag looking at me from behind of some trash pile in the distance. ¡­ -|- -|- -|- -|- -|- -|- ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ I wake up in the dark. Stretching little bit, like always, does not make me shake off the desire for further oblivion. Huh that was hell of a dream. I understand having occasional nightmare from time to time but that was waaay over the top. The vividness and brutality of it makes me shiver a little bit even now. Though I bet in the morning I will forget all about, it like I usually do. It¡¯s still dark so let me rest a bit more. ¡­ Huh it¡¯s little bit to dark ¡­ Maybe someone closed the heavy metal shutters that are on ground level above my merger window¡­ Sleep sleep¡­ ¡­ 1 Sheep¡­ 2 Sheeps¡­ 3 Sheeps¡­ 4 Sheeps¡­ ¡­ZZZzzzZZZzzzZZZzzz¡­ -|- -|- -|- -|- -|- -|- Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡­ And again I wake up in the dark. The hell? Why is it so dark? The shutters huh¡­ Or maybe I overslept and it¡¯s night again¡­ I¡¯m sleepy head and I sometimes managed to lie there for hours on end until it got dark again¡­but due to the money problems and day to day duties forced on me, I don¡¯t have that luxury anymore. I have to choice but to get up and check what time is it. Trying to get up results in hitting my head on something. Damn it. I grab my head in reflex and lie down again. Somehow something feels wrong¡­ The pain is quite dull and it¡¯s like¡­ My scalp is waaaaay to smooth¡­ where the hell is all my hair!? Trying to feel out edge of my bed I find the wall. On both sides. What the f**k!? Moving my hands upwards I shortly reach the ceiling I hit my head on. It¡¯s so close that I cannot even stand up!! ¡­. !? Is it coffin or something!? Moving little bit upwards and downwards the bed I reach the same solid obstacle¡­ Coffin¡­ F**king coffin¡­ I start Screaming with all my might, only to realize the voice is not coming out. I grab for my throat¡­ but there are only bones under my fingers¡­ the spine¡­ I grabbed my own spine¡­ I start trashing around in utter panic. The moments of pure terror lasted a while¡­ but how long can someone stay hysteric? After a while you just adapt, and so did I. Touching here and there I found out I¡¯m definitely dead. Totally and unquestionably dead. There are only bones and some clothes, inside the coffin. Coffin ¡­ dead¡­. In coffin¡­ ¡­ Damn¡­ calm down¡­ calm down¡­ ¡­. Alright. My grandma told me to always try find something positive about any given situation. Since I¡¯m dead then I don¡¯t need air. Huuraaay I have plenty of time. I once watched a movie where terrorists buried some unlucky bastard in a coffin. It was constant fight for time. From beginning to the end of movie he was in this stupid coffin with only cellphone¡­ wait! Cellphone! Maybe I have something with me!! I pat myself down more thoughtfully this time. Some rags of clothes in soo bad state even with light it would be hard to discern what they are ¡­ Nothing of worth on them or in the remnants of pockets I found¡­ Seems one of my ribs is broken through¡­f**k¡­ for now I will put off the checking if something is inside the rib cage¡­ I get shivers thinking about it¡­ to frigging scary for now¡­ hell how did I get shivers again? Aren¡¯t I skeleton or something? ¡­ I guess phantom feelings apply even after death huh¡­ Time for checking the¡­ bottom part ¡­ thinking of it as an bed creeps me out but it seems that in the end it¡¯s the most proper description. Even through my flesh is gone, and clothes degraded to unrecognizable state, the pillow and some kind of thick fabric padding are still there. Checking the corners and all around me I found two things. First one is piece of bone. Seems that it¡¯s little curved¡­ so after a closer examination and trying this and that¡­ i figured out it¡¯s the missing part of my broken rib. Well who¡¯s bones would there be here but mine? HaHa. Sigh¡­ The second thing that I found out is that contrary to my previous fears this coffin is not sealed perfectly. All the goo of my decaying flesh and brain matter must have gone somewhere right? Three of the bottom corners have small cracks in them and are quite clean, while the forth had my rib bone stuck in it and thin layer of dry slime. Seems like there is nothing of use here except for my own bones and the pillow. And yeah pillow is important. Hmm I guess it¡¯s time to panic again. Wholly f**ck. Alright, alright, easy, easy, calm down me! Well I guess I¡¯m dead so I don¡¯t have anything else to loose huh. That has it¡¯s own merits. Not worrying about food expenses for example. But who knows? Maybe I have to eat flesh like the zombies do? Ugh gross¡­ Hey wait. I remember watching some horror movies where there were undead like me¡­ And they always were super strong weren¡¯t they¡­ Besides¡­ how does zombie or skeleton rise from the grave huh? It digs itself out!! Ha! That is the way! I see the light!! Well not really but almost. ¡®Kay then. First comes first. The lid. Just touching it around proves that it¡¯s quite sturdy and doesn¡¯t have any holes or cracks like the corners had. Bracing myself I try to push on it. No use, it does not budge. Trying several more times gives same results. Damn¡­ Then maybe¡­ Punching! There¡¯s not much space to get an swing but karate like strike with a twist might work right?¡­ punching it few times in different places ¡­proves of no use either¡­ What now¡­ damn it¡­ Will I stay buried till I go insane or something? No.. no¡­ easy calm down¡­ think of something¡­. Think¡­ Ah! The clean corners!! My body must have been disintegrated by bugs and bacteria. Some of it would definitely seep out by the holes but even so ¡­ there still should have been a lot left!! If the corners are so clean then the water must have sipped in to the coffin from somewhere up above! Then there must be some crack on the upper lid I haven¡¯t noticed before!!! Re-examining the lid with very high attention for details, proves I¡¯m right! There is very small crack in the lid near my knees! Damn, it will be hard to punch there¡­ It¡¯s way too narrow for me to turn around¡­ But it seems like lack of flesh gives me bit more space when pulling my legs in close to the body, making me quite compact little fellow¡­ squeezing myself quite tightly in the bottom part of the coffin I have the crack in easy reach¡­ The punches I used before seem enormous and heavy in comparison, as I¡¯ve completely lost the swinging space. Pushing also gets me nowhere. Damn it¡­ where the hell is all that strength the undead are supposed to have!? And how the hell do they get out of their stupid graves!? With lack of better things to do I start playing with the crack. It¡¯s not wide or brittle and my finger bones simply skittle over it. Seems like they are too big and round huh. Wait¡­ the rib bone! Broken rib bone had jagged edges, didn¡¯t it! Quick search and the rib bone is in my hand. I started scratching away at crack and making it wider bit by bit. It¡¯s quite the slow process but I have plenty of time.
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Chapter 2: More Bones Hanging on Bones Chapter 2 More Bones *scratch* *scratch* *scratch* ¡­. This is quite annoyingly boring process here. Scratching away at lid of my own coffin¡­ The wood is quite hard and sturdy. I would never expect such a good quality of something the dead are buried in. Even though I don¡¯t have any way to tell the time here, at least several hours must have passed. The fruit of my laborious work in reaaaaly confined space is just an elongated nick in the face of the wood. The water must have been leaking inside due to some imperfection of either material itself, or joining point. The glue carpenters use when connecting two pieces might have ran out at that point or simply corroded due to time. In either case, the obstructed and small movement of my hand, coupled with the thinness of this lid, might prove that simply sawing at it with my meagre rib bone will take weeks if not months. I would go mad from boredom by then. That is definitely not a happy thought. Still, the small jagged indent that I created has to be of at least some use. I just hope it doesn¡¯t destroy my only tool¡­ but I guess it¡¯s worth a try. Making little more space by unwinding myself, I slam the bone into the groove I created. Ah success! It went little bit deeper! Now time for the tricky part of moving it around¡­. No¡­ seems it does not budge¡­. Damn¡­ time to risk it. Lying flat on my back I move to the upper part of the coffin, brace myself, and kick with all my might downwards on to the bone. Success! The bone shifted making the crack bigger! It spreads in straight line top to bottom. Then it must be connecting point huh. Shifting the bone from side to side and working here and there proves to give some results so I keep going at it. I¡¯m lucky it¡¯s on the edge, near one of the walls. Opening the crack that goes through whole length might have been too difficult, but with it near of one of the sides at least one part of the lid has been made more vulnerable. The fact that it goes lengthwise gives me easier access to it. One solid swing between the crack and the wall, on the spot that looks weakest, and my bony fist plows through to the other side. Part of the wood and dirt fall on top of my shoulder. Good good! Now I just have to swipe all the debris down to one side and work the hole a bit larger. But first I¡¯d better check how deeply I¡¯m buried. My hand and arm easily goes through the small hole. There¡¯s not much flesh to obstruct it and the range of movements I can make is much wider. Luckily the earth is little damp and is not falling uncontrollably. It is easily workable. All the dirt I scooped out is placed in the furthest corners. Little bit of work and I cannot reach any further upwards. Damn it. Seems I¡¯m buried quite deep. I guess I have to get more reach by moving into the hole more than just my arm. Widening the hole and then busting some of the lid goes smoothly. It¡¯s still time consuming so I just make it barely large enough so that I can squeeze through. Down on my, ah so nice and cozzy bed it already started getting uncomfortably tight. Longer reach and good support quickly proves crucial. After few more scoops of earth I find granite stone lid. Rotten luck again. I seem to be buried in traditional fashion of my region, with very big slab of rock covering rectangular pedestal like structure, at the head of which is headstone and engraved nameplate. That has its pluses and minuses. Usually the slab is removable and they burry members of family on top of one another. I bet if I dug down I would find my grandmother. I¡¯m also veeery lucky that no one was buried atop of me yet, since there seems to be enough space for it left. All being told, it also means that for the graveyard keeper¡¯s sake the slab should be light enough and can be slid across the stone pedestal. That still means heavy. When I was alive I bet I would not be able to move it. But who knows? At least I have good perch now. I just hope my bones do not break. *gsshh* *gsshh* *gsshhhh* sound of stone craping stone. Light! Damn finally I see something! With a bit of effort I slowly peak out. Cemetery. Go figures. There are plenty of other graves all around but nothing seems to be moving in the immediate vicinity except for the branches. The area is filled with the trees and clumps of bushes disorderly sticking out between the graves. Also seems like it has not been cleaned in a while since there are old leaves, dried flowers and burned out candles on top of most graves. I guess it¡¯s safe to go out. Slipping out something catches my attention. The bench next to my grave. Just behind it there is this huuuge oak. On around knee level the trunk splits into two even halves, which grow at an angle to each other, making it look as if there were two trees here. There¡¯s no way I would mistake this tree for any else. The problem is, the last time I¡¯ve seen it, it was less than a meter high. Looking around on my grave I confirm my suspicion. Even through the engraved plate is broken and unreadable there is no way in hell I would mistake this grave. I was coming here frequently with my parents when I was little. It¡¯s actually my Grand-grandfather that must be below my coffin. Damn. At least I know where I am. This cemetery is nothing to joke about. I lived in huge tri-city, spawning across the banks of a gulf. The growth of the cities was hampered in two directions, one being the sea, and the other being enormous national forest reserve. Over the years that made the three cities merge into one another, taking up all the available space. Surrounded on all sides by the sea of trees this cemetery is housing the dead from all three cities. That is quite the number. Of course there are smaller ones scattered all over but this one takes the cake. It spawns hills and valleys on enormous area, to the point that back in the day I actually did get lost several times. *sshh* Some scraping noises snap me back from my reverie. I quickly crouch behind one of the tombstones and listen. *sshh* There it is again. I peek out to look in the direction of the sound. But I can¡¯t see anything of note. Must be too far away. Slowly taking light steps I move in that direction. Hard going through. In some places the rows of the graves are packed very tightly to the point of touching each other, and I do not wish to step on any of them. But I am quite thin now so I somehow manage. My intended resting place, like most graves in this cemetery, is on hillside. To accommodate for the slope, each row of graves is little bit higher or lower then the other. The level difference depends on the incline of the hill. The shuffling seems to be coming from the same row I came out from the ground on. So it¡¯s more the matter of squeezing through from time to time than jumping down. After another rounding huge tree I suddenly see it. The white is easily noticeable in the meagre starlight coming through the foliage. There is skeleton shuffling it¡¯s feet between the graves. I stand there dumb struck. So I am not alone huh. The noise I was hearing was its bones scrapping on the gravestones from time to time. ¡°Hey there¡± - I try to say to it but no voice is coming out. Figures. Wait. I would not like to be called ¡®it¡¯ either. Though there¡¯s no way to tell its gender so¡­ Well¡­ judging by height and shoulder width I will assume ¡°he¡± is appropriate. Stupid irrelevant thoughts seem to be my defence mechanism for stressful situations huh. Well no use just standing here staring from the distance. ¡®He¡¯s¡¯ facing away from me and I do not wish to startle him. There is not enough walking space for two persons to pass each other so I overtake him one row above. Stepping out some distance in front of him, I¡¯m surprised at lack of his reaction. He simply continuous his unhurried pace as if I wasn¡¯t there. As I stand there, I take a closer look at the thing before me. He¡¯s definitely in worse condition then I am. No visible tissue or clothes whatsoever. Rib cage is empty but whole. Bones on both his legs and arms have visible cracks on them. Several of the teeth are missing and there is big hole in his skull with cracks spreading in all directions. But the most disturbing fact is the red glow in the place where eyes used to be. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. I wonder if mine also glow like that. *Brrrrr* That makes me shiver¡­ I try to get his attention by waving my hand. Still no reaction. He¡¯s so close I can touch him, but it¡¯s like he can¡¯t see me. Trying all kinds of things proves useless. I even poked him and he didn¡¯t react. Just the moment his shuffling gate would make him bump into me, he stopped for a while and then made slight turn as if trying to pass by me. Seems like no-one¡¯s home. He either spent too much time trapped inside his coffin and went mad or was keeping to movie standards from the get-go. John then! I will call him John! Ha! I always wanted to have an pet-skeleton!. Hahaha Well jokes aside. I guess I will search my surroundings little bit more. Leaving John to his own devices I start following my row of graves to the bigger tract that should be somewhere close. The direction I should take to reach there is easy to choose as I¡¯m on familiar gentle hill. Keeping the down slope on my right should take me where I want. Looking around all I see is just sea of graves illuminated by starlight. Though now that I think about it, the amount of starlight coming through the foliage should not allow me to see this clearly. The things that I use for seeing, whatever they are, seem to do more than just give off evil feeling huh. Seeing almost perfectly with just tiny bit of light definitely is useful ability to have. Shame that it does not include perfect pitch-black vision. My panic in the coffin would be sooooo much more organized then. I finally reached the familiar gravel path. One side winds up the hill and quickly disappears with its twists and turns. The other one leads down to main tracts. I might see clearly despite the dark, but the sheer mass of headstones, bushes and trees of various kinds, made it impossible to see far, even back when I was here alive and kicking during the day time. I guess I will head in the direction of the main entrance of the cemetery. It¡¯s about forty minutes to get there. I should be able to find some clues that way. But before I head out, I walk upslope several meters to the water point. Before our each visit, my grandmother always used to stop there. Next to big trash container, filled to the brim with dead flowers and spent candles, stands rack and small stone structure with rusty faucet and drain. On the rack there are always some watering cans, rakes and other gardening utensils ready to be borrowed by the families to clean the graves of their dearest. I pick one of several small spades that are hanging there. The biggest I can find. It¡¯s not much but I can at least try to use it for defence and as a dull knife. Its rusty, wide and short so I doubt it will be of any use. Still, seeing as there are others similar to me, who knows what creatures might be lurking out here. I turn around and start following the path downhill at slow, careful pace. Wouldn¡¯t want to jump straight out into maws of some monster now would I? Lower on the hill I notice the graves are steadily getting cleaner and cleaner, with occasional candle flickering here and there. Seems like the cemetery is being in use huh. I wonder if that is good sign or not. Seeing my parts so run down I was starting to suspect it might have been abandoned. But those are clear indications that live people are coming here regularly. I bet it¡¯s not during night hours though. If I remember correctly except for the special religious days the cemetery was always closed between five in the evening and seven in the morning. There is only one road skirting the furthest edge of the cemetery with almost no parking space. During the day time there are plenty of metropolitan free buses, with last one leaving at half past the closing time or the like. So normally there should be no stragglers during the night time, except for the graveyard keeper. After a while of walking something catches my attention between the trees. Perking up I slow down even more and very carefully start moving in that direction. I¡¯m getting used to my legs taking up less space, which allows me to squeeze through between the graves that would normally block my path. The differences in levels are also an issue. Still, the flash of movement I have seen must have been really far away, so it still takes some time. Approaching bushes that were in general direction of the movement I noticed I start hearing more of the rustling noises and scraping sounds. Coming to a stop I peek out from behind the bush. There they are. Five of them. Three skeletons and two zombies. They didn¡¯t notice me, but I don¡¯t think that matters. They have the same feel to them as John did. Cracked bones, with some parts missing here and there and vacant stares in space. One is even missing jaw bone. As for Zombies the only difference would be that they have plenty of decaying flesh loosely attached to the bones here and there. Their stride is heavier and they also have remnants of clothes on them. To my surprise they are not moaning or grunting as I would expect of them. Utterly silent. All five of them are simply wandering about, seemingly oblivious of one another and anything around them. The only thing that is keeping them together in such proximity seems to be the fact, that they are on small gravel clearing. The slope on this hill is on rather sharp side and this place might have been meant as a resting point. For that purpose it has been artificially evened out more than usual and all the graves here are facing inwards. The ones that are reversed in comparison with the rest of the graveyard, have little metal barriers and sudden six meter drop behind them. On the other hand up slope has, in addition to high incline, a natural barrier of dense bushes that I¡¯m hiding in. No wonder they seem to be gathering here. They must have wandered in from above. The only way out is either sharp staircase on the left or even steeper ¨C ladder like - down-ward staircase to the right that I would have problems using even when I was still alive. Even though they have vacant, unseeing gazes, they seem to recognize and avoid any obstacles they encounter. As I watch, huge piece of, what I think must have been muscular arm at some point, falls off to the ground. The zombie it belonged to didn¡¯t even notice. As soon as it hits the ground I hear thunderous crashing sounds from behind and left of me. As I look around scared, the creature that is just blur of shadows passes at tremendous speed. It crashed through yet another clump of bushes and before I knew it, stopped on one of the far graves. It held to its mouth in both of its claw like hands, the piece of rotten meat that just dropped on the ground. The movement of tearing the flesh brought its head from huddled crouch to almost straight position, enabling me to see more clearly what it was. The shape of a human, glistening with gore and red exposed muscles. There is no skin or hair whatsoever, and instead kind of wet red membrane is covering its face in patches. All of the visible teeth are jaggedly pointed, with both hands and feet that are more like claws then what they used to be. Only small red holes where you would expect ears. The starlight accentuates the wetness of perpetually rotting meat. In my horror I¡¯ve shifted my weight and slipped a bit, making a noise. The ghoul¡¯s face snapped in my direction and froze. If I had any possibility to do so I would shit myself right then and there. The creature¡¯s mad gaze with its lidless eyes looked more like that of a feral animal then one of intelligent being. Slowly it lifted its head and sniffed the air several times. When it went back to eating I collapsed to the ground. It¡¯s the first time I thought that I¡¯m lucky I¡¯m already dead.
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Chapter 3: Bony Dummies Hanging on Bones Chapter 3 Bony Dummies The shock of it. I never thought something could be this scary in real life. All the movies I watched, games I played and books I read, never prepared me for looking the death in the face. I might have already died once, but that event was too sudden and too unreal for me to feel fear. The hysterical panic I experienced in the coffin paled in comparison since it was situational, without any single point to focus on. But this¡­ This was horror incarnate crouching before me and deciding on my fate. Logically thinking, there''s not much it can do. No flesh to rip, no blood to spill, no nerves to shatter. It could only scatter my bones and extinguish my consciousness. I''m already dead after all¡­ but still. The feelings are not prone to logic. Luckily, the release of its gaze on me broke that feeling and I fallen to ground. Skidding few meters down slope I found myself in the midst of them. Completely ignored just like with my little pet-John. What a relief. In daze, as if after adrenaline rush, I think to myself that this situation is sort of funny. Bones lying there dead in middle of cemetery surrounded by zombies, skeletons and a ghoul. I really do fit into this crowd don''t I? Picking myself up, I warily look around for any signs of reaction from them, but still nothing. Even ghoul now completely ignores me. Calming down a little I start looking for provisional knife that I dropped, but it''s nowhere to be seen. Most likely it got stuck somewhere in the bushes. One dry broken branch is sticking out of my ribcage so I try to pull on it. Hard going through since it has irregular shape, with hook like protrusions where other pieces used to grow out. It got stuck on my spine. I pushed instead, and it went out smoothly on the other side. God bless small distractions. At least I''m sure now there''s no flesh left in my chest. In order to get rid of any remains of the branch I am inspecting my insides for the first time, when something catches my attention. It¡¯s quite hard to see because it¡¯s far up, hanging in there near the spine but¡­. "HHHHEEEEEEEEYYYYYOOOOO" Suddenly deep loud prolonged shout echoes through the valley. As one all heads turn towards the direction the voice seems to be coming from. All sorts of things started happening at the same time. Zombies began to moan and moved in that direction. Ghoul dropped the piece of flesh it was eating and made quick, dog like dash for the drop-off. Using both legs and arms in a blur of a motion, it gained immense speed and leapt of the edge. It then caught the trunk of a tree. Not braking the speed even a bit, in circular motion, using it like some sort of huge friggin dance pole, it dropped down out of sight. Way to scary. No way in hell I could do anything against it with my little gardening spade. All the zombies and skeletons are in process of nearing the edge now. Their movements several times quicker then what they usually are. Even I''m curious too look at what''s happening from the safety of higher elevation, but I doubt that''s their motivation. As I watch first of the skeletons simply stumbled over the small knee-high metal barrier and fell off the cliff-like drop. Before I reached the edge all of them were already down below. Looking at them I could not believe my eyes. They broke to pieces. Hands in one place, legs in other, even one skull was still spinning on top of a grave. But they still moved. As I watched legs started crawling back to the pelvis. Hands picked up missing ribs and put them back into the place. After few moments the one missing its head, stood up and shuffled little bit seemingly disoriented, but with bit of fumbling homed in on its target and put it back on the stump of the spine. They all looked as if nothing happened. Mirror image of themselves before the fall. I stared astounded. Guess I have nothing to worry about even if ghoul dismembers me. The zombies on the other hand came out little bit worse for wear. They did not scatter about like the zombies did, because their flesh prevented it. But the damage shows. Arms that stayed at odd angles and strangely flat areas that used to be round. Splashes of rotten flesh where they landed. One of the two hit his head on the corner of the marble slab, making huge indent in its skull. But other than that, both didn''t seem to be affected too much by the incident. What caught my attention through, was that one of them when standing up used headstone as support and kept its grip on it. The thick slab of a rock crumbled like a piece of styrofoam. I wouldn''t like to be squeezed by that hand. Our, oh so fragile pieces of rotting flesh, seem to have strength of superman. As I watch, the little herd of the five undead is already making their way down hill. No good. I¡¯m too curious to leave it at that and I do not want to be left behind. I approached the edge with caution and found the impossibly steep staircase. Carefully, as if I was using the ladder, I back into it and start to descend. Wouldn''t want to fall now. I don''t have the confidence in my puzzle solving skills. Reaching the bottom I quickly turn around and follow. With my superior movement coordination it doesn''t take long before I catch up to them. Matching their pace I take more care to scan my surroundings properly. The slope is steadily getting gentler. Traversing it at an angle, we are changing the rows every dozen of graves or so. From what I can remember if we went directly downhill we would get out on one of the main paths, which in the direction we are heading, then leads to big circular clearing, with four more paths branching off in all directions. As it stands, me and my pack seem to be heading directly for that place using much more difficult path. Well, I don''t really mind since all the trees and graves in the dark of the night are providing really good cover from the prying eyes. The biggest factor betraying our progress would be the noise the zombies started making. The shout we heard was bit strange through. The distance we already covered is quite large and I would never suspect for someone''s voice to carry that clearly, so far, in such densely overgrown environment. I''m sure the moans of brainiacs in my party are not reaching more than ten meters away. But as we get closer their groans start getting lauder and lauder, as if in anticipation. I slowed down to be on the furthest end of the pack. To my surprise I realize that there are nine of us. Without my noticing, one zombie and two skeletons joined our little happy family. Seems like the moans are not just for show. I see a lot of light in the distance, so I let them get little ahead of me. Better safe than sorry. Closer scrutiny of the surroundings reveal that all the graves here are in pristine condition, with fresh flowers and candles that are still flickering, even though it''s so late in the night. That is heart-warming but I don''t suppose it''s a good sign. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. *gshh* *crash* "''re u go!" *swish* The faint noises coming from up ahead are getting more distinct. Between the loud moans of my companions and cacophony of sounds up ahead, I can discern one or two words from time to time. The area here is almost flat and I should be able to see the clearing by now, but the back of my companions and the two rows of graves between us, block my view. Suddenly I hear the scream: "Watch out! There comes another group of them!" I stop at that instant. It''s almost like I''m in a horror movie. The exception being that I''m not one of those heroes repelling hordes of monsters. I am a monster. "Waahahaha!! Look at them come! This is FUN!" "Don''t toy with them Alex. We''re here to train. Not to play." "Come on Boss, let the girl have some fun. It''s not like we''re in any danger" ... well, that sure is an waking call for me. I quickly crouch behind some headstones and very slowly and quietly approach, as my brethren die en mase. When I''m close enough to the edge, I take a peak between two of the headstones that are quite elevated and obstructed behind dense foliage. From this spot I''m totally hidden and at the same time I have perfect view of what, I can now easily call a battlefield. The first thing I see, are the last two of my pack being engulfed in flames. Rest of them are either lying burnt to crisp closer to the trees, or broken into really small pieces at the feet of the towering figures. But they are not the ones that draw my sight next. The thing that is most eye-catching is the huge three meter high and one meter wide blue portal in the middle of the clearing. As I''m staring at it, human figure clad in heavy duty plate armour is stepping out of it with unhurried stride. What the f**k!? The circle of men and women dressed in different kinds of medieval looking armour, were fighting the hordes of zombies and skeletons coming from all sides of the clearing. Most of the humans in the first row had almost identical low quality leather armour with some kind of blue emblem visible on their chest. Only their weapons differed from one to another. Interspersed among them at even distance are people of visibly better stature and armour. To the back were ones with similar looking long robes decorated by that blue design and carrying long staffs of varied shapes and sizes. In the middle of the circle however, stands a group of people clad from head to toe in plate armour, to the point I cannot discern their individual genders. Though I cannot be sure of precise numbers, there seem to be at least one hundred of live humans gathered here. If I had them, my eyes would start bulging out when above one of the robbed guys small ball of fire started forming. Soon after, it soared through the air. Lone zombie near the edge of the clearing was consumed by its inferno of flames. This is freaking nuts! What the hell, did I wake up in some fantasy world or something!? But I know this place!! When I was nine on this very crossroad I lost some money and went around looking under all the pebbles and stones, crying for an hour until some old lady gave me sweets and kept me company until parents came!! There''s no way in hell I got teleported somewhere else!! They are the invaders damn it!! This is my cemetery! I remember it! I remember where all the nine family members are buried!! And my friend! My best friend who died on motorbike accident few days after my 18th birthday!! Damn it!! Damn it!!! I know this cemetery like the back of my hand!!! Who are they to be disgracing it with their laughter while slaughtering and desecrating the dead!! I boil with rage at them. Looking silently as they kill more and more dead emerging from the surrounding forest covered graveyard. But soon the amount slows to bare trickle. With sporadically lone marauders coming into the clearing here and there. Taking in the carnage of piles upon piles of bones and corpses lying all around, I realise that there was a pattern to their slaughter. First came the lone but agile and quick ghouls. They were dealt with by the more skilled and better equipped veterans, which then proceeded to disperse evenly between the lower ranks. Since they were too strong for the noobies, the mages picked off all the zombies from the distance. Sporadically lucky one that slipped through was dealt with by hardened killers. The easy skeletons were left to be trained on. The bastards. So I was to be the training dummy, huh? The shout of someone in the heavily armoured group brought me back from my furious contemplations. "Listen up! The main force will now proceed to the target destination! Trainee squads from one to eight will swipe the four sectors surrounding this square! Squads nine and ten will follow us into the sector five! Carry out!" The circle disintegrated with people forming groups of eight. One veteran, one mage and six trainees in each. This cannot be good. As I watch, two of such groups are beginning to head in my direction. I quickly turn and start going the way I came, trying to be as quiet as possible. *Crash* I look at my bony feet. Along the way, I seem to have knocked over one of the glass candle containers. I practically feel their gazes on my back. "Hey look! There''s one, over there!" I start running at full speed. "What the-!? It''s runner! It''s f**ing runner! Burn it! Burn it before it gets away!'' "Too many trees!" "Run you morons! We must catch it whatever it takes!" It does not look good. They did not mistake me for a ghoul, zombie or regular skeleton. It seems I might not be the first one of my kind. If I don''t get enough distance between me and the horde of 16 angry humans that are slowly gaining on me I doubt it will matter though. I better think of something.
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Chapter 4: Obstacle course of Bones Hanging on Bones Chapter 4: Obstacle course of Bones The chase is on. Whatever I do, I will never be able to outrun them by sheer speed. I might be far quicker than average skeleton, but I still did not get used to my new state of being. Besides I was never good at running through obstacle courses. The bunch of scary humans behind my back have solid grasp on it. Each time I change the row of graves I¡¯m forced to slow down. They on the other hand, seem to change them as they please, without losing even fraction of their speed. That means they see in the dark at least as good as I do. What are they mutated awls or something? Either way, the place where I met my fallen comrades, steep hill and the ladder like staircase. That is supposed to be my goal, but at this rate I¡¯m not going to make it. It requires too many changes in rows that come with loss of speed. I keep on the highest speed I can manage on the current lane of graves, abandoning that plan. ¡°Damn it!¡± Someone shouts. Suddenly I feel jolt and quickly look around. The two veterans, are closest to me, but they have put themselves on my sides. The moment I change direction in either way, I would shorten distance separating me from one of them. The bunch of trainees, which in my opinion look way to strong and well-armed, are directly behind me. The mages, are far off behind everyone. At least I won¡¯t get burned to crisp. While I look in the middle of a run, second by second our distance is slowly disappearing. ¡°Move your asses people! We¡¯re almost on it!¡± ¨C shouts one of the veterans. I must do at least something! Looking ahead, there is absolutely no change in the landscape that I can use to my advantage! But then it¡¯s as if bulb flicked on above my head. The jolt! I felt no pain and no discomfort what so ever, but something must have hit me! I take a look around and sure enough there is some kind of strange curved blade embedded in two of my ribs. I reach for it in haste but stumble and almost fall. Whoa. Better be careful now. I lost a bit of speed because of that, but I¡¯m still in the safe. Reaching for it more carefully, I manage to dislodge it. Bringing it before me I¡¯m quite surprised. Why the hell do they have all these weird weapons? Isn¡¯t it fine with one or two standardized types of weapons, like their armours are? I just pulled from out of my back fancy looking scimitar. This is situation is soooo f**king surreal. Who the hell throws such a weapon? Well it¡¯s not like I¡¯m complaining for the gift or anything. ¡°Alex! You imbecile! Now it¡¯s armed damn it! If you¡¯re not the one to take it down, you¡¯ll be in sh*t load of trouble for this!!¡± ¨C shouts one of the veterans. ¡°Yessir!¡± ¨Cfemale voice shouts back from just behind me. That psychotic girl again! I¡¯m ready to kiss her for her stupidity. Now I at least have a chance! Another glimpse back and I see in a horror that they are almost upon me. All three rows filled with them to the brim. The red haired mountain of a woman with mad look in her eyes and feral grin, is at the lead of the pack. And this is supposed to be a girl!? She¡¯s holding enormous looking two handed greatsword supported on her shoulder and ready for a swing. Wholly sh**t!!! No wonder she threw that fancy stick of a sword at me!! No more time!!! No more time!!! I look ahead and with flash of inspiration I grab with my left hand the trunk of thin sapling standing few meters tall. Under normal circumstances it would never support my weight. It was a bet I had to take, but luckily it withstood my abuse while I used it as a pivot point. In big wide arc motion, I made total turn around. Speed and inertia of this movement, together with the snapback of the tree when I completed the turn, wrenched my whole left arm out of its socket. My hand was left still gripping it, while I ploughed through the mob of people. The shocked looks on their faces, were almost comical. Flat of the blade facing forward was proving to be good enough shield. The seminar, stood up to the abuse admirably. I was holding it at upper chest level with it¡¯s tip ending just above my head. Luckily the only blows it had to endure were sporadic feeble slashes of the weakest trainees left at the back of the group. The front group didn¡¯t have enough time to react to my sudden change of direction. As I cleared last of them I made quick glance back to see that my beloved, honourable, lifesaving little tree, was already in last stages of topping over. It was cut cleanly through by that brute woman. Slashed at the height where my neck should have been if I made the turn just seconds later. She has incredible reach with that sword. ¡°GWWRRAAAAAAAAA¡± ¨C incoherent rage filled roar came from the muscle mountain of a woman. And she¡¯s the trainee!? God damn I don¡¯t want to think what pros are like. With sudden realization I snap back to scan what¡¯s in front of me. Sure enough there¡¯s robbed figure in the distance, making weird movements with one hand and holding up high long wooden staff, crowned with a crystal bal. There is ark of electricity starting to snap between them and without further ado I drop to the side. The headstone I roll behind explodes into thousands of pieces. Time is way more precious than gold now. But I¡¯m forced to stop still in order to take my bearings. The lack of limb slightly shifting centre of my weight, coupled with shockwave, caused my roll to change into rollercoaster. The cloud of dust and stone shards raining down also contributed to the confusion. Running while not knowing which direction I¡¯m facing, is generally not a good idea. Luckily the uniform direction of all the graves in the vicinity is dead giveaway where my goal should be. This time I choose to sprint straight uphill. It''s way more difficult as every three or so meters I have to squeeze between, or jump over the headstones. I''m betting on the fact that this might tire them out enough for me to start increasing the distance. They are mortal with limited stamina after all. This way will also allow me to miss the dubious pleasure of meeting the other fellow with bazookas shooting out of his hands. This is the same hill I met my first pack on. I''m sure to find that very steep incline sooner or later and if I¡¯m lucky enough, I might even get to use treacherous ladder like stairway from before. I''m hundred percent sure they would not be able to climb that thing more than one person at a time. It would also be very easy to defend or ambush the ones climbing it. As I jump over one of the many graves in my way, another lightning bolt strikes to my left in front of me. Luckily the other mage is not as precise as his quicker fellow. ¡°Move it you lazy bastards!!!¡± I hear one of the veterans shout. With the advantages of still quite gentle slope, greater speed and being able to go diagonally instead of following my patch, they should be closing in on me quite quickly. But instead it seems that most of the trainees failed to properly react to sudden change of situation. To the point that few of them collided with each other and fallen to the ground. Resulting chaos slowed down whole bunch considerably. Still the berserker woman, slimmer of the veterans, and three others have detached from group and are closing in quite fast. No matter the number, once someone catches up to me that will be over. The tirelessness of them is really scary. When I was alive, just one tenth of the distance we covered just now would have me down on the ground coughing my lungs out. Just how long will it take for them to ease down!? I guess it¡¯s better to not count on it. For all I know they might be cyborgs with nuclear powered cores or something. They sure are big enough for that. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. I have to slow them down somehow! But how¡­. I glance at the scimitar. I have only one hand and there¡¯s no way I¡¯m throwing this away to gain few seconds. It''s the first time I held such a thing. I¡¯m not any kind of a swordsman, but if push comes to shove, this might be my last ray of hope. Ah! I know! I extend my arm out as far as it goes and stab myself with all my might. The blade securely lodges between my ribs. One problem solved. Finally having my hand free I immediately bend down and scoop up glass candle holder that is still flickering. In one swift motion I straighten out, turn and throw it at the closest of my pursuers. To my surprise it¡¯s a perfect square hit and the veteran that is leading crashes with huge impact into the headstone he was just about to jump over. He was waaay too close for my comfort and if not for this success, shortly after I would be the one lying on the ground. Using this short stop I take quick look to the left. I see that at least the mages have stamina comparable to the one I used to have. They are barely visible far in the distance, standing there and making complicated gestures, with staffs secured to their backs. They sure are doing some magic, but with so many obstacles and trees between us, I¡¯m confident anything they throw straight at me, would stop far too short. On the right, not far from me, are the four remaining trainees, with the female gorilla at the lead. I turn around and resume my full on obstacle course. Luckily the slope is already rising sharply and the cliff like staircase can be seen in the distance. If only i manage to get to the top, i can use the elevation to my advantage at keeping them off of me. Maybe I can even get rid of one or two. Suddenly I feel a chill run through me. On this hunch I take another quick look at the mages. Surprisingly one is lying on the ground while the other is missing. The hell? I just hope anything that happened was in my favour. You should not look gifted horse in the mouth, but with all that¡¯s happening I prefer to embrace the paranoia. Few moments of my vigilant attention to details all around me and still nothing happened. ¡­. Giving a mental sigh I check how far the four are. There! Finally. I thought it would never happen! The speed with which the four are gaining on me has dropped. With this I will be able to reach my, oh so desired, impossible stairway. Now the only one that still has a chance at catching me is the mountain girl. One and the same. My unintentional saviour and worst nightmare in one person. From the beginning she was the one that wanted to kill me the most. I doubt even this staircase will stop her chase. I might as well risk it again. Being used to the motions already, without losing too much speed, I pick up and throw burned out plastic candle box. She seems to be ready for it, and brushes it aside without slowing even a little. That only wasted me some time. I¡¯m almost at the feet of my goal and just seconds away from jumping up on to the staircase but something seems wrong. I cannot put my finger on it, but still¡­. The grave with headstone split in half, is lying directly below it, providing perfect two step launching platform that if used, would get me half way up the staircase in one go. The grave preceding it has no headstone whatsoever, providing the clear space needed for speed up before the jump. Call me paranoiac, but this is way too good to be true. I took the instant decision that can cost me my life. The moment I took the final step and should have jumped up, I dropped down to the ground and hit bottom stair with huge impact. Two things happened at that moment. First was the huge semi-circular blade with handle joining both of its ends slammed into the spot where I would have landed. The second being split second later, when lightning bolt hit the spot few feet above the blade. Either of them would without any doubt end my second life. I will definitely believe my instincts more now. Not wasting any moment, I quickly start climbing. I have no clue how the mage got in range, but I¡¯ve seen this blade on the back of veteran that crashed into the grave. I guess he¡¯s not in command just for his speed and age. The climb is very hard with one arm missing, but the additional footholds of that weapon and hole made by lighting are proving useful. As I move I hear the shouts and curses of everyone involved. I ignore them. After just few moments I¡¯m on the top. Risking it, I take a quick look around. It seems the veteran in the far back got smart. Instead of mobbing this small passage, he divided his slower trainees into two even groups of four. Sending them in both directions along the hill, he took the lead of group to my right, while the other was running at the mage to my left. One or both of these groups will have possibility to encircle me if they find better way up. The mage seems to be frantically searching through pouches at his belt. The dauntless veteran with three others are dozen or so meters behind the redhead. The flames of bloodlust in her eyes are matching her hair colour perfectly. She is about to use the launching platform. The greatsword is stashed securely at her back and instead, both of her hands free while she¡¯s holding another scimitar by her teeth. Where the hell is she keeping all those weapons and why the hell I didn¡¯t think of that!? The next moment she¡¯s in the air and I don¡¯t want to see more. Going deeper into the small clearing I try to pull out blade stuck in my chest. As I¡¯m hidden from their sight I hear laud curse of the mage. Seems like the thing he was looking for was meant for me. Finally succeeding at getting the blade out, I hear crashing sound behind me and turn around. Having one foot and one hand on ground to support her, the monster of a woman is already rising to my level. With the other hand she¡¯s reaching for her biggest weapon. The sound I heard was scimitar hitting the stones as she released it. She must have took it with her only in case I try to attack her when she is climbing or reaching the top. Which was my intention by the way. Now there¡¯s only about three meters between us. I can clearly see how she¡¯s heaving with every breath. The face that otherwise would be called beautiful, is now distorted with feral grin of joyful predator about to tear into it¡¯s pray. "Now this is what I call fun..." says my nemesis. I feel phantom chills run down my spine.
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Chapter 5: Bony little friend Hanging on Bones Chapter 5: Bony little friend ... Red hair, like burning flames, enormous chest heaving with each breath, and beautiful face distorted by desire. Damn, there are guys that have a hard-on from that, don¡¯t they? Put the double bladed battle axe in her hands and with over two meters of height she will be perfect Valkyrie. Talk about their strange tastes huh? Sadly even through today is the day I''m more popular to both genders then ever back when I was alive, it''s really not a time for that. I duck to the left as the greatsword passes in wide swing diagonally to me. I have plenty space to spare. Whatever she''s trying to do, she clearly doesn''t know how to use that sword. Even me, being complete amateur, realise that swing shouldn''t be so wide and slow. Most of all, your sword should not get stuck, half buried into the headstone of nearest grave. Damn, I know that sword is heavy and sharp... but really? Shouldn''t the stone scatter and brake or something? Well it''s not like I¡¯m complaining. Dashing closer to her I try for a slash, but her armour and my lack of momentum cause my blade to skid off to the side. I might have had my weapon too close to her when I began the swing, so I guess I should have tried for a stab. Too late now. Well, inexperienced as she was, since I see one of her friends reaching the top, I will not stay and play. Seriously¡­ the head would have been the best option. I have none skills to boast at either, losing a sure kill chance like that. I run up the other stairway as she curses and scream at me, while trying to free her greatsword. At long last distance opened between us, and I¡¯m betting that even with their monstrous stamina I can keep that up for a while. But I will reach the top of the hill at some point and I doubt I can lose them before that happens. Heading down, no matter whether now or later, would provide them with too many advantages for me to survive even fraction of what I experienced just now. I got to find a way out of this vicious circle of circumstances. Something... something.... Suddenly I run out on the familiar path I used, oh so long ago. I know! I know what to do! Running down on it, I take glance back at where I came from. They are still not within the sight! Good! Good! Up ahead I find what I¡¯m looking for. It''s another one of the watering points. Superb! Before anybody sees me, I jump on top of the garbage container. Luckily the waste was already spilling over the edges and the stuff I stirred up should not rise any suspicions. I burry myself as far as I can and wait. Even through the insides consist of plastic bags and broken glass candle holders, there were plenty of dried out flowers and leaves to muffle the sounds. With the humans shouting and cursing at one another, they were making enough noise to cover up my momentary loudness. After I fallen still nothing should betray me. In the end, who can be more silent than the dead? Huuh that was close. The sound of them approaching reaches me as I am lying there. Either they are strong enough to not care what monsters notice them, or they are too inexperienced to realize they should be quieter. On second though both might be true. From what reaches me, two groups are getting closer. One being Valkyria and her gang from where I came, and the other one directly from below. They are using tract watering points are located at. Soon enough they are just beside me. My rotten luck from hell again at work. They stopped. ¡°Damn, we lost sight of it!!¡± - Trainee ¡°Can¡¯t we use search scroll or something?¡± ¨C Alex ¡°First of all, we don¡¯t have the scroll, it¡¯s with the mages. Second, even if we did, we are in the f***ing cemetery and it would light up almost all of the graves.¡± ¨C says the slower of veterans ¡°Except for running, it doesn¡¯t seem to be skilled in combat or Alex would be dead by now. We split into groups of two and comb the area. But don¡¯t forget it is armed and can kill you if you¡¯re careless.¡± ¨C says the Dauntless veteran. ¡°Yessir¡± all trainees replied in unison. ¡°One more thing. Alex you¡¯re with me, I will not tolerate any more of that, got it?¡± ¡°Yes boss¡­.¡± Grumbles big woman. The sounds of their further conversations get muffled more and more as the four groups get further away from me. After a while they are too far for anything to reach me. Saved¡­. Huh what a relief¡­ I feel as if not one but whole bag of stones just fell off my shoulders. ¡­ I¡¯ll stay here for now though. Let¡¯s wait for them to move so far ahead that there¡¯s no way they could hear me. I¡¯m rally tempted to get out and have a quick peek, but not until I¡¯m more than sure. Besides where do I go from there? To look for more of my kind? I¡¯m much more likely to stumble upon one of the living right now. And I doubt that group of heavily armed and armoured knight like figures, went there for a picnic and shared gossip. Wandering around tonight is not a bright idea. I guess I will have to hide out somewhere until it¡¯s quieter. And I would prefer my own grave from a dumpster for that. ¡°So how do you like this world?¡± ¨C my soul almost jumps out of my bones as I hear the dauntless veteran say that next to my head. Involuntary jerk of surprise shifts glass and moves leaves. My thoughts race at amazing speeds and I would piss myself if I could. How!? Why!? What!!? Did they hear me!? Did they!? What the hell does he mean!? They heard me jerk, right!? ¡°It¡¯s sooo much fun it¡¯s hard to believe man! That fight! The movements of that thing! The chase!! I never imagined ******* would be this much fun!¡± ¨C says the Valkyrie like woman. What the hell was with that garbled word!? But Ahhh¡­. Aaaaah¡­. God please don¡¯t let him have noticed me! The dumb trainee obviously did not since she seems to be much further away. But the guy must be leaning on metal of the garbage container I¡¯m in right now! There¡¯s almost no way he could miss that, damn it!! But still!! Please!!! Don¡¯t let me die again here!!! Damn it!!! ¡°So you gonna buy it from me or not?¡± ¨C Dauntless ¡­ again from centimetres beside me. Wha-? The hell? Come on¡­ it¡¯s not like you¡¯re deaf right? I moved just then right? Why you¡¯re not reacting? You¡¯re veteran, right? Right? ¡°Hahaha, you stupid or something? I only came along on a ride, because you said it¡¯s free try. Your price is way too high. And besides if I put any effort into it, I can even get my boyfriend to present one for me.¡± ¨C says the girl with so much contempt, it¡¯s hard to imagine she was calling him ¡®boss¡¯ few minutes ago. ¡°So you had boyfriend, did you?¡± ¨C says the veteran with bitter tone. ¡°What, you didn''t know? And this¡¯ beaten puppy look¡¯ on your face! Hahaha Simply because I f**ked you once doesn''t mean we are an item you poor skinny asshole. Especially, if you''re trying to sell something!" - The malice in her voice is so thick you can almost slice it. Well, well... lover''s quarrel... I sure didn''t expect it here and now... "...no need to be so cruel Alex. Last chance. Yes or no?" - whoooa ...truly dauntless¡­ the calm bitterness and detachment in his voice is not what I expected.... in his place I would either snap and curse her for all my might, or fall in deep depression.... Though both of them are armed so there are also other options... "No...." ¨C she says with a lot less of her previous verve. "In that case, it¡¯s time for us to part ways. But first, let me give you one last present for the kindness you just displayed." With those words he slams the metal garbage bin with the hilt of his sword. *slam* *slam* *slam* "Come out my bony little friend!! I have a girl here who wants to play with you!!" shouts the Dauntless. I''m surprised beyond any words. It''s such a shock I lie there too confused to move. He knew!! He knew from the beginning!! *slam* *slam* *slam* "Come out and you might have a chance! Don''t, and I will feed you to the dogs myself!!" *slam* *slam* *slam* I scramble for the top of the pile as fast as I can. When I jump out, garbage scatters everywhere. Quick roll to the side and I¡¯m standing up, with the scimitar in my only hand. "Oooh... you still have that thing. Good, good. Better than I thought." - he says nodding and smiling. He then moves a distance away and sheaths his weapon. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. "I will leave you two love birds to yourselves." ¨C With this Dauntless turns and runs off. I see she''s as surprised at this development as I am. No wonder. The big O on her face turns into gritted teeth, before she looks back at me. Not taking eyes from me, she''s already reaching behind her shoulder for the greatsword. To my surprise, her lips crook in smile and the glint of mad joy is returning to her eyes. Damn she recovers fast. I''m still frozen to the spot. "Well, in either case this will be fun..." her huge sword already out and held with both hands, while she''s supporting it by her metal shoulder-pad. That huge thing must be way too heavy, to be kept risen in front like normal swords. It has to be much more suited to decapitating horses and slashing at knights in heavy plated armour, than at swift and small targets. I will definitely make use of that and focus more on speed and dodging instead of direct attack. As long as she swings that thing, there''s bound to be an opening sooner rather than later. This time however, I will not have to worry about rescue coming to save her. While her smile broadens in sudden flash of teeth, one of her hands releases its grip on the sword. She then flicks her wrist and dash at me. I move to block the thing flying at me. Too late, but I do realise it is a mistake. The attempt at correcting my movement results in neither block nor dodge. My inexperience awards me with wasting of precious moments, as the small knife lodges itself in my shoulder bone. It wasn¡¯t meant to harm me. It was meant as a distraction and it fulfilled its purpose perfectly. She managed to close the distance and start horizontal swing of her sword. Luckily she either released knife too early, or was too eager to swing at me, because there was enough space for me to react before the blade chops off my head. A quick step back and lowering myself takes me out of her three meter reach. Her swing this time was much more swift and precise in comparison to our first time. She seems to be quick learner. I don''t have enough time to get closer to her. She already has the sword on her arm and is coming at me when I get up. Her next swing is much lower so instead I jump. I was a bit off on the timing and top part of my left foot gets severed off. The impact pushes my lower half in the direction of the swing, swiping my legs out from under me. As I crash to the ground I decide there won''t be enough time for me to get up, so I roll instead. Luckily we are still on the gravel path, so I have enough space for that. The space!! She has too much free space for those swings!! I need to get her between the graves and trees! As I roll, with *swish* sound, another swing passes where I was lying second ago. Jumping back on to my one and a half feet, IS NOT as swift and successful as I wanted it to be and I¡¯m left barely staying upright. This gives her time for another attack and I yet again jump away without trying to block it. Come on, that weapon would snap my fancy little stick, as quickly as it would my bones. At the time she uses to ready herself for another swing I move little closer to the edge of the path. If only I had the other hand, i would scoop up one of the burnt out candles and try to use the same trick she did, but no such luck. My whole arm is most likely still gripping that small tree back there. It''s almost as if i feel the three''s bark under my finger bones. Focus... Focus! Next swing is one of the low ones, but she''s repeating only two kinds of horizontal attack so i got a hang of her timing. For now abandoning my plan of getting her between the trees, I decide to use that for my attack. The same motion of avoiding her low swing carries me on top of the gravestone. I use its slab as a launching pad and jump at her. The arc of my sword is going directly for her neck. This brought a gasp and widening of her eyes. Instinctively she released her sword and brought up her forearms to protect her head. With the force of my jump behind my swing, should cleave through everything and end this. But to the surprise of both of us, with the loos of her heavy sword she lost her balance and her whole body shifted to one side. That being the case, the slash that was meant to end her life, briefly met one of her forearms exposing it¡¯s bone. Both of us rolled on the ground as we fell. She was surprisingly unaffected by her wound and immediately went for her weapon. Since i rolled further then i intended i cannot reach her in time. Instead i resumed my plan and went deeper between the graves. Just few meters in, snapping of twigs alerted me to her presence. Immediately jumping to the side i barely avoid thrust of her great-sword. Damn she''s fast. And new attack to boot. She must have realised the dangers of swinging that thing around here. Rolling on big, four meter wide and three meter long, slab of huge family mass grave, I realise she got me in best spot she could find among the graves. Stepping out onto it she has such an utter and vicious joy on her face i get phantom shivers down my spine. Damn that psycho!! Looking at her i realise that even though she does not show she''s in pain, the wound is taking its toll. Whole side of her armour is covered in blood and her complexion got much paler. Oi Oi, if you don''t stop that bleeding soon, you will die no matter whether you get me or not. It¡¯s not like I''m complaining through. Next of her swings is little faster diagonal one. Her realisation might have put little bit of a delay in my plans, but her skills and strength are not good enough to carry it through. As I dodge it, the tip of her great-sword contacts the slab of the gravestone. It only brushed it, but that was enough to lose almost all the momentum blade had. It¡¯s impossible for it to make the trip back upwards and return into its proper place of rest on her shoulder. Using this opportunity I duck and dash into her space with blade ready for another slash. But to my surprise and confusion, instead of trying to fix her posture, she lets her blade continue its movement. While the tip gets stuck in grave, whole sword is at a slant to the ground. Before I manage to reach her, she jumps over her blade so it''s between us. Instead of making an attack, I¡¯m left trying to keep myself from being sliced in half by my own momentum. Using the flat of my weapon as impromptu shield, i feel it slam on my ribs as i crash in to her sword. The impact doesn''t make her lose ground even an inch. The only good point is that at least her weapon is as obstructed as mine. One of her hands shoots out towards my head, and i instinctively drop down and back off. She uses this chance to free her blade. Being reversed now, it''s still not in its proper position, so i try for another slash. She somehow blocks my scimitar with flat of her blade, at the same time trying for a kick at me. I got thrown back when her metal tipped boot lands below my waist, at a femur bone. Almost as soon as she gets her blade back on her shoulder, she launches another horizontal strike at me. She finally made the mistake i was waiting for. You have to think before the swing. Her huge blade buries itself in the tree that was behind our fighting stage. I make the final dash, sure of my victory and ready to strike, but she again does the unexpected. After releasing her weapon, instead of trying for defense she leaps straight at me with fist raised. I was just about to thrust the blade into her heart, when her fist connects with my skull. The world is spinning, heavy impact on something and I¡¯m looking at grass. Damn I lost my head. Literally. ------- Author: I got myself ''ProWritingAid'' and spent four times more time correcting and re-writing this chapter then I originally spent creating it. I would appreciate if you told me if it was worth it.
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Chapter 6: Bones ready for sleep. Hanging on Bones Chapter 6: Bones ready for sleep. ... This is waaaaay too strange. Seriously, come on! I lost my head! Am I Dullahan or what!? I feel my body, just not the same way as I did before. The disturbing sense of distance. Still, I''m surprised it''s not chopped up to pieces by now. My last attack must have connected then. I got to get my bearings... first, what can I see? The view is tilted, but there is grass which is way too close for comfort and part of a grave. That does not give me much reference. Wait! I still have jaw bone!! By trying to open my mouth, sure enough, my head lifts a bit. Eureka! Opening mouth as far as it goes results in my head losing balance and rolling. Damn, that would make me barf if I could! Just two spins and my head is stuck again, this time upside down. It all looks strange being reversed, but I¡¯m at the foot of a grave now, with the view along this row reaching far off in the distance. I even see the path that has watering points. That is very good news. Focusing on my body is surprisingly easy. It¡¯s as if my head is still connected to it. Shifting my body and neck to the right and still seeing no effect, is disturbing as hell. It would be sooooo much easier, if I could close my eyes¡­. Damn. Using my one good arm, I feel out the surrounding terrain. My body is in sitting up position, on top of flat smooth surface. I must have sat up by reflex, when trying to move my head. The puddle of sticky liquid must be the blood of that woman. To my right, there seems to be clear surface of the grave, while on the left I feel big lump of flesh covered by armour. Close behind her is the headstone. Since all the graves are positioned with the head on the uphill side, it¡¯s very easy to tell which direction my body is facing. It might not be as difficult as I thought. Not letting go of the headstone I move along it, until I reach the edge of the grave. Carefully lowering myself to the ground level between the graves, I crouch to keep the contact with the slab and go towards the legs of this grave. Reaching the bottom, I do few more slow steps and I feel out the end of this row. The headstone of the grave below is peaking out above to this level, so I grab it and lower myself these two feet. Keeping my hold on each grave, I repeat the process several times, until I see my own body shuffling half a dozen graves ahead. My skull has flown quite a distance downhill. The watering point I see is definitely not the one I assumed it to be, but I cannot complain. I found my head. Dullahan no more. Ugh¡­ The coordination of movements got little bit confusing for a moment there¡­switching the point of reference from my body to my head and back again left me staggering¡­ Damn¡­ I decided to keep my head as a focal point, as that seems more natural somehow¡­ If one can think of anything as ¡®natural¡¯ in this situation¡­. More shuffling and staggering and I am picking up my skull. The process of putting my head back into its place using one hand, is not what I call fun. I almost toppled over again. This movement should be done with the body as a point of reference and definitely not the head. If I had anything to puke with, it would be lying on the ground and screaming in protest. By moving my skull this way and that, I feel it drop a little bit too much to one side. Except for this, there doesn¡¯t seem to be much damage and I¡¯m able to move my head same as before. Some part of my spine must have chipped off or something I suppose. Now with my head back on, I can check out the surroundings. Nothing seems to have taken interest in our encounter, huh. Retracing my descent I find our battle site. My dead nemesis is still lying in pool of red with mad grin on her face. To die that way and still smile, she must have been really twisted. My scimitar is buried deep in the middle of her chest. The whole mess looks way more gruesome then it felt. But beggars cannot be choosers. Looking around to make sure no one is in vicinity, I bend down to search her. I guess my old habit of checking surroundings before I steal something, didn¡¯t die together with my body. Other than the leather itself, armour she¡¯s wearing, has only one big chunk of metal on the shoulder. That¡¯s the place where her blade rested before each attack. I¡¯m betting pure, double padded leather would be better over there, simply to make sure the blade¡¯s edge does not become dull. But I¡¯m guessing that since she is not experienced with that weapon, she would have cut into herself instead of using it properly. The armour itself didn¡¯t seem to have any sorts of pockets, but there were two pouches hanging from her belt. Opening first one revels only scroll of paper with something written on it. This is first time I¡¯ve seen letters like these, so there¡¯s no way I know this language. Most of the parchment is so covered with blood, that I would have hard time reading it, even if I knew those signs. The pouch itself has more value for me, then this piece of scrap paper. However, throwing the things away is not something I do, so I stow it away back where it belonged. I check the second small bag. There are few coins and small bottle there. This makes me very happy. I put both pouches aside and continue searching through the corpse. It¡¯s hard going without moving her, so I rip out my scimitar from her chest and lay it beside her. Going through her armour inch by inch, I find three small throwing daggers hidden in her boots and on one of her writs. It sure is surprise that she has nothing else of value on her. You¡¯re a girl, so where the hell are your earrings you monster?! I guess I better get back to less pleasurable business of stripping her. After unstrapping forearm protectors, I throw away the damaged one, and put aside the other. Next up are the knee protectors and the heavy metal toed leather boots that seem too big even for her. It¡¯s like she took equipment regardless whether it suits her or not. Unstrapping the leather harness she has on her back, I put it also on the pile together with the rest of the stuff. Belt comes out next. I contemplate over whether to take the top of her tunic but decide against it. It has jagged entry and exit holes of my stab and the sleeve on one hand is cut to ribbons, so I leave it be. Getting back to the leather trousers I try pealing them off, but it¡¯s of no use and I quickly give up. She must have had some sort of complex, because they are waaaaay to tight for her. Also all the blood that spilled from her arm and from her chest is already congealing. Everything is sticking to her like crazy. Also when person dies, the muscles holding up the bowels automatically relax. That makes her smell and from what I see the insides of that area must be quite a mess. I will NOT wear that, no matter the consequences. Gathering all the stolen goodies on one spot, I wonder what to do next. Taking good look around, there are no signs of other humans except for some noises faar faar off. The only noticeable change is that the sky is starting to brighten. From what I remember, in all the folklore I heard here and there during my lifetime, the undead are week against the light. To the point that some of them meet their second end just from the rays of sun. Well, I better be safe and do not test this for now. But what about the equipment? How do I carry all that with just one arm?¡­ Hmm¡­ Contemplating it, I am tracing with my sight the path we took when we fought. Well, we went down quite a bit, but the garbage container we started out at is still visible far between the trees. Ah ! The garbage container!! There were plastic bags there! It will not be pretty, but it will work! Leaving everything as it is, I ran for the bags. This stuff is heavy so I better take a lot of them. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Quick return and I have everything packed. I ended up using two sets of four bags to compensate for their size and weaknesses. I feel like I¡¯m returning over packed, from shopping mall or something. Didn¡¯t do that in a while now. Being all the time vigilant about the noises and surroundings, I make my way to the grave. It took, more or less ten minutes to get back on the row my grave is on. The sky got considerably brighter. I never knew how quickly the sun rises. Strangely enough, John is there, not far from my grave. The distance and the fact that this part of this hill curves to the other side, might have saved his undead life. This is practically other valley, with its slope facing the other way. The shout that agitated my happy little friends, might have not been audible here. As I pass him, his gaze keeps following me through. That is strange. Last time he didn¡¯t give me even a glance. I look down on myself and instead of white bones I see dark red congested blood. Damn I¡¯m dirty. Dropping the stuff next to my grave, I make quick turn and dash for the watering point. There were no traces of humans and I still have some time. While running I realize that my strides are lopsided. Quick glance reminds me of my lack of several inches of my foot. Do I risk it? Who knows? Maybe I can reattach it somehow? I got my head back, didn¡¯t I? I decided to risk it. Instead of going for the closest watering point, I run down the hill to where my battle took place. I¡¯m making it much faster, since I¡¯m not as careful as before. Combing through area proves difficult. The foot bone structure is complicated as hell and I have to look for five digits instead of one big piece. If I realized this before, I would not come here. I¡¯m still lucky it¡¯s just five, since they at least seem to keep together where joints used to be. There are plenty of small bones in the leg, huh¡­ They are not covered in blood like the rest of me, so I managed somehow. I spent good ten minutes on this. But the strange pressure I now feel, is not only mental but also physical. This cannot be good. Still, since I¡¯m at the watering point, I give the facet a twist. To my consternation nothing happens. Well, there goes my hope of getting clean. Running back up the hill, I feel the pressure rise. My movements are getting slower and I start to feel tired. Damn, I didn¡¯t feel tired since I waked up as skeleton. Damn, Damn, Damn. As I turn into my row, there are beams of sunlight shining here and there through the foliage. Even though none of them hit me yet, my bones start to smoke! Seven Hells!!! This hurts!!! It hurts!!! IT F***INGGGG HURTSSS!!!! Approaching my grave, I see through haze of pain, that the stuff I left there, is scattered and out of bags. The years of poverty and deep ingrained greed scream at me even louder than the pain. I was gone for barely fifteen minutes and already my stuff was stolen!! WRAAAAAA !!!! I throw the bones of my foot into the hole and with the quickest movements I can manage. Every single piece of equipment I can get my hands on, follows shortly after. I was already in mid-air when the last piece hit the bottom. AAAAh what an relief~~~~ The pain is gone¡­. That was waaaaaaaay to painful. No way in hell, I will allow myself to stay out in the open so long, ever again. ¡­. The pressure did not disappear. As I look up, I see the oh so green and bright leaves, with peaks of blue sky ¡­it feels as if molten lava is being poured into the holes my eyes used to be in. Damn!! AAAH!!! DAMN!! DAMN!! AAA!!! I HAVE TO CLOSE IT!! Rising my right arm I feel it sizzle and start to burn, but I don¡¯t care anymore. Putting all my strength to it, with burst of might I didn¡¯t think I have, I shift the stone into the place. Uaaaaaaaah¡­¡­ I hurt all over the burned places¡­ but it starts to subside as if touched by magic wand or something¡­. Wohha¡­. I will never EVER forget that pain. When I was alive nothing came in light-years of that pain. Even the times when I got stabbed by gang member, or when I had both of my legs broken, does not come close. It¡¯s over now ¡­ haaaaaa¡­ I let myself relax¡­ ¡­ ¡­ Wait¡­ wait¡­ wait! Something must be wrong!! The pressure is not over!!! It¡¯s not over yet, damn it!! The deepest pits of hell!! No¡­ HELL NO!!! My other arm!!! My other arm!!! I CAN F***ING FEEL IT!!! Calm down¡­ calm down¡­ It¡¯s on the west side of this hill¡­ so I must have few minutes left¡­. Damn it! Damn it!! Concentrate!! Concentrate!! Left arm¡­ left arm¡­ I try to move it. YES! It reacts! Slowly¡­ slowly¡­ to the left¡­ ah there is the small tree. I feel trunk there¡­. Wait. Remember¡­ remember the surrounding area¡­ It was happening soo f***ing fast¡­ What was there that I can use¡­ Maybe¡­the small space between the headstone and the level of that row¡­ no, too risky and exposed¡­ Ah I know!!! The vase!!! There was huge-ass flower vase on the next grave!! If I fold it, my arm should fit! But the top will still be exposed, won¡¯t it? ¡­ Maybe if I overturn it? I have really small chance at this working out but¡­ there¡¯s no other way I can save myself in that amount of time. I have to do it. I will go mad from that pain otherwise. Slowly¡­ slowly¡­ ah here I go! The grave I was looking for! The movements are so friggin strange¡­ I have to use my fingers as if they were five legs to pull along the rest of the arm¡­ and now creeping up about one feet, to get on top of that slab¡­ but I slide down¡­ cannot reach it with fingers alone¡­ damn! Damn! Damn! I have to get there¡­ but how?... ah I will try using the palm as if it was real leg and rise the rest of the arm up. Yeah that¡¯s it¡­. I¡¯m on top¡­. Damn it¡¯s already starting to hurt a bit¡­ Calm down¡­ now¡­ the layout¡­ I should head to the right now¡­ yes! There is the headstone¡­ Got it! The vase! Now¡­ just to get it on its side without breaking it¡­ Yes! That¡¯s it!! I¡¯ve got to slowly fold my arm and¡­ Aaah¡­Aaah¡­!!! I¡¯ve put my arm inside it, but this strange motion... Damn it¡¯s rolling!! Hell! Please!!! Don¡¯t break!! It stopped¡­ Easy¡­ Easy¡­ yes! Yes! Yes! It¡¯s better than I thought! Not only it did not break but stopped, with its lid pressed directly against something! That feeling is also gone!! I¡¯m saved! Haa¡­ I slump down in my grave. This was one hell of a night ¡­ ------------------- Note: Hey there! Author-san here, I will now try my hand at writing side-story for contest Wizards in Wonderland. Still I originally planned for main story to be little bit further before i get that ss in. That means that if I do not complete SS on time, i will keep it off.
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Chapter 7: Bony Bones Hanging on Bones Chapter 7: Bony Bones I wake up slowly. I was never good at this waking up business. Half conscious and half in a dream land I always have a choice. The choice between blissful oblivion where even if scary nothing can hurt me. Or the nightmare of being conscious with constant hardships and suffering, where no amount of work can give me release, and even the best of intentions of those closest to me, turn into blades that are stabbing at my very soul. But no matter how hard I try to stay unconscious, I am always, sooner or later, dragged out to wakefulness by instincts hardwired into my very being, shouting to keep on living. I really always thought that the cause of this was the genes passed on by multitude of generations, and my own bodily demands overriding my mind. Being dead should have solved that problem. But it seems I was wrong. Well¡­ Whatever. I start moving and stretching. Yeah, I¡¯m still in my grave. I fallen asleep while sitting up, with my spoils of war tangled up all around me. Either way it¡¯s not like I could have lied down. Stuffed deep into my coffin and preventing my beauty sleep is the dirt from making an exit hole. But time to take my bearings. I have the feeling that sun has long since disappeared. It¡¯s not like I expected otherwise, but it still is reassuring. I never, ever want to experience that pain again. To achieve that I will have to get used to my new body and adapt as best as I can. But seriously¡­ this whole situation really sucks. Thinking on it there seem to be some bonuses at least, huh. Like the ability to get back my head. And the foot bones. Yeah, they reattached themselves. Damn, this is convenient. Not even hairline crack can be felt in the place where they were cleanly cut off. But the cursed arm is still missing though. I feel it and apparently my tossing around and stretching did not dislodge the vase from its position. I¡¯m really glad of that. Well either way, no use just sitting here. After standing up I get my bony hand on the lid. Hard push and I¡¯m free to take a look around. Sticking my skull out proves I¡¯m not in any danger. Quiet and calm night like yesterday. Hell, hopefully not like yesterday but still the weather is nice. Without going to the surface I start tossing out everything I find in my grave. First goes closest loot. All of it goes to the side, off from face of the grave. Then after I make sure I have enough space to climb out, I change the direction and start piling the earth, dirt and stones on top of the slab. Getting good rest is very important. Not like I would get sore muscles from sleeping in twisted position, but it was way too unfordable while trying to extend my blissful oblivion. Bit of work and I¡¯m done clearing it up. Everything was thrown out including the pillow. Hop, and I¡¯m out. Except for usual graves and trees there is nothing worth of notice. Well then. I take the discarded plastic bags and fill them up with excess dirt. No use leaving traces behind, right? But still¡­ seems like I found my missing rib. After using it to get out of coffin I totally forgot about it. It broken off of me in such a place that I cannot see it easily. Being the third rib from the top, one side used to be connected to the spine and is quite even, while the other side is jagged where it broken off. It¡¯s just small part of whole rib, which is still connected to sternum. From what I can remember of the moment I died, the pipe that killed me entered at almost horizontal angle on one side, went through whole chest and stopped on my shoulder blade on the other side. Due to some sort of luck, the ribs in the front were spared while the one at back, which was closest to the point of impact, broke. It¡¯s also curious that it did not reattach itself like the foot bones. Hmmm. Maybe similarly to the missing arm, it¡¯s because of distance and materials separating me and the bone, huh. Few quick courses between my place and heavily overgrown spot several rows below, makes my grave as clean as new. Well, not really. I did not get a proper look at it yesterday but my grave is in total mess. Chipped off here and there, moss spreading all around. The part of the headstone and nameplate is missing. The remaining part is so weathered and cracked that it¡¯s completely unreadable. There goes my identity. Simple inspection would never reveal who was buried here. Go figures. Not like I cared for my name much. I had plenty of enemies and quite a few debts. My name being forgotten would serve me a lot. Still¡­ unless something really nasty happened, in this day and age of digitalisation, the placement of one¡¯s rest is recorded not only in cemetery¡¯s archives, but also available in online database. Screw personal data protection act. It does not apply if enough money is on the table. I doubt anyone would bother with me though. By the way, does the debts even apply death? I remember something that they could be inherited, but I did not have any kids yet. OH! Right! My life insurance! That must have paid them off! Hahahah at least something I got right! All the same, better safe than sorry. Screw my past name. From now I¡¯m called Bones. Yeah that fits me perfectly. Like second skin to be exact. Bony Bones. Well now. Ain¡¯t I sooo creative, huh. To hell with this. Without vocal cords it¡¯s not like I can tell it to anyone. Hmm¡­ I feel as if I¡¯m missing something important from my previous lines of thought¡­ but I guess I better get back to more down to the ground matters of my loot! Ha! Yeah! Time to play with the new toys!! Let¡¯s see what we have here¡­! ¡­ Damn. Both pouches are gone. The one with money and the one with the scroll. I was prepared for it but it still hurts. Not like I could use any of them but still¡­ As for the other stuff¡­ What the hell¡­? After closer examination, it seems that all the blood is gone. I understand that most of it crusted and could have been scrapped off when I was tossing in my grave. Or when disposing of excess dirt. But inside of boots? Come on! How does the blood disappear from there? Damn, something seems fishy about this¡­ Looking at myself there¡¯s not even a speck of blood on me. I assumed that it¡¯s because of the scorching and smoke coming off of me back at the dawn¡­ Or maybe, tossing of all that dirt scrapped most it off¡­ But that cannot be the case now, can it? Checking everything again proves the same. No blood at all. What, am I vampire or something? But even vampires don¡¯t make the blood disappear, do they? Ah hell. F**ck this. Who cares whether I¡¯m vampire or skeleton, damn it. It¡¯s not like I have any choice, now is it? I guess being vampire would even be better, considering all the romantic stories I red. No need to be so frantic. Every bone I can see on myself is grey-white. There¡¯s no dirt that I suppose should be there but that might be coincidence. The only places I have hard time to inspect, is the upper half of my spine, part of my back and the skull itself. Hard to fix any of that without a mirror. Wait¡­ there is a way! To become dullahan again! ¡­ Damn it¡­ Either that chink on top of my spine also regenerated, or something else is stopping me from removing my head. The weird feeling and disorientation would also be too much, I guess. Mental note to myself: I have to find a series of small mirrors and examine contents of my skull. Yeeey. That will be fun. Getting back on track. The equipment. First off is the belt. I can immediately put it on myself and start using it. Almost. Using scimitar I have to make additional securing points, but few minutes and I¡¯m set. Next off are the knee protectors. They are from very tough leather and are secured in place by two straps each. Due to lack of flesh they have plenty of free space. But the straps are long enough that using them more as a ropes and coiling them around the bone proves to be working. They might look funny, being much bigger then my fleshless knees, but who cares. I would never win beauty contest either way. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Ha ! One forearm protector for one arm! Seems too good to be true! And it is. No way to strap it in with just one hand. Trying to do it with my teeth heavily damages the soft leather parts, so I abandon my attempt. The boots are waaay to big and will not keep secure. Even filling with earth every little gap between my foot and the boot does not help. My bones simply slide out of it. That leaves the leather harness and the curved fancy bale ¨C my scimitar. ¡­ This piece of bullshit of an equipment is so complicated that it takes me about half an hour to figure out. The first obvious clue was that Valkyria carried the big greatsword on her back with it. But there were much more straps, bits and bobs hanging in tangled mess over there. In the end, I concluded that it was designed to be multipurpose weapon holder for behemoth of a person. Our gorilla of a girl, was big and strong enough to carry her huge double handed weapon together with two scimitars at the same time. The greatsword was going from her left shoulder to the right of her back, while both of the curved smaller blades were crisscrossed and hanging on her lower left back with handles sticking out on waist level. The lower one, must have slapped her on legs or something. That¡¯s why she thrown it at me. But the harness itself had also space for various many other weapons of different sizes and shapes. The other scimitar must have been left at that steep stairway. I will have to go look for it if the time allows. Hopefully it¡¯s still there. In either case, the whole arrangement is way too big for me, so I just cut off the part responsible for scimitars and fastened it securely to my belt. Fits perfect and the blade does provide temporary counter-balance for my missing arm. Now I¡¯m set! Just need eye patch and bandana to make me a pirate! Hahaha¡­ ha¡­ right¡­ I take my time carrying unused parts of the loot into my coffin. The night is already nearing its final phases. That means I don¡¯t even have enough time to reach the crossroads the portal was at, much less any further location. I can try for that staircase but it could be close call. And in either case, being found by another group of humans would be¡­ unwise. That leaves me with erasing all traces of my presence here and search of area close to my grave. Maybe I have some neighbours? John! Yeah! I bet he was the thief of my money! Contrary to my initial impression of him, he must have been aware! After all, he kept following me with his gaze when I came back. He waited for when I was gone, stole my stuff and then made a run for it! But there was little time left until sunrise so he couldn¡¯t go far, right? He must have slept somewhere close and I still have chance of finding him. Making sure everything, including the pillow and my jagged rib bone, is properly stowed away in the coffin, I check for any leftovers or disturbed earth. Naah everything fine. Just the stone lid is little bit shifted from its original place leaving slight gape. Hmm I wonder¡­ leaving it like this would speed up my eventual retreat like yesterday, but at the same time it is dead giveaway. My one and only companion decides for me. Paranoia. After shifting the slab into its place I start wandering the nearest rows. Going one row for few dozen graves, then changing it and walking back in other direction. All the graves here are pretty unkempt and covered by moss. Damn. Seems there¡¯s plenty of us here huh. Every tenth grave or so is empty. Most of them follow my pattern, with lid shifted and hole beneath or just hole to the side of the grave. But over there is huge family grave, like the one I fought on, with whole slab shattered to pieces, revealing very deep mass of ragged earth. Luckily whole place is already covered with grass, leaves and moss so it must have happened some time ago, but it¡¯s as if something veeeery huge and powerful woken up inside and broken out with burst of scattered stone and debris. What the hell¡¯s up with that? I know those graves have tens of family members in them but then¡­ what ? Did they combine together or something? Damn, I definitely do not want to be an enemy of such a monster. I better be on my guard with both sides of the fighting here. ¡­ Little bit more walking around and I found what I was looking for. Noticing it from the distance I draw out the sword. On top of a grave there is a bottle and some coins spilled among two flat small bags. They have to be the ones stolen from me. But why the hell did he leave them there? It looks like a trap. Circling it does not reveal anything out of ordinary, so I approach cautiously. The slab is shifted and I can see the hole beneath. How do I do this? He might be inside and jump at me at any moment. If I try to get inside I will be in even more danger¡­ damn it¡­ how do I do this¡­. Coming closer from the side I try to be as quiet as I can. I smoothly take a quick peak inside. Nothing as far as I can see, with is only half of the way. I back away and think. Damn, what to do. I guess I will have to risk it. Each time I saw him, John was several times slower than me. Making up my mind I quickly proceed with action. With my weapon upfront before me, I make headlong descent into the grave. Luckily the hole does not have steep slope and the crash at the bottom is slightly reduced. I will have to think of better ways of doing this. Either way the grave seems to be empty. Damn this also can be part of the trap! I quickly scramble out but there is no one trying to lock me inside. Huh damn my paranoia. It did save me several times but it sure is tiring mentally. At least I didn¡¯t cut myself this time. Making extensive search of the coffin, reveals it¡¯s empty. The thief had enough time to get away before I reached here, what I¡¯m sure he did. On the other hand why would he leave so much stuff behind? Abandoned goods resting on the lid are as clean as new. When they were stolen they had enough blood on them that I could not see their original colour. This is strange. Maybe the blood soaked scroll became readable again? But it¡¯s not here. That¡¯s the only thing that is still missing. Was he after the scroll? Or maybe the blood? Well either way the coins are here so all is good. I didn¡¯t notice before but there are few of different kinds here. All coins have small round hole in them, but there are square ones and round ones. They are also divided by colour, going from green, gold, silver, brown up to blue. Most of them are brown though. I¡¯ve never seen their kind before. The small bottle on the other hand has red liquid in it. Is it blood? Well never mind, not like I can drink it. But it has to be either precious or indispensable. I doubt otherwise someone like her would carry it around. I start gathering everything into one of the pouches, when noise catches my attention. Looking around in the distance I see some movement. Damn it, it¡¯s getting light already, but from the increasing loudness and curses it¡¯s safe to assume they are live humans. I won¡¯t have enough time to get back if they keep coming this way. My rotten luck again. No other way but to spend the day in this grave then. Better safe than sorry. As I descend into the grave my gaze meets something that does not register until after I¡¯ve put the lid back into place. ¡­. Seven Hells. It said 2213. ¡­
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Chapter 8: Old Bones Hanging on Bones Chapter 8: Old Bones I must have seen wrong, right? This grave is total mess! It was so crumbling and time eaten that at first glance, I thought it must be abandoned for more than century already, damn it!! The youngest I could ever give it, is fifty year old ruin, rather than the fresh one! How the hell could it be 2213? No matter whether that was birth date or death date, there is just no way! I cannot be more than two hundred years old right? Right? RIGHT!? Easy easy¡­ calm down me¡­ Bright sides¡­ look for the bright sides¡­ Hmm¡­ on second thought¡­ all my old enemies are dead, right? That is good news¡­ What else¡­ the technology? It should have skyrocketed by now and solved food problems and what not¡­ but looking at the humans running around on this cemetery that does not seem to be the case¡­ and then there¡¯s magic¡­. What? Did the technology run out of control or something? Naah, no way¡­ So what could have happened¡­? Stop. Stop. Stop. I have to look for the bright sides instead of dark ones. Hmm¡­ yeah my enemies are dead¡­ ugh¡­ I start to repeat myself¡­ Bright side¡­ Ah! I will not get wrinkles! I will not get older physically! I can only get stronger or die horrible death! I will not get bald anymore. I don¡¯t get tired. Endless stamina! Ha! If only I had my more delicate organs¡­ That is NICE thought¡­ yeah¡­ let¡¯s go to sleep with that¡­ ¡­¡­ -|- -|- -|- -|- -|- -|- -|- ¡­¡­ Aaah¡­ that was nice dream¡­ But there is too much to do and think about this night. Let¡¯s see¡­ I should have three main objectives today. First, I have to make sure of the dates. Second, get my arm back. I have to make sure it will be safe from the sun. I don¡¯t want my mind to be melted with pain. And the third aim is getting my hands on that second scimitar. I¡¯m pretty sure where she dropped it and it might still be there. Shifting slab of my temporary resting place proves quite easy. Must be some kind of invisible adrenaline, right? Quick check of surroundings, and I¡¯m looking at the name plate. Damn. It was time of birth. Getting the moss off reveals the date of death. Damn long lived m****r f****r. He died when he was 95. Who the hell lives that long!? Add to this the age of grave and it means I¡¯m way over 300 now. But I guess one hundred here or there doesn¡¯t make a difference, huh? Distractions¡­ I have to find distractions¡­ In either case let¡¯s leave my age aside. ¡­ There¡¯s quite a wind today, huh. That might be helpful or harmful depending on the situation. If I¡¯m going against the wind, I will hear better everything in front of me. While going with the wind, I will have harder time hearing things ahead. It¡¯s not as simple as that but that¡¯s the theory. Yeah¡­ that worked¡­ I calmed down. Now¡­ next order of business is retrieving my arm. But there¡¯s no way I will leave the money here, right? Do I take the pouches with me? Naah, I better drop them off at my grave. Moving between the graves proves to be going smoothly. I¡¯m getting much better at movement coordination and navigating through the graves. That speeds things up. Keeping vigilant all the time, I drop my stuff of. Looking closer at the tree, which I assumed was the one I remember from childhood, reveals its different type. Birch-tree and oak. Damn, who the hell would confuse the two? I guess I was too hyped up to notice. Still the shape is so unique I didn¡¯t even consider it can be different tree. Either way, after putting everything into place, I retrace the route I took on the first day. Leaving money here is not something I would normally do, and I feel bad about it. Still, they would clatter and make a lot of noises. I don¡¯t have time to figure out a way of attaching them to my belt in a way that prevents that. Walking cautiously I look at the slope and wonder about the cemetery. It withstood the passage of time, but barely. Most of them are crumbling. Dates and names are usually obstructed by moss and weather beaten to the point of not being readable. But as I go along, more and more become recognizable. The range and variety is high, starting from late 19XX up to 23XX. Actually I¡¯m surprised at how good the old ones are preserved. Normally they would have long ago crumbled to nothingness or have been replaced. What I vaguely remember is that family rents the grave slot and pays up the sum for specific limited amount of years. If the lease is not renewed, that place is being confiscated and rented to someone else. Resulting in brand new grave in that place. Also the families who own the rent for a long time, bury next generation in the same place as old one, with new headstone slab and pedestal. That results in graves never being older than 100 years. But here, even the crumbling ones, considering their age, are almost perfectly preserved. That is not natural. Even if left alone at this point they should have crumbled down to nothing. Something is seriously wrong here. Still those are the contemplations I should leave for later. The detour will take a little bit more time, but I¡¯m curious about that place. Whether there is something left of her or not. It¡¯s like in all those detective novels. The perpetrator always comes back to the place of crime. This curiosity of mine got me in many tight spots when I was still alive, but I cannot help myself. Few more minutes of cautious strides and I¡¯m at that spot. Hmm¡­ as expected, her body was already removed from here. Two days and one night has already passed after all. But more strangely there is absolutely no sign of anything ever happening here. Not only sword, body and blood is gone, but the grave looks untouched! Even the tree is fixed! It¡¯s as if nothing ever happened here! Over in that spot her sword tore out big chunk of the marble slab! And that part of the grave was shattered! The tree had the f****ing greatsword stuck in it!! But all of them look as if they stood here quietly for the last fifty years and were untouched by anyone! How can anyone fake the stupid mold, moss and corrosion!? Something is strange here¡­ Definitely strange. I¡¯m over hundred percent sure I¡¯m in the right place. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Damn, I don¡¯t have time for this. I have to get my arm back tonight. I have to quickly get to the fated steep staircase. Gosh, maybe I should name that place already? Stairway to heaven? Ha! Making my way at decent pace and trying to stay quiet at the same time gets me better results. Seems like I¡¯m staidly getting used to this body. My joints having increased range of movements and other quirks that lack of muscles forces me into, slowly but steadily get nulled by additional speed and flexibility. Well it¡¯s not like I will become athlete but every advantage helps. Getting closer I increase my vigilance. There¡¯s nothing worse than running into open mouth sleeping of lion. Cautious peak through the bushes, and I¡¯m sure nothing¡¯s there. That does not mean I¡¯m safe through. Crawling out I approach the edge and look down. Still nothing. That MIGHT mean I¡¯m safe. But I have to search through this plaza of pleasant memories still I¡¯m on. Who knows? Maybe I will find the second scimitar. Alex was her name, right? The grave she demolished is as undisturbed as if it didn¡¯t experience touch of men for over hundred years. Big greatsword buried up to the hilt? What! When? Phi! No problem! Damn this is strange. What can one lone bony skeleton do? Not much. But surviving is the key for reaching answers. Throughout search reveals that I¡¯m lucky! Under the brush there is scimitar half buried in the dirt. Must have been kicked there during the struggle. Well it¡¯s not like I can use the two of them but having backup will be reassuring. The part of the harness on my belt, from the beginning was intended for two similar blades. That woman had placed it on her back too low, but I have fitted it at my side and higher than she did. Should not be a problem for me, except for additional weight. With my bones weighting so little I¡¯m again quite unbalanced and will have to rearrange their placement at the later time. First things first though. My arm. I get the feeling it¡¯s very important to retrieve it sooner rather than later. After checking the surroundings once more, I quickly descend the heavenly stairway. Practice, practice. Few glances and I¡¯m back quietly trekking through rows of graves. I more or less feel the arm and have vague idea where it is. To save time, instead of moving step by step the same way as before, I make a beeline straight for it. My feeling of balance is yet again out of whack, so I slowed down. The graves here are new in comparison with my part of the hill. But the dates are not much different. The newest I found up till now was with date of death in the 2376. It even has candle still flickering on top. That means someone was here visiting during day time. *¡­gh¡­* Ah! The noises¡­. I hunch down and listen. Yeah, there are several of them in the distance. Live humans. No wonder I have met no undead today. They must have taken care of them before I got anywhere close. But this is quite a small group. Just four people staying together. They are far away and don¡¯t seem to be getting any closer. ¡­ I don¡¯t have enough time to wait for them to move on. Slowly and carefully I start sneaking towards my destination. It¡¯s not very far from this spot and I can reach it quite easily. One row and few graves ahead of me there is the tree. My lovely pole tree is back. Standing straight and proud even through it was cut in half. If not for the missing arm and the weapons with me, I would begin to doubt whether any of it actually happened. Reaching the tree and seeing the vase I cannot help myself and immediately reach out for it. Mistakes, mistakes. Will I ever learn that life is never so easy? As the vase moves and my arm falls out, I hear clich¨¦ *tick* sound of trap being released. Bloody hell, what now? Not waiting for results of the trap I grab the arm and slam it into the place. I do this while jumping back from the booby-trapped vase. I sure am stupid in many ways. Jumping back made my shins catch on the grave. As I am falling flat on my back I see something amazing. There, all around me appeared small versions of blue portal I saw on my first night. Just as they say. There is no rest for the wicked. ----------------------- Short one this time, but i wanted to have plenty of space to maneuver in the next one ... Thanks for all the comments.
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Chapter 9: Herding the Bones Hanging on Bones Chapter 9: Herding the Bones The blue. Why does it always has to be blue? All the good guys associate themselves with blue. Are they nuts or something? I used to work several different kind of night jobs, during which the red colour was much more desirable. Being in the dark with very small amount of red light allows me to see almost perfectly, while with the blue light eyes hurt and there are shadows everywhere. Red is easy on the eyes. Well, I don¡¯t have eyes so why do I care? Seven small blue portals appear around me. Perfect circle, with me lying on my back in the middle. Yeah, the good guys are arriving. Right. As I try to stand up, I see shadows emerge. Human shapes. I beg all the gods who would listen, for arrivals to be noobies instead of veterans. The movement that is taking me, on to my feet, is combined with scimitars leaving their holders. Yeah, the invisible adrenaline rush is proving effective. The left arm is moving as if it was never removed. All pretence of quietness abandoned. Having two blades, one per each hand, I observe the intruders ahead of me. Someone must have listened, because only one out of four in front, is equipped properly. The portals already disappeared and they have spit out single human each. The distance between us is quite far considering this is a trap. Four meters gives me enough time to get my bearings. Especially since there is little bit of confusion on their faces and they are fumbling for weapons. All except for the experienced one. She looks tough as hell with the heavy metal kite shield and double-edged straight sword at the ready. Her armour quality is also much better, with metal protectors covering her joints and shoulders. What¡¯s with all the tough women always coming at me!? The distance is enough for me to risk it. I take two quick glances back. Out of remaining three, only the one directly behind me is visibly stronger. That¡¯s a man equipped with three spiked balls hanging on chains, which are connected to baton in his hand. The hell¡­? What kind of weapon is that!? He¡¯s also wearing face covering helmet and chainmail, which gives him away as more experienced veteran then the ones before. But who knows? Maybe equipment is not everything. The other five seem as weak and inexperienced as new born babies. Their armour is the same leather I¡¯ve seen before but their movements are too hasty and sloppy. As I¡¯m looking one of them dropped the weapon he just unsheathed. That is my chance, isn¡¯t it! I make a dash in that direction, but the Kite lady is in front of me before I manage to change the row of graves. She¡¯s way to fast! Instead of using the blade she throws the shield out at me, and I¡¯m forced to jump back. The hell! The flail guy! On instinct I make a roll to the left, and sure enough, part of the grave I was standing on explodes on impact with the spiked balls. Stone shards shower my back as I continue to roll between the graves. For the f***ks sake! I lost one of my scimitars!! Damn it!! How the hell do I make the roll with two blades in my hands!! The slope here is not steep, so the drop of one foot does not affect me much. My evasion, took me out of the range of ¡®bashing duo¡¯ but I¡¯ve almost ended up on top of one of the noobies. Blond, big eyed, with huge pimple on his cheek. Seems like he is so surprised, that after reflexively jumping back, he forgot to attack. I¡¯m lucky today. Hmm. Or not. Standing up is not as graceful and quick as before, which gives the blondie time to get ready. But instead of attacking as he expected, I throw myself at his left arm. In his surprise he launches feeble slash, while stepping back at the same time. This reduces the force of his swing to minimum and I deflect it easily. But instead of killing him, I¡¯m using his left arm as a pivot point and plaster myself to his back. I look over his shoulder while keeping my blade at his throat. Hell no¡­ His throat is opened up to the spine, as I try to jump back. However as I suspected, I cannot. The blade of Kite-lady went all the way through the blondie and lodged itself at an angle between my ribs. Are you nuts lady!? You just killed your own, you know!? All of you have the same blue emblem on armours, right!? Is killing me sooo fu**ing important!? Looking at her face peeking above the shoulder of the dead kid, I do not see any emotions. This gives me phantom shivers again. In the corner of my vision, not far behind is the chain-flailing guy. Not waiting any longer I drop my weapon and put my hands on the dead guy¡¯s shoulders. Pushing myself up and jumping at the same time, releases me from the upward slanted blade. Without the weapons my weight is much less than I expected, giving me enough speed to avoid the flails. They smash into the upper back of battered blond corpse. Killer duo damn it. I did not have chance to defeat them when I had two weapons. But now it¡¯s less than a dream. I got to run! Making a dash along the row I¡¯m on, I see it will not be so easy. There are two trainees in my way. Even though they saw what happened to the blondie, there is happy look on their faces. Why the f**k!? F***ing psychos, all of them!!! There is a bit of space between me and the crazies, so I throw quick glances around. Out of the trap there are 6 humans left. Two veterans behind me, two trainees on my right, and two in front. That would mean perfect choice for me is to go to my left, down the slope, huh? Sadly the four humans I¡¯ve been hiding from are approaching from that direction. It¡¯s not like we¡¯ve been quiet now, is it? That makes one mage and three heavily armed warriors coming this way. This is getting better and better. Up the slope then! Going up the slope never failed me before! That means another obstacle course, jumping over headstones and rising levels every two or three meters, but who cares? I¡¯m expert at it already! And I¡¯m betting the noobies will have some problems. The only difficulty might be the two trainees that are still there. After being teleported here, they did not change the row of graves. In fact they must have been fumbling with weapons and armour while all this happened. I¡¯m still two rows down from their position. As I change the direction of run and start going upwards, I can almost see them tensing up. One of them is quite pretty, slim girl with long wavy hair and big double bladed war axe, while the other one is dark skinned, bolding, middle aged guy with two knives. Damn, what are they!? Flip and flap comic duo or something!? Shouldn¡¯t you swap those weapons!? I choose the guy. There¡¯s no way he can do me any serious damage with those knives and he¡¯s fat enough that I doubt he can move fast. This choice gets me little bit closer to the killer duo, though. One jump and I¡¯m over the headstone nearing the guy. This might be a close call. Kite lady is almost on my heels so there¡¯s not much time. Luckily, seems that without my weapons I¡¯m quicker than her. The knife lover is waiting on me with big smile spreading his lips. I jump up to his row and faint lunge to the side. As I expected his movements are slow and inexperienced. But his incompetence is soo high that he simply failed to react to my faint and accidently managed to connect with both of his stabs. This proves the saying that master is more often defeated by total novice than by his best disciple. The unpredictability is huge factor. Still I¡¯m bony skeleton so what can the daggers do to me? Except for lodging between my ribs, nothing much. So I ignore the guy and keep on running. He actually helped me in a way. I have two weapons now. I¡¯m quicker now so I should get away from them easily. As I glance back to confirm this, I¡¯m rewarded with medicine I served before. Some kind of candle crashed in to me and I stumble. Luckily the split second of warning was enough for me to keep myself standing, even though I hit the headstone pretty hard. This might be The End for me huh¡­ But to my huge surprise mere second later, the kite-lady jumps past me. The hell? She did not manage to break on time or something? The flail guy is almost here so I better continue on running. Glancing back I see that the fat knife lover is sprawled over one of the headstones and bleeding like pig. He must be dead or dying. What the hell!? Is she using me to kill off the noobies!?!? What the f**k is going on here!?!?! As I run at all my might, I see her two rows above, running parallel to me. She¡¯s actually overtaking me!! She¡¯s faster than me damn it!!! What is she up to!? Glancing back I see the flail guy also changed rows and is up slope from me. They are blocking my path back! The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. She¡¯s already several graves ahead of me. She then turns to go down slope and forces me in the same direction. Damn it! I¡¯m being herded!! Like some kind of f***ing cattle!!! If I attack them I will definitely die, so it¡¯s not like I have much choice, damn it! AAArrrrggggh so frustrating!! Few more graves and I¡¯m running back from where I came. And they are herding me¡­ back to the noobies¡­ What? I¡¯m here so that they can kill them? But the mad bastards are smiling all the way! The corpse of that knife lover had huge grin on his face! What the hell is wrong with you people!? Very well, you crazy b***h. If you want to make those nut cases meet their maker, so be it. I will be glad to oblige. Ah right. I still have the knives. Yanking them out is quite easy and they quickly find their way into my hands. First on the line is the beautiful battle axe. She¡¯s quite small little thing. The heavy duty two-handed weapon she¡¯s carrying must weigh as much as she does. Scary bloodthirst in her eyes, smiling like crazy, she¡¯s running keeping the axe high above her head. I¡¯m surprised she can lift that thing, much less keep the balance while running. Few meters before reaching her I slow down while trying to exaggerate my motions. It proves effective and she drops the axe too quickly. It hits with huge impact that shatters not only the stone slab and axe blade, but also her arms. The backlash from that thing must be terrible. The surprise on her face, does not have time to change back to smile as I slash her neck open. Increasing my speed once again, I realise that if I keep on running with my full speed, even though at least one of the killer duo might be faster than me, they should tire out and slow down. I just hope this happens before we run out of the crazies or the sunrise. That leaves me two mentally deranged to take care of. But there is another problem. The four lost happy campers that heard music of our play. Damn my rotten luck. It must have rotten off together with my flesh. The two nutcases are quite eager to meet their doom and have been running towards me. That means the party of four are still quite a distance off. I look closer at them. Two guys of more or less the same height. Identical colour of skin and hair. Only small difference of its length. Must be brothers or something. They have the standard simple leather armour with blue emblem. Weapons on the other hand are quite different. The one closer to me has two handed mace, while the one further has spear. Both can prove deadly to me. One by crushing the bones and the second by pinning me to single spot. Do I take them on, or do I leave them for kite-lady? Hmm¡­ I guess she could do the trick¡­ but I doubt those guys will allow me to pass by them without trying something. If they show an opening I will not be so generous as to leave it be. Surprisingly, the mace guy is not waiting for his brother and keeps on running in my direction. I assumed they will work together, but with this I will have more of a chance. I doubt the trick I used on the axe beauty will work second time. So when the moment comes and he is close enough, instead of just slowing down, I stop altogether. The stupid bastard just keeps on running. I jump sideways barely avoiding his mace, while he topples over from the momentum. One quick stab and his artery blood is gushing all over me. Damn I¡¯m getting red again. The flail guy is almost atop me. Wasn¡¯t he supposed to herd me!? F***k!!! I should never assume anything!! I don¡¯t have time to get up so I use the corpse as a shield. The heavy impact and sound of wet smack reaches me when spiked balls hit the dead body. I¡¯m practically bathing in the red stuff. Seven pits of hell! I try to stab at his leg but he rises it for a solid kick. The mace guy falls of me as the boot connects. I can move more freely now so I try for stab and a slash. I score a hit with both, but his chainmail blocks it perfectly. I¡¯m already half way up, but the spiked balls are flying my way. I don¡¯t have time. Instead of trying to dodge I shot out my left hand. It gets shattered as it connects with the balls. Momentum broken, in place of hitting my skull, they fall harmlessly along his chainmail and my ribs. Here goes my arm again, damn it! Not waiting to look what happened with my bones I jump to the side. As I expected the spearman was just behind me. There¡¯s no way I would miss him with the continuous hysterical mad laugh he¡¯s making. His spear buries itself into the ground. It passed between my lower spine and Flail man, missing me completely. If I had flesh I would be speared, but having no guts helped me out a bit. I make quick jump back onto the slab of a nearby grave. The spear obstructed the armoured veteran so I have second or two to process things. Higher elevation also helps. I¡¯m f***ed!! Totally, royally f***ed!!! There¡¯s no f***ing way I will survive this sh*t!! The armoured flail man is already passing the mad spearman. As I watch the kite lady is approaching fast, just two graves away behind them. Not far away, to the side, are the four lucky campers. The mage is already hard at work casting some kind of spell while the other three are going for me. Damn I¡¯m popular these days. At the feet of the crazy guy I see glimmer. My left hand is still holding the knife. That is what must have saved it from total destruction. It broken off at my forearm and even though I can clearly see cracks and breaks it¡¯s still holding together in one piece. One lucky thing in the sea of madness. ¡­ ¡­ As I¡¯m watching, something unbelievable happens. I simply cannot believe my eyes. The blade emerges from the stomach of spiked balls freak! The kite-lady! She just backstabbed armoured guy!! What the f**k is going on here!?!? To hell with them, this is my chance! I throw myself in their direction. My dash is taking me directly for the spearman, but all three are very close to each other. The spearman is still laughing loudly and bearing his weapon at me. I try to use my missing arm to slash the spearman on the ankles. But because it broke between elbow and wrist, the movement is small and award. Besides, I don¡¯t have enough experience using it like that. Luckily the movement itself was enough to get his attention. In his surprise, he shifted the spear little bit, allowing me to brush past the tip and continue towards him. But the flails man, ignoring sword sticking out of his belly, swings the balls at me. This is madness!!! Complete madness!! Dodge I made, has put the spear between me and the skewered madman. I let go of the knife and grab the shaft. Quick yanking motion puts the spear in the way of the balls. I am bit too slow, but the shaft was high enough to serve its purpose. The balls pass above it going in an arc, directly for my head, but the chain they are attached to catches on the spear. That alters the motion of the balls mere inches from my skull. F**k that was close! Dropping my grip on the spear I lurch for the man holding it. At least he stopped laughing. The armour he is wearing is covering most of his body. The only area not covered by it, is the head and the top of the neck. I don¡¯t have any weapons. But I do have my broken bones. I stab my left arm deep into his throat. The two bones of my forearm enter his neck on both sides of his Adam¡¯s apple, releasing fountain of blood. As the mad spearman topples over, I pick up my lost appendage and quickly right myself. Glancing at the duo besides me, I see they are still in tight embrace. There¡¯s nothing like true love, huh? He somehow managed to turn around with the blade still inside of him and is choking the kite-lady, with both hands. She on the other hand is using a knife to repeatedly stab him in the side, while trying to free her neck with the other. That is one tough love for you. But there, just two rows away, are the three happy campers, with not so happy expressions. At least these guys do not look insane. Further in the distance is the mage, still hard at work on that spell. Do I help the kite lady, or do I run for it? Choices, choices. -------------------- From author: - All comments much appreciated.
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Chapter 10: Pendant and Saw Hanging on Bones Chapter 10: Pendant and Saw Without a risk there is no gain, so I decide to help her. Instead of trying to reattach my broken arm, or taking the knife in the other one, I secure both of them into my ribcage. I quickly run up to the struggling pair and grab the blade sticking out of his back. How the hell is he managing to keep on standing is an wonder for me. Quick pull back, shove and circular sawing motion solve that problem. He soon topples over. There must be total mish-mash inside of that chainmail. While massaging her neck with one hand, the kite-lady looks at me with pained expression. ¡®Thanks¡¯ she says with the broken glass voice. ¡®But you should have ran¡¯ With these words she swipes my legs from under me. Damn. I made the wrong choice! I hit the grave slab with clattering sound and prepare to meet my doom. But to my surprise she simply takes the blade from me. Picking her shield up and moving them both in ready position, she throws a glance at me and says. ¡®Never, EVER loose that pendant¡¯ And off she goes toward the three warriors and a mage. What pendant? I¡¯m still stunned by the impact and this sudden development, as she clashes with the warriors. What is going on here, damn it!! Arghhhhh!!! F**k this! No time for thinking! Got to run!! I roll to the side, pick up the spear and start escaping. There¡¯s no way I will leave it if there is free loot in my reach. As a bonus, the flails are still tangled up with the spear. I put the whole messy contraption on my shoulder bone and run up the slope. There are heavy clashes of fighting but I do not turn to look. It would make me slow down and is too risky. Only thing that makes me jump is this fireball that passes right by me. Explosion is spectacular and I would never survive it. But in order to pass this mess of graves quickly, I¡¯m weaving between headstones and trees, running quite chaotically on the path of least resistance. That must make it hard to aim. Quick glance back to make sure nothing else is flying at me and I see that this is not the first spell that mage has cast. In the place he was standing before there is huge blue portal. No wonder it took him so long. Soldiers and mages are pouring out of the blue oval shaped hole in space. They are all running in my direction completely ignoring kite-lady. Only the ones she directly attacked are fighting her. Am I really that important? Maybe they really are completely mad, huh? At least the initial position of the mage was quite far off and I managed to increase the distance even further. At this rate, there¡¯s no way they will catch me. Few moments and I¡¯m already at the stairway to heaven. I throw the spear as I approach it and then run up the launching pad I never got to use. The jump took me half the way and few more quick movements got me on top. They are far off but I will not leave anything to chance. I grab the spear and run with all my might for safety. I will never be able to hide this spear in the grave, while leaving it on the surface might reveal my position. So few minutes later, when I¡¯m on one of the main paths and have more space, I start fumbling with it to release the flails. Doing it while running, with only one hand is quite difficult. But few tries and I discover that simply sliding the whole tangled mess off the shaft will do the trick. I stop myself from doing that at the last moment. Only one hand will not hold two things after all. Fighting with my own greed all the way, I finally decide to get rid of the spear at one of the rows near my grave. It will be risky. But there are no gains without the risks. I make the quick change over and I¡¯m left with the flails. Spear is lying between two graves in such a way, that it is hard to spot from the distance. Those balls will be quite a dangerous weapon to handle. I can easily break my own bones with it. But at the same time, it should be much more useful against heavily armoured opponents. I¡¯m soon at my own grave. Not wasting any more time, I slide the slab and hide myself inside. Quick practiced movements and I¡¯m again in the total dark of closed grave. I will wait this out. Aaahh the relief. I¡¯m safely in my grave again. I never thought the grave can feel so nice and comfortable. Going back deep inside, I stretch myself on my resting place. The heavenly feeling of putting my skull on soft pillow is simply amazing. Good I cleaned it out yesterday. There¡¯s just little time left before the sunrise. But what was she talking about? What pendant? I don¡¯t have any pendant with me, now do I? I¡¯m bare bones. Only things I had on me, is the stuff I stolen from Valkyria. Well, I never checked what¡¯s inside my skull, but she should not have been able to see that either, right? Wait¡­ The ribs¡­ I have one rib broken and I cannot see that place clearly. It¡¯s high up on the back. What? Did something got stuck over there? Damn! I do remember seeing something hanging over there back on the first day! How could I have forgotten!! Still¡­ so many things happening at the same time¡­ Damn it! Well it¡¯s not like I can do anything about it in this dark. The sun must be up, because I¡¯m getting reaaaly sleepy. Damn it¡­ too sleepy¡­¡­ -|- -|- -|- -|- -|- -|- -|- -|- -|- What the f**k? Do I simply pass out when the sun comes up? I don¡¯t have any choice over it? F***ing lunacy!! ¡­ Bright sides¡­ think of bright sides¡­ Ha! I will never suffer insomnia again! Wait, wait¡­ My shattered arm is attached again¡­ scratches and chips left on ribs are missing too¡­ It has all fixed itself while I slept¡­ that¡¯s one weirdness after another¡­ but I guess I should have expected that after bones of my feet reattached themselves. I bet all the blood is gone too. I feel its dark outside. But I¡¯ve got to be careful. They might still be out there waiting for me. Few checks and I¡¯m out. No one in sight. Let¡¯s see¡­ As expected, no blood on me. Few tries and I still cannot see the place of my broken rib. The pendant should be there, right? Right?? Well whatever. I don¡¯t feel like taking off my skull to check it. Besides, if it did not dislodge itself with all the movements that I made till now, then it must be secure there. But who knows? Maybe she was as mad as the rest of them. For now I should check my possessions. First the equipment¡­ I have one knife that I kept hold off in my broken arm. Then there are flails which might do me more harm than good. Small sacks with money and strange potion make my rotten off heart go fuzzy and warm. Then there is cut up harness and the useless boots. Ah! The pillow! I also have the pillow! Never forget the pillow! Well then¡­ also on my bony self, there are knee protectors and belt with straps for scimitars. I won¡¯t need those. Playing with belts and straps a little I get rid of the excess material and adjust reminder to hold the knife. What to do about the flails? There¡¯s no way I can secure them properly like this¡­ Even if I manage to get the straps to keep the baton in place, the movements of my body would swing the balls harming me in the process¡­ That cannot be good. Either way, I guess I better check how to use them. First swing goes relatively easy and with lot of noise I shatter piece of next door grave. Oops I didn¡¯t want to do that¡­ Easier, easier¡­. Another swing¡­ Few tries and I abandon all attempts at wielding this weapon. I almost shattered part of my ribcage with one of the swings. Other, almost took off my newly re-attached left arm. Thanks but no thanks. That is definitely not a weapon for me. Damn, such a shame. I had high hopes for that thing. Spear then! I got to retrieve the spear! But first¡­ the flails get stowed away in the grave, while the pouches get properly secured to my belt. I do not plan on leaving them here any longer. Last time I almost didn¡¯t make it back. Who knows what will happen next. And there are thiefs running around. Alright then off I go. Quick but cautious trip to place I stashed spear and I¡¯m back at my grave. It¡¯s long and I don¡¯t feel comfortable wielding it, but at least I will not break myself with it. Plus I have both hands now. I have plenty of night left so I better explore some more. Still I do not feel like going back downhill where the humans are pouring out from. I guess checking out old crypts and rest of my vicinity is better idea. Trek up hill is quite uneventful, except for meeting several of my dumb brethren. I spotted plenty of skeletons and few zombies. There was something running around in the shadows, following zombies from the distance, which might have been ghoul I guess. Luckily, there are no signs of combined family giants or anything worse. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. I played around with one of the skeletons. Prodding it with spear, this way and that proved to have no effects. It completely ignored me. Totally and utterly. I even tried to put my spear into its hand, and make it grip it. But to no avail. Nothing worked. Only thing I didn¡¯t try was dismembering it or breaking its bones. That would be very hostile and who knows how the rest of this crowd would react. Except for ghoul, none showed any kind of recognition or though pattern, so I simply bypassed them. Damn, I don¡¯t want to finish as one of those guys. But what about the ghoul? What does his reaction mean? Maybe, basic folklore one-o-one applies here huh. Drinking blood makes you into vampire while eating rotten flesh makes you into mad animalistic sicko? I better don¡¯t go to bed with any zombies then. Leaving them to themselves I proceeded further upwards. The crypts that I¡¯m aiming at are situated on the other side of the hill where the steepness does not allow for many normal graves. The difference between level of each row is too high. But there is little to none space wasted on this cemetery. Over the years the city officials thought of use for places like these. The crypts with their one and half meter height are going into the hill instead of downwards like normal graves. The doors for them vary from all kinds of metal gates to fixed marble with stone handles. Those places might prove perfect hiding spots. I only have to manage to find one that is unoccupied. Seeing how many of the graves in this cemetery are already empty I doubt it will be a problem. But before that, there should be some kind of small building somewhere near the top. The grounds keepers have to keep their toys somewhere, right? There¡¯s plenty of small shacks scattered in out of the way places across this cemetery. Searching this way and that, on top of this three and grave covered hill, does not make me more visible then before and I quickly find the shack I was looking for. Its small wooden building, that seems about to fall apart. It makes it easier to get inside though. Looking around leaves me agape in wonderment. The equipment here looks brand new! There are shovels, pickaxes, rakes, axes, saws, bags, ropes, ladders and other stuff proper caretaker would need. But what caught my attention the most and would make me hold my breath in wonderment is the chainsaw! F***ing chainsaw! Buahahaha! Unbelievable!! I can mow them down!! Haha! F**k the spear and flails! I can easily defend myself now! Checking the mechanism and controls reveals it¡¯s surprisingly hard to use. I manage to make it work after good half an hour. In addition to finger trigger, it has two locking mechanisms preventing it from misfiring. It also needs special cord to be pulled before use. All in all it makes a hell lot of a noise when working full throttle but when in idle mode it¡¯s surprisingly quiet. Better than I expected considering the size of this thing. It must have been used to cut down big old oak trees or something. I grab the ropes and make proper harness for my chainsaw. It¡¯s quite big so I will have to carry it on my back. Looking through the shack once more I decide to take several more things. First on my list is the small axe. There are several different kinds here, but since I already have heavy duty weapon I prefer my backup to focus more on speed over the heavy blow. I can also easily tuck it behind my belt. Next are the rags, cigarettes caretaker smoked and the tree glass bottles of paint thinner. Yeah, the Molotov cocktails are my favorite kind. I secure them by tying the rope between my belt and the bottlenecks. Lighter goes to one of my pouches. The last thing I take is small fuel canister for the chainsaw. I manage to carry it with one hand while I keep the spear in the other. I have really hard time leaving the hammer, screwdrivers, shovel and pickaxe, but decide to come back for them later. I would carry out everything at once if I only could, but first comes place to store this stuff. Getting out of the shack I check if the place secure. Seems like most of my bony family disappeared. Most likely the hunt is on. Quickly moving to the other side of the hill I reach the crypts. There are many here, and soon enough I notice open ones. Paranoia never leaves me though and just to be sure I leave the first ones and go deeper down the hill and further into the rows. After reaching suitable place I start inspecting possible candidates. Many are sealed tight with double locks and many padlocks while some have broken or rusted entry gates. Only few meet my standards for safety and accessibility. But finally I found the one I was looking for. It is quite an old one which unlike majority here, uses big heavy marble slab gate to block the entrance. A bit of pulling by the handles and prodding gets it open. Sure enough coffin that used to be inside is crumbled almost to dust, with no signs of the remains. Closer inspection reveals nothing of value and bit of shoving makes more space. Yeah this one will make for perfect hideout and storage space. I leave spear and fuel inside. Well I guess I should now bring rest of the useful stuff from the shed. Due to chainsaw, going back up is a bit more difficult. The weight does not seem to matter much, but its distribution does. The balance. Now that I don¡¯t have the canister in tow, it¡¯s really hard to keep it. Hmm¡­ Ah! The boots! The useless boots! With the ropes I can somehow fill them up and tie them down to me. It should provide me with both weight and protection! That¡¯s good. One problem almost solved. As I reach the top something else seems odd though. I¡¯m totally alone now. No skeletons, zombies or ghouls whatsoever. It seems that if I¡¯m not careful, things might get really bad. Well, let¡¯s leave the shack alone for now. Safety comes first. I should head back to my grave for now. Carefully and quietly going down the hill I don¡¯t notice anything strange for a while. Ah there it is¡­ I hear some noises directly below me. It¡¯s straight on the path to my grave. But they seem to be quite preoccupied. I might as well see what is going on huh. As they say, curiosity killed the cat. But as usual, I can¡¯t help myself. Several meters of stealthy approach and I see them more clearly. There are five skeletons fighting with lone armored warrior Moving few more meters I wonder. Lone warrior means plenty of good equipment. This one has standard leather armor and single short sword. I don¡¯t really need the weapon, but the rest might prove useful. But how do I do it? Do I use the chainsaw? Naah too much noise. I guess dagger and the small axe will do. I will have to aim for a throat and make sure armor is in good condition though. I stealthily approach as I think those things. He¡¯s down to two more skeletons and I¡¯m in the next row to them, when suddenly there is big explosion in the distance to our left. He turns, but luckily does not notice me. The quiet unintelligent skeletons continue to attack though, and one bites in on the left arm of the warrior. Ahh~~~ my armor!! The warrior quickly slices the last opponents to pieces. Observing the fights from up close I noticed what made the skeletons stop move. Seems like there are few steps to it. First is disconnecting the skull from the spine. Then shattering the spine in several places. Last is breaking the skull. Otherwise they simply continued to attack while segmented or tried to pick themselves up. Taking closer look at the scene, the warrior started sheathing his sword. But before he has time to finish it, I rise up from behind and slide his throat from ear to ear. I guess the knife was enough this time. Looking in the distance I see few smoking remains in the area where the explosion took place. No one is moving anywhere near that place. Well now, I guess free stuff just drops into my hands today. ------------------------------- Author: RRL Stuff... I promise to speed up things from now :) Also like Lv1slime always says and I whole heatedly concur: "Comment, follow, favorite, and rate/review if you enjoyed this fic so far. It''s not much, but it keeps me going."
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Chapter 11: Working Magic Hanging on Bones Chapter 11: Working Magic I used to be called Tomas. Yes, I¡¯m quite sure about that. After all, that is what it says on the headstone of the grave I¡¯m sleeping in. The pillow and the paddings are very comfortable. They are not high quality, but they held admirably well in comparison to the lid. My coffin was definitely made more for show, then to last long years. The lower part has rotten and crumbled off. This allowed me to tunnel my way up to surface. Yeah¡­ It did¡­ right? My memories are quite vague, aren¡¯t they? Wait, wait¡­ let me think about this¡­. There¡¯s not much there, huh. One of the few things I remember is that I died in really uncool way. During some kind of festival, I got my fortune read to me by an old man. I was not alone there. I cannot recall their names or faces, but there were five of us at his cram. All of us were drunk as hell. Each received lucky charm that was supposed to protect him or her, but I was the only one who kept it. Then, not ten minutes later, due to intoxication, I tripped and hit my head on cornerstone. Intense pain, ambulance and then nothingness. That was it. But besides this memory, there¡¯s very little else¡­ Yeah¡­ now I get it. I¡¯m losing my memories, huh. Every time I wake up. With less and less of me each day. The clearest and brightest thing in all of the memories that are still remaining is that talisman. I can recall it being in my possession even after death. That is quite strange though, since I¡¯m only bones now. I can¡¯t find it anywhere in my coffin either. Well no use dwelling on this. I have to do something or other. No clue what through. I just have this urge to get out and do it. Everything is behind mist now. It¡¯s very hard to concentrate. I¡¯m outside, huh. The night is beautiful, isn¡¯t it? ¡­ I was supposed to look for something, wasn¡¯t I? Ah! The talisman!! Yeah! That¡¯s what I have to find! I¡¯m so slow though¡­ I cannot get myself to move faster than slow shuffle. My mind¡­ everything is slowed down¡­ and I notice things long after I pass them. My consciousness¡­ it¡¯s like I¡¯m fading in and out. There are others like me¡­. Or rather like I used to be¡­ Yeah¡­ Just now¡­ there was one who seemed to be watching me intensely¡­ even stood in front of me¡­ but my ¡®self¡¯ was away and my body was simply going through the motions ¡­. My vocal cords are missing but I could have at least given some signs indicating that I am inside. This skeleton would surely help. Instead, I bet I was mistaken for one of the mindless ones that are roaming everywhere on this graveyard. Maybe this was my last chance before I become mindless like them. No¡­ No¡­ no.no.no.no.NOO!! I will not! I have to wait here. Yes. Skeleton with that much dirt on it, must have just left its grave! I still have a chance! But focus!! Focus!!! Damn it! My mind slipped and my body strayed away again! I must turn back! Ah here we are! This place! Yeah! This row of graves! I¡¯m back where I saw her! ¡­ Ah¡­ it¡¯s not working¡­ That skeleton with mind I saw¡­ it is not coming back¡­ So long¡­ Damn it¡­. This pressure¡­ The sunrise is approaching¡­ No¡­ no¡­ I have to stay! But the sun¡­ ! I remember enough to know I will die horrible death if I stay any longer damn it¡­ Damn it!! AH! YES!! That¡¯s it!! YEEES!! That skeleton came back! There are only few graves between us! Wait¡­why is it red? From head to toe those bones are covered in blood, huh¡­ And one arm is missing, isn¡¯t it¡­ Damn! I have to focus! We don¡¯t have much time!! The sun is about to get up! We have to hurry or else I won¡¯t make it back to my grave! No. no way¡­I missed it? My consciousness slipped? At such an important moment!?!? We were supposed to communicate, but I¡¯m alone again!! Damn it!!! Nooooo way in hell!!! But wait¡­ something is lying on the ground¡­ there are plastic bags next to that grave! They weren¡¯t there before, were they! I don¡¯t have much time!! Looking inside the bags I find that everything is covered in blood and tangled up together. I don¡¯t have time to pick through this stuff! Turning the plastics inside out spills everything to the ground. Some armour, weapon and two pouches!! Eureka!!! My talisman! It was in little bag like that one!!!! But I don¡¯t have time!! I grab both of the pouches and start shuffling off towards my grave. Damn it! I will not make it!! The feeling of pressure already transformed into physical pain!! Shortly my bones will begin to smoke and if direct sunlight hits me, I will burst into flames!! No way in hell! I will not let myself die here again, damn it!! But my slow gate will not let me get back!!! The feeling these graves emit though¡­ Ah! There! Isn¡¯t that stone slab shifted a little bit? Maybe¡­ just maybe¡­. YES!! There¡¯s a tunnel leading below! Some other poor bastard dug himself out and couldn¡¯t make it back!! Lucky me!!! Going in, I make sure to shift the slab back to cover the entrance. Would not want anybody disturbing us now would I? Me and my rewards¡­ Well there¡¯s no way to see anything in this pitch darkness, so I cannot really check the contents but still¡­ If there is talisman inside, I should not have any problems with my memory and concentration tomorrow right? So I guess I will just relax here till the sun goes down. This coffin is made from simple wooden boards. Definitely not something I would call comfortable, but I¡¯m quite sleepy ¡­ ¡­¡­ -|- -|- -|- -|- -|- -|- ¡­¡­. The sun is not bright and shiny anymore! Huraaay! I remember! I f**king remember! And my name is Maria for f**k¡¯s sake!!! How the hell I ended up thinking I was guy, damn it!! Still!! Yaay! Well now. Seems I was really lucky in getting my hands on this stuff. The guy I stolen it from, must be mightily pissed off about it. Well, hell. He might be woman from what I know. But either way, If I only knew that talismans were so precious, I would never, ever let myself loose mine. Stupid thing really. I dropped it. I simply had too many things to carry and I dropped it. This is understatement, but I was never good at physical stuff. So when I woke up as an undead, I simply kept my distance from any danger. And at this monstrously huge cemetery, there was plenty of danger. Un-intelligent zombies, skeletons, ghouls and such, were the least of my problems. Living breathing humans were the worst. They came regularly, in highly organized waves, using antique weapons and magic. This was the biggest shock. The magic. Not death, not bare bones, but magic. As an atheist coming from civilized society where technology is on very high level, this discovery hit me like a thunderbolt from the sky. Especially since I know this graveyard. At least two members of my family were buried here. But I was never pious person. The last time I visited was when I was still little girl. After that, school, friends and other stuff took priority. When alive, I fashioned myself more as a shopping mall fan then book worm. Always being in group of friends, or with a boyfriend, something or other without a doubt stood between me and the violence. So when I died and was left alone, I discovered myself to be total coward. Keeping to the side-lines and always staying far away from the fights. When anyone came too close, I was hiding the best I could, using even other empty graves and crypts. But this cemetery is huge. It¡¯s so enormous that in order for humans to swipe whole area of other unintelligent undead, they had to spread out very thin. Loosing each other from sight and having no way for help to reach them, they sometimes were waaay to reckless. It was as if they didn¡¯t care if they died or not. Few first times, I was too appalled to approach even after zombies and ghouls were done goring themselves on remains of those fools. But after a while, curiosity won and I went to check what was left. Usually, leather armour was in tatters, with some kind of weapon next to it. Armaments of the kind, that I would have to come in close and personal to use them. That meant, only occasional pouch might be of use to me. But they usually contained only some coins, bottles of red stuff that looked like blood and herbs. The fluid proved to be burning me if I touched it, while the other things were useless. Never the less, each time I stumbled on one of them, I took those small bags with me. One day however, while I was wandering the cemetery, I noticed another fight in the distance. As per usual, quickly finding hiding spot in the vicinity, I kept observing what is going on. To my enormous surprise, there was lone mage fighting two skeletons. They either never separated from at least one guard, or followed behind group that cleaned out surrounding area. Either way, with no armour whatsoever, this mage would either kill them before they reached him, or would die shortly after. He destroyed first one with room to spare, but the other one was almost on top of him. As I watched, the spell he was creating exploded in his hands, killing both of them. After the weeks of wandering, this proved to be turning point for me. I ran over to that place and discovered his corpse to be almost intact. With a bit of embarrassment I stripped him of the robes and everything he possessed. Supporting his long staff on my shoulder while keeping everything tucked close to my chest, I ran for my grave. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Reaching the safety, I closely examined all the spoils. The long robes and staff were emanating this strange, but powerful feeling. There was a thick book inside one of the pouches, and glass with blue liquid mixed among the red ones. With this I might become a mage and defend myself from distance, is what I thought. But I was feeling tired so I put everything inside the grave and went to sleep. The next night, I studied the book for a while. Just reading the book for few hours allowed me to grasp the basics and start feeling the pulse. Like that of veins when being alive, the rhythm all around us. Going through my bones in a closed loop, while also seemingly intertwined at random in everything. Seems like me being without heartbeat, proved surprisingly useful in detecting this pulse. And yet I had to stop my studies in order to make sure everything is safe. It wouldn¡¯t be good for humans to stumble on me when I¡¯m engrossed in book. Walking around made me wonder at the vastness and complexity of this pulsing web. The cemetery seems like completely different place now. In my wonderment, I went too far. Before I realized it, humans were on all sides and approaching quickly. I had to run. But that made them chase me even faster. Luckily I knew this area very well now and quickly hid in empty grave I used before. They didn¡¯t notice which one but they knew I was somewhere in one of them. So I stayed. Night after night they had someone posted in the vicinity. I could not leave. Few days passed and I understood that I¡¯m starting to fade. Each day, little by little. That shocked me and made me think. There were three possibilities. First one is that it¡¯s happening because I¡¯m not sleeping in my own grave. That is highly unlikely since I¡¯ve spent quite a few days in other graves. The second one is fact that I started learning magic. I believed this reason for few days until enough memories faded that I recognized the pattern. Memories of the talisman don¡¯t fade as easily. It was focal point all of them were anchored by. And I dropped the stupid talisman when I was carrying the things taken from dead mage. I was so close to surviving this thing. At least partial safety was within my reach. But no. I had to lose it, damn it. ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ But what is past is past. I need to focus on the present. My luck turned for the better yesterday, when I took the bags from that blood covered skeleton. Ah, I better check on them. Before climbing out of the grave I was sleeping in, I make sure to check whole coffin once again. I don¡¯t want to leave anything by accident. Yeah, totally empty. It¡¯s only me and my pouches. Climbing out is not so easy with one hand occupied, but I will not risk leaving them anywhere. Not after what happened before. Good long shove and the stone slab shifted enough for me to slip out. It¡¯s nice and quiet today. I fumble with the first one a bit. Sadly there are only some coins and a glass bottle. With mental sigh, I reach for the cord closing off the second one. It¡¯s much lighter so I should have guessed talisman will be in it. What? Hey¡­ what¡¯s going on? There is only some stupid scroll inside! Turning both of the pouches inside out and spill everything on the stone slab. It¡¯s not here¡­ damn it! It¡¯s not here!! Why the hell it¡¯s not here!?! But¡­ wait¡­ why are the pouches so clean? Where did all the blood go? Why the hell!? Calm down¡­ calm down¡­ What does this mean? The blood? Was it the blood that restored me to my senses and not the talisman? But that means¡­ that means I will very shortly start losing myself again¡­. No ¡­ no ¡­ no.no.no.nonono! I got to do something¡­ but I don¡¯t stand any chances in normal fight. I might try to find one of the reckless ones that get themselves killed, but that happens only once per few days. I might lose myself before that¡­. The magic! I have to learn how to use offensive spells! This book I left at my grave! It should have some! And if it doesn¡¯t, then the scroll I found in the second pouch looks formidable. It will be fight with time, but I have to do it. I don¡¯t want to become like those mindless undead fools that die in droves every day. Taking only scroll with me, I run for my grave. Yeah, that¡¯s it! No more slow shuffling around! The fates smiled on me and my burial place is not on the other side of the cemetery. If that was the case, I would spend most of the night on running there. In minutes, I¡¯m dragging out the book out of the coffin. Everything is there. Even staff is lying beside the grave. With its length, I had no choice but to leave it outside. Now the hardest part. Working magic. I have to get a hang on it. Going through the book I skip several dozens of pages to find the real spells. Too little time to dwell on small things. First thing I try is one of the simplest spells. Lighting a candle. Without any kind of candle I guess I can use simple twig to replace it. Forming a spell is basically weaving the blue veins of power. They vary in thickness and their pulsing rhythm. Unlike the complicated spells where I would have to make intricate patterns, the spell I¡¯m about to use is easy to manage. It just requires to shift few large, fast beating veins to cross on top of each other, in desired place. The most difficult is getting them to move. But once I learned that, it is quickly getting easier. The next hurdle on my path to attack spells is creating my own strings. This drains me quite heavily, but allows to be independent from the environment. I basically have to drag out blue veins out of myself, while molding them on the way. Being integral part of my own being, they regenerate like the blood would if I was alive. Difference being the speed of regeneration. Extracting them was not so hard. The molding into required thinness and giving them rhythm of my choosing is the nightmare. Ah I made it! But damn it¡¯s very late already. The sun is about to get up. Time to crawl down into the coffin and sleep rest of the day. -|- -|- -|- -|- -|- Waking up I realize I¡¯m losing my fight with time. The sleep already took part of my memories. Damn I have to hurry! It takes me two hours to re-learn the progress I lost during the night. And this is the first night! For now I have to focus on learning. Due to my practice on my first spell, I have general feel for the thickness and rhythm that is required to get the fire going. To save time, I will just keep working only on fire based spells. There¡¯s few of them in this book, but I need only one. I choose the simplest ball of fire. First stage of forming the spell entails moving out my internal ¡®soul veins¡¯ by the tips of all ten of my fingers. Then I have to weave them to form a net like sphere. Next at the center of this ball, I start layering plenty of fire veins. This creates inferno inside, which is contained by the net. This offensive spell is of the simplest possible, normal throw being the final attack. At my eight try I finally managed to do it. I still have few hours to spare before the sunrise. That makes things a lot easier. Got to get dressed then! I¡¯ve put on the mage¡¯s robe and leave the long staff. For this spell I need all ten fingers. This long piece of wood appears to be only enhancing my sensibility to ¡®soul veins¡¯ in the surroundings. Two hours of searching and I find one lone human fighting few of my stupid brethren. To not waste any precious moment I quickly approach into throwing distance and start to weave the spell. I¡¯m nervous, huh¡­ the weaving is going longer then I planned as my fingers fumble from time to time. Taking quick peek up, I see the moment last of the skeletons crumbles to the ground and the human starts approaching. Not good! Not good! I speed up the weaving and start working on core. Quick glance and he¡¯s almost on me! No damn it!! No!!!! The sword human swung at my torso was centimeters away, when the hastily constructed net broke under the pressure of flame inside it. The brightness of resulting explosion blinds me. Damn¡­ So that¡¯s how the mages die. ------------------------------------------------------------- Author: Diferent POV and little bit of plot twist for you. :) "Comment, follow, favorite, and rate/review if you enjoyed this fic so far. It''s not much, but it keeps me going."
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Chapter 12: Two bloody friends Hanging on Bones Chapter 12: Two bloody friends Bones¡¯s POV The corpse below me is a wonder. I thought it was live human mage that caused explosion. Seems like I was wrong. There are only crushed bones scattered inside the smoldering robe. The lone skull is lodged in bushes off to the side. This makes me exited. This guy must be like me! He used magic to kill humans! He blew himself up in the process, but still! There¡¯s no way he could use magic and wear that robe without at least some cognitive powers! And from the way other skeletons died, he must be still in there! Maybe all his bones from the neck down are broken, but the skull is in one piece! The robe he was wearing kept him from scattering all over¡­ I can use that. Tying the sleeves and the hood I make impromptu bag. Getting the skull I look into his eye sockets. There is still dim red glow coming from them. Yeah, he has to be inside. I got myself companion huh. He¡¯s not trying to move or anything, but being aware has its own disadvantages. Even though it did not hurt physically, losing my head was not a pleasant experience. I make sure that all his parts are inside and tighten the knots. Then the expensive charred bag is put to the side. Well, it¡¯s not like he¡¯s going anywhere for now in either way. I look around for other corpses. There are two dead warriors in the area. No way I will leave them be. Both of them have simple sword and basic leather armor. But their pouches are the real prize. More money for me! One of them is quite burned with bits and pieces giving off smoke. I extinguish it and scratch my skull. The other one is more preferable and I don¡¯t have much time here. While thinking I absentmindedly gaze around me. Then idea pops into my mind. The graves! I bet there is empty grave somewhere nearby! Soon the search revels one. Except for the shifted lid and gaping maw beneath this grave looks nondescript. I make sure to remember what the headstone says. Quickly moving the body, I drop it into the hole. I¡¯m too lazy to take off my chainsaw so I do not even check the contents of the grave. I just hope there¡¯s no occupant there right now. I move the lid back into place and go for other corpse. Unlike with the Valkyrie, stripping this warrior is quite easy. I have two hands this time after all. He was quite slim with perfectly fitting armor so I take everything. He also must have not eaten for quite a while, which is real blessing. All the equipment creates nice neat pile on the ground. I make sure to fill two empty pouches with his blood. Nothing beats a little drink before going to sleep. The leather of those bags is quite waterproof. Then using ropes from the groundskeepers shack, everything is tied into a bundle, before strapping it to myself. Bit of struggling with the balance and I attach the bag full of bones on the other side. I must look like overloaded pack horse right about now. All those things take up space, so I have hard time navigating between the trees and headstones. The squeezing through makes me slow, but the Fortunes must have smiled upon me, because I do not meet any more dangers. After dropping most of the load next to my resting place, I move few headstones down the row. Some time ago, I found plenty of empty graves in the immediate vicinity. Knowledge that comes with home turf is as huge help as always. I choose the closest one and scatter the bones into it. To make the deed complete, I untie and throw in one of the blood bags. Have good dreams my friend ¡­ -|- -|- -|- -|- -|- -|- -|- -|- Maria¡¯s POV ¡­ I wake up with the scream. ¡­ As expected there¡¯s no sound coming out. Aaaah¡­. I¡¯m still undead, aren¡¯t I? But the explosion! I was sure it would kill me! I¡¯m back huh¡­ except for the hole in the skull I had from the beginning, all the bones are in proper places. There is a robe and some kind of bag next to me¡­I never had this bag with me, did I ? How come it¡¯s here¡­ Something is wrong¡­ But it¡¯s too dark to check the coffin ¡­ Ah, the magic! I can use the magic! I should try the small illumination spell! Putting the ¡®soul veins¡¯ on top of each other, and making them beat in proper rhythm does not give me a problem. But what I see¡­. My robe is scorched and ragged in several places. More than it used to be. It must have really happened then. But what about the pouch? I have never seen it before¡­. Same with the coffin itself¡­ I scramble for the lid. Night must have fallen just recently, since I can feel afterglow of the setting sun. I do not care though and quickly move the lid aside. As I suspected I don¡¯t recognize this place. But wait that tree¡­ maybe I was here before¡­? Am I loosing memories again? Naah¡­ can¡¯t be¡­ my consciousness is too sharp right now¡­ *gshh* I snap my head to the side as I hear the scraping noise of lid moving aside. Just few graves from mine something is coming out from its grave. Damn, I don¡¯t have time to run or hide! Before I can decide to do anything there is familiar skeleton standing before me. It¡¯s hard to recognize someone from their bones alone. The weapons are not the same. There is all kind of strange equipment hanging from loose belt. The missing arm is back. But despite it all, I can somehow ¡®feel¡¯ that this skeleton is the one I stole from those blood covered bags. Is this one of the aspects of magic, I wonder? IT takes few steps closer to me and I crouch getting ready to bolt. But it puts up both of its hands palms up and stops. I knew there were some other conscious undead here on the cemetery, but most of them were like the ghouls. More than little mad. So I always made sure to keep the distance. Who knows what will it do, if it knows I was the one who stole from it? But in spite of my fears, it took dry branch and wrote on the dusty ground. ¡®My name is Bones. Do you understand me?¡¯ I stare at it dumbfounded. Bones? What an idiotic name is that? You¡¯re male or female, you moron! I don¡¯t respond in any way, but it¡¯s writing again. ¡®What is your name?¡± I hesitate at this. What? He wants to make friends or something? And it¡¯s HE, right? No woman would lack the fashion sense to wear as many ugly contraptions as he does. I use my bony foot to write simple ¡®Maria¡¯ If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. He immediately replies. ¡®What a beautiful name! Nice to meet you Maria!¡¯ I barely have time to read when he swipes it and follows with another line. ¡®I know this is sudden, but will you go out with me?¡¯ WTF!? What the f**k!? ¡®Small joke to break the tension, hahaha¡¯ ¡®But really, I mean you no harm.¡¯ ¡®I want to offer you my protection¡¯ I¡¯m too stunned to move. What is with this guy!? Fucking creep! Is he nuts!? And what protection?! I doubt he¡¯s better off them I am! But then I see something¡­ It can¡¯t be¡­ can it? Ohh my god!! He has the talisman!! He has it!! It¡¯s out of the bag and is tangled up on his rib bone near his spine!! I stare for few minutes as he waits patiently. I have to get it! I WILL get it! Whatever it takes! I slowly write on ground before me. ¡®I¡¯m in your care then.¡¯ ¡­ -|- -|- -|- -|- -|- -|- -|- -|- Bones¡¯s POV ¡­ To my surprise the skeleton that came out was none other than John. The f**king thief John! Well, he turned out to be ¡®she¡¯, but there¡¯s no way I would mistake her for anyone else. Still, thieves have their uses. Especially the ones that can use magic. I will have to be careful around her, but it might be worth the risk. Just to be safe, after our initial interaction, I decided to equip ourselves. She had easy work of it, just slipping on the big robe. I took much more time. Now the leather armor is practically hanging on me, covering everything from neck to tips of my toes. The biggest problem was with boots and providing for proper balance. But using the ropes and extra belt I managed to fasten them securely. Her surprise at the chainsaw was quite amusing. Especially when she tipped and fallen on her ass. Conversation by writing is long and laborious, and she was not too keen on it. From what she says, she doesn¡¯t know much more than I do. Supposedly she also lost the spellbook she was learning from and she cannot show her grave because it caved in. I¡¯m glad I don¡¯t have any flesh on my face, because it would immediately reveal all my emotions. It¡¯s like a breath of fresh air to meet someone so bad at lying. I really wanted to learn magic through, so I squeeze as much information from her as I can. That does not help me in the least. She either is vague on purpose or I have no talent in this area. If it¡¯s the former, then I will still get my chance after killing few mages. ¡­ The time sure flies by and if we waste any more of it, whole night will pass before we do anything. So I decide to go and plunder the groundskeepers shack. There was still plenty of equipment left there and I have additional hands to carry it. To my surprise, Maria was quite meek in following me. She did not resist it, as I expected. Neither did she seem eager. I have no clue what her motivation is. Maybe she really wants me to guard her and is simply overprotective of her skills? Nether the less I better keep an eye out on her. ¡­ -|- -|- -|- -|- -|- -|- ¡­ Half way up I remember about the other warrior. I decide to take quick detour to collect armor he had. Burnt as it may be, it still might prove useful. There¡¯s plenty of undead around, so the hunt didn¡¯t reach up here yet. I made big mistake leaving this guy in such an ordinary grave. I mean, come on! Why would anyone want to have the same grave as twenty of his neighbors? Did they have special sale of cheap graves that year or something? I made sure to remember the name but really¡­ Kowalski? Who would have expected there would be so many of them here, damn it! I really should have found different grave. After moving the lid on the forth grave and still finding solid ground I sat there frustrated. I was trying to calm dawn when I felt something strange¡­ it¡¯s as if something was tugging at me¡­ I stood up and cautiously moved in that direction. Ugh, what the hell¡­.? It disappeared. Checking this way and that proved we¡¯re safe. But my nervous movements affected Maria and she increased the distance she was following me at. Now I know how much I can rely on her. I tried to re-create the situation. Shifting the lid and then sitting on it, as well as few other things, did not seem to work. But the feeling flickered for a moment once I tried calming myself. Huh. Failed experiments and practice are the food of all Mad Scientists. Few more tries and I discover that if I calm down and leave my mind in a vague, thoughtless state, I can feel it. Moving few meters, checking for obstacles and danger, and then tuning in again, quickly brought me to the source. To my surprise it is the grave I was looking for. One of the Kowalski graves. I cautiously move the lid aside and peek into the hole beneath. There are two bloodshot eyes looking at me from down there. Holly s**t!! I jump back and draw axe with one hand and knife with the other. The warrior! He¡¯s back alive!! Are they fucking immortal or something!? Glancing to the side I see Maria in her robes weaving a spell. Huh. I was sure she would run. Looking back to the grave, the guy is out and almost standing. That was surprisingly quick. But he did not draw any weapons yet! I quickly dash in and stab the knife into his heart. It¡¯s stuck there up to the hilt. What the f**k? The guy is standing there motionless just looking at me. He¡¯s not falling over, and not doing anything. Just standing there and looking at me without blinking. I jump back few meters. Something is seriously wrong. The guy is still there, unmoving. No whispering sounds of his breathing and no rising of his chest. No blinking and no reaction to the knife. He¡¯s dead, isn¡¯t he? As if in response the guy moans. Slow, long and quiet moan. But moan all the same. Just like other zombies. ¡­ I made myself a friend, didn¡¯t I? ¡­ Well he sure gave me a scare. With relief in my heart I look at Maria, just to see ball of fire flying directly at me. BLOODY HELL!! ¡­
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Chapter 13: Power cables Hanging on Bones Chapter 13: Power cables BLOODY HELL!! Phantom shivers running through my back as without much thought, I reflexively drop to the ground. The instant that took was enough for the spell to reach it destination. The headstone that I landed behind, shielded me from most of the blast, but the flames that spread in its wake, almost set fire to my arm. Quick hand movements got rid of that problem. Satisfied that flames will not consume me, I turn my attention towards Maria. She is quite far away from where I was standing, which might be why her spell did not reach me. Her movements are frantic, but it does not look as if she¡¯s casting another spell. There is no use waiting to see what she does. Usually the best defence is attack. Not waiting any longer, I rush in her direction. I¡¯m weaving this way and that between the graves, just in case she has some ace up her sleeve. As I approach her, I see she stopped all her movements and is standing still, with both hands raised palms up. The rage boiling in me flickers a bit. Another trick, damn her! Ignoring her defenceless pleading attitude, I do not break speed even in the slightest and use my free hand to strike her skull. It flies off majestically sailing through the air to strike a tree few meters behind. Her arms make various bracing motions before she finally loses balance and crumbles to the ground. I take huge swing that is supposed to shatter her ribs when I see the ground. There, very sketchy and hastily written, are the words: ¡®Sorry!! That was accident!! I missed! I lack control!! I have to throw it by hand!! Forgive me!¡¯ ¡­ ¡­ Well¡­ I might have over reacted¡­ Maybe I¡¯m just too paranoid¡­ ¡­ ¡­ Naaah¡­ ¡­ But either way, what is done is done, so I should make best of it. I quickly pick up her skull, taking it into my bony hands. I need to familiarise myself with the new laws that govern my old world, so proper examination is in order. As I handle her head, she starts to move her jawbone in a protest, but I ignore it. Obviously I never got to see inside of my own head. Normally, the small hole at the bottom of the skull, where the spine connects to it, is the only place where you can clearly see inside. Maria on the other hand, must have been real airhead. From my own experience, the bones that were already broken at the moment of your death, do not regenerate during the sleep. That means she let the air caress her brain while she was still alive. Yeah, true definition of air head. Still, peaking through the huge hole in the side of her head I realise that except for the backlash of red eye glow, there is nothing worth mentioning inside the skull itself. Well.. this just proves that she¡¯s empty headed. ¡­ After putting her skull on one of the slabs, and making sure her body does not go anywhere, I slowly and meticulously describe to her, what a bad idea it is to make such mistakes. Little poke in the eye. Little bowling practice. But after an hour or two of playing with her we are disturbed by lone warrior. I quickly jumped up and got ready for battle, when I noticed it¡¯s our burned friend Mr. Kowalski. Hell, he followed us here. But unlike other zombies, he was still like an stone. Not looking around or wandering. Just looking directly at me. I¡¯ve put aside Maria¡¯s skull and went to examine him instead. Unlike with other zombies, whichever side I tried to approach him, he always turned to face me. Other than the knife in his heart and the fact that he¡¯s quite crispy, he can easily pass for live human. As I was retrieving my knife, something flashed between us, like an electrical jolt. The feeling I had before, overflowed my whole being as we made contact. I took few steps back, but the feeling did not abate. It simply changed form. Now I ¡®knew¡¯ where he was and what he was doing. Damn, I feel violated and sick. It¡¯s horrible. As if he forcefully pushed on to me what he is doing. Without any cognitive thoughts, like the stream of data I feel where his legs are, where his arms are, where the head and so on. I tried forcing the feeling down. Surprisingly it abated almost instantly. It took me few moments but I calmed myself again and looked at the zombie before me. There is no thought in its eyes. Complete lack of emotion. Like a blank slate. AH! The idea that popped into my mind would be considered little mad when I was alive, but so much changed by now, that it might actually work. As I calmed myself and felt for the link between us, the chill started running down my spine. Ignoring it I gathered my thoughts into nice compressed little bundle and sent it through the link. The zombie moved few meters. Just like I ordered it to. It was simple command, but it has proven my mad theory. I can move him. I can command him!! Hahaha! That¡¯s more like it!! What about other zombies and skeletons? With much vigor and enthusiasm, I quickly rushed for the undead that are in the distance. Group of three skeletons and one heavily decayed zombie are milling around close to the path. My unabashed trashing and all the noise I make do not seem to get their attention. In my eagerness I totally forgot to take any precautions. Yet, the fact that this late in the night they are still simply wandering means we are safe today. I crash onto the path between the two of them. As I come to a halt my boots are making scrapping noises skidding on the gravel. Even though I must be quite a sight to behold, they ignore me same as before. Unperturbed by this I try to calm down and think of nothing. All the emotions and excitement of this night are stirring deep within me, making it difficult to achieve that state. After a while though I do feel it. The strings. But unlike with Mr. Kowalski, the lines of power that I feel, do not lead to me. Following them with my sight I see that they are all disappearing far off into the distance. What? Someone else is controlling them? Those thoughts throw me out of my hard earned trance. But no use crying over spilled milk, I use this opportunity to take my brings. The strings were leading straight for the canter of cemetery. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. But maybe¡­ just maybe¡­ The emotions are bubbling inside me again and I have hard time relaxing. Few more tries get me nowhere, so I go for a different tactics. Sitting on the ground and crossing my legs like the Buddhist monks do, I finally manage to get myself into proper state of mind. If it was the past I would have laughed at this absurd situation but I¡¯m on the ground, in the midst of zombies and skeletons while meditating. That proves to work though and I start feeling the lines. They are very faint in comparison to the one Mr. Kowalski had. Any kind of solid thought is almost instantly throwing me out of this state, so it¡¯s very hard to do anything with them. I¡¯m trying constantly though and with each attempt I get better at it. They start shifting and twisting but do not break loose. Even trying to make one of the lines pass through me, is proving useless. They pass through trees, headstones and even other undead without slightest problem, but once I tried to pass one through me, it skipped off as if burned. I try attaching them to myself in various ways, when suddenly all four became red. What the hell? What gets me out of my trance is a bite. F**cking hell!! The closest of the skeletons has bitten me on my arm!! Reflexively I push on the body in front of me and try to get up. Focusing my attention on here and now, I see that the zombie and two skeletons wandered off few rows down the hill during the time I was playing with their strings. They all are racing towards me. Damn it!! I¡¯m in deep shit!! The hungry fellow is still holding piece of my leather armour in its jaws while swiping the talon like claws at me. I kick it in the ribs while jumping back. The momentum carries me on top of a grave while the skeleton staggers few meters back. I grab for the chainsaw and somehow manage to get it working. The noise is very loud, but alas, there seem to be no humans today. When the blade actually starts to turn, the hungry fellow is already on top of me, with his friends inches behind him. I swipe it from side to side in a very panicked manner, but they are too close to dodge or otherwise defend themselves. The bones and occasional piece of meat scatter in all directions. The fight was over in seconds. Few stomps on the skulls finish the deal. I did not suspect the chainsaw would be this effective. But they did manage to land few solid blows. Armour proved more than little useful though and the bones that they broke were minor ones. Well, not really, but at least I can still walk and use both hands. I do not let myself rejoice yet, as there might be other eager enemies nearby. Looking in the distance I see zombies and skeletons. To my utter relief, they seem to ignore me as they used to. Seems like only ones to get pissed off were those whose power strings I played with. Good to know. Golden rule for life and unlife. Do not play with power cables. The ground is scattered with their remains. I made quite a mess here. The bones are in bits and pieces with skulls shattered and spines broken. Bit of hand here, piece of bone there. But this gives me an idea. Just to make sure, I sit down and struggle to reach zen-like state again. What I feel is precisely as expected. No lines of power coming from the remains. On the other hand, very light familiar tingling that has started in the back of my mind, spells the approach of a dawn. I have to make haste. Quick search of nearby graves and I find empty one. In spite of my instincts I force myself to take my time and gather the remains of all four of my opponents into it. I then make sure to close it off from the world. Running back to the place I left Maria at I concentrate on the link between me and Mr. Kowalski. It¡¯s so easy, that I nearly tripped on nearby grave. Turns out I can use him as my eyes as well. Focusing properly this time, I send mental command to return to his previous grave. In perfect situation I would prefer taking him with me, just to make sure Maria behaves, but there¡¯s too little time now. He seems way to slow. As he shuffles off to his grave I stop above Maria. She is quite resourceful little fellow and somehow managed to roll her skull next to her body. She is in process of chewing through her ropes. Really that must be quite an experience. I don¡¯t have time to be playing with her anymore, so lift her body onto my shoulder. After catching my balance in enough extent to keep her in place with only one hand, I grab the skull with the other. Run back to my grave is quite uncomfortable, with her wiggling and movements braking my balance at most unfortunate moments. Even few shakes and spins of her skull do not make her behave. Hard case huh. When I¡¯m approaching my graves I make sure to cover her eye sockets. Choosing an random empty grave I know off, I drop her skull into it, and move on with her body to another. To confuse her a little more, I made several spontaneous turns and row changes. Afterwards I dashed into my own grave securely closing the lid. Now I can sleep without a worry. ¡­ I wonder what will hatch from that experiment of mine. And who the hell controls most of the undead here¡­ ¡­ Well it will be busy day tomorrow¡­ ¡­ ------------------------------- Author: Cheers and thanks for comments!! They often inspire! If you liked this story thus far comment, follow, favorite, rate or review. It really matters for the authors. Also proofing and read-through corrections are what this story needs, so if anyone is willing to give me a hand, it would be much appreciated.
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Update 01.10.2015 Sorry about that but i doubt i will continue this series unless mirracle happens. I really would like to write this further, and really want to go on with my concept for the story, but somehow it''s too hard to create something like that for me. I mean it''s really nice and idealistic, but writing itself takes too much time, from 6 to 8 hours per 2000 words chapter. that''s waay to much for me, when i''m working 12 hours per day. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. Thanks for reading up untill now. Best regards Uruner