The other survivors who had completed the tutorial had questions, which took Charlie and David a few minutes to answer but once they understood the situation they agreed that getting a skill before going into mortal danger.

  The one surprise was Billy, who finally as they were doing weapons checks admitted he wanted to stay behind. His friends from the shelter would be waking soon and he worried that without a familiar face they would freak out.

  "We'll be back before dark," David said, adjusting the straps on his makeshift weapon harness. The improvised setup felt more secure than yesterday's hasty arrangements, a small improvement that spoke to how quickly they were adapting.

  Billy nodded, one hand resting on Bessie's head. "I'll keep things organized here. As anyone else wakes up, I'll get them started on the tutorial."

  "And if trouble shows up?" Carl asked, checking his pistol one last time.

  "Then Bessie and I head for the Obelisk and hope the safe zone does its job." Billy's voice was steady, but David caught the tension around his eyes. Being left behind couldn't be easy.

  Camila squeezed Billy's shoulder. "We won't be long. Just clearing the station and getting people back here."

  The group headed out, convoyed in four vehicles again. David, Mark and Katie driving the bigger trucks while Carl drove the pickup.

  Their formation was more organized with Camila, Sarah and Charlie all in the back of the Pickup ready to dismount and check on each car they passed to help the drivers. Camila took point, Sarah and Charlie providing magical support. Between her ice magic and his Firebolt individual zombies were no threat. If things got dicey David, Mark, Carl and Katie could pile in to support them.

  David brought up the rear, his spiritual hearing extended in a constant sweep for threats.

  They moved faster than yesterday, more confident in their abilities. The empty streets no longer felt quite as oppressive. Horror and tragedy still marked every corner, but the crushing weight of helplessness had lifted somewhat.

  David noted the shift. They were adapting. Learning. Getting stronger.

  Whether that was enough remained to be seen.

  The first zombie they encountered stood in the middle of the street, swaying slightly as it broadcasted its simple hunger. David felt it before he saw it, the whisper-murmur resolving into that familiar pattern.

  Move. Hunger. Move.

  He had barely head it when Charlie fired. Orange flame coalesced with practiced ease, far faster and more powerful than his first attempts yesterday. The Firebolt streaked forward, catching the zombie center mass.

  The thing went down without ceremony, its death scream cutting short as Charlie's magic literally cooked it from the inside out.

  [CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE DEFEATED AN ENEMY]

  The system notification was new, perhaps from leveling the title up so much? It appeared for all of them, though Charlie got the lion's share of the experience. David felt the familiar rush, smaller than a personal kill but still present. He wondered how it all worked, not enough data yet but he would enjoy finding out.

  Still feels addictive he realized.

  "Moving on," Camila said, getting back into the pickup bed.

  They covered several more blocks without incident, then cleared a couple of cars that had been stopped at the intersection. Again, it was all too easy.

  David's senses picked up scattered whispers from inside buildings. Zombies trapped indoors, isolated from the pack that made them truly dangerous.

  "I'm hearing them in the buildings now," David reported as they checked another car. "But they're not close to getting out. Mostly just wandering around inside."

  "We mark it for later," Mark said. "Right now we focus on the station."

  Once they were out of the denser suburbs, with five more survivors loaded into the trucks, they went into the sparsely populated industrial areas south of the city. Now they moved faster, traveling along the highway put of town. Little to no traffic but the high speed wrecks were tragedies that seldom even left intact people for the Nath to reanimate.

  There was much more wreckage on the other side of the highway heading into town, though by unspoken agreement they didn’t check, anyone over there would wait until the return trip...

  After half a dozen wrecks and no survivors Carl would only slow, not stopping unless one of his passengers spotted a potential survivor. Fortunately nothing blocked the road and they made steady progress.

  The junction station emerged ahead, a sprawling complex that served multiple lines where they converged before the run into the main station. Even before the apocalypse, it had been perpetually crowded, even early in the morning, with commuters from the surrounding towns as well as those transferring between routes.

  Dozens and Dozens of cars sat motionless in neat rows. Through windows David could see the familiar shapes, each one promising a potential survivor, or a possible threat if they didn’t make it.

  Based on previous experience this was going to be a lot of zombies.

  David's spiritual hearing filled with their whispers, a cacophony of simple hunger and aimless motion. Dozens of them, maybe more, all wandering the parking structures and station platforms.

  "Jesus," Mark breathed. "How many people do you think are in there?"

  "Thousands use this station every day," Sarah said quietly. "Before morning rush hour? Could be hundreds inside."

  David felt the familiar calculation running in his head. Hundreds of potential survivors. Hundreds of potential zombies. Now they had to separate the two.

  "We can't clear this all at once," Carl said. "Too much ground to cover, too great a chance of getting swarmed."

  "We don't need to clear it all," David replied, a plan forming. "We just need to thin them out and move them away from the survivors so we can pick them up."

  Charlie spoke up, his gaming instincts engaged. "Hey, what if we don't go in at all? We've got all this open space in the parking lot. We could pull them out here, use David's Halt to lock them down, and pick them off safely."

  Everyone turned to look at him.

  "That's..." Camila paused. "That's actually smart, Charlie."

  The younger man flushed with pride. "I mean, it's basic tactics, right? Use terrain to your advantage and pull the mobs. Don't fight in enclosed spaces when you have better options."

  David latched onto the idea, refining it. "We set up in the middle of the lot where we have room to maneuver. Use the death scream to pull them out. Then I use Halt to lock down groups while you guys kill them systematically."

  "Your magic holds out that long?" Katie asked.

  David checked his internal reserves. Full from resting in the safe zone, juiced by his last minute purchases of more magic and willpower. "I can manage multiple uses, but we'll need to pace it. Once I'm running low, we pull back and reassess."

  "Same with my Firebolts," Charlie added. "I've got more shots now but I’m going to run low on juice if we pull masses and I have to nuke them all."

  "Then we make them count," Mark said. "Sarah, how's your magic looking?"

  "I can freeze a good number before I need to rest," Sarah replied. "The ice doesn't kill them outright, but it slows them down significantly."

  Carl checked his ammunition. "I've got two full magazines. Call it thirty rounds. After that I'm down to the tire iron."

  Camila hefted her hammer. "Katie, Mark and I are good for sustained fighting. We're not burning resources with every swing."

  "OK," David said, settling into problem-solving mode. "We set up a hundred feet from the station entrance. That gives us space but keeps us close enough that the death scream draws them. First wave, I use Halt, take them on manual if we can. Use focus fire if things start to go wrong. Second wave, same thing. We rotate to bolts and bullits for wave three and four to give me a chance to recover and keep going like that. Free for all if we get in trouble and we run back to the vehicles and move away."

  "What if they all come at once?" Katie asked.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "Then we run," David said bluntly. "This only works if we can control the engagement. We're not heroes, we're survivors trying to help people."

  Mark nodded approval. "Solid plan. Let's do it."

  They moved to position, choosing a clear area of asphalt with sight lines in all directions. David positioned himself slightly behind the others, close enough to use Halt effectively but with room to retreat if needed.

  His spiritual hearing tracked the whispers from the station. So many Nath, all broadcasting their simple drives. The sound would have been overwhelming yesterday. Now it was almost background noise, a constant reminder of the changed world.

  Almost comfortable.

  That thought bothered him, but he pushed it aside. They had work to do.

  "Ready?" Camila asked, her hammer resting on her shoulder.

  David nodded. "Charlie, you're up. Once you kill the first one, the scream will bring the others."

  Charlie raised his hand, flame already gathering. "Target?"

  "Closest one you see. Make it count."

  The Firebolt streaked across the parking lot, slamming into a zombie that had been wandering near the station entrance. The creature went down in flames, and its death scream echoed across David's spiritual hearing.

  [CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE DEFEATED AN ENEMY]

  The whispers from the station changed immediately. The aimless muttering sharpened into focused hunger. David felt the shift ripple through the Nath, their simple minds latching onto a new imperative.

  Hunt. Kill. There.

  "Here they come," David said, his voice tight.

  Zombies emerged from the station entrance in a steady stream. They didn’t panic like at the shelter, determined they advanced, looking to manage the engagement far enough away to stop the enemy concentrating. Twenty visible so far, with more behind them taking longer as they dealt with obstacles and poor senses.

  David waited, watching a group of eight that had separated from the main pack as they advanced without being blocked by any cars. As they formed a loose cluster around the burned zombie he struck before they could fan out or do anything else.

  "Halt."

  The word left his lips with that familiar strange resonance, and David felt something respond from deep inside him. Not just the ghost bound to his chest anymore. Something else stirred, another presence awakening at his command.

  Two presences. Two spirits. Both tugged along by his voice.

  The sensation was bizarre, like having phantom limbs he'd never possessed suddenly responding to his will. Streamers of invisible force extended from him, wrapping around the advancing zombies.

  Eight zombies froze mid-step, locked in place by his will. David felt the strain differently this time, more muted, though he didn’t know if that was having the Channel attribute or the extra Willpower he splurged on.

  He almost felt that there were presences responding to his command. Helping him impose his will on the Nath.

  "Now!" Camila shouted, charging forward with Mark at her side.

  Her bat caught the first zombie with devastating force, crushing its skull with a wet crunch. Mark's tire iron followed, precise and brutal. They moved with practiced efficiency now, far better than their first fumbling encounters.

  Sarah's ice magic flashed, encasing two zombies that were moving towards the immobile group. Charlie's Firebolt took a third, the magic burning through corrupted flesh tiggering the first death scream.

  Notifications flashed, gone in an instant.

  Katie moved in behind Camila and Mark, her own solid wooden cudgel made from a pick axe handle smashing through unresponsive zombies.

  In moments David only had a single zombie locked by Halt. Then that too was gone.

  More were coming. Another dozen emerging from the station, with whispers suggesting even more behind them.

  David held the Halt, waited, then cast to break the second waves momentum. Pushing himself this time feeling the strain of controlling and stopping a dozen spirits. The sensation was disorienting, his focus split and the feeling of those connections became stronger with the power locking them down. He realized that two were easier to manage, almost like he was being helped. Those threads of power responding to his will in subtly different ways.

  The familiar ghost was there on one thread, a new presence, simpler, quieter on the other. The new one wavered, its grip less certain, but it didn’t seem to matter.

  Shocked he realized the second wave was already down.

  "David, you good?" Mark called, dispatching the last frozen zombie.

  "Yeah," David managed, though sweat was beading on his forehead. "But I can't hold this forever. Next group!"

  The third wave approached and Camila called. “Like we agreed, David wait and see if we need you.”

  David released his hold, watching as Charlie, Sarah and Carl broke the waves momentum killing lead zombies while the melee fighters mobbed an isolated zombie.

  The group shifted to strike and run tactics with a steady retreat they bled the wave. Thirteen to start already down to ten.

  As Charlie burnt a zombie near the edge of the pack Camila, Mark and Katie rushed the isolated zombie on the fringes. A volley of shots from Carl and Sarah distracted the other zombies.

  "Three loose!" David called out. "Left side!"

  Carl pivoted, his pistol barking three times in rapid succession. Two zombies went down. The third stumbled from the impact but kept advancing.

  David intercepted it, his crowbar flashing out as he resolved to see if he could manage without Halt. A horizontal swing broke an extended arm and staggered the creature, David felt the rush of Stamina easing his breathing and fueling his muscles as he swung again, and again. Finally he made solid contact with its skull. The creature collapsed, and another death scream rippled through David's senses followed by the sweet rush of XP.

  The frozen zombies died quickly under focused assault. So Sarah aimed to do one shot slowdowns. Charlie was breathing hard now, his lack of stamina, or really any stat not directly focused on his Firebolt showing. Sarah's ice was more measured, as was her breathing.

  The third wave was over.

  "How many left?" Katie asked, her voice steady despite the exhaustion.

  David extended his senses, counting whispers. "I see around twenty, maybe thirty more nearby inside. But we're drawing them out."

  They waited, watching the station entrance. More zombies emerged in groups of three and four, a steady trickle rather than a flood.

  They targeted each group methodically, talking to each other and varying their approach. Gradually as more emerged they found themselves needing Halt and even fire and ice magic less and less often. Everyone except Charlie took turns fighting up close and personal, those like Camila with Strength landing telling blows easily.

  Even without that advantage David was holding his own surprisingly well, at least until he realized his Stamina was tapped out.

  Reluctantly he stepped back calling out “Stamina depleted, I’m on Halt now!”

  But with each use, David felt his magic depleting. Even with all his advantages Halt was still expensive and there wasn’t enough time to recover. The two spirits seemed to help but it still took effort to stop multiple foes, especially when larger groups emerged.

  There were what felt like the last big wave of Zombies, twelve in total advancing when he felt the first real warning signs. A hollowness in his chest, a slight tremor in his hands. His magic pool was running dry.

  "Running low," David called out. "I can’t stop them all."

  "Same here," Charlie said, his voice strained. "Two Firebolts left, maybe three if I push it."

  Sarah leaned against a car, breathing hard. "I'm tapped. One more freeze, then I'm done."

  Carl checked his pistol. "Five rounds left."

  Only Camila, Katie, and Mark showed no signs of magical exhaustion. Physical fatigue, yes, but their stamina-based abilities regenerated faster than magical resources.

  The first six zombies went down fast. David used Halt, Charlie burned one, Carl double tapped another. Then the last six lumbered towards them even as the melee fighters took down the halted. A flurry of fire bolts and a single ice bolt stopped three. A fourth staggered under a volley of shots followed by a click and a curse.

  Then the last two hit the fighters as they finished the immobilized.

  "Loose ones!" Carl shouted, all the warning he could give. One zombie went down as Camila used her boost, despite the stamina cost. The other kept coming forcing Katie to take a punishing slam to give Mark and opening.

  Even as they handled this wave more zombies emerged with no magic left to stem the flow.

  Four rushed the group, forcing David and Carl to throw themselves into melee combat to buy time, Sarah joining them a moment later as they used tire iron, crow bar and hockey stick not to try and score decisive hits but to unbalance and maintain distance.

  All three started falling back immediately trying to avoid getting hit or grappled.

  David’s focus tunneled in on the creatures in front of him, it was easy to judge their intentions when he could hear what amounted to an internal monologue.

  Kill always preceded the attempts to slam him.

  As he focused he felt his own spirits shift their attention to the zombie he faced and as he looked for an opening, waiting for the zombie to become distracted he saw it. The creature turned partially away from him.

  What?

  He heard its confused thought, then it was gone and it started to swing back towards him. He was too surprised to take a swing.

  Then Mark was there smashing into it from behind, overwhelming it in an instant.

  The remaining three died quickly, but David felt the cost. His stamina was running on fumes again.

  The parking lot had become a charnel house, dozens of bodies scattered across the asphalt. David's spiritual hearing registered the deaths, each one a small reduction in the background whisper-murmur.

  But not empty. Not yet.

  "How many left inside?" Mark asked.

  David focused, counting the remaining whispers. His dual spirits stirred restlessly, both hungry for more. Both eager to what? Obey?

  The thought disturbed him, this growing awareness of wants and drives that weren't quite his own.

  "Ten, maybe twelve," he said. "Spread throughout the station. Some on platforms, some in the main hall."

  "Survivors?" Katie asked hopefully.

  "Can't tell. I can hear the Nath, not survivors."

  Camila wiped zombie gore from her softball bat. "So we go in. Carefully. Clear room by room until we find people who need help."

  "With what magic?" Charlie asked. "I'm running on empty. David's dry. Sarah's tapped out."

  "With the fact that there's only a dozen of them and seven of us," Camila replied. "Plus we're faster, stronger, and smarter than they are."

  She had a point. Their increased stats had shown their value. Stamina seemed to bounce back quicker and it gave something superhuman against foes which could be matched by being merely human.

  "We go slow," Mark said. "Standard room clearing procedure. Check corners, watch each other's backs. First sign of serious trouble, we fall back to regroup."

  Carl nodded approval. "Y'all have been listening. That's good tactics."

  David chuckled. “Nope, I’m pretty sure we have all been playing MMOs”

  A quick check of his status showed almost no magic, twenty percent stamina, enough for one solid high-paced fight. Not much safety margin.

  But people might be dying in there while they debated.

  "Let's move," he said, making the decision. "Stick together, stay alert. Camila and Mark take point, Carl covers our six. Everyone else stays in the middle where we can protect each other."

  They formed up, moving toward the station entrance with practiced caution. The parking lot behind them bore grim testimony to their effectiveness. Dozens of zombies lay broken and burning.

  A victory by any reasonable measure.

  So why did David feel like they were walking into a trap? Was it just the walls of the building cutting line of sight down?

  The station entrance loomed ahead, its glass doors hanging open. The dim interior revealed glimpses of people and fallen personal belongings.

  No movement yet but deep shadows cast by the absence of artificial light made the space seem threatening. The whisper-murmur of remaining Nath increased that feeling for David, clear agitation to his spiritual hearing and clear threat.

  He was a necromancer and right now he needed to focus on that, he didn’t want to let the remaining monsters get close to them. The fact that he could hear them and seemed to have picked up an entourage that wanted to help worried him almost as much as the zombies did.

  "Ready?" Camila asked, her hand on the door frame.

  David met her eyes, saw fear reflected there. She was strong, decisive, a natural leader. But in that moment he understood that they were both faking it. This was new territory for all of them.

  "Ready," he said, hoping it was true.

  The group advanced into the station together, leaving the sunlight behind.

  And somewhere in the darkness, the remaining zombies waited.