David focused on the platform, trying to separate the overlapping whispers. He wanted more information. The team was about to head down again, and the first run had gone smoothly. He couldn’t help feeling too smoothly. So, he listened.

  So many sources, dozens upon dozens. But as he concentrated, a pattern emerged.

  Most of the loud whispers came from around the train, where he knew the zombies had penned in the mutated thing. There were others, fainter, thready, quiet from the platform -fallen people who had yet to turn.

  There was so much less of that than he expected, which meant survivors. Lots of them.

  They descended to the platform for the second time. Weapons ready, every sense alert for threats, heart rates climbing again.

  They moved more decisively this second time, more confident In their approach with the ranged fighters spreading out to cover the others who rushed from person to person, checking and moving.

  As they pulled back with more survivors what David saw made his stomach clench. Bodies. Not many, but enough looking more isolated now. These were the people who didn’t make it. Only those caught mid-transformation showed the signs of awful violence but each represented a life cut short.

  Other than those broken, partially melted and exposed by shattered chrysalises they looked oddly peaceful. A middle aged man in a suit. Button down shirt open at the collar. A woman wearing a pantsuit still clutching a still, dark, mobile phone.

  As the pulled back something tickled at the edges of David’s hearing, he wasn’t sure what and his attention was mostly on the mutant on the train top. It had definitely noticed them and paused its slow inconclusive skirmish with the zombies to watch them withdraw.

  "Holy shit," Charlie breathed. "At this rate we are going to save thirty people here."

  "More," Sarah said, pointing further down. "I guess at least twenty more behind us out the other side towards town."

  David's spiritual hearing agreed, but still something nagged at him. A note, dim and distant. Different from the others.

  "This doesn't make sense," David said, his analytical mind struggling with the discordant note. "The zombies are hyper focused. I get it. There is something else I can almost hear it.”

  "Maybe just count our blessings rather than go looking for trouble we haven’t found?" Mark suggested.

  David focused intently on the area below trying to tease out the note that faded when he looked for it. Immobile Nath, check. Agitated Nath, check. Weird noise from mutant, check. So what was it?

  "There's something else going on, I don’t know what." David said slowly.

  “What, do you expect us to abandon all those people?” Camila focused on him sounding almost accusing.

  “No, just… Stay alert. I think the other shoe is going to drop and I want to make sure we are ready.”

  Again as they descended David focused in, trying to pinpoint whatever it was. This time he caught hints of it. Nath, agitated yes but traveling. Moving towards them. Behind them…

  David whirled and saw them. A fresh zombie pack traveling along the track behind them from the direction of the city towards the station. Round the curve now and moving at a steady pace. Not many. Six, no Seven he noted.

  “Heads up, we have incoming.”

  Everyone looked up and it took them a moment to realize where David was pointing.

  Carl was the first to speak. “Well crap, this is bad, enemies behind us and we have to fight. Do we retreat?”

  They had perhaps a minute to decide.

  “If we pull back, we might be done for good. I can’t see the situation getting better after they get to the platform.”

  Camila's eyes narrowed. "So we've got to leave survivors trapped between zombies and the mutant thing on the train. What and hope they go back to milling around and we sneak a few more out. What if they start killing people?"

  "Wait," Sarah said, moving further along the platform. "There's something else. Look."

  They followed her pointing finger. Sarah had moved to the edge of the platform, away from the approaching zombies.

  And she was pointing through the windows, David saw more people. Lots more people, slumped in their seats but clearly visible from the platform.

  "There are survivors on the train," Sarah said. "We need to win this fight anyway. For them."

  "Could be fifty people," Mark finished. "Maybe more. With a loaded train like that."

  The math clicked into place in David's head. Thirty to fifty survivors on the platform. Fifty more on the train. And standing between them and rescue, a mutant and a gathering horde of zombies.

  "We can't leave them," Katie said firmly. "That's almost a hundred people. We have to fight."

  "Yeah, but we can't fight a mutant and all these zombies with our resources running low," Carl countered. "We're running on fumes. David's out of magic, Charlie's tapped, Sarah's dry. I’m burning through bullets and don’t know where I’ll get more."

  "Then we get creative," Camila said.

  David closed his eyes, focusing on his status.

  “Score for Magic. I’m fairly full, had time to recover during these rescue runs. How about you?”

  When Charlie and Sarah nodded and even Mark agreed he nodded decisively. Then a grin spread across his face. “So how dumb do we think the zombies are?”

  He quickly laid out the plan and got the others moving to catch the attention of the incoming zombies.

  David's mind raced through scenarios, calculating risks and resources. Then there was no more time for clever ideas as a zombie finally spotted them.

  The fight started exactly as they hoped. Zombies down on the tracks rushed towards them and tried to climb up onto the platform.

  Mark, Camila and Katie were waiting for them. The others quickly joined them leaving Carl to keep an eye on the mutant and Charlie to act as support.

  It was like shooting fish in a barrel. David and Sarah were both able to stagger zombies back. The three who actually had strength did considerably more and David felt a wave of death screams wash over him a moment after the engagement started.

  The reaction from Carl was immediate. “Well shit, you gone and done it now.” Followed a second later by the crash of his hand gun firing. Then.

  “A little help!”

  Camila yelled “David, go! We got this”

  Seeing the logic David turned away and saw why Carl was stressed. The zombies that had been futilely following the mutant to surround it had turned on them and were rushing from below where the creature crouched atop the train toward the dying zombies. That line took them not towards the platform beyond the group giving them a chance to mount the platform en mass and swarm them.

  Unfortunately for the zombies David had the answer to their rush. Pulling on his partially regenerated magic David closed and used Halt. The familiar sense of strain and outrushing threads of magic engulfed the creatures completely stopping their advance with only one half up on the platform.

  Immobility it turned out was extremely bad when a man with a fully loaded pistol and bad intentions was standing over you and now had the leisure to pick and time his shots.

  Carl had fought enough zombies by now to know that massive head trauma was the best way to drop them. This was target practice, horrific, brutal but easy shooting compared to combat.

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  His face drawn Carl took his time and squeezed off shots while steadily advancing. Some were single taps, some double but he was brutally effective as more death screams grated against David’s ears.

  It seemed as though everything stopped for a second. Glancing up David could see that the creature atop the train was now completely focused on them. More it was crouched down, clearly tense as it evaluated the sudden, noisy development that they had both magic and firearms.

  Then things started to happen very quickly. With a buzzing hiss that sounded like a weird cross between a snake and a cicada the mutant vanished from atop the train. The outrage of the Nath spiked and he could clearly hear their enraged, united shriek.

  Swarm, Rend, Now

  Carl was calling out. “Reloading”

  There was still a single Nath under the grip of his spell and David could hear its outrage, but also confusion. Being held by his magic had somehow separated it from the pack as their chatter shifted. It was no longer aligned and he could sense its soft, confused thoughts.

  Master?

  Just like the one at the hospital. Only he was stronger now, that strange part of him that he recognized was his bloodline had more to draw on. Acting half on instinct he let himself move drawing on those threads, no they were more substantial now, those tentacles that latched onto the Nath when he used Halt.

  It was the same reflex, the same feeling of rightness about taking this thing. Like some alien cephalopod seizing its prey he wrenched, pulling the Nath back towards him and it came. Abandoning flesh even as Carl finished reloading.

  He could sense it now, flowing towards him. Joining his silent court. He didn’t know where the description came from but it appeared in his mind and felt right.

  Then it was over. Carl turned and asked “Did you do that?” He pointed at the fallen zombie, not a mark on it.

  Mutely David nodded, blinking away the kill notification that his system now unhelpfully dropped in front of his eyes seconds after combat ended.

  Then movement caught out of the corner of his eye, David’s head whipped round to where he could see the ramp to the skybridge. Or at least the upper portions of it visible through the glass.

  The mutant, moving low and fast was racing up the ramp. Lurching movement behind it showed the zombies in hot pursuit. Then the thing paused, looking back and waited, just for a second. It started racing again and reached the top of the ramp, where it paused again head scanning before it lunged onto the skybridge. David was momentarily speechless, trying to understand, everything had indicated the mutants and zombies were enemies. Carl wasn’t so stumped.

  “Well, shit. If that thing ain’t leading the zombies over here.”

  By the time they had regrouped after dealing with the last zombies around the platform the team had seconds to prepare.

  David had his crowbar ready and Charlie, Sarah and Carl barely had time to form a line to shoot at the creature before it was across the skybridge. Then it again surprised them. Pausing just out of line of sight it waited until the zombies were beyond the halfway point of the skybridge before sliding out of cover, low and slow.

  Carl cursed as his first shot went high, a moment later a bloom of fire joined it as Charlie shot and missed. Sarah’s bolt of ice was short striking the ramp. An instant later Charlie fired again followed by Carl.

  Then as the zombies burst out onto the landing several things happened at once.

  The creature moved, surging not towards them down the ramp but onto the stairs heading down to the platform in the opposite direction.

  The Zombies turned to pursue their tormenter, coming to a clumsy halt as a knot of upright bodies at the top of the stairs.

  The next volley of shots from their ranged crew streaked up the ramp. The combination of a larger mass of targets and a couple of ranging shots made their attacks much more effective.

  Sarah hit one zombie squarely in the back, Carl clipped a shoulder and spun one half-way around. Charlie was by far the most devastating hitting center mass with his firebolt and with a blossom of flames dropping one zombie almost immediately as his heavy investment in magic stats paid off.

  The death scream caused the zombies to spin around and surge as a single mass towards the group.

  "Jesus Christ," Mark whispered. “That might have been a mistake”

  David's senses screamed warning. The zombies were firmly fixated on them now.

  "Back," David said urgently. "Back now. Time your shots, we need space."

  They retreated away from the ramp, melee weapons ready, hearts pounding. Charlie, Sarah and Carl continued to shoot.

  First one, then two more, then again. By the time the zombies reached the platform they had opened a gap of perhaps fifteen yards to the ramp and killed six of them.

  Just as the zombies started to fan out to swarm them David hit them with Halt. The now familiar tactic proving devastating again. The pressure on him shot up with still over a dozen zombies standing, feeling a wrench and strain he was able to pour more of his will into stopping them.

  After a second he could feel the tentacles of power linking him to the Nath stabilize, bringing the creatures to a halt. A couple fell over from the abrupt cessation of movement but more of them retained their feet.

  David felt hazy struggling to keep them all still. He vaguely felt he should worry about that but couldn’t focus on figuring out what.

  The others pounced, familiar with his magic and how effective it was they rushed forward to take advantage of it.

  Just as the death screams began David saw a flash of movement, low, fast. Still hazy from holding the halt his tongue felt wooden as he saw the mutant burst up onto the platform beside them.

  The mutant charged, up close its horrific mottled hide looked leathery and tough, the double claws at the ends of its front limbs looked massive like oversized curved ivory knives.

  David struggled to shake the fog from his thoughts, to act under the strain of holding the zombies. Fortunately he wasn’t the only one to see the movement, and in this new world he wouldn’t be the one to move fastest, not with his stats…

  Camila met it head-on, her bat swinging in a massive arc. The aluminum connected with one of the blade-limbs, and David heard the screech of metal under massive stress.

  The bat held. Barely.

  Then the creature was twisting past her reaching for Sarah as the closest caster, claws flashing.

  She reacted, half turning and bringing her hockey stick up to block. Too little too late, the creature bulled through her guard and its claws raked her face and down onto her shoulder staggering her in a spray of blood.

  Its second clawed forelimb scythed low tearing into her leg.

  "Behind!" Sarah screamed blood spraying and limbs moving weakly to try and block the next assault.

  Everyone reacted at once.

  Carl fired. Two rounds. Both headshots. Nearest zombies down. Then he twisted gun tracking before pulling it away from the confused mass, no clear shot.

  Charlie swung his club, hyper focused on the zombie in front of him. It was unclear if he had any magic left, or if he had even registered Sarahs call. In the moment he looked like he was just a scared kid with an improvised weapon thrashing out his terror.

  Sarah started to fall, blood spreading from her wounds.

  The creature twisted away engaging Camila again as she followed it.

  Camila swung, hard but her timing was off. The mutant's bladelike limb caught her bat early in its swing. This time the metal couldn't take it. The aluminum bat deformed and split just above her grip bending uselessly in her hands.

  Camila stumbled back, off balance from the exchange, the mutant raised its other limb for a killing strike.

  Katie threw herself forward, taking the hit meant for her friend, her own weapon scoring a hit on the things torso. The blade pierced her side, digging in with devastating force.

  "NO!" Mark's roar was agony and rage.

  As he rushed towards the creature Katie dropped her hockey stick and grabbed the clawed limb of the mutant still in her body, pulling it off balance as it twisted towards her boyfriend.

  Marks tire iron came down on the mutant's shoulder with incredible force, enhanced by whatever combination of attributes and desperation he could produce.

  David swayed his mind straining with the effort of sustaining halt, trying to gather his thoughts.

  Five zombies remained. He didn’t know when the others fell, or why.

  Master?

  Once. Twice. Three times. The confused call that seemed to give him an opening.

  Screaming with effort his pulled, his vision narrowing and darkening as he felt himself in a tug of war with the Nath, ripping and uprooting.

  After a moment he felt almost a tug as something helped then with a rip the first Nath came free.

  Four zombies.

  Everything faded, all he could hear was the soft confused Nath voices.

  Master?

  Then other voices. Yes, yes, together.

  With less effort another fell.

  Three zombies.

  Then two, no effort from him.

  Then one as his ears rang.

  It was easy now as they crowded around him for the last Nath to be plucked leaving him with six.

  No zombies.

  Even as vision reasserted itself he saw an eerie repeat of their first fight.

  Sarah and Katie were down, Mark was raging and barely holding on. Carl was on the perhiphery looking for a shot. No knife this time.

  Camila grabbed Katie's fallen weapon, her bare hands wrapping around the wood, and charged forward with a wordless scream.

  David was aware his face was wet. Then he saw Charlie turning his hand raised.

  David flung halt. Expecting the thing to stop, like the first did. Like the zombies did in droves.

  The spell seemed to bounce off and he felt a sensation almost like a slap as the creature barely slowed.

  Mark staggered, his tire iron swinging with mechanical precision desperate to defend the downed girls. The horror on his face telling a brutal story.

  Camila menaced its flank and kept the creature from pressing its advantage.

  Then Charlie raised his hand flame blooming.

  The mutant twisted lunging to close with the last standing caster, claws extended to kill.

  Wordlessly screaming at the Nath to help him David flung everything he had into Halt.

  This time he felt something inside himself give, there was a pop in his ears and a sharp stab of pain from his head. He felt a rush of something from him to the court of now silent Nath. With his magic acting as the carrier, his will driving them to stop the mutant and a stream of something empowering them the immaterial Nath swarmed the creature.

  It stopped for just a moment, David could hear the Nath swarming it, seeking entry into a living body and being beaten back.

  Then everyone struck.

  Katie lunged low, her body under the influence of regenerate, her wound ignored as she grabbed a leg to slow down the rampaging Nath.

  Sarah lifted her hand weakly hurling frost center mass.

  Charlie’s firebolt smashed into scaly hide from the other side.

  Mark and Camila smashed the creature with their weapons.

  The creature broke free and reared upwards, its last mistake.

  It was still slowed by the lingering harrying Nath David had hurled at it.

  There was a roar and a chunk of its head exploded in a spray of gore.

  Carl had waited, now it had given him an opening and he demonstrated that in the rock, paper, scissors game of magic and claws gun beats mutant.

  Silence descended on the platform, broken only by heavy breathing and Sarah’s weak moans.

  Mark was already there, his hands glowing with healing magic.

  "Hold on," he whispered, looking to Katie lying a few feet away. "Hold on, hold on, hold on..."

  Then Katie smiled. “I’ve got regenerate silly, it barely even hurts if I don’t move”

  Indeed the bleeding was already slowed.

  David collapsed against a nearby pillar, his whole body shaking. They'd done it. Survived. Won.

  But at what cost?

  Camila stared at him.

  “David, you don’t look so good.”