The fulfillment center loomed ahead, a massive series of structures repurposed from the days when mills had dominated the New England landscape or built cheap and ugly after the area started to struggle.

  Carl again signaled the halt some distance away. The layout and scale meant different tactics were needed.

  Everyone dismounted and huddled together as David laid out the plan. Loading docks and parking lots mushroomed in front of them with the big warehouses in the background.

  Now it sat silent, loading docks open, large trucks parked on the intake side which was more than half full. Numerous smaller vehicles were lined up on the delivery side, most still parked with the first wave already pulled up to the loading doors.

  And zombies. Lots of zombies milling around a facility designed to facilitate the flow of goods and people.

  David's spiritual hearing could pick up the buzz easily, they were calm. For now. Some wandering the parking lot like lazy sentries. Lots more noise from inside the building itself.

  "We're not going straight in," David said to the gathered fighters. "There's too many. We need to thin them out first."

  Camila nodded. "Like the train station?"

  "Exactly like the train station. Draw them out, kill them systematically, then go in and rescue survivors."

  The plan came together quickly. Position the vehicles. Set up firing lines. Then start picking off zombies, ideally that had already been grouped up. David's new extended range to track zombie movements would warn them if things were getting out of hand.

  It started with noise. Engine revving, people shouting, the pickup truck swept forward, through the wide-open entrance gates. Music blasting from the car stereo. Anything to draw attention.

  While this happened, the others set their lines up behind the security fence to one side of the gate.

  The zombies responded predictably, relying on their dim senses and not death cries the nearest zombies began converging on the sound, but a generalized alarm didn’t go up. David remained tense, listening, not sure if this provocation could, if bad enough, trigger a full response.

  The creatures reacted, and with the large, paved space to maneuver in the pickup was able to make a series of passes and turns to concentrate the pursuing zombies.

  Then they broke for the firing lines pursued by dozens of shambling zombies. Their approach wasn’t directly to the gate but instead aiming to bring the creatures across the firing line.

  It worked. The pursuing zombies were well within reach of the lined-up guns.

  Carl called it.

  “Steady, Steady.” Then as one of the closest zombies turned towards his voice rather than the retreating pickup He yelled “Fire!”

  The ragged volley of shots smashed into the zombies with several immediate fatalities.

  David felt the familiar rush of experience and the death screams of the Nath.

  This time, the assault was different. Premeditated. The team had fought together before, had seen the power of tactics against the zombies and the raid reaped the rewards.

  It was a massacre. The zombies tried to rush the fence. Their dim senses failed to warn them that an effective barrier stopped them from reaching the humans who simply stepped back to reload.

  The first phase was over without a single injury. David and the team in the truck were at the Open gates waiting. This was where those who could fight hand to hand were needed. Where Charlie, Sarah and David himself were deployed to use their magic.

  At first it didn’t seem necessary, more zombies emerged from within the fulfillment center their lurching clumsy rush leading them towards the fence and the waiting gun line.

  The second wave went down as fast as the first. The thrill of XP encouraging everyone.

  The zombies were still coming, clustering together to form a bigger group before fanning out. David watched in fascination as they responded differently trying to spill around the established kill zone.

  Their movement patterns were simple but effective – not actually going to the spot where their kin had died but going around it. He focused on the sound only he could hear and using his Nath to try and gather more information.

  The soundscape seemed to be somehow easier to interact with now, David felt he heard the shift before it happened though he wasn’t sure.

  The kill zone had spread to the open gates and Zombies were now coming for them.

  Charlie stepped forward, hands already glowing with heat. "Alright, check this out!"

  He cast, but this wasn't the fireball shot into the sky this was devastation aimed at ground level. The sphere of flame that left Charlie's hands rapidly swelled to the size of a beach ball, sailing across the parking lot with a soft whumping roar.

  It hit the ground in the center of the zombie horde and exploded.

  Fire washed outward in a ten-foot radius. Zombies went down burning, some blown backward by the concussive force.

  "Fireball!" Charlie shouted, grinning. "It works even better than I thought! Cost me a ton of mana but dude, so worth it! Now watch this!"

  As zombies pressed closer, Charlie advanced. Camila tensed to rush after him.

  Then flame suddenly wreathed Charlie's entire body.

  A zombie lunged at him and recoiled, burning from contact.

  "Fireshield!" Charlie announced. "Defense spell. Anything that tries to hit me gets torched!"

  As the flames shrouding him died down Charlie fell back, throwing fire bolts.

  Sarah moved up next to him, calm and focused. She targeted a cluster of zombies and cast.

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  Ice exploded outward from her spell's impact point, spreading and growing. It climbed up zombie legs, encased torsos, froze arms in place. Within seconds, five zombies stood locked in thick ice, trapped and immobilized.

  "Icy Prison," Sarah explained. "You can come back safely now Charlie!"

  The pair returned to their lines even as the others shot at the immobile zombies.

  David had been just as impressed as everyone else and realized he had been focusing on what was in front of him. Sounds were now intruding from behind.

  He whirled, another smaller group of zombies had approached from behind, able to pin the group against the fence and obscured by their parked trucks from any casual view.

  Cursing, he called. “Behind, Small group – four, no five zombies.”

  He wasn’t the only one who had seen them.

  Billy stood further back, Bessie at his side facing the direction of the zombies snarling and growling. He raised one hand and something impossible happened.

  A second Bessie appeared, translucent and glowing blue, made entirely of mana. It towered over the real dog, easily twice her size, and charged forward with a ghostly howl.

  The spectral Bessie hit the flanking group of zombie’s line like a battering ram. The smaller real dog following a moment later.

  Where she could harry and distract the glowing copy bit and tore and David heard the Nath screaming in agony even before they died.

  "Holy shit!" someone shouted. "There's two of them!"

  Mark hung back near the middle of the line and as the intensity picked up and spells started flying he lifted his hand.

  David felt something wash over the area, hearing a ringing sound a little like the barrier in the safe zone.

  Then a sense of vitality, of accelerated healing.

  "Recovery boost!" Mark called. "Everyone in range regenerates mana and stamina faster. Keep pushing!"

  As another small group came at them from behind Camila demonstrated her new skill by simply moving. One moment she stood near David. The next she was fifty feet away, engaging a trio of zombies having crossed the distance in a perfectly straight line faster than a sprinting athlete.

  "Charge!" she explained when she got back shaking bits of zombie from her crowbar.

  Then she was off lining up her next dash to relieve pressure at the gate as more zombies concentrated on trying to push through.

  Carl started pulling shooters from the fence to support the gate. As the volume of fire dropped off with people moving he set his feet.

  Then he was shooting. His hands moved in a blur, trigger pulls flowing together. Each shot found its mark, zombies dropping with mechanical precision.

  "Sharpshooter skill," he casually explained. "Needs a familiar weapon but accuracy and fire rate both boosted. Y'all just keep them coming."

  Katie waded into melee range, as the battle around the gate grew chaotic and David felt his stomach clench.

  She was going to get hit and beaten up. She could heal but this was courage David didn’t think he had.

  But when zombie fists struck her arms, her skin didn't break. Didn't even bruise. Instead, the zombies staggered back as though they had hit a statue recoiling with torn hands instead of rending flesh.

  "Ironskin!" Katie called out. "Turns out I'm basically wearing armor now!"

  David smiled, they had planned to show off a bit but this was a lot.

  He hung back, coordinating rather than fighting directly. His role was support, tracking zombies with his extended senses, warning when groups got too large, guiding the team's positioning.

  But when a larger cluster of zombies outside the fence pressed too close, he stepped forward and cast.

  "Halt!"

  Seven zombies froze mid-stride. The familiar sensation of connecting to the Nath spirits inside them flowed through David. But this time, something new happened. He could feel those same tendrils he was used to more like ropes in his hands rather than jellyfish tendrils that needed to engulf something to pull.

  He didn't hesitate; he pulled. He felt a surge and saw his resource bars drop sharply.

  The Nath spirits resisted, but David's will was stronger. He ripped them free from the bodies they possessed, tearing them loose and binding them to his own power.

  The frozen zombies all collapsed.

  The zombies collapsed, truly dead. And David's court of bound spirits grew from six to thirteen.

  He staggered slightly from the effort, feeling oddly bloated and having a slight sense of pressure.

  He felt more solid, fuller, almost overfed.

  A quick look at his status told him what was going on, and he quickly made a new assignment for his experience gains. Then dumped his free experience into willpower.

  He -really- needed more willpower.

  He felt more solid. A skill unlocked and he'd crossed some threshold in understanding how his necromancer bloodline actually worked.

  The battle continued, the team showing off as they tested the benefits of elevated attributes and the advanced skills they had earned.

  They devastated small groups of zombies that emerged from other parts of the industrial park to try to pin the Raid against the fence. They stemmed the flow of enemies if the group holding the open gateway looked under pressure.

  This wasn't desperate survival. This was dominant.

  But not everyone handled it well.

  For some the sweet rush of experience made them reckless and they had to be pulled back as they tried to match the increased power level of the team, not understanding that there was a gulf they still had to cross.

  Others succumbed to the horror of enacting violence on the reanimated bodies of fellow humans and shamefacedly made their way back to the vehicles where a small but growing cadre of people were sitting the rest of the fight out.

  Katie couldn’t comfort the shell-shocked people who clung to the decency of the past. Still, she cast worried glances at the handful of people who stumbled out of the line. It was Mark who helped them the most. Especially when the inevitable injuries started to happened.

  Most were the result of overconfidence, especially when someone moved up to support the gate where there was no margin for error. A few were self-inflicted as stress and unfamiliar firearms resulted in injury when hot metal was grabbed or a powerful weapon was fired while being loosely held, it turned out that watching movies didn’t do a good job of preparing someone to actually use a gun.

  Mark would direct the non-combatants to pull those people out. He would then focus on healing, along with a couple of others who had similar skills.

  Some even made it back into combat before the fighting ended.

  Most handled it well, treating the whole thing like a video game. The teenagers especially whooped after each kill, celebrating like he'd just cleared a level or reached a new stage in a battle royale.

  These reactions weren’t lost on David. He had felt all of them at various points and knew that the impact would hit them differently once things calmed down.

  Those struggling with the horror right now might be healthier in the long run…

  The zombie horde thinned then stopped.

  David listened, again he could hear agitated zombies at a distance. With an effort his Nath streamed out of him enriching the spiritual soundscape and letting him get a better sense of them.

  None approaching right now. Probably stuck, maybe distracted by mutants. He didn’t sense any mutants but didn’t know if that meant anything…

  "Alright people!" Camila called out. "Form up! We're going in to find survivors. Stay together, watch each other's backs, and call out any contacts immediately."

  David called out. “Check your status. You can’t gain new resources or attributes out here but you can level existing ones. Spend down your free XP, it should level something.”

  Carl called. “Check your Ammo. There is more in the back of the second truck sorted by caliber. Reload BEFORE we advance people!”

  “Injured and support team bring the trucks in behind the fighters. Nice and slow.” Mark called out.

  As the group took stock then tentatively began to fan through the gate toward the loading docks and multiple entrances Billy approached David.

  “Should we go first, you know scout?”

  Bessie was at his side nose pointed at the buildings looking forward intently.

  “Good idea, I’m confident I can pick up zombies but other things Bessie might spot before me.”

  As Billy advanced David moved to the center of the group, his spiritual senses extended to maximum range, searching and trying to see if he could pick things up. He didn’t yet know what survivors might sound like to the Nath.

  With his focused efforts he soon found immobile Nath, still and oddly muted. Then he found more of the fluttering mothlike free Nath, realizing that he could barely hear them.

  They seemed to get louder the more integrated they were with a dead body. He could use that, had already to gauge how long until they started moving.

  Now he tried to figure out what else in the soundscape might represent survivors. So far he was coming up blank.

  The fulfillment center's main entrance yawned open, darkness beyond. David stepped forward with his team, the new recruits following with their freshly bloodied weapons and growing confidence.

  Whatever they found inside, they were ready for it. They'd proven that much already.

  The real rescue operation was about to begin.