David shook away the feeling of doubt. Zombies were coming and the group was moving, not smoothly yet but that was to be expected.

  Everyone saw them a moment later. The familiar lurching gait, the off-colored skin sometimes marked by signs of lividity, the vacant eyes, often discolored and milky. They moved as a group with the clumsy coordination David was used to. Yet something still nagged at him.

  "Fire teams ready," Carl's voice carried clearly. "Wait for my mark."

  The zombies came closer. Fifty yards. Forty. Thirty.

  "Now, FIRE!"

  Gunfire erupted, controlled bursts at first then ragged volleys as poorly trained shooters emptied their weapons downrange. Zombies fell, a few to headshots others to the volume of fire. As almost all the shooters emptied their guns the sound of gunfire faded with only the odd crack continuing, the sound a disciplined veteran placed another careful shot. Everyone else was scrambling to reload.

  Carl was yelling “DISCIPLINE. Pair up and alternate firing. NO Don’t stop reloading now...”

  The remaining zombies didn't react with fear or intelligence. They just kept coming, driven by the Nath spirits possessing them.

  Then the casters struck. Charlie’s firebolt lanced out followed by a stream of other projectiles, less intense and rapid.

  The strikes were varied, though all seemed to be simplistic variants on fire, earth, water and wind. David wondered about that, it didn’t really make a lot of sense to someone who studied science in high school, then took a few college courses before picking his major, but still…

  The wave of magic was devastating; the remaining zombies withered even with only half the shots actually connecting. The spells were more effective than all but the most precise gun shots, especially the fire spells like Charlie favored.

  Some staggered but didn't fall, at first. Those hit with fire burned and David heard the distressed shrieks of the Nath fading rapidly as the fire consumed them or repeated hits devastated them.

  Within thirty seconds, all twelve zombies lay motionless on the pavement.

  "Reload and ready," Carl ordered. "That was just the appetizer."

  David's spiritual hearing could pick up the spreading agitation. It was then that he realized what was wrong.

  There had been no death screams. Still, multiple groups were shambling towards them, behaving just as though they were attracted by their brethren screaming.

  This was exactly what they wanted, but cause wasn’t tied neatly to effect as he expected. The sound of gunfire might be attracting more zombies in the absence of screams. He supposed these might be newer Nath that couldn’t scream yet, he had met those before though never in large numbers.

  Now however, David worried about the inconsistency. They had still drawn the zombies out, so the plan was working. They would eliminate them in controlled engagements, clear the area before pushing forward.

  The tactics were working. Just without what he assumed was the underlying cause.

  "Next wave incoming," Billy announced, making David realize that he wasn’t doing a good job as a scout. "Bigger group this time. Maybe twenty-five?"

  The pattern repeated. Zombies approached in shambling clusters. Gunfire, growing steadily more disciplined, a burst of spellfire, then defeated zombies.

  Camila's melee fighters didn't even need to engage, the fire teams were handling everything with brutal efficiency and growing more practiced and confident by the minute.

  They cleared three more waves like that before the numbers started to drop off.

  Eliminating dozens of zombies in minutes with no casualties was great. People's confidence was up. Nervous energy transformed into excited determination. People were pairing up to cover each other as they loaded.

  Then the pairs were grouping up into fire teams of eight to ten.

  David noticed the shift and let his worries fade. Confidence was good, so was organization. Practice was making things go better with each fight. Overconfidence would get people killed, though there was little sign of that, perhaps thanks to Carl.

  "We're pushing forward," Carl announced. "Maintain formation, same tactics. Terminal A is two hundred yards ahead."

  The group advanced in an organized mass. Fire teams leapfrogging positions, melee fighters maintaining protective positions.

  They moved up at a steady pace, looking like mismatched cosplayers or the guests at a Sean of the Dead themed party. The handful of scouts led by David and Billy ranged ahead.

  When they reached the terminal building, which loomed dark and lifeless, it was clear that most of the zombies that could get out of the building had been cleared.

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  There were still some milling around in the departure area, apparently not having left the terminal building. Though fewer than he had expected.

  Even factoring in their fights to date the numbers were, so far, disappointing. David knew the brutal math said that more zombies meant more survivors. So far there weren’t as many as at the train station.

  Had they been wrong to pick the airport? Had it been too early for people to get here?

  David paused, straining his spiritual hearing and after a moment he spoke softly.

  “Hold here for a second, I want to check something. I’ll be out of it so cover me.”

  Then he launched himself down into his spiritual sense and focused on dispatching his spirits towards the murmurs of noise he heard. He was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to do, barely registering that he was using Convert to strengthen the connections and fuel his spirits.

  It felt easy, more natural, more intuitive than the last time he had done this before the reward. He grinned, the Herald’s help seemed to be paying off nicely.

  It wasn’t long before the information began streaming back to him. There were quite a lot of zombies in the terminal building, though it appeared that they were pretty spread out and perhaps unsurprisingly there were many more in the more distant parts of the building towards the runway. It made him wonder if the security barriers trapped the zombies and whether they would be able to pass them without power.

  Still, he was getting an impression of flickers of something else. His spirits were picking up on more detail now and an unfamiliar pattern to the chatter was discernable. Without really thinking about it he started to gnaw at the problem, trying to figure out what the new information signified.

  Opening his eyes after a minute, having worked nothing out, he looked around. The scouts clustered around him, watching him work rather than possible approaches, though Bessie at least was watching the terminal building. Blinking he reported.

  “Right, I was able to get a sense for them, plenty left in the terminal building but over closer to the planes. I think they might be trapped the other side of security. There was something odd though so I want to get a closer look if we can.”

  The small scouting group nodded, then they headed out quickly approaching the terminal. David paused. The drop-off area had half a dozen vehicles pulled up near the terminal with a couple of larger ones further out. No signs of movement and decent cover.

  The scouts quickly swept to the vehicles. He noted grimly that a couple of them had been broken into and the smell told them of the ruptured cocoons within. Others had been broken open but had no signs of occupants.

  Most of them had doors or trunks open caught in the act of unloading. Suitcases but no bodies.

  That worried him. There were no bodies, no survivors to rescue but at least the vehicles gave them cover to get a better look at the zombies moving around inside.

  Most of the entrances were closed though one down at the end towards the exit ramp for the drop-off area gaped open like a missing tooth. Small clusters of zombies shambled around inside, their shuffling looked random at first.

  Then Davids analytical mind started looking for patterns. They were spread out, milling around the exits with more dimly seen deeper inside where they were poking around, nudging bags and seemingly moving towards the end of the terminal near where he and the scouts watched from behind the parked cars.

  That wasn’t right. They shouldn’t be able to sense them, him, Billy, Bessie and four other people should be ignored by the creatures unless they got close...

  Also, it was the ones deeper into the building moving towards them, not the ones by the doors…

  Then he got his answer, as the shuffling searching mass got closer to their end of the terminal there was a burst of movement. Someone had been crouched hidden in the baggage drop area a little closer to the middle of the terminal than their hiding place outside. Now they ran, bolting towards the exit before the zombies reached their hiding place.

  David didn’t know if they hadn’t seen the zombies near the doors or were desperate, but as they ran the zombies reacted, moving to cut them off.

  He froze for a second as the idiot shouted and waved his arms.

  “Hey! Over here! Hey!”

  He must have seen them and thought this was his best chance, their approach should have been obvious with the shooting so he guessed it made sense…

  Trying to get their attention had been a mistake, now every zombie within earshot was moving towards him as he ran towards the nearest exit.

  Gesturing to one of his scouts David yelled, “Get everyone up here, double time! Carl should be close but waiting…”

  Then he was off. Hoping the others followed him. He didn’t take the time to think just reacted. Halt could save the man, though the fool probably heard guns and knew that help was around he doubted he actually knew they were this close.

  He got to the doors first, mostly because the man had been forced to divert away to try and get round the blocking zombies. He crashed into the automatic doors that, of course, didn’t respond. Frantic, David yanked on the manual door beside them, adrenaline flooding through him and making his guts churn. The door responded to his savage yank and he was moving in, only the inner door blocking him.

  The man was past the doors, still shouting and waving as he ran, he must have seen David but he was still making noise. He was cut off by with all the zombies streaming after him from both packs. He couldn’t know about Halt so imagining that their small group could extract him was unrealistic.

  Billy yelled and Bessie was barking behind him.

  Why was the idiot still yelling? Didn’t he understand the zombies probably wouldn’t all converge if he was less loud?

  Then David was in, sizing up his options. As soon as he yelled the zombies would notice him so he had to make his first move count.

  “HALT!”

  The blast of magic wasn’t full power, he was confident he could get the zombies between him and the man without going all out. He was right. The half dozen that currently blocked the man’s retreat crashed to the ground as their clumsy pursuit turned into tumbling paralysis.

  “Here, RUN, I can’t hold them for long…”

  David’s yell caught the man’s attention, he was looking at his felled pursuers with dumfound shock. Then he screamed focused on something behind David.

  “Mary! No!”

  David’s head whipped around as he heard that shout and suddenly the desperate run with the attention-grabbing shouting made sense. A woman and two children, a little girl and her pre-teen sister were heading for a different exit, now clear. What they hadn’t seen was that one of the groups of zombies from further down the check-in hall were moving towards them.

  He had rushed in, taking a calculated risk to save a man running in fear, a quick extraction under the power of halt would be possible. Saving a second group deeper in blocked from him by zombies was outside the scope of what he planned.

  Then something in David snapped at the sight of a terrified family fleeing, separated from him by a sizable pack of zombies, with more closing in on them.

  Forgetting the zombies between the man and freedom David threw his power at the wall of undead. He needed to make a hole NOW.