NOVEL NEXT Chapter 88: Back to the Wall
<Alex, Real - Return to Safety, City Streets>
In the end, twenty of them made it back to the walled-off street near the high school.
They only lost two after Alex had made a path through which they could make a break for it, and those had been taken down and torn apart so quickly that no one could have saved them.
Even so, it had been a running battle the whole way, at least until they'd turned the corner and seen the wall in the distance.
At that point, their support had come into play.
Natasha had accepted the short distraction to call Kaylee and inform her that they were coming in 'hot.'
As such, it wasn't surprising that John was on the wall, ready to strategically take out the undead around them.
The undead around them had stayed constant, each kill seemingly resulting in a new opponent joining the press of bodies from somewhere else. Alex didn't know how the System properly timed all of that, and maybe they were just happening to kill at about the rate of incoming. He had no idea, and quite frankly he was too tired to properly think it through.
With John's support, they were able to pick up the pace, the sight of the wall adding to the group's desire to move forward, and letting them dig deeper, pulling on reserves of energy that they likely hadn't realized that they had.
When they got a bit closer, Pilar's magic lashed out, supplementing the attacks of the magic users already with them, and given her elevated position and the fact that she wasn't 'running and gunning' she made quite the difference in the final sprint.
The final sprint to the wall.
The wall without a gate.
Alex groaned as he turned, falling back with Natasha and engaging the oncoming undead as the beleaguered Initiates began to scramble up the wall by any means possible, both those offered and not.
Only three stayed back with Alex and Natasha to stem the tide. One was the tall, almost skeletal man who was sending out the black light, staggering the undead in waves, and sometimes actually driving whatever force animated them free, causing them to collapse back into death.
The man was clearly nearing his edge, at least if his pale complexion and sunken frame were any indication.
Still, he had a light in his eyes and somehow almost seemed like he was on the edge of laughing with glee as he continually countered the largest groups, giving them the ability to take on the rest.
The other two were both users of spears, falling in beside Natasha. Barely muttering acknowledgements, the three turned into a deadly trio.
They were two women, causing Alex to briefly wonder if only women were wise enough to have chosen spears, but apparently the two's participation in the rear guard had caught the attention of others, because three men with spears joined the small unit. The varied ancillary abilities started off being used sporadically, but Natasha had clearly been paying attention, because she began calling out their use, helping to tighten up the defenses on that side of things.
Alex stood in the middle, lunging back and forth, cutting, punching, kicking, and ashing wherever he could.
They were slowly being driven back, that was until half the group were up on the wall, clearly inside the protective barrier of the base.
Something changed then, and Alex suddenly felt like there were no new undead coming.
It was a feeling that he had no supporting evidence for, but when he pulsed Detect Unlife, he found that, at least as far out as he'd seen, there were, indeed, no more undead moving their way.
Not that a hundred feet is really that far…
Still, it gave him hope, and sure enough, with Pilar and John continuing to lay down covering and devastating fire, the rear guard were able to slowly peel off and climb the wall.
The skeletal man and Alex were the last two, and at a gesture from Alex, the man clambered up before him.
While Alex wished he'd argued or tried to let Alex go first, he actually appreciated that it hadn't been a whole thing.
With no one left to defend, Alex had been a bit freer to lay about himself, ignoring the scratches and such that others would have had to treat as mortal wounds due to the turning plague.
Finally, Pilar was able to get into position to lay down a tight arc of fire, allowing Alex to turn and practically sprint up the wall, those above pulling the ladder up even as he climbed it.
And just like that, they were all home.
A notification tried to pop up, but Alex was too tired. As soon as he was over the top, he slumped down his entire body trembling in the aftermath of his exertions.
Alex panted as he lay against the wall, grateful to be able to close his eyes and just breathe.
Kaylee came up and patted Alex on the shoulder. "I'm sorry. I wish that I could have put the ablative defenses a bit inside the 'invincible' ones to allow for easier escape, but the base systems don't allow that."
Alex just grunted. "It's fine…"
She patted him again, then moved over to talk with the Mage—and the seeming leader of the new Initiates—the skeletal man, Stephen.
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"How many of you were there? This is a big group."
Stephen looked around tiredly, but with a ready smile still somehow on his lips despite his clear sadness at the answer. "We were fifty, but we've been losing Initiates for days."
Kaylee's eyes widened. "Fifty? That's so many."
He shrugged. "It wasn't enough."
She frowned. "Are things really that much worse up north?"
He nodded. "As we came south, things got easier block by block, but that wasn't enough either. The increase is coming this way, and I think only a defensible place like this will let us have even a chance." He grinned winningly. "The quest helps too."
"Quest?"
"Yeah, we were effectively sent this way. Not sure why, but I would bet it has something to do with just how inhospitable it's going to get out there."
There was a frozen moment before seemingly every Initiate in the area got a notification at the same time, regardless of whether they wanted to see it or not.
Some cursed, others silently jerked away, but Alex just read it, too tired to really be startled or even surprised.
Courtesy Notice:
The theme of the remainder of this scenario is 'wave defense'. Expect the first of three waves within 10 days.
Good luck.
Alex groaned, laying his head back against the wall. "Lovely… That's not ominous or anything."
There was a storm of activity down off the wall as the few medical non-Inititates did what they could for the injured that had just been welcomed in, and as should have been expected, it was less than thirty seconds before one called out, "BITE!"
Alex was up and vaulting off the wall before he'd really registered the call, his exhaustion forgotten.
He landed a bit more heavily than ideal, stumbling slightly but catching himself and orienting on the blood-donation nurse who had chatted with him about his new skill.
There was an Initiate on the ground twitching slightly, with an oddly dark lump on the side of his neck.
Alex didn't hesitate, diving forward and transfusing life into the man.
He immediately felt what was in the growing mass and gagged, even as he killed it and ashed the remains… cursing just after he did so. "Donuts in the dirt."
He pulled a knife from his Inventory and slit the now grey lump, opening the thing and letting out a puff of ash.
"Sorry… I ashed the things…"
The nurse coughed, pulling back and waving his hand before his face as she shook his head. "That's foul. But, we'll wash it, and I can seal it back up. What was it?"
Others had gathered around and were clearly invested in the answer. Alex grimaced. "Some sort of undead plague flies. The bite must have contained eggs and as soon as it was around enough life?" Alex gestured around him. "It started tearing him apart to make more of itself and mature. I suspect we'd only had moments before we'd have had a nice little wave of plague in here, but that might have only been due to the location."
Kaylee cursed. "The 'unbreachable' defense won't stop something we bring in."
Alex nodded, having suspected something like this. "Sneaky."
The new Initiates were looking around frantically, and Kaylee reassured them it was alright.
Alex, though, grimaced. "I think we all know what this means."
Everyone froze, and John cursed under his breath… something about mice and a hot bucket? It didn't matter.
Alex sighed. "So, we all need to strip and be inspected."
Kaylee nodded. "Women with me, men with Grant. Let's move people! I don't want one of you popping before we get this sorted."
The next few minutes were… awkward, but when it was done, they'd found one other infected. One of the women had a growing bite on her low back, the location apparently having meant it wasn't as noticeable as the previous guy's neck.
Alex was called over to sort it, and that was that. Before he did, he remembered an applicable spell, and pulsed Detect Unlife. Blessedly, the woman's bite showed up, and nothing else did, at least not within the range.
He initially didn't ash the slain undead flies, but when they cut into the mass to get it out, the stench and horror that squelched out led to him ashing it regardless.
That was better, because slaying without ashing took a frustrating level of precision, and Alex was glad to just blast the things away.
Thankfully, it didn't come up again in the short term, as they'd been the only two.
Grant unhelpfully pointed out that they were the only two 'for now.' Anyone who left the defenses would need to be thoroughly checked going forward… well, they'd need a pulse of Detect Unlife near them at the very least.
And if Kayle was right that their invulnerable defenses would come down at some point? They'd have a whole host of new issues to contend with.
Life in the new world's a joy. Still, it was better than flying a desk.
That thought made Alex begin to chuckle to himself, earning him a few odd looks.
When he was asked, he just shook the question off, heading toward the high school. He wanted hot food and a shower then to finally, finally accept his well-earned level-ups.
As he walked, however, a flashing notification in the corner of his vision reminded him about something else that he'd succeeded at.
Hidden Quest, Sequential: Completed!
Return to Safety
You now know what happened to your fellow Initiates, and you've even saved some of them, but none of you are safe.
Return with the survivors to your own base.
Rewards:
Experience
Companions
Depending on Result
Surviving Initiates Returned to Safety:
26/60
Experience Granted
Alex's eyes widened at the stated number of potential Initiates. Sixty. There had been up to sixty that they could have saved.
Assuming that isn't just the 'base pass' rate, and there weren't more that would have granted a bonus. But he shut down that line of thinking hard. That way lay madness.
He got a good chunk of experience, but not actually that much. It was actually about equivalent to the initial batch of undead he'd ashed in rescuing them. That parity didn't escape his notice as it seemed that Quest Experience often was closely linked to the non-quest experience earned along the way.
He didn't really much care why at the moment, but he tucked the observation away for later consideration.
Now? It was time to do as he'd wanted and eat and shower. Then level-ups!