World Filter

The silences of the street were shattered by the shuffling and moaning of the approaching horde.

Donny dashed forward and brought the axe down towards the screaming zombie.

The sound of steel smacking concrete rung out, he had missed. Though not for a lack of trying. At the last moment, the zombie dodged backward. Then using the gap created by Donny's swing the zombie slashed its claws across his left bicep. A wound opened up but not as deep as one would expect. Donny grunted in pain but moved forward once more and brought the axe down in one massive overhead swing. This time he was too fast for the creature. All it could do was try to block with its claws. Unfortunately for the zombie, the fire axe had enough force behind it to crack concrete. It cleaved right through its hands and sunk into its skull. Donny didn't even wait for it to drop, he turned toward the group.

“Get in the alleyway it'll constrict their numbers,” he shouted.

Mark moved towards the opening, he turned his head and saw the hoard already almost to them.

Mark brought Mana to his hands creating a [Force Bolt] in each. He stopped and took aim at the front-runners. Luckily they weren't actually running, however, they were by no means moving slowly.

He released both bolts, firing them at two different creatures. Both hit their intended targets, killing them instantly. It seemed aim was not too much of a problem as long as he concentrated he could make adjustments midflight. Making sure they hit their intended target.

Then he remembered the spell's description. He had 15 Mana he should be able to fire three of these at a time right? He concentrated and three more orbs appeared. The third one hovered in front of himself. With a mental command, it launched itself at the nearest target.

Mark realized he was limiting himself by using his hands. Sure it worked for two but once the third came into play you were just slowing yourself down if you used your hands.

More orbs appeared, three each second, three unlives a second. Mark continued to create bolts until he had no Mana left. Instantly he felt light-headed, yet relieved, he hadn't missed a single shot. A ping rang out in his head.

He had pushed the wave back quite a bit, buying them some time. The others were not idle while he was busy firing at the horde. They had moved in position around him. Grace at his back, with Donny and Daphney in front. They had seconds.

“Grace hold your spells until they group up, watch behind us,” Mark said while he readied his weapon.

Daphne glanced back, looking like she wanted to run.

“Listen, no matter what don't stop fighting, ill make sure we get it through this,” he said reassuring her.

Then the zombies crashed into their frontline. Donny pushed back three at once, managing to down one and knock the other to the ground. Daphne swung wide at one approaching her, her pole crunching into its neck, killing it but causing her weapon to fly out of her grip. With no time to fetch it and tears in the corners of her eyes, she clenched her fist and punched the approaching zombie. Its head caved in under her knuckles, dropping to the ground unmoving. Mark used the reach of his pole to stab at the oncoming hoard, trying to buy Daphne time to recover. Two more reached her. Donny was currently cutting into another one's shoulder when the one on the ground reached up and sunk its teeth into his calf. Donny yelped but kept fighting the others. Mark moved to his side swinging the bar down on its skull repeatedly until it stopped moving.

He placed his hand on Donny’s back and with little time to spare he portioned a section of his Prana and set straight into his body with the intent to heal his leg. A flashing blinked once in his sight and then faded.

He stopped just long enough to see the wound beginning to heal and moved straight to Daphne's side. Currently, she was fighting the second of the two zombies that approached her. The first lay dead on the ground with its spinal column shattered.

The zombie lunged, and Mark pushed his pole out like a spear, knocking it off balance. Daphne brought her fist up straight into its bottom jaw. It crumpled and as it tried to get back up Daphne brought her heel down straight onto the fallen thing's skull. Gore coated her shoe.

She was breathing heavily, and her knuckles were bruised and bloody, but a small smile played on her lips.

Mark tapped her back, sending a bundle of Prana toward her hands.

The rest began to arrive en masse, and Donny was beginning to be overwhelmed. Even with Mark and Daphne working together, they were starting to struggle.

“Grace now!” Mark screamed

The smell of ozone filled the air as a bolt of electricity arced between them jumping straight to the first victim.

With the zombies stuck in the narrow alleyway and held at bay by everyone. When it hit, it traveled rapidly through the pack hitting the remaining mob reducing in strength with each jump. Both Donny and Daphne yelled in pain as the final charge moved to them and although significantly weakened it could not have been pleasant.

Mark grabbed both their shoulders and sent a flush of new Prana into their systems. He could see dozens of tiny things wrong in both of them but right now they had to get to safety, who knew how many would show up after that noise?

“Check to see if any are still alive, then we should move towards the gas station. We’ve made a path though, may as well use it.” Mark whispered to the group.

After a series of hesitant nods, they were moving to cross the street. As two more zombies dashed out from another side road, Donny and Daphne quickly responded and killed one each. Crossing the street they quickly got to the shattered glass windows of the convenience store.

The automatic doors let out a pleasant DING as the windowless doors slid open.

Moans came from inside, as four zombies shambled out of the isles. With Grace watching the street they moved to engage the corpses.

Mark moved to the side drawing one of the zombies towards the cashier's counter. Just when it got in range Mark lashed out, bludgeoning it over the side of the head. It went down, he jumped on it. Smashing it until it stopped moving.

Panting he stood up and saw that Donny had already taken care of one and Grace was busy smashing her second one to a pulp. Mark was just about to call out to Grace when he saw her face. She was looking at him, her eyes wide with shock.

“Mark! Behin-”

Was all Mark heard before a massive weight crashed into his back, causing him to topple into a stand of magazines. He was dazed as a weight pinned him to the ground. Then with rapid motion, his head was jerked to the side and teeth were sunk straight into his carotid artery

Pain blossomed in his mind, blood began to pour down his neck, and his body was jerking and unresponsive. He couldn't get anything moving properly. His pulse raced. His lungs burned. His mind screamed.

Mark felt an utter sense of loss, this whole situation was messed up. Rage grew beside the sorrow, this was not his world anymore, but nothing was going to break him.

Mark called his Prana and it responded like never before. Glowing like a star in his chest it exploded outward to his neck, rushing to close the wound that threatened his life. Tissue tried to grow and reseal the wound but a sudden wrenching prevented it from closing. Mark poured his Prana into the wound trying to force his blood to stay in his body.

His Prana built up and up, saturating his neck to the point where he couldn't force it anywhere else in the area.

Almost anywhere, a single place remained void of all energy. Unsure what else to do he began pouring Prana into this connection. The response was instant, the grip on Mark tightened as if growing in strength. Guiding the remaining Prana into the being gripping him he realized it was the zombie. He was feeding the zombie his Prana and it was getting stronger.

Panicking, he tried to guide the Prana to damage the brain of the creature, but that was not how Prana worked, it did not harm it healed. It was life itself, and he was losing it.

Finally, his sight began to fade as the last trickle of his Prana was leaving him. He knew if he blacked out now he was as good as dead, so he would not give up, this new world could try whatever it wanted it would not break him. He held onto that last shred, stubbornly refusing to die.

Then with one final desperate attempt, he did something he had never thought to do before, he pulled. The Prana paused for a second as if deciding who needed it more and then came rushing back. Life poured into Mark, His lungs gasped, and his vision cleared. His mind spun with euphoria. He pulled in more, drinking deeply. The grip on his neck retreated. Yet Mark didn't want to stop, his hand shot up and grabbed onto the escaping form. His gums began to itch, guided by his instincts he opened his mouth and plunged his fangs into the being below him. Cold coppery wetness filled his mouth. Then the energy came in a rush. It felt like swallowing the fetid water of a stagnant pond, taking in all the slimy scum that rested there. It thrashed, but Mark clenched down. He would not release until he claimed every last drop of life in the creature and then almost too soon. It shook feebly and went still. A chilling ping sounded in his ears.

Silence reigned.

Shaking, his hand slowly moved up to his wound, meeting with only smooth skin and stickiness. The wound was gone, he quickly turned over and threw up bile.

What the hell had he just done? He never wanted to do that again.

The taste of old blood was overwhelming. He felt ill and unclean.

But above all else it was the energy that disturbed him the most, he could feel it sloshing around in his body like oil trying to mix with water. It left a waxy film in his mouth.

A noise to his left broke the quiet, Mark jolted and scrambled back. Searching for his weapon. However, when he looked up, all he saw was Donny standing there with his hands raised calmingly in front of him.

“Hey, you good?” he looked like he did not know what else to say.

Mark began to calm down, but still not trusting his voice he simply nodded.

“Cus, whatever you just did kinda has us on edge.”

His eyes moved down to the body in front of Mark. Following his gaze, Mark saw a withered corpse sapped of all life. It looked like it had been dead for years with gaunt dehydrated skin. The corpse wore an ill-fitting cashier’s uniform. Mark realized it must have been behind the counter when they entered, that's why he only saw four. Having crept up on him while he was fighting and watching everyone else.

His pupils narrowed at the paper-thin flesh, he did that?

Mark swallowed “All good, it won't happen again”

“That’s not what I meant I-” he paused “Okay we can talk about this later.”

He motioned for everyone to follow him

Everyone except Grace began moving toward one of the back rooms, and Mark glanced back.

she was staring at him with a look of disgust and hostility.

Mark stopped and turned, locking eyes with her. Waiting.

Whatever just happened he regretted it, but that did not mean he felt shame for fighting to survive. So he held her gaze without any remorse.

For a moment Mark thought she would say something, but she schooled her expression into and neutral tone and brushed past him moving to Donny's side.

Mark hesitated, then followed the rest of them into the back

They made sure nothing was hiding in the storerooms and then locked themselves in.

Not that a lock would keep these things out but as long as they were quiet it should offer them some protection.

The room they were in was a little cramped, it probably served as a storage room/staff room before all this.

On the plus side, there were boxes and boxes of junk food. Mark grabbed a couple of bags of sweet chill Doritos and coke, his quest for food was finally over. He lay his head back trying to wash away the taste of blood in his mouth. In the silence of the storage room, they hid. The area would be a hive of activity for the next couple of blocks. So they waited, gathering the strength to continue moving.