Bang Bang Bang

  Andy and the urchins fired their pistols, taking down five or six zombies. They honestly could not tell — some of the zombies fell, but some did stand back up, all they knew they fired their shot, and now they did not have time to reload. Reloading a flintlock pistol was a tedious process, it could take around fifteen to thirty seconds — they did not even have five seconds until the zombies reached them.

  “HOLES!!! TO THE HOLES!!!”

  Andy ordered everyone to evacuate through the holes. Most of the kids rushed towards the nearest hole, while Andy and a few volunteered as rearguards, including Daniel, Grigori and himself — Andy counted eight of them acting as rearguards, protecting at least twenty kids; they did not have enough numbers.

  The children were too small, even Andy, one of the largest and tallest kids in the gang, barely reached the chest height of an adult. At best, each one of the rearguards could take down a single zombie, before they ended up like the Molrrets. Andy himself was only confident in taking out two or three at best. They were royally screwed.

  “BRETT, DANIEL, FIRE BOTTLES!!!”

  Andy had a flash of inspiration. He remembered that undead were weak to fire, if they could burn some of them, especially the entrance — they might be able to reduce the zombies numbers and survive long enough until Regulus returned. At first he wanted to shout Daniel’s and Grigori’s names instead, but he saw Grigori charging at a zombie who was near Eda and Azali. He would not be able to hear his order.

  So he shouted Brett’s and Daniel’s instead. Daniel immediately jumped into action, rushing towards the nearest wine crates. Even the other kids who were near the wine crates stopped when they heard Andy’s order. They decided to forgo their own escape and helped out instead, opening the crate and pulling out the wines. Brett however…

  He decided to escape, running for his own safety. He lost to his own fear. Seeing Brett running away, Andy could only curse under his own breath. There was no time to criticize Brett, two zombies were already in front of him.

  “RAAAAH”

  Brett swung his hand axe, splitting open one of the zombie’s head, taking it down instantly. The other zombie managed to grab him and bit him in the neck.

  Crack

  But its bites did not manage to penetrate Andy’s skin. Instead, its teeth were broken. In a moment of life and death, Andy managed to subconsciously activate [Iron Body]. Living, sleeping, and breathing the same air as Regulus had made his body unconsciously learned how to use [Iron Body]. Andy did not truly understand why his body just turned black like Regulus, but he knew he got a chance now — he pushed the zombie away, giving him some distance to swing his axe.

  Whack

  Andy swung his axe at the zombie’s temple. The swing was so powerful it split the temple open and brain matter flew all over. He took out two zombies in an instant. Adrenaline was coursing through his body. He could do this. They might actually survive this long enough… until Regulus arrived.

  Andy glanced at the fire bottle team. Daniel and two other kids were busy making fire bottles, they tore their own clothes and plugged it into the bottles. There was only one problem, there was no fire source. The kids had gotten so used to seeing in the dark they did not even bother lighting up a torch or getting a lantern.

  “Shit”

  For now, Andy decided he should head there and protect them while figuring out how to start a fire. He managed to move for one step…

  BRUUK

  … Before he was sent flying. A hand had grabbed him in the neck and tackled him at high-speed.

  “Gaaah”

  Andy’s body crashed at the ground violently. His head was shaken, his vision blurry, and worse, a zombie on top of him. Andy swung his axe at the zombie, but he could not muster enough strength to kill it. His axe was stuck at the zombie’s temple… no. It was not a zombie — it was a ghoul.

  The ghoul thrusted its hand towards Andy’s stomach. He covered his stomach with [Iron Body], but it was pointless. He was still an amateur, his [Iron Body] was not strong enough to defend against the long claws of ghoul. The ghoul had pierced Andy’s stomach.

  Andy coughed blood, but it was not the end of his suffering. The ghoul grabbed his intestines — and pulled it out.

  BUURRST

  Andy’s blood splattered everywhere. His dying scream could be heard by everyone still in the cave. Daniel and the other two kids stopped their hands, they were shocked seeing Andy being ripped apart… it was over. They were all as good as dead.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  The ghoul stood and left the disemboweled Andy to his own device. Andy tried to put his intestines back in, but he was losing consciousness — he lost too much blood. His vision went from blurry to dark. He could hear the other kids screaming, some even crying out his name. But soon it went silent. He could only hear his own weak breathing, and he knew soon that too will stop.

  ‘Uri… don’t come here.’

  That was Andy’s last thought before he breathed his last.

  *******

  The crow was watching countless undead entering the urchins’ cave.

  It could not believe the coward Carven had the guts to actually do this.

  Did he not realize what he had done? He just made himself the target of Regulus’ wrath. Did he not observe Regulus through his undead at all?

  No, it was because he observed Regulus through his undead. Carven had not met Regulus face to face. He did not truly understand what an anomaly Regulus was. Carven only saw Regulus as a kid covered in [Iron Body] twenty four seven. He underestimated Regulus.

  The crow shares its vision with its other self. From above the ground, it could see some urchins managed to escape through the air holes. But the crow knew — not all of them would be able to escape. The crow now faced a dilemma. Should it help the rest of the kids, or should it stay a neutral observer as it always did?

  As the crow hesitates, some undead came out of the cave entrance, carrying unconscious and struggling children with them. It was now clear to the crow, Carven did not have any intention of slaughtering all the children. He was planning to kidnap them instead, either as hostages or as experimental subjects.

  The crow decided to follow Carven’s undead to their hideout instead. It reasoned to itself, even if it decided to rescue the children, it did not have what it takes to do so. There were only four of it nearby, it could not possibly take out hundreds of zombies with some ghouls mixed in them with only four bodies.

  Not to mention, it could not risk revealing its true self to the public…

  …or Regulus.

  ********

  The day was bright and sunny. The market was crowded with people, already forgotten the tense situation caused by the gang war and due to the increased presence of the guards. Kisara and a couple of her girls had been on a shopping spree, with money earned from selling trinkets from their previous robbery and a couple of extra money from pickpocketing easy targets. Kisara had decided to do this shopping spree to help improve the morals of her girls. A lot of them were feeling down after the Ana incident. Some from Ana’s death, and some from the guilt from burning live people. Kisara felt responsibility for both. This was her way to relieve some of the burden on her heart.

  “I wonder if everyone will like it?”

  The girls were chatting among themselves about their shopping haul. They had bought a lot of accessories and dolls for all the girls, while they bought some cool looking weapons for the boys. Kisara herself bought two short swords, one for D’aka and the other for John. These past few days, her opinion on John had improved greatly. While John had leered pervertedly on the girls in the past, he never actually did anything to them. In fact, when she tried to see John objectively, she realized that John had been a good leader to all of them. Even though she was openly hostile towards him, John had never used that against her and her girls. He still rationed somewhat fairly, and he did not exclude them from lucrative jobs. Most importantly, he rationed food towards the younger kids who were rarely able to contribute. Something that Kisara was ashamedly unable to do at times.

  “Oh, hey there Mr.Molrret. Can you dig a hole for us?”

  On their way to a hole going to their cave, Kisara saw a Molrret, sunbathing on the alleyway. She decided that they might as well get inside the sewer from there, then walked towards their cave from the sewer. The Molrret happily showed with its squeak and body language that it agreed with Kisara’s request, and started digging.

  “Eeeh, Kisara. Wouldn’t it be better to just walk into the hole directly on top of the cave?” one of the girls protested a bit.

  “It’s fine. It ain’t much different and the Molrret likes to dig. So might as well.”

  The complaining girl had no choice but to agree, it was not a big deal and the Molrret did like digging. They waited for a bit until the vibration on the ground stopped, marking the fact that the Molrret had finished digging. They put their shopping haul on the ground. Kisara climbed down first, then they passed their stuff down, one by one.

  After a few minutes, all of them were inside the sewer alongside their shopping haul. Kisara grabbed a bag and was about to thank the Molrret… before she realized the Molrret was frozen still — trembling in fear.

  “Are you… ok?”

  Kisara was about to touch the Molrret, to ensure it was alright. It suddenly turned around, showing a face full of fear. It tried to push Kisara and the girls back up, trying to get them away from there.

  The girls and Kisara were initially confused, but Kisara knew the Molrrets were smart… and very protective of the children. Kisara pieced things together in her mind. They were near their cave, and the Molrrets were scared of something in front of them. It could be a sewer king… but the panic the Molrret had was different from the usual panic from a sewer king. Kisara came to a conclusion. Something happened in their cave. Something… bad.

  Kisara dropped her bag. She rushed past the Molrret who tried to stop her. The other girls looked at each other confusedly, but they decided to follow Kisara, dropping their own bags. Kisara jumped between the sewer water and ran towards the cave entrance as fast as she could… only stopping when she saw a body lying down near the entrance. The body of an adult man.

  She pulled her weapon and approached the body slowly. Once nearby, she saw a bullet wound in the body’s head, and she realized the body had been dead for a long time. It was a zombie. They were attacked by undead.

  The girls managed to catch up with her. She motioned them to wait, while she entered the cave slowly. Inside the tunnel, she saw blood and mutilated body pieces all over the tunnel. Human body pieces that she assumed came from the undead… and Molrrets’ body pieces. She shuddered. The Molrrets that could take down a sewer king were slaughtered — what would that mean for the rest of the children inside?

  She wanted to rush in, but she could not afford to, not when she did not know if the danger was still inside the cave or not. She aimed her gun in front of her. Walking slowly, breathing heavily. She was never this nervous before, never this focused before.

  She entered their cave, she checked the corner and noticed that it was empty, no sign of life inside. The first thing she noticed were body pieces scattered around the entrance. Judging from the decay, they must have been from the undead. The next thing she noticed were a few intact bodies lying down. They were adult size corpses, must also have been zombie corpses.

  Her heart sank when she saw four small bodies. Even from a distance, she recognized all of them. One of them was Andy’s. His gut was ripped and pulled out. Kisara’s vision started to shake. She could feel the world around her spinning. She remembered this feeling, she experienced it when she saw Ana’s body for the first time.

  “Kisara!”

  One of the girls tapped her in the shoulder. Her face was pale, so was Kisara’s, so were all the girls’. None of them uttered a word to each other, but they knew they had to walk around and check the entire place. To figure out what happened, and in the hope of finding a survivor.

  They walked around the cave, checking the perimeter. All they could find were the four bodies of their comrades, the zombies they took down, and a couple of fire bottles that were yet to be lit. They could not find anything else, they had zero clues of what happened here.

  “Fuck. Fuck. FUCK!!!” Kisara kicked the cavern wall, frustrated. The others could only watch. They too were at a loss. The Molrret they came with finally managed to catch up. They wished they could ask it what happened, but the only thing they could get from it was the absolute fear in its face. “Shit.” Kisara weakly cursed. She was out of energy, out of hope. Until…

  RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE

  They heard a familiar rumbling. Their faces brightened up. There was hope, they might get an answer.

  BAM

  From the cavern wall, a black hand burst out. A boy, black as Iron came out from the wall he just dug…

  …Regulus had arrived.