The house was a relatively wellkept 2 story building that was on the outskirts of the populated part of the town. It looked like it would actually offer shelter, and with the windows on the second story I would have a place to scout from. It looked perfect… Which instantly put me on edge!

  I approached slowly and carefully, axe firmly in hand, my head on a swivel, constantly checking for any movement or sound that could indicate something approaching. I had not spotted any zombies in the immediate vicinity, but there were small clusters close enough that things could get dicey.

  It happened fast, as it always does when it happens. A trio of zombies were passing nearby, I tried to keep my eyes on them and keep moving, when my foot hit something on the ground and made me stumble! Now with my new physical stats, I didn’t go face first into the ground, I instead took an instinctive half jump, half step forward with the foot to compensate and ended up overcompensating and veering off to the side and ending on my back in a bush…

  I had been silent during it all, not a gasp nor a word came from my lips, although internally there was swearing galore. Unfortunately the bush made quite a lot of noise as I crashed into it. I was very very still, lying in the bush, listening after a sign that the zombies had heard me… Man, I wish I had stealth.

  It was unclear if stealth would have helped or not, but it quickly became clear that the zombies had heard the noise, after all they were dead, not deaf, and they were coming!

  It is odd the details you focus on in times of danger, three zombies were shambling towards me, clearly out to tear me apart and eat me! But all I could think of was how they looked like a little family, a grown man and his wife taking his elderly father on a walk, a zombified family for sure. The 70 years had not been kind to their tattered outfits or decaying flesh, but the familiar resemblance between the males was still there.

  Being stuck in the details didn't change the situation, they were coming, shambling towards me at above walking speed. I quickly picked up my axe and got up. I might have half a minute or slightly more before they were upon me.

  I figured I had three choices, I could run to the house and hope that the door was unlocked and sturdy enough to keep them out, but that would risk creating a ruckus in the place I was hoping to make my safehouse. I could fight them here and try to end it before more zombies were alerted, but the thought of fighting this family of zombies was something I would like to avoid.

  Third I could lure them towards a corrupted shard and pit the tentacle monster against the undead. But I would have to backtrack to the barn, or hope that all corrupted shards came with a tentacle surprise.

  Oh, yeah there was a fourth choice, I could just run for my life! I liked this, but unfortunately it would not be a viable way to get what I came for.

  All these thoughts happened lightning fast and with a calm that could only be explained by new found high willpower and intelligence, if nothing else I was really getting a feel for my new capabilities here. I turned towards the nearest source of corruption that was located away from the center of town and began jogging in that direction.

  I was moving faster than them, but I was trying to avoid attracting more zombies to the party, which resulted in nerve wracking moments where I had to stand still, as other groups of zombies moved out of view, while knowing that the three zombies were gaining on me…

  After what seemed like an eternity, but in reality was a few minutes, I reached the nearest corruption. It looked like the other shard I had seen, with this misty look, vaguely outlining it. A quick identify confirmed it as a corrupted dimensional shard and a flash indicated a little xp gain, a nugget I filed away for considerations till after I was safe.

  The shard was situated in some high growing bushes and I quickly ran around the bushes to position myself with the shard between me and the still shambling zombie family. I could easily have run through the bushes and gotten there faster, but I was not going to get any nearer to that shard than I had to!

  The bushes were high enough that If I ducked down I would be covered by them and I briefly thought about trying that, maybe they would forget about me?

  No time for that now, they were coming!

  They shambled towards the bushes and then seemed to hesitate… I was right on the other side of the shard, I could see their outline against the misty corruption, they had to be able to see me too! Only a few meters between us, I had seen them move through vegetation like these bushes before, so it couldn’t be that.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Frustrated, I exhaled hard and then muttered, “Come on!”

  The trio of zombies instantly focused on where the sound came from and started mowing into the bushes towards me. “Success!” I thought, allowing myself a second of celebration. As the first zombie hit the shard that feeling of celebration quickly turned to dread!

  The zombie was moving towards the sound I had made and hit the corrupted shard front first and multiple things happened at the same time, the eldritch whalesong started from the shard

  aaaaaRRROOOOOOaaaaRRRRRAAAAraaaaaaaaaAAA

  The zombie stopped moving forward and tried to get away from the shard instead, but it seemed like the parts of it inside the shard were stuck! It tried harder and harder to get away from the shard and from where I was standing I could hear the sound of flesh ripping and bones breaking, as the zombie literally was tearing itself apart to get away from the shard!

  The misty outline of the corrupted shard was pulsing, contracting, expanding, contracting and expanding… It was growing bigger! I stumbled back and fell on my arse, looking up at the still struggling zombie and the pulsing, growing shard that seemed to be devouring it… Was it feeding on the zombie?

  The elderly zombie got knocked over by the struggling zombie and that seemed to save it from the explosion of tentacles that sprouted out of the shard, wrapping around the caught zombie and grabbing the female zombie as well, pulling it towards the shard.

  The struggle was slow, and horrifyingly onesided, the zombies were not trying to fight the tentacles, they were trying to escape. It seemed desperate, but that would indicate some sort of sense in the undead, wouldn’t it? I was almost paralyzed with fear as I saw clumps of decayed flesh and bits of bone fall from the captured zombies, and the sounds… oh, the sounds, like dry chicken being ripped apart, I could hear the tearing and splintering of bones… I could do nothing but watch in horror as the shard seemed to grow several centimeters…

  I was so caught up in this struggle, that I did not sense the elderly zombie that had been crawling towards me through the bushes, before my Survival Instincts kicked in and by reflex I pulled my left leg back from the zombie that was trying to grab it and bite me!

  Unfortunately, that still left my right leg within range of the zombie, and it grabbed onto it instead. I felt it pull itself up, splintered fingers raking through fabric and into my leg, tearing through my new pants and into skin drawing blood, I almost screamed at that, settling for a whimper instead, my Pain Resistance dulled the pain, but a thousand zombie stories filled my brain as I saw the blood flow.

  I looked on in horror as it lowered its head preparing to take a tasty bite of my leg, instinctively I swung my axe in a sweeping arc, trying to get it away from my leg. As the axe hit the elderly zombie's head, it knocked a piece of the face in, and an unbelievable stench spread from the recently cracked skull and the head was moved away from my leg by the force of the impact.

  Still it was a very awkward angle and position I had swung from, so the zombie was still active and trying to get back to munch on my leg. Kicking with my legs, trying to get it away from me, I found that it weighed less than a living person and managed to get both legs pulled up and kicking at the same time, launching the zombie up and away from me.

  The kick had sent the zombie in an upright position and pushed it a few steps back… into the shard.

  With another explosion of tentacles the process repeated itself. The zombie was caught in the shard, desperately trying to pull away from the shard and tentacles, but ultimately failing… I instantly backed off from the shard and the tentacles.

  I hid in some nearby bushes until my heart stopped beating like a speed metal drummer. While waiting, I reached out to Stalker again, emoting danger scent, return pack, but he must still be out of range. I hoped he was doing ok, this place had turned out to have dangers beyond what we had anticipated.

  Speaking of that, what the hell had I just witnessed? So much to process! But I would rather not do that in a bush near a growing corrupted dimensional shard. Thinking of that horrorshow I looked over to the bushes where it was located, the tentacles were gone, as were the zombies. The shard had grown maybe 10 centimeters in all directions.

  Next I looked at my leg, I had some nasty wounds from where the fingers had gouged my leg, and I was terrified that I was destined for zombiehood now. I cleaned it as best as I could. I was too afraid to check my status screen… I had come so far in the last month's time, yet now I was back to being the scared guy, not daring to check his screening results, as if closing your eyes protected you from the horrors of reality…

  I knew better, so taking a deep breath and steeling myself I opened up my status screen…

  God I wished Stalker was here.