Necrofairies

Part 2 - Rise of the Dead

Neen stood, frozen in place. An army of orcs, freshly raised from the dead, stood between her and escape. The stench of rotting flesh was bilious within the vast underground burial chamber. The cold chill of death enveloped her causing her extremities to go numb. Her breathing became laboured, rapid and shallow. It was as though the despair and torment from these twisted lost souls was sucking the life from her. She wanted to leap into the air and fly the hell out of there, but found her wings would not respond!

"Neen, we have to go!" whispered Sliver with urgency.

Suddenly off to one side of the chamber there was a howl of desperate glee as Agnor found his lost ring. The docile orcs were triggered into frenzy by the sound and those nearest to Agnor scrambled towards him. Agnor seemed unaffected by the overwhelming sensation of death and galloped towards the staircase that lead back to the city above. The squat dex used his four powerful limbs to move at incredible speed. Several undead orcs who had already lumbered into his path had their legs knocked out from under them as he ploughed through them like a bowling bowl knocking down ten pins.

The orcs closest to Neen and Sliver, also now frenetic, started to charge towards them in a tangled wall of raging horror. Sliver reacted immediately and unloaded several rounds from his guns into the chest of the nearest shambling orc. It lurched backwards from the impact, but did not stop its charge.

"Shit! Neen move!"

Neen was still petrified so Sliver wrapped an arm around her waist and dragged her, with enormous effort, into the air with him. They narrowly avoided the cold grasping claws of the orcs, but she was a dead weight in his arms. There was no way he would be able to stay airborne all the way across the chamber so he holstered his weapon and used his free hand to slap her hard across the cheek. Neen stared back at him blankly for a moment and then shook her head.

"I...I don't know what happened, it felt like I was dying. Like I was being drawn into the abyss, it was terrifying!"

"I felt it too, but you have to concentrate and put it to the back of your mind like any other fear."

Neen nodded and gritted her teeth. Burying her fear was something she had learned to do a long time ago. There were many times in her life where being emotionless was the only way to survive. With firm resolve she raised both her guns.

"I guess it's time to shoot our way out," she said firmly.

"You're wasting..." began Sliver, but Neen had already fired several rounds at the orcs below who were now piling on top of each other trying to reach them as they hovered several feet above the horde. The orcs she hit fell back, but once again rose to their feet.

"What the hell? Those were dark elixir rounds!"

"I already tried that. The only way we can stop them is to get back to the surface and seal the chamber."

The pair of them flew side by side above the howling mass of undead, right across the chamber to the stairway leading to the surface. However by the time they reached the stairs there were several orcs already blocking their path.

Neen reflexively pulled out both her pistols again as she flew for the stairwell and this time shot the nearest orc in the head. Her aim was to distract it enough so they could get past, but to her surprise it fell to the ground and stayed down. Neen glanced back at Sliver, he had seen it and already had his guns drawn and was firing at anything and everything he could hit.

"I always wanted an excuse to shoot my way through a crowd of orcs!" he yelled gleefully.

"There is no way you are going to be winning this body count!" said Neen as she felled two more orcs who were already moving up the stairwell then another who was also blocking her path.