Magic Spawn Origins

Magic Spawn: Chapter 49

by Meredith Skye

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Rian and the others caught up with Bernard and the group of townspeople and went ahead of them, warning them to be quiet, in case they ran into ... anything.

Then they slowed to a walk. Rian was worn out. He still felt slightly ill from the attack earlier of that corpse that had bitten him near the Old Mill, but mostly just fatigued. His arm had swollen up and turned a green tinge. Running winded him much more quickly than it should have.

For several minutes, they walked quietly down the gravel road towards the silent, dark town. Then, he thought he saw something.

"Get down," Rian said as they neared old train depot, not far from the town hall. He motioned Ehina and Aldena. They ducked down behind a tall outcropping of weeds and grass. Aldena signaled Bernard, who followed behind them about a hundred yards, to get out of sight.

A procession of about ten zombies and seven humans streamed down the road towards them. Rian recognized a number of the people. Mrs. Jeffrey, the grocer. Mr. Allen, from the city water works. Mr. Johnson, a school teacher and several of those kids that Kye hated that they'd met on the road earlier that night. Just kids from elementary school.

Rian's anger grew hotter. This necromancer had to be stopped. Where were the state troopers? Where had Daren and all the police gone that zombies could walk freely around town? Or had the zombies got them already?

Just ten zombies. They could probably take them.

Rian, Aldena and Ehina exchanged a silent glance.

Ehina jumped up and ran towards them. "Let's kill them!" she shouted. Rian followed without argument. He wasn't going to hide while zombies carried off friends from his town. Aldena was right behind them, her sword out.

They ran at the zombies who spotted them. The shambling corpses focussed their attention on the attackers, leaving the humans on their own. Surprisingly, the humans did not scream or run. They seemed to be under a spell of some kind, standing there docilely while the fight unfolded around them.

The zombies appeared to be the corpses of men and women in varying states of decay. Many had faces intact but some had flesh only partly covering their face, the rest of the face was bone and dried muscle, eaten by worms. Some still had recognizable clothes but some had only tatters left. Rian took a swing at the nearest zombie with his sword.

The creature was slow, armed only with a primitive wooden club that looked hastily made. Rian easily put his sword into the thing's chest. It only looked at Rian and growled a little. Up 'til now, Rian had fought skeletons but this was his first zombie.

He thought back to shows he'd seen. Was there a special rule for killing zombies? Of course, they were already dead. So ... destroying ... a zombie.

With effort, he pulled his sword out of the zombie. He hacked its arm, which came off, easily.

"Eew," said Rian, nauseated. He paused in disgust. The smell of rotting flesh contributed to this. The zombie lashed out at him and he kicked it backwards, skewering it again with his sword. The creature hardly noticed. "How ..." do I kill it? But he stopped from saying it out loud.

"Blow to the head," said Ehina without even glancing at him. Had she read his mind?

"So, the brain—" began Rian. Now he remembered details from a few zombie films he'd seen.

"Yes," said Ehina.

He swung and hit the zombie in the head, hard, splitting its skull wide open and exposing the brain, red with blood. The zombie fell to the ground and slumped over, some blood ran onto the ground. So, maybe that was the only living part of them, if you could call it that.

They continued the fight, killing one after another of the zombies. Fortunately, none of the zombies looked like they were recently dead. Molan must have raided the graveyard for these.

Aldena checked the people, who stood stock still. "They seem unharmed," she said. "Some kind of spell."

"They should come out of it soon," said Ehina.

It was easy to lead the seven people back toward town.

"Rian, do you copy?" the sound of Zane's voice came over the radio.

"This is Rian," he said, answering the radio.

"You'd better come to the police station," he said.

Rian paused. No way. They had talked about this. "I need to check on Grandma Baggins and the others."

"They're here. Everyone's fine. They got out and came here. Come to the station, do you copy?"

Again Rian hesitated. "Why?"

"It's okay. They're not going to arrest you. There have been attacks all over town. We've persuaded the police to help us."

Rian felt some relief. "Good. Okay. We're on our way."

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