Foundered

Jasper VII: A Council of Despair

The morning sun crept along the lithe towers of the castle, drawing a gradient of light and darkness upon the ancient monument. The wetlands gleamed gold and silver, echoing the fiery brilliance of the summer light.

But there was tension in the air, soldiers and sergeants hurried across the thin corridors to their respective positions. All the important officials had been invited to the council chambers.

There Jasper sat, four other people around him: the lord of the castle, Nikola, his brother-in-law; the wing-commander, an aged gentleman from Italy; a lieutenant, a survivor and newcomer like Jasper himself; and Jordan, his other brother-in-law, a boy in his late teens.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Nikola began, "we have gathered here in light of recent events: as you know, the zombies are moving on, and we must decide what to do."

"We can stay hidden," the lieutenant said, "that way we won't be targetted."

"Poor choice," said Jordan, "because when the undead are done with the poorly-defended towns and villages, we'll starve to death."

"He's right," the wing-commander sounded his decision. "These demons are not going to leave us soon. And even if they do, we can't let innocents perish. We must fly out and clear the valley of the zombie filth... rid them from this earth."

The others in the room nodded, but there was concern on each and every face.

"These zombies are not the kind you see in movies or TV shows," Nikola said, "once raised from the grave; these zombies are nature's deadliest killing machines: they do not know pain, they do not know fear, they will stop at nothing."

"And worst of all, they also have flyers with them," the lieutenant complied.

"Gargoyles?" asked Jasper.

"Yeah... gargoyles. Man, you're good at naming things. So yeah, they have thousands of gargoyles at their command, and they are led by overlords... nearly indestructible overlords. If you imagine the personification of death, that'd be it."

The very word generated an uneasy feeling amongst all the others, except Jasper. He just sat there with a smug face, knowing what was to come.

"I do not need to," at length he spoke, "for we have encountered the Dark Walkers multiple times before."

Dark Walkers, everyone murmured to themselves, they now had a name for their enemies.

"So... it was a Dark Walker which you were running from?" asked Nikola.

"Aye, a Dark Walker astride a gargoyle... a gargoyle so big and so powerful, it'd be appropriate to call it a dragon."

"Yeah, we've seen it," the wing-commander said, "a shadow so huge; it can take down fighter jets alone."

"Shame we know no way to kill one of them," said the lieutenant, "regardless of what we do, we can never really kill them. Even a headshot doesn't do much more than temporarily stun them."

"Because you did only half the things," said Jasper, "you need to stab them both in the head and the heart at the same time, or at least that's the only trick I know."

Their face went pale, "wait... does that mean that you...?"

***

"Jasper," Nikola called, "how did you do it?"

"A few months ago, I and my comrades went to Pristina to investigate the heart of the swarm, hoping to find some clues on how to stop them. There we met the first one: a shadowy abomination, thousands of ghouls and gargoyles around him. We got into a fight, until I and my comrade Yarachmiel took it down with sword and gun."