33. Level Six-Zombies be Comin’
CHAPTER 33
Level Six-Zombies be Comin’
Zeke
“ W hat is that?” Knox growls. We’re standing in an empty hallway with no entrance or escape for as far as I can see. There are no lights on the ceiling, and I’m not even sure there are ceilings, but the hallway is wide enough for Moni, Chester, Knox, Levi, and myself to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in comfort.
My guess from the voice we had just heard welcoming us to the level would be death.
“A thousand deaths?” I shrug as a glowing white ball appears floating in front of us, blocking our way.
“It’s like a mini sun except it’s not hot,” Moni says in confusion. “I wonder…” she mumbles, zipping forward.
“Wait!” we yell in unison.
Pop!
My eyes water as the bright light flashes, blinding me.
“MONI!” Chester screams in agony.
“What? What’s wrong? I can’t see,” I yell out, furiously blinking my eyes and trying to shield myself from the painful light.
“She’s gone!” Chester wails. “I can’t feel her.”
I stumble at his words for a moment. “W…what?”
What does he mean he can’t feel her? Oh shit…the mate bond.
“Moni?” Knox calls out, fear tinting his voice.
My stomach clenches when there’s no answer, and the brightness in the room slowly fades away, leaving scattered strips of the ball scattered all over the ground, but no Moni.
I twirl around, making sure she’s not floating behind us, ready to pop out like a pimple on a first date, but there’s nothing. A wail rings out, bringing my attention to Chester curled up on the floor. Levi grabs his shoulder, and it’s apparent that he’s controlling his emotions since his heart-wrenching cries die down to sniffles.
Ding.
A red light blinks to life in the sky with all our names: Chester, Knox, Levi, Moni, and myself, with a number beneath it. All but Moni have five under our names when she has a number four.
What is going on?
“Woah! That was a whirlie twirlie loopdy doo,” Moni squeaks out.
I twirl around so fast that I almost lose my balance when Chester brushes past me to scoop up Moni.
He squeezes her tight to him as incoherent words tumble from his lips. The rest of us give them their moment as we take in the popped sun before us.
“So, obviously you were right, Zeke,” Knox sighs, looking down at the shredded glowing pieces. He squats down and blows forcefully, causing the pieces to flutter in the air and float off to the sides.
“It looks safe enough to move on,” Levi assesses.
“True, but does that mean we’ll have to die each time to make it past one?” I ask, pointing down the hall to the next sun ball blocking our path. “I mean, I don’t know how many of those things we need to pass, but we only have five lives and, according to that clock, two hours to get to our safe house.”
Knox stands and turns to look in my direction with a frown, taking in the new red clock ticking down our time.
“Well, it’s obvious we can’t touch them, so who has access to their weapons or S.I.N. box? We might be able to attack or pop them from a distance. I won’t be able to use all my magic because the land is truly dead here for me,” Levi explains as he adjusts his corset.
I don’t have feelings for my brother like that, but I can appreciate the corset. I might be able to convince JP to wear one.
I arch an eyebrow as Levi’s wording registers with me, and I chuckle before giving him a sly smile.
“What?” he asks, giving me a perturbed look.
“Nothing,” I slightly shake my head, casually stepping closer and leaning in to say. “S.I.N. box? I see she’s rubbing off on the robot.” I step away and wink. “It’s a good look on ya.” A faint blush dons his cheeks, and I decide not to push my luck.
“I can try to boom them,” Moni’s voice filters over. I glance over my shoulder and see her trying to make her way over to us as Chester clings to her with a death grip.
“Chill, Chester, else you’re going to rip her bark off,” I tell him and nod down to his white knuckles around her wrist.
“Oh shit. I’m sorry,” he apologizes.
“It’s okay, Chestie.” Moni comforts him before giving him a quick kiss and gently pries his hand off her before patting it.
I sigh as everyone joins me and looks at the new obstacle in front of us.
“So, how do you figure we should go about doing this?” Knox scratches his head.
Before anyone can answer, a tune starts playing, and my jaw drops. Is this a warped version of the Pac-Man song?
“What the hell is that?” Moni shrieks as a darker white skull with wings the size of a car slams down in front of us, knocking us to the ground.
“Hurry, get up,” I tell them as I scramble up and activate my rings. I still can’t believe the great Astaroth gave me a weapon this awesome. Being able to control when they pop out to slice, teamed with my vampire abilities, has been one of the coolest gifts I have received. Well, besides my family. I take a defensive stance as the sickles swing out of the rings because I want to be ready if things go bad. “We’re about to fight our way out of here, and hopefully our friend here is paving the way.”
“What are you talking about?” Chester demands, pushing his glasses back up his nose and picking up his weapon.
I give him a big grin as the ball in our path starts moving and gobbles up the next sun that was in front of us.
“We’re playing a twisted version of the Devil’s Pac-Man,” I shout out excitedly, throwing my fist in the air before following.
As a computer geek, video games are my jam, especially old-school ones. Every once in a while, I hop on and play with Ryker on WOW. Normally, though, I’m glued to a computer trying to improve my skills, but sometimes I just need to unwind and zone out with games.
“What’s a Packed Man? Does that mean he has a bigger package? Is he more prepared? Oh! He’s really packed…do you think he gets away with being frisky? Or is that frisked? I don’t remember,” Moni asks as she zips back and forth between Chester and me before promptly fainting. I easily reach out and grab her before she hits the ground, handing her off to Chester.
We turn a corner, and the Skulled balloon in front of us stops briefly as the music changes before continuing on. We pass a hallway, and I get a quick glance at a sign across the room that says “EXIT”.
“Wait!” I yell, halting everyone. “There’s an exit.” I point and start to head down the hallway, but Chester yells back.
“What about the death balls?”
“There’s blue, so they should be safe. Let me try. If they aren’t, I’ll run back real quick so we won’t lose him,” I explain before running forward and passing through like I was hoping.
Moni lets out a whoop before following along with the others. We head down the hall until I stop dead in my tracks, and Levi slams into my back.
“What's wrong? Why did we st?—”
“GHOSTS!” I yell out, and two turn the corner at the end, heading toward us.
Unfortunately, the ghosts aren’t as cute as I remember in the human version of this game; these are more like ghouls.
“Aren’t they harmless or something like that in this game?” Knox asks. “I mean, if the balls are now harmless, shouldn’t the ghosts be?”
“Well, we’re not in the actual game, remember? This is Hell, and I wouldn’t trust anything on this level,” I quickly call out as I take on a fighting stance and size up the bigger ghost on the right. It’s reddish, but white wisps flow off of it as if they are alive, feeling their way along the floor. The ghost on the left looks like a praying mantis but is the size of a wolf and is flashing white and pink.
Shit, our time of safety is about to run out.
“That flashing means we’re about to revert back to everything being deadly,” I warn as the ghosts sprint toward us, still a good fifty feet away.
Moni flies next to me and claps her hands like a miniature hulk, sending her boom straight for the ghost. The shock waves pass over them like a breeze, and Moni turns to me with wide eyes, looking like a glitter ball.
“Zeke?” She whimpers in fear. “That was my one-shot pony.”
“They're not tangible. Levi, do you have a spell to help here?” I ask, my voice catching slightly in my throat as I grab Moni’s hand and start backing up.
“Not off the top of my head,” is his answer. Fuck.
“Aren’t they dead?” Chester points out.
“Kinda the point of me calling them ghosts,” I mock, not being helpful at all.
“Dude,” Chester retorts. “That’s the point I’m making. Aren’t you a Necromancer? Can’t you just control them?” he reminds me.
“Oh yeah!” I perk up, suppressing the blush that wants to appear at my thoughtlessness.
Tapping into my darker powers, I easily search and find the ghosts’ essences before grabbing ahold of them, taking control, and halting their approach in mere seconds.
Wow. Talk about an upgrade. It normally takes me a few minutes to take control like this.
Wondering what else I can do, I send out my powers, searching for others that are near, blinking owlishly at what I find.
“You guys might want to stand close,” I warn. “We’re about to have more company.”
My magic weaves through the unseen fibers below us, seeking and filtering the particles of a long-forgotten past. The ground around us starts to shake, and Moni shrinks and lands on my shoulder to pull on my ear.
“Zeke! What’s going on?” she shrieks, flying in front of my face! “What are you doing?”
“Bringing in reinforcements.” I laugh maniacally and watch as Moni’s eyes get bigger before she tucks back into Chester’s side.
That was probably mean of me, but I’ve never felt this good about my powers actually being needed for something meaningful. Most of my kin were slaves to Purgatory, doing what was demanded of them or put down like dogs. I’m free and using my power for righteousness. Finally.
Except for the issue that I’m in hell doing this, which might look bad, but that isn’t the point.
The ground explodes as fifty spirits pop up through the ground like daisies and materialize around us. Some are incorporeal, while others are in different stages of decay, but all of them have their attention on me.
“We need to make it to the exit of this game. Those balls are blocking our way. Clear a path, and you shall return to whatever peace you were having,” I commanded them.
Since this is the Road of Worth and they were here as spirits, I doubt they can have much peace, but at least I won’t disturb them anymore.
“Now go!”
The spirits and ghosts that I have control of bow one by one, filing into a line behind each other, and begin running down the hall. As the first ghost hits the sun, it explodes, and the next spirit takes its place and leads on.
“Excellent thinking,” Knox praises as he gives me a squeeze on the shoulder.
“I couldn’t have done better.” Levi comes up on my other side and smiles at me. “I’m proud of you.”
Pride swells in me at the compliments.
“Thanks. That means a lot coming from you.” Before I second guess myself or worry about the time that’s against us, I reach out and pull Levi to me, squeezing him tight.
He returns the hug and pats me on the back before letting go of me, and I can’t help but break the touching moment.
“So, do you think you can whip up some corsets for JP? I think he’ll look hot in some electric blue and black.” I give him a toothy smile before turning to follow my minions.
“I’ll definitely make you some that you can surprise him with when we get back.” Levi laughs, shaking his head as he follows.
Even though we can see the exit sign over the maze’s wall, it’s not as quick or easy as I hoped. I’m ashamed to say I forgot about the devilish Pac-Man. It turns out that when the balls turn blue, he’s attracted to the ghosts, so he’s quick to gobble up all of mine.
We repeat the process a few times, summoning more spirits until the exit is a few feet away, just around another corner.
I’m right behind my ghosts when I turn the last corner and see the ghost in front of me disappear in a puff of smoke right as an ax comes flying at my head.
“Fuck!” I yell, jerking back in time for it to breeze by my nose within a millimeter.
Throwing out my arm, I bar Levi from running into the deadly weapon as it embeds itself into the wall behind me.
“What the hell was that?” he asks, already conjuring a fireball into his hands.
“We’ve got company,” I tell him, reactivating my rings. I had gotten complacent once I knew the ghosts could fight our battle and had put them away, but it’s time to get them dirty again.
Through my dissipated ghost stands a small mob of ten demons, all decked out in an array of weapons. The one in the front, which I can only assume is the leader, pulls another ax from his sheath and growls.
“We can’t let you reach the portal,” he tells me, not at all explaining who he’s working for, but the medallion hanging off his neck is proof of his allegiance. Asmodeus. He’s the only prince that has a tarnished yellow and black sigil and two cocks—as in dicks—curving up to meet in the middle by a Demon’s tail. Thankfully, since Rez told me about their trip to the Bazaar while we stayed with L.A.M.B. and the unfortunate run-in with the Hercules goblin, so I know what it looks like.
As the leader says his intentions, I hear everyone behind me move up and pull their weapons. As soon as Moni turns the corner, she lets off a Sonic boom, knocking the whole mob down. Fluffers burst forward on the offense, taking out the leader’s throat. I don’t waste a moment as I use my vampire speed to pick up the closest enemy and slice through his throat with my rings.
Levi throws a fireball, catching two demons on fire as they try to get up off the floor. Instead, their screams of anguish die out as they turn to dust. Chester runs up beside me and swings his Guandao, cleaving through a demon, but yelps when he gets hit in the shoulder and falls. I don’t have time to see how badly he’s hurt as I leap toward his attacker and rip their throat out, covering myself in blood.
Levi runs over and pulls Chester out of the fray as Moni stabs a demon in the eye with her sai, and Fluffers finishes the takedown. Moni must sense Chester’s pain because she shrieks, “Chester!” and rushes over to him, leaving five demons left. Levi, leaving Chester in Moni’s capable healing hands, comes back into the fight with his boa staff and cracks a demon in the ribs and skull, killing them instantly.
Fluffers cuts me off as he pounces on a demon that starts to flee, and I turn to take out another demon with my rings as it tries to run the other way.
“Ahhhhhh!” I hear Moni scream, but as I turn, she’s not in pain; she’s slashing at a demon that tried to sneak up on them as we were busy killing the others. My tiny little sister hacks away at the demon, slicing across their heels, tendons in their wrist, and finally across their throat.
I stand in shock at her heaving chest as she watches the light fade from the demon before her. As soon as the demon’s chest stops moving, she turns back to Chester.
“Are you okay, Chestie? Please tell me you’re okay. I can’t live without my sweet papi and bowl of acorns. I love you too much.”
“Did you just call my dick sweet papi ?” Chester whispers before moaning.
“Of course I did. It’s another essential in my life,” she says, running her fingers through his dirty hair.
I throw up a little bit in my mouth. “Okay, now I’m completely horrified, and JP would kill you if he heard this conversation.”
“Come on, we still need to get to the safe house,” Levi reminds us as he goes over and helps Chester up. Knox shifts and helps carry him as they lead us to the house.
I look up at the clock and sigh in relief that we still have ten minutes to spare.
As soon as I walk into our safe house, I’m hit with dread.
“Where’s Rez and the rest of the gang?” I ask.