Kevin McLaughlin

Chapter 65 - Aftermath

Kara woke me a little before noon with—gasp!—a cup of hot coffee. It was instant, but that was fine, as far as I was concerned.

“How?” I asked, taking the steaming cup from her hands. “I mean, thank you! But how?”

“Break room at the library annex had a coffee station. We scooped everything—mugs, sugar, a bag of actual grounds, plus some of this crappy instant shit. Figured you could use something to help you wake up after a night like that.”

I sniffe...

Chapter 64 - Time To Finish This

All I could do was plant my shield in front of my face and hope for the best as the fireball shot toward me. This was going to hurt, no matter what I did.

My undead had other plans, though. Two of the skeleton warriors in my front row saw the spell and took their ‘guard’ orders literally. They stepped in front of the blast, raising their shields and quickly locking them together.

The fireball struck their conjoined shields head on, detonating with a burst that sent both...

Chapter 63 - Mommy’s Very Angry

(Managed to get a bonus chapter ready for you today. Enjoy!)

I heard the arrows whistling past my head and raised my shield to stop them. One thudded into the aluminum, glancing off. Another smacked into a zombie goblin standing just in front of me. The zombie staggered but didn’t go down. Then another arrow arced in under the shield and sliced into my calf. It stuck there, not moving, and I cried out in pain.

Sue echoed my shout a moment later with a roar. Her ...

Chapter 62 - Prep For Combat

We stopped by the greenhouse before setting out. That’s where they’d buried Kat and the other casualties from the goblin attacks—just outside the greenhouse, on the lawn, was a row of five simple mounds with wooden markers. Alfred explained they’d picked the spot because the greenhouse tools were right there, which made it easier. A few of their braver people had slipped back into the Jeffords building after the goblins departed, collecting their dead.

I stared down at th...

Chapter 61 - Monster Is A Relative Term

Don’t ask me how the skeletal remains of a sixty-something million year old dinosaur was able to roar. I haven’t the foggiest idea. The only answer I can give is ‘magic,’ and I doubt that makes the whole thing any more comfortable. Might as well try explaining how it was walking around, while we’re at it.

In that moment, though, I wasn’t thinking about any of those things.

I’ve seen all the ‘Jurassic World’ films. Who hasn’t? I used to chuckle when I saw...

Chapter 60 - Life Finds A Way

We found Alfred and his people at the next building over. After leaving the greenhouse, we continued deeper into the campus. Everything was dark; without lights, without even moonlight, it was difficult for me to find my way around. I kept my eyes peeled for any signs of life, figuring wherever they were they might have torches or candles lit, at least. But there was nothing. We had to rely on Kara’s NightVision to keep us from running smack into chunks of debris littering the ground...

Chapter 59 - Fields Museum Exhibit Exchange

The goblins were so busy with their own fight, they didn’t even see the threat until we were right on top of them. As my skeletons marched forward, moving in two columns of tight ranks between the stranded cars, one of the green-skinned creatures finally became aware of our advance. I was watching for it, saw the moment where the goblin recognized our threat, and turned to alert its fellows.

Before it could, I dropped a Drain Life on the creature and it dropped like a pile of b...

Chapter 58 - Punch Through

I woke to a gentle vibration at my wrist, plus a pinging sound. My eyes snapped open, and I was fully alert in moments; but it was just my watch. I’d set the alarm for seven in the evening. Enough time to get some solid rest, but early enough so we’d be able to leave with the setting sun.

My pack was undisturbed next to my cot, Hope standing guard. Kara was still asleep on the next cot over. I slipped my boots back on and gently roused her.

“Time?”

“Yup,” ...

Happy Holidays, folks!

Just wanted to shoot a quick thanks and hello to everyone! Hope you're all enjoying the story so far - there's SO much more of this coming!

Today is a holiday for just about everyone, and whether you have a religious event today or not, I hope each of you had time to spend with friends and family, and filled your day with warmth, love, and hope.

Thank you so much for your support!

Kevin McLaughlin

Chapter 57 - The World We Lived In

My undead army was in pretty good shape. Thanks to my crystals, I could Animate sixteen tiers worth of undead, and Control another sixteen. I wasn’t maxed out, but I was fairly close.

For Controlled undead, I still had Hope at tier two, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern at tier one, and six remaining tier one skeletons I’d captured from various graveyards.

My Animated ones were a mixed bag, too. I had four goblin zombies at tier two each, plus another four skeleton warriors ...

Chapter 56 - Linothorax

The smithy they’d set up was a bit off the beaten path. Farnsworth took me out toward the airfield. We didn’t leave the fenced in area of the base proper, but we were a lot closer to the wall they’d set up facing the runways. One of the larger hangars had been repurposed as their armory and smithy.

“See, most of the usable metal we have is from the planes,” Farnsworth explained as we walked. “Aircraft aluminum is light, but resilient. It doesn’t weigh you down, and ...

Chapter 55 - Pet Rocks

As Maura poked around in the big cabinet behind her, opening drawers and peering into them, I looked over the stones I had as spares, wondering which I could afford to give away. I had quite a few of them, but a lot of them were things I wanted to keep, because I thought they might be useful later on.

For example, I had a hunch that Health to Mana, coupled with Drain Life, would be insanely broken. I only had the one crystal, so the spell had very limited power for ...

Chapter 54 - Wrath and Reward

Gideon rode back toward his castle, an army at his back. He’d never felt so strong, so in control. He wished more than anything that his wife was still here to see this, because if she were still alive, he had no doubt he could keep her safe. His daughter, too.

He’d done it. Reached tier six, with his Animate Dead spell. It had taken clearing two additional cemeteries, but the second one did the job. Not only had he won his way to tier six, he had a second Animate up to tier ...

Chapter 53 - A Fighter

At that point the meeting was pretty much done. Colonel Turner dismissed me, saying he and his people would work on a plan to get to Alfred and his people. I had a sneaking suspicion it wasn’t going to happen, though. They were too wrapped up in their local war with the avians. Getting past them in any sort of timely manner wasn’t going to be simple, and it wasn’t their focus.

Farnsworth was waiting outside the room when I came out. I was surprised to see him; I figured he ...

Chapter 52 - Command Center

Where Turner’s office had been small, without much flair or extravagance, this room was anything but. It looked like the sort of hidden military command post you saw on movies: a huge screen, blank, of course, and buckets of equally useless computer terminals took up most of the space. I supposed those would all eventually end up tossed out in the trash, or maybe melted down to make something that was actually useful.

The main focus of the room was now a large tab...

Chapter 51 - Fascination

Colonel Turner glanced at Farnsworth, then directly at me, sizing me up. There was something positively magnetic about the man. I felt drawn to him in a way I couldn’t explain. If he’d been running for president, I couldn’t imagine anyone voting against him. I didn’t think I’d ever met someone with so much raw presence.

“This must be Miss Serrano,” Turner said.

“I am. But Selena is fine,” I replied.

“Excellent. Please, come with me. M...

Chapter 50 - A Six

I glanced at the uniformed party, and I had to admit, I was impressed. Their top guy was tier five, a man who was maybe in his early forties and looked to be in charge. His rank had a whole pile of chevrons on it, and while I didn’t know enough to recognize what rank that was, I knew enough to know he was enlisted, not an officer, and pretty high up.

The rest of the group was a mixed bag, but none of them were under tier two. They had two tier four people, four tier threes, and...

Chapter 49 - Bird In The Hand

We were both up shortly after dawn the next morning, which I supposed was becoming the new normal. Now that there were no more alarm clocks, something had to wake us up, and there were a shortage of roosters in downtown Burlington. The sun seemed to be doing the job just fine, though.

“Where are we going from here?” Kara asked over breakfast.

I broke out my map and spread it on the table so the close-up of the city was visible. “Well, we’re not far from the airport....

Chapter 48 - Petco Problems

A short while later, we were walking away from the mess we’d left behind. We were a little singed and smelled of smoke, but Kara’s antics had recovered all of the trapped skeletons, so it was probably worth it.

“You’re nuts, you know that?” I said.

Kara chuckled. “Nah, I figured we were good. Look, the webs burned, just like we thought, and the trees didn’t all go up. I’m bummed we couldn’t get the other crystals, though.”