Lair by Carl Stubblefield (recommended reading TXT) 📕

worse. Better to sacrifice himself to keep people free. From what he had seen it resembled only one thing… but that couldn’t be. That was just a myth to scare recruits…

He sat down, his back leaning against the console, looking at his broken ankle. Dark particles swarmed over it, dissolving the broken limb to a stump. Oddly, it didn’t hurt like it did when Methiochos had to use his self-healing to reset a bone. Focusing the last of his mental reserves, he tried to refashion the altered appendage. As if in retaliation, more of the dark particles swarmed his lower body. He noticed that as this happened, his mind became much clearer, and the grogginess eased.

As the particles swarmed over his legs, he could see that he was changing and that his efforts to control his healing were met with a barrier. So be it. He marshalled his attention, abandoning his legs and set to making a bulwark of his mind, shoring up his defenses for when the Dark returned. He knew how to fight, and the general knew when to abandon a position that was overrun. This… thing… would not defeat him. Let the battle begin.

Chapter Forty-Two

Payback

Day 10 4:43 AM

0:18:27 remaining

Gus sighed in relief that he hadn’t inadvertently messed up his latest project too badly. There were no knots, and he learned how to make tiny ether hooks that suspended the rim, much like a shower curtain. From there, he easily made the transition for his first part of the plan.

Nick had guided the glitter-like framework to overlay Gus’ current suit to gain some information on how he moved as a precursor to functioning as an armor.

“How well are you integrating so far, Nick?”

“Still synchronizing basic movement. It’ll be a while before the hybrid Nth can function as an armor adjunct just yet, so try to stay out of sight for now, and keep moving.”

“I’ll admit I’m underwhelmed so far,” Gus griped, “and we need to hurry! That whole process took way too long.” Gus made some final preparations to some drones as he complained.

“Yeah, yeah. It’ll be soon; distract yourself kicking some zombie butt in the meantime.”

Not a bad idea. Gus opened the window to the room he had found closest to the courtyard below. He wanted to be in range to use his abilities, and this was a lucky find. This floor was mostly office suites located two stories above the lawn, with a view of the ocean. He didn’t know how anyone could work here; he would’ve been too distracted to get much done, staring at the tropical bay and the waves rolling in below.

Using his controller, he activated the programmed routine and sent out the drones with their payload. After the small contraptions cleared the window, Gus sealed it again. He didn’t want any curious Mantids climbing up to discover where the drones had come from. The controller had a strong enough signal that he didn’t lose any bars with the window closed, and Gus selected one and viewed the teeming masses below the drone’s camera.

When they were in position, Gus used the drone’s cameras to tweak their position so they were over the most populated area of zombies as possible. He found where all the observers were clustered together, trying to access the voice command pylons. Shamblers swayed in place around them as Mantids weaved through the crowd. The Juggernauts were not to be seen, and Gus suspected they were taking shifts banging on the doors.

On his command, the drones all plunged toward the ground together. A circular swath a hundred feet across enveloped the largest density of the horde and swallowed them up into the large rim of an enormous bag of holding. The drones dropped to ground level then began to converge inward toward each other in the center. The Shamblers who had not been caught up stared onward dumbly. Hearing the high-pitched whine of propellers, Mantids and Juggernauts turned to see what had happened, but not seeing past the Shamblers crowding immediately around the drones, they turned back to their work of trying to bash in the front doors.

Once the drones had met in the center, they began to fly upward, then inverted their arrangement to keep gravity pulling any of the zombies out of the opening. Seeing that the zombies had made no retaliation, he opened the window again, and stepped out onto the sill, to ensure he didn’t lose the signal.

Gus directed the drones to take their payload out to sea. From his vantage he could see the drones fly past Atlantis Beach and off to the ocean. Gus was worried the distance would be a problem but the signal bars remained strong even when the drones reached their prescribed destination. Gus reversed the flying formation so the enormous bag of holding was again open underneath and instructed the drones to spread out.

Zombies of different shapes and forms began spilling out of the opening, tumbling end over end until they splashed into the water a hundred feet below. Gus wasn’t sure if this would kill the zombies, but Nick had assured him that the inside of a pocket dimension was not conducive to life of any kind if the bag was sealed for as short as five minutes, probably less. He wasn’t sure, but he didn’t see any of the bodies flailing about in his magnified display. He expected this of the Shamblers, but wanted to see if any of the more active Mantids were affected.

Gus ordered the drones to return and surveyed the lawn area. While they returned he zoomed in with his augmented vision and looked at the water. Nothing moved of its own power, it must have worked! There were a couple zombies that had drifted back onto the circular area of cut grass where it had been sheared away from the bag’s displacement. The numbers seemed much more manageable, but Gus wanted to try to scoop up as many as he could.

Unfortunately, with