Apocalypse: Generic System by Macronomicon (shoe dog free ebook TXT) 📕

Right around dawn, the alarm went off.

It was just a simple wind chime of throwing knives connected to a string, but it did the job.

Tinkle tinkle, CLANG!

The string broke, dropping the wind chime to the ground, accompanied by cursing.

Jeb leapt out of his bedroll, put his back against the tree, and had a spear raised before his eyes could even focus on what he was seeing.

“Good morning!” A man’s voice came from the woods. It wasn’t booming and growly like redbeards, rather it was reedy and a bit nasal.

Jeb blinked again and spotted five humans dressed for battle standing just at the edge of the safe zone.

“Careful of the,” Jeb cleared the sleep out of his throat and spoke up. “Careful of the pit traps!”

“Yeah, we spotted those on the way in.” The leader said, taking the sword off his belt and dropping it by the edge before approaching. “It’s a good idea but a little work intensive, don’t you think?”

“Pint of sweat saves a gallon of blood,” Jeb muttered, glancing around to take in his situation. The first thing he noticed: the four teammates of the fellow were Obvious Zombies.

They walked with lurching steps, clutching swords and axes in each hand and covered in battle damage and grievous wounds. Three men, and one woman.

“Hi,” The man said, pointing to himself. “I’m Ron.” Ron was a ginger maybe ten years younger than Jeb, wearing a skull as a codpiece. He was wearing normal armor underneath, his face was somewhat emaciated from lack of food, but he seemed pretty chipper, all things considered.

“This is Suzie, she tried to kill me,” He pointed at the lady zombie, a blonde haired woman in her forties. Half of her skull seemed to have been bashed in with a rock. “This is Buck, he was the leader of the group. He tried to stop Suzie, but she stabbed him.”

Buck appeared to be the best kept out of the four of them, save a big bloody spot right around his liver.

“And this is Phil and Eric.” He said, pointing to the last two. “They tried to rob me.”

“What about that guy?” Jeb asked, pointing his spear at the necromancer’s crotch.

“This guy?” he asked, pointing at the skull over his junk. “I found this guy.”

“I’m assuming you’re telling me all this to prove you won’t attack me without provocation.”

Ron snapped his fingers. “This guy gets it. I’m actually pretty freaking hungry, and I was hoping….holy…shiiiit.”

His eyes wandered over to the mass grave of kruskers.

“It’s a bit gamey, but as long as you keep your ‘friends’ parked just inside the safe zone, I don’t see why you can’t help yourself.” Jeb said, levering himself to his feet – foot – with his spear.

Ron hadn’t shown any hostility yet, so there was no reason to be standoffish and turn a potential friend into an enemy. Jeb wasn’t inviting him home for dinner, he was extending a tiny bit of trust.

“fair ‘nough,” Ron said, motioning with his hand. Jeb saw a line of neon purple power flare into existence between Ron and his zombies for an instant before it faded away again. In addition to hundreds of other lines extending in every direction, totally surrounding the Safe Zone.

Jeb’s eye twitched.

Did he slaughter humans or did he zombify monsters and hold them back so as not to alarm me? Well, consider me alarmed.

Jessica was nowhere to be seen, so Jeb could only assume she’d woken up faster than him and had immediately gotten out of sight.

The four shamblers plopped onto their butts just inside the safety of the circle, but still far away from Jeb, while Ron walked forward, aiming for the topmost krusker on the pile.

Ron pulled out a knife and tried to jam it through the creature’s thick hide, obviously having extreme difficulty due to his thin arms.

“Couldn’t you just zombify the thing and make it carry its meat over here?” Jeb asked, pointing at the Krusker.

“Huh? Oh, nah, as soon as I bring something back from the dead, its flesh becomes poisonous. Learned that the hard way,” Ron said, chuckling between grunts as he tried and failed to saw off a rib.

“Here, stand back. I’ll help,” Jeb said, stabilizing himself with his spear as he held a hand out.

I’m pretty sure I can target part of an object, He thought. He’d made a wall out of air. He wasn’t forced to target all the air in the atmosphere. Where did one object end and another begin? Density? Structural integrity? Or perhaps it was just intent.

Orange Myst shot out of Jeb’s hand and caught the creature’s middle rib.

With a mental yank, the popping of bone, and a meaty tearing sound, the rib and surrounding tissue tore itself free before floating over to the fire.

“Oh...T-thanks.” Ron said, suddenly looking a little more nervous than before. He probably thought he could outrun the cripple or swarm him if necessary. Now that he knew Jeb could potentially tear his head off from a hundred feet away, he realized that Mutually Assured Destruction was possible.

“Wizard master race, am I right?” Ron said with a halfhearted fist pump.

“It seemed like the best choice at the time,” Jeb said. “Now come on, sit down and eat some krusker with me. I didn’t tear your head off when you first showed up, you didn’t sik your hundreds of zombies on me at first sight. I think we’ve established a certain basic level of trust.”

Ron chuckled.

“You saw the strings.”

“I saw the strings.”

“Man, I kinda got used to people not seeing shit.” Ron said, shaking his head and sitting down across the fire from Jeb, mouth watering as he watched the fat begin to sizzle off the rib meat.

“I didn’t get your