Apocalypse Cultivation 2, Ch 19

When Jake approached from the sky, he was able to tell why the Paladins had called this area, “The schools.”

It looked like this county was one that put all the schools together from Kindergarten to highschool.  Several large buildings and their satellite buildings were all practically within spitting distance from each other.

There were way more people at the school than Jake had assumed.  It looked like most of the people from the surrounding residential area and maybe even from further away had gathered there for safety.  From the air, Jake could see rows of generators, tents set up for community use, and personal tents scattered around as well.

The perimeter had been lined with a fences, and this area had a military presence.  US military vehicles were parked in a long row to one side, and soldiers were among the defenders below.

Jake quickly noted the layout of the camp and just as quickly ex analyzed the violence.  The scene was pure chaos.

Vampire were not the only type of monster attacking.  There were waves of the things, mostly attacking from the north.  Jake had come from the southeast, so he flew over the entire battle below to get a closer look.

Monsters were spilling out of the forest from across the road to the north.  From Jake’s vantage point, he could see at least one residential neighborhood past the large, wooded area.

Constant, staccato firing of weapons accompanied the screams of wounded people and the roars of monsters.  Jake’s senses were much better now than the last time he’d been on earth, almost incomparable.   There were around three hundred defenders and maybe ten times that number of noncombatants in the main building.

A smaller school to the north, maybe an elementary school, had already been overrun.  Based on the size of the school and the size of the parking lot, Jake figured it was the high school where that the defenders were making their last stand.

Most of the defenders were on the roof or other elevated places, aiming floodlights and shooting at the monsters that advanced past the ditches, fences, and barricades.  They must have had some heavy equipment at this location at some point, because the level the school had been fortified in less than a month was downright impressive.

It wasn’t stopping the monsters much, though.  Especially the vampires.  A second line of defenders were on the ground in front of the school itself situated behind a portable chainlink fence.  They were armed with spears, pitchforks, machete, and shotguns.  So far, the two levels of defenders were holding out against the wave of monsters, but only just.

In the distance, Jake saw at least two zombie goliaths moving through the forest toward the school.  At this rate, the defenders were fucked.  Even as Jake watched, vampires tricked out of the elementary school, flanking west and south to attack the high school from another side.

There were just too many monsters and not enough defenders.  And they would have to be getting low on ammo by now, too.

Green fire flashed out from the defenders on the ground, proving they had at least a few superhumans among their ranks, but it wouldn’t be enough.  If there were zombie goliaths out there, there’d also be a shit ton of zombies coming.  And the vampires weren’t very tough, but they were fast as hell and it’d only take a few of them breaching the defenses or actually working together–even on accident–to overwhelm the defenders.

Fires in burn barrels in the parking lots and road helped the defenders see but gave the entire scene a hellish glow.

Jake had seen enough.  Despite the grim situation, he was feeling a bit satisfied.  He’d come to earth to kill vampires, and what he was seeing below as a target rich environment.

“Hey,” Jake said to the clay bat.  “Bartok.  I’m going to play some music.”  He pulled a boombox out of his storage ring and put in a random mix tape he’d acquired from one of the gangs in Macon.  “Stay out of reach, but hover over me.  I want you close if I need to leave.  The music should tell the Paladins where I’m at when they eventually get here.”

Jake hit play.  He shook his head as the first strains of LMFAO’s, “Sexy and I Know It,” began to play.  “Figures,” he muttered.

Then, as the defenders looked up when the music began playing over their heads, Jake dropped down into the slaughterhouse below.

He hit a vampire right as it was climbing over an improvised barrier.  Jake slammed the monster’s face into the asphalt with the strength of his Gold stage of Body Reinforcement body, the power of his cultivation, a mild layer of Lunar Dao Polishing on his shoulder, and his full falling weight.

The vampire’s head was pulped instantly and Jake tucked to roll, springing up and delivering a powerful kick into the ribs of another vampire.  The creature shot back with a squelching sound.  It collided with a ruined car, busting out the windows and leaving a dent.

Jake was on it in a flash, his other fingers supporting his clawed pinking finger as he tore open the already mortally wounded monster’s thoat.

Another vampire leaped over a concrete barricade, claws extended.  Jake slapped the hands away, shoved the creature away with a double, open palm slap, then leveled his AK pistol.  Five rounds of 7.62x39mm tore through the vampire.  It’s dark, almost black blood decorated the barrier it’d just jumped over now.

Jake flipped the safety lever back up to safe, and flash stepped back, about halfway between the barrier and the defenders.  His hand went to his wooden sword as he scanned the area around him with his cultivator senses.  He was tempted to just draw his ego sword, Bloom.  It was his most powerful weapon after all.  He was waiting, though.

After ten years of killing demon beasts, which were really just the Murim world version of monsters, he’d learned a few things.  The more varied ways he killed, the more likely it was he’d get monster cores from the bodies.

His surroundings had grown temporarily more quiet and human defenders and attacking monsters all paused to stare at him.  LMFAO blasted overhead.

Jake waved at the defenders and flash stepped at a group of three vampires crawling under cards to avoid being shot.  He stepped down on one’s arm, hard.  The creature’s limb was pulverized.

He heard the chatter of gunfire before feeling the impact of heavy bullets.  They hit with more force than the buckshot he’d been hit with before.  “Well, now I know how that feels.”  Each rifle round impacting him had felt like a strong man jabbing him with a stiff finger.  It hadn’t exactly hurt but had definitely felt uncomfortable.  His energy depleted a small amount, but much smaller than he’d experienced while getting shot before.  He was stronger now than he was then.

Jake flash stepped twice, all the way back to the defenders and shouted, “Don’t shoot me assholes!  Want me to leave?  Fuck.”  Then he turned and flash stepped away.  “Making me waste my energy–” he grumbled to himself.

From back at the school, he heard the survivors yelling.  One exclaimed, “Holy shit.  Holy shit! Blue eyes.  That was the Grim!  He really came!”

“That was the Grim?”

“He’s so fucking fast.  I hit him.  I know I hit him.  Holy shit did he teleport?  We are so screaed.

“Don’t shoot at him again, fucktards!  Tucker!  Now we might actually have a chance!”

“We might not die anymore?”

“Not if we help the Grim and shoot the fucking monsters!”

Jake tuned them out and darted forward into a group of three vampires.  They all attacked at once, and he had a sudden, insand idea.  I’m going to be fighting hundreds of monsters all at once, what if I turn this into training.  Jake cut down one of the creatures with his wooden sword.  He explosively hammer fisted one on the temple and kicked the other, giving himself room, then put the sword away.

“Let’s go, bitches,” he said.  A single low level vampire just wasn’t much of a threat to Jake anymore, but there were a lot of them, and more powerful ones might be on the way.  There were also the zombies coming.

Jake lost himself in combat.  His cultivation base spun and he never tired, never faltered.  His fists broke bones, his claws killed, and his mysterious replacement limb was a handy blocking took, strong as steel.

Bullets from the defenders thundered around him, sometimes sparking off the asphalt or cars.  Jake was like a missile, crashing like a ton of bricks into every monster that crossed the barrier.  The creatures slowed their advance, some of them cautiously eyed him from the forest, only coming in groups now.

Despite the danger, Jake was in a great mood now.  Killed vampires was exactly what he’d come to earth for.  It was weird that there were so many here, he’d been expecting he’d need to look harder for them or even go back to Macon, but this was working out great.  And he was even helping people, too.

He laughed and kneed a vampire in the face so hard that its head crumpled and one fang stuck in Jake’s leg a bit.  He plucked it out, spun, and and kicked the legs out of a monster that had been trying to get past him.  “What your hurry?” he asked.

The vampire didn’t answer.  Jake thought that was rude so he tore out its throat.

***

James felt grateful for the lull in his lane of fire.  There were still attackers, though.  Maybe the gymnasium full of women and children somewhere below was just too tempting of a meal for these bastards to pass up.  Another monster climbed over the cars that made up the portion of barrier he was laser-focused on.

He lined up a shot, was about to squeeze the trigger, but in a flash, the Grim came out of nowhere and literally tore the vampire apart.  James breathed a sigh of relief and glanced to one side where he was keeping his ammo.  He only had a few dozen rounds left.

Running out of ammo while fighting an army of ravenous monsters hadn’t been part of his life for very long.  It was amazing what he’d gotten used to in a couple weeks.  He’d never knew he had it in him before to do something like this.  Now he was filled with pride, pride and determination.

Kathy was in the school with the other noncombatants, and he still hadn’t had a chance to ask her out yet.  It just never seemed like the time, even before the world ended.  But now he was thinking that if he actually survived the night, maybe he’d finally have to grow some balls and just ask her to walk around or something.

To his side, Jonah Smith fired off a shot and said, “I thought we’d be dead by now.”  It was the first time the older man had talked in a while.  If not for the fact he was talking so loud to be heard over the ringing in their ears, his tone was so casual he could have been talking about the weather.

“Yeah.  The Grim really came.”  James only glanced over briefly.  Past Jonah, Wesley’s body still slumped over in death, his face and throat ruined.  A single vampire had managed to get through the parking lot and past the defenders below, jumped up on the room and killed Wes in a flash.  Johan had dumped an entire magazine into the thing before it’d finally dropped off the edge of the root..

James frowned.  It kind of bothered him that he’d seen so much messed up stuff now that seeing Wes die might not have a specific nightmare about Wes dying.  He lined up another shot past the barrier and took it, pulping a vampire’s chest.  The things were tough, so it kept crawling, but it’d die.  Good.

Jonah spit.  “Didn’t believe them when they said he was coming.  But it ain’t natural.  They say he might be an angel, that ain’t no angel.  That thing gives me the fucking creeps, man.”  Jonah spit.  “But look at him go!  Fuck.”

James nodded, letting his eyes briefly roam over the rest of the  battlefield.  The Grim was like a whirlwind of death, charging from monster to monster.  Most of the attacking creatures weren’t even getting twenty feet past the barricades any more on this side of the school.  The Grim periodically checked the other side.  He flickered between fights, disappearing and reappearing in other locations.

Suddenly, the Grim charged into a group of three vampires that had been trying to ambush him.  His sword flickered out, faster than James could actually track with his eye.  Just like that, one of them was sliced in half.  The other two pounced, but with supernatural speed and precision, the Grim dodged one, tripped it, and kicked the other in the chest so hard it sounded like a pot roast hitting concrete after being dropped from the top of a building.  The sound even carried to where James was watching, even past the ringing in his ears.

The last vampire got up from the ground and tried to bite the Grim from behind, but the blue eyed, horrifying visage literally ripped its throat out and threw the monster away like it was trash.

“Hell of a thing,” said Johah.

James wasn’t sure how he felt.  He was definitely happy to be alive, but some part of him, some small, gibbering area of his mind that had survived the pre-Purple Rain world until now, just didn’t want to accept anything that was going on.  And the fact he now owed his life to something that looked like a living nightmare was also hard to accept.  The Grim always looked like dark smoke was coming off of his body.  He sort of looked like a ghoul, but maybe a ghoul on steroids, dipped in a thick vat of evil, and marinated with lethality. When the Grim killed, tearing apart vampires as easily as James could kill a chicken, he felt a sense of dread he just couldn’t shake.   “Imagine if there are other monsters out there like that,” He said.  “Ones that are actually trying to get us.”

“What? Like the Grim?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t want to think about it.”  Johan spit again.  “You saw what happened earlier, when that dipshit Trevor shot the Grim?  Damn.”

“Yeah,” agreed James.  They’d actually seen when the bullets had impacted, little puffs of dust or something, but the Grim hadn’t been phased.

As if he’d been summoned, the Grim was standing in front of the defenders at again without warning.  “Hey,” he said in his awful, grating voice.

James instinctively began to point his rifle at the thing, but stopped with an effort of will.  Whatever the hell the Grim was, it was on their side.  For now.  No, don’t be an asshole, he thought to himself.  Everyone knew the Grim had saved Macon.

No, the Grim sure ain’t an angel, but maybe he works for one.  James quirked a grin.  That explanation seemed as good as any, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to seek out him out after this and ask.

The Grim said, “I almost forget to say this before, but pass the word on.  The cores are mine.  I mean, I am going to keep helping you all, but I want all the monster cores, okay?  Especially the vampire cores.”

Then he was going again.

James met Jonah’s eyes for a moment before the both shook their heads.  The other defenders were reacting similarly.

None of them really cared about the, “monster cores,” in the first place, and they were definitely not going to argue with the creature currently saving all their asses.

From down the line, some of the defenders started yelling, and James perked up when he figured out what they were saying.  “The Paladins!”

“Took them long enough,“ said Jonah.

James just shook his head.  Jonah was an ass, and there wasn’t much point in arguing, especially in the middle of a firefight.  He carefully lined up a shot outside the barrier and managed to wing a ghoul.  The huge zombies in the distance were about to hit what was left of their makeshift barricade.

Even with the Grim there, the situation would be looking bad again if not for the Paladins arriving.  He could hear cheering now as they approached, probably following the Grim’s music that was coming from the giant bat overhead.

James didn’t like pop music much, he was a Country man.  But the Grim could listen to whatever the hell he wanted as long as it was being played while saving them.

He actually allowed himself a brief smile.

The Paladins all ran around a corner and James caught sight of them.  He felt a momentary rush of relief.  No matter how powerful the Grim was, he couldn’t defend the entire shool if enough monsters all attacked at once.  More numbers was a godsend, especially if they were the most powerful human fighters to emerge in the area.

James grinned again and watched the Grim flash across the entire parking lot.  Their disturbing savior was busy cutting apart a vampire.  When something really big suddenly crushed through the barrier and hit the Grim, James couldn’t make sense of what he was seeing at first.

The Grim went flying, smashed across the parking into a parked car.

A half second later when James could actually understand what his eyes were telling him, he cursed.  Just then, zombies began shuffling through the big breech in the defenses and the biggest zombie that James had ever seen just stepped over a car that made up part of the barricade.

“Yeah, time to stop worrying about conserving ammo,” shouted Johah.

James responded by firing at the zombie goliath.  He gritted his teeth.  I’m going to live.  God dammit, I’m going to live!  Come tomorrow, if he was still alive, he was going to ask Kathy out for sure.  “Shit, he cursed.  His arms were shaking but his aim was still good.

All he could do now was help out the Grim and the Paladins and hope for the best.  The defenders’ lights didn’t pierce the gloom well, but he thought he could see a lot of movement out there in the forest.

“Shit,” he repeated.