Page 87 of Bad Moon Rising
“What the actual fuck, Roman?” Flynn asked above him.
“Get off me. Why’re you here?” It came out slurred to his ears. He hadn’t had that much to drink…or had he? Maybe it was the fact he hadn’t eaten anything in… He remembered a few Jaffa Cakes yesterday. An empty stomach would make alcohol ten times as potent in spite of his rapid metabolism.
Who cares?He excavated the Smirnoff and unscrewed it.
Flynn swiped it from him. “You’ve had enough.”
“Gimme that.” He reached for it but slipped and landed on his knees.
Flynn held it high. “Shit.” He dodged the incoming scythe swipe.
Roman grabbed Flynn and dove with both of them behind a stone column.
Roman said, “You’re s’posed to stay outside. Do visibility…invisibility…whatever. You keep us out of human sight. Cameras and shit.”
“My Spidey senses tingled with warning you were going to do something epically stupid.” Flynn pushed him away when he reached for the bottle again. “You reek. I can’t believe you’re trying to do this while drunk. This is going too far.” Flynn dragged him into the shadows and gripped the front of his shirt to pull him upright. With a furious shake, he gritted out, “Do your job. Get rid of that thing before it realizes it’s in a crypt surrounded by dead things it can turn into zombies to make this… Aw, crap.”
The phantasm chanted in a melodic language he didn’t understand. It waved its translucent arms at the crypts around them. Stone shuddered.
“It just got a clue,” Flynn said.
“You gave it the idea by saying it out loud. Seriously, how long have you been doing this?” Roman waved to show off the ensuing chaos. “It hadn’t thought about it untilyougave it the idea.”
“This is why I stay outside,” Flynn muttered. “It’s about to get nasty in here.”
Marble tomb coverings shook in several locations. Cracking noises echoed around them as a few skeletal remains emerged covered in tatters of ancient clothing.
Flynn said, “This should’ve ended twenty minutes ago. If I knew the spells, I’d have sent this thing back to the underworld, but they don’t work right for me. Now World War Z is kicking off.”
“You can do it. This is good practice for you. Cast the freeze spell. Take its weapon and send it back where it belongs. Here.” He removed a cloth pouch full of dust necessary for the spell.
Flynn’s eyes bugged wide, and he waved his hands. “No, no, no. I can’t remember the spell. I’ll mess it up.”
“You’ve heard me do this a zillion times. No better time to give it a whirl than right now. I suggest doing it fast before the corpses really wake up.” He recited the spell. “Go. You got this.”
Flynn took the bag and tiptoed toward the ghost.
Roman sighed. Flynn had to move faster and do this with confidence, or it would never work. “The spell. Now.”
Two corpses jumped on Flynn. He dropped the bag, whirled around, and dislodged the skeletons.
“Someday.” Roman sighed and batted away an animated skeleton. He swiped the bag off the ground. The bend-down to get the bag sent the world into a mind-numbing spin with no center of gravity. He caught himself on the slippery stone column and hugged it until the whirling settled. He held up a hand when Flynn moved his way. “I’m good.”
Ten animated corpses moved in various states of crawls and hobbles between them and the ghost. All jumped at them at once with scores more emerging like ants from a disturbed mound. Both of them fought with a knife in each hand. Flynn did good. But Roman’s half-drunk swipes lacked finesse.
As awkward and ungainly as the corpses seemed, three scratched Roman in a matter of seconds with wicked swipes down his arms. The pain didn’t register. He remained frustrated by his inability to focus and get the job done.
He double blinked as more zombified corpses headed his way.Move before they get close.A few steps and he stumbled backward against the stone column again. He put the bag of dust in a pocket.
Do this.
With a knife in each fist, he took two deep breaths, which did exactly jack shit to clear his head. He charged the four skeletons lumbering his way. As he clumsily took them apart, a fifth charged, went to its knees… He saw the hit coming in, but his body wouldn’t move out the way. Felt like a bag of rocks straight to his nuts. Pain leveled him to his knees. One skeleton jumped on his back and tried to break his neck. Roman surged upward and backward, ramming the creature on his back into the wall over and over until the skeleton dislodged. More skeletons charged, swarming him.
From nowhere, a tall figure dressed in black from head to toe moved faster than he could blink, eliminating the zombie corpses all over him. The guy in black didn’t just disarticulate them but turned them to dust with the touch of his curved copper-color sword.
“Who the hell’s that guy?” Roman asked when Flynn moved in to stand back-to-back and fight.
“I don’t think it’s human, but who cares? It’s keeping those things off us.” Flynn pushed him forward. “Move.”
