Up on the roof of the mall, Scott explained his sweet new ride to the people standing guard. Mr. Mustache led him down to visit with Father Harrison. Everyone was ready to go, but the final plans needed to be made.
On the way to meet the good father, Scott filled Jed in on the situation he'd ran into previously. The owner of the world's most cop-like mustache found the tale hard to swallow.
"I know. It seems ridiculous. Still, if anyone hears a phone ring you make damned sure they don't answer it," said Scott.
"Will do," said Jed. His tone of voice made it obvious that he did not want to believe the bizarre tale of tornadoes giving birth to spider monsters. However, as they walked along he told a few others to spread the word. No one was to answer a phone if it rang.
"Hopefully we can get out of here without any problems," said Jed.
Scott groaned a little. Someone just had to say something like that out loud.
"What? You think there will be more trouble?" asked Jed.
"Probably. I've seen some crazy stuff in these missions," said Scott.
"Crazier than baby spider zombies?"
"No. That—" Scott ran his hand down the back of his head. "That's a special sort of crazy."
"I mean, till that the craziest thing I'd seen was a giant catfish that tried to flirt with me," said Scott in a casual tone.
Jed stared at him briefly while they walked. It was obvious to Scott that the man wasn't sure what to make of that tidbit of information.
Scott bore witness to various survivors running around doing last minute preparations, but for the most part people were collected in the center of the mall. They were about as ready is they were going to be.
Father Harrison was ministering to a small, but tightly packed, group of people in the Sheriff's office. Even with his miraculous recovery, few people wanted to hear about divine love at the moment. When the dead rose up to devour the living, many people lost their former faith. Others discovered it, even though they held no faith in anything before the world ended.
The good father finished his sermon not long after he spied the duo. While the people in the room tearfully embraced each other, and whispered their hopes for the future, Father Harrison moved as quickly as he could to meet with the new arrivals.
Scott began to tell the older man what happened, but Father Harrison spoke first. "I have received a new revelation."
"What did you see?" asked Scott in a curious tone.
The older man's eyes closed gently and a moment later he took a deep breath before releasing a slow rumbling sigh. "We are not safe here. In my vision I saw that something terrible happens."
Jed stepped forward. "What did you see? What happens?"
Scott was about to press for further details as well when a horrific sound echoed throughout the area. The ringing sound of a landline telephone caused his eyes to widen. He looked toward the sound of the ringing phone, and had just enough time to cry out, "No! Don't Ans—" before a little old lady snatched the receiver up.
"Randy, is that you?" asked the elderly woman in a hopeful, but shaky, voice.
Scott ran toward the old lady and the phone, due to having to shove people out of the way, he was not able to reach her before it was too late. He got to her just in time for her to blink then hold the receiver out to him. "Randy says he wants to talk to you?"
He tried to slam the phone back down on the cradle, but the receiver smashed into an invisible wall of force. Scott was hit with a crackling burst of energy and sent staggering backwards.
"I warned you, Champion. This world is ours," said the familiar voice from the phone. Scott recovered too late as another series of air-blistering curses echoed from the phone.
"Dammit!" snapped Scott before he moved to snatch the phone connection from the wall. A harshly barked laugh emanated from the phone a brief instant before a hellish screech erupted from the parking lot outside.
Scott tried to hang the phone up once more. This time it went back onto its cradle without an issue. He seethed inwardly for a moment then turned to Jed. "Get everyone inside and into the sturdiest area possible."
"What's going on?" asked a blond woman nearby.
He ignored her and ran out of the room. "Get everyone to a sturdy location!" he cried back to them once more."
"Sturdy location! Why?" called out Jed.
Scott stopped down long enough to shout, "Shit just hit the fan, and we aren't ready to roll out, yet. Once everyone is secured, tell Father Harrison to get ready with that ability of his. You may need it."
After that, the rest of the survivors were ignored. Scott raced up to the ladder leading to the roof. He arrived just in time to narrowly avoided being stomped on by Smug Guy hopping down to safety. The normally smug individual wore an expression of absolute fright. Smug no more, all he could do was pant and wheeze while pointing at the roof.
Scott nodded then headed up. The terror writ large on the formerly smug man's face shifted to one of confusion and disbelief. By the time he became coherent enough to make an attempt to pull Scott back down, proving in the process that he was at least a nominally decent human being, the champion had already gone beyond his frightened reach.
Nothing else to do, he cried out. "Shut the door behind you!"
Scott called down, "Lock it behind me!"
The roof hatch fell closed and smug guy sighed before climbing back up the ladder. He took a breath then locked the man outside the building. The poor bastard was on his own now.
Embattled and battered by recent events, his armor cracked in several places and his flesh wounds still red and raw, Scott looked out over the parking lot. Mentally prepared for horrific spider monsters that would probably claim his life, Scott's eyes widened in surprise at what happened next.
The massive tornado of whirling wind and gore drew up the bodies of the slain zombies and mashed them together like the world's most disturbing blender. No hideous little eggs were produced. The mass simply continued to grow, to shift and change.
Scott scanned the area, but was uncertain what to do in the situation. He did not even know what the situation really was at the moment. "Guess I'm stuck waiting for the end."
Thousands of bodies streamed through the air, even a few nearby cars were caught up in the tornadic winds. That was also something new.
From behind the whirling mass of wind and gore, a single figure walked forward into view. It was someone wearing a dark red robe. Their face was obscured by equally red cloth and their head was covered in a red hood.
Scott's eyes narrowed and the muscles of his face tightened. He did not need to be told anything to know that the bastard down below was someone to hate. No stray survivor would wear something like that while standing in front of such a hellish nightmare.
The robed figured raised one hand into the air. Scott was confused for a moment, as nothing new happened. What he did not know was that the hand motion was not meant for him. It was meant for the people within the mall.
Jed and the good father had rounded up the survivors and led them into the safest room in the mall, the security center. It was a room filled with closed circuit television monitors and thick steel doors. At one time Jed claimed it as his bedroom, but now it was the panic room for the mall survivors.
The mass of humanity huddled fearfully while the roaring winds and hellish screams from outside the mall continued unabated. They did not know what was going on outside, but that was about to change.
The monitors, lifeless for months, suddenly flared to life. A sinister voice radiated through the speakers. "Your pitiful gods cannot save you. This world belongs to us, now."
Images appeared on every screen in the room, each of the screens showed the situation outside in the parking lot. "Gaze upon the fate of your champion and revel in despair. Watch as the last hope for your salvation is crushed into the dirt by the ultimate expression of my power... Know the fate of all who oppose us."
"What's going on?" asked a balding man as tears
threatened to fall down his cheeks. This was something far beyond his understanding. Too much was happening, and all at once.
"We have come to the final test," said Father Harrison.
"What do you mean?" asked Jed. "What test?"
The priest pointed to the image that appeared on the screen. "God speaks to me, even now."
Jed's eyes widened slightly. "What is he saying?"
All eyes were now on the father. The older man sighed gently then pointed to the figure who stood in front of the tornado. "Our world was never meant to be like this. I do not understand everything that is being told to me. It is mostly information about something called a system upgrade."
He held up a hand to forestall questions. "Our world was supposed to enter something called phase two. We would have had access to personal miracles. We would have had the power to heal any wound. In time we would have been able to travel between the stars to new worlds."
"What... What happened?" asked Jed after taking a moment to swallow. He could scarcely believe anything he was hearing, but he had seen so much of late that it was impossible to deny completely.
Father Harrison's bushy eyebrows pressed together. "That thing down there happened. God says that it is a worm that invaded his beautiful garden and turned it to the way things are now."
Jed looked to the robed figure onscreen then back to the older man. "What can we do now?"
The elder stood silently for a moment then granted Jed a soft smile. "The only thing we can do. We pray."
The older man's eyes brightened a little, and his smile increased. "We believe in our hearts that the one sent to help us will conquer this evil."
"Is it... Even possible for him to fight something like that?" asked Jed.
"He would not be here, unless there was at least some hope," said Father Harrison. The older man looked to the security screens then took a deep breath. Even he found it hard to believe that a man could fight such a thing, but he believed in the words of god. It all came down to faith.
While the people huddled in the security center took the words of the good father under advisement, things were different on the rooftop. Scott frowned heavily while he waited for the three second reload that his weapon required. "Damn it."
Despite the fact that it failed to work each time before, once his fire arm reloaded, Scott unleashed another barrage of plasma rounds toward the red robed bastard. Each round slammed uselessly against a spherical barrier of energy.
As the last of the zombies in the parking lot were drawn into the whirling nightmare, the red robed figure spoke in a loud and sinister voice. "Let the ruination of my slaves combine with steel... Let the vile union give birth to a new god of death that will rule this world!"
The tornado stopped suddenly. The mass of meat and metal that formed at its center began to undulate. It pulsed with a disturbing and visceral motion that nearly caused Scott to vomit.
He shot at the hideous abomination, but the damage was not noticeable in the slightest. His pistol was not enough.
Laughing uproariously, the robed figure floated upward into the air then spread wide his arms. "I am now the master of this creation!"
The massive glob of flesh opened up and then snapped forward in a sudden motion. The robed man was swallowed up by the abomination, but that was not the end of his ambition. It was merely the beginning.
Scott watched in fascinated horror as the bullshit of the moment grew to gigantic proportions. He looked down at his pistol then back to what was happening in the parking lot. The mass of flesh pulsed and undulated hideously for a time, and then black lightning crackled around its frame.
It began to shift, to change into something new. It became something that appeared similar to a man, but was far from human. The unholy flesh that comprised the thing's chest split open to reveal something even more surprising. The red robed bastard was riding inside what appeared to be some sort of cockpit. "Come on, champion. Show us what sort of pathetic pussy the gods have sent for me to fuck today!"
Scott's left eye twitched slightly. "This motherfucker brought a Zombie Gundam to a gunfight."
Suddenly, high-octane heavy metal music erupted throughout the area. The robed jackass laughed hatefully and then closed the chest cavity of his hideous mecha. It was time to end things, once and for all.
Chapter 15: Game On
The world moved in slow motion for Scott as he instinctively began to run toward the side of the building. His pistol was useless against the rotting behemoth standing in the parking lot. Now that its transformation was complete it had the appearance of a gigantic professional swimmer. Albeit, it was a swimmer who'd had all of his skin flayed from his body. The monstrosity was all legs, shoulders, and arms slipping out from a long v-shaped torso. Its skinless muscles pulsed and flexed in a manner that could only be described as grotesque.
Scott fought down the urge to vomit that rose up from deep inside. "How do I even fight this thing?"
The mecha-zombie moved forward with large ponderous steps that sounded like distant thunder when its feet struck the ground. Its muscles strained with the movement, and viscous fluids trailed down its sinewy thighs to splatter thickly against the ground.
He fired his pistol, which proved useless once again. Obviously his firearm was not the way to win this battle. The attacks against it were proven pointless so far. The pilot inside the behemoth grew bolder. The rotting hulk moved forward at a quickened pace and soon came with striking distance.
A massive fist slammed down toward the champion's position. Due to the incredible strength and agility provided by his ingestion of the gravitas flower earlier in the day, he was easily able to avoid the blow. However, the roof was not so lucky. The fist crushed down through the roof of the mall and continued down through half of the store front.
Scott was forced to abandon the roof top altogether. If he stayed, this bastard would only end up killing everyone he was trying to save. Running at all possible speed, he leapt from the far side of the building and hit the ground hard. His hit points and bolstered resilience absorbed most of the force, but a little pressure from his landing still skittered up his legs.
He tore through the parking lot, a slight blur of after images left behind him. It was not a feat of pure speed, so much as the nature of how that speed was generated. Still, he did move far faster than a normal human being could have ever conceived of running when using muscle power alone.
"Fast little runt, aren't you?" spoke the giant in a gravelly voice, the voice of the robed man.
The slender, but powerful, abomination spun quickly in place then took off after Scott. Once the fleeing man reached a decent distance from the mall, he turned and began to toss fireballs toward the monstrosity. The moving legs proved to be difficult targets for his hard to aim attack. Unfortunately, the one time he came close to hitting the beast, the shield flared to life and extinguished his power.
"Dammit!" snapped Scott. Even his flower power was useless like this. It was like the damned thing was designed specifically to stop his best abilities.
He turned and sped away once more. As he ran, he heard the voice of the robed bastard taunting him. He could not get away. The voice followed him as he ran.
Scott's eyes widened in growing horror as he heard the thundering footsteps intensify. They came faster, heavier. He glanced back just in time to hurl himself to the side. He narrowly avoided being trampled by the beast.
Acting more on instinct than anything else, Scott hurled a few fireballs toward the monster as its pilot tried to reign in its movements. Two of the strikes impacted against the shield harmlessly, another missed altogether. However, the fourth missed, but entered the open window of a nearby car. The subsequent explosion proved to be far more powerful than it legitimately should be, the doors and roof were blown off. As visually spectacular as that was, it was what happened next that caught Scott's attention.
The mecha-zombie was shielded from the explosion by its energy shield, but a
s it turned back toward him, the chunk of car roof that had blown free came crashing down. The shield did not flare out to block it. A sound that was partly a meaty thwack, and a rattle of metal alerted Scott to the truth. The monster could be touched. The shield could be bypassed.
Scott's angry expression turned to one of determination. It was not impossible. He could find a way to bring this thing down. He even had an idea, all it required was a test subject.
The monster bore down on him once more, this time at a steady trot. Scott was forced to run to the side. He used the handful of parked cars as a means to avoid the creature for a brief moment.
Twice the height of the mecha-turtles Scott fought before, the zombie mecha possessed brutal power and decent speed. So far though, it had not proven to have any special abilities. If he was lucky, he would have the chance to test his theory without the arrival of anything new and exciting added to the current mixture of battle.
While the monstrosity made its way toward him, Scott quickly attempted to lift one of the smaller cars overhead. It weighed less than the turtle-mech, but it was awkward and took him a moment to pick up properly.
It was a moment too long. He barely had the time to toss it forward before another heavy punch was sent flying his way. Rotting fist met the cheaply made economy car. The car lost the battle in an impressive display and was sent hurtling back.
Scott tried to leap frog over the flying automobile, but only succeeded in providing an easy target for a powerful left hook from the monstrous creation. He did not even have the chance to scream before the impact hit him with the force of a speeding car crash.
The champion of Earth, last remaining hope for the mall survivors, was sent flying through the air at a break neck pace. When he hit the asphalt he bounced a few times before skidding to a stop a good distance away. Dazed, confused, and unable to right himself, Scott could barely catch his breath. Despite his improved statistics, the wind had been driven out of him by the blow.
Galactic Fist of Legend Page 21
