by David Wood
“Sure,” Aston said. “You pay us well enough and we’ll pretend none of this ever happened.”
“Thank you.”
All three were relieved, though guilty to some degree.
“I have to explain the deaths of Jeff and Marla,” Slater said, her expression pained. “I can’t just ignore it all.”
“I know,” Aston said. “But I wanted to make sure Arthur had no qualms about getting us out. Once we’re back in the civilized world we’ll demand his help in dealing with all the fallout.”
“If nothing else, I want him to pay some compensation to their families.”
“Fair enough.”
They decamped to another lounge area, far from the carnage they had discovered, and found supplies. Real food, ice cold sodas, fresh fruit. It was like a cornucopia from heaven.
While they ate, Aston described his experiences. The result of eating the fish and what had happened out over the Jade Sea.
Once he’d finished, Slater said, “So you’re really okay?”
“I’m not suffering any ill effects from the connection to the Overlord, if that’s what you mean,” Aston said. “At least, none I’m aware of. But I really don’t understand exactly what happened.”
“I have a theory,” Jen said, chewing thoughtfully on an apple. “It’s akin to the hive minds you see in nature. In bees, for example.”
“I was thinking of something similar,” Aston said. “Zombie ants. But this thing is so complex, so powerful.”
“It can’t be that simple,” Slater objected. “What Aston described sounds more like telepathy or something.”
“All brain activity is a combination of chemical reactions and electrical impulses,” Jen said. “What we really know about that stuff is incredibly limited. Perhaps the Overlord exudes energy on a wavelength the greenium allows people to receive? Once it’s in the blood, therefore in the brain, it acts as a biological transmitter and receiver.” She gave a crooked grin, shrugged. “It’s just a theory. Whatever the phenomenon, it’s clearly very real.”
Slater shook her head, not happy with the explanations but not offering any alternatives. Aston thought Jen Galicia's ideas were as good as any. But it didn’t really matter. The overriding memory he had of the whole thing was the Overlord’s powerful, all-encompassing loneliness. It tore at him. Hopefully the collapse of everything down there would be an end to it. In the long run, he thought that was maybe for the best. All things should eventually die.
“Anyway,” Slater said. “As long as you’re okay.”
“I think the effect must wear off. Perhaps you need to keep consuming it to stay attached? Long-term effects would be bad, I think. But I’m fine.”
“Makes sense,” Jen said. “I guess your body has processed it out by now.”
Slater leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Well, with any luck it’s all over. Help should be here in a few hours. Let’s try to sleep in the meantime. I feel like I haven’t slept for a week.”
“Should we take watches?”
Aston looked around the small lounge room they were in. “Only one way in,” he said, pointing at the door. He dragged a small table over to block it, then put a few water glasses and jugs on top. “We’ll hear it if that goes over.”
They each stretched out on a sofa, the comfort incredible after so long with nothing but cold rock beneath them.
“I’m glad it’s all finally over,” Slater said.
“Yeah. I need a holiday,” Aston agreed. “No more adventures for a while.”
They fell quiet, Jen and Slater quickly dropping into deep sleep. Aston lay there thinking about the Overlord, wondering how long it had existed. What it really was. If it was finally over. As he drifted off, blackness stealing in from the edges of his mind, he heard a distant whispered word in his mind.
“Asssttoooooonnnn...”
If you enjoyed Overlord, try Manifest Recall by Alan Baxter.
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Books by David Wood
The Dane Maddock Adventures
Dourado
Cibola
Quest
Icefall
Buccaneer
Atlantis
Ark
Xibalba
Loch
Solomon Key
Dane and Bones Origins
Freedom
Hell Ship
Splashdown
Dead Ice
Liberty
Electra
Amber
Justice
Treasure of the Dead
Jade Ihara Adventures (with Sean Ellis)
Oracle
Changeling
Exile
Bones Bonebrake Adventures
Primitive
The Book of Bones
Jake Crowley Adventures (with Alan Baxter)
Blood Codex
Anubis Key
Brock Stone Adventures
Arena of Souls
Track of the Beast (forthcoming)
Myrmidon Files (with Sean Ellis)
Destiny
Mystic
Sam Aston Investigations (with Alan Baxter)
Primordial
Overlord
Stand-Alone Novels
Into the Woods (with David S. Wood)
Callsign: Queen (with Jeremy Robinson)
Dark Rite (with Alan Baxter)
David Wood writing as David Debord
The Absent Gods Trilogy
The Silver Serpent
Keeper of the Mists
The Gates of Iron
The Impostor Prince (with Ryan A. Span)
Neptune’s Key
The Zombie-Driven Life
You Suck
Books by Alan Baxter
The Alex Caine Series
Bound
Obsidian
Abduction
The Balance
RealmShift
MageSign
Omnibus Edition
The Jake Crowley Adventures
Blood Codex
Anubis Key
Sam Aston Investigations
Primordial
Overlord
Other Works
Manifest Recall
Hidden City
Crow Shine
The Book Club
Dark Rite
Ghost of the Black
The Darkest Shade of Grey
Write the Fight Right
About the Authors
David Wood is the USA Today bestselling author of the action-adventure series, The Dane Maddock Adventures, and many other works. He also writes fantasy under his David Debord pen name. When not writing, he hosts the Wood on Words podcast. David and his family live in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Visit him online at www.davidwoodweb.com.
Alan Baxter is an award-winning British-Australian author who writes dark fantasy, horror and sci-fi, rides a motorcycle and loves his dogs. He also teaches kung fu. He lives among dairy paddocks on the beautiful south coast of NSW, Australia, with his wife, son, dogs and cat. Alan has been a four-time finalist in the Aurealis Awards, a five-time finalist in the Australian Shadows Awards and a six-time finalist in the Ditmar Awards. He won the 2015 Australian Shadows Award for Best Short Story (“Shadows of the Lonely Dead”), the 2016 Australian Shadows Paul Haines Award For Long Fiction (“In Vaulted Halls Entombed”), and the 2017 Australian Shadows Award for Best Collection (Crow Shine), and is a past winner of the AHWA Short Story Competition (“It’s Always the Children Who Suffer”). Read extracts from his novels, a novella and short stories at his website –www.warriorscribe.com– or find him on Twitter @AlanBaxter and Facebook, and feel free to tell him what you think. About anything.
