Mana Pool Snippets - Keystone

Part 5

“Watch out!” Keeji barked.

Jaruka looked to where Andrea pointed; a zombie jumping over the growing barrier spell. This one was several pounds too overweight, bald, and wore a white t-shirt and pajama bottoms. He screamed with mucus behind his throat, but Jaruka understood his strength and weight was a problem. He didn’t dodge quick enough as the zombie sailed his fist at his chest, pushing him back several feet into one of the Livingston sedans.

Jaruka dented the driver side door and slumped onto the driveway. Pain from his back and arm radiated. Shaking his head, the fat zombie charged again but jumping ten feet in the air. Jaruka had no intention to be flattened by a bulbous human so he quickly slid away before the zombie got him. The man landed head first on the concrete driveway snapping his head back, immediately killing him.

Jaruka stood holding his banged up arm, then two more zombies touched down in the shield circle. Morgan and Beth stared hard at the terrans. The shield was already twenty feet high. They must’ve got on the house roof and jumped down Jaruka assumed.

Zombies attacked the barrier and pushed back as if the shield could be weakened by constant barrage of weapon and fist, but Katie had practice.

Both parents spoke. “First we make you leave, mercenary. Or even better.” They turned to Katie, smiling again. “I take over your parents, thereby make them slaughter their children and immortal killer. Even better. We slaughter them all right in front of you, mercenary.”

“Shut up!” Katie produced a kinetic blast without faulting on the shield. In her emotional fit, she missed as they jumped and went after them.

Landing a few feet from her, Scott was there to swing the bat at Morgan. The blow to the chest meant nothing to the zombie; Morgan swat the bat away and punched Scott in the left shoulder, casing him to fall back a few feet yelling. Beth went after Katie. Andrea got away as Katie kept dodging a few punches, but despite being cooped up in the winery, her terran agility could go so far. Beth kicked Katie’s legs away, then a punch to the stomach. She then grabbed Arana’s feet and swung her away like dead meat at the front porch.

Katie’s tattoos disappeared, and so did the shield. Zombies stopped their ravishing act, then walked. Keeji whimpered and told Scott to quickly get up, but a couple zombies held him down as well as Katie.

“Oh no,” Jaruka said. They said they couldn’t kill him, but they were willing to rip the terrans to pieces right in front of his eyes. If only he didn’t drop his pistol, if only he brought his plasma rifle, if only he brought his katana to cut down these zombies down to chunks, hell he wished he had magic, but he was looking out for Andrea and his past dragged him into this. Damn his past. He stood there watching his friends about to die.

Then he saw Andrea. He disappointed her. His help failed. She was furious, and blazing with ta…

“What the crog?”

The whole time he saw Andrea as a weakling incapable of using magic, fearing she could do more harm than good. But she looked different. Must be betrayal and sadness on her face, but she was covered in Celtic tattoos.

“Leave them alone!” She yelled.

The zombie parents turned to look. “Too late, youngling,” they said as they were ready to bite into Scott and Katie’s arms and legs, some ready to rip their limbs off.

Then Andrea placed her left hand on the purple Wave crystal still embedded in the lawn. She said something in Celtic but Jaruka could not for the life of him track the words. Mana seeped through the crystal, and it started to glow purple. Light from it seeped back into Andrea, through the tattoos, and out the other hand, pointing directly at Morgan and Beth Livingston.

Two identical beams of blue light shot straight to their foreheads. They instantly stopped as their bodies convulsed in the air. Light radiated under their skin from head to toe and it seemed they were powerless to stop it.

“Okay, this is new,” Jaruka muttered.

It lasted for a few seconds once the beam disappeared and the glow from the crystal and Andrea died. Beth and Morgan slumped to the ground lifeless but breathing nonetheless.

Looking up from the strange event, the zombies stood still, staring both the girl and the parents. All at once, they howled to cause Jaruka and the terrans to cover their hearing.

“What have you done?” The zombies yelled, then they quickly slumped to the ground. Bodies littered the neighborhood. Jaruka looked closely and all of them were breathing normal. He never seen zombies act this way, but the enthralling spell was familiar acting.

“What the heck just happened?” Scott said, nearly pinned by unconscious people. “Andrea, what did you do?”

Andrea stood with her arms to her side, sobbing. “I-I… I saved… them,” she said, then she fell to her knees and cried.

True to that fact, the couple and Jaruka noticed why. Beth had a glowing tattoo on her left calf and Morgan had one on his neck.