All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 155: The Wheels on the Bus

Chapter 155: The Wheels on the Bus

Arthur faced me, posture tense and blade in hand. In my defense, though, it's not like I could have really told him about the zombies. He had enough trouble understanding me for simple things.

I hovered motionless before him. I didn't want to spook him anymore. But soon after, he glanced back towards the other end of the alleyway. The motionless zombies lay there, clean holes through each of their heads. His eyes narrowed. He seemed to relax slightly as he slowly sheathed his sword. "My… my thanks. Then, I assume you and the girl are not siding with the undead?"

I made a very conscious attempt to give an affirmative beep. He seemed to understand and nodded. "Then for the moment, we are allies. My name is Arthur, and I command this force. If you pass on a message, tell the girl thank you as well. I'd like to speak with her at her earliest convenience. Unexpected help is always welcome, especially in situations as dire as this."

Okay, good. Now I had some form of communication? So I needed to figure out what I could do to help. I wasn't sure how to ask, but I figured there was one of two things. I could either work on the zombies outside the wall or help hunt down zombies that had gotten inside. Judging based on the troops that I could sense marching all throughout alleyways of the city, I figured they had the inside handled. Mostly.

Looking at Arthur, I could tell that he was impatient. I decided to let him be on his way and just go take care of some of the zombies on the outside. That would be useful enough, I think. Better than trying to get all of that across to him somehow.

Launching straight up out of the city, I arced over the wall. My sensors picked up the gazes of the commander and many troops looking up, following my trajectory. It was kind of a shame that they wouldn't be able to see what came next; it was going to be quite an impressive feat of cleaning. Before I reached the apex of my arc, I pulled out my Divine Sword and warmed up my Sanitation Lamp. It was time to tidy up this mess.

—

Bee poured a potion down the throat of a delirious man with a 3-foot-tall boulder pinning his legs to the ground. Sadly, it wasn't the most powerful potion she had on her. It had been a hard lesson to learn, but she could only use those for the soldiers who might make it back to battle. Right now, she needed to use the least amount of resources possible. This man would survive and maybe even walk with the right care, but he wouldn't be fighting anytime soon, no matter what she did.

Once the potion was working through his system, she moved the rock. If she moved it first, then he might bleed out before the mid-level potion took effect. His crushed limbs would be hard to deal with but not impossible. It would take some extra attention to deal with the other issues such an injury could pose, like bone fragments in the blood. That would have to wait, though. Hopefully, she could get back to him after all of this.

Luckily, magic could do a lot more than a simple surgeon could. Bee cursed herself for the thousandth time. She should have moved Maranda onto more potent potions last week. Then she might have been able to spare enough of the middle-level potions to save everyone and get those that were needed back to the front. As it was, having to choose and prioritize people's lives… Well, it ate at her.

As she moved on to the next patient, an officer came and squatted down next to her. "It seems there's a lull in the action and we've managed to get some breathing room. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

"Keep it quick and walk with me. But if you get me too distracted I'm going to insist you leave." Bee looked up to meet his eyes while wiping sweat off her brow with the back of her hand, trying to keep blood off of her face. The officer met her eyes with a steely pair of his own. She took a second to take in his face before turning back to her work.

He was likely Tony's age but was completely lacking the jovial nature of her friend. Not that this man seemed particularly dangerous, just more humorless. Like a version of Tony that had slowly had the joy sucked out of him over the years.

"Of course, miss…"

Seeing that he was waiting for a name, Bee thought for a second. Should she introduce herself as a follower of the void god? Void wasn't a well-known god, and his church wasn't widely known. But perhaps this was the time to change it. So she took a breath as if she was about to jump into a deep pool. "High Priestess."

"Of course, High Priestess. And I'm Captain Major." He said the name formally as though he was being serious. "While we are grateful for your assistance, we are curious of your intentions and how you got here."

Bee glared up at him. "Is this really the time?"

"Well, High Priestess, it's the best time we've got. We need to know how long we can rely on your help. We should be fine on holding the city ourselves for a while, but we don't have the kind of healing supplies we have seen you using." Major explained. The captain finally gave in and squatted next to her.

To her surprise, he held the man's shoulders down as she yanked a broken bone back in place. "Really, we just want to cut down on the unknown variables. We aren't going to harm you or yours."

Bee sighed and rocked back on her heels, "I'm here until my god tells me otherwise."

Leveraging herself to her feet, she moved over to the next person laid out for her attention. "I'm sorry I can't tell you more. I'm not certain myself."

Captain Major closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then he stood up as well. The man followed her with a look of carefully maintained patience on his face. "Well, that's… helpful. If you learn more please let us know. Also, the commander would love to talk to you when you are done here."

"If you want to know when we are going to leave, you can always ask Void itself." Bee said as she started to work on the next patient.

Major followed her over, "I don't know how to pray to Void, nor who he is. I'm not among his followers. In fact, I don't know if I've ever heard of that religion."

"Hold this." Bee ordered as she passed him an open jar of salve. "Don't worry about speaking to it through prayer or whatever. Void is around here somewhere. It should be back soon as it's done speaking to the commander."

"Miss-"

The captain cut off as screams echoed up from further off. "What in the blazes is that!?"

This scream was different from the sounds of battle or the sounds of people fleeing from the undead. It took a couple seconds, but people realized that the source of the disturbance was flying through the sky. Bee and the captain looked up just in time to see a black disk streak behind the wall.

"See? It'll be back soon." Bee assured Major. He stared mutely at the spot where Void had fallen from sight. Bee just took the jar out of his hands and put the lid back on. Unable to do more for this patient, she moved on to the next wounded.

—-

I let out a long soft beep as I fell to the ground outside the city walls. Not for any particular reason, just because flying was still fun and falling from great heights was still a bit scary. And this arc was more of a jump than a flight. From someone who'd never been more than a few inches off the ground for most of my life, even several weeks later, I still felt excited about all this.

But I was also eager to remove so many more mess makers. I touched down into a carpet of rotting corpses that were all rushing towards the wall. Time to get to work. With my sword out, I began to spin. The golden blade sheared through ankles indiscriminately, then heads and torsos as the walking undead lost their balance. I adjusted the blade's position behind me so that I could fire my Sanitation Lamp out in front. I angled it up a little bit so I was aiming for the torsos of standing enemies.

The Sanitation Lamp didn't quite have enough time to fully cut through the torsos of those that were hit, but it left significant holes in them. I was just spinning too fast for anything more. The blade, though, was perfect for chopping through these enemies. As I spun, I moved through the ranks with ever-increasing speed.

It reminded me of my first early days of cleaning - sharp angles and straight lines. It wasn't like there were any columns to avoid, and I just needed to cover the area as efficiently as possible.

As I spun, I realized that my lamp could have been much more effective. So I started trying to target heads with short bursts instead of torsos. I had to adjust my aim in the opposite direction with my Sanitation Lamp to hold the beam in the same position for long enough. Burning a hole through a target required only a fraction of a second. Still, it took a lot of practice to get working. But as even more mess makers fell, that additional subroutine seemed worth it.

Once I mastered that combination of blades and lasers, I added a new variable.

Beatrice had given me some cleaning solutions to sample not that long ago. So I figured maybe they could help clean up these too. Using my spray bottle, I began started diffusing the extremely potent acid throughout the area.

Even mess makers that weren't getting my direct attention were now sizzling and bubbling as they dissolved.

Running three active threads was starting to drain my energy, but I pushed myself further and started a fourth as well. In a swirl aided by my vacuum, I funneled the air around me, buffeting the mess makers into groups that were easier targets to bisect, burn, and dissolve. Some I hurled away from me or away from the walls.

I blazed through the enemy ranks back and forth, back and forth. The enemies fell before me like breadcrumbs before my brush. Unfortunately, I wasn't leaving a satisfying wake of cleanliness since other bodies would swarm in and take their places. But I was able to suck up any leftover bits so that they didn't clutter up the nice open field here.

I quickly made my way toward the edge of the army. Eventually, I found something besides zombies and ghouls. There were some skeletons that looked strangely familiar, and upon seeing me, instead of trying to attack, they got down on their knees and began making many strange noises and motions. I wasn't sure what that was meant to do, exactly. But I had already consumed them once back at the castle. I could do it again. Especially if they were being so naughty.

As I started to bring the first one into my dustpan, the rest started chatting excitedly and pushing themselves closer to me. This was quite confusing.

I brought them into my void but never stopped destroying the zombies. I was running low on batteries for the first time in a long while. To keep things moving, I converted some of the rotten flesh into energy inside me. Immediately I could feel my reserves start to recharge my batteries. Luckily, I was at a high enough level at this point that there was no spillover to the surrounding area. I could feel some of it going to improve my body and skills, but again, it was a relatively minor improvement.

The first new enemies came at me then. Black clouds of nothing. My sensors only registered them as absences of anything natural or normal in the air - strange clouds of darkness. Even more strangely, they didn't seem affected by my vacuum. Focusing gales of wind at them to sweep them toward me had no effect.

This could be a problem.